With two curved horns protruding from his head, hidden by the many strands of purple hair, stood a boy. His purple eyes went wide as he heard the name Eth. "How do you know that name!" after a moment of tense silence the boy I came to know as Asmodeus demanded.

"It's me Eth," Ari continued, a smile forming on his face as he took a step closer to Asmodeus. "Rui, don't you remember." Most likely due to Asmodeus's reaction to the mention of the name Eth, Ari was confident that this individual was indeed the person we were looking for.

"Rui?" Asmodeus repeated, his eyes widening in recognition. "You mean you were brought to this world too," he spoke, the sudden revelation leaving him at a loss for words.

"Yes," answered Ari. "Like you, I died in that crash and was reborn into this world."

After a moment of silence, Asmodeus's gaze landed on me, and as if just barely realizing I was there he said, "Wait! Then who is he!?" he asked, turning toward Ari for an answer.

"He's the very reason we're even here to begin with," Ari replied, signaling my way with a motion of his hand. "He crashed into us causing all of our deaths."

"H-Hey!" I stuttered, my cheeks filling with embarrassment as I turned to face Ari. "I was a bit droopy, It's not my fault I worked long hours." With a shake of my head, I turned toward Amodeus and said, "Nice to meet you Eth, my old name was Lenn but I'd appreciate it if you called me Arata."

As I spoke I raised my hand, my gesture welcoming, in turn, he did as well, and with a firm shake Asmodeus said, "Yes, I too wish for you to call me by my new name, Asmodeus." Turning to Ari, he added, "You too."

"Same here, call me Ari," Ari replied. "So?" he continued, his change in tone conveying the change in conversation. "Why don't we spill the beans? What sort of magic were you using?" he asked, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Um... Well..." he began, a bit hesitant before continuing, "It's probably the heritage I was born in but I'm able to manipulate the shadows," Extending his hand, he called forth his mana. Just like magic power can take the shape of fire, water, wind, and earth, his mana took on the physical form of a shadow. On the ground, a small circle of darkness flowing like a fluid expanded. Then, with its elusive nature and slimy texture it began shifting, shooting up to and taking the form of a sharp spike. "I can transform it in whatever way I want and even hide within it."

"Shadow magic!" exclaimed Ari, a wide smile plastered on his face as he took in the scene before us. "So why didn't you come out when we first called for you?" Ari asked, referring back to when him and I were attempting to bring him out of the shadow.

"I was quite confident you wouldn't be able to drag me out of my shadow," Asmodeus admitted, looking somewhat embarrassed. It took both me and Ari's effort to drag him out. His mana control is greater than ours probably because of his demon heritage, either that or he's just that strong.

"So it's like your own little shadow world," Ari pointed out. "Well I did something similar and created a magic affinity extended from wind magic, I call it sound magic." Raising his hand, a high-pitched ringing noise filled our ears for a second, and then it was gone.

I knew it, I thought to myself as a small smile of amusement crossed my face. "Is that how you get your super hearing?" I joked.

"Oh yeah?" he began, turning my way. "You got anything that even comes close to our abilities?"

"As a matter of fact I do," I replied, confidence heavy on my tone. Raising my hand, I channeled my mana down to my open palm. At that, tendrils of lightning began to crackle around it. "Lightning magic, also an extension of wind magic," I explained to the two spectators watching. "But I didn't bother stopping once I learned just one," I continued, relishing the opportunity to brag. With my extended hand, I then called forth the power of gravity making their figures slightly weightless, causing them to feel lighter and their hair and clothes to levitate. "Gravity magic."

"Wow!" said Ari, leaning my way. "Can you fly?" he asked.

Recalling my mana, my smile, and mannerisms remained unchanged. "No, I have tried," I said.

"Why do you sound so confident about it, you're able to manipulate gravity but can't fly, what kind of stupid predicament is that?" Ari questioned.

"It has more to do with my physical self," I answered. "I can only stay afloat for a second before the internal imbalance kicks in. My head gets all dizzy and disoriented, making it difficult to concentrate on maintaining myself in a floating state. Plus, the persistent effort to counteract gravity's pull puts a strain on my body, causing my muscles to weaken."

"That's lame," Ari said, letting out a breath, his shoulders slouching as he turned elsewhere.

"Well, I'm only human after all," I replied.

"That's exactly the reason why..." Ari began, confidence seeping into his expression. "I'm the main character." A moment of silence filled the air as Asmodeus and I turned to look at each other for a second, confused at what he meant. "I mean look at me, I was born into a warrior race, and I have unique magic that no one else has."

"I think you mean, I'm the main character," said Admodus, taking a step forward. "I was born as a demon and sure, sound magic is cool, but have you heard of shadow magic?" he countered.

"I think you guys mean to say that I'm the main character," I began, adding myself to this little debate, my tone confident.

"No," they both said in unison before I got to say anything else. "You're the furthest one from being the MC," Ari went on. "First of all you were born human again and second you can't fly."

"Oh screw you, I have lightning magic, gravity magic, and," I listed before turning around and lifting up my shirt. "These sweet runes!"

Seeing this, surprise gasps escaped both their lips. And so, we moved out to sit on a nearby bench where I began to tell them my story, starting from my rebirth to the point we were in now.

Then Asmodeus did the same. Turns out he was actually born in the Utaryon continent and throughout his childhood in this world his family was traveling here to Iradale. He discovered his shadow magic when his family was attacked by monsters. He and his family mostly survived by hiding themselves within the shadows and traveling under the radar.

According to him, Demon Lords viewed it as treason for demons to leave their land to live somewhere else and the punishment for that is death. After arriving in Iradale they were confined, questioned, and investigated by the royal council members and after being granted their citizenship they moved in with Nia's family.

Also, Asmodeus is a second year at this school, with him being two years older than me and one year older than Ari. This means I'm the younger of the two.

Next, was Ari, who was born in a small village on the outskirts of the Lalerial forest. As a child, he was viewed as the most talented offspring their village had ever produced, not only because of the sound affinity he had developed but also due to his high intellect as a young kitt and his ability to take in information and learn rapidly. Behind him were Selkie and Shina who constantly pushed each other to be a match for Ari in strength.

Then came a day, when the beast Marshal, Ares Clawford of the Clawford tribe, came to the Avalon tribe's village. She is of the cat race like Ari though bears a different surname since she was born into a different village. Since the Lalerial forest isn't a part of this kingdom, and is the place where most of the beast people reside, the Marshal's goal was to scout for possible strong warriors and bring them into the kingdom.

On her travels, Marshal Ares came across the Avalon village and found Ari. After watching him for some time she viewed his potential, and through her recommendation, he was allowed to come to the capital and enter this school. Taking the opportunity, some of the tribe families sent a few of their offsprings, which included Shina and Selkie, to the capital to get a better education. Also, cat folk women give birth like crazy. Ari has six siblings and they were all born on the same day.

After exchanging stories, it got pretty late so we all began making our way back to the dorm buildings. "So... um..." I began, hesitant to continue. "Are you not mad at me or anything?" I asked, my question directed toward Asmodeus. "I mean it was because of me that you were brought into this world and probably lived through many unwanted events." I heard from Ari, he was still young and in school by the time he died but now, surely he's over twenty-five.

Hearing my words, there was no change in his expression. After a moment of silence, a small smile crossed his face. "No, I don't blame you," he said, understanding. "Things happen and people make mistakes. Whatever happened was nothing more than an accident." Bringing his hand up, he placed it on my shoulder and added, "So don't you worry about anything."

Ari was right, he's a very sympathetic person, I thought while returning the smile. "Asmodeus!" Just then a familiar voice called. Turning around, we saw Nia making her way to us. "There you are, I've been looking for you everywhere—" her words came to a sudden stop as she noticed me beside him. "Oh, Arata?" Then her eyes landed on Ari. "Wait what are the three of you doing together? Don't tell... has Asmodeus been bothering you?"

"He's been following us for hours but apart from that we're cool," answered Ari with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.

"W-What do you mean by that?" Nia asked, visibly confused by his words.

"It seems you were right," Asmodeus began, his words genuine. "Arata really is trustworthy." Hearing this, Nia's eyes widened, seemingly taken aback. "Now why don't we head back to the dorms, it's pretty late," Asmodeus continued.

At his words, we all walked side by side toward the dormitories. On the way, Nia snuck up beside me and whispered, "What did you say to Asmodeus?" her bright curious eyes locked onto me. "He used to be like really against you but now..." she began, unable to think of an explanation. "Just what happened."

Bringing my hand up, I extended my finger and pressed it against my smirking lips, signaling for her to be quiet, while giving her a wink, silently conveying the promise I'd made to her some time ago.

After arriving at the dorm buildings we said our goodbyes to Nia since the girl's dorms were on the opposite side and Asmodeus since the second-year dorms were located beside the first year's. "Okay

We found him," I began as Ari and I entered the building and found ourselves passing by the empty lobby. "I thought you said this guy would be a human, though."

"So did I," Ari admitted, sounding as shocked as I did. "But I guess we all have our fantasies."

"So what you're saying is..." I began, now walking up the stairs. "He secretly wished to be some demon who will, without a doubt, outlive both of us."

"Well maybe not a demon... He was young and at the time of his death, he probably wished to have lived longer," he replied, to which I thought sounded like the most possible explanation.

After walking through the hall, we finally made it to our room, as soon as we entered we found three figures inside. Theodore and Selkie, beside them, was Flare in her human form fully dressed for the night.

"So? you guys find the guy you were looking for?" asked Theodore, briefly breaking his gaze off the book he was reading.

"Yeah," Ari breathed, seemingly relieved about the fact.

"So who was it?" questioned Selkie, his nature always invasively pushy.

And so Ari began to tell a story about a boy he met long ago whose name he didn't know and whose face he didn't see. As amusing as it was watching him repeatedly stutter while attempting to tell this made-up story, I knew the constant set of unorganized lies wouldn't sit right with Selkie.