"Are you hungry, your highness?"

"...I'm not."

"Un-understood."

Looking through the window of a carriage, I was admiring the scenery.

The high metallic buildings reflecting the sunlight, the loud crowds of people moving around in a hurry, the food stands that would attract people from the crowds, and the busy shopkeepers in them preparing all kinds of different foods.

It all looked interesting to me, from the street vagrants, looking for a target to steal from, to the dirty ground they walked on.

I was enjoying this journey quite a bit so far, even if I had been sitting here for the last five hours, I felt like even ten hours would not be enough to make me sick of it.

But if there was something I was dissatisfied with, it would have to be the coachmen. For the last two hours he has been bothering me about food and water, distracting me from watching my little fantasy play out…

Well, I guess I can't really hate him for it, even without sensing his emotions, his nervousness was written on his face. Taking a prince on a seven hour journey to a military base close to the border, anyone would be nervou-

*krrrrr*

…Maybe he was just hungry.

*******

After a full seven hour journey, and a small break, I finally arrived at the base. I ignored the now not so nervous stagecoach and left the carriage.

"Ah, wait!"

Hearing the shout from behind me made me flinch a bit, but I turned around all the same.

"What is it?"

"You forgot your book."

He handed me a fancy looking, thick, white book, with golden decorations all around it.

Right, I wanted to try looking into it this evening. But this is the first time I heard someone call it just a book. I guess people around here aren't very religious? Though I'm not one to talk, considering I haven't read it myself.

Before I lost myself any more, I looked at the building ahead of me.

Unlike the buildings in the capital, it was fairly short but also a lot wider than them.

It was made of a pitch black metal that emitted a colorful glean. Although I was a bit tired of buildings made to reflect the sun, this one at least had some color to it.

I looked behind me happily, the sun, which was always directly above me, now looked much more distant. The grayish black clouds were still everywhere I could see, but seeing the sun this far from me, made me wonder, wouldn't I be able to see beyond the clouds too, someday?

In a good mood, I walked towards the black building, going through a couple of checkup stations that let me pass after I showed them the letter I brought with me.

The people at the checkup stations didn't treat me as a prince at all, but being treated normally felt a lot better than being shown fake respect, like what the palace servants always did.

At the building's empty entrance, a tan lone elder stood, probably waiting for me. He had on him a grayish black uniform, with symbols of the clouds on it. On his chest was a white medal that had three horizontal lines and a big V symbol connecting them.

Although his hair and beard were completely white and his face was full of wrinkles, his body looked full of strength and his clear brown eyes showed practically boundless vigor.

"I welcome you to the 3rd border base of Draxus' secondary army, Prince Dhaar. My name is Sper, and I will be your combat instructor from tomorrow onwards."

Although he was talking respectfully, not all of it seemed fake.

"It's nice to meet you instructor Sper, you can just address me as Dhaar, it really isn't necessary to let everyone know about me."

Did I sound too formal? Well it is my first time meeting him, let's just hope my desire was conveyed clearly…

"Hmm? I was going to ask you to keep you being a prince a secret here, but I guess I know your answer now?"

"Oh, gladly. But, for you at least, is there really a reason to do so?"

"Well, all demons covet what you royals are made of, and at the moment no one knows what the 5th prince looks like, so the military thought it would be a good idea to hide you being here."

Right, any demon would covet my essence, I never thought much about it, since I was always surrounded by the highest grade anti demon runes, I guess I need to be more careful here. But then again, why would they only tell me this now?

"Why not convey this in the letter you sent me?"

A slight frown formed on his face.

"Well, not to sound too rude, but the other princes don't have much of a reputation of staying in the palace, and we didn't want to agitate the king by writing that we will ignore your being a prince in an official letter."

"That's fair I guess, haha…"

Aside from Mel, which I haven't heard from in five years, I had never even seen the first and fourth princes.

"Mm, before I show you around, have you eaten dinner yet?"

"Not much…"

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Although the stagecoach ordered quite a lot of food for me, perhaps as thanks, I would never turn down new outside food.

At my response, Sper directed his essence into a silver armband on his right hand, with a bunch of runes on it. As one of the runes lit up with a flash of purple, he brought it close to his mouth.

"Prepare a plate of this evening's dinner, and deliver it to room 386."

"Got it."

After a confirmation came out of the armband, Sper stopped directing his essence into it, and the purple turned dull again.

A communication device? I heard of them from Mel, mostly in the form of him complaining to me that they can't work long distance.

"It will already be there when you get there, let's go."

"Ah, yes."

I followed after him into a long corridor, and the first thing I noticed were the ceiling runes. They had a much dimmer shade of white than the ceiling runes in the palace. Rather, I thought I saw brighter runes on some buildings in the capital. Were the runes here that much worse?

"Umm, Sper? Are the runes here not that good…?"

He looked at me for a second, before letting out a sigh.

"Most of our military bases, including this one, are made entirely out of Vergil metal, and virgil metal naturally reflects the sun's white essence to its surroundings, as such, any rune we write on it will be partially ejected, becoming dimmer."

White essence… it's written in documents like that, but outside of them I only heard the servants and guards calling it holy essence. I should really get used to it already.

"Does that mean the effects against demons are stronger than those of the palace runes?"

"I'm not sure how strong the palace runes are, but I'd say if you completely fill every wall of a building with decent anti demon runes, it would give a stronger effect than Vergil."

"Then why…?"

"Although a building chock full of hundreds of runes would definitely keep most demons away, it won't keep any demon that can withstand white essence away. Vergil has a bit of all different essences, minus white and black, constantly spinning inside of it, and the metal rejects any essence that isn't its own."

If it rejects all essence, then does it mean demons who can turn incorporeal, or ones which use projections won't be able to go through it?

At that point, a particular demon's face popped into my head. Even a demon as carefree as him would complain about it, right? Would he even be able to follow me here?

An amused smile creeped onto my face.

"In simpler words, we use Vergil to keep strong demons from passing through the walls, making it easier to defend this place."

Before I knew it, I was standing before a door that opened up into another corridor, one that was a lot livelier than the last. Soldiers were walking around holding documents and entering or exiting the countless doors on both sides of the corridor. Some doors opened to offices filled with cabinets, while others were closed shut with dust on their handles, the soldiers avoided them as much as they could, always moving to the other side of the corridor whenever they were close to one.

The soldiers seemed so focused on avoiding the closed doors that they didn't even notice us. Sper did not care about the doors, and he didn't even glance at the soldiers which didn't notice their superior, as he continued in a straight line.

"Is there something bad beyond the doors?"

"Not really, those doors are just heavily infused with essence, making their effects a bit stronger than that of normal Vergil."

"...A bit?"

I looked at the terrified soldiers, and decided I would be a bit more careful as well.

After walking enough that the amount of soldiers in the halls shrunk, we took a right to reach a large room, which had a wide podium in its middle surrounded by close to a hundred seats.

"This will be your training hall for the next year, be sure to remember the way from here on so you can find it in the morning."

Are there this many nobles here? As I haven't felt nervous in a long time, it gave me quite a bit of enjoyment.

After a few more minutes of us silently walking, he showed me to a dining room much larger than the one in the palace, it was quite empty apart from the occasional soldier on cleaning duty. Those ones did greet Sper.

Following him for another minute, we arrived at another corridor with many doors, with each door having a number plate on it. No door was open this time, and I couldn't see any soldiers in the corridor.

"This is the higher living section, where the commanders and other high ranking army officials live. The nobles sent here to train also live here."

Before long, I noticed the door with plate number 386, and Sper stopped beside it before turning to look at me.

"This will be all, the dining room will open at 6:00 and close at 20:00. Training will start at 8:00, though it will be more learning than training tomorrow. A few uniforms are prepared for you in your room, you should know how to clean them with essence at least, right?"

Does he think I'm that clueless…?

"I do."

"Good, any more questions?"

"Not at the moment."

"I will see you tomorrow then.. oh, I'll have to ask for your understanding if people around here aren't too knowledgeable about the sun scriptures."

He looked at the book in my hands, and said gently.

"Oh, I do not know much about it myself, I only took it here so I could try reading it in my free time…"

As surprise colored his face, he turned around.

"A trait you and Zeke both shared it seems… I'll see you tomorrow."

Zeke? Is he talking about Ezekiel? From what Mel told me he should be close to seventy by now… How old is Sper for him to know Ezekiel…?

Taking a quick look at his departing back, I cleared my mind and entered my room.

The room's layout was quite simple. There was a small bed at the edge of the room with a closet in front of it, there was a table in the middle and on top of it a plate full of porridge. On the side opposite to the bed was a door to the washroom, with a toilet and a shower.

Although there was no window in the room, it didn't feel stuffy. And as I looked at the ceiling and wall runes, I indeed noticed a few different from normal. I couldn't read them though.

But none of it mattered to me at the moment. There was something I've been planning to do ever since I got here after all. Some may call me obsessed for only thinking of it, while others might curse my carelessness, but none of it mattered to me.

I sat at the table, and started eating… and then finished in a minute.

I guess it was fine. Not too excited about my next meal here though…

At least it had a different taste than what I usually eat. But, what do I do with the plate now?

I sat there for a couple of seconds, looking at the now empty plate, before looking at a clock on the wall above me.

[20:47]

I guess I should try reading a bit before preparing to sleep? As I turned to look at the the book I threw on my bed earlier, I noticed-

"You have an awful taste in books, Dhaar."

"Par…"

The pitch black demon was sitting on my bed, reading the sun scriptures. So much for that Vergil…

"What do you want, Par?"

"You should know what I want."

"You want an answer?"

"As impatient as I am, even I wouldn't expect you to decide after a day. I was bored."

Of course he was bored.

"I have to say, as much as this book is stupid, it is very well decorated."

Before he could say any more, I took the book from him.

"Oh? It wasn't like I was going to steal it or anything…"

"Why do you hate it so much anyway? The book."

"I'm guessing you haven't read it? It doesn't speak very kindly of demons to say the least."

"Nor do most humans, do you hate them as well?"

"It's one thing to hate me because of what I do, it's another to hate me because of what you think I do."

With an exaggerated frown on his face, he spoke as if he was a tragic victim.

"But demons still eat people's essence to become stronger, right?"

"Sure."

I stopped looking at him, and opened the book in my hands.

"Nothing more?"

Without even giving him a glance, I flipped through it.

"Pretending to read it now? Boring. I'll see you tomorrow I guess."

Without uttering a second sound, he disappeared from place.

Was it really that easy? Although it was somewhat hard to believe, the demon was now gone, and a sigh of relief quickly came out of me.

Going back to the start of the scriptures, I started reading the book in my hands.

The book told a story about eight worlds, nine gods, and some different creatures? I tried fully reading it, but it was as boring as reading documents, so I just skipped over most of it, searching for anything close to the description I heard…

After what felt like hours, on page 1764, near the end of the scriptures, I found a name that, if not for yesterday, would not have made me bat an eye.

It was a name attached to an otherwise random cult which first appeared 1002 years ago.

The all seeing eye of God.