Kei retreated back into the former bandit’s hideout and tied up the middle-aged, priest-looking magic user.

“I’m going to have you teach me your ways of magic. If you do not comply. We are going to spend a lot of time together. Do. You. Understand?” Kei said to the man while the blood that wasn’t his yet on his body was soaking his clothes.

He then untied the cloth and gag around the man’s mouth. Despite previous warnings, the man’s foolish first words were, “I will not succumb to your honeyed words, filthy demon! The goddess shall be a witness, watch over me, and justice shall be served against your blasphemous race!”

Shit. The Religiously Devoted type. I knew I should’ve gotten that glasses-wearing twig instead. People with glasses tend to be knowledgeable unless their eye condition was from birth.

Kei then turned the man around and laid ham flat face first, with the man’s hands and back not touching the cold and cruel floor.

“Unhand me you filthy, vile demon!” His voice was uneasy but did not falter in his insults. “Do you intend to defile me!?”

Are the only words you know are filthy, vile, and demon? Also, what the hell was that last sentence? I’m straight!

As if angered by this sentence, Kei broke one of his fingers, bending them backward excessively.

“Are you going to listen to me now?” Kei asked, hoping that this little pain will cause his devotion to waver.

“No! NO! I-,” The man shed a few tears from the pain and couldn’t stop his voice from quivering and himself from stuttering, “I-I will not, n-n, NEVER submit!”

“As promised, we will spend a lot of time together.”

What happened next can only be described vaguely and not completely.

Few days have passed since then, learning that the conventions in this realm were quite similar to ones in media. The person was a mage, which was someone focused on the studies of both magic and spells. Usually known to be prideful yet have the power and will to act like so.

Not in this case.

If the man’s body was inspected, he had suffered broken joints. No, not the tiny and puny ones on your fingers; but the ones on the limbs. He also suffered deprivation of food and sleep, waterboarding, and “some” stabbing. After what seemed to be forever for both Kei and the man, the man finally spilt the not so secret secrets of magic.

Mana. A universal source of energy to morph, modify, and augment the world around you. It flows through all the phases of matter. There were multiple known uses of the seemingly-infinite energy. An example of a simple civilian magic was heating water and blowing a cool breeze.

Rarely is there an individual talented enough to be able to specialize or further the realm of magic to create great feats. Those particular individuals have learned through trial and error seemingly-impossible spells, from healing to raising the dead, summoning and even controlling space and time. The possibility was endless but only if you had the talent and mana pool to do so.

He began from the complex, defying the laws of learning, like controlling his shadow, forcing the immediate growth of plants, and most importantly: Healing major wounds for both his self and other purposes.

“I think I got the hang of the spells. Now I’ll just sneak into town by modifying my presence.”

Kei then took whatever belongings from the mage’s corpse which succumbed to the intense torture and left.

***

A week had since passed since the horrific incident. The guard who robbed Kei at the toll gate was hiding away from his duties of being a guard, locking away what remained of his sanity. His father was repeatedly pestering his son to get out of the house and do his job because it’s been a week since the incident and nothing anomalous has happened.

Despite the seemingly tranquil events of the past week, the town was still on lockdown and sent multiple yet small expedition groups into the forest where the demon fled. Some came back empty handed however others went missing. In fear of retaliation done directly to the town, a wanted poster with a bounty was made, even going as far as making a quest to hunt him down as submitted by the government itself to the Adventurer’s Guild.

With magic, the surveillance of the town in the dead of the night was rendered useless by Kei. He slipped in and waited until the sun was up so he can sightsee, despite his infamy in the town. He doubted everybody knew his face or checked the posters.

The sun was high in the sky and the streets bustling with activity. Seemingly-endless lines of shops and stalls can be seen until the horizon. The air was filled with the delicious scent of food, so much that the fragrance alone filled one’s stomach. But sadly, every time Kei tried to interact with someone by talking or buying, everyone ignored him or even yelled at him for harassing them.

***

Morning became noon, and noon quickly became evening. Seeking shelter, he visited countless inns, whose number was only beaten by how many times he was rejected. He finally found a place to stay in an abandoned building in the slum district owned by another one of his race: a demon named Cal. The impoverished man had two horns on his head and reddish magma-like colored skin but no wings. According to him, that was what the majority of the demon race looked like with only a few variances of skin color and horns.

When Kei was walking about, wondering and asking around, Cal noticed his attempts and pitied him for not understanding how low his class was in this abusive world. No, he wasn’t just low class. He was lower than low class; they were insects, like ants in the eyes of the 'higher classed' races.

Finally, someone who listens to me and a source of information.

Kei asked all sorts of questions regarding and relating to currency, politics, and the social standings of the demons.

Currency was categorized from least to most valuable metal: copper, silver, gold, white gold, blue gold coins. As far as money was concerned, the cheapest meal would cost 4 copper coins. 50 silver coins can support a family of 3 if they lived on only their needs for years. For example, each family member eats 3 meals a day or done no unnessary spending like gifts.

The true luxury items in the public’s eyes like slaves and large plots of land were usually purchased in normal, white, or blue gold.

During the war, the demons were tenacious and ferocious, taking down most of their enemies leaving both sides wounded, like suicide bombers but the power was in their fists and not their equipment.

However, the demons still lost due to the combined efforts of all the other races, being pushed back to the corner of their continent and losing their rightful land.

Losing the war, the demons were treated like scum. The loser had no rights to complain. More accurately, they had no rights. History and its rules were written by the winners and were the ones who propagandized the hate for the ones who lost.

While discrimination against the other races wasn’t allowed, it wasn't frowned upon. It’s legally not allowed to do so, but if no one reports you doing it, who cares? They didn’t pull their punches at the demons’ expense. Now, here we are: the demons had lost, the ones who survived had moved to the barren lands to escape persecution, poor living conditions, or enslavement. It wouldn't be far that it would be possibly to turn the whole race into a slave race.

The only possibly reputable job for the demons to earn a decent living wage was to become an adventurer. Even if it was a high-risk – high-reward occupation with low success rates of people making a living income, at least there were a few benefits attached to becoming one. Benefits such as getting an identification card, having a voice and standing in the community, and the possible hope for success if you’re lucky enough.

If you aren’t, then you’re just dirt on the road and the others will wish you luck; not pulling you up with their hands.

The question and answer session made Kei very grateful towards Cal and wanted to give him some money from his coffers from the dead mage’s cold hard soil coffin, but Cal refused, saying,

“The food that you shared is enough to pay. Fellow demons have to stick together and live through the storm known as life.”

Why do you refuse? Don’t you need money to live? What an idiot. Guys like these are just too much. Nice but…

Kei just shook his head and prepared himself to rest. He laid his body on the floor and covered himself with a blanket. There was no bed nor mattress in this house. It wasn’t even a house! It was just a run-down shack.

Kei’s goal tomorrow was to go to the slave auction house as soon as he rose from his slumber.

Apparently, slavery is legal in multiple countries, including this one wherein he resides. Kei saw multiple shops showing their “wares” in public.

Kei wanted to own a few slaves, not just to satisfy his libido when it came knocking at his door, but also to have companions on his travels, bodyguards (not like he needs them), or maybe even as servants.

Still, though, their main purpose was to be eye candy.