The Prince of Demons

Luna

Nil was still trying to befriend Lilas as we were now on dry land; it was like watching two trying to interact. How were they both so bad at this? Actually, why was Lilas bad at it? Was it the fact Nil was physically a child? For some reason I doubted that. Should I probe? I didn’t think we were close enough unfortunately. Nautilus had stashed her ship back into her hand which Nil was incredibly fascinated by that, but the hope of learning how the worked was quickly dashed by the fact it was Nautilus. For now, Nil was explaining chess to Lilas. Lilas surprised Nil by conjuring a board off the description alone. Nil began describing each piece, and Lilas effortlessly set up the entire board which spawned a slew of questions from Nil on how to do that. With a few attempts, Nil was able to replicate the before the two began playing. Lilas checked to make sure he understood the rules a few times, before proceeding to utterly slaughter Nil at chess. I wasn’t the best at chess, and even I could tell the matches weren’t even close. Lilas was only going to be content with the sheer annihilation of Nil while Nil was only losing faster with each match as Lilas seemed to grasp the game better and better.

“Lilas is having fun.” Ailla chimed, seeing Lilas continue to decimate Nil at chess.

“I have a question, but if it’s probing too much, you can just tell me none of my business.” I informed Ailla, who raised an eyebrow in response.

“What could it possibly be?” Ailla inquired with a bit of an intrigued tone.

“Why is Lilas so childish? His age and actions don’t exactly match.” I probed. Ailla gave me an inquisitive look.

“None of your business.” Ailla stated politely.

“I understand.” I replied. Nautilus walked over.

“Alrigh’ lasses. D’ we need t’ get a carriage?” Nautilus inquired, throwing an arm around Ailla. Ailla gave her a complicated stare in response.

“Why do we need a carriage?” Ailla asked Nautilus.

“I mean, it’d be like t’ree carriages for this many. Is faste’, but we’d gotta use th’ roads.” Nautilus explained, paying the gaze no mind.

“Lilas said we’d follow near the roads but not on them which eliminates carriages.” Ailla retorted with a bit of irritation.

“Jus’ checkin’. Why ya sound annoyed?” Nautilus probed, seeming amused by it more than anything.

“I do not like Lilas’s plans being questioned on such key portions. He was clear and I agree with his general approach. As we’re needed to be in charge for this stretch of the trip, I’d appreciate keeping faith in Lilas’s strategy.” Ailla explained.

“Aight. Sorry.” Nautilus apologized sincerely.

“Thank you. We need to probably restock our supplies, so on that note, how recognizable are you two?” Ailla checked, looking at me.

“Unless there are posters of us, I think we are fine.” I told them.

“Good. Side note, Nautilus, I understand wanting to teach the two kids combat lessons, but for the love of the Lords please do not start attacking the two of them in the middle of a city.” Ailla requested of Nautilus. Nautilus glared at me, and then at Nil.

“Fine.” Nautilus conceded with a bit of a pouting face.

“We need to get food and get moving.” Ailla added as we walked into town.

It was nice being in Celsitu. The market was nice, the smell of the sea was pleasant, and seeing the well-defined guilds for each thing was nice. Avon was livelier and felt freer, but there was something nice about the order and structure in Celsitu. Maybe some blend between the two would be the right way to go. How would that work? I sighed as I kept walking. Now was not the time for those kinds of thoughts; we needed to prepare for the trek for the capital. Being back in Speranza was nice, but we needed to reach Umbra. Lilas and Nil were still playing each other at chess while the rest of us were looking for supplies. I couldn’t hear their conversation, but Nil was looking increasingly upset. I wonder what that was about?

“I don’t suck! You are a freak of nature!” Nil pouted as he was looking at a smirking Lilas.

“Uh huh.” Lilas taunted who had a shiza eating grin.

“How are you so good at this?” Nil grumbled while Lilas reset the chessboard.

“You might be devious, but your tactics need serious improvement. You rely on catching people off guard and putting your opponent off their pace too much.” Lilas explained like it was obvious.

“I will avenge myself.” Nil declared to which Lilas just chuckled in response.

“Elves and demons live a long time, but I don’t know if it’s that long. Betting on me going senile is a very long game.” Lilas teased Nil.

“I hope you get a growth spurt.” Nil spat at Lilas; Lilas looked offended at the notion.

“Imagine teaching someone a game only to lose at it. I’d be ashamed if I taught someone a game only to instantly get destroyed at it. How can you show your face?” Lilas retorted, still smiling.

“I’m going to conquer Themys just so I can make lamb plushies illegal.” Nil vowed while glaring at Lilas.

“With your tactics? I think we’ll be fine.” Lilas shot back immediately.

“When I grow up, I’m going to visit your house and hide the lamb plushies on the top shelves so you can’t reach them.” Nil threatened him.

“Then Mistress can recover them back to their rightful locations.” Lilas pointed out, nodding happily.

“How do you know she’ll want them back? Maybe she’d want a change of decorations.” Nil inquired with a smirk.

“If I wanted different decorations, I wouldn’t have saved them from when Lilas lit the house on fire trying to make cereal.” Ailla chimed in. Nautilus and Nil both looked at Lilas with raised eyebrows.

“I wasn’t trying to make cereal when I lit the house on fire; I was heating myself cereal because I like it warm.” Lilas defended himself.

“How did you go from heating milk to lighting the house on fire?” Nil probed trying to understand the chain of events.

“I can’t believe Mistress brought it up.” Lilas pouted at Ailla.

“It is but one chapter in the long saga of why Lilas is not allowed in the kitchen.” Ailla stated as Lilas looked away a bit crimson.

“Why are you continuing to talk about it Mistress?” Lilas checked while giving her puppy dog eyes.

“I’ll stop here my Little Lamb, but please stop arguing with a child.” Ailla conceded as she effortlessly began princess carrying Lilas.

“He started it.” Lilas pointed out.

“You started it.” Nil argued with Lilas.

“Nuh uh. You did.” Lilas shot back. These two should mentally be adults; what was this?

“You totally attacked first!” Nil cried at Lilas.

Nil, you are mentally an adult. Why are you acting like this? I pressed as Nil and Lilas stuck their tongues out at each other.

Lilas was being a sore winner. Nil defended himself.

Behave. They’re helping us reach Umbra while dodging the military and other patrols. I snapped at him as he and Lilas kept making faces at the other.

Why doesn’t Lilas have to behave? Nil challenged. I let out a deep, long sigh.

Nil, we both know you hate losing and hold long, petty grudges over even the most trivial of defeats. I could’ve told you Lilas would’ve annihilated you at chess before you even explained it to him. I informed Nil.

I might’ve surprised you and beat him. Nil grumbled before glaring at Lilas some more.

I believe you. I lied. Nil gave me a knowing stare while Lilas was making loser hand signs at Nil.

“I’d like t’ say, I’m havin’ grand time watchin’ this.” Nautilus interjected with a smile.

“We need to keep moving.” Ailla directed as she walked deeper into Celsitu.

The group walked into the market, grabbing some camping supplies, food, water, and a few other items we might need. Ailla carried Lilas for a bit before setting him down. Lilas and Nil continued to play chess as we walked; from their faces it was obvious that Lilas was continuing to win. Should I have warned Nil? I mean, from our conversations he should have at least suspected Lilas would be skilled at chess. I was glad Nil was trying to befriend Lilas at least. Nautilus seemed to be having a blast the entire time which I think was more having two different royals sanction her actions as she got to break laws. How long was the trek from Celsitu to Umbra? As much as I would’ve liked to beeline it I knew that put us through some dangerous forests. We quickly left Celsitu, walking down the path over a few knolls. Once the group was out of sight of the guards we hooked sharply into the forest. Not even ten seconds into the forest Nautilus’s chime went off.

I immediately put a protective barrier between her and I as Nil launched an attack towards her. Nautilus swat the attack away with a flick of her wrist while descending upon me. I was in the stance Nautilus taught me, trying to attack her. She effortlessly stepped in, deflected my attack, and went to knock me out. In an instant, I was where Nil was as he used to send her attack sideways. I maneuvered around her trying to attack from a different angle. It made no difference to the overwhelming Nautilus, who simply project a hand to stop my attack cold while dealing with Nil’s counterattack. Her fist was on a collision course with Nil’s head before it appeared on the other side of him like he made a tunnel around him for her to punch. What? Since when could he do that? I wasn’t sure who was more surprised between Nautilus and Nil as both went wide eyed. Nautilus got over her surprise faster and went to kick Nil. Again, the tunnel he made stopped her from connecting. Nil’s face made it clear how agonizing that was to perform. I shot in, trying to give him space. Nautilus effortlessly used her to keep me away without turning around. Nil clearly tried powering through to attack her with another , but his form was sloppy which earned him a palm to the chest and a flight into a nearby tree. I tried pivoting in, but Nautilus backhanded me into a different tree. It felt like thunder clapped me across the face as I was seeing stars.

“Good ‘nough f’ now.” Nautilus declared. Egoff checked on Nil first while I healed myself. The two of us got up and the group began our trek.

“Since when could you do that?” I asked Nil. I didn’t think he had that trick last time. To be fair, he didn’t need a lot of defensive or from what I could remember.

“Since about ten seconds ago. I wasn’t even sure it was going to work until Nautilus’s fist went on the other side.” Nil confessed while rubbing his temples.

“Tha’s the type o’ ya should be innovatin’ lad.” Nautilus informed him. Nil looked a bit pleased with himself when she said that.

“I need to envision a better methodology. The, ‘I really don’t want to eat a fist to my face and please link these two spaces’ is not that clean.” Nil grumbled as the gears clearly began turning in his head.

“Could you innovate something for my ?” I requested of Nil. His way of thinking and approaching definitely could come up with something interesting. To be honest, I should learn to do it myself, but I’m not that good at it. I woefully needed to develop the skill.

“I have no idea how works. As for , I would need to know the difference between it and better.” Nil told me. I sighed, as I knew current him wouldn’t be able to; I had to do it myself.

“Now, grublins, ya need to think ove’ what ya learnin’, but there’s a for ya two t’ fight.” Nautilus informed us. Nil instantly recovered his . I hate he can do that; it’s so unfair.

Nil and I both sighed as we went to see what our newest opponent was. We both saw a juvenile eyeballing us. They looked very similar to bears, but the little horns on top of the head and the fact it was deep crimson gave away it that it was not one. Wordlessly, Nil made a spear of , threw it at the , appeared on his spear, and swung down right behind the head with his sword. It roared in annoyance as his sword bounced off its armor like fur. I began buffing Nil with so he was faster. I needed to be better at fighting in general. It’s probably why I have gotten much stricter lessons than Nil from Nautilus. One thing became bitterly apparent since I came back, my teachers last time were sorely lacking. I really wanted Nautilus to stick around; she’d be incredibly helpful to learn from. Thankfully, with the buff I gave him, Nil made short work of the . I wondered how many of those we were going to have to fight as we began our trek.