Chapter 37: Meeting a Wannabe Demon Lord
........
Shiori's pov
We all sat in the room in awkward silence
"So your telling me that this is a demon that was imprisoned there in that cave and you managed to convince him to come with us?" Chris asked to clarify as he stared at yuishiro
"That's right!" I said
I couldn't tell him that yuishiro is my contractees or else he'll find out more about my abilities
"I pleasure to meet your acquaintance" yuishiro said politely
Chris scoffed before muttering something inaudible. Yuishiro stared at mochi.
"My? An entity brought to life by mana?" He said awed
"That's mochiko, it's mine" I said
"I see...." He nodded
"So how much did we get?" I asked
"Not much, the amount was barely up to 15 gold coins" Chris pouted
"I see, well just have to keep working for a while, hopefully we'll make enough so as to leave here"
The all nodded
A few weeks later
"I hate this lifestyle it sucks! No monsters to fight! The food here taste's weird and we're no where close to making our quoter!" Chris whined
"Quit whining, your annoying lady shiori and mochiko..." Yuishiro said sternly.
"We've been here for two weeks now, my summoning powers are still inactive..." I sigh
"That's it let's go for a big quest, I don't care if it's dangerous, I don't care if it's hard, I. Want. Money!." Chris demanded like a spoiled brat.
"Shut the heck up! I know this is a new lifestyle to get use to but for Pete sake! be a man a grow a pair!..." I yelled out annoyed at his complain.
How am I the only girl in a strong tier group and yet it feels like I'm the babysitter.
I wanted to teleported back to the Demi plane so bad!😭
"I don't mind taking a hard quest, if it'll make us more money" yuishiro said
"See he gets it!" Chris gave him a thumbs up
"Make no mistake, I'm only doing this so I don't have to deal with your childish behavior" he corrected.
Now who's being childish 😓
"Huh?! Learn your place!" Chris spat
"Take your own advice!" Yuishiro frowned
"Why You little-!"
"Lady shiori is the one taking charge here because your too reckless and sheltered to understand how to survive in the real world, so please for the love of entities, stop adding more problems to her plate by acting so pathetic...." Yuishiro said finally ending the verbal fight
Chris's eyes widened for a moment before sitting down in defeat
"Let's go get some food I'm sure everyone would think better with full bellies." I said trying to calm the atmosphere...
...
I walked along the street, deep in thought. I had sent Chris and yuishiro to pick a restaurant, that should buy me some time to think.
I just hope they don't get into a petty argument, paying collateral damage for whatever they would end up destroying would be too painful for my wallet.
And poor mochi would be in the mist of it all. I can already see he's sad face.
Oh my precious mochi~...
"I made a contract with yuishiro and let him join because I hoped that it would lighten things up a bit, oh how wrong I was..." I sighed.
Money is tighter even though our expenses are the basic essentials. Cooking meals would obviously be cheaper but I can't just set a fire in our inn room...
I lifted my head as my curiosity piqued at the scene before me...
"Yeeese! You reak!" A beast man held his nose with disgust.
"Oh please, just offer a little bit of food, please sir..." The beggar in a ragged cloak begged. The man swore before walking away.
The beggar trembled, their limbs thin to the bone as flies surrounded them...
I turned to the nearest screwer stand, buying a few sticks of Done meat before carefully approaching the beggar.
"Here..." I sighed handing the food over. They ate it quickly as if they hadn't eaten in weeks.
With a loud burp they jumped into the air as if they had revived from death, their cloak removed as their face was revealed.
It was a little girl with long dirty lime hair, and green eyes. She was only wearing metal plates to cover her chest and lower regions. Her eyes were lit with excitement
I blinked, I knew you were broke but damn!
I took off my cloak, quickly offering it, she stared at me confused.
"Take it, a child like you deserves better" I said with pure simparty in my eyes.
"I don't need that! And I'm not a child! I'm far older than you and your ancestors!" She yelled back clearly annoyed...
"I'm sorry, but it gets chilly at night and you look homeless so..." I went and bought her a dress shirt and and a cloak, cheap ones obviously.
"Your kindness is appreciated! Now tell me your name!" She demanded
"It's shiori koromi.."
"Mine is kirishimi!, The powerful demon lord!" She smiled smugly...
Poor kid, she's totally lost her mind thanks to the heat 😮💨
"I owe you my life so I shall grant you one wish!" She said
"Really?"
"Yes name it!" She grinned
"I need cash " I said bluntly
"Kinda mean from someone who had to buy my clothes don't you think " she deadpanned
"Than I need a way home "
"Sorry, I'm a battle type demon lord not a mystical one so I can't use teleportation magic.." she chuckled
So useless, I deadpanned
"Then what can you even give?..."
"Mortal, when a battle type demon lord grants you a wish, it's clearly a demon's eye!" She smirked
"Demon eye? Do they sell for much?" I queried.
"Don't even think about it! There not for sell!" She fummed
"Ok then what type of demon eye are you planning to on giving me?" I asked
"Well just have to wait and see" she shrugged
"What do you mean by that?" Just then she pounced on me and shoved her fingers into one of my eye sockets...
"• • •" there was a pause before hell broke losse.
I screamed in agony, squirming fiercely like a dying fish as she viciously assaulted my sight organ.
"Quit squirming and suck it up" she rolled her eyes.
After a moment she retracted her bloody hand as I panted onto the ground on all fours, I cautiously took out my phone and stared at my reflection.
My eyes widened, one of my eyes had turned blue.
What?
"That's the demon eye of inner sight, good luck on your quest!" She said leaping onto a building roof and ran away.
I was still dazed from it all but walked back to meet the guys none less.
...
"What took you so long?" Chris asked
"Child looking Demon lord..." I replied dazed
"Why is one of your eyes blue?" Yuishiro asked
"Child looking Demon lord.."
"Huh?" They were confused
As we sat in the restaurant, something was off. A few of The costumers were coughing up a bit, I stared at my cupped of water dazed when it happened.
My blue eyes glowed faintly as a notification popped up.
[New skill aquired]
[Demon eye of inner sight]
[Content within this cup is toxic, refrain from drinking it]
Huh? So my demon is basically an automatic and advanced form of insight.
I looked around and noticed that there was an icon above each person's head, the red icon meant Ill and the green one meant healthy. More than 50% had red. Must be an issue with the water supply, The foods safe since it's cooked.
"Don't drink that!" I said to Chris and yuishiro as they were about to take a sip.
I used slime manipulation to form a small conical flask and used fire magic to lit from under it, pouring the water of my cup into the flask, heating it up before making a small cut on my finger, letting the blood drip into the solution.
"What are you doing?" Chris asked
The solution glowed for a moment before turning light green.
"There, now drink this, it's an antibody to prevent you from catching whatever it is that's infecting people..." I Said pouring the solution into their cups.
"Good thinking," Chris smiled drinking his cup..
"The water supply must be contaminated for something like this to happen..." Yuishiro said
"Let's check out the guild for any missions related to this...." I suggested
[Location: Nalam guild]
"Aha!" I took a paper
"It's a quest for purifying the city's main river which has been contaminated by monster corpses..." Yuishiro read the paper
"And look, the reward is 100 gold coins, more than enough for the trip back home..."
"But how are we supposed to purify a river, none of us are archpriest" yuishiro said
"I can use healing magic..."
"What's this? Beware of the crocktikiles..." I read
"Oh shit, those this live in polluted waters, there strong and always hungry ..." Yuishiro explained
"How I'm I going to heal the water and fed off the monsters?" I sighed
"I've got an idea!" Chris smirks
We arrived at the main river as I was sitted in a metal cage.
"Are you sure about this?"
"You'll be fine " Chris assured
"Um ok.. " they placed the cage in the water as I began the healing spells.
"This isn't so bad..." I smiled, I sensed a monster nearby and paled...
Oh shit. One of the monster bit on the cage and soon the rest followed.
No matter, I'm safe in here! Right?
Just then one of them but onto the cage, bending it a bit
"What?! Cages aren't meant to bend!" I screamed petrified now. The others got the hint and suddenly I was thrashing around in the cage as they all ganged up on me
"Do you want us to reel you back!?" Chris asked
"No! If I don't heal this river we won't get the cash!" I whined
"Suit yourself!" He said, watching me struggle with amusement....
"You're enjoying this a bit too much don't you think" yuishiro sweatdropped
Hours later
The river was crystal clear as the monsters had left, I sat in the cage turmatized
"You good?" Chris asked
"...." I didn't answer and just got out of the cage dazed
At the guild, we collected the reward only after they had seen water themselves.
A few days later we bought traveling supplies and proceeded to leaving nalem....
"Wait up!" We turned to see zik and his party heading our way
"Oh hey guys, what's up?..." I smiled
"We wanted to say goodbye before you left!" He smiled
"okay thanks..." We waved before walking out of Nalam gates.
"I wonder how everyone else is doing" just then a guy bumped into me.
"Oh, sorry...." A voice spoke. I looked up to see a brown skinned man staring down at me curiously
"Well well, aren't you a cute little thing, and just my type...." Chris and yuishiro frowned and stood in front of me in a guarded manner
"Ok ok, I'll leave see you later cutie ~" the man mused
"What a weirdo " Chris said still annoyed
"Indeed..." Yuishiro nodded
"That man, I felt something off about him..."I said
"What do you mean?" Yuishiro asked
"I Sensed a lot of mana coming from his hand. It felt so familiar yet foreign..." I explained, feeling invested in this mystery.
"I actually saw a quest relating to such artifacts. Apparently there's a mining site in a neighboring town from here, it's said to have a strange protective barrier and requires adventurers to deal with it, specially mage. I did think it would matter since we have what we need to leave...." Yuishiro said
"Oh no, don't you even think about it.." Chris panicked noticing the excitement in my eyes.
"Come on, we'll just have one look and head home, please..." I begged with the most effective puppy eyes I could muster
"Perhaps a little delay wouldn't hurt ..." Yuishiro sighed
"Fine, but we're getting a better inn to stay at once we get there got it!" Chris said
[Meanwhile]
In another area, a living phantom was being chased by a cloaked figure...
"Leave me alone you crook!" The phantom begged, the figure didn't respond and lunged at it, slicing the phantom to bits,
They sighed.
Just then A tree spirit in form of a butterfly perched on his shoulder.
"We've found her " it said
"Good" the figures said, eyes narrowed...