Adam and Shiira cut through the crowd, sneaking between the gaps in the lively mass of bartering consumers and vendors. In his excitement, Adam almost let his hood slip off once or twice, revealing his face. He finally had a concrete lead that he could follow, the one sold to him by the jolly merchant Yassu. Shiira on the other hand did not share in his excitement. She followed behind him, whispering for him to stop, only for her voice to be drowned out before reaching him.
"sir, please stop. This is a bad Idea, we don't know if the information we were sold is any good, also we should be interviewing others about the attacks, especially the survivors."
Only when they were out of the busier part of the market did her voice reach Adam, but it did not cause him to slow down even a little bit. He instead walked even faster, heading for the edge of the town, in the direction of the mist city.
"there is no need for that, I can take care of whatever so-called monsters are in there, if they hid from regular demon soldiers then they aren't all that strong. I would've walked right through the mist too if I wasn't worried about it being toxic. I can resist most poisons but I've also been out of commission for over 500 years so I rather play it safe."
"sir, you lost all of our gold to that charlatan, he's known as a scammer and you're not only willing to believe what he says but also give him everything we have! Please allow me to go back there and get our coin back, I'll pry it out of him along with the truth of the—"
"no"
A simple, but firm decline brought Shiira's angered ramblings to a sudden halt. Adam seemed unbothered about the coin he lost and also rather certain of the authenticity of the information he received, but he offered her no explanation as to why.
Unconvinced but unable to argue any further, Shiira gave in to Adam's will. She took a deep breath and tried to get her mind off of it, and as soon as she did, she felt the presence of multiple demons following them. She cursed her unwariness under her breath and focused on their pursuers.
"so you finally noticed them, took you long enough. There are four behind us and two, maybe three, ahead of us. They aren't merchants but they are too obvious to be elite soldiers…I'm thinking thieves. they've been following us since we bought the information, so I assume they've seen how much gold we spent. doesn't matter, we'll kill them once we're out of town regardless of who they are though."
Adam couldn't hide his cheerful mood even when speaking of such a grim thing, he had a destination in mind and hope at heart. It was the most he had since returning from the dead, and almost as much as he had in his old life as well. Shiira on the other hand was unable to relax, she kept glancing at the supposed thieves, analyzing their attire and mannerisms.
"I don't think they're thieves...their equipment looks like that of merchant companions. It's odd, they usually get hired to protect merchants on the road and push the carts, I've never heard of them attacking someone before."
Adam shrugged and kept on walking, shifting his focus from the shady figures tailing him to Shiira herself. In his cheery mood, Adam gave in to his curiosity about his mysterious companion. He had spoken to her a fair bit during their trip but It was mostly about the general state of affairs in the current era, nothing too personal.
To him she was just another demon, one that has been possessed by someone he is interested in but other than that, Shiira was not special. A lowborn taken in by the Ash'ai clan with a generalist combat style and a love for the life of a warrior, her power is irrelevant and the spells she uses are all basic. That was as far as Adam thought and knew about her.
"why did you leave the capital?"
"what?"
"after our meeting in the forest. I understand that you left the capital after that, why?"
Shiira was left surprised. In her eyes, Adam was akin to a machine. One that has perfected the art of war, powerful and destructive he would seek nothing but strengthen himself and accomplish his objective, whatever it may be.
She heard from Onvyr about how he spared the lives of an old Dra'ig warrior, but she still had her doubts. Onvyr himself was abnormal, he not only defeated Adam but also managed to protect all four of them from his final attack, a feat that should've been impossible by all metrics, but as suspicious as he was, and as poor of an explanation as he gave, Onvyr was still trustworthy.
"I…uh…I couldn't stay knowing what I knew. Master Onvyr convinced me to lie about many things, it was a shameful thing but I understood why it was so important. Your battle with Uzan, that final attack, and Onvyr's real power all remain hidden from the demon lord…I couldn't face him or my clan while hiding such secrets."
With the confusion out of the way, Shiira finally decided to answer him with honesty.
"I see… I figured that if the demon lord knew that I can turn the entire capital into rubble whenever I wanted to he'd be more hesitant to go with Onvyr's plan, but that old bastard also hides his power to keep appearances. He was probably a great warrior back in the day, that I don't doubt, but he is nothing but a damn politician now."
It was rare for Adam to open up to this degree about his feelings and opinions. Shiira saw an opportunity in his mood, an opportunity to satisfy her curiosity. He was a window to a world long forgotten, the war, the demons of legend, and the many lost clans. She tried asking Onvyr for the truth on their trip to the capital, but even if wanted to tell her, he couldn't've spoken freely with a shell-shocked Uzan and injured Bari walking alongside them.
"the demon-kin, what were they like back then? The way you talk about us now is like we're children in comparison to our old selves. Even Uzan who is still considered the strongest by everyone who doesn't know about Onvyr's secret, but you almost killed him without even trying."
Adam remained silent for a second before replying, thinking about the best way to condense the vast amount of information he was about to give her into words.
"the demons were…strong, much stronger, and more numerous than they are now. By the time I was augmented and serving on the battlefield thousands of clans were already driven to extinction. We figured out early on that certain clans are more bothersome than others due to their unique magic. Teleportation, mind control, flight, magnetism and such were powerful but exclusive to certain clans, so we targeted them and whipped them out. That's why the current-day demons are so weak, at least it's part of the reason I think."
"how strong is Onvyr? Is he the strongest demon to ever live?"
Adam chuckled softly and looked back at her, an expression of amusement hidden under his hood.
"that old bastard? not by a long shot. I lost, that much is true, but that's because augmented soldiers are meant to fight in groups and have special weapons and equipment, we were designed to be wolves, not tigers. As for the strongest, well…it has to be that thing back in the capital, the real capital in Japan. The demon lord's personal guard. It once annihilated 4 entire regiments all at once by itself, the only survivor that returned reported that he didn't even see who was attacking them, only the limbs and guts of his friends flying around, no heat vision picked it up, and no satellite managed to get a picture of it. It was a ghost, which is why we had no information on it, not even the gender or clan."
Shiira shuddered when thinking of the amount of sheer power it would take to butcher so many powerful, near demigods like Adam. She feared the chaos that would unfold if such a being returned from the grave, and that gave her even more fate in her secret mission and commitment to the ideals of Onvyr and the demon lord.
Their conversation carried them to the edge of the town, a dumping ground for broken carts and spoiled goods, empty of merchants and their customers, it was the perfect ambush spot. the smell of rotten meat and fruits drove away civilians and the decrepit, moldy remains of the wagons made for good cover while on the prowl.
"looks like our friends got bored with waiting, they're closing in on us. You can handle this on your own right? I've never seen you in battle so it should be amusing."
Shiira nodded and removed her robe, revealing the light, but sturdy armor hidden beneath it along with a sword hanging from her waist. She placed her bag near Adam and waited for the thieves to reveal themselves, ready to cut them down, but hoping not to.