Eladrith. That was the name of the Elven Kingdom in front of us. Well, technically, we were seeing Nors, a large border town between the human kingdom of Mauv and Eladrith. Something that had become increasingly apparent, was just how large the world was. I knew it took something like six months to cross the united states on average. It had taken weeks just to get from the outskirts of a single human kingdom, to the entrance to an Elven one. I had, very specifically, not asked Konohora and instead Tyler and Riary how long it’d take to cross ‘The Heart’ as the known Territories were called. Both had simply shrugged. Riary had thrown out “Three years maybe, at a non-rank’s walking speed?” and that was that.
And no one knew how large the continent was, with The Wilds surrounding everything. That wasn’t even mentioning the coast and the possibility of other continents…
My heart beat harder just thinking about it. All of that untamed wilderness, all of that unexplored land. What on earth could be waiting out there… I felt a call to adventure, to find out. I had already made one fairly significant decision in the past week.
I was going to become an Adventurer. I wanted to explore, to travel, to see everything. It was practically in my blood. Earth was amazing, 100x better than any fantasy world, and rapidly improving. But it wasn’t perfect. Namely, it didn’t have magic. But in addition to that, it was explored. It was done. The animals and societies left undiscovered? Boring. Boring to me at least. The discoveries small. The most unexplored region were just jungles and anyone could roughly tell you what a jungle would have in it. At best, maybe you’d find some unknown ruins that no one else had… but so what? There were plenty of known, very impressive ruins.
Ero, it was like a gold mine that hadn’t been plundered. I didn’t need to be the first to see something, I just needed it to be actually interesting. Worth pursuing and finding in the first place. New races, new magic, new biomes, new cultures and civilizations. I wanted to see it all. And I’d get to start with Elves. I had seen exactly one elf. And so far, I hadn’t even seen a proper human village, let alone an elven town.
As we made our way towards Nors, that was rapidly dispelled. I saw merchant caravans outside the gate, both leaving and arriving. Paved roads seemingly heading out for miles deeper into the human kingdom. Seeing so many people, I instinctively reached for my robe, Konohora grabbing my hand before I could. She smiled brightly at me.
“You don’t have to try and hide here.”
That struck me. I hadn’t suffered years of abuse, or rampant discrimination. I hadn’t been forced into sewers or lived as an outcast. And yet still, at some point I had ingrained ‘I have to hide from people’. It was probably right after Riary tried to kill me the first time. The idea, the thought, the possibility that I could just… be a normal person… it galled me. I hadn’t, I hadn’t had any sort of normalcy or anything approaching it in weeks…
We approached the gate and the guards eyed me. Strangely, mostly with bafflement. I… expected hostility. The guards themselves were beautiful and clearly male. They were truly elven, looking thin in their… was that wooden armor?
It was. But clearly crafted or molded to such a degree that it looked almost… pure. Like I was looking at something that had grown out of the ground as armor. As I took another second to look around, I was stunned to realize something I had missed. Different colorations, different combinations, but most of the buildings and walls… were made entirely out wood. Not like how humans make wooden buildings, but as if I was just looking at very strange plants that had decided to grow into squares and rectangles.
Konohora chuckled beside me, as my mouth dropped. Even the guards expressions changed from bafflement to smirks.
“First time visiting an Elven Kingdom?”
“Yes.” I nodded, still staring at all the wood.
“Strange to see a demon around here. Stranger still to see one coming out of human territory. Accompanied by humans, I’d say there’s quite a story there.”
“Ha! Maybe, maybe.” Tyler spoke up. “But ultimately not much of one. He arrived by accident and now we’re simply escorting him out.”
The other guard shook his head.
“Humans escorting a demon. Now I’ve really seen everything. Well, go ahead. It’s two copper each for entrance. Stay out of trouble and enjoy your stay in Nors.”
Konohora quickly paid the man, simply handing out eight copper. On one hand, I felt bad about that, we all could have paid for ourselves. On the other hand, we had piles of gold. Vanessa had been loaded. It was almost like a friend paying a dollar entrance fee for everyone. It just really didn’t matter.
The second I entered into the town, my eyes fell onto everything. I knew I was gaping like a tourist, but I just couldn’t help myself. Being a border town, there was an almost half and half mix of Elves and Humans. The humans that saw me seemed to stop and freeze, moments away from either attacking me or running away. Well, some. Most just froze in terror. The elves saw me and the look in their eye was… awe? No. More like… wonder? Curiosity for sure. Apparently demons were rare, at least in Nors. Which made sense. What demon would want to be this close to so many people who hated them? Most of them would probably be in a different kingdom entirely.
Oh.
I just realized it. This may be the first time I’m seeing Elves and that was awesome. But this was also the first time many, any, of these random strangers were seeing a demon. And demons were… practically legendary figures from what I could gather. They had invaded, attacked one of the most known and strongest powers around, taken their territory, and ended the war in a ‘draw’. But most would probably say the demons won. After all, they kept the territory.
I just wanted to check out the architecture, to visit around, to go into small shops and inspect everything, buying useless but fun to own things. You know, be a tourist. But the stares I was getting… I suddenly felt like I was on a stage with how everyone looked at me. My wings may be safely folded away underneath my shirt, but there was no hiding my small horns or tail. Just when things were rapidly progressing towards ‘way way too awkward’ I felt a heavy hand land on my shoulder.
“Come on,” Said Tyler. “Let’s go get ourselves set up at an inn.” His smile was radiating and at that moment, I could see how Riary had clearly fallen for him. He seemed like a shining hero out of a legend or straight off an anime poster. I took a small breath and smiled back at him, thankful for the save. I didn’t look back at the people, just let Tyler lead the way.
It didn’t take long, I have no idea how he did it, but it took Tyler all of two minutes to find a good tavern. I say good but what I really meant was ‘probably reasonably priced’ as it didn’t look run down or expensive as hell either, yet still was huge. Relatively speaking, at least, compared to all the other buildings I had seen around.
Walking in, I couldn’t help but let a smile flow across my face. Everything was wood! And it looked, designed. There had to be magic at work. Sure, the tables and chairs to my right were clearly separate, but the counter wasn’t. It just grew right out of the floor. Not to mention something else… the tavern was very lively.
I looked to my right and saw the customers. We had gotten here a bit late in the day, the sun was still up, but it seemed everyone had started drinking early. There were humans and elves of all sorts, most carrying a weapon or two. There was a man playing a lute and more than a few drunks laughing loudly. I even saw my first dwarf! I tried, I really, really tried not to stare at him but damn. He was wide and had a beard that-
“Stop being an idiot already and come on! You can stare later you fucking creep.”
I looked over to Riary’s voice to see they were already leaving the front counter, two keys in hand. Apparently, while I’d been busy being impressed, they’d been getting our stay settled…
Part of me felt stupid for being impressed, most of me wanted to stick my tongue out at Riary. I followed through with the second, only to have her glare at me. I’m in a fantasy world, in a god damn Tavern! Let me have this!
For god’s sake, everything is so cool. That bearded dwarf looks amazing, how can you not be impressed?!
I looked to Tyler… only to see him also staring at the Dwarf, an awed expression on his face.
I smirked back at Riary, only to see her begin to fume and start to tear into Tyler with things like ‘your brain must be full of rocks’ and ‘into bearded men now huh?!’ as we went to find a table. The second, the actual, single second my ass hit the chair, I nearly collapsed. My head nearly slamming into the table.
I had made it. I was here. No more human kingdom, no more potential racism (more or less), no more death. I could feel pretty far around me with my gauge, and not a single person felt like a threat. I couldn’t exactly feel the whole entire town, so there were probably extremely strong people somewhere around, but I had no reason to piss them off.
I was… free. I put my arms down in front of me and just rested my head in them for a second.
“Derek?” Tyler asked, sounding a bit worried.
“I’m free. I’m fucking free.”
“Huh?”
I looked back up, and all three looked concerned. Riary looked a bit concerned I was suddenly going to reveal I had been evil this whole time and was about to eat them, but still, she at least looked concerned.
“I’m free. No more vampires or goblins or ogres or, no offense, fire mages. No more evil baron or mental bullshit. No more being in a country that will kill me if they knew I was there. I can just… finally rest. Take a fucking vacation after, god, it hasn’t even been a month but it feels like years. I have enough money to take care of my needs, maybe even find a place to live here if I wanted. I can just, do whatever I damn well please now. It’s so fucking liberating. I feel exhausted.”
The others listened, Tyler nodding seriously, Riary looking a bit uncomfortable, and Konohora smiling widely. Tyler was the first to speak up.
“Well, I know the first thing you can do with your new found ‘freedom’.”
“And what’s that?”
He smiled wide, looking at a nearby barmaid, which nearly made my mind go haywire. It wasn’t just any elf. It was a Dark Elf! Dark purple-ish skin, stunningly beautiful, white hair, red eyes, and her chest… well, I was pretty certain I knew why she was hired specifically. Those things were huge…
Tyler! You can’t be suggesting I, that we…
“Drink!”
Phew. Tyler you’re a good buddy, a good pal, but I wasn’t exactly ready to become brothers like that with you.
The barmaid came over, and I made a very, very concerted effort not to stare at her. Was she shockingly, earth-quakingly beautiful? Hell yes. Was she even more beautiful, because she was extremely exotic in my eyes and carried all of the allure a foreign, impossible, woman did? Yes. Was she almost straight out of one of my fantasies? For sure.
Which meant I failed. I failed really bad as she came over and asked if we wanted any food with our beer. I failed again, as she came back, delivering our drinks. I said almost nothing, doing my absolute best to pull my eyes down to the table.
The other three were laughing at me, chuckling lightly.
“Never seen a Dark Elf before?” Konohora asked, a smile on her lips.
“Of course not! I didn’t even know they were for sure a race here until I saw her…”
That earned me strange, owlish blinks from Konohora and Riary. I just shrugged. The truth was the truth. Something seemed to light up in Konohora’s gaze and she opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, that same elf came over.
Came over and talked directly to me.
“Hey stranger. Don’t see many demons around here. Safe to say you’re the only one I’ve ever seen at least. Having trouble keeping your eyes away?”
I was flat footed for all of half a second, not expecting her to show back up and talk to me. Or for her to talk to me in a clearly flirtatious tone. My mind blanked for a moment, the way any guy’s mind does when a beautiful woman comes out of nowhere and actually shows any interest.
But I was fully down for it in a heartbeat.
I couldn’t help but smile wide, looking back up at her smirking face.
“Well, you know how it is. Hard to stop looking at beautiful things. I’ve never seen a Dark Elf until now either. First for both of us. I’m Derek, nice to meet you.”
“Silinthia. And I’d love for us to show each other a few more ‘Firsts’ Derek.”
She said that, smile in her voice and on her face, and fucking winked at me. For the first time, the very first time, I greatly enjoyed the fact that I was a demon. I had strong suspicions that I was just as exotic to Silinthia, as she was to me. That thought practically lit my mind up like a christmas tree with euphoria. I could be the hot, foreign, and exotic beauty to people!
Fuck you and your handsome face Tyler! I’ve got my own means of victory! Bwhaha!
Just as I was about to respond positively and really kick off my vacation the right way, Tyler coughed across from me. I blinked and looked over to my three ‘companions’ only to see very uncomfortable looks on their faces. Especially Riary, for some reason. What, did you think I was celibate or something? I’m a warm blooded man with an attractive woman, why wouldn’t I flirt?! No, more importantly, why are you interrupting, couldn’t you have waited for a few more minutes?!
Gasp. Don’t tell me you’re trying to cockblock me?!
I raised an eyebrow and both Konohora and Riary looked to Tyler, who seemed to despair.
“Derek…” He looked to Silinthia, who also had an eyebrow raised. “Dark Elves… are… they have… you wouldn’t know because you’ve just arrived to the world but…” He kept making glances at Silinthia, whose expression seemed to be cooling, fast.
“...Dark Elves are all men.”
Silinthia went from calm, to looking like she was offended as fuck the next moment. I actually thought she was about to kill Tyler. Konohora’s eyes shot open and glared at Tyler, only to quickly speak.
“No, what Tyler should have said is that all Dark Elves are Futanaries.”
I blinked, turning back to Silinthia, who had not just yet gotten done glaring at Tyler. Konohora was also glaring at him, while Tyler seemed to be trying to hide as he sunk deep into his chair. Riary still just had a very complicated expression on her face, no doubt remembering the last futa she had met.
Silinthia finally turned back to me, attempting to smile, but it was an incredibly fragile thing. I understood in an instant. She thought I already knew. She thought I knew and was interested and was fully down to do it with her.
Well, sad to say, there was only one response I could give after that bombshell.
“That’s awesome. When and where do you want to meet up?”
Silinthia smiled widely, joy and happiness practically radiating outwards from her.
“You’re staying for at least a night right? I’m on the third floor, sixth room on the right. Come after the third bell for dinner. I’ll be waiting.”
With that, she continued smiling and walked away to serve other customers. I looked back around… only to see my three ‘companions’ looking at me in shock. I blinked.
“What?”
Tyler was the first to speak.
“I… I… didn’t know you were… uh… you don’t seem…”
My face went deadpan. Oh. It was one of these things.
“Did you know I liked oranges or the color blue? Or that my favorite instrument is the drums? There’s no ‘seem’ with interests Tyler. Drink your beer.”
Tyler promptly shut up, having shoved his foot in his mouth twice in the span of about five minutes. I was a bit more snappy than I needed to be, but I had lived a whole twenty five years on the planet of earth. At least a decade of that, had been with bullshit from those people over nothing.
‘Wow, you’re bi? You don’t seem it at all!’ ‘Being bi isn’t real.’ ‘You can’t like both.’ And so on, and so forth.
Riary isn’t the only one with some ingrained hatred.
The atmosphere was awkward for a moment… but only a moment. The beer this time was much stronger and soon, we were all at least a little buzzed. Tyler began to awkwardly make some apologies I waved away, Riary made new annoying jokes that we sniped each other back and forth with. My favorite was ‘You’re horns is the fungus growing out of your head’ and ‘You’re so hot that it’s a miracle you haven’t gone into heat around anyone’ while pointedly looking at Tyler, who was busy talking to Konohora. She really didn’t hide that interest well, it was a miracle Tyler hadn’t noticed, as she once more blushed like a tomato at that particular joke. He reminded me more and more of an isekai protagonist the more I knew him. As for Konohora, it seems she had, to her great relief, gotten over her Penance and now could talk normally to people without being stuck telling ‘the whole truth’ for hours on end.
Beer flowed, but I made sure to stop before getting properly drunk. No drunk sex! Never again! It only takes one bottle going where it should never have gone to firmly and steadily convince you of that.
The other three continued to drink and drink and I understood. We had all almost died. This was as much a celebration as drowning ourselves in alcohol because of that same experience. Victory and trauma! The reason to drink the world over! I’d be joining in, really reveling in our sensation of being alive and hearty, but I had a different idea for stress relief coming up after our long, long journey.
When dinner was getting started, I excused myself, after finding out my own room number. I’d be sharing with Tyler. It wasn’t exactly time to go meet a certain beautiful woman just yet but…. well… it had been a very long trip.
I needed to go take a god damn shower.
Eladrith. That was the name of the Elven Kingdom in front of us. Well, technically, we were seeing Nors, a large border town between the human kingdom of Mauv and Eladrith. Something that had become increasingly apparent, was just how large the world was. I knew it took something like six months to cross the united states on average. It had taken weeks just to get from the outskirts of a single human kingdom, to the entrance to an Elven one. I had, very specifically, not asked Konohora and instead Tyler and Riary how long it’d take to cross ‘The Heart’ as the known Territories were called. Both had simply shrugged. Riary had thrown out “Three years maybe, at a non-rank’s walking speed?” and that was that.
And no one knew how large the continent was, with The Wilds surrounding everything. That wasn’t even mentioning the coast and the possibility of other continents…
My heart beat harder just thinking about it. All of that untamed wilderness, all of that unexplored land. What on earth could be waiting out there… I felt a call to adventure, to find out. I had already made one fairly significant decision in the past week.
I was going to become an Adventurer. I wanted to explore, to travel, to see everything. It was practically in my blood. Earth was amazing, 100x better than any fantasy world, and rapidly improving. But it wasn’t perfect. Namely, it didn’t have magic. But in addition to that, it was explored. It was done. The animals and societies left undiscovered? Boring. Boring to me at least. The discoveries small. The most unexplored region were just jungles and anyone could roughly tell you what a jungle would have in it. At best, maybe you’d find some unknown ruins that no one else had… but so what? There were plenty of known, very impressive ruins.
Ero, it was like a gold mine that hadn’t been plundered. I didn’t need to be the first to see something, I just needed it to be actually interesting. Worth pursuing and finding in the first place. New races, new magic, new biomes, new cultures and civilizations. I wanted to see it all. And I’d get to start with Elves. I had seen exactly one elf. And so far, I hadn’t even seen a proper human village, let alone an elven town.
As we made our way towards Nors, that was rapidly dispelled. I saw merchant caravans outside the gate, both leaving and arriving. Paved roads seemingly heading out for miles deeper into the human kingdom. Seeing so many people, I instinctively reached for my robe, Konohora grabbing my hand before I could. She smiled brightly at me.
“You don’t have to try and hide here.”
That struck me. I hadn’t suffered years of abuse, or rampant discrimination. I hadn’t been forced into sewers or lived as an outcast. And yet still, at some point I had ingrained ‘I have to hide from people’. It was probably right after Riary tried to kill me the first time. The idea, the thought, the possibility that I could just… be a normal person… it galled me. I hadn’t, I hadn’t had any sort of normalcy or anything approaching it in weeks…
We approached the gate and the guards eyed me. Strangely, mostly with bafflement. I… expected hostility. The guards themselves were beautiful and clearly male. They were truly elven, looking thin in their… was that wooden armor?
It was. But clearly crafted or molded to such a degree that it looked almost… pure. Like I was looking at something that had grown out of the ground as armor. As I took another second to look around, I was stunned to realize something I had missed. Different colorations, different combinations, but most of the buildings and walls… were made entirely out wood. Not like how humans make wooden buildings, but as if I was just looking at very strange plants that had decided to grow into squares and rectangles.
Konohora chuckled beside me, as my mouth dropped. Even the guards expressions changed from bafflement to smirks.
“First time visiting an Elven Kingdom?”
“Yes.” I nodded, still staring at all the wood.
“Strange to see a demon around here. Stranger still to see one coming out of human territory. Accompanied by humans, I’d say there’s quite a story there.”
“Ha! Maybe, maybe.” Tyler spoke up. “But ultimately not much of one. He arrived by accident and now we’re simply escorting him out.”
The other guard shook his head.
“Humans escorting a demon. Now I’ve really seen everything. Well, go ahead. It’s two copper each for entrance. Stay out of trouble and enjoy your stay in Nors.”
Konohora quickly paid the man, simply handing out eight copper. On one hand, I felt bad about that, we all could have paid for ourselves. On the other hand, we had piles of gold. Vanessa had been loaded. It was almost like a friend paying a dollar entrance fee for everyone. It just really didn’t matter.
The second I entered into the town, my eyes fell onto everything. I knew I was gaping like a tourist, but I just couldn’t help myself. Being a border town, there was an almost half and half mix of Elves and Humans. The humans that saw me seemed to stop and freeze, moments away from either attacking me or running away. Well, some. Most just froze in terror. The elves saw me and the look in their eye was… awe? No. More like… wonder? Curiosity for sure. Apparently demons were rare, at least in Nors. Which made sense. What demon would want to be this close to so many people who hated them? Most of them would probably be in a different kingdom entirely.
Oh.
I just realized it. This may be the first time I’m seeing Elves and that was awesome. But this was also the first time many, any, of these random strangers were seeing a demon. And demons were… practically legendary figures from what I could gather. They had invaded, attacked one of the most known and strongest powers around, taken their territory, and ended the war in a ‘draw’. But most would probably say the demons won. After all, they kept the territory.
I just wanted to check out the architecture, to visit around, to go into small shops and inspect everything, buying useless but fun to own things. You know, be a tourist. But the stares I was getting… I suddenly felt like I was on a stage with how everyone looked at me. My wings may be safely folded away underneath my shirt, but there was no hiding my small horns or tail. Just when things were rapidly progressing towards ‘way way too awkward’ I felt a heavy hand land on my shoulder.
“Come on,” Said Tyler. “Let’s go get ourselves set up at an inn.” His smile was radiating and at that moment, I could see how Riary had clearly fallen for him. He seemed like a shining hero out of a legend or straight off an anime poster. I took a small breath and smiled back at him, thankful for the save. I didn’t look back at the people, just let Tyler lead the way.
It didn’t take long, I have no idea how he did it, but it took Tyler all of two minutes to find a good tavern. I say good but what I really meant was ‘probably reasonably priced’ as it didn’t look run down or expensive as hell either, yet still was huge. Relatively speaking, at least, compared to all the other buildings I had seen around.
Walking in, I couldn’t help but let a smile flow across my face. Everything was wood! And it looked, designed. There had to be magic at work. Sure, the tables and chairs to my right were clearly separate, but the counter wasn’t. It just grew right out of the floor. Not to mention something else… the tavern was very lively.
I looked to my right and saw the customers. We had gotten here a bit late in the day, the sun was still up, but it seemed everyone had started drinking early. There were humans and elves of all sorts, most carrying a weapon or two. There was a man playing a lute and more than a few drunks laughing loudly. I even saw my first dwarf! I tried, I really, really tried not to stare at him but damn. He was wide and had a beard that-
“Stop being an idiot already and come on! You can stare later you fucking creep.”
I looked over to Riary’s voice to see they were already leaving the front counter, two keys in hand. Apparently, while I’d been busy being impressed, they’d been getting our stay settled…
Part of me felt stupid for being impressed, most of me wanted to stick my tongue out at Riary. I followed through with the second, only to have her glare at me. I’m in a fantasy world, in a god damn Tavern! Let me have this!
For god’s sake, everything is so cool. That bearded dwarf looks amazing, how can you not be impressed?!
I looked to Tyler… only to see him also staring at the Dwarf, an awed expression on his face.
I smirked back at Riary, only to see her begin to fume and start to tear into Tyler with things like ‘your brain must be full of rocks’ and ‘into bearded men now huh?!’ as we went to find a table. The second, the actual, single second my ass hit the chair, I nearly collapsed. My head nearly slamming into the table.
I had made it. I was here. No more human kingdom, no more potential racism (more or less), no more death. I could feel pretty far around me with my gauge, and not a single person felt like a threat. I couldn’t exactly feel the whole entire town, so there were probably extremely strong people somewhere around, but I had no reason to piss them off.
I was… free. I put my arms down in front of me and just rested my head in them for a second.
“Derek?” Tyler asked, sounding a bit worried.
“I’m free. I’m fucking free.”
“Huh?”
I looked back up, and all three looked concerned. Riary looked a bit concerned I was suddenly going to reveal I had been evil this whole time and was about to eat them, but still, she at least looked concerned.
“I’m free. No more vampires or goblins or ogres or, no offense, fire mages. No more evil baron or mental bullshit. No more being in a country that will kill me if they knew I was there. I can just… finally rest. Take a fucking vacation after, god, it hasn’t even been a month but it feels like years. I have enough money to take care of my needs, maybe even find a place to live here if I wanted. I can just, do whatever I damn well please now. It’s so fucking liberating. I feel exhausted.”
The others listened, Tyler nodding seriously, Riary looking a bit uncomfortable, and Konohora smiling widely. Tyler was the first to speak up.
“Well, I know the first thing you can do with your new found ‘freedom’.”
“And what’s that?”
He smiled wide, looking at a nearby barmaid, which nearly made my mind go haywire. It wasn’t just any elf. It was a Dark Elf! Dark purple-ish skin, stunningly beautiful, white hair, red eyes, and her chest… well, I was pretty certain I knew why she was hired specifically. Those things were huge…
Tyler! You can’t be suggesting I, that we…
“Drink!”
Phew. Tyler you’re a good buddy, a good pal, but I wasn’t exactly ready to become brothers like that with you.
The barmaid came over, and I made a very, very concerted effort not to stare at her. Was she shockingly, earth-quakingly beautiful? Hell yes. Was she even more beautiful, because she was extremely exotic in my eyes and carried all of the allure a foreign, impossible, woman did? Yes. Was she almost straight out of one of my fantasies? For sure.
Which meant I failed. I failed really bad as she came over and asked if we wanted any food with our beer. I failed again, as she came back, delivering our drinks. I said almost nothing, doing my absolute best to pull my eyes down to the table.
The other three were laughing at me, chuckling lightly.
“Never seen a Dark Elf before?” Konohora asked, a smile on her lips.
“Of course not! I didn’t even know they were for sure a race here until I saw her…”
That earned me strange, owlish blinks from Konohora and Riary. I just shrugged. The truth was the truth. Something seemed to light up in Konohora’s gaze and she opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, that same elf came over.
Came over and talked directly to me.
“Hey stranger. Don’t see many demons around here. Safe to say you’re the only one I’ve ever seen at least. Having trouble keeping your eyes away?”
I was flat footed for all of half a second, not expecting her to show back up and talk to me. Or for her to talk to me in a clearly flirtatious tone. My mind blanked for a moment, the way any guy’s mind does when a beautiful woman comes out of nowhere and actually shows any interest.
But I was fully down for it in a heartbeat.
I couldn’t help but smile wide, looking back up at her smirking face.
“Well, you know how it is. Hard to stop looking at beautiful things. I’ve never seen a Dark Elf until now either. First for both of us. I’m Derek, nice to meet you.”
“Silinthia. And I’d love for us to show each other a few more ‘Firsts’ Derek.”
She said that, smile in her voice and on her face, and fucking winked at me. For the first time, the very first time, I greatly enjoyed the fact that I was a demon. I had strong suspicions that I was just as exotic to Silinthia, as she was to me. That thought practically lit my mind up like a christmas tree with euphoria. I could be the hot, foreign, and exotic beauty to people!
Fuck you and your handsome face Tyler! I’ve got my own means of victory! Bwhaha!
Just as I was about to respond positively and really kick off my vacation the right way, Tyler coughed across from me. I blinked and looked over to my three ‘companions’ only to see very uncomfortable looks on their faces. Especially Riary, for some reason. What, did you think I was celibate or something? I’m a warm blooded man with an attractive woman, why wouldn’t I flirt?! No, more importantly, why are you interrupting, couldn’t you have waited for a few more minutes?!
Gasp. Don’t tell me you’re trying to cockblock me?!
I raised an eyebrow and both Konohora and Riary looked to Tyler, who seemed to despair.
“Derek…” He looked to Silinthia, who also had an eyebrow raised. “Dark Elves… are… they have… you wouldn’t know because you’ve just arrived to the world but…” He kept making glances at Silinthia, whose expression seemed to be cooling, fast.
“...Dark Elves are all men.”
Silinthia went from calm, to looking like she was offended as fuck the next moment. I actually thought she was about to kill Tyler. Konohora’s eyes shot open and glared at Tyler, only to quickly speak.
“No, what Tyler should have said is that all Dark Elves are Futanaries.”
I blinked, turning back to Silinthia, who had not just yet gotten done glaring at Tyler. Konohora was also glaring at him, while Tyler seemed to be trying to hide as he sunk deep into his chair. Riary still just had a very complicated expression on her face, no doubt remembering the last futa she had met.
Silinthia finally turned back to me, attempting to smile, but it was an incredibly fragile thing. I understood in an instant. She thought I already knew. She thought I knew and was interested and was fully down to do it with her.
Well, sad to say, there was only one response I could give after that bombshell.
“That’s awesome. When and where do you want to meet up?”
Silinthia smiled widely, joy and happiness practically radiating outwards from her.
“You’re staying for at least a night right? I’m on the third floor, sixth room on the right. Come after the third bell for dinner. I’ll be waiting.”
With that, she continued smiling and walked away to serve other customers. I looked back around… only to see my three ‘companions’ looking at me in shock. I blinked.
“What?”
Tyler was the first to speak.
“I… I… didn’t know you were… uh… you don’t seem…”
My face went deadpan. Oh. It was one of these things.
“Did you know I liked oranges or the color blue? Or that my favorite instrument is the drums? There’s no ‘seem’ with interests Tyler. Drink your beer.”
Tyler promptly shut up, having shoved his foot in his mouth twice in the span of about five minutes. I was a bit more snappy than I needed to be, but I had lived a whole twenty five years on the planet of earth. At least a decade of that, had been with bullshit from those people over nothing.
‘Wow, you’re bi? You don’t seem it at all!’ ‘Being bi isn’t real.’ ‘You can’t like both.’ And so on, and so forth.
Riary isn’t the only one with some ingrained hatred.
The atmosphere was awkward for a moment… but only a moment. The beer this time was much stronger and soon, we were all at least a little buzzed. Tyler began to awkwardly make some apologies I waved away, Riary made new annoying jokes that we sniped each other back and forth with. My favorite was ‘You’re horns is the fungus growing out of your head’ and ‘You’re so hot that it’s a miracle you haven’t gone into heat around anyone’ while pointedly looking at Tyler, who was busy talking to Konohora. She really didn’t hide that interest well, it was a miracle Tyler hadn’t noticed, as she once more blushed like a tomato at that particular joke. He reminded me more and more of an isekai protagonist the more I knew him. As for Konohora, it seems she had, to her great relief, gotten over her Penance and now could talk normally to people without being stuck telling ‘the whole truth’ for hours on end.
Beer flowed, but I made sure to stop before getting properly drunk. No drunk sex! Never again! It only takes one bottle going where it should never have gone to firmly and steadily convince you of that.
The other three continued to drink and drink and I understood. We had all almost died. This was as much a celebration as drowning ourselves in alcohol because of that same experience. Victory and trauma! The reason to drink the world over! I’d be joining in, really reveling in our sensation of being alive and hearty, but I had a different idea for stress relief coming up after our long, long journey.
When dinner was getting started, I excused myself, after finding out my own room number. I’d be sharing with Tyler. It wasn’t exactly time to go meet a certain beautiful woman just yet but…. well… it had been a very long trip.
I needed to go take a god damn shower.
