Marie was already unhappy about losing in the competition. Now she was dreading what this man was about to ask of her as he stood above her. What was this lowly farmer going to ask of her?

She didn’t have enough respect for him to think that he wouldn’t ask for something terrible. Perhaps he might make her humiliate herself in front of this entire crowd. Or worse, as his eyes laid upon her beautiful body, this man may force his way on her.

“Um, could ya stand up now?” Asaga asked nervously. “The people are starting to stare and it’s getting real awkward.”

“Ah, I see…” She said upon getting to her feet. “You want us alone to make me do your twisted bidding.”

“Twisted?” He was surprised she would consider what he’d want to be twisted, but then again, he already didn’t think she’d do it under normal circumstance. “Well, I guess yer right that we should be alone when I say it, so let’s go.” With that, the man took her arm and led them away from the building.

“So this really is it, isn’t it?” She spoke, downtrodden. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t make it with a special person.”

“Now, here we are.” He announced, showing off another building that had a fair bit of a crowd.

“Um, what is this?” She asked, bewildered. “I thought you’d take us somewhere more private.” Does this man have some weird tastes? Or did he really want to push her limits?

“Don’t know why I’d want privacy.” He answered. “But this right here is apparently one of those, role playing diners they got on the brochure. So I figured I’d make ya pay for us to eat here.”

“Th-that’s it?” She responded in utter shock. That was all he wanted from her?

“Well, yeah, Juuto told me if ya could get someone to pay for a meal. You should take it, that’s how it works around here. Why? What’d ya think I was going to ask?”

“I… Never mind.” She’d rather not tell him what was going through her mind. That would probably destroy the rest of her dignity if she admitted to such dirty thoughts. “I should be able to afford it, so when we’re done here. We’re even.” Even though this wasn’t as bad as she expected, the woman still didn’t like the idea. Having to spend a dinner with this farmer was distasteful in her mind. He was going to pig out, wasn’t he?

“Yes!” He pumped a fist into the air and took them inside to find a table for them to eat at. Apparently, even though neither of them knew much about the franchise, this dinner had what were called idols serving them. While he couldn’t understand what got most of the guys around to be so excited, he did enjoy seeing cute girls in cute uniforms.

“So what will the lovely couple be having today?” Their server asked them.

“We’re not together.” Marie made sure to constantly clarify that she was simply owing him a favor and nothing more. It was already bad enough that she was paying for his food. But there was no chance she’d ever want anyone to be mistaken that they were dating somehow. “I’ll just take a small bowl of noodles.”

“Really? I doubt ya’d be filled from that.” Asaga commented. “I know ya must’ve mustered up an appetite after what we did just now.”

“Well, I do have to pay for your meal.” And she figured he was going to really get a lot when it was on her dime.

“Well, I did win the bet. So I asked for you to pay for my meal.” He replied. “Then, I’ll just pay for yers.”

“That defeats the purpose of what you asked for!” This farmer man really was dumber than she expected, and she already set him at a low bar as a standard.

“Anyway.” He ignored her arguments. “Ya pay for me, and I’ll pay for ya. That way, we don’t have to worry about saving money.” She ended up relenting and the pair got what they would’ve normally got were they paying normally. So at the end of the day, he never actually got anything for winning.

“Once we’re done here, I suppose we can rejoin the others.” She said once their food cover across the table. The pair ordered a lot as they both shared large appetites. “I can’t wait to see Akitomo again.”

“I gotta say, the two of ya always try to stick together. It kind of fragments the groups.”

“I can’t believe someone like you actually cares about unity that much.” She responded. “Especially considering who you’re talking about.” Apparently, it seemed he forgot that a number of their group also happened to be demons.

“Hey, even a lonely farmer like me can think like that.” He laughed, which resulted in a bit of his rice falling from his mouth and onto his lap.

“You should finishing chewing before speaking.” She chided him. Of course someone like him was going to be lacking in table manners. The man was used to eating all by himself, so it didn’t matter how messy or impolite he was since no one would normally see. Even on Earth, he lived alone, so that hadn’t changed at all.

“Ya might be right about that.” He responded as the man cleaned up a bit. “Still, I see that ya treat us different from Akitomo. I see what’s going on there.”

“Y-you do?” She got nervous upon hearing him say that. Sure, he was an idiot, so it was unlikely that he’d have meaningful insight. Then again, it was possibly he could’ve just stumbled on the truth.

“Well, it’s impossible to not notice how warmly you treat him when we’re all together. In fact, I bet everyone’s already figured it out by now.”

“T-they do!?” Was she really that bad at hiding it. “Well, look. It’s completely normal-”

“Ya really hate the rest of us, doncha?” She paused, realizing that he didn’t stumble upon any dark secrets of hers. “Just right now you treat us so coldly, but I bet if Akitomo did what I just did. That ya would’ve been right there to clean up the mess he left behind.”

“I guess I can’t disagree there.” She would’ve been there in a heart beat if the boy did that.

“Look, I’m not asking for ya to clean me up for anything.” He chuckled, though that wouldn’t be a bad thing at all. “But maybe it’d be nice if you could take some time to warm up to the rest of us? It’s do the two of ya some good.”

“That’s easy for you to say.” She was a bit upset that he could just sweep under what the demons had done to their world and their lives. Just because he was a farmer couldn’t have meant he was insulated from the events occurring around him. “It’s not easy to forgive what they’ve done.”

“I can agree to that.” Asaga did indeed understanding the feelings that the heroes might’ve felt. The man himself also knew what it was like to lose those close to him to the aggression and violence of the demons.

And of course, right as Rame left their world, she ended up destroying his life’s work. It made him so angry, that he didn’t care one bit about the dangers of the portal she created. All he cared about at that time was to get revenge, no matter the cost. “But, things are peaceful here, even with her living here. So I realize that I don’t want to harm the people of this world because of our own personal issues.”

“I’m sorry about what you’ve gone through.” She felt a bit ashamed to have disrespected his feelings. Of course he couldn’t have been immune to what had happened with the demons.

“It won’t matter anymore now, but could ya also apologize about what you almost did to Juuto?”

“Hmm?”

“Well, both ya and Akitomo put his life in danger.” He was also certain they likely wouldn’t have cared if Juuto got killed in the cross hairs either. “He’s… A kind man, and he doesn’t deserve to be dealing with all the troubles we’ve brought to this world.”

“Ah, well the two of us have already made our peace with him on the train.” She explained. Seeing the way Asaga treated Juuto, it reminded her of the way Rame acted before. What was so special about him, that he was having this effect on them. To be fair, she was beginning to understand it just a tiny bit more after the train ride they shared to get here.

“That’s great to hear. It’d be real sweet if we could all be friends.”

“That’s a bit naive to think it’d be so easy.” There was no way that Marie could ignore the demons in their ranks. “But… It would be sweet indeed.”