Backstabbing

After a little while of sitting around and trying to catch a breath, the Imp stood back up properly put his cloak back on while Clementine stood up as well, wiping tears out of her eyes.

Seeing that she was obviously still scared, the Imp slowly extended his hand toward her's and slowly grabbed it. It relaxed him when Avalin did it, so he was hoping it would relax Clementine as well, although she just looked at the Imp surprised for a moment.

"Let's go." The Imp told her, and Clementine slowly nodded her head, before the Imp made sure that she was really properly wearing the cloak to cover as much of her body as possible.

Slowly, the two of them then made their way over toward the next castle, the castle belonging to the Lord of Pride.

And the closer that they got to that castle, the stronger the change in the environment got. The streets that were covered in blood and meat practically everywhere in the area for gluttony were now as spotless as they could be, and there were barely any Demons around, although the few that were there looked at The Imp and Clementine with twisted expressions of disgust.

For now, the Imp ignored it, because it was a good thing they were able to just rush through there without an issue. But the first problem came when they reached the castle and were met with the guard that stood in front of the set of stairs leading up to the room the Imp needed to get to.

"Don't enter, you Mongrel." The Guard said, immediately pointing its weapon toward the Imp and Clementine. The Imp wanted to immediately use this chance to attack, but before he could do that, a small thought in the back of the Imp's head was trying to tell him to act, to say something that might get this Guard away.

"I... Don't want to enter." The Imp said, and the Guard looked at the Imp with a twisted expression of anger and annoyance. "Huh? You don't want to go see our almighty Lord? What are you, a liar?" The Guard asked angrily, but the Imp just shook his head without hesitation.

"Who would want to go see such a useless, disgusting Lord?" With a mocking voice, the Imp just stared at the Guard, who was looking down at him with pure anger, even if it wasn't comparable to the anger that the Lord of Wrath showed.

While Clementine was grasping the Imp's hand more tightly, scared at what was going on, the Imp himself just kept staring forward at the Guard, who was seemingly about to attack the Imp and Clementine, but the Imp figured out a reason why he wouldn't.

"If you kill me, you will make the entrance to your Lord's castle dirty. I don't think he will like that. How about you let the Lord himself kill me? He is the one I insulted, not you." The Imp pointed out, and the Guard immediately nodded its head, stepping behind the Imp and Clementine to 'force' them up the stairs, even though that was exactly what they wanted. And on their way up, the Imp was really quickly trying to come up with what he could possibly say to trick them, and then, all of a sudden, a number of notifications that the Imp didn't expect appeared.

[Proficiency Boost Deactivated. Skill 'Apprentice Common Language Comprehension' will now level up like normal]

[As a bonus for upgrading your skill through this boost, you will gain extra proficiency]

[Apprentice Common Language Comprehension Skill Leveled Up!]

[Apprentice Common Language Comprehension Skill Leveled Up!]

...

...

...

[Apprentice Common Language Comprehension Skill Leveled Up!]

[Apprentice Common Language Comprehension hit Level 100 and became Intermediate Common Language Comprehension]

Immediately, the Imp felt something in his mind click. All the words that he had heard up until now, that he had read up until now, and that he had misunderstood up until now were starting to make far more sense than he ever could have imagined.

It was like someone ripped open a door that was only opened for a thin slit until now. And with that, the Imp understood the meaning behind some words as well, not just the meaning that words themselves had. He truly figured out what lies were, and why you told them, and in what situations which lies were best used.

But instead of being able to think about lies, there was one single truth that crossed the Imp's mind, which he couldn't resist but voice in a low, mumbling voice.

"Skills are truly amazing, aren't they..?" The Imp asked himself with a whisper, and soon enough, when he finally reached the top floor that the stairs were connected to, a large open room with a similar structure as the two others the Imp had seen until now.

And while seeing the figure at the other side of the hall, staring down into the center of the room toward the young girl sitting there on her knees, her forehead pressed against the ground in fear as she was practically begging, the Imp remembered one of the stories from the book about the 'Minor Arcana', the different cards that the Imp had collected two of so far.

The story was about a Beggar, who had gotten more power to his voice through an ability given to him by the Arcane Dealer, the Four of Pentacles. Using that voice, the Beggar collected more and more money and became a rich man, until a knight brought him to the King after finding out about his ability. Without hesitation, the Beggar managed to convince the King that the Knight was a traitor, and the Knight was executed without anyone else finding out about his voice, and the Beggar was given a noble title and land with as much money as he could imagine. He was later killed by one of his servants because he didn't voice his wishes properly, but that was beside the point. Using the speech that the Imp read there and could remember quite well, he figured he might be able to convince the Lord of Pride if he really tried.

When the Lord of Pride spotted the Imp, Clementine, and the Guard escorting them, his expression became sour. "What do you think you are doing, interrupting me like this?" The Lord asked, and the Guard immediately started to speak, while the Imp grabbed Clementine's hand and started to sprint forward.

"This wicke-"

"My Lord! I came to warn you!" The Imp interrupted the Guard, surprising not only the Guard himself and Clementine, but also Sammy, who didn't expect to hear the Imp's voice all of a sudden. Or ever again, to be exact.

Taking advantage of the momentary confusion, the Imp grabbed Clementine's hand tighter and continued running forward, pushing Clementine in front of himself. "I know I am not much to look at, My Lord, but please, listen to me! I am nothing but a mere Imp, looking up to such a Prideful ruler such as you! I always wanted to show you how much even those Demons with sins other than Pride look up to you! And then, I finally found the perfect gift!" The Imp exclaimed, trying his best to change the speech from the story to fit his needs better, before he momentarily ground his teeth and pulled his hand away from Clementine before holding both of them toward her, while Clementine looked at the Imp with confused fear, and Sammy stared at him with pure disgust.

"This Human has the ability to take any injury of another onto herself. Any sort, without any danger of her death! Not only is this chivalrous, but a pure sign of Pride! You understand what I mean, don't you, my Lord?" The Imp asked with an excited, broad grin, while the Guard who had brought them up here looked at the Imp with anger, shaking his head vehemently.

"That is not true, Lord! This Imp was insulting you!" The Guard exclaimed angrily, but the Lord of Pride, seemingly amused and curious, looked at the Imp. "Now how does that make sense? It is true that it is a wonderfully prideful present, of course." The Lord started, and the Imp's expression for a moment nearly dropped, because he didn't really expect that the Lord would really believe the Imp's rambling, but before anything happened, the Lord continued.

"Now you, who has come with an offering, I will give you the right to speak first." The Lord said benevolently, and although the Imp was confused, thinking that he was already speaking first anyway, the young Demon took the chance.

"It is not I that insulted you, my Lord, but rather this fiend! When I told him about how much I look up to you and wanted to give you this gift, the Guard simply tried to take her from me, saying that you, my Lord, are not deserving of such a wonderful present! He much more wanted to take it for himself!" The Imp explained, and while the Guard's expression twisted in Horror, the Lord of Pride stared past the Imp, Clementine and Sammy and looked right at the Guard.

"Is that true?" The Lord asked, slowly standing up from the throne he was sitting on, before he started making his way over toward that Guard in an intimidating manner.

Once the Lord was too far away to hear him whisper, the Imp immediately kneeled down next to Sammy and made sure that she could stand. It seemed like she wanted him to get away from her, because she was purely disgusted, but she stopped when the Imp whispered into her ear.

"I'm going to attack him. When I do, take Clementine and run out the door. I will be right behind you. But be careful, she's still hurt, and the stairs are steep." The Imp told her, before immediately standing back up like normal and followed behind the Lord of Pride, leaving a baffled Sammy right next to Clementine.

The Impalso used the chance where he was kneeling down to fiddle with some things and pushed the Three of Swords back underneath the cloth. All that the Imp had to do was to injure the Lord even slightly, and then he would be unable to move for a few moments. The Imp first saw this effect on the Lord of Wrath, after all, so it obviously also worked on them.

"Don't listen to a mongrel like that, Lord!" The Guard said, even though exactly that sentence was his downfall. With his head twisted upward and his eyes looking downward onto the Guard, the Lord just stared at the Guard and extended his hand forward to the Guards head, grasping it completely with a single hand. "Do not command me." The Lord said, and the moment that the Imp heard the first crack in the Guard Demon's skull, he pushed his mana out of his hand to once more create such an explosive attack as before.

"Sammy, Clementine!" The Imp exclaimed, while a flash of golden-white light appeared around the Imp's hand while a thread started connecting the Imp's dagger with a ring that just appeared on his finger, and was pushed deeply into the Lord of Pride's back.

[Lord of Pride -612 Damage]

[-436 Health]

With a shocked expression, the Lord stared at the Imp behind him while the clattering of footsteps could be heard while Sammy and Clementine sprinted past them toward the stairs. There weren't any guards in this room, luckily, so the girls could just enter the staircase immediately.

And just when the Imp pulled the dagger back out of the Lord's back, he got an idea for how he might be able to avert the attention from himself and the girls to another troublesome enemy.

"This is a Message from the Lord of Wrath. Answer it, if your pride allows you to."