The mimic was actually not a monster, but a demon? How come? How did Aquarina notice?
"How could you tell?" I asked.
"I-It's a feeling…" she replied.
After her words, I quickly remembered that Aquarina had this special sixth sense-like ability innate to her. Ever since she was born, she was able to see through the intentions of people and things. Perhaps due to this she's able to tell that this wasn't a simple monster?
"You're a demon?!" Zack asked at the worm-like creature in front of us.
"Guuhhh…! I was waiting to wake up after the next Demon King's awakening, yet you come and wake me up?! Can't you just be a good dinner and die for me, kids? The last idiot that got here was pretty tasty… but that has been years ago. I am starving!" said the demon in response.
"Wait! Can't we get along? I think I can offer you some food," I hastily said soon after.
"Huh?! Get along? With you humans?!" it asked in response.
"I can give you food, look!" I replied, opening my inventory pouch before taking out the corpse of a panther.
"See? If you're hungry, you can eat this. You don't have to eat us… in fact, there's no need for violence… I'm very sorry for burning your tongue… I can heal you and make up for it with more food or even shelter!" I continued.
"You're a weird kid… why aren't you running away? Are you not scared of my appearance? I'm a giant and terrifying worm, no?!" the demon asked as it looked down at us, his tentacles slowly extending.
"Because you can talk and understand us. In short, you're an intelligent being. We fight monsters because they don't understand us. They can't stop and simply have a conversation with us like what you're doing now. Therefore, this already makes you different, it makes you a person," I said in response.
"Sylph…" Aquarina muttered.
"Y-You're serious?" Zack could not help but say.
The demon looked at me with its various eyes in complete silence.
"Gahah… gyahahahahaha! GYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
And then, it began to laugh maniacally.
Would it try to kill us either way?
"Why are you laughing? Anyways, why are you even here?" I asked.
"…I'm laughing because you're an amusing little girl! Plus, I've been here for years now, I was exiled from the ancient demon army and escaped into this dungeon. I've been hibernating for very long… I am very hungry! Are you really okay with speaking to someone that has already taken the lives of many humans?" the demon told me.
"What's your name?" I asked in response.
"…my name? My name is Furoh. What's your name, foolish little girl?" it replied, asking a question of its own soon after.
"Name's Sylphy! If you want to, I can heal your burnt tongue… but I don't think I can bring it back," I told him.
"What's the point of this? Are you trying to buy time by speaking to me? Are your parents coming to save you?" the demon asked after that.
"Eh? No, I'm perfectly okay by my own. In fact, I'm fairly confident I can beat you. I could use the same flames," I answered.
"Geh… you're a bold little bastard. I've never tasted the tender little flesh of children before… I wonder how tasty it is…" he muttered.
"Is that a provocation? I told you I don't want to fight. Let's become friends instead. I cannot simply deem every demon I see as inherently evil, that's wrong. If I ultimately want you guys to ally with me, I can't just go around killing each demon I see, right? If you were a monster, then it might be a different thing altogether but…" I said.
"Ally… demons?!" Furoh exclaimed.
Aquarina and Zack looked at me after that. Well, Aquarina had agreed with me back then, but Zack raised an eyebrow. Then again, I could notice that Aquarina didn't like the idea of becoming friends with a murderous demon.
But how could one expect demons to not have murdered a human or two when they were at war with us? The same can be said of humans having slain demons. And it's not like I'm not an assassin or something right now. It was only in my previous life did I kill many people.
"Wait, Sylphy! Didn't we agree to do this when we grew up?!" Aquarina could not help but ask.
"And then what? You want to kill this person just because we aren't old enough to become his ally?" I countered.
"Sylphy, I think your thoughts are very noble, but he just told us that he's waiting for the Demon King to be reborn! He's clearly in the faction of the demons that want to kill us all!" said Zack.
"Is that really so, Furoh? If you become my ally, will you keep killing humans that hadn't done anything wrong to you?" I asked.
"…Well, the last human I killed was this cranky guy… and I was very hungry," replied Furoh.
Suddenly, Furoh began to talk more casually than before.
"A-are you really okay with my appearance? Don't I look ugly? E-even the demons said I was horrid… I was born as a shapeshifting flesh demon… I hid inside this treasure chest to pretend I'm a mimic and hunt monsters. Then, the dungeon automatically enclosed me here and I've been hibernating because I was starving… ugh… fine, I'll drop the act… t-thank you," he said.
Out of nowhere, he changed his personality and showed us his real self.
Then, he slowly picked up the corpse of a panther I left… and he began to gently munch it across his many jaws.
"Hmm… it's so tasty… it's so fresh… t-thanks…" he thanked me soon after.
"H-He really is nice, see?!"
Naturally, Aquarina and Zack were left a bit surprised.
Furoh even began to talk with a gentler voice as well, sounding more like a child to me. A child who had been forced to act monstrously by his own army.
"So, if I'm getting this right, you ended up here because you escaped the demon army?" I asked.
"Indeed. I escaped them because they bullied me… I couldn't really make any friends, and they always called me an abomination," he lamented.