While Symone is still talking with Ywain and the mysterious person about the adventure he'll have in the future, some scolds are heard from inside the royal castle. Of course none of the three of them can hear it since the castle is at the opposite of where they are right now. The royal castle is in fact just beside the sea, at the very West of the city. Not really secure in case someone would attack them from the sea but it has been a really long time since someone tried to directly attack the castle. Long story short, the last attack was about 80 years ago even though some smaller attacks happened in the past few years.

The scolding sounds from inside the castle are in fact coming from the king's office. The castle is spacious so the king’s office must be as well, it is also why the scolds are resonating on the cold white marble walls of this room. An elder white haired elf, who seems to be the king thanks to his expensive looking crown, is yelling at a guard who is standing right in front of the desk :

-"All the guards have been looking for it for 10 years. And you still found nothing ?! Is that a joke ?" But before the guard in front of the king can talk, the most important one among the whole kingdom keeps yelling :"Haven't you all been threatened enough ? Let me remind you that this bastard is really dangerous."

The guard standing in front of the office’s tall door waits for the king to finish scolding him, his head lowered. After a few seconds of silence, the guard decides to speak even if he is not allowed right now :

-"Your majesty... I have in fact some good news for you. A citizen reported that they saw someone looking like a demon earlier today. We'll investigate that as soon as we can."

The king is in fact 'actively' looking for a demon that has been intruding on the kingdom for the past 10 years, it is in fact the guards who are in charge of searching for and finding this evil creature. It is said that this demon already killed dozens of people in the capital but not a single body has been found to prove it, so the demon may have consumed the entire body or what is said may be wrong too.

-"How dare you speak without MY authorization ? Anyways, where did this citizen see it ?" The king starts to scold the guard but calms a bit down on the second question he asks, while leading a glass of expensive red wine to his pale lips.

-"It was seen near an inn but we are not 100 percent sure that it is it. So we need a bit more time to investigate."

The king sighs, it is obviously not what he wants to hear coming from this high placed guard. The one in front of him is in fact directing the royal army and is the chief of the guards as well, so he is really important among the capital and even among the entire kingdom as well but not as important as the king is, no one is more important than a king. The old white haired elf speaks one last time :

-"Just find it as fast as you can. The faster, the better... for your life."

After the king threatens him once more, he orders the guard to go away and to start investigating where the demon looking person has been seen. So the guard opens the huge wooden door to get away from the king's office, and a long and spacious corridor is now in front of him. He walks a pretty long time before finally getting out of the castle. Outside, the night is almost there, the summer sunset on the sea is really beautiful, bright red and pink colours reflecting on the water. The nicely and heavily armoured one walks to a building not that far from the castle, it is in fact still in one of the castle's inner courts.

After walking for a few dozen metres. The guard enters the building, it is clearly smaller than the castle itself, the inside of it is also way warmer than in the castle. It is in fact a simple room made of wood and rocks. It shows a contrast between the richness of the king and what he gives to the ones protecting him. The guard walks for a few steps in the building before someone calls for him, it is another guard, this one seems a bit less important because of a different and a bit cheaper armour he is wearing. But this one still seems important.

-"So Piere, what have you decided to do for now ?”

-"That king bastard wants us to look for the demon right now." So the higher graded guard named Piere directly walks to a chair and a table full of food, freshly made by another guard. They in fact have no personal cooker, so they have to do everything by themselves. It shows one more time that the king doesn’t really care about the ones protecting him.

-"Why are you talking about him like that ? He's the king, respect him !"

Piere sighs before taking a bite on a piece of bread, then he talks :

-"...You liking him seems more obvious day by day, you should try to control yourself. He is capable of hurting or even killing you for that."

The other guard doesn't understand, or at least he fakes it, so he frowns his eyebrows, walks a bit closer to sit at the same table as Piere and asks :

-"What are you even talking about ?"

-"You look at and talk to him in a way only people in love do. It is obvious, anyone can tell." Piere is in fact really good at guessing people's feelings, good or bad. Then he adds, in a softer voice so no one other than both of them :“By the way, you look at him the same way you used to look at me.”

-"Does it never happen to you when you see someone hot ?" He takes a knife to cut a piece of meat, trying to calm himself down after hearing the insults the other guard said toward the most important person of the kingdom, he also completely ignores the last part of what Piere just said.

Piere is kind of surprised by the other guard's opinion on the king, he almost chokes on the bread he is eating, so he gives his own opinion as well, he chuckles :

-"What ? So you think he is hot ? He is just an old grumpy and mean guy."

The other guard stares at his own plate, getting angry, then he suddenly jumps on Piere, with the same knife that has been used to cut the meat. He puts the weapon on Piere's throat :

-"How dare you speak about him this way ?! Do you want to die ?"

The guard presses the knife even more but Piere's thick and strong skin protects him against this armless attack. Piere ends up holding the knife and tries to put it away, calmly while softly talking :

-"Hey, calm down Cleyton, we'll start looking for the demon tomorrow. Who knows, if we find him, the king might like you better."

The other guard, named Cleyton, thinks for a bit before letting the knife down and going back on his chair to finish his dinner, he indeed wants the one he secretly likes to like him back.

***

On the next day, Ywain, Symone and the other one are getting ready to leave the capital, they are all still close to the inn, this time outside of it. The faun is making sure no one stole anything from the carriage. But Ywain notices that something pretty expensive disappeared from it, so he politely ask the green elf :

-"Symone, can you go look around the inn please ? Something is missing."

At this exact moment, the guards Piere and Cleyton are getting closer to the inn the three adventurers are, it is indeed the inn where the demon has been seen by a citizen.

The one all covered in black pieces of cloth instantly notices the two guards, so they decide to go look around the building with Symone. It seems like they don't really like the authorities. Symone and the mysterious one are now both walking around the inn, looking on the floor and behind some random stuff thrown away by the inn's owners. Symone quickly notices the other one following him, so he wonders :

-"Why are you following me ? Ywain asked me to go check, you don't have to come."

-"Aren't the authorities looking for you ?" The one covered in black clothes asks this out of the blue. How could they know that ?! This news has been secretly circulating in the city for not even a day.

-"What ? I don't know." The half-elf is confused by what the other one just told him.

-"People said a green guy disappeared from his home, so authorities are after him. I guess it is about you."

Symone is too surprised about this news to talk or even react, so the both of them just keep on looking around to find the missing trinket, hoping it is around the inn but there is only a really low chance that the stealer lost it there. After a few more seconds looking around, they find nothing, as expected. So they just go back to the carriage, in silence.

While the two of them were around the inn, more precisely behind it, the two guards went inside of the building. So the two armoured ones are taking a look inside the inn, no one in it reacts, as if it is completely normal for some guards to come and take a rest around a delicious dish and an alcoholic beverage. Cleyton is attentively yet discreetly looking at every one of the customers, in hope of seeing that demon they have been looking for a decade now but he sees no one looking demonic. He keeps slowly walking. The other one, Piere, directly went to the innkeeper who is standing behind a wooden bar, the guard talks pretty discreetly :

-"Excuse me. Have you seen someone looking erm... different these days ?"

-"What do you mean ? It is an inn, I see a lot of different people every day. Even though the king only tolerates elves in this city, I welcome everyone !"

The room is a bit loud so they have to talk a bit louder but Piere mimics to lower the volume down, then he talks again, directly asking about the one he is looking for :

-"I mean, have you recently seen a demon in here or around ?"

The innkeeper stops for a while, then their eyes quickly go to the right, stopping on a wooden furniture full of trinkets and books. It feels like this person actually SAW a demon in here but it also feels like they want to protect that demon. After that, the innkeeper quickly answers the question that was asked to them :

-“I’m sorry. No demons came in here.” Then they take a few steps beside, to go to another customer.

Piere slightly sighs knowing the person in front of him just lied to him. He turns around to face the wooden furniture the innkeeper was looking at earlier, he walks to it and attentively observes it while Cleyton is still looking around the room, he even goes up to politely check the customer's rooms, really determined to find the demon.

Arriving at the shelves, Piere takes a closer look at the things on the old wooden furniture, he sees different trinkets then his eyes meet some books, he carefully looks at them. He reads on most of them that the title contains the word "demon", so he thinks it might be interesting to take them but he won't show it or tell it to the king for now. He wants to inquire a bit because he knows only books won't be enough for the king.