When Alice was a kid, her last name was not Argatroid, in fact, she didn't even have one nor does she know who her parents were. She just gave herself the name Alice after hearing someone call their daughter that, though she still doesn't know how it's spelled.
Her childhood was anywhere but kind, she was barefoot for most of it and the only way she got water is by drinking rain water and even her own sweats when it's not raining. As for getting food, she had to search through garbage and waste to find even a pinch of food... Though she would always find nothing so her only choice was to hunt the food herself.
Whenever it was night, she would always go to the woods and try to find something to eat, the darkness helps in hiding her small form. Though her weapon of choice at that time leaves much to be desired, with only having a stick that she snapped off from a tree, what she can only do is hunt some small rats and insects but that's enough for her to continue living. She would probably continue to live like this if it weren't for him.
"Interesting..." A man with two horns on his head said as he looked down at the little Alice sitting down on a patch of grass deep in the dark woods, holding a handful of insects on her left hand and a pointy branch on her right hand with blood on the end of the stick. His eyes looked down at the dead rat that she had stabbed with her stick.
'Raw... Didn't even make a fire...'
The girl looked up at him and pointed her stick at him, making a hiss sound like that of an animal.
'Instinct, you are trying to defend your food from others...'
He got on one knee and opened his hand to her, revealing a small piece of wrapped candy. The girl's eyes light up, but only a little bit, and she lowers her stick and immediately grabs the candy with her hand that's full of insects and throws it to her mouth, wrappers and all as well the insects that were on her hand.
Crunching noises echo through the forest as she ate the candy.
The Demon smiled and got on his two feet and reached his hand out for the little Alice.
"Come to me, dear child. I'll give you the life you deserve after surviving this long."
The child looks at the hand for a few seconds before reaching out for it
Her gut feeling said that she'll live longer if she stays with him, and so she accepts his hand.
-----
"... Master, why are you talking to yourself again, loudly too, and it's about my past..." Alice said as she looks at The Demon Lord disapprovingly.
"Just reminiscing is all, it is important to remember your past after all, my dear." He said peacefully, looking at the peaceful nature outside through the window with a cup of coffee in his hand.
"But master... It's still embarrassing to hear my own past actions being said out loud." Alice sighed. "Anyway master, I'm curious, what's the life of a demon is like in hell?"
"Are you sure you want to know of my species history, dear?"
"Yes, you said it yourself that the only reason you saved me is because I reminded you of yourself when you were younger, master."
"Hahh, fine fine." The Demon Lord sighed and looked at Alice's eyes.
"We eat humans." The Demon Lord said but Alice didn't bat an eye as she was waiting for her master to continue, after all, if Alice were to have the strength to do it when she's a child, she too would try to eat humans even if it's her own species, she didn't have the luxury such as having parents teach her things about being human after all.
He sighed, he doesn't want someone that he raised as his own daughter to find out the horrors of hell but nonetheless, it's better than he, someone she trusts, to be the one that tells her about it instead of some other demons.
"In hell, there's no food, no water, just scorched earth and streams of lava. We demons don't have anything to eat and so we resorted to cannibalism." The Demon Lord looks closely at Alice's face to see any reaction but there's none.
"We ate our loved ones, drank their blood to satisfy our thirst. Some of us even gave birth to a child just to eat them the moment they came out of the womb... And then suddenly, one day." He pointed at Alice.
"You, or rather your species, appeared. It's like a gift from The God itself. Finally, we have something, that's not our own species, to satiate our thirst and hunger."
He put his hand down and looked at Alice. "That's it for now, Alice. I'll be going now." He stood up and walked towards the door but then a hand grabbed his sleeves and he looked behind him. It's Alice, grabbing his sleeves and holding him back.
"Can I... Can I join you, master?" He sighed but nodded anyway, he was just going to buy groceries anyway, so it's fine for her to join.
"Hahh, alright. Come, Alice." He grabs her hand and leads her outside.
-----
"What's your name?" The Demon said to the little girl.
"Alice..." The girl said while looking at him suspiciously as they walked side by side in the woods, clenching the stick in her hand.
The demon waited a bit, expecting her to continue the name but she didn't.
"... Only one word? I thought your kind had multiple words in a name. Last name I think they're called?"
"...What's that?" The girl tilted her head at him and he just sighed.
The Demon rubs her head and smiles at her.
"Alice... Alice Argatroid, it rolls off the tongue pretty well, consider that your name now." The girl silently nodded and kept following The Demon.
"...Where are we going...?"
"My place, dear."
-----
"Mast- MMG! Mmpphh!!" He quickly put her hand on Alice's mouth to stop her from calling him a master in public.
"Uhm... Sorry everyone! My student here is uhh... Having some problems, so I have to lecture her a bit." He quickly said as he dragged her to an alleyway with his hand still on her mouth.
When they're finally in the alleyway, he lets her go and she breathes heavily. "Master..., you're too rough..."
"Don't say it like that, people will have the wrong idea of us." He wiped off the saliva that's on his hand that he got from holding her mouth closed. "Didn't I tell you to call me Baron?"
"But master, you're not disguising yourself, so I thought it's fine to call you that." She pointed at the hat he wore with holes that allowed his devil horns to stick out of the hat. "You're not even hiding your horns."
He sighed and flicked her forehead, making her squeak and hold her forehead in pain. "I... Mast- Baron... Why.... why did you do that?" Her voice lowers and she looks at him with tears and fear in her eyes but he just shook his head.
"Didn't I teach you about the past heroes and their achievements? One of them invented hats in this world and that includes hats with horns. Making disguising for me easier than ever before." He taps his hat a few times to show why that's the reason he wore the hat.
Alice lowers her head down, hiding her face from him. She's muttering something to herself over and over again in a low voice.
"Alright Alice, let's go now." He turned around only to see three people standing in the way of them, blocking the exit of the alleyway.
"Hehe, what's this? A defenseless couple-" The guy didn't get to finish his sentence as Alice brought her hand up and the guy suddenly exploded, covering the other two guys in his blood, meats, organs, brain matter and bones.
"Aaahh... What just..." The thugs didn't even have the chance to scream as Alice's hand closed to a fist and the lower jaws of the still living two thugs suddenly got crushed by her dark magic, they are only able to create gurgling noises as they drowned in their own blood.
Both of them fall to the ground, not even having a chance to do anything in this story.
Alice turned to her master, grabbing his sleeves and looking at him with wide, crazed eyes. "Mast-Baron! I protected you! I have some uses! That means I can stay with you right!? I promised I won't make any mistakes anymore! So please... Please don't abandon me..."
He just smiled at her and rubbed her head and wiped the tears away from her eyes. "Don't worry dear, you still have some use to me." He put his hand down and began walking out of the alleyway, walking over the bodies.
He stopped just outside the alleyway and looked back at Alice, pointing to the bodies on the ground. "Make sure to clean up, okay?"
Alice nodded slowly, putting her hand over the corpses and a small portal appeared beside her as it suck in all of the corpses and bloods in the alleyway until there was nothing left.
She lowered her hand and the portal closed up, the alleyway now looks the same as before, not even bloodstains remain in this alleyway.
She walked forward, following the demon with her head low.
"..." The Demon Lord named Baron looks back at her. "We're going to buy pizza yo."
Her eyes lightened up, looking at her master with a happy smile, her emotions suddenly turned 180. "Really mas- uhmm... Baron!?" She said yet her eyes looked terrified and nervous for a second from almost making a mistake again before turning back to a cheerful look.
"Yes, those baked bread with tomato sauce and cheese on top. I remember you liking the taste of it."
"Ahh... Thank you Baron... Thank you for this." Alice said as she looked up at him with endearing eyes, maybe she won't get abandoned after all.
-----
"...By the way master..."
"Hmm?" Baron looks back at Alice, they're now in the woods going home, so she doesn't have to call him Baron at the moment.
"Will you.. will you..." Alice stuttered, as if she's nervous at what she will ask of him.
"Don't worry, dear. Say what it is that you want."
"Master, could you... Could you... Give me a new name?" Her voice was low but she still managed to let out her desire to him.
He raised his eyebrows, he didn't expect this from her. "Curious, why is it that you wanted me to give you a new name? Your name is Alice after all."
"It's just... I've been living with you my whole life, master, yet you haven't given me a name, a first name from you... You gave the name Argatroid to me but that's a last name. And Alice is a random girl's name that I stole from hearing others."
Baron sighed. "Alright dear, I suppose that's fair... Then how about Argalia? Argalia Argatroid? I'll add in Alice too as your middle name. Argalia Alice Argatroid. How about it? Did you like it?"
"I... I love it, master."
It doesn't matter to her if the name sucks, it doesn't matter if the name sounds the same as her previous one, as long as it's a name given by her master, she will happily cherish it to the end of her lifetime.