"Thank you."

"Thanks."

Thank you, Bathilda."

Flying back to her cabin, Bathilda has just finished watering the crops for the farmers tending the magical fields.

'It's nice to be appreciated. The polar opposite of being the outcast. I love my life.' Flying high on the joys of life, Bathilda is finally happy at the acceptance she's been shown by the townsfolk of Home.

It's been a slow process, but after winning them over with her meat and veg, not to mention the guards' all-time high levels, everything is going well. The chasm is doing its job, protecting the city from any threats that approach from the sides or rear, the walls holding well at the front and the guards are now able to handle monsters in pairs of two.

It has been a few weeks since Bathilda's training sessions started after all.

She touches down on her porch and stops to appreciate the flower bed out front before heading inside her home.

"Hiro, I'm back." Kicking her shoes off, Bathilda dives onto the sofa to enjoy its soft and comforting touch. "This is so much better than the furniture I used to own and it's leagues above the cave hideout."

"Welcome back." Hiro enters the room carrying two cold drinks on a tray. "Did you successfully make it rain?"

Offering Bathilda a glass and taking one himself he places the tray on the table.

"Of course I did. To be honest, I'm only limited by my imagination. For example, I could probably create a better city than what the people of Home are currently living in. The problem with that is they don't trust me enough to say - yeah, let's move to the Vampire's city, no problem there - do they?" Hiro ponders on her words for a moment, twirling his hair as he does.

"True. You are, however, winning them over slowly."

"I am and that was just an example. It's not like I'm going to create a new city. Not yet anyway." Bathilda winks at Hiro then takes a long drink to quench her thirst.

"That... is delicious. What is it with you and these drinks anyway? Are you sure you weren't a butler or bartender in your last life?"

"Don't be so absurd. Just because I know how to make a good drink and enjoy serving them to others doesn't mean that was my station."

"Sorry. It was just a joke. Here," Bathilda hands Hiro a bottle of wine as a means of apology.

"Bribes don't work on me, you know?" He adamantly declares.

"I'll just un-summon it then seeing as how I can't handle it these days." Before Bathilda can do anything, the bottle is greedily snatched away from her and she chuckles in response.

"That would be a waste. I might as well drink it now that it's here. I'm not taking this as your apology though, but another two bottles might see us good." A cheeky smile flashes across his face and Bathilda can't help but laugh some more.

"Fine. Here," handing him two extra bottles, Bathilda is in a great mood as everything is right with the world and everyone is happy. As Hiro pops the cork out of the first bottle however, the happiness is over and a horrible smell washes over the room before it explodes inwards.

The explosion wasn't related in anyway to Hiro opening the wine, nor was smell caused by it either. Bathilda's log cabin, the one she has lived in since arriving at Home, the one she loves, has been destroyed from above by the sudden arrival of someone new.

Dust clouds filled the air and destroyed furniture lay strewn around the room. Sunlight shines down like a beam from the new sky light that wasn't there moments ago. Standing up from behind the wreckage of the couch, a furious Bathilda brushes herself off. Not a single scratch is present on her body, even with all the damage caused to her home.

Looking around the room, she locks eyes with the cause of her bad mood. The uninvited homewrecker that turned up without permission. Some monsters do fly, she quickly remembers, staring at the small person standing in the spotlight of the sun. Fury is coursing running through body at the destruction of her property, but diminishes with each second their eyes stay locked. Seeing as how the uninvited guest resembles a child, a young child to be precise, Bathilda is finding it hard to stay angry.

"Excuse me, but what the actual fuck!? What makes you think you can just crash into another person's home like that? Where are your parents?" Child or not, Bathilda can't help control her language as she starts ranting at the small girl.

With hair as white as snow and skin that matches, or even surpasses, the paleness of Bathilda's own, the child stares at her in blank subjection. Small horns curls round the top of her head and a black dress with red frills give her a look of importance.

"I am the Demon King. Fear me, for all who gaze upon my absolute presence shall perish." More monotone than monolog, Bathilda raises a single eyebrow at the mechanical-sounding, self-pronounced Demon Child.

Shuffling noises come from behind another piece of broken furniture as Hiro stands up quiety. He's slightly shaking and Bathilda wonders if he's scared after dying so many times. Worried that he's going to have to go through it again.

"All shall die. All shall perish. I am the Demon King. All those that gaze upon my absolute..."

"That was my fucking wine!" Hiro screams before his figure blurs and disappears. He moved faster than Bathilda was expecting him too and when her eyes finally caught up with him, he's standing next to the Demon King holding her head by the hair.

Her body lay in a crumpled heap on the floor.

"What the fuck, Hiro? She was only a kid!" Bathilda screams at the hitchhiking psychopath.

"She was the Demon King. She said it herself. Problem solved." He answered, slightly off-key and with a sniffle in his voice.

"I am the Demon King. You can not kill me. I am Immortal. I will be back. All that gaze up..." The childish head of the Demon King doesn't get to finish her sentence as Hiro launches it out of the skylight she made on her entrance. Followed shortly by the body.

Bathilda watches slack jawed. It's been a while since anything has caught her so lost for words as the sight she has just witnessed. Usually, a talking head missing its body would be ten-different shades of bat-sit crazy. These days it's just another Friday.

"I can't... It's just... How? How is she a child? If the Demon King's been around for as long as they say she has, then how is she a child? Was a child? Was she a child? It makes no sense." Sitting down on one of the cushions next to her, Bathilda tries to wrap her mind around the events that just went down in her living room. An Immortal Demon King who had the body of a child and talked like a robot is too much for her undead brain to process.

"How are you a Vampire? How were you a bat? How am I supposed to go through life looking like a woman? I beg you, Bathilda. Level up the Illusion skill, please!" Hiro's questions turned plea, bring Bathilda around and she starts laughing at her companion.

She still has questions on her mind. Like, how strong is the Demon King? And how did Hiro manage to kill her so easily? Those are questions for later though as Hiro needs to be treated for his selfless display of courage in the face of undeniable danger.

Even if he was just angry over his wine.