Demon Reconnaissance III

Nina didn't waste a second, took off her sweater and wrapped it around the elf boy, and grabbed his hand. "Quick, follow me. I will take you somewhere safe," she told him. She wasn't sure if he understood what she meant or if he even trusted her, but now wasn't the time to think about those things. This had an opportunity to escape and she needed to take it.

Nina led the elf boy into an alley where she knew that there wouldn't be people and once they were out of public sight, she slowed down and looked at the boy. He had bruises and cuts all over his arms, face, and legs. Luckily, most of them were minor injuries that she could heal. She sat the boy down on a crate before using her magic to heal the boy.

"Don't worry, I'm not you or anything," she assured the boy who was looking at her with a frightened expression. Once again, she didn't know if he understood her, but hopefully, he did. Water sprouted from her hands and wrapped around the boy's arms, slowly healing the cuts and bruises until they were completely gone. The boy tensed down after realizing what she was doing and let her heal him.

Nina did the same to his legs and then finally his face. "There, all done." Nina stood back up and helped the boy onto his feet. He said something to her in what sounded like Elvish, which she assumed was something along the lines of, "Thank you."

Nina hugged the boy and looked around the alley, deciding on what to do next. She couldn't take him back out to the public, that's for sure. If she handed him to a soldier, he would continue living his life as a slave and likely receive even more abuse. The only option was to take him home.

Nina told the boy what she was going to do. He probably didn't understand it, but she didn't care. Either way, she was going to take him back home whether he knew it or not. It was the only safe place for him. They will have to take the alleys back to her mansion since the streets were too dangerous.

Nina gently took the boy's hand and started leading him in the direction of her mansion. She had no idea how to navigate the place, but as long as she went in this direction, she should end up somewhere close to her home.

While Nina navigated the alleys, she thought back to when she saved the boy from the angry mob of people. She hadn't been thinking and her body moved on her own, throwing herself in front of the elf boy to protect him. She didn't know what to do when the two men started approaching her with their fists raised. She had been frozen stiff with fear.

Luckily, someone had helped her out and dispersed the crowd, giving her the chance to escape with the elf. She didn't know who it was but as she was running away, she caught a glimpse of someone in a cloak hurrying off. Unlike everyone else who was fleeing for their lives, the cloaked person was the only one who was walking away instead of running. Without a doubt, they were the ones responsible for whatever had happened, saving both her and the boy.

'Thank you, whoever you are,' she thanked them in her head.

***

"That took you a while." Falte was the first one to spot Kies as he came back from the city.

"Sorry, I couldn't find anywhere that would sell water, so I had to get my own," Kies explained to Falte as he handed him the multiple bags of food and pouches of water. "I had to fill these at the farm when no one was looking."

"What else did you find?"

"I didn't get anything else. Was there something I was supposed to get?"

"No, I mean information-wise," Falte made his question clearer.

"Oh. Uh, they don't know that it was you guys that raided the castle, and they're blaming it on elves and beastmen," Kies explained to him, remembering what he heard while he was in town.

"Well, that's good."

"But is this right?" Kies asked.

"What do you mean?" Falte didn't understand his question,

"Is putting the blame on the beastmen and elves right?" An elf boy almost died on the streets today and he doubted that he was the only one who was suffering because of their actions. "I know that we need to stay hidden, but this doesn't feel right."

Falte looked at Kies, trying to figure out if he was being serious with this question. After seeing that he was being serious when he asked this, Falte responded truthfully with, "Logically speaking, no, this isn't right. But we don't exactly have any other choice if we don't want to get found out. I mean, the beastmen probably don't care since they made it obviously clear that they want to fight back. As for the elves, I'm not sure why they're blaming the elves."

"It's because they believe that the beastmen aren't well-trained enough to infiltrate the castle stealthily."

"Ah... I should've thought the plan through better... Well, I never like them anyway considering what they have done to us, but it looks like we owe an apology to the elves anyway." Falte didn't sound very sincere when he said that, but Kies didn't say anything about it. It looked like the demons didn't get along with any other race at all. But that made sense because almost all of them were on the human's side during the war. Of course, they had reason to hate them and disregard them. But Kies still didn't think that it was right to do something like this.

"Anyway, did anything else happen, or was that all?" Falte asked Kies.

"Nothing else really happened," he lied. He risked exposing himself when he rescued that elf boy and girl, and it was probably not a good idea to tell him. He would definitely get mad at him for that. Speaking of which, he hoped that the two made it out of there fine.

When Kies heard that girl's voice, a strange feeling went through his body. He couldn't quite grasp what it was, but he felt that there was something missing. Had they met before? His hand unconsciously went to the bird necklace that was hidden underneath his shirt. Was this linked to her? If only he had got a clear look at her face, then maybe he would know it was.

---

Grammar errors, story errors, other errors, and advice, email flightless05@gmail.com

Thanks!