“Our rooms?” I ask.
“You’re one of us now. Do you want to go back to your cell?”
“I’ll take a room,” Izumi says.
“Sure thing,” Mamoru agrees.
But I pace the room. I’m tired - and I’m tired of dealing with this, too. “Everyone here is so... okay with everything that goes on, and I don’t understand a thing. I didn’t want to join a party, I didn’t want to go on quests. All I want to do is arrest the Demon Lord!”
“Now who’s okay with stuff that doesn’t make sense?” Lilah asks.
“At least I’m doing something about being trapped in another world.”
“I like it here.”
“I don’t.”
“Fine. You don’t have to join, you know. You can make enemies of us — all of us — if you really want. It’s your funeral.”
“You’re so dramatic.”
“She said hysterically.”
I’m not going to stand here and take this bullshit from someone I’m supposed to be saving. Forget that she doesn’t want to be saved. I’ll do it all myself, I’ll—
Izumi puts a hand on my shoulder. “Hiyori, let’s discuss this as a group, okay?”
“But it’s illegal!”
“You’ve seen who makes the laws here. Demons do.”
“I’m not helping with this little pep talk.” Mamoru shakes his head, but he does continue talking. “But it’s definitely shittier to put up with unjust laws than to break them.”
“I don’t want to put up with... unjust...” I trail off, suddenly very tired.
“Hiyori just needs to sleep on the idea,” Izumi says cheerfully.
There’s a warmth spreading out from her hand, making its way all throughout my body. Looking carefully, I can see now that her hand has a faint white glow, like mine did when I created my first barrier. It’s unmistakable.
Minor sleep, my display prompts helpfully.
“Izumi, you’re...”
“Ohmygod.”
The warmth disappears immediately and the glow snaps off like a light switch.
“You have magic?” Lilah asks.
“I have magic?” Izumi repeats in amazement.
I’d join the conversation, but it’s so, so much easier to sit down. The ground is actually comfortable. I think I’m going to take a little nap.
Lilah and Chey lead the three of us to a room with two bunk beds, clearly intended to be sleeping quarters for multiple people. In my sleepy stupor, I have a hard time climbing onto the top bunk, but I make it somehow. I groan as my face hits the pillow. Once again, there’ll be no white noise to guide me to sleep, but this time I don’t need it. I don’t even miss it.
Wakey-wakey!
I jump up with a start, hitting my head on the low ceiling. Izumi and Mamoru seem to hear it too, that voice that comes in like walkie-talkie static.
A grate on the wall clatters to the ground, pushed by something within the small crawlspace. A red blur leaps out, landing softly on its feet, and the young dragon quickly grows to the size of a cat.
Red dragon (level 18)
Friends are safe! Good! Hibscusi trills.
“Who said that?” Izumi asks.
Hibi did!
Izumi stares. “Wait, you called us your friends?”
Hibi did!
“So you know who we are.” Mamoru smirks. “Who I am.”
Stinky.
“What?”
You’re stinky.
“I’m the Chosen Hero!”
“I don’t think she cares,” Izumi says.
The dragon weaves between my legs. Pet me.
I sigh. “I’m not petting you.”
“Hiyori. Are you feeling okay?” Izumi shoots me a worried look.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Telepathy is normal all of a sudden? Dragons are?”
Oh. Izumi and Mamoru weren’t there for our first meeting, when Hibi first spoke and Sinensis explained who she was. They don’t realize I’ve had time to process the situation and deal with it.
“I’ve seen her before,” I explain carefully. “She’s, um…”
“Um?”
“She belongs to the Demon Lord. But she ran away! I saw her at his castle, and then she came to visit me when we were first arrested. I think she’s been hiding out with our luggage.” I speak quickly, trying to get it all out at once. “We had our trial after that, and then I forgot—”
“Hiyori, how do you forget about a dragon? How do you forget about the Demon Lord’s dragon?” Izumi demands.
“I didn’t know she was some kind of secret! She’s just a baby, right?”
“She’s level eighteen!” Mamoru exclaims.
Hibi’s a baby, she repeats.
We have a tense moment of silence before Hibi shrinks to the size of a chameleon and crawls up onto my shoulder.
Anyway, papa doesn’t know Hibi is here. He’s bad at making friends, so she has to make them for him.
“Why should we trust you?” Mamoru asks.
’Cause Hibi is a good girl. The dragon breathes a puff of smoke. She’s never done nothing wrong in her whole life.
Mamoru crosses his arms. “Uh huh.”
“I guess you are a baby,” Izumi admits, seemingly entranced. She reaches a hand out to pet the dragon. “Did you really run away from your papa?”
Hibi did! She’s gonna be an adventurer!
“You’re going to need a permit,” I start to explain.
Purr-mit? The paper that Lavender filled out for me?
“Oh, the butler?” Izumi asks.
“The Demon Lord has a butler?” Mamoru shakes his head. “Of course he does.”
Hibiscus trills again. She jumps off my shoulder and snuggles into the pillow on one of the lower bunks. Hibi’s naptime now. Bedtime story?
