Chapter 13: Thirteen

"Throw that away." Janilari said, arms crossed. "I mean it."

Rida had collapsed on her bed, not caring about the mess, and was now inspecting the white flower between her fingers.

"How did you know they were grown with magic?" The mage asked, with a look of amazement. "It looks like a normal flower."

"Seriously. It's disgusting." She insisted, and rolled her eyes as Rida stared at her. "It acts like a normal flower, yes. It can keep growing through natural means. But it has a magical signature. I can sense that its origin wasn't natural."

"How?"

She shrugged. "The same way you can hear things, I guess? Hard to explain if you don't feel it yourself." Rida frowned, and the demon grimaced herself. "I'm sorry."

The mage shook her head. "Do you think Eiril has that sense?"

"Probably? I don't know, I only know it's a bit weird she gave you that thing." Janilari said rapidly.

"... Why?"

"It's like she gave you her blood or something! And you don't even know her! It's weird."

"I think she was just being polite."

"She was being weird!" The demoness gestured wildly at the flower. "It's like you are holding a part of her right now."

The mage frowned, letting the plant drop on the bed. "Well..." She cleared her throat. "If you put it like that..."

"And why would she give it to you?" Janilari insisted. "Out of nowhere? It's... Strange! That's what that is!"

"... I don't think it's that big of a deal." Rida said, staring at her from the corner of her eye.

"You don't mind that she's obviously trying to seduce you?"

"I... What!?" Rida almost jumped on her bed. "What are you talking about?"

"Why else would she give it to you?"

"... Alright, listen." Rida hesitated. "I don't know how it works in Hell but flowers don't always mean that."   

The demoness frowned. "... What?" She gasped. "'Not always'!?"

"Y-yeah! In this case, for example, Eiril was just being nice!" Rida insisted. The demoness was utterly unconvinced. "And... If you didn't know flowers could mean that... Why did you think she was trying to...?"

Janilari tilted her head. "Oh. Humans don't gift each other parts of their bodies, right?"

"... I'm sorry, what?"

"Well, in Hell, if you are fond of someone you can give them an arm or... Any other part, really. It's sometimes a very romantic gesture. And I guess blood can also be considered part of you."

"... Are you messing with me?"

"... No?" Janilari frowned. "If you think that's weird, you should find that thing weird." She pointed at the flower.

Rida looked at her, then at the plant, then sighed. "It's not weird, but whatever."

"... It's gross."

"Whatever." The mage repeated, staring at the flower.

Janilari rolled her eyes, then looked over at the human. The mage seemed to be lost in thought, her black eyes slightly vacant. She was adorable when she was thinking that hard.

With a sigh, the demon let herself fall onto the bed, sitting right next to the human. For some reason she felt the mage immediately tense up beside her.

"What... What are you doing?" Asked Rida, visibly struggling to keep her eyes on the flower.

The demoness shrugged. They were so close to each other that with the motion, their shoulders brushed.

"I usually wait until I'm invited to beds, but you were taking too long. What are you thinking so hard about?" She said, nonchalantly, and smiled as the human tried to scoff at her and only managed a choked, nervous sound.

"This is... I don't know how you have the nerve to call others weird." Rida said, quickly. The demoness faced her, smiling, and enjoyed how the human tried so hard to act like she was still standing a few feets from the bed. "I'm thinking about her magic. Eiril's." The mage said, a bit too loud, as if to divert her attention. "I knew about blood magic, but hers... Is much more efficient than anything I've seen."

"What do you mean?"

"She grew a plant from just a few drops of blood. That's a very good conversion rate."

"... Conversion rate." Janilari echoed. "You make magic sound boring."

Rida rolled her eyes, visibly relaxing. "That's how blood magic works. You sacrifice something of yourself, of your body... To make magic. Blood is the most common sacrifice, because you... Humans, I mean, can make more of it. But to do anything important... Usually a bigger sacrifice is needed. For her garden, any other blood mage would have to sacrifice their entire life."

"It sounds like a very stupid type of magic."

Rida made a long sigh. "Maybe. But maybe it's the only one I can learn."

Janilari froze. "You are not serious." The mage didn't say anything. "Don't even think about it!"

"Why not?"

"Because it's dumb!"

"You said yourself that human magic only works through death or suffering, right? This is the only way I can learn magic without sacrificing others, is it?"

Janilari shoved the stupid human beside her, almost punching her shoulder, and stood up from the bed with a jump. "So hurting others it's bad, but hurting yourself is fine, huh?"

Rida didn't look at her, just took a hand to her shoulder. "... You can't argue that after you punched me."

"Yes, I can and I did!" The demon protested, crossing her arms. "What about the list?"

"... The list?"

"Yes! Your list of priorities! The whole point was that you came first!"

"That's... A nice message, I guess." Rida muttered. "But there are more important things."

"There shouldn't be!" Janilari almost shouted. "Not to you, at least."

"This wasn't on our deal, you know?" Rida deadpanned. The demoness raised her eyebrows.

"What wasn't in our deal, Rida?"

"You having to pretend you care so much." The mage mumbled, not looking at her. Janilari stared at her, mouth agape.

"You did not just say that!"

"But I'm not wrong. It wasn't in our deal."

"The deal was that I would help you however I saw necessary." Janilari said. "Can you accept that I'm looking out for your best interests here?"

"You don't know what my best interests are."

"You don't know what your best interests are!"

"What makes you think you know that better than myself!?"

"I just do!"

You are reading story What can go right when summoning a demon? at novel35.com

"Ah, that clears out everything." The mage deadpanned. "I guess from now on I should let you make every decision for me."

"That would make things a lot easier for both of us, actually."

Rida glared at her and she just shrugged.

"No offense, Rida, but I don't even know how you survived that long without me."

"Fuck off."

"But I'm right."

"No, I mean it." The mage stood up with a jump, and opened the door. She gestured outside. "Fuck off."

Janilari rolled her eyes. "You like it or not, that's not how our deal works. You'll have to try harder to send me back to Hell."

"You said you would train the others, right?" Rida replied. "Have them improve as a company or whatever." She gestured outside again. "Go."

"You can't give me orders!" The demoness protested.

"It's an invitation." The mage snarled. "I've spent almost every second of the last few days close to you. It's getting tiring."

Janilari pouted. "That's offensive."

"Leave." Rida glared at her. The demoness saw the mage's expression and decided she shouldn't push her luck any further.

"Alright, fine!" She conceded, moving to the door. As she stepped outside the room, she said: "But forget about the blood magic!"

Rida slammed the door behind her without saying a word.

*

An hour later, back in the training grounds, Maesron was being pelted by a rain of rocks and boulders. Some of them shattered from the impact against his seemingly indestructible armor, but most of them were heavy enough to pin him to the ground, slowly burying him in stone.

"What's the purpose of this, exactly?" Asked one of the adventurers behind Janilari. The demoness almost growled at them.

"Stress relief." She replied, before letting a particularly big boulder fall on the knight... Or rather, on the mountain of rocks that signaled his presence.

"I don't think this is helping." Muttered Brunai. Janilari turned to glare at her, and the tall warrior immediately took a step back, her hands raised.

"... I should go look for Rida." Said Huddinli, who paled when Janilari looked at him.

"You are going to stay right there." She growled. The humans looked at each other, terror evident in their eyes. "None of you are leaving until I see some progress."

The adventurers looked at her in confusion and fear. It made sense, she was aware there would be no progress until she finished beating Maesron up, but in a way, it was a necessary step to ensure she wouldn't snap in a less convenient way.

Sighing, she stopped the barrage of stone projectiles and cleared out the mountain around Maesron, who immediately raised, an arm up in the air.

"I'm fine, friends!" He announced. "Just a slightly nauseous feeling over here!"

An image of Maesron puking on his helmet danced in the demon's mind. "I should have kept going."

"Well, I'm glad we are done!" Responded the knight, dusting himself off and walking towards them. "Was the experiment a success, Janilari?" He asked in an upbeat tone. The demoness sighed.

"Sure."

"Great! What's the next step?"

Janilari turned to see the other three adventurers, who reacted with absolute horror. Her eyes lingered on Pendi, who couldn't even muster the usual hate on her face.

The demon stared at each of the adventurers, unable to focus on anything training related, until an idea crossed her mind.

"What's Rida's problem?" She asked them. The humans looked confused, clearly not expecting that question.

"... What?"

"You are her friends, right? You should know something!" She glared at them. "Or are you going to tell me you never noticed anything?"

"Of course we did." Mumbled Brunai. The demon crossed her arms.

"Then speak! What do you know?"

Again, the adventurers looked at each other, having one of those silent conversations of theirs. Impatient, the demon made the ground shake beneath their feet. Just lightly, as a little incentive, but enough to mess with their balance and make Pendi yelp.

"I'm sorry to say, Janilari..." Said Maesron, in a cautious tone, ignoring the casual shake of the earth. "... That's something you have to ask Rida herself about. I don't think she'll appreciate us speaking for her."

"She would hate that." Agreed Huddinli, monotone.

Janilari glared at them, but had to admit that was a good point. She hated not knowing all the facts. She knew from the very beginning that there was a reason why Rida acted the way she did, a reason that could not be solved with magic. But still, she wished Rida had a higher interest in helping herself.

"You probably know more than us, anyway..." Said Brunai, looking elsewhere. Janilari perked up at that.

"What do you mean?"

"Well. You seem to spend a lot of time together." The warrior shrugged, then hesitated. "And... You seem to be doing a good job."

The demoness tilted her head. "A good job...?"

"Helping her." Concluded Brunai. Huddinli mumbled something.

"... I agree!" Laughed Maesron, maybe a bit nervously. "But let's focus on training, shall we...?"

"I don't think I understand." Interrupted Janilari, in a deliberate cold tone. "How could it be possible that I know more about Rida, when I've only known her for a few days? Aren't you supposed to be her friends?"

"It's more complicated than that..."

"I don't see why." The demoness replied in almost a growl. "From what I've seen, none of you are too concerned for her."

"You think we haven't tried to help!?" Snapped Pendi, seemingly forgetting she was terrified of the demoness. "If she accepted our help in the first place, you wouldn't even be here!"

"Pendi..." Maesron protested, weakly.

"No! It's the truth!" The foxgirl shouted. "Rida is the one that preferred to summon a fucking demon rather than just talk to us!"

"That's not why she summoned her." Replied Huddinli, hesitant.

"And yet..." Pendi gestured at the demoness.

"... I don't think it's like that," Brunai said. Pendi scoffed. "I think Rida is just more likely to trust someone who's magically bound to her."

"... I thought we weren't speaking behind her back." Said Maesron. Pendi and Brunai averted their gaze, guiltily. "The important part here is that Rida is doing better than before you came along, Janilari. Honestly, that's enough for me! I can only thank you." He concluded, taking a hand to his heart.

Janilari looked at the human, blinking rapidly. "... You are welcome." Then she glanced at the rest of the adventurers. "Honestly, you answered more questions than I've asked."

The adventurers looked at each other again, and then at the demon when she started laughing. Between laughs, she clapped once.

"Alright! Who's ready for training!" She announced with a bright smile. For some reason, the humans seemed more terrified by her smile than by her previous behavior.

---