Following Navir out of the guild Lilly laughed at Navir "Wow you have high stats, no wonder you had the strength to be a general!" "Your one to talk!" Navir grumbled "You've also got over a thousand in a stat point and your only level ten!" Lilly laughed "you have a point," suddenly Lilly's face turned serious "but with what we're doing it doesn't seem nearly enough."

Navir turned silent and nodded solemnly before leading Lilly through a variety of streets and alleyways before they finally emerged from the city area to see flat land filled with trees and grass walking forward several metres and Lilly and Navir found themselves in a dense forest. Continuing onwards the two soon emerges in a clearing to see Will as well as the eleven other classmates who left the castle skillfully finishing off a group of goblins.

Most of the group were using swords however there were also a few more people standing near the back of the group holding bows and arrows. Navir and Lilly waited several minutes until the goblins were finished before they approached the group "it's been a few days, former heroes. I'm glad to see you are well." upon hearing the words "former heroes" the group visually raised their guards and stared hostilely at Navir.

"Now now," said Navir in a Calming voice "relax I'm not here to hurt you, why would I go to the trouble of having you freed otherwise?" the group visually relaxed except for Will who still stared at Navir with blatant suspicion "You're not the man who rescued us, he was smaller than you. So who are you?"

Navir chuckled "You're right i wasn't there in person, but I was the one who sent Arachne to free you. If you need proof you can ask your classmate here." at this point all eyes turned to Lilly as they suddenly remembered her existance "You're the girl who sits at the back of the class right?" said Will obviously struggling to put a name to the face.

"Yes we've been in the same class for three years now." said Lilly, enjoying seeing Will squirm at the fact he'd obviously forgotten about her in this new and dangerous world "but that doesn't matter, he's speaking the truth and that's why I want you guys to promise me to hear him out."

The group looked at Lilly and Navir confused "Ok, we'll listen." said Will sitting down on the ground to get more comfortable, the others looked at him in surprise "come on, if he's in charge of Arachne he must be stronger than him. There's no point in wasting our energy in running away may as well listen."

Somewhat reluctantly the rest of the group sat down "Ok," said Navir "first of all I'm going to make a barrier so no one can hear or see what I am about to show you." Lilly looked at Navir confused surely you couldn't make a barrier out of the Asura flame, could you?

She'd have to ask him about that later, before Lilly's thoughts could get any further she noticed they were surrounded by a clear bubble like barrier and Navir had begun to speak again "Ok in a minute I am going to remove my cloak and when I do I want you all to stay calm." Will and many of the rest of the other students nodded "okay then."

Slowly Navir removed his cloak to show the black horns and golden eyes bellow that clearly marked him as a demon "What the hell." whispered Will under his breath as many of the group started back away, however no one outright attacked Navir which could be considered a victory.

Navir sighed then lowered his head to the former heroes "please help me to end this war." Will looked at Navir as if he was mad "You mean kill the demons?" Navir shook his head "most of the soldiers fighting on both sides are innocent citizens caught up in the fighting, however I won't deny it was the demon king who started the war. Both kings, the humans and the demons are unfit to rule and I plan to change that, all I ask is that when the final battle arrives that you intervene as a neutral third party so no side suffers to great a loss for the sake of the arrogant kings and nobles."

The group unsure of themselves looked to Will for guidance, Will sighed and rubbed the back of his head "We'll consider your proposal when the time comes but for now we're simply going to take requests and get stronger until we have enough influence to change this country for the better. That's what we all agreed on."

Navir smiled gently "I couldn't ask for anything else." as he smiled several of the girls in the group who were originally shying away started looking at Navir with lovestruck eyes instead. Lilly wasn't happy, stepping on front of Navir to block the girls view of him she addressed the group "anyway we'll be leaving now, we still have lots to do, right Navir?"

Navir nodded, slightly confused to what Lilly was up to but raised his hood and removed the barrier, nodding to the former heroes Navir and Lilly turned to walk back to camp "Wait," called Out Will, Lilly and Navir turned round to face him "Why aren't you staying with us, I mean we're your classmates afterall."

Lilly sneered a cold expression on her face "you mean the classmates who forgot about me and left me to rot in the castle?" At this Will fell silent and different members of the group lowered their heads in shame "That's what I thought." said Lilly as she and Navir left the clearing.

As soon as they were out of earshot Navir burst into laughter "Who left me to rot, really Lilly that's your excuse for not joining them, poor things they all looked so guilty." Lilly laughed too "It's not like I blame them, I would have been more annoyed if they had realised I was missing. I just needed a good reason they wouldn't object to, and besides the feeling of guilt may guilt trip them into helping us when the final battle starts."

Navir smiled approvingly as an ex-general no one appreciated the use of tactics more than him "good thinking. Anyway what's our next move, it'll be hard to get access to the heroes currently in the castle while it's still day." Lilly paused for a moment and thought about the problem "information gathering, you've been locked away about two years and I'm from another world I doubt we have all the information about the war out there."

Navir nodded "Ok I'll try to talk to some of my old adventurer comrades, you infiltrate the castle maids and try to find out any gossip about the princess to see about her view on demons and the possibility of an alliance." Lilly nodded, "Ok seeing as I'll already be in the castle meet me by the servants gate by nine o'clock." Navir nodded "good luck Lilly." Lilly smiled back at him sweetly "you too."

Walking their separate ways Lilly reached the castle and slipped through the guards with relative ease afterall she was still wearing the maid outfit she had "liberated." walking around the castle Lilly encountered several other maids telling each one that she was the princess's new maid before rambling on about how lucky she was to be working for such a wonderful person such as the princess too see the servants reactions.

The reactions drawn from the maids words were quite boring as they responded to her praise with yet more praise, it was not until several hours of talking later that one of the maids actually revealed something useful "the princess is so kind, it is a shame that it taints her view of the demons." Lilly looked at the maid she was talking to confused "What do you mean?"

The maid leaned in and spoke in a conspiratorial voice "well between us two the princess seems to have this deluded idea that the demons want peace as much as we do, can you believe how ridiculous that is!" Lilly tried to conceal her grin "ridiculous." she echoed softly, this was perfect if the princess was willing to accept that not all the demons were bad than there was hope for an alliance yet.

Lilly then nodded to the maid and made an excuse to leave and walked to the servants gate, arriving at the gate Lilly saw Navir already there covered by his cloak. "Good to see you're still in one piece Navir, did you find out anything important?" Navir smiled "Good to see you're well too, I found something but it's best addressed in private."

Lilly nodded then froze for a second and threw her arms round Navir "W..what are you doing?" asked Navir confusedly with a light blush on his face. However Lilly didn't need to explain as a guard came round the corner "Oi what are you two....Oh.......nevermind." Lilly winked at Navir then turned to look at the guard an apologetic look on her face.

"I'm really sorry about causing trouble it's just that...." at this point tears began to drip down Lilly's face and the guard looked bewildered and panicked as he saw Lilly starting to sob. Navir moved forwards concealing a grin "sorry about this, she's my fiance but I've been drafted to go to the front lines to fight the demons tomorrow and I couldn't leave without seeing her one more time."

The guard nodded looking sympathetic "take all the time you need mate, and for what it's worth good luck." Navir nodded "Thanks mate I'll need it." when the guard was successfuly out of earshot Navir turned to Lilly with an eyebrow raised "did you have to start crying? It made it so much harder to think of a reason."

Lilly smiled "true but that event will stick in his head and now if we're suspected they'll look for you in the recently enlisted." Navir rolled his eyes "come on, let's go find some heroes."

..................................................................................

Author's note

Hi to everyone reading I'm really sorry for the shorter chapter the next one should be longer feel free to comment or write a review telling me how you feel about the story or how I could improve it thanks for reading