[Prologue] Adventurers

Once again, I found myself sitting atop the city walls, surveying the streets below while listening to the playlist that I had almost completely memorized. It really wasn't all too fun, having nothing to do.

The floor below me rumbled as the gates were raised. I leaned over the side to see what was happening. It was the same broken-down little cart, and in it sat Ai, with Cassy driving. They looked like they were packed for a long journey.

I jumped off my perch on the wall and into the cart, using the wind to cushion my landing. Ai glanced at me once, then went back to hiding her face in her cloak.

"I don't see you two going out often," I said. "where to?"

"Nobody invited you, Rai." Cassy said just loud enough for me to hear.

"We're going to the Human Empire." Ai explained. "I'm leaving the country in the care of my most trusted demon lord, August."

Most trusted demon lord? that gave me a bad feeling. I ignored it and sat back in my seat.

Cassy didn't actually have wheels on her little cart, and it just floated a few feet off the ground since it was enchanted with magic. This, combined with the fancy horses, shortened what would have been a month on the road down to just a few days. There wasn't really a trail to the Empire, but Cassy seemed to know the way pretty well.

"I'm assuming that there's more than just that utopia place in the Empire, if you're traveling there?" I asked.

"That's what they call the 'City of Eden.'" Ai said. "terribly creative name, I know. The rest of the empire is just slightly more advanced than our nation, and is still fairly medieval-themed."

The City of Eden? like the Garden of Eden? damn, that was such an accurate description of the place, I wondered if someone from my world named it.

The scenery sped by as we traveled, and I caught glances of snow-capped mountains, giant trees blooming with flowers of every color of the rainbow, and the occasional mythical creature flying by overhead. If nothing else, this world was much prettier than my last one, which was littered with cities filled with skyscrapers, and skies so gray you'd think that it was forever overcast. Though I wasn't sure which one I liked better overall.

As the sun reached the snow-capped line of mountains, turning the entire sky a vibrant orange, Cassy stopped the horses and got off.

"let's set up camp here." She pulled out a tent of sorts from one of the bags. "At this rate, we'll get there in two more days."

I hopped out and onto grass that reached up to my ankles. I noticed that Ai was hovering just a couple inches above it, as to not get her shoes dirty.

"I'll take first watch." Ai volunteered.

"no, you get to sleep." I shot the idea down. "I'll keep watch for the entire night."

"don't you need sleep?" Cassy asked. "It's really unhealthy to not sleep, you know?"

"I don't need it." I assured. "I'll be fine."

I put my headset back on and tapped play on my phone. This playlist was all I listened to, but it sure never got old.

"What is that, anyway?" Cassy pointed to my headset. "You always have it on around your neck or over your ears. is it a slave collar?"

"Seriously? that's your first guess?" I raised an eyebrow. "it's something called a 'headset.' I connect it to my phone," I pulled out my phone to show her where the wire led. "and it plays audio. I use it primarily for music, though."

"Music? in that tiny pad?" Cassy looked at the phone in my hands.

"If you don't believe me, want to take a listen?" I handed her the headset, and she put it on. I listened to stuff that I found while watching anime, or from AMVs online, so most of the stuff is in Japanese, with the occasional English one. Cassy gave the headset back after hearing one song.

"I don't really understand the language, but it seems like music." Cassy said. "That's amazing. Ai never told me about such a thing."

"That's because she never had the chance to use one." I muttered. Cassy didn't seem to hear.

The two went to sleep, and I was left sitting in the grass, looking at the stars. None of the constellations were the same, but it was still fun connecting the dots and making new images.

a few hours into the night, I heard rustling in some nearby bushes, and took my headset off to listen.

"is that it?" I heard one man whisper.

"yeah, that's the Devil's camp." another man replied.

I sat still and pretended to not hear.

"let's take out that guard first." I heard a quiet chant, and an almost insignificant blue glow came from the bushes. A blade of ice flew towards me, shattering the moment it touched me.

I stood up and turned towards them, and they emerged from their hiding spot. I did a mental double-take. they were humans.

"A human?" One of them asked.

"probably a demon disguised as one." The other said.

"I suggest you two speak quieter, if you're talking shit." I said. "I could hear you from a mile away."

"I don't care if some small-fry guard like you hears us." the one guy said. "We're Castella's top tier-3 adventurers. what can you do?"

"Well, first off, try and use your attack again." I instructed. They performed the same chant, but no ice appeared.

"What did you do to my spell, demon?" The man shouted. I shushed him.

"There are two people sleeping in there, man. don't wake them or you'll die three times as slow." I warned.

"You're so confident in yourself that you think you could take down two tier-3 adventurers alone?" The second guy stepped forward. "I don't know what you did to Ice Blade, but I'll make sure this next attack hits!"

He chanted something, and I felt a burning sensation in my head. It was magic powerful enough to make me feel pain as it was engraved into my mind. What the magic was, and how strong it was, I knew in an instant.

"you..." I thought about what to say. "you just tried to stop time, didn't you?"

"Wha-" He stumbled backwards. "why didn't it work?"

"It seems like you tier-3's are something else, indeed." I nodded. "to be able to use a high-level spell like Time Manipulation, that's impressive. I applaud you."

"What the hell are you?" His voice cracked as he yelled. "why can you nullify a Time spell?"

"nullify?" I stopped time and walked in front of him. "That's not quite it. I suppose I should thank you for giving me the ability, before you died."

"Y-y-you..." He stuttered as I pulled a knife off my belt. "You stol-"

I sliced his head clean off as his friend, who was frozen in fear, watched. The blood splashed onto my white shirt and pants and soaked into the fabric.

"Man, that sucks." I looked down at my ruined shirt. "You just can't find clothes this good around here."

"s-stay away!" The other guy scrambled to his feet, and then fell again.

"Come on. you're an adventurer, aren't you?" I put my foot on the back of his head. "you can't be getting this scared of death, that's just part of the job, ain't it?"

"W-who said I was scared of you, huh?" His stuttering made it obvious that he was, in fact, terrified.

"As for your question earlier," I leaned in closer. "I'm no demon, but don't lump me in with you humans, either."

"then what the hell are you?"

"Me?" I thought for a moment. "that's a good question, but it's not like that information will be useful to you anymore, will it?"

With that, I drove the knife into the back of his neck, severing his spinal cord. The knife came out his throat and drove itself in the ground.

I stood back and surveyed the two men's bodies. The green grass around them was stained red by blood, and the knife in the one guy's neck really emphasized that they were killed by an intelligent creature, not some wild beast. A smile creeped its way onto my face.

As the moon came out from behind the clouds, the bodies became more highlighted against the grass, and became extremely noticeable, almost as if they were a neon paint splotch under a black light.

I looked at the severed head of the time magic user, with his shocked and fearful expression still on it.

It was something that I hadn't seen in a while, and it sure was refreshing.