Like Alice had promised, it took a long time for anything to happen. Three hours following their beginning time, Theo woke up and came down. As he had his breakfast, he remarked at how stupid Ronny was. Ronny wanted to comment but ignored the boy’s taunts in favor of proving him wrong. Alice had Theo join her in ‘throwing’ magic towards Ronny, which he begrudgingly agreed to.

Theo’s contributions, however lazy they may have been, were the thing that took Ronny over the edge. It was a faint sensation at first, like a soft breeze, but after another hour, it was more pronounced. He could differentiate where on his body the magic was hitting. Another hour later, he could feel a faint something emanating from the room around him. It was a weak sensation—barely noticeable—and an alien one, but there was definitely something.

It was in the sixth hour he made a breakthrough. It was as though a leaking faucet had turned to be fully open, and vague details like the general shape of the room or where the Theo and Alice were sitting appeared in his minds eye. Ronny wanted to jump up and claim success, but he waited for the System to congratulate him with an improvement to his magic stat. That came goal came to fruition halfway through the seventh hour.

“Magic increased to 1.”

“Passive Effect Added: Magic Detection (LEVEL 1).”

“Skill Added: Detect Life (LEVEL 1).”

Suddenly, he feel not just the presence of magic, but the intensity and magnitude as well. His hypothesis had been proven right. The System could let him accomplish thing unobtainable to others, and fully understood that now.

He turned his head to behind him—where Theo was sitting—and opened his eyes looking directly into at the boy, “Looks like you were wrong!” Ronny’s satisfied smile was the only genuine one that had graced his face over the past two days. Even though he had moved, Ronny’s vision of the mana around him didn’t dissipate.

“W-what the!?” Ronny looked to Alice, who was equally bewildered, “Has anyone ever done that before?”

“I… don’t think so?” Alice didn’t fully believe Ronny yet, and decided to test him. She put some small balls of magic above her head, “Um, Ronny? How many orbs of magic do you see right now?”

He took a second to count, “Thirteen, I think.”

Alice and Theo found their mouths agape.

Ronny chuckled at the dramatic reaction, “I told you this would happen, didn’t I?”

Alice collected herself, “Yeah but… I didn’t really believe you. I mean like, I’m pretty sure the oldest person to awaken their magic until now was like… 15 years old. If you really couldn’t use magic before, you’re like, one-in-a-billion—or something.”

“Maybe I am! Hopefully you believe the stuff I was telling you earlier now?” Ronny’s excited state was a far cry from the man that had come home the day before.

“I think so…” Alice shrugged, “It’s still far-fetched, but that definitely added some validity to it.”

Theo didn’t know what they were talking about, “And what is it that you two were talking about earlier?”

Ronny smirked, “Oh, nothing. You wouldn’t believe it anyways.”

“Tell me!”

“If you insist.” Ronny told him his story about the United States and his clothes, pointing out how tightly sewn his machine-made clothes were. Theo was apprehensive, especially since he hadn’t seen Ronny’s metamorphosis, but he didn’t call Ronny a liar. It would take a little more to convince the boy.

After Ronny ate, he and Alice began to pass the time with books. He read about magic while she read fiction. Theo on the other hand, wasn’t particularly interested in reading at that moment. He left the room, claiming that he was going to go back to sleep since he had nothing to do. Alice warned him to be careful and call if anything happened as he left. She probably knew that he was lying but didn’t say anything.

Theo had something much more interesting than his room in mind. He was going to the outlook on the roof. He wanted to see what had become of the city. After reaching the top of the stairs, he ascended a rickety ladder that led to the former watchtower’s top. He reached his destination and examined what had become of Barnock.

The city was much the same as it had been on the previous day, before the Demons arrived. If hadn’t seen them marching through the streets on the day before, Theo wouldn’t have believed that they had come. There were no fire-scorched buildings, no bloody corpses, not even broken windows—well, none that hadn’t been broken before. The only noticeable difference was the total absence of people on the streets. Even the drug addicts that lived out in the open on the alleyways seemed to have found refuge.

That bothered him. The Demons had numbered in the tens of thousands, if not much, much more than that. He’d seen them with his own eyes! But the evidence that they’d been there was sparse. The portion of the wall that Ronny had worked at was a pile of rubble, and the streets were a little messier than usual, but not by much.

A war was supposed to be a messy ordeal. Even if it had been an ambush, the corpses of fallen soldiers that had been nearby should have been strewn about on the streets, but there were none—none that he could see. Was the Demon Army that much stronger than Barnock’s? So powerful that it would be a farce to call the invasion a battle? Everything pointed to that.

He thought about exploring the streets alone. With magic, he could get down safely. It would be a novel experience to explore what looked to be an abandoned town. The temptation was strong, but he didn’t give in to it. He didn’t want Alice—and maybe even Ronny—to worry unnecessarily.

Ronny. In his mind, the man was an enigma. He’d never seen a man like him. The sight of a grown man crying unabashedly in front of others was something Theo had never seen before and the memory of it burned itself into his memories.

But that wasn’t all there was to the man. Ronny claimed to be from a world called Earth, and with his success in learning magic as an adult, had evidence to back up the claim. His clothes also backed up the claim, with the fabrics that formed them being sewn more neatly than anything Theo had seen before.

He didn’t want to believe Ronny’s claims, but a part of his mind had already accepted it as truth. The man was just too unique to be lying. In the middle of his thought, Theo noticed a few demons walking through the alleyway below. He hid as soon as he noticed them, going so far as to hold his breath.

They all between seven or eight feet tall, and had stocky, muscular builds to match. Their faces were sharp and angular while their horns were long and curved. Seeing them up close, Theo immediately understood that a regular human would never stand a chance against the beasts. There were three of them and they spoke to each other as they walked.

“Man, I still can’t believe how easy that was. I had fully expected low ranked guys like us to be goners, but… I guess not!” His voice was gruff, but cheerful.

“Yeah! I guess Prince Risitro was serious when he told us there wouldn’t be a single casualty if we followed his orders.”

“No joke, but who would have thought that he would do ALL of the fighting! Not even the elites got a chance to prove themselves.” The third demon’s voice expressed great admiration for their leader.

“Well that much is to be expected, I think. In all honesty, Risitro has probably already surpassed the King. He’s the leader our country needs in the peacetime.”

“Jozckner! You can’t say stuff like that. If the wrong people hear you saying something like that…”

“It’s just the three of us on patrol this morning, nobody’s here to tattle.” The demon added, “Plisker, you worry too much. The war is over! We can relax now.”

The stressed demon sighed, “We’re still in human territory, you know. Getting attacked by some random citizens isn’t out of the question.”

The first demon laughed wearily, “Again, you worry too much…”

As soon as the trio turned a corner, Theo bolted down the ladder. He’d been holding is breath the whole time, and when he got back inside, he took a few deep breaths of relief. He took a seat on the floor, back against the wall.

That was his first time seeing Demons up close. The first thing he noticed was that they were frighteningly human. Both in personality and appearance. They didn’t have wings like he’d been told they would, and they weren’t savage beasts like he’d been told they were.

In his mind, they were just another kind of people. Like humans, elves, and orcs. He realized that perhaps Demons weren’t as evil as he’d thought. After all, for the past few hundred years, the Guild has classified them as monsters. That meant that around the world, they were hunted like animals and exterminated like bugs. Now that the Demon King had organized them into a successful colony—which was what the Guild and the city called it even though ‘nation’ would have been more honest—it was only natural that they’d want to retaliate against their oppressors.

He almost began to sympathize with them, but when he reminded himself that they’d attacked the city, that emotion fell into the back of his mind. Even if they were people in the sense that everyone Theo knew was, they had still attacked Barnock and would cause massive instabilities in the future. Instabilities would result in famine and death; he knew that much.

♦

Risitro stood next to his childhood friend, Princess Madison. Around them were a mix of Demons, Barnock soldiers, and zombies. Going forwards, she would be installed as the Queen of Barnock and in doing so, would bring the city—and the nation surrounding it—into an era of peace between Demons and the other races.

That was the plan anyways. Risitro had trouble trusting her now that he’d seen her necromancy in person. She’d told him about it before but seeing it for himself was a depressing sight. It was sad to see her resort to such morally devoid methods, but he could only frown. Risitro was far too close to achieving his goals to turn his back on them now.

In front of them laid the corpse of King Grivelspyre. The man had put up an admirable fight, but in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to kill his daughter. Not even at the very end. Risitro was silently touched by the gesture, but Madison had only laughed at his foolishness when she cut his throat.

He didn’t know if had been the dark magic that corrupted his friend—or if she was just that determined to achieve her goals—but a part of him hated her for helping his army win the war without a single casualty. While her cooperation massively reduced casualties on both sides, he still left like she had betrayed her people.

When she told him about the damaged wall or the King’s location or any of the other national secrets she had, Risitro was thankful that less people would die but disappointed that she could betray the trust of her peers with so little hesitation. He wondered if she would do the same to him at some point.

“Congratulations, Madison. From now on, you’ll be the Queen of Barnock.”

“Indeed,” She wiped her still-bloody hands on her armor, “I suppose we can do the coronation this evening. With that, my rule will be ex cathedra.” Madison called over a group of human knights that were still loyal to her for some reason and told them to make the arrangements.