Chapter 35. Demonic Negotiations

We had taken a different route to the one I took when I first got to the Tainted Land, mostly because I wasn’t lost this time. We had to walk for a while, and I asked Nicole if she wanted to grab one of those yellow cars, but she preferred to walk there, so we did.

Standing in front of us was the same woman that I had talked to when I first came here, who asked me to write my name on a piece of paper. But it seemed like she didn’t remember me as she looked at me with the same formal smile that she shared with the people she spoke to before us.

“What can I do for you?” she asked, looking at me with the same smile.

“I wish to speak with the demo—Bo’guth.”

“Do you have an appointment with him? Because the director doesn’t really take visitors,” the woman said with a regretful smile.

“No, but he said that I could come visit him any time, and that I would find him here,” I replied with a shake of my head.

“Wait, are you a friend of his or something like that?” the woman asked as she narrowed her eyes to have a better look at me.

I shook my head once more, the idea of being a friend with a demon seeming absurd in my mind. “We went into the Tainted La—Magic Red Zone—together last week.”

“Last week…?” the woman pondered, tilting her head to the side slightly before widening her eyes. “You’re that woman!” she exclaimed, quickly standing up from her desk. “The director has been asking about you over the past few days. Let me guide you to his office.”

The woman moved with hurried steps, and both me and Nicole followed after her. Nicole seemed to be excited about this visit, but I couldn’t tell exactly why, since her eyes would sparkle when looking at the few armored people that were coming and going, just as much as when she looked at the different things inside the building that seemed to be unrelated to anything.

After going up a flight of stairs and turning a couple of corners, we reached a large wooden door with the words ‘Executive Director Azid’ printed on a clean golden plate.

The woman quickly knocked a couple of times before opening the door without waiting for anyone to answer. “Director, there’s someone here that wishes to—”

Inside the large room sat the demon. He was behind a desk that made him look like an adult had chosen to sit by a child’s table. However, the striking thing about the situation wasn’t the position he had while sitting behind the desk but the stunned look he gave us as he was currently frozen with a sandwich in his hands and his mouth wide open, ready to chomp.

There was a moment of silence, but it seemed like Bo’guth didn’t mind it as he slowly bit down on the sandwich while looking at us.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Director, I didn’t know you were eating. Should we come back later?” the woman asked, taking half a step back and half-closing the door.

“Mhno, Iths okhay.” he answered between chewing, which he followed by quickly swallowing with a couple of taps on his chest. “It’s okay. They can come in. Thank you, Miss Gaos, you may go back now.”

“Very well. And, sorry again for disturbing you,” the woman said with a wry smile as she stepped back out of the office.

Bo’guth simply shook his head and waved to the woman with the sandwich in his hand. “It’s fine, it’s fine.”

The woman didn’t linger any longer, closing the door behind us and leaving us alone with the demon in his office. It was quite a well decorated office, something that I wouldn’t expect from the image I had of demons in my mind.

On one wall were all sorts of paintings where Bo’guth appeared to be shaking hands with common people, and next to those I could see framed pieces of paper that certified the demon in different fields that I hadn’t known before, like a ‘Master in Business Administration’.

On the other side of the room, opposite of this wall, to our right, a large piece of furniture covered the whole wall. It was illuminating different artifacts, some magical, and some just seemed to be pieces that he liked. There was a particularly eye-catching one in the middle of it all, hanging from an enormous frame. It saw a battered hammer that could very well be about the same size as I was, if not larger.

Behind Bo’guth was a large window that replaced the wall, so large and so clean that if I couldn’t see the slight shine and dark tint on the window, I’d say that there was no wall at all. This window overlooked the whole entrance of the building, where even from up here the people that were coming and going could be seen.

Bo’guth sat behind a large desk that looked small when compared to his size, so it made him like he was hunching over a small desk. But I could tell it was no common desk as the dark brown wood was clearly of high quality—something that nobles from my world would’ve appreciated if they saw it.

“Ahem,” he cleared his throat, putting a half-bitten sandwich inside a colorful box before looking back up at me with a smile. “It’s good to see you again, Althea. I had started to worry that you had forgotten about little ol’ me.”

Saying that, he stood up from the desk.

“Hii!” Nicole weirdly screamed and took cover behind me.

I half-turned to look at her, and noticed her terrified expression, which settled down slightly when Bo’guth sat back down on the desk. I turned to look at him and he seemed to be just as confused as I was about Nicole’s reaction, since so far, people had been rather amiable with him, going as far as calling him ‘Bobby’, so I expected Nicole to not have a different reaction to everyone else.

A short chuckle and a nod from Bo’guth made me realize that he didn’t feel strange about it.

He tilted his head to the side, as if trying to have a better look at Nicole. “First time seeing a demon?”

“E-eh?” Nicole responded from behind me, “N-no, I have seen plenty before…”

“On the internet, right?” Bo’guth continued with a smirk.

“Y-yes…” she confessed and covered herself a bit more behind me. “Sorry…”

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“Ah Haha!” Bo’guth loudly laughed with his abyss-like tone of voice, startling the girl and making me glare at him, but he didn’t seem to notice—or care. “It’s okay girl, I’m as tame as a hellhound puppy!”

However, despite the strange claim, Nicole refused to come out from behind me. I sighed, turned around, and placed a hand on Nicole’s shoulder, who turned to look at me with surprise.

“You don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to. I’ll talk with him alone,” I softly said, trying to reassure her.

“E-eh? No… No! It’s okay! I-I-I’ll stay, hehe,” she said with a forced smile.

I looked down at her with narrowed eyes. “Are you sure? You don’t seem like you want to.”

“Y-yes, I’m sure, I’m not scared, hehe,” she reaffirmed and I looked at her with doubt.

But if she didn’t want to leave and was willing to face her fears, then I wasn’t going to deny it to her, so I turned from her again, and looked at Bo’guth, who was smiling at me. I ignored the expression he was making and brought up the armor and clothing I had in a bag.

“I came here to pay for the things that you gave me.”

Bo’guth’s smile was replaced with a momentary look of surprise before it changed once more to a smile. “Ah, don’t worry about that. You can keep it as long as you want. Think of it as an indefinite loan.”

“I cannot accept that,” I said as I shook my head. “I should pay something for it. How much would that be?”

The demon’s eyes widened once more before letting out a loud laugh. “You’re going to pay for it? Without even having a bank account?”

In response to his mocking question, I pulled out the phone and clumsily turned it on to show him the painting of the bank app with a smirk on my face. “I can pay for it, Bo’guth.”

“Oh! A phone,” he said before leaning over the desk with narrowed eyes to look closer. “I can’t see what you’re showing me from there.”

I frowned and realized that we had been talking from one side of the room to the other, so I made my way to him.

“Uwah!” Nicole exclaimed, grabbing me by the back of the uniform’s jacket before quickly letting go again. “Sorry.”

“You can stay here,” I said to the girl, who quickly nodded in response and kept her wide eyes focused on Bo’guth.

He simply chuckled, but I ignored it as I made my way to him. “It’s a bank app, which means that I clearly have a bank account, so state your price and I’ll pay for the equipment that I’m using.”

He looked at the phone for a moment before looking up at me. He no longer had that usual merry expression that he carried, and with that same expression, he leaned back on his chair, seemingly considering the next words that he was going to say.

“I know that you don’t have the money.”

“I’ll work for it.”

“You’re going to have to dig a lot in that Tainted Land.”

“I will.”

He paused for a moment to look at me, and I looked unwaveringly at his red eyes. After a few seconds, he smirked once more. “Nah, don’t worry about it.”

I frowned and he laughed out loud. “Don’t play games with me, demon!”

He waved his hand in denial. “I told you, you don’t have to pay for it. Rather, use that money and that hard work for other things.”

“I’m not going to be carrying another debt, especially to a demon,” I said with a glare as I looked up at his demonic face.

He leaned over the desk once more as he seriously looked me in the eyes again. “Okay, fine. If you’re going to be this insistent, then here’s the deal.” He paused for a moment as if waiting for my reaction, but I just looked back at him as he continued, “I’ll tell you how much you’re going to have to pay once you have enough money for it. How about that?”

It wasn’t a good deal at all, but at least I managed to get something where I didn’t carry a debt for it. “Okay, fine.”

“So how much do you have right now?” he asked, sitting straight once more.

I looked at the phone, and slowly opened the account that told me how much I had. Thankfully, Bo’guth didn’t seem to mind my clumsy use of the phone, and Nicole didn’t have a particular reaction since the attention of the demon was placed wholly on me. After a couple of minutes, I could finally see the number.

“Fifty dollars,” I said with a hushed voice.

“Huh?” Bo’guth replied with confusion. “I’m pretty sure that you got paid much more than that last week.”

I looked away, to a corner of the window that allowed me to see some of the people walking in the building. “I had debts to pay…”

Bo’guth burst out laughing once he heard that, and I couldn’t help but glare at him since it was a bit too loud for me. But after a moment, he calmed down once more.

“It’s so strange seeing you like this,” he said with a smile plastered on his face. “To think that you used to—” He paused to look past me at Nicole, who reacted by gasping, which made it so Bo’guth looked back down to me. “Do other people know about you?”

“As far as I know… only you and your wife,” I replied, and I also half-turned to look at the scared girl for a moment before looking at Bo’guth.

“Huh…” he pondered. “Well, if you want to keep it in the past, then that’s fine. I won’t say anything. Still…” his smirk returned and I felt irked by it again. “I can’t believe you of all people would be in such a dire situation.”

I frowned at him and his smirk. “I didn’t come here to be mocked by a demon.”

He laughed in response and I felt like leaving, but it seemed like he noticed that I was getting annoyed, so he raised his hand in a stopping gesture and I waited to see what else he was going to say.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m not trying to make fun of you. I just find it amazing,” he said and his smile faded slightly. “Regarding the price of the armor and weapons…”

“I know it’s not enough, but I’ll get the coins to pay for it as soon as I can,” I said and prepared myself to leave, but Bo’guth shook his head.

“Don’t worry about it! You have the money!” he said with an exaggerated tone, as if it was cause for celebration.

I couldn’t help but look at him with surprise before turning to look down at the armor. There was no way that with that little amount of money I had I would have enough to pay for this, so once more I looked up at him with a frown.

“Stop making fun of me,” I said. “If you’re not going to take this seriously, then I’ll just leave everything here and forget about it.”

“I’m not making fun of you. I’m being serious here,” he replied, the smile on his face fading once again as he looked seriously at me. “The price for the weapon and armor is…”

He paused, clearly trying to make me anxious as I waited for the answer, but I knew that he was likely to lie if he was going to tell me the price after knowing the little amount of coin I had.

“One buck,” he said, raising one clawy finger in the air.

“One buck?” I asked, since I didn’t expect such an answer. “You want me to hunt down an animal?”

“Huh?” Bo’guth exclaimed, confused for a moment before breaking down in laughter, and in between his loud voice I even managed to hear a short giggle coming from behind me.

I was confused about what had happened, but I waited a moment for Bo’guth to settle down before asking more about exactly what I had to do. “What are the details of this hunt?”

If he wanted me to hunt an animal for the armor, then it probably is some sort of either elusive one or dangerous one. Regardless, it was likely going to be worth the effort. However, to my surprise, Bo’guth chuckled while shaking his head, and even Nicole behind me seemed to be giggling along. I half-turned to look at her, and was glad to see that some of that tension wasn’t there anymore.

“What is so funny?” I finally asked, turning to glare up to Bo’guth, since I still didn’t understand what was going on.

“No, no, what I meant with one buck was just that you’ll have to pay one dollar for everything,” he finally clarified, and I could feel my cheek twitch and my frown deepen.

He was clearly making fun of me, and had been doing so from the start it seems, since even Nicole was laughing about it. I was wasting my time here.

“I’m leaving.”