Sidestory: The chaotic devil and the mercenary (3)

Slowly, Acedia's eyes began to flutter as she regained consciousness.

Opening her eyes, she sat up, looking around and taking in her environment.

"Where am I..?" she muttered as she scanned the environment.

It seemed like she was somewhere in a cave.

A dark and creepy one.

The cave smelled like old dust and dried blood. She could hear insects or other small creatures roaming around the cave, and the only light source was the exit in the far distance and the warm fire behind her.

'Wait…fire..?'

She turned around to the warm feeling that brushed against her back, tickling her with its heat.

"Oh." A boy sat next to the fire, grilling some meat. "You're awake."

The warm glimmer of the flame highlighted his face, but his long, obsidian hair casted a shadow on his eyes, making his steely grey eyes look intimidating.

He looked either around her age or even a little older than her. His athletic frame sat right next to the flames, attentively watching every little movement of hers.

"…pretty." She accidentally whispered out loud, her eyes locked on to the face of the boy.

Although Acedia couldn't remember everything, it was enough for her to know that the boy was the person to heed her call for help.

He was her savior.

Squeezing her eyes, she further analyzed the face of the boy, admiring his beauty. His long hair reminded her of the color of the black sky, reaching his shoulders, and his skin had a similar tone as the white sand.

His long, black eyelashes towered above his eyes, softly complimenting the color of his cold grey eyes, which reminded her of the cold winter air.

"Uhm…" His eyes widened in surprise. "..thank you."

Acedia shook her head with a smile before she approached the boy, taking a seat beside him. "No, no. It was just an objective assessment."

"I see."

"By the way," she gestured over to the grilled with her finger. "Can I have a bite?"

"Sure." He lowered the grilled meat, holding it right in front of her.

She gladly grabbed the meat and took a bite, satisfying her starving stomach as a blissful moan escaped her lips. "Mhhhmm…this thastes sho good."

"You seem to be relaxed." The boy noted, watching her with a questioning gaze. "Shouldn't you be more scared in such a situation? After all, you're alone with a male stranger."

"Nawhh." She swallowed the meat. "As far as I remember, you saved me. There's no way that you would try to hurt me after that, right?"

"That's a baseless assumption." He deadpanned. "You shouldn't trust a stranger so easily."

"Hmm…that might be right." She paused, as she thoughtfully put a finger on her lips, her eyes focused on the ceiling of the cave. "Buuut you didn't do anything to me, did you?"

"No, I didn't."

"See?"

He furrowed his eyebrows, turning his head to her with a dumbfounded expression. "I could've lied."

"But you didn't." She replied. "A liar wouldn't try to berate me like that."

He sighed while leaning his head back, massaging the bridge of his nose. "You're an idiot."

Acedia giggled in response, finding the bickering to be amusing.

As there was no one her age at the mansion, she had never had the chance to experience such interactions before.

'His reactions are cute.'

For some reason, he found his irritated expression to be strangely endearing. It made her want to annoy him even further.

"By the way," she asked, remembering the time. "How much time had passed since I passed out?"

"An hour. Why?"

"Huh?!" She jumped up. "I have to go immediately! Dinner will start roundabout now!"

"Calm down." The boy took another piece of meat and put it over the fire. "Time passes slower inside the Depths. The conversion ratio should be around 10 times slower than the Overworld."

She raised her eyebrow. 'The depths'? She had never heard of such a place before.

However, instead of asking, she just chose to nod. She would research it later.

"Uh..I see."

After finishing grilling the meat, the boy raised it, offering it to her.

"Want another one?"

Acedia gladly accepted the offer, nodding. "Sure."

Taking a bite, suddenly, a question popped into her mind.

"Wait…what is this meat made of?"

The boy raised his eyebrow, giving her a side glance. "Huh? The corpses of the monsters, of course."

*

"Uerrghh."

Holding her stomach, Acedia threw up behind a rock, a bit away from the fire.

"Didn't you say it was delicious?" The boy yelled from behind.

"Yeah." She threw up another time. "But that was before I knew it was made out of those monsters!"

Shrugging, the boy took another bite of the meat, not understanding what was wrong with it.

After a while, Acedia finished, wiping her mouth as he slouched back to the fire.

"You don't seem to be feeling well." The boy remarked, watching her with a blank gaze.

Nodding, Acedia formed a faint smile. ".. yeah. You're right. I don't feel very well."

She gestured over to the meat he was holding, pointing her finger at it as if it was some kind of disgusting monster. "It's because of this abomination!"

The boy chuckled before finishing eating the meat. "Whatever you say."

Finishing it, he leaned back, resting on his hands, as he closed his eyes, tiredly letting out a breath. "Anyway, we should probably work on getting you back home."

"Maybe-" She replied. "But there's still a little time left, I think."

She had only spent some hours in the so-called depths' in which she spent an hour sleeping and another roaming around.

Or in other words: she had barely done anything yet.

And together with that boy, she was sure that she was safe, as long as he didn't abandon her.

"Why would you want to spend more time in such a place?" He furrowed his brows, looking at her with confusion.

"Mainly curiosity." She answered in a careless tone. "Which reminds me..what is actually your name? I don't think I had asked you that."

"My name?" Contemplating, he put his hand on his rosy lips, caressing them. "..just call me Voidwalker. That's enough."

He then threw the question back at her.

"And what's yours?"

"Oh, mine?" Acedia gestured to herself, repeating the question. "I'm A-"

Remembering that she couldn't let herself get caught, she momentarily chose to change her name to a fake one.

"A..Aura."

Voidwalker nodded. "I see."

He then crossed his arms as he tilted his head to the side, pondering about how he should proceed. "How much time do you have left?"

"Uhm.." Acedia raised her hand, using her fingers to calculate the time. "Assuming that your time conversion is right, I would say around seven hours?"

"That should be plenty of time..." He whispered while stroking his chin with his hand. "Then you'll help me with my mission."

"Huh? Why that?"

"Didn't you say that you had plenty of time left?" Standing up, he stretched a bit before moving. "Then use that time wisely. You want to repay my services, don't you?"

"Services?" She asked. "Which ones?"

He rolled his eyes. "I saved you."

"But you were there coincidentally!"

"No, I wasn't." Voidwalker shook his head. "I got here because you wished for me to be there."

"Wished?" Acedia perked her ears up, as she heard the word 'wish', pondering if she could maybe find a genie lamp like in those books she read.

Snickering, Voidwalker formed a faint smile. "Not like in those fairy tales. I'll explain it to you later."

He turned to her, cracking a tired smile. "Now come on. I need a mage."

*

After that, Voidwalker explained to her everything about the Depths before they went hunting together.

While Acedia supported him from the back, Voidwalker fought in the front lines, massacring those monsters like ants in his way.

Together, they were an unstoppable force, finishing his mission in only a few hours, which would usually take days.

When they finished it, Voidwalker helped her get back to the Overworld on time, just right before the dinner began.

Although Seraphir questioned her about what happened, she didn't respond and, thus, nobody ever found out about her detour into the Depths.

The next day and the following day, stealing another core from her father, she went into the Depths again. hoping that she would meet the boy again.

Fortunately, and definitely not because she wished for it, they met again and she convinced him to take her to another one of his missions.

"Why are you even doing those missions?" Acedia wiped a drop of sweat from her forehead, panting from exhaustion, as she used way too much mana in the last battle.

"I'm a mercenary." He simply responded, as he dejectedly glared at his broken sword. "It's just my job."

"Really?" She was surprised. "At such an age?"

"I guess."

Although Acedia never asked, to her it seemed like Voidwalker used some kind of magic that was too powerful to contain, thus always destroying his weapons.

However, that never really was a problem to him, as he kept pulling out new weapons from his dimensional storage.

They kept spending more and more time together and Acedia could feel how her feelings towards him grew with time.

However, she was satisfied with the current relationship they had and thus didn't say anything.

Their meetings became so regular that it became her highlight of the week, meeting him and finishing some of his missions together.

Although it seemed like her rookie mistakes sometimes annoyed him, she could see that he was actually enjoying not having to spend his time doing all those missions alone.

This kept on for a whole year.

And again, at almost exactly 5 PM, she went into the Depths, looking for him to spend time together until she had to leave for dinner.

But this time...

...he wasn't there anymore.

And a strange kind of pain pierced through her heart, tightening her chest and making it harder for her to breathe.

She spent a few hours looking for him, but couldn't find anything but monsters.

"Goddamn!" Angrily, she threw another monster corpse to the side before burning it to ashes. "Where are you?!"

But he was nowhere to be found.

For another year she went into the Depths almost daily, looking for him, but the result was the same.

Again and again, she tried meeting him, until...

...until she someday gave up.

He really was gone.

Her favorite person, her only friend, the person she grew to love...

He just disappeared without leaving behind a single trace.

As if he never existed in the first place.