"I-I think you're being a bit too over the top, Lady Faylen, there's no need to go this far…" Said Mary. My mother quickly realized she had said something that would be considered ridiculous, after all they were thought to be normal people, strong adventurers but still normal people, even S-Rank Adventurers are citizens and need to respect the law and other things, or they will be treated as criminals and chased down by the elite of the nations, I would assume.
"I can relate to how you feel though." Said Celeste while sitting near Mary. "I've always felt damned town is filled with rotten people, even after the war… Although these alleys are filled with criminals, the higher ups such as nobles are no different, leisurely buying and selling slaves as if it were a game, disgusting… I hate all of this; I also want a change."
"B-But it is not possible, that's too much. There are things that we can do and others that we can't… G-Getting into trouble won't get you anywhere, Celeste… T-This is for Lady Faylen and the rest as well… S-So please, don't get in trouble…" My mother and everyone else realized that telling Mary and Lucia about what they truly wanted to do would be too much, so they nodded and apologized, refraining from talking about this. I guess nobody is perfect, they were too excited about making these people happy and bringing them justice, but they had disregarded common sense quite a lot.
"Calm down for now, Faylen, this is not the time to talk about these things. We want to learn more about their history and get some clues, don't let your emotions get the better of you." My father whispered to my mother's long ears, as she understood and nodded slowly.
"Sorry, I got myself carried away…" My mother apologized. "Could it be possible to resume where you left out?"
"S-Sure… But it is not… something pretty…" Said Mary. "When I was captured and tortured to get any information from me, I met Lucia as well. M-My disgraceful tribe… the Red Oni always had a rivalry against the Lamias, the area where we lived overlapped with their swamp, so we were rivals all our lives… Lucia has been my friend since we were children, although we often fought more than anything… In the war, we fought together, but we were simply too weak. The Demon King's strategy was flawed, he simply wanted to flood the humans with numbers, completely disregarding terrain knowledge, and how prepared were humans. The concept of adventurers, mercenaries, and other organizations was foreign to us. We were only told we were fighting an army, not multiple smaller armies, and groups composed of incredibly strong people that were able to take dozens of us down in a single battle…"
"The humans scattered us across their land and quickly picked us all… I ran away and ended losing myself in the woods and was ultimately captured… If it wasn't for my brother and a few other brave ones that stayed fighting in the frontlines, while telling us, the younger ones, to run away, we would be dead as well…" Sighed Mary. "Although the war was horrendous, both of our factions took a lot of one another's lives… I also am guilty of having taken down many human soldiers while fighting… It was war after all. I feel like what humans did was partially because it was the right thing to do in their perspective, I know the Demon King is dead now, he was slain by humanity's heroes. But… I still feel a bit of… r-resentment for what he did to us…"
"The Demon King…" My father sighed. His eyes seemed to be recalling the past. I wanted to know what he was thinking about, I really wanted to know how the Demon King even looked like, but they had never truly spoken to me about this. In fact, my parents hold way too many secrets they had not even told me about.
I really… I wish I could know more, but if I ask, I might end up being reprimanded, it is quite clear they don't want to tell me about the war anymore. They don't want to recall these things, perhaps… Or maybe they fear I would hate them for what they did? I've already known long ago they probably committed many mistakes; I still love them. But I guess it is not so easy.
"After the first few months of captivity and torture, where I endured the agony of hell… I was brought somewhere else where I was healed by someone, and then given some clothes. I worked as a servant of a small noble family for a long while, but my clumsiness got in the way many times, and the noble lady always bullied me… At the end, I was sold off as a slave, but due to my scars and my ugliness… Nobody wanted to buy me. Many times I felt despair, to be treated as an object, I had long ago lost all the pride I once held as a warrior of the Red Oni Tribe… I was stripped from all honor, I was a mere shell of what I once was…" Mary said in between tears, as she calmed down for a bit. "Lucia was in the same position as me, and several other demons, males and females, of various tribes. All of the survivors… Lucia had it worse though…"
Mary held Lucia's hand tightly, as Lucia rested her head over her shoulder, it seemed as if they were incredibly close with one another, giving one another comfort and warmth perhaps for all these years they had lived in this place.
"Lucia was different than me, perhaps… She fought more, she had always been talkative and loved to insult others… T-That was… why her tongue was cut off. Tongues are the pride of lamias, they decorate them alongside the tip of their tails..." Sighed Mary. "Lucia had endured everything… She's very strong."
Lucia had yet to cry through this conversation, but she seemed very saddened, her beautiful eyes were filled with grief and sorrow.