My Journey with the Demon King

13 - King

The next morning I woke to find a mixed reception. Zane, unsurprisingly, was ecstatic. "You used magic again! And it was quite powerful as well. You turned that guy into a weasel!" He was nearly squealing like a little girl, he was so excited. "I mean, I was just gonna kill the guy for trying to kill you. But no, you turned him into a weasel. That was amazing and hilarious, by the way." He frowned a little. "You did jump too many levels too fast though. You let the magic control you, so to speak, and used more than you could handle. Try not to do so again unless you absolutely have to, love. You could seriously hurt yourself if you do."

The other men were torn. Vernick still treated me mostly the same as before, as did the two other men who seemed to like Gregory the least. But the other six looked at me in either outrage or fear.

I couldn't blame them though. I had, after all, just turned their captain into a weasel. What other insane things could I do with magic to them, if the mood struck me?

By noon on the fourth day, we had arrived at the capital of Gres, Seattle. Vernick made a grand sweeping motion as we grew close to the city gates. "Welcome, Lady, to the great city of Sea-cattle."

I paused, staring at him in confusion. "City of what?"

He smiled. "Its something of a fond nickname the inhabitants have for the capital."

Zane let out a long, annoyed sigh. "It's Seattle. Sea-attle...not cattle...How many times do I have to repeat myself? It's been, what...three and a half thousands years now?"

Vernick was quick to duck his head, but I could see a small smile on his face. "Yes, sire. I apologized for my slip up. It won't happen again, sire."

Zane watched him through narrow eyes. "Uh-huh, yeah. Likely story, buddy."

I laughed. "I think it has a...certain charm to it, Zane."

He glared at me. "Not you too. Look, Seattle was the one place I wanted to go to before the End. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to. But as soon as I could, I came to this part of the world and made it my own. I mean, look at it. It's amazing." He spread his arms out wide.

The city was huge, four times bigger than Hesleth. It was also a harbor town, granting me my first view of the sea. I had lived close to the coast, on the other side of the world. But my village had still been a week's journey from the actual coast. My parents had no reason to visit and there was no way they would have let me go on my own. So, this was the first time I had seen the ocean in all my eighteen years.

It was breathtaking, but also slightly chilly. It was early summer now. Even so, a cold wind blew from the sea. I was glad for my long-sleeved wool dress. It helped keep me warm, mostly. The sky was overcast, light grey and very little sunlight breaking through the clouds. I turned back to Zane. "It's beautiful, but also gloomy."

He pointed at me. "Give the lady a prize, please. Yes, it's gloomy. This is just how I like it. I hate the sunlight, can't stand it one bit. Walking from your village to here, this spring, has been awful."

I just shook my head at him. Vernick continued down the road. Silently, Zane and I followed, hand-in-hand. Around us, still in a protective formation, the other eight men did the same.

It was another hour walk until we passed through the gates, into the capital of Gres. "How does it feel to be back in...How long now?"

Zane tilted his head to the side. "It's either been twenty-eight years or forty-three. I'm not really sure which though."

I sighed. "You know you make no sense, right?"

He grinned. "Of course."

A loud, high-pitched scream made me jump. I looked around frantically, trying to see what had happened. Two seconds later, the scream came again. I slowly took in that no one else was reacting to it. The people in the streets remained calm. The cars and carriages kept going at their steady paces. Vernick kept walking forward, like it was any other day.