It was too loud and bright. Where was he?

Waking up to the unfamiliar sound of muffled voices, the first thing Karl did was to check himself with Qi Scan.

Other than the pleasant surprise of feeling having his right hand again, his body was fine. There was no poison left in his body. Besides, Karl was pleased with his cores and stat both growing stronger.

===

Karl Kanehiro

• Race: Human
• Rank: 1
• Mana core: Yellow -> Green
• Qi core: Third-rate -> Second-rate
• Trait(s): [Otherworldly Demon] (Rare), [Void Heart] (Legendary), [Blessing of @#&%] (Unique)
• Soul World: [Mountains and Seas] (Unique)

Status

• Vitality: 1.6 -> 2.1
• Strength: 1.1 -> 1.7
• Dexterity: 1.5 -> 1.8
• Mind: 2.3 -> 2.7
• Spirit: 3.7 -> 3.9

Skills

Active skills (2/1)

• [Heavenly Demon Art] (Unique)
• [Vicious Words – Rank 1 - Psychic] (Common)

Passive skills

• [Heavenly Demon Art – Mana Circulation] (Unique)

===

He still didn’t know how to increase his rank though.

That would be a problem since he was still a Rank 1 with a single Spell Slot.

“BIG BROTHER.” Sera shot toward Karl and landed on his recovering belly, knocking whatever left of the ramen from the night before out of his system. But not from the intended path. After she shot at him like a loose arrow, she kept rubbing her head on his belly.

Karl patted Sera’s head and said, “I’m fine Sear. You don't have to worry.”

“How is on the verge of bleeding out through your chopped-off hand while suffering from both severe hypothermia and heavy poisoning, the definition of fine?” Matsu said as he walked into the clinic’s room.

“What he said.” Sera agreed while still having her head stuffed into Karl’s belly.

“Matsu? What are you doing here?” Karl asked.

This made Matsu raise an eyebrow and speak in an annoyed voice, “Look at this kid, almost dying while being away from home for less than a month. And he got the guts to ask me what I’m doing here.”

“Ok, if you put it like that. It does sound bad.”

“Karl.” The siblings’ parents, Jin and Eliza, bared into the room.

“Oh, hello, father, mother. Don’t tell me all of you come all the way to NorthStar just for this?” He asked as he thought these kinds of wounds were nothing and his family was overreacting.

Both Jin and Eliza froze at Karl’s words.

They looked at Karl with eyes of someone who just lost their puppy while letting out long sighs.

Eliza, who was charging in, now walked calmly toward Karl and hugged both him and Sera. “You are my son, Karl. This is the least I can do.” She said with a hint of helplessness.

Jin too, didn’t say anything. He just walked up to them and pulled Matsu into a group hug.

As the center of the group hug, Karl tried to pull away at first but when Eliza patted his back, his muscles just automatically relaxed and fatigue washed over Karl. It was a new sensation for him.

Usually, when he was this wounded, he either found somewhere secured to treat the wound himself or went to a trustworthy healer with tight lips and got his treatment there. Having his hand attached back so quickly and being welcomed back by a family hug wasn’t what he had in mind.

He believed he had changed as he found the warmth of this family to be soothing. He thought the Kanehiro Territory was a place he could return to. A place to call home. His path was still the same. But at least, in this illusionary life, he could enjoy the lie.

But this little incident proved otherwise. He was still the demon he once was.

Nothing ever changed. A leopard can’t change its spots, after all.

Yet, even if that was the truth. He had a promise to fulfill.

“Thanks, but can you all let go now? It’s hard to breathe.” Karl said as the warmth was more than he could handle. It was suffocating. I wasn't like this went he spent four years recovering and turning this body from a broken to a usable one.

The group finally separated from each other and stopped tormenting him with their love.

“How many days have I been asleep?” Karl asked.

“You were attacked yesterday,” Matsu answered.

“What happened Karl?” Jin pulled a chair near the bed and sat down, his eyes focused on Karl. “Tell me in detail. If this is related to other cases then.” He frowned as his eyes narrowed.

“Other cases? What other cases?” Karl wanted to know.

“Since this was too big for NorthStar to cover up, you’ll find out eventually so I’ll tell you now.” Jin paused. “Yesterday, it wasn’t just you two who were attacked. Two other students from different noble families from different countries were also attacked. We don’t know their motive but we know the perpetrators are Corrupted Mages.”

“Corrupted Mages?” Sera titled her head.

“Mages who use spells like normal mages but they also have power from unknown sources. They resurfaced about fifty years ago and have been active since. They target children with high magic talent to either kill them or kidnap them.” Matsu explained.

Jin sighed again. “We didn’t want to drag you all into this. We are supposed to keep you safe.”

Karl assumed the 'we' Jin was talking about were people and the authorities who fought against Corrupted Mages. But to fight against something you have no understanding of seemed pointless. If anything, shouldn’t they at least plant a spy among the Corrupted Mages’ rank?

“Can you tell us what happened in detail, Karl?” Jin looked at Karl with eyes of a warrior ready for battle.

Karl recounted the event that happened the night before, how the assassin ambushed them, how they fought back, but he changed one thing.

“After I killed him, his body turned to dust.”

The assassin turned to dust because of Karl. But technically, he didn’t lie at all. The dude did turn into dust after Karl killed him. He just left out that it was his technique was the reason.

“I see, thank you. I’ll have to have a ‘talk’ with the higher-up of NorthStar.” Jin stood up.

Thinking it was the only chance he got to ask more about this, Karl said, “Father, what about the other cases you mentioned?”

Jin smiled a bit, “Luckily, no one died. It was thanks to the effort of three students who appeared at the right time. Just the right time.” He mumbled the last part.

If Karl were Jin, he would be suspicious of that part too.

Of all the places in the city someone could have gone to, some students just happened to come across another student who was having a Corrupted Mages assassin on their butt? Yeah, not happening. Unless one of them was a seer. Or worse, someone similar to him.

There was so much happening, making the city more and more messy. Karl just wanted to build an idol agency in peace. Why was it so hard?

“That’s it for now, I’ll take care of it. Just rest until you fully recover.” Jin stood up from his chair.

“I can’t always be with you. But I’ll always support you.” Eliza hugged him again.

“Since you are fine now, I have to go back to work. Can’t leave for too long.” Matsu stretched. Then he tapped Karl's shoulder while patting Sera's head.

“Bye mom, bye dad, bye big brother Matsu.” Sera waved them goodbye.

“Goodbye,” Karl said absentmindedly.

The more he thought about it, the weirder this world seemed. It was like fate was moving its invisible hands and pushing him and his people toward some unknown goal. And Karl had never liked being pushed around.

When Karl was deep in thought, he heard a knock on the door.

He turned around and saw Aria. She was in perfect shape without any wounds.

Sera looked back and forth between Karl and Aria, then grinned. “Look at the time, I forgot I have an important audition to participate in. Silly me. See you later big brother, see you later big sis.”

She said with an almost robotic voice then ran out of the room.

Having the room to themselves, Aria came closer to the bed and sat on the chair Jin was sitting on earlier.

“How's your hand?” She asked, almost sounding as distracted as he was.

“It’s fine. See.” Karl raised his completely healed hand. “This kind of thing is exactly why I wanted to learn healing magic. Isn’t it awesome? To be able to attach or generate or whatever they did to my hand. It feels brand new too. Not at full power yet but I’m getting there.”

Aria didn’t say anything about Karl’s sloppy attempt to change the subject he didn’t want to talk about.

That’s when she pulled out the small stick and the figure Nanok and Eldrin developed.

“Oh? My prototype. Thanks for giving them back.” Karl smiled and reached out.

But Aria pulled back, keeping the items away from Karl. “These things have principles of formation and magic engineering in them. You call them prototypes. But you are not the one who developed this, right?”

“Didn’t your father come to visit you?” Karl really didn’t like where this conversation was going.

“…Father already visited me. After ensuring I was fine and saying he would send a knight as my personal guard from now on, he stormed off toward the City Hall. He said he was going to give them a piece of his mind.”

“I see, Sir Leonheart was still a doting father as ever.”

“He’s similar to Sir Kanehiro in that sense.”

“Oh? Did you just call me Sir? Oh my, I never thought the day Lady Leonheart called me Sir would come so quickly. Yes, this calls for a celebration. We should throw a party and…”

“Karl Kanehiro,” Aria’s voice as she called his full name sounded like ice.

She continued once Karl shut up and looked at her. “Where did you get this unfinished item from?”

Karl knew she was determined and wouldn’t let this go. No matter what he said, she was going to turn the conversation back on track, ruining all his effort.

“Don’t come to me crying when things don’t go your way.” He sighed.

“I won’t now. I won’t ever.” Aria finally bloomed into a smile.

“…It’s a developing prototype from Forgefire’s All Purpose Store. We are trying to create an item that can let the user copy their actions and voices into a hologram and project it onto a stage. It's still in early development and we still couldn’t find a way to change the hologram’s appearance or copy the user’s voice yet.”

Karl confessed everything. She was going to find out when she went to the store anyway. So might as well.

“Thank you, for letting me be a part of your life,” Aria said as she laid her hand on Karl’s.

“You’ve always been a part of my life.” Karl pulled his hand away.

Aria’s gaze lingered on the hand that pulled away from her. Once she collected herself, she stood up and said. “There one more thing I need to do here.”

“What are you talking abo…” Karl’s sentence was cut off as Aria slapped him.

The slap itself was weak. Either because Karl’s [Vitality] increased or Aria’s [Strength] wasn’t that high to begin with. Yet, somehow. The slap hurt more than when Karl got his hand chopped off.

“Don’t ever do that again.” Aria didn’t care about Karl’s I-did-not-deserve-that look and walked out of the room with tears in her eyes.

Karl scratched the back of his head as he stared at the door.

“They are so similar.” He commented as he laid back down on the bed. Aria reminded him too much of the only young woman from the Righteous Sects to ever share a drink with him. The more time he spent with Aria, the more their figures overlapped.

“I really don’t like where this is going.” He complained into the void.

He still had so much to do.

There was the haunted mansion, then there was the test from the news station, then there were his classes, then there was the way to increase his rank, then there was that whole Corrupted Mages thing, then there were the students appearing at just the right time at the right place, then there was the stuff about Sera wanting to help that Talia girl.

But the most headache thing was Aria refused to keep her distance. From her reaction, she might stick around for a long time even after they graduated from the academy.

The more Aria stuck with him, the more Karl didn’t want her to end up with a spear through her gut.

“Haizzzz,” His agency was taking its first step. Why the hell was there so much to do already?

Was this what it was like to be the staff who worked their ass off to prepare for an idol’s concert? Fucking hell, there was so much stuff. He didn’t even have time to breathe.

But fine, bring it on world.

Karl dominated Sheng Long once, and he dominated a country on Earth with barely any martial arts. He could do it again on Eldoria. This time, it was just with a different approach.

His idol agency was going to be the biggest supper power that no country, no kingdom, no knight, no mage could fuck with. All of them would become willing slaves who begged the idols to sell them idol merch. They would beg the idols to command them like loyal dogs.

And the next step to do that was to get stronger and check up on the Mana Smoothing Bracelet’s sales.

-----

The next day, Karl was discharged from the clinic.

He headed to Eldrin’s store right away. But when he went there, “Hehehe, so much money. Hehehe.”

 

Outro:

Next time on Demon’s Idol Agency.

“For a haunted mansion, this isn’t so bad.”

“Wait, listen carefully. You hear that? That’s sounds like crying.”

“I like feet.”