As soon as Carch went off to work, I went to the light button again. I hadn't entirely finished breakfast yet, but it could wait. I'm allowed to have bad habits every once in a while. I tried different hand gestures, like pinching and making several shapes with my finger, but the light only switched when I really put in muscular effort. I tried to sense what was actually happening in the mechanism, but with all my muscles tensed it was really hard to pay attention to small things. And the mechanism was very small, and it all went so fast. But I could feel some sort of energy was created in the button. Not electrical energy, and also not something that came from within. The aura theory was currently what seemed to fit the best.

  Ok, so lets assume aura is what actually happend. I didn't see or sense my own aura, but maybe only really talented people could. By now it was pretty clear I wasn't one of those people born to become the strongest in the world, so it made sense I didn't belong to some powerful elite. I tried to remember what people with aura did, but it was all pretty vague. I probably didn't consume a lot of media regarding aura. I had a vague feeling that they meditated, so I tried that.

  I really could have used some help here. I thought meditation was just making your head empty for a while. That of its own was already not easy, but with just an empty head I couldn't switch the light. I didn't see aura, so I had no way of knowing if I did it right. When my head was as empty as it got, I made a forceful movement towards the button. Didn't work. A light movement. Didn't work again. I sacrificed the emptiness to imagine my aura taking a certain shape. Didn't work either. It was too soon to discard the aura theory, especially when lacking something better, but at the very least meditating didn't seem to work.

  So I tried shaping the aura. Maybe I could make some kind of aura-hand that pushed the button instead of my physical hand. I tried imagining the non visible, maybe even non existent aura to shape around my hand and pressed the button. The light didn't turn on, but because this took significatly less effort I could try to sense what exactly was happening. Because something did happen. The mechanism didn't shoot the aura through the tubes, but instead it dissipated somewhere right after it triggered.

  I did it again a few times, with varying effect. The aura never became stronger than it was the first time, and sometimes it didn't activate at all. But when it did I could feel parts were moving that I originally thought weren't part of the mechanism at all. Parts of the magic material of the button were moving, that at first seemed to be stuck in place, like the rest of the material. I also noticed that how far the aura came into the system depended on how much of the material was moving.

  I put my flat hand on the button and breathed out. Instead of using aura, I tried imagining the magic material parts to move directly. I sensed the material, which excluding the mechanism seemed solid and unmoving, and tried moving it. Not with force, but by imagining it as a sea, where waves would come and go. A single wave came. As tiny as if someone blew ripples in the ocean. It moved a bit and then died down, without another taking its place. Of course this wave was way too small to trigger the mechanism.

  Next time I managed to create a wave I tried holding it in place. Obviously it didn't trigger anything, but it did allow for me to create another wave at the same time. Then another one. After some time and effort I had created quite a lot of waves. It also became easier every time. The waves I made later were noticably bigger than my first waves. Then I let them all go at the same time. It was enough for the mechanism to trigger, send the signal all the way through the tubes and turn off the light.

  When I was grinning and being proud of myself, Carch came home. Right. We had to go do that register thing. Carch tried to calm me by saying it wasn't that big of a deal and would be finished quickly, but that kind of made me freak out a bit. I had already assumed it wasn't a big deal, but now Carch was saying it like this, maybe it was.

  My mind began to wander in all the ways this could go bad. Maybe there was some sort of test for something. I thought about how people in fantasy stories sometimes had to fight to measure their level. I knew this world wasn't that combat oriented, but I also didn't fully trust it after barely a week of living here. Maybe they had a way to measure mana and mine would be absurdly low and everyone would stare at me and I would be labeled as a freak. But during the walk to get there I actually calmed down a bit. None if these fears had any base and the rythm of my steps had a soothing effect.

  The building was large and imposing. It was a floor taller than your average house, but since the floors themselves had a high ceiling, this building was by far the tallest in the street. The walls were smoothened, unlike most houses whose walls were just plain wood or stone. It was painted light yellow, very close to white, which gave the building a modern look. Windows were decorated with dark green borders that had an artistic pattern painted on them, which you would only notice if you looked close enough. While the windows were not any broader than those on a normal house, they were stretched as tall as the floors themselves, from which I could only assume the light aestetic of the outside would extend to inside.

  The doors were maybe the only part of the building that remained unpainted. Made from warm colored wood, the doors looked sturdy and were a woodworking masterpiece. Wooden planks made a vertical zig zag pattern and were held together by horizontal rails at the top, halfway and bottom. The top rail and outer stiles were thickened and carved with all kinds of humans and animals, from which I could only assume they depicted a story I didn't know.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  The inside was nothing less than grand. The limestone floor reflected the sunlight, which made the space look bigger than it already was. The walls were white, but decorated with numeous paintings, both small and larger ones, framed with dark wood that was carved in elaborate shapes. The space that the high ceiling gave was filled by small lights on strings, that at first glance randomly cluttered the large space below the ceiling. I imagined that at night it would look like a starry sky. Large pillars at the edge of the room, built halfway into the walls, would rise up and bend towards the middle of the ceiling, giving it a rounded look even though it technically wasn't. The ceiling was painted in a dark blue theme with figures doing things that was probably history or mythology from a culture not mine.

  The room was mostly filled with dark wooden tables and chairs, decorated with bright colored cushions and used by people who were eating or drinking something. I assumed this registering place doubled as a restaurant or something. I couldn't make much sense of it, but the space was well used. However, between them, starting a few meters from the entrance, was a red carpet making a path towards a reception. There were around three people sitting behind wooden desks, that were intergrated with a wooden walls, as beautifully decorated as the rest of the interior. In that wall were windows, not covered with anything, large enough for a small adult to comfortably walk through, if they were they willing to climb on the desks.

  Behind the desk we were headed to was a youngish man. His eyes looked like he could fall asleep at any moment and he wore a light smile. One of which you could have all day without expending much energy. After Carch explained what we were here for he shove forward a round object that was attached to something that vaguely resembled a screen.

  "Please interact with this device."

  I didn't understand exactly what he meant, but the device was made of the same magic material as the light switch. I could do this. I just needed to do it swiftly, without looking like it took me effort. It felt like a final test right after understanding parts of the material.

  I breathed out. Concentration. I placed my hand on the device. 3 waves. 5 waves. I tried to create them as fast as I could. I could tell it took longer than usual, but no one said anything yet. I should let go before they get too suspicious. The mechanism triggered. I sighed in relief.

  "D- demon!"

  The desk guy fell from his chair. His right arm fully stretched and pointed at me, with a look of fear in his eyes. I looked behind me in a reflex, but there was only Carch, who stood further away from me than I remembered. The background noise around me silenced. This couldn't be right. I was no demon.

  I looked at the screen. It probably just malfunctioned. It had a picture of me, even though no photo was taken. It had my name correct, Archer. Interestingly enough it displayed my age as 8 days, which was when I woke up in this world. And my race was 'Demon'.

  I looked up. Everyone was staring at me. I looked at Carch. He had taken some steps back, afraid. This wasn't happening. I was no demon. I didn't want to be here.

  I felt the piercing stares of all the other guests here. They were all looking at me. Some afraid, some curious, some angry. All this attention made me sick in the stomach. I didn't want to be here.

  Some of them stood up and walked towards me, stopping at 3 meters distance. Carch had disappeared in the sea of people. I didn't have any allies here. My eyes started to tear as emotions took over. My life, that I had barely started to build up, was falling apart.

  They started whispering to each other.

  "A demon?"

  "Should have known when the monsters are acting weird."

  "I heard it eats childen in their sleep."

  "Scary to think such vile creatures can take human shape."

  They were intentionally talking loud enough for me to hear, but my heart was beating so loud it blocked out parts of it. I didn't want to be here.

  I didn't have anywhere to go. The crowd was slowly drawing closer, angry ones in the front. I could barely see anymore. My eyes were wide open, but my brain blocked out my vision. Hearing was as sharp as ever. I could hear some of them unsheath their swords. They pushed away other members of the crowd and drew closer with heavy, but regular footsteps.

  They will kill me.

  I didnt know the punishment for being a demon. Half of me expected it to just be over after the public shaming. The other half was thinking about prison. But these people had bloodlust. I clearly wasn't going anywhere, all they had to do was grab me and drag me to their nearest prison. But death? I hadn't even done anything wrong. It was just some letters on a screen, it could have malfunctioned.

  It didn't feel like a malfunction. Between the whispers and the weapons, I now fully believed I was a demon. I felt the swordsmen getting close. One of them let out a grunt as he lifted his sword high. I am going to die. Was he going for my neck? I tucked it in a little. I knew it didn't matter. At most it would make it harder to get a clean slice through. Prolong my suffering. There was no way I could stand up to this swordsman, even without the crowd or my panicked mindset. He was strong, tall, trained, and had a weapon. I had none of those things. He will kill me. I will die. I didn't want to be here.

  I didn't want to be here.

  I would rather be anywhere else than here.

  The air I breathed in was warm. The pressure from the many gazes that wanted to see me dead made way for a calming, even pressure that helped me control my breathing. It was a familiar sensation. I tried to look around me. Even though I had my eyes open all this time, I only just now saw I was in the forest. Specifically, the place where I first got to this world. I lied down on my back on a nearby boulder and started crying. It started out as just letting the tears flow that had already been building up, but eventually I closed my eyes and started sobbing.

  I felt something lick my face. Barely managing to see through my tears I saw a deerhound monster. I embraced the monster and hugged it tightly. It lied down on my chest, helping me to control my breathing. Would it rip out my throat once I let down my guard? I didn't care. All dogs are good boys. Right now I just needed to hold something.