Chapter 126 - One Hundred And Twenty-Six: Introduction And Decision

After the carriage was safely out of the way. We all climbed out and begun the business of setting up our camp for the evening. As we did so Rosa took the horses to the side to feed and tied them up to one of the nearby trees. By the time she had finished, I'd got the fire going and Serin and Altria had finished putting up the tents. I was a little on edge, and after everything we spoke about on the way here, I wondered if we would be able to make it to Dunshelm without someone coming after us.

"You can relax Theo. Not many people know about this place, and it is hard to spot the trail from the road, especially in the dark." Rosa said as she joined us.​​

"She's right Theo. No one knows what happened to you. There's no reason to believe that anyone is even going to come looking for you." Serin said as she sat down by the fire.

"I don't know. Lillia must know that we survived and even if she couldn't tell, if there hasn't been a response from the catkin, they must be certain that Altria made it out alive." I replied.

"You do have a point there. Though they still wouldn't know you were here."

"You and Rosa managed to guess the route we would take…"

"True, but we were just lucky. There are several other quiet roads back to Dunshelm. We just happened to pick the one closest to where you left the city."

"Well, I hope if anyone is looking for us, they aren't as lucky as you were."

"They will have to be very lucky to find us all the way off the road here."

"Theo is right to be on guard. I doubt they will want to let us reach safety before they do something about us. Theo has the relic and well, Lillia tried to kill me. If word gets out, it was her that caused that mess… I don't think they want that to happen." Altria said urging caution.

"We'll keep watch like normal. There isn't much more we can do." Replied Serin.

"No… But we should probably leave early, perhaps before sunrise."

"Agreed."

"Then we should probably make dinner and head to be early." I said rummaging through my bag looking for my cooking gear.

"We should, but there is something else I would like you to do first. Can you call out this succubus? I want to speak with her before we travel any further." Asked Serin.

"I can…"

"Don't worry, I will hear her out."

"Okay… Celine, are you there?"

"Yes master!" She answered.

She almost immediately appeared from thin air and jumped onto my lap, almost pushing me over as she did so.

"Woah Celine, calm down."

"Is it time for feeding now master, is it?"

"Not right now… I need you to talk with my friends. They want to ask you some questions." I could feel Serin's gaze on us already.

"Your friends, you mean those girls?"

"Yes."

"I don't want to. Do I have to?"

"Yes, it's important. Please answer whatever they ask you for me."

"Okay master, if you want me to, I will."

"Um Theo, why are you having her call you master?" Asked Serin.

"I'm not… I have tried to get her to call me Theo a few times, but she seems to slip right back to that. I've given up trying to get her to change." I answered.

"I see… Well, I suppose it doesn't matter." Serin said before turning to Celine. "Hi Celine, I'm Serin. I'm not sure how I feel about you yet or how to greet you, but at the very least I am thankful that you saved both of my friends back in the capital. Thank you."

"I wasn't going to let master die."

"And you saved Altria as well. Why was that?"

"Altria? You mean the cat?"

"Yes."

"I knew that if I didn't master would have been upset. He told me before that his friends were important to him, and he was already trying to save her from that crazy elf. I just took her with us, I didn't do it for her."

"I see… What is it that you want from Theo?"

"Nothing… Well, I need food from him, but other than that I would do anything for him. I don't know why, but I feel that I should."

"What do you feel about him?"

"Master? I love him!" Celine immediately declared.

Serin fell silent for a moment and Altria was stifling a giggle from close by. Rosa was just quietly and intently watching and listening to everything that was going on before her.

"Why? Don't you feel the same? You and the cat both think the same thing about him, don't you?" Asked Celine.

"Well I, I definitely care a lot about Theo and he is important to me." Serin fumbled. "Anyway, I'm not supposed to be one the one answering the questions right now… Don't you think it's far too soon for you to be saying things like that? You've barely spent any time with him."

"I'm not sure I understand. I don't think time has anything to do with how I feel about someone."

"I suppose that is true."

"What do you think about us?" Altria asked, joining in the questioning.

"You are the enemies of my kind… But you are important to master, so I have no choice but to accept you."

"What about other humans, beastkin, or elves?"

"They are my enemies… I'm supposed to fight against them."

"How many people have you killed?"

"More than I can remember."

"I suppose you do feed on men."

"Yes, many have died that way… How many of my kind have you killed?"

"I don't think I could give you an accurate answer about that either…" Altria trailed off.

"What we want to know is if we can trust you? We don't want to be watching over our shoulders the entire time you are with us, or worried that you will betray us." Asked Serin.

"As long as Theo is alive, no harm will come to you from me… If I had wanted to hurt you, I've already had plenty of opportunities."

"I suppose you have."

"What do you think?" I asked.

"I don't think she is lying, and she seems genuinely infatuated with you."

"I think so too… I also think she is a useful source of information. I would want to talk with Liz before I take any of what she said to heart… But it could be our first clue about the demon lord."

"That's true."

"What do you want to do then?"

"Well… I think as long as she stays like this, then she can travel with us. She will have to stay out of sight most of the time though. What do you think Altria?" Asked Serin.

"I agree with you. As long as she agrees to stay out of sight then I'm fine with it. But the slightest sign of trouble from her and I'll be taking her down." Answered Altria.

"Of course. What do you think Rosa?" Asked Serin.

"Me?"

"Yes?"

"But should I really get a say? I'm not really a part of your party and I'm definitely no kind of expert on these kinds of things."

"Of course, you do. For now, you are a part of our party, and your opinion is just as important as the rest of us."

"Well, I don't know… This is my first time ever seeing a demon. To be honest, I thought they would be, um scarier. She looks and sounds almost like any normal girl. I think as long as she means us no harm she should stay."

"Thanks Rosa… Well Theo, I think we have an agreement. For now, she can stay. What we do after that all depends on her." Serin said once everyone else had given their opinion on the matter.

"I understand. She hasn't been any trouble so far and she's already provided some incite…" I replied.

"I'm not sure I understand what just happened, but is it feeding time now master?" Asked Celine as she started to drape herself on me once again.

"I'm afraid not, not yet." I replied.

"Theo has things to do around camp. We need to cook, and he will need to take his turn on watch. I don't want him being drained for that." Serin added.

"Aww…" Complained Celine.

"Serin is right. You're going to have to wait until we get closer to home and we can relax our guard a little. Sorry Celine, but you can wait a day, can't you?"

"I suppose… But I am hungry."

"You always say that."

"Anyway, we should prepare the evening meal and get ready to sleep. We need to move first things and we should be ready to leave at a moment's notice if something happens during the night. We'll split the watch between the three of us." Serin said meaning Altria and me.

"I can take a watch too." Rosa said volunteering herself.

"Thanks for the offer Rosa, but I think it's best if the three of us take the watch. Even Theo is barely experienced enough for this, but at least he would be able to defend himself if we were taken by surprise." Answered Serin.

"I might not be an Adventurer, but I've taken watch by myself out here plenty of times before. It might not look like it, but I can take care of myself. I'm a pretty good shot with one of these." Rosa said producing a crossbow from one of her bags.

"Let her take the first watch Serin. It's best if we all get plenty of rest. It's at least another two days before we reach Dunshelm and I'm sure she'll manage. I expect she's had to use that before." Altria said.

"Okay then, please take the first watch Rosa." Serin said finally agreeing with Altria.

"I will." Replied Rosa.

"What about me?" Asked Celine.

"You aren't doing a watch… It's also probably best if you stay out of sight once we turn in." Replied Serin.

"Master?" Celine asked looking at me.

"You're going to have to do as Serin asks. Sorry." I replied.

"Hmph. Fine!" Celine said before vanishing into thin air.

"Is that going to be okay?" Asked Serin.

"I think so. She normally comes back as soon as I call her."

"Okay, I suppose we'll just have to trust she behaves for now… Well, we should decide the rest of the order for the watch and then finish up for the night."