The Demon Lord's Summoning Has Gone Wrong

13 - Pain and Girolamo Have Drinks

Pain and The Hero sat down at the bar, and Pain set the sword next to his stool. The Hero's party joined the hero at the bar sitting so that he was the only one next to Pain.

"What will it be?" Onyx asked as she floated on her broom behind the bar.

"Let's start with some Ale, can't give them something too strong to start," Pain said after some thought.

"You fiend, you think a dwarf would be content with something light!" the dwarf yelled while banging the bar.

Pain was sure the dwarf said he wasn't going to drink, but he decided not to bring it up. Now that the battle at the castle was defused and that he had gotten the Hero to join him, he intended to handle this as diplomatically as possible. He really didn't want himself, or Charlotte, to have to fight in a serious battle.

"I thought the Dark Army Witch was one of the leading commanders and that she had a long nose and warty face," The Hero said after Onyx had flown away to pour drinks.

She suddenly was in front of him and banged large steins of ale onto the bar.

"Sir, you must be mistaking me for my mother," she said in a friendly tone but with a menacing face. She was, in fact, one of the four generals of the Dark Army. After her mother retired, she had taken up the position, but many in the Kingdom of Bright assumed that it was the same witch the whole time.

"Hey, don't bring that up. She's got good hearing, and it's a sensitive topic for her," Pain whispered to the Hero.

"Ah, Pain, don't be silly," Onyx said with a smile while sliding the ales down the counter to the hero's party. Each member received a stein and looked at the ale within it.

While they were looking at the glasses, Pain downed his whole drink. The Hero cautiously tried a sip of his.

"It's not bad; I would not have expected to have such good alcohol today," The Hero said.

Pain laughed and smacked the Hero on the back.

"Yeah, Onyx is the best brewer in all of Evuluss, maybe even all of the world!"

"Listen to you. I'm not that great!" Onyx said while pretending not to be flattered by his praise.

"It is delicious, but we have better in the dwarf kingdom!" the dwarf yelled after he chugged down the ale.

"If you say so, I guess I'll have to visit the dwarf kingdom and see for myself," Pain said with a shrug.

"You would not be able to enter the dwarf's kingdom," The Hero said suddenly as he banged his stein down on the bar. "You are still a villain that has to be defeated."

"Do you want to keep fighting?" Pain asked as Onyx handed him another drink.

"I must keep fighting until evil has been eradicated from this world," The Hero said as he drank another sip of the ale.

"Well, you saw that Charlotte and I held this mighty holy sword. Doesn't that make us seem less evil?"

"You are human, so that the sword may not have worked so well..."

"But Charlottes the Demon Lord, with horns and wings and whatnot, how do you explain her holding the sword.

The Hero chugged his ale and slapped the empty stein on the table.

"This war has gone on for a hundred years; it cannot be stopped just because the current Demon Lord doesn't seem that evil." The Hero signaled Onyx for another drink. At this point, the elf and the expository wizard had fallen asleep from their first drink. The dwarf was on his third.