What the Devil Wants to Know

Tenderness came from a small fire pit doing its utmost to warm this house of a single room, following the final cadence of one haunting tale one might never forget, and countless depictions that one might find reluctant to fade from one's mind,

The fire was crackling and the firewood was hissing… filling the void among the solitary pair of a mourned storyteller and an attentive, empathic listener.

"I'm sorry."

Erynew spoke up, overpowering the silence and muffling the crackling sound of the fire pit. Her furrowed eyebrows were vividly visible in the dim light because it was holding back her chemistry bond which materialized out of sensitive feelings. As a result of holding such a heavy sentiment, her gaze was dropped, only now staring at that small fire which almost burnt all the remaining firewood within its ashes,

"Please don't say like that, Miss Erynew. Not that it's your fault, I'm the one willing to tell the whole story," grievously smiled, the chief struggled to reassure her if that kind of response may have overstated, "Instead I'm grateful… the fact that you're willing to hear a weird story out of this useless old man. Even giving your words of empath he never deserves."

The chief, however, never knew, if the expression of her sorry was an implied one. Besides an apology for 'couldn't do something to help', it was also an apology for sparing the life of that one evildoer who took his daughter's life. She covertly gritted her teeth, then slowly regained her balance by quietly inhaling quite the amount of air mixed with some fire sparks.

"That's not a weird story at all, nor you are a useless old man." Erynew replied, deeply looking at the downhearted chief, "Do not betray your daughter's sacrifice by experiencing sorrow over her. She had chosen her own path, a path to protect her village and its inhabitants… and her little brother… in her own way. She knew the responsibility you have to endure, knew that Gizado still needed a father figure. Such a virtuous character she was, like a bitter sugar warrior who went devouring all bitterness within the sweetness around her."

The chief gave a simple smile, hearing such a locution created an inner conflict within his turbulent heart which always tended to deny if the one-horned girl in front of him wasn't a Devil. His logical and rational mind though… it always knew since the moment his eyes met hers… those yellow-golden eyes of hers, snow-like hair with a bit of bright red, blood-like color at the end that gently reacted to the zephyr when she abruptly came out from nowhere… a pair of horns, one of which was almost completely deformed out of unknown reason to him, manifested in a sudden manner between her windblown hair,

It was funny as it was… while reality may twist one's happy sugar ending, reality apparently also gave him another twisted ending in which something went wrong yet in a good way, to the point it could make one questioning their belief regarding what pure evil felt like to their gods,

Humans were once trusted to be the leader of this world by their gods, to protect all its inhabitants, and yet nowadays such a title was misused by them. Leaders and Rulers were often used synonymously to create a pyramid of the caste system. As silly as its name, they believed that humans were born differently hence overusing the big word such as 'born-leader' as a reason to treat unfortunate souls with inequitable rules or facilities which could only profit for them of the so-called born-leader. Power became everything, everything linked with power… lineage, wealth, glory, properties, cunning thought—which humans prefer to call it a smart move rather than a cowardly action—almost nothing left for those who were born zero,

And here it was the Devil and the Demon's kin came in, they who were supposed to do all inhuman things because it was obvious since they were never born human but creatures of pure evil in the first place, long since the first creation. Yet oddly enough, here it was one of their kin who was unexpectedly did more humanly acts than the humans themselves…

…who was capable of casually talking in an empathetic tone; the chief's inner heart didn't want to believe his rational mind that the one-horned girl before his eyes, was one of their kin. Her appearance sure promising since almost all humans who saw her for the first time could feel the intimidating and threatening aura emanating from her lemon-yellow eyes as if it was telling directly to one's soul that she was the Devil they should fear, but once her nature being revealed, the soothing voice and alluring face of hers soon overwhelmed such an aura.

Reality really had a weird hobby to play someone in its trick. After half a year living in terror, feeling their dim light of hope slowly ceased into nothingness, it seemed that their new source of light came from hell itself, representatives of hell: a wandering Devil. Quite surprisingly indeed, but at least the chief's daughter finally could get her rest in peace she always deserved.

"Thank you so much, Miss Erynew. Your kindness really brings harmonies in our village once again." the chief suddenly replied in a quiet formal tone, "You made sure that those who spilled their blood for this village were not in vain… especially my daughter's."

"Please Chief Jovier, you've said thank you enough. In fact you should save some for your son." awkwardness suddenly attacked her, for the village's leader seemingly never got tired of conveying his gratitude, "It's just the right thing to do, and the most important thing is that your daughter can finally rest in peace… knowing that her village has returned the way it used to be."

"Ah yes, you're right, Miss Erynew. I was just… quite surprised… a devil did something more humanly than humans themselves. Maybe we should feel ashamed a little at least." Chief Jovier smiled a little,

"No, chief… that's not entirely right. Humans are… well… just quite diverse the way I see it."

Erynew was somehow a bit hesitant answering, unsure what words should be returned over such a statement. The chief was in a way—and based on observations she had done many times before—accurate… humans were far from her expectation, yet here she was with the same kin who accepted her born-nature as a creature feared by the majority of humankind. Maybe it was because she helped them, maybe because humans tend to show a friendly nature towards a good intention… no matter what creature who did the good intention, and maybe karma—if such existed—did affect any creature willing to make the connection. If so, then, good karma was on her side this time. After her first attempt in this reality to make a connection with humans only to get her right horn chopped off by a figure who claimed to be a Holy Knight, yet it led her later into a good consequence however… no more hostile response, for she came in the right time and in the right place,

Erynew then inhaled some fire-spark air from a fire pit that almost extinguished before her, disregarding all of her complex overthinking things inside her head just to convey her most honest sentiment.

"But I'm glad," she finally began to speak, "Not many humans are thinking the same way as you and the rest of the settlers in this village. That's why I was a bit hesitant a moment ago."

Despite she seemed hadn't finished yet, Chief Jovier already caught the gist of it… of what she meant and why she once hesitated… the chief confidently cut her words off with a simple smile, "Don't worry, Miss Erynew. We shall speak nothing about your arrival nor your intervention in this village. We shall keep your identity a secret."

"Much obliged, chief."

Erynew quietly exhaled a bit of relief air from her lungs, feeling grateful to have found such an amiable rural community and an understanding village. It was just too early to set forth herself as a Devil, more so after learning from her failed first attempt, she made a conclusion to approach humans in a different way, not as a Devil but at least as a human somehow. She also learned that her nature was accepted in this village merely because she showed her affable manners, moreover Kasala Village was a small rural habitation and isolated, the inhabitants were also far from the public eyes and ears which basically told the urban residents about how harmful the beasts, monsters and demons were. Hence, the small number of Kasala's folks only saw Erynew as an ordinary outlander who just so happened passing by then she went saving their home.

"No need to, Miss Erynew. It's nothing compared to what you've done for us. It's the least we can do." humbly replied the chief, showing yet the same humble smile.

When the air of melancholy surrounding them appeared to wane little by little, and the humid heart because of tears began to ebb away, the Chief of Kasala Village at least could find a little peace from a reality that favored his people this time. And now the deed why he wanted to call Erynew in such a private conversation was about to be divulged…

"And with that being said, there's in fact another reason why I called you here, Miss Erynew. Not only to tell you the whole tale, but there's something I'd like to show you as well. And I think it has some connections with Lord Redo whom you just defeated." Chief Jovier continued and then slightly bent over his body while sitting on his pallet, reaching out under the mattress for a small black wooden chest—rectangular cuboid in shape. He then opened the black chest and pulled out a scroll of old-looking parchment with a diameter of the size of his palm, rough surface texture when touched and brown, "Here is it." the chief handed the scroll paper to Erynew, "I reckon you might know what it is."

Erynew grabbed the scroll and then opened it. On its rough surface, written in pitch black ink, the pentagram was formed on the center of the parchment scroll and surrounded by a circle of runic characters that were foreign for the native inhabitant of this village, fortunately not for someone like Erynew. On each of its corners, there was yet another runic character that didn't form any particular shape, but simply one runic character that maybe served as a fence for some kind of magical energy from the center so that it wouldn't go overcharged and eventually damaged the parchment itself. Aside from that function, the fence runes also worked as a barrier so that any external source couldn't damage nor destroy the parchment scroll by any means.

At first glance, she already knew if it was a magic scroll and a powerful one, but the purpose why such a thing was in a village in which the majority were only farmers trying to survive each day. If this thing had any connection with Lord Redo just like explained by the chief, then only a wild speculation she had in mind,

"That's the second scroll we found by the by." Chief Jovier carried on explaining, referring to the scroll that was now in Erynew's hand.

"The second?" asked Eryenw who seemed curious.

"Yes. The first one caused an explosion, big enough to destroy more than half of our supplies." the chief gave further information, "It happened at night, around a week after we found my daughter. And a lot of strange things happened after that; like that explosion and then the scroll that we found among the ashes of our crops; and days later, the soil all of a sudden became dry even after we flooded the entire village with the fertilizer to kill any pests in case there were any, but we still couldn't grow any seed."

Erynew had no words to satisfy her curiosity, at least for now since she looked busy examining the scroll. Every detail she examined… from the type of parchment used, the runes style and the ink that was used to write down the runes. The black ink was probably made from an octopus ink, more precisely from a Hydra since its ink was said to contain quite an amount of magical energy. Hence, it became the main composition for creating a powerful magic scroll. But the problem was… the scroll in her hand was not an offensive type.

"Are you sure the explosion was caused by this magic scroll?" Erynew threw a question at least, collecting more information in order to clear her vision regarding this matter.

"I'm pretty sure it was, because none of us could make such an item, let alone using arcane arts." Chief Jovier answered in a confident tone, since it was quite make sense.

"Right, of course."

Letting out a silent sigh, Erynew then discussed this matter with herself, 'That makes sense indeed. The explosion mentioned by the chief could only be explained by the existence of this scroll. Maybe the first one was an offensive type and it got destroyed in the process? I can't see the scene myself, for it happened nearly two months ago—there's no way I can find out the cause. If this has something to do with Lord Redo, or this Autocrats Five Ways he mentioned, coupled with the strange things chief just told… I might begin to see the pattern. Yet, I need to confirm something first.'

Done with her thought, Erynew raised her gaze to once again ask sort of critical information in order to complete the pattern inside her mind, "Chief Jovier..." she said, "Did the soil in this village start to become barren after you buried your daughter?"

While stroking his chin full of gray beard, the chief dropped his eyeballs, trying to reconstruct the abstract bitter memories of two months ago, "Our crops did become hard to grow since we held a proper funeral for my daughter. We found it strange since this village was very rich in humus, even during winter and dry season. Chronologically though, it occurred a day after the explosion that happened around ten days after my daughter's funeral."

The details were completed. One big puzzle of harrowing picture inside Erynew's mind had been devised. All the facts and information she received were leading to her wild hypothesis. Unarguably she was wrong… about this Autocrats Five Ways she just heard, it was apparently so much bigger than she thought it would be, and also more maddening.

She, however, hadn't yet over with the barrage of nonplussed occurrences that struck her seemingly without end. Right before she was about to tell everything she knew, a banging sound on the softwood door was heard, interrupting the converse. Concluding from the dynamic of the sound and a little pause between the knocks, it was undeniably an urgent matter… so urgent that anyone who was banging on the door didn't have time to receive permission to open the door, he simply slammed the door open and looked at the chief and Erynew with a baffled and a bit alarmed gaze.

"Chief Jovier, Miss Erynew… I'm sorry for interrupting," the tension of the village youth's face could visibly seen between the sun ray that came from the doorway where he stood, "It's the marauders… they are all dead."