-I see.
Maya answers, impassible, while pouring liquid into two cups, as Anna finishes telling her story.
Maya was Anna's best friend. She was, just like her, independent, just not for the same reasons.
From what she told Anna, Maya's husband travels a lot, and leaves her in Rome. So she was alone most of the time. They were both, in a way, aliens in this city, and so they sympathized quickly.
Her husband sent her a generous amount of money to live every month, so it could be said that they both lived a good life. Though, Maya was way more responsible than Anna, and did not dilapidate it right away. She still kept a good amount of savings, as a safety fund.
She was incredulous that she exclaimed just a few minutes ag
I know it's a bit shorter. I wanted to keep that whole thing as a single chapter. It was the natural separation of things I think, from how I see the arc as a whole. While most of my chapters are close enough in length, I want my chapters to be separated correctly from a storytelling perspective before length, so some are longer when some are shorter, can't be helped (mostly longer tho)
Anna was humming.Today, she was going to eat out with Maya.It wasn't anything special by itself, but it was the first time her friend did so by her own initiative.She had a long night of sleep. Such a long night, actually, that she woke up late in the morning.She liked taking her time in the bathtub, so by the time she used her towel, it was already time to leave.After seeing the time, she dressed up like usual, just a bit hurriedly.She didn't enjoy the haute couture that was popular at the time, and was kind of a tomboy. As much as she could be at the time, at least. Seeing how she dressed, no one could assume she was as well off as she was. They both were decisive persons.As soon as the decision was made, they both started walking faster, and turned at the next intersection.The goal would be to use many small and short streets to cut their followers' visions, and thus throw them off by taking an unpredictable route.They started by walking fast, but quickly enough, they unknowingly started running. In a state of fear, panic, or hurry, it is easy to not notice your own pace increasing. They just happened to match both these conditions.Several minutes later, they were both breathing heavily at Anna's doorstep.-What should we do?While Maya was undecided, Anna was decisive: They took one of the paths Anna liked to use, which was a detour that went through places she liked to go to on the way. It was a good path to take when being chased too, as it was not a straight line. Who knew if they expected them to go back to their homes. Maya's home had a back entrance that led to a different street than the main one, so they would enter and leave through it. They followed way after way, getting through tiny and large roads alike. Halfway in one such tiny road, they saw someone standing at the end. As shadily dressed as that person was, there was no doubt in their mind that he was waiting for them. When they wanted to turn around, someone came to block the other side. Today was a good, ordinary day. It's been a few years since the last time I experienced an unordinary summon. This is, by all means, good news. This level of event shouldn't be happening every day, or else, how would any species even survive? The universe is just not such a fickle and dangerous place. Knowing the probabilities of these occurrences, it would instead be weirder to get used to it. Be it for humans or devils, an abundance of resources is to be celebrated. Also, if something of this scale happened again and I was assigned to it again, I would definitely curse the management. It is an opportunity to get merits, but the cost far outweighs the gains. Give me a word I'll make a world Volume 9 - A devil's sadness (23) - Running
Give me a word I'll make a world Volume 9 - A devil's sadness (24) - Grief
Give me a word I'll make a world Volume 9 - A devil's sadness (25) - Cover your own mistakes
-Hi. -Hey. Not many words, but it already shows a difference in mood. Both are casual greetings, but the second is more cheerful in nature. -How are you doing? -Not much. Oh, yes actually, they cleaned my jar yesterday. I heard all the noise. It must look cleaner than last time. -It does. -And you wouldn't believe how talkative the cleaners are, they just can't stop gossiping. -It must be annoying, I see. -At least this generation is not into celebrities as much. I would truly die if they talked about the royal family or Hollywood even once more. Yet another good, ordinary summon.-So you want riches? Please sign here.-So easy? Nice.So easy indeed.Sometimes I wish all humans were as good as the man I met the other day.Or at least as interesting as Tanya. But I guess you don't find people as straightforward as Tanya every day. Or it would just be ordinary, and as such, not interesting.However, if they were intelligent, I would actually feel excited when trying to trick them.There was a time when I actually felt pressured when having humans sign. At this point, it feels like I'm a delivery man, just having them sign without thinking all the time. We've been working on this for over a month now, but it is definitely faster than any other method I could think about. Eventually, my attaché has been able to hold his breath longer, so with the total rest time being lower, the daily progress has been higher. Also, while there were some changes in the path taken by the signal, most could be reused. Speaking of changes in the path, who thought it was a good idea for the signal to randomly change path? I understand it's good to avoid people tracking it, but there's no way anyone could track it without cooperation from a member of the Church over many weeks. I don't think I am the best devil at this task, far from it. Or even that Devils are the best species for such a tasGive me a word I'll make a world Volume 9 - A devil's sadness (27) - Track
Give me a word I'll make a world Volume 9 - A devil's sadness (28) - Searching
Is it so friendly? I wonder, seeing the hands waving in the distance. I guess in any case, I have no choice but to go. I take my attaché's hand, and get ready to teleport there. I am here. It is nothing usual. I didn't have the time to teleport, but I am here. There is something highly wrong about this. I did not feel any change in space, nor did I feel any sign of what happened. Yet the air around me has suddenly changed, and the place where we stand is different. It feel