Sunbeams illuminated a structure situated quite a distance from the small town's view.
It was large enough, yet small enough.
Call it medium.
The three prospective demon kings of the new world had just finished their initial expansion— cleaning up.
Alif lay flat on his back.
Icam slept curled up, clutching his knees like a man in total despair.
Iyas lay flat and tidy, his eyes fixed on the ceiling with a smile full of vibrant health.
Iyas turned his head toward his friends sharply.
"Lip, Cam. Next time we clean..."
Icam and Alif replied with lazy expressions, uttering a mere "Hmmm?" with gloomy faces, resembling employees forced into unpaid overtime.
Icam rolled onto his side, facing Iyas while maintaining his tight grip around his knees.
"Next time we clean, what was that?" Icam asked.
"Nothing." Iyas's gaze remained glued to the warehouse ceiling.
"It's just... this world seems so beautiful..."
His smile began to carve itself deeper.
"The warm sun pierces through a clear mind,"
The remaining light in the warehouse broke through directly onto his face, letting his skin feel the warmth of the sun.
"Bringing eternal peace,"
Tears gathered in Iyas's eyes, which now began to sparkle. He slowly closed his eyes, sensing the worldly bliss.
"A steady gaze surrendering to nature,"
Opening his eyes slowly, he raised his hand toward the air.
Icam remained silent, watching Iyas's dramatic performance.
So did Alif, staring at Iyas without a single drop of understanding.
"It feels so satisfying..."
His imagination drifted to the edges of paradise, picturing doves flying peacefully across a blue sky.
Descending to earthly dreams, butterflies perched upon a flower-filled garden.
Iyas began lowering his hand back to the floor.
"Ugh, broke behavior," Icam said, releasing his knees as he prepared to stand up.
"You are just like—"
"Good morning, my most loyal followers!!"
The loud voice burst like a mortar shell in the morning, belonging to a handsome, blond-haired man. Still in his pajamas, his mouth widened into a broad, supremely confident smile.
Undeniably, his words commanded his subordinates' attention. A Hero's aura.
Even so, his subordinates maintained their respective positions.
Even the guy caught in a daydream lost his smile.
"Hey, I wasn't done replying to Iyas," Icam snapped.
Kirios ignored him, his eyes scanning every corner of the warehouse with a full smile.
"Heh! Clean enough."
A brief silence fell.
Icam turned to Iyas, intending to continue his interrupted response.
"Like—"
"In that case, I forgive your hypocrisy yesterday," Kirios said.
Iyas, still lying on his back, directed his gaze upward again.
"Ah, it seems the world forgives us."
Iyas's smile returned.
"Huh? What are you babbling about?" Kirios asked.
His hero-aura demeanor shut off, replaced by a sour expression.
"Besides, your work isn't finished!"
Silent for a moment, Kirios looked at his subordinates with a deeply condescending stare, as if looking at a pile of gravel upon a field of gold.
"Why are you all so quiet, huh!? Stand up, quickly! Receive my orders in your proper stance!" he demanded.
Iyas immediately stood up, completely forgetting the atmosphere he had just built.
Icam and Alif followed suit.
"Lord Hero, what should we do?" Alif asked naively.
"You need to leave this place for a while," Kirios requested.
The trio went completely silent.
"Oh, so that means Kirios is leaving too, then."
Kirios's eyes widened at Alif's words. "Huh!? Why me? Are you belittling me?"
"Well, I said 'we,'" Alif answered.
Icam patted Alif's shoulder, asking him to stop saying weird things.
Alif simply nodded.
Icam then looked at Kirios.
"Why?" Icam asked.
Kirios stood with his hands on his hips, smirking.
"Why, how come, whatever. My command is absolute. There's no way I'd let people in weird clothes stay in my palace for a whole day."
"That's why..." he continued.
The sound of the door slamming shut reverberated loudly.
Thud.
Iyas and his two companions were left standing right on the bare dirt. It was the front yard of Kirios's villa.
The three of them remained dead silent.
Their faces remained frozen, still processing what had just happened to them.
Then Alif broke the silence.
"Why is Lord Kirios's warehouse always dirty?" he asked, looking at his two friends innocently.
Iyas was still staring straight ahead.
"I don't know, he's probably just making up excuses to order us around," Iyas replied, shrugging his shoulders.
"Alif's question still hasn't been answered," Icam chimed in, his eyebrows dipping slightly to show the same confusion.
Iyas stepped forward.
He stopped in front of his friends, turned around, and faced them.
"Since when was this a Q&A session?"
Iyas pointed toward the villa with his chin.
"Ask the man himself."
Without hesitation, Alif ran over and knocked on the villa's door.
Knock knock knock! Repeatedly.
Hoping to ask.
Iyas and Icam stood silently watching Alif's actions.
A few seconds later.
A faint voice came from inside Kirios's villa—barely audible, yet clear enough for its intent to reach the listener.
"Lord Kirios probably just doesn't want to feed us, so he's looking for excuses," Icam guessed.
Iyas walked over to Icam, moving from in front of him to standing right beside him.
Then he pushed Icam until he fell over.
Thud! The sound was quite audible.
He stood over Icam with a look that said he was ready to set things straight.
"Ah, come on," Icam muttered, sprawling on the ground.
"There's no way Kirios would invent an excuse just to kick us out so we wouldn't eat at his place!"
Icam looked up at Iyas's face from below, thoroughly confused.
"Think about it! He kicked us out for no reason at all! He didn't make up any excuses!"
Iyas nodded firmly, as if his logic had solved a complex enigma overnight.
Alif was still near the villa door.
Agreeing with the logic, he walked over to join his friends.
"Yeah, Lord Kirios couldn't possibly be that kind of person."
Icam stood up while grumbling, patting his backside to brush off the clinging dust.
"So what do we do now?" Icam asked.
"What choice do we have? Let's go to that old lady's house and just eat in her kitchen," Iyas said.
Alif looked on innocently.
"Eat her kitchen?"
Finally, they turned and left the villa grounds.
The rhythmic sound of their synchronized footsteps echoed out.
They weren't lost; they kept walking forward.
They knew the way to the house of the old lady they had saved quite well.
Townspeople lined the busy streets, going about their respective routines.
"Heyyy!!"
Iyas stopped.
He turned his gaze toward the source of the voice.
His two friends kept walking.
"Hey! You guys!"
Icam stopped and turned sharply.
He put his hand out to hold Alif's shoulder.
Alif turned around too.
Alif and Icam aligned themselves alongside Iyas.
Standing side by side.
"What is it, ma'am?" Iyas asked.
It was an older man with a rather thick mustache.
"Huh? Ma'am?"
"Aahhh!!" Alif suddenly screamed hysterically.
His face remained completely deadpan—it wasn't a sudden burst of panic.
Iyas and Icam were caught off guard too.
So was the old man.
"Hey, what is wrong with you!?"
Alif replied, "Nothing at all."
A moment of dead silence followed.
The old man asked, "Oh, are you guys busy?"
"Busy," Icam answered instantly.
The old man widened his eyes slightly, taken aback by the swift response.
"Hahaha... In that case..." he stammered awkwardly.
"Now we're not busy anymore," Icam added.
"Huh? So which one is it?" the man asked.
"Whichever one you prefer, depending on your personal beliefs," Alif said.
The old man froze for a moment before readying himself to ask for help.
"Actually, part of my roof tiles are broken. The roof support beams are getting old too..."
The old man pointed towards his house.
"I've bought the necessary building materials,"
The trio continued to watch him with innocent expressions.
"But... it turns out I didn't have enough money, so... hehe..." the old man said awkwardly, casting sneaky glances at them.
While the man still hesitated to ask directly, the trio kept staring with blank faces.
"Nice story," Icam commented.
"Why don't you help yourself?" Alif asked.
The old man was somewhat confused by their words, especially Alif's, who presumably meant, "Why don't you do it yourself?"
"That's because I—"
"Hey, I haven't gotten my line yet," Iyas muttered, interrupting the old man.
The old man turned to him, then resumed what he was saying.
"I know about you guys from Grandma Josh. You're new here. So while building relationships, how about helping me out?"
"I have some business to attend to—collecting on a promise from an important person."
Iyas stepped closer to the old man and suddenly threw an arm around his shoulder.
The old man merely gave him a confused look.
Iyas leaned close to his ear and...
"Honestly, I don't know what to say," Iyas whispered.
The old man immediately brushed Iyas's arm off, feeling tickled and weirded out.
"Uhh... in that case... any questions?"
Icam and Alif both raised their hands.
"Me first! Because I raised my hand before he did!" Alif requested energetically, even jumping up and down.
"Yes?" the old man replied.
"Why repair it?" Alif asked.
The old man's mouth gapped open, but he quickly shut it.
"Have you guys never owned a house before?"
The trio shook their heads, confusing the old man even further.
Still, he pressed on.
"To shelter from the heat, of course!"
"If you eat or sleep under a roof with holes in it, how would that work? I'd get overheated," he continued.
Iyas and Icam nodded along in understanding.
Alif, however, did not.
"Why only take shelter at night?"
Icam and Iyas immediately turned to look at their friend after that extraordinary question.
Which, to them, made complete sense.
The old man went silent.
"Yeah, besides, if you want to sleep, why not just do it at night?" Iyas added.
"And you eat from a plate anyway," Alif muttered.
The old man frowned in annoyance, his eyebrows shooting up.
In a fast-paced tone, he snapped,
"Are you guys kidding me?"
"That's precisely why the roof needs fixing!" he said.
Yet that simple explanation failed to curb their curiosity.
"What if the heat decides not to come after all? Wouldn't it be a waste to repair it?" Icam asked.
"It's already repaired!" the old man shot back instantly.
"Can you get a refund then?" Icam continued.
The old man took a small step back.
He lowered his gaze, then snapped his head back up.
Scratching his head, he stood bewildered that he had crossed paths with people like this.
Meanwhile, the trio simply watched the old man's baffled reaction.
The old man stared at the three of them.
"You guys..."
"You explained all that at length just for that nonsense?"
"When are we starting?!" the old man yelled, raising both hands to chest level, his tone sharp.
"Why start already?" Icam asked casually.
"I haven't even asked my question yet," he added.
Far from feeling intimidated, the trio merely stared at the old man with naive faces, as if completely oblivious.
The old man took a breath, holding onto his patience.
"Fine, fine. What is your extraordinary question?"
"I already raised my hand, right?"
"YES!" the old man, Iyas, and Alif shouted in unison.
"How do you replace roof tiles?"
"Wait, you don't know?" Iyas blurted out spontaneously.
Icam turned to Iyas casually.
"Maybe the method is different here," he said.
"Are you serious?" the old man asked.
To Be Continue!