(A/N - Can't have this one die on me)
"Is it really okay to sneak out from your squad base right on the first night?"
"Yes."
Licht audibly sighed, with his words and warnings hardly having any effect on the owner of his host body. From his interactions with Varre, he had learned quite a few things about him.
Firstly, Varre was stubborn to a fault. Whenever he made up his mind to do something, he wouldn't stop until he saw the end of it. Licht often had to go through this seeing that his warnings and concerns on Varre's actions always fell on deaf ears.
The second—and perhaps more intriguing—aspect of Varre's nature was that his actions were never arbitrary. Every choice he made, every path he followed, was guided by a firm sense of reasoning. There was always a logic, an underlying purpose, behind his decisions. It was this very trait that made Licht refrain from questioning his motives.
Like right now.
As he soared through the night sky, Licht found himself completely in the dark regarding Varre's intentions. The spirit had no clue as to why his host was making his way toward Hage Village in the dead of night. Yet, despite his lingering doubts, he knew one thing for certain—Varre must have a clear reason behind his actions.
Descending near the grimoire tower, Varre started strolling around the area, keeping his gaze fixated on the ground. He mostly walked around the areas with demolished structures and rundown buildings. It was very likely that he was looking for something.
After more than an hour of searching around every corner of the vicinity, Varre finally stumbled upon an old, dusty black grimoire. The most striking feature of the grimoire were the five clover leaves on the cover.
"Recognize it?"
"Wait! This grimoire!"
"Yes, this is yours, or was yours." Varre answered, picking up the grimoire and dusting it off. He tried to open it forcefully but it did not budge at all. But it wasn't like he wasn't expecting this outcome at all. This was all within his expectations.
"But how?" Licht was still trying to process how his grimoire endured the passage of centuries.
"Five-leaf grimoires don't disintegrate even after the user's death." Varre responded, sitting down on a nearby boulder, holding the grimoire in his hands. "They wait for the next owner of it."
"Then, shouldn't the next rightful owner be me, or in this sense you?" If what Varre said about five-leaf grimoires is true, and since Varre is technically Licht's reincarnation, he should be the rightful owner of his old grimoire.
"Aren't you aware that devils are supposed to be owners of five-leaf grimoires?" The brown-haired wizard raised an eyebrow before shaking his head. "Plus, I really can't use this grimoire, not when a devil is playing house in it."
"There is a devil within this grimoire? How's that possible?!" Licht inquired.
His memories of that fateful day were still fresh in his mind. He had almost given himself to despair and the devil's taunts if not for Lumiere's timely arrival. Even though his grimoire had turned black and developed a fifth leaf stemming from his own despair, he did not submit his body or grimoire to the devil. Rather he chose to sacrifice himself in order to ensure that the devil does not fully descend into this land.
"I tried to open it with my mana but it rejected me. That only happens if the magic's very nature has changed." Varre explained. If the nature of the magic hadn't changed, he would have been able to open the grimoire. "That's what made me reach this conclusion."
"You sure are knowledgeable about this." What surprised Licht even more was his host's depth of knowledge regarding devils and grimoires. In his lifetime, they lacked knowledge regarding devils or how their magic worked. Though he wasn't fully convinced that society had advanced enough in five hundred years to have knowledge up to this extent.
Then again, he could be wrong.
"It's simple really. If a devil wasn't really playing house with the grimoire or had ownership of it, I could have accessed Sword Magic through this too." He replied back after standing up and tossed the grimoire on the ground. 'Did I say more than what needed to be said? Anyways.'
"What do you plan to do with it if you can't use it?" The former elf leader was still clueless about what his plans were. He must have had some goal or objective in mind that made him fly all the way here in the dead of night and search for his old grimoire which won't serve any use to either of them.
"Insurance. This grimoire is still useful to me in another way." Varre replied with much evident confidence in his voice. His grimoire floated beside him and from the pages emerged his rapier, within which he had concealed his second grimoire. 'If my powers work the way I think they do, then what I am about to do will work.'
Gripping the hilt tightly, he channeled his mana through the rapier. The rapier's blade glowed with a crimson hue as he inscribed some runes on the ground, making a runic circle around the five-leaf grimoire. After inscribing the runes, he drew a strange magic circle within the rune's boundary. It was a circle within which a reverse-star was drawn. Within the star's borders, he drew even more stranger symbols.
"That's a devil summoning circle!" Licht's shocked voice rang through his head. "How? But more importantly why? Why do you want to summon a devil right here and now?"
"Not just any devil. The devil resting within the grimoire." Varre responded, using his rapier to make a small cut on his right arm without an ounce of hesitation. He then held his hand out, letting the blood drop on the summoning circle. "Don't worry, I took measures to ensure that the devil wouldn't spawn fully. Even if it does, I am pretty sure I can take care of it."
"I guess that's what the runes are for." He had no clue regarding the source of Varre's unwavering confidence, but he was sure that he had a plan in case things went south with the devil. If not, then he wouldn't have taken this measure at all.
To him it seemed like his host had seen through what all would happen once they would find his grimoire and had prepared accordingly. If his actions do benefit the both of them, then he has no reason to object–for now.
As soon as Varre's blood dropped on the summoning circle, it flared up to life with black sparks dancing wildly on the surface of the circle. Simultaneously, the runes began glowing with crimson mana and soon enough the two energies began clashing with one another. The grimoire started to float as the energies continued to repel each other.
A chill ran down Varre's spine when he felt a powerful presence from within the grimoire as black energies which were trying to escape from the grimoire began to take shape.
'No matter how much I plan ahead, feeling it in reality is altogether a different experience.' He stood still with steady but tense breathing, letting the sweat accumulated on his forehead fall. Clenching his fist, he waited as the black energy from the grimoire took the form of a being with bat-like wings, claws for fingers, two ram-like horns on its head. The being had a pair of blood-red eyes that seemed to gaze upon the very soul of the person who had dared to bring him out in the open.
"What the?! What did you do, human?" Right after it materialized from the grimoire, runic chains coiled themselves around the horned figure, emerging from the very runes Varre had inscribed on the ground, binding the fiend in place. "Free me this instant!"
"You have got quite the malice. Not surprising considering the kind of being you are." Varre replied coolly, walking up a few steps. Despite the immense amount of hatred and malice he felt from the winged-creature, he still maintained eye-contact with it. "Rest assured, I am not here for you. I am just going to borrow something for a moment."
"Borrow? Borrow what?" The being raised an eyebrow. This was the second time it had met a human being that stood in front of him fearlessly and spoke out their mind without an ounce of fear in their voice.
"The sword. I know there's a sword within the grimoire. I just want to borrow it for a moment." Varre replied, holding out his hand in front of the grimoire. "Don't worry, I don't plan to take it away."
'All this for a simple sword?' The horned being thought to himself. It couldn't sense any sort of deceit from the human and that irked it even more.
Humans are known to be cunning and deceitful yet the one right in front of him seemed to be pretty straightforward and didn't like to sugarcoat things at all. If it's just the sword the human wants to borrow for a moment, maybe it wouldn't hurt to indulge him.
This human already had the upper hand against it with the runes he had set up before summoning. It had already restricted its powers to a considerable extent because of which he couldn't form completely. Moreover if the human wished for, he could end it right here and now, yet he felt no such intent from him.
"Fine, but don't try anything funny." The being growled begrudgingly as the grimoire's pages fluttered. It thought of using this chance to use its magic power to try and disable the runes. That way it could stand a chance if the human tried something funny.
From the pages of the black grimoire emerged a massive black greatsword covered in dirt and scuff marks. The blade and the hilt were separated with a fuller. The hilt was that of a regular longsword and the blade was huge with a pointed tip.
"That's Demon Slayer!" Even if Licht's face wasn't visible to him at all, Varre could very well picture his stunned expressions at the sight of one of his own creations after centuries. "But it's black and corrupted."
"Blame the devil for it." Varre replied, grabbing the sword by the hilt, only to nearly lose his balance from its weight. "Note to self, I definitely need to workout more."
Steadying his grip on the greatsword with his left hand, Varre closed his eyes, extending his right arm forward. "Trace on!"
He concentrated his magic through the greatsword, to understand the very structure, the composition of the blade, the very essence of the sword. Starting right from the foundation to its unique abilities that set it apart from usual swords. He focused on the sword's memories in order to gain insight regarding the weapon. He could even see visions of how Licht used to wield the sword.
Once he reopened his eyes and focused mana on his right hand, his grimoire floated up beside him, pages fluttering. It turned to an empty page which was soon filled with a new spell inscription as the mana in Varre's hand began to take shape.
A similar greatsword appeared in his right arm with the only difference being that the new sword he held was white in color with not even a speck of dust in it.
"Did you just create a copy of Demon Slayer?" Flabbergasted would be an understatement to what Licht felt at the sight of Varre recreating the sword that he made all those years ago. Even though he did accuse Varre of creating a copy, he could very well feel from the mana signatures that this sword was no copy.
"Hey! It's very original. Thank you." Varre stuck out his tongue, pushing the black greatsword back into the five-leaf grimoire, ignoring the devil's confused stare. "If it wasn't original, my grimoire would not have recognized this as a new spell."
"That does make sense." Licht responded after a brief pause, still trying to process the miracle that happened right before his eyes. Back when he had created the Demon Slayer sword, his grimoire responded in the same manner Varre's grimoire did just now, solidifying the newly created Demon Slayer Sword as an original and not a copy.
"I focused my magic to create it like it was before being tainted. Your memories in that regard helped a lot." Varre added, letting his grimoire absorb his newly created sword before it closed and landed into its owner's palm.
"You done?" The devil asked to remind Varre that he was still there.
"Right, I almost forgot about you." The mage chuckled before waving him off. "Yeah, your work is done. Go now, shoo! shoo!"
"You dare to–!" Before it could properly swear at the sword mage, the latter forcefully closed the grimoire, trapping the devil inside it again as he rubbed off the summoning circle with his feet. The grimoire shook a bit in his hands before he elbowed it hard enough to make it pipe down. He swore he heard the devil utter a few curses but paid little to no attention to it.
"You do realize that was my old grimoire." The elf spirit had no idea whether to feel sorry about his old grimoire being treated like that or just sit back and watch the devil inside being tormented by a human.
"Yes, it was." Varre replied, putting emphasis on the 'was' before tossing the grimoire to a nearby demolished building. "Time to head back and hit the hay."
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Mages who are chosen during the Magic Knights Entrance Exams by the captains of various squads are immediately assigned to those squads and are expected to undertake a series of missions and quests. These are commissioned either directly by the Wizard King or submitted by citizens in the form of official complaints or requests. Completing such tasks allows the mages to gain vital experience and begin their steady ascent through the hierarchy of the Magic Knights.
Recognition for mission success is awarded in the form of gold stars, which are personally granted by the Wizard King. These may be bestowed upon individuals or entire teams of knights, depending on whether the mission was carried out solo or in collaboration.
Magic knights of a squad are differentiated through ranks other than the captains and vice-captains. A promotion to a higher rank is possible for every magic knight based on their performance and the number of gold stars they have collected individually. There are three positions within every squad in which the magic knights are ranked into:
Senior Magic Knight
Intermediate Magic Knight
Junior Magic Knight
Because of this clear ranking structure, fulfilling mission assignments takes precedence over all other responsibilities within a knight's duty.
"Did you call for us Captain?"
The voice broke Diavel's concentration from the reports he had buried himself into and made him look up to the doorway of his office room. There stood three individuals, the very three knights he had picked from the magic knights entrance exam. The three of them had showcased exceptional performance during the exam and voluntarily chose to be in his squad, effectively turning down the offers from other captains. That was one of the biggest achievements all three of them had in their records.
Especially Varre Swallowtail, he was offered a position in all the squads but ended up aligning himself with Diavel's squad. Altria, on the other hand, was offered by Blue Rose and Aqua Deer, and she ended up picking the latter.
The last rookie was a tall, blue-haired male with dark green eyes and an air of nobility around him. His name was Siegrain Ardenhart. He belonged to one of the minor noble families of the Clover Kingdom, their estate situated around the bordering areas of the noble realm.
"Yes I did." Diavel said, picking up a report from the bundle. "I have an assignment for you three. It will be helpful for you lot to gain firsthand experience as a rookie knights."
"What kind of assignment?" Siegrain questioned politely.
Varre on the other hand was paying little attention to whatever Diavel was saying and paid more attention to Siegrain. 'By any chance is "he" here too?'
His mind shifted back to the numerous discussions he had with one of his closest friends. They even talked about writing and even discussed one other's characters with each other.
And right now, one of his friend's characters was standing right beside him, giving Varre every right to be suspicious regarding whether his friend had been brought into this world or not. After all, the appearance was too uncanny for him to just ignore.
'Only one way to find out.'
"It's really simple, a patrolling mission." Diavel replied, flapping the report in his hand. "You are to patrol and scout the northern borders. The border that we share with the Spade Kingdom."
"What are we looking out for specifically?" Altria inquired.
"Nothing too specific, just a regular assignment to get you familiarized with the patrolling duties. This too falls in the duties of a magic knight." The purple-haired captain said with a shrug. "You know how often we have skirmishes with the forces from Diamond Kingdom, can't get careless with the other three now can we?"
"That makes sense." Varre commented. Two simple words, 'Spade Kingdom' had brought his attention back to the ongoing conversation. One cannot be simply careful against that kingdom. No one has any idea what kind of stunt they would pull. 'For all I know, the Dark Triad could be strengthening their forces. They have already taken over the kingdom eight years ago, with the neighbouring kingdoms knowing nothing at all.'
"If you three don't have any more questions, get going." Diavel ordered earning an affirmative nod from the three. "Once you reach there, your senior knights stationed there will brief you more about this sort of work. Good luck and don't do anything reckless on your first day. Are we clear?"
"Yes sir!"
The three left the office room, leaving their captain to his devices and found themselves walking down the hallways of the Aqua Deer headquarters. Varre intentionally slowed down his pace, pulling Siegrain by the collar as Atria went on ahead.
"What-!?" Before the blue-haired male could say anything, Varre pressed a finger on his lips.
"Listen up Siegrain. I have a question and I know only you can answer it." The glare he earned from Varre was so intense that he had to momentarily give up on any sort of resistance and just nodded. Whatever the question was, Varre seemed dead serious about getting the answer and at the same time, did not want Altria to hear it at all.
Said girl didn't even notice that the boys weren't even following her at the moment.
"Ask away." Siegrain replied, having composed himself after freeing himself from Varre's grip.
"What kind of woman is your type?"
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