Luke waited until everyone had gone to find a place to sleep before asking Grace, "Are you okay?"At the sound of his voice, she jerked violently before saying, "I'm fine."She obviously wasn't. It would be stranger if she wasn't shaken by everything because, deep down, she was a kind person. She was so soft hearted that she would cry over the smallest things, despite how hard he tried to toughen her up. He wasn't sure how he would he feel if she ever changed. Would he be relieved that she was finally growing up or mourn the loss of who she once was?They sat together in silence until Grace finally worked up the courage to ask, "Was it the same for you?""What do you mean?" he asked."Did people treat you poorly like Theodore?" she clarified."Based on the way you're talking, I assume you didn't have any problems with the people," Luke said instead of answering her question.Grace shook her head. "Everyone was really nice to me.""That's probably because you're a healer." In the after
Grace wasn't wrong, but it would have been nice to get her opinion on what to do with Violet. He had debated whether it was a good idea to reveal to Grace all his thoughts about Violet. Originally, he thought it was best not to tell her about his thoughts about killing her, but he eventually decided it was best to put all her cards on the table regarding how to handle Violet.Interestingly, Grace didn't seem to have any objections. He would have thought she would react with horror or shock about the suggestion, but she had remained calm as he discussed killing Violet, like he was talking about deciding what to have for lunch. She didn't even reject the idea when he asked about her opinion, like he thought she would have."If you're worried about saying something wrong, don't. Just give me your honest opinion," Luke said."You know I'm not good at coming
"What the hell is wrong with these people?" demanded Bobby as he stomped back towards Luke."Obviously, things would be chaotic after a demon attack, but I never expected it to be this bad," said Chris."Reality isn't like fiction," said Tracy as she placed her fists on her hips. "You can't compare the two."Bobby and Chris were silent, as they had no argument against her words. Luke could see why they were so caught off guard. While this might have been the second time they had experienced a demon attack against a town, the two experiences couldn't be any more different. Last time, they arrived while the demon attack was still ongoing and the people had set up a system to handle it.Shouting in the distance drew their attention, and the group sighed as Bobby said, "Theodore is at it again. Would it kill him not to cause trouble?""We should see what the problem is this time," Luke said."I'm out," Chris said. "Last time I tried to help settle the issue, I nearly got punched in the fa
"What's taking them so long to return?" asked Chris after they had stood there for what felt like half an hour. "It shouldn't take them this long to settle a fight, right?"Tracy scoffed. "You do know that if a fight did break out, it would take longer to break it up."Chris squinted at her and said, "You're now acting like Theodore."She scowled at him. "Are you trying to pick a fight?""Knock it off, you two. It's bad enough that we've been dealing with fights all morning. We don't need you two fighting either," said Bobby.The two relented, as they understood how he felt. When all of them woke up this morning, they didn't expect they would have to deal with breaking up fights first thing. After they had helped the people settle down yesterday, they thought it would be a breeze. Unfortunately, they were proven wrong. None of them had expected the people to cause trouble as soon as they woke up.They hadn't gotten a moment of peace as they tried to stop crimes from being committed an
Theodore had been wanting to let off some steam for some time now. Ever since they had been chased out of the town, he had been itching for a fight. He had held back for the sake of the party and quest, but that didn't mean he was going to let them walk all over them and let what they just did to Grace slide. Even if it wasn't intentional, they had still hit her.For a grown man to drag a kid into a fight was unacceptable, especially for someone like Grace. As he was about to throw another punch, he felt someone grab his arm. The strength was considerable if it could stop him from going through with his punch, so it couldn't be a regular person. Looking back, he saw it was Bobby, which explained why he didn't immediately overpower him.In terms of strength, he was the next strongest person after him besides Luke. While their stats weren't close, they were close enough that it would be a
When no one immediately answered her, Violet continued, "Obviously, we can't let things continue like this. At this rate, it will be difficult to complete either objective."That was right. They had two options for how to deal with the natives. After dealing with fights all morning, neither option was appealing to them. The idea of staying in the town to break up fights or traveling with them as they were insulted was something none of them wanted to experience. However, they had to choose one of them. The question was, which was the least bad option."I don't know. I can't see how either one would be better than the other," said Bobby."Say," Chris said."The better question is if anyone has changed their mind from yesterday," Tracy said. "If not, we'll go with that vote."That didn'
Luke seriously couldn't believe he was doing this. Even though he told the demon king that he refused to add another harem member to the group, he didn't really have any other choice unless he was determined to kill Violet. He had already determined that the other options had a certain issue when he was determining how to get Grace to join him, which applied now.He swore that he had added Tracy to the harem not that long ago. If this was going to be a consistent issue, then he would gain at least a dozen more before the year was over. No, not even that long. The idea of having so many women traveling along with him and weighing him down wasn't appealing in the slightest. This was going to be the last time. He promised.[You can't know that. A situation similar to this one might occur again in the future. Besides, she hasn't even agreed yet. It's possible she might refuse.]That was certainly a possibility, but Luke had determined that the chances of that happening were slim. Since Vi
When Luke didn't answer right away, she huffed as she uncrossed her arms and placed them on her hips. "I see. So that's how it is."Luke should have known it wouldn't be that easy to probe her for answers. While she was younger than him and not as experienced as him, she had still gone through a traumatizing ordeal that must have heightened her awareness to prevent it from happening again. Well, at least she didn't outright attack him or otherwise show any signs of hostility toward him. It meant she was still open to talks.If she had decided he was a threat, she would have already done something once whatever her suspicions were were confirmed. However, he still had to keep his guard up, especially since he wasn't alone. He felt Grace fidget a bit behind him, but she was wisely keeping out of the conversation. With him standing in between them, Violet would have to go through him to get to Grace."Whether or not you want revenge isn't my concern." Violent's blank expression made it h