Chapter 3: Chapter 1: Heroes (Part 3)
Now that I was back in the lounge I let myself relax into the couch. It was extremely comfy and I considered finding the maker and having him send one to my castle. Of course that idea was a pipe dream. The best I could do was steal a couch or kidnap the maker himself. Kidnapping and stealing however, weren't things I was ready to do all of a sudden just for a couch.
A creak of the door told me that someone had entered the room. It was Carlton. He looked at me nervously but came forward nonetheless. I waved for him to come join me.
"Davios was it?" he asked as he sat down.
"Yes, and you were Carlton?"
"Ah yes, but Carlton makes me sound like an old man. Please just call me Carl."
"Sure, Carl it is." He stayed silent and shuffled in the couch but kept flashing looks my way. "Did you need something from me?"
"Umm, Davios… Davios is kind of hard to say, do you have a nickname?"
"No I don't." Why would I have a nickname for a fake name? My family called me either Varry or First and only Davarious for important matters. The two nicknames weren't really applicable to Davios Flint. Carl looked a little dejected. "Though I don't mind you giving me one," I smiled.
"Really? Then can I call you just Dave?"
"Dave…. That's fine with me." I laughed inside as Carl smiled looking more relaxed. This guy was really easy to win over. "Is that all you had to ask me?"
"No well, you're from this world right?"
"Yep."
"Then can you tell me what this world is like?"
"Hmmm," I rubbed my chin in thought. How should I answer this? In one way it was hard to describe not knowing what kind of world he came from and on the other hand, I wasn't too familiar with human culture, though it shouldn't be all too different from my own. "That's a hard question to answer."
"Okay then, if you can't answer that, you said you were a magician right?"
"I did say that."
"Then can you show me some magic?"
"Your expression is telling me that this is more important to you than to me."
Carl shook his head, "Sorry I was getting a bit excited. It's because our world doesn't have magic."
"Not at all? So you don't have any concept of mana?" I had to wonder how their world functioned. Without magic we couldn't even have running water, let alone artificial light.
"Well, we have the concept of magic and mana from stories and games but that's it."
I stood up, "In that case how about we gather everyone else as well. This could be a good chance to bond with everyone."
Carl stood up as well, "Then I'll go and get Alicia and Gary." He paused and looked towards Sayuri's room, "Sorry but could I leave her to you?"
"Sure, I already talked to her before anyway."
We split up and I knocked on Sayuri's door. "It's me Davios again. Carlton told me that your world doesn't have magic so I thought I'd give a demonstration."
To my surprise the door was quickly opened and Sayuri came out easily. Either she had recovered a lot faster than I thought or magic was an ample enough bait. Turning back to the couch Alicia and Gary were already waiting.
I had everyone sit on the couch. There were no servants or guards in our room directly but they could be easily called for. This would be the best chance for me to get rid of all of them. I could do the deed, sneak out and before anyone realised be halfway out of the country. Like I would do that though. It may not seem like a very Demon Lord thing to let them live but that type of thinking ended with my grandfather's reign. He was convinced that we had to coexist for peace. Though he was stabbed in the back at one point, he still believed in that notion. My father was even more lenient and incredibly easy going. Having said that, there were still large and powerful groups who did not hold that ideal.
Getting back to the magic, I wondered what to show them.
"Hey, are you starting yet?" Gary asked excitedly.
"Shoosh, don't get too hyped up," Alicia reprimanded him but her eyes were sticking into me like daggers.
"It's magic! How can you not be excited?" He was right as even Sayuri was looking at me with a deeply motivated gaze.
"Then I'll make a start." After another short pause I smirked thinking of a prank. To make things a little more exciting I pulled my magic together as I expended my mana. Even for a Demon Lord I had exceptional amounts so there was little chance I'd exhaust myself. A ball of green light floated in my palm and their eyes lit up. With a slap I squished it and particles of light spread through the room.
"******************!" Gary cheered. Though I had no idea what he said.
"#############" Sayuri gasped looking at Gary.
"*********?" Alicia looked at me.
"I can't understand you now," I replied. They all looked at me shocked. I smiled and clicked my fingers. "There, how's that."
"Ah, I can understand you again. What did you do?" Alicia asked.
"I removed the spell that was placed on you before. It's a magic of understanding meaning and automatically translates intent through voice."
"You can do that?" Carl asked surprised.
"…." Damn it, he was right. A normal magician should have nowhere near enough skill to perform a technique to cancel a high order magic. "About that… please don't tell anyone I did that."
"Why?" Sayuri asked bluntly.
"Well… you could say what I did may have been a tad illegal."
"Then why did you do it?" Gary questioned while edging closer.
"I forgot."
"Right…." I could feel his image of me dropping.
"I wanted to do something cool so I over extended a little."
"It's fine, we won't tell anyone, right?" Carl said looking at everyone. Thank you Carl! I'm sorry for calling you naïve in my head. You truly uphold heroic values! The others nodded.
Gary looked disappointed however, "You said cool but it wasn't really that awesome."
I felt a twitch in my head, "Hey, I'll have you know what I just did was something only those well versed in magic could do."
"It still wasn't that cool. Right sis?"
Alicia looked at me apologetically "It was pretty but not that cool."
"Then what did you want to see?" I asked annoyed. I really shouldn't get too peeved, these 'Heroes' hadn't had any training so they couldn't really appreciate talent yet.
"Something big and fiery I guess."
I extended my hand to the side and a pillar of fire ignited measuring about a meter tall. They all jumped back in surprise. Eventually they settled and looked at the fire in my hands with curious entertainment.
"Amazing," Sayuri mumbled.
Humph, I smirked as they basked in my glory. I extended my other hand creating a ball of water also about a meter in diameter. They 'oooed' in interest. Controlling the two magics I had them meet in the middle to become a spiral of water and fire. Steam flew off into the air and then with a clap of my hands it vanished into a swirl of light. They started to applaud. Now that was more of the response I wanted.
"See, that was cool," Gary stood and looked at me with starry eyes. "Can we learn stuff like that?"
"As Heroes isn't it obvious that you can?" I replied.
Sayuri stood as well, "How long till we can learn something like that?"
I scratched my chin again. "What I did just then was many times easier than the spell I used at the start. With your potential as Heroes… by the end of the week I would guess."
"That soon?" Carlton said surprised. "We've never used magic before, are you sure?"
"You were all summoned here because of the mass of potential you are. Within a month you could definitely be stronger than most of the knights here."
"Then can you teach us now?" Sayuri grabbed my arm.
I was caught off guard by her sudden proposal. That and the look in her eyes was scary. Like she would do anything to get what she wanted. Maybe I shouldn't have had that talk with her earlier.
"No." I shook my head. "You'll have your own teachers. I'm not too great and I wouldn't want to get in the way of your future Masters." That and as the Demon Lord I had to hide just how powerful I could be. The magic humans and demons used, although they had the same roots, differed quite a bit. If I started teaching the Heroes, the King may get suspicious.
"When do we start training?"
"Tomorrow at the earliest I would guess. Saying that, it's getting late so we should get some rest till then." I tried to calm down her excitement with a soft smile. After an awkward silence that seemed to go on a little too long she looked away from me and walked to her own room.
"Haha I'm getting excited for this now," Gary smiled almost evilly. There was a thwack and he bent over in pain.
"Don't," Alicia said angrily, "We're risking our lives to kill an evil Demon Lord. We could die if we're not careful."
"But, can't I get even a little motivated?"
Before Alicia could say anything else I intervened, "It's alright to have fun while you're here but your sister is right. The 'Demon Lord' isn't a pushover. Not only that but this world has thing's worse than demons. There are monsters that don't care a bit about life, demon or human. You need to be careful."
"That's why we're going to train right?" Gary said still cheerful.
"Just go to sleep." Alicia kicked him towards his room and promptly went into her own, leaving only me and Carl in the lounge.
"Did you say monsters?" Carl asked with a shake.
"I did, don't you have monsters in your world?"
"We have animals, like cows and pigs but not monsters. Monsters are made up things."
"Well they're very real here. There are some that even the Demon Lord has trouble with."
Carl shook and an odd expression crossed his face.
"Hey are you okay?" I asked. Maybe I had said too much.
"It's just what you said before. It all just came crashing down on me. I'm not strong, I'm not a fighter. I acted all brave in front of the King and said I'd help but really all I can do is try. If anything, I may just get myself killed, or worse get everyone else killed."
I placed my hand on his shoulder, "And as Gary said before, that's why we're training. As a resident of this world I'm not going to let the Heroes I just met die so easily."
He seemed to calm down a bit and smiled to me sincerely, "Thanks, if you weren't here I think all of us would be freaking out right now."
"Don't give me all the credit," I laughed.
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
And with that I was left smiling by myself. Now that everyone else was gone, it was time to go exploring. After all it wasn't every day I could so easily gain access to the King's castle.
*
I made sure the other Heroes had fallen asleep before I left. There was always two servants waiting ready at all times just outside the door leading to the main palace. Near them were two knights as guards and two more were outside patrolling the grounds. The Heroes chambers were attached to the main palace by a single corridor. There was only one way in and one way out. The windows located in the lounge and our rooms were all sealed. If it weren't for the exceedingly fine set up, this place would have felt more like a prison.
Inside the palace wasn't a place where I could use magic all I wanted. It was the most secure place in Elsbeth. Just from the walk earlier to our chambers I could feel the immense amount of magic that had been put in place to monitor any possible danger. Still, it wasn't impenetrable, especially considering I was already inside. I easily walked to the exit, clicked my fingers and opened the door. The guards and servants were currently having a nap. They'd wake up once I left the area none the wiser. Now where should I start? I placed my hand on the ground and released my mana like a web. It was harder than I expected to remain undetected but soon I had a clear enough map of the palace.
There were many locations that interested me including the library and treasury but for now the most interesting was the hole in my view. Like a dark blur, I couldn't sense what was happening there. It was located deep within the palace. Whoever was keeping me out must have been a formidable magician. For someone who was putting so much effort in, it was only good manners to go and say hello, right?
My body hovered above the ground and gently cast me forward. I wasn't stealthy enough to quieten my footsteps. Now that I knew the layout, avoiding guards and servants was simple and I freely glided deeper through the maze of corridors. Seriously, it was a maze. If I couldn't use magic to make a mental map, I would have been lost till morning. Although if it hit that point I would probably just teleport back to the Heroes chambers.
It didn't take long to arrive at the source of interference and as soon as I did, it was clear why I couldn't see there. It was the King's office, which was directly connected to his own personal chamber. There were four knights outside the entrance. All of whom were significantly stronger than those I had passed previously. Along them stood a magician but there was at least two more life signs beyond the door. One would be the King and the other most likely the caster of the spell. Now that I was present it would be a shame not to eavesdrop a little. I mean, effort needs to be rewarded right?
I placed my hand on the wall. There was multiple layers of magic to prevent people from hearing into the room and even more were laid on to detect anyone trying to listen. It was clearly a challenge and challenges had to be accepted. Mana gathered around my hands and I sent it through the walls into the chamber. Using any normal spells would get me found out so I placed my ear to the wall and amplified the vibrations that were coming from the walls inside the King's office. Doing this I could hear what was being said, it wasn't too clear and I had to remove a lot of noise but it was more than enough to listen in.
"… I thought I made it clear to you to only summon Heroes from the other world and not this one." It was the King.
"Your highness, I apologise but you must understand summoning magic is temperamental at the best of times."
"It's inexcusable. Because of your mistake the Heroes almost found out there's no path home. To think you even summoned a magician from this world. If he's from the Klerical Kingdom there is no way we could trust him."
"I do not believe he is. If he was it would have been made clear already."
"Regardless I want as much information on him as possible. With him here handling the Heroes becomes more difficult."
"Then shall I suggest separating them?"
"…. No, for now let him stay where he is."
"Your highness please do not make such a face. All the Heroes were successfully summoned at a young age. Unlike before, their minds will be much easier to mould."
"I hope you're right. Our kingdom must retain control over the Heroes. Do the other Kingdoms know that the Heroes have been summoned?"
"For now there has been no mention but it has not even been one full day. At the very least we must expect an envoy from the Klerical Kingdom by the week's end."
"Of course. We must start training the Heroes as soon as possible. If they are ready I would like for them to start tomorrow even. Round up the instructors and I expect you yourself to be in charge of their tutelage in magic."
"Yes your highness."
"Also one last thing."
"Yes?"
"If the Hero from this world, Davios, becomes trouble, eliminate him before he becomes a threat. And be discrete."
"Of course."
I stopped listening. From here on I'd have to tread a bit more lightly. There was a rattle behind me and I vanished into the shadows as a servant came past.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone