There's a wooden door in front of me and the walls are clearly manmade, this place doesn't look at all like the inside of a cavern at all...

But as weird as this is, I cannot turn back after coming this far. I gather all of my courage and open the door.

It looks like a normal room, there's a table with chairs, a couch, a bookshelf, and in the back there are a bunch of chests full of junk.

And in the center of the room, a man is standing still staring directly at me. He looks really... red, his skin is red, his horns are light red, his hair is a different shade of red and he's wearing a dark red cloak. That really looks like how one would imagine the devil looks like.

"..."

"..."

I close the door.

"I must have imagined that."

There's no way that there can be a person living this deep underground, I'm sure that when I open the door again he'll no longer be there.

I open the door again and he's still there.

"Are you going to come in?"

"I don't know."

He can talk! There's actually a person living in this place!?

"Are you the devil?"

"No, I'm not."

Ah, good, I was starting to get worried.

"Then who are you?"

"I'm just a prisoner in this place, my name is Vilde, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"That's just devil with the syllables switched!!!"

Is he messing with me?

"And what do you mean with 'prisoner', the door was unlocked and there doesn't seem to be any barriers or seals to stop you from leaving."

"Oh, the thing that's keeping me prisoner is far more powerful than a barrier or a seal. It's a promise."

"A promise?"

"I promised to never leave this place, so trapped here I am, and not even the end of the world could get me out."

Oh, so that's how it is. I guess all those lords and kings have been wasting their money building prisons and hiring guards if all they had to do was making the prisoners promise to not leave.

No, wait, the reason why they don't do that is obviously that the prisoners would just break their promise. He really is messing with me! What level is he anyway? Let me see...

"What!? You're level 578!?"

"Indeed I am. Is that higher than yours by any chance?"

"Yes, it is! That's great!"

"You're happy that my level is higher?"

"Yes! I don't have the highest level in the world! I'm a normal person after all!"

"No, I've only known you for one minute and I already can tell that you are as far away from a normal person as one can possibly get."

"You didn't need to be so blunt..."

"So you defeated that dragon, and yet, you do not look injured or even tired. There was a time when someone as powerful as you would have been called a god. That would have been interesting, we never had a god of darkness."

What is he talking about? This guy is way too suspicious, and considering his level I would not be able to beat him. I should leave now that I still can.

"Ah! I'm sorry if I said anything to offend you. Please don't leave."

"Sorry, I have to... do stuff... somewhere else."

"Could it be that you are afraid of me?"

"It's nothing personal, but a person who looks like the devil does not feel very trustworthy..."

"Hahaha, I wish that the world was kind enough to let us all know who we can trust from appearances alone, but that is not the case. The devil does not look like the devil."

Huh... the truth is that I do not feel any hostility from him. Now that I think about it, being afraid of him just because he's strong and looks a bit suspicious would make me a hypocrite.

"Perhaps I could stay for a bit..."

"Marvelous! I have not had a visitor since... ever, actually. By the way, can I have your name?"

"Oh, sorry, I'm Luna."

Vilde guides me into the room and I take a seat next to the table.

"By the way, earlier I sensed something really scary in this room. Do you have anything dangerous around here?"

"Dangerous? Not really. At least I don't have anything that someone like you should be afraid of."

He has to be lying, there's no way that he could have something as terrifying as what I sensed and not notice. Does that mean that he's a bad guy after all?

"You are not planning to attack me or anything, are you?"

"Perish the thought! I am a gentleman, I would never fight a lady without her consent! But now that you mention it, perhaps we could have a friendly bout?"

"No, I don't like to fight people."

"Are you sure? You would probably win, I'm quite out of shape after being here for so long."

"That's not the problem. I just don't want one of us to get injured by accident."

"I see... then perhaps we could have some other type of competition. Do you know how to play chess, by any chance?"

"Chess? Yeah, I've played a few times."

I learned to play from Arana, she said that she had won some big tournament or something and that she was really good, but after a few dozen games I started to win against her every single time. After that, she didn't want to play anymore and everybody else was too afraid of me, so I haven't played in some time. I guess it would be nice to play for a bit.

---

 

"Checkmate"

"Again!?"

I lost four out of four games... Arana must have been lying when she said that she was good at chess, this guy is on a whole other league.

"Don't feel bad, I have been playing this game for much longer than you."

"Well, it's true that I have not played much."

"So you were saying that you leveled up just from learning magic?"

"Yes! I didn't even want to become strong. I got to level 500 without even noticing!"

"I have to say, that's hard to believe. To reach such a level with just your own efforts is not something that I thought possible."

"Then how did you do it?"

"Well, you see, I just happen to be the manaborn that was formed from the 'seed of fire', the origin of all fire mana. There were five like me, a long time ago we were known as the gods of the elements."

"Eh!? Are you saying that you are the god of fire!?"

He doesn't look anything like the depictions of the god of fire that I've seen, nor does he act like how the god of fire is supposed to. Also, he used the term 'manaborn', that's what demons were called 2000 years ago, is he really that old?

"Hahaha, as I said, that's just what people said. But they said it with such frequency and conviction that I ended up believing it... I feel so silly thinking about it now." He's smiling, but he seems a bit sad. "With so much power, us being at the top was the natural order of the world. Perhaps that is the reason why no manaborn formed from the seed of darkness, after all, the dark element is the one that opposes the natural order. And so, it was the power of darkness that finally brought us down."

"The power of darkness?"

"Yes, it was one of the world relics, the tools created by the desires of all the living creatures of the world. The first one to be created and the most powerful is the world relic of darkness, the weapon that was used to slay the so called 'gods'. I was the only one who lived, or rather, the only one who was allowed to live."

Those are the relics that Arana and her sisters are guarding, no? I guess that they are even more powerful than I thought...

"After a long time, the concept of a 'god' that people had changed. As I no longer fit the criteria, my title changed from 'god of fire' to 'king of fire'."

"Wait! 'King of fire'? That sounds like the 'queen of darkness' title I have. Don't tell me..."

"Yes, back then it would have been 'goddess of darkness'."

"EEEH!?"

"And to think that you got it with nothing but your own talent and hard work. Unlike me, your power truly belongs to you and you alone."

"Oh, I don't think that it's correct to say that I did it by myself."

"No? Why not?"

"There have been many people who researched magic before me, and they were kind enough to leave the knowledge they obtained written in books. I was only able to reach as high as I did because I had the chance to read those books. So I don't think that my power belongs only to me."

"HAHAHA!!!"

"Hey! Don't laugh at me!"

"My apologies. I'm simply astounded by your humility. I have to say, your personality is the exact opposite to what your appearance would suggest."

"I get that a lot..."

"Well, that's a good thing. Far too many great people become rotten from thinking too highly of themselves. As long as you can continue to look at yourself honestly you will never become a villain."

"I hope so."

Vilde seems to stop to think for a moment and then takes a look at the other side of the room. There are a lot of chests and crates filled with all manner of strange artifacts.

"I'll say... I think that you deserve a prize for making it all the way here. How about you choose something from my collection?"

"Your collection? Ah! I almost forgot! That horrible thing that I sensed earlier is somewhere among those artifacts, are you sure that you don't know what it could be?"

"I really do not know what you could be referring to. Why not take a look around?"

Take a look around he says, but I have no idea of what any of this stuff is.

"What is this? A candle that's already melted?"

"Oh, those are reverse candles, you light it when it's melted and the wax will take the form of an unused candle."

"Why is this book blank?"

"That's an aroma book. Instead of using your sight to read it, you smell the pages and you'll know what's written."

"And why does this sword have three hilts?"

"Because that's different from most swords."

"But the extra hilts are pointless."

"I used to collect things that are unique, not things that have a point."

This guy is weirder than I thought, is he a hoarder? Well, it seems like there's only one way to find what I'm looking for, even if I don't want to do it.

'Mana sense'

"Ugh."

My body is trembling again, but now I know where that thing is.

"A mirror?"

What I find is something that looks like a mirror, but the only thing reflected on it is an ominous dark cloud.

"Ah, that's the aura mirror, each person has a unique aura surrounding them and this mirror reflects that instead of... oh! Now I get it! When you used your mana sense, the mirror must have reacted to your mana and it reflected your aura."

"What? Then the thing I sensed was..."

"Yes, you were basically sensing yourself."

No... that can't be...

"Then that black cloud..."

"That's how your aura would look like if it could be seen."

"And that horrible feeling I had..."

"Is how most people probably feel about you, I'm afraid."

"NOOO!!!"

The shock makes me fall to my knees. That thing that felt like an unfathomable evil not from this world was me? No wonder everyone is always so afraid... this is much worse than I thought. Is making myself not scary truly impossible after all?

"Ah, there's no need to cry, I bet that for most people it doesn't feel THAT bad."

"W-why not?"

"Well, you do hide your aura a bit by acting nice, and just being near you won't have an impact as big as using mana sense."

But that doesn't change the fact that my aura is horrible...

"I've decided, I'm going to take this mirror."

"Really? What do you want it for?"

"Training."

"I don't think that mirror is something that you can fight."

"Not for fighting! I mean training to improve my aura!"

If I can sense my aura then I'll be able to work on making it less scary. I'm not going to give up without even trying!

"I see, excellent idea."

"Well, I should probably be going now."

"As much as it saddens me to watch you leave, I cannot keep you here forever. But do make sure to come back someday, and if you manage to win a game of chess against me, I will tell you some of the secrets I know."