Whiskey trickled into a glass as Mundus sat down again.

He took a long gulp, downing the entire thing in a go before filling it up again.

“How do you know the demonic language? Are you a demiurge too?”

I shook my head.

“Too? So you are one?”

Mundus squinted in annoyance.

He didn't have the eyes characteristic of a demiurge. I would have never guessed it.

“Both my parents were demiurges.”

He downed another glass in a go. Anyone would want to be drunk in his situation.

“I see… are they…?”

Mundus shook his head.

Another silence filled the room.

His parents had lost their lives. It was a stroke of fortune that Mundus inherited the eyes from their human side. Such an event didn’t happen in first-generation Demiurges, but in a second generation, I could believe it.

He broke the silence again.

“I don't believe a human can speak the demonic language this well.”

We were only speaking in that language. Maybe this too was a form of him gauging the situation, but what else could he do?

He couldn't escape from me. Even if he could, someone else might catch him and the other demiurges.

“I have not told anyone about any of this,” I said. “But they can find out any time. Getting to Barnum was the worst, but there’s still something we can do.”

My words were sincere, but for him, it was nothing more than a What If.

What if I was not lying? What if I was really on their side?

If there was any other way to convince him, I would have. But other than the demonic language, I had nothing to show.

Mundus’ mind must have been a mess.

His eyes were stuck on the counter, but he was not seeing it. His mind was in a struggle against itself.

Mundus was lost for months on end and every moment had been full of risk for him.

In that situation, with familiarity, I was dangling hope right in front of him.

No matter how rational someone was, logic rarely won the tug of war against the two golden words called ‘what if.’

He clenched his fists tight and loosened it, only to do it all over again.

A clank rang as he put the bottle of whiskey down.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Why?” He said. “Tell me that. Why?”

It was my turn to look away.

I hesitated too, just as much as he did.

I reached out to the drinks close to me and picked up a bottle, snapping it open.

“I am tired…” I said. “A decade of war. Eight of those years I was a part of it… I don’t even remember how many hundreds I killed with my own hands.”

The taste of alcohol sliding down my throat made it a little easier to talk.

“I am just tired, Mundus. I don’t want to continue this… this cycle. If I can, I don’t want to kill anymore—”

“Hah…” Mundus scoffed at my words.

That was right. I would laugh too.

“That is impossible. Right. Not killing anymore is not possible.”

Both Mundus and I knew.

“That is why I try to save as many people as I can.”

“You’re lying.” It didn’t take a second for Mundus to reject my words. “Or rather, you’re not telling the whole truth.”

I didn’t say anything in return, I didn’t meet his eyes either.

Mundus nodded to himself once more.

After a long bout of silence, he spoke up.

“Ethan, if we follow your plan… the kids, those demiurges—”

“They will live.” There was no hesitation within me. “Not as rats, not in hiding, not in the way they are right now. They will live like people should. I promise you this.”

“I see…

“I’ll trust you. This plan of yours, I’ll trust you.”

***

The bar was closed, and the doors shut. The two magic tools I had with me were working without rest to keep any semblance of our voices from going out.

I spread a map on a table as both of us looked over it.

“Your collaborator, where were they going to take you?”

Mundus pointed at a city a little closer to the border from Glorenstein.

“Syrati, but we would all have to pass through the guards. Going to them now is impossible, I don’t know how we will coordinate again.”

So that was why he hadn’t left yet.

“Demiurges?”

“Yes.”

Eventually, I’ll have to go to them too. But for now, they were safer in that city than in Glorenstein.

I picked up a pencil and made a mark on the map. The same one I had brought during the club exhibition.

I couldn’t have imagined I would be using it like this.

“You will have to go into the demonic lands.”

Mundus sighed.

“I have gone to the borders. There is no way to cross it.”

I made a mark with the pencil on the southern borders, near the place marked off as the third of the nine Forbidden Lands.

“Right here. The security is weak since it is close to the forbidden lands. Smugglers from the demons’ side use it all the time, it’s very low risk.”

“If they run into a smuggler?”

“Toss them some money and use their help, or fight them off. It won’t be tough. They are all low-level anyway.”

I continued tracing ahead with my fingers.

“Right here, just a little bit into the borders, you’ll find a cave that opens up…” I scribbled on the cave and made a second mark much further inside the demonic lands. “In this village, here.”

Mundus tilted his head in confusion.

“There’s no village there.”

“Not on maps, no. But I have lived here for three years. Even the demons don’t know that it still exists.”

“Lived there…?”

“It’s a long story. The place was destroyed once, but we rebuilt it.”

I turned to face Mundus.

“If you get here your people won’t be bothered by anyone. It’s a smooth sailing journey, everyone there will accept you.”

Mundus bit his lips.

The problem was not with crossing the border or reaching the demonic lands. Though it would be long, it was a feasible journey.

The real problem…

“How will we leave from Glorenstein…?”

Mundus grew visibly distressed.

Two citizens, one student, and one professor. Too many people had already been marked by the curse of the succubi.

Even if they left.

“Gladwin Hark would figure out there were demiurges here,” I said. “And if he does, he will chase after you.”

Mundus’ ragged breathing and his tapping feet shooed off the silence. He got more and more tense with each passing second.

I didn’t know how to have this conversation… not with someone I considered a friend.

That I would help demiurges, revealing this did not worry me.

But this did…

“We must put an end to this right here,” he said. I couldn’t look at him. “They must know that there was a demiurge. And they must catch that demiurge, that is the only way they won’t chase after the rest…”

A thud resounded as Mundus slammed his head on the table.

“Ahhh…”

A groan, a weak, desperate voice leaked out of him.

“A place… a place where they can live like people…”

There was no other option. To save the rest of the demiurges…

“Come back at sundown. I’ll prepare everything… I’ll do it.”

I was asking him to sacrifice himself.