“Days after the large clash between the National Army in conjunction with the foreign mages against the PLA, the country is still trying to find ways to accommodate the consequences of such acts,” a woman in the Television said, someone that spread the ‘news’. “Many people question the ethics of doing it that way, and that going over the Special Peace Justice to exterminate the extremist groups could potentially create more groups like that.”

“Many already point out that there’s small groups of dissidents being formed around the PLA armies that weren’t in the combat zone,” a man on TV followed up. “And many of them are already joining with the Revolutionary Armies, effectively strengthening their power in conflict zones.”

“We’ve reached out to government officials regarding these acts, and these were their statements,” the first woman said.

The image on the screen changed, and the president of the country appeared instead. He carried the same tired look that he had when I first met him, and even under the pressure of every flash going around him and the artifacts for recording voices, he looked just as collected as ever.

“The operation was done as it had been planned. Many times we extended a hand of peace and cooperation, but the situation was getting out of control, and as such we were forced to act with more force than before,” he said with a calm tone.

“But mister president!” immediately followed a woman with the recording artifact, “What about the promises of your campaigns about peace with those extremist groups? Isn’t this a contradiction of those?”

“Our promises are still in place, and we’re currently working to ensure that those that have been affected by the conflict have a place to return to,” the president said with a nod. “There’s currently efforts extended to ensure that even the other remaining groups don’t have to be dealt with the same way, and that—”

“Althy!” Nicole called out to me, bringing my attention away from the television to her.

As I turned my head to look at her, she threw herself on my back, laying her head next to mine as her arms wrapped around me from behind. It was a bit of an awkward position since I was sitting on my apartment’s couch, but I didn’t push her away.

“What is it?” I asked, turning my eyes back on the television where the image had changed once more to the same people talking about other news.

“Why are you still watching the news like that?” she asked, and I could hear a low grumble of annoyance from her. “They’re probably just going to make it look like things didn’t happen exactly like how they went…”

“It’s a good way to get information without having to wait for scouts or someone to spread it with magic,” I replied with my eyes still set on the screen.

Nicole sighed, shaking her head and causing a few of her orange hair to rub against my face, which in turn made me move my face slightly to the side to avoid the ticklish sensation.

“You know… I’m kinda tired of that whole thing… I really don’t want to remember all the stuff that happened…” she said, finally letting go of me to jump over the couch and land next to me. “I’d rather we just go back to doing normal stuff, like, I don’t know, hanging out with our friends and stuff…”

“We’ll do that soon enough,” I replied, and focused my attention on the screen. “I think it’s a good idea to know how things stand right now.”

“Worried about being blamed for something?” she asked, tilting her head to the side to lay it on my shoulder.

“You can never trust nobles and royalty…” I said with a low tone, and the image on the screen changed, precisely, to that of the Emperor.

He was looking as arrogant and confident as ever, with his eyes set on the viewer as if he was looking down on everyone. Despite there not being a particular expression on his face, I could tell that whoever he was talking to, was being talked down to.

“I simply did what had to be done,” he said, “There wasn’t going to be a repeat of what happened in our world, and I certainly wasn’t going to allow it to happen for something as petty as man-made laws. If it ever came to that, I’d send my Knights once more anywhere to ensure this world’s survival.”

“However,” a man’s voice followed up, and Lodrick’s eyes turned to the side, “There was no evidence of the world being in danger. Humanoid Rights Laws and Conventional Laws aren’t something that you can just overlook like that. Wouldn’t you think that—”

“Nonsense,” Lodrick said, flipped his hand in the air, and started leaving the place, with the camera following him as he stepped to the side.

Voices could of people asking questions and trying to get a word out of him could be heard, but Holy Knights stepped into the frame and blocked everything and everyone from getting close to the Emperor.

“Hehe…” Nicole chuckled with a wry smile. “It seems like things are going to be fine for us on that end…”

“Yes…” I replied, unsure of what to feel about this.

I was certain that some of the nobility of our world or of this world would be more than glad to place all the blame on my shoulders, saying that I was responsible for everything that happened and all the lives that were lost, but my name hadn’t been uttered once in any of the news broadcasts that I’ve seen, or in any of the ‘web pages’ I’ve read. At most, there were people asking questions about that strange being made of darkness that soldiers saw, but nobody said that it was me.

“Ugh, that’s enough of that,” Nicole said, reaching her hand across me to get the controller and turn off the TV.

She laid stretched over my lap, and I simply looked down at her. Without saying anything else, she turned herself around so she would be looking up to me. There wasn’t a particular expression on her face, so I just looked back at her orange irises while she looked back at mine.

“Hm…” she hummed, her eyes narrowed.

“What is it?”

“How come your eyes and hair haven’t changed back? Not saying I don’t like the red eyes and the black hair… but I thought that yours wouldn’t stick like that like how it is for me, since it’s a different kind of power,” she said, stretching her hand to grab onto a lock of hair.

I followed her movement, grabbed my hair as well and looked at it. “This is likely just the result of using so much Darkness and Hellfire in one go. It’s the same as what Holy Power did to me in the past.”

“Riiiiight,” she followed up with a nod. “Though back then it was blonde with golden irises?”

I nodded and let go of my hair to look back down at Nicole, whose eyes were still on my hair. After a moment, she also let go of my hair and looked back up to me. I noticed a slight blush on her cheeks and a soft smile. I couldn’t help but raise the edges of my mouth to match her expression, since right now, I was feeling a sense of peace that I hadn’t felt in years and only in passing through the last year in this world.

Nicole closed her eyes, and I decided to caress her hair with my hand. The thought of spending the rest of my life in this world, like this, passed through my mind; with the soft sound of birds chirping outside, and even the noise of this world’s artifacts passing by as they took people from one place to another, all while spending my time with someone dear… I wouldn’t mind such a thing.

As I traced Nicole’s features with my eyes, my focus ended on her pink lips. Without thinking too much about it, I leaned myself over her, closed my eyes, and did something that never in my life had I ever thought about doing with someone else. My lips softly pressed on top of hers.

Moments passed, and the feeling of doing something flowed through my body. I couldn’t give myself over to anyone when I was under the Holy Gods, but here… now… I was free to do as I pleased.

I eventually lifted myself back up after a short moment, with my eyes set on Nicole’s soft smile. I worried about what I just did to her, but her smile turned wider, while her eyes remained closed.

“Good thing I like you too,” she said, followed by a short giggle. “I… I wouldn’t mind another one of those…”

I smiled, and leaned myself over once more, but as I approached her, the phone on top of the table rang. Nicole opened her eyes and I turned to look at the phone. I couldn’t see from here who it was, and perhaps I could leave it for later.

“Welp, so much for having a bit of fun…” Nicole said, standing from her spot to sit up straight next to me.

I pouted slightly, but I wasn’t going to force myself more than I should, so I stood and went over to the phone. Salrak was calling… Could He have done this just to interrupt me? Well, if He did, then I would have to let Him know not to intrude into other’s private affairs.

“What is it, Salrak?” I asked with a bit of an annoyed tone after answering the call.

“Hm? Did I interrupt something?” He asked back with a seemingly clueless tone.

“Aren’t you able to see what everyone is doing with this world’s technologies?” I questioned while placing a hand on my hip.

“Oh, no, no, I don’t spy on people I know—especially you—so I really don’t know what you do in your spare time… But I guess I did interrupt something,” he replied, and I just hummed, wondering whether or not to believe him.

After a moment, I sighed while shaking my head. “Never mind. What is it that you want to talk about?”

He chuckled slightly with His normally deep voice, and I somehow could see in my mind the image of the large demon-like God shaking His head with a horrifying smile. I shook my head and removed that image from my head.

“I wanted to remind you about the meeting that you have with the Azid family. It’s getting somewhat late already, and I’m excited to have the chance to talk to people that believed in me back in our world after so long,” He said with a strangely cheery tone.

I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at the time on my phone. It wasn’t that late, and there was still going to be plenty of daylight to do things. “Isn’t it early to leave?”

“Ah… but you know how traffic is in this city. Better to get there in time; wouldn’t want to lose precious time just sitting in a car,” He replied and I raised an eyebrow.

It was fairly rare for Salrak to sound this excited about anything, more so over something that was of seemingly no consequence for someone like Him. I wanted to tell Him that it could still wait for a while, but I noticed Nicole also quickly standing up from the couch.

“Oh yeah! It’s time for us to leave!” she exclaimed, turning over to the small closet in my room and opening it widely.

“You also want to leave early?” I asked as she pushed and pulled different kinds of clothing.

“Yes! Of course!” she replied as she stopped to look at a blue coat, furrowing her eyebrows and shaking her head, before putting it back in place. “We wouldn’t want to be late, after all.”

“Indeed,” followed up Salrak.

They were acting strange… but I wasn’t going to think deeply into it since it might just be a desire to spend leisure time with Bo’guth and his family. So after shrugging, and putting the phone aside on ‘speaker’ so Salrak could talk to both of us, I went over to Nicole, and allowed her to pick something for me to wear.

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* * *

“Was this truly necessary?” I asked as I looked at my furrowed eyebrows in the car’s rear view mirror.

Nicole had put… colorful dirt on my face—makeup. I was aware of it, since noble ladies liked to wear it, but I found it as nothing more than that. Thankfully, it wasn’t as much as what I’ve seen other women wear, but I didn’t see the point of wearing this, and not for a normal meeting with Bo’guth.

It also bothered me that in the same mirror I could see the driver stealing as many glances at me as he could, with a couple of times his head nearly completely turning to look back at me.

“Yes! Of course! It has to feel special. It’s been so long since the last time we went out, so we gotta look extra good,” she said with a nod and a smile.

She was not too different from me, and she was even wearing ‘elegant’ clothes from this world, with a black dress that revealed part of her legs, and even a low cut on her chest. She was even wearing shoes to match it; not at all like the comfortable shoes that she usually wore.

And I was the same, only that I refused to wear a skirt, so she found a pair of tight black pants to match her dress, with a top that still revealed more chest than what I was willing to show, but she insisted that it had to be this way.

“Even this…?” I asked, slightly pulling on the shirt, and nearly causing the driver to lose control.

“Hey!” Nicole shouted, a powerful and fiery glare thrown at the driver, who started sweating when he noticed the glow on Nicole’s eyes. Once the man turned his focus on the road, her eyes turned normal again and she smiled while looking at my chest. “Hehe, gotta show the weapons from time to time.”

“Weapons?” I asked back with an eyebrow raised.

I guess that it was part of a woman’s charm… and I could still remember how I had to do something like this once… but there was no way something like this was going to be done with Bo’guth, so more questions were being raised the closer we got to the demon family’s house.

“W-we’re here,” the driver said, his eyes shifting from one side to the other.

“Ah! Thank you!” Nicole exclaimed, taking her own phone and pressing it a couple of times. “There.”

The driver looked at his own phone and nodded. “H-have a good day!”

I took no time to open the door and walk out. Nicole walked behind me and the driver left. We were at Bo’guth’s community, somewhere that we had been coming to for a while already, but we still had to announce ourselves at the door. After the man let the Bo’guth’s home know about us, we were allowed to enter.

Nothing much had changed from the last time I was here, save for the increased security measures. With the complete eradication of the Followers of Leyfall after Eletha’s death, my hope was that nothing like what happened to them last time ever repeated itself.

It didn’t take us much time to get to Bo’guth’s house, but I could feel something was different from the way that Nicole was smiling and how she seemed to be anticipating something. I stopped a few short steps away from Bo’guth’s house and decided to finally figure out what was going on by reaching into my magic sense.

“Hey!” Nicole quickly exclaimed, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me along. “You can’t do that! Don’t you trust me or Bo’guth?”

“I do, it’s just that there’s something stran—”

“Then there’s no reason to be doing unnecessary things. Lets just walk to their house, okay?” she interrupted and forced me along.

I still felt tempted to get a sense of what was going on, but I decided to trust her indeed, and just knocked on the door.

“Coming!” I heard Bo’guth’s voice from the inside of the house, followed by quick steps getting closer.

The door was opened, but I didn’t see the large frame of the demon on the other side of the door. Instead, I saw a small demon child who looked up to me with her strange four-way-split smile. She was wearing a rather cute pink dress with white shoes, which didn’t quite match the little demon’s appearance… It was still difficult for me to get used to these sorts of things, but this time, I found it somewhat endearing.

“Big Sister Althy!” the child exclaimed, “There’s this—”

“Whoa there!” Bo’guth exclaimed, appearing from a corner of the door to pick up the child, who yelped in surprise. “What did we talk about opening the door without asking who it is?”

“Ah!” the girl exclaimed in turn. “That I shouldn’t open the door without asking who it is.”

“Mhm…” Bo’guth replied, giving the girl a stern gaze, but the girl simply giggled and covered her face. Bo’guth sighed and turned to look at me with a different kind of demonic smile. “Welcome! We’ve been waiting for you!”

He opened the door wide, and I was able to notice the way that he was dressed. Similar to Nicole, he was also wearing ‘elegant’ clothes, his being that of a jet-black suit, with a red shirt underneath, and shiny black shoes. By now, it was obvious that there was something else going on here, but I couldn’t think of what that could possibly be.

“Come on, let's go!” Nicole urged me, pushing me inside and closing the door behind us.

The house wasn’t dark, but it was still difficult to see completely ahead. Usually, Bo’guth would turn the lights on here for guests, but this time, he just walked ahead. I followed along, weary and expectant about what could this be about, until I turned into the living room and the lights were finally turned on.

“Happy birthday!” a lot of people shouted at the same time, and my doubts were finally cleared.

I looked around the room with surprise. I noticed James, with a rather annoyed expression; David and Victoria standing next to each other with wide smiles; Reeta with Super-Demon next to her, the latter still wearing a silly black mask, while the wolf-woman held him from the neck; someone I hadn’t seen in months, Asteora, standing somewhat impatient with a rather haggard appearance; and finally—close to Bo’guth—Igladith, looking as imposing as ever with her black dress, while wearing a soft smile on her face.

I didn’t know everyone’s birthday, and the ones that I knew weren’t on this day, so I tried to look for the person whose day we were supposed to be celebrating, but everyone’s faces and smiles were set on me.

I raised my eyebrows and pointed a finger at myself. “Mine? Today’s not my birthday.”

There wasn’t even a memory of the exact date that my birthday was supposed to be, and I couldn’t properly know when in this world’s calendar my birthday would fall, so I had completely forgotten about it.

“Hehe,” Nicole chuckled, wrapping her arms around my left arm. “We know that. But since we don’t really know when it is, I decided that we should instead pick the date of the day when you first came to this world.”

“Ah…” I let out. “So it has been that long already…”

My phone rang and I picked it up. It was Salrak, as usual, so I put him up for everyone to hear. “That it has. Still, a good day and date to get together.”

“M-My Dark Lord!” Bo’guth exclaimed, nearly dropping to the ground with the child in his hands, only being stopped by Igladith, who forcefully pulled him back up.

Salrak chuckled. “None of that. Right now, I’m just a voice on a phone. Don’t bother yourself with things of the past and enjoy your present.”

“B-but I’m not sure that—”

“You heard him,” I said, giving the phone to Bo’guth, who took it and held it more carefully than he did his own child. “If we’re here to celebrate something then… Let's not worry ourselves about this.”

“R-right!” Bo’guth exclaimed, while Mirlaneth looked curiously at the phone.

“Let's all do as He said,” Igladith loudly said, and music started playing.

Once some upbeat music was playing, Igladith passed me a glass with a bubbling liquid inside. She smiled and went over to her husband and daughter, trying to calm the shaking Bo’guth who didn’t know what to do with my phone.

Reeta and Super-Demon approached me once they noticed that I was free, and I in turn looked back at them. Reeta wasn’t dressed as elegantly as everyone else, since she was wearing similar kind of clothes that people in this world normally wore, with a normal white t-shirt, tight blue jeans, and comfortable white shoes. In contrast, Super-Demon was wearing a white suit with a black bowtie.

“Well… Happy birthday,” she said with a confident smile.

“Y-yeah,” Super-Demon followed with a rather bashful tone.

“Why are the two of you together like this?” I asked, since I was certain that they didn’t like each other.

Reeta sighed and shook her head. “After what happened on that battlefield… I realized that I wasn’t quite in control as I thought, so I decided to grab this so-called hero and try to learn how to… ‘get justice’ without creating a bloodbath.”

“A-ah well… I-I can’t say I’m happy to be with my rival… B-but it’s good that you’re turning to the good side!” Super-Demon exclaimed, nodding several times.

Nicole chuckled from my side, since she hadn’t let go of me. “Well, isn’t that a curious turn of events…”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing. I’ll tell you later,” she replied with a coy smile.

I tilted my head in confusion, since the only thing I could tell about this was that they didn’t like each other before, but I wasn’t going to pry into it at this moment, so I let it slide for later.

“It seems like others want to talk to you, so I’ll take this pile of bones with me—and hey, we better spar again sometime. You’ve become much stronger than before, and I’d like to put it to the test!” Reeta said with the same confident smile.

I returned a smile of my own and nodded in confirmation as I watched her pick up Super-Demon and go to another part of the room. Almost right away, Asteora walked in front of me.

She had a tired look, her usual elegant suit was not well-taken care of, and even her flowing hair seemed to be loose in some places. She looked at Nicole first from head to bottom, who looked back a wry smile. After that quick glance, Asteora turned to do the same with me.

I quietly waited for her to finish her ‘inspection’ and allowed her to say what she wanted to say. “It seems things changed while I was gone.”

“That seems to be the case,” I said with a nod. “I suppose I don’t have to tell you what happened?”

She shook her head, and crossed her arms under her chest. “I have the gist of it. Which means that this is good for me too… I came here just to have a look at you, and it seems like soon enough, you’ll be able to do what I’ve been—”

“No,” I immediately said, knowing where she was planning to take the conversation to and causing her to raise her eyebrows. “I’m willing to help, but I’m not planning on throwing myself into more missions like what you gave me before.”

Asteora raised her chin slightly while considering me with a serious look. I didn’t turn away from her gaze and hoped that she wouldn’t push anything else on to me. After a moment, Asteora hung her head and sighed. “Ah well. I guess that you’re only interested in dealing with Gods…”

“Come on, Master Asteora,” Nicole said with the same wry smile. “I’m sure that someone like you can handle anything.”

“Almost anything,” Asteora immediately said, and her phone rang soon after. She didn’t pick it up and just looked at it, her face turning more tired when she did. “I guess I don’t have any more time to waste here… The Dragons still want to ‘chat’.”

“Ah… is that so…?” Nicole replied. “Well, I hope it doesn’t take longer!”

“Hmm, if you ever want to, you can always come with me to do it,” Asteora said, looking at both of us.

“Eeehh…” Nicole replied with a shaky voice, but I just raised my hand.

“I’ll pass on it for now,” I said, shaking my head.

“So be it,” Asteora said. She put her phone away, turned to a window, and in the blink of an eye, she was gone.

“Woah!” David exclaimed, a short distance away from where Asteora was. “That was something else!”

Victoria approached with him, taking a couple of steps with a smile on her face. “Happy Birthday, Althea.”

It was still awkward to hear that, but I accepted it with a nod. “Thank you.”

“Indeed—hey, you look different… really good,” David said, giving me a sweeping look, it wasn’t quite the same as what other people gave me, but it was still the look that a man would do.

Victoria quickly noticed it and gave him a shove, causing him to shrug with a non-apologetic smile. After giving him a small glare, Victoria turned to look at me with the same smile from before. “Still, he’s right. I like the new colors.”

“Me too! Though, I think she looks just as fine as always as well,” Nicole immediately followed up.

“Well, it’s better than how she looked on the battlefield. Not quite as hot back then,” James said, approaching from the side. “She looked like she was going to kill everything and everyone—with valid reason, to be fair.”

“Ah…” Victoria let out, with a tight-lipped smile while looking at Nicole’s neck. “I’ve heard about that…”

“W-well it’s in the past now…” Nicole said as she brought her hand to her neck.

“Come on, now!” David exclaimed, grabbing Victoria from the hips and causing her to yelp. “We’re not here to think about such things! How about we enjoy the music instead?”

“U-um… well… you know I’m still learning,” she replied, and allowed herself to be led by David, who turned to look at me.

“What about you? Gonna enjoy it too?”

It was a different kind of music to anything I’d heard in my world, but it was quite fast, and indeed made one want to dance. I believe people called it ‘Salsa’, and I’d never tried to do it before, so after giving a glance at Nicole, I decided to give it a try.

I wasn’t one to do these sorts of things, but I still tried my best to enjoy my time in this made-up party for me with a smile floating on my face.

* * *

Time passed, and night eventually fell. Mirlaneth was already sleeping; Reeta had gotten drunk, and had been spending her time licking Super-Demon’s bones, who just stood still like an actual dead skeleton. James left somewhat early, supposedly to train more of his Holy Magic; and Victoria and David left together once it was late.

Nicole was happily talking with Bo’guth, Igladith, and Salrak by a table, seemingly remembering the few good things that happened in our world when it wasn’t war time. The volume of the music had been lowered to not bother the neighbors, and I had taken the opportunity to step outside into the cold night air and look at the sky.

Somewhere, up there, in that unknown sea of stars, the Holy Gods were still looking for this place. The thought that I still had to become stronger was one that lingered with me, and the worry that at any moment this sky was going to be torn open into a blinding golden light was something that I still couldn’t quite shake off, even if the trail that They could have followed via Eletha to get here was no longer there.

I closed my eyes and felt the Darkness and Hellfire Power within me. It was much more powerful than it had ever been, but even then, I wasn’t sure if that was enough to fight back against the Holy Gods… Maybe I should take up on Asteora’s offer and fight the Dragons, but… there really wasn’t a point in doing that, since they weren’t a real threat to the world beyond their petty games…

“Althy?” I heard Nicole’s voice coming from behind me and I opened my eyes once more. “What are you doing out here in the cold?”

“I was just thinking about what to do next,” I said, and Nicole approached to stand next to me and look at the stars as well.

“Next? I think we go home, no?” she said as if it was obvious.

I softly smiled at her simple answer and turned to look at her. She was right. I couldn’t worry about things that weren’t happening or that I didn’t know if they could happen. Even Salrak Himself had told me several times to just do as I please with my life. Though, that didn’t mean that I would allow myself to stagnate, so I still planned to keep getting stronger; strong enough to protect Nicole, no matter what happened.

“Yes, you are right,” I said with a nod.

“Okay then, I’ll go pick up my things, we say goodbye to everyone and then go!” She exclaimed and turned to go inside the house once more.

I remained outside, watching her leave until she was inside again. I turned my attention once more to the starry sky. I didn’t know what would happen in the future, but there was one thing that I knew after everything that happened…

There were still plenty of things to do, and plenty of life to live. And this time, I was going to enjoy it.

I was going to enjoy this new world… My world.