Reborn as a Reluctant Demon Lord

Chapter 14 - Teamwork

Girls are scary.

Now, I feel like I should qualify that last thought since it's basically an insult to half the world's population. I didn't interact with women too much in the old world (that I could remember). Then in the new world, I had met, in order: a [Ranger] who shot a man in the foot before I knew HP was a thing; an excitable [Sorceress], who was the most normal of the bunch; a [Knight], who could probably kick my butt in hand to hand combat; a [Rogue], who just blackmailed me to ensure a better reward when they finally "defeated" me; and then Gertrude. I don't want to talk about Gertrude since I'm afraid she'll appear behind me if I do.

So, please forgive my blanket sexist thought. I know that the weirdos that I associated with are in no way representative of all women.

----

We made it back to the village without any further difficulties, which is a good thing because I am pretty sure any additional problems would have resulted in a dead [Demon Lord].

At Megan's urging, because I had to play the part of "cooperative party member," I apologized to everyone just like Jake asked me to. I then also swallowed my pride and apologized to the tiny [Wizard] for fighting him. He didn't seem to really accept it, and his dad glowered at me quite a bit, but he also didn't [Mage Bolt] my face off, so I counted it as progress.

My plan after that was to just rest and recover my HP, but Megan had another idea. She determined that my "poker face was atrocious" and that I couldn't "fool a five-year-old when I lied." And that was how I found myself sitting across from Megan getting coached on both of those things.

"Honestly," she muttered. "I have no idea how you managed to fool us even for the couple days we've known each other."

"Well," I said sheepishly. "AltSys gave me the idea to say I was a [Half-Demon] and then changed my display; otherwise, I would've been caught right away."

"And why are you able to tell that lie so easily compared to anything else?"

I thought about it. "Well, it's not really a lie. If I count my demon stuff as one half and my human brain as the other, that makes me a [Half-Demon], right?"

Megan nodded slowly. "Okay, we can work with this. It was actually a tip I was going to give you. If you say things that are technically true, or true from a certain point of view, you'll probably do better than just flat out lying."

I frowned. "So... I'm spinning things like a politician. Why does that almost feel worse than lying outright?"

Megan laughed. "Aren't you the king of the demons or something? I think you are stuck being a politician either way."

She had me there. "Fair point."

There was finally a lull, and I remembered there were a few things I wanted to ask her. "By the way, what's the deal with you stealing from the village?"

"Ugh, couldn't you ask someone else?"

"When I did, they said I should ask you."

She sighed. "Fine. I stole from the village the first night that I was here, but the stupid [Hero] got me caught."

"Oh." I paused for a bit. "And why did you steal from a bunch of villagers who probably don't have much?"

She eyed me, "You keep asking too many questions, and I might just turn you over to Jake."

"Okay, okay. I give." I held up my hands in surrender.

She thought for a second or two. "Actually, I guess I'll answer that, but that's the last question... I'm a kleptomaniac. Unlike Tim, who got a brand new pair of legs, my condition seems to have gotten worse. And it was bad before I came here. Now it seems like I can't go a day without the urge to steal something."