“Open it up.” Demon Lord Oezu commands, taking a step back for good measure.

Telzen shakes his head. His Highness wouldn't deign to pull such a trick. He thinks.

Garl takes a deep breath and inserts the key onto the chest.

With bated breath, they watch as the chest opens up.

Garl's eyes widen. Inside a transparent sphere, there seemed to be a fiery, multicolored bird swimming, circling the orb. “My god. It's a phoenix spirit.” He exclaims.

Telzen looks to Oezu and gulps. To him this only meant one thing… If Oezu absorbed the phoenix spirit, he would essentially become indestructible, in many ways he would be invincible…

Oezu gulps down his saliva and closes his eyes. Slowly, tears begin to trickle out of his eyes.

Telzen’s eyes widen. “Are you crying!?” He exclaims.

Oezu opens his eyes and wipes his tears. “Telzen, you take the phoenix spirit. Come on, take one for the team.” He pleads.

Telzen’s eyes widen once again. “What! No! Are you crazy!? You take it!” He exclaims as he takes a step back.

Oezu looks to Garl. “Garl, come on. We’re both old friends.” He says, hoping to appeal to their history.

Garl simply looks away. “Did you guys hear something? I think there’s something wrong with my ears.” He says as he puts a finger in his ear to clear out a blockage.

Oezu closes his eyes once more as more tears stream out. “He wants to use me like a dish rag. Then, when I’m all used up, he doesn’t intend to let me go…” He says, stating the situation.

Telzen steps forward and pats Oezu’s shoulder. “It’s okay, brother. I’ll stand behind you no matter what.” He says.

“Why don’t you stand in front of me?” Oezu asks as he looks to Telzen.

“No way!” Telzen exclaims.

Garl couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

…

…

The next day, Myriam registered Arias for the academy. He had to take a test, but eventually, he was allowed to join his age group in class. Myriam was somewhat surprised. She thought that the boy would have to be tutored for a few months to become accepted. But this was more convenient; this way, he could join class right away.

Arias bows. “My name is Arias. I like baking and watching plays. I just watched the Masked Prince and it was great!” He announces to the class.

Immediately, a boisterous laughter erupts in the classroom.

“He said he likes baking!”

“And the Masked Prince! What a loser!”

“But he is quite pretty…”

“Okay, okay. That’s enough. Arias take your seat.” The teacher says.

And with that Arias was able to experience school life for the very first time… If he had to say, it was… tedious…

But there were various things that interested him. They discussed the ideology of the kingdom and different philosophies. He also quite enjoyed the kingdom’s history. It was fascinating to hear. Apparently the kingdom had produced many heroes in its time.

There were also many stories to process in the library. Stories of great battles, of love and loss. Arias spent many days indulging himself in these stories. He wasn’t sure if it was considered learning, but he felt he was growing greatly as a person.

Eventually… Arias turned 14… Or it looked like he turned 14… Arias had to adjust his body for the role, which was quite uncomfortable, but eventually he got used to it. Still, though, he’d prefer to be in his normal body.

Various things happened throughout the years. For the kingdom, the most important thing was that the demons from the Burned Man continent had begun their invasion on the Freeman continent.

Faced with a common enemy, it didn’t take long for the various kingdoms to unite and expel the demons out of the continent. The first few battles were won, but the leaders of these kingdoms knew; slowly but surely, the demons were creeping onto their territory from various trajectories. They didn’t doubt that the demons were working hard to seduce the people of the Freeman continent, their tendrils invading various spaces.

But Arias didn’t care about all that. These days, he spent his time quite leisurely, enjoying quite a bit of it. It would be years before the Burned Man continent had a solid foothold on the continent, so he still had time to spare.

Arias kept a close eye on Alice during this time. As a future threat, Arias would be sure to know his enemy, but unintentionally, he had become involved in Alice’s eagerness to become a hero. Arias had no choice but to teach Alice various things as she clung to him like a baby duckling. Slowly but surely, Alice was extracting a lot of knowledge from Arias. So much so that Arias had to repeatedly remind her to keep it a secret. Eventually, she even managed to get Arias to teach her magic. Arias could only let out an exasperated sigh as he was forced to raise his own doom.