"Have you seen a young woman with red eyes and pale skin?" Lee casually asked another person.
He was currently strolling through the wide field in front of Ashland, the one where he practiced together with the other trainees.
This ti, instead of vanguard, there was a large crowd of treasure hunters settled in front of the rift gate. In fact, they were several tis more in numbers compared to the army forces Lee was once a part of. From the looks of it, the gathering conquest was a rather popular endeavor.
Sorry, no! and Not sure! were the usual answers Lee got to the question and the occasional – Aren't you too old to join a squad? was another standard reply.
He didn't press on, though. It would beco awkward if he asked whether soone has seen the princess right next to Victoria or her followers, thus he mostly searched by looking around.
Unfortunately, Lee's efforts once again were futile and he decided to have a al, and afterwards spend ti till the next prayer in ditation. But when he got his stew and sat down to eat, things beca interesting.
"Would you like to join our squad? We have over twenty people, and you will be safe with us?" Out of nowhere a guy showed up, and asked Lee.
He wore a helt and a chest armor, probably to look more imposing, but his offer was confusing no matter how one looked at it. Surely Lee didn't look reliable even as a cannon fodder, thus bringing him along didn't make sense.
"Thank you! I'm fine!" He could only give the polite answer, but more n like that followed.
Even when he closed his eyes to ditate, people kept coming up to him with similar offers, and it was funny how the only bonus that they could offer was safety.
What Lee didn't notice was a pair of big fellows watching him from the distance, amused by the never ending rejections. Neither wore any armor, but had huge weapons strapped on their backs – one had a sword bigger than him and the other – a club, but the thing looked more like a log.
But the more Lee declined people, the more serious they grew. Lee didn't know, but he had refused to join quite a few famous treasure hunter groups, and while he was clueless, the two fellows weren't.
In fact, almost everyone around threw frequent glances full of jealousy at the big sword one of them had, proving the value of the item and the worth of its owner.
At so point the two ca over, imposingly sat at Lee's sides, and the waves of advances from the other treasure hunters imdiately subsided. Lee, of course, noticed their arrival, but when he unwillingly opened his eyes to give another polite refusal and leave towards the city in order to spend a peaceful night, he froze in terror.
Next to him sat two devils.
Literally.
These guys had dark-red skin and horns, and Lee was afraid to check whether there were tails. And the two were big.
While sitting next to him, they were at least two feet taller and that ant they were surely over seven feet when standing straight. And that was only the height – their arms were thicker than Lee's waist!
Lee had no clue what their intentions were, but quickly recovered, and pretended they were doing him a simple favor.
"Thank you!" He politely said, and went back to ditation.
The two were genuinely surprised by the reaction, but when the one with the club looked at his friend with expression full of question marks, the guy with the sword only nodded and continued to sit there in silence.
Lee tried to dispel the awkwardness along the dirt in his consciousness, and but the surrounding crowd made too much noise for him to maintain focus. In the end, after a longer while, he decided to spend the night elsewhere.
"I know who you are, witch!" The mont Lee opened eyes, the devil with the huge sword spoke.
As expected, his voice was so deep Lee got goosebumps all over his body.
But a devil calling him a witch was funny, thus he said, "Oh? Do tell!"
Instead of continuing to call him nas or exposing as a deserter, the guy leaned closer and whispered, "You're an inborn, right? Soone who was born here, in this world, am I right?"
"What makes you think so?" Seeing that the two despite their looks were harmless, at least for now, Lee decided to find out more. Any information could turn out to be useful if he intended to keep this cover for a longer period of ti.
"The arrogance ... but mostly – the mark on your palm, of course!" The devil answered.
'For fuck's sake!' Lee cursed to himself, 'One of these days I have to find gloves!'
Misinterpreting Lee's silence, the devil continued, "I would've been as clueless as the rest, but you know, three years ago I was honored to personally pick my weapon from the Lord's treasury! I saw your mark there!"
Lee instinctively looked at the huge sword, and the guy proudly continued, "Mhm. That one. That was the reward Lunax gave ."
Lee had an impulse to sarcastically ask whether he was strong enough to wield the thing, but then glanced at the guy's arms and swallowed the question. Either of the devils could probably squeeze the life out of him with two fingers, thus provoking them was simply retarded. More importantly, what he said had interesting implications.
"Why were you refusing all invitations? Are you looking for a particular squad or you're a mber of one already?" The guy pressed on.
Lee looked back at him and quickly assessed the best way out of this, and said, "I have a squad."
This should've resolved the situation, but the damn other devil asked, "Where is it?"
Inwardly cursing the guy's simple logic, Lee said, "Here. I'm my squad."
Strangely enough it was what the one with the sword expected.
He said, "May the two of us join you? We'll do our best to protect you! You just take care of us if needed, alright? We're pretty strong!"
'What the hell!' Lee looked at the two devils, but then a cheeky idea sprouted in his mind.
These two wanted to team up similar to the rest, and earlier they called him a witch. Did it imply everyone thought this old hag had so skills or powers? On the other hand, having two enormous at shields was tempting.
Obviously the two still asked him to join and not the other way around, but no one knew what was on the other side of the rift before the conquest began. Moreover, if they t Victoria, maybe there was a chance the two devils could smack her dead?
After quickly weighing his options, Lee asked, "Why do the two of you think so highly of ? You never t before!"
"Being an inborn you have the blood of our Lord in your veins! I'll trust you in a heartbeat without knowing more!" The devil said, "But I know all the witches in the Ashland! You showing up from nowhere ans you did the Lord's work sowhere else, am I right?"
Lee looked at the guy with mixed shock and confusion. He couldn't figure out whether he should run or accept the invitation, but in the end decided to stay.
He said, "My na is Leaxa. How may I address you two?"
"I'm Arax. My brother is Thorax." The sword guy said, but the pleasantries were interrupted by Lunax appearing on the rift gate.
The crowd of thousands imdiately fell to their knees, but the God gave another speech that began with My children!.
"Tomorrow morning you will depart on a regular gathering conquest!" After few introductory phrases Lunax said, "As always, the main objective is to gather beast sparks. Those of you who lack the physical strength and combat prowess, will assist your brothers by bringing back the remains of the beasts they slayed. But be careful, Inferno Wastes is a dangerous world! Take good care of each other – every single one of you is dear to !"
***
"The place is surely full of fire beasts!" Arax excitedly rubbed his enormous palms together.
"Easy for you to say! I'll need to find another weapon afterwards again!" Thorax complained.
"Brother, we're almost half way there!" Arax said, "In a couple of years we'll get you a God's gift, don't worry!"
Then he turned to Lee and asked, "You surely have a God's gift as well, right?"
Lee looked back at him and said, "I've nothing that can be used in combat, sorry!"
He didn't know that his vague answer was misinterpreted, but both devil brothers barely visibly nodded to each other.
Then Arax laughed, and said, "See, Thorax, with Leaxa here we have nothing to worry about! Let's go and see what the beasts in the Inferno Wastes look like!"
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