I took a deep breath and steeled myself. This was it, time for me to lay out my objections in an honest and forthright manner. “This is bullshit.”

The Demon Lord crossed her arms and glared at me. “What is?”

“Everything. Being dragged into this world against my will, bound to serve someone who is, if you’ll pardon my French, fucking evil. As a matter of fact, your whole world seems like bullshit.” I gestured to the world around me. “You sacrificed a whole bunch of people just to kidnap some random idiot and force him to help you with this succession crap? Why would anyone want to live in a world like this?” Full of righteous anger, I felt surprisingly confident even in the face of the withering look the little demon was giving me.

“Oh, I’m so sorry that it’s not convenient for you. Do you think I wanted to summon someone as useless as you? No, of course not. But now we’re stuck with each other. So whatever stupid complaints you have, I suggest you learn to live with your new situation.”

“I refuse.”

“What? You can’t refuse.”

“I can so, and I am. These conditions are simply unacceptable. You may think I’m being unreasonable, but quite frankly this whole situation is unreasonable. From what you’ve said, what you’re intending to do is extremely dangerous and I don’t think there’s even the slightest chance of success if we don’t work together. So, unless you intend to control me every step of the way, we need to talk.”

I expected her to yell at me. To control me or, attack me. Instead, with a heavy sigh, she sat down in the only available chair and stared at me appraisingly for a few moments before speaking. “Fine, let’s talk. What is you want?”

“Is there any chance you could release me and send me back to my own world?”

“No. Even if I wanted to, I can’t send you back or release you.”

I’d expected as much, though it was hard to say if she was telling the truth. “Is there anyone that can?”

“Maybe, but no one I’ve ever heard of.”

“Fine, then we’ll forget about that for now.” It had been a long shot anyway. “Why is this succession, or whatever, so important to you? Can’t you just do something else with your life?”

“I will not forsake everything my father built. And no, there’s not really anything else I could do. I doubt any of the other holds would take me in, and if we stay in my old domain, then my uncle will catch me sooner or later.”

“Do we really have to move against him so soon? Can’t you at least wait until there’s an opportunity or you find more allies?” There had to be a better way of doing this.

“I wish I could, but the longer we wait the more entrenched his position becomes. This is probably the best opportunity we’re going to get, before his control over the region solidifies.”

This wasn’t going well, but at least she was open to talking. That was probably the only promising thing about the situation right now. “Fine, if we’re going to do this then I have a few conditions. First of all, no more of this mind control shit. You got that?”

She had the grace to look a little ashamed. “Fine. What else?”

“No more killing humans.”

“What if they attack us?”

I pondered for a few moments, she probably wasn’t going to accept if I pushed for too much. “Okay, you can kill them only if they attack you.” That should rule out most civilians at least.

“Done.”

“I also want to be consulted on decisions. I don’t know much about this place, so I don’t know how advice I’ll be able to give but I’d at least like to have my opinion respected.”

“Is there anything else?”

I shook my head, that was everything I could think of. Even though she’d agreed to my terms, I didn’t feel the least bit good about the way things were going. Proceeding as planned under slightly better working conditions was the worst of the choices.

Still, she had been surprisingly reasonable. Far more so than I’d expected. “Though I do have a question; is this all just some act? If not, why were you so horrible when we first met?”

She looked down at her feet. “There wasn’t much time for niceties. Besides, how was I supposed to know what sort of person I’d be getting? There was no way of knowing if you’d even be worth talking to, rather than just commanding.”

Well, at least I seemed to have debased her of that notion. A minor victory, but a victory nonetheless.

She stood up. “I take it you’re done?”

“I guess.”

“Then let’s go.”

With nothing left to argue, I fell into line and followed the demon and her servant as they picked their way through the outlying part of the forest. The trees were widely spread here, posing no obstacle to travel.

I was glad we didn’t have to travel through the forest, even without the leaf person’s warning. I’d never even seen a forest before in real life, let alone been in one. My wilderness survival skills might be even worse than my swordsmanship.

As the vegetation thinned, Junivan, who’d been leading the way, stopped. The Demon Lord seemed to pay her no mind and kept on walking. Rather than leave Junivan behind, I stopped beside her. “What is it?”

“This is where I leave you, good luck.”

“Oh. Uh, bye.” I hadn’t known her for long, but I was a little sad to leave her behind. She’d seemed a lot nicer than the Demon Lord, though that probably didn’t say much.

We travelled for a few hours without her until we finally left the forest and made it out to the lands beyond where the terrain dramatically shifted. At the edge of the trees, all traces of plant life ended.

The blackened plains ahead, riddled with sharp fissures, contained not a single speck of green or other colours. Just endless black. “This is where you live?” It was even worse than I’d thought.

“Are you really going to complain about this as well?” She sounded exhausted.

“Of course I am. What kind of hellish wasteland is this?”

She gave me a nasty grin. “Your new home.”

There was a dirt road in the distance, which Sarinknell insisted we avoid, citing that we didn’t want to be spotted. We stopped to rest in a gulley, concealed from the road.

Without much else to do, we sat and watched to see if anyone should happen by. And we were in luck though I’m not sure if it was good or bad. A small procession of men and women approached.

Only a couple of them were equipped for battle, the others looked like servants. They all had horns though there were no wings in sight. Definitely demons then. The leader member of the group carried a plain, sky blue banner.

Sarinknell had already left the gulley and taken several steps toward them before I noticed. My first impulse was to grab her and drag her back in until she came to her senses, but I could see it was too late. She’d already been spotted.

The group halted and looked toward her. Figuring it would be best to accompany her,

I hurried over. It was probably for the best, if anything went wrong she might be able to escape. I caught up with Sarinknell before she was in earshot of the party on the road, who were just standing there watching us. “What do you think you’re doing?”

She stopped and put a hand to her chest. “I was going over to talk to them. Is there a problem with that?”

“Uh, aren’t they strangers in enemy territory?” I didn’t know anything what was considered common sense in this world, but I was hard pressed to imagine how this could be sensible. “Unless you know them?”

She shrugged. “They do look slightly familiar, but that’s not why I approached them. Do you see that banner?” She gestured toward it. “That means they have come to the battle as observers, rather than combatants. Now, I may not be terribly experienced in the ways of the world, but such people tend to be rather keen on gossip. I’ve been out of the loop for a while now and this would be a good opportunity to acquire a little information on what’s been happening.”

“Oh.” She’d put a lot more thought into it than I’d expected. “Alright then, forget I said anything. Do you want me to go with you?”

She sniffed and kept walking. Taking that as a yes, I followed along. She turned back for an instant. “Leave the sword behind.” I shrugged it off my shoulder and carefully placed it down in the ditch.

Without any hesitation, Sarinknell walked right up to the closest of the travellers, who’d stepped out to await her. “I am Lady Sarinknell, Demon Lord of the First Circle. I wish to speak with your master.”

The man’s eyes flicked over her attire and then me. “Very well, I shall see if he deigns to meet with you.” He bowed his head and moved toward the man standing in the centre of the group. It looked like she’d passed inspection.

Standing beside his master, the servant exchanged a few quiet words before returning.

“Lord Biustarn, Demon Lord of the Third Circle accepts your offer. He asks that you join him for lunch, which we will be setting up shortly, assuming you and your…” he glanced at me, “companion, don’t mind waiting.”

“No, that will be fine.”

I knew my opinion didn’t count for anything here, but I nodded anyway. The servant retreated and gave the others a few curt commands. Before long they’d produced four stools and a small folding table from the carriage. They took four plates and put a raw steak on each. Sarinknell leant over to me. “Don’t eat the meat.”

I looked askance at her, but she didn’t elaborate. Whatever, it’s not like I needed a reason not to eat raw meat. Adding a silver goblet beside each plate, the servant filled them from a skin and stepped away. Only then did Lord Biustarn step forward, a broad-shoulder man with greying hair who was joined by a woman perhaps a few years older than Sarinknell.

They were finely dressed, making me feel rather self-conscious about my pyjamas and no shoes. It didn’t seem like anyone had really noticed how inappropriately dressed I was up to this point, so I hoped they wouldn’t either. Thank god I hadn’t been sleeping in just my boxers.

The demons sat down at the table and the man smiled at Sarinknell, motioning for her to join them. Sarinknell glanced at me. “Try not to speak.”

It was a little galling to be dictated to, but I was probably better off keeping my mouth shut. Lady Sarinknell returned his polite smile with one of her own, we sat down across from them. The girl was introduced as Biustarn’s daughter, Miusin, and the demons exchanged pleasantries.

After a lot of flowery words that I found hard to follow, they raised their goblets. A little late, I followed suit. Taking a sip, I nearly gagged. It was like a combination of liquid smoke and hot mustard. I made a face, but the burning sensation in my mouth passed.

Whatever it was they were drinking, I didn’t want any part of it. Lord Biustarn drained his cup in one long swallow. “Not to say that I doubt your identity, but I’ve never heard of you. Though I do seem to recall a Lord Sarinknell, wasn’t he a lord of the third circle?”

Sarinknell nodded.

“Was he your father?”

“That’s right.”

Biustarn stroked his chin. “And what became of him?”

“He was killed in battle against another lord, I don’t know which one.”

“I see. Now we come to the heart of the matter; how did you end up as the successor to your father? I’ve never heard of a Demon Lord of the first circle inheriting anything, was your entire household wiped out?”

“No, but…” Sarinknell hesitated, glancing at me. “My father always said he wanted me to take over after he was gone.”

Lord Biustarn and his daughter laughed. Chuckling, the other Demon Lord wiped his face with a handkerchief. “Then you have no claim whatsoever.”