"You know that I can walk, right?" Jessel complained.
"You know that Tagovia can reach up from the ground and pull you into a void space, right? He can't do that to me, so he is probably watching us and waiting to grab you," I explained as I walked over to our wagon.
"How do you know that?! Tagovia wasn't even in this world when you were here!" Jessel asked with surprise, and I raised an eyebrow.
"How was I supposed to know that? I researched every Demon that was ever known and tortured a few to get the rest," I said plainly, and Jessel's eyes bulged.
"You can't torture people!! How are you even a God?!" Jessel explained, and I lifted my eyebrow.
"Demons are not people, and I needed the information. How else do you get a Demon to talk? Ask them nicely?" I asked, but then I smelt it.
The unmistakable odor of burning blood, and I turned around to the eight-foot tall purple Demon. I had to toss Jessel to the wagon just before a sword came done on my shoulder close to my neck, shooting pain through my body.
"What?! How can I not cut you?!" Tagovia roared, but I looked up and focused on him, activating Stunning Language.
"You're dumb."
Tagovia froze solid in place, not able to even twitch.
"You know, I even said out loud that you should wait!" I said and then activated my skill, cursing him out until I had stacked four hours on him.
"What just happened?!" Jessel asked as she shat up and then screamed when she saw the massive frozen Tagovia.
She didn't see anything and was only roughly tossed into the wagon, so Jessel's confusion made sense. Still, that had hurt, and I had cut it close, but he was out now.
"What is that thing?!" One of three young men carrying ropes asked.
"A Minor Demon Lord. Think you boys could help me load him up?" I asked, and the boy's eyes bulged, and they dropped the ropes to run away.
"What are you doing with him?! Are you going to kill him?!" Jessel yelled at me, and I turned to her.
"Of course we are, but it wouldn't be fair if the whole party didn't get the experience, right? This is a level thirty Demon; we are going to get a ton of experience. That would put us far ahead of the other two, so we will bring the fight to the girls. You can stab him with your sword the whole way back if you want to get some extra contribution," I explained, but Jessel still looked horrified, but people were starting to gather around now.
Perfect.
I turned to everyone around me.
"This is the Demon that was trying to take over your town. This little girl here is the one that defeated him! She is Jessel, previous Goddess, here to help fix her wrongs!" I called out and flexed my Charisma, and the people cheered, and I added, "So help me load his big ugly self up so I can get him out of your hair!"
I made sure to really put on the Charisma, and everyone pushed the big Demon over like the statue of a deposed ruler. The group all lifted the frozen monster and had him strapped down in a matter of minutes.
"Thank you all for your help!" I called and hopped up into the wagon, but Jessel looked upset.
I was pretty sure I knew why, but I decided to leave it alone until we were outside of the village. Fortunately, she seemed to have the same idea, and once we were a good way out of town, Jessel asked the question that I knew she would.
"Why did you tell those people I defeated it?!"
"You will, but you know just as well as I do that I can't take credit for something even if I wanted to. The other Gods are watching," I said, and she crossed her arms.
"I guess so, but I don't get why you are so strong but act so weak? Can't people who aren't Heros be strong?" Jessel asked, and I shrugged.
"I don't want you to rely on me, thinking I can defeat every foe because I can't. I have a skill that could one-shot this Demon, but I can't use it on him. I am not the Hero that defeats the monsters; I am the guide that can only help," I explained, and Jessel seemed to understand.
"I guess I get it, but I should have known this! But I wasn't in charge of punishing you! I tried to lead you into danger, but I didn't understand how strict your conditions were," Jessel said, looking down at her hands.
"It is what it is, and to tell you the truth, I am happy it is this way. We have to fight through a world again, but this time I have most of the things that I had worked towards in my last life," I said, and my stomach gurgled.
"Looks like you forgot to feed yourself," Jessel said and then reached behind herself into a satchel and pulled out a ration.
"You know, I have never tried one of those before," I said, eyeing the wrapped container she was opening.
"They are nothing special. Four slices of a thick heavy bread, but one is enough to fill you up, and they give you what you need for your daily nutrition. How have you not had one?" Jessel asked after her explanation.
I already knew what the rations were; I had just never needed them. I didn't bother telling her that I knew; Jessel seemed to enjoy explaining things to me.
"Never needed to eat as a Hero," I said plainly, but Jessel grabbed me and shook me, almost making me drop the reins.
"Just because you don't have to doesn't mean you can't!" Jessel argued, letting me go.
"I know, but preparing, cooking, eating, plus cleaning up are all time-consuming tasks, and that was wasteful to me then. I used my extra time to find all the secrets of the world that would help me complete my mission," I said, and Jessel sighed.