“You ask her.”

“I don’t wanna ask her, you do it.”

“It’s just…intimidating.”

“That’s why I don’t want to do it!”

The two young women across the street had been muttering such things to each other for the past five minutes. Lusya believed the building they were standing in front of was the general store, based on a peek she had gotten through a window earlier, though it wasn’t labeled in any way. They were blocking the door, but the shop didn’t seem busy anyway, so nobody seemed to mind. The street was quite narrow, so, despite their low volume, the woman were easily audible whenever they got excited. Which seemed to be most of the time.

Lusya was standing outside this village’s inn with Azure and Ariya. They were not staying the night there, but, since they had been near the town anyway, Azure had suggested they take their midday break there. They had finished their meal, but Azure had wanted to relax outside for a bit before setting off. That was how they had ended up with those women staring at them and whispering. Azure leaned against the inn itself, while Lusya stood straight some feet away and Ariya sat.

“I believe those women want to speak with you,” Lusya said.

Azure seemed the most likely target of their attention. Lusya could think of many potential reasons they might have wanted to speak to the obvious Sacred Knight, and much fewer why they would seek out a random traveler or a child, though it was not impossible that they had a particular interest in relti for some reason.

“I’d noticed,” Azure said, her eyes twinkling as she smirked at them. They were now looking at each other, continuing their discussion in furtive whispers, and thus did not notice. “I wanted to see if they’d work up the courage to ask me about whatever it is, but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen, so I’ll just go talk to them. You two are welcome to come.”

“We will follow,” Lusya said. She saw little reason not to. She wasn’t doing anything anyway, and Azure was the only reason they were even standing here. “Come along, Ariya.”

Ariya sprung up from where she sat on the edge of the wooden deck in front of the inn. “Yes, Lusya.”

Led by Azure, the three crossed the narrow street. The two women were still absorbed in trying to convince each other to approach Azure.

“You owe me for setting you up with Klouz.”

“That has nothing to do with this. Besides, you’re more of a people person.”

“Yeah, when those people aren’t Sacred Knights.”

“She’s not going to hurt you.”

“So why don’t you do it?”

They were so engrossed in this argument that they did not notice Azure approaching them until she spoke.

“Hi there. What can I do for you two?”

The women squealed and leaped into the air in surprise. The taller of the two tried to scramble back, only to bump the back of her head against the shop’s door and wince. Ariya and Azure both giggled at their reactions.

“L-L-Lady Knight,” the shorter of the two said, “you noticed us?”

Azure smiled. “It was a little hard not to, what with you staring at me and whispering about me.”

“Sorry, we didn’t mean to disturb you,” the taller one said.

“We didn’t think you could hear us,” the shorter one added.

“That doesn’t make us sound better, dummy!”

They were both young adults right around Lusya’s age. They could have been a bit older or a bit younger. They shared the same brown hair and eyes, along with a similar facial structure. Lusya was guessing they were related.

“There’s no need for that,” Azure replied. “You should never worry about approaching a Sacred Knight if you’re in trouble. Even if it doesn’t involve demons, most of us would be happy to help.”

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The shorter woman sighed in relief. “Thank you, Lady Knight. We do actually have something we wanted to talk to you about.”

“Go ahead, then.”

“There’s some demons in the forest outside of town,” the taller woman said. “Not super close mind you, but close enough to worry about.”

“It is strange that nobody else would mention this to us,” Lusya said.

Indeed, no one else in town had shown any sign of fear or discomfort. But then, there were a lot of unknowns here, including when the demons had entered the area—they may well have materialized yesterday—and what constituted “close enough to worry about.” A layperson’s estimation of such was likely to differ from Lusya or Azure’s.

“Ah, well, you see,” the short woman said while her companion nervously chewed her thumbnail. “We were out looking for this rare flower for our ailing father’s birthday when we saw them through the trees. We hurried up and left before they could do anything, and we didn’t get a real good look at them.”

“Was this flower for treatment?” Lusya asked. It wasn’t relevant to the matter at hand, but she was curious.

The short woman shook her head. “No, it’s just his favorite. He just has a nasty cold, so we just wanted to cheer him up. Not that we’d know what to do if it was something more serious.”

“Anyway, because we only got a peek and we’re the only ones who’ve seen them, no one around here believes us,” the tall woman said. “They say all the demons died in the war, and they think we just saw people or animals and got spooked. That’s part of why we were so nervous. We’re used to people brushing us off.”

Azure sighed. “We really need to work on educating people about demons.” The women withered under her gaze, and she went on. “Oh, sorry, not you two. The other villagers. Not every demon died in the war, and more are born regularly anyway. People need to understand that so they don’t put themselves in needless danger. But even then, that’s not their fault. If we’re going to shoulder the responsibility for Ysuge’s demons, it’s on us to make this knowledge widely available.”

It suited Lusya in more ways than one for most mortals to be ignorant about demons, but she refrained from stating that preference. She was sure Azure knew, and there was no reason to inform these women.

“Besides,” Azure continued. “Even if they’re right about it not being demons, it could still be something dangerous, right?”

The short woman’s eyes widened as if she had not considered that. “Oh, yeah, you’re right. Could be bandits or bears.”

“We’re positive about what we saw, though,” the tall woman said, although what her companion had just said made it seem that only applied to one of them. “We might not know much about demons, but those weren’t people or any animal that lives around here.”

“So, you want Azure to help, right?” Ariya asked. She put her hands on her hips and stood as tall has her stature allowed, as if she was going to do something about the situation. “Don’t worry, Azure and Lusya can beat up any demon no problem.”

Suggesting others could help was technically doing something, and it was the best she could manage.

In any case, assuming she meant that as a pair and not individually, that was probably true, as far as currently living demons went. Azure alone would overpower the vast majority. That said, Lusya did not appreciate being volunteered for the task, implicitly or otherwise.

“That is where we were going, yes,” the short woman said.

“Leave it to us,” Azure said. “We’ll have those demons gone by sunrise tomorrow.”

“Thank you so much,” the tall woman said.

“It’s the natural thing to do,” Azure said. “There’s no need to thank me.”

The woman both smiled, a much warmer reaction than when Lusya informed people thanks were unnecessary. Perhaps it was the wording, or maybe the delivery. It might have been both.

Azure bid the women farewell, asked them to stay where they were so she could come back and ask for details, and led the way back toward the inn. “Looks like we’ll be booking a room after all.”

“I believe you promised me minimal delays,” Lusya said.

Azure cringed and began twirling a strand of hair with one finger. “I understand why you’d feel like I’m breaking that promise, but this is minimal. We can’t just leave this situation as is.”

“Yeah,” Ariya said before Lusya could respond, “you’ve gotta help, Lusya. You have to, so it’s minimal.”

Lusya blinked. “Very well.”

“But—Wow, that was easy.”

“Indeed.”

“I take it she usually needs more convincing,” Azure said.

Ariya nodded. “Like, an hour of it.”

“That is immense hyperbole, but yes,” Lusya said. “Ariya typically spends some time cajoling me into aiding others.”

“Why not this time, though?”

“It is none of your concern.”

In truth, the reason was two-fold. First, it had become clear that arguing about this with Ariya was futile. The child had changed over the course of their journey in many ways, but she refused to budge on the moral issue of helping others, and, in fact, had only gotten better at arguing her case. Better to get it over with than waste time and risk upsetting Ariya.

Second, Lusya did not want a confrontation with Azure. She did not believe the Paladin would turn violent over such a disagreement, but there was no need to risk it. Lusya’s chances were dismal in such a battle. Even if it did not turn violent, an argument with Azure sounded futile at best and frustrating at worst.

“Well, I’m just glad you’re on board,” Azure said. “Let’s get a room and get going.”

“Hooray, demon-slaying!” Ariya exclaimed, pumping her free hand in the air in a fist.

“There will be no demon-slaying for you,” Lusya said. “You are staying in the inn this time.”

Ariya let out a dismayed groan, though Lusya doubted she had not anticipated that response.

“This time?” Azure repeated. “Did you take her demon-hunting with you before?”

Lusya nodded. “Once. It was a mistake I do not intend to repeat.”

“Well, I guess that’s all I can ask,” Azure said. “Good for you, realizing on your own. Better than a lot of people can do.”

“Your impressions are appreciated,” Lusya said. “Now, let us finish with this task.”