It must be good to be strong. If I were strong… my friend wouldn't end up dying. Liz thought.

  Why did we leave them? Why didn't we just join their party? If only we were with them, if only He were there, everything would be fine, they would survive. But no, I needed to prove to myself that I can become a hunter myself, and what in the end? I lost the only friends I ever made.

  Is that why he doesn’t like to get attached to people? Because the loss hurts so much? The void inside was overwhelming her.

  And what after? He will also leave me. I will be all alone again. How stupid was I to believe that everything is gonna be better? Now that I have friends, we will fight the demons together, and in the end, I will kill the demon king and save humanity.

  I’m still such a child. But I will never–NEVER forgive those monstrous, I will find and crush each and every one of them!

  The man jumped off the tree branch, landing near Liz, making her shrug. That was the first time she saw him without the cloak on(aside from the hot spring).

  His clothes were all black, and his robe was slightly longer than what most men wore. It had only one sleeve on his left hand. He wore a glove in the same hand, hiding it completely. On the right hand, he had a tattoo of ‘004’. She was really curious what it meant. The well-worn cotton pants and straw sandals. He had a wide belt that housed two strange knives, which she had never seen before.

  They had a central prone flanked by two shorter, outward-curving prongs. They were jade green, made out of a material she didn’t know. The hilts had dragons decorating them. But not the usual dragons: those had a snake's body, head of a camel, eyes of a demon, ears of a bull, and antlers of a stag.

  It is not a dagger, as it lacks a cutting edge. What is it? She thought.

  “So what do you want to do next?” he suddenly asked.

  “I don’t know.” Liz sank her face into her knees.

  One of the logs in the campfire cracked loudly. It made Liz flinch.

  “I just thought, we don’t have to return to the city just yet.”

  Liz raised her head, with her face like a stone, emotionless, “Why? What do you want to do?”

  “I thought we could find this demon and kill it.” He sat down to be on the same eye level as Liz was, “To be honest, I thought it would come to a smoke from the fire, but he must have realized that we now know he is here.”

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  He found himself drifting his gaze away from her, and he looked back at her. She could feel his intense staring even if it was hidden somewhere under the white fabric.

  “So, I think, we can find him ourselves, and if you want to. I can also let you kill it yourself. So, what do you think?”

  Her facial expression shifted from the depressed, scared child to a vengeance-sickening, blood thirsty demon hunter. She saw a light in the darkness. The smell of revenge ignited the engine inside her chest.

  “Yes.” She said it steadily, but very firmly.

  The man saw fire in her eyes, the anger she was filled with. When he heard confirmation, he turned around and sat in front of the campfire, warming himself, as always.

  Liz wanted to know what was in his head at that moment: Why would he ask a little girl he just met to kill a demon, instead of returning to the city? And who is he? He is definitely not a participant. He is too strong, he doesn’t have a badge, and why is he talking about killing a demon like it's the most trivial task? If he is not a participant, then where did he get so many coins? He is definitely hiding something.

  “You're not here for the exam, are you? Liz asked quietly.

  “Nah, not really."

  That’s why I didn’t see you in the crowd. She thought.

  “Then why are you here? In the Forbidden Forest in all of the places.”

  “Well, as I said before, I just lost. I’ve been wandering in the forest for at least a month now, I think…”

  Month?

  “Then where did you get so many coins?”

  “Oh, that– See, I was just walking in the forest, looking for the city. Then I saw two men coming my way. I was so happy, I thought, finally someone was going to show me where the city was, but they just didn’t listen. They were demanding that I hand them a coin, when I said I didn’t have one, and asked if they could show me where the city was, they attacked me. The poor idiots, after I beat them. They just gave me their coins. I said I didn’t need them and asked about the city again, but they just turned around, saying they didn’t want to do anything with me, and left. Like what was that?”

  He was really articulate with his hands while telling the story. She felt as if he wanted to tell this story for a long time, but no one had asked yet.

  “What about the rest of the coins?” she asked, again.

  “The same thing twice more, just the third group had three people instead of two.”

  “And why did you join me? I’m weak compared to you…” Her voice was getting softer.

  “Honestly, I thought you would also jump me, and then you would hand me your coin, but you actually took all of my coins. At least you promised to show me where the city was.”

  Liz could hear him smirking when he said it. It was obvious he found it all very funny, and if she weren’t grieving, she would also laugh.

  “Hey, I gave you two back!”

  “Then you took them away again!”

  He knew he screwed up just now. Her face shifted back to sadness, and she was hiding her face in his cloak.

  “You sure I can kill that demon?” she asked very softly. It was really rare to hear her being delicate.

  “I’ll be there, even if it were a demon king, I would kill it.”

  “Do you think you would win against the demon king?” Her voice was trembling.

  “I’d win…”