Well this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I wished to be reincarnated. I was thinking more treasure troves, slaying gigantic beast, bouncy beauties, ehem their personality. Bubbly yeah, that’s what I meant. And while I was aware of those heroes or adventurers with a weird predilection for young ladies who frankly could be mistaken for a ten year old but ironically happened to be as old as I was as a demon.

The very idea of being compared to someone like that turned my stomach. Clearly there was a lot to be said about someone like that and yet here I was in this very strange situation.

I guess what I was trying to say was somehow I Mao, a demon lord, former demon lord was tailing a seven year old boy. There were two things that rubbed me the wrong way about this aside from the obvious.

First this kid was soooo boring he kicked rocks, sat by the well, watched birds. The second had to do with the actually act of tailing Mir. With the layout of Rockfell I had to get creative hiding besides trees with Chuu pretending to be a piece of fruit. Or by the corner of a building with Chuu pretending to be a mugger. Hiding in a barrel, which was Chuu suggestion.

The only way to get Chuu to go along with this and not alert Mir was to give him a little too much free rein when it come to how I was tailing Mir in this game. Right but that’s not the frustrating part. While I was following Mir, several adults saw this and did nothing. Some of them gave me strange looks but most of them gave me a wide birth paying me no mind.

While I didn’t completely understand human customs. No one. And I mean no one thought what I was doing warranted any explanation. Either they were too trusting or this was the most benign thing that they’ve ever seen.

I honestly couldn’t say which was better.

“Mao look, chuu. Mir has more friends than you do.”

“Yeah. And more friends than you.”

Chuu began pulling the side of my cheek while blathering on about how what I said was uncalled for.

There were three boys that looked to be a few years older than Mir putting them around ten or eleven. The trio gathered around Mir, which caused an uneasy expression to work its way across his face.

“Oh look, it’s the little lost boy. How’d you find your way home without your daddy?” The oldest of the three boys, and probably the leader of the trio said the words in a loud mocking manner.

“We missed you all day. How selfish of you to leave without saying goodbye.” The shortest of the trio brushed passed Mir’s shoulder as he circled around him.

Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. The third boy just clicked his tongue in an unnerving manner. The boys continued picking on Mir when it looked like I was going to do something Chuu pulled my cheek harder than before.

“Wait. If Mir runs away again and you find him. Do you know what that means Mao? We can eat some yummy stew.”

That probably wouldn’t happen a second time, although it did look like Mir was going to run away. I had assumed he was going to use magic or something but instead he just walked silently along with the trio of boys pushing and mocking him as they circled around him.

“Loser. You have no friends.”

“Peasant. You’re so poor.”

“Aw poor baby. No daddy to go run and cry to anymore.”

Mir picked up his pace with tears welling in his eyes, his fist clenched. The trio stopped to laugh at him.

“Mao, Mir’s getting away. Huh what’s that over there, chuu?”

Ignoring Chuu I looked around to make sure no one was around before grinning widely.

“Okay furball demon lord lesson number one. Pay close attention now.”

Chuu seemed confused as I walked over to the trio of children, I stood right by them for a moment saying nothing as they continued to mock Mir. It took them a moment for them to realize that I was there. The first to notice me was the silent one, he jumped back seemingly startled.

“Who are you?” The short one barked.

“Oh, you’re the old guy who found Mir. Why couldn’t you just feed him to some wild wolves or something.”

Old guy? If I wasn’t mistaken I was seventeen in human years, that’s not old, do these kids not…

“Are you here to tell us not to pick on little Mir. Are you trynna be his new dad. Hahaha careful you might end up like some of the mine workers.”

Mine workers, what’s this kid getting at? On a different note why would he assume I’m trying to be Mir’s dad. He’s mom was kind of plain for my liking.

For a moment my mind drifted to a woman with two horns in an exotic dancers’ outfit. Oh demon lord, care to join me for a dance?

“Eeww, he’s drooling this guy some kind of perv.”

Before causing a scene, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

“Buzz off pervert. Or else we’ll go find Mir and beat him up. You won’t be able to impress his mom if she finds out that her little boy got beat up cause of you.”

With a yawn I squatted in front of the leader looking at him with my eyes still tired from sleep.

“You go right ahead and beat Mir up. I don’t care one bit. Believe me I get it. It’s a food chain thing. Mir is at the bottom and you and your underlings are a rung above. I respect it. Truly.”

The leader of the trio looked at his friends a little confused by what I was saying.

“So, you’re not here to stop us from picking on Mir. Hey! Wha…what’s with that smile it’s…it’s so evil.”

Flattering.

“You see it warms my heart to see someone so young putting in the effort to establish themselves as a strong force in this world. But you, and Chuu this is the part you should really listen to. When it comes to food chains…well. I happen to be…”

I brought my left hand near the side of the boy’s face flames rose from my palm for just a few seconds. The expression on my face darkened.

“AT THE VERY TOP!!! Muahahaha.”

“You…you can’t scare me. You can’t hurt me I’m a kid…”

Chuu looked at me wondering if I had an answer to that. I simply glanced at Chuu then at the boy then back at Chuu and then at the boy. My head titled to the side confused.

“Who the hell told you that?! Didn’t you just hear me?!”

I could see that the boy was trying to back away so I grabbed him by the shoulder holding him in place.

“You can pick on me Mir because he’s weaker than you. And you’re weaker than me. So, there’s no problem, right? I can pick on all three of you hahahaa.”

The little boy shook his head, tears started to form in his eyes. “No…stop. You can’t, that’s not how this works. You’re an adult.”

“Muahahaa! And your point? If you’re gonna cry, do it louder. I can’t hear you when you blubber so quietly. Yes. Like that. Hahaha.”

The boy’s head kept shaking as more and more tears started streaming down his face. Another flame rose from my palm, the boy squirmed knocking my hand from his shoulder.

“MOOOOOMMMYY!!!!”

The trio of children ran in tears. Chuu bobbed in the air staring at me.

“Does Mao realize as soon as they get to an adult Mao’s in trouble right, chuu?”

Did Chuu really need to ruin such a happy moment? No. It was completely unnecessary for him to point out that fact. Well at least I had some fun.

“Hehehehe. You did a bad thing.”

The smile on my face went flat. Shit. I didn’t think there was anybody around. Maybe if I don’t look they’ll go away. The sound of footsteps approaching me put a damper on that idea.

“Mao, can we go something scary is approaching, chuu. Mao? Mao?”

Chuu was behaving oddly he was shaking and actually sounded afraid. The footsteps kept approaching me.

“Mao, Hehehe. Do you wanna be my friend? Please say yes or….”

The person who spoke sounded like a little girl. Why in the world was Chuu shaking so much? The little girl brought her face to my side.

“Something bad might happen to you?”

Say what?

The first thing I noticed about the little girl aside from her purple drill like twin tails was her glowing purple eyes.