I rode Dreadhoof over the skies of the capital city, Ivora. Their white-themed city was a sight to behold in the skies above. As much as I wanted to stay and admire it, the place was damn hot, so I descended and entered the castle quickly.

The guards let me through, and I didn’t even have to show the coin Queen Ayana gave me to some of them. The castle’s hallways were busy, but I still harassed the busy workers for a bit of direction until I finally made it to the royal archwizard’s study. She sipped on some sort of beverage when I entered. “Deidre,” she stood up to make a gratus, “what brings you here?”

“You, Royal Archwizard Kaelyn.” I smiled

She was nervous, quite unlike her behavior the first time we met. “I-is it, about the report?”

“Well, yes,” I sat after she invited me to do so, “but not exactly.”

“Hmm?” She grabbed a bottle of what I can only assume to be wine. “What would you like to discuss, then?”

Well, I’m already here. I had to flush any more doubts I had down the toilet. “I caught a demon.”

The archwizard jumped, and spilled some of the wine as she was pouring. “A what?!”

I removed Camouflage from it so she could see it. “This,” I pointed, “attacked me when I investigated the village in your report. So, I caught it. I thought you or Knight-Captain Demarcus would like it for questioning.” I released the consciousness lock that Aether Imprisonment put on the demon, but I kept his movement and mana locks in place.

The archwizard thanked me profusely, and apologized properly for her “transgressions” towards me when we met. She offered the goblet of wine to me, did a gratus, and smiled warmly.

Hmm, now that her face isn’t deathly serious, she’s kinda cute, isn’t she? Just to be sure that she wasn’t also a succubus, I had my grimoire check her out. “Oh, you’re an elf? That’s cool.”

She froze. Her eyes looked at me with intent to kill and her hand lit up in flames. She gritted her teeth as if she wanted to grind them into a paste, then went the complete opposite direction when she started to sob and beg. Royal Archwizard Kaelyn got down on her knees and fully prostrated before me. “P-please, please! Never speak of this to anyone! I’ll do anything you wish, so please have mercy on me!”

So, being elf is a problem? What’s that about? I sighed wearily, knowing that it was yet another history lesson I had to learn. “Wait, anything?” I got up and approached her with wicked intentions. “Let me see your real ears.”

When she released whatever magical transformation she used, her face became a little sharper, and her amazing ears showed. It was elastic, bouncy, and long. The tip poked out past her head. “This is amazing!” I muttered.

“You, don’t hate elves?” Her eyebrows twitched.

“Hate elves?” I picked up a nearby hand mirror and faced it towards her. “Are you fucking crazy? Look at that?! How could you hate pure beauty, man? And you got the ears too! That’s unfair!” After I realized how disgusting my fangirl side must’ve sounded, I cleared my throat. “Anyway, I appreciate your reports. Please keep sending them.”

With that, I took my leave through a portal and returned to my castle. I laid low and focused on three main things: my students, my spells from the grimoire, and spending what little time I had with Tina, Adam, and the reckless Solina. Due to my absence, they recruited a knight and a healer to their party for simple quests. Now that Tina became an adept wizard, she was their biggest gun.

As for me, I burrowed into the grimoire. There were so many spells, that it felt like a burden, not a blessing. I found the spell to summon the undead knights, some of which were already around my castle, and that was a good thing. According to the grimoire, generic summons that didn’t have a unique name like Dreadhoof could be summoned as much as my mana and skills as a wizard allowed. So, I can have an army, then?

I grew excited at the prospect, but didn’t test it out much. But I did up the security of the castle with new undead knights and undead wizards.

The matter that interested me the most was Kaelyn. So, I had the grimoire open the elves’ page up. As I read, my eyes almost popped out the sockets. Well, that couldn’t happen because I was in lich form that time; it felt comfortable. Elves were, an interesting item. That’s why she was ready to do anything. I slouched back in my chair. So, demons were originally elves. Who knew…

According to the grimoire, many centuries ago, the elf king made a pact with a devil, a being in charge of its own plane of hell which existed in the underworld. The grimoire didn’t say what the devil got in their deal, but the elves were given the gift of magical prowess, like many of the underworld’s demons – the real demons.

The sun began peeking through my curtains, so I closed the grimoire and went outside the castle, into the training area, to test some spells and consolidate the things I learned. I scanned my surroundings a few times because I was paranoid as fuck. Finally, I cast a master summoning spell.

And so, it appeared, housed in a regular human vessel, not at all what I was expecting. It kneeled. “My purpose is thy bidding, master.”

Huh? That’s it? Why does it look like a normal woman? Damn, it’s sexy though. But why the fuck is a devil so normal? I palmed my face. It probably isn’t a devil from the underworld, but more like a normal NPC that just gave itself a fancy title? “Who are you?”

“I am Agares, devil of underworld, commander of demons.”