Angels and Demons

“Of course!” I said.

She smiled, as the wind fluttered her hair and maid dress.

“Then I’m grateful for every moment leading me here. And I hope we don’t get eaten by a magic beast now that we are outside of the protection of the city’s walls. Although… for some reason… under these stars… I feel like nothing wrong will happen… For the first time in my life… I feel… optimistic! Even when knowing everything bad that can happen, the good seems more important, even when less probable.”

“You’re starting to get the adventurers’ spirit!”

“Am I?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s go on an adventure!”

“It has already started.”

“Hehe. You’re right.”

And so we went deep into the open field, until we found a barn, we stayed the rest of the night there and left before they noticed us.

Then we reached a small town, and while eating something in a tavern, Sofia started teaching me the basics of magic—preparing to return to the city on Friday.

“Conventional magic centers around manifesting energy into matter, there’s also the other way around, but although it’s much much more efficient, it’s extremely difficult to control, so it usually ends in disaster and more times than not, in the caster’s death. That’s why ancient wars were so destructive. So never try to do something like that, ok?”

“Got it, I’ll remember it.”

“You better do, anyway, there’s elements that are naturally more intuitive for us to understand and control, the four basic ones being: fire, water, wind, and earth. You can combine them at will and there’s also others, light and darkness for example. Since the last Great War which divided the demon kingdom from the human world and the angel’s realm, angelical and demonic magic has been lost to humans, but there have been attempts to replicate them using darkness and light as substitutes.”

“Hum… so I should focus on mastering the four basic elements then?”

“Are you crazy??? We’ll be lucky if you can learn 2 or 3 spells in such a short amount of time.”

“Oh… I see…”

“Regardless, the first step is to be able to use your mana, then we’ll worry about controlling it, and then we’ll worry about the spells.”

“I think I can already use and somewhat control my mana.”

“Have you been through magic training? There’s no way a human who has not mindfully meditated and trained can gain access to their…” She stared at me for a couple of seconds. “Wait… those purple eyes… are they purple from birth…?”

“How else can someone have purple eyes…? Do contact lenses exist in this world?”

“Contact lenses?” She tilted her head in confusion.

“Sorry I was thinking out loud, yeah my eyes are this color from birth.”

“You should’ve said so earlier! Forget about the prerequisites, we’ll start right now! We lost so much time… we could’ve started since we left Zéphuros.” She stood up. “Oh… well… when we finish our food.” She sat and continued eating.

“Are there people with purple eyes who weren’t born with them?”

“Do we live in the same universe? Of course! It’s very common.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know much about the world, hehe… Could you explain in more detail?”

“Well… When the Great War ended, some demons and some angels decided to stay in the human world, disclaiming their powers, turning into high-mana humans, the descendants of those who used to be demons or angels were born with shades of purple and yellow eyes respectively, but as time passed the concentration of mana in the descendants became gradually lower, until they were no longer born with said eyes, eventually we reached the point where we thought no more babies with this condition were gonna be born. You might be the last one!”

“Then… your amber eyes…?”

“I wasn’t born with them, they manifest whenever someone with the dormant genes gets sufficient exposure to mana, So it’s not that uncommon. I’m just a normal human who happened to have an angel in their lineage, my mana is even lower than the average…”

“Huh, then I can confidently say my wife is an angel?”

She blushed. dropping her spoon.

“I’m… not your wife yet…”

“Then my fiancé.”

“I guess you could say that…” She toyed with her spoon.

I stood up.

“Hey everyone! I’m getting married to an angel! My fiancé is an angel!”

The crowd went wild, food and liquor everywhere, wishing us a happy marriage—A good excuse for a good time.

“Does that mean free rounds for everyone?” Someone yelled.

“Of course! Enjoy free drinks until we leave this place!”

“YEAAAHHHH!!” Everyone went wild.

Flustered, she stuttered: “Do we have that much money?! I’m basically broke after the trip to Zéphuros”

“Do you think I would do something like this if I didn’t have money? Who do you think I am!—Hey everyone? Who do you think I am?”

“Who?!” Everyone asked, as the chaos continued.

“I’m none other than the husband of the cutest angel who could possibly exist!”

“*Yeah!*” they cheered.

Everyone kept cheering. And she blushed even more.

I shouldn’t tell her my mom gave me obscene amounts of money the day we left Notos for me to enjoy the capital…

“Is there any monk here?” I asked, scanning the room.

“Right… hic… Here… hic.” A man stood, tilting, spilling some of his drink.

“Perfect! Everyone! You are all invited to our wedding—it will be held… Today!

“Wait a second!” She grabbed me from the shirt.

“What’s up?”

“We can’t get married today!”

“Why not?”

“I don’t have a wedding dress… We don’t have any rings… And… I’m not mentally ready… being watched by all these people…”

“You heard her, everyone! It’ll be rescheduled!”

“Aww…” The crowd unanimously disappointed.

“But Sofia. Whenever you’re ready, remember, all these people want to be part of your happiness. So from now on, you’ll never be alone again even when you think you are. Yeah?”

“Thank you… I’ll remember it.”

After paying for everyone's drinks, we left the tavern and started the magic training.