Temporary Demon Lord

5: The realization

My room was... unusual, to say the least. Obviously, I didn't expect to have the kind of room I was used to (cramped, with a cheap plain bed and bright bed sheet). But I wasn't prepared for the grim grandeur of this room. The ceiling was about two Francis high (almost three me high). The room was bigger than my whole apartment had been, making it about forty square meters. In the centre stood an imposing canopy bed that was about two or three times the size of a big twin bed.

What was I supposed to do in such a huge bed? You could put the five women I'd been intimate with in my life in this bed and they'd still be able to never meet one another! Aside from the depressingly huge bed, the room had an imposing chimney, which I'd have loved if not for all the weird decoration on it and monster heads made of stone (or were they?) adorning it...

There were two big windows, but I couldn't benefit from the view as it was night-time and quite dark outside. Then there were wardrobes, then again way too big: I could have a put ten times all the clothes I had ever owned in that wardrobe! In order not to get swallowed by the sheer size of it all, I jumped on the bed stared at the ceiling, surprisingly nice, with its paintings of a night sky that felt like home.

Only when I laid there, on that bed, waiting for some clothes to be brought to me, did I realise what kind of shit I was in. I was in a universe I knew nothing of, without any friend or family, no place to call home but this gloomy castle. The only familiar things I had with me were a towel, soiled with blood whose provenance I preferred not to think of, and a baseball. I strengthened my grip on the latter.

I had no idea what to do, I was surrounded by beings apparently far stronger than me and that seemed to expect a lot from me. But what was it they expected exactly? Help, from a lost American in beating up four Japanese kids? They seemed able enough to do that on their own...

Honestly, I was scared, not knowing if and when I could go back home... Not that I liked it that much, mind you. But it was familiar at least, this world was anything but. I could hit a few kids alright, but apart from that... What did I have to do? How? The more I thought about it all, the worse it looked. I had to find something to get my mind off things, I had to not think about all this. Unfortunately, my doubts were looping in my head like a bad Lady Gaga song. I needed some help, wherever it came from...

"Feeling scared?" Said the God's voice in my head. Oh, yeah, that God, the one I had thrown my baseball at... talk about unexpected help...

"Yeah, kinda. I don't even know what to do, do I have to level up or something? Do I even have powers or am I just a mascot of sorts?"

"You do have powers, but no, no need for you to level up: your level is scaled on that of the Heroes..."

"Oh" that sounded oddly video-game-like, but then I had been warned, hadn't I?

"As for your goal, your main one is to beat the four Heroes, and do so in the most entertaining way possible. In the meantime, you can do whatever you want, find some goals of your own"

"Hum, ok, thanks I guess, and as far as the powers go?"

"The ones I explained to you in detail up there?" I could almost hear the smirk. "I mean, I really went all out on the tutorial there, I'm quite proud of how it turned out so neat, without sounding too much like exposition... Really the best speech I made so far!" He sounded so proud that I almost hesitated to answer. Almost.

"Yeah, I kinda skipped that, I hate tutorials, user manuals and all that." I thought, not apologetic in the slightest. I heard his cloud fume as he answered.

"But you can't SKIP me!!! How dare you?!"

"I just kept repeating 'SKIP, SKIP, SKIP' in my head until you stopped talking."

"You... you... you!" at a loss for word, the God finally sighed and laughed

"Well, whatever, it will be fun to see you stumble, but don't you dare die on me too quickly! I mean, we could always clickbait another morron, but the competent ones seem to be less frequent around here lately."

"Huh, thanks, I guess..." I replied.

"For your powers, ask your head of magical research, it's a werewolf. Francis or The Fae will introduce him to you." Damn, we have werewolves too?!

"Hey, God? Could you tidy up my apartment and all that, warn my parents..."

"Sure John, I'll do that."

"Thanks."

On hindsight, I should have been more specific about what exactly I wanted him to tidy up and how exactly I wanted it done. I should have seen it coming, who would trust a God to know what to do in an intelligent way, right? Anyway, this was a problem for another time and, if I didn't know it then, it would come back faster than I thought.

Goals, goals goals... There were a lot of things I could do, but what did I want to do? What kind of goals should I aim for? Thinking about my gaming experience, I thought I had to secure resources, assess my armies, build my strength, gather intel on the Heroes and their humans' allies. Ok, I'd do that, but first... I had to do something about the look of this place, I mean if I didn't change the décor, I'd blow my brains out with a... bow I guess?

Maybe some company would be a great help too... I thought back to my tinder date coming up and sighed, perfectly aware that my chances of being there on time were approximately non-existent. They wouldn't have some kind of magical dating app around here, would they? I paused in my train of reasoning, waiting to hear a nosy God snicker at my horny young male's thoughts... nothing happened, and I resumed daydreaming about a great date, mostly to put my mind off of the dark and gloomy things surrounding me.

As I laid on my bed, thinking about short term goals - date related or not - , there was a knock on the door and Francis came in, probably bringing the clothes I had requested.

"Here my Lord, as requested, the most comfortable thing we could find, kept unused and clean for your benefit!" Said the Archdemon, with a proud smile on his face as he presented me his finding.

"What. The. Hell?" I whispered as I gazed on what he had brought me. "These are not clothes Francis, that's a woman." I sighed. "Granted a pretty one, but still a woman. And she looks terrified." The Archdemon looked perplexed and it came to my mind that he was some kind of clerical figure, there were things we'd have to talk about... Trying to explain, I added. "I wanted clothes, something comfortable..." and then I understood the misunderstanding. "...to get inside of..." I couldn't help but laugh, which seemed to slightly relax the woman. "Where did you get her?"

"She's one of our slaves my Lord."

"Oh, slaves..." I said, frowning. "We'll discuss this, why don't you go fetch me some clothes, or have someone do, I'm sure you've got a lot of things to take care of."

"Yes, my Lord. Should I take her back?" I hesitated and shook my head. The Archdemon winked.

"That's not what you think it is!" I said, feeling compelled to justify myself. He simply grinned, not believing a word, as he went for the door.

"Good night my Lord. I will make it so that you are not disturbed before the morrow, my Lord." I sighed, hesitated to point out that there was no need, but knew he wouldn't believe me. Beside, my comment might be interpreted as a confession of poor performance from someone who clearly didn't expect to last the night.

"Oh, I see that you're getting used to this new world quite fast!" Said the God in my head. Once again I said that it wasn't what he thought it was. He didn't believe me either.

Damn nosy that God!