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

Chapter 1630 Feet on Table

--- Kat ---

A table had been laid out and Kamiko had delivered some food for everyone before leaving. Lily had let her know what was going on and dispersed the people waiting outside to lead everyone around. Things... hadn't quite worked out how it was intended and now it was time to talk about the repercussions of that.

Corela had been tempted to bring in someone to speak as a representative of the 'kids' but... Ben would probably insist and it was decided it was best to simply not bother.

Kamiko did heal up the head wound on Grepnar before she left though, which was another nice thing the succubus had done. Kat wished Lily was here with her for the conversation, but a quick mental smack at that thought revealed even if Lily wasn't physically present she was certainly paying attention over the link.

Stensil was still asleep and nobody had made a move to wake her. Grepnar was also... 'asleep' though with the recent bit of healing nobody was quite sure how long that would last for. Trumbor, the guy who'd 'woken up' asleep had been slapped awake though. Meg was in charge of that and nobody commented on the smile she wore while doing so.

He was now awake... but had his head resting on the table, still half asleep.

This meant there was Amalak 'vomit man' the aforementioned Trumbor, alongside Slate who was now sitting up... and looking somewhat intimidated. She was from a more recent generous and felt out of her depth, especially because she recognised Corela still. Oh and there was Craunch of course.

He'd put his feet up on the table angled towards Meg... who responded by doing the same and now they were poking at each other with their toes. It would be funny if they weren't doing it right next to the food. Though that may have been part of the point.

Corela didn't look too interested in interrupting. Kat wasn't sure if that was due to the fact that the last interaction she'd had with Meg was getting slapped... or if it was because she was happy to use the distraction as a way to buy time to work out what to say. It's not like Kat knew how to begin whatever this meeting thing was. It was all awkward and somewhat sombre. Continue your journey with empire

Crunch.

Kat whipped her head over to see that Craunch had bitten into the meal on the table. He'd deliberately bitten into something that... well it wasn't celery because it was bright orange but it sure sounded like it was. Crunch.

Everyone was paying attention to Craunch now, and he was still messing with Meg who seemed to be somewhat enjoying herself. Though she might've just enjoyed messing with everyone else as well. "What?" asked Craunch in between bites.

"I think they're all surprised at... well I'm not sure if they think you're being rude or if they're just surprised you have an appetite," said Amalak.

"Both obviously," said Craunch without shame and Kat felt her eyebrow twitch at the answer. She sort of wanted to smack him... but didn't at the same time? Odd.

"Well, I mean... it wouldn't surprise me if you don't remember but I'm not from the new generation or whatever it's called. I was part of the old one. I wasn't anyone important, just the nephew of Strenul, one of the old project leads so I had the chance to move into the fancy area down here. It was just meant to be a short vacation you know? Couple weeks..." Trumbor let out a long sigh.

Crunch. Everyone turned and glared at Craunch. "What? There was a break in his story! It's perfectly valid to snack in between emotional beats or whatever this is going to be?"

Corela glared at Craunch for a few moments but Trumbor did pick back up, "He's right. Can't let myself get bogged down with things just yet. I can... deal with the potential issues the pods have later. I... I was fascinated with demons, and I was trying to work out how to summon one before I took that vacation.

Actually, it was my mother finding and burning all my books on the subject that got me to take a break..."

Kat felt the horrified gasp from Lily in the back of her mind.

"Why were they on books?" asked Amalak.

"Eh... thought my Mum would check my browser history? Look I dunno why I thought it was a good idea. She caught me because I spent a whole bunch of credits printing it all out! Wait... no wait I think I thought I could find some sort of hidden message in the printed copies? Like, charcoal rubbing or invisible ink that reacted to magic or something.

Spent a lot of money getting them properly printed... money that may or may not have technically been mine,"

Corela tapped on the table a few times to draw attention back to her. "So you think you can summon a demon then?"

"Well I don't know for sure but I tried looking into this before, and perhaps with some real demons that can answer questions I can get closer?" offered Trumbor.

Kat winced, "Yeah I know nothing about summoning demons,"

Meg nodded along, "It really isn't something I looked into much either. I mean, I do know how to call backup but not much more than that. For something like this you're going to need better... or a LOT of overpay to compensate for the shitty circle,"

"Wait is that how it works?" asked Trumbor.

Meg and Kat gave matching nods. From what they knew, that was indeed how it worked.