audacity

I believe him. – demon slayer/mercedes.

"I believe him."

Phantom stopped in the middle of his accusatory speech. Luminous rubbed his eyes. Aran blinked. Evan stared.

Mercedes stood, chin raised imperiously and arms crossed over her chest. "I believe him," she repeated. "I believe that the Demon Slayer means it when he says that he will not betray the Alliance for his brother and the Black Mage."

His breath caught and lodged in his throat. Out of all the heroes he had never expected the queen of elves to be the one to take his side.

The master thief began whispering something frantically to his ally, but the blond elf waved him away. "I, too, thought that about him initially, but he's proven himself over and over again to the Alliance. I've seen for myself that he has a temperament of loyalty like no other to his cause, and just as his family was his devotion and focus in the past, his revenge is his focal point now."

Phantom gave up on trying to discuss the issue with his ally privately. "What if he's been faking it this whole time?" he asked aloud.

Mercedes shook her head. "You can't fake that kind of devotion," she said stubbornly.

He didn't dare breathe.

"Mercedes," Phantom began, exasperated, but she marched over to him instead.

"Tell them," she ordered. "Tell them what you told me about trying to make redemptions even if it would never completely erase the sins of your past."

All of them? His throat went slightly dry. Being judged by others was something he did not fear – it was his own guilt that drove him mad. The heroes had seen from the start just what kind of a man his former master had been while he had played the blind lapdog until an attack had struck at home. The guilt was worse with all the heroes present.

But the queen of elves was staring down at him, blue eyes practically crackling with lightning. He had faced her and told his reasons for amendment before, he could do it again.

Only to her, though.

So he opened his mouth and spoke, eyes on her the entire time.

There was silence after his words and he wondered if he had done anything wrong when Luminous stood from his seat. "I believe him," the light mage said ever-so-simply.

Phantom shot him a murderous glare, but the mage simply ignored him.

"Fine," the thief snarled roughly, so contrastingly different from his normal, flowing prose. "But don't you dare say I didn't warn you all."

With a flurry of cards like an angry storm of sharp dancing blades, he disappeared. One by one, the other heroes left the room in a less dramatic manner until it was only him. Him and the queen.

"Thank you."

Before, she would have responded with biting words and judgemental overtones and he would have been unsurprised at them. Instead, she merely nodded and left.

Takes place after Root Abyss. Let's say they worked together and she began trusting him a bit more after seeing the person he was, not the former commander.

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