Phlum was looking at me with a big smile on her face, but the aura behind her felt really menacing, so I just accepted her offer.

“O-okay, I’ll pay the Parfeits...”

“That's the little human for you. Hahaha~”

We left the place after I paid the bill to the clumsy maid, and started walking through Riverfall’s streets again. Phlum looked happy once again, smiling and running from stall to stall while holding my hand, is she holding me so I can't escape?

“Hey Phlum, since when did you know what I was doing?”

“Huh? That's a really good question, little human. Should I tell you? Hahaha~”

“Do tell me please…”

“Mhmm, If I must choose… Since the very beginning. Hahaha~ You looked quite serious, little human, so I let you do it.”

“Are you holding my hand so I can't escape?”

That can't possibly be a smart question, but I must know, is she tricking me? She's just a happy fool? I need to know the truth behind her actions, but I don't want to see her as angry as she was before.

“Huh? You don't like it, little human? I think that walking around like this is funny. Hahaha~”

Just a happy fool it is, somehow I felt relieved. But fools are unpredictable, so I must pay attention to her actions from now on. After all, she knows what I was doing.

“So, what are you planning to do with the money? Give it to the adventurer’s guild?”

“Just how… Yeah, that was the original idea, those goblins might look dull and weak for your eyes, but they could easily kill some unaware travelers, and I’ll feel bad if that happens. We gave them the weapons after all...”

“I see, I see. Well this can be funny too, little human.”
She said that with an evil smirk drawn on her face. I don’t know what she's thinking, but if she's letting me give the money to the adventurers guild I can't complain, so we started heading to the guild. I must admit that with every step we made, my concern grew bigger, but so did her evil smile.

When we finally arrived, I headed to the counter and Phlume stood right at the entrance. There were some soldiers on guard outside, maybe to stop the drunken fights. Inside, there were few adventurers, some of them looked experienced, some looked  like novices, but all of their’s equipment looked really lame.

I started talking to the guild lady about giving them this generous donation to prepare and train the adventurers, maybe to increase the rewards of some unwanted quest, after all, they need to grow stronger. When we were in the middle of the talk, Phlum started her play.

“Oi oi, this is the level of the adventurers of this town? I can only see some trash, where are the knights in shining armor?”

The adventurers started to make noise, weird air started flowing across the room. Some of them even took their weapons, others just kept on drinking their beers. The most muscular and stronger, stood and walked towards Phlum.

“What's this little girl saying? You should go back to play with your dolls kido, before something happens to you.”

The crowd started laughing at the words of the big man. I don't want to see what's coming, but it's too late to stop it now, so I run outside passing beside Phlum as soon as she winked at me. 

Right after that, the big man flew across the room and fell unconscious. The room fell into silence, and then, all the adventurers started running towards Phlum. You could see her enjoying herself.

All the adventurers flew across the room once again, but they stood and rushed against Phlum again. She was laughing like a maniac. She is just having fun, it's just a game for her, but for the adventurers… They were fighting for their lives.

The soldiers tried to enter the guild, but as soon as they moved, they flew to the sky. When they were about to hit the ground, an invisible cushion stopped their fall. Some of them were unconscious, the others stood up, but as soon as they did, Phlum repeated her trick. One, two, five times. Finally, all of the soldiers were lying unconscious on the floor. All of the adventurers were defeated at that time too.

“You see, little human? This is the level of this city, so it is great you came up with that idea. After all, the power of a Demon Lord can be measured by the strength of monsters and adventurers they rule, so we need them to grow stronger too. Hahaha~”

“But didn’t you just overdid…?”

“Stop, little human.”

She looked serious when she said that, and her arm was blocking my path. Standing in front of us was an adventurer with blue and gold armor. Behind him, his party members: a Witch with massive breasts, a flat chested Elven Archer girl, a red hair Thief covered with a robe darker than night and finally, a muscular Warrior with a giant red axe. They looked ready to fight us.