9 Chapter 9: Home

Opening his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling, Ishida couldn't help but help but be confused.

'What happened?'

'I remembered acting like a kid so that it would make it much more easier to make them trust me and after that everything went just black...'

Moving his left arm, Ishida's eyes widened in surprise and looked at his shoulder and left arm.

'It doesn't hurt and my burn marks disappeared...'

Eyeing the room in cautiously, Ishida inwardly thought

'Where am I?'

'!'

'Wait, Where's my bag?!

Looking around the wooden room with his emotionless eyes, Ishida tried to get out of the soft bed and try to look around the room for his missing hide bag.

*Cling*

"..."

Ishida looked at his left leg and on it were a chain and cuffs that is currently bolted down into the bed.

'Should I destroy the chain? If I did then they would think I'm trying to escape... I made a gamble with my life through my acting, I don't want to waste it now...'

'And they probably sifted through my stuff and maybe even pocketed my money...'

Ishida thought for a moment about the pros and cons of each action he was going to take, before going back to his soft and clean bed and started to make childish giggle.

*Giggle*

'I missed sleeping on a real bed!'

Ishida without remorse for his new found bed, quickly shriveled up into its blankets before inconspicuously activated his mana sight.

'There are four auras of mana on the ground floor... One of them looks a little smaller that the rest.'

'A kid?'

Immediately as he thought it, one of the adult sized auras then walked up the stairs on his left and quietly stood still outside of his door before finally opening it.

*Creak*

Eisen looked at the bed where a demon kid is using his blanket to cover his entire body, making him look like one of the dollar store versions of a ghost costume.

"Your awake..."

Ishida then silently nodded under the blanket.

Eisen then facepalmed himself before walking towards the bed and pulling out the blanket from on top of Ishida's horned head.

"Get up, Throd is looking for you"

The demon kid in front of him made a disappointed face, but still followed Eisen's instructions and quickly went down the bed and walked towards the door.

*Clank*

*Swish*

*Thud*

"..."

Eisen looked at the demon child who just forgot his leg chain all together, causing him to trip and fall unto the wooden floor face first.

'I should've just left when the job was finished...'

Eisen regrettably thought, while carefully walking towards Ishida and helped him up before finally crouching and holding his right hand towards Ishida's chained leg and unlocked it.

*Click*

Ishida then looked at the now removed chain and made a small creepy smile that doesn't fit well with Ishida's face at Eisen.

'!'

'Is he going to attack me?! After I freed him?!'

Eisen nervously thought while being so up close to the demon child who was trying to kill them just a couple days ago and his hand started to shake towards his grimoire.

"Thank you, Uncle"

Ishida quickly thanked Eisen who crouching in front of him and went to the hallway then unto the stairs.

'I thought I was gonna die there...'

Eisen tuned out what Ishida said before he clenched his chest and looked at where the demon child went before finally breathing a sigh of relief.

"So he is different from other demons..."

"I just hope, Throd isn't wrong about his judgement..."

'Wait did he call me uncle?! I'm only 34 years old?! this brat!'

Eisen quickly stopped his worries and closed the door behind him before finally going down the stairs.

In the first floor, Ishida was then greeted by both Throd and Tuli who currently sitting on a table filled an assortment of food, like loaves of bread, eggs, sausages, cookies and beans.

"Good morning Lacht do you want to eat breakfast?" Throd immediately greeted Ishida was currently eyeing the food on there table.

Ishida gulped in anticipation before nodding silently.

Seeing his gesture, Throd and Tuli quickly made eye contact before finally Throd kindly asked question.

"Where did you learn this gesture Lacht?"

The demon child in front of them stood still for a minute before finally answering them.

"I learned it from a book I found! Nodding means agreeing to something, while shaking my head is rejecting something!" Ishida naturally lied while smiling ear to ear, so he can at least find some clues if they either checked his bag or not.

Both Tuli and Throd whispered among themselves while constantly eyeing the demon child who was more focused on the food on there table than them, but little did they know, Ishida can hear them loud and clear.

"So that notebook on his bag was a way for him to learn common human words and expressions?"

"Were you able to decipher it?"

"Not yet it will take me about twelve years to fully decode the entire thing, it follows a different writing format than the grimoires dating back for centuries."

"I see..."

Stopping there conversation, Throd then looked at Lacht kindly before showing him to the table.

"Come Lacht eat!"

Seeing that the two humans who saved him suddenly changed overnight in terms of attitude and auras, Ishida couldn't help but inwardly smile.

'All according to plan.'

Climbing up the vacant wooden chair besides them, Ishida was finally in front of a plate of food that he could only dream off when he was living in the forest.

Lowering his head in silence Ishida then quietly waited for Throd to tell him to eat.

"Lacht, why aren't you eating?"

Tuli raised her eyebrow and looked at the demon child just sitting on there table silently.

"I thought I could pray first..." Ishida emotionlessly answered Tuli question before closing his eyes and then clasping his hands into a prayer posture.

'A demon praying to the goddess?!'

'Whats nexts? Heaven is actually real?!'

Both Throd and Tuli made a shocked face but quickly stopped themselves from showing it on there faces.

Eisen who just got down from stairs, was quick to see that Lacht was making a praying posture and then pointed his index finger at the most sacrilegious phenomenon he was able see for last fifteen years he became a priest.

.

Throd, Eisen, and Tuli quietly waited for the demon child to finish his 'prayer'.

After one minute there were able to see the demon child open his eyes and looked at each of them with a thankful smile.

"Thank you for the food..."

Ishida then took a large loaf of bread from the basket and started munching on it.

'He knows how to use thanks?'

Inwardly all of the humans unconscious thought while eyeing, the weirdest anomaly in the room with interest.

'The first demon that truly understands human emotions...'

Throd recalled the times when he, adventured into the north lands and central lands and met countless demons who aged for over centuries and yet this was the first time, he saw a demon that wasn't as prideful, detached and unsociable as the ones in his past adventures.

'If the royal south magic institution got hold of him, they won't let him leave there demon researching department...'

Throd couldn't help but shiver in thought of what, cruel manners of experiments they would do to Lacht, if they learned he was different from other demons.

'And to think that he was the cause for the recent mana wave... If the demons from the north also caught wind of it, they would spend every valuable resource in there disposal just to get him back and turn him into the next demon lord...'

Throd couldn't help but shake his head in denial, while looking the monster eating the food on there table with a cheerful and happy face.

'I won't let the demons or the institution get a hold him...'

.

.

Standing up from his chair, Throd looked at Ishida and while holding a cup of coffee on his hands.

"Lacht do you want to live with us?"

Hearing the words coming out from Throd's mouth, the demon child's face seemed to sparkle with joy.

"Really?!"

'I can finally have a permanent home?!'

Ishida who was looking at Throd. was genuinely happy that they were actually going adopt him.

Tuli and Eisen couldn't help but then again be awed by Ishida's human like expression.

'By the goddess, he looks so cute...'

Tuli inwardly thought while looking at Ishida's glowing smile.

"Ehem, before the topics should go over should we introduce ourselves firsts?"

Eisen being most level headed member of the party immediately suggested.

"You're right Eisen..." Throd gave Eisen a big thumbs up and quickly pointed at himself

"Lacht, my name is Throd Giwel, I'm a first class mage from the south magic institution, I'm 48 years old and my favorite foods are strawberry shortcakes and apple pipes made with greenhorn apples." Throd posed like he was the most important member of the group.

Seeing there party leader make a pose, both made dead panned face before finally introducing themselves

"My name is Tuli Lariya, I'm 37 years old, I'm a gold ranked adventurer and my favorite food is a steak braised in butter for 2 weeks and simmered into a medium rare with boiled Treuch potatoes from north and a side of ale." Tuli scoffed before looking at the priest on there side.

"My name's Eisen Ruwol, I'm 34 years old, I'm a gold ranked priest from the goddess church branch in the south and my favorite food is roasted regil nuts and beer..." Eisen introduced himself while holding his right hand to his heart.

'Are all the priests in this world naturally born alcoholics?'

Ishida couldn't help but thought about how almost every priest that Frieren has ever met seem to have a weird preference to be always be drinking alcohol.

'Does the goddess have a kink for middle aged men with chronic liver failures?'

Ishida laughed inwardly before looking at party with a smile.

"I'm Lacht!"

*Creak*

The party nodded to themselves, before all a sudden the door from there home, opened a young girl with long greenish hair holding a basket of clean clothes and curiously looked at the Ishida before finally onto his horns.

"!"

The green haired young girl looked at Ishida with fear on her eyes before dropping her basket of clean clothes on the floor and quickly ran away.

'Mother has been hypnotized by a demon! I should warn the Chief!'

.

.

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In the house, Tuli regrettably sighed to herself before standing up from her chair.

"I have to get Grela before she reports that a demon just infiltrated the village..."

Both Throd and Eisen nodded in understanding.

*SWISH*

In a blink of a eye Tuli disappeared from there eyes and she was now outside running towards her daughters direction.

In the forest Grela is currently running as fast as she could to the main area of her village.

*Huh*

*Huh*

'I have to warn them!'

"Only elder chief should be able to stop moth-"

*SWISH*

With a gust of wind her mother was suddenly in front of her, further blocking her chances of warning the village of the demon living in her home.

"Mother, please move out of the way..." Greta coldly looked at Tuli

"I can't do that Greta... If you tell the chief what you saw, it would be much more harder to explain to them later..."

Tuli pleaded with her daughter to stop what she was about to do.

"What do mean by explain?! Didn't you teach me to never trust demons after dad died?!"

Greta made an angry face towards Tuli.

"i-I" Tuli tried raise her hand to refute her claims, but instead quietly stood still, knowing full well how she taught her daughter about being an adventurer.

"Let me go Mother..."

"I'm sorry Greta but I can't let Chief know about this."

Greta's made an disheartened face and made a fighting posture towards her mother.

*Swish*

Tuli quickly disappeared from her sight

'Crap!'

Greta was about to punch behind her, but her efforts were in vain as her mother had long known all of her fighting habits and quickly karate chopped her neck.

*Chop*

.

Greta immediately fell down on the ground, alive and unconscious.

Sighing to herself again, Tuli took a stick of tobbaco from her pocket and lit it with a match and took a puff.

*Huff*

*Pheew*

"You've grown Greta..."

Grabbing the now unconscious Greta on the floor, Tuli then carried her on her shoulder before going back to there home.

'If Luvi saw me hitting our daughter, I would definitely get an earful...'

*Huff*

*Pheew*

"At least he isn't here..."

Tuli lampooned to herself while holding Greta with kindness and care.

In the house, Ishida was still eating to his hearts content with egg and sausages on his plate.

'I definitely can get used to this!'

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