Chapter 4

I never expected the Demon Lord to be so easy to deal with.

That treasure pouch he gave me could swallow the whole sword tomb, and probably the entire Demon Palace on top of it.

And now I could already command half the swords in the sword tomb. With Master Aldric's seclusion ending any day now, I had to get everything home before he came out.

So I didn't even bother going back to the Demon Sword Sect.

I just holed up in the cave, clinging to the serpent spirit and sleeping against him day and night.

Now and then he'd say he wanted to rest a while, and I never understood why.

Weren't we already sleeping?

So I lifted my head and asked, a little suspicious:

"You don't want to be around me?"

He swallowed the words about resting at once, his tail tightening, coiling around me until there was no getting loose.

One night, on a whim, I asked whether he'd ever thought of turning from the dark, of joining one of the righteous sects.

Silas gave a cold laugh, disdain all over him. "That poor little corner of the world? I wouldn't waste a single step on it."

"A whole crowd shouting about righteousness and then charging off to brawl with people. No discipline at all."

"What's wrong with the Demon Palace? It has anything you could want. Aren't you the one who loves all those shiny things?"

Hearing that left a hollow place in my chest.

So it turned out he didn't like that place.

This was the crucial moment. I couldn't let my identity as a disciple of the Spirit Sword Sect slip, and I couldn't force him to leave with me either.

So I just changed the subject, leaning in close. "Then when will I be as strong as you?"

Silas tilted his head and nuzzled up against me.

"What do you want to do?"

"I want to get strong too, so I can protect you."

He gave a soft little laugh into the hollow of my shoulder, then turned his palm over and handed me a bead.

"With this, you'll be the strongest little fox in the whole Demon Realm."

To test whether he was telling the truth, I ran off to the sword tomb that very night.

And sure enough, my All Swords Return worked!

If that was the case, it was time to pack up and head back to the Spirit Sword Sect, and give everyone a huge surprise.

By the time I got back to the cave, the serpent spirit was already fast asleep.

I quietly left him a sackful of obsidian and a note, payment for all the food and lodging I'd mooched off him. It was enough to buy him plenty and plenty of meat pastries.

My senior brother was already waiting at the border of the Demon Realm to take me home.

Just as I was about to fly off on my sword, the hound demon came rushing over and clamped down on my skirt, refusing to let go, like it couldn't bear to see me leave.

I thought it over. A fierce, imposing guard dog at the sect gate would look pretty grand, actually.

So I grabbed a length of rope and brought it along too.

At dawn, the Demon Sword Sect was in an uproar.

The Sect Head came stumbling and scrambling up to the Demon Lord, gasping for breath.

"My lord, that fox from last time stole—"

Before he could finish, the Demon Lord's brow furrowed. "I told you to let her dig wherever she likes. I won't hear another word about her stealing."

"Whichever floor tile she pried up this time, just put it back."

"Or replace it with a ruby. She likes those shiny little things—"

The Sect Head's eyes went wide, and he waved his hands frantically.

"No, that's not it. That fox didn't just dig up every tile in the Demon Realm, she cleaned out the sword tomb too, and ran off in the night!"

"According to the other demons, they saw with their own eyes that she led the hound demon away, following a man in white out of the Demon Realm—"

The Demon Lord clenched his fists, his eyes gone blood-red as he demanded:

"You're telling me she came here to swindle my things and swindle me, and then walked off with some strange man?"

"And in the end she even took the dog, and wouldn't take me—"