Chapter 8: Scream 1, theft

Diora kingdom

South Western region

Bandit hideout

Recovering from their near death experience with the deacon Ranchus from the Aris cult, Remi and Edward have been taking on smaller missions for the rank less guild.

Catching animals, killing small hordes of monsters and of course catching bandits.

In an abandoned warehouse screams could be heard from miles away.

A group of thieves were running away from what seemed to be a man with a single blue horn on the right side of his forehead.

One of the thieves, stood his ground and charged the horned man.

"Rahhhhhhh!!!".

"Hmph!" The horned man yelled as he dodged the man and punched him in the gut.

"Guffff!" The thief fell to his knees and collapsed due to the insane power behind the punch.

"So this amount of strength is enough to knock them out huh? Good" the man said. He was wearing a blue and yellow shirt and gray trousers, he had black long boots and black bandages on his hands, a sheathed sword stayed by his left side, he sported a bronze armor chest plate as well.

"Sir Remi your horn is out again, if it keeps popping out, people will find out your a demon" another man came from a door in the warehouse.

"Ed, sometimes it just comes out when my rage overflow! So I can't always be aware of it!" Remi countered.

"I guess so, you'll still need to work on that, for people who know, it will be difficult to acquire their trust" the companion Edward said.

Remi and Edward continued to beat up bandits, Remi punching them out, Edward bashing into them with a shield made of air.

Remi and Edward had grown in both levels and class (Class- the fighting style and stat based positioning of an individual)

Remi

Hp-1200

Mp-0

*Lv25*

*Class-Demon Knight (atk+??? Recovers 1hp every second while enraged)*

*Titles-demon, cursed, wrath*

Atk-???

Def-34

Spe-37

Sp atk-31

Sp def-32

Eva-35

Crit-30

Edward

Hp-840

Mp-760

*Lv22*

*Class-Wind Monk (atk+10, sp atk+10)*

*Titles-chubby hero, demon's advocate, air wiz*

{Magic skills-air wall}

Atk-35

Def-31

Spe-28

Sp atk-50

Sp def-47

Eva-30

Crit-26

[Wrath party]

-Members=2-

The name the duo was given by the status system.

The two finally reached the stash room were the stolen goods were being held.

"Oi Ed take all the stuff for the guild, the most valuable ones however stay with us!" Remi said smugly.

"But sir, heroes don't do that" Edward added.

"That's why most heroes in my world are broke, now get to work!" Remi ordered.

Edward knowing the financial situation they were going through quickly separated the valuable loot from the others, things like jewels,potions and books, while leaving the money and other property to be returned to the guild.

'clank!' a door was kicked open by Remi with tons of force.

"This is the last room I wonder what's...." Edward said before he saw something intriguing.

The two adventurers stumbled upon a cage, with a little girl in it.

"Please save me, I beg of you!" The girl pleaded.

Remi quickly picked up a knocked out bandit from the floor.

"You sick fuck! Even a girl like this is prey for you monsters!!!" Remi shouted with his voice dull of killing intent.

This woke up the bandit and he answered.

"No no no! She tried to steal from us, so we caged her up, we were just wanted to sell her off, I swear!" The bandit pleaded for his life.

'Thuggg' Remi flung the man into a pile of knocked out bandits to the left of the warehouse.

Edward released the girl and she clung on to him like a baby koala bear, Edward took a better look at her, she was quite small reaching his shoulder her long messy brown hair went in all directions, she wore a torn black dress and had no shoes on, showing her small feet.

"What's your name? Mine's Edward but you can call me Ed" Edward said with a smile.

"Val... Valerie" the girl answered still scared.

Edward picked her up and held her tight.

"It's going to be alright. Sir so what's the plan" Edward asked.

Remi had tied all the bandits together and collected the money and property to return to the guild.

"I'll go retrieve our reward from the guild while you go back to Swampfort, drop off the valuables and find a place for the girl" Remi stated.

"Okay sir, will do!" Edward answered energetically.

The two spit up and Edward headed north to Swampfort while Remi headed east to Castle town.

Castle town

Home to the Royal castle this town was full to the brim with the inhabitants of this world and the world Remi came from.

Remi dropped the bandits off at the official prison of Diora "The bird cage" it was an incredibly big and open spaced area with buildings made of iron and cement everywhere, no escape, no retribution, the guards were at edge when Remi stepped inside.

Remi left the prison after collecting 1 silver coin each for a bandit leaving 34 silver coins in his wallet.

He entered the town and observed a few people staring at him again, due to his status as the new wrath demon host,he inherited the burden left behind by the previous demon host who nearly destroyed the whole kingdom. Remi knew he had to constantly control his anger as to not cause a scene but that was easier said than done.

The wooden building know as the rank less guild was relatively empty today, Remi went to the counter where the pretty receptionist Basil was stationed, her blue unform made her short smokey white hair stand out even more than usual.

"Afternoon Basil, any news about the forest area" Remi asked as he put the request paper and the bag of property and money he took from the bandits on the counter.

Basil wasn't fond of having him around but was too scared to drive him away, so she simply answered his question.

"Nothing today..... I doubt the Aris cult will show up so easily, check again in a few weeks" she said with a lack of empathy as she moved the goods away and started counting coins.

'tsk!' Remi hissed, it's been a month since he was betrayed by the Windlers, the Aris cultists that ultimately led him down the path of a demon. Thoughts of them once again brought his light blue horn out of his forehead.

"Ehhh" Basil yipped at the sight.

"Ah. Sorry about that" Remi apologized as he pushed down the horn back into his skull (no pain, something similar to folding a finger).

"Here's..... your reward.... good day" Basil said as she ran out of the office.

Remi sighed as he took the bag of 80 silvers and left the guild hall.

Swampfort village

The swamp had encroached the new wooden walls of the village like a moot, the village was finally transformed into a presentable home for the villagers.

Edward holding Valerie's hand walked to the Fiora orphanage, however.

The nun working there, sister Abigail, a light skinned blonde beast type abnormal with cat ears told Edward some bad news.

"Am sorry sir, but we just don't have enough room for another girl" Abigail said sadly.

"Mmmm, is princess Unala around? Am sure she can make an exception for the wrath party" Edward tried to enlist the help of the orphanage founder.

"She's currently on Royal business" Abigail replied.

Edward sighed with a heavy heart.

"What now big bro?" Valerie asked.

"I've got no choice, you'll have to stay with us for the time being, am sure sir Remi's going to pop a few veins when he hears this" Edward said disheartened.

Witch's cabin

Nighttime

Remi first didn't like having Valerie in the house but slowly his rage faded when he started cooking.

He made the normal Rice and potatoes for Edward and Valerie while for himself, he held a pot full of green liquid while he flipped a frying pan with purple meat simmering, the green liquid was slime pudding, while the meat was that from a flying cow. Edward smiled as he wolfed down the rice, Valerie was also happy, eating a proper meal for once since being captured.

Remi slurped the pudding, it had a sweet taste to it like drinking custard with green coloring, the meat also tasted good, his skills when cooking monsters had improved and he was one step closer to opening his restaurant.

After the meal Valerie volunteered to wash the dishes, however.

'Shrkaaa!' the sound of a plate breaking.

Valerie had dropped one by accident.

"Oh for God's sake!" Remi shouted.

Valerie closed her eyes expecting punishment instead.

"Are you hurt?!" Remi asked loudly.

"Huh? No am fine, am sorry about the plate" Valerie said as she bowed her head.

Remi raised his right hand and gave her a pat on the head "don't let it happen again"

Remi said this and cleared the broken plate from the ground.

Valerie stood dumbfounded at Remi's act of understanding.

It was time to sleep and oddly Valarie would be sleeping on the fall, however.

"Sir isn't it too much, for me to sleep on your bed?" Valerie said confused.

"I don't need much sleep, and even if I did sleep there's something there I don't want to meet tonight" Remi answered referring to the demon he sees every time he sleeps.

Valarie still confused laid on the bed thinking to herself.(my mommy always told me people would use you, don't trust them, then why are these people so nice?) She wondered. They didn't try to do anything to her, and treated her like a guest, she had originally planned to steal from them, and give the money to her sick mother, but now she'd have to gain their trust a bit before that, she still had doubts about stealing from good people but it has to be done.

The next morning

Remi leaves the house to buy new chickens for his farm while Edward's starts to knit something.

Under the guise of playing, Valarie started to look around the cabin, with intention to steal money from them.

"There's no safe around here, where could they be keeping it" she said to herself.

For a 12 year old girl her mother had drilled into her the skills of the thief class, so she could sneak around without being noticed however her tracking skills, weren't as sharp yet.

"Yo am back" Remi said from afar holding 3 chickens in his left hand.

"Welcome back sir" Valarie became alert.

As Remi dropped the chickens in the pen, Valerie observed on his right hand was a sack of coins (bingo).

"Hah! Sir Remi the chicken!" Edward shouted as he opened the door of the cabin holding cloth.

Remi turned to see the strange blue hen appear from no where and swallow the other 3 whole with an enlarged beak.

'Buuuuuhhh' the blue hen said.

Remi quickly tried to wrap his head around what had happened but failed to and decided to move on,(no more buying chickens, what a waste of money)

Inside the cabin Remi dropped the coin sack on the front table and went to bed.

As Valarie approached it.

"Hey Val, I have something for you" Edward called out to her.

He showed her a yellow dress he had been knitting.

"Try this out, seeing you in those black rags is upsetting" Edward said.

Still confused Valerie wore the yellow dress it reached pass her knees and had a red belt pattern on the waist.

Edward then tied up her hair with a red ribbon and braided it into two big brown ponytails.

"Thank you, but why?" Valarie asked.

"I have a little sister about your age, I can't help but spoil you a bit in her place" Edward said smiling.

Valerie's face turned red as she looked at her new dress again.

That night

Remi and Edward had to attend a village meeting and left Valarie alone,she snuck out of the cabin after obtaining the coins 70 copper, 53 silver, a good price, she also stole a few potions. This didn't sit well for her, so she left a note behind saying

She'll pay them back for their kindness.

With tears in her eyes she left. The place she had met such kind souls in.

Eastern region of Diora

Grass ocean plains.

In a wide grassy plain a single wooden house stood, inside was a dark skinned woman sitting on her bed her red hair covering one of her blue eyes. The woman was surrounded by rough looking men all armed with silver swords.

One of the men with black hair walked towards her.

"Rouge..... I'll ask again where is the sword?" The man asked.

"I guess I have no choice, I hope you lot don't regret what's about to happen" the woman Rouge spoke with a killer smile on her face.

To be continued.