So far, so good. Nothing seems out of the ordinary just yet, well, apart from this entire city in and of itself, but that’s a different matter. It’s been a week since they had arrived, but Canta still spares wary, lizard-eyed glances at every passing shadow and silhouette. But nobody has tried to eat them or their souls just yet.

Everything is fine.

The two of them, using the considerable funds that they had collected from monsters during their roughly two months of adventuring since leaving the cathedral, are paying for a room at the adventurer’s guild. Which is apparently still a thing. Canta was really surprised about that at first. But then again, the whole city surprised him. He isn’t sure if they haven’t gone back in time, in all honesty. Or maybe this is just the one part of the world that has remained unchanged?

Maybe, like with the wild-monsters, this city is simply so far outside of the demon-king’s presence, that the natural order still exists here?

Or what is, in his paranoid eyes far more likely, is that everyone here is an evil lizard-demon and this is a giant trap.

“You need to loosen your shoulders,” says Alleluia, squeezing him. “You’re gonna get all stiff.”

“Sorry,” sighs Canta, exhaling for the first time in a minute.

“Are you still paranoid?” she asks.

“Can you blame me?”

“I guess not,” relents Alleluia. “But I think everything is fine here. Besides, it’s so much fun!” she exclaims, spinning around once alongside him in a circle with her arms outstretched. “Are we going to the dungeon again today?” she asks. “I really like the dungeon!”

Canta’s eye twitches. They had gone to the dungeon every single day since arriving here. Not that it’s a bad plan, they could use the funds and it’s great for them to learn how to fight together in private in a semi-controlled arena. Alleluia had taken a particular liking to it, having found a real taste for the life of a ‘classic adventurer’, as he calls it. Looking around, it certainly looks like that profession still exists.

But then again, he still isn’t unconvinced that everyone here isn’t a lizard-demon. He looks around, not one great sin is among any of them. Sure, there are some small inklings here and there, but nothing more than what he assumes to be a petty theft or a summer-fling at best. The people here are nice, bright-eyed and pure-spirited.

He doesn't trust them.

“Shoulders,” repeats Alleluia and Canta exhales once more, letting his shoulders fall again.

The entrance to the dungeon is a large gate, like they had found in the ruined city which they had come from and most surprisingly of all, it is filled with a blue-tinged, nebulous fog that allows entry into a real, ‘living’, dungeon.

“Wooow,” mutters Alleluia under her breath as they step inside.

“You don’t have to say that every time we come here,” notes Canta, rolling his eyes.

“But it has real dungeon-magic!” she exclaims. “I wonder if the dungeon-master is here? Hello!” she calls out into the dungeon. “Helloooo? Dungeon-master?” As with every day before this one, there is no response. She frowns. “They’ll answer one day.”

Canta walks on ahead, tapping the simple axe, which he had bought, against a rock. “I have my doubts. They’re probably dead.”

“They can’t be,” explains Alleluia. “If there’s a dungeon, that means there’s dungeon-magic. If there’s dungeon-magic, that means there’s a dungeon-master,” she says. “You can’t have one without the other.”

“Well, the dungeon is pretty fucky,” says Canta. “Wonder what we got today,” he mutters, peaking around the corner. In rather odd fashion, the dungeon seems to change not only its layout, but also its monsters on a day to day basis. Two days ago, it was full of succubi and all manner of clearly female monster types. Alleluia had decided that adventuring wasn’t happening then, dragging him back outside and into the city. Yesterday, there had been all sorts of oddly tentacled, very grabby and extremely suggestive plant-monsters. He had dragged her out, returning the jealousy.

And today?

Canta peeks around the wall and stares at the small, bronze clockwork automatons, patrolling the floor in a stiff manner. “Uh…” He turns around, looking at Alleluia. “How do you feel about this?”

“Hmm…” Alleluia thinks for a second. “As long as they’re only little things like that,” she explains.

“What if we find a second you?” asks Canta jokingly.

Alleluia stares at him, “Is she me, but from a different time or is she an evil doppelganger pretending to be me?”

“Uh…” Canta thinks. “You, but from another time.”

“Well, that’s okay then,” she says. “We’ll just have to share you.”

Canta blinks, looking back at her. “Huh? Really?”

“No,” she says, giving him a deathly glare as she sees that he was getting hopeful about some unsaid implication of happenings here, should there be two of her. She raises a finger to her cheek, thinking. “But what if tomorrow, there are two of you?” she asks. “Or three? Or…” she pretends to be embarrassed. “I don’t know if I could take it!”

He raises an eyebrow. “Are you trying to make me jealous?”

“Yes.”

“It’s working.”

“Good,” says Alleluia, nodding. “I only want one you.”

The clockwork monsters, long since having heard their arguing, are already very slowly marching towards them, their little metal arms swinging out very stiffly at their sides as they make their way closer.

“Yeah, I only want one you too,” says Canta, gripping his axe and turning it backwards in his hand. He hammers the first machine over the head with it.

What he likes most about this city though, is the food. It’s real, hot food. Bread and meats and stews and drinks to match, he stays clear of anything alcoholic however.

Beef Stew 500 g Calories: 1050 Protein: 55 g Fat: 60 g *Carbs: 75 g Fiber: 15 g Sugars: 10 g

For now, he seems to be able to withstand the temptations of eating anyone’s sins here, despite smelling them all around him all day. But he does get the odd hankering now and then to bite some of the people passing by.

“Shoulders,” reminds Alleluia and Canta complies, taking another bite of his stew.

Another week passes.

Canta is slowly realizing that he’s starting to like it here and Alleluia seems to be enjoying it much the same. When they aren’t going into the odd, daily-changing dungeon to earn their keep, they’re running around the very bright and vibrant city. Thanks to the garish outfits which more than a few adventurers wear, Alleluia doesn’t even stick out in the least. Canta had, rather than buying some new clothes after they got here, simply opted to buy some fabric and use his novice tailoring abilities to essentially make himself the same outfit he had on, but without the blood and the mud and the ripped, gnawed through fabric.

“So how long do you wanna stay here?” asks Alleluia, as they do some window shopping a day later.

“Good question. What are we going to do when we leave?” asks Canta.

“Good question,” she replies. “I guess get you stronger?” suggests Alleluia. “Same as before. We need to find some distorted for you to eat.”

“Makes sense to me,” says Canta, nodding and holding his grumbling stomach.

“Yeah,” she says, turning back to the window of the store, as they stare inside at the toymaker, busy at work. Laughing children run around, chasing a little doll that seems to be walking by itself.

“Wanna stay a while longer?” she asks.

“Yeah,” says Canta.

They stay a while longer.

Canta knows that they shouldn’t be wasting time. He needs to be on the hunt, he needs to be getting stronger, so that he can fight the demon-king. But, there’s something about a city like this, something about the ‘peaceful’ life of adventuring. It’s enchanting. They spend all day together, either down in the dungeon or running through the city. Sure, he isn’t getting any level-ups, since he only gets experience through sins and she can’t use menus or experience points to begin with, but they’re making a lot of money at least.

Plus, they’re still getting pragmatic, practical experience by fighting together.

Plus plus, he’s just… having fun.

Canta realizes, as they walk hand in hand through the city, on their way back to their room in the adventurer’s guild, that for the first time in his new life, he’s having fun.

Nobody is being mean to him and he isn’t being so to himself, his body isn’t being mutilated or desecrated, he isn’t worried about their safety or about where they’ll find shelter if a storm comes, he isn’t scared that some twig will get stuck in her mechanisms and jam them up and he won’t be smart enough to fix her or strong enough to carry her away, he isn’t worried about starving. He’s being productive, together with the person he cares for most and for the first time, as they walk through the starlight-tinged streets together, hand in hand, Canta realizes that he is happy.

His shoulders stiffen up.