The midnight lights

Andrew was coming back from town to his small house in the forest. The day had been long and he only managed to gather a little bit of food. Such an useless day! The sun felt like it was burning his skin. As he was thinking negatively, he felt an annoying presence up ahead. He was about to take a detour to avoid it when it suddenly spoke.

"A-agh. P-please help me!"

When he heard this he was kind of shocked. Obviously, he could feel the presence was in perfect shape. Just what was it doing? Curiosity got the best of him and he decided to go see closer. After a few steps, he could see a crow laying on the ground as if his wing was wounded. Seeing the human was close enough, the crow started dramatically

"Oh human, would you please help this humble wounded crow? If you do, you will be granted power."

Andrew was doing his best not to laugh. This was so suspicious, even a five years would be wary. As Andrew didn't care for the crow's little plans, he made a mischievous smile and said

"Ah, poor little thing. Hopefully, a fox will pass by and put an end to your misery."

At that, Andrew purposely stepped on it's wing as he went past it. A small cracking sound was heard coming from the wing. The crow then cried out in pain

"Gyaaah!" The crow glared at him and said "How heartless could you be! Stepping on this innocent crow!"

Without turning back at the crow, Andrew continued walking and said

"You should be thanking me. Now, the next time someone walks by, they just might fall in your pathetic trap."

The crow was speechless at this insulting boy. Wouldn't most humans just think they were chosen by god to help him and gain powers? Humans were naive and egocentric creatures. Now, this human was mean and disrespectful but not naive. As for egocentric, he didn't look to be different from the others humans. The crow was in quite the troublesome situation as he was now actually wounded and the boy's wish for him to be eaten by a fox might actually turn to be more than just a joke. He looked at him while thinking, should he give up or not? That guy obviously had a problem with his personality. Though, he was most probably his last chance. He decided making a deal with this mean human was better than death. A god was probably laughing at this crow's foolish thoughts right now. So, he hurriedly yelled at the boy before he was too far away.

"Wait! I admit it, I did try to trap you. But you seeing trough my beautiful acting proves you are not dumb so surely, you would listen to the deal I propose?"

Hearing this, Andrew stopped walking. The crow took this as a yes and continued.

"To tell the truth, I am not a normal talking crow."

Andrew could help but think 'I don't think you could ever consider a talking crow as normal.'

"Actually, I am a shapeshifter that was given an important mission by a noble who's close to the king. They need someone to take the position of the student leader at their children's school to help them from the shadows. They also mentioned being at their eldest daughter's orders. Of course, In exchange I shall give you the ability to control whichever elemental magic you wish."

Andrew thought about it kind of deeply. He could turn this situation to his advantage. But it would have certain risks. Ah... but who cares about risks? He decided to give it a go. Andrew turned around and made a counter offer.

"I'll do what you said, but only if you agree to other conditions. Instead of giving me access to magic abilities, you give me the people on death row when their time has come. Don't worry, they will die in the end it's just that I have certain circumstances."

As the conditions were quite weird, the crow frowned. He couldn't just randomly agree to this, though they were actually good conditions. After thinking a bit, he answered.

" I cannot agree to these conditions before the king gives me permission to. What about you help me heal, I go to the king, And then I come back?"

"Mmmm... okay but when you come back we will make a blood contract."

The crow gulped. If someone ever breaks a blood contract, they will instantly die in atrocious pain.

"Is... is that really necessary?"

Andrew nodded seriously.

"Absolutely."

....

After Andrew took the crow to his house and made it a plaster, it took only one day for it to heal as it was a shape shifter. So the crow flew back to the castle. Three days later the crow was back.

"The king agreed to your conditions."

Andrew smiled and said

"Let's make the blood contract then. "

The crow started making an incantation and then said

"My conditions are the following:

You will infiltrate the adventurers academy with my help, become student leader, help the Firetree students and obey Silvia Firetree's orders as much as you can."

Seeing the crow was done, Andrew started his part.

"My conditions are the following:

You will let me deal with one person on death row every week by bringing them to me in the most nearby forest. I guarantee they will be dead before the end of the day. You will not disclose important information about me to anyone; you will not betray my secrets."

The crow found the last part a bit suspicious but made a small cut on his wing with his beak anyway and held out his wing. Andrew cut his left thumb and went to press his bleeding wound against the crow's. Just before they made contact, the crow noticed the boy's blood wasn't red, but a dark blue. It was already too late and the contract was sealed, but he still let out an insulted gasp and said

"You're not human! What are you?!"

Andrew smirked and answered

"Since you won't be able to tell on me, I'll just answer truthfully. I'm What you would call an insanoia."

The crow felt wronged, betrayed. Insanoias were recognized as purely evil beings. To survive and get stronger, insanoias needed to eat the souls of humans that had gone insane, lost faith and hope in life. These creatures were extremely rare and could be very powerful if they ate a lot of insane souls. Some of them went as far as purposely making humans go insane by ruining their lives and torturing them. The most powerful of them were known as pure evil for killing countless humans and making life hell for every human that crossed paths with them. But the insanoia in front of him just got himself a golden ticket. People on death row were bound to be at least moderately insane. Knowing you were soon going to die never had a good effect on people's mind, never mind the fact that most of them were already insane serial killers or the likes. In other words, the kingdom was now feeding and making stronger a dangerous being known as an insanoia. The worst thing about it, the crow could only shut up about it or otherwise he would die.