The rabbit meat, tough and stringy, stuck in my throat. I forced the bite down with a swallow of water from the leather skin Angus had managed to fill from a nearby stream. The demon king's question hung in the air between us, a challenge wrapped in a casual tone. He wasn't asking. He was demanding.
"I told you," I said, my voice a little too loud in the quiet of the clearing. "Black knight. Red eye. Black glass."
The demon king didn't look at me. He stared into the fire, the flames dancing in the depths of his purple eyes. "That is not a description. That is a list of nouns you managed to retain from your witless stupor. What was he doing? What did he say?"
"He didn't say anything. He just...stood there. Then he walked at me." I took another bite of the charred rabbit, the taste of ash and burnt fur coating my tongue. "And then I was falling."
"And the second dream?" he asked, his tone flat and emotionless.
I stopped chewing. "How did you know there was a second one?"
"Your thoughts are no more hidden to me than the sun." He finally looked at me, a slow, deliberate motion.
That simply could not be true.
He'd be far more enraged if he knew the lustful thoughts I had of him that I managed not to say.
Also he'd probably have exploded Angus multiple times if he saw the things Angus had said.
...But he was right about the dream. He had to be. There was no other way he could know.
"There was a window. A circle of light. And a forest. A normal forest." I said, swallowing hard. "He stepped through it."
The demon king was silent for a long moment. The only sounds were the crackling of the fire and the chirping of crickets in the darkness. Angus was looking from me to the demon king, his wings fluttering nervously, a silent, worried observer.
"Your connection to this demon lord is bothersome." He waved a hand. "Perhaps it can be used to track the wretch down more quickly." He looked at me, a slow, considering look that was more unnerving than any of his previous displays of anger. "You will tell me everything. The exact placement of the window in the dream. The forest beyond it. Every detail."
"You're expecting a lot of details from a person who's no longer dreaming." I said, a little too quickly. I felt a prickle of unease, a cold dread that had nothing to do with the memory of the dream. "I don't have a great memory for... anything. Especially not in dreams."
"Do not attempt to lie to me about things you do not understand." His eyes narrowed, a sliver of purple in the firelight. "Your mind is feeble, no doubt, but that dream will not easily dissipate." He stood up, a sudden, fluid motion that made me flinch. "You are a beacon."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, my voice a little shaky.
He didn't answer me directly. Instead, he turned to Angus. "You. Angel. Can your divine senses perceive the source of this corruption?"
Angus flinched, "The Demon Lord's influence? It's... it's everywhere! It isn't the role of an angel to tell the hero where the demon lord is. You should figure it out!" [I'm a guide! Not a divining rod! (;￣Д￣)]
"You value your life little." The Demon King said.
That's...
That was definitely a threat. A threat he couldn't carry out without consequences, maybe, but a threat.
"I...well..." Angus stammered, his wings fluttering nervously. "I am! Impervious! To harm!"
Before he could say anything, the demon king waved his hand. A flare of red light flashed in my vision, and Angus exploded into colorful confetti this time. He reformed a moment later, a few feet away, looking disheveled and upset.
"Don't! Do that! Blasphemy!" Angus huffed.
"Then be useful." The Demon King settled down on the rock. "Else I'll use you for what little stress relief your screams can provide me."
"I..." Angus looked at me, and then at the Demon King. "You're an awful person."
"He is," I said, "Come and eat rabbit. Don't provoke him."
I provoke him plenty enough for the both of us, after all.
The more I think about it, the more it's my designated role in this little party.
Angus flitted over to the fire, still grumbling under his breath. "Fine. But I'm putting a complaint. In the system. For harassment." He sat down on a log opposite me, crossing his arms and pouting. "The Goddess will hear about this. She's not going to be happy."
I doubted the Goddess cared very much about the feelings of a hapless angel, given the position she'd apparently put him in with me, but I wasn't going to argue. I just wanted to eat my charred rabbit and pretend that I was somewhere else. Anywhere else.
The where actually didn't matter as much.
I just...
Could already do with a long vacation away from the naked man in my company.
But apparently that wasn't going to happen any time soon. Even if he wanted to be away from me as much as I wanted to be away from him.
At least until Angus accidentally dropped the location of the demon lord.
I imagined that'd happen sooner or later, if what I saw of the man so far was any indication.
I just had to wait.
And then...
Whenever that happened...
Hope that I don't die in the crossfire.
Or after the crossfire. Or during.
...Or before, actually.
There's a lot of chances for me to die here. And not a lot to survive.
It's mostly all down to whether that necklace really could hold him or not, and whether he could defeat the demon lord without killing me from the magical drain in the process.
...Somehow I don't think he'd appreciate that line of thought, though. Even if he weren't offended by being reminded of the fact that he had to keep me alive, the idea that he might be pushed at all by the Demon Lord....
No, I couldn't imagine that'd be a fun conversation to have at all.
So...
For the moment at least, while I could...
I just wouldn't.