That Pasty Twerp

Walking doesn’t suit me.

It’s just so much... exertion, you know?

And it’s so slow.

And it leaves me with little to do but to think.

How have I fucked up so badly?

No really, how?

Siiiiighhh...

I had one task to perform. Just one! It wasn’t a particularly pleasant task, but it was by no means difficult.

“You've grown soft.”

Those words that Ves said that day... they’ve been echoing in my head.

She’s right. I have gotten soft.

Lazy too, I suppose.

Complacent?

It’s not like I haven’t had enough time. I’ve had more than enough time, in fact. I could have wrapped this up years ago. It would have been so easy to have finished this years ago.

But I didn’t.

I’ve just left it festering.

And now, on top of it all, I’ve gotten soft.

I’ve known that lizard for what, a day?

He’s just some brat from a hick village. A species not even part of the Alliance.

His life is literally of no consequence.

If a fly was buzzing around your head and you swatted it, nobody would blink an eye. You wouldn’t even feel guilty about it. You wouldn’t spare it another thought.

And yet, I’ve been agonising about this fly for over a week.

What the hell?

And the worst part is that the longer I leave this, the more attached I’m going to get. I just know it.

Vessandra needs to die. There’s no way for me to get around that.

If I kill Lintel, Vessandra will die too. It would be unavoidable for her.

I promised him that I’d try to break their chain, but it’s very likely that’ll be impossible.

And if that comes to pass... the only option left is that I kill Lintel.

That’s the basic summary of the situation.

A year.

He may just be a fly, but he’s still innocent in this situation. I could possibly use that as leverage.

I think I can get away with waiting one year.

If I can’t separate Ves from Lintel after one year, I’ll resolve myself to kill him and put an end to it.

They’ve been waiting four years already. Surely they can wait one more.

And by the time the year is done, I need to be fully prepared. I mustn't let myself grow too attached.

Need to put some distance between us.

...yes, that is going to be hard, isn’t it?

The fact that I’m going through this much trouble after just a week is proof of that.

And now, if only that was the only problem.

To complicate matters, I’ve got this pasty twerp on my ass that I have to deal with as well.

Can I be honest for a second?

It’s been decades since demons were added to the alliance, as a result of the Demon Wars. Decades!

But I swear, humans are still just as racist as they’ve always been.

I can practically feel the look of disgust Ravana wears when he looks at me, the suspicious glares he gives me.

Listen boy, just because I’m a demon doesn’t mean I’m up to no good!

Well, I guess I have been up to no good. But still!

That’s in the past. I’m walking the straight and narrow for now on.

At least for a year.

And to make matters worse, Lintel has no sense of discretion.

Whenever Ravana goes to give him treatment, they start chattering away. I’m sure that Ravana has worked out pretty much exactly what’s happened by now.

Lintel isn’t exactly what I’d call the brightest, so even if Ves has explained the specific political situation to him, I doubt he’d understand. And I doubt I’d have to worry about Ravana piecing it together either.

But at the very least, I’m sure he’s figured out that I was using Lintel as a sacrificial pawn.

When I talked to Lintel, Ravana just blurted out that he’s going to join us!

Excuse me? You couldn’t have thought of talking to me about that before?

Lintel seems to practically worship that brat, though why I cannot possibly fathom. So it’s not like I could just say no.

You damned rascal, looking so adorably happy...

Siiiiighhh.

And now onto the most pressing issue: that pasty twerp is now leading me into the middle of an open field.

He just came up to me, said “follow me”, and took off! And we’ve been walking for 20 minutes since!

Huff, huff.

Listen, there’s a reason I travel by carriage!

I don’t have the constitution to be climbing up hills!

This would be fine if I was still in my prime, but I’m a little past that.

Oof, that makes me sound old.

I’m fairly young for a demon, so I promise you that’s not what I meant.

But damaging my soul twice has put me in an extremely weak state.

You can’t heal a broken soul, but I’ve got to find some sort of workaround fast. This is just embarrassing.

You might be wondering, why Roxy? Why are you out taking a trek into the wilderness with this human?

Well, the answer is that I’m pretty sure I know why Ravana’s making me come out here.

He’s been extremely suspicious of me this whole time, so my best guess is that he’s finally taking an opportunity to take me out of the picture.

I’ve been wondering why he’s been lurking around Tonta, and I think I’ve finally figured it out.

It’s because of me.

He must have thought it was odd to see a demon ambling about in the dead zone between two human kingdoms, and decided to stake me out. Waiting for me to make any sort of move.

Now that he basically knows what I was doing here, he’s decided that it would be best to take me out.

So why am I going along with him, knowing that?

Well, this is a chance for me to take him out too, right?

I’m in a weakened state, but he looks barely on the cusp of adulthood, and super scrawny at that.

Maybe he has some sort of plan, but he hasn’t exactly come off as particularly resourceful so far, so I think that there’s a decent chance I could beat him.

Lintel really likes him though, so it’d be pretty awkward to go back and tell him “oh, by the way, I killed Ravana”...

I’ll have to think of some sort of cover story, but I can worry about that later.

He’s still bedridden, so it’s not like I have to worry about him investigating immediately.

On the other hand, if Ravana kills me...

...

Mmm, yes, that would be the worst case scenario.

If I’m taken out of the picture before Ves is separated, you can bet they’ll send someone else to kill him.

Someone who won’t hesitate.

And on my pride as a demon, I can’t let that happen.

I either need to save him, or I need to be the one to kill him.

There’s no other option.

I have to win.