Looking up at the twin moons of this world was strange. It wasn't that Aselith had never been on a planet with two moons before, but these ones in particular were strange. This planet was strange. It was almost as if he was looking up at two small planets orbiting a desolate moon, despite all other evidence to the contrary.

Well, he was going to spend 20 years here. Pondering this now wasn't much of a priority.

He looked back from the window to the bed, where Tabitha slept. She was cuddled up next to his husk, which was in the shape of Kirche, while he was in his 'standard' form. It would seem like the evening of lovemaking took a lot out of her. If it didn't move much, the husk would last until morning…maybe. Time was strange.

"Poor girl." He thought to himself. Plenty of evil people crossed his path, and more than a few inflicted that evil on their own families. This king of Gallia, Joseph, Tabitha's uncle. The man murdered his brother for power, then attempted to poison he niece to maintain it. If not for the sacrifice Tabitha's mother made…

It explained a few things about his summoner. Why she was so reserved—or, how she was before he was summoned, based on what he gathered. After all, what was the point of having friends? They couldn't help her. That would mean going up against the ruler of another country.

And Kirche. There was no way Tabitha could openly love Kirche, else her uncle would use the girl against her. Only in the privacy of her room could this happen, and even then it was a lie the girl embraced with little hesitation. While Aselith wasn't 100% certain about Tabitha's feelings at first, that was the most likely situation. Saying that wouldn't have helped her push past that block, though.

"Heh. With such a vile person in her life, no wonder she was able to summon me." He whispered to himself.

Just because he couldn't easily cast spells didn't mean he didn't understand them. The way these mages constructed spells was as innovative as it was backwards. Surely, only those with magic in their blood could use magic. Mages, and the elves.

That was another topic Aselith would need to investigate. Elves were akin to demons, funnily enough, and a single elf could take on more than a dozen mages…or a hundred. An exaggeration, perhaps, but still something to look into later.

Regardless, he understood the connection he had with Tabitha. It was something that a dresili didn't usually think much of, outside of satisfying their ego. To do so meant something mattered outside of their own quest for power and status amongst dresili. High-ranking dresili might have similar feelings, but never this strong.

And the connection? The feeling, the drive, that connected them on a spiritual level?

Revenge.

That's what Tabitha wanted. Revenge against her uncle, who murdered her father and poisoned her mother. The man who sent her on dangerous missions, either to have problems taken care of or for her to perish. Aselith looked forward to the day Tabitha would unleash him onto that man. Until then, he would respect her wishes.

He had plenty of things to pass the time, even if such an expression was wholly inaccurate. One such thing was about to come to a head.

Aselith took another look behind him to his Kirche-body. She held up her hand, two fingers up in a 'V' position. It was mostly pointless, since he was in control of the temporary body. Mostly, it was a joke with himself, a humor he didn't think he could explain to anyone, or at least not humans. In this case, it had something to do with how that gesture was actually pretty common amongst the various worlds he'd been to.

After that, he silently slipped out of the window, Tabitha's Lock spell having run its course. After that, it was a just a minor transformation he always had ready to use: growing wings. More than once, mortals had questioned how this was a smaller transformation than making his body look like someone else, or someone specific. To a dresili, it simply was.

He glided down to the courtyard, where Saito was attempting to sneak into the stables.

"Out for a late-night ride?" Aselith asked as he touched down, folding his wings behind him.

Saito jumped at his words, spinning around. "Aselith!" His voice was barely restrained, still attempting at stealth. "What're you doing out here?"

"To ask what you're doing." He responded.

Saito started at him for a moment before turning away. "Siesta…was hired by a noble and left the academy. But it doesn't sound like she had a choice."

"Oh?" Aselith smiled and prompted him to continue.

"I've heard some bad things about him from the kitchen staff." Saito went on. "I'm going to his home to ask for Siesta back."

Aselith pointed at Saito's hip. "Is that the sort of thing you need to ask for a favor?"

"Hmph!" The blade clanked and moved out of its sheath. "What's it to ya?"

Aselith shrugged. In truth, he knew about the servant's predicament, and Saito's fondness for the girl. It was actually why he proceeded with his plan tonight with Tabitha. With her passed out like she was, there was no way she could object to whatever was going to happen tonight.

He was also aware of the sentient sword the boy got from town, and the foolish merchant who parted with it for such a cheap amount, if his and Louise's comments about the price were any indication. They clearly had no idea the difficulty in creating such a thing, even if the reason behind doing such a thing eluded Aselith.

If he hadn't spent his time earlier finding out where this Count Mott lived—amongst other things—maybe he could have spoken with the blade.

"I simply wished to offer to help." Aselith said evenly. "Have I not been helpful to you so far?"

"You have, but…" Saito scratched the back of his head. It wasn't that Aselith's abilities were in question here. No, Saito did understand what might happen, and didn't want to involve someone who wasn't already involved. A decent thing to do.

"Partner, you should be careful about accepting this thing's help." The blade said.

"Come on, Derf, don't be rude to him like that." Saito chastised the blade. "Sorry about him."

"Why? The blade is correct on both fronts." Aselith was certainly someone to be wary of, and more of a 'thing' than a person. "But I'm curious why he thinks so."

"Don't know." Derf clanked out. "I can't remember the reason. I just know something like you shouldn't be trusted easily."

Truly fascinating. That meant a dresili was here previously at some point, or whoever crafted the sword knew about dresili. Perhaps it housed the soul of one? Dresili bonded to items could act quite strangely.

"Fair enough. In this case, however, my intentions are plain. I wish to aid Saito in returning Siesta to the academy." Aselith said.

"Why?" Saito asked. A reasonable question.

"If I said it was to get on your good side, how would you respond?" Aselith asked. Maybe an honest showing of his intentions would work well with the boy.

"I…don't know." Saito responded. "I would…thank you?"

His honest response was somewhat interesting.

"But why? Why do you want to get on my good side?" Saito asked.

"Because he's an evil being and wants you to owe him a favor." Derf rattled out.

Aselith shrugged. "More or less. Mortal morality is not a large concern of mine. At the very least, whatever I want from you in the future won't be grossly against your sensibilities."

Saito looked at him for a moment, thinking it over. The boy was dumb, but he at least had the sense to not just agree to receiving aid without considering the consequences.

"Okay." He said, responding still relatively quickly. "If you help me get Siesta back, I'll owe you one."

"Sounds good." Aselith lowered himself slightly, arms and wings extended. "And to start, I'll get you where you need to go faster than a horse. You don't know how to ride one, right?"

Saito looked at him strangely. "Er…" What was the matter? Flying would clearly be faster than bumbling along on a horse.

With some hesitant movements and tentative gripping, Saito was in Aselith's arms. A few quick steps into a running start and Aselith jumped into the air, his wings propelling them up further. Obviously, they would have been too heavy with the size of Aselith's wings—each about the length of his body—so magic aided the flight a little.

"Say, would you be interested in trading that talking sword of yours as the repayment? Or maybe for a large amount of the local currency?" Aselith asked. He'd been interested in the blade, which stunk of heavy spiritual energy.

"Hah!" Derf laughed. "Not a chance! I stay with my partner here."

"Yeah, I can't just give him away, or sell him." Saito added.

"Fair enough." While interested, Aselith didn't actually want the blade. He was more curious how Saito would respond. Besides, it felt like Saito and Derf were made for each other. While Derf had other magic in him, he and Saito definitely had a similar divine touch in their magic.

Another thought for later. For now, Aselith was curious how Saito would handle this.

Author's Notes:

At times, I'm a bit a war with whether I should keep closer to the light novels or the anime. This is something unique to the anime, so it's more like adding another scene if I was going closer to the LN. Though, if you look at how much from the LN was cut away, adding this to further show the attitudes of nobles to commoners does a great deal. It also gives a better reason for Siesta to fall for Saito.