Edgar looked at the luminescent night sky with a melancholy gaze, his vibrant orange eyes reflecting the moon as he reminisced.
The crackling of his fire snapped him back to the roasting wolf meat, slightly blackened. He quickly pulled his stick, carrying his meal back from the flames, his eyes profoundly looking at the burned meat.
"Sigh"
Disappointed, he bit into it, wincing at the uncomfortable texture.
"It's better than being malnourished. I hate being hungry." He muttered quietly with a frown on his pale face, flames illuminating half of it. Finishing his unsatisfactory meal, he stood up and stomped on a now-withering fire.
He dropped to the grass, staring at the stars, and drifted off to the warm embrace of sleep.
"Chomp!" Edgard's eyes sharply opened as he rolled to the side upon hearing a sound. Looking up, he saw a... wolf, "Seriously," he whispered, agitated.
It was chewing on the remainder of the enemy Edgar had felled a few nights ago. He felt like crying after seeing the last of his food being eaten.
He had even gone to the trouble of cutting off pieces from the wolves and putting those bits into his fancy, expensive coat. But now... his ruined fabric died in vain.
He did a quick mock prayer for his precious cloth as the eating wolf looked up, growling at him.
Edgar shot aura to his finger and slowly started circling the wolf as it followed suit, both opponents patiently waiting for a moment to attack.
The growling intensified but abruptly halted when a stone axe was thrown in the middle of the two. With a whistle and a rough voice yelling, "Max," the wolf stood still with its head down.
Edgar looked to his side to see a large, muscular orc striding out of shrubbery. Two white fangs stuck out from his mouth, and he only wore brown ragged pants. His long, ginger-braided hair extended to his shoulder, hovering slightly above a smiley face cut into his skin.
Despite his intimidating appearance, he had an amiable smile on his face that seemed to sparkle under the sun. His black eyes glanced at Edgar's deer-like antlers, "So you're a demon! That's Great! Hahahaha!" He finished with a loud laugh with his big, green hands holding his hips.
Edgar slightly recoiled from the affection. As if ignoring his unease the orc stuck out his hand, "Hi! I'm Bog! Sorry about Max. We haven't had much luck hunting."
Bog blushed apologetically, and Edgar hesitantly shook his hand. While his mind was freaking out about an orc appearing out of nowhere, his face looked indifferent.
"It's fine," he said curtly.
Bog started laughing with his hands on his hips again, "Hahahaha! You're a good guy!"
He looked directly into Edgar's eyes and said excitedly with a glint in his eye, "Hey, to repay you for Max's hunger, how about I help you get some food?"
Edgar looked up in contemplation before muttering, "Okay."
"Hahahahahaha! Good!"
Bog turned around, motioning for Edgar to follow him, and whistled to Max to go ahead.
'Is the wolf going to scout ahead?' Edgar thought, looking at the retreating figure.
"With Max, we will definitely find food! You saw it first hand after all! Hahahahaha!"
'I don't think I can easily handle Bog's intense energy.'
"Sigh"
As they walked through a densely wooded area that blocked the sunlight, Edgar asked, "Hey Bog. Were you part of the Demon King's army?"
"And here I was waiting for an exciting question! I used to be with the rest of my tribe, but then I ran away."
"Why?"
Bog halted for a second before laughing and continuing onward, "Hahaha! I didn't like it at all! It was lame!"
"Really?"
He turned to look at Edgar with a tilted head, "What? Were you expecting something more elegant or harrowing? Maybe like...?"
He started speaking dramatically, putting his hand to his chest, "I couldn't bear my intolerable commander and killed him for the sake of my comrades. As long as they lived longer, I can die satisfied."
A fake tear escaped his eye as he pretended to lament.
"Hahahahaha!"
"Sigh."
Edgar looked down and whispered, "I regret this already."
Bog was like a machine designed to talk and his beaming smile and infectious laughter could probably make even nondemons appreciate him. However, Edgar did find him incredibly annoying, but he was getting free food so who was he to complain?
During Bog's intense argument on why double-bladed axes were cooler than single-bladed ones, Max came sprinting through the forest toward them.
Bog glanced at Edgar saying, "Looks like Max found us our next meal."
When Max arrived in front of Bog, he turned around and started walking in a direction as Edgar and his companion followed.
After an hour of walking, they arrived near a clearing. Peering over some bushes, Edgar saw a giant, brown bear with black lightning-shaped spots scattered around its body. It was quietly resting underneath a cliff that extended outward from above.
Max looked up at Bog in anticipation, wagging his tail. He patted Max on the head and chuckled, before briefly looking back at Edgar.
"Do you like Bear?"
Edgar looked at the Bear passively and muttered, "Can you really kill that thing? It seems to be deviant as well."
"Hahahaha! Don't worry! I'll take care of it in a flash! Just watch me work!"
Bog jumped onto the clearing and ran at the slumbering bear, stone-axe in hand. As he swung his axe down onto its head, electricity sparked, causing Bog to jump backward.
The bear opened its onyx eyes and slowly stood up.
"Hahahaha! It's good that you won't go down without a fight!" Bog yelled, pointing his axe at the creature.
He ran at it again, this time activating red aura around his axe. The bear's body and head became coated in bright blue electricity as it slashed at the charging orc. Bog jumped high in the air and chucked his aura-covered axe at the bear's head.
Its electricity was too weak to prevent the axe from cutting into its fur as the axe implanted into the bear's skull, yet being too shallow to kill the beast.
As the bear roared from the pain, Bog landed on its back, ignoring the sparking of the electricity, and grabbed the sides of its head from behind, injecting aura into his hands.
"This is why you're just a beast!" He yelled as his fingers entered the bear's cranium. It started manically moving its body and head around, trying to get Bog off, but to no avail.
He finally took out his fingers and grabbed ahold of the axe lodged into the bear's head. He yanked it out and started hacking at the neck while digging his feet into the bear's body with aura.
He kept chopping and chopping until the Bear's electricity and roars faded, it lay dead in the grass with an extremely lacerated neck.
"Hahahahaha!" Bog laughed, covered in blood, looking at Edgar walking toward him.
"Told you!"
"Ew..." Edgar muttered as he indifferently looked at the carnage.
"So... you're proficient with aura. It's a red one as well."
"Hehe! Yeah, it's perfect for a warrior like me!" Bog said excitedly with a sparkle in his eyes.
Edgar created a fire as Bog dismembered and hacked up the dead Bear with Max eagerly looking at the corpse. A little time later, they were all eating bear meat over the fire.
"Is this where we part ways?" Edgar asked looking at Bog.
"It can if you want, but I like you so I think we should continue onward."
"I see... I suppose we can. Do you know if any of the Demon King's army remains?"
"The war ended with Ceasar's defeat a month ago, and I imagine the remnants are just trying to survive because of the demon hunt that's been going on and taking refuge in some of the demon cities."
"Did you say a month has passed?"
"Yeah, where were you this whole time?"
"Let's just say that I've missed the entire month."
Bog tilted his head in confusion before shrugging, "That's pretty weird but whatever."
Throughout their meal and as they started walking with Max through the woods, Edgar asked Bog various questions. After the war, the king of the Aether kingdom issued a proclamation that one would be rewarded for delivering demon heads to a local barracks. Those brave enough could even venture into the Demon continent and get rumination from the city of StoneGuard, a fortress during the war, built to repel the Demon King's army and establish a foothold on the continent.
However, that city ended up being one of the few non demon settlements, although there were rumors of the kingdom trying to colonize further since Ceasar had been defeated. After all, the demon continent was rich with resources.
Bog also said that the kingdom made a pact with the demon cities that still existed, stating that they would not be ravaged in exchange for demons staying on the continent without leaving. It was essentially imprisonment, but they were far too weak to retaliate.
Furthermore, the demon hunt was allowed outside the cities, suffocating them even more, and heavily weakening trade, heavily relying on flying creatures to maintain the economy.
Edgar looked up at Bog's hulking figure and asked, "Are we near civilization yet."
"We're pretty close to Lacus."
"I don't know much of the town although I do remember it being near a lake and close to this forest."
"It's actually in the lake, so be prepared for a heavy fish smell when we get there. The people there are nice, and everyone seems tightly knit. I've been through there a few times."
As Edgar nodded in acknowledgment, Max came rushing toward them after scouting ahead. He growled at Bog, which caused him to pull out his axe.
"There's trouble ahead! Hahahaha! I was just getting bored!"
A brown, stocky horse came galloping near them, a silver-armoured knight riding on its back. They unsheathed their steel sword, raised it in the air, and yelled, "Die vile demon scum!"
The horse charged at them as the knight activated fire mana to his sword. Edgar and Bog jumped out of the way but were intercepted by slashes of fire flying toward them. Bog used aura on his axe, blocking the flames, and Edgar dove to the ground.
Max chomped down on the horse's leg, causing a brief frantic movement that distracted the knight. Bog took the chance to chuck his aura-covered axe at the open slit in their helmet.
The axe launched the helmet off their head, revealing a short-brown-haired teenage boy with a tanned face. His green eyes widened in shock as Bog jumped at him, pulling him off the horse. When Max bit down on another leg, it ran off in trepidation.
The teenage knight lay on the grass, tightly gripping his sword and blocking Bog's punch. The knight sent fire to the sword, but the orc only ignored it as he pushed more pressure on the blade with his aura until it broke in half.
The sword pieces fell into the grass as the teen gathered a small fireball in his now-empty hand and threw it at the close Bog, but it didn't leave a mark.
He laughed at the ineptitude, "Hahahaha! You're much too weak! Any last words!"
Bog raised his fist, ready to cave the knight's skull in as the boy only defiantly glared into the orc's black eyes.
Before Bog could kill him, Edgar grabbed his arm and told him to stop.
Bog looked at him curiously and stepped back as the boy muttered out a weak, "Why?"
Edgar bent down and stared into his green eyes with a friendly smile that seemed artificial.
"I just want to pick your brain for a bit. That's all. I'll even let you live too."
Edgar extended his hand out while brightly smiling, but was swatted away as the boy got up on his own.
"If you try anything, your arm will be relieved of its hand. Oh, and what's your name?"
"Henry, and don't expect to get anything from me."