“I grew up on the streets of Alerith.” Bernice started.

“I thought you came from the Imperial Cloud Meadow?”

“My parents were refugees. We lived on the north side of the continent, alongside the corrupted lands of the demons. Our city was ransacked by demons, and we barely managed to escape. They tried to conscript my father to fight in the military. It wasn’t that my father was a coward. It was just that the Imperial Cloud Meadow has very little in upward mobility. No matter how well my father fought, he would never be anything more than a commoner in the army. He wanted better for us.” Bernice explained.

“So, you came down to Aberis?”

“It was a few years after Demon Lord Aberis had been defeated, and with the forming of a new country, that brought new opportunities. Not only was it safer fighting down here, but dad would have a chance of becoming a Knight. That had always been his dream. So, we gave everything and traveled south, eventually ending up in Alerith. A lot of refugees were moving back then. The demon lord was far more aggressive with gaining territory and spreading his corruption. When you wanted to get rid of demons, you fled as south as you could go. That meant Aberis. My family ended up in a city filled with refugees. There was nowhere to live, this was even before the taxation for owning property was ridiculous.”

It seemed to be a pattern that living in cities was extremely difficult in Aberis. The Capital only accepted knights and higher. For Alerith, you could get a place if you had the money, but becoming a knight would have been the only way to get property in a city without the money of some successful merchant or dungeon diver. Perhaps that was why Chalm was growing so quickly. Few places offered intercity housing for nearly free.

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“Did your father succeed?”

She gave a short nod. “They started a program for raising and selecting knights, and my father was excepted into it. Afterward… is behavior started to change.”

“The demon knight tokens…”

“My father was one of the first test subjects.” She lowered her eyes. “I only found out about it since becoming Lord Reign. One of the first things I did was look into the program.”

“I’m sorry…”

“My father disappeared and left, and my mother grew ill and infirmed. When I had only myself to depend on, that’s when I changed my identity. A girl alone on the streets only had a few opportunities available to her. So, I called myself Bernard and started to act like a man. To earn money, I participated in underground fighting, dungeon diving, and dangerous adventuring missions. I still wasn’t able to save my mother from dying.”

“That’s… so sad,” Alysia said the words running through my mind.

“Eventually, as if by chance, a demon appeared in the streets of Alerith. There had been rumors about it for months, soldiers suddenly turning into feral demons and attacking people on the streets. It was the final phase of Lord Reign’s token research. I happened to be at the right place at the right time to encounter a demon attack. A whole hoard of soldiers turned at the same time. We fought, and I survived after a difficult battle. That’s when I was called the Demon-slaying Hero. I believe that one of the demons I had killed, was none other than my father!”