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It all started with an ordinary tavern hangout. The Romero brothers and a couple of other regulars—already pretty drunk—were taking turns reminiscing about their first love. Just funny stories from their youth, and for some of them, even from childhood.
The only demon among the humans was sitting with them and drinking too.
Not because he enjoyed the company—simply because the local gambler, Luis, had won the lottery and, in a burst of joy, was buying drinks for everyone. Naturally, Cid had no intention of missing a chance to get drunk for free.
But oddly enough, he was sitting quietly. And, by some cruel twist of fate, that didn’t save him.
“Hey, what about you, Cid?” Walrus suddenly called out to him.
“Me? What about me? I never bothered with that kind of nonsense,” Cid said as dismissively as possible, waving a hand theatrically and taking a sip from his mug, making it clear he considered the topic closed.
“And what about that girl? Julia, I think her name was,” suddenly chimed in good old drunk Geoffrey.
Cid nearly choked in surprise, spluttering everything back into his mug.
“Geoffrey, damn it! Has that cheap swill of yours finally melted your brain?” Cid barked, wiping drink droplets from the corners of his mouth.
“What’s wrong with that? I distinctly remember you playing with her all the time when you were a kid,” the old man said calmly, then took a big gulp from his own mug.
Cid narrowed his eyes angrily.
“First of all, just because I played with her doesn’t mean I felt anything for her! And second, I was just trying to get close to her so I could mess with her later. And for your information, my plan worked! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!” Cid rushed to clarify unnaturally fast, his laugh coming out too loud and painfully fake.
Those who were more or less sober noticed the sharp change in his mood and how tense he suddenly became.
“For some reason, I feel like you’re not telling us everything…” Foxy drawled with interest, sipping her drink.
“You’re imagining things,” Cid snapped, turning toward the wall.
Foxy stepped out of the mayor’s office, carefully closing the oak door behind her. Hearing this, Mrs. Johnson looked up from the book she had been reading.
“Already finished?” the old woman asked. “How did it go? You’ll have to forgive our mayor if he seemed a bit pushy. Ever since he started taking those strange medicines, he’s become a real paranoid!” she began complaining involuntarily, shaking her head tiredly.
“It’s all right, Mrs. Johnson. He just asked us to check that abandoned house for any possible signs of—or remaining—demons,” Romero waved it off with a light smile, reassuring the mayor’s secretary.
Still, the old woman pressed a hand to her cheek.
“Goodness… On the one hand, it’s probably just vagrants making noise and spending the night there. But on the other, after that sudden demon takeover…” Mrs. Johnson mused.
“Don’t worry. It’s no trouble for us to check. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to be sure,” Foxy assured her gently but confidently.
Seeing the demon hunter’s confidence, the old woman brightened immediately and smiled at her warmly.
“Oh, thank you, dear! Ever since you appeared here, life in the town has become much calmer. Even Cid seems to have settled down a little…”
Foxy hesitated for a moment.
“By the way… you’ve known Cid since he was a child, right?” Foxy asked with undisguised curiosity, leaning against the counter.
Mrs. Johnson perked up at once.
“Of course! It’s hard not to know the little demon who was always causing trouble in a small town like this!”
“And do you know anything about a girl named Julia, whom Cid supposedly played with as a child?” Foxy propped her head on both hands, openly showing her interest.
Mrs. Johnson chuckled softly.
“Oh, I remember that very well! Cid was about ten years old then, no more. He was in love with her.”
“And how did you know?” the girl asked, tilting her head curiously.
“Oh, dear, it was so obvious it was impossible not to notice—especially compared to our troublesome Cid,” the old woman waved her hand dismissively, as if emphasizing just how obvious it was.
“So what did he do? Try to impress her?” the hunter asked.
“Oh, very much so! Once he came up to me and asked, ‘Mrs. Johnson, what do girls like?’ And I, foolish woman that I was, immediately imagined a classic fairy tale where a troublemaker falls in love with a good girl and changes for the better because of her… So I told him, ‘They like it when boys perform heroic deeds for them.’ I thought he might at least stop misbehaving for her sake…” She sighed, somewhat disappointed.
“So what happened in the end?” Foxy was already anticipating the story.
“The very next day—scandal. Little Julia invited him over to play, and then he got kicked out. As I later found out, he burned down her favorite dollhouse.”
“He burned her dollhouse?” Foxy blinked in shock. “And where was the heroism in that?”
“That’s what her mother told me. But Cid never shared the details himself. Probably embarrassed,” Mrs. Johnson shrugged. “Though I doubt it. He spent two days locked up in the castle, and then went right back to causing trouble like nothing had happened.”
“Then why doesn’t he like talking about it? Knowing him, shouldn’t he be proudly bragging about his childhood prank?” Foxy crossed her arms, tapping her elbow thoughtfully.
“Alas, only Cid himself can answer that question,” the old woman concluded with a shrug.
The demon was lying on his bed, face buried in a pillow. A plush teddy bear sat beside his head, as if trying to comfort him.
Damn Geoffrey! Of all the things he’d managed to remember despite years of constant drinking, why did it have to be that!?
His mental rant was interrupted by a knock at the door, loud enough to be heard from the second floor. Startled that someone had voluntarily come to see him, he got up from the bed and headed for the stairs leading down to the front door. Who could it be? Even the postman had stopped coming, and it definitely wasn’t Dan—he preferred yelling from under the windows instead of knocking politely.
Opening the door, he was pleasantly surprised to see sweet Foxy Romero on the doorstep.
“Hi, Cid,” the girl greeted him in a casual, everyday tone.
“Hey there. Not that I’m not glad to see you, but what brings you here?” the demon asked, lazily leaning against the doorframe.
“What, I can’t just drop by for a visit?” She tilted her head, cheerful sparks dancing in her eyes.
“Well, I don’t know… I’m not very fond of uninvited guests,” Cid mused theatrically.
“Strange to hear that from a demon who barges ‘for a visit’ like he owns the place,” Foxy shot back.
“Touché,” Cid said, stepping aside with a demonstrative flourish of his hand.
Foxy stepped inside. Domingo, seeing her, narrowed his eyes and demonstratively turned away. The huge fish was still offended at the hunters.
“Tea? Coffee? Something stronger?” Cid offered, heading for the kitchen cabinets.
“Coffee would be nice,” Foxy nodded, settling at the table.
With his back to her as he prepared the drinks, Cid couldn’t help marveling at how easily she trusted him. As if he weren’t perfectly capable of slipping something into her drink. Of course, he wouldn’t—but he absolutely could.
While fussing with the cezve, he remembered running into Mongoose that morning on his way home, the short fellow doing exercises in the town square, looking surprisingly energetic for someone who’d drunk himself senseless the night before. Mongoose had mentioned that the mayor had summoned the Romeros, and that Foxy—the most responsible among them—had gone to see him. Cid decided to use that to start a conversation.
“Mongoose said you were at the mayor’s,” he began, approaching the table with two steaming mugs and setting one in front of Foxy. “Care to tell me, if it’s not a secret, what that old blockhead dreamed up this time?”
“Nothing special,” the girl shrugged, accepting the mug with a grateful nod. “People have started complaining about suspicious activity in that abandoned house near the cemetery, so the mayor asked us to go check it out.”
“Heh. After the demon invasion, everyone suddenly turned into paranoids,” Cid scoffed irritably, complaining more to himself than to her. “I cause that kind of chaos every day, but suddenly it’s a problem when more demons show up!” he muttered resentfully through clenched teeth.
“Well, as I’ve already noticed, you’re almost like family to many people in this town,” Foxy said, hiding a chuckle behind her mug.
“Hehe, that’s a fact~ I’ve managed to ruin plenty of lives on a personal level!” Cid confirmed proudly, chin raised.
“By the way…” Foxy decided to steer the conversation somewhere more interesting, setting her mug down with a soft clink. “I talked to Mrs. Johnson. Learned a heart-wrenching story about a certain Julia and her dollhouse…”
Silence hung between them for a few moments. Cid set his mug aside; porcelain thudded dully against wood.
He sighed heavily, as if with great effort, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“Are you serious? Are you really that interested in that stupid story from my childhood?”
“Yep.” The girl simply nodded, a sly, name-appropriate grin blooming on her lips.
Cid stayed silent for another minute, tracing the rim of his mug with a finger, as if gathering his thoughts—or his strength. Finally, he gave in, leaning back in his chair until it creaked plaintively.
“You’re not going to let this go until you drag that dumb story out of me, are you?” the demon asked resignedly.
“Bingo!” Foxy confirmed.
“Fine.” Cid leaned back, stared at the ceiling, and began his story. “She was afraid of cockroaches. Terrified. Everyone knew it. Me included…” He paused. “I decided to use that to impress her. The plan was brilliant: I’d release a couple—well, not a couple… a whole colony of big cockroaches into her precious dollhouse. And then I’d save her like a hero!” He gestured wildly, trying to convey the ‘brilliance’ of his childhood plan, then buried his face in his hands, slumping. “I doused the damn dollhouse with gasoline and set it on fire.”
And suddenly, Foxy laughed. Not a malicious laugh, but warm, bubbling, sincere. Cid was so embarrassed and outraged by her reaction that he couldn’t even find words.
“Sorry, sorry,” she breathed, wiping a tear away. “It’s just… it’s so you!”
“That’s exactly why I didn’t want to tell you!” Cid snapped, crossing his arms and turning away.
“What happened to Julia after that?” Foxy asked carefully once she had calmed down.
“She moved to another city with her family a month after the fire. So I have no idea where she is or what she’s doing now,” Cid shrugged indifferently. “And there was no point anyway. After that, she hated me and didn’t want to be friends anymore.”
Foxy watched him, her expression softening.
“You know… girls really do like it when someone performs heroic deeds for them…”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that. But alas, I’m not made for nobility. I’m made for chaos and evil! Mwa-ha-ha!” His laugh sounded a bit more natural this time, though it still carried a defensive edge.
“That’s where I’m going to disagree,” the girl began with a smirk. “You’re not that terrible.”
“You dare doubt me, woman?” He squinted at her.
“Yes.”
“Explain!” he demanded, pointing at her.
“You saved me from the Demon King himself,” Romero replied simply, with a gentle smile.
Cid froze. His bravado melted away like smoke. He looked aside, picking at a chip in the tabletop with his nail.
“Damn it… Y-you- I mean- I just wanted to spite Viggo!” he rattled off, though his voice lacked conviction.
He fell silent, then looked at her seriously.
“…Do you really think I’m a hero?” Cid asked, barely hiding his hope. Foxy nodded confidently. “And I impressed you?” Another nod. “Well… I mean… I don’t regret saving you. Or your brothers… but mostly you.”
“You’re weird. But like I said, I like weirdos,” Foxy said softly, taking a sip of her coffee.
She just sat there across from him, letting the silence do what words couldn’t.
The situation felt both complete and unfinished at the same time. But for the demon and the demon hunter, that was somehow enough.