Somewhere Outside Of The Demon Forest

A skeletal hand poked out from under a patch of dirt before it gripped onto the earth and hauled itself out of its former grave. The Demon Lord of the new time had just summoned his minions and let out his demonic presence for the first time, which had accidentally churned some of the skeletons outside of his control.

The skeleton's head was completely out of the ground, while it tried to lift the rest of itself out of the ground as well. It glanced around at the plains it had just found itself unearthed from, staring for the first time at the blue sky.

"....Jim...."

Yes, this skeleton was named Jim, and he was going to finally leave the earth behind him to adventure outwards and explore!

"....adventure...interesting...trees...interesting...everything"

He finally managed to get himself out of the ground, making an outstretched pose as he got up.

"...JIM...!"
He was going to do anything and everything he wanted and nothing was going to stop hi-

THWACK

An arrow pierced the side of his skull and lodged into his head, making him immediately crumple to the ground. A group of humans wearing a variety of armor walked up to the skeleton and peered at it. They were adventurers that had stumbled across this peculiar skeleton.

"The heck was this skeleton doing?"

"I think it was yelling Jim."

Yeah, this wasn't the best start for Jim the skeleton.

(Commissioned minor character for Dubchee- Demon Lord tier Patreon)

---

Artia P.O.V

"Er- can I give you my answer later? I don't think I'm ready to fight people yet..."

Terence looked at his knight, who just shrugged.

"Miss Caroline doesn't need to leave the palace anyways, the servants are all vigorously checked and surveyed as well so she shouldn't be in any immediate danger. Though, she will probably try to escape when she's been cooped up in here for too long. It's sad to say, but I do not have the skills to protect her."

Terence turned back to me.

"Very well, you can go with your party members on the normal patrols that we're paying two silver for as well as free lodging in the Dragonhide inn. Though, we've now raised the amount to four silver because of the danger of C rank enemies. Be careful."

Terence, as well as his knight, left the room. I was now alone with just my party members and my thoughts. The moment of silence was broken by Will, who was staring into nothingness.

"Let's go find the inn. Artia can decide what she wants to do in a week, we just need to do our jobs for now"

The four of us got up and headed through the door. The soldier guarding the door escorted us through the main gate of the palace and back out to the main street.

The soldier went back to his post by the main gates of the palace but left us some instructions.

"If you follow the road, you'll find the inn to the right. Also, be careful of the alleyways"

I nodded, a bit too tired and hungry to really process what he was saying.

"Thanks"

I headed out to the streets, where the rest of my group was waiting for me. Among the normal citizens, we probably looked more out of place than any assassin or bandit. I didn't have much other than a casual dress on, though that didn't make me look any less out of place than my companions with all their shiny armor and weapons.

We headed down the main road towards where the soldier had directed us. Now that we weren't scrambling to find our way, I could finally have a decent look at this place.

There were what looked like streetlights that lined the sides of the streets, though they were all intricately designed with various etchings etched into the metal. The streets were made of neatly stacked stones that had been smoothed out, which made it look even better than the capital of the country, though it was less flashy than the capital.

However, the few people that were out during the day were carrying supplies and groceries in sacks and crates, avoiding our eyes and rushing past us down the street and towards the residential area. It was like they were expecting to get attacked at any moment or time but I, nor any of my group, saw anybody around that was obviously threatening or stalking them.

Elynea was grumbling the whole way to the inn, which at this point was getting pretty annoying. Looking at my group, it seemed that the rest of my party members were thinking the same thing. Despite this, she went on complaining about everything while being oblivious to our fouling moods.

"This is probably why no adventurers have accepted so far! This place is literally a ghost town, do they really have enough to pay us!?"

Though I really wanted to give her a piece of my mind, I didn't think that would be the best course of action considering the consequences that it may bring. 

It means I didn't want to get hit into the ground by a sword.

Fortunately, both Thogir and Will had the same idea as me and were much more used to this than I was. 

"Elynea, I swear we're gonna do the bait and ditch tactic again when we're monster-hunting if you keep on talking. You're already 17, act like it."

"Wait, Elynea, you're 17??"

To me, she looked around 14 or 15 years old maximum, I hadn't even considered the possibility that she was close to my age. I let her boss people around because I thought she was just a kid, when compared to the other two she looked way younger than all of us.

"She's not a normal elf, she's a high elf. A rare hidden species of elf that usually doesn't come in contact with human society. Though, she has to now because of certain...circumstances back home. Anyways, behave yourself, we're here."

Will answered my exclamation/question as we got closer to the inn. The inn itself didn't look too bad, it was just a normal stone and wooden structure that would have looked quite inviting for anyone looking for a place to sleep. For me, it was fine even though it gave out some medieval vibes but for Elynea, oh no.

"What is this! I thought we would-"

SMACK

"Enough!"

Thogir smacked her again, which at this point I had already gotten used to since it had happened 5 times in the past day. 

Will sighed as Elynea and Thogir started yelling and swinging their weapons at each other once again. 

"Me and Elynea will sign all of us in, could you go with Thogir and buy some lesser healing potions and clothes? The Pope had one of his Cardinals deliver us a fund of money but he forbade us from using any of it unless we wanted to feel god's wrath. They said it was for the Hero as a starting fund, so here you go. I really don't want them to try and smite any of us, I don't think even Elynea's dispel will work on their spells"

He handed me an envelope that had Pope Peter written on it. It was directly addressed to "The Hero" which I could only assume meant that it was for me.

The letter itself was actually quite heavy, which made me wonder why they didn't just give me a bag or box or something instead. I opened the envelope to find it filled to the brim with a dozen or two silver coins. 

"Wha- wouldn't this be way more than I would earn in a week doing this job?"

Will shrugged.

"You're the hero, you get extra benefits for being humanity's savior. Thogir, go with Elynea and get her some proper clothes. She's not fighting in a dress, you hear me!?"

Well, I suppose I could start improving my wardrobe

---

Damon P.O.V

"Hm?"

"Vilard has a request for you"

It was early in the morning. I had just gotten the first "voluntary" night of sleep ever since I got here. I had technically slept for two weeks straight but getting knocked out from overexertion isn't very "voluntary".

I had noticed that the rest of the skeletons had also gone to sleep outside. I didn't really know if skeletons slept but I was given my answer when all of their glowing eyes faded and they slept standing up, sitting down, or laying just like a normal human when they would sleep. Char did the same thing but, unlike the others, his eyes kept on glowing even when he was asleep.

I hadn't cared about it too much, being way too tired in general to do anything other than rest so I just lay on the couch in the office and slept. 

I got woken up by the chirping of what I assumed were normal birds in the morning, though you never knew what it could be. I got up and rubbed my eyes as I had the best night of sleep I had ever had in my life, well, at least this life since I really didn't remember anything about my past life.

Though, the moment I got off of the couch and stepped onto the floor, the door to the office creaked open and a purple hooded skeleton popped its head in, once again scaring the living daylights out of me just like when we had first met.

Though, now that I thought about it some more, Char had advanced so much in the span of such a short time. I could attribute it to the amount of skill he had or the amount of trouble he got us into that makes us fight our way out of everything but he was definitely stronger than almost everything in the Demon Forest at this point.

"Oh, it's just you. What's up?"

Char tilted his head at my question.

"The sky? Or perhaps you mean the ceiling?"

"Char, I'm asking what you need?"

And that was where we got to this point in our conversation.

"He thought about it for a while, but he says that as his knight's honor decrees, the remains and weapons of fellow soldiers must be honorably returned to their homeland. He asks for permission to take an escort of men and gather the fallen soldier's bodies to return to their families."

When I had just arrived in this world, I had witnessed the absolute horrific bodies that had been sprawled around various locations under my rule. Though I didn't know how bad everything was outside of my dungeon, it couldn't have been good with all the fighting going on. On one hand, it might get a whole team of elites killed from hostile intentions. On the other hand, it might be beneficial to give a good first impression to the humans so they didn't try and attack me the moment they knew I was the Demon Lord.

"Get Vilard up here, we can discuss this since I really don't have much to do. Though, I know for a fact that normal people would try to run or kill you guys on sight so we need to determine how we should go about this."

---

And that's chapter 18.

I know these chapters aren't contributing much to the story, but I think these chapters are still helping the storyline.

Also, concept art of Damon has been uploaded to my Patreon, join now for just 1$ CAD and see it!

I also create minor characters that have occasional appearances just like the one above for Demon Lord Tier patrons on my patreon.

Alright, see you guys tomorrow.

W.O.V