The question sort of stalls me a bit.

  I remember papa telling me stories before bed about it when I was younger. Leo and I were always enamored with them. Stories Papa had heard from old soldiers and [Paladins] who came to his restaurant. Fantastical and heroic.

  "I…don't know too much other than what Papa used to tell me and Leo," I answer quietly, not really certain how else to answer. "A Demon Lord broke the seal and marched on the Grand. The Demon Lord cracked through the holy Shield Wall, and Saint Stryga led the Grand Army and defeated them. Locking the Seal again."

  The old man gives a light hum. "That is…right…I suppose" He admits. "But it was a lot more complicated than that."

  He reaches up to scratch the stubble on his chin before speaking again. "That Demon Lord and its army were defeated, yes. But that was the least of our worries. In fact, it was the easy part." He began.

  "The Demon Lord leading them was just a [Lesser Demon]. The church calls them 'Chimera' because they tend to look like fusions between different monsters and animals. The one that led that particular engagement, we nicknamed 'Man-Bear' because most of its body was that of a Dire Bear, but instead of a lower jaw, it had the headless body of a short, stocky naked man hanging from it. Carried a battle axe the size of my whole body." Thorpe shudders at the memory. "Creepy fucken thing could cleave gashes into the earth a dozen meters long with one swing."

  The description makes my stomach churn. A chill rolls down my spine. "Wait, so you actually fought on the front line? I thought only Holy classes could fight demons? And you're just a [Guard] class…why would you even be there?"

  He scoffs. "Hey now, JUST a [Guard] is a lot better than you think, little Miss [Farmer]." Giving me a pointed look that makes me narrow my eyes and pout at him.

  "Your standard [Guard] patrolling villages and towns are likely not going to be ever above level 5. But the Grand Army and the Church also use them as part of their standard foot soldiers, and especially in their garrisons. And it's entirely due to what we learned during the war." He details, starting to get into more of his usual teacher tone that I've gotten used to over the years. "But there are also Evolved classes for Guards, of which I happen to be one." Flashing a snarky smile as my eyes widen.

  "You're an Evolved Class!?" Excitement boiled to the surface inside of me and erased that leftover gloom from the more somber conversation before. "What are you?"

  The old man lifts his head up high, basking in the glow of my excitement. "I am a [Royal Guard]." He answers with unmistakable pride in his voice. "The same type that guards the Royal palace. Which is also why my level is higher than usual for my class."

  It's hard to contain the smile that is starting to make my cheeks sore. I mean, I always knew Mr. Thorpe was way more skilled than the others on watch at the village. But this was certainly not what I expected.

  The old man clears his throat. "But calling back to your earlier question. It was this particular conflict where [Guards] were in high demand for one particular reason." Bringing up one index finger to emphasize. "And that is because they can be turned into [Royal Guards] rather easily with the right resources."

  My brows furrow. "What for? They don't sound like a Holy class."

  He gives me a grin. "They aren't. But that doesn't matter. To say that a demon can only be harmed by someone with a Holy class isn't actually true. It's just that they're the most effective." Sliding his spear from his shoulder to hold it up straight. "Watch…"

  I fix my attention on his spear. At first, nothing seems to happen until a white light flashes on the tip of the blade, and the spear itself appears to blur slightly as if it's vibrating.

  "Wh…wait…that is…" I stammer a bit, remembering back to a few hours ago. "That's what happened right before you stabbed the Jackelope."

  Old Guard lifts his brows in surprise. "You actually noticed it? That was like a split second…guess I forgot how perceptive you are." He chuckles as the spear reverts back to normal, and he leans it back against his shoulder. "All attacks made by a Holy class are buffed by the [Holy] passive skill. That is why they are the most effective against demons. But it isn't Holy Energy itself that harms them. It just has to be a form of energy that scholars refer to as Radiant Emission." Thorpe gestures to his spear. "What I just did was a form of Radiant Emission that is commonly used by higher-level combat classes called 'Valor'. Which can be used to cut through the denser hides of high-tier monsters like Drakes and Direbeasts. And they expend Mana to do it, which most combat classes get access to that Stat at the same time as their first Valor Skill."

  I shoot up to my feet, the blanket around me billowing up before falling down to the grass. "Can I do that!?"

  Old Guard lifts his hands up in mock surrender. "I…do not know. This is stuff that is way too advanced for you right now. And honestly, I don't want to get your hopes up." He answers honestly, looking a bit apologetic. "Your skills are uncharted territory. We aren't sure what you are even supposed to be. But we do know you can steal skills from certain monsters, and that is already pretty impressive."

  All the energy I just had leaves my body as I slump back down to the ground. Wrapping myself back in the blanket and nodding. "Yeah… you're right. Please continue…"

  Thorpe chuckles before continuing. "Most combat classes attain some skill that can use Valor at level 8. EXCEPT for [Royal Guard] who get one at level 6."

  "The demon army that was marching in the grand was a horde of almost 2 thousand strong. And Saint Stryga needed a quick way to build a force of highly defensive fighters who could cut through the hides of demons." Thorpe smiles, obviously enjoying how enthralled I am with the information. "[Guards] became the best option. Cause turns out the prerequisite to become a [Royal Guard] is just to defend someone with the [Royalty] passive skill. Which would definitely be wildly difficult to do for most anyone. But if you're the Saint of Light, then it suddenly becomes tediously easy."

  "So the Princes, Princesses, and the King's siblings offered their help. The Grand Army and the Church started recruiting [Guards] in droves and having them defend one of the Royalty against minor monsters to evolve their class and go to basic training." The old man rubs the back of his neck. "I was a little nervous at the time. Had to defend Princess Elena for mine, and I was afraid I'd get her hurt. But she turned out to be a lot braver than I was."

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  I purse my lips. I've heard of Princess Elena before from history books I read when I was younger. If I remember correctly, she was almost going to be our Queen…but she didn't survive the brutal race for succession.

  Old Guard grabs a few sticks from the bundle he made earlier and tosses them into the fire while he continues. "In under a month, the Grand Army and the Church had amassed a battalion of [Royal Guard] to back up the Church's own forces. And after 3 weeks of marching and teleport gates, we were locked in combat."

  The quiet that came after that last sentence is a bit haunting as Old Guard's mood changes. Thorpe still gazes into the fire. Eyes seeming to glaze over. It takes a few minutes for him to speak again, but I wait patiently for it.

  "There is only so much training can prepare you for. And there was nothing in my few weeks after the class evolution that could have prepared me for that first engagement." His brows furrow as he finally pulls his attention from the fire to face me, but he doesn't meet my gaze. Instead looking towards the forest floor between us.

  "It was the middle of summer…it was sweltering. Bodies crashing against eachother…made it feel like we were boiling." His voice gets very quiet. "Most of the enemy army was made up of Demon spawn. Basically, monsters constructed out of meat and bones. Malformed and relentless. Smelled awful. Made weapons out of their own bodies." He visibly shudders. "Watched people I had been drinking with every night for months get ripped to shreds and…repurposed…in seconds."

  I pale at the description. Swallowing hard. "Repurposed?"

  Old Guard nods. "That is one of the worst parts of fighting true demons. Casualties will be turned against you. As long as there's fresh dead, the Chimera can shape them into new spawn or heal its current ones, and the bloodshed continues."

  I tuck myself deeper into my blanket, pulling it over my head like a hood. "How can something like that exist?"

  The old man emits a low hum. "The Church says the Demon Kings arrived here in a falling star and laid waste to the old Kingdom before being imprisoned in their crater by the Shepherd Saint of Magic, who sacrificed his life to seal them away." But he shrugs. "I don't know how accurate that is, though, since the Church says a lot of things and we're talking about things that happened centuries ago."

  This is certainly a lot more terrifying than the stories of eating my toes for being bad that Mama used to tell us. It's hard for me to even begin to imagine what it must have been like to fight an entire army of them. But right in front of me is a survivor of it.

  "You said defeating the army and that…Chimera thing…was the easy part. So you won that first battle…right?" I ask a bit timidly. Feeling very unsure of how I phrased it.

  Thorpe sighs but nods. "Yes…We won the first engagement. But we didn't win all of them." He admits, tapping his fingers against the shaft of his spear. "The first engagement was dubbed 'The Kiln' in reference to a…tempering thing. It was a testing ground for how we faired as a fighting force and how we could engage the demons further." Shaking his head some. "We lost a lot of good people, but those that survived became what Saint Stryga wanted and what the Grand needed at the time. A tempered and sharpened spearhead of an army that specialized against demons."

  My excitement is starting to boil over again. "And you were one of them!"

  Thorpe smiles lightly. "I was. Most of us leveled up in that first engagement and gained passive specializations against Demon-type enemies." He lifted his left arm and rolled up his sleeve to show a wicked scar running from his forearm and up to his shoulder. "Started the war carrying a tower shield like most [Royal Guard], but in the 5th engagement, an armored Demon spawn clawed through it as well as my arm…nearly ripped it off my body entirely. So I spent months fighting with just my right."

  The old man chuckles. "Even after my left arm healed, I preferred having both hands on my weapon. Ended up getting [Glaive Theory] and basically never picked up a shield again until way later."

  His face settles back down, finally looking more directly at me again. "I say it was easy, but it's easier in comparison to what came after. Still took an entire year of fighting and marching before we finally pushed them back to the Shield Wall." A wicked grin forms across his face. "And that's when we really hit our momentum."

  Old Guard leans forward. "What do you know about the skills of [Guards]?"

  I purse my lips and think back to what little has been explained to me before. Pretty sure Mama mentioned it a few times during monster attacks. "Don't they get buffs while protecting the village?"

  Old Guard gives me a thumbs up. "Bingo. But it's more than that. As a [Guard], we get a Passive Skill called [Guard Target]. Pretty self-explanatory." He says with a chuckle. "At level 1, you can choose singular people or objects to select as what you are defending. And the size and scope of your target increases with each level. And [Guards] can reach level 5 pretty damn fast. Most will hit level 5 in their late 20's or early 30s because you gain experience by doing your job. And well…our job is kinda just to stand there or patrol…so we get experience almost constantly."

  I frown at that. "That seems unfair…"

  The old man laughs aloud, slapping his knee. "Hey, you gotta let us have some kind of benefit. Way too many people underestimate us because we soft cap at 5 without specialized help." But he waves his hand dismissively. "Anyway. We also get buffs for how many other [Guards] are defending the same target. So we are most effective when defending something or someone as a group."

  My brows slowly furrow as he explains. He's obviously building up to something, and I'm not wrapping my head around it. "And I'm guessing you get buffs for protecting Royal people and things?"

  He gives another thumbs up and a grin. "Basically, yes. But specifically, we get an extra buff ontop of our standard one if what we are defending is either Royalty or a structure claimed by one. Which, for Royalty needs to be done through a throne."

  And then it clicked. "The Shield Wall is a castle!"

  "Correct. And even though the Church garrisons it exclusively, it is technically owned by the ruling monarch because its throne room is only used when they visit." He explains with a proud smile. "Our whole fighting force was already built on the fact that we were incredibly strong when fighting in defense of Royalty. The commander of each Company were Royalty by way of relation. They would hold at the back as our chosen defense target and would simply direct us into the enemy."

  I gasp. "Like a spear!"

  The old man nods. "Exactly. And once we had pushed them to Shield Wall and it became our defense target, we were able to clean up the rest. Including Man-Bear, who had holed itself up inside the fortress."

  The old man relaxes and takes a sip from his waterskin. "Saint Stryga killed Man-Bear, and the demon army was decimated without their leader. We regarrisoned the Shield Wall and defended it from stragglers while we rested."

  It is quiet for a moment, and I can tell the rest of the story might be even more intense. I tuck my knees up to my chest. Watching my mentor take a moment to collect his thoughts. "But that wasn't the end…you said that was the easy part."

  Old Guard takes a deep breath. "Right…" He says quietly, hand reaching up to grasp the black money piece around his neck. "Man-Bear was just a lesser demon. And Chimera like him aren't powerful enough to crack the seal… at least that's what the church said."

  "The only type of demon that could do so would be a higher-tier one. The Church calls them 'Annointed' or 'Named Ones'. Demon nobility basically…Barons and above. Which meant that the actual leader was down there letting Chimera through the breach."

  Oh…I think I'm seeing what the problem was. "Which means you would…"

  "Yes…" He interrupts with a troubled look in his eyes. "If we wanted to stop something worse from coming through and fix the seal…we would have to go down there ourselves."

  "Down into Iscarons Lapse…"