Jhed screamed loudly. His scream woke Nain up.
Jhed... why would he scream that loudly? Shine immediately ran toward his room.
Nain also stepped out of her room.
Preka caught sight of her.
"Monster... aaah, a monster! Daichi, look, there's a monster here!" Preka was terrified at the sight of Nain and ran to hide behind Daichi. Being called a monster like that stung Nain deeply.
"No, no, she's not a monster at all. She's our guest's friend," Daichi said.
Nain simply stood there.
Why did he scream so loudly? What could have happened? Nain wondered to herself.
Shine threw the door open.
He saw Jhed sitting calmly on his bed.
"What happened, Jhed? Why did you scream?" Shine asked quickly.
"Nothing happened. This wall is broken, so mosquitoes keep getting in. One of them bit me really hard, that's why I screamed," Jhed said with a smile. He was lying, of course.
Shine shouldn't find out that Silia is a demon, Jhed thought to himself. Shine kept staring at him, unconvinced.
"There's really nothing else going on?"
"No... that's really all it was," Jhed said again, still smiling.
"Fine. Come on outside quickly and eat breakfast — we need to head out today." Shine slid his sword back into its sheath. He had thought there might be a monster, which was why he'd already drawn it.
"Yeah, coming."
"And bring her along too."
"Yeah..."
"Hmm." Shine left the room.
"That was close. You idiot, you could've picked a better spot to hide — why'd you have to bite me that hard?" Jhed said, looking under the bed. Silia had ducked under there just in time.
"You're the idiot — you left yesterday and never came back, so I just fell asleep right here. Good thing no one saw me, or they would've caught me, and I would've had to kill them, even if I didn't want to," Silia said.
Jhed scratched his head, smiling.
"By the way, everyone already knows you were hiding here," Jhed said. He was a little nervous about how Silia would react to that.
"What?... But how? No one even saw me." She looked at him.
"Yeah, I told them myself. It's fine now — they won't do anything to you. I explained everything to them. I also told them you'll be traveling with us." Jhed said this while climbing off the bed. Silia came out from under it too.
"So I'm safe now?"
"Yes. You don't need to hide anymore. Come on, let's go have breakfast, and we're heading out from here today." Jhed said, fixing his hair.
"It feels a little strange, going out in front of them."
"You're a demon and you're saying things like that? Come on, no one's going to say anything to you." Jhed reassured her.
Outside, Nain was asking Shine.
"What happened? Why did he scream so loudly?" She was growling as she spoke. Her growl made Preka's ears ache, and she covered them with her hands.
"Goodness, what a terrifying voice you have," she said. She just said whatever came to mind, without a thought for whether it might hurt the other person.
"Nothing happened, Nain. He just screamed because a mosquito bit him," Shine said.
Nain only nodded.
"Oh, please, Princess, come sit and have breakfast too." Daichi pulled a chair back for her.
"Princess? This... monster?" she said, glaring at Nain. "First of all, how did this monster even get here?"
"I already told you — she's our guest's companion, and the princess of Mariana city too," Daichi said. He was quite angry at Preka for behaving this way.
Just then, Jhed arrived with Silia in tow.