Outside
Luxuli tightened her hold on Edrick's hand unconsciously as much too many gazes for her liking suddenly landed right on her, making the demon feel like every pores had opened up to eject sweat, lowering her gaze to the ground, although not liking it, se stepped closer to Anoteros as he seemed like the only constant around that wasn't totally unknown.
Without the demoness noticing, pretty much everyone stopped looking after a second or two, truly not willing to bother themselves with anything, especially when it concerned the well-known rich man that won every poker game here, everyone had learned that he was an Elt and disciple of the Myriad-Arm Sect by now, so even if they had something to say, they would shut up.
Luxuli still felt like all eyes were on her though until they made it out of the door and the outside's fresh suddenly hit her face, a sensation she hadn't realised had been forgotten by her body, rising both eyes up at once, the sunlight reflected by snow blinded the girl for a few moments as she took in the looks and architecture of Oie.
"Whoa… Where is this?" asked the demon aloud whilst in a daze, the small town she had been born and lived in until capture had been nothing like this, nothing seemed to be the same, from how the air felt, how the sun shined, what stone and wood was used to build, the smells…
It was all rather stunning, but the frosty gusts brought her back to reality, to not restrict her tail too much, Edrick had gotten her a bunch of clothing that allowed for some space for it to move and whip around as it usually did without its owner consciously controlling the motions.
For today, she had picked a dress in a style she thought cute although she did not know what style it was supposed to be in, but the skirt portion wasn't completely flaccid and thus allowed from space within, it was all very frilly and decorated with a pink ribbon around the neck alongside other pink bits that covered the white surface of the silk.
The silk wasn't quite as pale as she was, so it contrasted a little bit with her face, bringing extra attention to her bright pink eyes, all in all, it was rather classy and covered her body very well, not quite what she would have expected Edrick to want her to wear.
"This is Oie, a city close to the royal capital" he answered, standing still, allowing the demoness to look around some more, sparkles in her eyes as every minute detail seemed like a world-changing thing to the girl right now.
"Oie?" she repeated, struggling with the pronunciation a bit, although she had learned Nimeri very well, things like proper nouns did not always come naturally, especially when one was more used to speaking Loronaii, which had a very different way of pronunciation on the regular.
"I don't know this city… What country is this? How far are we from Itralith?"
"I am no expert on maps, so I don't know where Itralith is situated… But I can tell you that this is the kingdom of Leynlornd"
"Heh? The super rich one that slaps everyone else with money?"
"Yup"
"I-I see…" that was rather far from Itralith.
"Let's get to the restaurant, shall we? It is a bit cold out here" he smiled at her, a supposedly reassuring smile that managed to carry a sludge-like feeling of unease alongside it.
"Sure-" as she tried to take a step forward again, she slipped like friction was a made-up concept and only avoided sprawling on the ground because Edrick caught her by the underside of the armpits, holding the demoness up like a cat.
"Does it not freeze where you came from?"
"Hardly…" feeling a bit embarrassed that her first step outside had gotten so awfully close to a disaster, Luxuli's feet dangled in the air, the embarrassment soon overtaken by a stronger variation of it as Anoteros did not put her back down and instead lifted her up higher, nestling the demoness onto one of his awfully, thick, and strong arms.
"It is rather slippery, I'll just carry you, lest you get yourself hurt"
"Aaah…" she grasped onto him for support, he was tall for sure, but not a giant, so the view from this height shouldn't be startling, but it felt very much so to the demon right now, who turned away from the ground and instead toward his face, somewhat flushed red by the cold as the hood wasn't raised atop his head.
'By the gods…' after all, she would rather stare at the ground '...What is happening to me?'
'It couldn't be- No! Why would it be?! And for this- This guy?! Impossible!' Luxuli, despite being a demoness from a particular species that feasted best in a particular manner that had earned them the appellation of succubus despite not actually having to do with them, she herself had never felt any craving for a male companion, had she been like all the others of her kind, she wouldn't have been a virgin still so late in life.
Her mother would always say that it was because she must have a very specific taste in whomst to have relations with, or in other words, that she was a picky eater, the kind that would latch onto one man like a leech and never let go.
Even if that was true, Luxuli did not want for it to turn out that she had a craving for the likes of Edrick, this man seriously scared her, confused her and would definitely want to do unspeakable things to her at one point or another.
And she was fairly certain that he was a murderer as well, how else would her slave status have suddenly been revoked in the middle of the night otherwise?
As the demon had an entire debate with herself, they arrived at the restaurant Anoteros had chosen for the occasion, a place that smelled of many aromas and which was filled with comforting heat.
She was finally allowed on the ground again, Edrick setting her down with a gentle care that did not fit him at all, but that was undeniably pleasant to be on the receiving hand of.
He casually put his hand up on the demoness's shoulder, making Luxuli look at her feet whilst twirling her fingers together, looking more like a shy girl than anything else as he spoke with the person at the counter, getting them a private room to eat, just the two of them.
A waiter settled them in and swiftly left after handing them a menu, the door shutting with a low clack.
The ambience of this restaurant was a bit more homely than high-class, and so the seats were right by another instead of opposite.
"What do you want to order?" extending his long arm on the top of the seats behind her, Edrick handed the menu, letting Luxuli chose.
'What is wrong with this guy? Why is he so nice and- And gentle with me?! I know what you want from me! Stop playing games and just do it!' she swallowed her saliva, not actually meaning a word of what she thought.
"I… I don't know most of what those things are…"
"It's fine, I'll explain it to you"
'Aaaah… This is driving me crazy…'