To my surprise, the village wasn’t that far away. I expected something similar to the marathons Wilhelmina put us through when she took over. Instead, we only marched for about five hours until we spotted our destination.

Or, rather, the pile of burned wreckage where our destination used to be.

Whatever Mercutio was hoping to find in the village, he wouldn’t get it. In fact, as we drew closer, I could tell this wasn’t the work of demons. Much like some of the villages I came across under Glaustro’s leadership, this settlement had been abandoned and put to the torch by its own people.

And then what happened to them? I wondered idly.

Had they truly escaped the invasion? Or were their souls used to power the wards and traps in the city we left behind?

We hit a snag at that point, calling my attention away from the smoldering ruins. Mercutio had told us to march until we reached the village. But with the beasts stalking behind us, none of the mortals dared to stop marching, even though we were about to pass the village.

Then, just as the turtle came in line with the remains of a low palisade wall around the ruins, the demon emerged from his home.

“What a waste of my time,” he groused, immediately dismissing the burned village. “You have my permission to set up camp. Work out guard shifts by yourselves. I don’t care what happens to you, but if some belligerent locals ambush us and rob me of my sleep, I will feed you to my beasts. We will resume our march in ten hours.”

With that lovely parting message, he disappeared back into his house. The turtle suddenly settled itself onto the ground, causing a miniature earthquake. The other beasts drew closer to the behemoth before curling up to sleep. It was like someone had hit their off button, turning the murder machines into snoozing pets.

That threat was gone, but I had other things to worry about. Since Mercutio refused to get involved, the mortal troops suddenly had no clear chain of leadership.

And, since we were a bunch of ambitious idiots, that meant conflict.

Immediately, almost subconsciously, the recruits separated themselves into groups according to our former commanders. Mine was the biggest. Combining the two brothers’ mortal troops, we had over a hundred mortals. We also had the best gear overall, especially the soldiers who served under Graighast.

For a moment, I allowed myself to hope this would be enough to discourage outright violence. And, as my track record proved, I tended to be an idiot when I let my hope do the thinking for me.

“Alright,” said a gruff, muscular human. He stepped forward from a group of about forty, one of the biggest after mine. “Here’s how it is. I’m not going to put up with some punk trying to tell me what to do, so I’m going to organize you lot into shifts, and we’re all going to get some decent sleep for once.”

“And what, exactly, gives you the right to do that?” A woman from one of the smallest groups stepped into the proverbial ring, eyes flinty as her hair drifted around her head in a halo. I immediately noted her non-human features: the feathers that lined her eyes, the tall, pointy ears, and the scales scattered across her forearms. Whatever she was, her blood line clearly granted her some unique advantages because I had no idea how she was doing the hair thing.

Another voice joined the argument. “Exactly. I’m sure there are plenty of us here who earned trust, loyalty, and strength. You’re no commander of ours, so why should we follow you?” A woman stepped forward from another small group. Unless I was sorely mistaken, she was a member of Mia’s species.

Using her name, even in my internal monologue, made my head jerk around to where I knew she was. Mia had quietly positioned herself behind me when we were ordered to form up at the square, and she had maintained that position ever since.

I found her staring back at me. When my eyes met hers, she gave me an acknowledging nod of support.

I fought the urge to smile bitterly. I was just checking to see if you’re alright, not if you’re ready to back me up in some stupid show of dominance!

Still, her trust in me was touching. I didn’t really deserve it. Not only had she put up with me attacking her when she tried to approach me at the inn, and been supportive throughout our training together, but she had even tried to help me when the trap threw me for a loop.

I still hadn’t thanked her for that.

I was so caught up in my own thoughts, and only half paying attention to the argument, that I didn’t have my usual composure to fall back on when the Gruff Boy said something stupid.

“What gives me the right is my ascension,” he proclaimed, like a king addressing his subjects. “I am already twenty percent closer to becoming a demon!”

His declaration was actually met by some awe, especially from the scruffier mortals. A hush fell over the crowd.

I, on the other hand, burst out laughing.

Every eye turned on me.

“What do you find so funny, you bloody idiot?” The gruff man took an aggressive step towards me, but that just made me laugh harder. “Well?! Name yourself, you insane coward!”

“Ahhh, sure,” I managed to choke out, feeling a whole lot lighter. Hell, I needed a good laugh. I actually felt fondness towards this person for providing me with the opportunity to improve my mood. “Hayden Hall, freshly minted basic level mage, fifty percent into my ascension counter.” The man turned pale, and I gave him a jaunty little wave. “Pleasure to meet you.”

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Mister Twenty-Percent was silent, trying to process my words and figure out how to respond. I didn’t push him. I was happy enough to stare at him, head tilted slightly to the side. In some way that I couldn’t understand, I was deriving plenty of amusement from his discomfort, but there was just something about his expression that fed a part of me I never knew existed. My emotions wanted more. I felt an urge to needle the man into a confrontation so I could crush him into pieces, and then watch his face twist further…

I clamped down on such thoughts firmly. My mood was far too quick to develop in that direction. The disturbing realization of this helped sober me up.

“Oh, relax,” I said with a smile.

To my surprise, the man visibly did relax. Was I really so intimidating? The next time I decided to stare at someone for that long, maybe I should remember to blink. Ever since I started training my mana seriously, I was pretty sure I could win any staring contest that didn’t feature a demon, a sun, or the Abyss.

The man tried to recover. “So I’m guessing you want me to bow to you, then?” he demanded. “Is that it? Want me to grovel for offending you or whatever?”

He was not fooling me. Just by staring, I had reduced him to deer-in-the-headlights status. If I wanted to, I could easily make him crumble. But, for better or worse, I wasn’t interested in playing power games with my fellow recruits.

I shook my head. “No. What I want you to do is get your head out of your ass and look around. He might not care, but our commanding officer is the one in charge. Not me. Definitely not you. So, stop with the pissing contests. If we start fighting right in front of his turtle thing, we are going to get in trouble.”

I let that sink in. The would-be leaders who had stepped forward looked thoughtfully at the turtle. Clearly, they didn’t like my words, but they also couldn’t argue.

Maybe they weren’t idiots after all.

“Since we can’t beat each other into submission,” I went on, “and we can’t trust each other, how about each of our groups works out something for ourselves? It’s better than posturing and arguing and still not being able to sleep because we think someone might try to shank us. The smallest groups, well… you can choose to join up with someone else, or you can try to make it on your own.”

I shrugged, indicating that I was washing my hands of the whole mess. The self-appointed leaders nodded awkwardly and turned back towards their groups.

Frankly, I didn’t even trust the mortals on my side. The ones under Graighast? Maybe. They had been welcomed into their troop and shown nothing but care and unity. Glaustro’s mortals, though? I’d be keeping an eye on those just in case. For now, at least, they looked impressed enough not to do something stupid.

I quickly motioned for Mia to follow me, walking some distance from the other groups so I could start setting up my tent.

“Do you think we can trust them to stay civil?” I whispered as I worked, noting with satisfaction that she was setting up her tent right next to mine.

“Not really. Not in the long term. Unless our new commander does something, things are eventually going to get bad.”

I hissed out a breath of frustration at her assessment because I agreed with it. Something told me there was no way Mercutio was going to exhibit good leadership skills. Even if he did have them, which would be a minor miracle, he didn’t like us enough to bother.

“We’re going to have to do something about it, aren’t we?”

Mia didn’t laugh at me, but she did allow herself a small, teasing smile. “I would say so, yes.”

I finished setting up my tent, grumbling about stupid orders and the illogical decision to part commanders from troops that were already used to following their orders. Sure, they were nominally keeping us away from the roughest battlefields, but how much of that was actually the truth and how much of it was an excuse? From personal experience, I knew the demons didn’t care too much about their mortal recruits.

Maybe they’re not worried about your safety, an insidious part of me whispered. Maybe they just want to keep you away from whatever the locals discovered. After all, imagine what you could do with the kind of magic that damages demons…

I shook my head to dislodge the idea, but it lingered. A curl of greed spread through my thoughts, consuming them with a single question: how I could possibly get my hands on a soul that might possess that kind of knowledge?

“Want first shift?”

Mia’s voice broke my reverie. I jerked my head up to look at her. She blushed at my confusion, then quickly rushed to explain.

“I mean, you don’t trust any guards our group might set up either, right? That’s why we moved a bit further away from them? We should organize shifts between the two of us. I think it’s best if we just split our remaining sleep time evenly. It’s kind of pointless to switch out every two hours. We would just keep waking each other up and neither of us would rest properly.”

I smiled, and she relaxed, returning the expression. It was a tiny bit ironic, considering my smile was borne of amusement at her assumption that I trusted her. Then again… against all my better judgment and attempts to separate myself from everyone, I did. She had covered for me at the Apple Infernal, never tried to trick or swindle me during our training together, and then came rushing to my assistance after the teleport.

Yes, whether I wanted to or not, I was starting to care about Mia.

“That works,” I said. “I’ll take first shift. We probably have… eh, a bit more than nine hours to sleep at this point? I’ll wake you up after six.” I raised my hand to silence her protests. “I’m an official mage now. I can keep myself going for a day or two with minimal sleep.”

I wasn’t lying either. Even Clarinette, with her broken core, experienced a significant jump in her quality of life when she advanced to official mage. My baseline physical ability was way higher than hers to begin with, and besides, I didn’t have a massive crack in my core.

“Well… if you’re sure.” Mia didn’t take a lot of convincing, but she still hesitated to slip away into her tent. Instead, she lingered outside, stealing curious glances in my direction.

I managed to ignore her for all of one minute before I caved.

“Is something wrong?”

“I was just wondering… you and the new commander. You don’t like each other?”

I let a bitter smile stretch across my lips fully. “No, we don’t.”

And wasn’t that an understatement?

I knew it wasn’t normal to experience so much anger at the mere sight of someone, especially someone I had never met. There was just something… alien about this demon. Whatever it was, it both unnerved me and triggered some kind of deeply buried hatred, dragging it to the surface.

“It’s just…” Mia whispered, then trailed off. She looked worried, like she thought whatever was on the tip of her tongue would upset me.

“You can say whatever you’re thinking, Mia. I’m not going to be angry,” I said.

“Well…” She took a deep breath. “You look a lot like him, so I thought you knew him from… before.”

I said nothing. My mind had emptied itself in record time, leaving nothing but disbelief and confusion where my thoughts were supposed to be.

Mia must have thought she had upset me, because she quickly mumbled an apology and then dove into her tent.

I sat there for a long time, staring at the spot she had vacated, trying to remember what I looked like.

I couldn’t.

Whatever features I had in my previous life were now hazy and indistinct in my memories, but Hayden’s looks had yet to lock themselves in place as my default definition of self. What’s more, the life of a demonic recruit wasn’t exactly full of mirrors.

Pulling my sword out of its sheath, I carefully angled it to catch my reflection,

I had to bite back a curse.

A face annoyingly similar to Mercutio’s stared back at me.