The castle was even more incredible closer to it.

The silver walls were glistening under the sun light. They were not as shine as silver, so I think they must had put something on it to diminish the glow. They were really well made, as there were few flaws on it. It was also way taller up close, making it a breath taking structure.

The castle also, even not being made of silvery ore, was a beautiful building too.

Just after the walls was a small village that stood on the side of castle, closer to the mountain. The guard who was riding with me said that there was where the families who didn’t belong to the nobility resided, both civilians and slaves. He also explained that all slave could buy their freedom, and a lot of the ones who managed to buy it, remained here to work at the castle, leading for the formation of the small village.

When we were almost on the castle, the twins disappeared.

Not the kind of running and hiding, no. One moment both were there, and then they simply disappeared!

I could see the surprise in Reka and Kat’s eyes, but the guards were unfazed, so I guess there was nothing to worry about.

When we got closer, the doors to the balcony were openrd, and the twins came out. The stranger thing was that they were both dressed formally, out of their armors. How they were able to get up there and change clothes was a mystery.

Freyja step forward. “Jorson! Go with the new guys to the village and see that Ko explain their jobs and show their new house.” The guard she called jumped from his Bo and went to help Kat to get out of her horse.

Freyja still had more orders. “Bastian, go to the guard tower and send three to pick up the others who were left behind. With the horses, mind you. The others may rest.”

Bastian rode toward one of the towers close to the wall, to call for the others. The rest of the guards were also dismounting (the guard that was with me simple grabbed me and put me at the floor), and we were about to go when Freyr stepped forward to say something.

“Leave the demon behind; we need to talk with him.” And with this, both went inside.

The guards looked confused about this, but quickly complied. While they were going, I could see Kat looking at me with concern, but she turned around and followed the guard.

I stood there, thinking what the hell I did to already have the attention of the twins.

After some time, a butler exited the castle and urged me to follow him. He was a dog-morph. His hair was completely white, so he must be quite old. No, he doesn’t have a muzzle. Only a fluffy tail and dog ears, both white. It was somewhat adorable.

The inside of the castle was a lot warmer than the outside. With the Mana Eyes, I could see various Ice Shards around, to cool down the castle.

Needless to say, the interior was also well decorated, with tables, paintings and statues everywhere. Even the furniture seemed expensive, made from some fine looking wood.

The butler took me to the second floor (the stairs were hellish, just saying) where we passed through a large corridor, filled with pictures of the Wenz family. All were blond, except for those who married into the family, and even they usually had blonde hair. The blue eyes were not a family trait, but black eyes instead. The twins inherited it from their mother, who was also in a painting at the corridor.

I would be tremendously impressed by the castle luxury, if not for some of the servants who were coming and going around various rooms that were much less decorated. Such servants received a glare from the butler, meaning they were clearly making something wrong. It seems we went through the most decorated ones, and they tried to use the old tactic of intimidation by money. Why the twins would go so far for it, is something I still don’t understand.

The butler stopped in front of a grandiose door on the end of the corridor. He knocked and waited for the answer.

The twins quickly answered, and the butler opened the door to let me pass.

And again, I was stunned.

We were at one of the towers of the castle. The walls were decorated with bookshelves, which went up the tower in a spiral. In the middle of the room was a great table, but from my point of view I couldn’t exactly tell what was on it, except from some books pilled on the edge.

At the other side of the room was a desk, and it was filled with more books and notes. Some were carefully rolled, and had a more official look. There were some that were simple thrown on the desk, maybe some personal notes. Behind such desk was another balcony, but not the one where the twins simple appeared. They went through a lot of trouble going from room to room to make this meeting.

Sitting on the desk was Freyja, looking at some papers while she waited us. She was using a glass, and I must say it really fit her, giving her a serious and wise look. Her brother was nowhere to be seen.

“Uhm?” Freyja gave a nonchalantly look at us. “Oh, the demon. You can leave now Clement, I take it from here.”

The butler gave another bow before leaving and closed the door.

Freyja went back to her papers, and I was left there, waiting.

And I waited.

…

And waited.

…

And waited a bit more.

…

Still no response from the Lady. She was still reading her papers, and her expression changed just a liiiiiiitle bit, and she now had a small frown.

Tired of waiting, I gave a small side step, to see if it would bother her. Not seeing any other change on her expression, I gave some steps, and waited.

Seeing she was still unresponsive, I relaxed, calmly walked to the big table at the middle of the room and climbed (yes, climbed… no, it’s not funny) a chair to have a better look at it. Glad I didn’t need to drag it, since I prefer to not anger the blonde lady over there.

On top of the table was a map.

And not your regular map, no. This, my friend, was an advanced map.

The map had the whole Royal Continent on it. But different from the other maps I had seen, this one was a lot accurate. For starters, it had elevation too. The mountains and volcanoes were well depicted on the map, and even their colors were well represented. There were also miniatures of cities and other reference points. I could even see the monastery from here!

The map also had a large border, so people could take their notes on the table without risking destroying the map.

“Hey sis! The demon seems to enjoy the map!”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The outburst almost made me fall from the chair, but I was able to control myself.

Searching for where the voice came from, I found Freyr on the stairs, right above the door, carrying an old looking book. Yeah, I had forgotten the stairs were in spiral, so I haven’t seen him over me.

Freyja was still composed and only gave a quick look at him.

“Have you found it?”

“Yeah, it was almost at the top.” He said while jumping from up there.

I was shocked by this, and almost ran to help him. But he simply floated down, as if it was the most usual thing. And he had that smug smile, as if he was testing my reaction. So I was considering throwing him out of the window, to see if he could float there.

“Here, the book about demons.” He said it in a thoughtful tone.

Demon book? What, are you going to summon something? This could be dangerous!

…

…

Oh yeah, I’m a demon… it must be about me… hahaha…

A-Anyway, this caught Freyja attention, and she put the paper she was reading down, and asked to take a look at the book.

While she skimmed through the pages he didn’t wait her to finish it.

“It seems the demon over there…” He pointed at me. “Uh, Gyp… Was it? is an Imp. They were classified as an Envy Demon. They usually leave their villages when they reach 15 years, their maturity age. But Gyp doesn’t look like an adult Imp. Aside from his wolfish features, he looks almost like a child one. Maybe it’s because of his ‘Pilgrim’ condition, or the gods simple forgot to give him an adult form.”

What? Exactly how much information did they have about these things? I didn’t even know half of that!

And he hadn’t finished yet. “In the book they mention that Imps can alter their looks by killing their enemies, but no one clearly explained how that happens. Almost all Imps reach a savage stage, so it was impossible to gather information about them.”

He gave a small pause, and Freyja took that opportunity to speak.

“Can he be used by us?” Hey, I can still hear you, you know?

He looked at me (he knows), and gave a sinister smile. “Yes, we could use him.”

With this Freyja got up, and came towards me. She sat down in a chair at near mine and stared at me with serious eyes.

“Gyp, right?” She extended her hand, to greet me.

Things developed too fast, and I was unable to anything besides nodding and greeting.

“You must already know, but I am Freyja Wenz, Lady of Silberburg.”

“I am…” The brother was about to say something but Freyja stared at him. “Okay, shutting up…”

She sighed but recovered fast. “First of all, we would like to apologize for the way we first met. Making a god’s envoy a slave was quite indelicate.”

She pulled a key and unlocked the collar around my neck.

Things were developing quicker now, it seems.

“We also hope you can forgive Josep, he didn’t know what he was dealing with when he first bought you.” She said, and gave a bowed.

I recovered a bit from the happening, so I stopped her monologue.

“What do you know about the Pilgrimsss?”

She calmly looked at me, reading my expression, before answering.

“It was already written on some holy texts about the coming of heroes. We just needed to know where to look at.”

“And you’re not the first one we met. Some weeks ago a noble passed here, and they had some Pilgrims as their bodyguards. They said they were on their way to train and… level up?” Freyr added to the talk.

The term ‘level up’ was something known only by the people from Earth, so I’m quite sure they are telling the truth.

With this, it was all settled to me, but Freyja still had that ‘but…’ face, so I sighed and waited for her to drop the bomb.

She noticed it and gave a cutesy smile. “Now, you may want to return to your companions, but we would like to ask for your help in a difficult matter.”

“Brother, approximate the map to the forest.”

Freyr was on the other side of the table, and he said some words before touching the table. A light emanated from the map, and mountains and villages disappeared. On its place, the map was showing a huge forest, with some villages surrounding it.

“This is Drex Woods, a forest that recently came to the attention of all the nobility.” She pointed to three of the villages. “These villages have reported kidnappings recently. The scariest thing is how often they are happening, and the dispatched knights were unable to capture the kidnappers. The other villages also had cases of missing people, but only two or three people per village; a lot of people, but still less than these three. We were only able to discover the alias of the bandit’s leader; someone nicknamed Mad Hat; and that their base is somewhere on this forest. It was decided that we would ask the bounty hunters to help us on this.”

While she took a pause to breath, I asked the most necessary question. “How would I help?”

Freyr was the one who answered. “We guess that the bandits must have some kind of mage with them, and he is able to locate any knights who try to approach them. So we intend to send you, who should be able to pass through their barriers undetected. You also have some training in magic, a plus. And your race is basically perfect for such an undercover mission.”

“What I gain by helping you?” It was another important question. I can’t simply get into something so dangerous without gaining anything. And it’s a long way back to the monastery, so I wouldn’t like to go back on foot.

“Besides my friendship?” Freyr asked in a mischievous tone. I just glared at him and look at his sister.

She seemed tired of her brother antics. “There is a prize in gold for who capture Mad Hat, dead or alive. And in case you are able to find the kidnapped people, we will also give you one of our Bo.”

I thought about the deal.

It was the kind of thing a summoned to another world hero would go and try to solve. It would really help me in improving my skills. And I wouldn’t die, even if get killed; so I guess I could give a help on this case.

But still, I thought I could gain something more from this.

“Okay, I’ll do it.” They started to get happy, but I raised my hands to stop them. “On one condition; that you free the slave who came with me.”

Yes, I became attached to Kat, so I would try and give her a little gift. No, no +1 to harem. She’s just a girl, and I truly wanted her to enjoy a life of freedom.

The twins got together to discuss my condition. Not long after they came back with another proposal.

“We can let the slave go in about a month. There will be an event on this time, and we will need all the slaves we can gather. Is this good enough for you?”

 I guess that a month will not be that bad?... Besides, it was said that here is a good place to work at, so I guess it wouldn’t hurt.

“Okay, agreed.”

Quest Accepted!Capture the bandit, Mad Hat (dead or alive)Rewards10 gold

A Bo

A slave

…

I almost fell down by the sudden appearance of the blue panel. The twins were also surprised by it, and I could see them murmuring something and shaking their heads in unison.

“Go take a bath for now, we will hold a late lunch, and I hope we can further discuss your mission.” Freyja said, before going back to her paperwork.

Waiting for me outside was the old butler. He had received orders to take me for the guest room, so I could take a bath and change my clothes. Riding for almost a week left me with a heavy odor, and I guess the lunch wouldn’t allow for such smell. And I really needed to change my clothes.

The room was… elegant. Cozy, even.

They had left the magical fireplace lit, which gave the room a comforting atmosphere. The green flames must be colder than the normal flames, as the room wasn’t suffocating.

The bath was also heated, by some Fire Shards at its base. This also reminded me to redo my own shards, but for now I would only be using Water ones, as I didn’t have much time to create the others.

Fortunately, the butler wasn’t there to help me put the clothes on, as it would be way embarrassing for a 21th centurier like me. He did leave some clothes behind, but I had the uncomfortable felling they were kid’s clothes. He also went as far as making a hole at the pants, so I leave my tail free. Guess having a tail make you remember this kind of details.

He was again waiting for me outside the room, and he surprisingly took me back to the twins’ library. Although, this time, he simple entered the room without knocking. Maybe he was making a show before?...

The twins were sat on a smaller table at the side of the room, which had been ignored on my previous visit. There were already some food on top of it, and there was also a plate reserved for me. They were actually waiting for me before starting to eat.

After sitting down, Freyr was the one who was serving the food. The old dog had already left the room. Freyja had a somewhat guilty look, and didn’t made eye contact with me. Weird.

“Here Gyp. Taste some of this.” It was spaghetti like food, with some vegetables decorating it. A very charming meal.

Actually, all the food there looked appetizing, and spending my previous meals eating soup and bread, well… I would totally be wolfing it down!

…

Except it was too spicy!

What is this? Super Mexican food? Are you trying to kill me?

Freyr was surprisingly considerate, and quickly gave me a glass of wine.

And it was a good one, to add to it; there was a small hint of alcohol, but a grape like taste filled my mouth. Its sweet taste overcame the burning sensation of peppers.

Although, isn’t it too sweet?

I was about to ask the twins if this is its normal flavor, when a sudden box appeared before me.

Congratulation!By consuming various poisons, you are now able to secrete some of themPoisons gainedCapsicum - Hemorrhagic poison

Soft Dream - Sleeping powder

….

My jaw dropped a lot by seeing the message.

“ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!” It’s not actually my fault to go on an uproar like that.

Freyr had a refreshing a smile, and was cutely blushing a bit as if he had made an adorable mistake. “The book said some Imps had poison resistance, so I got curious~~~. But to think you would gain new abilities~~~ Hahahaha~~”

…

Someone, save me from these crazy nobles!