Write, write...

Endlessly, a fountain-pen with ruby gemstones moved, rhythmically writing words against a fancy piece of paper. In contrast, the setting was within a simple inn room, illuminated by nothing but a brightly shining mana-filled red gemstone. 

At a desk within this room sat the crown princess of the well-renowned land of Tesora, the Kingdom of Treasures, Diamante Tesora. 

She wrote with a focused gaze, her crimson eyes centered on each and every word that flowed from her fingertips. The moonlight coming through the only window, which had already been closed, was faint, and all was quiet outside.

She had long completed her duties for the day, having convened with both the people of the town, and the workers dispatched from the capital to assist in repairs and relief across the town. Her work here was essentially almost done. She'd shown the people her charity and sincerity, and had already made contact with two targets she hoped to make use of.

What she wrote down was an altered version of exactly this - the day's activities, observations she had made, and notable events. While she had more than a good enough memory to remember these things with no error, there was another reason she bothered writing down reports for herself.

That reason was in the fact that with every word she wrote, it would immediately disappear in a blaze of red mana.

Every report she wrote was actually being sent back, in nearly live-time, a contact in the capital. It was a form of instant communication only possible thanks to her fine mana manipulation, the magic-tool that was this pen, and most importantly, the magic conduit that was her Treasure.

She sighed once the report was finished, resting both hands on the desk.

It was already deep into the night, and she surmised that she had been writing for nearly two hours now. Reporting back was a time-consuming and rigorous process, but it was necessary. 

The time spent was even more necessary, when she desired to add in some false information to deceive the old fools back home receiving her reports. They didn't just get them directly, though - she had long since found traces of their spy networks, and was feeding them her false information, which would then be returned to their masters.

Such as the fact that one of their attacks on Pearl - no, her sister, Lulu's life had failed, courtesy of an 'unknown bystander'. 

The truth, however, was that Dia knew very well who had saved her sister's life. Perhaps more than she wanted to.

Dia took pause, tapping the edge of her pen momentarily against her lips.

"Ten summoned goblins..."

When she heard the story from Lulu's lips, it was almost unbelievable. Obviously, someone like herself could dispatch 10 goblins with ease, and were it the Lady Dragonling fighting, Dia could also believe it.

Instead, it was the boy whom the village considered the town pariah. The one considered to be the 'weakest, most useless' person by this village.

The son for whom her knight had left.

Dia had initially investigated Thomas on her first few days here. What she found out had made her decide to stop looking.

"That piece of trash? He's a stain on both Lady Aurum and the Guard Captain!"

"You know that we almost lost Lady Aurum because of him, right? Then he had the guts to start denouncing the Guard Captain in public!"

"Did you know he'd sometimes steal from places to get food, just to avoid eating at home with the Guard Captain?"

"He has the gall to hang around with Lady Aurum, and she actually protects him! I'm telling you, he's either brainwashing or blackmailing her."

"For all the shit he does, he's not even strong! Do you know what the Church classified his stats at recently? 1! All of his stats are 1! If he's that weak, I bet he's not even the Guard Captain's child."

"That little shit needs to get beat up a few hundred times more. But he's been hiding out like a rat recently..."

It was overwhelming. The more she asked about him, the more they devolved into their hatred, forgetting their manners in her presence. To this village, Thomas seemed to be a despicable vortex of hatred. He had done seemingly every wrong thing you could. 

Now, Dia was not one to fall prey to easily believing foolish rumors, but when you have an entire village corroborating a single story, it was a bit hard to question it.

Not to mention, she had a bit of a personal reason for bearing a grudge against Thomas, herself.

So hearing about that boy, who should have been a piece of human trash, taking down a mini-horde of armed goblins was absolutely mind-boggling.

Lulu was not lying. She was forced to accept that when Lady Aurum herself showed up to corroborate the story one night.

"But how?"

But for someone who had no Treasure on reported record, no special Traits, or any known skills, how had he managed such a feat? Sheer, ingenious strategy? Unbelievable tactics?

No. 

Apparently, all he had were Lulu's buffs, and he managed to defeat them in an essentially head-on fight.

He did employ somewhat smart strategies, ones which made her think he knew the nature of goblins and summoned monsters well, but that fight still should have been impossible for someone of his level.

While she was sure Lulu was leaving some things out - like how she never explained how the boy was poisoned - her story was assuredly true.

And the fact that Lulu was trying to hide anything at all from her made her very pleased. Perhaps her goal, one which she had given up on, was still achievable after all?

Her eyes burned with an unusual heat, and a smile slowly came to her face. Not because of those exciting thoughts, however. But because she had sensed a presence enter her room - one very familiar to her.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Guard Captain?"

The room behind her remained silent, and she sighed, bringing a hand to her forehead. She put so much effort into keeping up appearances, too...

"...please come out, Ari." 

Only then did the footsteps of another person become apparent, the soft creaking of a bed following not long after. Dia turned her chair around, facing the presence.

It was the Guard Captain of Aureal Village, the woman once considered the treasure kingdom's strongest knight, and her once personal knight...Arianwen.

"You...have you...have you been okay?"

The silver-haired lady asked in that ever-emotionless tone of hers. Dia almost sighed again. She had been sighing a little too much, and she was sure it'd cause bad stress marks if she continued.

Really...this woman never changed. Only she could silently infiltrate the bedroom of the crown princess, and nonchalantly ask how she was doing. She was one of two people who could call Dia by that nickname, Ruby.

Ari was strong, but she had no ability to read the room whatsoever.

"Yes, I'm fine, Ari. Although I suppose a bit tired from having to write. You know how it is with the old schemers back home. I'm old enough to be a threat to them now, so I have to constantly be on my toes when sending messages back home."

The Kingdom was currently at war with many fronts. It was certain that they were itching to marry her off politically, throw her into some sort of battlefront, or elevate their own stations.

"Make sure to keep it at a reasonable pace, okay? I saw it today, how you were barely staying awake while patrolling the town."

A barely noticeable inflection came into Ari's voice, one which Ruby easily recognized as worry.

How could she not? Arianwen was the woman who had taken care of her all of her life, up to three years ago.

She smiled bitterly, thinking back to times when she'd have these sorts of conversations with Ari everyday...simple conversations, conversations that let her stop being someone who had to act beyond her age.

Ari let her be a child, someone who could be worried for again.

But she was not a child anymore.

"What did you come here for, Guard Captain?"

Her voice returned to a steady tone, lacking any particular inflection. Aria stared at her for a moment, before sighing. It seemed that she understood, and accepted Dia's response.

"Your Royal Highness," Arianwen started, with a polite, refined tone that Diamante had not heard in years. "I wish...to ask something of you."

Now that was interesting.

The smile that was on Diamante's face widened. She was no longer considering herself as talking to an old caretaker, but the crown princess, being asked for something by a possibly useful subject. 

"Oho? You are aware that my favors don't come easily, aren't you? I'm sure you're not ignorant of what I've done already to those who've gone back on their promises." 

Diamante didn't have a mirror, but she knew her expression was vicious. Still, Arianwen was like stone, unmoved by the cruelty that laid behind the princess' eyes.

"I'm willing to give anything towards this. Anything. Even...even if it means returning to your service." 

Even Diamante had to take pause at that, despite the pressure she had meant to exert on the Guard Captain. Getting such a promise from someone as strong, and influential as her was no joke. In fact, it was the biggest boon Diamante could have ever hoped for out of this backwater town.

If she played her cards right, she wouldn't even require the Lady Dragonling...

"Then..." 

Her voice was level. She didn't dare show her emotions in a negotiation, even to her own ex-knight. 

If it was Arianwen, then she could grant her one wish that had seemed impossible in the past.

"Make your request. Because I already know what I will request of you."

"Phew."

It had been about a week since Aurum, Pearl, and I began hunting in a group. We had more or less got our hunting formula down to a science.

Pearl would stick behind and buff the both of us. She wouldn't just do it by order, though, but also by her own judgement. Otherwise, she was free to try anything else she wanted...and that usually meant her focusing on trying to use that new magic. But she hadn't managed to produce any results, yet.

Aurum was quickly gaining an intermediate level of mastery over the activation of her first treasure. While she was definitely far from wielding the full power and might of the golden dragon's body, she was at a level where only similar talented prodigies could match her in how fast and efficiently she could deploy her abilities.

And me? Well...

The stat slowdown had caught up to me already. Even though we had been killing tons of monsters, my stats only increased by about 2 each, over a full week dedicated to hunting. It wasn't bad, but I had a feeling that my stats wouldn't be increasing in large numbers for quite a long time.

The real gain was the new feature that had completely replaced Skills. Something which I had never seen before...Proficiencies. Currently, the only one I had was unarmed combat, but I saw an endless potential in this new function.

Unarmed combat had actually started out at F-. It appeared after the night of our first attempt at hunting, and after this week of fighting monsters with nothing but my punches, kicks, and grapples, it finally reached E+.

From F-, to F, to F+, etc...in numerical terms, I had leveled up Unarmed Combat about 5 times to get it to where it was, and I could definitely feel the difference.

I felt like I could better make use of my strength when fighting monsters. Like some sort of rough technique had been implanted into my body without even really thinking about it. Each of my kicks felt sharper and better-aimed, and my punches perfectly carried my full force, power, and weight through them...though it all still felt amateurish. Rough around the edges.

Even so, this was huge. If Proficiencies, like stats, could be earned through training, then I could possibly learn anything if I put in enough effort to do it. I felt like I had earned the most out of the three of us during this week of pure monster hunting.

I was finally starting to see my true path ahead to strength, even if it was going to get harder and harder from now on.

But...

"You know, I just can't help but feel weird..."

Aurum turned around to look at me after I spoke, while tossing aside the horn of yet another Lesser Oni. 

"Weird? Why? Cause we're gettin' all used to wiping these guys?" She said, with a confidence that I could tell wouldn't bend. "They were so hard to beat at first, but now, they're easier to beat than those goblins. Ain't that right, Pearlie?"

"M-Mm!" Pearl agreed with a quick nod, and I groaned.

"Don't just go along with her, Pearl!" I shook my head, with Aurum sticking out her tongue and Pearl nervously laughing. "No, I don't mean the fact that they feel easier to beat. I'm talking about the fact that these are the kinds of monsters we've been encountering in the first place."

I walked over to the corpse of the monster we had just hunted. It was yet another Lesser Oni, though this time, its' skin looked markedly more obviously demonic, more corrupted.

I knelt down beside its' corpse, staring deeply at the skin of the monster, now more demon than monster.

"At first, I thought they were just like this because of the demonic residue left over from the attack of those Imps. But all the monsters around here have undergone demonification, and it's only getting worse, not better."

"Demon-what?"

Aurum asked, looking utterly confused. Pearl smiled, taking over my usual role of explaining for me with glee.

"Demonification. It's when either an area or person transforms into a demon, or a demon-like existence. For example...Orcs becoming Lesser Oni, and Trolls becoming Oni."

"Oooooh~!" Aurum nodded. "When Pearl explains it, I totally get it. Unlike Tommy." She pointed her thumb at me, prompting me to roll my eyes.

"Yeah yeah, Aur."

Her bright attitude and jokes were welcome, but it didn't erase the worry I felt when considering the fact that we had only been fighting demon-monsters.

Demon boars, Lesser Oni, Hell-Slimes...every creature we came across while hunting was corrupted deeply by demonic influence. And with the Imp's attacks being three weeks off, it was definitely not normal.

If it was what I think it was...then we'd have a problem on our hands. Something far beyond the little Imp raid that had started it all.

But I'd need to wait until night-time to check it out.

Alone.