"What's wrong, Agatha, I asked a question."
"You're such a fool, how come you were so devious back in Aurora."
"I don't understand what you're saying, my mental capacity has only improved since then."
"How come you don't know how to talk to your own siblings?"
"Haven't I shown that I can easily talk to my siblings through our interactions."
It was then that Lucas took a step back and thought about all the conversations Asta had with his family. Only images of the menacing Duke and Alastor came to mind.
"Ah."
Being under constant pressure to outwit his older sibling or fearing for his life in front of his own father, Asta never really had a real family to live with.
"What's with that pitying look?"
"Looks like you had it even worse than I did. At least I had a family for some time."
"???"
Stepping towards the blanket kingdom, Lucas sat on the sheets. Preparing magic, he started to write letters into the air. Asta frowned, seeing the words appear before he got a glare from Lucas. Pointing at him and then the words, Asta knew what had to be done.
"I'm sorry, Agatha, I didn't mean to sound so rude. I've been traveling for the last couple of years, constantly putting my life on the line. It's been so long that I was able to just talk with someone."
Raising his hands and shoulders, Asta wasn't totally sure what he was reading, but Lucas kept forming new words while slowly pressing his hand into the blanket fort and rubbing it from one side to side.
"I've been running around fighting monsters for so long that I've forgotten what it was like just eating a meal. From staging events to freeing slave camps, I've had to put my life on the line just to make it back home, but it wasn't even home. It was just a room I received or paid for.
Going on such a long journey and seeing so many different forms of evil, I've started to realize something. I started this trek to find something to complete me, a new home that I can call my own, but I've forgotten the most important thing, family.
Agatha, I know that you don't like me and are likely very afraid, but for once, I want to be honest with you. I've missed you."
Lucas stood up and forcibly dragged Asta to sit on his spot, pulling his hand unto the same spot he soothed, Lucas rushed to sit in a nearly broken chair. Slowly, the blankets revealed the young girl's face again.
"Do you... truly mean that?"
Taken aback, Asta replied, "Of course -", right when he wanted to finish his sentence, he could feel the minute bloodlust coming from Lucas. It was so small and sudden that only someone trained like Asta would be able to detect it.
Agatha sulked for a moment. In the awkward silence, Asta stared at Lucas to give him some sort of instruction, but Lucas shook his head, mouthing 'she needs time'.
"Well, I'll leave you two alone for a moment. I'll see if I can do anything about those debts of yours. Would you happen to hold a library in this estate that hold the laws and regulations of this place?"
Lucas knew he wasn't going to get that coin any time soon, even if he did, Asta probably didn't want her to suffer like this. He cared enough for them to ask Lucas not to harm them in any way, leaving them in poverty with nobody to help could be considered even worse.
"Uh- there.. there are books in the office," she spoke, a little bit louder than normal. The strange attitude from them had an effect on her.
Asta contemplated for a moment. The words Lucas wrote weren't just for Agatha, he felt the shell around his heart loosen as well.
'This isn't just my story, he's recounting his own as well, he probably feels horrible. He just learned to suppress it into that rune.'
Asta truly didn't know how to interact with Agatha, and since Lucas took the first step, he felt comfortable enough to continue.
As Lucas was looking through the books, most were completely useless. Containing fictional stories about fantasy worlds and other adventures, perfect for someone Agatha's age, but useless when it came to what Lucas wanted to achieve.
Sighing loudly, Lucas took a moment to think things through.
'I can already tell what you're thinking, and I absolutely hate it.'
'It's clear she's suffering, if we can help her out, I'm sure she'll bestow that coin to Asta.'
'What about those five dipshits sponsoring her.'
'Sponsoring is the wrong word. Those debt collection papers are from them. It's only on the public stage that they support her, otherwise, she's an enticing wallet.'
'So what, you're going to rebuild this entire land.'
'...'
'Just for a single coin?'
'...'
'Sigh, at least get two from this.'
'I'll probably be able to trick Protaris into something, I'll get two.'
'Fine, flick through those books so I can go over all the information, you focus on the debts.'
'Deal.'
Flipping through the pages, Lucas didn't read a single word, but by having viewed the page, it would be available in his Mental Sphere to review later by his other half, putting spell research on hold for a moment.
Hearing Lucas go to work, Asta felt like he was going to take on a larger burden than necessary. Right when he wanted to act, Agatha spoke up first.
"You didn't mean what you said, right? I could tell he used magic for something," while she may be covered in sheets, that didn't mean she wasn't able to sense the magic in the air.
"No, I did mean it. The words were not my own, but the feelings were."
Agatha felt emotions she knew not were to place. "You just want my coin, don't you?"
"Yes, but I also want you to live a happy life. Lucas is right, it's saddening to think about it, but I have forgotten about my family. All I've done is walk the path, never bothering to think about something else. If I want to eventually come back home, I'll need a home first."
"..."
"Little sister, what would make you happy?", Asta didn't need to ask it, he just wanted to hear her say it.
"...not being here."
Asta stayed silent as he thought about the script Lucas wrote for him. It was clear to him that he didn't just spout random nonsense, it was Lucas' own desire and worries translated for Agatha. He might've stepped down a similar path, but Asta still had a family to call his own, Lucas, on the other hand, had no home to go back to.
He would be a wanderer on the path, alone, forever.
After some time, Lucas entered the room again. "Sorry for interrupting your bonding time, but even if you want to get out of this place, Agatha, you'll have those leeches chase you around. Besides, if this land is tied to you as a person, you would have to give away all your possessions. Considering the state, you'd barely get anything from selling it, and then you would have to try and live in a capital, constantly looked down upon. Is that what you really want?"
Hitting her with the cold reality of the situation, she retreated back into her fortress of blankets, leaving a stumped Asta behind. "Did you have to shake things up so badly?"
"Why not? She has to learn that there's no point in running away from an unavoidable problem. Anyway, I'll try and visit the debtors to see if I can talk some sense into them. Can you do a study on the land?"
Lucas wasn't being mean or rude for no reason, the worse he looked to Agatha, the more she would rely on Asta, bringing them closer, even indirectly.
"Are you asking me to become a farmer?"
"Yes. You're a genius, right? Use that brain to figure out what kind of farming system would work the best here."
With that, Lucas left for the office again. Asta hadn't gotten up from the bed, choosing to stay seated for a moment longer.
"Is he your slave?", the voice came from the center of the kingdom of blankets, and even if the face was hidden, the curiosity in her voice was undeniable.
"No, he's just a friend."
"Friend? You were arguing the moment you came in here."
Asta nodded as a light smile appeared on his visage. "Well, you heard him. We'll transform your land into something respectable. Then you won't want to leave."
"But...but, there are so many problems.. the people hate me.."
"Don't worry about that, we'll figure out a way. Now, I promise you this, Agatha, I, no, we will make you happy."
There was a strange feeling in Asta's chest, he felt like an older brother. A feeling he had long forgotten. A somber look covered his face, as Asta seemed to be frozen in time. Agatha stared at him, yet the melancholic look stopped her from speaking.
Lucas stepped into the room with a new idea, halting in his tracks the moment he saw Asta. "Asta, you alright?"
Shaking his head a little, the arrogant and prideful Asta got back up. "Of course, there aren't many things that can hold me down. You asked me to survey the land, correct? I'll get to it."
"Sure, can I borrow Agatha for a moment?"
"Yes, I'll get right to it," leaving, Asta started his long flight to check out every bit of the land.
Being alone with Agatha, Lucas wasn't sure if he would be able to convince her to move, but he didn't know where the debtors lived or worked. He needed her help with this and many other things.
Sadly, while Asta and Lucas were more than ready to go, Agatha wasn't exactly in the mood to get out. "Will you come with me?"
Simply shaking her head, she slowly retreated back into her palace of pillows. Eventually, a hand appeared, clutching a strange hexagonal disk. Placing it on the mattress, Lucas grabbed it.
On the disk, letters appeared, one after another, until they formed a single sentence. "I can contact you with this. Alright, I guess that will somewhat work out. I need to go to your debtors to have a talk with them."
'A talk?'
'Keep focussing on those books, I just need those debtors to disappear.'
'Oh, now you're speaking my language.'
After waiting a bit, a new sentence formed. "Well, I guess this is better than nothing. Lead the way. Or send the way, I suppose."
Leaving the room, Lucas stared at the disk. Pressing his finger on it, a very small keyboard appeared. Slowly pressing all the letters in, Lucas found it extremely annoying it took so long to form a single sentence, but perhaps he just wasn't used to it.
Waiting for a bit, he received the answer. 'The guard is a bully hired to keep me locked in? What is with this girl. Here, can I remove him from your life?'
'Wow, really? Can't just say it flat out loud?'
'Focus on the books, you!'
Lucas wasn't sure whether he could be completely transparent, or if he had to use roundabout ways of asking. She was a child, yet had seen a lot of death lately. There was a chance she had grown numb or traumatized, without knowing, he first needed to test the waters.
Seeing the answer, Lucas grinned. Opening the door to enter the hallway, the guard was still there.
"Good sir, I got the task from the esteemed lady to visit sir Graft to talk about certain things, would you be so kind as to lead the way?"
"I- I have to guard the Grand Lady, I can't help you."
"Your grand lady asked us to visit him, so you'll come with, won't you?"
The man hesitated as he really didn't want to leave. Even as a demon, he still had instincts, and his were telling him to just follow what Lucas wanted, or he might've never seen the red sky again. Nodding slightly, the man started to walk out.
Arriving at a horse, the man started to mount it before looking at Lucas. "What are you doing?"
"I- I'm going to sir Graft's estate."
"Why aren't you flying?"
"I- I can't fly, sir."
It was then that Lucas realized that there were most likely more mages below him than above. Sure, there were plenty of people who could snuff out his life with a flick, but there were billions more that were weaker than him.
Part of Lucas started to understand why higher Ranked beings looked down on others, since they were just less capable. Shaking his head, trying to remove the dark thoughts, Lucas grabbed the man's wrist and lifted him in the air. Using magic, he started to float above Agatha's estate.
"Point the way."
"Uh, just follow the road until you come across a split, then take the first left."
Lucas frowned, reality quickly set in as he knew this would be a long journey.
As they were flying above the roads, Lucas started to think about the message device.
'This thing, you could call in reinforcements from afar, or send valuable information across vast distances. This technology is incredible.'
'Incredibly dangerous.'
Seeing an opportunity to fill the dead air, Lucas showed the device to the man. "Do you also have one of these?"
Quickly denying the claim, he elaborated, "No, these are only available for the richest demons."
Inspecting it, there were some gems and crystals, but Lucas knew nothing about it. He was great with beasts, but minerals weren't his expertise.
Arriving at a thriving estate, the walls were quite literally made of gold. Upon closer inspection, it was revealed to be a coating.
There were plenty of guards staring him down. Thanks to the hooded man he brought with him, they didn't display their hostility openly, but it was clear they didn't like unexpected visitors, especially of the human kind.
Setting the man on the ground, Lucas asked him to bring him inside. After flashing a badge of sorts, they were let through. Red royal-like carpets covered the ground, not a speck of dust was visible, quite a shocking change in scenery compared to Agatha's.
Being brought to a pair of large doors, opening it revealed many naked demon women around a single fat red skinned one. "Oh? A visitor? There should be nobody, though. You! What's your name?"
Pointing at the hooded man, he anxiously replied, "My-my name is Roth, sir."
"Roth? Roth... Roth.., the name doesn't ring any bells, are you one of the slaves?"
"No, sir, I'm one of the... I'm the guard at Agatha's estate."
"That run down place? Ah, I see now, I know who you are, but since when did I allow you to have slaves?", pointing at Lucas, a vein almost popped on Lucas' forehead. He had been called a slave a lot lately, but Lucas pushed them away since his own situation called for silence. Now, he had no reason to stop himself.
Letting go of his aura, he let it seep out, pouring it into the room. "Hmm? Are you using aura here? How dare you!", the man released his own golden radiance to push back the slowly growing aura of blood that creeped forward.
Lucas stared right into the eyes of the fat man as he kept opening the lid on his own aura. The pressure increased more and more, eating away at the man's radiance.
"I was going easy on you since you seemed to be a slave, but it's clear you can't be a slave to that waste of space. So tell me, who are you?", pushing out his own aura more, he pushed Lucas' aura back.
There was still plenty of room to increase it's power, yet Lucas held back, leaving it as a standstill. "I'm Lucas, I've come here to talk about the contract you have with Agatha."
"Oh? Did that child sweet talk you into coming here? Or are you just looking to satisfy your own so-called justice?"
"I just want to know where the debts came from. Where's the contract?"
"Hoh? You want to play like that? Fine," lifting his left arm, some of the demon women made room as a single one left to fetch the documents.
"She made use of our lawyers, we lent her a lot of money, our guards are stationed there, all of these things require a lot of funds."
"Funds she never had to begin with," while they were conversing normally, their aura was still running rampant. The girls were safe since the golden radiance from Graft didn't seem to affect them, Roth on the other hand had trouble breathing as he lied on the ground, hallucinating. The chairs and pieces of glass started to break down, cracks formed in an instant.
"We don't exactly check the pockets of our clients every time we make a deal," the sickening grin on his fat-covered face made Lucas puke, but he knew he wasn't going to win here. This wasn't a negotiation, Lucas just came here to collect information.
The naked demon girl reappeared, this time with a few scrolls in her hand. "Give them to the man, these are copies of the contract."
Following the instructions, the girl walked seductively towards Lucas, who couldn't care any less. He was still using his aura, it was hard to control his anger, there was no room for other emotions. The moment the girl entered his sphere of influence, her face instantly froze as nightmares played in front of her.
Grabbing the scrolls, he pushed her back. She ran behind the other girls, who soothed her while staring daggers at Lucas. Opening the scrolls, Lucas checked for some kind of signature or sign, yet at the bottom there was just a small fingerprint made from blood. "How are you sure that this is her fingerprint?"
It was a stupid question to ask, but to Lucas, this still wasn't proof. "Hahaha, bring her over here then! You'll see that she has to follow her obligation to pay her debts."
Lucas retracted his aura in a split second, surprising the larger man. Having full control over one's aura just showed how experienced they were. "I've gotten what I wanted, thank you for these documents. I've also come here to say that we will not be needing any guards anymore. Agatha wishes to end that service."
Graft's ugly smile turned upside down. "Did you not read the contract, boy? She needs to be here in person to annul it. Messengers of any kind won't be allowed."
Furrowing his brows, Lucas couldn't let it go. "So be it. Though right now, there aren't any guards there, so I'll be expecting a credit note for the fees during the days we don't have your protection."
"We have guards stationed there!"
"No, there was only one, and he doesn't look ready to enter the workforce. I'll be expecting my money back. Excuse me."
Leaving the estate, he left an unconscious Roth in his own vomit behind. There was no need to help him or be friendly, even if he didn't do anything wrong and was in an equally worse situation. He wasn't the person Lucas needed to help, in other words, they were expendable.
Exiting the building, Lucas wrote a message back to Agatha, stating she had to be present to annul one of the services, but he didn't get a reply back.
'This is just one of those pricks? How many were there, five? Hopefully they're not all equally ugly.'
'I can already tell what they did to make her drown in debt.'
Lucas didn't read it all through, but it was clear one of the contracts held a clause that stated that if the client is in financial trouble, they would send men to help her figure out her debts while charging her an obscene amount. Now, if there were five of these men manipulating her, it's a relatively safe bet to guess they all used a similar tactic to chain her to them.
If they all had that clause, they would simply have to make her question her financial status, and they would suck her treasury dry, leaving her stuck with them.
'Man, are we really going to do all of this by ourselves? Just one of these assholes will be a challenge.'
'...'
'What? Why the silence?'
'You brought a perfect idea to me without even realizing, it doesn't even involve fighting for once. You're a genius!'
'Wha?'
Lucas started to float in the sky as he typed another message to Agatha, asking where the next place was. It didn't take long before he got a general direction and flew off to collect more copies. If he searched hard enough, there would probably a copy in Agatha's place, but that wasn't the point. The reason for doing so was just to see the demons in person and gauge their strength.
A few days of flying and talking later, Lucas finally arrived back at the dilapidated mansion. He wouldn't be surprised if one of the load baring pillars had collapsed, yet it seemed to hold on just enough.
Finding a somewhat tired Asta at one of the broken tables, he was resting on his own made chair of pure mana.
"What happened to you?"
"I just did my job. I surveyed the entire area and created topographic and geologic maps."
Seeing the papers on the broken table, Lucas was genuinely impressed. To gather so much information in just a few days spoke plenty of his abilities. "You used willpower to scan everything?"
"It was the fastest way."
"Being tired is probably the best outcome after using it for days without stopping."
"Lucas," Asta looked exhausted, the bags under his eyes were clearly visible. He had a seemingly defeated tone, perhaps due to being overworked.
"What is it?"
"If we want to do this correctly, we'll need months of our time," there was a strange look on Asta's face. Torn between instantly starting to help her out or first aiming for the other coins. If they left her alone, it would be extremely easy for any other of his siblings to waltz right into her quarters and take her coin away through force. Then again, if they spent the next months on her, they might not have enough time to handle all the others.
For all they knew, the other candidates might make extremely difficult requests. This would put their bet with Alastor on the line. Leaving Agatha alone was also not an option.
"Taking her with us probably won't sit well with her, right?"
Shaking his head, Asta wondered how to move forward. "Tch, we don't have enough people. We'll do the others first, by then, we'll have gathered some trustworthy followers. Then we can start helping her."
"And we leave her alone while we move?"
"No, you have her Communication Line, no? We'll just ask her to send a request for help if things get bad."
Lucas frowned, Asta wasn't supposed to be this emotional or indecisive. Wondering if there was something in the air, he pushed it aside, since he was still somewhat normal. "I have a solution, but I'll need your help."
"What is it?"
"On Aurora, you looked human, whatever artifact you used, can it also transform you into a demon?"
Asta shook his head, "It's not a transformation, it is a simple illusion. And yes, you can modify your look."
"How many do you have of those?"
Asta needed a second to think things through. Before he calculated how many of those artifacts he had, he first tried to see why Lucas needed them. Sure, they could make him into a demon, and it would most likely help him out in certain places, but he would only need one.
"Can you make a doppelgänger or something?"
"What's that?"
"Nothing. I have around twenty in the treasury of my father. I can take them out if necessary."
"Good. I'll need that portal device as well, tell me how to use it"
Asta frowned, giving away all his tools felt a bit strange. He trusted Lucas not to run away, but the fact that such a thought entered his mind showed he still had some reservations.
"Sure."
Lucas left not long after, leaving Asta and Agatha alone. With her hiding behind her pillows and sheets and him standing in the office.
At that moment, they were separated by only a single wall, yet neither approached the other. Asta opened the broken window to stare outside. The constantly red sky plagued the planet, even if it was beautiful at moments.