In 2008, a worm found its way inside the servers of the Military Central Command of America, stealing confidential information and sending those back to its unknown creator. The CIA tried fighting the worm, however, it took them 14 months to destroy it. The hacker who created that worm is my father. It was the reason why we left Japan; we were running away. I found that out two years ago when he forgot to turn off his computer. Incidentally, I was in my parents room, looking for a book about JAVA. Since then, my father became my mentor, both in programming and in hacking.

“I can’t believe I’ll ever think the idea of hacking in this world.” Looking around in the library, I was researching magic runes. “Now, if only I can understand the meaning behind every symbols in a rune then maybe I can program a computer.”

The musty smell of books lingered everywhere. It made me remember the addicting smell of papers coming out from photocopying machines. It was like a drug to me. The place were filled with books ranging from old and new, and because the area was huge, it would probably take me days to find what I was looking for. But, I won't give up.

“Time wis my worst enemy. The way I am now will just hold back the team. I need to be stronger.”

Four hours had already passed since I started. With Satrillo’s help, I found some books about magic runes, but it only gave me little details. Maybe because the Demon Kingdom focused their studies on curses after its discovery. I was busy reading when I saw Emily entered.

“H-Hiiro,” she spoke while looked down. “I-I was waiting for you, but it’s already night and… and...” As she switched her gaze on me, I saw a teary eyed Emily. “I thought you already left me.” Small droplets of tears fell from her eyes. “I-I don’t want to be alone. I… I...”

“Emily.” After seeing her eyes, I immediately walked towards her, and hugged her. “I’m sorry. I made you cry again.” I said as I moved away so I could wipe her tear. “Didn’t I already promised that I will never leave you?”

“But… But...” she spoke with a strangled voice.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to worry, I won’t leave you.”

After that, we had a conversation. Emily still didn’t know that I came from another world so I told her about it and the reason why I was at the library.

“T-then, please, let me help you.” Emily stammered while blushing. “I-I won’t be able to join you on the raid, and you’ve already done so much for me. S-so just this once, p-please, let me be your strength.”

Emily...

“Okay. Let’s go look for it together.”

After searching for three hours, we found a lot of sources. It was already midnight so I asked Emily to sleep. Reading the books, I learned basic and advance knowledge about magic. However, there was still something missing.

If I want to create a computer then magic runes is not enough. I need something to process all the codes, and another thing to store those data.

Fortunately, both of these exist in this castle. There’s only one thing I needed to do, create a magic tool.

Based on what I read, for a mage to cast spells faster, it uses a magic tool to store pre-constructed runes in its catalyst (memory). And when a mage voices the incantation (run the program), the tool will process the rune (code) and execute the spell. Luckily, there was someone I suspected to be an expert in this field, the living magic tool, Satrillo.

Morning came, I asked Satrillo’s help about magic tools. In order to protect Emily, I told him that I needed to be stronger. He agreed, and invited me again to the storeroom. We were having a conversation while climbing down the stairs.

“Satrillo-san, can I ask you something? What happened to the previous war?”

“Hmmm... Let’s see.” He turned around to face me. “I was not born in Demon Kingdom so I can only provide you with what I know.”

Even though the Human Kingdom found greater power, it was not enough to win the war. This only resulted to years of stalemate between the two Kingdoms, killing thousands of lives, both civilian and not. To avoid more bloodshed, the two Kings decided to have a treaty ending the decade long battle. Eteria once again gained peace.

“Based on what I heard, there used to be a Summit occurring every year,” Satrillo added. “There, the two countries traded resources and knowledge with other. They also discussed things about maintaining peace and order.”

“Used to? Why did they stopped?”

“It was sixteen years ago when a huge explosion occurred while the Summit was ongoing,” Satillo answered. “The investigation suspected that it was a terrorist attack, however, they found zero evidence to support this claim. Since the venue was located in the Demon Kingdom, the humans suspected that it was an inside job by them. However, the explosives found were modernized bomb made by the humans. Thus, creating a crack between the citizens of the two kingdoms. As far as I know, right now, the two kingdoms are not in bad terms with each other, but they are not in good terms either.”

“Then how about the Kings? They wanted peace right? Can’t they do nothing about this?”

“They can’t, Hiiro.” Satrillo gazed at me with a serious look. “The explosion killed both the Demon King and the King of the Humans.”

After that we continued walking to the storeroom. Both of us never spoke a single word. The place was filled with silence; the only thing I could hear was the small droplets of water coming from above. It all makes sense now. I’ve been here in this world for a long time, yet never once I heard any news regarding the current Demon King. Because there was no longer a King. But there was something that was bothering me. The day of the attack was the same year Emily was born.

Is it just a coincidence? There’s a small gap between the months though. What is her connection to this event?

After we finally reached the storeroom, Satrillo instructed me what I needed.

First is the design. What I want is a portable device that I can effortlessly hide. It must look like an everyday accessory so no one will suspect it. Hackers work in secret after all. After minutes of brainstorming, there was only one object I could think of,and it was a ring. In this world, it is normal for people to die wearing one and not able to remove it, so me wearing a ring is okay.

Second is the catalyst. In theory, if I’m going to make a computer, I need to have a memory able to store large amount of data. Lucky for me, the castle have plenty of these. The only problem was that since rings were small, it could only use little catalysts. I can wear more rings, but I doubt it’s enough. Then, I thought of another idea. The magic tool I want does not need to be small, rather it must not look suspicious. There was another thing that could fill this requirement, clothes.

When I came to this world, I never once wore anything. Maybe because I became a skeleton that I have nothing to hide anymore; I got accustomed to being naked all the time. A skeleton wearing a robe is also normal in this world. But, since I like the idea of rings, I decided to use them both.

After I told Satrillo my ideas, he asked me to wait for a week so he could assemble the base of the magic tools. Seven days seemed to be long, considering I have roughly 30 days till the raid. But, I still hadn’t master rune writing yet, so I decided to study at the library for a while. Occasionally, Emily and Satrillo visited and helped me on my research.

A week had passed, Dullahan went to the Demon Council meeting. By this time, I learned all things I needed about rune writing. Not that I memorized everything, rather I understand them. The reason I liked math was because I didn’t need to remember everything; I only needed to understand how it was derived by recalling only a few formulas. Using that logic, I was able to learn rune writing like mastering a Programming Language.

It was nighttime when Satrillo handed the magic tools to me; Robyn also arrived from her mission. Based on what Satrillo told me, it seemed the Village of the Necromancers had been entirely annihilated. Piles of necromancer corpses were everywhere, but among those bodies two important person were missing, Oliver and the village Chieftain. However, she couldn't find out who was the culprit for the attack.

“The king suspects that it’s caused by the Shadow Purgatory,” Satrillo spoke. “It’s the reason why we’re going to raid Dr. Albrecht lab, to look for evidence.

“But what happens if the Shadow Purgatory is innocent? Or if the culprit is really the Human Kingdom.”

“Then we have no choice but to start preparing for a war,” he replied.

After our conversation, I went inside the library. There, I started applying everything I learned, and programmed runes after runes in the magic tools. It took me about three weeks to finish the Alpha, but it was still not 100 percent complete.

Outside the castle, I was testing my program.

“Execute Project: Zero!” Bright lights flashed around me as the robe I was wearing enveloped my body, transforming to a robotic exoskeleton. The black suit covered everything from my skull to my feet. A one-way mirror was placed in front of my eyes allowing me to see. “The design is a bit plain, but I'll fix that later. This is embarrassing. I look like some sort of hero from a children’s show.”

Should I make some explosions every time I transform?

“No. No. No. It doesn't make sense.”

“H-Hiiro? W-what is that?” A girl ran towards me; it was Emily who was watching nearby. “Y-you're H-Hiiro, right?”

“Yes, I am Hiiro. Sorry, I don’t have a name for this yet, though, I might just call it ‘Zero’.” As I slightly raised my hands, my gaze turned to my palms. “This suit should amplify my abilities, including speed, strength and mana. It borrows energy from its surroundings so I don’t have to worry about using up all of my mana. It should also help me with my problem casting a rune.”

“Hiiro.” It was Aria who also came. Satrillo and Lucie were also present. “Can you show us what it can do?”

Hmm. Let see. I don’t think a basic spell is enough to showcase this.

“Let’s try this one.” Pointing my right hand towards a trees, I concentrated on an advance spell. “Ahm, you might want to move away for a moment. I still haven’t tested this so it might be dangerous.” Suddenly, runes kept appearing in front of me, all of which having unique designs. “INFERNO!!!” As I shouted those words, a powerful explosion occurred. However, it didn’t hit the tree, rather, it exploded in my position.

“Hiiro!!!” Everyone yelled as they ran towards me.

“Hiiro, please tell me you’re okay?” Emily begged while holding me. “Please...”

“Emily, I’m okay. The suit protected me from explosion.” Immediately, I stood to prove what I said. “See. I can even jump just fine.”

“I hate you,” Emily cried. “I was... too worried. That was… a powerful spell.. I thought… you was gone,” she stammered as her speech was interrupted by her sudden hiccups.

“I’m sorry.”

Well, it’s okay I guess. It’s normal for programs to fail at first try. I’m just glad the defense mechanism worked fine. I need to finish this quickly, there’s only three days till the raid.

In the forest, two figures were talking with each other.

“Ne ne, Onii-chan. Why are you looking at your phone?” It was a voice coming from little girl with long ears.

“I just received the information for the next job.” It was a man wearing black hooded-jacket. “In three days, I’m going to infiltrate and destroy a certain lab.”

“What do you mean ‘I’? I’m also coming,” the girl replied.

“It’s too dangerous for you. I’m going alone.”

“I wanna join. I wanna join. I wanna join,” The girl cried on the ground while repeatedly shouting these words.

“Shut up, you stupid kid. It’s final! You’re not coming. You wait for me here.”

“I am not a kid! I’m already 22 years old.” the girl shouted back.

“Shut up, you brat! According to Elven Law, you’re still a kid.”

As she heard those words, tears fell from the her eyes. “Baka Onii-chan! I hate you! When I turn to an adult, I won’t talk to you even if you begged for me!” The girl screamed as she walked away while stopping her feet.

“Who cares? I’m probably dead when that time comes.”

“That child’s really a handful. Huh.” It was a voice of another woman speaking inside the man’s head.

Now I regret saving her from assassins. [the voice of the man.]

Oh really? Your speech that time was marvelous though, ‘I’m not a hero, I don’t save princesses. I’m a criminal, I steal them.’ [the voice of the woman]

S-shut up, you ancient dragon. [the voice of the man]

Hoh. You have some nerve calling me old. When I retrieve my body back, I’m going to burn you alive. [the voice of the woman]

Try it if you can, Old woman [the voice of the man.]