10 Chapter 010: A Bit Stressed to Say the Least.

"Yum! This boar meat is too good!" Maou was kicking his feet in the air, rejoicing at how good the meat tasted. 

"Shelly, you have to eat some more. It's way too good." Maou kept forcing me to eat more food but I was already full from the CART WHEEL of a slab of meat he gave me at first.

"No, I'm already full. You can eat the rest." I gently push away the huge chunk of boar meat.

"If you say so. Your loss, my gain." Maou went back to tearing away at the remaining meat mercilessly.

I was now in another life or death situation. Just to emphasise the severity of what I meant, Maou is barely 120 centimetres tall and hardly 22 kilograms but killed a 200 kilogram wild boar and eating all its meat in one go.

Where is all that food going in that tiny body of his? Does he always eat this much food? If so, I can't feed him with the meagre funds I possessed. 

I might have to ditch him but that would be a terrible thing to do. He doesn't remember who he is and he saved me three times in one day. Feeding him is the least I can do but my miserly soul and pockets are mourning in advance. 

I can already feel the heartburn from having all my money spent on satisfying this child's endless hunger. 

"I don't think I can continue this journey." I fell flat on my back, lying in the grass. "I should have just stayed home. I wonder if I can go back without it being awkward?"

Maou was thrown for a loop when he heard me say that out loud, even dropping the meat in his hands. 

"Wait! What?! You can't go back home yet! What about our adventure? We barely started." Maou was teary-eyed and acting like a toddler who was told their plans of fun were cancelled.

"Please don't go back! I'm begging you!" Maou clutched unto my leg, crying and rubbing his greasy face and running nose on me.

"I'm tired of almost dying every step of the way. First, my friends were killed in front of me. Second, I was almost drowned by a pond monster. Third, because of my stupidity, I almost got killed by a mother boar for stealing her children. AND WHAT EVEN IS THAT SMELLY, DISGUSTING, POND MONSTER THING ANYWAY!!!?" I was obviously frustrated with what happened to me in just less than a day.

Maou quickly lifted his face off my leg with snot stretching from his nose to my leggings.

"I know what that pond monster is. It's actually a special form of Afanc. It prefers lakes or ponds to catch its prey using illusion and simple mind manipulation magic. That's why you saw your family. This special Afanc lures its prey out into the middle of the water and pulls its prey underwater before it realises what happens." 

"How do you know all this?" I questioned Maou surprised at his well-defined explanation.

"I don't know why I know this but additionally whenever male Afanc gets female prey they drag their dead drowned body underwater and use it as a stress reliever."

"Stress reliever? You don't actually mean what I think you mean, do you?" 

Maou struck me a thumbs up saying. "Precisely what you're thinking in your head."

If what Maou said was true then I would have been that Afanc's plaything for as long as my dead body stayed there. The very thought disgusted me to my core.

Maou went on to further elaborate, shugging his shoulders. "Weirdly enough, they don't even realise that they can't reproduce with a dead body and that's why they are almost extinct. How stupid are they anyway?" 

"That's it! I'm going back to the orphanage. I'll take the embarrassment over being an Afanc's plaything." I got up to my feet, brushing the dirt off my clothes and putting my travel bag on, ready to return home.

"Wait! Shelly! It's already dead. Please, you can't do this to me. What about my adventures?" Maou hugged onto my feet to slow me down.

"Adventures!? You're plenty strong enough to have your own adventures. I'm too weak for this." I kept walking, dragging Maou's body with me.

"Are you going to leave a small helpless child by himself? Are you that heartless?" Maou tried attacking me where it hurt the most.

I stopped moving, took a deep breath and looked at the sky.

"Shelly, you're staying for me! I knew you cared about me." Maou still held onto me with snot coming out his nose and teary eyes.

"Sike! You aren't catching me with that!" I started running with all my might.

Maou refused to let go of my leg, continuing to petition me to stay and cry. "What about your brother? Weren't you doing this for him? What if he needs you, his one and only sister? You can't ditch him like that and what about me?"

As much as I hated to admit it, Maou had a point. I wasn't doing this for me but my brother Kelly.

"Fine! You win, I'll stay and continue this adventure you want so much." This time I stopped running completely and without any ulterior motives.

"Are you sure?" Maou looked up at me with the cutest little sad, snot-filled face. 

"Yes, I'm sure." 

"You're not gonna run away as soon as I let go, are you?" Maou kept on holding onto me.

"I won't run, you can let go now. Plus, your face is filled with grease and snot. Please let go, that's nasty."

"Liar! You're gonna run." Maou held on even tighter.

I dropped my travel bag to the ground.

"Is this enough for you to trust me?" 

"Fine, but you better not run, okay?" Maou slowly released me.

"Come here, let me clean up your face." I pulled out a napkin to wipe away Maou's tears, greasy mouth and snot. "Blow your nose gently."

"Fnese! Fnese! Furp!" Maou blew his nose so hard he farted.

"If we're going to continue our adventure, we need to find shelter before nightfall." 

Maou nodded his head. "Okay! I'm just gonna finish eating this meat quickly and then we can go."

"Sure, make sure you have a full stomach." I patted Maou on the head then he ran off to finish his meal. 

Thinking to myself I said. "I can't afford your eating habits Maou, so you better be full after all that or I'm ditching you for real next time and I'm serious."

A few minutes later, Maou finished eating and we continued our journey along the lesser road.

"I'm stuffed to the brim!" Maou was patting his stuffed little belly.

"Oh really, that's good for you. Please stay that way for the next 24 hours, okay?" 

"24 hours?! That's ridiculous!"

Peering into Maou's eyes with all seriousness, masked with a sheepish smile, I said. "Oh, my dear sweet Maou darling. Can you please stay full for the next 24 hours?"

A chill went down Maou's spine.

"I will try my best."

"Good boy." 

In the distance, I saw the silhouette of a person walking. As we got closer, I saw that it was a small old woman struggling to carry some firewood in a basket on her back.

She fell to the ground spilling her firewood. I hurried over to help her.

"Ma'am, are you okay?" I asked helping her up. 

"Oh why thank you, young lady." She said in a trembling tone. Her skin was loose, long grey hair, long brown stained nails, short and meagre. 

"This sun has been unforgiving I tell you."

"I agree with you," I gathered all the firewood in my arms. "If it isn't far we can help you carry these to wherever you're going."

"Really!" She said happily. "I would appreciate that very much."

"I live just a few minutes into the forest, not too far in. So it shouldn't be a bother." She pointed to a trail leading into the forest very close by. She led the way and we followed. 

I felt pity for this old lady as she probably lived alone and had to carry this heavy load all the time by herself.

"Kind young lady, if I may ask, what is your name?" The old lady walked with a stick to help keep her balance. Every time the stick would hit the ground, it had a nice melody to it.

"Um, my name is Shelly Baker but please call me Shelly."

"Shelly! That's a beautiful name you have darling." The old lady glanced at Maou. "And what is your name, cute little one?"

"My name is Maou," Maou answered with a broad innocent smile.

Unexpectedly the old lady paused in her steps, staring at Maou with a bit of surprise on her face.

A bit worried about her sudden stop, I asked. "Is something wrong ma'am?" 

"Yeah! Why the sudden stop? Are you having a heart attack or something?" Maou was picking his nose and scratching head.

"Maou! Don't say that to her." I snapped at Maou. 

"Why not? I'm not wrong. I mean, she's as old as dust." Maou retorted at me with his pinky finger wiggling in his nostrils.

"That's an extremely rude and insensitive thing to say. How do you not understand such a simple thing?" 

Mother always taught us to be respectful to our elders, so hearing Maou's open disrespect vexed me.

"It's okay Shelly. I was just surprised at how weird of a name he had." The old lady intervened to dissolve the situation. 

"Plus, he isn't wrong. I'm just an old bag of bones way past her expiry date." She continued walking through the forest path.

I gave Maou a sharp look and whispered. 

"Not another word from you."

"Fine!" Maou rolled his eyes and placed his booger-infested pinky in his mouth.

"That's so gross," I mumbled to myself.