A day passed.

In such a short time, a lot happened. Alice announced that at least until the threat was dealt with, she’d be living at the Royal Palace. Ronny and Enzi joined her at the Palace for their own reasons, with both begrudgingly enlisting into the Royal Academy to stay there.

Sources said that by the end of the week, the Mythrills would arrive. When that happened, a lot of people would die. Alice included. Death was an unavoidable consequence of the approaching calamity, and that was understood.

Civilians hadn’t been formally informed of the upcoming events, but many were wise enough to know that The Guild would come. Hatred against Demons was quickly getting worse, as the fact that they had been given citizenship was what The Guild took issue with. Some got attacked in broad daylight, only for the guards to turn a blind eye.

That was Enzi’s motivation. He knew that if Barnock didn’t win, his life—and the lives of his kin—were over. In his mind though, there was little he could do. He was weak and he lamented on that fact.

Ronny’s motivation was Alice. He tried not to care if The Guild was going to eradicate every Demon because he still liked to think he hated them. Alice, on the other hand, he did care about. She was his first companion in the harsh world he found himself in and he didn’t know what he’d do if she died. That’s why he devised a plan of his own. A plan that revolved around both Enzi and him getting strong enough to fight Mythrill-level opponents in less than a week.

It would have been impossible for anyone else—and probably for him too—but he had to try. The plan was to go into the Dural Forest outside the walls every night and kill as many monsters as possible. If The System worked the way he thought it did, that approach was the fastest way to ‘power level’.

Getting Enzi onboard with it was difficult, but when Ronny offered him his entire salary, along with all the money he’d saved—he realized that Ronny was serious and decided to cooperate. The idea that a voice in Ronny’s head gave him superpowers and considered Enzi a ‘Team Member’ was hard to take in, but with how passionate Ronny was, he had no choice but to give it a shot. He chose not to take Ronny’s money.

♦

In Ronny’s mind, the barracks he had moved to were more like a hotel than a space-efficient sleeping facility. That was thanks to the fact that he and Enzi were considered ‘Knights-in-Training’, which got them preferential treatment to the other soldiers. They both got their own rooms that were adequately furnished for their respective sizes and coffee in the morning. It was a massive upgrade from The Inn, though perhaps a little less homely.

Ronny awoke to a notification from System that told him that he was Well Rested. It was the first time he’d gotten such a message in a few days, and it was reassuring to see. He got up and looked out of his window. It was a good view from there, and he could see far into the city.

Compared to the Warrens, the area was a different world. It was called ‘The First Ring’, and fanciful city houses belonging to various nobles defined the skyscape. The sun even seemed to shine brighter there. The inequality was jarring, but Ronny didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t like his home world was any better. He dressed himself in his well-tailored uniform and left for breakfast.

The Palace’s long, winding halls were almost as labyrinthian as the Warrens. He could have very easily gotten lost if he’d been trying to do so, but there was no need to waste time doing something like that. Instead, he used Detect Life, which gave him a vague outline of the areas where people were congregating. Once he got the direction, he just walked toward it, using the spell to correct his path at several points during the trip.

Eventually, he made it to the kitchen. Inside, there were about twenty other Knights-in-Training. Enzi was there too, sitting by himself. He was as far from the others as he could get. Ronny went to the counter and a servant served him a huge plate of ham, eggs, rice, bread, and coffee. It was the first time he’d had the opportunity to eat meat since he’d arrived, and his mouth watered at the sight of the platter.

After getting his food, we walked over to Enzi.

“Good morning.” Ronny didn’t comment on Enzi’s self-isolation.

The Demon’s tone was dull, “Morning.”

“How’s your morning been so far?”

“About as well as it could be going.” He took a slow, deliberate sip from his mug, “The food is good. The beds are too. So that’s nice.”

“Then why the drab look?”

“Well for one, our ‘peers’ don’t seem to care much for me. I am a demon after all.”

Ronny looked over to the other side of the room and examined them. They were all well-groomed teenagers of every race other than Demon. From their relatively excellent hygiene, as well as historical knowledge from the real world, they were probably the children of nobles. Queen Madison was probably just using them as glorified hostages to ensure loyalty from their parents. Ronny doubted that they’d been selected on merit but didn’t judge them for it because he knew that they were probably pressured into being there. He tried to console Enzi, “Well if you’re worried about befriending them, I’m sure the chance will arise.”

“I don’t care about that… since I’m only going to be here for a week at the max. After that, I’m off to greener pastures.” He sounded unsure of himself.

Ronny shoveled forkful of ham into his mouth. Having gone so long with just bread and a other, equally dull foods, the meat tasted better than it should have. He spoke with food in his mouth, “Well, it’s good that you’re not worrying about it too much. They’re just teenagers anyways, I don’t think you’re missing much.”

“I’m only nineteen, you know.”

That came as a surprise. Thanks to Enzi’s massive stature and low voice, Ronny had just assumed that he was about ten years older than that, “Well maybe you should try to be friends with them then? I don’t know.”

“We’ll see what happens, I guess.”

The breakfast ended when an instructor came in and told everyone in the room that their training was about to begin.