'I'm an idiot' I was filled with despair while looking at the infamous demon hunter before me. 'An absolute moron.'
In front of me were the six sect elders, and a seventeen year old looking girl.
She had short and messy golden-blonde hair with a fringe that seemed to continuously drop down into a pair of large cat like green eyes, large and adorable but also slanted and mischievous. That, combined with her high cheek bones and sharp jawline along with an evil looking smile that always hung loosely on her lips, she really did give the impression of being a good for nothing trickster.
As I looked at her, I began to feel cold. I was seriously regretting all the mean and snarky comments that my teammates and I had spewed out at her.
Not only was her reputation terrifying, but the tall lean body, and sharp features should have made anyone think twice about insulting her. However I, in my arrogance, had completely disregarded the fierce appearance, merely because she looked a bit younger than me.
I continued to stare at the legend before me reminiscing about when I was still in training, there I was considered a genius, a fast learner with a bright future. Sadly I had begone to delude myself with the belief of being a marvelous genius.
Killing five greater demons within three months? Let alone a rookie just finished with training, even gold or platinum ranked experts would find that difficult.
"So I'm back down to being an iron ranked hunter?" I dully asked the elder who had, thus far, done all the talking. He nodded, and I felt despair grasp my soul. 'Still it could be worse, at least my father prevented me from being completely demoted from a demon hunter to a mere trainee.' As I tried to console myself, I couldn't help but catch Luka's smug expression full of schadenfreude.
I felt like weeping. The most powerful demon hunter in existence, and all I had done was insult her.
'In a way, I deserve this' I silently wept to myself.
*
I gently shook my head to move the fringe that was currently irritating my eyes. The feisty and ill tempered Emilie, had become rather meek and docile.
'Well this is disappointing' I thought as our steps rang out through the dark metallic hallway. Every couple of meters a dim blue light would greet us from the ceiling.
I glanced at the annoyingly beautiful girl beside me. 'Yup, just as I had expected. She staring at me... and has been doing so for the last five minutes!' I gave her an irritated look, her gaze was really starting to get on my nerves.
"If you want to say something, then say it already!" I yapped at her aggressively.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry for all the disrespect that we, as a team, have all shown you! I hope you can forgive us?" With a face full of sincerity, eyes full of tears and her hands clasped in front of an annoyingly large pair of... shall we say water balloons? She suddenly bowed. Her "water balloons" almost falling out of her dark navy blue tank top.
I glared at her with a sullen face, 'I don't usually worry about this sort of thing... but seriously what the hell?! Her body could easily make any girl jealous! I can practically hear her jiggle with every step!' As I looked at the bowing Emilie, I couldn't help but discreetly compare. Although to be honest, pretty much any woman would appear to be flat chested next her.
I sighed before answering, "it's fine, you didn't know. And I was the idiot that actually thought that that contract was a good deal! It seemed so simple! Just protect you and your teammates for a few years, help you earn a good reputation and bam! I'd be set for life! I'd get all the newest weapons and armor for free and... uh... I forgot the other benefits..." I thoughtfully held my chin while trying to remember certain things that I had conveniently forgotten. I couldn't let her know all of the nitty gritty details of the contract after all. "Whatever! The point is that I was blinded by greed and tricked by your evil father!" I said grumpily, as she looked at me with an apologetic expression.
"I'm sorry." She replied in a quiet voice.
"If your so damned sorry, you could at least try to make my job less difficult." I viciously retorted, "do you realize how many times I had to single handedly eliminate groups of five or more demons? How often I almost got caught in one your crazy explosions? And just how excruciating it was to constantly hide in the shadows while waiting for some demons to try and assassinate you?" Three months straight of excruciating torture on nearly no sleep had left me in highly irritable state and I lost my cold facade, breaking into a rant.
Emilie looked at me teary eyed, before nodding her head determinately.
"I will from now on follow your advice and try to learn from my previous mistakes!"
I stared at her for a few seconds, before letting out a half silent "whatever". I stuck my hands it the pockets of my knee length, black leather coat. "First, let's brief the team about the circumstances, then we can work on the rest. But before we even begin to think of any kind of work... I'm going to go for a very, very long sleep."
"Alright!" She replied eagerly, I could hear her heavy knee height black army boots quicken their pace to catch up to me. My own similar boots kept a steady pace as she soon fell in line next to me. "But what about the new mission?" She asked, eager to try and redeem herself and prove that she was worthy of being demon hunter.
I snorted, "we're not killing any demons until after we've all rested and laid out some proper plans this time. No more rushing in on just couple of hours sleep, the fact that even I am tired just goes to prove that you been pushing yourself and your team too hard for the last three months."
"But..." She began, seemingly dissatisfied with my answer, "what if it kills more people?"
I glanced at her coldly, "what happened to following my advice?" My voice rung out coldly, "or do you want your team to die of exhaustion? Toppling over right in front of the prey?"
"I... I understand." She whispered miserably.
'No you don't,' I thought, 'but you will... eventually you'll understand the difference between the reality of protecting humanity and the fantasy of trying to save everyone.'