After a little while of sitting around and trying to catch a breath, the Imp stood back up properly put his cloak back on while Clentine stood up as well, wiping tears out of her eyes.
Seeing that she was obviously still scared, the Imp slowly extended his hand toward her's and slowly grabbed it. It relaxed him when Avalin did it, so he was hoping it would relax Clentine as well, although she just looked at the Imp surprised for a mont.
"Let's go." The Imp told her, and Clentine slowly nodded her head, before the Imp made sure that she was really properly wearing the cloak to cover as much of her body as possible.
Slowly, the two of them then made their way over toward the next castle, the castle belonging to the Lord of Pride.
And the closer that they got to that castle, the stronger the change in the environnt got. The streets that were covered in blood and at practically everywhere in the area for gluttony were now as spotless as they could be, and there were barely any Demons around, although the few that were there looked at The Imp and Clentine with twisted expressions of disgust.
For now, the Imp ignored it, because it was a good thing they were able to just rush through there without an issue. But the first problem ca when they reached the castle and were t with the guard that stood in front of the set of stairs leading up to the room the Imp needed to get to.
"Don't enter, you Mongrel." The Guard said, imdiately pointing its weapon toward the Imp and Clentine. The Imp wanted to imdiately use this chance to attack, but before he could do that, a small thought in the back of the Imp's head was trying to tell him to act, to say sothing that might get this Guard away.
"I... Don't want to enter." The Imp said, and the Guard looked at the Imp with a twisted expression of anger and annoyance. "Huh? You don't want to go see our almighty Lord? What are you, a liar?" The Guard asked angrily, but the Imp just shook his head without hesitation.
"Who would want to go see such a useless, disgusting Lord?" With a mocking voice, the Imp just stared at the Guard, who was looking down at him with pure anger, even if it wasn't comparable to the anger that the Lord of Wrath showed.
While Clentine was grasping the Imp's hand more tightly, scared at what was going on, the Imp himself just kept staring forward at the Guard, who was seemingly about to attack the Imp and Clentine, but the Imp figured out a reason why he wouldn't.
"If you kill , you will make the entrance to your Lord's castle dirty. I don't think he will like that. How about you let the Lord himself kill ? He is the one I insulted, not you." The Imp pointed out, and the Guard imdiately nodded its head, stepping behind the Imp and Clentine to 'force' them up the stairs, even though that was exactly what they wanted. And on their way up, the Imp was really quickly trying to co up with what he could possibly say to trick them, and then, all of a sudden, a number of notifications that the Imp didn't expect appeared.
[Proficiency Boost Deactivated. Skill 'Apprentice Common Language Comprehension' will now level up like normal]
[As a bonus for upgrading your skill through this boost, you will gain extra proficiency]
[Apprentice Common Language Comprehension Skill Leveled Up!]
[Apprentice Common Language Comprehension Skill Leveled Up!]
...
...
...
[Apprentice Common Language Comprehension Skill Leveled Up!]
[Apprentice Common Language Comprehension hit Level 100 and beca Interdiate Common Language Comprehension]
Imdiately, the Imp felt sothing in his mind click. All the words that he had heard up until now, that he had read up until now, and that he had misunderstood up until now were starting to make far more sense than he ever could have imagined.
It was like soone ripped open a door that was only opened for a thin slit until now. And with that, the Imp understood the aning behind so words as well, not just the aning that words themselves had. He truly figured out what lies were, and why you told them, and in what situations which lies were best used.
But instead of being able to think about lies, there was one single truth that crossed the Imp's mind, which he couldn't resist but voice in a low, mumbling voice.
"Skills are truly amazing, aren't they..?" The Imp asked himself with a whisper, and soon enough, when he finally reached the top floor that the stairs were connected to, a large open room with a similar structure as the two others the Imp had seen until now.
And while seeing the figure at the other side of the hall, staring down into the center of the room toward the young girl sitting there on her knees, her forehead pressed against the ground in fear as she was practically begging, the Imp rembered one of the stories from the book about the 'Minor Arcana', the different cards that the Imp had collected two of so far.
The story was about a Beggar, who had gotten more power to his voice through an ability given to him by the Arcane Dealer, the Four of Pentacles. Using that voice, the Beggar collected more and more money and beca a rich man, until a knight brought him to the King after finding out about his ability. Without hesitation, the Beggar managed to convince the King that the Knight was a traitor, and the Knight was executed without anyone else finding out about his voice, and the Beggar was given a noble title and land with as much money as he could imagine. He was later killed by one of his servants because he didn't voice his wishes properly, but that was beside the point. Using the speech that the Imp read there and could rember quite well, he figured he might be able to convince the Lord of Pride if he really tried.
When the Lord of Pride spotted the Imp, Clentine, and the Guard escorting them, his expression beca sour. "What do you think you are doing, interrupting like this?" The Lord asked, and the Guard imdiately started to speak, while the Imp grabbed Clentine's hand and started to sprint forward.
"This wicke-"
"My Lord! I ca to warn you!" The Imp interrupted the Guard, surprising not only the Guard himself and Clentine, but also Sammy, who didn't expect to hear the Imp's voice all of a sudden. Or ever again, to be exact.
Taking advantage of the montary confusion, the Imp grabbed Clentine's hand tighter and continued running forward, pushing Clentine in front of himself. "I know I am not much to look at, My Lord, but please, listen to ! I am nothing but a re Imp, looking up to such a Prideful ruler such as you! I always wanted to show you how much even those Demons with sins other than Pride look up to you! And then, I finally found the perfect gift!" The Imp exclaid, trying his best to change the speech from the story to fit his needs better, before he montarily ground his teeth and pulled his hand away from Clentine before holding both of them toward her, while Clentine looked at the Imp with confused fear, and Sammy stared at him with pure disgust.
"This Human has the ability to take any injury of another onto herself. Any sort, without any danger of her death! Not only is this chivalrous, but a pure sign of Pride! You understand what I an, don't you, my Lord?" The Imp asked with an excited, broad grin, while the Guard who had brought them up here looked at the Imp with anger, shaking his head vehently.
"That is not true, Lord! This Imp was insulting you!" The Guard exclaid angrily, but the Lord of Pride, seemingly amused and curious, looked at the Imp. "Now how does that make sense? It is true that it is a wonderfully prideful present, of course." The Lord started, and the Imp's expression for a mont nearly dropped, because he didn't really expect that the Lord would really believe the Imp's rambling, but before anything happened, the Lord continued.
"Now you, who has co with an offering, I will give you the right to speak first." The Lord said benevolently, and although the Imp was confused, thinking that he was already speaking first anyway, the young Demon took the chance.
"It is not I that insulted you, my Lord, but rather this fiend! When I told him about how much I look up to you and wanted to give you this gift, the Guard simply tried to take her from , saying that you, my Lord, are not deserving of such a wonderful present! He much more wanted to take it for himself!" The Imp explained, and while the Guard's expression twisted in Horror, the Lord of Pride stared past the Imp, Clentine and Sammy and looked right at the Guard.
"Is that true?" The Lord asked, slowly standing up from the throne he was sitting on, before he started making his way over toward that Guard in an intimidating manner.
Once the Lord was too far away to hear him whisper, the Imp imdiately kneeled down next to Sammy and made sure that she could stand. It seed like she wanted him to get away from her, because she was purely disgusted, but she stopped when the Imp whispered into her ear.
"I'm going to attack him. When I do, take Clentine and run out the door. I will be right behind you. But be careful, she's still hurt, and the stairs are steep." The Imp told her, before imdiately standing back up like normal and followed behind the Lord of Pride, leaving a baffled Sammy right next to Clentine.
The Impalso used the chance where he was kneeling down to fiddle with so things and pushed the Three of Swords back underneath the cloth. All that the Imp had to do was to injure the Lord even slightly, and then he would be unable to move for a few monts. The Imp first saw this effect on the Lord of Wrath, after all, so it obviously also worked on them.
"Don't listen to a mongrel like that, Lord!" The Guard said, even though exactly that sentence was his downfall. With his head twisted upward and his eyes looking downward onto the Guard, the Lord just stared at the Guard and extended his hand forward to the Guards head, grasping it completely with a single hand. "Do not command ." The Lord said, and the mont that the Imp heard the first crack in the Guard Demon's skull, he pushed his mana out of his hand to once more create such an explosive attack as before.
"Sammy, Clentine!" The Imp exclaid, while a flash of golden-white light appeared around the Imp's hand while a thread started connecting the Imp's dagger with a ring that just appeared on his finger, and was pushed deeply into the Lord of Pride's back.
[Lord of Pride -612 Damage]
[-436 Health]
With a shocked expression, the Lord stared at the Imp behind him while the clattering of footsteps could be heard while Sammy and Clentine sprinted past them toward the stairs. There weren't any guards in this room, luckily, so the girls could just enter the staircase imdiately.
And just when the Imp pulled the dagger back out of the Lord's back, he got an idea for how he might be able to avert the attention from himself and the girls to another troubleso enemy.
"This is a ssage from the Lord of Wrath.. Answer it, if your pride allows you to."
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