Situated on an open plain area on the outskirts of the Lucivan Empire sat an obscure village known as Tanquai. It was a comfortable looking area with one story wooden houses lining its interior and vast farmland on the outside encompassed by simple wooden fencing. Boasting a population of 300, it was a decent sized place. However, what truly made it unique were the types of residents that lived in it.

With a 2:1 ratio of Demons to Humans, it was one of the few places where two or more races in Elys integrated peacefully. After the Alyastia Kingdom conquered the small Kendin Province that used to be nearby, Human refugees escaped and started integrating with the Demons. To their surprise, the village Demons were completely welcoming and ignored all racial barriers. As a result, a true hidden gem of integration and harmony was born in the Tanquai area.

For Darian and countless others, this village was home.

"Hey. Hurry up you guys!"

Valurn stood at the northern gate ready to greet the trio as they made their way back to the village. Darian was the first to come, barging through the gate with a crazed expression on his face. Nearly tripping over himself, he stumbled into Valurn and grabbed onto him. 

"What the hell's gotten into you boy?" Valurn asked in confusion.

"Whatever! Just hurry up and cast [Invisibility] on me before those two monsters behind me show up!" Darian begged.

Understanding washed on Valurn's face as he got the gist of what was happening. However, he had no plans of following along Darian's hopes of escape.

"Hmm. It's been an awful long while since I cast this spell though. I could mess up."

"I don't give a damn just hurry up and do it!"

Darian continued to beg and beg, which only helped light up a fire in Valurn to tease him even more. Coming up with a prank, he smiled as he replied.

"Alright, well here goes nothing."

He stretched out his right arm and closed his eyes, his face emitting a look of deep concentration. Adding to the flair, he put his hand on his head as if he were trying to recall something. Finally, after what felt like an eternity to Darian, he started chanting.

"[Flash Stun]"

Suddenly, a huge ball of light and energy blasted in front of Darian. Caught completely by surprise, the poor boy had his eyes completely wide open as light blasted through. He staggered and stumbled backwards after being blinded by the attack.

Meanwhile, Valurn burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha. Your face was completely priceless. I can't wait to see your dad's reaction to this!"

Darian groaned in reply, rubbing his eyes as vision slowly came back to him. Unfortunately, when he finally came to and started to make a run for it, a familiar girl pounced from behind.

"Stupid Daer Daer! Trying to run away from your duty as my future Prince to protect me." 

Of course, Alicia came back pouting and huffing. She immediately starting lecturing Darian about how 'fragile' and 'weak' she is as a 'princess' and how Darian needs to 'be a man' and protect her. As for Darian himself, a migrane pounded inside his head.

Meanwhile, Levion arrived and looked at the two teens on the ground while Valurn chuckled on the side. Amused at his son's pissed expression, the father couldn't help but ask.

"Haha. What's wrong son?"

"Valurn's a fucking traitor, Alicia's a brat, and you're an annoying arrogant asshole."

Levion laughed once more after they all made it back home safely.

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After grabbing their trays, Darian and Alicia sat down at a table with two other people inside the village Dinner Hall. 

"Yo Darian. Welcome back bro. I heard you guys were chased by a whole [Rhinobeast] stampede."

Making that statement was a young demon named Faveon. At the age of 14, he looked like a male model with his muscular tan body, sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. Sitting across from Darian, he grinned while interrogating his friend.

However, that grin soon turned into a wince as he felt a slap smack down the back of his head.

"Chill out Fav. Time and place. Let them eat for a moment."

Sitting next to Faveon was a scowling light-skinned girl named Chloe. With shoulder-length brown hair and a pair of emerald green eyes, she was a rather cute human girl at the age of 15. Of course, being the oldest, she was pretty much the mature older sister of the group.

Darian and Alicia smiled and laughed at their display. 

"Haha don't worry. It's not that big a deal anyways," Darian comforted them. "I'll tell you the details after we finish eating."

"Especially about how amazing Daer Daer was!" Alicia interjected.

Relieved, Chloe wiped a bit of sweat off her forehead. Much like Alicia and Darian's relationship, she has known Faveon since they were toddlers. They both enjoyed each other's company as non-related siblings. Of course, she assumed the older sister role and bossed him around quite a bit. 

Although Faveon complained about that part at times, he truly was glad to have her as a sister-figure in his life.

After settling down, they started munching on their meal. 

"Damn. I'll never get tired of Sarah's cooking. This meat's good." Darian commented between bites.

Faveon nodded his head in agreement. He had to admit even his own mother was no match for her cooking.

"I have to say, the Dinner Hall's the best thing that's ever happened to this village." Faveon mentioned.

The Dinner Hall was both a literal building and a village tradition. Starting off as a community kitchen and storage unit, it gradually expanded into the mega-cafeteria it was today. Founded by a Demon farmer who grew too much food, he started hosting village wide dinners everyday at the Dinner Hall and invited anyone who would come. Gradually, the whole village bought into the idea and helped supply food and materials of their own. Soon enough, the tradition of having dinner at the Dinner Hall was set in stone and followed by everyone.

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As for the food, the head chef was a single middle-aged human lady named Sarah. Considered by far the village's best chef, she had this 'magic touch' when it came to food. Practically everything turned into a high-quality gourmet in her hands. To the joy of everyone, she volunteered herself as the head chef for the Dinner Hall one day and never looked back.

So it was no surprise to anyone the food was spectacular as usual.

While the four of them continued eating their food, suddenly an all-too familiar figure appeared behind Darian and Alicia.

"DER FOOK YER BASTURDS DOING BACK HERE?!"

An old wrinkled blue-skinned Jauvin screamed out, his pot belly jiggling as he bellowed. His face was contorted into one of pure rage as he stared down the four frightened teenagers. Raising his fist, he slammed down on the table, knocking off everyone's food.

"Y'ALL YOUTH DON'T DESURVE NUN OF DIS 'ER FOOD. GET DER HELL OUT!"

The Dinner Hall suddenly quieted down as they noticed the exchange. After seeing Jauvin, they immediately felt pity towards the victimized youth while they glared at the perpretrator. However, as everyone was well aware of Jauvin's personality, few were willing to confront him on the issue. 

Well, everyone except a certain person's father that is.

As Jauvin readied his fist for another blow on the table, Levion immediately appeared and grabbed the old Demon's arm. 

"Hey. Don't you think this is a little much Jauvin?" 

Jauvin's face scrunched up as he let out a grunt, his arm ever so slowly contorting to the pressure. Looking up at a displeased Levion, he started muttering.

"Ders basturd's nearly kill'd off der whole village and wook me up from my fookin' nap. Dis shit's nuthin."

Levion's gaze grew even more cold. With an angry glint in his eyes, he replied.

"Then I am to assume that me slinging you out towards the forest would be considered "nothing" as well?"

The old blue-demon let out a deathly glare. Of course, he still had enough reason to realize the death-defying Demon in front of him could easily do what he said like it were nothing. Teeth gnashing, he decided he may as well leave before his ass got handed to him.

"Fookin' cunt's lucky as shit he has yer fo' a dad. I ain't let 'em off easy otherwise."

Slapping away Levion's arm, he grabbed his cane while glaring at the red-haired father's face. He then walked away while sticking up his middle finger on his other hand.

Levion let out a sigh as he muttered.

"Such a sad old bastard. Clinging to life so much he's degraded himself to this..."

Shaking his head, he went to the table and made sure everyone was alright. After helping fix up the mess for the nervous group of four, he walked back to his own table and continued his dinner.

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After finishing their replacement meal Sarah graciously whipped up for them, the group of four went out on the streets walking with each other under the night-time glow. They remained silent the whole time processing what happened earlier.

However, Darian was the first to break up the silence.

 "That old bastard's crossed the line this time!"

Angrily gritting his teeth, he yelled out in frustration. While he was able to tolerate Jauvin's grumpiness to a certain extent, the events that unfolded earlier was just too much. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

"Seriously, how's a person like that always so grumpy." Chloe muttered. While she was known as a patient and mature young girl, Jauvin was one of the who got on her nerves. Even she started to have a dislike towards the grumpy man.

"That old bully tried to hurt my Daer Daer! I'll never forgive him!" Alicia swore aloud.

As they continued walking, Faveon suddenly stopped. Having been in thought, he didn't talk much at all with the group. However, a sudden idea made him pause and smile deviously.

"Hey guys. What if we played a little 'prank' on Jauvin tonight? Get him a little taste of his own medicine."

Everyone else paused. Thinking over Faveon's words, they honestly weren't opposed to a little revenge. They've all been secretly wishing they could do something to make him learn.

Darian motioned towards Faveon to whisper in his ear. He was skeptical that doing anything would work However, he immediately brightened up after processing his friend's proposal.

"You sly bastard! That's a perfect idea! Maybe something that'll make whatever woke him up earlier nothing in comparison!"

"Haha. Oh you bet I have something very good planned!"

The two boys talked with one each other grinning and snickering while the other two girls stared at them confused.

"What exactly are you guys talking about?" Alicia and Chloe both asked quizzically.

"Oh...you'll see." The two guys replied while going over a few ideas. After sorting everything out, they revealed their plan to the rest of the group.

Alicia squealed in delight after hearing such a perfect plan while Chloe muttered about how "immature" they all were. However, they all agreed it was certainly a satisfying plan if it worked.

Immediately, Faveon took lead as he gave everyone their assigned roles for the assault.

"Alright, so we'll need Alicia and Darian's [Shadow Steps] for this, Chloe will..."

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Inside a humble looking house on the outskirts of the royal capital of the Alyastia Kingdom, a father and his family of three were eating dinner and talking with one another. A tall sturdy man, he had long blonde hair and a large ripped build. However, when said father heard something alarming from his daughter, he immediately went to interrogating her.

"Who was he?! What'd you reply?! Why'd he do that?!" 

A young petite girl snickered in reply. A 12 year old light-skinned beauty, she boasted her mom's elegant electric blue hair and her father's emerald green eyes. While she had the elegance of a noble, she was still a child after all. So, wanting to have fun with her dad, she told him a certain story causing him to rage.

"Haha don't worry Daddy! Of course I told him no. I'm too young after all," the daughter replied, a mischevious glint shining in her eyes. "After all, when I told him you were my daddy, the stupid boy ran away peeing his pants!"

Laughing, the father smiled in relief. Like any parent, the thought of seeing his daughter with another man was very unsavory. He already abolished any ideas towards political or arranged marriages and enforced a rule she couldn't even date until she was 18. His wife complained about that rule, but as an overprotective dad, he never budged.

"Ah. I'm glad then. The boy's lucky to just get away with a pee stain for trying to hit on you." 

Sitting on the other side of the table, his wife looked at her husband in pity. 

"Now come on Landon. You know she'll eventually fall in love and marry a good man." A mature woman remarked. Her long, blue hair danged as she smiled pointedly at her husband, her clear blue eyes glistening in amusement.

"Over my dead body!" The husband retorted.

The two women giggled at the man's angry expression as he pictured a scene he didn't want to see. Afterwards, they resumed eating their meal until suddenly a knocking was heard.

The wife called for a maid to open the door and see who it is. After a few minutes, the maid came back with a certain piece of paper in her hands.

"The knight at the door told me to give master this." The maid announced.

Landon received the letter and opened its contents. After reading it, he let out a heavy sigh as he realized he had more work to do.

"Hubby, what is it?" His wife asked quizzically.

"It's a summons to the royal castle. Looks like I have more Demon hunting to do." Landon replied indifferently.

The atmosphere grew dim as they thought about the Demons. After hearing countless terrible stories of the barbaric acts they've committed, the family's viewpoint of them was very low. While the wife and daughter were glad Heroes like Landon was gracious enough to take on the dirty work, that didn't mean they liked seeing someone they love do it. Rather than being scared for his safety, they were more worried about his mental health for seeing such gruesome creatures on the regular.

"More Demon cleaning? Those icky creatures are seriously annoying!" The daughter puffed in disgust. She hated the fact her dad had to do such work and leave them for long periods. However, she knew how strong her dad truly was and how he was certainly needed in his country.

"Looks like it. Don't worry, it appears that settlement isn't too far from the border. I'll get it done in no time and come back for you all soon enough." Landon replied with a smile. 

After finishing up dinner, he started packing up his stuff and preparing for his summon coming up soon. After getting everything ready, another knock came on his door as a knight stood ready to escort him. 

"I love you all. I'll be back soon."

Hugging and kissing his wife and daughter, they smiled and waved as Landon set off adorned in his golden armor and sword. Walking with the royal knight, the [Hero of the Sword] steeled his nerves as he prepared to meet the King.