“Why are you in such a rush?” I asked Melli.

“You were given to the demons for a reason, right?”

I kept quiet, wondering just how much she knew.

“The spymaster wants to talk to you.”

“Oh. So, you work for him too?”

“No, this is just a one-time job.”

“You mean, it’s supposed to be.”

“… yes.”

I asked nothing after that, and she said nothing. Once we’ve entered the palace, I realized that she was leading me straight to the room that I stayed in, before I was given to the demons.

She knocked on the door, and a deep voice responded.

“Come in!”

We entered, but it wasn’t the spymaster waiting for us. Instead of him, there was a tall, very handsome, burly male in the room, dressed in nice leather clothing. A male I’ve never seen before. He eyed us with a laid-back attitude and a confident stare.

“Thank you very much, Melli. You can go now,” He said.

“If you need anything else, just let me know,” she left with a wide smile on her face, closing the door.

“Would you mind locking the door first,” he extended his hand towards me, holding a key in his hand.

I obliged, returning the key to him.

“Please, take a seat,” he pointed on the chair opposite of him, “this may take a while.”

“A spymaster? You?” I asked as soon as I took a seat. I did my best to make my voice sound as scrutinizing as possible.

He let out a short laugh: “As you know, I’m not the spymaster. I’m just fulfilling my role, the same way you are. It’s just that ladies are much more generous towards a dashing rogue than some old fart.”

“That’s true.”

“Let’s get to business right away. We don’t want the demons getting ideas in your absence. The unprofessional question would be: what have you found out? But, considering you’ve certainly learned a great deal about the demons and know much more about them than anyone else, I’ll take it step by step. First of all, have you gotten close to Jens?”

“No.”

“No?” His eyes widened, and his ears went apart, “How so?”

“He is refusing all of my advances.”

“But … you’re escorting him now, are you not?”

“Not by his choice. He was forced to take me. I think he is not a decision-maker. He is similar to you, in a way. He is an agent who represents higher powers.”

“Like their queen?”

“Yes. Unlike Jens, she has real power. I’ve never seen such an assertive female before. I doubt she’d be as assertive if she didn’t have some serious power to back it up.”

“Yes, that’s very strange. We didn’t expect their ruler to be a female. Some even find it troubling, since that means they are similar to elves in some ways.”

“However, while their ruler is a female, I’ve only seen a handful of females there. Almost everyone in their castle is male.”

“What about the servants?”

“Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen any. I haven’t seen any butlers or maids in their castle at all.”

“Surely, someone has to maintain it and take care of their noble’s needs.”

“That’s the thing, they don’t really have nobles. Of course, some of them do have more important responsibilities than others, but they’re expected to take care of and clean after themselves.”

“How can they focus on their important work then?”

“I don’t know, but they do. Mun-Hee, for example. Uhh, the small female.”

“The one with the small eyes?”

“Yes.”

“She isn’t small. She is as tall as timkik females.”

“You’re right, sorry about that. I just got used to everyone being a head taller than me, so she’s small in my mind.”

“No problem, do carry on. What about her?”

“I’m sharing my quarters with her. Actually, I was ordered to live in her private quarters. And even though it appears that she has an important role, she has no one to handle her chores. She has to do it all by herself.”

“On top of all the other work that she has to do?”

“Yes. Although, I don’t really know what her work is. All I know is that it has something to do with how people think.”

“That would imply she’s some kind of negotiator but, as far as I know, she talks very little.”

“She does appear to be timid today, but she’s very vocal around the demons. In fact, she’s always yelling at their males.”

“Even though she’s so much smaller than them?”

“Yes.”

“And they don’t mind?”

“If they did, they’d do something about it. Oh yes! She’s of a different race. There are different races of demons out there, and she’s different than the others.”

“Really? There isn’t much difference, apart from her being smaller.”

“She told me that herself. Also, I can’t say for sure, but it may be possible that the demons can interbreed with the other races.”

That made his ears twitch: “How so?”

“I don’t know, and I can’t confirm it, but I remember hearing something about that. That would explain why she’s so similar to the other demons. Maybe she’s an interracial offspring.”

“But that shouldn’t be possible … hmm … then again, so many other things shouldn’t be possible.”

“I can’t say any more on that, but I think you should know that’s a possibility.”

“Fair enough.”

“You’re not going to write that down?”

“On what?”

“Some papyrus, perhaps?”

“And what if someone catches me with it?”

“…”

“I have no other choice but to keep it all here,” he said while tapping his temple, “Anyway, that’s not something you should concern yourself with. Not unless you got the taste for this line of work.”

I averted my eyes away from him on instinct.

“It’s ok. There’s no need to be ashamed of it. We’re not judgemental pricks. I love my work too.”

“That’s because you’re a male.”

“Yes, I’m a male. A male who realizes that females are also people and are no different from me. If you enjoy this work, you know, you can continue working for us even after your debt is repaid. We can even convince your family to give up on you.”

“I appreciate that, but I’d rather tackle one issue at a time.”

“That makes sense. But do keep in mind that we’re always looking for talented people. Once you’ve had a taste of real freedom it’s very hard to forget, right?” He smiled slyly, “And you won’t find that freedom anywhere else. But I digress. I want to hear more about these demons now, and time is running out.”

---

He didn’t go into details and was much more concerned with the bigger picture, mainly general things like their behavior and culture. To me, it looked as if he was more interested in predicting their actions than actually learning about them.

I guess that makes sense in a way, since we were pressed for time. He was clearly in a rush, cutting me off as soon as I tried to give him more detail about something or name some examples.

“Ok miss, that will have to do for now. There’s one last thing I have to say. Well, two in fact. The first is to give you a warning.”

“Regarding what?”

“Our mages have tried to get some readings on these demons to confirm their demonic nature. And their findings have constantly been inconsistent. Most of the time, they get nothing. As if these demons are somehow empty. This is strange since this same method is used widely by the inquisition, to great success. This could be proof that these creatures are honest and are not demons, if not for one thing. The mages should be able to identify them as people, which is also not the case. Thanks to that, it’s impossible to discern their true nature. Up until recently, we thought that’s just how they are. They came from the other world, so our magic can’t classify them because they’re just too alien. Besides, there’s no magic in their world, so it makes sense in a way.”

He leaned forward.

“But, that changed when they saw you. You see, when you were presented as a gift, our mages have finally managed to notice something in Goldy.”

“Goldy?”

“Jens. That’s the name we gave him before we learned how to communicate with them. Seeing you made him drop his guard, giving our mages enough time to classify him as a monster.”

“A monster?”

“Yes. And he did look like one back then, didn’t he?”

“He was … very intimidating.”

“But it didn’t last long, and he got back to being his empty self. So, I have to ask you this: during your stay in their embsi, have you ever seen Goldy act monstrously?”

“No, he … he’s always calm and collected. I’ve never seen him display even a hint of hostility! Of course, there were times when he’d get angry, but he would always calm down in an instant, and he was never violent with anyone.”

“So, you didn’t awake similar reaction again?”

“No!”

“You see, we think that these creatures have found a way to confuse our mages, to hide their true nature. And we think that, at that moment, Goldie let his guard down, helping our mages get a glimpse at what these creatures really are. As soon as he had collected himself, he managed to cut us off once again. Which makes us wonder, why did you make him drop his guard? It would make sense if you’ve impressed him way too much, but don’t you think he would make a move in that case? Surely, he wouldn’t be disinterested as you describe it.”

“I agree. He keeps his distance away from me and is making sure we’re never alone.”

“Maybe he’s concerned you’d awaken his true nature once again and doesn’t want to hurt you? Maybe he doesn’t want you near him exactly because you make him revert back to his true nature?”

“But I did nothing to warrant that!”

“Still, you should be careful around him, which is unfortunate. Your main goal is to get close to him, but doing so could put you in danger.”

“Thinking about it, Mun-Hee keeps reminding me how I should never be alone with a human male. I thought she was just jealous and saw me as competition, but there could be more to that.”

“Maybe it would be better to make that female your main target. After all, you’re already sharing her quarters.”

“And she’s a faggot too!”

“That’s great! That will make it much easier for you to get on her good side.”

“Hmm, I don’t know … she does have some strange charm I can’t explain, but I don’t really see myself …”

“No one is asking you to do anything. I’m just saying that will make it easier for you to tug on her heartstrings. If these creatures have them.”

“Considering how much effort Jens is putting into avoiding me, it would probably be for the best.”

 “Great! Remember, we do need information desperately, but you can’t deliver any if you’re dead. So your safety comes first.”

“I understand.”

“Which brings us to the safety of your queen. There’s a plot to kill her.”

“Huh?”

“You’ve heard me right. You know that the church doesn’t like our new friends and is very public about it. They want to sabotage the agreement we’re negotiating on, and they’ve managed to convince some fools to try and attack the demonic queen. They hope this will put an end to any friendly relations we may have with them.”

“Considering we’re already fighting a war, wouldn’t that only make everything worse?”

“That’s exactly the point. Who has something to gain out of it? If you figure that out, you will realize who’s behind it.”

“I see.”

“Clearly, we can’t let it happen. We do have a contingency plan in place, but the spymaster thinks it would be best to have you handle it. Of course, we’ll pick it up if you fail, but having their queen indebted to you would help a lot. It is expected of us to solve this thing on our own, but if you’d get involved it would clearly go above and beyond your duties.”

“Aren’t you worried they’ll be mad because you’ve failed to protect their queen in your territory? In the palace, no less.”

“Perhaps, but we’ll have the guards at the ready as soon as anyone gets in danger. We’re not asking you to fight the assassins. We’re asking you to give the demonic queen some early warning. Here’s the plan …”