“You arrived earlier than I thought.” The King says to me as I take my seat near Sophia. Looks like yesterday wasn’t really a planned meeting since everyone was standing unlike today where there are various tables for documents and chairs for the people.

“It’s better to finish things quickly.”

“Well, since our only witness is here I guess we can continue our discussions from yesterday.” The King says to everyone.

“If I may?” Someone on the other side of the throne room asks. The King gives a nod and he continues. ”Yesterday you only reported what happened, today we would like to hear what you actually think of the whole situation.”

“What do you want to know?” I ask the man.

“For now only say what you think is relevant.”

“Hmmmm… First thing that comes to mind is that we either are too weak or someone is a traitor.” My opinion seems to be controversial to say the least.

“What do you mean?” The King asks, clearly offended.

“Just to be clear, I am not saying that if we have traitors they are from our kingdom in specific. Now to explain what I just said. Too much demonic influence is coming out of their lands and with that some strong demons are coming here. As far as I know, those kinds of demons shouldn’t even be able to pass the frontier between our lands without a full scale war happening but it happened more than once.”

“You are not wrong…” I hear someone say.

“Continuing. The fact that those demons are roaming around either means that our defenses are not as strong as we thought, this includes our capacity to detect threats, or someone in the know is helping the demons.”

“And the foes you fought?” The Prince asked this time.

“The two demons were just strong. I have no idea how they weren’t detected going by their power. I believe that there are people whose sole job is to find threats to the kingdom, don’t it? If I wasn’t occupied with the crow I would have detected them by myself any day of the month.” I take a moment to breathe. “Speaking of him, we need to be prepared for more things like him.”

“And what do you propose?” The Prince asks.

“Well, he was a spell. Pretty sure there are various ways to stop a spell, well, at least your type of spell.”

“What is the meaning of this?” I hear an older man ask on my side. He sounds offended.

“Hello old man. I am Lucia, the runeless mage.” I say half-joking. The man starts to get red until The King Speaks.

“Malus, I believe. I don’t know exactly what you were doing the last few years but you should have known about her.”

“She is insulting everyone who can use magic.” The Old man shouts in a calm anger.

“I am telling the truth, nothing more, nothing less. If I find a way to interfere with a rune itself I can stop any spell cast by anyone besides people like me. All you can do to me is stop myself, not the spell itself.”

“We are not here to discuss magic.” The King says, finishing the little fight we were having.

“May I continue?” I ask. I then receive a nod from the King. “I probably wasn’t able to tell it yesterday but I am pretty sure that the crow could actually regenerate indefinitely if the situation continued as it was.”

“Care to explain?” I hear someone ask.

“He wasn’t losing mana until I started to burn it. It was just looping around making those creatures appear around the kingdom. If my theory is correct, until the creature actually found him he could onlys hold a certain amount of mana on itself and the rest was scattered.”

“The number of creatures did diminish in number after a while.” I hear one of the men in armor say.

“To finish what I was trying to say. If more creatures like the crow appear we will either have to stop the rune giving it form or stop the flow of mana. Just to be clear, I couldn't actually deal with the rune itself even when I tried.”

The people here seem to take a moment or two to process what I just said.

“Anything else you want to include?” The King asks.

“There aren’t enough mages around.” I say after thinking for a moment.

“It is to be expected.” I hear someone say.

“Well, the greatests minds of the kingdom thought that producing thousands of mages was a bad idea, who am I to think I know better, right?” I sarcastically say. I may have a lot going on right now but I will always get angry at people being stupid.

“We are talking about the security of our kingdom, not your opinion on law.” The King says to me in a commanding tone.

“Well, let me tell you something King and everyone here as well. We are losing, badly, so badly that you guys can’t even see that you are losing.”

“Explain yourself!” This time it's the Prince.

“Let’s propose that it isn’t someone from our kingdom that is making the flying hunks of metal that began to appear a while ago. Some other kingdom has the technology and knowledge to make them and we don’t have anything that can leave the ground much less fly to protect ourselves, well besides me and probably that damn elf if he counts as part of this kingdom. The demons made a spell creature that is for the most part self sufficient and immortal. From my time as a mercenary I know that there is someone making some pretty advanced weapons that are not making their way here since I don’t see any adventurers using them. Finally, in terms of strength at least, I make most of the knights of the kingdom obsolete along with a few hundred mages at least.” I say respectfully. I am actually trying to make my point without sounding like a bitch.

The entire room stays silent for what seems like an eternity before an unfamiliar voice speaks.

“And what do you propose?” I female voice asks. As I move my head in the direction of the voice I see the Queen approaching the throne.

“Hello Queen.” I say as I wave at her as she sits besides the King. “Well, for starters, invest into technology.”

“We have the best weapons and armors that exist in this world.” I hear a man in armor say.

“Ok, but what about magic? You could put a thousand people in the best armor in front of me or a decent mage and if the armor couldn’t fully protect or outright stop a spell, the ones using it along with the armor itself would become history.”

“We also have access to the greatests mages.” Another person says.

“Wasn’t the Institute supposed to be neutral?”

“Not against the demons!” A few people shout.

“AHAHHAHAHAHAHA!” I start to uncontrollably laugh. Not because it's funny. I have no idea why I am laughing. It is just happening.

“What is so funny!?” A lot more people ask me angrily.

“I guess this whole thing. Do you truly think that your only enemies are demons? If so, I guess I should start preparing for independence sooner than I thought.”

“Traitor!” “Bitch!” “What is the meaning of this!?” and a lot more comments come my way.

“Explain yourself!” The King asks somewhat angrily.

“I am not a political genius but just looking at the map of the world I know that the only reason why no one attacks us like they attack themselves more south is because we're pretty isolated all things considered. Demons to the north, Mountains to the east, the Sure-Death forest to the south leaving only the ocean as our access point, mostly from the west. If someone finds a way to move a great number of troops through the forest you can be 100% sure someone will try to.” I only heard bits and pieces but from my time as a mercenary I know that the kingdoms to the south are constantly fighting each other. Now that I think about it, it sure is a good explanation for the blimps.

Once again everyone is processing what I just told.

“What do you want us to do with this information?” The King asks after giving an audible sigh.

“It’s the responsibility of the King and those directly under his command to protect their kingdom.” I say.

“You say it like you have no part in this.” He answers me.

“Until yesterday I would probably just left after giving the report but the recent events in my life made me realize that if I want to have an easier life you and everyone below you need to be able to do your jobs properly so I am not needed.”

“You speak like you are not part of this Kingdom.” I hear someone say.

“Ok! I really didn’t want to have this conversation but I think I should put this out now since I am certain that I will not become violent today.” I say as I jump over the table and proceed to stand in front of stairs leading to the throne where the King is sitting. “ My name is Lucia, 15 years old, I am a native of the Maka Kingdom from the village of number 56, Ex-member of the Mercenary group Purple Dragons, currently as by your law simply an immigrant. I am currently staying and working with Sophia Maxilia Cruxadia in the town of Sagrada, as far as I am aware I am classified as a living weapon by at least two organizations under the command or allied with the Kingdom itself. I am also an A rank adventurer.”

People start giving me strange looks. A few seem to actually get what I am trying to say.

“What is your point?” A disgruntled noble asks.

“Alright, King, why don’t you tell the people here my untold achievements? You out of all people should know” I say as I turn to him.

“You should speak of them yourself my dear.” The Queen says in a tone that clearly shows that she is trying to not burden her husband more.

“If you insist.” I say before turning back to the people.”I was abandoned by my family when I was 5 years old, the same year I killed someone and joined the Purple Dragons as a full member and became an active one at 10. I became an A rank adventurer at 12. I survived and traversed the Sure-Death forest alone for 2 years before reaching Sagrada. Here I defeat a high-class demon during the last invasion pretty much by myself that led to the other demons going into disarray, I dealt with enemies and creatures so big and so powerful that they could destroy this city easily by myself, I am the reason you are starting to get more money from taxes as I introduced the system currently being spread around by some merchants, I single-handedly fought against two demons stronger than the one in command of the last invasion along with the cause of the currently distress across the kingdom not even 2 days ago.”

Everyone is in shock, some less than others, mostly the people who know this already, but they are all in shock.

“I am not an adult even if I look like one, I am not a member of this Kingdom even if I protect it like I am one. All I want is a peaceful life but that cannot be obtained because I am stuck in a place with weak people.”

People start to give me some angry looks without saying anything.

“That’s right, everyone here is weak in comparison to me. I am not boasting, in fact, I wish it was a lie but it isn’t. I could probably kill everyone on this castle and none of you could do anything about it and that is a big fucking problem.” I take a moment to make sure everyone is paying attention. “What if I wasn’t friendly? Do any of you realize that the fact that I exist means that there probably are people as strong as me that are not necessarily on your side? Imagine if someone as strong as me came to attack the kingdom, what would any of you do? Call me?”

Once again everyone is in silence, the one when you know you did something wrong and someone else is telling it to you.

“The demons are a threat but you can’t just look at them. The Kingdom is stagnating and none of you noticed. This may be the most powerful nation in the world so far but it will change if things continue. You only grew wide, not high and all around us people are building bigger towers than the ones your ancestors left to you.”

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

Everyone, even the ones that look like they would jump at me out of anger, seem to get the message. The atmosphere is clearly heavy. I wish I could just tell that there are people from another world introducing things to this one and that a revolution was coming but that isn’t possible. I saw guns and I know that once people figure out guns, specially the semi-modern ones I saw before, most magic, sword and shields would lose their use.

“ “ I hear Mira say all of a sudden.

“I am not going to say that.” I whisper to her.

“ “ She throws back to me.

“... All right.” I walk towards the King and The Queen who are both confused and terrified of me at the same time. “I will be taking this for a moment.” I say as I pick the sword on the King’s waist without much resistance from him. After that I walk to the center of the room where I stab the sword into the ground with the help of a little magic.

“What are you doing?” The Prince asks, confused as well.

“Making a point.” I say as I draw Mira from my back and without using any mana on her I slash the King’s sword breaking the sorry sword in pieces.

“W-w-what did you just do?” A lot of people asked in panic.

“If I am correct, this sword was supposed to be the strongest sword in the kingdom, right?” I ask everyone in the room. After a moment a good number of them including the King answer positively. “My sword is far from being a powerful weapon on its own. Without the use of mana it's just a really hard piece of metal yet I was able to destroy the supposed most powerful sword of this kingdom with ease. I know for a fact that there are people in other kingdoms capable of making normal swords on par if not stronger than my own if you ignore its magical properties.I don’t know what is being given to people in the front lines or the army but I know that it isn’t the best stuff around by a long shot. I hope this is enough for all of you to understand the level you are at right now.”

The atmosphere from before gets worse, I believe I gave depression to a few people by their looks.

“This will be the only time I say something with this mindset. If things continue the way they are, they will get really bad. I went through a lot in the past few days, normally I would just trash all of you and be done but just today I really want you to be better, even if it is so I can have a better life.” I take a moment to gather the pieces of the sword I just broke and give it back to the King who accepts it. “Death makes you reconsider a lot of things and trust me I know it better than most people would like to even acknowledge. I can tell that almost none of you actually has experienced almost dying to anything really and that is, for better or worse, clouding your minds. Much stuff needs to be done and if you don’t figure it out by yourselves do you truly believe you are fit to lead? I wouldn’t think so. I am not someone who wants to lead but you can be damn sure that if you can’t I will take your place whatever you want or not. Sometimes when you want something done well you have to do it yourself, don’t you? Let’s hope that the time never comes. Now if you don’t mind I believe I should leave. If you need anything else I will stay in the capital for a few more days to recover.” I say before leaving the throne room.

I slowly walk back to my room in the castle and once I am alone I sit on the bed.

“Whoever said talking about your problems with strangers helped your mind was full of shit.”If anything, destroying that sword was better for my mental state than the whole thing.

“ “Mira proudly says to me.

“Yeah, yeah, you are stronger than the supposed stronger weapon in the kingdom, at least without taking magic into account.”

“ “

“Let’s leave at that. I need to get my mind in order before anything crazy happens again.”

With that I start to prepare to relax. I close and lock the door so I am not interrupted, Remove my clothes since even though they are not uncomfortable, they are not exactly something I would like to use when relaxing. Also, as much as I don’t want to admit, I like to be naked.

For a few hours I lie down on the bed and think about my life. I remember both of my lives as much as I can and reflect on them. I have to revisit some moments more than others but little by little I am coming to terms with everything I lived and how I should be feeling about it. As Lokir said, I really was suppressing my emotions quite a lot. I didn’t sob like yesterday but I cried quite a lot remembering some stuff but at least I also got some semblance of happiness thinking about some of my happy memories even if most of them soon turn into bad ones.

Then I hear someone knocking on my door.

“Give me a minute.” I say as I begin to at least put some underwear on.

“No problem.” I hear Sophia saying. Hearing that it's her I just open the door without putting my dress on quickly closing the door after. “Where are your clothes?”

“There” I say as I point to a chair near the bed.

“...You don’t have other clothes, do you?”

“No.”

“I figured.”

“So, what are you here for? I thought that the meeting was going to go on for a while even after that.”

“We are taking a break to eat and I came to see if you want something since I don’t think you would like to eat with them.”

“Food would be nice.”

“And clothes by the looks of it.”

“Not like I will let anyone just barge in here.”

“Still, clothes.”

I just nod in response and she quickly leaves the room. A few minutes later she along with a maid comes into the room with a few plates of food and a simple white dress that is no more than a piece of cloth with some holes in it by the looks of it. Still, it's something. I don’t know if I should feel proud of it but I could feel a hint of jealousness from the maid as she laid her eyes on me. After that she left the room and I began to eat along with Sophia.

“So, how are you feeling?” She asks me.

“Better. I am trying to focus on the fact that I have a good thing going for now.” My actual situation isn’t exactly the best there is but it's pretty good all things considered. I have friends, family and a stable job.

“I wasn’t expecting you to say all of that.”

“I felt that I needed to do that to make my point. I know a lot they don’t and they should hear and consider what I have to say.”

“You should do the same.”

“You speak like I don’t.”

“Most of the time you don’t.”

“Not adhering to social norms doesn’t mean I don’t hear what other people say directly to me. I put up with the ban on magic, being called names and my overhaul hand on politics. I am doing things their way in hopes that they do something useful instead of bothering me.”

“It’s not how it looks on the outside.”

“I don’t respect most of them as people so who cares?”

“I worry about your future.”

“What are they going to do? Wage a war against me? If I was doing really dumb stuff that could get thousands killed I would like if someone pointed that out.”

“You are a little too happy pointing out what you think is wrong, don’t you?”

“Not really. I use the same tone on others they use with me so maybe that's why. Maxi, the king, the prince, some nobles, all of them think they are superior to me intellectually because of their position and don't give me the benefit of the doubt.”

“... In the end we are bound by our traditions, aren’t we?”

“If by we you mean the ruling class of this kingdom I will have to agree, if by we you mean people in general then it is a big no. Tradition is born out of necessity. If something wasn’t useful at some point no one would have done that.”

“Can’t argue against it. Even I am blinded by the things I knew to be the absolute truth. The me from before knowing you would actually not see myself today as the same person.”

“Thanks?”

“You are welcome. But I really hope that you are wrong on this.” She says, somewhat sad.

“I hope so too… I know this is a little off topic but can you tell me what is going on in the border with the demon territory?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“All I know is that there are a lot of strong people there, not how many, not what they are doing. As far as I know they are just camping and once a week a lone demon tries to break through and one of them fights.”

“... The actual situation up there is complicated. We block the only real way for the demons to come in mass south but that doesn’t mean that it's the only thing in that place. Some of the troops there have to spread to try and catch the small groups trying to come south while the main forces stop a few monsters that tend to appear in the area besides the usual job of guarding the border.”

“So, how much of the troops are we talking about? 10, 20,30%?”

“In numbers, 50%, in power, 70%.” I have to say I am quite shocked by this.

“So the situation north is so bad that no matter what happens south, the troops have to stay there?”

“Yes. The public only knows that soldiers patrol the north but the sheer amount of people necessary to stop the monster from coming south as well as stop any intent of the demons to actually march south is quite big. There is also the fact that at least 25% of those troops are from other places.”

“I read about that. We have a deal with other kingdoms that they send us stuff and mostly leave us alone and we stop the demons, right?”

“Sometimes they send troops. Not all are good but numbers have their appeal. We also get quite a few adventurers and volunteers but we don’t have numbers on those.”

“... Have you actually gone north?” I ask after thinking for a moment.

“Yes. Why?”

“I am thinking of going there.”

“What!?” She asks, surprised.

“There is something going on there, I can feel it.” If there is a place where stuff is going on right now it's there.

“And what do you pretend to do there?”

“Taking into account that I am 99% sure we will be attacked by another kingdom, getting some more troops to actually be able to defend us against other people and not just demons. We don’t have a single member of the army in our city, not that we needed, but if the army is as trained as I think they are, having at least one in a town would infinitely help.”

“If they are actually part of the army I agree with you.”

“Then I guess I have to prepare myself.”

“How long do you plan to stay there?”

“Don’t know. I will have to see how things are there but I will probably be back, in the worst case, by tomorrow morning.” I am not planning on actually staying there. I was informed to not go into demon territory but I think this is safe.

“Just be careful, ok?” She says as she kisses my forehead.

“No problem. Inform the people if necessary.”

After that we finish eating and she leaves my room. I fly out the window towards the city itself and safely land in an alley without anyone seeing me. From there I look for a bank and get a few coins so I can recharge myself. Luckily I know that there are brothels here.

After finding a somewhat small yet respectable place among the various brothels in the area I was in, I made my way inside. There I found myself a normal reception room like the ones you would find in a small office in my old world, just with less technology.

“Welcome to the Dream Plaza. How may we help you?” A man and a woman dressed like any normal commoner said to me in unison.

“I want three chickens, a boat, 10 tons of rice and a dwarf.” I say sarcastically.

“I am afraid that is beyond us.” The woman says while snickering while the man is losing himself on the ground.

“Is he ok?” I ask the woman.

“I am ok, people usually don’t try to joke around here. I was taken by surprise.” He says in between laughs.

“So, what can we do for you or to you?” The woman asks now in a more professional tone.

“I require the services of this establishment. But before that I need to ask what your policy on information here is.”

“Afraid of your husband?” The man asks as he stands up.

“I am not married or in a relationship. I would mind people knowing I came here, I just want to know if I have to worry about people talking about myself.”

“What do you mean?” The woman asks with genuine curiosity.

“My body is kinda unique, I don’t want information going around on how exactly it is. Don’t worry, it's nothing that would cause anyone harm, just different.” For a moment they look at each other like they are confirming something without talking before the woman turns back to me.

“Well, usually we would show you everyone available but going by your request we have only two people available.”

“If they are the price said on there and as good looking as I think they are I don’t mind.” I say as I point to a wooden board with prices that is on their desk.

“I will be calling them. My partner here will show you the waiting room.” The woman says. I soon follow the man to a room a few meters away. It's nothing fancy, just a sofa with a small wooden table in front of it and some candles since there are no windows here.

After a few minutes the woman comes into the room with 3 people. 2 men and a woman.

“Since you didn’t specify sex or race they are all here.” The woman says.

They were all in what I think would be the equivalent of swimsuits just not made out of the same material as I would expect. The first man was a dwarf. I can’t for the life of me tell his age because of the beard but I know he is here because he wants to. There is an aura about people who like this kind of job that if you know you can’t unsee. He is white, somewhat tanned, with red hair where you can imagine. He is 1,5 meters tall, so my best guess is that he was either very lucky or he isn’t 100% a dwarf. The second man is an elf of all people. He was slender, 1,75 meters tall, short blueish hair, probably painted in some way, Lastly the woman is a Milf. No better description fits. She wasn’t exactly young but wasn’t old. 1,6 meters tall, brown curly hair going to her shoulders, big boobs, bigger than mine in fact, a round ass and trained legs. This woman is fighting aging like a champion. If she had any ounce of magic on her I can’t even imagine how she would be today.

Before I select one of them I need to actually test something.

“If possible, could you bring at least another man and another woman here?” I ask the woman.

“Sure.” She nonchalantly says. In no more than a minute she comes back with two other men, this time humans along with a dwarf woman.

I take a moment to actually look at the man. I know for a fact that I am actually attracted to women but did I block what should be a natural attraction to man? I take a hard look at the man and wait a few moments. Well, I can objectively tell they are at least somewhat attractive but I don’t exactly feel the same about them as I feel about women. Even the dwarf woman gets my attention a little but the men are just there. I would guess that before they would actually annoy me a little but now it's more like I don’t really care about their presence in this context.

“I will be taking her.” I say as I point to the Milf.

“Thanks for choosing me.” She says in a very sexy voice.

After paying the people there I am guided by the Milf to a room in the back. On the way there I can hear some people.

As soon as we enter the room she starts to kiss me on the lips. A few moments later my mouth is free to talk again.

“So, what should I call you?”

“Whatever you like princess. It’s been a while since I've been with a woman as amazing as you.” I don’t know if this is part of the service or if it's just what she really thinks. Either way, she is really in the mood for this.

“Ok Maria. Listen up. On any normal day I would actually enjoy the proper way but today isn’t a normal day so remove everything, get confortable on that bed and prepare for the longest and hardest fuck of your life.” I say as I begin to remove my clothes.

“As you order.” The woman says seductively. She quickly removes anything that she is wearing and sits on the bed with her legs open in my direction. As I remove my panties I can see the surprise on her face.

“Like what you see?” I ask her.

“Can’t say I don’t. Now come here and show me I am not hallucinating.”

For the next hour I have my fun with her. She passed out half-way through it but it doesn’t really matter. Seems like having sex with someone who actually wants it recover my mana faster so I managed to actually enjoy things at the end instead of going as fast as I can.

After cleaning her and myself I leave the place, buy some clothes so I am at least looking like an adventurer and begin my flight to the north. I am get this weird feeling and I really hope it's nothing. Why can’t my subconscious tell me stuff like the normal part of my brain from time to time?