His eyes fell onto my weapon, seemingly embracing it with a tender smile. My spear nearly trembled in my hand at the demon lord's authority, but before it could fall into temptation, I squeezed hard, causing it to come back to its senses.
[Your spear has finished bonding with you]
[Your spear has finished evolving]
[The Sangria-Eyed King's Spear of Carnage has been binded to your soul]
"What a beautiful weapon," The man's smile only continued to widen. "It almost makes me want to… take it from you."
Instinctively, my legs moved backwards, away from the man who reached towards my weapon. A drop of sweat ran down my cheek as he smiled before shrugging as if he had given up.
"I can always take it later…" He licked his lips before snapping his fingers, causing my vision to distort once again. But only upon hearing the command which would cause me to nearly puke in my own mouth did my vision change and my surroundings alter. "[Throne World: Wormhole]."
Surprisingly, no fight had broke out, especially between myself and the demon lord. It might have been due to my connection to Aisa, but to be honest, it was hard to tell. It was nearly impossible to get a read on this being who acted as sporadic and unpredictable as Beezlebub most of the time.
…
(Aisa POV)
"*sigh*... okay, the last item is… huh? A quincy? We have to pick it up from a quincy? Is that duchess trying to get me killed?"
"Probably. Did you think she liked you in the first place?" Wu chuckled before taking a bite out of her pastry. She quickly chewed it and then washed it down with a sip of coffee, her eyes nearly sparkling from the flavor.
Currently, we were having a late afternoon snack at a nearby cafe. We were more towards the center of the capital, meaning our stay here was a bit more privileged, but if it meant that I didn't have to sleep in an inn with rat shit all over the bed, hey, I wouldn't mind being called a rich asshole.
"Whatever…" I sighed, finishing up my pastry and then slumping down in my chair. The paper with instructions and the locations of my needed items was stuffed into my back pocket where I knew nobody could reach. But, just to make sure it was secure, I put a thick layer of ice between the paper and the inner lining of my pocket to make sure it was just that secure.
"Hey, tell me more about yourself… we've been with each other for a few days now and I hardly know you… oh, I have an idea," She smiled finishing up her snack as well before leaning forward, both elbows on the table while her wrists supported her chin. "Tell me how you met Orion. That's a good ice breaker."
"We're not on some date… I don't need to tell you about my personal life and I don't want to hear about yours."
"Then I'll start," Wu smiled, causing me to roll my eyes and slump even further in my chair. "First of all, we met in a different realm. Something similar to this place with humanoid creatures, but we had fair pale skin and if there were foreigners, maybe their skin was darker. But that's besides the point as while we met, we were both enlisted in an army. The famous General Lu Bu's army… y'know, the flying general. The heavenly splitting general…. You've heard of him, right? Surely…"
"Mmmmm… Nope, I have never heard of that guy. What? Is he some strong general in the overworld?"
"Overworld? Is that what you call that place?"
"Yeah, what else would we call it?"
"Where I come from, we call it China," Wu smiled, but a faint hint of sorrow emptied out of her voice as she finished off that sentence. She still looked the same, emotionally, but from the way she moved and to the way she spoke… I could tell something was up.
"Do you miss this… ummmm… what was it? Oh yes… China?" I asked, attempting to comfort the seemingly lonely woman. It was obvious she longed for her homeland. I mean, I long to go back to the overworld occasionally, so I could empathize with what she was feeling.
"I do… I miss the rolling hills, the fresh green spring, crisp orange autumn, shining yellow summer, and well… the winters I didn't really like. But besides that, the other seasons were beautiful. I adored them, yet down here, no such thing exists. It's just a depressing red and black hell with a sun that feels as if it could swallow the entire place whole in just a couple seconds."
"Y'know, I also miss the overworld, but I only miss the winter. Not the ice-cold, leg shaking, torrential downpour of snow, but the calm, flurries of the tangy and nipping icy wind against my face. It's nice… well, to me. I liked it a lot."
Wu smiled even wider before me. It seems I had been lured into her plot of giving some information about me by making herself seem vulnerable yet, those feelings seemed pretty genuine. It was more of an enhanced version, but she still longed for her China the same way I longed for the overworld.
"I was the daughter of a great retired general. He was granted the title of a noble and so, I became the daughter of a noble. I was a very rebellious noble, but I still did my duties as I grew up. But, soon, I felt like I was restricted, so I soon left the place as soon as I turned eighteen. A year later, I enlisted in the army and then another year later, General Lu Bu caught word of my enlistment. He immediately recruited me as my skills in healing were beyond anything he's ever seen before… especially in that world where it looked like only I had a status."
"Huh? You come from a place where nobody had a status? Like nobody had skills and nobody became adventurers? Nobody dreamed of a slaying dragon or conquering the powerful and vast ocean deep?"
"I mean, there were vagabonds. They traveled by themselves, focusing on bettering themselves and the people around them. Also, I do believe some people had aspirations of slaying a dragon or conquering the ocean… but I think it's in a much different context than what you're thinking…"
"I see… so hell is a place of torture for not only where I come from but every other world or universe… that's actually pretty interesting."
All of a sudden, Wu's face went cold and as her eyes shifted down to the table, I felt the same presence that she felt. Somebody was watching us. Somebody was watching us from outside the cafe we were in, through the long and cold blizzard enveloping the entire town outside.
"I was getting a bit antsy. We've been doing everything but fighting lately so I want let loose a bit…" Wu smiled, but in the blink of an eye, I had disappeared from the cafe and found myself perched atop a roof, watching down on the stalker with cold yellow eyes.
I saw Wu exit the cafe, but upon seeing me disappear, the stalker cloaked in black assassin clothing backed up. He was clearly wary that any large moves would give him away, but it was unfortunate that he had met me.
Cloaked by the wintry blanket of falling snow and the gusty chilly winds, I stepped down from the roof with pure and utter silence. I landed right next to the man with my breath barely having time to escape from my mouth.
"Huh?" The stalker muttered, seeing the icy mist which escaped from my mouth travel next to his line of sight. But, it was too late. I had clapped my hands against both of his ears, distorting not only his sense of balance, but his train of thought.
In just a second, he was immobilized, falling to the ground with his eyes nearly rolling back into his skull. He attempted to grab onto the surrounding brick walls from which he stalked us within the alleyway, but it was too late.
"Hmmmm… yeah, as I thought… I really don't like this place. The quincy is already watching us as if he's expecting us to come for him," I muttered as Wu quickly dashed into the alleyway, ready to fight.
"Huh? It's already over?" She pouted before disappointingly walking over to the unconscious body of the stalker watching us. We immediately unmasked him and saw that his horns had been sawed off by some kind of hot metal device… it was way too clean of a cut not to be.
"Where should we take him or should we just extract information from him now?" I asked, but Wu was already on it. A few runes underneath her cloak lit up a gentle purple before a liquid seeped into the man's mouth, traveling down into his stomach without any consent from his body. "What was that?"
"Truth serum… kekekeke…"
