13

Searching for Athena in the training yard and not finding her I head to her house. arriving at her house and still not finding her I figure I know where she is and head to Alice's store.

Upon arriving at the princess retail I realize I haven't been inside and head for the door. as I walk inside and look at all the odds and ends I see who I believe is Kaguli she also notices me and I approach her at the counter.

"Hey, sorry to bother but is Athena here with Alice?" she gives me a wary look so I explain further. "I am Nova I was supposed to meet with Athena so we could go to town Leia." as she is about to speak I notice something approaching me at high speed but before I dodge I notice what it is or better yet who. as I get tackled from the side by a sobbing prince I fall back so she doesn't break her nose smashing into my frame that hard.

"Novaaaaaa wahhhhh Athena said you guys were going to miss the potion mater challenge to go on a trip and she refuses to take me!" tears and snot getting all over my shirt I let out a sigh as she wails into me. looking over I see Athena barely containing her laughs and to her side, I see Kia who is looking at me warily. Ah, that's right I haven't seen her since she ' became mine ' which is pretty odd since in the original she moved in with Chen Rui as far as I remember. I need to talk to her I will do it before we leave. "are you even listening?! I said Athena is leaving me out of the fun! how could you do this to me you are stealing my best friend!?" on the side, Athena blushes in shame and marches over and drags Alice off me so I can stand up.

"It's not like that Alice I just told her about my plans and she shamelessly included herself and even called it a date." Athena twirls on me and swings but I just slide out the way and Alice gawks.

"A date?! Athena how could you go on a date before me I thought we were friends, you dummy." Athena goes completely red and even starts to burn a little before she starts yelling about me being a stupid pervert who tricked her into a date. " ok ok Athena I believe you." Athena calms down and pats her chest sending ripples through it before glaring at me for looking.

"I am glad you believe me princess it's all this bad guy's trick." Alice nods along and agrees it's all my fault before saying something that about makes Athena pass out.

"But you're still going on a date Athena how could you not tell me beforehand." I bust out laughing seeing Athena's face turning red again and even Kaguli and Kia laugh a bit.

"Alice! it's not like that you jerk!" Alice shakes her head side to side like a rattle.

"You agreed he tricked you into it but it's still a date, if you didn't want to go you just wouldn't go Athena I know you best, and if you're going it's a real date." as if coming to some sort of realization Athena zones out before she slowly turns toward me. not missing an opportunity to tease the ever-cute Athena I pounce on the chance.

"She's right Athena you agreed even after you knew it was a date. if you didn't want to go you would have just tried to beat me with your sword again but instead, you agreed to go." She reaches for her storage bracelet which contains her sword and seeing this Alice leaps to stop the would-be property damage in her shop.

"Stop Athena don't wreck my shop! if you want him dead do it outside!" turning to me Alice walks over and sizes me up and down before nodding as if I passed some sort of test. jumping to her tiptoes and patting my shoulder. "take good care of my Athena or don't expect to be left all in one piece. Also, be gentle on her she's a shy girl you have to take it slow or she will pass out." after saying some pretty misleading things she walks over to a bookshelf and hands a few books to Athena and I see the cover of one and its ' dealing with the beast that is a man '. at this I can only sigh helplessly this little princess is corrupted by smut novels and dirty romance there is no help for her she is borderline cultured.

"Alice I am not sure I will need these." shaking her head Alice insists her friend read the corrupting book. "ok Alice I am going to head out now I just came to let you know I was missing the challenge." throwing the books in her bracelet Athena power walks over to me grabs my hand and marches out the door before she gets teased anymore." looking at out interlocking fingers I think how lewd holding a girls hand in public but I keep it to myself lest she lets go. as we are walking away I wave back at Alice who is wiping tears from her eyes and waving a handkerchief as if sending us off to war. Kia at her side is giving me an odd look that I don't quite understand I would think she would hate me like how she did Chen but she just seems to not know how to bring the subject up. I will talk to her when I get back right now I have to focus on Athena and the town yankou.

"How are we getting there?" Athena asks me as we walk a bit slower still holding hands.

"I was going to ask you that, if I was on my own I would probably just fly there with my wings I am pretty fast after all." this is true after reaching my current level of power and using Agares I can zip around like a bullet, Paglio expressed a good amount of jealousy at my wings. he has to transform into his dragon form to fly and it's big and easy to spot unlike my wings and my smaller size. "Want me to just carry you?" giving her an innocent smile she looks at me incredulously before just sighing.

"No but we can get a griffin and ride them over to the town." a bit sad I can't fly my wings but this works anyway.

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Arriving at the stables she brings out a mutant griffin that excels in speed.

"This is the griffin given by my dad it's super fast but I rarely ride him because I usually ride a more sturdy one when I need to ride so I can fight off the back of it." brushing it with her fingers it trills and squeals and I realize I vaguely can understand it as if it's setting ' more pets '. huh, I guess my devil speak is activating on it even though it's only got limited intelligence.

"Where is mine?" she blushes and points at her griffin and then I understand she wants to ride together to which I look back at her in disbelief.

"What? you have never ridden one before right? so I can just do the hard part and you can focus on learning for future reference ... besides you rode the rhino with Kia what's the difference?" she said the last part with a barely audible tone and I realize this is a god-given opportunity and thank him for this before getting a jolt of pain for thanking god as a devil. not wanting to miss another opportunity like with Shea this morning I jump on the back of the saddle and pat my lap. Athena Seeing this looks at me with a deadpan before climbing up and dropping into my lap.

"Alright just hold on to me and don't fall off." I think she is selectively choosing to forget I can fly with my wings in the event I fall off but I am not going to complain. wrapping her up in a hug from behind she makes a cute squeak and then snaps the reins on the griffin and it starts running before taking off. unknown to both of us someone was watching the whole thing and ran off to report to Alan after we were long gone.

Flying at probably half my base speed I push my Agares into the griffin before turning up his speed to a comfortable level. on a creature that flaps its wings to fly, I can't crank it up too much or it will snap its wings off trying to imitate a hummingbird. with my devil wings flying through the use of magic, it's a lot easier to boost it with Agares. Athena noticing I did something turns over her shoulder and looks at me with an eyebrow raised. leaning into her ear I whisper into her ear.

"Just giving him a bit of a boost." she shivers in my arms as I whisper directly into her ear. reaching back and pinching my side only to find no fat or loose skin to grab settles for biting me on my shoulder like some kind of vampire. "hey pay attention to where we are going, don't want to crash into anybody up here." snorting at my joke she looks back forward but resting her whole body weight into me I just take a moment to enjoy the situation. at this moment I look back at the short amount of time I have been here and see it's all been pretty fast-paced and busy and decide to take a few moments every day to enjoy the situation a bit more.

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After a few hours of flying we spot the town, it looks worse than the dark moon with how run down it is. landing next to some stables Athena hops off the griffin allowing me to get down. she then guides it over the stall and pays a stable hand to watch it before walking back over to me. along the road, we can see some armed demons in their battle form approaching.

"State your business in the great town of yankou." the lead guard steps forward with sword drawn he exudes a spirit pressure on us to frighten us but I shroud us in worthless and it does nothing. if I had to guess he is a mid-higher demon in a run-down town like this he is one of the big dogs if not the biggest dog. noticing our nonchalance at his spirit pressure he grits his teeth, before he can do anything stupid I speak up.

"We are from Dark moon I and lord Shea's secretary and am looking into the spike in deaths from starvation." he passes a critical look at me before looking at Athena with a lustful look and then barks out a laugh.

"What are you going to do about it with just you two? plant a whole farm? we need food not two girls to come and look into anything." alright he's dead. I don't care if he is just trying to look good in Infront of his men he's crossed the line. first I want him to know he's fucked up and that's what I set off to do.

warping behind him I zap his comrades who are still laughing at his joke and don't even have time to see me appear before they fall unconscious. then grabbed the man by the back of his neck I hoist him up and he starts screaming.

"Attack! attack! he attacked me stab him!"

"They can't hear you, what's your name buddy?"

"Seamen! I am the great garrison captain seamen! you unhand me or my partner will not let you off! he is a part of the Saiful family and you can't afford to provoke them!" this is some straight young master vibe if I've ever seen it. the poor guy's name is seamen what a shit name as well must be tough.

"Alright, Seamen all I have to say is you should have picked who you talked down to a little better" in honesty when I used worthless to shield us he probably saw us as ordinary civilians without any spiritual power or anything but still can't let everyone off for being an idiot.

*Snap* dropping the body on the pile of men I walk back over to Athena who is just staring with disgust at the corpse.

"Hmmp that dumb ass should have just kept his mouth shut." guess she doesn't have much of an opinion on the matter. "using someone else's family name to bully others how much of a scum can one be?" oh I see he reminded her of Alan, grabbing her hand I start pulling her down the road and she keeps pace.

"We need to see the mayor and find out the problem that's going on in this town." looking around I hardly see anyone and the ones I do see are skin and bones. Athena in the agreement seeing the state of things begins to pick up the pace and we make our way to the surprising nice mansion in the center of the town. making our way to the door we don't even see any guards posted outside so we knock and wait for someone to come to answer. A succubus maid with sunken cheeks answers the door.

"Hello? is there something I can help you with?"

"We are here to see the mayor." she looks us over a few times then peers out the door and doesn't see anyone else then waves us in.

"Mayor Sheikh ran to his office a little while ago and his garrison captain went to go check on some guests I will let him know you are here." that sounds suspicious let's not give him any more time.

"That won't be necessary just lead me to him and you can have this." handing over some black crystal coins and some food I prepared for Paglio she grabs it and points to a large wooden door. walking over to the door I find it locked with some kind of magic and break it with worthless and walk in. on the inside I see the fattest demon I have ever seen in the demon world quickly packing files away into a safe. hearing the door open and assuming it's probably his partner he begins to speak.

"Who was it are they hear to cause trouble I already have the documents stashed awa- " turning and seeing me and Athena staring at him he begins to close the safe and fix up his collar and pat his clothes down. "Where is Seamen? and who are you to march into my office do you know who I am?"

"It's because of who you are that we came to see you. I am from the dark moon I am lord Shea's secretary and am looking into the deaths of the citizens of this town." taking out an identification badge and flashing it to him before putting it back he goes pale. "Care to comment on how the population has dropped so drastically yet the food provided by the dark moon has remained the same yet there are still so many deaths by starvation?" looking at his huge gut I nod in understanding "it seems you have eaten all the food yourself haven't you Sheikh Saiful."

"Now listen here you! I have done the best I can to ensure the well-being of the people of this town and I don't appreciate your tone." getting fed up with this pig I prepare a spell to loosen his lips a bit and then ask him some questions with him being a bit more willing to divulge.

"Where are the people dying?"

"In the mine." he answers almost instantly as if I would be stupid to assume otherwise. then his eyes go wide and he begins to cold sweat.

"What mine?"

"The Rocque Mountain mine west of the town. How are you doing this!"

"what is in the mine and why hasn't Lord Shea been notified that there was a mining operation going on in her territory?"

"Jade ice crystal its a rare magic material. and we kept it secret so we could hoard the profits." he falls on the ground and begs us to keep it a secret offering to give us a share of the profits.

"Athena watch him I am going to communicate with Shea." she nods and looks at the poor groveling fat man like he is dirt. the difference between her distaste for people like this then her lovey side for people she likes is so cute.