Demon

On my way back from the classrooms today, I passed by a hanging. A crowd had gathered, so it was hard to see the poor fool at first. But once mineself saw him, I recognized him as a young man I had spoken to before. From the crowd his crime was shouted, a Demon.

It reminded me about the time we had run into that Demon Hunter, do ye remember? He had treated us with suspicion at first, until we told him our story. You were interested in his book at the time, forcing him to flip through pages. He showed you a few, all on the signs of demons. Perhaps I should have listened back then. Similarly to a clergy man and their sacred text, hunters live by their tomb, Malleus Daemonium.

I can't help but feel bad for Demons… They wander into this world, and are left naught but death as their fate. The boy had asked me many questions about magic. It truly is sad that they are such self-centered fools.

-Excerpt from the recovered journal of Absalon Ramorski.

♕♛♕♛♕♛♕

“Oh? You probably haven't heard of it, it's in another world after all.”

It took less than a second.

The Smoker who had sat next to me had somehow moved onto the table. He was now crouching in front of Yoshida, the unlit cigarette that had been in his mouth having been moved to his left hand, which pointed towards Yoshida’s face.

The two were close enough that their faces would have filled each other's entire view.

“Now listen ‘ere kid.” The Smoker begins. “ I’ma teach you a lesson, consider it a sort of demonstration for the job.”

“Huh.” Yoshida finally lets out, looking as if his mind has finally caught up with the situation.

“There are two main reasons you aren't dead.” The man, Locke Baldr, tells him. “The first is that necklace.” Locke moves his cigarette downwards and uses it to lift the seven-pointed star.

“Grr.” Eris, next to Yoshida, looks on with hesitation.

“This thin’ere means yer the property of the church.” Locke lets the pendant fall to Yoshida’s chest. “That makes i’so if I hurt you, I’m going to war with the church itself… and that wouldn't look good on my resume.”

“O-oh?” Yoshida lets out a short reply.

“And the second reason is I don’t wanna traumatise my daughter and her future classmates by knocking your head off right’ ere.” Locke stares at Yoshida. Moments feel like hours as the two are still.

“Tch, listen ere, kid,” Locke stands up on the table, then jumps on the floor next to Helia. “Don’t mention where u're from. Don’t hint at it. We here have a word for things like you.”

“... Demon,” Yoshida responded.

“Correct…” Locke moves his right hand to a pocket in his worn-out coat, pulling out a small book. “Listen, kid, for my daughter's sake, I'll tell you this once. If you ever see someone with this book, run.”

He holds up a small book, no bigger than his hand. The book is bound with basic brown leather with a simple design. The cover is cursed with the name Malleus Daemonium, spelt with the characters for hammer, person, and evil.

“Haah.” Locke finally looks away from Yoshida. He places the book back in the pocket it came from and pulls out a small box. It's mainly white except for the red lid.

“Is that..?” Yoshida begins to ask.

“You know em? I got them from someone like you.” Locke opens the rectangular box’s lid. In it is a singular cigarette. He takes the one he had out and places it back in the box.

“Dad…” Helia looks at him, worry clear on her face.

“I know, I know. I know how important this is to you, I ain't gonna to nothin.” Locke places his now free hand, which had just placed his box back in his pocket, on Helia’s head.

“Thank you,” Helia says.

“Well, i’ma grab somethin to eat, y'all should too. My treat.” Locke says, walking to the counter at the back of the room.

“Okay, everyone, I know we’re in a weird spot right now…” Helia looks over all of us. “But let's have some food and discuss what we’ll do going forward.

♕♛♕♛♕♛♕

In front of me is a plate of steaming fish.

“What did you get?” Manako whispers from beside me. Her voice is noticeably tired.

“The steamed sculptilis fish,” I tell her.

“Huh.” She says, continuing to look at it.

“Do you want to try it?”

Manako nods her head, bringing her fork from her plate and taking a piece of my fish.

“Do you two know each other?” Yoshida, who had just returned to the table, asks.

“No, we met earlier, in the alley.”

“Really? You two seem very close.”

“Huh?.. I think you're just imagining it.” There’s no way that’s true.

“... Wait, so you just happened to see her in the alley with that guy?”

“Yeah, basically.”

“But that alley was a dead end, and I'm pretty sure I saw you come from deeper in… what were you doing around that back alley?” He questions me further. I can see out of the corner of my eye that Manako is looking at me too.

I have no idea how to explain it… It’s not like teleportation happens all the time.

I had been keeping an eye on the veins for a while, but they had not returned to being white.

It’s almost as if someone had brought me there… wait.

My thoughts shift to earlier in the morning, and the strange conversation with the girl on the train. She had jumped out of the train and disappeared, not unlike what had happened to me. She had also asked about the man on the wanted poster…

“Manako?”

“Huh? Uh…” she hesitates to speak for a moment. “Yeah?”

“What that man was asking about... was it a person?”

“Um… like I said, I didn’t really pay attention, but… It was a place… what he showed me was a map.”

“Oh…” Seems there's no connection to that strange woman.

“You didn’t answer my question…” Yoshida says with a wry smile.

“I got lost.” I look down at my food; the one piece Manako had taken has turned into two.

“You got lost?”

“I get lost a lot.”

“So you're like Zoro?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh?! You know Zoro!?” Yoshida, shocked, stands up.

“...No, I was just hoping you’d stop bothering me, if I said yes,” I say, dejected.

“O-oh…” Yoshida says melancholy as he lowers back down into the booth

“...”

The three of us sit in silence for a while, until Eris returns with two plates of food.

“Thank you, I was getting hungry since it’s about lunch time…” Yoshida explains as he reaches for the closest plate.

“Nope, these are for me. Think about what you’ve done.” Eris says coldly, moving the plate away from him and placing them both in front of her.

“Wha!?!”

He looks almost more shocked than before.

“You’ve done nothing but cause trouble since we got here,” Eris says as she picks up half of her sandwich. “First, you run off, then you get covered in dirt, then you cause a scene, and immediately reveal the ONE thing they told you not to… Repent.”

“Ah, no. I'm sorry, okay… I’m just so overwhelmed by everything.” Yoshida puts his hands together.

“...” Eris eyes him for a moment. “No…”

“Please! Oh, beautiful women in front of me, let me have some food.”

“Beautiful women~? Fine, you can have some.” Eris relents, sliding him the half-taken sandwich.

“Thank you- Only half?!”

“H-hey,” Manako suddenly says, looking at Yoshida. Her eyes look once again like she’s looking at an ant.

“Y-yeah?”

“What- What happened after we ran away?” Manako asks.

“Oh, well… The man and I clashed, you two ran away, then he and I clashed a few more times…” Yoshida places the sandwich down. “ Then he just stopped. The dust settled and he simply said:”

“Alright, kid, let's stop here for today. Mineself has to go… But I feel compelled to tell you somethin. That thing around your neck, do not trust it too much. Well, see you soon, Kehahahaha.” Yoshida says, doing his best impression of the man.

“Then he just walked out. I tried to follow him, but some guards showed up and stopped me.” Yoshida picks up the sandwich. “They then blamed ME for the explosion YOU caused. I explained what happened, and we looked for you guys further in the alley, since I didn’t see the direction you two ran. And they let me go.”

Yoshida bites the sandwich.

“Heh, sorry about that…” I'm glad the guards know about that man, at least.

Manako looks less than pleased with what she has been told. She looks down at the salad on the table worriedly.

“Okay… Let's properly get started.” Helia says, returning to the table. Nerissa follows behind, sitting down on the same side she had before.

With her return, the seating arrangement (In the same order as before) is now: Nerissa, Eris, Yoshida, Me, and Manako. Locke had chosen to sit at a table in his lonesome on the opposite side of the room.

“Okay… While you all eat, let me speak about our situation.” Helia begins. “As you all know, the University of Saionia accepts all students of any race, status, or origin. Students ranging from farmers to future kings and queens attend the school's halls.”

“But there's a higher course, one that only the most talented and driven can attend. That is the Magus course.” Helia explains.

“Only a select few are scouted to attend, and even fewer can pass the entrance test.” Helia places her hands on the table. “ All of you have journeyed far to get here. I'm sure it wasn’t easy. But this is just the beginning, there's a reason this town is referred to as The Golden Gate.” Helia says, looking each of us in the eyes one by one.

“From here on out, things are gonna get tough… Our next step is…” Helia flamboyantly lifts her hands.

Gulp

The five of us at the table look at each other. Each of us is nervous about what she could say next.

“A two-day train ride!” Helia says, slamming her hands on the table

“““““THAT'S NOTHING!!!”””””