It's only been a day since making my decision to raise the child in the city. Ziden had helped me prepare as best as we could and promised he would come visit once in a while. While he had voiced some reservations and protested at what I was about to do, I decided that I wasn’t going to back down from this.

Prior to leaving, we had organized everything that I would potentially need: a lot of money, some clothes that I had picked up over the years, an enchanted mythril dagger, and an adventurer's backpack. I closed the ground level entrance to my dungeon and upgraded the strength of the monsters and undead within to ensure no one would bother the remainder of my things. I had created that dungeon for my own purposes so I couldn’t care less of anyone who had intentions of plundering it.

Unfortunately, space compression magic was something that didn’t exist; the idea of fitting a lot of stuff within a small amount of space is just fantasy. If I needed something, I could always go back. Or I’d have to procure it somehow.

Anyways, there were a few things that I learned over the last day: 1. Infants produce a lot of waste which required me to create diapers out of the softest monster skins that I could hunt and 2. The child is a female.

Currently the child was staring up at me as it made cooing noises. The child had also gotten slightly bigger but its increased weight didn’t impact me in any way. Unlike my current light blond hair, the child had short black hair which had already grown a decent amount. Even my hair didn’t grow that fast.

Having inserted myself along the main road a good distance away from the city not to be seen, we were making our way there on foot but it was a strange experience for me. First, there were a total of 6 lanes on the road. On one side were two larger lanes for what looked like carriages but without anything pulling them. They were made of metal and floated in the air and carried people or cargo. There weren’t a lot of these but a few sped past towards the city and others went the other direction on the other side of the road. There was one more lane that was smaller that appeared to be just for walking travelers. Luckily, I had sat and observed the etiquette of the road before blindly walking in the vehicle lane.

Another strange sight was what appeared to be patrols from the local military along the route. Unlike the standard shining knight armor and melee weapons that I had seen before, the troops patrolling the road had armor that was painted in a strange combination of green, brown, and some black. While the design of the armor was pretty similar, it appeared to be made of something other than metal.

And it got me thinking that I really haven’t been out that much recently…

Alongside the foot patrols was the occasional military vehicle that I had no familiarity with. One type was like the other vehicles that went by: it levitated off the ground and had two long barrels. The other type was bipedal and moved slower than the levitating one but still moved faster than a walking human. I wonder how they worked in combat.

There were also a few travelers on foot. At one point I had noticed what looked like an adventurer party heading the other direction. For some reason, I felt like I got some weird looks from them but I didn’t know why. Normally, I would have pounded the heck out of them for giving me funny looks but I didn’t want to start now on a criminal record...wait a minute. Well, you know what I meant. I spotted others giving me weird looks as well so I looked down to make sure I was carrying the child in a natural manner. And I thought I was.

As I was lost in thought, I then heard a beeping noise behind me which startled me.

“Excuse me Miss, are you heading to Chamont?”

Turning towards the voice, I saw a fairly well dressed older man addressing me from inside one of those metal vehicles. He had his head out of the side of his vehicle and had a friendly smile on his face.

“I am” I replied assuming Chamont was the city’s name.

“Lovely, would you care for a ride? I don’t expect anything in return except maybe for some conversation?”

“Sounds fair to me.” Though I was unsure about my social skills or why this guy was offering a ride.

The vehicle gently sat down on the surface of the road and a door popped open on the other side. Curious, I walked toward it and I saw four seats, one of which was occupied by the man. In front of the man were some instruments and a wheel for what purpose I did not recognize.

“Go ahead throw your stuff in the backseat. You can leave your child in your arms as we drive into town.”

I threw my pack in the back and sat down as instructed. Hiding my inner surprise, the man pulled back on a lever, and the vehicle smoothly lifted off into the air and began to move forward.

“Forgive me, the name is Sonny Nolan. I’m a merchant on my way back to Chamont. What’s yours?”

Errrrrrrrrrrr. Never had one and I can’t even remember the nickname people had given me either. Not like I would use that.

The moment of silence must have been too much for him.

“Eh, that’s alright, you don’t have to tell me. But there is something I need to ask you.”

He went on to explain how Chamont was the capital of some country called the Veplar Kingdom and how the Kingdom was primarily a human nation. And by primarily, he meant that the other races were looked on with disdain. Not disrespected solely because they thought that humans were better but because they felt threatened by the others' affinity for mana or for other traits. So it was more of a coping mechanism. Due to this, what few elves, dwarves, demi-humans, devils, etc. that are in the Kingdom are actually slaves. So the question was: Why was I trying to head for Chamont?

My reply was that I had journeyed here and was interested in raising my child in a new place. Which was partly true anyway.

But all of that stuff about Chamont? All of that stuff about slavery and what not? Turns out I really missed out on a bunch of stuff. I began wondering if I would be able to do this...maybe it was time to ask about an orphanage and leave before I embarrassed myself.

I managed to get a question in before we approached the wall of the city. Apparently people were giving me weird looks for two reasons: 1. Cause I appeared to them as a devil and 2. Cause my dress was out of style for a great many years. Not that I cared too much...its just my ears started to heat up for a moment.

I thought the dress looked good on me alright? I’ll have to smack Ziden the next time I see him.

Nothing lies beyond the walls of the city except for wilderness and while I had good aerial memories of the place, I was curious how things looked from the ground. The child had fallen asleep again in my arms with its head nuzzled against my chest. Something about that warmed my soul; just a little though.

We came upon an open metal sliding gate where soldiers equipped similarly to the ones I saw earlier were checking and inspecting people as they went in. Rather than the earthy colors of the other soldiers, the guards had white armor accented with crimson red. Not a bad look if I say so myself.

Windows went down and…

“Sonny, good to see you back. See you got more for the city?”

“Blake, they got you on gate duty again? Yea I got more and they are in good condition too. How are the monsters today?”

“They’ve been getting a little bolder as of late. We lost a couple of gate guards the other day but the new equipment has been making it easier to handle. Well go on ahead, I’ve known you long enough, I don’t need to see your ID or anything.”

The guard named Blake waved us on through and Sonny tossed a silver colored coin at him which the guard caught. We left the smiling Blake behind.

“Good guy that Blake. Can always count on him.” Sonny mentioned.

Chamont had three sets of walls surrounding it. Between the outer and middle ones, I saw many farms and other good producing buildings. If I remembered correctly, the city also had a port on one side which saw a good bit of traffic. This was apparently to safeguard the residents from the monsters outside. And demons like me.

After traveling for a little bit through the outer tier, we started to get close to the gate leading into the next section. However, we took a detour.

“Excuse me, I thought we were going on into the next ring? I assumed that’s where your shop would be.”

“You’re right but there's some business we have to take care of first. This is your first time in the city right? We got to get you and your daughter registered.”

“Oh ok.”

There was another smaller entrance to the middle section but by the entrance was a larger military group than the one guarding the main entrance. There was a small building with a fenced area for these troops as well.

Wait a second...a smaller entrance but a larger group of troops. Something’s not right. Shouldn’t these troops be guarding the main gate into this place rather than some small gate?

After that realization, I grew suspicious of Sonny. There were some other things that weren’t adding up for me. I wasn’t too worried though but I hoped the child wouldn’t get hurt if anything happened; it was my first day ya know?

As Sonny pulled up, the merchant conferred with a guard in a low whisper. I looked the other way and rolled my eyes.

Sucks for them…

“Yea I got another devil for y’all. This one came easy. Has her kid too.”

“Easy money. You’ll get your pay on the way out.”

The fenced gate opened up and Sonny stopped the vehicle on the side of the building. Exiting, he motioned for us to follow him inside.

Multiple troops stood at the ready along the sides of the interior as an administrative looking fellow sat at a desk. Behind him were some cages that were extremely dark compared to the well lit desk area.

Immediately as I walked in, two soldiers grabbed either side of my arms to prevent me from going anywhere and a third started to place a collar around my neck.

“Sonny, you’re too good at this you know. We may as well start paying you a salary for it.” said the man behind the desk without looking up.

“No way Captain Mullen. Government can’t pay me enough to have me on their payroll.”

“Well either way, here’s your money along with a bonus for bringing in a devil child.”

I was surprised to see an exchange of paper rather than coins. What else have I missed? Despite the circumstances, I kept my eyes on Sonny and Captain Mullen and kept a faint smile on my face.

“Captain, t-the slave collar isn’t w-working.”

“That collar was working earlier. Give it here.”

He went around his desk to grab the collar and got behind me. Perfect. My time to shine.

“Hey Sonny” I whispered sweetly.

“W-What?”

“Enjoy the show.”

Before coming here, I learned that I was able to transition certain parts of my body without going all the way back and forth.

A loud tearing sound erupted out of my back as wings unfurled, going right through Captain Mullen and impaling the two soldiers holding me in place. With the child protected in my arms and now crying thanks to the sudden noise, I used my feathers to riddle all of the soldiers with holes; everyone except Sonny.

As bodies slumped to the ground and dyed the floor red, Sonny stood there in shock to see a supposed devil woman killing all of the soldiers within.

With an angelic smile and my fangs bared, I walked slowly towards Sonny who now realized what was going on. He made for the exit but I beat him there in a flash.

“W-what are y-you?!” he stuttered after having fallen back on his rear end.

“Just another woman you pissed off probably.”

I took a step forward and stepped on his male body parts while at the same time wrapping my wing around his head. Didn’t need a bigger scene ya know?

Now up in the air, I started carefully moving the tip of my other wing up and down his body.

“Through the heart? Maybe a slow bleed through the stomach? So many choices...oops.”

Sonny’s now lifeless body fell with a thud with his head now twisted at an unnatural angle.

Well that was fun. I wanted to make a different first impression on Chamont though. Next time perhaps.