— [?] Denis

— A two horned who doesn’t have any idea what world he is in. Or rather, how this world works.

As I listened to my surroundings, I heard loud panting just close by as if I’m listening to an Olympic runner moving to the speeds of up to 20 miles per hour and soon I realized it was actually me.

Currently I’m still running through the dark alley way which is full of less shit.

I never thought that my seemingly random talent of running fast could potentially save my life since the city of Ronto is so over populated that my chances of ever getting caught up in a mugging is really low so I didn’t really think that running fast would be that useful. Except for the time when I'm late for work, which i never get to experience.

When I threw that pouch filled with flash powder using some ingredients I found in that room which is actually a lucky break, I threw to it a handful of molten lava which the pain still stings until now then a flash of bright light blinded them all so I make a break for it and managed to leave through the backdoor before they can recover.

How I did it you might ask my beautiful subconscious? Well for one, I know the recipe for making flash powder. These flash powders are used in the past (Probably until now) as a flash when taking a photograph.

All you need is sulphur, aluminum powder, and potassium nitrate which all are readily available in that room. Mostly all actually.

Since the room is mostly made of stone with very little maintenance, these kinds of elements naturally form. Firstly, the sulphur is already there in the form of rocks. Potassium nitrate is luckily there also because of the decaying corpse and the stone walls. Aluminum is the one I took a gamble in since I didn’t know that they serve food with aluminum foil. I shouted out that I’m hungry and there, on the tray that the caretaker is carrying is aluminum foil. I subdued him and grind the aluminum foil into a powder. It was not pleasant for my arms and hands since I had to finely grind it.

I mixed up the ingredients and there it is.

Then a nurse came in which I assume to check on why the caretaker took so long to arrive which I then made her as a hostage.

Thinking back on it, I really am just lucky.

Right now, I’m hiding inside a barrel that I saw which is made of some sort of wood material in the back alleyway. It’s a bit moldy with a fungi like thing growing out from the sides but it’s better than running aimlessly.

I can see through the hole of the barrel the people in the streets rushing to their destination. From commoners to peasants to slaves, this place sure is crowded. Brown liquid splashes upon every step with a short yet noticeable sudden change in the people’s expression when they’re hit with the splash accompanying it.

The pungent smell of rotting feces and garbage is the first thing you’ll notice upon entering this town. The arrangement of the houses are like those in the middle-ages. Rather than some being made out of wood, all of them are made out of stone.

Soon after, I turned my gaze towards the wagon moving unsteadily, like its wheels are made of rocks clumped together. The material used to make the wagon appears to be the same wood that’s used to make the very barrel I reside in though the wagon looks as if it was left for years until termites had eaten all of almost half of it.

The wagon is being pulled by a horse I assume but with a distinct characteristic. Rather than skin, the horse is covered in scales.

The driver covered himself/herself with a dark grey robe, taking the appearance of a desert dweller but I took back that thought when I saw the goods, which is also covered in dark grey cloth in the wagon. Looks like he/she is a merchant.

“Everyone—!”

Then I heard a sudden shout not so far from where I am. From those words, it seems it’s a public announcement.

“—Please be on the look-out for this man! This man is a murderer whom had killed a caretaker in our own and only hospital! He is wearing a formal attire and has two horns!—"

Upon hearing the words “two horns” more people took interest on the guy’s announcement and gasped. Looks like I am a wanted man now. Just great. Two horned demons really are infamous.

I couldn’t really see the announcer but from his words alone I can assume that he’s holding a picture of me to show to the people.

“—Furthermore, those who captured that man alive, please deliver him to the hospital and you’ll be rewarded one thousand runni! This announcement is approved by our town mayor, Aubey Hays!”

As expected, the mention of a reward made a spectacle on the crowd. I’m really screwed if I don’t get out of this town quickly.

Looks like the mayor’s name is Aubey Hays. Odd name for this era I think but not too sure.

The currency's name here is runni.

I looked at the map that Rabusto had given me.

This map shows the very far eastern continent of this world called hell with some lines and dots on certain places drawn on it. The guys who saved me are really wanderers of some kind. Looks like the head doctor actually told me something truthful.

Judging from the geography of this place, this town is at the south of the continent. The ocean of flame is relatively close from here which is also appropriately coloured red in the map.

The continent is surrounded by the colour red which implies the ocean of flame. But one question still remains, where’s the water located? There should be some since this place is full of it but in the form of brown. I should worry about that later.

After examining the map even more, the place where the Demon Lord lives in isn’t in this continent.

Killing the Demon Lord is the last of my priorities so for now, I have to worry about escaping this town and moving to another one where I am not wanted. I should also mind my horns. If someone with two horns is taboo here, the chances that the other places with the same belief is high.

For now, I’ll make my movement in the back alleyway so fewer people will notice me.

As I was about to get out of the barrel, a woman with a dark red hair and possessing an emotionless expression like she was watching a boring movie and is on the verge of falling asleep, wearing a dirty gown that a peasant would wear, is there staring down on me.

What makes the situation worse is the fact that this woman has one horn. The very ones who scorns two horned demons.

Shit.

“…H-Hey?”

I smiled meekly at her which she responded with nothing.

She continued to stare at me.

“You…? Aren’t you going to capture me?”

She shook her head. Looks like she doesn’t want to.

I tried to slowly get myself out of the barrel and when I’m half way done, she suddenly spoke.

“Why are you wearing those kinds of clothes?”

“Well, I’m not too sure myself.”

I finally moved my entire body out of the barrel. Nobody noticed me since we are in a dark alleyway and even though I’m completely exposed, I don’t expect someone will notice me through all this darkness since I’m wearing black.

I turned my head towards this weird woman whom is shorter than me. I made a complicated expression and I greeted her again, now in a more normal matter.

“Hello, my name is Denis. Thank you for not screaming when you saw me.”

The woman, who still have an emotionless expression, moved her lips.

“I’ve been staring at you for a few minutes now, trying to figure out why you were in this barrel.”

A few minutes!?

She is something else. No normal person would actually do that, right? Although I do that sometimes but at a level were I’m not directly seen by the person I’m staring at.

I scratched the back of my head.

“About that. I was running from those guys who are searching for me and then I stumbled upon this barrel and waited in here until they’ve given up.”

She sharply looked at me like I had violated a common rule.

“May I ask, is what the doctor said true?”

“Which one?”

“Did you kill the caretaker.”

Her expression changed from an emotionless doll to that of as if she’s looking at a villainous criminal.

“Ah that? It may had looked like it but I didn’t kill him. I merely tranquilized him.”

I told her the truth since I can’t very much hide my expression whenever I tell a lie.

“Is that so?”

I nodded in reply.

She placed her hand on her chin, looking as if she is thinking about something. She fixed her gaze on the ground for a moment and then looked at me again.

“Had you recently arrived at this place? Or were you kidnapped. Judging the clothes you wear, I presume it’s the latter?”

She’s really curious about me for some reason. Maybe it’s because, leaving aside my horns, I look like a noble. A strange noble wearing a tattered dress. Anyone would be curious on seeing someone like that.

“More or less. I was rescued by two wanderers of sort and sent me to the hospital which they then treated my wounds. They treated me with respect. I soon realized that their treatment is but a façade so I wouldn’t expect that they would sell me off in the slave market, I planned to escape after i knew that.”

Looks like my answer didn’t satisfy her.

“Rescued you? What happened then?”

“I can’t recall. Sorry.”

The reason I can’t recall is because my mind is transferred to this body by god without any sort of background on whatever resulted in that accident. It’s really cruel for him to do that, he must have laughed his ass off on seeing how I reacted to it.

“You were going to be sold off in the slave market, yes?”

“Yes.”

“From how you said it, you seem like you don’t know anything. Even if you are a noble birth, you should have known that two horned demons are scorned by society.”

“I don’t know that beforehand. I really thought that that’s the norm of this place.”

Again her expression changes. She grimaced at my response like she’d just heard something stupid.

“Why did you think that that’s the norm of this place? There’s no town nor kingdom where they treat two horned demons like their equal. Are you perhaps stupid?”

Though she didn’t raise her voice, there’s still a weight of anger in her voice.

I should just be completely honest with her. She is the only demon I knew of that I can talk to without that much worry. But of course, if she were some sort of affiliate of the hospital then i'll resort to threatening her. Somehow.

“To tell you the truth, I’m not particularly well informed about this place. To be more specific, I don’t know anything about this world.”

I said apologetically with a wry smile.

Her expression still didn’t change. Well, I didn’t expect her to believe me that fast.

“Aren’t you weird? Well, you don’t seem to be lying. Seems like you suffered from a mass memory dump from your accident”

Something caught my interest.

“What’s mass memory dump?”

“Like the name implies. It’s an extremely rare phenomenon where one, mostly two horned individuals, suffers a large scale memory erasure due to trauma, having to receive a serious injury, or having one’s horn cut off.”

Sounds scary.

“And that being rare, you didn’t doubt that hypothesis?”

“You’re a rare one yourself so I don’t doubt that something surreal as that were to happen to you.”

I unintentionally chuckled at her retort which she lightly smiled at.

From how our conversation is leading to, I think I can be a bit comfortable with her. She seems trustworthy, right? Well people in this world will almost treat me with prejudice. She is rare herself.

But of course, I still don’t fully trust her yet. From what I experienced before, people here can be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

I should confirm it and so I asked:

“I have to ask, why aren’t you calling me out?”

She seemed surprised on my sudden unexpected question which she quickly recovered from.

“I’ve been friends with some two horned in the past. You’re quite different from them because you really are ignorant to the world. The ones I’ve met before you are either traumatized from their past experiences or mentally retarded.”

“That’s quite a blunt description you gave them.”

“Nothing will change in this world if we didn’t speak our words truthfully. Lies are shallow words, they don’t have any weight to them.”

She’s interesting. I’ve never met anyone like her from earth.

Or maybe, I'm just with the wrong people.

Silence took over our conversation and as we just continued to stare at each other, a feeling of awkwardness comes to mind.

What should we talk about anyway?

As I was thinking about that, she broke the silence.

“My name is Bulrom—“

She placed her hand on her chest and looked at me with a cold gaze like the icy breeze of winter. I can tell that what she is about to say is something important.

“—and so Denis, would you care to stay at my home? Surely you don’t have anywhere to stay, correct?”

A very hospitable offer! I’m literally on the verge of crying right now but I successfully held it back.

“I will gladly accept such offer. Since you are my benefactor, I will try to help you out the best I could.”

She nodded to my statement.

“Of course you will. Bringing you in my home is very risky. It’s only natural that you pay your debt with service since that is the only thing you can offer me.”

She still possesses a cold gaze which sends a chill down my spine. Though I should be cautious. This kinds of acts is really unnatural. If I were her, I wouldn’t bring someone like me to their house. It will only lead to either getting arrested or getting burned at stake. Although demons are quite resistant to this unholy constant heat, I have first-hand experience to how hot lava can be. It’s like pouring a kettle of oil whilst still in flames on your hand.

“Really, thank you. Since coming to this world, you’re the only one that I can trust.”

She tilted her head at my words. Ah, a slip of the tongue.

“Coming to this world?”

“Please don’t mind that. It just felt like I was somehow summoned here when I experienced that mass memory dump we were talking about before you see.”

“Right, then please follow me. My house is just nearby. Although I apologize in advance if it’s too small for your liking since you seem to have been born in a decently wealthy family.”

She turned her body towards the left path and walked towards it.

“Why would I be picky when I’m the one receiving help?”

“Hm.”

There’s one thing that I learned in psychology is that when one is feeling like he/she is trusted, they will most likely not do something to break that trust.

Hopefully she wouldn’t sell me out but if I refused her offer, there’s nothing much I can do to get out of this town. So if I managed to persuade her into helping me move to another town where my identity isn’t spread throughout, then I’ll have more leeway to move around if I hid my horns.

I turned my gaze to her and followed suit from behind.

But for some reason, I felt like she smiled.

Probably just my imagination.