Demon Queened Ch. 21

Devilla

I studied my venison skewers as Lucy and I walked toward our next destination. They were simple in construction, consisting of cubed meat impaled by wood, cooked upon a grill, lightly salted and slightly charred. They smelled good, and - judging by a quick nibble - tasted decent. But were they truly worth the praise Lucy had bestowed upon them?

"Is something wrong?" Lucy asked, already halfway through the first of her meaty treats. "If you don't like the taste, I can take you somewhere else!"

"The taste is fine," I assured her, taking a larger bite. The meat was firm and smooth, boasting a surprising depth of flavor, the lack of culinary seasoning supplemented by the creature's own varied diet. A bit gamey, but not bad at all. "I'm just confused, I suppose. For as good as it tastes, I cannot help but credit that to the ingredients over the chef. And yet you called his stall your favorite? I mean no offense, but surely there are others who could do the job as well?"

"I think you're underestimating how hard it is to hunt stuff, Eena," Lucy chided me. "Hunters are basically competing with monsters! Monsters who will want to attack them, too! I mean, Wilhoon's actually an adventurer, you know? He makes most of his money selling monster material to guild!"

"Why not sell them at his stall, instead?" I questioned, taking another bite of the meat. Though I had a newfound appreciation for its rarity, I still thought it could have used more seasoning. As wonderful as salt was, even fries couldn't truly shine with that alone. Dipping sauces were essential. Speaking of which... "Could you hold this for me?" I asked, extending my skewers. "There's something I need to retrieve from my pack."

"People don't eat monster meat, Eena," Lucy informed me, lowering her voice to a whisper as she took hold of my meal. "The church teaches that it's fine to use their materials for weapons and stuff - to fight them with their own tools - but that consuming their flesh is to invite darkness into our hearts... Not that I really agree with them..." Lucy trailed off, the frown that had briefly marred her features disappearing. "But we're getting off topic! The food's not really why Wilhoon's stall is my favorite, anyway."

"No?" I questioned, digging into my pack, past the non-perishable goods that filled it, to reach the Empty Bag hiding within. "Then what is?"

"The way he treats me! He's always been way more casual with me than the other vendors!"

I had to bite my tongue to keep from questioning Lucy's words. I didn't wish to disparage her favorite stall further, but if that was her idea of a 'casual' interaction, then I had to wonder whether my manner of speaking even registered with her as formal. The man hadn't even called her by name! And he'd clearly been nervous the entire time, albeit to varying degrees... But I had no wish to endanger whatever joy she found in frequenting the place. Especially if the other vendors were, indeed, bad enough to make Wilhoon seem friendly by comparison.

"If it's more the vendor than the flavor that drew you," I said instead, "then perhaps you won't mind me making a minor adjustment to the taste?"

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked, eyeing my pack. Her eyes widened as I drew forth a glass bottle, curiosity written clearly upon her brow as she studied the red liquid within.

"This is called hot sauce," I apprised her, tugging its cork free from the narrow neck. "A spicy topping that goes well with meat."

I watched Lucy for her reaction, just as she in turn studied the condiment I held. I was a little concerned that she might question its presence in my possessions, deviating as it did from standard adventurer fare, but thankfully, she seemed more curious about its contents than confused as to why I had such a thing in the first place. I could only hope that she'd be as accepting of the other sauces, spices, and herbs that Lenora had helped to procure. It would be best if I probed her acceptance carefully, so as to avoid breaking my promise with Abigail to be discreet.

"Can I try some?" Lucy asked after a moment of study.

"If you'd like," I assented, proffering the bottle with one hand as I reached out to retrieve my two remaining skewers from her. She had, I noticed, finished the first of hers. "Though I'd be careful with the quantity. It's quite potent."

"Don't worry," Lucy replied, confidence puffing up her chest, as she proceeded to pour a generous heaping upon the first chunk of her skewer. "I have a really high tolerance to spicy stuff!"

Or so she said. And yet the very moment her teeth cut through the meat... "Spicyyyyyyyyyy!"

"I did try to warn you," I sighed, trying not to chuckle at the Heroine who'd been brought to tears with a single bite. It was hard to imagine that her presence had ever struck me with terror, seeing her like this.

"I thought you were just underestimating me!" Lucy explained, levitating the bottle over to me via arcane magic, so that her hand would be free to fan at her overheated tongue. A futile gesture, but one I understood all too well - though only via my memories as Jacob. "I mean, I've had hot sauce before, and usually I need at least that much just to feel it!"

I replied with a noncommittal hum, unsure how to justify the differences in strength between Lenora's concoction and those that Lucy was more familiar with. It made sense to me, now that it had been pointed out. Lucy's people didn't have dryads, capable of producing entire fields of peppers almost at will, and as such were no doubt stingier with their supplies. Not to mention the fact that we demons of the tower had long been forced to compensate for a lack of salt in our cuisine, with other, stronger flavors. And yet, as obvious as it seemed to me, none of it was fit for open discussion, while I was hiding my identity.

And speaking of the inexplicable...

"You can't seriously be planning to go back for another bite?" I queried, voice weighted with disbelief as I watched the Heroine slowly bringing the skewer back towards her face. Her eyes were still watering! Not to mention the emotions contained within them - a combination of determination and terror.

"I don't want to waste it!" Lucy told me, her resolve blazing ever brighter, as if she were gathering the courage to face her greatest enemy. Which I suppose wasn't too far off base, considering the snack's origin, but it was still not an expression befitting the consumption of good food. "Wilhoon put his all into hunting this meat! And I bet you don't have a ton of that sauce, either, right?"

"Well..." I obviously did - a near unlimited supply, in fact. But there was a limit to what I could explain having on me. 

"This meal isn't just meat and sauce! It's filled with the feelings of those I care about! So there's no way I'll ever let that go to waste!"

Saying so, Lucy opened her mouth wide to take another bite. The skewer, however, never entered her maw, as my magic quickly pulled it back.

"Don't be stupid," I grumbled, snatching the hot sauce from her magic's grasp, pouring a singular drop upon the skewer that I had bitten into, so that I might offer it to her. I would have gone for the untouched skewer, but I didn't want to hear any complaints about taking more than she was giving. "Our feelings are meant to bring you joy, not pain."

"Eena..." Lucy hesitated, her eyes traveling back and forth between the sauce drenched skewer she currently gripped, and the one I'd offered her in trade. "Are you sure? Wouldn't that just put you in trouble, instead of me?"

"As if such a small amount of sauce could possibly trouble me," I replied with a derisive snort. A bit excessive, perhaps, but I wanted to ensure she took me seriously. Especially since I was speaking truthfully - while there was some risk of the sauce washing out the meat's flavor profile, there was no chance of its heat debilitating me. I could drink it straight and be fine. In fact I'd done just that, on multiple occasions, in order to judge Lenora's foray into sauce making.

"Well... If you're sure," Lucy said, overcoming her reluctance and making the trade. 

She watched me, nerves obvious, as I raised the oversauced meat to my lips and bit into it. The heat washed over me, and while my fear of losing the venison's taste proved true, the spice itself did me no ill. Indeed, I'd simply need to finish the chunk of meat she'd drenched, and then move onto the lower ones, which had merely caught the dripping excess. I could even switch between the two skewers I now held, so as to enjoy the taste in both its classic and altered forms. 

The smile that thought brought to my lips must have alleviated Lucy's concern, for she was soon raising the meal for a bite of her own. It was only as I watched her bite consume the marks I myself had left upon the meat that something occurred to me - that this might, perhaps, count as an indirect kiss.

My face turned red. Then redder yet, when I saw that Lucy herself seemed to hold no such concerns, her focus entirely on the consumption of hot sauce and venison. I was being ridiculous, I realized, allowing thoughts of lips on lips to pass through my mind, while Lucy herself blissfully enjoyed her meal. To think about what it would feel, if a more direct variant of the concept came to pass.

Did this even count? We were biting the food, not sealing our lips upon it. And even if it did, did Solla even have such a concept to begin with? I wasn't sure how much of Earth did, for that matter, having never really come across it outside of the anime that Jacob used to watch. And Lucy certainly didn't seem to be thinking about such ridiculous things as our mouths... sealing against one another...

"Can I have some more?"

I nodded, rapidly, my cheeks on fire as I pushed the embarrassing notion from my mind.

"Eena?" Lucy queried me, her hand yet to reach for the sauce. "Are you okay? Your face is all red...?"

I shook my head, in lieu of a verbal response, not trusting my voice to remain steady. Similarly, my eyes avoided Lucy's, taken as I was by the irrational fear that she might give her some clue as to what was going through my mind.

"Oh no... Don't tell me the sauce got to you after all? I knew I shouldn't have let you take it!"

"N-no!" I squeaked out, cursing the quivering of my voice. I was being ridiculous. Letting Lucy's talk of romance and dates put ideas in my mind... But... The idea of kissing, outside of sex, was just so... So... intimate. Indirect or not! "I'm just... Embarrassed by... Well..." I hesitated, chancing a look upon her face. The concern I saw in her eyes brought guilt bubbling forth from within me. Was she blaming herself for taking the trade from me? Would she try and take it back? And if so, wouldn't that lead to another indirect kiss through it!? "Ijusthadtheideathatwemighthaveindirectlykissedisall!"

Lucy blinked at the words - or maybe just word - that had been birthed from my mortification. I watched her mouthing what I'd said, picking it apart. And then I saw a blush touch her cheeks, as they had mine - but it was lighter, a simple pink compared to my own crimson cheeks. And it was paired with a smile.

"I don't think that counts as a kiss, Eena. I mean, we were just biting it, weren't we?"

I nodded, slower this time, feeling even more like a fool than before. Lucy's words only reinforced my own thoughts on the matter, but, somehow, it felt more convincing coming from her lips than it had going through my mind.

"Besides, there's no way I'd be satisfied with that as our first kiss! When it comes, I want to enjoy it!"

...I wondered what Lucy would think, if she knew how close she was to becoming the first Heroine to ever kill a Demon Queen through sheer embarrassment.

"You're really sensitive about this, aren't you?" Lucy asked me, her voice betraying not concern, but curiosity. "I didn't think you would be, considering how you are with... Other stuff..."

"Otherstuff, as you put it, is purely physical in nature," I pointed out to her, turning my head away and tilting it forward a little, in hopes of hiding my reddened cheeks behind a wall of temporarily brunette hair. "Kisses are romantic. Particularly so when separated from 'other stuff.'"

"I guess that makes sense..." Lucy conceded. "But then why didn't you get embarrassed when Wilhoon called you my girlfriend?"

"Because I knew he meant it platonically..." Little as I might have deserved the term, in either of its forms.

"Platonically? Why would it be platonic? That doesn't even make sense!"

"And assuming we're dating does?" I retorted, turning to face Lucy's frowning form.

"I mean, we were holding hands," Lucy reminded me. "Ordering food together. You even used my name!"

"That's... I'm not entirely sure why that last one made the list, but... Still! Surely that's a bit of a stretch?"

"Not as much of a stretch as calling girlfriends platonic," Lucy countered. "I mean, why would anyone even use it that way? It seems like it would get really confusing!"

"That's..." Accurate, actually. Of course, it had been misleading on Earth, as well. My friend Alice had complained about it regularly. But girls dating girls seemed to be more widely accepted on Solla, even amidst humans, than it had ever been in that world. Nobody had batted an eye at Lissera's interest in me, even in such a small village, and Lucy certainly showed no sign of shame for her preferences. Nor had she mentioned the church frowning upon it. "Wait a moment - if you knew he meant it romantically, then why did you not protest it? We're hardly dating, as of yet."

"Because you didn't, of course! I mean, it made me really happy that we looked like a couple, you know? So I'll back you up if you ever want to stop it, but I'm not going to go out of my way to end something that makes me so happy!"

I didn't know what to say to that. Lucy's infatuation with me was obvious, but the path through it much less so. I could only hope she'd come to realize her mistake in crushing on me as time passed and she grew to know me more.

My silence did nothing to dampen Lucy's mood, however, as she happily consumed the skewer I had given her, swapping back and forth between using the hot sauce and eating chunks plain. For my part, I ate at a much more sedate pace, savoring the flavor of each bite. The hot sauce made a world of difference, and I daresay I might have enjoyed the meal every bit as much as Lucy - though far less vocally. The sounds that girl made would have been more at home in a bed, than on the street.

"We're here!" Lucy declared, after a minute or two more, chewing through the last of her skewer and turning the wooden sticks to ash with a quick burst of magic. I followed suit, putting away the bottle of hot sauce as I looked over the building she had brought me to.

It was a small thing. Squat, made of brown bricks, with a garish yellow roof that drew the eye and a sign that I struggled to make sense of. It depicted what looked to be a spyglass, a wheel, a vase, and... a fork? There were words as well, thankfully, written in a flowing script that circled about the mishmash of items. "Carrie's Curiosities." 

"This place has all sorts of interesting things, from all sorts of places!" Lucy excitedly informed me, pulling open the door. "I used to come here all the time, growing up."

"Growing up?" I questioned, following after the eager girl. "Does that mean this is your hometown?"

A quick glance around the shop showed me two things, one of which demanded far more attention than the other. The first, and less important matter, was a hulking man, with an unruly mop of blonde hair, who stood upright by one of the doors. He was easily over six feet - six foot two, if I were pressed to give a precise measurement - with bulky muscles that seemed more fit for intimidation than lifting. He was likely present as an anti-theft measure, but considering the unlikelihood of us partaking in such activities, combined with the simple fact that either me or Lucy could take him with both hands tied behind our back, he wasn't worth more than a cursory glance.

More noteworthy, to me, were the messy shelves, which rose to just a little below my head. They contained a multitude of items, such as small metal balls, fishing hooks, thick coils of rope, and - of course - the forks I'd noticed upon the sign. All scattered across the wooden racks with no rhyme or reason I could detect.

What's more, the shelves themselves had been arranged to form a spiral labyrinth of sorts. One would have to walk their entire length, passing each and every item on display, just to reach the counter on the other end. An underhanded selling technique if ever there was one. One that likely would have had me turning back around immediately, if not for the bright smile upon Lucy's face.

"Hi Rewdeen!" the redhead called, waving to the guard by the door, before turning back towards me. "And sort of? I mean, it's the first city I ever lived in, anyway. Or even visited! I actually grew up in a small cabin out in the woods! It was near a little village - about the same size as Derrin, actually! - and me and Mom would occasionally go there to stock up on supplies, and talk to people..." The smile slipped from her face. "I only came to the city after she died..."

"Lucy..." I whispered, reaching out to take her hand, as she had so often stolen mine. Much like me, she didn't protest or pull away, but even as my hand gripped hers, it momentarily felt like she was somewhere very far away.

Then her smile returned, as bright and joyful as ever, without even a hint of the fragility I had momentarily glimpsed within her eyes. "I've been here since I was thirteen, though! It's where I learned how to control my strength better, and use my holy magic, and be the best Heroine I can be to the people! And this shop actually helped a lot with that!"

"Is that so?" I asked her, returning her smile with one of my own as she squeezed my hand and pulled me forward, towards the shelves. Whether her smile was as forced as mine, I could not say, but if Lucy wished to put forth a brave face for the sake of the public then I would do my best to help her uphold that facade. I only hoped that she would be able to express herself more fully when we were alone.

"Uh-huh!" She gestured to the shelves with her free hand. "The owner - Carrie - buys her stock from adventurers. Everything on these shelves came from another city. Some of them are even from other countries! Which means even the little things we recognize could end up with big differences! Like..." She scanned the shelves for a moment. "Like these skewers!"

I followed the trajectory of her pointing finger with my eyes, and landed upon a pair of skewers completely unlike the ones that we'd just burnt. Wrought of metal instead of carved from wood, their ends had been twisted and turned to form simplified versions of animals - a chicken and a pig. 

"I've only ever seen skewers used in street food around here," Lucy continued, her smile brightening just a touch further. Becoming, in my eyes, just a touch more real. "But in other cities, they're used in fancy restaurants! And it's the same with other cooking instruments, too! Not to mention clothes, farming implements, smithing techniques, and so much more! Wherever you go, things will be different than where you were..."

Lucy's gaze swept across the various items on the shelf as she led me down the stacks, her focus lingering occasionally - on a sun hat, a hoe, a pair of ornate chopsticks with white flowers painted upon their surface. "My whole world, back before I became an adventurer, was just the forest, that village, and this city... But when I came here, and looked at all the stuff on display, it made me realize that the world is so much bigger than that. That there are places, more different than I could ever imagine, out there... And that they're filled with people who are different, too! People who think differently than me, and do things differently. People I wouldn't be able to understand if I just stayed in town and trained like Father Tuffel wanted me to. That's why I became an adventurer - so I could go out, and meet those people! So that I could find out what sort of people made this stuff, and work to become the sort of Heroine they needed me to be! And do you want to know what I found out?"