# The Story After, Tina & Tanha (1)

Before thinking about anything else.

Lug came to a conclusion.

‘So this escape ends here.’

Since the goal was to flee from the Hero Party’s eyes, the plan was essentially over the moment he was discovered.

From the beginning, Lug never thought he could escape from the Hero Party. How could an ordinary person outrun the Hero Party?

So the escape was over.

‘Now all that remains is what will happen to me… At least Lady Tina is kinder compared to the others…’

Tina’s position in the Hero Party was quite unique.

Like Esmeralda, she was a commoner, and from the back alleys at that.

While everyone else had potential for growth, Tina’s intuition was already complete in itself.

And above all else.

“Phew, thank goodness. Who on earth kidnapped you this time?”

She was the only member of the Hero Party who hid nothing, making her the conscience of the group.

In a Hero Party where everyone was desperate to deceive each other, she was the only one who acted honestly.

Yes, compared to others, her complaints were merely endearing.

At least she never dragged people to torture chambers or laboratories.

“Something felt off. I’m glad I found you before it was too late. Did anything strange happen to you?”

“Ah, no…”

That’s why it was confusing.

Whether Tina was genuinely concerned about him, or if she was just sugarcoating the fact that she came to capture him.

Normally, it would be the former. But now, the situation was different.

The dragon’s tail swaying gently, the perked dragon wings.

Even the horns gleaming like jewels.

Lug already knew that their form was a manifestation of desire.

“First… there we go.”

Lug and Tina stood with iron bars between them, but that physical barrier was no problem for Tina.

Her lock-picking skills were much faster and more precise than Lug’s.

It wasn’t for nothing that Lug thought of her as a thief rather than a scholar.

“Hm? What are you doing? Aren’t you coming out?”

“…I should leave.”

Lug decided to obediently follow for now.

After all, Tina wasn’t showing any strange behavior at the moment.

The situation could even be considered good. Anyone looking at this would see Lug as having been kidnapped.

Not an escape, but a kidnapping.

If that were the case, the others wouldn’t be angry but rather concerned.

So Lug just needed to act like an innocent victim and walk back to the Demon Lord’s Castle on his own.

If he could just do that…

‘At least I won’t get in trouble for this incident.’

Lug silently thanked Garnet for locking him up and running away.

Thanks to her unusual fetish, Lug would be able to survive.

Of course, it would be a big problem if Tina and the other Hero Party members made a fuss about finding the culprit.

“Are you okay? Can you walk?”

“Yes, no problem.”

Even after escaping from prison, Tina showed no suspicious signs. Rather, as if she was genuinely worried about Lug, she was careful with him as if he were a fragile glass artwork, far from restraining him.

Thanks to this, Lug could follow behind Tina with a more comfortable feeling.

No surveillance, no restraints.

But he wouldn’t run away. Even if he did, he’d obviously be caught quickly, and right now he needed to act as if he’d been kidnapped.

So Lug casually followed behind Tina. Of course, he didn’t completely let his guard down.

‘Even though there’s nothing I can do, I shouldn’t relax completely.’

No matter what Tina did, Lug had no means to resist. A powerless ordinary person who couldn’t even use magic.

In other words, Tina could do whatever she wanted if she set her mind to it.

So he needed to behave well while she was treating him nicely.

“By the way. I don’t think you answered earlier, but do you remember who kidnapped you?”

“…”

The atmosphere grew cold.

But it was still okay. The situation could still be salvaged.

“I don’t know.”

“I see, that’s a problem. Well, I’ll have to set up some security to prevent this from happening again.”

“I see.”

Fortunately, did she not suspect anything? Tina answered with a bright smile.

But before long, he couldn’t help but notice something strange about the situation.

“Um, Lady Tina?”

“Yes?”

“Aren’t we going?”

“Hmm.”

After asking Lug the question, Tina didn’t move from her spot.

She just stood there with her back turned, smiling brightly.

As if time had stopped.

After Lug’s answer, Tina stood rooted to the spot, seemingly unable to think about moving.

“But, Lug. You lied, didn’t you? You shouldn’t do that, even for your own sake.”

“…Pardon?”

But Lug’s thinking was shortsighted.

Tina basically doesn’t doubt things.

“That’s what I feel. And if that’s what I feel, then it must be true. You lied to me, didn’t you?”

Even normally, Tina’s ridiculous intuition allowed her to see through jokes to the truth.

Then what about when she was suspicious?

Yes, for her, that was equivalent to the truth.

“Why did you lie?”

“I’m sorry. I ended up sympathizing with the person who kidnapped me.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Then can you tell me who the culprit is now?”

“Garnet confined me. She originally put handcuffs on me too, but those were removed.”

Lug told the lie without wetting his lips with even a drop of saliva.

No, it wasn’t a lie.

Just a cleverly twisted truth.

Lug didn’t say that Garnet kidnapped him. He said that Garnet confined him.

Sorry for Garnet, but he had to survive first.

‘If you hadn’t abandoned me and left, this wouldn’t have happened.’

An ability Lug acquired for survival.

Flexible thinking. Blaming others without a shred of guilt.

“I see? That’s good. Things will be much easier now.”

Tina smiled brightly and turned her head to lead the way again.

Did she stop when Lug lied and move forward when he told the truth?

If this continued until they reached the Demon Lord’s Castle…

‘This is an interrogation.’

Lug would die.

While he was lucky enough to deceive her well now, with such a hastily made plan, problems would inevitably arise.

As he made up and twisted words, at some point he would end up lying, and then everything he had built up could collapse in an instant.

Slap!

Lug slapped his cheek to clear his mind. From now on, he couldn’t let his guard down for even a moment.

“What are you doing?”

“Just trying to clear my head a bit.”

“Are you sleepy? Come to think of it, you were captured… Are you really not okay?”

“…My body is fine. I was just in a half-asleep state.”

“Really?”

Lug carefully answered to avoid even the smallest lie.

It was the moment of greatest concentration since he began his journey with the Hero Party.

Fortunately, Tina’s interrogation didn’t last long, and most of it was casual conversation that came up while walking.

Of course, there were times when she suddenly asked penetrating questions, but for the focused Lug, such traps were not a problem.

‘Good, if we just continue like this…’

At least Tina didn’t seem to have any immediate plans for Lug.

The protruding tail, horns, and wings were concerning, but other than the occasionally chilling questions that targeted his weak points, there wasn’t much difference from the usual Tina.

So he just needed to make it to the Demon Lord’s Castle.

He would have to think about what came after, but at least there would be someone there who could help him.

‘If it’s Lord Robeno… No, I should have asked for help when Robeno returned. Am I an idiot?’

At least if Robeno was there, he could prevent anyone from trying to physically harm Lug.

After all, he was the strongest warrior in the current Demon Lord’s army, except for the Demon Lord, Belphegor.

‘Yes, so if I can just return to the Demon Lord’s Castle…’

He proceeded along the path, focusing all his attention on each of Tina’s questions.

Yes, and because he was pouring all his attention into that…

Thud!

“Huh?”

He failed to react when the ground suddenly collapsed.

“Oof!”

A sinkhole that appeared out of nowhere.

Could this really be a coincidence?

No, while Tina might look like a thief, she’s fundamentally a scholar.

An archaeologist and geologist.

Someone like her…

“Just as I expected.”

Could have found it. A natural prison created by nature where no one would interfere or find them.

“There’s a fairly spacious area here, just as I predicted.”

Tina glided through the space created by the sinkhole and caught the falling Lug.

Just get to the Demon Lord’s Castle?

The premise was wrong from the start. They were heading toward the Demon Lord’s Castle right now, but Tina’s destination wasn’t anything like that.

It only seemed that way, but Tina had never once said they were going back to the Demon Lord’s Castle.

Lug could realize it now.

Tina can detect lies. But that doesn’t mean she distinguishes between truth and falsehood. She judges everything solely on intuition.

‘Everything I said indirectly…’

Would have been caught by her intuition. She knew he was hiding the truth with clever words, even if they weren’t lies.

And yet, the reason she didn’t reveal or point that out was because…

‘Lady Tina was doing the same thing!’

Tina was also hiding the truth with clever words.

Lug looked at Tina again.

“Can you see it, Lug? This is it. This is our place where no one can interfere…”

He saw her holding onto him, quietly gliding down.

The dragon’s horns, wings, and tail.

He remembered the greedy habits of dragons that he hadn’t thought of before.

How greedy dragons collected treasures to decorate their nests, choosing places where others couldn’t see.

“Our new home.”

The existence of a Dragon’s Lair.