Sylvester stared at the juicy, tender-looking fried piece of meat in his hand. It looked like a leg piece of a chicken, but three times bigger. Even the texture of the fried batter coating looked similar to normal, except for the different colors.
"Bring me a menu," Sylvester demanded. "No, bring me one item of each dish from the menu."
"What?!" Dalgan almost cursed there. "But… I don't have that much money."
"Don't they accept gold?"
"No, only paper currency is used that's regulated by the Imperial Bank. Gold was demonetized even before I was born." Dalgan explained and placed the money he had left with on the table. "This is the currency. I only have a few. It comes in five, twenty, hundred, and a thousand denominations."
"How much did this meal cost?"
"Fifteen."
Sylvester hummed and picked the hundred. He looked at it carefully from each side, careful about any special spots on it. Sure enough, he noticed a little hidden colored strip between the middle of the note. "Shouldn't be hard…"
To Dalgan's dismay, Sylvester shoved the hundred bill in his robe's pocket and fiddled with it there for a few seconds. His eyes remained shut. No one knew what he was doing.
"Let's see." Once done with it, he took out his hand but now with a whole thick stack of folded bills of hundreds. "This should be enough for our expenses. I even made them look old."
"..."
"..."
Father, son, and the two princes lost words in their throats and simply stared at the money that came out of nowhere. What was this sorcery? They wanted to know it too!
"How?!" Dalgan snatched the stack.
"Magic," Sylvester replied, shooing him away to buy what he requested. It was no help telling him about creation magic anyway since no one could do it realistically.
"Come on," Prince Zostris came sliding on the seat towards Sylvester. "How did you do it? You said you made it."
"Have you forgotten I can kill you?"
"That's why you should tell me. Since I'm a dead man walking, your secret is safe with me."
Sylvester's brows twitched, and he knocked his knuckles on the Prince's head. "You think you're fooling a baby with your words? Go and sit there silently, or I'll keep you hungry."
"I gave them the order. They will bring us the food on their own." Dalgan returned at last and sat down to eat. "Don't you have all this in Sol?"
Sylvester shook his head, staring into the pile of fried chicken. "We have it, Dalgan. Not just this, but most of the other things I've seen people eat here—I invented them."
Plop!
The chicken fell from Dalgan's hand. "E-Empress Mother invented most of this too… this food court is owned by her."
"Here's your food." Right then, a young Demoness waitress came. She had a short stature, pale yellow skin, and three eyes, surprisingly, one being vertical at the center of her forehead. Her red hair swayed around as she bubblingly moved and placed the food. "I hope you can eat all of it."
'It's all the same.' Sylvester silently lost himself at the sight of plates upon plates that looked different, but were clearly the same things he recognized them as. 'Pancakes, fish and chips, milkshakes, spaghetti, ice cream, burgers, pizzas, pasta… It's too much for a coincidence.'
"Don't worry, we can finish this all," Sylvester assured her and handed a 'totally not fake' hundred bill. "Thank you for the food."
"No, no… Thank you!"
'So even demons can look cute when happy.' Sylvester watched the girl run away happily back to work, letting him focus back on the food. 'Considering all the things I can recognize, Diana must have lived here for a long time, if it's even her.'
Wondering what it must taste like, he took a bite. "Almost similar, but not repulsive. Tell me, Dalgan, how long has the Empress Mother been ruling?"
"Long enough for everyone to know her. The previous King had a brilliant grip already, but when the Princess was born, she took on the task of subduing the rest of the world and crowning herself as Empress. Initially, we were all delighted. She brought changes to this world. But it wasn't as if we were suffering much previously."
"Do you have a Church for your faith too?"
"No, the Empress Mother is the default head of faith, so we don't have a separate church. The Imperial authority serves that role as well."
Continuing to eat, Sylvester fell into deep contemplation. 'After living here for possibly a century, would she still be the same Diana? Can I blindly trust her? It's been so long… Does she even remember me, or did she try to meet me out of necessity?'
He realized that his choice couldn't be made based on connections of the past. His world, Xavia, Ella, and his friends were counting on him. Being selfish was the last thing he could do. It was a struggle between picking a side, and he certainly knew which side he'd choose.
'Such a beautiful world you've made. I hope we don't end up ruining it all.' He muttered and looked at the two Princes. 'They may just prove to be more useful than simple tributes.'
While eating, Sylvester began to cook something. A plan that would aid him in his victory no matter who turns out to be the better person, the Demon Empress or the Grand Prince. It was a fact that he lacked the information to pick one side, so he chose both.
"Take me to the Imperial Capital after this," Sylvester ordered and began feeding the hidden cat under the table.
"We will have to take the airship then."
'They even have an airship. Why did this world not face the same chaos as mine? It's like… everything is opposite here. The demonic world is more humane than the human side.' Sylvester felt disappointed as well as frustrated. Simply losing a war couldn't explain the differences in the societies.
"You have the money, so go ahead and make the arrangements," Sylvester ordered as if the ex-general was his real underling. "And buy better clothes for yourselves."
Conflicted—that's what Dalgan felt about Sylvester. He seemed evil at times and, in other instances, a kind soul.
"I understand."
…
Marveling the new world and its creations, Sylvester got onboard the vehicle called an airship. It was precisely what he expected—a magical hot air balloon. However, this one had a massive steel frame, cabins, lavish rooms, a sightseeing deck, and a fully operational kitchen.
It was powered by steam from the looks of it, as multiple turbines ran to propel it in various directions. It was certainly faster than Earth's airships.
"I've never seen the luxury rooms before," Lord Two exclaimed, looking at every corner with greed in his eyes. "Having infinite money is the best."
"It's still illegal," Sylvester corrected and relaxed in the private room with a private deck with big glass windows that showed the scenery at the bottom. The room was more like a little apartment with a living space and bedrooms.
Of course, the regular folks were all huddled inside the cramped seats that were laid out as rows of three, side by side.
"P-Pope." Dalgan came forward when everyone else was relaxing and enjoying the luxury. "I… I have a personal request. I don't know how long I'll survive while traveling with you, so I wish to see my family once. It's on the way."
"Why not." Sylvester sensed a genuine scent of hope, fear, and sadness coming off the four-eyed Demon. "But we will be jumping from the airship, not deboarding it at the station."
"What?! Why?"
"Because we're being followed, and I don't want to leave behind a trail."
Dalgan looked left and right, trying to find anything hostile in the room.
'Who's following us?' He was a General, after all. 'How could I not sense it?' he wondered.
"Help?!" Prince Zostris and Orzoth cheered up.
But Sylvester drowned their hopes very quickly. "They're not here for you."
"How many?" Dalgan inquired.
"One, a female, most likely. Inform me when your home is the closest. We'll walk in the air and descend physically." Sylvester commanded and laid down on the comfortable bed to rest and just… think. Preparing himself in case he'd have to battle the one he cherished.
BOOM!
"Aaargh!" The two princes fell to their knees and cried.
The whole airship jolted in an explosion and started losing altitude all of a sudden, but still quite slowly. It began to turn in one direction uncontrollably, and Sylvester was all prepared to jump out.
"Amusing, I didn't expect there would be someone tailing the one tailing us," Sylvester exclaimed and walked over to the massive sightseeing window and made a gaping hole in it. "Follow me if you don't want to die."
"How did you know?!" Lord Two questioned.
Sylvester offhandedly answered. "I see everything within this whole structure."
"I don't wanna die!" Prince Orzoth, the younger one, ran first and jumped at Sylvester, holding onto his leg as if a precious treasure.
BOOM!
"Aaaaaa~ I don't wann—!"
Sylvester kicked the Prince away, created visible chains from Light Magic, and caught all of them close to himself. The speed of the airship's fall increased rapidly this time.
He looked down from the window. They were falling towards somewhere in an endless forest full of tall, blue-colored trees. At best, only ten or so seconds were left for the airship to crash on the ground.
"Let's go… Why are you waiting?!" Prince Zostris shouted in panic.
Sylvester sighed and glanced at General Dalgan, who also looked at him and gave a nod as if he understood Sylvester's mind.
"I can't…" Sylvester sighed and changed direction to enter the lobby of the airship, "...ignore the innocent cries."
His magic flared out of his body like heavy radiation, even visible to the naked eye in the form of a gentle, sprinkling sparkle of golden dust in the air, formless, as if it were mist.
"Dalgan, Lord Two, I'll stop the airship from crashing. Handle the crowd."
"Understood!"
Thank you for reading. Gifts and GT votes are highly appreciated.
