The next morning consisted of small headaches and seemingly unending planning. Ban, Meli, and I were hovering over a map of Britannia while Hawk ate scraps and Ellie and Diane sat outside, chatting. We were discussing where to head next.

"There's no way we can head further into the kingdom," Meli started, "The Holy Knights are probably going to be on high alert after we leveled of Baste and I pulled out that Knight's sword in Bernia Village."

I rested on the small sitting area that connected to the window nearest to where they examining the map, tossing one of my books (that wasn't drenched in ale after the fight) up and down in my hand. I had begun rereading it, but was interupted by the demand to help discuss our next destination.

"I say we head to a smaller village," I suggested, looking at the map. "Someplace like Ordan or Byron Town. They're more tight-knit, a good place to get more intel. That and it's harder to attract attention."

"But we've already attracted so much attention~" Ban hummed, his eyes gazing over the map. "Why don't we get a little more?"

We heard the loud snorts of the large pig we were riding on, Hawk's Mom, causing us to loose concentration and abandon the conversation. We all stared out the window I was sitting in front of, watching for any signs of a disturbance. When there wasn't any, Ban decided to speak up.

"So~ where're we going Captain?"

"Oh, that's easy! Our next destination will be-"

He was cut off by a loud, demanding yell. "Stop right there! We are the Holy Knights of the kingdom- you must answer our questions!"

I raised an eyebrow, opening the window so that I could climb out. I did so, kicking the panes of the window closed behind me. Ellie was sitting on the edge of the Boar Hat's small, circular outer patio. I waved lightly at her before climbing down the top of Hawk's Mom's head. I rested on the edge of her nose, staring down at the Knights. I definitely didn't sense the magical energy of a Holy Knight coming from either of them. Maybe they're low-level apprentices...? Yeah, probably.

"From the knowledge we've received from our higher ups," one of the apprentices began. He was taller, which much longer, ginger hair. The other was rather chunky, and had black hair styled in a bull cut. "We know that Diane, the Serpent Sin of the Eight Deadly Sins, is from the giant clan. There have also been reports of her traveling with a larger pig with a house on its back. This looks rather... suspicious."

If need be, I could probably take them out rather easily- any one of us could. I was rather close to the two of them at the moment, so it wouldn't be difficult for me to step in at any point in time.... I should probably wait to see how it pans out, though.

I felt a small tap on my shoulder. I glanced behind me, seeing the captain standing behind me. "Hey Meli. You gonna step in?" I asked, peering over the edge of Hawk's Mom's snout. He nodded, the motioned me to move out of the way. I frowned, but still stood and backed away. He leaned over the edge, waving to the Knights.

"Hi there, security guys!" He said cheerily, and Ellie ran up next to me. We were just behind him.

"What is Lord Meliodas doing?" She asked quietly, looking at him worriedly. I shrugged, truthfully unsure of what his plan was.

"I'm the owner of this traveling bar, the 'Boar Hat'!" He continued, shouting down at them. "What can I do for you?"

"A child owning a traveling tavern?" The stockier one muttered, looking up at Meli with a raised eyebrow.

The other, taller knight shouted back; "What are you doing with this girl from the giant clan?"

"She's my attractive sales girl!" He grinned before tugging me and Ellie forward. He wrapped his right arm around her neck and his left around my waist. My eyebrow twitched as I growled quietly. "And these two are my sexy waitresses!"

I cringed at the way he described me- and I was most certainly not a waitresss here. Diane, however, seemed to think it was the most glorious thing the captain had ever said about her, because she muttered in a small voice, 'I'm an attractive sales girl...?' while blushing. It took a moment for the guards to respond, but when they did, they seemed very excited.

"This should be a new trend!!!" The one with the bull cut shouted, his face bright red as he grinned widely at Diane.

"And she's hot, too! Bonus!" The other one agreed, staring at Diane with the same, drooling face. I cringed harder, seeing them turn to us. "Alright, you can move along!"

Meli began to wave happily at the Knights, who had began to walk away, still staring at Diane questionably. I huffed, blowing a strand of hair out of my face.

"Good thing they're idiots..." I muttered, looking at Diane, who was still staring at the captain with a blush.

"We were saved by their stupidity," Hawk agreed, who had come out to join us during the conversation with the guards. He stood beside Ellie, looking at the retreating apprentices.

Meli was suddenly swept up from between me and Ellie, grasped in Diane's tight grip as she gave him a hug. A very painful-looking hug. "Thank you, Captain!!! Me? I'm an attractive sale girl!! I'm- I'm... I'm so, super happy!!!!"

I saw the Holy Knight Apprentices stop dead in their tracks, staring up at Diane quizzically. I face palmed as Hawk said, "Too bad we have an idiot as well..."

They began to mutter to themselves before the black-haired one shouted loudly, "WAIT! You're the child from the reports- the one in Bernia and Dalmary Villages! You're Meliodas- Captain of the Eight Deadly Sins!"

I groaned as Diane's face turned an even brighter red. She muttered, staring sheepishly at us, "Oh... sorry, heh-heh..."

I should've gone down and killed them when I had the chance...

I noticed it out of the corner of my eye- and I seemed to be the only one who did. Just ahead on the path we were traveling on, where a small hill blacked the view of the rest of the path for a few miles, there was a sudden flash. It was too fast to see what- or who- it was, but it was coming straight toward us.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash, down where the apprentices were. My gaze shot in that direction- it seemed that they were being attacked. They yelled something incoherent to each other, and Meli immediately shouted at Diane. "Diane, put me down!"

"WHO ARE YOU!?" One of the apprentices bellowed. However, the perpetrator was moving too fast to make out a face.

One of the Knights went flying, shooting out from the large circle the attacker was making around us. The Apprentice who had gone flying had disappeared, only a contorted pile of armor left where his body used to be.

"What's going on?" Ellie asked, distressed, as she stared around at the flashes of a body that surrounded us. I followed the flashes closely, being able to make out the body of what looked to be... a hound...? Or some sort of wolf?

"Ah! This is bad!" Hawk shouted, hugging closer to me and Ellie. He had squirmed his way between us, where Meli had previously been standing.

The other knight went flying, him disappearing as his armor lay in pieces next to his friend's. The movement stopped in front of us, revealing itself to be a black hound.

"Eek! That's a black hound!" Hawk squealed, "Once one of these things sets it's sight on you, it won't stop until it's finished or you're dead!"

"Cool," I smirked, staring down at it. Ban came up from behind me, walking forward as though he meant to confront the animal. "Whatcha doin' there?"

He turned toward me, only giving a smirk before jumping down in front of the animal. I raised an eyebrow, seeing him talking to the thing. "Sheeesh~ You're in the way of our adventure."

The animal only growled in response. "Should I kill you?" Ban growled back, smiling at the hound. The animal immediately pounced, making itself larger as it stood in front of Ban. The man raised his eyebrow. "What's this? It suddenly got bigger."

"Yeah, they do that!" I shouted, snickering as he turned around and gave me a dirty look. Hawk squealed again, shaking vigorously.

"So it is true! Black Hounds increase their size depending on how threatened they feel!" Hawk said, staring at Ban and the hound. Guess that thing must be pretty threatened by our Fox Sin.

"How boring~" Ban said in a threateningly sing-songy voice. It was eerie; somewhat terrifying.

Meli jumped down, standing in front of Ban with his hand raised, signaling Ban to stop. I frowned- I was looking forward to watching that fight. "As always- you're kind to boring things." Ban sighed, giving the same frown I had.

"Let me handle this."

"Oh, c'mon, Captain~" Ban whined, "Why can't I have a little fun?"

"Cause we're the ones who stepped into his territory," Meli countered.

He began to pull out the sword hilt he always had on his back. I never understood why he carried the thing around- it was practically useless. I get that he wanted to have some sort of weapon, but why not get a real sword? Or use your sacred treasure? That's what I did when a fight required it.

Just when the hilt came into view, the hound took a small step back. It was staring up at the empty space on Hawk's Mom's left, looking terrified. After a few moments of standing there, it turned and ran off. My face remained still as I stared at the hilt, which Meli was returning to its sheath. Ban had the same expression as I did.

Hawk said something (that I wasn't listening to) from next to me, to which Ellie responded, but again, I wasn't listening. I was still staring at that sword hilt. Why did he always carry it around...?

"Well, then! Let's take off again!" Meli grinned, jumping up onto Hawk's Mom's snout. Ban followed him.

"Have you decided where?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. I shook off my previous curiousness, deciding now was not the time- nor was this the place- to question him about the sword hilt.

"Yeah, you forgot it mention that earlier~" Ban added, throwing out his signature smirk.

"Of course I know where we're going," Meli replied, walking up to me, Ellie, and Hawk. "We're heading to the 'Capitol of the Dead'! We're going to look for King there."

"Didn't you hear, cap'n? That fatass is dead," Ban replied nonchalantly. Yeah, him and King never had the best relationship...

"Yeah, I was hired to kill him once or twice." I shrugged, cashing everyone to look at me. They stared, clearly not understanding what the hell I had just said. "Hey, I didn't have a bar or a forest or a dungeon to sleep in. I had to make money somehow."

"So you became a mercenary?" Ban asked, tilting his head to the side. "Why didn't you just steal?"

I shrugged, "Stealing's too much work, so why not become a mercenary? Holy Knights pay good, too."

We began walking inside, everyone still questioning me about my mercenary job. I shrugged off most of the questions, beginning to get annoyed as we entered the building. Ban walked over to the wanted posters with a marker, heading straight for King's. I sighed, "So! Why're we looking for King again?"

"It's the only lead we have, so we might as well start looking for him there," Meli explained, then added to Ban: "Stop drawing on his wanted poster."

He had drawn pig ears and a goatee on the man. I snickered, even though it was rather mean, before turning toward the window and pointing to nowhere in particular. "Then off we go!"

• •

After about a day of traveling, we finally arrived at the village.

"We're here~!" Diane cheered, and I stood up, stretching my back so that it popped in multiple places. I sighed in content- it felt nice. I had been sitting/laying on Hawk's Mom's snout for the majority of the travel. I had only left for food, ale, and sometimes a blanket. I found her snout really comfortable for some reason- it was weird

"How can a small town like this be the infamous 'Capitol of the Dead'?" I asked, glancing out over the small town. There were very few houses, and there didn't seem to be any markets- or people.

Meli came up from behind me, surprising me as he said; "From what I've heard this Village is the closest place to the Capitol, but it's not the actual place."

"Oh," I said simply, shrugging. "Okay."

He then jumped down from Hawk's Mom's nose, landing where everyone else was standing. Diane and Ban were next to each other, and Ellie and Hawk were to their left, slightly farther away. He jumped in the middle of the small half-circle, facing them. I jumped down as well, landing between Ellie and Diane, who were the closest between to two small groups. I stared at Meli, who had pointed his finger at the five of us, smiling determinedly.

"First," he addressed us, "we must gather information about King and the Capital of the Dead. From what I've heard, this is the closest place to it. We also need to earn some money for food. So, let's get ready to open!"

"So it's true~" Ban purred, slouching backwards and smirking at Meli with his hands in his pockets. "The cap'n is waiting tables."

"And he's super cute when he's working!" Diane chimed in, squealing lightly. I snorted, rolling my eyes. According to Diane, everything the captain did was 'cute.'

"You're all working, too," Meli said nonchalantly, looking at the three of us. I blinked once; then twice.

"Hah?" All three of us asked at once. Ban had wide eyes, staring at the captain, dumbfounded; Diane had her head tilted to the side curiously, as if she was wondering how on earth she could possible help; and I had my arms crossed, a snarky expression on my face as my eye twitched lightly. No way. No way.

"Diane-" The man started, pointing at the aforementioned giant- "you'll be in charge of attracting customers, big sales girl!"

"Me?! Really?!" Diane squealed- you could practically see the hearts in her eyes as she stared down at the captain, beaming.

"Ban-" He said, this time pointing at the tall immortal- "I'm counting on you to make great food, jail-breaking chef!"

"Who, me~?" He purred, smiling.

"Don't you mean 'crap food'?" Hawk questioned, raising an eyebrow at Meli, who shook his head in response. Hm, guess he was basing Ban's cooking skills off of the captain's.

"Mm-mm," he made the 'no' noise, "Ban's actually a really good cook. His food is delicious. And now (y/n)!" Meli grinned, turning towards me. "You're going to be my second consecutive waitress! You'll need to change into the uniform- then do what Elizabeth normally does: cleaning tables, serving customers, etc."

"Not happening," I growled, "I'm not wearing that and acting out your perverted fantasies." I pointed at Ellie's clothes.

"Oh, come on," he whined, frowning.

"No. I'll waitress, but I will not wear that uniform unless there is literally nothing else for me to wear," I huffed, blowing a strand of hair out of my face.

"Hmm," Meli hummed, grinning mischievously as he stared at me. I rolled my eyes, turning my attention away from him so that I was looking around the village. It looked deserted...

The blonde who had just been grinning at me clapped his hands loudly, grasping my attention once again. "Alright everyone! Let's get to work!"