I'm still having second thoughts about whether taking her with me is the best thing.
So should I just go to an orphanage and dump her there?
But hey! Who cares?
Problem for future me.
Scanning my surroundings, we've camped beside a riverbank near a lone tree. I had already started a campfire, with Lazari's clothes drying beside it. Of course, I had already found her a new set of clothes to wear, which were a bit oversized, but I tried.
I mean, I didn't bring any extra clothes with me, so we just made use of some of the goodies the deserters had.
And yesn't, I wasn't going to question why they had child sized clothes.
Though it was surprising to find that their items were rough and rather poor. Surely they snagged some goodies before they deserted?
Guess not.
However, there was an issue I had to address quickly,
"So, do you really want to travel with me?"
Indeed, I couldn't just be taking children with me all willy nilly, now could I? At least, not without their permission.
"If you want, I can take you to a city somewhere-"
"I want to go with you," Staring straight at my eyes, hers glowed momentarily on her dull, expressionless face, as she made her decision. Her face also started to redden, which was concerning, but I'll ignore that for now.
After all, despite how much I'd hate to admit it, she's a demon. She could probably beat me in a front on fight.
Though, I couldn't help but be sceptical about her choice, so I asked her again, only to be met with the same answer. Lazari was serious about journeying with me, but considering that she is a demon, it wasn't an unexpected answer. However, this brought me back to her performance in the last fight we were in. Lazari didn't participate at all, but rather, she seemed to be quivering. What happened to that savage demon from before?
Looking at this fragile girl, I caught sight of the weapon she used to ruthlessly kill a couple horsemen. A black knife, which peculiarly, against expectations, shone fiercely in the light of the campfire. Black was not a reflective colour, so it came as a bit of a surprise, but what caught my eye was something else. The blade seemed to have nigh imperceivable inscriptions carved on the blade itself. How ominous, must be a cursed knife or something. Very demonic.
Resting up for the night, we resumed our travel.
Lazari would most certainly need new clothes, as the ones she had were rather shabby. And so, we eventually wandered out of these grasslands as we entered some fresh plains, set with a city just over the horizon.
At the rate of our travel, we would arrive there tomorrow morning, so we set up camp as I chewed on some hard jerky. Lazari was also having her ration for today, she seemed to be handling things better than I thought, granted, she was a demon. And no matter how many times I say this, as expected of a demon.
Nevertheless, nothing happened during the night as Lily and I took shifts. I wasn't making the little demon do any for safety reasons.
When the next day rolled about, we approached the vicinity of the city walls, just spying from a distance. The city walls here were around the same height as Joost's, being around 40 feet if not higher. Despite them being the same height, they seemed much sturdier, with thick mortar pasted across the wall face. Not to mention the heavy ballistics distributed on towers spaced evenly across the long stretching wall, putting it in another league compared to the cities I had seen previously. This city was decked out.
This reminded me of something and looking at my attire and thinking back on how numerous others have reacted, it would seem that I look incredibly suspicious, so going through the front gate was a no go. After all, I was probably flagged around the surrounding cities as a criminal or something.
So, this begs the question. Should I even try to enter this city or not? Well, I didn't really need anything urgent from the city right now, and going would probably be just asking for trouble.
Meaning, the best course of action would be to not enter the city.
Which is how I found myself in the city.
Staring down at a group of footmen…
Of course this happened. Why wouldn't this happen?
How did I even get in here?
Who's screwing with my mind?
I look around, but I can't find any traces of anything that might've messed with my actions.
I'm having a feeling that I may be subconsciously retarded. But that's something to pore over another time!
"Ok bub, we're gonna hafta ask you to put your hands in the air, alright?"
I sure as hell wasn't going to do something so preposterous. Put my hands in the air? That was looking to get my ass whooped in a heartbeat.
Normally, I would usually just use the tried and true technique of running. But with Lazari here, that made things complicated.
Diplomacy, go!
"How about you put your hands up, huh?!"
The footmen were visibly startled by my reply, and they gave each other puzzled glances. Hah, it seems my verbal counter was enough to place them in a predicament whereby they were now unsure of how to proceed.
Being part of the law enforcement before, I can guarantee that guards were not taught about how to deal with non compliant individuals besides the usual 'stand down or we'll…,' gimmick, which was entirely an empty threat.
This gap in procedure was usually abridged with experience, but these guards weren't that high ranking looking at their badges, I could tell instantly that these fellows were just greenhorn initiates.
"Sir, if you don't comply, we'll have to use force,"
Again this was an empty threat, they won't engage as long as I didn't do anything threatening. In my silence, one of the footmen seemed to cave under the oppressing silence.
"Hey hey, at least let that little girl go!"
Putting down their pride the footmen seemed to beg me to let the girl go…
What girl? Actually, looking beside me, yeah, there was a little girl there. Sometimes I forget that she's a little girl. Despite being a demon…
Oh wait. Does that mean that the myth of some demons hiding in the skin of children is real? Holy crap. I need to investigate this later.
Averting eye contact from her I look to the footmen again.
As I ponder on an answer to give them, a new voice resounds.
"Hehe, do you meat sacks think you could escape after finding one of us?"
Slinking behind the footmen, it startles them. Their voice sounded androgynous but that might have been because of the cloth around his face, similar to mine. They were covered from head to toe in black, set with a dark aura manifesting around their figure.
The greenhorns look at him then turn to me with a horrified countenance.
Ay ay, don't look at me like that! I don't know this man.
I'm being framed. I'm tellin' ya!