Alex’s POV:

I sat in the empty throne room on the throne. It was uncomfortable as all hell with no back support and the thing is made of gold!

”I'm getting off this stupid thing.” I said to myself. 

I started to walk around, the room was way too large for my liking, but it’s not like I can just reconstruct the whole castle, well I could but that would be way to much money and time. The sound of my footsteps echoed through the lonely throne room. I started to walk towards the door. I’ll probably go into the city see what fun things there are out there. 

As I was reaching for the door it opened. Jason walked in, he had short ash brown hair with pale golden eyes. He was wearing his usual clothes black pants with a loose tan tunic, he had bandages on his arms I’m not sure if they’re from injuries or he’s just trying to be stylish. 

“Sir, oh hello.” He was surprised to see me at he door. “Sir, we have a problem.” 

“And that is?” I asked him, raising an eyebrow. 

“In the east there was a small village of demons and they were all slaughtered, as well as the surrounding area was burned down.” He continued.

”Interesting, and what about the perpetrators?” I questioned further. 

“It was done by a single person.” He answered. 

“And that is?” 

“Orion Ashcroft.” Jason said.

His name sounded familiar, I thought to myself but couldn’t put my finger on where I remembered it from. “I see.” I scratched my chin. 

“What should we do with them?”  He asked. 

“Put a bounty on them for now, and what about the surrounding area, what’s the situation?” I walked out of the throne room. 

Jason followed close behind. “The flames were hard to contain so one or two villages burned down and the surrounding forests are completely destroyed.” 

“Hm, I see. Get the horses ready, we will be leaving to give support to those villages and to repair the surrounding area.” I ordered. “And set the bounty to thirty gold, once we help the villages we will do something with him if he hasn’t been caught.” 

“Understood.” Jason walked off. 

I sighed. I really don’t want to be king anymore. It’s always “Sir” this and “Sir” that. I started to walk down the hall to my room. 

***

I started to get ready, I put on an black shirt that was tight to the skin it was thin but durable. I threw on a loose black tunic over and went to my “armory” but it really was just my closet.

 I grabbed my swords, one had a light blue blade while the other was a dark crimson red. They matched my eyes perfectly. 

I glanced at the mirror before leaving and my hair was getting long, I should get it cut soon. 

Strapping the swords to my belt I left the room. I had some time to kill as it usually took around an hour for everything to be ready. So I wondered the halls of the castle, absentmindedly I walked towards the the garden.

The royal garden was large, it was in the center of the castle there was all kinds of trees, plants and flowers. It was one of my favorite spots in the castle because no one bothered me in here, mainly because I would threaten them if they did. 

I would walk towards the roses to sit down for a bit. I bumped into one of the royal guards Rose, her hair was a dark brown that flowed down to her lower back, she was a wolf Demi human so she had wolf ears instead of human ears as well as a wolf tail, her eyes was a rose pink that seemed to shine in the darkness. 

She was wearing a fur coat with a skirt and leggings, keeping it simple. “Are you not going to prepare to head out?” I asked. 

“My lord” Her voice was soft and it always put me at ease.

I rolled my eyes at those words and she smiled. “I am ready, I don't wear armor, it’s uncomfortable, and I’m strong enough to protect myself.” 

“Gods I hate it when you call me that.” She smirked. “And seems fair enough.” 

She knelt down to look at the roses. “I never really asked you this but, why did you come to the capital to apply as a knight?” I asked sitting down on the floor. 

“It was my mother’s dying wish.” She replied solemnly. “Before she died she asked me to explore the world, experience things I wouldn’t experience in the Enchanted Forest.” 

“So why become a knight? Guilds do a lot more exploring.” I questioned. 

“I didn’t know where any are, I was only fifteen when I applied and five years later I’m a royal knight.” She she smiled to hide her sadness.

”Well, after this mission we will pass by a town, there’s a guild there, join them.” I told her. 

“But Alex, I’m one of your guards.” She shot back.

“Not anymore you aren’t.” I looked at her. 

She stared at me in disbelief. “You can’t just do that?” She paused. “Can you?” 

“Well, I am the king and all.” I replied. “You wont be able to explore if your stuck in the castle, go out join a guild, go have fun.”

She didn’t say anything but just nodded. She looked saddened. 

I pet her head softly. “Thank you.” She said silently. 

I smiled before getting up, I left her alone so she could gather her thoughts and things to leave. I ended up going back to my room until we had to leave. 

I heard a knock on my door. “Come in.” I yelled to who ever it was. 

Jason opened the door. “Sir, we’re ready to leave.” 

“Perfect I was starting to get bored.” I replied, as i was getting up. 

I never really wore my crown when I was at the castle so I had to grab it from the head stand. I strapped it to my belt on the other side of my swords so it wouldn’t get in the way and left the room.

”I heard about your conversation with Rose.” He said as we were walking. “She deserves it.”

“I think so too. She’s still young and need to experience the outside world.” I replied. 

We started walking towards the main gate and everyone was there. “Oh my goodness my handsome boy” I ran up to my horse and gave him a hug. Putting mana into my ring a bundle of carrots appeared in my hand. “Leo you want a treat?” 

He neighed and I fed him the carrots. Everyone was looking at me. “Ahem, as you all know we are heading to the west to help the villages that were destroyed and help recover the land.” 

I got atop my horse and we started to head out. 

Orion’s POV:

We’ve been walking for a few days now, I decided we were to head east because there was a large town just west of the capital.  “Are we there yet?” Shiro asked. 

I rolled my eyes. “No for the fifteenth time, I’ll tell you when we are close.” I looked at the map. “We should be there in an hour or two if I read this map right.” 

Not to anyone’s surprise I read the map wrong. Within a few minutes a town came into view and lo and behold it was the town we were heading to. It was a few miles away maybe two or three. 

“Is that it?” Shiro looked excited. 

“Yeah, get on my back I’m going to run there.” I kneeled down. 

She got onto my back and I infused my legs with mana and full sprinted to the town within a few minutes. We got to the entrance and there was a sign that read “RedWick”. 

We walked in and the town was bustling, there were tons of shops and buildings, it was full of life. As we walked down the street there was a large fountain in what seemed like the middle of town. 

All of the building seemed to be made of some sort of red wood, and a darker brown wood that blended in nicely together. “Orion” Shiro grabbed the back of my shirt. “I’m hungry.” 

I was getting a bit hungry to, as well as tired. “We should ask around for a tavern.” I looked around to see if I could see any building that resembled a tavern. 

There was none in sight, not to my knowledge anyways. There was a girl that stood out in the crowd as she was walking. “Um hello, we are new to town, do you have any suggestions for taverns?” I asked now that I got a good look at her as I was closer.

She was pretty short, maybe four inches shorter than I am and I’m five eightish. She had nero black hair with pale silver highlights tied back into a somewhat messy ponytail.

Her eyes were different color, her right eye was an lavender purple, while the left being a crimson red. She wore a a hooded sleeveless white shirt, with a black plaid skirt that went just above her knees. Her most distinguished feature was the crimson horns that were protruding out of the sides of her head. 

She saw me looking at her horns and she covered them. “If your going to be asshole just leave me alone, I’m not in the mood.” She said her voice was soft but also threatening.

”Why would I be racist?” I asked confused. “I’m also part demon?” 

She looked at me then at my sister. “You two are demons?” She asked 

“Yeah?” I responded “Half demon half angel.” 

I waited for her to be disgusted as I was half angel. “That’s actually kinda cool.” She looked at me. “Is that why you have white in your hair?” 

“Yeah, my father.” I paused. “He was an angel and my mother was a demon.” 

“Was?” She asked. 

I looked down and shook my head. “They are at the capital now.” I tried my best to sound happy hoping she would get the signals. 

“Ah gotcha.” She replied. “If you follow me there is a tavern not to far from here.” 

“Thank you.” I started to walk. “I’m Orion by the way, and this is my sister Shiro.” 

“I’m Evelynn.” She said happily. “Nice to meet the two of you.” 

We started to walk in direction, and after a few minutes we got to a large building, the building was quite flat the main building was made of the same red wood as everything else as well as that same dark wood. There was stone brick support beams as well as arches.

The outside was covered in greenery, but it wasn’t too much that it was overbearing. There was a sign that read “The Orical”. “This is the best tavern in town.” Evelynn exclaimed.