D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

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Being more mindful, it turned out, was actually rather hard. It also involved a lot more sitting in the background listening then she’d experienced in a long time. Sue had tried to properly join into a few conversations but it was always stilted and questionably received. After finding the first few groups too hard to follow and impossible to properly integrate herself with, Sue moved off to other groups and hovered around the edge, picking up what details she could.

It was… something, but it wasn’t really the sort of thing Sue wanted to know. Most of the groups stuck to light topics of no real consequence. They weren’t talking about business deals, hot button topics, or having fun quipping at each other. Instead it was just… a superficial routine to her eyes. They’d talk about what they’d done during the week, or month, clearly leaving out any of the interesting bits or secrets that they didn’t want to share… and then the next person would take their turn.

Sometimes, and Sue would impress on any who asked that it was VERY rare that there was an interruption of any kind. Honestly, Sue felt like she was watching a bunch of actors in an amateur play, all taking turns to say the correct lines before letting someone else talk. Sue went around to a few groups before concluding they were all more or less the same. Unless she wanted to go over to the cultivators… but they were just bragging about fights they’d been in.

They weren’t even being original about it. Sue was certain she heard the same story at least three times in her brief visit to the edge of the cultivator crowd. It was a little suspicious because while the same person had repeated the story twice in her hearing… it was also told by a second, completely different person before Sue dipped out of that mess. She did not want to spend the night talking about fighting techniques.

Though, she would admit that the cultivators were at least more active in conversations. They’d offer advice, criticism, mockery, basically everything and more as someone retold the story. In fact, it seemed many cultivators had the most fun by extolling just how much better they personally could have done in the fight. Which… was a thing. The fact that the story tellers seemed happy with that sort of interaction, even if they defended their own position, implied this was normal things.

Still, Sue wasn’t exactly liking this less confrontational style of socialising from all across the ballroom. She didn’t know enough about fighting to join the critique… bragging thing that was going on over there and the non-cultivators were even WORSE. It was one thing to lose a verbal argument and run away in a huff, but it was a another thing entirely to walk away from boredom alone.

*Urgh. I can’t believe how… empty headed these people all seem to be. Would it kill them to have an opinion?* Sue then remembered that they were surrounded by cultivators that liked to challenge anything remotely threatening and not too scary. *Ok maybe it would kill them. Though… that might be a bit of an exaggeration? Then again… surely there’s at least one idiot right? Though… she-who-should-not-be-named from earlier isn’t around anymore. Can’t hear her endless supply of jewels clacking together either. Then again…

.....

Was she even real? Tess was obviously a cultivator but I don’t know about Mureale. She seemed too stupid to not constantly be bullied. Though now I’m wondering if she was even a real person. I’d love to say no… but I’m not certain that anyone would bother going to that much trouble just to mess with me. I’m not important, and anyone who knows anything about demons know how rare it is for us to be resummoned without a beacon.

I’d suspect Bodeir was the target but it’s not like he was firmly with the other cultivators. Mureale approached me right by the door. So if she wanted to do something with him she could’ve. Or if whoever put her up to it, assuming they exist, wanted to mess with Bodeir there have to be better and less expensive ways of dealing with it. I wish I could sense cultivation. Perhaps that would answer some of my questions.

I just find that I don’t really know what to do here. I feel like I should be picking a fight but honestly… is it just that cultivators all have shit taste in women? I want to say ‘Boobs big and heavy, head empty in light’ but nobody here has larger tits then me so I can’t even say that’s where all the nutrients in their bodies went. Honestly, half of the girls here are a disgrace. The other half are cultivators.

Actually, that’s another thing. Where are the men? I don’t think I’ve seen a single male civilian guest. It’s all women, and cultivators. Not that there aren’t female cultivators… but everyone who isn’t a cultivator is either a woman, or part of the staff… and a lot of the staff have to be cultivators. I may not be able to tell much, but when I see a waiter barely stumble on a cultivators leg when they were ‘accidentally’ tripped it makes it clear that something is up.

Is it just that most female cultivators prefer male cultivators as lovers? What’s the split anyway? It looks like… maybe 60/40 at worst? Grrrrh. I don’t understand this culture. Not sure I want to either.*

Sue’s thoughts were interrupted when she noticed Bodeir and the rest of his group were heading for the courtyard. Quickly moving across the floor, Sue grabbed a drink from one o the nearby waiters and made her way over to Bodeir. He wasn’t quite at the edge of the crowd but it was no issue to slide up next to him and hand over a drink. If someone had ‘mistakenly’ grabbed her ass as she did so? Well, that wasn’t a problem with Sue.

Bodeir took the glass without really thinking about it, and Sue almost wanted to slap it out of his hands just on principle. Still, keeping him alive was Kat’s job, not hers. “Bodeir, what’s going on here?”

Sue had noticed that Bodeir, while in the discussion groups rarely voiced anything. He was actually doing pretty well acting like the aloof cultivator, even amongst his fellow cultivators. That mask cracked a fair bit when he looked over at Sue with a large dose of confusion in his eyes, “It seems that there is to be a duel before our meal. As to what it’s about well…” Bodeir paused and looked around at fact he was in a large group, “I wouldn’t want to mischaracterise any of my fellow cultivators by speaking for them,”

*Which of course means that you have no idea either.*

“Right of course. I wouldn’t want to force you to speak for someone who’s so close by. I’m sure they can talk about there reasons if they want. I mean, who would fight for no good reason?” said Sue clear, missing exactly none of the winces going throughout the crowd. Bodeir clearly wasn’t the only one who was simply interested in the fight.

Once they were outside it was easy to find a spot in the gardens that was clearly marked out for fights. It was a large ice slab that had been aggravated to provide decent grip. It might not have been the best place to fight… but considering there was a small stand full of seating nearby, it was clear that the duo was going to be cajoled into fighting here if they didn’t just accept it.

Sue didn’t actually pay much attention once the fight itself started. Nobody was using weapons, and one guy even handed off their sword before the whole thing started so that was clearly intentional. Sue found the whole thing somewhat dull in truth. Oh sure, she was happy to see too men beat the shit out of each other as much as the next girl… but there was nothing on display that caught her interest.

Mostly because there was no live weapons being used. See, without a sword, how could their outfits be, cut, ripped or torn properly. It was just basic fabric with no proper defensive capabilities. The duo in the arena were just punching each other. All in all, it was a ‘clean’ fight that didn’t show off any nice muscle anywhere. Sue felt herself zoning out and used it as an opportunity to rest on Bodeir. He was already paying more attention to her then the fight. Even if he was trying to pretend otherwise.

That was when a bit of the ice cracked. Not a surprise, it’d happened a few times during the fight and Sue was sure the hosts would be able to fix it up. This time though, it was a moderately sized piece, and the fighter that broke it off hurled it like a javelin at his foe… who dodged it letting it sail right towards the stand. Sue had a moment of ‘should I catch this?’ Before Bodeir simply grabbed the ice spike from the air and casually tossed it off to the side.

*Huh.*