Chapter 4: The castle dungeons

A few hours later, in the castle dungeon, Gio was being escorted by a guard, armed with a sword and in armour.

"You sure you want to talk to her, first hero? She won't even listen to you anyway."

"It doesn't matter, I want to try anyway, just in case." having said that, within a few minutes, a few corridors and some stairs, they reached the deepest cell in the dungeon.

It was very dark inside, they could barely see who or what was there, the light from the torches was too weak and distant to illuminate it properly, what's more, the air was rather frosty, water was even dripping from the ceiling, despite the fact that the latter, as well as the floor and walls, were made of nothing but stone.

"Couldn't you give me some light?" asked Gio to the guard, who agreed and gave him "Thank you."

Finally, he was able to see who the cell contained, none other than the wounded and chained demoness seen a few hours ago.

"Hey, how's it going?" unfortunately for him, he immediately realised that he was already off to a bad start. How did he want her to be, wounded, in chains, cold and soaked with water? He thought. So, after apologising to her, he told her that if she wanted, he could do something for her, something to help her.

The demoness did not even answer him, she knew it was impossible. Besides, why would he help her? But more importantly, who was this human? Why was he speaking to her with such kindness? Why had he gone as far as the deepest dungeon floor, where the worst criminals in the kingdom and beyond were imprisoned? Just to talk to her? Yes, apparently. What she did know, however, was that she had seen him in the throne room, a couple of steps away from the king. This could only mean that this human was someone important, someone very important.

"What, did they eat your tongue?" he smiled at her, not with malice, but with displeasure. After that, he started talking to her again "Well, to cut to the chase, since you don't seem to have any intention of arguing, I would like you to be my teacher, to teach me how to fight. After all, were you or were you not one of the seven generals of the demon kingdom?"

Suddenly, the fiery red eyes of the demoness, the same colour as her hair, lit up. Then, she raised her head, but not in his direction.

"Great, I see I more or less caught your attention. So, back to us. I've already discussed the matter with the king, of course, and it might even be fine with him, but.... On one condition. You must enter into a pact of servitude with me. In short, you will have to become my slave, so that if you try to rebel against me, your own blood will punish you. Or something like that, I don't really understand how this pact works. Despite the fact that in my old world magic wasn't absolutely unknown, at least in reality it wasn't viable."

"In... In your old world?"

"Yeah, in my old world." he slipped his hand past the iron bars of the cell "How do you do, Gio, the first hero."

"What... Are you doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"With that hand... What do you think you're doing?"

"Oh... No, nothing, never mind, my mistake." in this world, apparently, there was no such thing as a handshake.

"Anyway, do you accept or not? I know, I know... In order to obtain freedom, you should in any case give it up. But... I promise you one thing, I will pay you respect, just as a student should with their teacher. I will also not force you to do what you do not want."

The demoness, albeit with some difficulty, stood up. Until then she had been squatting on the ground in the right corner of the cell. She approached the bars, then looked him straight in the eyes.

"Alright, I will become your slave, but only and only if you never, ever force me to call you master."

"Well, and yet, I thought I made myself quite clear. My name is Gio, so, if you wish, you may call me that. To conclude, as I already told you, I won't force you to do anything you don't want, so, not even to call me master."

"Alright... If that's the case... I will become your slave, as well as teacher, Gio."

"Welcome aboard, then, Glilia." perhaps, in all his life, he had never smiled at someone as he was doing now with the demoness. He was happy, happy to have, in his opinion, saved her.

The day before, above one of the immense branches of an enormous tree, at least five times as large as the castle of the kingdom of Fraradar, an elf with long ash-grey hair and amethyst-coloured eyes, turned suddenly in the direction of the aforementioned kingdom, thinking "I can't... Believe it..." overcome with enthusiasm, he threw himself from the great branch, to reach another, and then another, and then another, shouting at the same time "She has arrived! She has arrived! The lady of the world tree has finally arrived!"