I burst awake to a loud banging ringing in my ears. The door rattled with each echoing knock.

I wanted to ignore it, but Saki was already awake. Based on the low levels of magic I sensed within her, she also needed more rest.

I tiredly grumbled as I rose to my feet while Saki rubbed her eyes. With an annoyed huff, I pawed the door open. General Helios looked just as pleased to see me as I was to see him. "What do you want?" | used my annoyance to disguise my tiredness as I stared at his slightly cut and bandaged face. I need more sleep, and it is probably too early in the morning for this.

The stellan looked at me with a glare of disgust. I probably stank of sweat and monster energy, and mud and grass stains peppered my fur, not that I could do anything about it. Bathroom breaks involved soldiers tying my wings and attaching a chain before they led me into the woods on a long chain. I was likely too big for the facility's showers, and I doubt the military personnel would let me go to find a lake. Furthermore, I was highly against being hosed down, especially not in public on the front lawn.

However, if I was honest, the gold-eyed Stellan in front of me looked worse for wear, but at least he was clean. His cape had repaired itself, and he had showered and changed into a fresh uniform. His face was still pale, likely a remnant from the venomous bites he had received. If he had properly rested, he would have fully recovered by now. But instead, he was here to bother me.

"If you were a soldier, I'd make you run laps for your appearance in front of a high-ranking officer." Helios glared.

"And you are the reason I live in a guarded closet with no access to basic amenities like a place to bathe." I huffed. "You did not answer my question."

I took a bit of pleasure in watching the Stellan General's rage boil over as he clenched his fists but refrained from lashing out. His low mana amount flared with his increased rage. "Give me one reason not to charge you for insubordination."

"We're not part of the military." I closed the door in his face, then started to head back to Saki.

Helios slammed the door open with a bang, the doorknob rattling in the wooden door from the force.

"Hoshi....." Saki said in a tired voice as she stood.

"He's treating me like a monster, and I'm too tired to deal with him." I huff. "The deal was we weren't to be treated like prisoners."

"And I'm treating you like a soldier, beast. Get your head screwed on straight and act like one. His majesty summoned to a meeting; right now." Helios stated.

Saki took a brush out of her cape and quickly made it presentable, but frowned at my appearance. "Is there time for Hoshi to get a bath?"

"Not if it's right now. And I doubt they would let me, there's not exactly a large amount of trust." I huffed.

"Can't you just use magic to clean yourself?" Helios raised an eyebrow.

"Do you know the spell for that?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Because I don't."

"Let's just get going. Hopefully, his royalness will not consider this a slight." Helios turned on his heel.

Saki gave me a scolding look as she tucked her hairbrush into the magical holding space in her cloak, then followed the older Stellan.

I silently followed. I knew the topic of her harsh gaze, but I didn't care. I refused to treat the general with a sword up his rear any better than he treated us. I have no remorse, He deserves it.

Helios opened a set of double doors, revealing a large room with a square table in the center. The walls were bare except for a large map of the world spread across the back wall, but the details were less precise outside of the printed borders of New Stellonia. I didn't trust it beyond the land just west of the continent's eastern shoreline. Four white-cloaked generals and the boy-king glanced up at the door from their positions around the table.

"Permission, to enter, sir?" General Helios saluted.

"Granted, General. Bring them in." Magastron Kosmos nodded. With a raised eyebrow, he watched as I entered with Saki clinging to my side.

"General Helios?" the teenager looked at the general with an unimpressed gaze.

"Sir?" Helios stood at attention

"Why are they dirty?" the magastron asked in a flat tone.

While the general took a moment to formulate a response, I immediately thought of several snarky comments. Saki gave me a warning glance as I spoke. "Permission to speak, your majesty

Helios glanced at me with a subtly angered gaze behind a Stoic military countenance

"Granted," the royal calmly nodded, waiting expectantly.

"I used much of my magic in the battle yesterday and retired to my quarters once the attack was completely over. I suspect Saki did the same. We were sleeping to recover in the time between then and your summoning did not have a chance to access proper facilities." I kept a phlegmatic expression to match a flat tone. "I hope you excuse our appearances."

Magastron Kosmos nodded. "Excused." He changed his focus to Helios. "After this meeting, show them to the showers."

"Yes, sir." General Helios nodded.

"Good. At ease." The young ruler nodded.

Helios dropped his salute and approached the table with his military stride. He sat in a chair near the door, with two chairs to his right. I approached with Saki still at my side. As she sat in the rightmost empty seat, I took the other and dragged it to the wall before I sat in its place between Helios and Saki.

"Allow me to properly introduce everyone before we start on the matter at hand." Magastron Kosmos stood as he looked at me and Saki. He was trying to appear formal, regal, and possibly imposing, but he displayed much of the same subtle ticks as Saki when she was hiding her anxiety. "Hoshiryū, Miss Saki, these are the other generals of the army." He gestured to each one in turn. "You are already acquainted with General Helios of the southern base. This is Head General Courage, Northern General Cometa, Western General Leopardalis, and Eastern General Coriolis."

I could immediately tell the purple-eyed Courage hated me. "Your majesty, do you seriously trust a monster and a child?" Unlike the regional generals with silver patterns on the edges of their white military uniforms, the head general had gold patterns.

"She must be somewhat impressive to tame a monster." Cometa watched me with an icy gaze that matched her pale blue hair. The magastron, or the one before him, must have had a sense of irony, assigning the hot-headed Helios to the cool south and the cold Cometa to the warmer north. Maybe they were worried the weather would make their personalities worse if that was even possible with Helios.

"I wouldn't call myself tamed." I retorted with a snort.

"Let's focus on the task at hand." Courage stated with her stern eyes. "How do we kill all monsters?"

"Kill mas—er, the dark mage, and all the monsters will die eventually. Some will run out of dark energy in a few minutes, the larger ones could last a few weeks on their own." I said. "He cut me off years ago, and the only reason I'm alive is I steal energy from the monsters I defeat to sustain myself. Without that ability, I would have died after a few days. Without a constant flow of dark magic, our days are numbered."

Coriolis looked over the map with a pondering eye. Her storm cloud-like hair barely peaked out from her hood as her eyes surveyed the map spread across the large central table. "Where is the dark mage's base? Where are you monsters coming from?"

"I don't know," I answered honestly.

Leopardalis looked at me with her dangerous brown eyes, like a hunter eyeing her prey.

I restrained a shiver and remained calm as I clarified. "I only left the island by portal, I have never flown to or from it."

"It's an island?" Coriolis hummed slightly as she eyed the watery regions of the map. "How big was the island? Could you see any other land from its shores?"

"Small; I could run the entire perimeter in a few hours, though some of that time was taken up by weaving around trees and fighting other monsters." I ignored their slightly confused looks as I continued. "We were only ever let outside on days with heavy storms, visibility was limited."

"Why would he have monsters fight each other? That makes no sense."

Magastron's eyes wandered the small islands that occasionally dotted the map.

"It was to prove yourself and gain experience," I responded. "Much like your soldiers occasionally train by sparing. Though our fighting was serious. The winners stole the dark energy from the defeated creations. The battling made us stronger, but we weren't allowed to kill. If we injured another monster we would be punished."

"Fighting benefiting of monsters." Helios muttered under his breath."

Leopardalis suddenly spoke in a chilling voice befitting of a master huntress. "How much snow fell on the island?"

"I never saw much." I looked at her without turning my head. "We were never let out on days it was snowing. Only thunderstorms. Sometimes you could see small patches of it under outcrops before the rains got it."

General Leopardalis produced a pen from her cloak and drew a line across the map, then an "X" on the southern half. "That narrows the location down.

Coriolis looked at the map with a critical eye. "Island shape?"

"Half circle-ish," I responded. "Thought the curved side had three lobes, almost like a hat shape or half a flower."

The white-haired general put a finger down on a tiny dot in the northeast sector of the map. "It's this one," Coriolis stated in a definitive tone.

"What makes you so confident?" Helios skeptically raised an eyebrow.

"This island matches the described shape, and there have been strange reports over the years about it." Coriolis's voice remained steady as if giving a formal report. "Soldiers and civilians randomly disappear when visiting. It's inconsistent, and squads have combed the island without incident. However, if one member gets separated, then there is a chance they'd disappear without a trace. All the merchants say the island is cursed."

"It makes sense why none of the search squads found anything, but how could they have missed a complex structure big enough for the innumerable monsters that must live there?" Helios looked at me. "I saw one room, and it was massive with hundreds of cages."

"It's underground with small, hidden entrances," I responded calmly. "I suspect Master also uses magic to hide them further. His illusions are so strong you can walk into one and not notice."

"But could you locate them?" Courage raised an eyebrow.

"I know where they are. But I've only ever seen an I.D.R.O. open the doors." I responded.

"I.D.R.O.?" Cometa looked at me.

"Robot monster things. Independent Detainment Robot Operators or something like that." Honestly, I didn't know what their name stood for, I was making things up. "We can probably force the doors open with enough magic."

"We don't have enough magically skilled troops." Helios clenched his fists. "I doubt all the monsters we defeated in the attack yesterday put much of a dent in the total."

"Then we train more troops," Head General Courage eyed me with distrust like she wanted to cut my head off with a sword. "We won't need the monster with the troops he's already trained. They can spread their training and we won't need the monster."

I withheld a growl at the idea as Saki spoke. "I wouldn't suggest that..." She hesitated, withstraining a wavering tone in her voice. "We've barely covered using their gift in combat. There are spells, and they still don't know the warning signs of mana deficiency." She flinched slightly under the gazes of the generals and the magastron. "Sorry, sirs, if I was speaking out of place." She scooted closer, and I leaned towards her to help her feel safer.

"They're not ready to teach others." I bristled slightly. "And if you're that inclined to get rid of us, then we can walk out now and you can cause your failure."

"I am trusting their magical experience." Magastron Kosmos stood, his voice resonating with an attempted royal tone. "But I do agree we need to expand our magic-trained troops." He looked to the generals. "Start gathering volunteers for magic training. That's an order."

The generals nodded with various levels of acceptance.

Coriolis paused as she surveyed the map. "Perhaps moving the magic lessons to the Eastern base in Frelan would be advantageous. It's the largest base and the closest to the target."

Helios subtly frowned as if the idea slightly displeased him. However, he quickly hid it. "We should pool recruits from all bases."

"With enough recruits, we'll have to split into multiple classes." Saki slowly spoke, more confident with me closer to her. "I suggest a split based on abilities too. I don't think it's wise to have soldiers ready to learn spells in the same class as people who can't use their gift."

"That is reasonable." Magastron Kosmos nodded.

"We're also going to need a task force to go on the inside. Even if the halls are larger to accommodate larger monsters, we can't take the whole army inside." Leopardalis spoke.

"I'll choose them myself based on their skills." I volunteered.

"Absolutely not." Courage stated.

"I concur, we're not letting the beast choose." Cometa agreed with a firm nod.

Saki slowly started to speak. "I can choose in his stead. I'm not as good at sensing magic as he is, but—" she silenced as Coriolis raised a hand. "You are affiliated with the monster. No. We will pick when the time comes."

I withheld a growl.

"Why don't you get to choose, but Saki and Hoshi get to veto anyone they deem unready?" Magastron Kosmos promptly suggested as he placed his folded hands on the table. "And they can suggest a few people they think are ready, but they have to be approved by us."

"Acceptable." I knew it was going to be the best I could get. "But I will be on that team. If anyone can handle his dark magic attacks, it's me."

"I want to go too," Saki begged. "I have more experience with magic than anyone."

"Very well," the royal nodded, much to the generals' chagrin. However, they did not voice their concerns as they accepted the compromise. "That handles the agenda for the meeting. Magastron Kosmos stood. "Helios, show these two to the showers. Afterwards, start gathering more magic recruits. In one week, we'll gather all the volunteers in Frelan and start training."

"I suggest General Helios be among the recruits," I calmly watched their widening gazes. "He showed in the battle yesterday that he has listened and followed along from behind his glass wall. If he's going to participate, he should do it with his troops, not in secret behind."

Helios's focus snapped toward me, his golden eyes wide with a swirling stare of shock and anger. His silence implied he knew I was right. After a second, the Southern General pretended to cough and faced the map.

Even Saki looked at me with wide eyes as if the audacity of the suggestion would get us killed.

"Hoshi is right. General Helios, you will participate with the rest of the troops," Magastron Kosmos placed his hands on the map, "and I will stand with my people. I will join the magic lessons as well."

Everyone looked at him in shock, and after I processed his declaration, I felt a bit of pride. Perhaps these Stellans can learn after all.

"Sir," Courage started, but the royal cut her off.

"You cannot dissuade me, head general." The magastron's silver-white eyes blazed with tinges of golden determination and sparkled like his silver and gold clothing.