Chapter 10

Exposition

"My dear Alice! This old witch hasn't done anything to you?!" The way Decus voice rose one would assume that he won some sort of lottery as Alice grumbled slightly, sitting up from the bed.

"You're late Dumbo Decus, do you know how long you've kept me waiting?!" That was a good question, in fact the time has been rather vague on exactly how long they had been away from each other, or how long they had been separated.

"I'm sorry, I was caught up in some, um how can I say it..." Decus was trying to find the words that could describe the time he was away from Alice, but honestly the entire situation was so bizarre that it was impossible to find them.

Alice then turned her attention to Hoy who was simply staring at her, as the blond honey eyed girl frowned.

"What are you gawking at?" It was a blunt question as Decus glared at Hoy, as if the young monster was threatening his territory as Hoy simply shook his head.

"Oh, it's not that..." Hoy tapped his foot on the wooden floor before crossing his arms, "It's just...by the way that Decus talked about I expected you to be more like..."

Decus eye twitched, even though it was unintentional, it seemed that Hoy threw him under a bus as Alice crossed her arms.

However before the worthless conversation could continue the woman who was standing in the corner silently gave a small cough, caring little about the dialogue that was being exchanged between the three.

"Listen, as much as I would love to listen to your opinions on one another, we actually have some important business," Verboten stated as she pulled a key from her dress pocket before opening a locked drawer in the room.

It contained a rather ragged book, more than ragged, closer to a book that had been town in half, the spine appeared to have half an Exsphere attached to it as the woman dressed as a nun pulled it out and placed it on the bed.

"It's an old book," Decus stated the obvious as Hoy tilted his head.

"What's a book?" Hoy added a question, which was promptly ignored by everyone in the room.

Verboten simply sighed hoping that at least Alice would understand what the book represented, after all, out of the three that were there it was clear that she was most likely the most intelligent.

"Don't just lay that disgusting thing down on the bed," Alice glared at the lump of leather and pages as Verboten took her praise back, even if it was to herself.

It seemed all three of them were stupid in their own special way.

"Listen, Alice, You made a now severed pack with a demon, in exchange for power and control over those creature you would find the book, correct?"

The uneasiness on Decus face probably should have been the first clue that the woman was correct as Alice glanced down to the ragged item scatted across the bed.

"This is...the Book of Demons? Seems a lot more...worthless looking," The blond teen frowned, it almost seemed that if you yanked it hard enough it would simply fall apart.

Verboten simply smirked, "Well things such as this tend to happen when the book is torn apart, there are a few more pages scattered around this world, and the entire other half of the book is in a location I can't reach right now, so my current plan is to get the rest of the pages and complete the book," Verboten chuckled a little before scanning Alice's body.

"So, how is the Exsphere I gave you?"

Alice glared at the woman before it changed into an eerie smile, if there was one thing the half-elf it was when she was being used, Alice rolled up her sleeve reveling a purple orb with a Key crest attached to it. "Oh yes! It helped me clean up a large amount of trash on my way here,"

Decus frowned as his gaze shifted to Verboten before going back to Alice.

"Alice, are you sure you want to accept anything from that witch? You don't know if she tampered with it or not..." Despite posing a rather good question Alice simply scoffed at Decus's words.

"Be quite Dumbo, if you haven't noticed Exspheres aren't something you can buy, if someone wants to give me a gift who am I to refuse?"

Verboten simply clapped her hands together as Decus glared at the woman.

"Now to get back on point, there are still a few pages scattered about, I want you to find them and return them to me so I can repair the book, and of course in exchange you can use the book freely. You won't even need a pact with a demon to gain power,"

That was the word that Alice wanted to hear, everything else was just unnecessary fluff that was obstructing her main goal.

"So we just have to find the remaining pages and second half of the book, seems easy enough," Alice almost wanted to hug herself, perhaps herself not realizing just how daunting the task of finding small pages around the world would be.

"Oh, Hoy, have you...taken care of that thing I asked you?" Verboten winked at the monster child as he stared blankly at the woman, the gears in his mind slowly starting to turn.

"That's right! No I haven't, sorry," Hoy smiled, Verboten simply tilted her head.

"No rush, just take care of it sooner or later," No doubt Verboten was thinking about him killing Chocolat while Hoy was thinking about killing Chocolate, there was small but important difference.

"Also, about your severed pact...or more importantly, who severed the pact," Verboten expression darkened, it seemed both Alice and Decus were interested in hearing more about the culprit that made their lives rather difficult.

"His name is Demitel, apparently he's working with some others as well. I really don't have a lot of information about him, though if you encounter him you should just avoid him,"

It was surprisingly useless information as Verboten dug into her dress pocket once again and took out two sets of keys, obviously they were for the inn that was located next door.

"You see, I even got you two separate rooms, I was going to get Hoy one, but he was probably going to sleep outside anyway so it would have been a waste of money," Verboten chuckled as she headed towards the door before turning back to the three.

"Why not stay in the city for the rest of the day before heading out tomorrow, after all you three are going on a long trip,"

The word three, made Decus shiver, so he had to speak up. "You're not telling me that, Hoy is going with us?!"

Decus didn't hate Hoy, but he was the very definition of a third wheel at this point. There was no need for anyone else but him and Alice.

"Of course, the original plan was just to send Hoy by himself to find the pages, but I think him having some person companions will make things go far smoother," Verboten waved as she shut the door behind her, leaving the three to decide what to do and where to go next.

"What an odd thing to say, person...she acts like this guy isn't a person at all," Alice pondered the odd word choice before deeming it irrelevant.

"Decus we're leaving, just being in this building makes me sick," Alice words confused Hoy as both the Half-elf and human lifted themselves from their spot as Hoy spoke.

"Why? Did it feed you bad food?" Of course such a statement was rather silly and childish as Alice had to stop for a moment, just to comprehend exactly what came out of Hoy's mouth.

The blond took a few moments to process the words as Decus bit his lip, judging if Hoy was insulting Alice or not, then again from the short time Decus spent with the monster child he doubted Hoy was capable of insulting anyone intentionally.

"Wh- no you idiot, I just hate churches, that's all, it's not hard to understand..." Alice seemed to not have realized that she just brought up another point that Hoy was willing to question.

"But why do you hate churches?"

"Listen kid, stop asking her so many questions!" Decus was obviously irritated, despite not being the one asked anything as Alice gave a small huff.

"No one was talking to you Decus!" Alice glared at the purple haired man before her attention shifted back to Hoy. "Listen, we're going to be seeing each other a lot from here on out, so lets start off well!" Alice smiled as she tilted her head, being as innocent as possible.

"It's pretty obvious that this guy isn't too bright, there is no need to be harsh towards him. Things will go far smoother if I'm kind to him than if I treat him poorly,"

After all, one would catch far more flies with honey than vinegar, and it seemed such an approach was working as Hoy smiled back at her.

"We never got the chance to properly introduce ourselves, my name is Alice...what's yours?"

"Hoy, I hope we can be good friends," Hoy's naivety was admirable if not annoying as Alice simply nodded her head.

"I do to,"

Decus kept his mouth shut, Alice was an amazing actor as always, though it helped that Hoy was easily the dullest tool in anyone's shed.

"Well, I'll be seeing you guys, I have to go train and kill chocolate..." Hoy raised his hand as he walked out of the room, it amazing the things he could say with a straight face as Alice waited for the sound of feet descending a set of stairs before turning back to Decus.

"Decus, tell me everything you know about him," Alice question was blunt as Decus expression changed to what could only be described as horror.

Could it be that...Alice found Hoy interesting? Could it be that it was Hoy's motive all along, to find out how amazing Alice was and steal her right from under him, despite such a thing making less logical sense than a string holding a ton.

"W-why would you want to know about him?"

Alice couldn't believe that Decus was asking such a thing as the blond rolled her eyes, it seemed that she was going to have to explain such a simple thing as she ran her hand through her hair.

"Oh Dumbo Decus, I can't believe I have to tell you, knowledge is power, me knowing more about him will help me prepare,"

Alice made a rather good point, as Decus smiled, it was time to put his spy skills to the test...though it wasn't like anything Decus was going to tell her anything that Hoy wouldn't have happily told her anyway.

"Well, even though he doesn't have an Exsphere he is capable of fighting if not flat out overpowering those who do, he can talk to monsters as well...and even summon and dismiss them at will," Decus listed those facts as Alice simply started at her so called knight.

"Decus...if you don't have anything useful to say, making things up won't make you seem smarter, just even stupider!" Decus winced as Alice raised her voice.

Those things were just impossible for someone to be capable of doing, Alice didn't know what was worst, the fact that Decus said such stupid things at all or the fact that he said it in such a tone that it didn't seem strange at all.

"I wouldn't make anything up, at least not to you Alice," Decus face showed no lie, which was a good thing since Decus was a horrible at telling lies in the first place as Alice put her hands on her hips and gave a small huff.

"Whatever, I'll find out sooner or later, right now we need to prepare," Alice smiled, even if she lost the power to call upon demons, it would soon be replaced by something even greater...if Verboten was telling the truth that is.

Then there was the matter of getting back at the man called Demitel.

Hoy lifted the boulder over his head as he squeezed it, the Lamia known as Hut and the Mandrake known as Anlage looking over at their friend as he simply crushed the stone between his hands, smashing it to tiny pieces.

The sun was slowly setting, as it's bright yellow turned to a soft orange, the clouds slowly fading from sight.

It was amazing that Hoy was able to find such a nice spot on the outskirts of Palmacosta away from any persons, even if it was a little ways into the nearby forest.

"So...after two days of not calling upon me, when you do you waste it by making me watch you train? I knew you were a stupid bastard, but I didn't know you were this stupid..." "Hut grumbled as she leaned against a tree, carefully avoiding having her horns hook to any of the branches.

Hoy simply ignored the insult as he looked at his hands. "Hmm, I think I'm getting stronger, I wonder if I'm stronger than Decus now..." Hoy paused for a moment, as he looked Hut who was now glaring at him and at Anlage who was poking nearby flowers.

"Okay, I know a way I can check!" Hoy held out his hand and focused taking a deep breath, as he summoned a familiar monstrous knight with a cannon for an arm.

The red knight shifted slowly before clutching it's blade and looking at Hoy with its single Jewel of an eye.

"Ah, when was the last time you called upon me? It has been too long my friends, far too long!" Hut crossed her arms and gave a huff, he hoofs tapping against the grass.

"Yeah I'm sorry we haven't had time to do anything together, but since we're stuck here for a while I say, why not all of you fight me right now?!" It was a really stupid thing to say and an even stupider reason to call another monster as Hut sighed.

Really, the lamia didn't know what she was expecting, Hoy wasn't one who had goals or thoughts. He simply did things he thought was fun or entertaining, not really following the thing called logic, so it was only natural that Hoy wanted to do something so simple.

"Damn it, I would be lying if I said I didn't want to fight either," Hut knew she was easily the most intelligent one among the four currently, so if she indulged in combat it would make her seem as mindless as the rest of the,

"Oh! As a knight I can not refuse a challenge, I'll happily meet you in combat," The Red knight prepared his sword as Hut grumbled before standing on her hooves and walking towards the two.

"Fine, I need a way to let off some steam anyway, and you worthless pieces of shit are the perfect bags I can thrash,"

Hoy laughed, he had almost forgotten Hut's colorful vocabulary.

"And after we're done, we can see if there are any other monsters that want to join us," Hut sighed at Hoy's words, even by monster standards he was far too childish.

Author note.

Decided to have a small scene with Hoy and his monster friends, unless you want me to keep showing them these will probably happen off screen from now on, along with Hoy's training.

It will allow me to have Hoy get new monsters without showing every single one.

I guess the plot is actually starting now, kind of... Also chapters will probably get longer.