The morning after the rescue, Zephyr’s mind had returned to its shrewd point. Clearly, he could think; his senses were sharper than before, and the drowsiness from sleeping so long was on its final way out. Sitting in bed, he curled and uncurled his fingers and stared at them for a while. With them, he could tear right through rocks and metals, but for now, their ache for chaos had to be subsided.
Getting dressed and walking down the inn’s stairs alongside Aura, he maintained his disguise and grabbed them a seat at the breakfast tables. Sitting across from each other, the two felt many gazes honing in on them from all directions. After all, their names were already getting famous as the folks who’d saved the hero from the goblin’s den.
’We can do some good business with these folks if we play our cards right.’ To further keep the facade of being a merchant, Zephyr decided to reach into his pocket and conjure one of those incense pots that had helped them rescue Rudy. Setting it on the table, he looked at Aura and began talking about how they needed more of the sleeping poison.
Closely, the adventurers listened. The fact that they could just set one off by a dungeon’s entrance and clear the monsters inside once the place was filled had quite the allure, especially since they could gain some major levels easily.
"Anyways, let’s get something to eat." Cutting his conversation short with Aura, who’d been humming happily after last night’s treatment, Zephyr ordered them breakfast and plunged into his own head.
Feeling more like himself, his eyes carefully surveyed his surroundings. Each human or humanoid was another chance for him to gain something. For the most part, it was the women, as for the rest, labor, the spread of corruption, and everything that came with it. Holding the urge to lick his lips or smirk, the fiend thought to himself.
’These weaklings will only give birth to more weaklings anyway. What harm if we add more of their girls to our ascended demonkins?’ Even though he didn’t exactly plan on turning them into demons, the thoughts of slowly corrupting another man’s woman, that too in front of their eyes, with long, drawn-out emotional corrosion, made him feel a rush like nothing else. ’But first we need land and that shop...’
Bringing his attention back to Aura, he looked her in the eye, and the devil instantly understood what he was getting at.
"The receptionist woman can probably help us get a deal," Aura suggested.
Nodding back at her, Zephyr considered her words. And as if fate itself had planned it, the very next person that they saw walking up to their table was none other than Freya with Rudy walking beside her. Holding their breakfast plates, the mother placed them on the table and took a step back.
"There you go, Rudy. These guys saved you," she said, placing a hand on her son’s shoulder.
Looking at the two, the hero’s eyes narrowed quite a bit. A flimsy-looking merchant boy and a regular silver blonde woman? He’d expected them to look more intimidating, but as the method of his rescue wasn’t yet known to him, he’d simply assumed that they fought all the goblins.
"Thank you for saving me," extending his hand with a nervous jitter in his arm, he held it towards Zephyr. "I don’t know how I can repay you, but if there’s anything that I can do to help you guys as well, please let me know."
Shaking his hand, Zephyr smiled at the young man.
"Don’t trouble yourself with that, your mom is going to help me plenty."
"Hmm?" Quickly turning his head towards Freya, Rudiea stared at her with a confused look.
"Oh, yeah...I’m supposed to help them run their register once their shop is open. It’s the least I can do for them after they’ve saved you from certain death, right?" Awkwardly smiling, Freya rubbed her son’s back with her hand and tried to move on from the topic. "Don’t worry, I will be back here once these two have settled in town. I’m sure you wouldn’t have to deal with this place by yourself."
"Yeah...but," feeling anxious, as soon the responsibilities of the inn might fall on him, Rudy turned his head back to Cecilia and Custer. "Is there nothing else that I can do? I don’t think I can handle this place by myself."
Humming a curious tone, Zephyr glanced sideways at Freya.
"Is he quitting being an adventurer, after all?"
"Oh, most definitely," responded the mother, but the fiend couldn’t allow that.
"Then what about the monster around town? And I’ve heard that he was chosen as the hero to defeat some fiend, what about that?"
Scoffing at his words, Freya folded her hands and looked away from everyone. Holding her words for quite a bit, she turned her head back to the table and complained.
"I would not have my son die in that forest."
"What if we helped him prepare?" Titling her head to his words, Freya recoiled a little. "Cecilia and I can help him prepare to fight those monsters. We’re experts in how to disarm them after all, just take yesterday for example. Nobody got hurt, and we came back without having to kill anyone or getting anyone killed either."
"That sounds nice and all, but–"
Suddenly getting her hand grabbed by her son, Freya couldn’t finish her sentence. And as she noticed a look of determination in her son’s eyes, her internal defences were disarmed quite a bit.
"Please, Mom, let me do it, I swear I’m not going to do anything reckless." Extending his hand towards the experts, he added. "And these guys can help me figure out if something is too much for my level. I won’t move a finger unless they give me their permission, I swear!"
Hearing her son pleading so desperately, Freya didn’t know what to say. But she knew she couldn’t back off immediately from her position; at the same time, she didn’t want him to resent her for making him work at the inn against his wishes.
"I...I need some time to think." Shaking her head, the mother quickly walked back to the kitchen.
Left with his savior and a smile, Rudy huffed a sigh and brought his attention back to them. Leaning forward, he extended his hand again, but as soon as Zephyr shook his hand this time, the hero felt something strange about the young man. That and a sudden screen of stat appeared next to the devils, just as it had next to his mother, Freya.
’WHAT THE?!’ Needless to say, the young hero was in for the surprise of his lifetime.