"What's your name Little one?"
"What's your name kid?"
The two of them asked at the same time which made them glare at each other.
"I'm Gideon.."
"Such a cute name!" Amias beamed "I'm Amias and this idiot is Azazel"
"Who are you calling an idiot?"
"Who else?"
"I'll ignore that for now. We met a few days ago at the market when you were with Valerie and another kid remember?" Azazel asks Gideon and he nods.
"You see Little boy, our king Luciel needs to talk to Valerie… By any chance do you think you can convince her to come to the capital?"
'You really went straight to the point!' Azazel thought while looking at Amias a bit flabbergasted.
Gideon was a bit surprised by the turn of events. He already sensed that these two needed something from him that's why he was rescued but he never expected it to be like this.
'Eventually, Valerie does agree to send Kaiden to his father even without anyone else but Azazel pestering her about it'
Gideon went over this briefly but the two demons staring at him intently made him feel uncomfortable. Personally, he doesn't want to send Kaiden over there since he won't be able to predict what happens to him afterward. He was in a dilemma over this so the stares weren't helping.
"Why does Ms. Valerie need to go to the capital?" Gideon still needed to act like his age in this novel regardless if he already knew the reason behind it.
Amias frowned thinking if this Halfling was stupid or something to question why that human needed to see the king.
'The fact that Luciel needed to have us fetch her was already tedious, Azazel is making our lives harder by going to this child instead of directly taking her by force' Amias swirled his hand and out came another cigarette holder.
"That's for us grownups to talk about" Amias smiles before he starts puffing away at his cigarette.
"Sir Azazel already tried telling her to come with him a few days ago but she didn't listen. What more if it was me?" Gideon points to himself and Azazel sighed because it was true.
"If we tell you why, will you agree to help?" Azazel tilts his head towards the child.
"You are not going to tell that child anything Azazel! You already know my position is the lowest in our group, I can't let you have me removed by your stupidity" Amias raged once more before receiving a glare.
"I am still your superior Amias, you have to remember that. I don't care about what happens to you, what I care about is results"
Amias shuts up and his face was red from embarrassment. He knew that Azazel was right, in the end, it was the results that Luciel cared about. This was why Azazel handled all personal affairs while Amias did the dirty work either by Seducing or Killing.
"Ignore him for now… Gideon right? What do you say, I am willing to swear an oath that no harm will come to you"
Amias' eyes widened at Azazel's words. Swearing an oath is no small matter. It was the same as making contracts between humans. Breaking an oath will severely punish you which can even lead to your death.
Gideon doesn't know about the gravity of the punishment for breaking an oath because it was never mentioned in detail by the author. In actuality, there were no such things as oaths in the novel. The entire thing was a concept new to him when he came into this world. He only knows that oaths are sacred. That's the reason why Valerie prohibits all the children from making oaths in the orphanage. Aside from that, Gideon knows that he can't refuse.
'If this man is willing to sacrifice his own comrade for "results" what more can he do to a child that doesn't have anything to do with him?'
Gideon wanted to accept it but say that there is no need for an oath but considering what happened earlier, he disregarded this idea and accepted the deal. Azazel gave him a very vague explanation that goes back 11 years ago when Gabriella suddenly disappeared for a year but she kept sending letters to Luciel. In her letters, she often mentioned that the reason why she disappeared is something important to her and that one day once the war was over, she'll tell Luciel about it. But a year later she passed away so that promise was never fulfilled.
"I can only hope that you will be able to help us, Gideon. It is important for everyone and much more for our king" Azazel smiles at Gideon sincerely.
Gideon had listened intently even if he knew it all. He gave directions to a location he was familiar with and the three went there. He bade them farewell but before Azazel disappeared he gave Gideon an envelope. The envelope had their written oath and another piece of paper that had a set of runes written on it. The boy could not read it but Azazel explained that it was his own spell, if ever the boy needed to talk to him he should burn this paper and Azazel will teleport next to him as soon as possible. It was a one-time use but he will replace it with every time they meet until their contract is fulfilled. Once that was cleared out, Azazel and Amias disappeared with a snap of their fingers leaving only the lingering smoke that Amias had puffed out.
Before he went back to the orphanage, he passed by the park to see if the man who sold the candied fruits only to see that he had already left. It was late so he compromised by buying Meringue Cookies from the local bakery before going home. Upon return, he was greeted by Kaiden with a hug.
"Deon! What took you so long?! I was… wait" Kaiden buried his face in Gideon's neck. The latter blushed out of embarrassment and tried pushing Kaiden away.
"k-Kaiden! What are you doing?!" Gideon managed to pry him off and Kaiden was looking at him angrily.
"Why do you smell like fancy cologne and smoke"
"?!"
Gideon started sniffing himself and indeed some of Azazel's smell rubbed off on him. He glanced at Kaiden and saw that the other had a dark expression and the atmosphere of the room was chilling.
"I can explain-"
"Then explain"
'A child's temper is something else'
Gideon began explaining what happened but left out numerous details such as who saved him and about the agreement. Kaiden only frowned and grabbed Gideon's arm to see that he did have bruises so he was not lying. The boy was close to bursting out in tears but he needed to be angry because his Deon made him worried. With teary eyes he healed the bruises on Gideon's arm, afterwards, he felt a little bit tired but not enough to sleep. Gideon patted his hair and stated that they'll talk again about it after he takes a bath so Kaiden could rest up first. Kaiden went to his bed and laid down facing away from Gideon because he was "Angry". Gideon takes this opportunity to hide away the envelope that Azazel gave underneath his mattress.
After showering and changing into clean clothes, Gideon got tackled by Kaiden the moment he entered the room resulting in the both of them falling to the floor.
"Deon smells really nice!"
"GET OFF!"
"I won't let you leave"
"I won't! Why are you suddenly so clingy"
"Because..."
All of a sudden Kaiden finally burst into tears
"Deon almost disappeared today if it weren't for those strangers helping you! If that happens again then I'll be alone again and I don't want that…"
"Kai…" Gideon called out to him by his nickname and patted his hair.
"You're important to me Deon! Nobody else wanted to be my friend, they all wanted me to die because I was different but you.." He finally decided to get off Gideon so that he could breathe.
"You didn't leave me even if the other kids started picking on you as well" He mumbled this out and wiped away his tears but it still continued to fall.
"Aunty Valerie only tells me to ignore them and that's what I do but it hurts a lot. I don't understand what I did wrong"
Gideon sat up and hugged the crying figure. Kaiden had been bottling up his feelings all these times and the idea of Gideon suddenly disappearing was the last straw for him. Gideon hummed a lullaby that he sang often to his Sister back in his old life whenever she had nightmares. The moment Kaiden heard this his sobs got quieter and he listened to this song feeling better. When Gideon was finished singing he just smiled because Kaiden actually fell asleep in his hug.
'Ah... I can already feel the pins and needles on my legs but I can't wake him up'
Gideon let Kaiden sleep on top of him for a few more minutes before deciding to try and move him to the bed. Kaiden woke up briefly midway and pulled Gideon into his bed.
"Goodnight Deon"
Gideon, who was surprised by the act, was now being hugged by a sleeping Kaiden. He sighed internally and adjusted himself to a more comfortable position.
"Goodnight Kai"