The Demon Queen's Royal Consort

Everything was completely black. No light, no senses, not even thoughts; just darkness.

"Aah... What?" A shake woke me up.

My eyes snapped open in surprise, and my body, as if moved by a mechanical force, stood up.

"YES!!! NEXT WEAPON!" I shouted, startled, before reality hit me.

Several wounds began to bleed. My clothes were completely destroyed. There was no shirt left on my torso, my pants had turned into tattered shorts, and even my shoes had been destroyed during the sparring sessions of the last few hours.

A beautiful woman, with long black hair and red eyes, slightly curved her lips into a restrained smile.

"Dália?" I asked. "What are you doing here? Where's Instructor Lesley?" I questioned.

A bright smile appeared on her face, easing even the pain I felt. 'Beautiful!', I thought unconsciously.

"Madame Lesley asked me to come and fetch you for your meal, young master."

"Fetch me... Haa..." I recalled the recent events.

For hours on end, Lesley had challenged me with countless types of weapons. She demonstrated mastery beyond common sense with all of them. In some, I did very well, especially with large and heavy weapons, while in others I was terrible. One such case was ranged combat weapons.

Perhaps I was the worst archer to ever walk this world.

In the process, I was probably knocked out more times than I can remember.

'Maybe seven or eight times.'

Finally, we engaged in hand-to-hand combat. In the lineup of the longest sparring sessions, hand-to-hand combat was only surpassed by heavy weapons. We spent over thirty minutes exchanging punches and kicks. Well, me receiving punches and kicks, since I couldn't hit Lesley even once.

"What time is it, Dália?" I asked curiously.

"About 01:45 PM, young master," she replied. She positioned herself beside me and draped my right arm over her shoulders. "Young master must be hungry, so I came to fetch you."

"What would I do without you," I said truthfully, as I couldn't take more than two steps on my own.

'I must have been out for at most ten minutes,' I analyzed.

Dália dragged me back to the dining hall while I remained lost in my own reveries.

Over five hours of exhaustive combat without breaks. Well, except for the moments I was unconscious. It's not nearly enough to harmonize my mind and body.'

The biggest problem I encountered, after, of course, being pummeled like dough by Lesley, was that in many moments I felt I could react more efficiently, but I couldn't.

My brain was still coded like that of a former terminal cancer patient, prioritizing survival above all else, which diverged from some of my body's instinctive movements. The synchronization was horrible. If I, who wasn't even an expert, could notice this, I'm sure Lesley noticed it too. Although, it didn't seem to bother her.

"Your mindset isn't such a serious problem," she told me during a brief pause while switching weapons.

'It's not? Am I missing something here?'

**

A few minutes after being dragged by Dália, I made my first stop at the outdoor bathroom near the kitchen. Dália turned on the shower, and the water washed over my battered body. I faintly felt her hands cleaning me, this time without any apparent lust.

I wasn't even in a condition to think about such things at this moment.

She helped me into new clothes, and within minutes I was seated in the cushioned chairs of the kitchen. Steaming plates and a delicious aroma filled the room.

Suffering with every action, I forced myself to eat everything: meats, vegetables, salad, some bean-like grains. My stomach accepted everything voraciously, as everything I had eaten in the morning had been vomited before I even started the weapon combat training.

"Dália?" I asked curiously.

"Yes, young master," she replied, looking into my eyes.

Dália was sitting in a chair across from me, watching me eat attentively. Her hands cupped her beautiful face, which shone as if she had applied some special makeup.

"Last night, you mentioned a certain Lady Rose... Who is she and where is she? Why are there only the two of us in this huge complex?" I asked curiously.

Dália's smile filled her face as she eagerly answered.

"Lady Rose is a highly respected woman in the demon kingdom. She has very unique abilities, primarily dealing with matters of loyalty. Therefore, her services are very... in demand, even by Her Majesty, Queen Selene."

"Currently, she is conducting a selection."

"Selection?" I asked curiously while eating.

"Yes, a selection of staff to serve in the royal consort's pavilion of the queen."

'So that's why she's not around,' I understood.

"Do you know how many people will be assigned to work here?" I asked.

"I don't know, young master, it all depends on Lady Rose's choice and will. But, knowing her way of working, I know there won't be many," she replied.

"Dália, you speak as if you've worked with this Rose for a long time," I said.

"Yes, young master, for at least twenty years," Dália replied.

'Twenty years? What the hell? How old is Dália? I know demons have a life expectancy of over a hundred years, but that doesn't mean they don't show signs of aging.'

Dália looked to be at most twenty-one. And logically, it was impossible for her to have worked with Rose since she was one year old.

A growing urge to be rude arose within me, and I wanted to ask how old Dália was. But it was interrupted by a voice that would be the source of my future nightmares.

"Now that you've had your meal, let's go. We still have many things to do today," said Lesley, emerging from the kitchen, eating some special sweet from this world.

'Our conversation will have to wait then,' I stored in my mind.

Dália looked at me with the same radiant smile on her face, wishing me good luck.

**

Eating had been rejuvenating. At least, minimally. My body was still full of bruises and lacerations, but Dália had applied various medicinal ointments after the bath. It was these ointments that prevented my current clothes from being soaked in blood.

We walked back to the training field, following the same path we took to the room where I had awakened. We descended in the rustic elevator and entered the same room with two bathtubs filled with pearls.

"What are we doing now?" I asked, curious. Hoping it wasn't another round of hand-to-hand combat.

"We're going to do your affinity test," Lesley replied. "Usually, it's done right after awakening, but, well, you know... we had some unforeseen events," she added.

I knew well what affinities were. The old Glenn wasn't so maniacal as to ignore such important information.

Basically, energy pathways dictate whether someone will be a mage or a warrior. In very rare cases, like mine, there's the possibility of becoming both. These are called Warlords.

'At least the name is cool.'

Energy pathways also have a unique signature; this signature is nothing more than the affinity that warriors and mages have to control the powers of nature, with prana or mana.

All beings have at least one affinity. In very rare cases, two affinities. These are geniuses above the elite.

This affinity directly influences your compatibility with certain elements, making the learning and casting of these powers more fluid and intuitive.

The simple: a mage with an affinity for the fire element will innately progress in their paths within that element. However, they will have exacerbated difficulty learning water and ice spells. The logic of synergies and antagonisms. A topic for another time.

**

"Let's repeat the same procedure. You get into the bathtub and accelerate the energy flow in your pathways, as we did all morning," Lesley explained slowly. "The pearls will react to your affinity, manifesting related phenomena in this room."

"Alright," I said, removing my clothes and quickly getting into one of the bathtubs.

To be clear, I was literally skipping years of trial and error that would naturally happen in this world. The natural process would be for the awakened to discover their affinity during the years they were saturating their cores, but, well, the power of money was incredible.

Slowly, I felt the sensation of pushing the flow of mana and prana running through my energy pathways.

My innate cores, with much less energy than at the start of the day, continued to glow within my body.

I closed my eyes and focused on my pathways. Finally, I had some time to contemplate how they worked, especially in a favorable situation like this.

They were thick, robust, but with intelligent pores that, with the slightest intention, opened, leaking energy into the outside world. And that's exactly what I was doing, letting the energy leak to infect the pearls.

Golden runes appeared on the bathtub, altering the functionality of the pearls, which would now no longer glow red and blue, but manifest phenomena related to my affinity.

Thousands of stones began to float, orbiting around me, when a rumble sounded within the room.

"Rumble... Sizzle... Sizzle... Sizzle... Sizzle"

Electricity began to manifest from the pearls and quickly became a shell flooded with yellow and blue lightning.

"Electricity," Lesley said audibly. "It's a great element to have an affinity with, especially offensively."

The pearls soon stopped producing electricity and began to fall back into the bathtub.

"Very well, you can..." Lesley was interrupted by a loud sound of space cracking.

Inside the bathtub, all the pearls became transparent, and suddenly, the first one was split in half with a deafening sound. As if scissors were cutting through a glass screen.

The effect continued until all the pearls were split in half.

A confused expression appeared on my face, which turned to Lesley seeking an explanation.

'Did I break this expensive equipment?' my scared puppy eyes said.

"A second affinity!" Lesley said with pride. "Although a problematic one. Affinity with space," she concluded.

"Affinity with space," I murmured.

The pearls didn't even have time to return to their fundamental state. One by one, they flew and merged like slime, forming a melon-sized sphere and taking on a purple appearance.

"WHAT??" Lesley shouted, startled.

"Agh..." I groaned inside the bathtub.

The entire room was filled with an oppressive atmosphere, making everything inside several times heavier.

"A third affinity. HOLY SHIT!!!" Lesley completely lost her composure.