Sincir manages to enter the city before nightfall, albeit barely. He also manages to return his horse on time, casting a cleaning spell over the two of them as he does so... The stable’s owner murmurs about having had to wait for him almost ten minutes past closing time, but Sincir ignores him and heads straight for the guild to have his contracts cashed in.

  Thankfully, the pce will remain open for a couple of hours more. He heard most of what happens during nighttime is citizens coming in to report about monsters in need of sying, or hire the guild for one reason or another... Since those contracts will need to be ready by tomorrow morning, those poor clerks have their work cut out for them.

  “...I’m sorry, but I can’t allow you to take five of them, Mister,” the woman on the other side of the counter tells him as he pces his slightly crumpled contracts in front of her, causing Sincir to grimace.

  “I’m not trying to take them; I completed these today. They are already stamped, see?”

  Gncing down, she blinks, having realized they were indeed already approved by a clerk... They also have dates on them, which means he couldn’t have lied about when he took them.

  The woman licks her lips. “Who...? I suppose they are all near each other... ” she murmurs, before shaking her head as she meets his eyes once more, “I must remind the Mister that lying about completed contracts is a grave offence, and it’ll-”

  Sincir rolls his eyes, interrupting her. “Look, I’ve had a long day, and I’m sure so have you. I did do them, alright? Five contracts, five monsters; You can send somebody to ask those contractors, if you want.”

  She grimaces, probably over having been interrupted, then sighs. “I doubt I’ll need to... They’d come here themselves if anybody fails to show up in more than a few days.”

  Sincir nods. “...Sorry for being rude.”

  “I’m used to dealing with worse...” the clerk murmurs, waving her hand dismissively as she opens a drawer under her counter and then one of what appears to be many small bags of money inside of it, beginning to count coins.

  “If these aren’t accepted fast enough, what do you do?” Sincir asks curiously.

  “The guild has adventurers on standby for such situations... If the Mister is interested, he can apply after reaching C-rank.”

  Sincir nods; It makes sense they’d want a more permanent and reliable work force at their core, for a lot of reasons.

  “Thanks for believing me,” he tells her as she hands him the money for the contracts, which comes to a fairly decent amount.

  She shrugs. “The one in trouble would be who allowed you to take these in the first pce, not me...”

  Sincir cringes.

  Sorry, Mary... Well, he did complete them, so she should be fine.

  Leaving the guild, Sincir considers heading straight to Mary’s house so he can return the money she lent him this morning, and beg her for a night at her couch... Or maybe he could go to an inn, now that he has some money...

  Suddenly, Sincir stops; Having been walking without thinking, he started heading for the house, and having realized as much makes him want to punch something.

  Or cry.

  Just then, he sees a tavern across the street, which has so he decides he needs a drink, no matter how terrible tasting it may be.

  Finding a table over the corner, he orders some beer and leans back against his chair, observing the mortals at their natural habit...

  He used to do this a lot when he was still a demon, during his occasional summonings to Mortal Pnes. And more recently, he spend a good amount of time in the taverns the girls would work at..

  Is that part of his life truly over? Should he accept his new reality as a human, find a nice pce to live with the girls, and forget about Hell?

  But...

  But if even a single of his subjects still believes in him, even after a thousand years have gone by, then he’d never forgive himself for having given up without even trying.

  He is already here, so he might as well, damn it...

  Several hours ter, having blown most of his money on beer and tips (she did fsh him her tits in the end, the stubborn barmaid, so he is calling it worth), Sincir finally leaves the tavern, having decided to head toward Mary’s house in the end.

  He stares at the sky as he walks, stumbling slightly... If anyone has waited for him this whole time, it’d have been his close circle of friends.

  Sonog might not have even noticed the time passing, that old goat.

  Salmorol would still believe in him, not matter how long she had to wait...

  Sunna... Sunna will want to lock him on a torture chamber the next time she sees him, but she’ll be gd he made it alive, deep down.

  ...No path but forward, then. Even if they don’t want or need him to come back at this point, he’ll still do it, and the universe can go fuck itself for having took so long with his stupid reincarnation...

  ...Sincir decides not to think about how drunk exactly he is when he finally reaches Mary’s doorstep, having to lean against it for a few seconds in order to stop his vision from swimming before knocking.

  “Mary! Mary...! Please don’t tell me you’re already asleep!? I fucked up and spent too much money, so now I don’t have enough for a night at a decent inn...! I completed all of those contracts, alright!? You wouldn’t make poor Sincir sleep on the street, would-!”

  As the door in front of him suddenly opens, Varzath quickly steps back, and Mary hisses at him from the other side of it.

  “The fuck is wrong with you?! Stop making a fuss already!”

  Sincir smiles at her. “I knew you had a heart, somewhere in there, love...”

  She grimaces. “Just come in so I can fucking go to sleep...”

  He steps forward to hug her, and then nearly falls as she steps aside, which has so he enters while stumbling slightly.

  “...By the way, our girlfriend arrived several hours ago, and she has been waiting for you ever since,” Mary warns, far too te to make a difference.

  A couple of steps from the door, Sincir freezes, his eyes meeting Eleanor’s as she stares at him from Mary’s couch, her legs crossed and posture rexed.

  ...The noise of a door closing behind him causes Sincir to curse out loud.

  “Took you long enough to show up,” Eleanor murmurs drily, after a moment of silence in between the two of them, “I was beginning to think I might have to start searching the inns near the guild... Going to see your precious Sira was my next guess, but I’m gd it didn’t come to any of that.”

  “...I see your couch is already taken, so I suppose I’ll have to go search for an inn after all, Mary.”

  Gncing over his shoulder, Sincir realizes Mary has her arms and legs crossed as she leans against her now closed door, clearly having no intention of making way for him to pass.

  He grimaces at her. “Whatever she promised you, I double it.”

  “Stop being a baby,” he hears Eleanor’s voice as she rises from the couch, beginning to approach him, “Do I have to carry you home, or are you going to come willingly?”

  Gring at her, Sincir pnts his feet. “I’m not going anywhere... Not tonight.”

  Crossing her arms, Eleanor raises an eyebrow at him.

  He knows he is being childish... But he can’t bring himself to face Ena after the way she looked at him before he left this morning.

  “...Fine then, I guess we’ll both spend the night here.”

  Mary groans. “You said you could convince him to leave...”

  Feeling the beginnings of a headache, Sincir grimaces again; Them having their fight in her living room is really unfair to Mary... And he already abused the poor woman’s goodwill enough as it is.

  “...Fine,” he murmurs at st, averting his eyes from Eleanor’s as he does, “I was pnning to go home tomorrow morning, but I supposed it doesn’t make much of a difference to do it today.”

  Nodding, Eleanor leans down and grabs his hand, heading toward the door as she does so.

  Dragged after her, Sincir sighs... He should’ve known better than to expect her to just sit at home waiting for him. Next time, he swears he’ll skip towns...

  “Sorry, Mary,” he murmurs to her as she opens the door and they walk past, “I’ll make it up to you ter, I promise...”

  “You better,” she murmurs at him, cold blue eyes gleaming with something Sincir can’t quite identify in his current state...

  ...Was that jealousy?

  But then the door closes, and he loses his chance to say anything else.

  “Would you stop dragging your feet?” Eleanor murmurs after they’ve been walking in silence for a couple of minutes, “I feel like a mother dragging my runaway child home...”

  “I didn’t ask for you to come pick me up,” Sincir points out, causing her to gre at him over her shoulder.

  “Esme was worried sick... She was about to ask Collin to go search for your idiotic ass; You ruined their date, by the way.”

  Sincir grimaces. “I ruined their date? Are you certain you want to start tossing bme for what happened around, love?”

  Eleanor tightens her jaw. “Creator, give me patience,” she murmurs toward the sky, before beginning to pull him toward a nearby alley.

  “What are you doing...?” Sincir asks.

  Having left the main flow of pedestrians, she tosses him against a wall, pcing a hand under his neck, and stares down into his eyes.

  “...Yes?” Sincir murmurs drily, “Should I start screaming for the guards about an assaulter?”

  Eleanor snorts. “I wanted to wait until we’re home to talk about what happened... Don’t you think that’s a good idea?”

  “I wanted to wait until tomorrow, when I’ll be sober and with my head clear, to talk about what happened,” Sincir counters, “Funny how the universe almost never gives us what we want, isn’t it?”

  Eleanor shakes her head. “We can talk tomorrow... Or the day after, but you don’t need to sleep anywhere else.”

  Tightening his jaw, Sincir averts his gaze. “I feel this sudden urge to sleep under the open sky, actually... Just go on ahead, I’ll be fine.”

  Eleanor frowns. “...Something else happened. You wouldn’t have drunk yourself silly over what went on this morning.”

  “What does it matter...?”

  She groans. “Creator... Sincir, I’m trying, okay... Babysitting pipsqueak and the other one so they wouldn’t do something stupid today already took most of what I had-”

  Sincir snorts. “I’m so sorry you had to deal with the consequences of your own actions, Eleanor...”

  “-You just had to run away before I could say a single thing, didn’t you?!”

  Sincir clenches his teeth; He told himself he was going to apologize to her, so why is he being so confrontational?

  Granted, she showed up all of a sudden, and he didn’t have time to prepare himself mentally for their talk, but...

  Once Eleanor steps away from him, shaking her head, Sincir forces himself to meet her eyes once more, swallowing as he does so.

  “Look, Eleanor, I-”

  She removes her shirt, tossing it aside, and his voice becomes caught in his throat.

  “I didn’t bring a colr or a leash, so I suppose my hair will have to do...”

  Realizing she is reaching for her pants next, having already kicked her sandals away, Sincir’s eyes widen.

  “...Do you want me to walk, or crawl after you?”

  Feeling as though he is about to lose it, Sincir immediately casts a mind spell to clear his thoughts from the alcohol, then begins to grab her clothes from the ground, tossing them at her.

  “Are you insane?! Even had I wanted to drag you naked after me, the guards would stop us before we reached the end of the block!”

  Showing no signs she is about to redress herself, Eleanor shrugs. “I though you didn’t mind where you spend the night... A cell seems at least better than an alley, and they’ll probably let us go with a fine in the morning.”

  Sincir hisses at her. “You insurable fucking...!”

  Eleanor rises an eyebrow at him.

  “...Fine! You win! I’ll go home willingly, so-!”

  Stepping forward, Eleanor suddenly kisses him, shoving him against the wall, and her tongue into his mouth as she does so... Since she is still naked, Sincir feels her nipples against his chest, and her wet sex against his thigh, once she goes out of her way to rub it over it.

  “Burning... Burning so hot I can’t think anymore,” she murmurs against his mouth, “C’mon-!”

  “No,” Sincir groans once he finally manages to pull away from her kiss, gring at her, “I’m not fucking you until we’ve had a talk about what happened... And I’m not having that talk here either, so the sooner you put those clothes back on, the sooner you might be able to take them off again!”

  Eleanor pulls away from him as abruptly as she started their kiss, licking her lips and meeting his eyes as she does so.

  “...Some spine, at st.”

  “Shut up...” Sincir grumbles, “People are starting to stare; Are you trying to give half of Elderspire a boner?”

  Eleanor smiles, blue eyes gleaming unapologetically and feverishly under the moonlight, as they remain locked against him. “You know, I just might fuck them all, one of these nights... You don’t mind, do you?”

  Lords, give him patience.

  “Put your clothes back on, Eleanor... I’m begging you.”

  Eleanor clicks her tongue, but she does begin to grab her scattered clothes from the floor on her own.

  Watching her redressing herself, Sincir releases a breath of relief, though he doesn’t wait for her before leaving the alley and starting to head back on his own... Now that he has decided to go back, he doesn’t need her to pull his hand, obviously, and he could use some space in between the two of them.

  Mercifully, Eleanor remains a couple of steps behind him from there on, causing no more trouble... She must’ve sensed he is a second away from blowing up at her again...

  Sincir is far from happy to spot the house, but at least it means they’ll finally put an end to today’s drama, one way of another.

  Nearly blowing up his own runes in the process of deactivating them, he heads inside while grumbling to himself about stupid security measures he never actually needed...

  However, he stops once he spots Esme and Collin on his living room couch, attached to each other like they were born glued together, and shakes his head.

  “Your concerned for my well being is truly touching, love,” he murmurs drily, causing Esme’s head to snap in his direction.

  “Sin!”

  Collin is having none of it, however, having probably heard him coming long ago, and simply switches from kissing her mouth to her neck as she moves her face away.

  “N-no, C-Collin, w-wait!”

  Wasn’t she going to put a colr around his neck? So much for that.

  “No, don’t stop because of me... You two were suppose to have the night to yourselves, so just take the free room upstairs and have at it,” Sincir says, “There might be some yelling and things being thrown around, but if you make her scream loud enough, you might be able to overshadow it, Collin.”

  “I’ll keep it in mind,” the vampire murmurs hoarsely, still without looking at him, “Don’t lose more than one of your girlfriends at once, or even I might start feeling some sympathy...”

  Sincir snorts. “I’ll try not to.”

  “Collin, stop it for a second! S-Sin, El, be n-nice to each other, okay...?!”

  Seeing as Esme is obviously trying to hold in her moans as the vampire’s hands and mouth continue to roam her body, Sincir rolls his eyes. He is gd to see Collin came a long way from the shy, introvert vampire he was a little more than a week ago, but he feels a little sad over not being able to tease the two of them anymore...

  If things keep going like this, the vampire boy might actually steal Esme from him. Should he be worried? He might not mind her and Collin pying around, but he doesn’t want them to start an exclusive retionship without him, obviously, no matter what lies he might’ve told the vampire... No, they weren’t lies at the time; It’s just that he cares a lot more about Esme now than he did before.

  “...I think the others are downstairs,” Eleanor murmurs, grabbing his arm as she walks by and begins to head toward their basement, “Do you have a fetish for watching it or something?”

  Sincir doesn’t bother denying it. “I enjoy most aspects of sex, including watching it happen, yes.”

  “Watching your girlfriend with another man and getting off to it... So shameless and pathetic.”

  “You were literally naked on an alley not half an hour ago,” he points out.

  “I was proving a point.”

  “Which was?”

  “That I’ll do whatever it takes.”

  Sincir only has time to spot a couple of things as they reach the basement before Eleanor shoves him forward; The first of them being that the small pool he made next to Rez’s house has finally been finished; The second being that Ena, No, and Rez currently occupy said pool; And the third being that Eleanor shoved him toward it.

  He also has time to curse out loud before he falls face first over the slightly warm water.

  “...I’ve brought him, so would the three of you stop whining now?” he hears Eleanor’s voice once he resurges, taking a deep breath and cursing some more.

  The pool isn’t particurly deep, coming up his waist, but he is gd he delivered those contracts before meeting the troublemaker tonight... Any money he had left after paying for those beers is now gone, though.

  “...I’d start running now, love,” Sincir murmurs, his voice dark as he stares up at her from the water.

  Silently, Eleanor points at something over his shoulder.

  “...Are you sure she is the one who should be running, Sincir?” he hears Ena voice coming from behind him, so thick with anger she seems almost unable to speak.

  ...Well, fuck; Point for you, Eleanor.

  “Ena...” Sincir starts, turning over and smiling apologetically; Or at least trying to, before she pushes him, causing him to fall under the water again.

  “Of all the stupid fucking things to do...” Ena continues, seeming not to care about her ck of clothes as she pushes a finger against his chest, staring down at him with fury burning in her leaf-green eyes, “Did you have to, Sin?! Did it make you feel big and powerful, to force her to her knees?!”

  “Sin stupid...” Rez murmurs from the side, nodding, while No seems carefully focused on maintaining only her neck above the water, her cheeks burning a deep shade of crimson.

  Sincir grimaces. “That was not the point of it and you know it... I was trying to teach her a lesson about how easily-”

  Ena punches his stomach, taking his breath away.

  “...How easily I could break her,” Sincir continues, now doubled over himself and breathlessly, “So she’d stop provoking me already...”

  “Yeah?”

  Ena punches him, hitting his chin, and Sincir sees starts, falling under the water yet again... Cursed be the days he spent teaching her how to punch correctly!

  “E-Ena...!” he tries as she pulls him from the water by grabbing his shirt, staring into his eyes with fury and preparing another punch.

  “That’s enough, pipsqueak... I think he got the message,” Eleanor murmurs from above the two of them, “If it’s you, he might let you punch him to death, sooner than defend himself.”

  Ena lowers her arm. “This will be the first and st time I’ll forgive you for something like this,” she murmurs through clenched teeth, “So if you care about me as much as you cim to, put your shit together!”

  Having said as much, she pushes him away one st time, causing him to hit the small pool’s edge, then climbs past him, walking toward a bundle of clothes and towels nearby.

  “Let’s go, you two; These idiots need to talk, and we’re long past dinner time.”

  Although his head seems about to split at the moment, Sincir has the presence of mind to at least avert his eyes from No as she quickly leaves the water in order to grab the towel Ena is offering her.

  The noise of their footsteps walking away seems to sound louder than they should over the throbbing in his head, and Sincir remains staring at the ceiling for a long minute even after they’re gone.

  “...Why?” he murmurs eventually, after it becomes clear Eleanor won’t be the one speaking first.

  “Because I wanted you to understand... How easily you could break me, had you wanted to.”

  Sincir smiles, feeling a rge drop of blood running down his chin from his split lower lip as he does so. “You knew if from the beginning, didn’t you?”

  “Of course I knew it... I was at that chapel, and I saw what happened when that cultist tried to do to you what he did to Father; I still smile sometimes, over the memory.”

  Eleanor’s face fills his vision as she kneels next to his head, dragging her thumb against his lip, and begins to gather the mana for what he assumes is the holy healing spell Father Anders taught her, so many years ago.

  He flinches once the light touches his skin, but he doesn’t compin, or averts his eyes from hers.

  “...You shouldn’t. Revenge will turn your heart cold, and nights are already cold enough as they are, love.”

  She smiles, blue eyes gleaming coldly. “So you keep saying... But I hope the fire hurt, and I hope his Soul is happily burning in Hell, for the rest of eternity... I hope he spawns as a weakling, and that he is fucked in the ass by things four times his size... And then I hope he dies, and it happens again.”

  “Sorry to break it to you, but since I killed his demon first, chances are that he didn’t have his Soul dragged to Hell... The demon would’ve needed to fulfill his part of the bargain for that to happen.”

  Eleanor blinks, then grimaces.

  “Stupid demon rules.”

  “...Is that really what you masturbate to at night?”

  She averts her gaze. “...I might have, on occasion.”

  “...Lords,” Sincir murmurs, “Are you sure your head is screwed on right?”

  “Shut up... I didn’t think it’d actually happen, just that he’d go to Hell for the choices he made, himself.”

  Sincir snorts. “You know there is a good chance I’m about to break up with you over this, right? And I don’t mean your disgusting fantasies of revenge.”

  “No, you won’t,” Eleanor murmurs.

  Although she is still not looking at him, Sincir raises an eyebrow at her. “What makes you so confident?”

  “I know you won’t because I saw the way you looked at me this morning... Because I know you care too much about what happens to poor little Eleanor when she is left in dark, on her own, to leave her there... No matter how much she might deserve it.”

  Realizing she is right, Sincir grimaces. “Look, I can’t figure what you want from me, and since you refuse to tell me yourself, I just don’t know what to do at this point...”

  Eleanor sighs. “Sincir, I... I want just what we have right now. I want to feel safe when I sleep, and I want to wake up next to you... That’s it.”

  He blinks.

  Eleanor ughs humorlessly. “I know, right? The amount of bullshit you put me through drives me insane, and as the petty bitch I am, I thought I’d do the same to you in return... But none of the matters. In the end, even if I have to beg your stupid nympho girlfriend, or if I have to get dragged by my hair through a set of stairs... As long as I end up on your bed, and I wake up there, I don’t really care... Make me into your bitch, if you want, or don’t... Tie me up, or don’t... Have another three girls there, or don’t... I don’t care.”

  Finally moving her gaze to meet his once more, Eleanor’s faces his eyes with unwavering resolution.

  “You should've left me in that chapel to die... I had no reason left to live. But you couldn’t help yourself, just as you couldn’t help yourself from dragging me into that boat, or going after me when I tried to leave... You had your chance, so many of them, to rid yourself of me, and still, here I am. During these past five years, sometimes I wondered if you just enjoyed seeing me suffer, and that’s why you kept dragging me around... But recently, I realized you’re just that much of an idiot.”

  Sincir grimaces... Then snorts, smiling at her. “What can I say...? It’s a really nice ass.”

  Eleanor smiles. “I thought as much... Look, I can’t promise you’ll never deal with bullshit from me again - I’m the way I am, and I doubt I’ll change any time soon - but I want you to realize I’ll do anything to be with you, Sincir... Please, let me prove it.”