CH827

With the first rays of the sun out once they were at their doorstep, Ben’s mind was still full of all he’d have to do before he stopped, banging his head against the door with the new problem that came to his thoughts.

“You okay there, Ben?”

“Just realized we have a young little resident in town who’ll be able to see the system info for the demis if he ever runs into one.”

Thera’s face fell as he said it with the new issues obvious once it was pointed out. Mora would be able to see the demidemons race through the system information bound to their souls which meant it wasn’t something they could just ignore. Even if he was being secretive in his use of magic, if he thought they were a threat and acted on it discreetly, with the power he held it was all but certain they’d die, leaving Ben to sigh.

“We’ll have to talk to him before anything else then.”

Their particular struggles with guardianship were enough to almost make him laugh, having no choice but to consider the potential whims of what might as well have been a child god for all the power Mora held but in the end what it came down to was as simple as trying to explain and instill a sense of right and wrong and after the long night they’d been through, neither of them wanted to wait as they let themselves in before knocking on the boy’s door, getting a small surprise as he came to open it himself instead of calling them in.

“Welcome back.”

“Sorry we were so late,” Thera told him, wrapping him in a hug. “We had a bit of an emergency that we need to talk to you about, mind if we come in?”

“Alright.”

They moved to sit on the edge of his bed, Mora squeezed between the two with Thera taking the lead.

“Um, so Mora, you are aware of the demons and the invasion going on, aren’t you?”

They had never outright asked but given that the boy’s age could be measured in months, they had to be sure. Neither doubted that Vividus had been clear about it in whatever sort of education she’d given him of course but the extent mattered, with Mora tensing up before nodding as Ben took over.

“Well, the thing is, there’s a few complications about it that the average person might not know but there’s a pretty good chance you’ll stumble into a bit of it when you go through town. It’s the reason we were so late getting back but if you see something, we’d really, really like you to keep it a secret with us, okay?”

The boy’s tension melted just a little, traded for curiosity as he perked up. “What is it?”

Meeting each other’s eyes, Ben couldn’t help but sigh as he covered the explanation, feeling the weight of the need to properly convey it all.

“On this world, deep in the untamed lands, a group called the forbidden gods created a hybrid race between demons and one of the native animals to make themselves a new species to get faith from called demidemons. We’re not going to go into why those gods did it, they shouldn’t have and they’ve been punished for it, but what matters is the demidemons themselves. They aren’t like demons, they’re people who’ve been mistreated and just want to live but there’s no guarantee that everyone will understand that if word gets out so that’s why we’re bringing this up now. Whenever you see any, don’t bring up their name to anyone, okay? As far as we and everyone else in town is going to be concerned, their species is called the demis and they’re a group of believers of Myriad who’ve been evacuated here after their village was destroyed. Heck, that last part is absolutely true, it’s what kept us so long but what’s important is not saying anything that might put them in danger. Can you do that?”

“So you aren’t killing them?” Mora asked, looking surprised while Thera waved her hands.

“No no no, absolutely not. I’ll take you to meet some today, Mora. I don’t think we’re going to do a long one at the hospital since this popped up and they’re all nice people, I’m sure you’ll be able to get along.”

“…What about demons then?”

“Incomparable,” Ben told him. “Demidemons are people but real demons are basically monsters with intelligence, they don’t have mercy or empathy or anything that would let us reason with them. Whatever blood the two share, they couldn’t be more different.”

“…I see.”

The answer seemed to make him slip back further into himself and again Ben and Thera shared a look, with her taking the initiative that time.

“Mora, is there something about that answer that bothered you?”

He shook his head. “No, it’s fine. If you just got back though, don’t you both need to sleep?”

“Well, yes but we can talk a bit longer if there’s anything you’re worried about.”

“We can talk later. Get some rest, I’ll be fine.”

“…Okay, well we’re just going to have a small nap, we’ll be out in an hour, okay?”

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“Okay.”

Picking up that he wanted to be alone, the two went to their own room and laid down, Thera saying what they were both thinking.

“Something about that seems like it could have gone a lot better.”

“Yeah, maybe we’ll have to try and push that a little bit soon.”

They’d been trying to give him space to open up to them on their own but the boy seemed bothered when they’d left, whatever was on his mind not a concern he was going to openly share but that was one more concern among many and to start easing a few of them, Ben closed his eyes, forcing his mind to his god’s realm.

“Alright, I’ve let down the demidemons and I’m struggling to connect to the kid I’m trying to raise which means today is the perfect day for bad news in general so hit me.”

“You didn’t let down the demidemons, Ben,” Myriad told him. “If anything it’s the opposite, you helped save them again. Thank you.”

“Fifteen are dead.”

“Instead of all of them.”

“I should’ve thought to move them to Stonewall before something like this could happen.”

“No, I should have. I’m their god.”

“And I’m their apostle.”

“And just one man.”