Leran knew many spells. He was sure that he couldn't even count them, yet they were all perfectly ingrained in his memory; he was fond of all the knowledge he had for such things because he really loved magic. But the real reason why he enjoyed spells so much was because his dream, since when he was still a kid, had always been to be a great mage with the power to create new important and useful spells.
Because he was so fixated on creating his own, he never cared much about the origin of the spells he had learnt during his lifetime, but only about how they were created. Each spell is like a song, an unique pattern of notes, in this case of magic, that could be casted to have an effect on the world. There were countless spells in this world and all were different: they could be used for fighting or for daily life, they could be always useful or only situationally so, but the best thing in Leran's opinion was how different their structure was.
He himself had created a few immaculate magic structures in his life, giving birth to his own spells. While that had been the case since more than six hundred years prior, only after the incident Leran actually felt like he was creating strong, worthy and powerful magic. Still, he knew he wasn't at the complete peak and appreciated people who were more experienced than him at such a valuable action, such as Sae. What the demon king didn't initially realize was how many of the spells he knew were created by her; just like a music critic can realize from a song who the performer is because of their usual patterns, from the moment he knew 'Clone Creator' was hers, a world had been opened to his eyes.
It was one of a myriad of spells that had the same pattern, a detail that had caught his eyes once or twice, but he could never realistically think that a mortal person could have an inspiration to create something new that many times in their life; now, he knew his mistake was thinking that no human could achieve immortality. The pattern itself was rather noticeable: while high-ranking mages and even Leran himself loved to create very advanced spells and, even for simpler ones, they'd make it in a way that makes them complicated, Sae was very simplistic.
There was no desire to show her skill involved; rather, it was an art in itself how she thought about the simplest method to express something she needed. This was much more similar to a battle mage's approach, because those need to think fast and create new spells on the fly to fight their opponents. Yet, while usually battle mages have a few mistakes on their patterns because of the low amount of time they have at their disposal, Sae's mechanisms were perfect, yet never detailed.
It intrigued him a bit, so he had promised himself to ask her why she chose that style one day.
Thinking back about the spells he had learnt in his early life, Leran once again concluded that he used to be a really immature person. He himself, having changed so much after being locked away, knew it. He knew he could have avoided his trauma if he just were to ask why -- just why, the people who were travelling with him needed resources so bad they'd be together as a group, despite the fact that demons are usually solitary beings that are toxic in their relationships with others because of how possessive and egoistic they are.
Still, he knew that they'd probably have lied to him about their intentions back then, but he was still curious now as to why the people who later chose to betray him chose to unite as a group. Another question that repeated in his head without him having any possibility to answer was why his own enemy had decided that Leran was no longer needed in this world and locked him away just before becoming the demon king and attacking the world with an army of his own that only led to his loss and punishment caused by humans. "Was he crazy?" Leran asked to himself. "Maybe, it's that he was confident. With the amount of power he had to his disposal, I can understand it. Yet why was he so obsessed with casting me aside?"
Those questions were something that the white-haired demon had tried to answer since he was locked up; when he managed to free himself, his first thought was to find all his previous companions and kill them after getting answers. He wanted to show that he wasn't the person he once was, because he had changed during his time in the coffin. Leran became a person worthy of being called the new demon king just before the previous one was forever locked away and shamed by his own people.
But the new demon king couldn't ask his nemesis those questions exactly because he had received his same treatment. As such, he decided to continue enacting his revenge on the people that had supported his enemy, the other companions that betrayed him. Yet, as he tried to look for them, he found out that those had vanished, disappeared from the world during the time he trained his magic and couldn't access his original world. So, he was left alone in this world with nothing left to do.
He only knew the reason why he himself needed to gather emotions back then, because he wanted to try and test new spells, he wanted to create his own, but that was a really resource-heavy activity that would drain him after just a little amount of time. While seeing all the beautiful spells the mages had created, he could only have an enormous desire to be like them, to be that proficient at magic that he could make spells others would use, love and even envy.
And that was the reason why being locked up in the coffin had been a blessing in disguise to him. It was because of how that place itself worked; it wasn't meant to kill, rather to block someone forever. The place where Leran was stuck was a dimension that only he could access but that he couldn't leave, a place that was dark in its core but that held an enormous amount of magic, considering the coffin itself fed on it to create the trap. As such, it was the perfect place for a would-be mage to hone his skills.
And the current demon king, blocked to his path to greatness as a mage by the fact he lacked mana and had to feed on emotions that he needed to gather constantly, didn't have any problem in that dimension as resources were mindlessly thrown at him. In a small amount of time he discovered his own talent at magic and created his own spells, realized the truth about his vast magic power and used it, along with the basically infinite resources he had at his disposal, to create his best spell.
It was not simple, one could even say it was reality-breaking. As such it was a spell that he kept for himself, waiting for the right opponent to use it against. He didn't know if he could defeat Sae by using it, mostly because of the time limit the spell had, but he was confident he had a good chance to do so using it. The only negative thing about such a spell was how it needed very particular conditions to be casted, which left him weak when he was lacking resources and couldn't use it. It also had terrible side effects and, after the end of the magic, it dealt a terrible amount of damage on the user.
Remembering with pride how he used the entire magic pool of the coffin to create such a spell, which in turn immediately freed him, was one of his fondest memories so far as a mage and as a demon.
Having put all these thoughts together, a few days after the talk Leran and Sae had had, as nothing of note had been happening in the village and there were no victims so far, the demon king decided to convey some of those thoughts and emotions to the Ice Mage, having decided to trust her.
Leran decided to do so in a way which could've helped her trust him more; as such, he waited for a moment that felt natural and, while the two were having breakfast together in the enormous dining room of the cottage, the demon king asked: "where do you get food from?"
Sae's eyes lit up as he asked that question, as if it was one of her favourite matters. Indeed, when talking about magic, the Ice Mage was always rather delighted. "All of the food we eat comes from the crops that I've planted near this cottage and the animals that are there. There's a spell that works nicely to gather food while not actually killing the animals or harvesting the crops, so I've been using that."
"Sweet, how does that work?" Leran asked. "Well, it basically plants mana on the crop or animal, having it grow more parts than it should. These tend to leave their system on the spot without actually doing any harm but can be cooked and eaten. Imagine a chicken growing a third leg that immediately leaves its body without bruising it. That's the logic." She explained while smiling.
"So, it's as if we're eating mana?" He asked, to which she nodded. "Kind of, but it's already transformed so it doesn't actually have that taste. It makes me regain the mana I've lost by casting the spells completely while removing my hunger though, so one could say it's basically a cheat code." The white-haired sorcerer explained, to which the demon nodded.
It was then that the white-haired demon wanted to ask her about her style of creating spells but, before he could even ask, he was interrupted by a question coming from the sorcerer. "I know you hate the demon king, but..." She said, then sighed, leaving her happy expression completely aside, "do you also want to know more about him?"
That was her question, to which the demon nodded without even thinking about it.
"You know, we didn't always hate each other. He was the person who made me love magic in first place, he inspired me by talking about the spells he loved casting, that he had created, about his style and about how he wanted to improve. He... used to be happy. If you know how demons work, you definitely know we come from the Spirit Realm. There Narion, that was his name, had always been very depressed because he couldn't find anything that he liked doing, but as he came to this world with me and a few companions he started loving its magic... he wanted to be the best and I felt so inspired by how he practiced that I started working hard to fulfill my dreams and his expectations towards me. Yet good things never last... suddenly he grew distant and..." Leran started saying, yet didn't finish what he had to say because he saw that, while he was talking, Sae's expression gradually became sadder and sadder.
"Hm?" He asked to the white-haired girl, not able to understand what he had done wrong to make her expression grim.
"Listen. When you feel ready, in the library there's a book called 'The Life of Narion, the Demon King.' Read it, it has the answers I feel like you need. Just, don't force yourself to do it now. I'll-- I'll go."
That was all she said before leaving in a hurry, leaving the demon king extremely confused.
