The second day of travel passed uneventfully. The guards insisted that Fenrir ride with them in their wagon, as repayment for his delicious meals. The boy tried to refuse, but the guards wouldn't back down. After all, Fenrir's actions both at dinnertime and in the morning were viewed as childish and cute, and they thought of him as similar to a child trying his best to care for his parents.

Of course, if Fenrir heard this, he would have likely fallen over in confusion.

And so, Fenrir sat in the covered wagon that carried the guards who were on break, occasionally attending to his rabbit pelts. The guards were all very friendly to the boy, especially as those with children thought him very similar to an especially innocent child. Overall, Fenrir spent much of the journey feeling as if he had misinterpreted the doting expressions of the guards, but felt a warm feeling in his chest that he could not understand. Soon, the suns began to near the northern horizon, and Fenrir once more led the caravan to a suitable camping spot. Fenri left to hunt for dinner, and, encountering no abnormalities as he had last time, he came back with a young hardt, which looked like a tuskless boar with the horns of a moose. Yu helped him to skin the creature and remove its entrails, and Fenrir removed the meat from its bones, intending to make hardt stew. Using the bones for the broth, he had just finished adding in herbs, milk, and meat when Yerin interrupted him. She had exited the carriage earlier than usual, accompanying her father as he sparred with her. Fenrir had noticed that the two held higher than average spear skills, perhaps on par with a captain in his demon army. This was impressive for a human; demons held the most superior physical abilities of all the races, and that included an abnormal ability to learn to use weapons. The only reason demons had not absolutely crushed the "good" races was because the "good" races had the capacity for magic, and also because they numbered far more than the demons; After all, demons were only one race, and their opponents were many races united against them.

~~~~~~~

The Aelis family were some of the most proficient spearmen of the human race. As daughter of the head of the family, Yerin was one of the strongest of them. She had been practicing her spear skills with her father when she noticed Fenrir watch them for a moment, then look away "dismissively". At this, the girl was infuriated; she felt that her abilities were insulted by the commoner's attitude. After the girl and her father finished their match, Yerin told him that she would be staying outside until dinner was ready, complaining about the cramped conditions of the carriage.

~~~~~~~

Trevor Aelis looked at his daughter, slightly suspicious that she was about to cause trouble. Mentally shrugging, the man decided that even if the girl tried to cause trouble, Rokvur would prevent her from going too far. Besides, Trevor's mental state, worn down by three days of constant, mind-numbing travel, demanded that he get a quick nap. He was in no mood to deal with his troublesome daughter. After all, the man was not able to sleep when the carriage was moving; his training with the spear and experiences on the battlefield kept him constantly alert, especially when there was magic affecting him. His subconscious mind had noticed the soundproofing and shock absorbing spells cast on the carriage, and he was unable to sleep while they were active. Now that the carriage was at rest and only one spell, the soundproofing one, was in use, he would finally be able to get some rest.

~~~~~~~

Fenrir cocked his head at Yerin curious as to why the girl had interrupted his cooking. While the stew would still need an hour until it was done, he really didn't need to pay it much attention until then. Yerin was clearly angry, but Fenrir did not recall offending her in any way.

~~~~~~~

"So, commoner," said Yerin, wearing an arrogant expression on her face, "You think you could beat me with the spear?"

Yerin was no fool; she was aware that Rokvur would intervene if she challenged the fool to a duel. However, unlike her tired father, Yerin had noticed that Rokvur was on sentry duty at the moment; he would not be paying attention to what was happening in the camp itself, even if his post was within clear view of the camp. In order to keep their eyes adjusted to the darkness, Rokvur had made certain to locate the sentry a decent distance from the campfire even though the suns had not yet set, so there was little chance that the guard captain would interrupt. None of the other guards had the authority to interfere, so she was free to oppress the commoner as much as she wanted.

~~~~~~~

Fenrir nodded, confused. As a demon king candidate and as a demon king, he had never been approached by anyone who thought for certain that they were superior to him, so he did not quite understand Yerin's intentions. Seemingly infuriated by his response, Yerin angrily growled "So you do, do you? Well then, if you're so confident, then have a match with me."

Fenrir shrugged, accepting the training spear that Yerin passed to him. He decided that he should probably hold back to avoid exposing his abilities. The pair walked to the area where Yerin and her father had been sparring earlier and readied themselves. Any guards that weren't on sentry duty, as well as all the merchants, were all either in their tents or in their wagons, so the two didn't draw any attention.

"Begin in three... two... one!" cried Yerin, rushing at Fenrir with her spear pointed forward. Leaning slightly to the side, he dodged the spear by a hair, and brought his own spear to Yerin's neck before she even perceived that he had dodged. Suddenly realizing that he wasn't holding back enough, Fenrir then jumped away from Yerin, into the path of the spear. Upon being hit, he said "Ouch, that hurt." with a monotone voice. Needless to say, acting weak was not his strong point.

~~~~~~~

Yerin froze, shocked by multiple parts of what had just happened. While the movements were barely slow enough for the girl to perceive, her opponent had definitely been on the brink of winning, before withdrawing his spear and even rushing into the trajectory of her spear. Then, he had said "Ouch, that hurt." in a completely unconvincing voice, which was somehow still more beautiful and entrancing than even the best of songs. Before, she had been sure that Fenrir was an uncultured, short man, probably with a scruffy beard and a hoarse voice. However, the voice made her realize that he was probably a boy her age, though she was slightly confused why she was so certain he was male. Somehow, her anger at the boy quickly dissipated as if it had never been aimed at him in the first place, and the voice helped her realize that she was the one who was being crass and rude, and it was her who should apologize to the boy for her attitude.[1] It seemed almost like the boy was one of the legendary Fae, who had held the ability to clear the minds of mortals with a single word or phrase, and whose minds would never be affected by any form of mental magic.[2] It was likely that he had some Fae blood in him, but he was definitely not an elf; the ears would be noticable even with the hood. However, elves were the race with the highest percentage of Fae blood, and it was rare even for them to have such an ability. Likely, he possessed even purer blood than that of the elves. Yerin wanted to ask what race Raz was, but her no longer clouded mind understood that such a question would be quite rude. She smiled, suddenly realizing that the boy's complete failure at hiding his strength was rather cute.

~~~~~~~

Fenrir was proud of himself. He had never tried holding back his strength before, but from the happy expression on Yerin's face, and the happiness emitted by her soul, he deduced that she was satisfied with her victory and therefore his acting had been effective. Though, her expression was awfully similar to how Rokvur looked at him... He hadn't done anything "cute", had he? Fenrir's train of thought was interrupted when the girl bowed her head and said "Sorry, I've been rude."

Fenrir nodded automatically, but his mind was confused. He didn't recall any point where she had been rude. "It's fine," he replied honestly, "I didn't even notice."

"No, I've been seriously terrible to you... If I don't repay you somehow, I'll never be able to forgive myself," replied the confusing girl.

After a moment of consideration, Fenrir remembered his lessons from her, before that had happened. He quickly separated himself from those memories, not allowing himself to dwell on the mental scars that had only barely scabbed over. "If that's the case..." the boy hesitated, feeling that his next question would be rude if she still had not even seen his face. Removing his hood, he completed his sentence: "would you be my friend?"[3]