Moon's lie

Likon Town

"Someone rescued Tess?" A voice resounded in the hall.

It was from the man sitting on the throne. He had no eyebrow but his eyes were a beautiful black. Grey horns were protruding out of his forehead with black hair reaching to his waist.

"Yes, your majesty." The man said without conveying any emotion.

"Do we know who he is?" The man on the throne questioned.

"No, his face was covered with a cloth." The man answered.

"I should have let them disguise themselves as the slave traders as well instead of using mere bandits." The man on the throne added while sighing.

"No, your majesty, if they did, their identity would have surely been revealed. From what I heard, the man who showed up was not weak in the slightest. He just swung his sword one time to frighten the bandits. Even they wouldn't have been able to do that, at least not individually." The man analyzed the situation for his lord.

"Duke Agares." As he was nodding to his subordinate's analyses, an enraged voice called out from beyond the doors of the hall.

The expression of the man on the throne changed.

"Duke Mammon." Agares got up from his throne and greeted the guest with a slight bow.

The gates of the hall opened and a fat, huge man made his appearance. With every step he took his fat would jiggle up and down. His appearance was hard to describe because of all that fat.

"You should have called for me, Duke Mammon. You didn't have to trouble yourself." Just as Agares finished speaking the air inside the hall changed.

Duke Mammon was releasing his aura to the extremes. His aura was taking on a physical form right behind him, in the form of a pig.

The pig had a cute appearance but seeing it Duke Agares' expression hardened.

"What do you mean by doing this, Duke Mammon?"

Agares asked coldly while releasing his aura as well. A form began to take shape behind him as well; it was that of a bull.

Both had used the same technique, maybe it was a technique that all higher-ranking demons had excess to.

But despite executing the same technique it was Agares who was being pushed back, his technique was being devoured by the pig behind Duke Mammon. With each step he took forward, Agares' aura was shrinking back.

In the end, he was forced back on his throne, covered in sweat.

"I'll really kill you if there is a next time." Duke Mammon let out as his aura burst forward, crashing into Agares, shattering his throne.

Agares coughed mouthfuls of blood while looking back at Duke Mammon.

He cast a last glance to the injured Agares and walked away leaving the hall while snorting.

As soon as the Duke left, a man appeared, as though out of thin air.

Agares stayed silent for a moment before finally saying.

"You run away quite fast, Varu."

Varu smiled sheepishly while scratching his head.

"I would have died if I stayed here, your majesty." He said in a subservient tone.

"Humph."

Agares got up dusting his robes and wiped the blood from his mouth.

"Duke Mammon, you're too impatient," Agares said with a smile.

Varu who was standing just next to Agares got chills for some reason.

****************************

"The sun is about to set. Will we have to camp outside tonight?" Alon asked while lying atop the cage.

"We will reach Likon town in about an hour." Tess answered and continued in an annoyed tone, "Just sleep some more."

Alon was taken aback by her tone.

"Not like I don't want to help," Alon mumbled.

The siblings and the girls giggled hearing their conversation.

Alon and Tess kept on having random arguments and the audience enjoyed it very much.

Alon was always on the losing end of the argument, however. Only Kabriel (Kabi) would occasionally jump in to support Alon's arguments, well crying in support of him at least.

An hour passed by quite fast. They could now see the town gate.

There was something written on top of the gates but Alon couldn't make head or tail out of it.

"Someone actually dares to scribble such a thing on top of the town gate," Alon said impressed by the boldness of such a person.

"What do you mean? It's written correctly. It says 'Likon Town' as it should." Tess rebutted Alon.

"WHAT?!" Alon jumped in surprise, "You're saying that thing actually makes sense?"

"Of course it does, idiot." Tess let out, finding Alon's reaction pathetic.

Before he could make peace with the fact, Alon felt a pair of eyes drilling a hole on him. It was Kabi.

He had insisted to ride on the horse, so Daisy agreed to have him ride with her. Now he was looking behind at Alon, atop the cage with moist eyes.

"If you can't even read, what did you even write down on the ground back in the forest?" Kabi asked, on the brink of tears.

Alon smiled, embarrassed, scratching his head.

Before he could say anything in explanation for himself, Tess intervened.

"Do you remember what he wrote?" Tess asked.

Kabi nodded vigorously, "I felt bad for not having learned to read, so I memorized it instead, to learn it later."

Kabi said while glaring at Alon. He wet his finger a little with water from the pouch and drew exactly what Alon had written on the ground.

Alon was surprised by the accuracy Kabi displayed in his writing. But before he had a chance to praise him, he felt a mocking gaze directed towards him.

"Now that's a 'scribble'," Tess said with a sneer on her face.