At first he was skeptical but he knew that if he delayed anymore than necessary the woman might get angry and hang up the phone. With a burdened heart the man had no choice but to give his home address to a stranger. However, her next words was something that he never expected to hear.
"Alright, sit tight. I'll send someone to take care of your problems"
Click.
Before he could say anything the phone hanged up. He thought it was a joke at first thinking that the mysterious person who gave him the number had played a cruel joke on him which enraged him. He went to bed that day with this bitterness in his heart.
But a couple of days later he heard a knock on his door startling him and his familiar. Because of the situation they were in they had been abandoned by friend and family alike. In fact there was already a rumor about them spreading in the city. The only one who stood by then was his bodyguard Rufus.
They couldn't even remember the last time they heard their own doorbell as nobody bothered to visit them anymore.
He didn't want to open the door, afraid that the demon had finally come to finish it work. But after Rufus and his family convinced him, he reluctantly allowed him to open the door and wait stood there was not a demon, but a man in his Late teens.
The man looked Asian with the scars one each side of his cheeks. His blonde hair and deep blue eyes emphasized his already handsome look. He was dressed in all black and on his back was a huge keyboard case. However, what surprised him the most was that the man looked to be not that much older than his daughter.
The man walked into their home under the wary eyes of his family, even Rufus had his hand in his gun. However the words that came out of the man who introduced himself as Naruto left him doubtful.
He claimed that he was sent here by a woman to help them slay a demon. To slay a demon? How can a human slay a demon? If it was possible he wouldn't be in this predicament that he was in right now. Apart from his familiar nobody else could see the demon that was terrorizing them, making the m assume that they had all gone made. Not even Rufus could see the demon and they both lived under the same roof. He was certain that if it wasn't for the debt of gratitude that Rufus owed his family, he would have left them long ago. Moreover, what surprised him the most was that the man looked to be the same age as his daughter, if not a little older.
However, the man didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that we didn't believe him. Instead, he said that we should wait here, while he go and slay the demon and it contractor.
Despite the fact that he doubted the young man's word they couldn't help but be hopeful. That's why his entire family was still awake while it was way past midnight. He glanced at the window occasionally as it was around this time that the demon showed up but shockingly he hadn't seen any sign of it for the past two hours.
'Is this for real?' The man glanced at the cloak and saw that it was already three in the morning.
He looked at his side and noticed that she was also looking at him in surprise. He even saw a look of hope flash in her eyes. His daughter however still had her head bowed with her eyes closed and palm pressed firmly again her ears to keep the sound out. She was muttering incoherently.
The man looked at his daughter with pity and self hatred. She was in this situation because of him. Once all of this was over, he promised to take her far away from all of this.
While they were all locked up in their own little minds, a loud knock came from the door startling all of them.
'Is it him?' This thought flashed through the minds of all of them. However, nobody stood up to open the door. They were all afraid of an unexpected plot twist. Just the thought that it was might not be the man but someone else prevented them from taking a step back.
The knock on the door got louder and more frequent before it suddenly went quiet. When it felt like the person on the other side had finally given up, the door suddenly exploded into pieces frightening them. Rufus quickly pulled out his gun and aimed at the entrance waiting for whoever it was to show their self.
The first thing that came into sight was a head full of blonde hair as Naruto stepped into the room. The inhabitants of the house visibly relaxed when they saw him but that only lasted for a few seconds as their gaze landed on the object he was carrying in his right hand. No that wasn't right….to be more specific, what he was carrying in his right hand was a man dressed in purple pajamas. From the looks of it he must have been asleep when Naruto abducted him.
However the man wasn't just any random man, he was the same man that had cursed his family and denied ever having anything to do with it.
"Oh you guys are home. I thought you had all ran away when nobody answered the door" Naruto frowned but he was also slightly surprised as he dropped the body in his hand. There was a time when he had also asked a family to wait for him to return after he went out to slay a demon. But by the time he returned, they were all gone.
However, nobody answered him as they had their eyes on the unmoving body on the floor of their living room. Even Elena had snapped out of her daze to stare at the body.
Swallowing the lump in his throat, Whitney looked at Naruto and asked. "Is he…"
"Dead? Yes" Naruto replied and the inhabitants gasped at his word. They all took a step back from him as if afraid that he would do them in next. Seriously, what did they take him for? He wouldn't even be here if he had a choice. But with Dante and Trish out on another mission, he was the only person available for the job.
He had left Redgrave city and had to travel hundreds of kilometers to get to this place. It was the furthest that he had ever gone from his home.
"Dead?" Whitney panicked. He said he would get rid of the demon and not murder a man. If words of this were to get out then he would not only lose everything he has worked so hard to create but his life as well. Beatrice cowered in fear and quickly stood behind her husband as she stared at the dead body. Her heart beat increase, threatening to burst out of her chest. Rufus hurriedly stood in front of Elena protectively, however, the look on his face revealed that he was also shaken up.
Whitney smiled bitterly at his wife using him as a meat shield. He didn't know whether to be happy that she thought he could protect her or cry because he had no one to protect him.
Ignoring the looks they were all giving him Naruto explained, "This man was responsible for summoning that demon. I only managed to track him down after killing the demon itself"
"You killed the demon?!" Beatrice exclaimed in shock. The rest of the occupant also looked doubtfully at Naruto. Although the demon hadn't showed up all night, it didn't mean that it was dead. For all they knew Naruto might actually be the one responsible for all of this and was just playing the role of savior to get them indebted to him. They would have claimed that the man lying motionlessly on their living room floor had hired him to fool them if only he was still alive.
It was at this moment that Whitney remembered that when the man had first arrived he introduced himself as a devil hunter. Was he really telling the truth?
Whitney glanced at the dead man in his living room. The man was his competitor, Damascus Vladimir. A very ruthless and wicked man, people always stared clear of him, wanting nothing to do with him. But to think that he used to call such a person his friend. Moreover from the angle that he was looking at the man he couldn't see any gun wound or knife wound on his body. If it wasn't for Naruto walking in with the man, he would have assumed that he had died a natural death.
Whitney felt like he needed to reevaluate the man in front of him. However, he also knew that he couldn't continue to waste time so he hurriedly turned to Rufus and said.
"Rufus please go to my room and bring me the suitcase underneath my bed"
"Alright sir" Rufus snapped out of his daze when he heard his boss words. He gave another wary look at Naruto and then dead man lying on the floor before leaving to carry out his boss order.
"Please have a sit, I'll go make tea" Beatrice hurriedly said before rushing out of the living room. She seemed to understand what her husband was thinking as the same thoughts had crossed her mind.
Naruto felt like laughing when he saw the looks they were giving him. But he didn't refuse and sat down on the couch adjacent to the family.
"So how did you find the spider? I thought that only we could see it"
"It wasn't that hard finding something so huge. After I checked around, I found traces of it that led me to a sewage tunnel underground. Moreover, you guys weren't the only ones the spider was hunting" Naruto explained. He had found some severed body parts in the tunnel while searching for the spider and had even heard rumors of people suddenly going missing. Moreover, demons were greedy creatures by nature, there was no way they would focus on just one target when they could have them all.
"Not the only ones?" Whitney and Elena's tensed expression loosen up a little when they heard his words. Just knowing that they were the only ones going through such a nightmare eased up their mind a little bit.
Before Whitney could ask another question, Rufus returned to the room with a briefcase in hand. He walked up to the table and placed it in front of Whitney who had a bitter smile on his face at Rufus poor timing. If only he had been a little late he could have had enough time to befriend Naruto. Whether he was lying about the demon or not doesn't matter. If he was really the contractor and not the Vladimir then it was worth it to be on his good side.
Sighing inwardly Whitney forced a smile as he smiled the briefcase towards Naruto, "Your payment for saving my family"
"Thank you" Naruto nodded at Whitney as he picked up the briefcase and stood up, not even bothering to check it. After all, Whitney wouldn't dare be unfaithful after experiencing the horrors of being hunted by a demon.
Beatrice who had just arrived with the tea saw Naruto about to leave and couldn't help but panic. She looked at her husband sitting on the couch for help but he shook his head signifying that there was nothing he could do. If he accidentally said or did something wrong to offend Naruto then it was all over.
But before Naruto could walk out of the broken door an hoarse voice shouted.
"Wait!"
"Huh?" The inhabitants of the room turned towards the source of the voice only to see Elena who has been quiet all this while now on her feet. Ignoring the shocked gaze of her family, Elena continued.
"It's already late. As our guest why don't you stay the night. I can show you round town tomorrow?"
"Your guest?" Naruto repeated as he though about it in his head. Truth be told he had no where to sleep after all it was his first time in this city. Although he saw am hotel on his way back here. However, if there was one thing that he learnt from Dante, that would be, why waste money when someone is offering it to you for free?
Moreover, nobody said anything about staying a few days, he could use this time to finally get some time off away from the others and his comfort zone. Moreover, there might be others in this city in need of the services of a devil hunter.
Naruto looked at Elena who was looking at him with held breath and hopeful eyes, however, she wasn't the only one. Whitney, Beatrice and even Rufus were waiting for his answer but for different reasons.
After a moment of contemplation Naruto shrugged and said. "Sure why not"