Seriously? Cole asked himself, visibly frustrated. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore.Why would Sensei summon him to The Tower only to send an assassin to kill him off? Kate had seemed like such a nice, genuine person. He understood that demons were hated by humans, that much was clear, but he couldn’t understand why the sentiment seemed so universal. Even Azula, who had initially defended him, tried to shoot him in the leg.

“I was just following orders, so you should let me go,” Kate said, smiling wryly. “No hard feelings?”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Lucy replied. “Cole, what do you think?”

Unable to think properly, Cole began rubbing his forehead. Why do I keep getting put into these situations?

Cole didn’t know how to proceed. Kate had tried to murder him in his sleep, but he held no desire to exact revenge. As he thought back over Kate’s story of her upbringing, Cole felt a great deal of sadness. He wanted to learn magic and become an adventurer, just like everyone else. Being from another world was hindering him, but not nearly as much as being a demon was. Cole thought he’d put his best foot forward when talking to Kate, but she still judged him solely by the fact he was a demon.

Lost in thought, Cole let Lucy’s question of what to do with Kate hang in the air. What was the point of getting any form of revenge when the core problem would persist? Cole mulled over what to do, not to answer Lucy’s question, but to convince Kate he wasn’t all that bad. Meanwhile, Kate was nervously rubbing her hands in anticipation.

“Look!” Kate said, her eyes lighting up. “I can even give you the amulet! You can use it to get out of here.”

Carefully walking over to her bag, Kate started to rummage through it. She kept her eyes on Cole and Lucy, gauging their reactions. Kate pulled something out of her bag, presenting it to them. Surely enough, the object she produced looked like a necklace, an oddly shaped pendant hanging from it. They wouldn’t know until placing it on the pedestal, but Kate didn’t appear to be lying.

“Here, take it,” Kate said, tossing the amulet to Lucy. “You can use it to get out of here.”

Turning calmly to her side, Lucy dodged the amulet, letting it fall to the ground.

“We’re even now, right?”

Lucy turned to Cole. He realized she’d still been waiting for a response to her question. Unable to come up with a meaningful solution, Cole decided to take the easy way out.

“Let’s just leave,” Cole said, picking up the amulet. “I just wanna get out of here.”

“Hmm.” Lucy exhaled. “Alright, if that’s what you want.”

“It is,” Cole said, turning towards the exit.

The image of Kate angrily standing over him, her knife aimed at his heart, refused to leave Cole’s mind. Lucy followed Cole as he hastily made his way out of the room, giving Kate one final glance. Surely enough, Cole’s swift pace brought them back to their starting room in no time. The torches were still lit, allowing them to see Kate hadn’t been lying. They were back in the starting room of the trial.

As Cole entered the room, a portal appeared in front of the pedestal. It looked identical to all the other portals Cole had seen, giving it a strange sense of security. He moved to enter the portal, but Cole was stopped by a soft pull on his shoulder.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Lucy asked. “You can still go back to give Kate a piece of your mind.”

In a way, Cole agreed with Lucy. He wanted to tell Kate how unfairly he’d been treated since he’d enter The Tower. The person who’d summoned him told him nothing of being a demon, and he’d already had two attempts on his life for that simple fact. Everything had spiraled out of control.

“You did this, didn’t you?” Cole asked, pointing to his chest. The ice that protected him, however, had already faded away.

“I did.”

“Why?”

“Didn’t I already tell you?” Lucy asked, seemingly unsurprised by the question. “I do what I think is right.”

She’d indeed said something similar when helping Cole escape Felix, but that hardly answered his question. Why did she think it was right? Did Cole even want to know the answer? The only constant that remained true was Lucy helping him, for whatever reason, and that had been enough to keep him going. Cole wanted to get back to training as quickly as possible, as it was his only real positive experience in this new world.

“No, I’m fine.” Cole finally answered. “I just want to train.”

“If that’s what you want…”

Taking a step towards the portal, Cole remembered that he was still holding the amulet. Moving around the portal, Cole carefully placed the amulet snuggly within the grooves of the pedestal behind it. The small, pin-like holes matched perfectly with the legs of the spider pendant, allowing it to easily slide into place.

Cole half expected something to happen after he placed the amulet down, but nothing did. It was anticlimactic, but at that point, Cole had been through enough surprises for the day. Mentally exhausted, Cole moved back to the entrance of the portal. Lucy had been waiting for him, entering the portal directly after him.

Letting out a breath of relief, Cole hadn’t expected to be so happy to return to their dull preparation room. Everything looked the same as before. The first thing Cole did was plop himself onto the couch, slouching into its plush cushions.

Lucy took a seat at the opposite end of the couch. The two didn’t talk for a few minutes as Cole kept reliving the events of the past few days in his head. In doing so, he found himself unsatisfied. Unsatisfied with how he’d been treated, unsatisfied at the attempts on his life, and even unsatisfied at Lucy’s reason for helping him. Even if it was for her own benefit, Cole gained the sense that he needed to know why.

“Lucy, why do you think saving me was the right thing to do?”

Lucy didn’t seem surprised by the question.

“Because you needed help,” Lucy replied. “That’s what adventurers do. We help people.”

“But I’m not just a person,” Cole said. “I’m a ‘demon.’ It seemed like that would imply you should have tried to kill me at least once by now.”

“Demons are people, too. Most humans may think demons are evil abominations, but it’s not a belief held by all. Being misunderstood isn’t something to be ashamed of.”

“It seems you’re the only person who thinks that. Lin may have been an imposter during our second trial, but the story he told of being worried about his village being raided by demons seemed pretty real. Are demons really that terrible?”

Cole could feel tears welling in his eyes. He’d been summoned to another world, but it was nothing like he’d expected. All he wanted was to live the typical adventurer’s dream of joining a guild, making lifelong friends, and learning cool and powerful magics. Everything he’d hoped for seemed so possible. If, of course, he just wasn’t a demon.

“My master would always tell me this about demons,” Lucy said. “‘They’re just like every other creature, including humans. Some are good, some are bad, and the rest are worth giving a shot.’”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I didn’t get what he meant at first, either.” Lucy laughed. “But, it became easier to understand when I became an adventurer. There is no good or bad, only people trying to live their lives. Some do so in a way that harms others. Some do so by being as helpful to others as they possibly can. Most live somewhere in between. The point is, everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves, be they demon, human, or otherwise.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

“Trust me, it took a long time for me to fully come to terms with. It wasn’t until I joined my guild that I started to understand just how similar we all are.”

“Your guild, huh?” Cole said. “I wouldn’t suppose they’d accept a demon, would they?”

“I could put in a good word with our Guildmaster. Of course, he’s pretty selective, so you’d have to train far more than you are currently.”

“I have a feeling you’re only saying that so I’ll train more.” Cole chuckled slightly. “Is your Guildmaster the ‘master’ you were referring to?”

“No,” Lucy replied, smiling to herself, “though it feels that way, sometimes. Want some food?”

“Uh, I guess.”

“Good. I’m starving.”

Getting up off the couch, Lucy moved to the console. After tapping away at it for a short while, a familiar set of food was produced. Lucy brought back the same platter as they’d eaten together previously. Placing it down on the table, she revealed another item that she’d gotten from the console. It was a thin black slab that had nothing on it. Made out of a similar material as the console itself, Cole was interested in seeing what it was for.

“What’s that?” Cole asked.

“It’s something called a ‘remote.’” Lucy said. “The description in the console said we can use it to watch various events taking place in The Tower.”

“YOU HAVE TVS?” Cole asked, raising his voice in excitement.

“TVs?”

“Something that allows you to watch shows of people doing stuff. It’s like if you were to mix the console with a book, only the book can be anything you want.”

"I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

“Try using the remote,” Cole said eagerly. If anything, it’d be nice to help take his mind off things.

“Alright.”

Considering it was made out of the same material as the console, Cole wasn’t surprised to see the remote abruptly turn blue. Lucy had poured some mana into it, revealing a small layout of buttons across it.

“Try pressing the button at the top right,” Cole said.

Following Cole’s direction, Lucy pressed the corresponding button. The large black slate in front of them lit up with the same blue hue as the console and the remote. A large list of titles was presented to them, most of which seemed to be fighting related. What gave this away was the large quantity of person “vs.” person titles in the list. At the top, a large “recommended” button was highlighted.

“Have you used this before?” Lucy asked, staring blankly at the screen.

“Not this in particular,” Cole replied, “but the TVs are pretty similar.”

“What should I do now?”

“I think you can use those arrows pointing up and down to select different boxes. The middle one is probably a select button, I think.”

Not bothering to use the arrowed buttons, Lucy clicked on the presumed select button. The screen flashed, abruptly changing to a title that read “The Arena.” Directly below this title was a timer, ticking down from “1:21”, one second at a time. Whatever The Arena was, it’d be starting in a bit over a minute. All Cole could see past this screen was a colosseum-like environment. An audience had already amassed in the stands.

Pretty good recommendation. Cole thought. He’d always loved watching battles set in a colosseum, so this was right up his alley. As the timer ticked to zero, the title and timer vanished from the screen.

“Welcome, everyone!” An announcer spoke out. “How are we doing today?”

The crowd cheered as the supposed camera panned over the arena, displaying the large volume of attendees. As it finished its sweep, the camera stopped at a large archway.

“Without further ado, let’s begin by introducing two of our fighters.” The announcer said. “First up in the ring is a nooby to the arena: The bronze adventurer Felix!”

“You’re kidding,” Cole said, slumping back in his chair as the audience cheered.

“Cool,” Lucy said, stuffing some food into her mouth. “I’m starting to like this TV thing.”

“I guess we may as well watch...”

Cole wasn’t keen on seeing Felix again, especially after having been attacked by Kate. However, watching him fight could provide valuable information... along with getting to see Felix get beaten up, if he was lucky. Following Lucy’s lead, Cole started to eat as the match began.