“Angie,” Solomon said getting back on track. “Are you afraid of the Witch?”

“Of course I’m afraid! All I’ve fought is monsters and bandits at this point. There’s no way I could fight a Witch with the power to enslave an entire species and come out alive. I’m not a god!”

“How are you so stupi—” Cale Aster started saying, but shut up when he got a sharp look from Solomon. He floated a little higher, attempting to get out of the Demon’s reach. “Never mind. Just gonna hang out up here, out of everyone’s reach. Don’t mind me.”

Solomon sighed and crouched down, drawing a line in the hand with his finger. On the left side he put a 1 and on the right he put a 200. I crouched down to watch, Dignity doing the same, confused but curious.

“In our world,” He began teaching, “The world is divided many different ways. One way is by using Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Attributes. If someone is skilled in a few of those attributes they are average.” He started creating diagonal lines across the horizontal one. He had a total of 6 lines evenly spaced out. He pointed to the second line to the left. “This is the average. This one to the right is above average and so on.” He went all the way to the right, to the very last line before the 200. “This is where the Regnal’s start.”

The line looked like this:

1 — | — | — | — | — | — | — 200

A AA R

“Where’s Dignity on this?”

Solomon pointed to just to the right of the “above average” line.

I chuckled and gently pushed Dignity. “Smarty pants.”

Dignity giggled and blushed.

“That’s only by one measure, mind you. He’d be stronger by other methods of measurements.”

“What about you?”

Smirking, Solomon drew another line with an arrow that went PAST the 200 mark and made a circle. “Some where over here.”

1 — | — | — | — | — | — | — 200 —————> o

A AA R

I blinked several times. “H-how is that even possible…?”

“Because I was already powerful at birth and I’ve lived a very long time since then.”

“Really? How old are you then?”

He thought about it for a bit, “Do you know, it’s been so long since I’ve thought about my age I’ve genuinely forgotten?”

“…that’s, um. How do you forget—?” After some mumbling I finally settled on, “You don’t look that old.”

“He’s actually a decrepit old fart, ya know! Practically legendary in the right circles.” Cale Aster added cheerily from above, apparently still listening despite the distance. “But even being a powerful old man, the moment he got punted out of the world stage, everyone forgot him.”

“Just because I’ve lived longer than you doesn’t make me decrepit, old, or flatulent.” He gave the fairy a disapproving frown but then sighed sadly. “But the rest is sadly accurate. Really. So disappointing. After all this time, I thought my reputation had more staying power.”

“You were always pretty sneaky, even back in the day. If you work in the shadows you die in the shadows too.”

“That’s… surprisingly insightful coming from you.”

“Excuse you, just because I’m still young and handsome—unlike some people—doesn’t mean I haven’t been around enough to know my stuff.”

“..I’m just going to pretend you didn’t say that.” Solomon mumbled grumpily and then returned his attention to me. “Now as I said… anything beyond this line,” He pointed at the second to last line on the right, “Is classified as a Regnal, right? I hope you see how obviously powerful a person on this end is compared to everyone else.” He pointed at the 200 number at the end of the line. “And you are right here.”

“That… I don’t think that’s right.” I frowned. “I mean, I know I’m physically more powerful than I was in my world, but I’m not… I’m not this Regnal-powerful. I don’t feel like it anyway. I mean, how can you even be sure? Maybe you’re mistaken?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Oh, I very much doubt I’m mistaken.”

“What do you mean?”

“I Observed you shortly after meeting you. Anyone who can Observe properly would notice the same thing.”

“Can’t anyone observe me if they see me?” The way he was phrasing it was weird and I knew I was missing something.

“Ah, no. You need to be at least above average in your intelligence, wisdom, and spirit. And when you start, you can only do simple observations. The first, most obvious being physical attributes, then later mental, and the very last spiritual.

The gap between mental and spiritual is quite large. Most people never get there, no matter where they are on this line. So while a large portion may observe your physical attributes, which are quite impressive to begin with I might add, fewer would know your mental and a select few would only see the spiritual.

The nuisance above us has unfortunately mastered this, to a degree that even impresses me.” He pointed to Cale Aster above us.

The fairy gave a cheeky grin and waved.

“Oh. You’re not talking about simple observation then, you mean something like a skill.”

“Not “like a skill”, I am referring to a skill. Why would I be talking about anything else?”

“S-sorry.” I blushed under my mask. “People could only use skills in certain places on my world, otherwise it wasn’t possible. I’m not use to being able to use them everywhere.”

“Location specific? How annoying.”

“Annoying AND interesting! Tell me more!” Cale Aster was skipping in the air, inching closer in his excitement.

“No.” Solomon said firmly, waving his hand in a “shoo” motion. “Talk about it later. You’ll have the time.”

“Aw…” The fairy stopped skipping and started floating side-ways, listless. “You’re no fun.”

“Anyway, I know how powerful you are based on what I see through Observe. You are definitely a Regnal, by every method except perhaps raw experience. You are new to this world and you just don’t know much. I’m working to fill that gap.” That was code for forcing me to study. I’d foolishly thought all those books were for him and Atlas. Luckily he couldn’t see my grimace under the mask. “My point about all this: even though the Witch is a Regnal, the chances are slim she is more powerful than I am. Not many have lived as long as I have. And even if she were, three Regnals against one makes things extremely lopsided in our favor. It will be hard, of course, but the chances of dying are low.”

“And if that is not enough,” He looked me dead in the eye, utterly serious. “Rest assured I will simply not allow her to kill you. I will not allow it to happen. Trust me, Angie. You will be fine. I would not have agreed otherwise.”

Still crouching, I clutched my knees for a moment, thinking. I looked at the line in the sand and back at Solomon. That little circle was so far to the right.

There was no other way I could think of it: Demon Prince Solomon was a “world ending” Boss. The kind of big boss you fight in games that requires several parties to destroy. And I’d stumbled upon him while under a curse and wished him into being my best friend. No wonder he threw such a horrible tantrum when we first met. He was use to being the top-dog and he’d been reduced to a Princess in a Tower. (Really, how powerful was that person who cursed him?)

What the frick? I thought my luck was horrible, but being stuck in that forest might have been the best thing that ever happened to me. If I’d had to wander the world by myself, right at the beginning with no understanding of how anything worked, I’d have been screwed.

I gave a firm nod.

“Right, I do trust you.”

I then smacked him on the shoulder.

“Friendship term number 5—”

“What? Why?!” He gave me a wide-eyed horrified stare.

“—don’t make life threatening or life altering decisions all on your own. At least check with me first.” I paused and added: “Of course don’t wait to check with me if your trying to save someone and have to make decisions on the fly. That could get you killed and I don’t want that either.”

He grumbled. “I wish you’d just forget about those terms…”

“What terms?” The fairy asked from above.

“It’s just part of the deal I made with Angie.” Solomon waved his hand dismissively and then stood up, straightening his shirt with a tug. “Well, lets finished loading the wagon. We’ve got a long trip ahead of us.”

And indeed we did. Sacrington, the country we were currently in, was shaped like an ax. It was wide on the top and narrow on the bottom. So while it only took two weeks by foot to get to Sagewind to the east or Pabril to the West, it took a month and a half by wagon to get out-of-country in the south.

Ben and Atlas were “conversing” when we got back.

“—I’m just saying, they aren’t all bad. You can’t judge a whole nation by what the military does. Or even just a part of the military.”

Atlas, with his hands in white-knuckled shaking fists, retorted, “And I’m j-just saying I don’t c-care if the majority are s-saints. The m-minority that aren’t r-rule them and f-fight for them. I hope they all burn in the depths.”

“…Sorry about the hold up guys.” I interrupted awkwardly. I felt like I’d walked into the middle of a really nasty argument.

Ben looked up at us, relief clearly written all over his face. Atlas, however, looked sullen and annoyed. Oh boy, this kid… I hadn’t pressured him about his past. I’m not a therapist, I don’t know how to help someone through that kind of trauma. I was worried my meddling might make it worse. But after hearing that I really wondered if I needed to sit down and talk to him even if I had no special training.

Solomon clapped his hands, as if to get everyone’s attention. “We’ve come to an agreement. Let’s finish loading and be on our way, shall we? We’ve got a long journey and I’d rather get this started sooner than later.”

Atlas gave Ben a rather nasty look before turning around, picking a random package off the ground, and grumpily getting into the wagon to put it away.

Cale Aster floated over to Ben, eying the elf curiously. “What’d you do to tick him off?”

“I didn’t mean to.” Ben gave a sad sigh, shoulders slumping. “He seems to think everyone in the Sagewind Empire is some kind of monster.”

The fairy sat on Ben’s head, treating it like a chair. “Eh? The Sagewind Empire is nice, isn’t it? Why’d he even think that?”

“The Sagewind Empire killed his family.” I said, feeling the need to defend Atlas’ behavior.

Ben blanched and Cale Aster whistled. The Fairy looked down at his human friend and commented: “Put your foot in horse**** there, didn’tcha?”

———

After loading the sportswagon, we immediately set out to leave the city. Solomon “drove” the sportswagon, taking turns showing everyone how to do so as well, except Cale Aster (who he didn’t trust). The fairy complained loudly about it but Solomon refused to yield. The fairy eventually grumpily complied to the demon’s wishes. (I suspected Cale Aster was actually a little afraid of Solomon, so didn’t push his luck.)

Solomon’s reasoning for teaching the rest of us how to drive was as follows: “If you think I’m driving us the entire way south, you’re all delusional. I’m not some servant!”

I was really anxious about letting Atlas and Dignity drive. Atlas wasn’t even 15 years old yet (in my world that was the earliest you could get a driver’s permit) and Dignity looks like a 6 year old (though it was hard to say whether his appearance reflected his actual age). Wouldn’t people find it a little weird to have a child driving? Or is that just me?

I really don’t understand the ethics of this world sometimes.

The road south was in far better repair than the northern roads we’d been on. At least a half mile outside the city was wide cobblestone, making the ride somewhat smoother. Even once it turned to dirt, it was clear they made efforts to fill in holes so the bumps weren’t so dangerous (ie, “accidentally bite your tongue off” kind of danger).

The other thing was the roads were pretty busy all the way down. I’d barely seen anyone in the north on the roads until we were close to the city, and the people I’d seen were mostly human. This road was not only bustling, the kinds of wagons and drivers were much more diverse and in much better shape.

Dwarves and elves mixed heavily with the human population. I wondered where the non-human races hid themselves, because within the city proper I hadn’t seen this many. I gawked openly and only my mask saved me from appearing rude to everyone driving by.

Humorously, our sportswagon got quite a few admiring stares. There was even an occasional “Where’d you buy that?!” from passerby’s. While Solomon’s face remained mostly neutral to the attention, I occasionally saw a glint in his eye and a smug smile tug at his lips.

I humorously thought, “Show off!”

The first day passed by without anything of interest happening, but the second day we came to a sizable fork in the road. I had assumed we’d be taking the main road all the way down but Solomon turned us onto the smaller side road.

“Why are we turning off the main road?” I asked, surprised.

“I’ve been thinking, we need to do some training.”

I tilted my head in confusion.

“I’m confident we won’t lose, but I’d rather our fight be short. The shorter the better. For that we’ll need to practice fighting as a group. This road passes nearby several towns that have been hiring adventurers to fight local monsters. We won’t get much money for it, but we’ll get practice.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Wow, you really thought that out. Why didn’t you mention it sooner?”

“Hm? I wasn’t trying to hide it, if that’s what you’re implying. It just wasn’t worth mentioning.”

I sighed. Right, right. Demon nature: don’t mention things until you absolutely have to, and none of my terms technically prohibited him from behaving that way.

“Anyway, training is important. Especially if we’ve got a fairy in our group.”

“What’s Cale Aster have to do with it?”

“Fairies are notoriously difficult to work with, even when they’re bound by an oath. They just do whatever they want, and if you’re not prepared to fight with a wild card like that, it can cause major problems.”

“Ooh… oh! I didn’t know that.” I thought for a moment.

“You know, I’m really glad we became friends. You’re really smart and forward thinking. I’ve always been a “go with the flow” kind of person. Without you, I’d be lost trying to figure anything out.” I gave him a cheerful pat on the shoulder. “Seriously, thank you. Thanks for all the hard work you do.”

He blinked rapidly, as if surprised. Coughing, he turned his head, and mumbled awkwardly: “O-of course, who do you think I am?”

Goodness! What was with that reaction? Does he think I take him for granted? I felt a little guilty. Maybe I should express my gratitude more often from now on.

As I’m taking note of my own behavior, we start down the less used road.

“I’m going to let everyone else know, ok?”

“Bring Atlas up here after you do.”

“Sure.”

As we traveled we rotated driving for practice. I use the term “driving” fairly loosely at this point. The Merchant wagons had simple enchantments and required the driver steer it at all times. I’d assumed all enchanted wagons were like that.

But this sportswagon was not only fancier than that, in some ways it was actually better than mechanical cars from my world. It actually had a “self driving” system. Granted, it was a simplistic: it only worked on single roads at low speeds. When it came to a cross roads or a large object it would simple stop moving and wait for the driver to decide what to do. This made it useless in cities crowded with people and millions of alleys, but it was great for long stretches of country roads.

Ah, even though I’d objected at first. I was starting to really like this sportswagon. Magic really has it’s benefits!

The side road we’d taken was a single, low traffic road. We could set a speed and let the wagon do the bulk of the driving. But Solomon (and I whole heartedly agreed with him) didn’t believe it was safe to depend too much on the self-driving feature, and required someone be up front at all times.

And, by the way, Dignity ended up being the best driver out of all of us (except Solomon). I understood why Solomon didn’t have any problems letting him drive now, despite being so childlike in size: Kobold’s nature was service. Train them to do something, and they’d do it really well. Dignity, being extra intelligent for his kind, was even quicker at picking up tasks.

Well, uh, good for him then!

Solomon had decided sometime ago that magic would be part of Atlas’ “fake” education. His logic for why seemed a bit forced if you ask me (”If I’m going to do something, I’m not going halfway.”), but since it was beneficial to the elf I didn’t point that out. Whenever Atlas was practicing “driving”, Solomon would sit outside with him and have him practice magic too.

I eavesdropped a lot during these lessons, since I had no formal education on magic (despite being able to use it) and was interested in the process.

First, Solomon figured out Atlas’ base magic affinity. Teachers started from affinity because it was easier and then work to the other magic types later. Solomom used his Observe skill to figure out Atlas’ affinity, but there were enchanted tools that could be used too.

Secondly, the Teacher had the Student attempt three basic “spells”. Each spell corresponded with a type of magical “class”: mage, warrior, and enchanter. People generally had a natural talent for certain classes. And just like affinities, it was easier to start with the one you had a natural talent for.

And lastly: lots of practice. I guess magic was like anything else: if you wanted to get good at you, hard work was required. There are no short cuts (er, I don’t count obviously). Though, and this is just my observation, based on Atlas’ progression, the amount of time you dedicate to practicing magic directly correlated to how powerful you could become.

This definitely explains why Solomon is so powerful. If your spiritual power dictates the complexity of magic you could use at the beginning, but time was required to perfect it, then a very old being would be extremely powerful. Especially compared to humans, who had a limited time to learn.

Hm? In that case, is that what gods are in this world? Purely spiritual beings with a lot of time on their hands? Does that mean, if Solomon lives long enough, he’d eventually be a god?

“Hey Solomon?” I asked at a rare moment when no one was nearby to listen.

“Hm?”

“How long do demons live?”

His brow furrowed. “I’m not really sure. Surface dwelling demons usually die unnatural deaths or get tossed back into the underworld. And contact with the underworld is limited. Why do you ask?”

“I was just curious…” Giving a weak chuckle, I made a verbal hasty retreat.

…oh boy.

I mean, I’d gotten hints of his reputation before our deal was made, and I suspected if he was left to his own druthers he’d almost certainly end up being an evil-type god. At best a Loki-type god. In fact, all Demons would end up that way, most likely. No wonder Angels went out of their way to keep them in line. “Demon Gods” is a terrifying thought.

…

Yeah, let’s not dwell on that too much.

Moving on, Atlas is a mage who specializes in fire (a subset of energy). I was told that’s standard for elves, which surprised me. In my world, elves are usually forest people into nature. Fire is the total opposite of that. Well, I guess that explains why the Sagewind Empire was able to expand like it did. Lots of well trained fire mages ready to burn towns to cinders.

The second day we camped out rather than finding a Way Station. We wouldn’t usually do something that unsafe, but Cale Aster was extremely impatient about seeing my face under my mask and was getting impossible to deal with because of it. I couldn’t tell if he was just personally curious or if not being able to blab everything to Ben was driving him crazy. Possibly both. Either way, the safest place to show my face was out in the middle of no where.

After we’d had a nice dinner, I awkwardly got everyone’s attention by saying: “Er, right. Ben and Cale Aster. Since we’re going to be traveling together for a while… it’s probably best if you see my face.”

Cale Aster’s face lit up and he pumped his fist in excitement, saying “YES” as he did. Ben had the decency to only look mildly curious. Thank you, Ben.

“Just—” I liked my lips nervously as I reached for my mask. “—promise not to scream, ok?”

And I took off my mask.

I have to admit watching Cale Aster’s reaction was fun. His eye’s somehow tripled in size and he had to cover his mouth to muffle any sound. He actually flipped backward in the air, he was so surprised.

Ben’s whole body tilted back slightly, his jaw tensing and his lips turning very flat and thin from keeping his mouth shut.

Sigh. At least they didn’t scream. That’s better than the responses I’d gotten so far.

After a moment, Ben managed to control himself enough to ask, “A-are you perhaps cursed?”

I slapped my forehead with my hand. “No, I’m Mewnin. It’s a race of people. Mewnin aren’t monsters, they’re cute. CUTE. It’s a blessing to be as cute as a Mewnin.” These people have no taste! NO TASTE AT ALL.

“To **** with that! That’s a monster’s face! Who’d think you’re cute? What drugs are you on?!” Cale Aster had recovered enough that he could finally speak. Yes, I’d actually shocked him into momentary silence.

“Look, don’t you guys have cats or dogs in this world? Think of a human combined with a cute dog or cat. That’s a Mewnin.”

“Looking like a dog or cat wouldn’t make you cute, it’d make you a monster! Only monsters are a weird mish-mash like that. It’s not natural. It’s monstrous. M-o-n-s-t-e-r-o-u-s.” The fairy retorted, in equal proportions amused and confused by my explanation.

My shoulders slumped. Whatever. With a mental death grip, I continued in the firm belief that Mewnins were actually cute. The fact that if a Mewnin was caught walking around in my own world would get called a monster too, I completely ignored. Yep. I was in total denial but I didn’t care.

“Anyway..” I rubbed the side of my forehead, feeling a slight headache coming on from this well-worn, but stressful, topic. “…I’m Mewnin. As far as I know, I’m the only one. There are no other’s like me. And the reason is because I don’t come from this world.”

Ben’s eyebrows raised. “What do you mean, “not from this world”?”

“Hm? Exactly what I said? I’m literally not from around here, not anywhere. I wasn’t born on this planet. I was minding my own business at home, fell asleep, and woke up in the middle of a forest. I’ve been stuck here trying to find a way home since then. Dignity and Solomon have been helping me.”

“T-that’s… that’s amazing.” The young man’s eye grew round and sympathetic but also… excited? “I’ve never heard of anything like that happening before—” He reached into his bag, grabbing a pile of papers and a quill pen with some ink, mumbling, “A Monster Knight lost their way…”

“Eh, what’re you—?” I began to ask.

“Song.” Ben cut me off, as he scribbled furiously on the paper. “This would make a great song.”

Oh right. Ben was a real musician. He could play and write music. There was no standardized musical notes in this world, from what I’d gleaned from light conversation with him. So Ben was not only making his own music, but he’d created his own unique writing system for music. And he’d created a totally new genre of music, on top of that.

I had a few years of singing in a choir under my belt, so I understood basics about reading music. I’d also taken an extracurricular class during highschool on classical music. I was the sort of person who knew just enough to understand a musical genius when I saw one, without being one myself. And Ben Grave was a musical genius. Definitely.

Cale Aster gave a slight chuckle and shrugged. “He’s gonna be useless ‘till he’s done.”

“Really?” I tilted my head, impressed.

“Yep. He’s always been like that. Totally loses himself. He’s sadly average as far as humans go with magic, but his skill with music is amazing. It’s a good thing I met him when he was just starting out, imagine how boring he’d sound with out my advice?”

I gave a grunt and kept my face neutral. I’d heard all about that. The reason Ben had such a unique sound was entirely Cale Aster’s fault. The fairy believed the only way to beat the Witch was to break the enchantment on the other fairies. And since his spell had been broken by Ben’s music, he believed that Ben’s music could break the spell on the other fairies too.

The problem was that Ben was a totally normal human being. He just didn’t have the raw power required to do what Cale Aster wanted. He needed his music amplified and enchantments on his instrument to offset the “problem”. And that’s where they were stuck. Cale Aster could easily amplify Ben’s music, and do a few other things, but the exact effect they needed for enchantments was elusive.

My Lucky Cat had given Cale Aster hope. The enchantment on it was fundamentally different from anything he’d ever seen before and he thought by learning it he could finally get an enchantment to beat the Witch.

The moment we’d started traveling, he’d asked me for other items like the Lucky Cat. At first I’d pulled out low level trinkets, since I was wary of the fairy. But after five of those it was clear he was just researching. He’d simply touch them and mutter for a long while before requesting more. Eventually I went through 100 random objects in my pack. I even let him touch my armor and cloak, since those had enchantments on them too.

He reminded me a little bit of a programmer trying to figure out a bug in the code.

Anyway. The music Ben was playing was so different because it was suppose to be the exact opposite of the Witch’s tunes. Basically, she played smooth gentle music so Cale Aster had Ben playing something jarring and fast. I mean, I liked it, but I felt bad for Ben. He was being put into poverty because his music was too different and Cale Aster wouldn’t let him play anything else.

At least let Ben play normal music to make a living, you selfish little fairy!

Anyway, I guess it’s a good thing Ben’s so obsessed with music. Rather than being truly bothered by me like I’d expected, he was more interested in “my story”. I didn’t know it then, but that’s pretty much how it would be with Ben. Music was his life, and he would do just about anything in pursuit of it. Befriend a bullying fairy, fight a Witch, and even travel with a “monster knight”.