Paley watched Dillie practice her magic during the last lesson of the day. They had a thirty-minute test to do and were to spend the next ten minutes revising for it.
Most people were frantically trying to cram information, but Paley didn't bother. He was confident he knew everything he needed.
"Okay, everyone. Time's up." The teacher looked at the clock that read 1:20, "Take one and pass it on. Don't open them." She put the tests down on the front desks.
Before the test started, he caught Adimia giving him a look of pure anxiety.
"Good luck," He mouthed, slightly relieving Adimia.
"Alright, guys. The test begins... now." She waited until it was 1:22, meaning the test would end at 1:52. It was a test on magic history, and Paley breezed through it. He finished ten minutes early, watching everyone else struggle through it.
Adimia sat soulless, staring at the ceiling. He only managed to answer three questions; for the rest, he either didn't write anything or wrote random bs.
"Okay! Time's up. Stop writing." The teacher ordered. Some nobles continued writing, but she didn't bother trying to stop them. She collected everyone's papers and marked them with two runestones.
One of them was a scanning runestone, with which she scanned each page. She clicked the scanning runestone with a marking runestone, which she held against the test, marking down the result in ink at the tops of the front pages.
"Oh, wow!" She smiled in surprise, "One of you got a hundred percent." She glanced at Paley, who was staring out the window distantly, with a smile. Those who felt confident they did well began to pray to the Moon that they were the ones who scored a hundred percent.
The nobles finished their tests with five minutes left until the lesson ended and handed them in. They sat back down and observed the rest of the class spitefully, waiting to find out who got full marks.
"Alright then. Here are your marks in ascending order." The teacher took a piece of chalk and slowly wrote up the board. It automatically wrote down the scores of everyone. Unfortunately, Adimia was the first to see his name, right at the bottom of the board. As she wrote down the last few names, the tension in the room grew. Everyone's eyes were glued to the board, but Paley knew that he was the one who scored 100%.
Teerom sat gloomily with his head on the table in the cottage, tapping the table with his fingers. Madella was washing and hanging clothes outside. She finished washing her clothes last, hanging them with the others on a clothesline that Teerom helped her put up earlier.
As she hung them, she saw a figure approaching in the distance. It was a man wearing a long grey coat and black top hat. Madella recognized the well-groomed, handsome face of the Lord and rushed into the house anxiously.
"Teerom!" She urged Teerom to his feet, "The Lord's here!"
"The Lord? Why's the Lord here?" Teerom asked, matching her franticness.
"I don't know! But, can you go talk to him? He creeps me out." She clasped her hands.
"You're an adult! You should do it!" Teerom argued.
"Just go!" Madella pushed him out of the house, making him stumble forward and crash into the Lord's stomach. He looked up at the Lord's confused face with fear. 'I'm dead meat,' He thought.
"Hello," The Lord greeted.
"Hello, my Lord!" Teerom bowed nervously.
"There's no need to bow." The Lord smiled, licking his lips at the innocence Teerom displayed, "do you live here?" He asked.
"Y-Yes,"
"So, you're one of that woman's orphans. I have a question for you,"
"I'll answer it to the best of my ability," Teerom assured.
"Did anything strange happen here last night?" The Lord's dark eyes began to glow a lemon yellow. Teerom panicked. He had to lie about seeing that demon; to keep Paley and the orphans safe. But there was one problem, he was a terrible liar.
"Yes," He decided to tell the truth, but in a lying way, "w-we saw a strange monster wandering the forest over there,"
A few days ago, Paley advised Teerom to bend the truth instead of completely lying, meaning that he should tell bits of the truth but change some details. Last night, they saw a demon, but he called it a monster. It was looking for Paley, but he said it was just wandering around.
"I see," The Lord didn't break eye contact at all, making Teerom incredibly uncomfortable, "Did this monster happen to be tall and black with big white eyes?"
"Yes. How did you know that? I-If you don't mind me asking, my Lord."
"They are called the Watchmen, and they don't just simply wander around. They are always looking for something. They are always looking for someone."
"Maybe it was hungry?" Teerom suggested, getting a lazy laugh out of the Lord.
"If it was hungry..." The Lord leaned down to his face, "You would've all been dead by now. Especially innocent little boys like you. They love your kind..." He grinned and caressed Teerom's face. Teerom tilted his head back in repulsion. "Anyway," He suddenly stood upright, "I shall get going now. You probably won't see another one ever again." He left in a hurry.
Teerom walked back into the orphanage, stunned.
"I get what you mean when you said he creeps you out," He said, washing his face. The Lord's hands, as smooth as they were, felt disgusting on his skin.
"What'd he say?" Madella asked, watching the Lord disappear into the distance through the window.
"He asked about the demon we saw last night. I lied and said that we saw a monster wandering in the forest." Teerom explained, still slightly shaken up.
"How did he know about it?"
"That's what I was thinking too. He told me how it looked and everything... I think he knew it was a demon."
"What else did he say?"
"That they're called The Watchmen, and they don't just wander around, they're always looking for something- sorry, someone."
"The Watchmen... Eugh," Madella shivered, "Gives me the creeps just thinking about that thing."
"Mom," Teerom's tone turned very anxious, "I think Paley's in big trouble. If The Watchmen are always looking for someone, then that one found him. He found Paley. Uh, Void's son, or whatever." He theorized frantically.
"Could this Void be a Dark Conjurer?" Madella sat down with him.
"Maybe. We're the only ones who can have anything to do with demons." He put his hand to his brow.
"Teerom," Madella held his other hand, "Paley's a Quimnia. I don't think that Watchman was the only one looking for him." She said with a look of unease.
"A Quimnia is fated to save the world from the demons," Teerom repeated. At the end of Aneros' tale, in the biography written by his companion, there was a message he thought was for all future Quimnias. It read:
To you, the first and the last. Ours and the world's fate rests in your palm. To begin and end it all, it will be you. To save us all, it will be you.
Paley's name was at the top of the list. Unsurprisingly to him and Dillie, he was the one who scored full marks on the test. Everyone let out sighs of disappointment at the sight of his name, followed by looks of spite from the higher classes.
"Good job, Paley! As expected of our most promising student!" The teacher clapped for him, but only Dillie and Adimia clapped along. She awkwardly stopped after noticing the unamused looks on the other student's faces.
Amasha's class also had a test, though it was only ten minutes long since they were in Lower Stage 1. He sat at the front next to his friend, Ruben, listening to Heavy Metal music as he drew Paley fighting the Fulguron. Ruben was slightly younger and shorter than Amasha. He had big light brown eyes, and short black hair that covered his forehead in neat bars.
"What's that?" Ruben asked as he shoddily colored a landscape on his piece of paper.
"This is my big brother saving me from a Fulguron," Amasha explained as he drew Paley with his arm inside the Fulguron cub's mouth. It was drawn horribly, but that's expected of a five-year-old.
"Cooool, is he strong?"
"...I'm not allowed to tell you." Amasha put his earphones back in.
"Why?" Ruben shook him by the shoulder.
"I just can't..."
"But why!?"
"I said I can't tell you!"
"Okay..." Ruben seemed slightly hurt by Amasha's yelling, but he moved on and continued drawing.
The bell rang, and Paley packed his books into his bag, waiting near the door with Dillie for Adimia.
"Sorry," Adimia rushed over as the last few people were leaving the class, "Let's go."
On their way out, the noble that threatened Dillie a while back barged shoulders with Paley, pushing him into the wall as he walked past. Paley stared at him walk past, angry but mostly confused.
"Oi-" Adimia tried to call out to them, but Paley shushed him.
"It's alright." He continued walking and they followed him.
A storm began to brew in the distance after Paley dropped Dillie off. He liked the rain, but Madella was going to be furious if he got wet, so he rushed home. When he arrived, he found all the orphans sitting gloomily.
Madella approached him and greeted him with a hug.
"Hey, how are you?" She asked, escorting him to the table where Teerom and Jurie sat. Out of all the orphans, Paley noticed that Adimia was the most depressed, standing near the crackling fireplace. Reben stood next to him, aware that he was reliving his memories.
"What's up with all of you?" Paley asked.
"We're worried, Paley. The Lord came by while you were all at school. He asked about the demon we saw yesterday." Madella explained.
"The Lord? How did he know about it?"
"We don't know." Teerom answered, "He thinks it's a monster. He said that demon was a Watchman."
"A Watchman?"
"Yeah, but here's the thing: he said they're always looking for someone. That one said it found... you."
"I think I get it," Paley sighed, "They're tired of Quimnias stopping them, so they're going to kill me before I become a threat." That notion made Madella shiver.
"Paley, don't say that." She said helplessly.
"It's a good plan. I'm still twelve. I'm still weak. That just means I have to get stronger sooner. But, since no demons have attacked me this whole day, I'm assuming that I'm safe for a while." He reassured both Madella and himself.
"Good point."
"What if it's just taking a bit longer for that Watchman to tell the others?" Reben asked.
"I've read a few history textbooks." Paley began, "There have been five instances of demons entering our world. All of them were during a Quimnia's lifetime- well, apart from one, but anyway, there has always been a gate that connected our realms. Teerom, in Aneros' biography, there was a big gate that the demons came out of, right?"
"Yeah," Teerom nodded.
"So, I'm assuming that to travel between realms you need to open some sort of gate. That Watchman died, and even if it didn't, it definitely didn't go back to the Demon Realm. Because there was no gate." He turned back to Teerom, "I felt its mana presence disappear. Did you feel its demonic presence disappear?"
"Yeah, my hand stopped shaking right after." Teerom began to feel relieved and so did the others. Paley nodded victoriously, but inside he was relieved too.
"I'll be fine, guys. We'll all be." He said.
"I hope so," Madella rubbed his shoulder affectionately.
That night, Paley lay down outside as usual, but he couldn't get any sleep. He was lost in his thoughts.
"Shouldn't I be more worried?" He asked himself; he felt more anxious at the fact that he didn't feel anxious that demons were looking for him.
"I have to train harder. I have to work out more. I have to practice my magic more." He lifted his hand toward the sky, then stared at it, "I am a Quimnia. I am fated to fight demons. Manoha managed to stop the gates to hell from being opened, maybe I can do that. But I have no idea who, when, or where they're going to be opened. All I can do is train. and-"
He paused suddenly, listening carefully to the forest. There was nothing but the faint sound of crickets and leaves rustling in the wind. "Stop hiding and come out." He put his arms behind his head. Someone was watching him, but he didn't feel that they were threatening. He looked into the forest below his feet, carefully observing for any movement, any tiny twitch.
Nothing happened. He sighed and lay back, ignoring that feeling of being watched, and slowly drifted off to sleep.