7 To The Capital

Luna had a dream while she was sleeping in the inn that night. In that dream, she could see a family of four. There was a beautiful mother looking to be middle-aged, a handsome father in his early forties, a cool big brother looking to be 17 and an adorable little sister who was at the young age of 7.

The family was smiling at a camera and were getting a photo taken. The mother stood at the left side of the father with the children following in front of them. They all had bright smiles on their faces. It seemed as if it were the happiest day in their life.

And as the camera flashed, the girl let out a single tear. And for a second... Luna thought she saw pure black snakes crawling all over the girl's body.

When she opened her eyes, she couldn't remember it anymore. She went downstairs to the pub of the inn. The inn was kind of like a motel and a restaurant combined. She and Noel got two different bedrooms because it wasn't that expensive even in face of its decent quality compared to most situations portrayed by fantasy novels.

Before going down, she made sure to put back on the white eyepatch. Even from the wooden stairs, she could see his brother leisurely drinking a mug of coffee and some bread while reading a newspaper called "The Demon Times" with his mask on the table. He looked a bit bored to Luna.

All the other people in the pub though were bedazzled by his gorgeousness. Whenever he had his mask on he looked like those silent types but when they saw him take it off, he had this noble and refined elegance. In the way he sat, he ate and read the newspaper. The Demon Plane's way of judging beauty was a bit similar to most other races but it mostly mattered on that Demon's bearing and manner. Even if you were of the same sex, you would still feel admiration instead of affection unless they swang that way.

She sat down on the same table with him and drank an already heated mug of milk and some bread. By the time she was finished, Noel had already put his mask back on, to the dismay of the audience, especially the women. They then quickly left the inn, not paying attention to the longing gazes of the other customers.

'Noel-sama sure is popular.'

After thinking that thought, she would make sure to add "-sama" to his name the next time she calls him.

About 30 minutes passed with them going through twists and turns of this giant city. Luna was inwardly glad that Noel was guiding her or else she would have gone lost at least 50 times without a map. They had finally stopped in front of a metal door.

The door had graffiti drawn on it in bright red spray paint spelling out "B-O-O-Z-E" inside a small alleyway that only people who had explored every single nook and cranny of the city. Luna saw that Noel was going to knock on the door.

"Get behind me."

"?"

Even if she questioned why he told her to do this, she still took 4 steps behind his back. After seeing that she moved far enough way, Noel's hand stopped right before his hand knocked the door and then pulled out a heavy machine gun out of nowhere.

"Dafuq--"

*TAT*

*TAT*

*TAT*

*TAT*

*TAT*

*TAT*

She wasn't even able to finish her sentence before incessant sounds of gunshots rang through her ears as they pierced the metal door. She didn't even mind trying to cast magic to make sure the surrounding people didn't hear it because Noel already did before they stepped into the alleyway.

As bullets pummeled the door, you could also slightly see through the holes made by them. There were only spurts of blood spraying from here to there.

Noel only stopped firing when he could no longer hear any screaming from the other side. After he stashed his machine gun into his pocket dimension, he kicked down the door and pulled out an AF2011 out of nowhere and had his left hand in his coat pocket.

The scene was a massacre. Bodies full of bullet holes regardless of their features or sizes with scarlet red blood oozing out from them. Some of it was blue or green though. Luna wasn't sure if the purple blood was a mixture of two or was originally like that.

Unexpectedly, there was one man still standing. He was dressed in a bartender's outfit and was cleaning a wine glass with a white tablecloth.

He had his black hair slicked back and his red eyes were fully focused on the wine glass he was cleaning. He had a slim black tail and pointed ears and had white skin. It looked as if the massacre that happened never even existed in his eyes. Noel walked to the counter amidst the demon remains.

He then pointed his AF2011 at the man's forehead. There was only coldness in his eyes.

"Give me it." He spoke in an arrogant tone that made it sound as if he was threatening the bartender instead of attempting to negotiate.

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to."

"Why?"

"Because that's what I decided."

"Why?"

"Because..."

It seemed as if they were used to doing such banter. Noel kept his eyes on the bartender and the bartender kept his eyes on the glass. Luna knew that this would last quite a while so she turned her attention to the bookshelves located to the far right of the pub.

「The Past 1000 Years of The Empire」,「Throwing Knives for Dummies」,「Demon Magic」,「Hybrids, not Illborns」, and many other titles were found on the shelves. There was a couch and a wooden table near the bookshelves intended for reading.

She sat down on the bloodied couch, not caring for hygiene, and pulled down the two books named「Throwing Knives for Dummies」and 「Demon Magic.」She mainly chose those two she could learn a new Skill and because the system of magic might have been changed in the past 1000 years.

'Uh...Let's see... Magic is always divided into seven categories. For the Celestial Plane, it's Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, and Humility. For the Mid Plane, it's Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. And lastly, for the Demon Plane, it was Luxuria, Gula, Avaritia, Acedia, Ira, Invidia, and Superbia.'

'Okay, that hasn't changed... Use your imagination... Feel the animal of the sin you're representing... Luxuria is equal to goat... Gula is a pig... Avaritia is a toad... Acedia is a sloth... Ira is a Lion, Invidia is snakes and lastly, Superbia is a peacock.'

"Because--- You know what? F*ck it. I can easily make some Identification Papers but I can only give you either the「Throwing Knives for Dummies」or the Magic Eyepatch as your other item. Choose."

"Ugh... fine Gary. Gimme the Magic Eyepatch."

Luna was about to read more into the book when she noticed their banter was finally coming to an end. The bartender, apparently named Gary, made a black eyepatch and two brown folders appear out of a puff of black smoke. He had already put down the wine glass and tablecloth by then.

Noel then pocketed the eyepatch and the two folders before walking away. He stepped on the dead bodies as he left the pub. This time, they let out a groan before sitting up. Luna was a bit shocked but that shock quickly subsided after seeing their extremely pale faces and sunken eyes.

'So they were just zombies...'

"Agh... Thanks again, Noel. I look more like a zombie now right?"

"Shut up Freddie. You only got shot in your knee, look at my arm! It got obliterated!"

Similar happenings occurred in the pub. Luna just quickened her pace so she could catch up with Noel.

"Now... Let's head on to the capital."