Zenyph felt a surge of annoyance wash over him. How many times must someone be suspicious of him? He's barely been in this world for what two weeks? Yet, everyone keeps doubting him. He felt tired of explaining himself to people.
But he had to admit, it was interesting that Alaric suspected him of being an imposter. Alaric shouldn't be friends with the previous Prince as far as Zenyph knows. So what made him suspicious? The normal thing to assume is that the prince finally decided to get his life on track not that he's an imposter. Zenyph concluded that Alaric was some sort of spy or maybe another reincarnator. Or even worse he could see right through his soul.
So, Zenyph decided to play along. "Yes I'm not the prince. And you are not Alaric right." He subconsciously hoped Alaric was a reincarnator too. It would be nice to find a fellow Earthling to speak to.
Alaric laughed, his eyes glittering with amusement. "You figured me out pretty quickly. Yes, I'm also a daemon. Lieutenant Nexagon. You must be the commander from house Nebula, I was waiting for you to show up."
"Ah, so you knew I was coming. That makes things easier." Zenyph replied as he tried to keep his confusion to himself.
Alaric chuckled, "When I received this assignment, I wondered how the hell would I be able to survey Eldithria, with a group of only five sergeants, but then I found out a commander was already here. You can't imagine how relieved I was, Commander. Especially since you're from House Nebula. I mean soul magic? That shit is crazy!"
Zenyph couldn't help but laugh at the comment. Alaric was definitely easy to talk to. "It's certainly an interesting magic, but I'm afraid I still have much to learn."
"I wish I was a member of House Nebula. To have the Lady Morgana teach you her unique magic is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But alas, I am not worthy."
"You would probably reconsider, the training she put us through was grueling," replied Zenyph, as he remembered his basic combat training. But Alaric didn't need to know that.
"Anyways how did you find me?" asked Zenyph, hoping to change the subject.
"Well, at first I thought you were one of my sergeants that reincarnated into the body of the fourth prince. You were acting completely different than the rumors. But then I saw the class ranking, you had a '?????' as a magic type. I immediately thought of soul magic. As far as I know, only Gods and the house of Nebula can use soul magic. But what actually confirmed your identity was how you were casually talking to that Cardinal of Order. I mean fucking hell you shouldn't look an Angel in the eye as a daemon, they'll immediately know your identity, unless you can use soul magic."
"I know I was sweating bollocks when I was talking to her, I wouldn't want a church up my ass so early on in the mission you know?" lied Zenyph.
"Exactly, you knew to play it cool and not antagonize them. Which means you have an understanding of their nature. It's a smart move to keep your cover and avoid trouble," replied Alaric, oblivious to Zenyph's trickery.
"But what was she doing here? Aren't the Cardinals supposed to be at the temple? I think she may suspect me."
"If she did, you wouldn't be standing here, my friend. The reason she's here is probably related to the library. It's common for higher-ranked members of the church to conduct research on the various branches of magic. There are thousands of books here, containing countless secrets, after all," explained Alaric, his eyes dancing with intrigue.
Zenyph couldn't resist that look. He needed to probe Alaric for more information. "Speaking of secrets, do you know anything about this tablet? I want to learn mind magic, but all these books are useless. Astra was supposed to be an expert on that magic, but I can't find any trace of them."
"Nope, that tablet doesn't ring a bell. However, I do know about this mind torture magic. It's a rare spell, only available to those who are extremely gifted in mind magic. Basically, you can torture a person's mind while they are still awake. It's pretty gruesome."
"Say did you already kill your decoy?" asked Zenyph, shifting the conversation again.
"Decoy?" asked Alaric, confused.
"Yes decoy, surely you made a servant sign a contract to pretend to be your decoy? I actually made a random student sign the contract. It has to be plausible you know? The contract was so specific that they might even claim to be the commander of house Nebula."
"Yeah I thought of that but I'm not that well-versed in contracts, you know? I'm just here to collect information. I honestly hate this body look at how chubby it is."
Zenyph grinned, happy to have Alaric spill the beans. "Yeah, I can imagine. I'm still not fully used to this body. I almost forget that I'm a dragon."
"That's because you're not," teased Alaric, his face lighting up in amusement. "You're a daemon, remember?"
Zenyph shrugged, feigning nonchalance. "Details, details."
They both burst out laughing, enjoying the camaraderie. Zenyph realized that it had been a long time since he had had a casual conversation with someone his own age, or at least close to it. He even debated on whether he should keep prying for more information out of Alaric or just shoot the shit. But that debate ended quickly. Daemons? There are only seven races as far as he knows, so where did these Daemons come from? What's their plan? Are they aligned with the Abyssals. He had to keep digging for information, especially now that he was actively spying.
After their laughter died down, Zenyph changed the topic again, "Have you heard about the Abyssal army that showed up in SIlverglade? Apparently, they are planning to invade the Empire."
"Yeah, I've heard about them. I already sent a report back to base, we're already fighting with the dryads and faeries back in Halcyon so we can't afford another war at the moment."
"Back in Halcyon? Did something happen there?"
"You bet your ass something happened, the Faerie Queen had declared war against us. The King of the Dryads even joined in. What's more, we even lost hundreds of planets due to the fight between Chaos and Order."
"Wow, that sounds like a nightmare. This is quite a cushy job compared to back home huh?" joked Zenyph, as he subtly pushed Alaric to divulge more information.
Alaric rolled his eyes. "Cushy my ass, one wrong move and we expose our existence to everyone here. What's more, we need to train from the beginning. I was this close to reaching Seraphic."
"That's a shame, but you might just reach it here. The academy's resources are top-notch, and they have the best teachers. Don't give up," comforted Zenyph.
"Yeah I suppose, but we can't go any higher than that here. They would start to question, and we don't want that to happen. Remember, we're just a small unit here," reminded Alaric.
"That reminds me, what information did you get already?"
"Nothing much just that the Pope's are fucking Quasi-Deity rank and the Cardinals are Divine Arbiter rank. Like what's going on here? Notos Drakonhart is the emperor but he's only Demonic rank. Not to mention the Abyssal have a pseudo-god on their side. Something isn't right, and I intend to find out."
"Thankfully that's not my job." said Zenyph, as he clapped Alaric's shoulder. "Good luck with whatever you're looking for here, I'll just continue learning about mind magic."
"Heh, you do that," replied Alaric as he stepped out of the library, his mind already swirling with plans.
As soon as Alaric left, Zenyph leaned back and sighed in relief. He couldn't believe how easily Alaric had spilled all of that information. Maybe it was the camaraderie they shared, or perhaps it was their shared curiosity, but that conversation felt almost too easy. Zenyph couldn't wait to learn more about these mysterious Daemons. He now has to pretend to be a daemon and a prince. And he has to find the actual commander before Alaric finds him.
Zenyph felt a sense of uncertainty creeping up within him. So many things are happening here, and it seems like nothing is ever easy. As if sensing his distress, an Angel walked into the area reserved for Royalty. Zenyph recognized her as Celeste Luminara. He didn't know if this was a lucky break or bad luck, but he knew he had to make the most of it.
"You're Zenyph Drakonhart correct?" asked Celeste, as she approached him with a look of curiosity on her face.
"Indeed I am," said Zenyph, trying to remain calm and not gawk at her beauty.
Before Zenyph could process what happened, a fist quickly met his gut, sending him flying into a bookshelf. As he struggled to regain his balance, he found himself staring up at Celeste, her golden eyes glowing with anger.