After Matire, Merzula and Mazul left, Hikari finally asked the question on her mind, “Was it really alright of us to accept their gifts like that?”

“I think it would be okay,” Guang replied. “Judging from their attitudes, they wouldn’t have left and would continue to pester us to take it.”

“But more importantly,” Lux’s eyes turned sharp once more as she looked towards David. “How’d you come to know about magic? The demon interrupted us, but you also did sometime strange.”

“That was… the only way he would have felt forgiven. It is simply their tradition,” David replied as he silently cursed the situation. “As for how I know about magic, continuing from where I left off, I learnt magic from my parents, who are both mages. They taught me magic since I was thirteen, after I witnessed them using magic for the first time. Is that information?”

“Then how do you know about what you claim as the demon’s tradition?” Lux continued to question further, she did’ fully buy into his story.

“They were demon hunters,” David promptly replied. That was the first thing that came into his mind, and he blurted out the answer without much though. He didn’t want to look any more suspicious to Lux than he already does.

“Is that so… But being hunters, why are they familiar with demonic traditions?”

“If we do not learn about their traditions, it could potentially put us at a disadvantage at times. Knowledge is power after all. Is this enough information?”

“Last part. Who is that demon which took your friend away?”

“Emmet Wayne Gacy, at least that is what he names himself. H’s a demon I’ve met once before on job, but as you can see I obviously failed. I have no idea what he was doing in Helly’s room, but I intend to find out. Then I will kill him.”

“So that is your motivation. I suppose it would suffice for now,” Lux replied, she wasn’t happy with David’s answers, her intuition screamed at her that something was out of place, she just couldn’t put her finer on it. Also, since she was unable to think of any more questions to ask David with, it was better to just accept it as things are and continue to monitor his every movements. There’s no way he’ll be able to keep up the facade for a prolonged period of time.

“Now, seeing as all misunderstandings have cleared up, shall we continue our journey?” Hikari asked brightly, she was happy that the tension had somewhat been reduced. It wouldn’t do for the person they’re trying to protect didn’t get along with them.

“Although I have to say one thing. Since it looks like we’re in a land of demons, the next time we arrive at whatever sort of civilisation, don’t. I repeat DON’T, mention that you’re an exorcist. Likewise, I will refrain from mentioning that I’m a demon hunter as well,” David warned, he didn’t want a repeat of the previous situation. That would only hinder his progress of getting to Helaine.

“Humph, fair enough. I see where you’re coming from,” Guang answered. “Then shall we?”

The four of the continued down the road, and eventually saw a another settlement from afar. This one was more like a town, larger than the previous village. They could see a large major road that the road they were following led to passing right by the front of the town.

The inhabitants of the town once again looked like demons, confirming what David had said to the exorcists. They were mostly likely in the land of demons.

“So what are we going to do?” Hikari asked.

“We’ll enter the village, is there any of sections to that?” David replied. He was keen to get more information and also hopefully find an inn to stay. That would offer him the much needed privacy he needed to converse with Lucifer.

“Yes that would be fine. Let’s find an inn,” Guang agreed.

David eyed Lux. She was keeping rather silent after their conversation, seemingly deep in thought. She didn’t seem to show any objection either.

“Then shall we decide upon a story first?” David asked. “A cover story if you will that we’ll stick to at all cost to avoid attracting attention. The three of you being exorcists and I being a demon hunter is not exactly going to be particularly welcome around here as we have seen previously.”

“Then.. Then you can be oni-san, while Guang and I will be your younger brother and sister. And Lux-sama can be your wife. That’s a great story right?” Hikari suggested enthusiastically.

Guang responded to her by hitting her on the head, “Don’t be a fool. That would definitely not be believable. David seems to be around the same age as us, and a family? A human family on holiday in a demonic world is hardly normal. Instead we claiming to be magicians would probably be a better choice. Perhaps travelling magicians in seek of strong powerful demonic beasts?”

“That’s not a bad idea. Although that may cause it to be inconvenient to ask about that demon joker…” David expressed.

“We could always see if there’s any rumours about a human girl being caught or something around here. What’s more is that the guise of being magicians would allow us to see if we could find any temporary work while we stay here.”

“Fair enough. Then if the town, shall we split up each day and go around town looking for clues and information? Also, I suppose I’ll instead go with the story of being a vanguard accompanying you guys, I’m not too confident in my magic after all,” said David.

“Fair enough. Then let’s move,” Guang agreed, before the four of them walked towards then into the town.

“Two rooms for two please,” Guang asked the innkeeper. They had arrived into the town and asked around for an inn. According to an inhabitant of the town, there were two inns in the town. One was the “Domus Diaboli”, a higher class inn often used by rich merchants in town. The other was the “Azureus Terra”, an inn used by those who cannot afford to go to the Domus Diaboli.

The inn the four of them had chose was the Azureus Terra. Mainly because it would save them some money, prevent them from standing out while also allowing them to listen to many gossips. It was decided that Lux and Guang would also go to the Domus Diaboli to see if they can gather any information there.

“Boy, that’ll be 4 silvers for both,” the burly innkeeper replied. He was a tall mezuki, towering over Guang at a hight of over 2 metres. His arms had bulging muscles that were more akin to two thick trunks.

“What about with food?” Guang asked.

“That’ll depend on the meal. Breakfast is 25 coppers, which is bread and broth that will be delivered in front of your door each morning. While lunch and dinner are either 30 coppers or 50 coppers. the 30 coppers will include either pasta or rice, the 50 coppers will be a fillet of the day with some soup and rice.”

“Then we’ll stay for a week and take the breakfast each day as well as tonight’s 50 copper dinner,” Guang said.

“Boy, are you messing with me? All together that’ll be 37 silvers. Can you even pay that much?” the innkeeper shouted annoyingly.

“Here,” David walked up and took out 1 gold coin. He assumed that 1 gold coin would be enough seeing as the total was 37 silvers, meaning that the meals had cost 9 silvers. Considering 7 days of breakfast for 4 with a 50 copper dinner each tonight was 900 coppers, this meant that 100 coppers would equate to 1 silver. Thus it was only logical to assume that 1 gold equates to 100 silvers.

The innkeeper looked at the coin and then back at them. He then reached out and took the gold coin from David, and returned 63 silver coins. “Ho? You do have enough to pay for it huh? I won’t say I’m sorry thought since I’ve been getting a lot of younger folks wanting to stay here, but lacked the money to do so. Since you have the money, I won’t ask where you got it from. But one advice from the host to the customer. Don’t flaunt gold coins around like its noting.”

“Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind,” David thanked the innkeeper and quickly put away the 67 silver coins. Meanwhile, Guang received 2 sets of keys from the innkeeper.

“Your rooms are on the second floor, the ones on the far right after going up those stairs. Rooms 207 and 209. You’ll see that they’re beside each other,” indicated the innkeeper.

“Thank you.”

Walking up the stairs that the innkeeper had pointed out to them, David, Guang, Lux and Hikari arrived in front of their rooms.

Guang opened the room 207 and walked inside with the rest of them in toil. Inside the room were two single beds, a table and a chair.

He sat down on a bed, and Hikari sat beside him. Lux chose to sit down on the bed opposite. Seeing their actions, David immediately took to the chair before placing the rucksack he was carrying onto the table. Likewise, Hikari took off her rucksack and passed it to David, who proceeded to also place it on the table.

Seeing that everyone settled down, Guang asked, “So what's next?”