5 Friend and Foe

"Wake up. brother!" Alice, the little elf nagged the still sleepy Kyran on his bed.

~Yawn~ "Five more minutes..." Kyran lazily said.

"Geez, sleepyhead brother!" Alice giggled. "The breakfast is ready. If you don't come quickly, I'll eat yours!"

Kyran did not answer as he returned to his dream world.

It has been one week since Alice started to live with Kyran and Razuli.

"Where's Kyran?" Razuli asked.

"As usual, gramp!" Alice said.

"Don't bother him, let's dig in!" Razuli smiled and put a chunk of large meat on Alice's plate.

"Yay! gramp's specialty steak is number one!" Alice cheered happily. "I'll help, gramp!"

"Good girl!" Razuli smiled.

"~yawn~ Morning Alice. Morning, gramp!" Kyran came out from his room. Razuli's humble house only had two available rooms, with one room had been occupied by him. Kyran had no choice but to share the room with little Alice.

Kyran took a seat and asked, "Where's mine?"

Alice patted her tummy with a satisfied expression and grinned.

"Try another one!" Kyran smiled and rubbed her silverish hair. He knew she was cheeky, but at the same time she cared for him. There's no way she would do that kind of mischief.

"Brother, you have no sense of humor." Alice pouted.

"Sauce?" Razuli offered

"I'll passed." Kyran gulped. The sauce Razuli referred to was fresh blood dripped on top of the raw meat. He'll still not really used to it.

"Can I have blueberry sauce instead?" Alice asked with glittering eyes

"No, we don't have any" Razuli helplessly said as he put the meat on Kyran's plate.

"Medium or well done?" Surprisingly Razuli could throw such unfunny joke

"Do I have any choice?" Kyran renewed his evaluation of the old man. Old men usually have a dignified, wise, composed stereotype with them, but if one got to know Razuli better, those stereotypes would be shattered in an instant.

"Actually you do, but not now." Razuli explained. "There's a kind of magic potion that can manipulate the genetic trait of one's demonic instinct related to appetite. But the ingredients to concoct one is rare and the concocting process is very difficult. Only a handful demon alchemist can successfully concoct one. When it's out at the market, you'll still need to compete with the nobles to get your hand on it."

"So, there's a magical potion with such an effect!" Kyran was excited.

"But why do demon want such potion that can turn them more human-like?"

"There're two reasons. First, the human always looked down on us demon as a barbaric and primitive being that can only eat raw meat. They put us on the same level with those wild beasts. Demon's pride, especially the nobles, could not bear to be looked down by those human that they despised. That's why the nobles compete to get their hand on this kind of potion. One can still eat raws though after consuming the potion. The second reason is, recently it has become a symbol of a higher social status. It has become a noble lifestyle to eat cooked meat."

"It's quite ironical" Kyran mumbled, putting a piece of meat in his mouth.

"Yes, sometime I don't understand what those noble think" Razuli said.

"Why don't you drink one of the potion yourself?" Kyran asked.

"Do you think I'm some noble?" Razuli laughed.

Kyran had guessed that Razuli was no ordinary padler. His strength he showed earlier was the concrete prove, but he intended not to dig in any futher if Razuli decided not to tell him. Maybe he's some retired adventurer by chance?

"Where can I find the potion, gramp?" Kyran asked.

Razuli stared into his eyes, "For the moment, you should not hope too much. It's not something you could afford, yet"

"But when someday you have managed to afford it, you could find it on auction houses scattered in major towns across demon territory. Let's hope that you're lucky enough to see one put in auction." Razuli said.

"There's auction house in demon territory?" Kyran was surprised. It seemed that the demon's society was not very different with human's.

"Yes, you can find one in the capital, Tieston city. It's the largest auction house in Vixen Kingdom. But it's very far from here." Razuli explained.

Kyran had gained some knowledge regarding the place he was at. Labuma village was located in the outskirt of Vixen Kingdom, one of the major kingdom ruled by demonic queen Ishtar.

"Brother, let's play already. " Alice was sulking. The adult's conversation seemed very tedious to her.

"Sorry, Alice, let's go!" Kyran quickly put the last piece of meat in his mouth. He carried a short spear on his back and set off with Alice.

Razuli smiled as he saw the two's image gradually disappeared.

"You've changed, brat!"

Razuli's plan went more smoothly than he thought. He knew the pathway in the forest earlier was often passed by trade carriages, occasionally slave carriages also took the route. He originally intended to cheer Kyran up by letting him experience and see first hand that there're still many other who live in various hardship, just like himself. When he heard the story from Kyran for the first time, he was worried that the carriage owner would retaliate, but soon be relieved to know there's no survivor on the guard's side. Those who were involved in slave trading business usually have no ordinary background. It could be quite troublesome if something happened. For safekeeping, Razuli gave Kyran one of his best rusty...no, legendary spear sold at his store. The specialty of this spear was it have special mechanism that can be shorten for convenience purpose while carrying it and can be returned to its original length with one grip on certain spot.

Only, the goblins with tattoo that attacked Kyran somehow bothered Razuli.

...........

"Alice, have you remembered anything about your village? Kyran asked as he held her hand while walking.

"No, brother. I only know my village name is Sephys village. But I don't know how to get there" Alice shook her head after thinking.

"Hmm, it should be located far away. Even gramp never heard of such a village." Kyran said.

Suddenly Kyran felt a killing intent behind them. He grabbed Alice and leaped to the side of the road as he turned. A thunderbolt struck exactly at his previous location. They were even not that far from Razuli's home.

A dwarf with a pointy hat and pale green robe stood not far from them. She wore a pair of small, green earrings and her eyelashes was longer than ordinary dwarf. It looks like she was still a little girl of around 13 years old. She could be a good playmate to Alice actually if not for the hostile intent emanating from her that made Kyran eliminate the naïve thought. Kyran recognized an odd pattern on her face. It's the same tattoo with the goblins that assaulted him earlier!

The dwarf lifted her hand and chanted a spell again. Glowing magical pattern appeared around her hand.

"I never thought there's also a spell weaver among demon kind!" Kyran thought.

He took the spear from his back. Soon, the spear return to its original length. He charged forward while dodging multiple tier-1 thunderbolts shot by the dwarf. Kyran dared not to be careless. Tier-1 spells, if cast by an accomplished spell weaver can still inflict serious damages to opponent. He agilely leapt from one direction to another, gradually shorten the distance between them.

"Lightning barrier!" The dwarf cast a protective spell on herself. Kyran was shocked by the impact and was thrown on his back three meters away.

When Kyran was still down, she took the opportunity and struck Kyran with another thunderbolt. Kyran quickly stuck his spear on the ground, treating it like a lightning conductor. The thunderbolt struck the top of the spear and was soon dissipated to the ground. The dwarf girl turned pale. It seems that she had finally exhausted her rwach. Kyran leapt once again and dashed toward the dwarf, pointing his spear ready to pierce her.

"Hiii...!!" the dwarf girl was terrified.

Suddenly a bulky shadow charged from nowhere. He's very quick as he had already stood between them before Kyran arrived. He lifted both his arms covered in metallic arm protector with sharp edges protruding. At a glance it looked like a short sword attached to his arms, and at the same time the lower half of the metallic protector can also acted like a shield.

"Enough! Don't bully her!" The bulky man said, blocking Kyran's spear.

"Are you blind? I'm the one being bullied just now!" Kyran was enraged

"I'm sorry for the misunderstanding" The man apologized. He was a 2 meters tall demon kind with a lion head, his lion figure was so detailed even it has whiskers. He had a sturdy build similar to Kyran's dad. Kyran won't be surprised anymore by the strange appearances of the demon kinds. He would even not be surprised if there was a walking octopus which can talk.

"Yes, we intended no harm!" a demon with appearance resembling octopus suddenly leapt down from nowhere. Four swords was attached to his back, sheathed peacefully.

Wait, there's one?

"Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding? I'm almost died of herr thunderbolt. Is that a misunderstanding?" Kyran retorted, stomping his feet to the ground. What if something happened to Alice if he couldn't act decisively that time?

"But....but..." the dwarf was almost sniffed like a normal little girl.

Kyran was startled. Where did the violent girl go?

"Kyran, wait!" Razuli voiced was heard from a distance. He walked toward them.

"Hex, what are you doing here?" Razuli turned to the lion-headed man and asked.