Dawn- An age of Darkness

  I still took my equipment from Dick though. He pouted a little but handed over everything without a fuss. 

Though the building looked kind of average, the hall was long. Too long. It had soldiers every corner though. 

\'So most of the soldiers were here, rather than patrolling? No wonder.\' It was nothing new though. Royalty were always selfish. Some were more than others, some less. 

I put both the stone inside my ring but kept the pendant as it always stayed, hanging down my waist. I kind of liked it and I never it\'d serve me like this. 

\'Is it possible that this was originally the property of that goddess? Then- Imazael could be-\' Her daughter, but wouldn\'t have meant that sealed goddess had cheated on her husband with an elf?

Gods and goddesses were weird, really. 

I got a lot, and I mean a lot of stares from soldiers. After traveling in this world for nearly eight or so months, I got the impression that people weren\'t that familiar with storage devices. The few that were available had way less space and were very, very expensive. 

So I had to be careful not to let anyone get near my ring, ever. 

It was more or less a spacious mansion carved inside the mountain. The architecture was good and all but it wasn\'t anything that grand either. 

"Please excuse the sorry state of my house but I assure you, there will be no stone left unturned in case of hospitality."

I guess this guy was an expert in reading body language. So much so, it was actually kind of frustrating. But that\'s why I didn\'t feel too uncomfortable around him, after all, all of this was probably just an act. 

"Don\'t worry. I\'m not expecting all that much. I just want to have a talk, get things done, and be on my way. Though I talk about doing good deeds and all that, I had a reason to come to this country." I tried testing the waters first. If I was wrong, I could have just made amends quickly. Besides, I had no comprehensive answer that the guy was faking all this. 

"Yes, I\'ve heard about your exploits. But that really was an interesting performance you showed back there." Well, that came out of nowhere. "I was almost convinced that you were one of those so-called righteous people."

And for once in my life, I was actually right. Definitely a grand achievement. 

"Not too bad yourself." I grinned. 

"Busted are well." He chuckled loudly. 

Meanwhile, I saw Alisa cringe a little while Dick giggled silently. Ve was just being Ve, no care in the world. 

Was it me, or was this hall, long?

"Welcome!" Maids and butlers all bowed and welcomed us, as the double door at the end of the hall opened. 

And just like that, the hallway ended. I had this nagging feeling that someone was always listening to my complaints. If so, how come he never helped me!

I really wanted to have a talk with him and smack him a couple of times. 

"Shall we speak over dinner?" The earl looked at me with calculative eyes. 

"I don\'t see why not."

It would be more like breakfast at this point though. 

"Please go rest then. We will prepare great food for you in the meantime. Would you like to share a room or have a personal one?"

"We\'ll share one." Dick wrapped an arm around me and answered. As much as I wanted to punch him, I knew he was right this time. We needed to have a proper talk first. 

I knew I woke up sometime after midnight but even now, I didn\'t actually feel tired. Or maybe that was because the sun was about to rise up or maybe I was just too excited?

I didn\'t know. 

With all the small talk out of the way, we were led to a large guesthouse and they even prepared the bathhouse for us. 

"I\'ll head out first," I said. 

"Right behind ya!" Dick was sure excited. 

But seeing, his, I wasn\'t anymore. 

Alisa didn\'t say a word and crawled under the sheets, while Ve sat on one of the beds. Talk about easygoing. 

***

It wasn\'t big and basically, it was just like a small pool barely able to fit two-three guys at most. 

This whole room was kind of small too. At least the water was cold. 

This was actually supposed to be winter and yet, this place felt like it was in the middle of summer. 

Obviously, I was spoiled in the royal bathhouse of Helsing, so this one didn\'t really entice me as much. And not to mention that time I had the bath all to my-

Oh shit, I just remembered something rather terrifying. Oh no…. the crossdresser-

I had to bleach my mind. 

We\'ll be back shortly!

***

"AHH…" Dick sunk into the bath. "This is a bit small but not bad. The baths in Demonica are a lot bigger though."

He\'d come here right after me. And for once, I was glad. At least I didn\'t have to live through that nightmare alone. 

"Tell, me, what are the demons like?" So instead, I just tried to distract my mind. 

I had to start somewhere. I couldn\'t just remain ignorant forever. As much as I hated the demons, I had to know about them. And since this was a distraction, two purple things with one knife. 

This reminded me, I\'d left that pink toddler with Alisa. \'I\'ll ask her later I guess.\'

Dick grinned. "Loads of kinds. But the general masses don\'t leave Demonica and are just land hoggers. The ones that do are either really high up there, or maybe just criminals on the run."

"But that doesn\'t make sense. I\'ve heard that demons raid villages and I even saw-"

"Demons \'used to\' raid villages. And I think you\'re referring to the Moire event? Yeah, I heard. As I said, either way high up there, in your case a Monarch, or maybe just criminals. Nowadays the emperor, kind of only goes to war for fun, rather than expanding his kingdom. And the demons can cultivate and grow their own food, so I don\'t see any reasons to go after humans anyway. "

Yeah, that sounded like the emperor alright. "Then why the hell is that worthless dick trying to start a war and telling us to fight him?"

Dick giggled. "Hey, that\'s my name you know." he chuckled loudly. "Fun, I guess?"

Fun my ass. 

"Actually, I\'ve often heard that the demons started the calendar of this world. And relatively in recent times too. Are they summoning people from a long time?"

"You realize that doesn\'t make sense, right? Anyway, I did see a lot of nice technology like we see in our world. But I don\'t think there were any summons before us in the course of the last two hundred years. I think there might have been some a millennia ago, though. But this emperor wasn\'t around at the time."

"Then I guess this is just the natural step and people no matter what world will adapt to something like this?" After all, this world had the term science and even steam engines, albeit kind of, but still, there were things similar to our world- my world. 

"Hmmm." Dick thought for a second. "I don\'t know. It could very well be that there are reincarnations. I mean, we were summoned to a new world and there\'s magic here. Anything\'s possible. It could even be a fact that we\'re from different worlds ourselves." He grinned. 

"Yeah, you watched too much stuff." I chuckled. But I couldn\'t ignore the possibility. "Or it could be that we\'re from the future and past?"

"You too." He chuckled too. 

"Laughing in the bath is bad manners." Ve walked in, totally bare like it was natural. 

Even Dick was wearing a towel around his waist, and so was I. 

But her? Nothing. 

"What are you doing?" I looked away and glared at Dick. He was glaring at the girl behind me though. 

"What do you mean? They said it was a three-person bath, so it should be fine." And with that said, she slid right next to me and entered the pool.

\'Stay calm, stay calm….\'

I was not calm. And the water was basically clear!

Dick had an enlightened look on his face as he stared right next to me.  "I knew you were too cute to be a guy. But, mah gawd, those are nice."

He didn\'t know? I never told him or Servesta, so I guess that was that. And Ve wore clothing like a girl now and people even referred to her as a girl. So how come this moron still thought she was a guy? 

Oh wait, it could have been that he was referring to before the bunny incident. It was plausible but I didn\'t have any reason to ask him about it.

"You want me to poke those two out?" Ve pointed at Dick\'s eyes.

Dick\'s look didn\'t even waver. He was in heaven.