Looking Forward, Riches In Hand

"Locate source, reperio."

A soft black glow encapsulates the paper, and my eyes shut. My mind's eye is taken to a kind of odd looking tavern with a sign reading 'General Store.'

Once there, I cast two spells that only affect the image in my mind.

"Go back, retro. Identify the winning lottery, inquisitio."

The image reverses, and I see people going in and out of the store. Every time someone comes out with a lottery paper, the custom search spell takes effect and scans that paper. If it is not the winning lottery, based on the rules I have read, the spell overlooks it.

The image keeps reversing, and I even see David walking out of the store with his ticket.

Finally, I find a young woman that has the winning ticket.

I cancel the surveillance spell, but keep the image of that woman with the winning ticket in my mind. "Find her, reperio."

My mind immediately arrives at her home. She is sleeping, and the lottery paper is on her nightstand.

I stop to take note of her bedroom, and find that not all humans live in the slums. Perhaps they were assigned areas of residence by the demons?

Not wasting any more time, just incase an anti-surveillance spell was cast, I focus on the lottery paper.

"Switch places, locis."

The lottery paper in my hand switches places with the lottery ticket on the woman's nightstand. Now, I have secured the winning ticket for the grand prize of 10 million crystals.

All I need to do is wait for David to ''scratch it, win it, spend it.'

With my work finished, I lie down and close my eyes, soon falling asleep. It makes sense that I would fall asleep, since my body is not yet used to such an expenditure of both mental energy and mana. This can only be rectified by constantly using up both of those things.

I awake to the sound of David shouting and screaming hysterically, all-too excited about the fact that he has won an incredible amount of money.

I am a bit puzzled though, since 10 million shouldn't be that amazing a sum. Even random human villagers had amassed incredible amounts of wealth back when Razalith and her army subjugated the human realm.

It was not rare at all for a farmer to have 10 million crystals in storage. After taking all their wealth, Razalith likely amassed trillions of crystals.

Even so, I am glad for David. Playing the part, I put on a clueless look and say, "What is it, Papa? What happened?"

He turns to me and I see the wetness around his eyes. He is a bit out of breath when he looks at me, and it takes him a while to walk over to the bed and sit beside me.

"Rachel, we're getting out of here!"

"Hm? What do you mean?"

He chuckles and shows me the lottery paper that he has scratched, and that it reads 'Winner, Winner, Winner!'

"Your Papa just won ten million crystals! We're getting out of here today! Today, today, today!"

He is about to hug me, but he hesitates as a force of habit. I pretend to take a while to understand, then I yelp excitedly and hug him instead.

"Yay! That's wonderful, Papa!"

That is my best attempt at a normal 12 year-old response, but David seems to buy it. Or perhaps he is too overcome with emotion to care.

He hugs me back and cries tears of joy, "Oh, Rachel! I can finally afford to buy you better clothes, and we can eat better food, and drink clean water!"

"Mm! Sound's good, Papa!"

"We can have a better house, with bigger and better rooms, no holes in the roof- I can have my own bed!"

"Hehehe! I'm happy for you, Papa!"

"Oh, Rachel, it feels like a dream! You're better, we won the lottery- life will never be the same. Your Papa will finally be able to send you to school, if you're up to it, of course- I can even pursue my dream now!"

This continued for quite a while. David seems to be the kind that is bad at containing themselves when they get too excited or comfortable, so I bear with it.

I quite enjoy it as well, as he is the first person to not care entirely about how they present themselves before me. It is nice and refreshing to have someone so unfettered around me.

After a while, David takes a large bag out from under the bed. He asks me to help him pack up the few things we have and want to keep.

I end up taking the sheets and pillows. When David is not looking, I exercise the demonic aspect of my body to create an astral space, then store the entire bed. For some reason, it holds sentimental value for Rachel.

I leave the bedroom so David does not notice the missing bed. I see him looking at the old metal cup and the cracked bowl.

"We should take them with us too," I say while taking them from his hands.

He nods and opens the bag for me to put them in, then we take each other's hands and leave.

First, David takes me to a spacious and tall structure. It consists of a large open courtyard, a larger building with multiple corridor entrances and a waiting area with benches, trees and flowers.

We walk down one of the entrances and end up in a small lobby-esque place. There are various stands up ahead that ladies are standing behind, and a few people lined up at some of them.

David guides me over to one that has no one in line, and greets the lady there. She is wearing a dark green pantsuit that does nothing to hide her explosive figure, and is wearing her blonde hair in a straight and long ponytail. Her brown eyes greet us, and David gulps.

"Good day, Sir. Good morning, cutie pie. How can I help you both?"

David gulps again and hands her the lottery paper.

"Oh, a Scratch Ticket?" She looks at the front and I see her eyes widen. She turns around to the furniture behind her and finds and opens a book. She starts flipping through the pages while occasionally glancing back at the paper.

For some reason, David's grip on my hand tightens. Luckily I have already solved my body's issues, so it does not hurt.

The woman turns around and beams at us.

"Congratulations, you two. Would you like to set up an account with the Adventurer's Guild to store your crystals?"

David's hand goes limp. He breathes a sigh and his head falls. I can barely hear him mutter, "It's not a dream, it's not a dream..."

"Yes, Ma'am, I would like to do that."

"Very well. Name, please."

"David Vahn."

When she hears his name, she turns around and opens another book. She turns around again and looks at David and I closely, and I see her vision linger on his eyes and mine.

Like my father, I possess white eyes.

"Any affiliations to Clans, Special Families, Groups or Magic Royalty?"

David shifts his stance, straightening up. "Victor Vahn, of the Vahn Magus Line, was my grandfather. Does that count?"

"Indeed it does," she smiles and writes some stuff down.

As she works, I look around a bit. Apparantly, this is the 'Adventurer's Guild.'

I do not know what that is, and I also do not know why the demons would allow the humans to have such a thing.

Then, the thought occurs to me that the humans are not under the control of demons at all.

But how could that be possible? When Razalith left, the demons pretty much had the victory secured.

Every one of her subjects was entirely loyal, and all of them were demonkind like her. The only exception was the Royal Magus...

Perhaps it was possible, but for now I must wait and see.

David finishes up with the woman and she begins to cast a spell.

"O Mother Mana, child of the Heavens, afford me the power to access the undercurrents of existence and ...create!"

That was one hell of an incantation... Was it really necessary? You couldn't just say 'create?'

By the time I finish scrutinizing her use of magic, David is holding an identification card.

"Show that card when making purchases and the sum will be paid straight from your account to the account of the seller. It is also your proof of identification as a new member of the Adventurer's Guild."

David bowed his head slightly, "Thank you, Miss."

"My pleasure. And, please, call me Theresa. I do hope to see you again!"

After that, we leave the reception area and return to the front of the building.

"Where to now, Papa?"

"Now, Rachel," he looks at the morning sky and at the numerous buildings heaped together just a few dozen feet away from us.

The Guild is isolated from the rest of the city, so we can stand here and see the people moving about.

Carts are being pulled in the roadways, carriages and horsemen move to and fro. Vendors are at their stalls and stores, customers are on the go and life is slowly being breathed into the world as the morning sets in.

"Now, we find a new place to live!"

After that, David took me to the true residential area. He found a man putting up signs in front of some of the newer houses, and that man directed us to another man.

That man knew a guy who knows a guy, and we ended up finding a woman who was responsible for handling the sale of property within the area.

David bought a house on a hill, far above ground level, that overlooked the residential area. A single road led to the house from the main road, and a low stone wall circled the entire property.

The landscape work is what I found particularly wonderful, and I spent my first moments in the yard.

Following that, David started to expand his network. The woman realtor knew a guy who knows a woman, and that woman knew an old man whose cousin's friend's brother was in the clothing business.

He then had an insane amount of clothes custom made for us, which still amazes me to think about.

He hired a small staff to work within the house: a butler, two maids and a chef.

One day, David asked me about school. I told him that I only require all the books on magic that he could get me.

So, he filled our library with hundreds of books, and would have new ones come in whenever I was finished.

The library is quite spacious, so it takes even me a few weeks to read all 986 books.

David would find books from all over the country that dealt with magic for me, and I read them all earnestly.

He kept his personal dealings a secret from me because he wanted to "surprise" me, so I did not ask.

Eventually, he told me that he landed a job as a teacher, and that it paid an exorbitant amount.

We celebrated, and time passed.

After a year, David tells me that he has met a wonderful woman. A year later, I meet her for the first time.

Two years after, he tells me that they will be getting married.