Chapter 2 (1): The adventurers, part 1
The first thing I did after getting my ID was to return my temporary ID to the guard, and show him my new one.
"Well, well, I'm impressed. You made it in. Congrats... did you get a full scholarship, or will you be having to pay for it yourself, or borrow money like you did for entrance to the city?" (Guard)
"Full scholarship. Actually, they offered to pay me to enter the school, but I turned that down" (Ryuu)
"Wise choice. Getting something for free is one thing, but being paid to be given something is not a good idea under almost any circumstances" (Guard)
"Yep. Now, I'm off. I want to get a good bed in my new room, and I'd like to be back in time for dinner" (Ryuu)
I went back the way I came, and bumped into Van and some of his party on the way.
"Well look who it is. Did you get in?" (Ninya)
"Yep. Hey, Ninya, I have a question for you. What are your elements?" (Ryuu)
"Well, I have light, healing, fire, water, and 1822 mana. Pretty good, right? You got yours assessed?" (Ninya)
"Yeah... You may want to sit down for this one" (Ryuu)
"What, you have seven elements and 15000 mana or something like that?" (Ninya, who was sitting down)
"Try seventeen elements" (Ryuu)
Everyone in the party fell back into their chairs, and then they started laughing.
"Please... you're kidding... What are they really?" (Irene)
"Just as I said. I have every element. See for yourself, if you wish" (Ryuu)
I handed her my card with the second page visible, and she handed it back to me with shaking hands.
"I've never heard of anyone having more than ten... even the thirteen heroes, the ones who defeated the Evil God and sealed him, their best mage only had nine... well, he had twelve, but only nine were usable due to him not having earth..." (Ninya)
"Uh, the Demon Lord had eleven usable ones, though I don't know what others he had, as he couldn't get assessed" (Ryuu)
"How would you know that?" (Van)
"One of my teachers, the one who taught me lightning magic and archery, was a good friend of the Demon Lord... He was one of the demon generals, you see. I even saw the Demon Lord in person a few times" (Ryuu)
I guess I need to remember that most people fear demons... I could tell that some of them were wondering if I was mad, or if I was wishing to extract vengeance upon those who were on the humans' side of the war.
"Look, demons aren't all evil or anything, they've just been made into a scapegoat by the church. Oh, funny thing, Lars, the God of Light, is actually the name of a demon general who's been around since before the church was made. They don't do their research, it seems... Lars is another of my teachers, by the way" (Ryuu)
Is it me, or did Ninya smile for a brief instant there?
"Now, I will admit that some of the demon generals were or are antagonistic towards humans, but most in the demon lands focus their hate towards the church who spread the false rumors that the Demon Lord is responsible for creating magical beasts and making them attack people. From what I've seen, they attack demons more often than they attack humans. The theory is that they are simply attracted to the mana that everyone emits, and as those with more mana, like demons, emit more of it, they attack those with a lot of it or a large group" (Ryuu)
"Still... it's the Demon Lord. He was a monster who killed a large number of people from the human lands and was about to kill more whe-" (Van)
"I'd like to point out that the ones he killed and was going to kill were the ones who were attacking his home and killing his citizens. He never invaded the human lands, save for the areas that had been added to their territory after they'd butchered or captured and sold everyone living there. If someone attacked your home and killed or enslaved your friends and family, you wouldn't expect anyone to complain if you killed them, right? It's the same here. The Demon Lord was the kindest person I know of, and, was he a human, could easily have been called a saint, I think. He saved people from large outbreaks of magical beasts, sometimes even going there himself to do so, spent his resources on improving the lives of everyone in the demon lands, be they demons, elves, dwarves, or the rare humans, and created a system wherein everyone, even those from the slums or former slaves would be able to learn to read, write, and calculate for free, if they so wished. He did his best to eliminate discrimination and prejudice, and under his rule, bandits became almost nonexistent. He placed a large amount of the budget into buying back and freeing those who had been captured and brought to the human lands to be made into slaves, after he had completely abolished slavery" (Ryuu)
"He poisoned the soldier's food and water, killing thousands of pe-" (Bradley)
"He did nothing of the kind. He was dead when one of the extremists gave that order, assassinated along with most of his generals. The one who gave that order was executed for it, and many of those in the demon lands were glad for it. All most of us ever wanted was to live in peace and prosperity, ideally coexisting with those in the human lands. Poisoning the food would be one thing, but he had poison dumped in the river, turning the once prosperous fields into an infertile wasteland that would be useless for hundreds of years, and the river turned back towards the demon lands after a bit of time in the human lands, killing hundreds of innocent villagers on the human side, but thousands in the demon lands. If you think the humans were the victims, think again. We lost far more than you did when you invaded us on your 'holy war' started by a church that has no real God, as evidenced by the fact that their God did nothing to protect those fighting, the innocents, nor even anything against the influential demon who shared the same name as a God who supposedly hates demons and those sympathizing with them. If the God of Light really hates demons, why is it that the Demon Lord and many other demons can make use of light magic?" (Ryuu)
"I... I'm sorry, my party members seem to have touched on a sore subject... So, you can use every element? That must be hard to train, right? You only have so much mana... I can feel less from you than most people with just one element, actually. That must be harsh" (Ninya)
Hmm? I have a lot... oh, right, my aura and mana are being concealed. I keep forgetting that somehow.
"Ah, that... I actually have a lot of mana, it's just hidden by some of my magic items, I guess" (Ryuu)
"Can I see what it's like if you remove them?" (Ninya)
"Hmm... sure, if you come with me outside the city, so as to not disturb anyone with your reaction" (Ryuu)
We walked out of the city, into the forest a bit, and I asked those with a weak heart to move outside the area in which I had a barrier set up to prevent my aura from leaking out. When those who wished to leave had left, I was left with just Ninya, Van, and Irene.
"Well, let's start with two of them, and we'll see how much more you could handle" (Ryuu)
"It's not like you could kill with your aura, right?" (Van)
"Well, actually... I could. When I was hit by a spell that stripped me naked, including my weapons, by teleporting all of the inanimate objects in an area outside of it, the bandits who used it died from the sudden increase in my aura... either that, or my beauty killed them" (Ryuu)
"Yeah ri-" (Van)
"You know, it's not impossible. You can kill some animals by startling them enough, and humans have died by being exposed to a lot of raw mana suddenly. It's why it wasn't uncommon for those training to fight the Demon Lord to be trained to withstand strong auras" (Ninya)
"Anyways, shall I remove them, or not?" (Ryuu)
"Please do. I still want to see what it's like to face someone with a lot of mana" (Ninya)
I made a barrier, pulled off my bracelets, and...