Liora and her apparent demon friend sat on a couch opposite me. After being scared half to death by the demon girl, I changed out of my soiled clothes and returned to the living room with them.

  I chose to sit on the opposing couch facing them alone because I didn’t want to be near that demon girl. Looking at Liora, I noticed that she wasn’t in a towel anymore and had changed into some clothes. She must have done it while I was gone.

  “Took you long enough,” Liora huffed as I sat down. “I can’t believe she scared you that much. You should’ve seen your face,” she laughed.

  “How else did you expect me to react?! I don’t even know who she is,” I snapped back at her, annoyed.

  Glancing over to her demon friend, I saw that she was swinging her feet as they dangled off the couch. Her expression was hard to read, but as I tried to decipher it, I guess it became obvious that I was staring because our eyes locked, and she shot me a toothy grin. I flinched off instinct at the sight of that, and her smile made me notice her sharp, pointed teeth. The girl was freaky.

  Liora tilted her head and gave me a confused look. “What do you mean you don’t know her? I’ve told you about her a million times.” Liora crossed her arms in annoyance at my ignorance.

  “You did?”

  “Yes, I did. She’s the demon friend I’ve told you about, Lilitu. The one I always go play with. The one I’ve told you I’ve gone on tons of adventures with,” she explained.

  I thought for a moment, trying to remember if she had ever said anything like that. None of it rang a bell, though it was probably because I never really paid much attention to what the brat would speak about. I always assumed whatever she said would be useless information. Though knowing that there were demons running around this world would probably have been good to know.

  Then maybe I wouldn’t have pissed my pants…

  “Nope, never heard of her,” I replied after giving it some thought.

  “Ughhhh, you never listen to me.” Liora groaned before hopping off the couch and walking over to me.

  “What are yo—” My question was cut off by Liora pinching and pulling my cheek.

  “Would it kill you to listen to your big sister?!”

  “Ow, ow, stop it!” I cried out in pain.

  Who did this girl think she was? She had no right to do that to me. If I were bigger, I would’ve knocked her into next week just for thinking about doing such a thing.

  “Hehe, let me try!” the demon girl exclaimed as she hopped off the couch and scurried over to me.

  The girl then grabbed my other cheek and pinched it before tugging on it hard. The pain was immeasurable. It was probably the worst pain I had felt in both lives. I would rather take a hundred flicks from Mira than a pinch from the little demon girl.

  Actually…never mind…

  Mira definitely had this girl beat in delivering pain, but it was still excruciating. Tears began to well up in my eyes, and I began to wail and flail my arms around.

  “Ahhh, stop!” I cried out in pain.

  “Stop it, Lili, can’t you see you’re hurting him?” Liora scolded.

  “Hm?” the demon girl tilted her head in confusion, giving the same stupid look as Liora did earlier.

  “You have to do it like this…” Liora then pulled again at my cheek. “You’re too strong. You’re gonna rip his cheek off if you do it like that.”

  “Ohhh, I see. Like…” Lilitu, the demon girl, eased up on the pulling slightly but not enough for it to feel any better. I was still in excruciating pain. “This?”

  “Ahhh!”

  “No, you’re still pulling too hard. Do it like this.” Liora demonstrated the pulling technique once more.

  “Oh, I think I got it now. Like this?” Lilitu adjusted her grip, but instead of easing up on the tugging, she ended up pulling even harder than before.

  “Ahhhhh!!!” I screamed out in agony.

  “Lili, no. That’s even worse. Do it like th—”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “That’s enough!”

  Before Liora could get another word out and have Lilitu give it another try, I quickly augmented myself. Then I slapped both of their hands away.

  “Stop using me as a guinea pig! I’m not a toy!” I lashed out at the two brats.

  Lilitu’s face beamed. “Whoa, what did you just do?!”

  “Oh, that? Reyly knows how to augment himself,” Liora explained simply, shrugging her shoulders.

  “But I thought humans couldn’t do that ’til they were older?” Lilitu asked.

  “Hmph, well, it’s not that special. Reyly just started a bit early, that’s all. And I’m gonna learn too, ya know,” Liora said with her arms crossed. She was clearly jealous, which I didn’t mind. I liked it, in fact.

  “Well, whatever. Anyways, I came here to ask you if you wanted to go on another adventure. I stole a map from a passing traveler, and it has the location of a forest that is supposed to have all kinds of cool animals, even some mana beasts. I want to go see them for myself,” Lilitu said, quickly moving on to the next subject.

  “Really?! That sounds amazing. I just need to ask my dad and… wait, actually, we had plans.”

  “What plans?” Lilitu asked, tilting her head again.

  “Well, it’s not much. Dad just said that we were going to go shopping in town,” Liora explained.

  After all that had just happened, meeting Lilitu and all, I had completely forgotten about our planned shopping trip. However, Liora mentioning it brought my excitement up and actually put me in a better mood. I couldn’t wait to go shopping.

  “What? But that’s boring. Why don’t you just come with me? We can sneak off and go to the forest together,” Lilitu said.

  “I don’t know… my dad would get mad if I disappeared. And what if we got into trouble?”

  She had a point. If Liora bailed on the shopping trip and disappeared without a word, Caelen would probably be upset. If she were to get into trouble too, that would definitely be worse for her.

  “Oh, come on, let’s just go,” Lilitu said as she put her arm around Liora. “Do you really want to miss out on an adventure? Seeing all the mana beasts?”

  This girl seems like bad news.

  “Well…” Liora said, still sounding unsure.

  “And we can even have your brother tag along, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Lilitu added, trying to sweeten the deal.

  There was no way I would go with them. For one, I was looking forward to going shopping. It wasn’t often that I got excited about something in this world, and I wasn’t going to miss out on this opportunity just to go explore some forest. Also, if Liora skipped out on the shopping trip and disappeared without telling Caelen, I would be happy to snitch on her just to see what would happen. There was no way I would ever tag along and miss the chance to get Liora in trouble.

  Liora glanced at me, then back to Lilitu. “Well… I guess I’ll go. But Reylus has to come too. If he doesn’t, he’ll just tell Dad and get me in trouble.”

  How did she…?

  Well, I guess the girl knew me better than I had thought. She was right, though. The second that she and her little demon friend snuck off, I would’ve run straight to Caelen and told him everything. Of course, I would’ve sprinkled a few lies in there as well, just to juice up the story and make her punishment even worse. Still, there was no way I was going. She would either have to leave me behind and get in trouble or stay behind altogether.

  Lilitu approached me and looked down. “What do you say, kid? You wanna come?” She gave me a toothy grin, which freaked me out and gave me all the more reason to decline her offer.

  “Nope.”

  “Huh?! Why would you say no? This is gonna be the adventure of your little lifetime,” she said, shocked.

  Maybe they liked to have adventures or whatever, but I preferred to spend my time doing more interesting things. Things like spending money, which I would miss out on if I were to go with them.

  “I’m not really into that stuff. Just go without me,” I replied simply.

  “Listen here. Your sister won’t come if you don’t, so you better come,” she said, annoyed at my refusal.

  “I’m not going.” I doubled down.

  Lilitu huffed before grabbing me tightly by my wrist and lifting me up, positioning me, and then carrying me under her arm. “You’re coming whether you like it or not.”

  “Hey, let go of me!” I called out. I augmented myself and began thrashing around to get out of her hold, but it didn’t work. The girl must’ve been too strong.

  “Um, are you sure about this?” Liora asked, seeming a bit concerned.

  It was understandable. She was about to force her brother to tag along with her and her troublemaker friend—something which he explicitly said he didn’t want to do.

  I swear, when I get out of this…

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. Now enough worrying, let’s go!” Lilitu said as she walked out the front door with me in tow.

  Liora giggled and followed closely behind. “Hehe, yeah, let’s go!” she exclaimed, pumping a fist into the air.

  We were about to sneak off with a stolen map to go to a forest that was apparently filled with beasts. And the worst part was, I was getting dragged into it against my will. I was absolutely seething. But then a thought popped into my head.

  “Help me, Caelen!” I screamed as soon as we were outside. Lilitu and Liora looked at me, shocked, and Lilitu stopped in her tracks.

  We waited for a moment, but apparently my call fell upon deaf ears as no one came. Where the hell was he? I thought he was in the backyard or something, but could he really not hear my cries for help from there? It was the one time when I really needed the man, and he was nowhere to be found.

  This is the last time I ask you for help, Caelen…

  Lilitu grinned down at me. It was the same sharp-toothed grin she’d given me multiple times. “Hehe, nice try.”

  Liora sighed in relief at the fact that Caelen hadn’t heard my cries. If he had, she knew as much as I did how bad this whole situation would’ve looked to him.

  “Alright, let’s go!” Lilitu exclaimed as she continued on.

  I can’t believe this.