For a half-demon of his size, Lydianna felt that Ragna could be incredibly poor with words at times. This wasn't the first time she had noticed him trailing off, leaving unfinished sentences and questions and instead turning to mumbling to himself. She started to simply wonder if he was bad at communicating with others on a personal level, perhaps due to whatever hell his father had put him through. Lydia almost wanted to ask him about it, but instead chose to stay silent. She had been doing that a lot on their trip. Staying silent and really only talking when Ragna prompted her to. It wasn't that she was bad with people, just that she was trying not to form an attachment to him. She had taken a liking to him, yes, but that was different. You could like someone and not be attached to them. For instance, there may be a particular market vendor that you always go to when you do your shopping. He's a nice fellow, always has a smile and friendly words. However, you don't know anything else about him besides what he does. He's not a friend or family or someone you care deeply about. One day he's just suddenly gone and you stop for a moment to tell yourself that you liked him and you'll miss him, but over time you'll just forget about him altogether because he didn't _really_ matter to you.

That was how Lydia was trying to keep the relationship between her and Ragna. She might like him and get along with him, but she didn't want to become attached to him. Demons were bound by their oaths he had told her. He had promised to protect her on their journey to the demon king. He had not promised to protect her once there or at any time afterwards. Once Ragna was free of his oath he could try to kill her for his king or for his own reasons. If that happened and Lydia was attached to Ragna, she would feel betrayed. Of course if he or anyone else there tried to kill her she would try to defend herself, but her chances for survival while in the court of the demon king were slim.

To take her mind off of these things, Lydia tried to focus her attention on their surroundings. The glowing fungi was beautiful, but she wondered if it might be deadly. She had not seen it before and had no knowledge of it. She did know, however, that this mine had once certainly been excavated by dwarves long ago. Focusing her hearing Lydia honed in on the scratching sounds. "Seems like bats," she quietly informed Ragna. "They appear to be restless. Probably because they can't go out with the storm. They're likely to usually go out through the mouth of the cave, but I bet there's somewhere else they leave too. Perhaps this tunnel exits somewhere on the other side of the hill."