It was Jaejoong's first day of work in the Midnight Corporation. Today was also his twentieth birthday. And just like his first day of work in Lightside Inc. two years ago, he went through a quick orientation about the company before proceeding to the signing of his two-year contract as an apprentice of Midnight. With the papers signed, Jaejoong was now an official employee of the Midnight Corp. and therefore a demon.

He couldn't help but make comparisons between the two corporations.

The main office of Lightside Inc. could be compared to a successful international corporate building. It looked clean and pristine. Everything was in order and in their proper place. The building's design and decorations were simple but elegant. The furniture and equipment in each room were there only to serve a purpose. Even the simple wall decors and carpets had dual functions. Nothing in the office of the Lightside Inc. were simply there for aesthetic reasons.

The main office of the Midnight Corp., meanwhile was designed and decorated like a five star luxurious hotel. Authentic works of arts through the ages were flamboyantly displayed everywhere, making every corridor look like a museum exhibition. The Lightside offices were peaceful and quiet, but music was everywhere here in Midnight's main office. Every floor had its own theme songs ranging from classical, pop, rock, R and B and others Jaejoong had never heard of before. The theme songs always depended on the personal taste of whoever was in charge of the department. Jaejoong finally concluded that decadent but still in good taste was the overall design of the Midnight Corp. main office.

After getting his Midnight contract, he was sent to the Equipment and Supplies Department for his accessory fitting. The Equipment and Supplies Department was located in the building's basement. But instead of looking like a storage room, the basement looked more like a high-class fashion boutique complete with dressing rooms and large mirrors.

Jaejoong studied his reflection from the large mirror before him. As an apprentice of Lightside, he was given angel's wings, the power of flight and invisibility so that he could move unseen among humans. He was never given any weapon. This time around, the wings that were attached to his back were like bat wings. They were brown in color and with a wing span, twice the size of his whole body. He could also manipulate the wings to cover his whole body just like his former angel wings. He glanced at his hands. It was now equipped with retractable talons. If only it was possible for him to make a request regarding his talons, he would have preferred having sharp claws like Wolverine. The actor who played Wolverine in the movies made those adamantium claws look so cool. Unfortunately, low-level apprentices like him had no choice in these matters.

"No horns and tail?" he joked at the demon assisting him.

The demon named Heechul laughed. Jaejoong was still not sure whether to call the demon, him or her. Heechul had a very androgynous face. Though beautiful, that beauty could either belong to a man or woman. Heechul's clothes were also shapeless, colorful and extravagantly styled that Jaejoong could not see the usual body shape associated to men and women. Since Jaejoong was never really sure what Heechul's gender was, he decided to use the pronoun 'he' for the demon.

"Only high-ranking Midnight officials get tails. As for the horns, only those who have reached the rank of a prince or duke could wear them. When you were working for Lightside, they also didn't give you a halo or any weapon, right? We have the same policy here, but all similarities end there.

"The Lightside employees have only two designations, apprentice or true angel. The moment an angel's apprenticeship ends there, the Board of Directors would determine what kind of angel the apprentice would become. If they appoint an angel to become a Seraph or Cherub, he or she would forever be stuck in that position and class. Here in Midnight, we have a different kind of rule."

"What's the difference?" he asked, though he already had inkling about the ranking system of Midnight, thanks to his guardian Minho.

"Here in Midnight, as long as you are productive and you do your job well, you get to have all the chances to advance to the top. You can even aspire to becoming a full- fledged demon prince! Here in our corporation, you are free to aspire what rank or position you want as long as you can hold on to it long enough and prove your strength and intelligence. The only thing that will limit you in your career advancement is your death. So as long as you are alive, there will always be a chance for you to become a demon prince."

A demon prince… Jaejoong's mind began to ponder such possibility.

His mind was brought back to the present by Heechul's voice.

"You can fold and unfold your wings," he instructed. "Once you fold them, they would automatically become invisible even to your eyes."

Jaejoong nodded. The same rules applied to his angel wings in Lightside. Jaejoong had a hunch he wouldn't have a hard time using these demon wings since he was a natural at flying. He never even took the flying course in Lightside because the moment he unfolded his wings, he was able to fly without any effort.

As Heechul continued talking, Jaejoong once again found his mind wandering back to his apprenticeship in Lightside. He learned a hard lesson from Lightside. He also realized that he would never be able to adhere and follow the strict rules and beliefs of Lightside Inc. The scar on his right shoulder would always remind him of the consequences of breaking the Lightside rules. Sean's spear put him in the Lightside hospital for seven days. And during those times, pain continued coursing through every part of his body. Sean had taken his spear out, but Jaejoong felt like the powerful weapon was still stuck in his shoulder because of the intense pain from his wound.

Sean explained that Jaejoong needed to bear and accept the pain. It was the punishment for his sin. The pain was his penance. The pain could have been relieved by the healers immediately if only Jaejoong had asked for forgiveness for killing the necromancer. But he would never ask forgiveness or feel remorse for that. So, he had to bear the seven-day pain of his wound until it healed.

Jaejoong knew that he would always be subjected to punishment for breaking Lightside's rules and laws if he decided to become part of that corporation. His body would ultimately be filled with all kinds of scars because of his stubbornness. He never really intended to break the rules; in fact he tried his best to follow them. But sometimes, rules really needed to be broken in certain circumstances.

Even if Jaejoong had known the consequence of killing the necromancer, he would still kill the evil bastard! Waiting for that evil necromancer to change would only result to the deaths of more innocents. Maybe it was his demon nature that made him act like that.

When he was still living as a human, he had always been a model student. He never broke any human laws. But human laws were easy to follow and easy to bend. Unlike the laws of Lightside, which were strict, rigid and could never be bent or broken without any consequences and punishments!

"Here is our rule book," Heechul interrupted his thoughts. The demon was holding a paperback-sized hardbound black book. Jaejoong couldn't help but smile as he remembered the two large and thick hardbound rule books of Lightside. Lightside's rule books dwarfed Midnight's rule book since the formers were twenty by fifteen inches in size and was even thicker than his arms.

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter