**Kurstwood. One week after Diane’s departure from Versailles

The stone crunched under the impact of Lieutenant Septimus’s boots as he dismounted his horse in the center of the village. His knights were returning from quickly scouting around the perimeter. Septimus looked around, taking in the scene before him, his eyes pouring over every detail in the midday sun.

One of his team leaders, Sergeant Alain Dufount, approached. “Sir, we have concluded that there are no hostile creatures left in the village This had to be the work of that thing that came through during the summoning ritual.” The knight shuddered in disgust.

“So it would seem. However, some things do not match up here. Tell me, Alain, were you able to find any bodies? Or any other creatures at all?”

Alain looked over at Hal’s slowly rotting corpse, and then to the remains of the other two knights within the circle of the village square.

“Other than the ones here… no. Actually, now that you mention it, the fact that these bodies were left untouched is also quite strange.”

“It is indeed. Do you remember the girl’s report back in Versailles?”

“No, sir. I may have forgotten.”

“One weeks’ liberty deducted for drinking instead of reading the report. You are a professional knight, here on an investigation from His Majesty himself.”

Sergeant Alain grimaced and hung his head in shame. “Yes, sir.”

“For your refresher, this is where her team fought the demon, as she called it.”

“Well, that makes sense of all this devastation”

“Does it? A demon that would have cleared out the entire rest of the village, and yet left the rest of these bodies here unscathed? Look, are you telling me that this crater matches up with the destruction of the rest of the village? Then compare the blood stains themselves— you can see where the sheering of the rock has cut through the old, dried blood. But the fresh blood has poured over the edge of the crater and hardened.”

Alain tried to swallow, as his throat started to turn dry. He knew the lieutenant was sharp, but he had picked up this much information without even using his magic skills.

“Now then, let’s get a better look, shall we? History, unveil your secrets to me, let neither light nor shadow impair my search. Trace!”

Septimus’s eyes opened wide. Everything he was looking for, it was here! Even after a week… so much residue of dark, demonic energy. It came from near the fountain, near the tracks of the carriage. Then, another cluster, a little farther from the carriage. It looked just like the energy called from the summoning ritual. Then, following the path to the crater, he saw something… interesting. The residue of a different demon. However, only the footprints were there, and at first it seemed like a determined advance before it ran. Clearly it did not make it very far before it got caught up and taken into whatever made that blast. That girl, and her stupid father! More must have happened than she’d let on. Even then… for a demon from Ebenheim to have come all the way out here… his investigation was only beginning.

Upon returning to Versailles, he found that the duke and his men had already begun to march to war. His knights asked around the town, trying to find where the daughter of Vermillion went, and they were able to confirm that she had gone to Archion to see the king.

Unfortunately, it led him to the wrong daughter of Duke Vermillion—Antoinette Culaine. By this time, the war between the houses was entering full swing and Diane’s trail had long gone cold.

Stanley had always been a man of conscience, albeit a little lazy and not the brightest person. He was absolutely plain in every respect, with a face that was easily lost in the crowd. His lack of talent had kept him stuck in a dead end office job for most of his life, answering phones, sorting papers, reading papers, and sending summaries of those papers to people who would summarize them again, before sending them to someone else to proofread and finally deliver them to the person who would make a decision on them.

Such a life would turn any man to drinking. Eventually, one night he drank too much and hit the road, and the last thing he remembered was swerving off the road. Next thing he knew, he woke up in Anastasia.

When he first wandered into the town of magic, he was absolutely ecstatic, having read stories of great adventure all his life. Soon, he would learn, the stories were just that… pleasantries to help the masses escape the pain of their reality. Here, all he found was suffering, and then more suffering. He couldn’t speak to anyone, and the work was grueling.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He then tried to become an adventurer, but there he learned he was not special. Others used him, treated him as nothing more than a meat shield or baggage carrier. By then, he had finally learned enough of the language to get by. That is when he found a job recruitment poster. ‘Njord Adventurer’s Guild is hiring! Office worker positions available! Safe, dull work environment filing paperwork and submitting reports.’

It was a dream come true. Something he knew how to do, a way to escape the roughness of everyday life. So he took the job. For a while, it was great. He had everything he wanted. At least, that was until he started noticing something strange happening. Ever since that girl Diane arrived, data he compiled was reviewed, and a lot of key things from it went missing. He started making some secret copies, just to make sure he wasn’t crazy, and started seeing that the information reported was… adjusted. Then, there were the demographic reports sent by the city guard. Apparently, there were some small reports about less orphans being found around town. However, nobody pressed to much about it, but once reaching the guild, at the very least an investigation quest should have been issued. Instead, those reports just… disappeared.

Then, he started to notice another trail. People who had asked questions about it… disappeared. But eventually, their death reports disappeared from the records or were also adjusted. Something was up, someone was hiding something. Stanley knew it had to be someone important in the guild, so he decided to take his compiled documents and try to sneak out of the city with them. He had to get his reports to the guild master!

“Ah, quite a pleasant night for a walk, isn’t it, Stanley?”

The guards on the south gate had fortunately been sleeping, so he had slipped quietly past them. However, he had not expected to run in to the branch manager in the middle of the road.

“Do you know how long ago it was I came to this world?”

Stanley kept silent. He noticed that, for some reason, the branch manager was holding a small package of meat.

“Fifteen years ago today, if I recall right. At the time, I was summoned by a very sad little man with big dreams. Mr. Eric von Straught, he begged me to help him become a branch manager in the Adventurers Guild! I could hardly believe it, such a scrawny and pathetic man, with dreams far too big for himself!”

Stanley did not like where this was going. He did not like it at all.

“But then… he told me, he was willing to offer anything to be able to make it here. Now that is something I would have to be… heartless to refuse. Ahaahaha!”

Sheer malice radiated from Baal as he continued his speech.

“Then, just as I was getting bored, worried I was missing out on all the fun back home, something interesting came to me. A little girl, determined to be an adventurer. That on its own is not much, but here is the kicker—she was originally a failure with no future, who was contracted to none other than my master! Can you believe it? I have so much I want to say to him, so much I want to know! But there is an iron law where I come from, passed down from my oldest ancestors after their birth, and the only demons to have ever spoken with Dagon himself. His instructions were simple—to build a nation worthy of him, and that from that moment on, they were to never disturb him in his room. Any who did, he promised, would certainly die by his hand without thought or mercy. Now, do you know why I am telling you this, Stanley?”

“B-b-b-because you’re going to kill me?”

“Wrong! Well, half wrong. You are still going to die. Hehehe, well, have fun, my dear Stanley. This is why I like recruiting your kind to work for me, you always know just enough to keep things fun for me!”

As he spoke those last words, Baal removed his hood, revealing two thick horns curling over his head, much like those of a bull. His black and red skin and infernal smile were revealed. Stanley began to realize that the entire time, the robe was magically enchanted to make it appear as if there was human face underneath the hood.

.

Thistleman had been preparing his book for months now, and he was certain that it was ready for Diane. He wasn’t sure how fast she would pick up the skills, but if needed, he could just make another book later. He decided to pack in a few of the essentials, basics to help any demon get by in the world. Could a human learn demon skills? Well… that was another thing he had to find out.

He had described six different skills, illustrated with the best artwork he was capable of. At their most basic, their benefits were decent but nothing spectacular. However, once they were fully mastered, each of these skills could become quite terrifying. Diane already gained access to Demon Sight and Demonic Fury through the nature of the contract and her own temperament. Gaining these additional skills would be much harder. The skills he planned for her were Shadow Step, Demonic Resistance, Infusion, Devour Life, Devil’s Ray, and Concealment.

Shadow Step used mana to improve speed. It could also be used to move between areas of darkness and shadow. Demonic Resistance was much simpler in comparison, as that one simply involved using a demonic aura to reinforce the skin to protect from blows.

Then there was Infusion which involved assigning elemental magic properties to weapons and armor. This skill was highly draining in terms of mana usage. While contracted to Thistleman, Diane would be able to use the skill for far longer than most other adventurers.

Devour Life drained the energy or soul of the target, but the hard part there would be convincing Diane to change her mindset to agree to wield the skill.

Last were Devil’s Ray and Concealment. Devil’s Ray delivered a powerful, precision blast of dark energy and Concealment used mana to diffuse light around the caster. At the higher levels, Concealment could turn the user completely invisible.

Now, for the hard part—making sure that Diane discovered the book in a believable way. After some careful thought, and checking the guild quest boards, he was eventually able to come up with a suitable solution. First, he needed to acquire a treasure chest. Then, he would need to manually age it a bit, before slipping it into an ogre cave. Well, it ought to work. From what he had overheard in his short stay in Njord so far, adventurers rarely questioned what they found in such places. Now how to point Diane in the right direction…