Garden Of The Abyss

"I heard something about that. This "yearly candidate" stuff that each kingdom does."

Ren commented, watching as Macheo rolled his stiff shoulder.

The prince was shirtless, wearing a bandage that ran from the cut-off point of his discarded limb and around the left side of his torso. He wasn't particularly muscular, but he wasn't out of shape; this fact calmed Ren's irrational thoughts of having him stroll around in front of Iris.

"…About that, Ren…"

"Yeah?"

The entire time, Iris was awfully quiet, only speaking in the middle of already sparked words.

"Aiko…You met her here, right? How'd that come to be?"

"Huh? When I talked to her earlier, it sounded like you two were getting along—I thought you would've talked about this already."

"Well…I did talk to her about it, but I just wanted to hear it from you…"

Muttering her response, Iris twiddled with her hair as she hid her likely cherry-red cheeks from Ren's gaze.

Damn, she really is just pure sugar, isn't she? Ren thought.

"Well…I met her on the second floor—well, that's here."

"Wait—did you start on this floor as well?"

"Huh?…No."

Asked this, Ren shared a perplexed expression with the girl as they stared at each other for a prolonged moment.

"You started here?"

Ren asked, pointing his finger a hair away from the girl's cheek. As she nodded her head, he let out a sigh, ruffling his own head of colorless hair.

"Sheesh, this place really is just diabolical, isn't it? Do you have a familiar?"

"…Familiar?"

Iris tilted her head at this question, getting another confused look from both Ren and Macheo in unison.

"…I knew this place had a mind of its own, but this is something else…"

Macheo held his face in his hand, muttering to himself as Iris looked between the two boys, still clueless as to what a familiar was.

"Bifrons!"

Shouting the name of the demonic cat, a black mass manifested on Ren's shoulder, forming into the narcoleptic cat as it let out a yawn.

"Good morning to you too, Ren-nya."

As soon as her eyes met with the sable feline, Iris blinked a few times, meeting eye to eye with the cat as it tilted its head.

"So cute!—"

Iris let out a high-pitched squeal that rang through the ears of the others, immediately starting to caress the fur of the cat without any hesitation.

"It can talk? Wow! Its fur is so soft, like silk…"

It seemed Bifrons was helpless to the sudden attention, quickly beginning to purr like an engine as Iris ran her hand over its back.

"Wow…You're not even weirded out by him being able to talk?"

Shaking her head in response to Ren's confused question, Iris didn't stop petting the feline, smiling giddily as she did.

"Well, I guess it's a world of magic…Maybe I'm the weird one."

"No, she's definitely the odd one—I've never seen someone pet those things so carelessly."

Macheo scoffed as he sat back down on his temporary bed after finishing his stretches.

"A cat?"

"No…A demon."

As soon as Iris heard that last word, her stupor caused by the fluffiness of Bifrons was dissipated, retreating her head as she simply let out an, "Eh?", looking between the two young men again.

"A demon?…"

Looking at the perfectly fluffy feline as its tail swayed, Iris repeated the term.

"Yup. One-hundred-percent demon. He's a "familiar"—or I guess technically a "guide". Oh, that's why I called you in the first place, Bifrons."

"Yes-nya?"

"Why did Iris start off on the second floor, and without a guide, at that?"

As always, Bifrons seemed to exist in his own world, going at his own pace as the feline simply cleaned his paws before finally responding.

"I was under the impression I told you of this already. The first floor is a culling of the weak, a proving ground to test potential challengers—it's meant to be handled alone-nya."

"Still…Isn't it counterproductive to just send the other challenger to the second floor anyway?"

"It would seem that the observers deemed her to be fit for the second floor-nya. While you…"

Before the familiar could finish his sentence, Ren interrupted him with a wave of his hand, holding an embarrassing tint to his cheeks.

"I got it, I got it…Man, this place is just confusing as hell. Macheo, you have a familiar, right?"

Asking a question he felt he already knew the answer to, Macheo remained silent for a moment before answering promptly, "No."

"No?…"

"Those bastards aren't to be trusted."

Macheo pointed directly at Bifrons, who seemed to care less about the human talking directly about him.

"I mean, they're shady but that's about it."

"If you know what's best for you, you'd get rid of that thing as soon as possible, as I did."

Crossing his arms across his prevalently bare chest, Macheo's cautious words didn't fall onto deaf ears.

"Get rid of him? Is that even possible?"

Looking at the feline resting on his shoulder, Ren considered whether that was something beneficial or not.

Is Bifrons really "untrustworthy"—I mean, it's obvious he couldn't care less about me, but he doesn't seem malicious, Ren thought.

"I want one…"

Iris muttered quietly, still looking closely at the familiar with childlike wonder in her eyes.

"Were you listening to a single part of this conversation?"

Ren chuckled, seeing Iris' fixation on the cute feline.

Well, if she likes it—he can stay, for now, Ren concluded.

"If you're energetic enough to talk so much, then get a move on."

The infamously calloused voice belonging to the doctor came from the threshold behind them. Kerull stood with his arms sternly held across his chest, looking at the three as he clearly wanted his home cleared.

I mean, I can't really blame the guy for wanting his home to himself, but sheesh, Ren sighed.

"Sorry, Mr.Kerull…We'll be out of your hair."

Apologizing to the practitioner of healing, Iris slightly bowed her head as Ren leisurely made his way out of the abode that stunk of metal and alcohol.

"Thanks for the arm, old man."

Macheo didn't stop in his step as he spoke, pushing past the tall primorelf as he followed Ren's path outside of the home.

Seeing the abrasive exit the two boys put on display, Iris felt slightly ashamed at this, bowing her head again, "Sorry for them…"

A heavy sigh left the gruff doctor's mouth as he raised his hand for Iris to halt the gesture, fixing his glasses.

"You should take a note from Macheo there."

"What?…"

"I don't help people because I want them to apologize to me; I do it because I want to. So, try a "thanks" instead, I'm sure it'll be one-hundred times more effective."

Kerull parted Iris with these words as he wiped his hands off with a beige rag, leaving the girl silent for a moment before she smiled.

"Thank you."

"What now?"

Ren leaned his back against the sturdy tree inhabiting the sheltered cave, brushing his fingers through his snowy locks.

Another week had already passed by, and it was clear some of them were getting anxious being stuck doing nothing for such a prolonged amount of time.

I've grown so used to fighting for my life that this peace has actually been kind of…empty. Kind of frightening, really. Now that I've found her again—that raging, fiery will doesn't have an outlet. It's still there…Just dormant, Ren thought.