I was sitting on the ground. Nothing more, nothing less. Just sitting and trying to pass time with the smell of blood and intestines assaulting my nose. When we were walking to this cell, I saw two cells full of blood but it was empty, no one was there.

---

After about an hour, which felt like an eternity, someone entered through the door to the far left. With small but loud steps hurriedly came over to my cell. It was a human that wore a grey lab coat. Not a white one, like in movies, but a grey one and he had glasses on. Which didn’t really give him an image of someone dangerous. On his coat there was a symbol that seemed like it meant something, but I couldn’t read it, so I heeded it no mind.

“Prisoner No. 69.  Heh, looks like my lucky number is here. I better get a translator.” He quickly spoke and then left.

‘I’m number 69? Talk about being lucky.’

So I was sitting a bit more. Until, after about five minutes the same guy arrived with a woman in tow. The woman in question seemed like your average sleep depraved waifu, with dark circles under her blue eyes, accompanied by blonde hair that were cut short. Wasted potential to be honest.

“Tell her to stay in her place, I’m opening the cell.” He spoke.

“Sure, whatever.” The woman seemed like she had fed up with his shit.

“He’s opening the cell, stay in your place and he won’t hurt you.”

“Like I’m going to believe you? Do you think I’m dumb or something?” I replied in an angry tone. She raised her eyebrows.

“Looks like we have someone smart. Be careful.” She warned him.

“Aww, are you looking out for me?” The man looked at her.

“Shut up and do your work.”

“Sure, okay.”

He opened the door and stepped inside. I was glaring at him the entire time, but didn’t do anything, not that I could do anything with the weight of these cuffs. He took the chain of my collar and locked it on a hook that was in the back. Due to the sudden pull to the back, I fell over and hit my head on the ground. I hit so hard, that I could feel my consciousness wavering, I was on the verge of passing out. When I finally got back from the state of flux, I felt something warm dripping from the side of my head. I turned my face a little bit and saw blood.

‘Is that my blood?’ Was the first thought that I could get.

“Is that really blood?” The woman spoke with a shaken voice.

“Looks like I got someone really rare.” I could feel that the man started smiling.

Those reactions were only because my blood, that dripped down the side my head. Was fully black, as black as the worlds blackest black, it absorbed every light that entered it. Just like a black hole.

“What do you mean by that?” The woman asked him.

“You see, there is this legend that says. ‘Nine tailed foxes are different from other foxes, even their blood is not of the same color.’ That means she could be a daughter of a nine tailed fox, although there is no way to ascertain it. I would like to believe that she is of nine tails. I’ll have to ask permission if I want to continue my work. What a pain.”

‘I could be of nine tails? That would be the most understandable explanation for it. But I still can’t understand it.’ I thought whilst looking at my own blood, that I still couldn’t believe was mine.

There was a wheel in the cell, when he spun it for a couple of times, chains descended from the ceiling. He took my hands and spoke.

“[split]” The block that encased my wrists split into two blocks. He took my hands and chained both of them, then he went near the wheel again and started spinning it into the opposite direction. He stopped when I was hanging in the air and my feet couldn’t reach the ground. The man left the cell and closed the door without locking it.

“Okay, let’s go and get permission. If I do get my permission, everything will go very smoothly. You wouldn’t believe how smoothly it would go if I got it.”

“Yaeah, okay whatever. I’m tired, I’m going to sleep for the next hour, so don’t bother me. You can continue your little games when you get the permission and I get my sleep. Got it?”

The guy seemed to be in his own world, because he didn’t hear her.

“Hey, Kyo?”

“What?”

“I’m going to sleep for the next hour, so don’t bother me.”

“Okay, why do you guys call me Kyo though? My name is different from that.”

“You wouldn’t get it even if we explained.”

And then both of them left.

---

*POV-Pride*

 

When I finally calmed down, I thought through my plans again with a cool head.

‘I cannot summon a tracking spirit, because I don’t have anything that could lead to Envy.’

‘But I don’t know where she could be. There are at least four different big towns that have guard stations. And all of them are about 25 Kilometers apart.’

When I thought about the guard stations, that was when a good idea finally occurred.

‘Why don’t I approach any of the guards and ask their station?’

And I could do that, because of all of us, I was the only one who was human before receiving my name. At least that’s what mother told me. So I decided to test my luck and went back inside the town.

After going the main street towards the mansion for good five minutes I finally arrived.

“No one is allowed near the mansion, I would advise to leave before you get caught.” One of the guards that was near the gates addressed me.

“Oh, don’t mind me. I want to ask, of which guard station are you?” I asked them politely, because good manners were drilled into me from both, my mother and her mother, but also my manners teacher. All of them left such a strong impression, I can’t even describe it.

“Oh, we are of the Valentine town, the one that’s about 50 Kilometers west from here.”

“Thank you, have a good day.” And I skedaddled from there.

‘I have never been there, looks like I’ll have to travel for a bit.’

“Oh, wait. I’ll need to think of something to cover for mother.”

When I thought up a half lie and half truth, I teleported back to the Demon castle, into the office where mother spends the most time. But this time it was empty. After a moment a maid came in here to clean the room and saw me.

“Oh, Mister Lucifer, Miss Helia is in the garden if you are looking for her.”

“Thanks, I’ll go now.”

After arriving at the garden, I saw mother looking at the flowers with a distant look.

“Mother I’m here.”

“Oh? Pride! How is Envy? I hope she won’t turn against us.”

“No need to worry for now. Looks like she went to a city called Valentine, I don’t know much about it. so I will need to travel alongside her from the shadows. So, I came here requesting travel funds. It’s pretty far away so I won’t be here for some time, will you be okay?”

“Haha, I will be okay. Just help Envy and I’ll stay here. As for your funds, how much will you be needing?”

“Hmm… Give twenty golden suns and fifteen silver suns. Because after all I need human currency.”

“It’s good that I robbed a couple of villages when I was away.”

After that, we went into the office where she gave me the money and I teleported out of there.

‘It’s good that she believed me. If she would have not, I don’t know what I would’ve done.’

“Looks like I’ll be off to Valentine now.”

I took out a map out of my storage bag and opened it.

“The guard said that it’s west from here. Ah, there it is.”

‘Looks like it will be a long way until I find my little sister.’