The Demon King’s Hero Of Light - Volume 1 Chapter 196 196 Discussions With A Sociopath

“Aella, before you run off with Josephine, do you think you could visit with Bridgette?” asked Alfred.

“Why? Is something wrong?” asked Aella, watching as Josephine and Alfred shared a look. “What’s up?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” sighed Josephine, looking annoyed. “Why is it so important she go before working with me and water?”

“Do you know how long it will take her to learn water, when she already has so many other elements? She hasn’t even had some of them very long, so there’s bound to be conflicts,” argued Alfred. “Bridgette has found some more info on the heroes that she wanted to share with Aella.”

“There you are!” purred Precious, bounding into the room as Firion opened the door. He flapped his wings and flew to her shoulder, rubbing his head against her chin and purring loudly. “I missed you!”

“I missed you, too,” laughed Aella, petting his head and turning towards Firion.

“Aella, when do you think you will be finished running around? asked Firion, leaning against the doorframe and crossing his arms.

Alfred and Josephine glanced at each other and quickly left the room. Aella sighed.

“Firion, I don’t know that I will be,” she said. “Things are pretty crazy. I have so much going on, that I don’t know when I will be able to just stop and deal with things here in the city. I’m actually playing with the idea of making Seifer king.”

“I don’t like that,” said Firion, meeting her eyes with a blank look.

“Firion, we can’t always like what happens,” said Aella.

“Aella, have you noticed that I am the only one you bestowed powers to, that still has those powers?” asked Firion, stepping into the room and shutting the door.

Aella paused, not really thinking of Firion as any king of threat, and realized he was right. “How is that possible?”

“Not going to try and guess?” he asked with a small smirk, flipping a dagger in one hand and walking over to the bed her dad had died in, and sat.

“You found something in the palace?” she asked, thinking hard about what could have allowed him to keep those powers. “Was it the demon in the Spell Spire?”

“Correct! See, you got it on the first try!” he cheered, leaning back and tilting his head to look up at her.

“What did you agree to?” she asked, mentally preparing to have to kill him.

“Nothing too bad,” he shrugged. “The imp wanted me to find some way to free him, and then you blew up the palace and I didn’t have to. Worked out pretty good for me, I think.”

Aella pulled out her magical goggles and slipped them on while Firion watched in amus.e.m.e.nt. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary about him, so she pulled them back off.

“Firion, that guy was the main reason I blew up the palace. The church was a huge threat, but that guy was terrifying!”

“You mean, you were scared of him? I thought big bad Aella wasn’t scared of anything?”

“I’m not really,” she thought, tilting her head back in thought. “I just finished killing some monsters that were capable of consuming our entire realm, so there’s not much that can bother me anymore. Why are you bringing all of this up?”

“I’m bored, Aella,” he sighed, leaning back. “There’s no fun in hunting down the petty thieves and murderers in this city, and my assassins handle most of those. I’ve even traveled to the human city you’ve got set up, but there wasn’t more than a handful of people I could kill there.”

“I was kind of worried about this. Do you really enjoy torturing people? Or is it the hunt and getting to kill them that does it for you?”

“I enjoy both. Hunting prey is only part of the fun. Getting to watch them go through all of the emotions as I torture them is the real satisfaction I get.”

Aella snapped her fingers in annoyance. She had been hoping he didn’t enjoy the torturing as much.

“I need something more to do,” he said, turning his head to look at her. “My girl is about to have a kid and I don’t want to hurt it.”

“Really? You’re capable of caring like that?”

“Well, honestly, I’m looking forward to teaching it to be the best killer, but I have to be sneaky about it so my girl doesn’t find out. She doesn’t much care for my killer side,” he admitted.

Aella nodded. Firion needed something to do. He was trying, she could tell, but it was obvious he was about to do something bad since he wasn’t getting the release he needed.

“Are all of the powers I bestowed on you still active?” she asked, realizing something.

“As far as I can tell,” he nodded.

“So, you only answer to me?”

He grinned. “Now you understand why it’s so hard with you being gone all the time.”

“Crap.”

“You can make Seifer king if you want. The guy would probably do a good job as soon as he figured out he could make the decision himself without having to run everything through you,” said Firion with a shrug.

“Alright, Firion. I’ll tell you what. I need to talk to Bridgette about some things, so how about this. I’ll take you to the kingdom of the dwarves. They have some issues with alters to evil gods and things that I don’t really understand, but it needs to be investigated in a way that no one finds out you’re there. The elves and maybe the gnomes are living with the dwarves right now, and I’m sure that there are some evil people who could use some killing.”

Firion tilted his head back to think. “I can torture the evil people, as long as no one finds out? And I need to dispose of the bodies, right?”

Aella grimaced at the thought of him killing the kings or leaders. “If they are anyone super important, like a king or such, I need to give you permission to proceed. I can’t have the entire group with no leaders.”

“I understand the need for caution, Aella. Just because I’m a sociopath doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”

“I know, but it’s hard to let lose your reigns on them without knowing the repercussions.”

“I’m looking forward to this, I’m not about to mess it up. I don’t work that way.”

He stood up and cracked his neck in anticipation, a gleam sparkling in his eyes that hadn’t been there before.

Aella held out her hand and he took it eagerly. She almost wanted to drop him over the ice fields, but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. That talk with Bridgette really needed to happen.

Teleporting them to the tunnels where she had met with the dwarves who told her about the corrupt royal twins, Aella left him in the dark. He didn’t seem to mind it, moving off quickly to explore. She just hoped these tunnels were still open since she remembered them saying they had to close some from flooding.

“I’ll be back here in twenty-four hours,” she said to his disappearing back. He waved back to let her know he heard her, then was gone.

With a sick feeling in her stomach, Aella teleported to the library. She had to trust him. His abilities were too useful to just get rid of.

“Aella! Thank goodness you showed back up!” exclaimed Bridgette, appearing from behind a bookshelf.

“Bridgette, have you gotten fat?” asked Aella, watching her almost wobble to her.

“Aella! That’s not very nice! You look like crap, too!” reprimanded Bridgette, putting her hands on her h.i.p.s and frowning.

“Sorry, Bridgette. I didn’t mean to be rude. My dad just died and I just let loose a sociopath on an unsuspecting people. A lot has happened.”

“Really? That’s awful!” exclaimed Bridgette, waving for Aella to follow her over to a table and chairs. “Have a seat and I’ll get you a cup of hot chocolate. If I remember right, you really like it.”

Aella almost told her no, but decided enough had happened, it would probably be alright. The sage hummed to herself as she punched buttons on the strange box that was sitting on the top of the counter. A basket of apples sat beside it, with a couple of books propped open showing elaborate dishes.

“Read a lot lately?” asked Aella, feeling stupid the moment the words came out of her mouth. This was the sage she was talking to! Reading was almost as common as breathing.

“Actually, I was wanting to talk to you about some things I just finished reading!” chirped Bridgette, ignoring Aella’s slip. “Remember how all of the books I was trying to read in your old palace kept switching over to a strange language when I got so far into them?”

“Yes?” said Aella, thinking she remembered Bridgette mentioning that before.

“Well, it all unlocked once you blew up the palace! I’ve been reading a ton of stuff about the heroes and their powers.”

“Really?” perked up Aella, taking the steaming mug from her. The heat was nice, soaking into her skin and the smell was already calming her a bit.

“A couple hundred years ago, all of the personal accounts from the heroes referred to their powers as just that, powers. But about four hundred years ago, they started mentioning their powers having personalities. It’s only become more prevalent the more recent the accounts. I even talked to Alfred about his powers and he agreed that it definitely had a personality.”

“What do you think happened that could cause such a change?” asked Aella, thinking about the personalities of her own powers. Should she tell Bridgette how many she had? It would be nice to know what kind of powers each element could have, so she would know what to expect and work on.

“I think it’s tied to Bob. That’s about the same time he opened his first bar, as far as I can tell.”