The pen slid across the pages. Dipped in the viscous liquid that stayed on the tip, it curved daintily as the edge of the palm caressed along the paper’s surface.
In the dark embrace, the words threatened to vanish, punily distinguished through the tender glimmer it released upon the two. So carefully crafted, the ink put out words the one overseeing them had never seen before.
Glancing to the side, he saw as the pen had been dipped in the navy blue substance once again, washing down the nib fervently only to slow down at the cusp as it gathered into a bulbous droplet. With the excess having fallen into the ink’s remnants, the hand gripping the pen moved back to the paper resembling what lay beyond the windows.
Filling out the blankness, his pupils followed her actions religiously. Zyponia didn’t turn, however. Subjected to the glare from the side, she remained in the same state, writing the letters carefully one stroke at a time. Sitting in her chair upright, the only two things that moved were her eyes and her right arm, the other holding the paper in place.
Similar to the man standing beside her, her eyes moved ahead of the words, squinted slightly. Suddenly, as she stopped writing the unfamiliar words, she removed the pen to the side, waiting quietly. Without turning her head, Lutiel merely saw the lips move.
“Fifth pile from the door, take the first three papers after the tenth one from the top,” she said, her body remaining in place, not moving a single breadth of a hair strand.
“Yes, my lady,” he said, swiftly turning around to navigate through the cluttered room stashed with papers similar to the one on her desk throughout every corner.
Walking amongst the piles, it didn’t take him more than fifteen steps to reach from the desk to the door, soon standing beside the desired column.
Sorting the top out, he took the eleventh, twelfth, and the thirteenth paper before briskly going back to the girl that seemingly didn’t move a single muscle spanning his journey.
However, as he came closer, Zyponia brought out her hand, the assistant promptly giving the papers. Moving them to the front, finally, her position changed.
Lowered faintly, her head full of purple hairs along with the two pointy horns gazed down at the papers. With the pen standing in its designated holder on the side, she read through each distinct page carefully while Lutiel, having no other thing to do, simply observed the demon lady.
From the very tip of her horns down to the bottom of the gown she wore, completely distant to the bodacious armor he envisioned her in the past day, his eyes glued themselves onto her.
Compared to the cold blooded ruler that bought him, at the very moment, Lutiel stood next to a noble demon.
‘To think I would ever witness a demon in a dress.’ He mused while looking at the violet corset laced over the light blouse underneath that exposed her shoulders. Tied over them, the bodice blended into a flowing dress at the bottom.
“Is something wrong?” She asked, her attention no longer on the papers.
Suddenly, his ears perked up while he glanced upwards, away from the shaded arches above her blouse. Looking directly at the pink eyes staring him down, his mouth froze for a while.
“I-I’m sorry, my lady,” he said, skeptically lowering his upper body into a bow that met itself with a bare silence.
Staring at the planks ahead of him, he clenched his jaw awaiting her response.
“Okay,” she said, calmly. Not reaching out her hands at him or any of the supposed, she watched as his hairs fell down. “You can raise your head already. Also, there should be a compass somewhere around here. Find and give it to me.”
He listened to her words, straightening his back before nodding with a plain face. Turning around once again, after putting the papers on the wooden stand on her desk, Zyponia began dipping the pen with the ink.
Walking through the mess, he looked all around, his gaze scouring through every sheet of paper inside the room. In a mere couple breaths, his eyes locked onto the top of a certain pile, where an attachable metallic piece of equipment found itself.
Grasping onto it with his hand, he hovered it beside her after coming back.
“Thank you,” she said, stopping momentarily from her writing. Gently tapping the nib against the glass container for the ink, she let all of it drip out properly before attaching the compass to the correct size and width.
Having done so, she dipped the pen anew, transporting the ink to the page’s base.
Even more so than before, Lutiel experienced her focused eyes. Attained under the calm of silence, her still presence finally moved as she pricked the page ever lightly.
With a swift, concise movement, a perfect circle had been born, the circumference even throughout. Then, she increased the spacing between the compass, consequently increasing the radius.
Repeating her actions, a slightly bigger circle appeared on the page, leaving little space away from the words, as well as the edge of the paper.
Nonetheless, she seemed no longer interested in the larger circle. Taking one of the wooden rulers on her right side of the desk, she first placed the paper in a casing that had no top.
Putting the ruler that fit the frame perfectly, Zyponia then adjusted it, in a way that would create a line from two points on the circle’s border.
Dipping the pen, she drew the line before doing the same to the opposite side, making identical, parallel scores on the dark paper. Replacing the ruler with one that corresponded the page’s width, she easily finished the square inside of the smaller circle.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Under her assistant’s gaze, she continued undisturbed.
On each vertex of the square, Zyponia drew two lines that connected in the middle above, on the circle’s circumference. Having created the four triangles, she put all of the rulers, as well as the casing away, focusing on the free space that was made between the two circles instead.
Her hand moved once again, carefully crafting each letter with her hand and pen, making the man’s eyes follow instinctively.
However, as much as he watched, the show finally ended, his master completing the words and putting the pen away in the holder.
Yet, observing the paper, it was different from others. Unlike the ones he saw with the corner of his eyes, this one possessed the geometrical shapes solely. Papers that were before her as well. They were only with text, and nothing else.
Then, his eyes opened wide. The demon lord placed her hand over the circle, and before he knew it, the circle disappeared as her hand moved away.
‘What?’ He asked himself inwardly, but there was no answer to be made. It was there just a moment ago, having been carefully drawn by the lady. Then, it dissipated back to the original surface.
Even the dent left by the compass earlier couldn’t be seen.
“Don’t cloud yourself with it. You will only become natural to it as you come here and help me,” she said suddenly, making him glance to the side.
She stared at him, who soon reciprocated the action. Blinking a few times, he scoured back and forth between her and the room he had been placed inside.
“Do you have the rock I told you about?”
Staying silent for a moment, he shook himself slightly before moving his hand to the left pocket of his pants.
“Yes, I do,” he said while clenching his right hand behind his back. Showing the palm-sized rock in his left one, the lady nodded after grabbing it.
“Good, let me show you what you will be dealing with from now on,” she said, a light smile around her mouth.
In her open palm of the left hand, the rock began being lifted in the air, keeping the height even as she retreated the arms to herself. Hovering over the desk, a bit away from the short rack with four papers on it, the rock spun slightly only to halt completely.
Under the steady, peaceful breaths, a few moments passed as the rock stayed in the air. Then, it moved to the left slowly before suddenly bursting right at a velocity incomparable to before.
Yet, for the second time, before it could make the pile of papers at the end of the desk fly up into shreds, it stopped gradually, as though meeting some wall that restrained it.
Suddenly, his sight flew across at the empty wooden desk, something bouncing off of it. With Zyponia’s focus on the rock constantly, she didn’t do anything about the small grains being chipped away. Comparable to sand, they fell one by one while the rough rock began vibrating in the air.
Before anything could be said, he saw the object moving in the same direction as moments prior, slowly to the left only to rummage to the right, acting like a bow and an arrow.
Stopping in the same place, the grains around the rock’s surface came off somehow, despite diminishing its speed gracefully.
The third instance of the rock’s movement didn’t happen immediately. Moving the right hand under her desk, Zyponia brought it up. Lutiel could see all of fingers separated from each other, overseeing the rock in front of her.
Up ahead, it finally started moving after she remained in the position for a while. Knocking against the air, the result varied slightly.
No longer grains, larger pieces of the rock split up while crumbling away from it before dropping down to the desk of the demon lady.
Lutiel didn’t blink any longer. He stood by the ploys being brought out in front of him, practically glaring at the flying rock.
On the fourth try, similar to the previous one, it moved only after the lady focused. However, with the same vigor, only chunks of the rock fell apart. Witnessing it, determination filling her pink eyes, Zyponia brought out the left hand as well.
Even lengthier than before, she stared at the piece of hard material, to the point of their heart singing solely in the room.
And once it beat for the tenth time, the rock flew across the air, stopping in the same spot for the fifth time, abruptly. At the same time, larger pieces fell away when the rock had split into two distinctive chunks.
Together with the rest, it fell, accompanying the hands that were brought under the table. With a deep breath, Zyponia’s chest heaved slightly, soon coming back to normal.
Nonetheless, Lutiel’s gaze couldn’t be combated, opting to stare his master down, only shaken up by her speaking mouth.
“What do you think?” A simple question reverberated out from her lips, Lutiel’s eyes no longer following their movement so keenly.
‘Is she able to control the wind? Magon had the ability to control those black flames, so it wouldn’t be weird for another demon lord to be capable of something close.’ He thought to himself, though quickly pinched himself on the back, going back to the world before him.
“What was that?” With no clenched jaw, with no tensed anything, Lutiel asked whilst muttering.
‘Is this how you were able to win?’ He measly thought, unable to blurt out the words.
“I can’t tell you, at least exactly” she said with an indifferent look on her face, only turning it around once the sentence reached his ears.
“Why?”
“Because it’s pointless.”
“What?” He asked senselessly, his eyebrows having twitched momentarily.
Raising an eyebrow up, she looked at him with eyes fuller than before. “Have you forgotten what kind of situation you’re in?”
Immediately, the voice resounded inside his ears, quickly to which he moved, however, he was stopped promptly by a force unknown. Looking around, he could see that nothing was holding him, yet his body had been restrained, similar to when the five girls brought him out into the world.
“It’s fine,” she said, her face transitioning into the usual, reserved cool. “Just remember next time.”
“Y-yes, my lady,” he said, clenching his jaw and straightening the stature after his control had come back.
“I will make an exception this time,” she spoke suddenly, after having already turned her head back to the desk. “Since you’ve been so interested in it, I will tell you.”
“Although it doesn’t convey the truth, the human language does have some words for it,” she added, not giving him any space. “Magic, sorcery, witchcraft, do you remember what they entail?”
Moving slightly to the side, she glanced at him, awaiting a response that stood frozen in time.
“Magic? I think so, my lady,” he eventually muttered, with eyes that dodged hers. He didn’t look at her anymore. Certain unmistakable images flashed past his mind as he thought about what she said to him.
‘The unreachable figures, the sudden storms and earthquakes throughout battlefields.’ His eyes lost their gleam. ‘We were fighting entities… that wielded unbound powers.’