“I can’t feel a drop of mana from your body and in my eyes you look like a cripple, yet no more than an hour after that woman brought you here The Dreamer told me you are dangerous.” Marcos said.

  Those words sounded like a joke to Valthar but the old man was dead serious.

  “You mean to say the demon thinks I’m a demon?” Valthar asked, too baffled to believe what his ears had just heard.

  “The Dreamer doesn’t know what you are, but he was sure you ain't human.” Marcos stared deeply, as if trying to see inside Valthar's clothes.

  “That creature is wrong.” Valthar scoffed, not taking even a second before he dismissed such an absurd idea. “I know I never told you which family I was from but trust me, they would know if I wasn’t a human.”

  “Would they tell you that you aren’t a human? Nobles' schemes can run very deep.” Marcos questioned.

  Valthar rolled his eyes.

  “I walk like a human, I sound like a human, I lived almost two decades as a human. I’m a human alright.”

  “Could a human feel the hidden killing intent of a veteran adventurer? Or save a woman from the brink of death? All without functional mana veins.” Marcos raised an eyebrow.

  “The demon told you about what happened in the forest?” Valthar's eyes widened.

  “Yup, together with a description of how the place looked after you finished and a strict warning not to offend you.”

  “How close are you with this fucking demon?” Valthar frowned, demons were not known to protect worshipers from danger.

  That this one did so wasn't a sign of good intentions, but of higher than average intelligence.

  “Don’t dodge the question Valthar, you admit you aren’t a human right?” The head strong Marcos shot a proud grin as if he caught Valthar on the jump.

  Valthar denied the nonsense yet Marcos didn't back down, so for a while the two kept arguing about it.

  Valthar brought up the Church purification, that if he had been a demon the Church would have caught him.

  Old Marcos argued he was a special kind of demon so that didn’t count.

  Valthar pointed out that such an argument was baseless.

  Marcos shook his head and brought things back to Valthar’s use of magic even when he should be a cripple.

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  Valthar tried to explain how that was simply a unique non-elemental affinity being used, which made him a black mage instead of a demon.

  “Without mana? Special demonic powers.” Marcos shrugged and shot back an impish grin.

  By this point it was obvious the old man would never back down.

  And even if he was convinced that Valthar might not be a demon, he would refuse to admit it till the end.

  “You know what? Think whatever, just don't spread this bullshit around!” Valthar banged his cup on the table and turned his face away, sulking. “Now is your time to answer, what is your relationship with that demon?”

  “I thought you didn't care about my relationship with him?” Marcos’ quipped with a smug little smile.

  “That was before I knew this demon likes to whisper nonsense in your ear.” Valthar scoffed before a sudden insight hit gin. “Actually, was it you that discovered my skills and told it?”

  “No.” Marcos shook his head. “I only got to know after that Amara girl brought you here.”

  “So It didn't tell you about it?” Valthar prodded further.

  Till now he had done his utmost to keep his life sense control a secret, that a demon had discovered it in less than a month left Valthar worried.

  “I really don't know… but I can contact him if you want.” Marcos offered, once more taking Valthar by surprise.

  For a moment he hesitated but ultimately declined the offer, since while he was curious Valthar felt it too dangerous to contact the demon.

  “Any clues you could think of?”

  “Remember that night you came to celebrate? I think I got possessed that day… oh and I remember The Dreamer asking something about life energy a few hours before you walked down.” Marcos said after pondering for a moment.

  ‘A few hours before I got down?’ Valthar suddenly got a flash of insight, that was the time he had formed his first energy ring.

  ‘Probably when the energy of other guests synced with mine, it must have noticed me then.’ Valthar clicked his tongue in self reproach.

  Almost a month perfectly hidden only to throw it away because of a poorly planned breakthrough.

  Even though there was no way for him to have known of such an event Valthar felt he should have guessed this possibility, but he hadn’t even considered getting caught because of it till now.

  With doubt solved Valthar went back to ask about Marcos and Dar’Sang’s connection.

  The answer he got however was both short and a bit worrying.

  “Adventurers risk their lives on the job, my son and his wife were excellent adventurers, but one bad day can end it all… Little Jack was only 3 at the time.” The old man recounted with a bitter voice.

  “Nothing was the same after that day, but we trudged on… until a couple years after Little Jack got sick.” Marcos looked down at his cup and frowned as if brought back to that time.

  “It was deadly and hard to cure, the healers of the guild couldn’t do it, so I sought the Church for help, but they had demons to fight, so I sought the nobles but they had lands to rule.” Silence stretched for a moment. “When The Dreamer’s offer came… I did what I needed to do.”

  Valthar sighed and locked eyes with the old man.

  “I respect your decision.” He said before filling another cup for the old man.

  For the rest of the bottle neither spoke a word, and after that they shifted away to lighter topics like how Amara was apparently in a room in Warmheart Inn or how a merchant caravan heading to the dark forest should soon pass through Emberheart city.