Chapter 356: The Village
The demons of the unnamed village were a surprisingly peaceful lot.
By the end of his first day with them, he’d seen none of the stereotypical death, cannibalism, or feats of evil that had briefly fascinated his childhood. Before becoming a master of magic and sword became his drive.
These demons were no different from the rural peasantry who worked his family’s estate near Montmorency. Or the people in the lower districts of Norneau.
The closest they came to stereotypical demons was that some of the menfolk and womenfolk would resolve things with a fight. But these were little more than punchups. Fought to the pain or first blood. Sometimes just fought for little reason than boredom and a desire to prove how tough one was.
No one challenged Rain.
He spent his day with them using his magic to help out. Cutting firewood and shaping stones for grinding - using one of his Manifest Arms blades. Helping to dig a small well for water. Hunting a ratatoskr the size of a cow that decided to climb down the tree and screech challenges.
The villagers let him fight it alone, because he was by then the demonstrably strongest mage around.
No one of the village was more of a mage than Princess. And she had only the rudiments of druidcraft for helping the hell-plants find purchase in Ayther’s soil. Perhaps that’s why she led the village. And was the least mana-corrupted of them all.
She had a proper outlet for her mana. One she’d already tried to teach others.
While the ratatoskr was butchered and cooked, he taught her the fundamentals of tempering, explaining how to align one’s mana with one’s breathing. How to focus on excluding the intrusive mana of the environment. How to produce a thin, tough skin of one’s own mana that would help resist and filter external sources.
Afterward, he’d shared in the meal and reiterated again what the dangers of staying were.