The Demon King's Hero Of Light

"I think that"s enough for you," said Bob, taking the empty bottle and gla.s.s.

"I"m going to bed," Alfred mumbled, taking his key and trying to see the symbol on it before stumbling to his feet. Weaving back and forth, he made it to the banister going upstairs, and held it with a death grip the entire way up.

"All of you heroes are immune to poison," said Bob, heading back to the bar. "He was doing that to be able to let off some steam."

Aella"s head snapped up at that news. The whole show was a fake? That guy was good!

"That"s how they test the children to see if they"re heroes or not," added Bob, placing the gla.s.s in a sink of water and proceeding to wash it.

"That might just make the church worse than the counselors," she said, with a shake of her head. "Is it a weak poison at least?"

"It"s fast acting, and causes the child to throw up almost immediately, though some have died when given it. Especially the babies."

She stood up and moved over to the bar, watching Bob wash the gla.s.s. "How are you able to do magic?"

"It"s a gift, like what you have. I can"t teach you magic Aella. That will take yourself and a long journey to accomplish."

"I don"t have time for a long journey. I have a kingdom to run, a war to end, and corruption all around me. What I need are answers!" she hissed in annoyance.

"Everyone who comes to me for answers has to pay a price. Just because you"re a king, makes no difference. The problem is, I don"t have a price that you can afford right now. You"re welcome to ask me questions, but I won"t answer them all."

Making a fist with her gloved hand, he glanced up at her, and she felt an invisible hand pick her up.

"Violence is not allowed in my bar. If you wish me harm, I will throw you out in the streets," he warned, his voice going deep, and for the first time in a long time, Aella felt fear.

As her fist relaxed, the hand holding her disappeared. This was not someone she wanted as an enemy.

"Fine. I"m going to go see the first king, and talk with him. Maybe he will answer my questions," she huffed, imagining the room the first king was in.

He looked up as she stepped in front of him.

"I have a gift for you from Bob," she said, holding out the vial.

His eyes widened in surprise and hope, taking the vial carefully. After studying it for a moment, he said, "Did he say anything when he gave it to you?"

"Only that things would get better," she said with a sigh, throwing herself onto the couch he had against one wall. "That man can sure be annoying!"

"Oh, Bob isn"t a man, nor a demon. In fact, I wouldn"t be surprised if he didn"t even call this world his home, when he was born. I"ve never met anyone nearly as powerful and knowledgeable as him. It"s a good thing all he cares about is his bar. It would be scary if he tried to expand and take over, because I"m pretty sure no one could stop him."

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"So, he said he could answer my questions, but only if I paid for the answers," she said, watching the king"s face.

The look on his face put her on edge. "Aella, that man is dangerous. Be very careful what you plan to ask him, because some of his prices are very high. As far as I know, he doesn"t ask for souls, or anything quite as evil as that, but I wouldn"t put it past him."

"Got it," she said with a nod. While he would help in a pinch, she decided she would refrain from trying to get everything from the strange creature, Bob. "I"ve started a bit of a feud with the n.o.bles in the kingdom. Do you realize, they"ve gotten rid of taxes?"

"What?" cried the king, sitting in his chair with the vial still clutched in his hand. "How does the kingdom run without the funds to pay people? Tell me everything!"

"Well, it started with the Advisors telling me about the issues with the sewers backing up, and the lack of manpower to keep them clean. They"ve been taking so many of the people to fight this war with the humans, that there aren"t enough people in the city to keep things running smoothly, and it"s started falling apart. I told them to have all the people move into the warehouse district, until we could get everything working again."

"That"s good, the warehouse district is near the river, so it should be easier to keep that small area clean, but will the entire population fit in that one district?"

"Unfortunately, yes. It seems most of the population has fled west to the coast."

"But the storms are so bad out there!" he said, scrunching his brow in disbelief.

"The n.o.bles didn"t like the idea of living in the warehouse district, surprisingly, and the common people didn"t like the idea of leaving their homes and businesses. I got them busy and lined up to have some of the warehouses converted into business buildings, with many small shops in one place, and the people calmed down some. I had to kill a n.o.ble though, when they refused to all come when I summoned them to speak with me. Two others I made slaves of the crown and stripped all three families of their n.o.ble t.i.tles, as an opportunity to gain some funds to use to help the kingdom get righted."

"Be careful, you"re going to have a lot of enemies from all of this!" he said with a shake of his head. "Those n.o.bles have been running the city without any problems from the Advisory Council for hundreds of years. They"re not going to like you shaking things up."

"I know, but I think things need to be shaken up. This war should not still be going on."

"You know why they haven"t stopped it yet, right?" asked the king, leaning back in his chair and propping one leg up on the other.

"I imagine it has something to do with power," she hazarded a guess.

"That"s it exactly. As long as there is a conflict giving them an excuse to order the people around, then the people have no choice but to go along with it. I imagine they use promises of peace to prop up the people occasionally, but honestly, if the war ended, they would lose all of their power."

"That"s what the hero said," she said.

"The hero?" he exclaimed, jumping forward to the edge of his seat. "What?"

"I used the cloak to teleport to my home town, where I grew up before my father was sent away and I got s.n.a.t.c.hed. It happened to be on the border, and I encountered the hero team. I treated them to a night at Bob"s bar and learned quite a bit from the Hero of Light about the corruption in the church on the human side. Apparently, they keep the people on a pretty tight leash."

"You actually spoke to the hero…?" he couldn"t seem to get over that point.

"Alfred seems like a decent fighter, and I think we could be friends. The other people in his group were interesting, specifically the Sage," she said with a smile, picking imaginary ick out from her fingernails.

"Sage?" he whispered.

"It"s going to be a bit while I gain their trust, so I probably won"t get her here fast, but I"ve found one."

"Wow!" he whispered, sitting back stunned. "Everything is going to get worse before it gets better, but I think you actually might have a chance at this! Keep an eye out for a.s.sa.s.sins and poison. They"re going to try and kill you because of the shake-up you"re causing."

"I"m immune to poison," she said with a smile, watching the understanding light up in his eyes.

"If you get a chance, go to the mountains where the monsters are undoubtably attacking the most, and check out the fortifications I had built when I first became king. If they"re still there, you might be interested in the information I had carved into the walls. I don"t remember the stories very well, it"s been too long, but the stories of all the heroes are depicted on those walls. It wouldn"t surprise me if the church tried to have them destroyed, but I had them pretty well protected."

"Is that why there are so many monsters?" she asked, thinking of the griffons.

"There"s something in the mountains, but I don"t remember much about it, that calls the monsters there. You would have to kill all the monsters in your way to get to whatever it is, to try and destroy it, but I never got a chance. If things are deteriorating as you"ve said, you may need to handle it yourself."

"I"ve got so much to do already… I will do what I can. Those monsters are draining our reserves dry of able-bodied demons. I have to do somethings. But first, sleep. Good night, King."

"My name is Jozef. I was named for the G.o.d Joseph, if anyone still remembers him…"