"Boy, you've found the second talisman." The Holy Lord's hoarse voice echoed.
Su Tang nodded, hesitating. "You still sound weak. Is that the side-effect from last time's magic not faded?"
"This is only a wisp of remembrance." The Holy Lord seemed to have expected it. "Not recovering is normal. You, boy—your speed at finding talismans surprises me."
"Heh." Su Tang went with "praise doesn't cost money," and grinned. "It's for the Holy Lord's quick resurrection. Worth the trouble."
In truth, he had no choice.
Devils kept picking fights, so he kept using powers; using powers meant paying the price frequently, so he had to take out the dragon-head locator almost every day.
Frankly, a hit after a dozen punishments wasn't bad. He wasn't about to collect all twelve in twelve days.
"Good, boy." Pleased, the Holy Lord promised, "When I resurrect, I'll split the King of Gold Roosters' treasure with you. Enough to rival a nation."
Much obliged.
Su Tang's mouth twitched. If Valon learned half the treasure vanished, how would he feel?
Whether big talk or not, it was too soon. They'd found the second talisman—but hadn't seen it yet.
"Holy Lord, can you track it?" Su Tang said. "We're trapped in this zone. The talisman should be outside, in that unknown devil's hand."
"Mm. I woke early for this."
Weakness still colored the Holy Lord's tone. He closed his eyes. "Boy, lend me your fire-qi again. I need full strength to sense my talisman."
"Go ahead." Su Tang agreed "magnanimously." "How long?"
If it took too long, the others might not last.
"A few hours."
Silence followed.
Back in the present, Su Tang looked at the pile of devil ash and felt the weight in his chest lift.
The old saying holds: an elder at home, a treasure in hand.
With the Holy Lord there—even just an extremely frail wisp of soul—he had enough backbone.
————————————
Cre-eak.
The guest room door opened and Su Tang stepped in.
"You're back." At the first sound, Aki looked up, tense—then relaxed when he saw who it was. "Any progress?"
Su Tang had reversed his jacket to hide the signs of fighting a devil. No need to pile worry on worry.
He nodded with a small smile. "Good news."
"Give me a few more hours, and I can find the devil's real body."
"Good." Relief touched Aki's face. He was about to speak when he suddenly toppled sideways.
Su Tang stepped forward and caught him.
Judging by this, Aki clearly hadn't rested at all the whole time he'd been out—nerves taut on watch.
"I'm back. Get some sleep." Su Tang helped him to another room and said, "Rest up. We may have a tough fight later."
"Okay. Sorry to trouble you…"
He hit the pillow and was asleep at once.
Su Tang looked at him quietly, sighed, then softly closed the door and left.
As soon as he entered the other room, two pairs of trembling, expectant eyes met him.
"S-senpai… really? A few more hours and we can go?" Arai crouched on the bed, excited.
Kobeni, curled by the wall, also looked at him full of hope.
"Mm. Don't worry. With me here, I'll get you out alive." He nodded and smiled. "Rest now, both of you. Don't run out of strength when it's time to move."
After calming the two rookies, Su Tang looked at Denji-ko and Power.
The two clowns had their heads together, whispering who knew what.
As he approached, their footsteps made them turn in unison—faces flushed with excitement.
Power slapped the table. "Su Tang, you're here! Come see Yours Truly's newest Nobel Prize–winning invention!"
?
For a fraction of a second, his brain blue-screened.
He eyed her suspiciously, testing: "Is your brain okay? Do you even know what a Nobel Prize is?"
"Heh-heh! Yours Truly's IQ is in the tens of millions. Of course I know! People who get it are very smart!"
"Crappy woman, I'm dying!" Denji-ko clutched her stomach laughing. "If the Nobel Prize makes people smart, why don't countries hand one to everyone so everyone gets smart?"
Su Tang turned to Denji-ko again.
Maybe asking her to aim for the Imperial Seven was too much. If he'd said junior high, it might've been attainable.
"Hey, that… kinda makes sense." Power tilted her head and really thought about it for a few seconds, then shook it off. "Forget that! Let me talk about my Nobel Prize! This human brat keeps refuting me!"
With ceremonial gravity, she cleared her throat and raised the red horns on her head. "Haven't you noticed? Everyone has a pair of parents. So those news magazines saying the world has 5.5 billion people are wrong! It should be 11 billion!"
"Pff—hahaha." Denji-ko couldn't hold it; she pounded the bed and laughed again. "Crappy woman, are you dumb? Do you have parents?"
"Are you just a contrarian! Yours Truly is not human, of course not!"
"Then your theory's wrong! How many times have I told you—you need to add the children too! So it's actually sixteen… uh—anyway, more than yours!" Denji-ko started counting on her fingers, ran out, then bared a mouthful of shark teeth and turned proudly. "Mr. Su Tang, I'm right, aren't I?"
"Mm…" Su Tang looked pained and was just about to speak when the door burst open.
Aki.
"The devil has appeared!"
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