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* The Prisoners shall not be harmed; likewise, the Prisoners are restricted from taking hostile actions against or attempting escape from, the contract holder and her allies.

* The Prisoners shall answer all questions truthfully.

* The Prisoners shall be released following the end of the war, or within two years if the war has not ended.

* The Prisoners shall be cared for and treated humanely.

Looking away from my book and towards my left hand, I find the mark of our contract that now binds us. In exchange for our lives and information, we have become prisoners to the Grey Demon, or Lain as she calls herself.

When I had initially heard about her, I had thought that the Grey Demon was going to be some monstrous thing that would tower over me, rippling with muscle and violence. But instead of that, it ended up just being a female that is barely taller than me… named Lain…

Lain isn’t exactly a name that inspires fear in those that hear it, and compared to Father, she is just so small. Her arms don’t look all that strong, and she doesn’t look all that scary. But that is only if you ignore the sheer power that is contained inside of her.

It has only been a couple of days, but I still can’t lose the fear that I have of her after our first meeting.

She had appeared like a goddess of death, her power promising to rend our very souls if we angered her. I can’t forget the look of her at that time, as her power physically manifested and was altering her body into something truly horrifying, a stark and dramatic contrast from the little bubbly Demon that’s sitting in the room with us.

The only reason why I can feel safe being in the same room with her is because of these contracts. The contracts go so much farther than the simple blood marks that we place on our own. They go all the way till they are binding with your soul. With this contract, I know that she and her Demons can’t hurt us. It’s not something as simple as a verbal promise or words on paper. These contracts can’t be violated. She would have to tear apart her own soul in order to do so, and we would have to do the same.

Part of me is a bit remorseful though as I look at the marks. My mark adorns the back of my left hand as a circle of void-black, large and clear for everyone to see. But on her? The mark made from contracting with both Vivviv and I had done little more than coloring the tip of her little finger.

I don’t have to be a genius to understand just how little importance our contracts are in comparison to her other ones. The one that adorns the back of her own hand is a full circle of its own, and whispers of a contract signed for three hundred years; a period of time that I can’t even begin to imagine as my life, as far as my memory goes back, has only been for a couple of moons, or months as Lain has taught me.

This isn’t even beginning to compare our marks to the golden brands of roots, branches, and leaves that covers her arm with divine light.

In comparison to these things, it sort of makes our lives seem… insignificant and small. But honestly, could the lives of the two of us really be compared to contracts measures in centuries and sealed by the divine?

No point in worrying about that. If anything, the fact that we aren’t that important should be a relief. Important people don’t get to have easy lives. If we manage to survive all of this, Vivviv and I can just disappear after everything is over and start fresh somewhere else. I don’t want to be important. As long as I can read my books and sleep in, I am happy.

… And cuddle with Vivviv, I guess…

Lain turns around in her giant chair and notices me looking at her. When I don’t say anything, she just shrugs and then pulls a note book out of her bag to start writing. Apparently, she is recording everything that she is learning about us so she can report it to her leader. Why it is that she has a leader when she is so powerful is simply beyond me…

If I ask, she will have to answer truthfully…

I play around with the thought for a short while, not wanting to talk with her because she scares me, I don’t like her, and I don’t like how she looks at us. It is like a mix of her thinking we are some interesting creatures that need to be studied and also like she want to mess with us. How it is that she wants to mess with us isn’t entirely clear yet, but often enough it seems like she wants to have her way with us…

The only consolation is that she apparently can’t do that, thanks to the contract. Apparently, she considers forcing herself on us as an act of harm. Which, oddly enough, isn’t something that I had considered… For my people, it is normal for the males to just push down and claim any female they want. For many of my Sisters, they consider this normal or even exciting, which is a stark contrast to how I feel about it. I even went so far as to kill the first Brother that had tried to take me. But it is sort of odd that her people apparently don’t like it either.

For them, forcing themselves on me would be the same as attacking me. It speaks a lot about their people in comparison to ours…

Still, she hasn’t apologized for touching my face yet…

…

Finally deciding to sate my curiosity and not being able to fully concentrate on reading, I close my book and speak.

“Why aren’t you the leader?”

“Hmm?” She hums back at me questioningly for clarification, her eyes looking up from her notes.

“Why do you have a leader. With your power, you should be the one in charge. Or is your leader stronger than you?”

“Oh… No, I’m definitely stronger. But humans don’t work like that. While I could probably put myself in charge by force, most of the humans probably wouldn’t be very happy with me if I did that. Then I would have to put down rebellions, which humanity is very well known to do a lot of. That’s not even to mention the fact that I don’t want to be the leader.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Why not? Those with power should naturally be the leader?”

“Because then I would have a bunch of annoying work to do, and life is much easier when I can just let much smarter people tell me what to do, rather than having to pull my hair out worrying over the lives and wellbeing of almost half a million people… Let me turn the question back around to you. Would you want to be the leader if it meant having less time to read books and cuddle with your lover?” She says as she continues to write in her journal.

Huh… That sort of makes a lot of sense… Wait, my lover!?

My face heating up, I say, “She is not my lover. We just cuddle and sleep together.”

That gets her to look up again, an eyebrow raised in obvious skepticism. “Right, not lovers. That would be a lot more believable without the girl with her face buried in your thighs.”

“I’m just letting her sleep on me!” I squeak out, not entirely sure why I am freaking out.

“Riiiiight… Let’s put it this way. Would you fight for her? Would you die for her?”

“… Yes. But she is mine… My little Sister. It’s my duty to protect her.”

“Says the girl that willingly betrayed her people to protect one girl. That was willing to become my slave to keep her safe. That would have given me her body just to keep me away from her, even though you clearly hate being touched.”

“Mmmr! It’s… It’s not! If you knew that I don’t like being touched, then why did you touch me like that!?”

“Changing the subject so you don’t have to admit your love. But sure, I’ll bite.”

“I’m not-“

“I could tell that you hated it the moment I touched your cheek. Normally, I would have never done anything like that. Normally, I would have stopped and immediately apologized.”

“Then why didn’t you…?”

“Revenge.” She says simply, cutting me off with a bite of anger in her voice.

“Revenge?”

“Yes. You hurt what is mine and I was one excuse away from killing the both of you. Trying to get my anger under control without doing anything was looking to be impossible, and while I might not have killed you after I relaxed some, the possibility of me harming you was very much real. I wasn’t in full control of my emotions at the time, a lovely little side effect of my personal Sin… So, I had to get revenge without physically harming you, and sexual harassment felt like a safer and less harmful alternative to breaking both your legs or worse yet, harming the one you love…”

My hand goes to my broken arm, now set and locked in place by a cast made from shadows. Lain had fixed my arm for me, setting the bone back into place as I screamed under her hands. Interestingly enough, and something that I thought about afterwards. Fixing my arm, no matter how much it had hurt in the moment, had not violated the contract, but as soon as she was done, she had immediately stopped touching me, the contract forcing her to let go of me as my skin itched and writhed under her hands

“I don’t understand. Why did you have to do that if you normally wouldn’t?”

“Would you have preferred that I raped you? Ripped all your clothes off and fucked you silly as Vivviv watched? Maybe have my Demon takes turns with you?” She asks with cold eyes that would make even my ice seem warm in comparison, part of that old anger from the other day leaking through her words.

I can feel as my face pales and I quickly shake my head no, holding my sleeping Vivviv more tightly.

“Mhm, as I thought. I had to get some form of revenge against you. My anger was to the point where I had to do something to make you suffer. Between breaking you or raping you, which I absolutely refuse to do for a number of reasons, the safest alternative was to make you uncomfortable and bully you, back you into a wall and make you think that I was going to something truly horrible to you. Which is why I refuse to apologize. Because I can’t. Even now, part of that anger is still there whenever I look at you. Despite how I may personally feel about you, part of me still wants to do horrible things to you because you hurt MY Demons. And while the contract is keeping you safe from me, if I were to apologize to you, that would invalidate part of my revenge. I would no longer be able to interact with you without wanting to curse you out or try and make your life a living hell in whatever way I possibly can.”

I simply stare at her as she explains this, her face twisting with disgust as she talks about herself. As she talks, I can hear hatred in her voice, but it isn’t directed towards me. She is angry with herself, disgusted by the words coming out of her mouth and the reasoning that she has to use for why she can’t even give a simple apology. She crushes her pen in her hand as she finishes, and curses as the ink gets all over her hand.

“Fucking! … Haaa… I think it would be best if we didn’t talk about this any further. Just be content in knowing that, while I am not going to apologize, I am also not going to do anything to you. You are safe here.”

Setting her hand on fire with her black flames, the ink is burned away. With a wave of her hand, the flames disappear. Leaning down from her very large chair that seems to have been built for a much larger person, she digs around in her bag until she pulls out a new pen.

It sounds like she is cursed. Is this what it means to be a Demon? Is this what Father wanted for us to become?

Taking a calming breath, Lain eventually picks up the conversation again after writing a little bit more.

“So, you don’t like being touched. I can’t remember exactly what it was called, some kind of phobia that started with an ‘H’ I think… Sort of interesting that Hobgoblins can get anxiety disorders, maybe you should meet with my therapist sometime, I’m sure she would love to talk with you. Regardless, why is it that little Vivviv here doesn’t freak you out? I’ve seen her all over you, and she isn’t exactly shy about getting grabby and touchy feely with you, that’s for sure…”

My hand instinctively goes to my chest as she says this. Lately, Vivviv has been getting a bit more daring in how she touches me while we cuddle. I’ve had to slap her hands away from chest several times already. It is bad enough that I keep waking up to find her grabbing my butt in her sleep.

I really need to start making her sleep with her back to me…

“I don’t know why I’m ok with her touching me. Everyone else, the little ones, my Brothers and Sisters, Father, You… it feels like my skin is crawling under their touch. Like my skin is trying to rip itself off my body and run away, or like I have little bugs moving around under my skin… But Vivviv… Her touch is nice and soft, and warm, and part of me want to touch her as well. I honestly don’t know why, but she is the only one. I just feel… safe around her. Even when she touches me in ways that don’t feel so safe, it doesn’t feel like it did with the others…”

“It certainly sounds like you love her.”

“What do you want me to do about it, why do you care!?” I ask, glaring at her.

She just ignores my question and smiles. “She clearly loves you too.”

“Mmrh!” I grunt out as I reel back some. A blush coming to my face against my will.

“Again, why do you care?” I force out as I try to hide my embarrassment.

“Because seeing you two cuddling together makes me miss my lover and wish I could be home cuddling with her.” She says as she rests her head on a propped-up arm, gazing longingly towards the south, as if she is looking towards some faraway place.

“We aren’t like that…” I try.

“Right. You just cuddle together, sleep together, would die for each other, and she just so happens to be the one special person in the entire world that can touch you. Riiight.” She says with a knowing smile and a giggle.

“… I hate you.”

“Hahaha, that’s alright, you’re allowed to hate me as much as you want. Just know that I will be cheering the two of you on from the sidelines. You’ll make a cute couple, and my offer still stands. When all of this is over, I’ll help you find a place of your own.”

…

I don’t say anything and turn away from her, looking down at Vivviv as I try to ignore the annoying Demon. After a while, she just giggles a bit and then gets back to writing, the sound of her pen scratching on paper lightly filling the room.

Looking down at and petting Vivviv’s head, I can’t help it as a thought comes to me.

Do I want something more from Vivviv? Do I… Am I actually in love with her? Ah! Damn Demon getting these thoughts in my head!

I call out again without looking at her, “I hate you!” But she just laughs and keeps writing.