The Future

"So, why do you want to work here? What really put the idea of working in the bookshop into your mind?" The man asked, trying to make his face as impassive as possible. When on interview, the interviewer shouldn't show any emotions. It would put extra pressure on the participant, making them push the boundaries and really show their needs and wants.

In his years of experience as a manager of different places and lately as an owner of a small bookshop, he saw a lot of people. Young, old, experienced and new. They were all different, all had qualities unlike the others and yet he still could understand most of them within a few minutes of holding a conversation with them. There were of course rare expectations, but those were mostly old men and women who themselves had a lot of experience in the work industry.

The young man in front of ihm clearly didn't fit the old criteria. Nevertheless, from his eyes and his relaxed tone, as well as a small smile dancing on his lips, Gregory could understand that he was dealing with either a clearly too experienced man for his age or a literal monster. There wasn't even a hint of worry or trepidation. He didn't tremble nor did his voice quake even once.

Even people who had tons of interviews couldn't help but be nervous. The mind had an uncanny ability to make people think of the worst situations even if there was no indication of one happening. It was a simple survival instinct evolved through thousands, millions of years to survive in the harsh conditions outside. As such, people would still slip up, even a small twitch of eyes or fingers would indicate that.

'This... Lucius is really something else. Although he clearly belongs in a far better place with his abilities, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. Maybe in the future I can even leave most of my tasks to him? That certainly doesn't sound bad.' Gregory thought idly while still continuing the conversation.

Although only half of the interview was done, Gregory would accept him anyway. He lacked people in the shop anyway and his younger employee was still an underage and as such, his capabilities and responsibilities were quite limited, as he could only work part-time.

"Truth be told, I like it here. You must have seen me visit a number of times in the past few days. I enjoy reading and I believe that with time, I could also help the clients better choose what they truly want. I like this relaxed atmosphere here that could prompt me to work better overall. Besides, I would love to gain more experience in the customer service and I believe that the bookshop is a perfect way to start." Lucius told eloquently, not pausing even once to think over his answer. He either was a great liar or he really held those believes close to heart.

Whatever the answer was, Gregory couldn't really care less. Bookshop wasn't really a place with too much tension and work anyway, so as long as he could manage it well enough, he didn't mind hiring this young man.

"I'm glad to hear that, Lucius Creveron. With that said, I believe it's time to cut our conversation short," He paused intentionally to probe further, but he still got no reaction. He didn't feel so helpless for quite some time, "You are hired. I welcome you into Leseecke, the only bookshop in the whole Zounteinde."

Gregory then offered his hand, which the young man promptly shook. All things considered, it was a good day for him.

×-×-× 

After finishing signing the final details, Lucius finally went back to his apartment.

Overall, everything was progressing along nicely.

Through Isabella or more specifically by Grauzauberer that she belonged to, he managed to acquire himself an identity in the human world. As he agreed to teach Isabella in magic, then she gladly helped him out. It didn't take even three days before all the necessary documents arrived and he could now be considered as an official resident of Germany.

His identity was quite plausible all things considered, even if it looked a little bit sketchy the longer one looked into it. Isabella was quick to smother his worries though, explaining that a lot of people and other beings had such identities and that no one would persecute them. If you followed the established rules, then no one would even take notice of you.

After that, he could easily rent himself a small apartment at the periphery of the town. Rent itself was quite cheap and besides, he had been hunting the city for any thug or criminal he saw on his way, as well as any bystander that happened to be nearby. He was sure that he was making quite a ruckus in the city, but it was fine as well. From the memories he acquired, there was only one real band in the city, which controlled most of the criminal activities, no matter how small they were, in the town.

Behind this gang stood the "Boss". No one knew his name and no one knew where he came from. Everyone simply knew that he could easily thrash around even ten people at the same time and that he had several connections in important places, as well as some money stuffed in his pockets. Lucius wasn't sure yet, but he was skeptical about his identity, especially about his real nature. To his knowledge, beating ten people alone wasn't an easy job, although he could also be wrong.

Anyhow, he would soon meetup this man and simply overtake his position. He understood that they generated quite a sum of money in the town, evident by his bulging wallet and he felt that it was necessary to acquire more capital in order to stay active in the human world. He saw a lot of interesting things all around him, but they could only be acquired through some heavy amounts of money.

He also finally got himself a job. It wasn't that hard in his opinion. He only needed to prove his identity as well as tell the reasons why he wanted the job and the like. Although he could have lied in the entirety of the dialogue he had with the old man, he simply opted to mix them with some truth. He really did enjoy the relaxed atmosphere there, even if he detested the stuffy room. It was nothing he wouldn't be able to fix, though.

Finally, it came back to Isabella. Truth be told, his first impression of her wasn't all that bad. If nothing else, she was quite amusing, especially for a human. He last contacted her two days ago and he would hold his first lesson tomorrow. After acquiring the little device called smartphone, he truly felt how useful it could be.

'What should I even teach her, now that I think about?' He thought calmly, watching out of his window as the sun slowly dipped beyond the horizon, showcasing its last rays of warmth to the world. 'My magic won't work for her. After all, my Imagination Magic and the Magical Formula are simply incompatible with humans.'

'I can of course teach her Human Magic System, but I doubt that's what she really wants. Hmm...' After thinking for a while, he moved his gaze towards the heavy book lying on the coffee table. It was one of the magic books he managed to acquire through Isabella after showing his interest in their magic system. 

He had already managed to read through it in the past few days. This one was specifically about magic circles, how they function and why the function. It wrote about how magic circles should be drawn if one so desires and what materials are best suited for this process. It also briefly mentioned that anyone can create new spells with their very own framework, but that it was something incredibly hard and mostly only very talented people or mages who practised for decades could turn into reality. 

Lucius felt only slightly interested in the new spells. He, as a Demon, could simply create new spells through his imagination. As long as he managed to imagine what he wanted his magic to do, it would happen in reality. The problem with that was a high energy consumption, something human magic could theoretically fix.

'If I manage to combine my own magic with theirs and create a new Formula based on those two magic systems, won't it be the best outcome?' He thought intensively, but couldn't come to a single conclusion that could help him. 'Or maybe I don't even need to combine them...' There was suddenly a flash of idea in his mind.

'What if I will simply use my Imagination Magic to make all the calculations instead of directly applying my imagination on the reality. After all, Imagination Magic simply forcefully and crudely applies magic to thoughts and makes different phenomena happen. But if I can direct Imagination Magic to think of equations and calculations only, something that won't really affect reality in any perceivable way, then it should minimize the cost to negligible amounts. After that, I can apply my magic directly to the equations and make them reality.'

The more he thought about it, the better this idea sounded, even if it most likely needed a lot of fine-tuning and experimenting to accomplish this. But this didn't dampen his mood one bit; if he could really make this happen and it worked as well as he intended it to work, then his energy consumption would be barely noticeable.

'If it will work, then I can simply skip the process of my brain imagining the spells that need to happen and how they need to happen, as well as free my brain of using its power to calculate the equations. Not only my brain will work more efficiently in battles and won't be as distracted, it should be then far easier to cast multiple spells at once.'

Finally, when the night fell upon this world once more, Lucius gained the insight he so desperately needed.