Her face seemed to crack after hearing his name, "Orochi? The stupid demon himself? How do you know him?"
I flush a deeper red, "Well, uh, you see... I'm supposed to be his wife or whatever."
She jerks back in shock, "You are going to be married to a demon lord?!"
I rub the back nape and laugh nervously, "Heh, yeah I am. I wasn't given a choice in the matter. I was uh, kind of kidnapped in the process."
Her face went from shocked to pure annoyance, "Stupid old boy. He doesn't know how to approach a woman nicely."
I burst out laughing, "Yeah he is kind of a thick-skulled giant."
She smirks while I am laughing, "So your the only daughter to come out the curse huh?"
"Yeah, everyone at home would treat me like a baby. I didn't know why at the time but now I do."
"Well, I am glad I have met the person who will stop it." She bends over and picks a flower up from the ground. She turns to me and places it in my hand and softly lifts my chin to look into her eyes. They shine like black diamonds with the sun out but I realize that there isn't any sun. The light was coming from her.
"Give Orochi my regards." Aiya kisses my forehead ever so gently. It felt as if a butterfly softly landed onto my skin while I had my eyes closed. A warm feeling crept over my body and I felt like I was being whisked away somewhere.
"Good-bye, for now, Ren."
~~~~~~~
As my eyes flutter open, my room's ceiling slowly comes into view when I wake up from my dream. My body feels like it's exhausted from a hard day's work even though I only went to sleep.
I groan when I try to get up and realize something is brushing against my hand.
Looking down I see the red flow Aiya was surrounded in my hand. A spider lily. "So I did meet her? In a dream? Or something else?"
As I stand up, I realize the book was open beside and it appeared to be late evening. So I slept threw a whole day, huh? Looking down at the lily, it seems to have a soft glow to it. Like as if a firefly was trapped inside of the center of it.
Walking over to the small mirror I have, I place it into my hair and admire it from the side. My stomach growls intensely signaling I need to eat.
"Ah, I need to eat soon. The beast of hunger is calling." I walk to the door and leave my room to eat some food per usual. Walking to the dining hall was pretty relaxed, I said hello to a few of the demons who smiled back at me and to some of the smaller little children.
I arrived to see Orochi sitting down with Tomoko. "Hello!"
They both smiled at me. It surprised me that even after the argument they had got into; they seem to agree. Or at least from the looks of it. I sit down in front of Orochi when he asks, "Where have you been?"
"Well, I fell asleep after reading my book," I reply thank you to a small maid who brings me my food and begins to eat. He nods and drinks his sake while eyeing me from behind the cup.
"Miss! That's a beautiful flower but where did you get it?" She looks at my head with curious eyes. I smile and turn my eye towards her so she could see better.
"What spirit contacted you?" I look to Orochi surprised that he knew it was a spirit.
I nervous look down at my food, "Well, after I read some more of the book you gave me and I was visited by Aiya. We had a brief conversation about you and she gave me the flower."
He didn't move until he spoke, "That is her favorite flower. Spirits give tokens to the people they see as important. I guess you made a very good impression on her."
I smile softly remembering her shocked face after she found out about Orochi. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. She also said hello and she seemed to be shocked you took me here."
A deep chuckle emerged from him, "She always disapproved of me anyway."
I looked to see Tomoko looking down at her food strangely.
"Tomoko, what's wrong?" Her ears pull-down after my question.
"Miss, your a demon slayer aren't you?" Her words are barely heard over the dinner chatter but loud enough to be heard by me. I see she is worrying now about something.
"Tomoko, I promise you I would never harm any de-"
"No! I'm more worried about you now. People like you are hunted, chased, and murdered because of what slayers do to our people. Since its Aiya, you are going to be the most targeted if word gets out. You have no one protecting you, at anytime something could happen any given minute." She grabs my hand and squeezes my hand, showing me her worry for my well-being.
I exhale, "I know. But I am okay. Nothing will happen to me. I promise."
I hope those words would soothe her but knowing Tomoko; she would probably worry more like a mother. Always being careless about herself.
Orochi broke the silence first, "That flower has a protection spell on it. I would only imagine that she knew you would be in danger here; especially now, since you are the only daughter to be born from the Lotus. It's a good passive way to protect yourself without people noticing right away though the slight glow gives it away if you notice it."
"Yeah."
I smiled and continue eating my meal with the two people who I trusted in this huge world. Laughing at the adorable faces Tomoko made while eating her dinner. Orochi laughing hysterically every minute he drank more sake and my human-self getting to know them even more.