After the events of Christmas, the festivities didn't end there. How could they when the new year was around the corner? Of course, that was a concept a demon lord like Rame didn't know. Even if she did, then she'd likely also question why humans celebrated that day as well.
But right now, she didn't have those questions. Instead, she was more focused on getting through to the end of the month to hopefully obtain some employee of the month honors.
Rame stood next to Juuto as they both hung around the register. It was a quiet night, most people don't typically go to a store like this on a cold winter night. So things had gotten quiet around here lately. That said, it was still bright and colorful thanks to all the decorations that were going to need to be taken down in the coming days.
"Ahh…" Without nothing much for them to do, it was easy to have one's mind wonder during this cold night. At this point, Juuto had come to a realization on a certain fact.
"What's wrong boss?" Asked Rame. To him, his first word made sense, as it was something running through his mind for a while now. Of course, from her point of view, it seemed to have come out of nowhere. "Did we forget to do something?" She hoped not, or else her chances of being employee of the month were in jeopardy.
"No, that's not it." He responded. "Actually, I was thinking about what we did back on Christmas." Trying to explain it was a bit embarrassing. He was a grown man, but trying to make mention of it now made things a bit awkward for him. "You know, with the whole mistletoe thing…"
"Oh, right. I see what you mean." It made her feel a bit self-conscious on that moment again. If he was thinking about it, then did that mean? "S-sure was funny, wasn't it?"
"Anyway, I wanted to apologize now that I've thought about it." His statement made little sense to her. Sure, it was a bit forced with all the people egging them on. But she didn't blame him at all for it. "I realize that being a demon from another world. You've probably never kissed anyone before, so I'm sorry about taking away your first time."
"My first time?" She replied, a bit bewildered to what he meant with that. Admittedly, it was the first time she had ever kissed someone, but was it supposed to be important?
"It's probably a bigger deal on my world. There's a lot of people who want their first kiss to be with someone special, and I kind of took that from you."
"Um, was I your first kiss?" She asked.
"I've had some girlfriends in high school." So he was not inexperienced compared to her. Though his adult life had been more lonely in comparison. Which was why a lot of the neighborhood wanted to push him into finding a lovely lady. "Actually, how do demons do that sort of stuff anyway?"
"Most demons have families, but it's definitely not at all what you humans call romantic." Of course, her viewpoint was informed from all the manga and light novels that were stocked in the store for sale. So it wasn't like she had a real definition of what humans did. Though she was correct that there was little love among demons. "Even as a demon, I don't know what that's like."
"I'm taking it has to do with you being the demon lord." He responded. "Speaking of which, how did you become the lord of demons?" Juuto assumed that they likely didn't elect her into that position. So she must've earned it somehow, if not given it due to some apparent reason.
"You're asking a lot of questions lately." She raised a brow in response. After what had happened with Marie forcing him into that position as a mole.
"I'm just curious, that's all." He put up his hands in a mock defensive stance. "When I think about things, with everything that's happened so far. I realize that there's so much I don't know about you."
"Well, I don't know how I came to existence." She answered. It likely came with the fact that she was always the demon lord in her mind. As if she simply just poofed into the world with no other reason but to lead all demons to war on the humans. "I've always been in this body, so I don't have any memories of growing up like other demons."
"Hmm, I see…" He wondered, was that because she had lived a super long time and forgot? The girl didn't appear that old at all, if anything she looked younger than him. To be fair, a good bit of people thought he was much older than he looked, due to the stubble. How exactly do demons age? Thinking about it deeply, he decided not to ask what her age was supposed to be on Enatis. A lot of women don't like it when you ask for that, and he assumed the same with her.
"Anyway, why is the end of this month so different?" She changed the subject to the thing that had been running through her mind all day. "Every other month so far has been normal except for this one."
"I don't know how calendars work on Enatis, but we're about to reach the end of a year." He explained that people put value into it since it rarely happened. Once a year, in fact. "For most people, I think it's just a way to try and get a fresh start on things. I know we all need that once in a while."
"You humans celebrate a lot." She commented. To her, it seemed like there was always something happening with them.
"You just came in at an interesting time." He replied. Though saying she just came in was downplaying what had led to her arrival here. "Most of the year is just mundane stuff. Pretty much after this, things will slow down and we'll mostly not have big celebrations." There was a holiday he wasn't looking forward to now that she was here. No doubt all of the neighborhood would be pushing him once again as they always did. "Anyway, before you have to ask, you're free to join me when we go to the shrine."
"You're going to pray?" That was a word she could understand, but she didn't get how that fit with celebrating a new year.
"Yeah, and try to ask for some things like every year." Of course, he kept that abstract, since obviously they wouldn't get anything literal. "I hate to mention who you are, but I wouldn't put it against you if you were against the idea." In his mind, demons likely didn't pray. If anything, they'd probably want to fight against whatever was being prayed too. "It's fine if you don't want to go, I always go alone every year anyway."
"No, I do want to go." She answered, a bit too enthusiastically. "Um, it's interesting to see what humans do in their lives." Rame had never considered that all too much during her times leading the demon army. They didn't have much to celebrate, other than fighting and the very few victories they did have.
Even if to be fair, the humans on Enatis likely didn't celebrate often either due to all the way. She wondered that if she wasn't around, would those same people be living joyously like the way the people here did?
"All right then, I can drop by your place to take you to the shrine." He said, a bit more perked up now that she wanted to come along. "Though if I'm going to be there, I'm going to end up seeing everyone else too." And with that, a good number of them, if not all, would say they'd want to join too. Not that he took issue they were going to take away any alone time he'd have with this girl in a casual setting. Just that having all these otherworldly people around gave him stress and anxiety that something dangerous might happen.
"I'll definitely ask Mifuru if she wants to come." Said Rame. Personally, she had her doubts on that invitation being accepted. That girl always had to be drug out to join on of these celebrations. Then again, the same excuse of needing some protection always worked.
"Great, I'll meet you then."