Ira and Amy sat together in a restaurant. The Blue Bird, specifically. A restaurant that previously boasted of very little notoriety until Ira basically financed its renovations by himself. Ms.Edda, the restaurant's owner, and local hero, had long since hired skilled chefs but had personally appeared to attend to Ira. The restaurant was filled to capacity which was due to the story of Ms.Edda fending off a robbery which caused people to visit out of curiosity and stay for the food.

Ira had finished nearly a dozen plates before he began talking to Amy.

“How did you find me?” Amy asked immediately.

“Sam,” Ira said as he lazily reclined in the chair with a satisfied look.

“Sam?” Amy questioned.

“Samantha. She handles all the jobs I take and since I’m important she has the clearance to do certain things or something like that. She will explain it better than me.” Ira said.

“Will?” Amy said. Although she didn’t want to she ended up making one-worded inquiries due to the way Ira spoke.

“She’s on the way...but what I want to know is who did you kill?” Ira showed an interested expression and he leaned forward and rested his chin on his hand. He gave a careful look into Amy’s green eyes as if he were worried about missing something hidden beneath.

“I…” Amy withered under his gaze for some reason as memories of her attack surfaced. She summed up how her attacker assaulted her without reason and how she somehow used green flames to kill him.

“Green flames.” Ira returned to his reclined position and close his eyes as he pondered over something.

After a few moments of silence, Ira spoke with his eyes still closed, “Amy.”

“Y-Yes,” Amy responded nervously.

“Your arm. It didn’t have that greenish color when I gave it to you, right?” Ira asked casually.

“No, it didn’t,” Amy answered.

“I see,” Ira said.

Silence returned as Ira appeared to have fallen asleep, an idle serenity fell over him which looked quite charming. In fact, a few women in the restaurant sent Amy jealous glances, misunderstanding the relationship between the two.

“Um...Ira.” Amy said in a near whisper as the pressure of those gazes seemed too much for her to handle in her current state.

Ira furrowed his brows before he slowly opened his eyes and stared at Amy’s arm. “Hey, Amy.”

“Yes?” Amy responded.

“Hold out your hand for a moment,” Ira said as he held out his own.

“Don’t do it!” The Demon of Envy screamed in Amy’s head which caused her to flinch. As soon as Ira opened his eyes and stared at her arm, the Demon felt as if it were under immediate threat. The first time could be written off as something else, but a second time would mean that it was truly dangerous. The Demon had underestimated Ira as it could now feel an immediate threat any time Ira looked at it.

Amy hesitated, but Ira was one of her most trusted friends and one of the people she admired the most so she complied. She rested the metal hand on his palm and Ira instantly felt a slight warmth on it. Amy looked to be a bit embarrassed as she the metal arm still had a sensation of touch, it was just far less sensitive than a real arm. Although she had no real romantic feelings for Ira, it was still weird for her to hold the hand of a member of the opposite sex. She reminded herself that Ira didn’t operate in the same way as everyone else and managed to retain some sense of calmness.

“That’s weird.” Ira said to himself before he continued, “Seems like something is...in here.” Ira had dealt with the Will of Purgatory so he was a bit familiar with sub-planar entities. There was also whatever the boy who appeared in his consciousness was. The feeling from those interactions manifested itself as he continued to inspect Amy’s arm.

“Don’t trust him! He wants it for himself!” The Demon whispered lies into Amy’s mind which caused her to look at Ira. Didn’t he give her the entire arm free of charge? Especially surprising when considering prosthetics that were enhanced with magic to simulate sensory abilities were astronomical in price. Knowing that Ira had a direct personality, Amy placed her trust in him, rather than the strange voice. As she put less and less importance in the words of the voice, it seemed to lose power.

“Damn it!” The Demon cursed. As the situation progressed Amy’s mental state was recovering quickly due to Ira. It wouldn’t take much more before any power it could draw from Amy would be negligent and it would be forced into dormancy or die altogether. It only had one option and that was to try to forcefully possess Ira. From what it could tell, his mental state didn’t change much even if his strength did. It had a premonition that Ira was a step away from doing something dangerous and it was right.

Ira was about to use his ability to nullify energy and mana to scare out whatever was inside Amy’s arm, but it appeared that he didn’t need to as he felt a warm energy attempting to rush into his hand.

…

Ira found himself standing on a flat rock filled expanse with a grey sky in the background. In front of him stood a fluorescent green dog that looked rabid that towered over him.

“Submit!” The Demon growled out viciously. A normal person would be scared out of their mind, but Ira just narrowed his eyes in confusion.

“What?” Ira asked with a chuckle of disbelief.

“SUBMIT!” The Demon snarled.

“You just yell a command at someone and they follow, huh? Has that been working for you?” Ira asked sarcastically.

The Demon quickly searched for something to rattle Ira’s emotions and quickly thought of something.

It began to speak triumphantly, “If you don’t submit willingly then I’ll take your body by force and have a nice talk with your wife-” but was quickly stopped as it felt a searing pain that was worse than death.

The illusion of a huge dog crumpled as it turned into nothing a small hound that barely reached Ira’s hip. The Demon writhed on the ground as it cried out in agony and was unable to even speak. After what felt like an eternity, the pain ceased and the Demon was offered a brief respite.

“What did you do-” It attempted to question Ira, but was instantly subjected to the pain once again without the chance to think about anything.

Ira watched the Demon wriggle on the ground with an uncharacteristically cold gaze. While the Demon was unaware, Ira was using his ability to nullify magic and certain energies on it which caused it to feel an unbearable pain.

A weird scene played out where the pain would stop, the demon would attempt to speak, and then the pain would resume. After numerous times, the Demon began to see a pattern in its short moments of relief. Its only hope of survival was to submit to Ira. At first, it was unwilling, even with all the pain, but as time went on something inside of it seemed to break.

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“I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” The Demon whimpered as it curled into a ball.

“That’s a good place to start.” Ira cracked a cheerful smile.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” The Demon repeated brokenly.

“Yeah, I got that.” Ira nodded.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” It continued.

“Ok, that’s enough. Don’t say it again.” Ira said with a hint of annoyance.

“...” The Demon looked up at Ira fearfully.

“Right. So what are you?”

“A demon.” It instantly responded. Then it began to explain what Demons were and how it came to find Amy. Demons were simply a reflection of the desires of all mortals. They lived similarly to parasites as they fed off of the host's emotions to get stronger and were known to lie to, cheat, and trick their hosts if they could. It told of everything in fear of missing one small detail and being subjected to that feeling of agony again. After it finished talking, Ira took a few moments to digest all the information before nodding.

“So can you make Amy stronger?” Ira asked.

“Y-Yes.”

“Without affecting her?” Ira asked.

“...” The Demon responded with silence.

“If you can’t do that then I should just kill you right?” Ira asked. He had already decided to kill it if it couldn’t produce anything beneficial for Amy.

“Please wait!” The Demon cried out.

Ira remained silent as he looked on with an entertained smile.

“There may be a way. Demons drain the hosts because the end goal is to consume them. That isn’t to say that symbiosis is impossible. I can impart her with some abilities, but I need some sort of power to draw from. As long as she consumes something living it can nourish my flames and strengthen any abilities she receives.” The Demon hurriedly explained.

The entire process sounded good, but it came at a cost to itself. It would be reduced into a simple-minded entity that held no trace of its previous self. That is why the method was never seen as no Demon would be willing to eliminate its ego to help its host. The Demon held out hope that once Amy gained enough strength it could resume its previous form and at that time it could assimilate with Amy without drawing Ira’s attention.

“Agree to a soul contract,” Ira said with a smile.

“O-Of course.” For some reason, the Demon felt as if its intentions had been read through.

“Let’s see…” Ira thought for a second, “It’s a permanent symbiosis. You can’t attempt to change Amy’s mind. You can’t attempt to influence her mind. You can’t do anything that will harm her. You can’t speak with her from now on either. Basically, you can’t do any of that demon stuff you talked about earlier. Do you agree?” Ira finished listing the conditions and grinned.

The Demon felt like crying if it could. Agreeing to such a contract would reduce it to its simplest form and would never allow it to think for itself. Even if it survived what would be the point if it just became a tool for someone else. Still, there was no one to blame but itself and no choice but to accept, otherwise it would be subjected to a pain worse than death.

“I, Xeleg, agree to the terms set.” The Demon muttered in defeat. A black strand flew into its body and buried itself within which frightened the Demon.

Before the Demon could protest, the illusion around it began to crumble. The last thing it saw was Ira looking at it with a satisfied grin.

…

Ira’s interaction with the Demon only took a few seconds in reality. So the only thing Amy noticed was a warm sensation energy over her body before dispersing.

Ira released her hand and then began to speak. “How long did you have to listen to that thing talk?” Ira shook his head.

Amy seemed to understand what he meant as she felt a change in her entire body. “Ira...you...thank you.” Amy said as she nearly choked on her words. In Amy’s eyes, ever since they first met Ira had been helping her immensely and had never asked for a thing in return which caused her to feel undeserving.

“Don’t tell me...Are you crying?” Ira began to laugh.

“I-I’m not.” Amy sniffled as tears worked their way to the edge of her eyes.

“Yeah...yeah, you are.” Ira shook his head. “You need some grit, Amy. A few scars, some dangerously oversized muscles, and a few unique grunts.”

“Ira, no.” Amy laughed a few times as she wiped her eyes.

“You sure? I know an Alchemist who can probably make some muscle potions or something.”

“No!” Amy said loudly as she imagined what she would like.

“Your loss,” Ira said as he turned his gaze to the entrance of the restaurant. Amy followed his line of sight and immediately saw a woman with short brown hair enter with a professional look and a folder in hand. The woman walked toward them and nodded in greeting toward Amy before she sat down at the table.

“I assume this is Amy,” Samantha said to Ira.

“Yep.” Ira nodded.

“Thank you...for helping Ira find me, I mean,” Amy said as she slightly bowed toward Samantha.

“No need for thanks,” Samantha responded.

“Can I ask how you found me?” Amy questioned.

“Although the Union holds a strict privacy policy, it only applies to certain people. Those who joined recently have information that is accessible to those with higher clearance.” Samantha explained.

“I see.” Amy nodded.

“That reminds me. Your spear has been sent to the Union and you can retrieve it whenever you please.” Samantha added.

“Ah, yes. Thank you.” Amy said politely.

“Alright, what do you have for me, Sam?” Ira spoke up.

Samantha opened her folder and spread documents onto the table.

“You’re tasked with protecting his Highness, The Fourth Prince, Leonard. Before that you have to sign a few contracts acknowledging your responsibilities and accept full responsibility should anything go wrong.”

Ira groaned as he held out his hand. “Pen.”

Samantha retrieved a pen from her pocket and handed it over.

Ira quickly signed all of the documents in what could only be described as leisurely scribbles.

After he was finished Samantha began to talk, “You should know that the other princes wanted you, but since I told them you’re not too partial to etiquette they had given up.”

“Oh? Why is that?” Ira asked without concern.

“It’s a matter of status. The other three are candidates for ascending the throne and if they were unable to control one Mercenary from their own country it may reflect badly on their abilities.” Samantha explained. Although Ira was largely unaware

Ira had no desire to get swept under political undercurrents, so he just shrugged it off. Then a thought surfaced in his head. Why would the fourth prince accept it? Maybe he thought he could subdue Ira with charisma or maybe he didn’t want to participate in the competition for the throne at all.

“Oh well,” Ira said to himself before he continued. “Sam, I want you to look out for Amy from now on.”

“It won’t be a problem,” Samantha responded. Finding jobs for Harper or Amy was far less complicated compared to the process she had to go through for Ira.

“Now that I think about it, Harper should be on her way back too. Maybe you both should partner up, Amy.” Ira said as he stood up.

“You’re leaving?” Amy asked.

“Yeah, but I live right across the from here. So if you need to find me just check there or ask Sam.” Ira said before leaving.

Samantha stayed at the table and gave an evaluating glance at Amy. After a few moments of silence, she finally spoke. “You’ve known Ira for a while?”

“Only for a few months, same as most of the other people that know him,” Amy responded.

“I see. If you don’t mind I’d like to ask you a few personal questions about your training and abilities to gauge a proper direction for you as a Mercenary.” Samantha said as she pulled out a small notepad and began to write.

“O-Ok.” Amy agreed somewhat nervously.

…

Rhys sat alone in an unexpectedly plain room which had nothing more than the bare necessities. With her mask and armor removed, her scars became visible. Her lightning-shaped scars held a uniqueness to them as they started from a single point that was the top of her head, which was hidden by her dark brown hair and then split off. A set of scars ran parallel to each other, from her forehead to her collarbone and at that point, they continued past her shoulders and to her wrists. The other set ran directly down her spine and trailed her legs, stopping at her ankles.

A folder, similar to the one Sam gave to Ira, sat in front of Rhys on a small table. The words were bunched up, but a few lines stood out. Mostly those concerning security for the First Prince.

Rhys went through the process of signing away on numerous documents before she finally closed it. After she finished, she stood up and stretched before walking toward a mirror.

As she looked at herself, her thoughts wandered to one person before she shook her head and traced over her scars silently.

Getting rid of whatever she was thinking, Rhys threw on some leather armor, put on her mask, and grabbed the folder. Normally, she wouldn’t do a participate in a diplomatic related job, but after some consideration, she decided to. She had never been to another country or city outside of the Grenitian Kingdom so the prospect of travel excited her.

...