"It knew his name… It spoke with him…" All things considered it was a nice day. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was pleasantly warm. Birds were singing and animals scurried about their business, the majority of monsters living nearby had been killed or had left because of the ensuing battle. The village Zald and Alfia were overlooking was tending to life as usual. Tense as all hells, but with some fraudulent reports from their surviving adventurers the people had been reassured. Zeus was suspicious and he definitely knew they were there, but that was a bridge to burn later.

"There was a lot about her that we didn't know, that wasn't in the records from then. Chantless magic? Flight? Hell, it copied your magic." Zald ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. "We need to report back to Erebus, not only because of the failure but because of the new info."

Alfia shot him a look. "That thing threatened my nephew's life and you want to leave?" Her tone sounded calm but it was dangerous.

"We don't have a choice. Plans are moving, and with that monster who-knows-where we need to start preparations for Plan B." Alfia looked at the village in silence and Zald sighed in defeat. "For all we know she's dead—"

"It…" Alfia corrected with a whisper.

"—It's dead. Those wounds were fatal. Not much could survive that, especially on low mind."

"One week."

"Alfia…"

"I'll return after one week… I just need to be sure…"

After a moment. "Fine. But only a week, got it?"

A killer whale had washed up on shore, its large and powerful body scratched and beaten by an unknown assailant. Judging by the coloration it was an older specimen, and looking closer she could see that there were older and faded scars. What stories could it tell her if they could understand each other? What experiences had it lived through?

The dull roar of the ocean drew her attention as a large wave rolled nearly to her feet on the sandy beach. It would seem that the tide was approaching; meaning that soon it would drag away the super predator and remove any traces of its existence. That an entire world separate to their own laid but a few feet away from her was a fascinating and terrifying concept in equal measure. Were there any demons that lived under the sea?

She paused for a moment as she sensed a presence behind her. It was powerful, overwhelmingly so, but it was similar to hers. A demon then. His mana was nigh undetectable but the sheer presence he exuded was enough of an indicator of his power. The world around her turned fuzzy, starting at the edges of her vision.

"I've heard that there are eccentric demons who engage in research about mankind," a rich masculine voice spoke from behind her. "Are you one of them?"

Solitär turned her head, vision turning sluggishly and white. A faint ringing echoed in her ears. "Yes," she answered simply and honestly. Standing up she reached out her hand. "My name is Solitär."

She couldn't make out his features; other than his dark coat, long red hair, and tall horns. "Macht," he named himself. As the demon walked past her outstretched hand everything went white and the memory fell away.

Solitär's eyes opened slowly to a dark wooden roof and the sound of a ticking clock. The bed she was on was far softer than she remembered hers being, and the smell permeating the room was one of paper and ink. Everything was coming back slowly, her senses mainly, her eidetic memory meant she remembered exactly what happened before she collapsed. She wasn't panicky, just confused and concerned. She was also tired, unnaturally so. The area where she had been stabbed was itchy and throbbing and her throat felt like it was full of cotton. By the time she heard the sound of a door opening she was already losing the battle to keep her eyes open.

"If we had felt troubled whenever we deceived someone, us demons would have long gone extinct."

"And what does it mean to feel "troubled"?"

"That is an emotion we shall never understand."

The next time she woke up she was far more lucid. The tiredness was still there, but it wasn't so overwhelming that she'd fall asleep again. Her wound was still itchy and throbbing, but less so than before. She tried to sit up, but a spike of pain made her pause. At the very least, as slowly as possible, she elevated her position slightly. The modestly sized room was made entirely of wood; insofar that she couldn't see if there were any stone foundations or supports. There wasn't a widow, and the only light source came from a small lantern glowing with a faint magical hue. She couldn't tell if she was in a large or small building, what story she might be on, or even what time of day it was.

Looking down she noticed that she had been changed into a simple sleeveless cotton gown. And without even feeling around her head she knew that her horns were on full display. Perhaps she could play herself off as a boaz? No… that was unlikely, she was missing every trait but the horns.

Grabbing the covers she—

"Ah!" Solitär jolted in surprise, jerking her hands away in reflex. It wasn't pain, just… oversensitivity? She furrowed her brow and looked at her fingers, noting that the tips were pink with raw and freshly grown skin. That wasn't an injury she had sustained… So what had…

The creaking of floorboards made her elfin ears twitch, and before she could even think about pretending to sleep the door was opened. Two sets of eyes immediately locked onto each other; one a pale green and the other a sapphire blue. The woman staring at her had blonde hair done up in a ponytail hanging over her shoulder, and was wearing white blouse and a blue skirt. As briefly shocked as Solitär was, she barely had enough time to open her mouth before…

"LORD HERMES!" The girl screamed before bolting down the hall. The demon blinked twice before sighing, if the entire building didn't hear that then Solitär would bear witness to a minor miracle. She tried forcing her arms underneath her, biting back a moan at the sharp spike of pain shooting from her side. Her mana reserves were still practically depleted; her body was focusing on recovering physically first and foremost. Her mana detection was also on the fritz, had she hit her head without realizing it? Regardless, she was completely and utterly helpless at the moment.

"Hey, you're finally awake!" So when a human doing his finest impression of a peacock walked brazenly into her room she was more than a little put off. The man was blonde as well, wearing a blue coat with a tan stripe down the middle and a red scarf. A ridiculous looking hat with a white feather sat atop his head. His whole demeanor was ridiculous, but the look in his golden-brown eyes made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. It was far more calculating than any human she had met before; only matched by Frieren. Scary…

Following close behind him was a stern looking girl wearing a thigh-length beige dress with crisscrossing lines of a lighter shade. A large belt connected to several pouches was tied tightly around her abdomen and she had a white cape covering the majority of her body. Strangely enough she was wearing calf-length strapped sandals with golden wings. Her aqua colored eyes were just as intelligent as the man's, and were covered by a small set of spectacles. Her hair was a few shades off from Solitär's own, matching her eyes.

While the girl was stern looking, both of them looked like they were friendly enough. She didn't believe it for a second…

"I believe th—" Her incredibly raspy voice gave out by the third word, causing her to fall into a coughing fit. The man frowned and spoke to the girl who frowned in return. He gave her a pleading look and she sighed before leaving the room. The human peacock pulled a chair from a nearby desk a short ways from the bed before sitting down and folding his hands.

"Don't worry about talking right now, I just sent Asfi to grab a healing potion for your throat. Luckily for you I can do enough talking for both of us!" The man laughed, leaning forwards. "It was pretty dodgy there for a while, we honestly weren't sure if you were gonna make it. The wound in your abdomen was the real lynchpin there, whoever you were fighting was using a cursed weapon… it's why we can't just use healing potions…"

His face darkened and he paused for a moment, thoughts seemingly in a faraway place. He shook his head after a minute before bringing back his carefree smile. "Other than that you had a collection of broken bones and apparently a damaged throat. Sorry we didn't catch that!" No matter what tone he used there was just something… off… about him. Despite her thoughts though, Solitär managed a small fake smile. Just then the woman returned with a small vile of liquid. Wordlessly and with an unchanging expression she handed it to the demon.

Careful not to use the tips of her fingers, something she saw the two humans definitely noticed, she tilted her head and let the liquid run down her throat. Almost immediately she had to cover her mouth with her hands lest she risk spitting it back out. It wasn't the taste; that was rather unremarkable, but rather the sudden and sharp sensation of pins and needles stretching across the entirety of her esophagus. It was one of the worst feelings she had ever experienced, and she had to consciously refrain from clawing at her throat. The humans watched impassively while she fought the sensation for almost an entire minute before the sensation started to fade.

Tentatively Solitär swallowed the saliva that had built up during the ordeal, and felt almost no pain as it went down. A healing potion they said? Fascinating…

"Then…" she tested her own voice, still slightly scratchy from a lack of use. "I have you to thank for saving my life." The mask was back up like it had never left. "I owe you a debt I hope I'll be able to repay."

"Good! Unfortunately I'm not so altruistic to help you for free. You see a lot happened that night and if there's one thing I hate it's not having every piece to the puzzle. I'm sure you'd also like a few pieces to fill in the blanks so I propose an exchange of info."

Not that she had any choice… "that's a fair proposal. What would you like to know?"

With the same smile he'd had since coming into the room he leaned back. "What kind of monster are you?"

Without even a crack in her facade she tilted her head as much as she was able, "I'm a demi-human, not a monster." If only she was able to use her mana sense she wouldn't have made such a miscalculation…

The man's smile widened into something unnerving. "Yeah that's what I was afraid of. You see I didn't want to have to do this but with the way things are right now I'm more… willing to do things I'd like to avoid." As she opened her mouth to try and refute he pointed at her hands. "Fingers still sensitive?" A cold feeling went down her spine.

Given her lack of an answer he continued. "When we found you that night we did what we could, but we noticed something really weird. It was starting from the wound in your side as well, but the tips of your fingers, and toes we found out later, were gradually turning to dust and disappearing. That's actually how we kept track of your condition; when you stopped falling apart we assumed you were somewhat stable. But that's besides the point, you know what other creatures turn to dust when they're killed?"

"Monsters…" she found herself replying. This was as close to the worst-case scenario as she could get. She had no magic to defend herself yet, and these two humans knew that she was a monster, if not a demon yet.

"So let's try this again, truthfully please. What kind of monster are you?"

"A demon," she answered before blinking in surprise. She hadn't— the collar! Her hands went to her neck and sure enough she felt the damnable magic item. He had told her to answer truthfully and now she didn't have a choice. Whatever came out of her mouth would be the truth!

"Forgot about that, did you? I had Asfi take a look at it when we stabilized you. An obedience collar on a monster is just common sense, and apparently whoever was trying to subdue you had quite the hard time in doing so. A demon huh? I've heard of people describing monsters as demons but that isn't what you mean, is it?"

"No."

"Then tell me. What is a demon?" Solitär watched as the girl pulled out a small booklet and a white feathered quill. What were the benefits of staying silent? What were the cons? Likewise what would happen if she told the truth? Either choice could result in her death; being uncooperative and a monster meant they wouldn't feel too broken up about it. Telling the truth might convince them that she was too much of a threat to keep alive. She still had a level of agency; she wasn't forced to answer, just forced to tell the truth. That meant that she could selectively reveal information to keep some semblance of an advantage.

Solitär smiled slightly. "Demons are the ultimate evolution of monsters." The man's gaze hardened. She quirked an eyebrow.

"Do they originate from the dungeon?"

"No."

The man leaned forward. "Monsters don't naturally evolve, the only way for a special kind of monster to appear is by consuming magic stones, and you said demons don't come from the dungeon. Care to enlighten us?"

The demon held up a finger. "That would assume that demons have any common ancestors to monsters spawned from the dungeon. Going down that path; the answer would be Divergent Evolution. Somewhere close to the beginning, before the gods descended, my kind evolved to fit a new environment completely separate from the dungeon. Without magic stones, they would have had to find some other source of power to evolve. An interesting theory regardless of merit." She held up a second finger. "The more likely theory is that my kind shares no common ancestor, and is not prescribed to the standards of monsters that you're familiar with. Then evolution would be able to take its course just as it would with humans or other species."

"So what's the answer?" The man asked.

"Neither!" Solitär answered in glee before pausing. Sighing, she reeled in her enthusiasm. "How unfortunate, it would seem that talking about my interests gave me loose lips."

"What do you mean by neither?"

Solitär paused for a long moment. A truth rather than the entire truth. "I'm not from this land, and honestly I have no real answer to what that means. Orario was, until a short few years ago, completely unknown to me. Further clarification would involve discovering how I came to be here, and I know not how that happened."

The man took the information in stride, though she could tell that he was filing all of this away for later. "Back to the original question then; what is a demon?"

"As I said before, the ultimate evolution of monsters. If the comparison is helpful consider us a pseudo-relative to sirens. My ancestors developed the ability to mimic humans crying out for help to draw in unsuspecting prey. We evolved to use languages to deceive and manipulate, lowering the guard of those we hunted. Ultimately we evolved to have your appearances as well. The end result is what you see in front of you; a monster who can speak, in the form of a human." The man's face was unreadable, but the girl had gone quite pale. Revealing this much information was a sure fire way to get herself killed, but she had a plan to use this obedience collar against them. "If it was any other demon in front of you there'd be a significant body count already."

The man knew she was telling the truth, if the way his brow furrowed was any indication. "How many have you killed since coming here?"

Solitär tilted her head. "No more than I've needed to, and only in self-defense. Humans and the like frighten me quite a bit. I'm an incredibly long-lived demon, and yet the advancements made by your kind far surpasses any advancements we've made. What logical person would risk a fight with a strong opponent?"

"You say that, but the people outside of Orario aren't nearly as powerful as you are."

"What makes you think I'm powerful?" Two calculating sets of eyes sought for any cracks. Neither found any.

The man let some of his tension fall away. "Just a hunch, really. But… There was a lot of residual magic that night. It must have been quite the fight to leave you in that state."

"That's a point of interest actually. I refrain from killing because I know it'll attract powerful adventurers. When people go missing, villages put out quests to deal with the problem. Two very powerful adventurers, reinforced by their less powerful allies, destroyed my home."

"Are you telling me that I have a bounty I can turn in?" The man teased.

"No, because I haven't killed anyone in a long time. I've done nothing to warrant any investigation or retaliation in a very long time."

"So you've done something that warranted retaliation?" The man sighed.

"What does it matter?" Solitär asked genuinely, "it's in the past."

"Nothing too damaging?"

"I don't believe so…"

"You "don't believe so," huh?" The man parroted with a pinched expression. "Do you at least know the names of the adventurers that attacked you?"

"Two of them, yes. A woman named Alfia and a man named Zald." Solitär very nearly didn't catch it, but the man's hand twitched at the mention of the two names. His facial expression remained the same, honestly it was rather impressive.

"Hm. Asfi, can you let the Guild know that I'll be dropping by in a bit? I need to talk to someone." The blue haired girl startled, but despite her confusion she nodded and left the room. When she left the man turned to face her again, face far more serious than it had been before. "There's a lot more I need to know, but for now I just have one question. Do you intend to kill anyone in Orario?"

Solitär frowned. She knew that the longer she took to answer this question, the worse her prospects of survival became. "I do not intend to kill unless it is absolutely necessary."

"That's—"

"The truth. Demons are monsters, but we're also survivors. If I am placed into a situation where killing is the only way for me to survive, then I won't hesitate to do so. We're in Orario? The prospect chills me to my soul…" Solitär looked at her hand, not entirely faking the panic she felt at the idea. "Adventurers terrify me, and I find myself as a monster in the adventurer capital of the world. How would you respond if you were put in my position?"

The man suddenly barked a laugh. "That was quite the performance. Evolved to manipulate and deceive huh? You can't even lie right now and you're still managing to twist words to your advantage. The best lies have an inkling of truth right? How much of that was true?"

Solitär stared at him before huffing a small laugh. "All of it of course~ Truly though; I would be monumentally stupid to kill someone in my situation. I have no desire to kill out of malice, and I have no grudge against anyone in this city. I will kill in self-defense, but hopefully I can avoid such situations."

"Maaaan I feel like I'm gonna regret this…" The man rubbed his forehead, frowning at the floor. Finally he seemed like he made a decision. "Look, the idea of keeping a monster not only a secret, but housed in my home, is a terrible idea. But things are weird right now, weirder than they've been and that's saying something. You're a risk, but something tells me that you might be able to shed some light on what's going on. You're welcome to stay and recover for now, at least until I figure something out. Just know that we won't hesitate to put you down if you turn out to be a threat." The man stood up and made his way to the door. "Oh yeah! We never did introduce ourselves. What's your name?" After their conversation, the seriousness of it, the innocence of this question threw her for a loop.

"My name is Solitär, a pleasure to meet you."

"Solitär huh? The name's Hermes, patron god of the Hermes Familia!" He took a moment to enjoy the visible shock that passed over her face before smirking and closing the door behind him. Once he was gone though he frowned. It was a huge risk, but he needed information. This was the first news anyone had gotten about those two in ages… He'd have to be careful, this "demon" could turn out to be a huge boon or an incredible danger.

He needed to talk to Ouranos…

Asfi knew her patron was eccentric, but wasn't this going too far?!

"Soooo, since Solitär's up and about now we can't exactly keep her hidden away from the city. It'd be interesting to explain why we've kept a young woman trapped in our home without letting her leave after all!" That at least made sense, but not the rest of it!

"Is this…" She side-eyed the literal monster standing at her side, smiling pleasantly. She was wearing something similar to what they found her in; a beige dress and an orange half-coat, but now she had a simple sunhat on to cover her horns. She despised the fact that it worked so well. "Really the best idea?"

"Not at all!" Hermes answered far too happily. "But it makes enough since for the moment until I can forge a proper identity. For the current moment, Solitär is your older cousin who's visiting Orario. You look similar enough and your hair's only a few shades off. It'll help if people see you two out and about together, and you have some errands to run yeah? Two birds, one stone!"

No! This was a horrible idea! Why was he leaving her alone with a demon?! What if she decided that she'd make a tasty snack halfway through their outing? "Very well," she found herself answering regardless, keeping the tremor mostly out of her voice. "I'll… show my cousin around…"

"And I look forward to an outing with my little cousin!" Her 'cousin' cheered with a smile mimicking Hermes'.

"That's the spirit you two! Unfortunately I actually have work to do, or else I'd join you." That was a lie, the only reason he wasn't going with them was because Asfi was forcing him to do the work he usually forced on her. It was what she managed to get in return for this… outing…

"Is there anything I should be worried about, or anything I should look out for?" The monster asked.

"Just stick with Asfi and you'll be fine, but…" Hermes, suddenly serious, looked right at her. "If anything does happen don't hesitate to bring her back here. If it's Evilus, do not get involved. Leave it to Loki and Ganesha's people. Alright?"

"Yes, Lord Hermes. If anything happens I'll make sure she's not involved." The demon simply watched both of them as they spoke.

"Alright then! Have fun you two!" And with that Hermes was gone, and she was left alone with a demon.

"Well then, are you ready to leave?" The monster asked her with a face full of cheer. The emotion was fake, but Asfi couldn't tell if it was simply acting or on purpose to tease her…

"Just take my hand and stay quiet. I don't want you wandering off and getting into trouble." With a tilt of her head the demon took her hand. Thankfully she didn't complain or say anything else for now. It was interesting though, when they left the Traveler's Inn…

As they moved to a populated street the demon's hand started trembling slightly.

Writer's Block sucks. I should be moving to Absolute Radiance but I'm stuck hard on a scene and I needed to focus on something else. The next update will be Absolute Radiance though.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this chapter but I feel like I got the characterizations right. I might come back and change things but for now I'm comfortable posting this. Hermes is an interesting character to write, and there's a lot of comparisons between him and Solitär that can be fun.

Not much else to say here other than that I'm still working on the story, and please be patient. I know mostly what I want to do, but there's still things I'm not sure about. Revisions are possible, but so far I'm happy with what I have.

Time for reviews!

Morgan Lover: I'm glad you enjoyed the fight! And don't count her out just yet! Hermes is a genius but Solitär's no slouch. There's a reason she's been around as long as she has!

SentinalSilence: You bring up a good point, and you're most likely right. That's the problem with dealing with two different magic systems; you have no idea what interacts with what and how they meld together. Zoltraak was designed to directly target and destroy the body, and pierced everything it came into contact with before it was incorporated into humanity's magic system. For the purpose of this story, Zoltraak is currently able to pierce Alfia's magic negation. Whether that was for the reasons you mentioned is still undecided. She may have slipped, or it might have been able to get through. Will that change? I'm honestly still deciding that. Most likely it will have a seriously reduced impact the next time she uses it but we'll see when we get there!

Regarding Bell being trained by Alfia, I haven't decided how AU I'm making this story. I have something planned that's going on in the background, that's evident from the first part of this chapter, but I won't spoil that yet. Bell will definitely be different when he gets to Orario, but the degree of that change hasn't been decided yet. Regardless of all of that, I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!

GyroJapster: Thanks!

Thanks for having patience, and I'll see you down the line!