interlude II: Devil Sabnock file 2

"Ok things are starting to look way better now, but still is going to take months to get this place up to our old standards and that old place never looked that good." Rush Collins dusted his hands as he let go of a table on a dusty floor. For the last three months, Rush has been working on building a new bar on the heart of the labyrinth, now that almost everyone in Center town moved into the safety of its walls his old place no longer had that many clients and was far too unprotected to keep running.

The Command had told him that since he was going to keep working for her he could build a new bar, but of course, the hunters had not many people to spare so it came down to Rush to get it off the ground, luckily there was no shortage of people that wanted to give him a hand, after all his little bar was always a pillar of their messy but united community.

It was nonetheless hard work and the day the devil's luck bar would open still remained far away, but for Rush, it was just a matter of putting one stone at a time. So here he was again in his spare time to keep his mind off things with hard work. They were currently moving most of their old table to the new building without any cars, the road from Center town to the library was no joke.

"We have a lot of painting now, are you sure we can't use a lot of pink, I like pink." Daisy Willows was working on putting a new coat of black paint on the walls as always she was quite excited somehow it felt like she simply never ran out of energy.

"No way, that will hurt my eyes, we are sticking with pure black, my regulars are used to that so need to change." Collins step back looking at their new bar, the building was more than ready now, thanks to the help of the hunters, but he was going to need some new furniture to fill it, Compared to the old place it was quite a lot bigger. Still Rush smiled as he contemplated how far they had gotten.

"Sorry that I can't help you guys today, my arm is still all messed up."O'Conell was resting by a chair with no table near them he should be in a casket from the bullet he got on their mission, Rush looked just fine even after taking so many bullets but that one gunshot, almost had him lose his arm. Still, as someone who had dealt with so much through the years, he was not the type to complain.

"Don't mind that we still need you O'Connel so rest up, all we need to do is to set some tables and paint the walls, well get some help from the crew later, I really can't wait to open this place especially if the old crone lets me get some alcohol from the city markets."

"I would love to see it, maybe we can finally get everyone together from a party, all of the guards split all over the place these days, is sad but it makes sense the hunters are running things now and not everyone likes that." Daisy looked back at the two of them not minding that her brush spilled paint on her casual wool shirt.

"I was annoyed when I heard the hunters rejected most of our men, they told people who had gone tooth and nail through hell they were not good enough to join them, but after this hunt I understood, the idea of fighting more than one demon never came to mind before just one sounded like such a nightmare and yet on that city there maybe dozens working together." O'Connel sighed as he took a sip of beer Rush had prepared for him.

"Right I think understand now, why the captains are meant to be the only ones to engage the enemy the difference between humans and devils is only more obvious in that city, I almost worry about having more people with me for the next hunt." Rush passed his hand through his bald head, he was quite worried about going on another hunt.

"Aurora and Cao are something else, they are devils sure but is clear they trained for this stuff all their lives, me and Abram will just have to make do, I'm really gonna miss just being a city guard, Im not even sure if our fight is a right one anymore." Collins finally slowed down and took a seat, O'Connel looked at him with worry he had always gone beyond his means as a devil but their captain these days was overworking himself far worse than ever before, still O'Conell had no courage to told him to slow down, not when everything remained so uncertain.

"By the way captain, you got any news on the princess we rescued from the bounty hunter."Daisy asked.

"Afraid I don't she has been locked away at the top of the tower, the commander is the only one that has interacted with her, but honestly I did my part. It will be up to the commander to choose her faith."

"Well she is the heir of one of the families, I doubt she is an innocent girl, honestly you got us into quite the minefield here captain, but you wouldn't be the captain if you didn't help anyone around." Daisy laughed, It had been almost a month since the hunt ended and the matter of the heir of Villa Blanca was quietly kept under wraps only the captains of the hunters were allowed to know of it.

"I did what I did for the Desperado, her fate will be up to the commander now, I won't even pretend I knew what I was doing. I just followed my guts like usual." Rush wiped the sweat off his brow, it was obvious they had done all they could for their little bar today, even a devil needed his rest.

"Are you sure you want to run a bar again with how busy we are, I think we can just get an employee to do it, plenty of people are looking for work these days, train some kid for a few months and you can just relax?" O'Connel told Rush as he walked to sit down on the same table, Diasy also jumped down from the stool she was at and walked towards them.

"No, this is for myself, getting people a good drink, having the time to speak with the townfolk, I need to get this bar working again, honestly in a better world running this bar would be the only job I'll want sometime listening to people is the real way to help them get better, we all need our respite." O'Connell nodded.

"Right, the luxury of taking a drink and letting off some steam that is the kind of stuff our world needs back and i doubt the Commander understands that at all."O'Connell sighed, she was far too distant a figure for the people of the guard to trust and that was unlike to change.

"So we will need to do it ourselves helping this town isn't just about fighting we got to keep our hearts safe too, or else the stress will kill us before any raider does, so then let's just take a drink now before going home for the evening."The three of them raised their cups and took a drink, except for Daisy who joined with a cup whatever she had never drunk but she was always welcome at their bar.