Sighing slightly, the second Lutiel crossed his arms as well. “Yes, you have made quite the ruckus at the party, so we wanted to recruit you to the army,” he spoke through distant eyes, the words sticking to the man immediately.

  “You were there as well?” The slave sparked back immediately, scouring through the expressions before him.

  “What? No, can’t you see what you did to me? I still need to recover,” he said while pointing at his face. Then, turning to his right, he glanced at the demon before speaking up. “He has a few connections with the demons that were there. It was mostly his idea to get you here.”

  Smiling secretively, the merchant nodded after the pale Lutiel turned to him. “So, what’s your decision? Are you going to join the demons, or the humans?”

  Pondering as the question tumbled inside his ears, the man didn’t reply for a long few breaths. Even as his voice finally went out, he still hadn’t spoken briskly. “... But, I’m a slave. I have a brand binding me,” he spoke calmly, through a soft tongue.

  “Who do you think I am? No, rather, who gave you that brand?”

  “...You,” he replied hesitantly, countless ideas flashing through his head.

  “Do you still not know the answer?” Speaking slowly, his brows furrowed a bit, only for him to add another, thundering question. “Tell me, do you want to stop being a slave?” The merchant smiled loudly near the end, a full grin glistening across the human’s eyes.

  “What?” He blurted out abruptly, the words falling out of him without any thinking. “You’re saying this brand can be stripped off?”

  “Of course, though only if you agree to join us. We need someone as close to Zyponia as you,” he said, a smirk broadening around his face. “What do you say?”

  “Do I need to acquire something similar to this brand?” He asked all of a sudden, making them raise an eyebrow. “I’m sure you won’t just let me go out with all of this knowledge without some magic binding.”

  “You know quite a bit, huh? Well, even if you don’t agree to it, you won’t remember, so it doesn’t change much. Yes, you will be put under an oath. If you tell anyone about my affiliation with the revolutionary army to Zyponia, you will naturally die, though I guess you expect that already.”

  Lowering his brows and eyes, the slave stared at the brick floor, his mind screaming and tearing apart at the conflicts it had been put under. Still, after a few unsteady breaths, he finally looked up at them. “I’m willing to join you, but I want to know more.”

  “About what?” The demon pried.

  “Everything. The humans, the revolutionaries, everything that happened in the last ten years. I remember nothing from that time.”

  “You did say he was amnesiac,” The other Lutiel mused, staring sparingly at the merchant. “What do you think?”

  Pondering silently with a straight face, he glanced constantly at the human slave. Though, after a while, he finally spoke up. “How much time do we have before your driver will start looking for you?”

  “I don’t know, but if I were to say, I guess we have about half an hour.”

  “Alright, that’s plenty. It’s your turn now,” the merchant said, glancing up to his left. Ignoring the sigh, as well as the exhaustedly travelling eyes, the demon stood calmly after tightly shutting his lips.

  Thinking for a while, the light-skinned Lutiel scratched his neck as the ceiling lit up across his pupils. Eventually, releasing another deep breath, his chin looked down at the human. “Fine, what should I tell you? Anything in particular you’re interested in?”

  “How much of Aseun has fallen?” The man corrected himself against the chair, bringing his back straight before boring his sight within the other human’s face.

  Exchanging a few breathless moments with him, the leader’s mien failed to describe any reaction. “We have pooled our strengths into three largest capitals. Falia, the holy capital of the empire. Hostrig, the heart of Grezen, as well as Laskiel in the center of Nemir. Does that tell you anything?”

  “What about the other cities? And the villages?” He inquired instantly.

  “Those beyond the scope of the three kingdoms were abandoned before the demons could attack, just like the one we’re inside,” the man spoke, face clear of clues. “As for the villages and other settlements, I have no idea, but the smallest ones were probably ravaged to the ground by some demons long ago.”

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  His eyebrows not wavering in the slightest, Lutiel searched for the floor instead. ‘Do lower standing demons not know about the oaths? Well, it’s either that or Zyponia sold me a bunch of lies,’ he mused inwardly, quickly raising his sight back at the duo.

  “So, only Helasta has been fully lost? I was expecting much more,” he muttered under his nose, igniting a prompt reaction.

  “Only?” The other human in the room asked quietly, staring at the man before slowly approaching him. Decisively, the hard leather soles rang out against the bricks, quickly closing the distance. “Helasta was the main supply of iron and coal for the empire. Even if we lost only a quarter of the lands, it was enough to halt our progress for half a decade.”

  Gradually increasing his tone, finally, Lutiel’s eyebrows furrowed. “And tell me, how did it get in the hands of the demons in the first place?” He asked while his eyes drilled within the man’s skull.

  “We had to flee the lands. The amount of demons here was far too much,” he spoke a few breaths later, his voice reverberating along the space.

  His eyebrows calming peacefully, the slave stared at the two intermittently. Changing between them, he lingered more around the merchant, however.

  Regardless, he broke his interest eventually, parting his lips anew. “How many years ago was that?”

  “Nine,” the man replied briskly, making the man’s face twitch and flinch.

  “Nine? Then, what the hell were the heroes doing? Did they just sit by and watch as you made your decisions?” He asked with a somewhat raised tone, but the man he directed the words at was simply stuck in silence.

  “The heroes disappeared ever since that bastard died,” he spoke up, producing a vein around his forehead whilst clenching his jaw.

  “What?” Lutiel asked immediately, his face starting to contort. “No, no, no, that’s impossible, what are you even saying?”

  “Haa, that's not what I’m saying. You can doubt them, but they are the words of the saintess herself,” he said, immuring the slave completely, his face halting any movements. Yet, a breath later, he slowly raised his eyes at the revolutionary.

  “What?!” His own words began reverberating inside his ears, clanging and banging on the walls of his mind. “Sheila? Sheila the saintess?”

  “Yes? What other saintess was there?” Squinting his eyebrows together, he stared at the white-haired man weirdly.

  “That’s not possible, no, no,” his voice barely came out through the mess around his face, staring down at the floor. “She’s dead. I’ve seen her die on the battlefield.”

  “Are you out of your mind? The saintess is currently in the holy capital,” he spoke away with a puzzled face, quickly looking back at the demon merchant, who simply shrugged his shoulders.

  “She was imprisoned by Magon and the bastard, but after the heroes came to save her and defeat them both, only she was able to live and tell the tale,” continuing, his voice only intensified the awry fuddle around Lutiel.

  ‘What do you mean Sheila is alive? I was the one that killed her!’ His voice bellowed internally, quickly receding back to the sprawling silence deafening his ears. Gazing up at the equally confused man, he stayed around him for a while.

  “No, I’m sorry about that. I guess it must have been one of the dreams I had after losing my memory. You know, it’s hard to tell the truth from lies on my own,” he spoke, turning back both his, as well as the man’s faces.

  “I see,” he said after locking eyes with the slave. “Are you sure you’re okay? You seemed more than distressed a second ago.”

  “Don’t worry. I was simply shocked to hear that she’s alive. I’m glad it was just a dream. Was she the one that told you about the death of the heroes as well as the bastard’s? Can you tell me who that was? I don’t really remember anyone like that.”

  ‘I need to know more, so much more that I’m clueless about than I could ever imagine,’ he thought whilst staring at the two with a clear face. Seeing the man looking down at him, the flow around his nose increased slightly.

  “The saintess was the one to tell us everything,” he said after nodding vaguely. “Though, she only revealed it after the drastic news. After the bastard, Lutiel, lured the heroes into Magon’s lair with his letter, we were finally able to realize what kind of trash he was.”

  “Yes?” Staring somewhat distantly, the man spoke with a voice void of any spark.

  “Lutiel was working together with the demon lord. Acting as though Magon had imprisoned him, he caught the saintess before doing the same with the heroes. And, in the end, his actions worked in his favor, getting rid of the heroic powers from the world.”

  “Why?” The man on the chair asked, his voice shaken up from the revelation.

  “Why? What else other than being jealous of the party he was in? He was nothing but an envious trash that betrayed humanity, nothing else and nothing more.” He spoke, crossing his arms again before watching as Lutiel moved his head down for a few breaths.

  Yet, as the cold winds encroached the space, he nippily raised his face, the eyebrows bent ragefully. “Why the hell do we share his name, then?”

  “Heh, that’s more like it,” the leader said through a smile. “We all talk to each other as Lutiels, but only when there are demons around us. It’s to make sure we never lose our purpose of defeating them,” he said, clenching his slightly raised fist.

  “I see,” the roped man spoke, contorting his lips to grow a smile while staring at the leader with almost fully opened eyes. “I’d still like to hear more, but my answer is clear. I will join you.”