Reign of The Demon King

To the Guild

The guild was a large building located near the main city district. They entered and could immediately see the atmosphere change from what it was like outside the building. It was much more unruly, although it did still feel welcoming. There were paintings on the wall of what he assumed were adventurers and some that looked as if they were depicting certain events. There were also monster parts mantled on the walls and armor of adventurers. Angelica led them to the receptionist who greeted her.

“Good morning.” She says.

“Good morning, my name is Lily, and I am the guild receptionist. What brings you three here today?” Lily asked.

“I’m here to get these 2 registered with the guild.” She answered while pointing towards them.

“I see. Are these friends of yours?” Lily asks.

“Yes. Recently, they’ve gained an interest in adventuring and wanted to try their hand at it.” She answered.

“Well, then we’ll be more than happy to accept them. For now, why don’t I take the three of you back to the registration room,” Lily says as she leads them to a back room.

The room was simple and didn’t have any decorations, just a pedestal with an interesting orb placed on top.

“Place your hand on this and focus your mana into the orb. The orb measures your mana potential as well as the types of magic that you can use. The color of the orb determines the magic attribute that you have the most proficiency with. We’ll also have the two of you use some spells and spar against an instructor. All three of those things will determine your rank in a way. You’ll still start at the lowest rank, but if we see that you have massive mana reserves or good combat potential, then ranking up could be easier for you.” Lily explained.

Renji nods at Himari, urging her to go first. She complies as she walks forward and places her hand on top.

“Now that I think about it, I don’t actually know how to focus my mana. I guess I’ll just focus really hard,” She thought as she closed her eyes.

After a brief wait, the orb began to flash white.

“Oh, so you have an affinity to holy magic and your mana potential is exceptional as well,” Lily noted as she takes some notes.

Himari cheers and smiles as she steps back.

“Okay, you’re next.” Lily noted.

Renji walks forward and places his hand on the orb. There was a longer pause than when Himari went, so long in fact that he was beginning to think that he was doing something wrong until the orb finally began to flash. It flashed a myriad of colors at a blinding intensity. Renji looked over towards Lily and decided to stop based on the look on her face. Once the light had died, there was a small c***k in the orb.

“It’s a good thing I stopped when I did. It would have been hard to explain why the orb broke.” He thought to himself.

“Who… Who are you?” Lily asks as she looks at him.

“I would like to keep that a secret,” Angelica said.

“I can see why. Can I at least tell the guildmaster about this?” She asks.

Angelica thought for a moment before answering.

“Why don’t you set up a meeting with him for us? That way we can discuss this in private,” Angelica suggested.

Lily nods as she rushes off to the guildmaster’s office.

“I’m guessing I did something to draw attention to myself.” Renji noted.

“And in a big way. I guess that was to be expected when I didn’t explain to you how to channel your mana. You probably just focused all of your energy into the orb without thinking about controlling yourself,” Angelica theorized.

“It didn’t help that I tried as hard as I could when it didn’t work immediately.” Renji added.

Shortly after, the receptionist returned to the room.

“He would like to speak to you immediately. Please, follow me.” She says.

They followed her to the guild masters' room, and she knocked on the door once they arrived. They heard a gruff voice call out “Come in.” Before she opened the door.

As Renji looked around, he couldn't help but feel like the room fit the description of every guild master room ever shown in any story. The carpet was a red color and there was a rug in the middle of the room. A coffee table was set on top of the rug with a couch on either side. There were bookshelves on both sides and paintings of what would have been mythical creatures in their world above them. At the far end of the room was a large wooden desk with a man sitting there with a couple of chairs in front of it. The guildmaster was a solidly built man who was slightly above average in height. His hair was short and grayed. It was obvious he was quite aged, but despite the color of his hair, he looked rather young in comparison. His eyes were gray and had a sharp look that matched the sharp shape of his eyebrows and a scar ran down his lip. He had on a white button up with a red velvet tie under a vest that matched the tie’s color.

“Please, have a seat.” He urges them.

They comply as they sit in the chairs in front of his desk. Renji kept his eyes glued to the guildmaster in an attempt to gauge how he should go about this interaction. The guildmaster smiles as he notices what he was doing.

“You are a perceptive one,” He notes.

“Given the circumstances I’ve found myself in, that is an incredible compliment,” Renji replies.

“It is very much a compliment. My name is Archie, and I am the guildmaster for the capital city of the Griffander Kingdom. Ms. Lily has only told me that you two both possess incredible mana reserves, but I know there’s more to it considering the princess of our kingdom is with you two.” He notes.

“I should have known that there was no point in hiding anything from you,” Angelica said with a sigh.

“I wouldn’t be a very good guild master if that were the case.” He pointed out, drawing a chuckle from Angelica.

She takes off the necklace of concealing and urges the other two to do the same, so they take theirs off as well.

Renji could actively see the gears turning in his head as his eyes darted from the three.

Not only was the princess of their kingdom with 2 people he didn’t recognize at all with no bodyguards present, but the two people looked different from anyone else he had seen in the kingdom thus far, considering they were from Japan and the citizens here looked more European in nature. Archie takes a deep breath as he rests his head on his upright hands.

“So that’s what’s going on.” He sighs.

Angelica was silent for a little, as if she was contemplating how she should respond when she finally spoke.

“It is as you expect, these two were summoned from another world. This is Renji, he is the hero. And the girl is Himari. She was teleported here along with Renji but has decided to join us on our journey.” She answered while pointing towards the pair.

“So, the demon king will invade us soon.” Archie surmised.

Angelica nodded with a serious look on her face, but the interaction confirmed a suspicion Renji had.

“To think I would see the demon lord rise in my lifetime,” Archie says.

“I know exactly how you feel. As a princess, it is overwhelming to think of the effect this will have on the citizens and how we will have to respond. Just thinking of the work is giving me a headache,” Angelica added.

“Well, there isn’t anything that we can do about it now, so why don’t we focus on getting these two ready.” Archie suggested, turning his attention to the pair.

“First, we’ll start with finding you a weapon that you’re comfortable using. Then we’ll teach you about monsters, then dungeons, then we’ll teach you magic, and finally we’ll move to practical applications. Does that sound good?”

“Isn’t there a special holy weapon for the hero?” Renji asks.

“There is, but you are much too inexperienced to wield it at the moment, so for now we’ll get you a regular sword for you to practice with. But once the demon lord invades, we will reveal you as the hero and send you to retrieve the holy sword Asi.” Angelica answered.

“Retrieve it? Where is it at?” Renji asks.

“Currently, the elves have it in their possession. Every 10 years, another race holds onto the sword until the hero is summoned. The same goes for the hero’s armor, which the dwarves currently have,” Angelica answered.

“I see, well, that’s fine by me.” Renji replies.

“And what about you madam?” He asks while looking towards Himari.

“Oh, uhm, if Renji’s okay with it, then so am I.” She answered.

“Okay. Let's head to the weapon room so you can pick out a weapon that suits you.” Archie says before getting up from his desk.

They put their necklaces back on in case they run into someone while walking to get their weapons. He led them to a store room in the basement level of the guild that had a sign over the door frame that read weaponry. They entered into a dark room lit only by a few candles scattered about that was littered with all kinds of weapons, from battle-axes to swords to knives to bows and everything in between. There was also armor and clothing of sorts spread about as well.

“Alright, Renji, pick a sword that feels comfortable and Himari, pick a weapon that you think would suit you best.” Archie ordered.

“What’s the point of spending a lot of time picking out a specific sword if I’m just going to swap it out with the holy sword?” Renji asks.

“The holy sword conforms itself to the wielder so it will morph into a sword that will be most comfortable for you, so there’s no need to worry. You won’t have to get used to a new feeling sword.” Angelica answered.

Renji nodded before he walked around grabbing swords and testing the grip, weight, and length of them, while Himari immediately headed to the bows. She seemed to be panning through them quickly, not giving most of them very much attention at all. The display caught Angelica’s attention.

“You seem to be drawn to the bows. Have you used them before?” She asks.

“Yes actually! In my world, I was in the archery club and on the archery team in school.” She answered.

“I see, so you’re experienced in their use?”

“You could say that, actually, I was the best archer in Japan. Oh, Japan is the country that we’re from.”

“Well, considering the makeup of our party, being experienced with a bow is perfect. It’ll allow you to stay back from the frontlines and support us both with healing magic and your bow.”

Himari stops and picks up a bow. It was a wooden bow that was a similar color to mahogany. The string was thick but flexible and strong and a blue-like crystal lined the edge of the riser.

“The sapphire dive, an excellent choice.” Archie noted.

“Are you familiar with this bow?” She asks.

“Very much so, it was mine after all.” He replied.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll put it back then.” She says as she goes to put it back down, but he rests a hand on her shoulder.

“You have nothing to apologize for. That bow is here for a reason, as I no longer have a use for it. I would be honored if you took it with you on your journey to defeat the demon lord. It is a much better fate than simply staying here and collecting dust. Just be sure to take care of it.” Archie assured her.

She smiled as her eyes lit up.

“I will!”

Renji was taking longer to pick a weapon as he wasn’t knowledgeable in swords the way Himari was with bows. Truthfully, he really wasn’t sure what he should be looking for. He assumed he should find something that he could swing easily and had a length that complemented his body, but outside of that, he was clueless. In stories that he read or when he learned about swordsmen in history books, they talked about their sword calling out to them or simply feeling like it was made for them. He was far too clueless to rely on his instincts to find an appropriate weapon. He was able to rule out some swords because of their weight or size and others simply didn’t feel right, but he was now left with several swords that seemed as if they would serve the purpose he needed them to just fine. But he didn’t want to just pick any one of them in fear of picking a sword that wasn’t the optimal choice.

Then he started to wonder if he was overthinking all of it. People are summoned here from his world and are expected to learn about their world, magic, skills, monsters, and learn to fight, far faster than should be humanly possible. Why is he thinking this hard about what sword he should use for training?

He was just about to pick one of the swords at random when he paused for a moment. For some reason, his hand started to guide itself towards a different sword than he intended to grab. He gripped onto a long sword with a thick, leather grip. The hilt was silver and the blade black.

He picked it up and inspected it closely.

It was exceptionally sharp, even he could tell so from looking at it. The dim light that lit the room reflected off the blade as if this was the only weapon in the room that had been cleaned regularly.

“Ohh, a fine weapon. That is The Nightstalker. It was obtained from a dungeon a while ago, but the adventurer that acquired it had a sword of their own they were fond of and no one in their party wanted it either, so he sold it to the guild. The second I laid my eyes on the weapon, I knew it was special. It seems it's found its new home,” Archie noted.

“Are you sure you want to give me a weapon like this simply to use for training?” He asks.

“The holy sword is powerful indeed, but such power can make one reckless. Having a sword that requires you to be more thoughtful in your approach is not a bad thing to have,” Archie replied.

Renji took note of the statement as he continued to inspect the sword. He swung it a couple of times before he felt satisfied with the way it felt.

“I will hold your advice close,” He stated.

Archie smiled as he nodded at him. He got Renji a holster for his sword and Himari a quiver and arrows for her bow.

“Alright, back to my office then.” He said as he led them back up to the top floor of the guild.