11.2 Places To Go

Ezraphel was always excited to go to new places. It wasn't like some of her siblings who had genuine wanderlust and couldn't stay in one place for too long. Really it was just a happy side effect of her lifestyle and the mindset she had back then but it made her quite the incidental explorer in her own right. Ezraphel would always have a 'thing' that she would obsess with and devote her time to and that 'thing' would have her change locations.

Nowadays Ezraphel was genuinely excited to be going to new places. The most obvious reason was that this was a completely different dimension. The less (but not really) obvious reason was that while she could literally go anywhere at any time she wanted to share the experience with her Stanley. Unfortunately given his self imposed lifestyle as a hermit she wasn't going to experiencing too much of the outside world at once.

The internet didn't help in this regard either. Yeah sure she could look up and view what earth had to offer but really it only succeeded in increasing her yearning to experience the genuine thing. Earth really has some very beautiful scenery even with the absence of magic and she wanted to experience them oh so badly.

She just had to convince her Stanley which could go 50/50 really. Thing about it is that Ezraphel knew for a fact that if she asked (read: plead) then Stanley would eventually acquiesce to her. He was a far cry from the man he was when they first encountered. He was less bitter, more mature about relationships and much more relaxed. Ezraphel would get her travel experience but it would be a reluctant thing on Stanley's part, the reason being that he was a very frugal man.

She would not go so far as to say he was 'cheap' after all he gave her means to buy and customize her entire wardrobe and paid for it all at once. She would say that he did not spend unnecessarily the wardrobe plus every other cost he'd incurred because of her was, in his own words, because she was worth it. With words like that you'd think Ezraphel wouldn't have such a dilemma but Stanley had a limit he tries to enforce, most times out of sheer stubbornness.

He even went so far as to actually explain how finances work and their financial situation just so she wouldn't be such a princess about spending his money. His words not hers but she understood them nonetheless. Stanley was indeed wealthy however a major reason for why that is was because of what he referred to as his 'minimalist lifestyle' and if the expenses he incurred ever continuously goes over a certain limit then maintaining his wealth will become tenuous.

Ezraphel understood this…as the type of excuse Stanley would use to justify not leaving his home to have fun outside when the real reason is that he just didn't like going outside. And unless she wanted to deal with a stubborn and belligerent Stanley then it was best that she uses logic to convince him to do what she wanted of his own volition. The key to all this was to let Stanley believe that he wasn't doing something that was unnecessary or when that doesn't work let him believe that it would be worth it.

The excuse she provided for a new bed was admittedly bad when she had already demonstrated her mastery over sorcery on a daily basis. Luckily Staley seems to be in an agreeable mood even though he saw through her deception he actually agreed to go furniture shopping.

'Why is that?'

Hmm?

"Okay, what is it now?" he asked without taking his eyes off the road.

"Hm, what is it do you mean Stanley?"

"You're awfully quiet and that means you're think about something"

"Perhaps I am feeling introspective this morning" she defended "is there a problem with that?"

"No" he admitted "but you've been giving me shifty-eyed looks for a while now."

'He noticed?'

"Yeah I noticed."

"…!"

They stopped behind a line of vehicles at a traffic light and he glanced at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I suppose I am curious."

"Curious?"

"Do you actually intend on buying a new bed?"

"Is this really about the bed?"

"Not necessarily" she edged "I would still like it if we got something more suited for the two of us."

"Good cause I'm mostly doing this because you clearly wanted to go outside and do something together and this was as good an excuse as any."

"Am I so transparent?"

"Not really but I figured it out" he turned his attention to the road "and for the record I'd prefer if you just said what you wanted instead of giving me the run around."

"But you always say no."

"Well…yeah" he hesitated "but I say no to a lot of things at first. And you know I can't say no to you for long."

"Oh, Stanley~"

"Still driving!"

"Sorry!"

Still Ezraphel chewed on his words for a while before she eventually spoke "so does that mean you won't say no to going out more often to new places?"

"I can only promise to try."

'I'll take it!'

It was only a few minutes of comfortable driving later that Stanley announced "here we are, furniture warehouse."

Ezraphel was already looking at the building with curiosity and anticipation. She just about unhooked the seatbelt when Stanley grasped her hand.

"For real though, do I need to buy another bed?"

"Hm?" Ezraphel blinked almost in confusion before realizing "oh, that."

"Did you seriously forget the reason why we're even here?"

'…maybe.'

She did not say this, instead she waved his concerns "I can create a new bed no problem."

"I knew it!"

"I still want to see what earth furniture has to offer though."

"Is that important?"

"It helps to have a feel for what I want to recreate otherwise I would just make the bed I had from home."

"…"

"What?"

"Is it supposed to be that easy?"

Ezraphel tilted her head a bit "what do you mean?"

"It's like…I always thought magic was supposed to be harder than that. You made that bath house overnight, you do all your spells by snapping your fingers and…I mean telekinesis, teleportation, shapeshifting and illusions are one thing but matter and spatial manipulation? Pardon my language but that is some wild shit Ez."

Ezraphel stared at him for a moment before looking away, forward then back to her hands.

"This level of magic would be pretty 'wild' for a human I suppose."

"Hey, I don't mean anything by it" he backtracked "I was just…curious about how magic works for you."

"Well spellcasting works differently for mamono than it does for humans and us Lilims have it a bit different than other Mamonos" she paused "actually that could be said for all the races and species on Eos and explaining them would a bit…"

"Yeah we don't have that kind of time" Stanley agreed.

"What I can say is that I am much stronger now than I was before I met you."

"Oh well…" he didn't know what to say to that.

"Also the reason why I can perform such complex spells with such relative ease is because I made our home into my domain."

"What?"

"It is the same principle as creating a Mamono Realm. If an area becomes saturated in my mana then I will have influence over it. On Eos it would take more effort on my part to have the kind of power I now possess but earth is so devoid of mana that my own mana is not being encumbered allowing me to have complete influence over the space within our home."

"Hence the casting spells by snapping fingers?" he hazarded.

"Well" she made a so-so gesture "there's more to it than that and most Sorcerers would have a difficult time but" she turned to him with a smile that was just on the side of smug "I make it look easy."

In that moment the piano instrumentals Still Dre started playing in the background. Ezraphel donned a pair of shades and a caption appeared beside her in cursive.

SUCCUBOSS.

Shaking his head he opened the car door "alright, I guess that answers that."

"Was there anything else you'd like to know?"

"Nope, let's go."