Walking along the main street of the village, the three blended perfectly into the mass of inhabitant, given how diversified the residents were. The village was a melting pot containing hundreds if not thousands of different races cohabitating together in peace and harmony.

It wasn’t a strange sight to see an eight meters tall giant having a drink with a dwarf of the size of an apple. Some creatures looked very similar to humans while some others seemed to have been designed by a two years old child.

For a moment after staring at a very strange creature, Shina somehow remembered one of her own drawing from when she was still living on Earth.

A strange though traveled through her head before shaking it silently.

It’s probably just my imagination… She wondered for a moment while looking at Mystel before completely dismissing the idea.

Leaving the main street after turning at a certain corner, Mystel released Shina’s hand before gently caressing her head and pointing at a certain building with her hand.

“Just wait for me inside for a few minutes, okay? I’ll come back really~ quickly. As long as you stay there you don’t have to worry about anything bad happening.”

Anyone who knew Mystel would have a hard time believing what Irio was actually seeing. Mystel was having a hard time separating from Shina just for a few minutes and seemed to be on the verge of crying as she couldn’t resist giving her a final hug.

“If anyone annoys you don’t hesitate to beat them up, even if you break a few bones this is not a problem.”

“Hm~” Shina replied with a nod.

Irio made a wry smile as he sighed.

“Hey, isn’t this place supposed to be a ‘non-violence’ area?”

Taking a haughty attitude, Mystel glared at him as if he was spouting some absolute nonsense.

“So what? What do you think is the most important between some shitty rules and my daughter?”

Avoiding her glare, Irio looked aside as he muttered: “You’re the one who made them…”

Mystel’s face lit up with a broad smile as she thought it was a good occasion to give Shina some advice that might be useful in her future.

“Remember, rules are made for you to break them. Whether they're made by you or others, if you think they're useless and uninteresting, don’t hesitate!”

In contrast to Irio’s tired face, Shina absorbed Mystel’s teachings with sparkling eyes as she repeatedly nodded.

“Just what are you teaching her…”

“Useful knowledge.”

Irio turned to Shina with a desperate expression. Under Mystel’s education, Irio wasn’t very sure how Shina would turn out to be in the future. Most mothers would teach their child about being virtuous, caring etc… Mystel, on the other hand, was the perfect example of what she should not become.

Opening the building’s door, Mystel smiled as she made a sign for Shina to enter.

The door’s inside was completely different from what she was expecting, it was linked to another dimension. But knowing whom this city belonged to, Shina felt like it wasn’t really a surprise.

The building’s insides was a large playground like those that she had seen on Earth, but far bigger as at a first glance it looked like a small town.

Shina felt like she had somehow underestimated this village; if every building and residence were the same; then wouldn’t this village, in reality, be almost as big as a continent?

As she stepped inside, Shina saw that there weren’t any adult inside, except for the various strange monsters whom she was unable to deduce their age. If the outside of the town was a world for adults, then inside this building was the kids' world.

“I’ll try to be really quick, just try to make a few friends, okay? And remember, if someone is annoying you… Just kick them a few times.”

“She won’t make any if she listens to you.”

Hearing Irio’s complain didn’t perturb Mystel the slightest as she coldly snorted and replied.

“It didn’t prevent me from making some.”

“You still killed the majority of them...”

“You’re being annoying… Shina sweetie, let me show you an example; Irio, let me break your legs.”

Having sensed Mystel’s intents under her fake smile, swiftly started to run away.

Shina laughed at their exchange, making Mystel smile as well as she gently kissed her forehead and caressed her hairs a few times before turning toward the exit.

“Try to make a few friends, okay?” She said before leaving.

After Mystel left, a small echo entered Shina’s ears as the door closed.

“Irio you bastard, hurry and bring your ass back here. I am going to slice the shit out of you!”

Ignoring her mother’s foul mouth, Shina turned a deaf ear to Mystel’s last words and started walking further inside this mysterious playground.

* * * * *

Walking within the playground, Shina realized that she had underestimated its size as she was now lost within a miniature town. Observing her surrounding, Shina quickly realized that this ‘playground’ was actually far more complex than what Mystel made it seems.

From the conversation she heard all around her and by closely observing a lot of children, she realized that one of the true objectives of this playground was to form groups and alliances.

From her point of view, their actions didn’t divert that much from the humans. Some of them like the vampires who harbored pale skins and were dressed in nobles clothing were overlooking the others with eyes full of disdain and pride. Some others like the demons whose mains characteristic were their long horns and black wings were enjoying displaying their own strength and competing against each other, something which was tolerated as long as no one was gravely wounded.

Of course, not every youngling were divided into factions, some groups were a gathering of every species who simply enjoyed spending time together but some more mature and ambitious children were using this opportunity to gain followers of lower class.

Now that Mystel was gone, Shina’s expression changed into a more mature one as if she had experienced a change of personality. It was an expression that she hadn’t really shown to them before, she looked more composed. In a certain way, she looked in some ways like her previous self from Earth.

It wasn’t as if she was purposely hiding this part of her, but just that as long as she remained under her parents' protection, this part of her personality didn’t need to manifest and she could act as childish as she wanted.

Carefully observing the children around them, Shina sighed before distancing herself from the mass. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to make friends, but more that she didn’t feel the need to make fake friends.

Most of the children still harbored either a childish and innocent mind or were already tainted by their parents prejudice just like the vampires. The image of the mature black haired girl she had met in the human’s city kept appearing in her mind.

Unlike most of the people here, Eniel possessed a certain maturity above her age and saw the world as it truly was, in Shina’s mind. Despite her situation as an orphan from the slum in criminal city, she still retained a great willpower and a certain sense of honor and pride hidden behind her cold eyes.

Maybe it was because of how special she felt Eniel was that she thought the children here were lacking…

Yet at the same time, a strong force crashed onto Shina’s body who was thrown a few meters away.

“...Hic…Hic…”

A young girl with long pink hairs with two long brown horns coming out of her head was lying on the ground. Dressed in a very simple white sleeveless shirt exposing her porcelain pure white skin and red pants seeming too big for her, the girl’s face was somewhat colored with a light pink.

But the most intriguing was the metallic collar on her neck being holden by a broken chain which was very similar to the ones used on criminals or slaves.

The girl was in a bad state, her arms were covered with cut and wounds and one of her horn was badly damaged. Obviously, her wounds weren’t caused by Shina but most likely by her potential pursuers.

While appearing a little dizzy, Shina managed to stand up as thankfully her scales had absorbed most of the shock. Despite her innate strength, Shina was still shocked by how easily she was sent flying by this little girl whose strength was definitely far greater than her own.

“...Hic… Hic…”

Vigilantly approaching the unmoving girl who seemed to be sobbing, as a strong smell attacked Shina’s nose; she quickly realized that what she thought to be sobbings were in fact hiccups which released a strong stench of alcohol. The little girl who looked barely older than Shina was actually dead drunk.

Still somewhat in a daze, the girl grabbed a small gourd which was lying close to her with a stupid smile and took a few mouthful of its inside.

“Haah~ There’s nothing better than that!” She exclaimed with a satisfied smile.

A strange expression surfaced on the girl’s face as she looked she and Shina looked at each other for tens of seconds, the girl finally broke the silence as she extended her gourd toward Shina.

“...Want some?... Hic...”

Shina looked at the gourd filled with hesitated. Truthfully, she really wanted to take a sip but at the same time, she felt wary toward this drunk strange girl. Yet looking at the girl's eyes, she couldn’t see any trace of malice but only wariness.

Finally taking the gourd, Shina smelled the inside which was giving off a sweet fruity scent mixed with strong alcohol. Taking a glance at the strange girl, she took a large sip of the nectar which burned her throat and set her stomach aflame.

*Cough Cough* The girl laughed as Shina gave her gourd back to her and drank a few sip as well.

“Hic...That’s what I call drinking!”

The girl's easy going attitude somehow made Shina smile as she somehow began to feel interested in her.

“My name is Shina, what’s yours?”

The girl's eyes widened for a moment before warmly smiling with a sunny smile.

“My name is Kanabo… Kanabo the Oni.”