Rey stood rubbing his neck far longer than he needed to. He was sure there were marks on his neck, and he would have no way of explaining that to everyone. He could tell the truth about it to everyone, but then he would have to tell them about his breakup with Kassi, which would make things just all around awkward. So, he would do what he always did in situations like these, move through them carefully and with tact.

  He gave Kassi another look, and she wasn't weeping anymore, though tears still dripped from her eyes. She finally looked his way, their eyes met, and she promptly turned away. It hurt, but it was warranted. He might have done the same in her situation.

  At a deeper level, he wanted to be mad at her for pushing this topic so far that the demonic overlord that relished smegma had visited him, and Rey had to divulge information that he didn't want to. But he couldn't bring himself to be angry. Mostly, he was just relieved that Zalathar left satisfied and didn't hurt him or Kassi.

  He waited a moment longer, waited for the pain in his neck to subside, and headed towards the end of the alley. It was time to get to work. Right as he reached the end, the rest of the suicide squad decided to dramatically enter the scene.

  Rey tried to put on his signature smile, but couldn't bring himself to do so, for there was another problem that was staring him in the face. Even if he counted Aearbon, there were only five of them; if he didn't, then they were only four from his batch of chosen ones. Zalathar could very likely not count Aearbon since he already had his turn last year and failed.

  He needed to find two more people and bring them up to D-Tier. If not two, at least one more. The obvious answer was Gloria. It became even more imperative that he convert her to his side and get her over the threshold in due time. The only problem was that there were only a finite number of D-Tiers in this Kingdom.

  Shit. Shit and triple shit.

  "Is it okay to come?" Ajay asked. "We heard the shouting stop so we…" He trailed off and stared at Rey with a worried expression. "What the hell happened to your neck?"

  "I had to strangle myself to get myself to shut up," Rey replied. "It's all the rage in these parts."

  Ajay shared a worried glance with his girlfriend, who spoke up next. "You two didn't start physically fighting, did you?"

  "What?" Rey cried. "Do I look like the kind of madman that would do such a thing?"

  "Yes," she replied, frankly a little too fast where Rey was concerned.

  "You know that hurt way more than it should've."

  She just shrugged. "Just telling you the truth."

  "Ajay, you don't think that, do you?"

  Ajay gave a nervous chuckle. "Of course not."

  "Thanks. You're a true friend. Aearbon?"

  "This is your personal affair," the Tigerman replied. "I will refrain from passing judgment."

  "Fair enough. Shall we get down to business?"

  Filomena didn't reply, but she did move on ahead to check on Kassi, as if Rey had actually done something to her.

  Kassi turned to greet them with a small smile and red, puffy eyes. She didn't meet Rey's gaze, and it was okay; he would have to get used to this. The sooner the better.

  "Kass, are you okay?" Filomena asked, clearly concerned about her friend.

  "I'm fine," Kassi replied. "Should we talk business?"

  "Yes, but you look like—"

  "I'm fine," she repeated.

  She was totally not fine.

  And whose fault is that? Demon Rey snapped.

  Rey cut in quickly, before anyone asked about the very calm and mature conversation that had left Kassi looking like she'd just lost a boxing match with her feelings.

  "So, I was thinking that given the size of the demons under the Sniffer King's employ, we will need a diversion. You had some idea about this, didn't you, Kassandra?"

  "Kassandra?" Ajay and Filomena practically cried at the same time.

  Kassi didn't bother to reply to them and went on. "I was thinking that we free the slaves from the slave markets and have them fight for us. From what I remember, there were enough slaves that they could easily overwhelm the Sniffers and let us get to Ginirth."

  Rey rubbed his chin. "Not a bad plan. Not a bad plan at all. But before we do that, we need to rank up. Only Aearbon and I are at Rank 9, while the rest of you are at Rank 8. There'd be no point in going for the head of the Sniffer snake if we're not even at Rank 10. No Rank 10, then no point in killing a D-Tier."

  "And killing Ginirth will definitely draw the attention of the prince," Noidet added.

  "Oh, hey, you're still here, Nidhog. I thought you skulked off to steal some more panties." Rey chuckled at his own joke, even if no one else did.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  "Hey, can we back up to the part where you called her Kassandra?" Ajay asked.

  "Yeah, since when have you started calling her Kassandra"? Filomena added. "You've always called her Kassi from day one."

  Rey glanced at Kassi, and she at him, but not at his eyes; she was staring at his neck, which held the marks of his love session with Zalathar. She frowned, and her lips opened to no doubt ask where the hickies had come from. It wasn't like she would totally not give a fuck about his health, now that they weren't together. So, before she pried open that particular can of problems, he spoke up.

  "We broke up," Rey replied. "We're no longer together."

  Not ideal, but desperate times called for desperate conversational gymnastics. And distracting Kassi from the whole 'what the hell happened to your neck?' situation was a priority.

  "What?" the humans cried. The wide-eyed glances told him more than enough. He knew there was a joke in there somewhere, but he couldn't figure it out, since it would be at the behest of his own miserable life.

  Even Aearbon stared wide-eyed, which for him was equivalent to screaming.

  "You're joking?" Ajay said.

  "I never joke," Rey replied. This time, even he couldn't muster up a smile.

  They looked to Kassi, who nodded. "We felt that it was best for both of us."

  Filomena stepped towards her. "Kass, I know he can be an idiot, but give it time. He'll come around and—"

  "It was his idea," she replied plainly.

  That was another shocker to the group. The only one not affected by all this was Noidet, who couldn't be bothered in the least.

  Rey shrugged. "You know me. It's always expect the unexpected with me."

  "But this!" Filomena cried. "You cannot be serious. She didn't talk to you for a few days, and you broke up with her. Are you serious?"

  Rey sighed. "It's more complicated than that. Now, that's enough probing into my fucked up love life."

  The Sicilian didn't look like she was done probing. That expression said the interrogation DLC had just unlocked, but Ajay placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. That calmed her down some.

  She shook her head. "Both of you are being idiots."

  Aearbon stared pointedly at Rey as if willing him to remember the talk they had outside the mansion. He had told him that he could win Kassi over with love, and Rey, being Rey, had done the complete opposite, but maybe this was for the best for now.

  No matter how much it hurt, and it hurt a whole fuck ton. Maybe he could tell Kassi what he had told the demon lord and hope for the best, but he knew, unlike Zalathar, it would only raise more questions in her mind, which would most definitely prompt another visit from the Sovereign, and if not that, it would lead to another breakup.

  Also, if he told a half-truth now and a day came when he did end up telling the truth to Kassi, she would be even more pissed that he didn't tell her the truth in the first place.

  Hello complication, my name is Rey, please come fuck up my life even more.

  He knew who was truly responsible for all this fuck up, and Rey would have his time fucking up that smug little kid's dollhouse one day.

  "Anyways, so as I was saying, we need to find strong guys and absolutely mutilate the shit out of them," Rey said. "If I didn't know any better, which I don't, I was thinking we kill every guard that we come across, but that would bring the Terrors down on us. So, the only other place we'll find super strong demons to kill is in the arena."

  "That's dumb, even by your standards," Filomena seethed.

  "Yes, that's true," Noidet added.

  Rey slithered right next to him and threw an arm over his shoulder. "What was that?"

  "I-I only meant that we, I mean, you guys will be caught like this." He snapped his fingers.

  "Then where can we find strong demons to murder and bathe in their innards?"

  Noidet swallowed. "The slave masters employ some strong demons that should be enough to get you guys to Rank 10, and then there is the Grotto. It's a bar where all the high-ranking Sniffers meet. You could always try your luck there."

  Rey patted him on the shoulder. "Great. That's two locations we can hit. So, which ones do we want to go after first?"

  "The Sniffers are going to be a problem," Ajay said. "Attacking a bar full of them will be trouble. They'll probably see us coming from a mile away."

  "So that leaves us the guards in the slave markets," Filomena finished.

  "I was leaning towards them anyway," Rey said. "We get their masters to transfer the slaves to us, and then we start hacking and slashing through the neighborhood."

  "Slaves?" Kassi cried. "You want to use slaves for attacking Ginirth?"

  Rey sighed and threw up his hands in the air, but didn't say anything. Everyone stared at him for a long time, but he didn't dare utter a word.

  "Out with it," Filomena snapped.

  "Hey, I'm not saying anything. The last time I talked about torturing a demon, I ended up losing the love of my life. This time I'm not going to say anything that would make things worse. So, I'm exercising the rare and powerful ability known as not talking."

  For some reason, everyone glanced at Kassi and then back at him. Was it something I said?

  He tried to keep quiet. He really did, but couldn't stop himself. "Besides, it's not like they're just demons who are never true to their words, and would betray us the first chance they get. And with their freedom hanging in the balance, we could even command them just a teeny tiny bit. So, it would be best to keep them indentured to us and offer their freedom in exchange for fighting for us. But I'm not saying any of that."

  Kassi glared at him. "Yes, it would be best if you didn't say that."

  “I’m not, Kassandra. I'm truly not."

  Filomena rubbed her temples. "That just sounds wrong coming out of your mouth."

  "What?" Rey frowned. "Kassandra?"

  "Yes," she replied.

  "Well, she told me not to call her Kassi anymore."

  Filomena gave Kassi a side-eyed glance and shook her head as she sighed.

  Rey went on. "And as I said earlier, I'm done talking about my love life. So, what do you think? Keep the enslaved demons as slaves or free them and hope and pray they work for us out of the non-existent goodwill of their sinister hearts. If I haven't mentioned it enough already, they are demons, please keep that in mind."

  "But using them as slaves?" Kassi cried. "Are you serious? What's the difference between them and us?"

  "Hey, remember I'm not saying that. I'm just asking her opinion."

  "It would be best to keep them as slaves," Aearbon spoke up for the first time. His voice was so heavy that it seemed to shake the very walls. "If a slave defies the will of their master and escapes, then they are put to death if they are captured. Rey is right, we can use that as leverage to get them to do our bidding."

  Ajay nodded. "Sorry, Kass, as inhumane as it may sound, but Rey is right."

  "You'll find no arguments from me," Filomena said.

  Kassi huffed as she turned away from them.

  "So, it's three against two," Rey said. "Looks like we were outvoted, Kassandra. So, we'll head to the slave market, capture some slaves and kill all the guards, and hopefully rank up along the way."

  Kassi crossed her arms and didn't bother looking his way.

  "Operation Spartacus Begins."