After a long-fought battle with the elemental resulting in us being beaten to a pulp, and being saved by some mysterious guy we were back on the road.

We weren’t fully recovered, well at least I haven’t fully recovered, those two or more or less unscathed. Even with this body, it seems to have some limits, parts of my body still ache from time to time. Maybe a day or two and I’ll be better.

On this road trip, we had baskets of fruits, vegetables, dried meats, and dried fish...well what looks to be dried fish. There’s no refrigerator noir is there an icebox, so all the fresh fruits and vegetables bought from the local towns had to be eaten first, or else they’ll go bad in only a couple of days.

“Ugh...this dried stuff...I doubt it’s good for your body.”

I kept on gnawing on a piece of dried meat if I tried to bite a piece of my teeth would surely shatter into a million pieces.

“Well it’s the only thing we got, raw meat would spoil quickly, and who knows what kind of creatures it might entice out on the road.” Explained Robbert.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, hwaa! I'm bored!”

There isn't really that much to do while on the road, we see the same things over and over again so it gets harder every second to try and have a conversation. Interacting with the local townsfolk and villagers is already not an option, the only thing we'd be talking about there is how we're gonna be arrested.

“U-um... how about we talk more about ourselves? Yknow...like our background, get to know each other a little better.”

“Huh?”

“W-we don't have to do if you don't want to…”

“No...that's actually a great idea Alexandria! That'll help with the boredom and dead silence in this wagon! Well since your the one that suggested it Alexandria, you should go first!”

“Wha!”

“Hah! You heard me! Ya going first! Don't be shy!”

“F-fine then! I don't mind going first!”

Alexandria took a deep breath.

“So I come from a line of dark kings, the dark kings is a line demons capable of powerful magic and melee combat skills, they once were a dominant force thousand of thousands of years ago and lead the demon empire to prosperous victories. Well, that's what I read in the old books in the manor and what the old dying advisors of the dark kings said to me when I was really young. Apparently, towards the end of the dark king dominance, a new race emerged, in the old demon language they were called the humannis, they rose up and in the end, became stronger than the dark kings overthrowing them and wiping out most of what's known of the dark kings and the demon empire, the remnants of the dark kings and the demon empire had to be evacuated and so they all resided in the manor of the dark kings. Those humannis later became humans and established the human empire and my advisors said that most of the monster races today descended from the demons long ago. There have been hundredths of dark kings but the most legendary and influential dark kings in history are the ones I have descended from, I come from a bloodline of legendary dark kings, my father, his father, his father's father, and so on. I plan on carrying this legendary bloodline and proving myself that I am worthy of it.”

The history of this world is truly interesting, isn't it?

“And so I am the last living dark king, there may be small demon tribes scattered throughout the continents, I want to explore the world and regroup all the remnants of the demon empire and build a new one...sorry Antonio for only telling you about my plans this late, I truly did plan on telling you it earlier but I never really had the time to.”

“Woah...hah! Don't sweat it! Didn't know you were that ambitious!”

“Dark kings? Demons? AGHHHH!!!! I'm so lost!”

Of course, the muscle brain Elizabeth couldn't take in this much information.

“Of course Elizabeth wouldn't understand anything about the dark kings and the old demon races, the humannis have long wiped out any books and culture of them.” Said Alexandria with her fist on her thigh.

Ah, the atmosphere got pretty dark...

“I wanna go next!” Yelled Elizabeth as if she was a kindergartener.

“Well knock yourself out.”

“What?”

“I mean go ahead.”

“Alright! So not too long ago there were communities of dullahans all around the country, they lived peacefully, trading, and interacting with other people, they were respectful race and they never caused any harm but one day someone who was richly dressed and was followed by strong warriors appeared. The dragon raced man said his name was Ezekiel and that hereby every dullahan was now a slave of the human government, the dullahans were outraged! They've never caused any trouble and yet they were being forced into slavery. Some dullahans took up arms, they didn't want to be slaves, they'd rather die than to let that happen to them. And so every dullahan that could fight fought him, they were all slaughtered, and that bastard Ezekiel smiled as they killed each dullahan! I was there! I saw everything! My father told me to get away as far as I could and I ran, years later I revisited the village and it was gone, not a trace of a person was left, it was as if Ezekiel wiped them out of existence.”

Sigh...another tragic and dark story, whatever, I’m slowly learning more and more about everyone.

“Goddamn it that bastard Ezekiel! I’ll kill him whenever I get the chance to! I traveled from place to place trying to drag Ezekiel out and in front of me so I could get my revenge!”

“Woah there Elizabeth, that can wait, can't it? Personally I’d rather not run into him anytime soon.”

“Well we don’t know how strong he or his group is…”

“If they can kill a bunch of dullahans that are like ours right here then it’d seem as though they are pretty tough.”

“Well I guess I’ll be next.” Robber chimed in.

“Go ahead.”

“So your all wondering why I became affiliated with the gang.”

Ehh...I’m not too interested in how to be honest, as a former lackie and former mob boss I’m pretty sure I could easily tell his story without even knowing it, this is gonna be quite cliche isn’t it?

“Well the same reason most people join a gang.”

Ah...there it is, I’m guessing his reasons are gonna be either, 1, he was poor and needed a way to support his family. 2, he wanted to find a purpose for himself and the crime gang was a way to find it. 3, his family was involved in the gang before and he just grew within it. 4, he was forced into it. Well...it should probably be one of those four, those were the most common chases for people to join a gang.

“Well you’d be surprised, the reason I joined the gang was because……”

Go on, surprise me, tell me something I haven’t heard yet Robbert, I’m counting on you.

“I just thought it was going to be fun, beige the gang I was just spending my days doing minor labor jobs and they always bored me to death.”

Seriously? For fun? Sigh...heh...sounds like something Michaelangelo would say.

“Well I’m grateful to be in this gang because it’s always jam packed with surprises! One example is meeting you three and getting to know you guys.”

“Wow, so sentimental huh?” Said Alexandria.

“Hahaha! I can’t help it! That’s how I truly feel! Even though there were times where I thought we wouldn’t have made it, and where I thought I wasn’t gonna make it, in the end it was fun, exciting, and the reason why I wanted to join the gang in the first place!”

“That’s a dangerous attitude isn’t it? Even though it’s dangerous and there’s a chance you might not get to see tomorrow, you do it because it's “fun”.

“Your exactly right boss!”

“Hah! And that’s why I’m keeping you in this gang! I like your attitude! It’d be great if every member of the gang were like you.”

“I appreciate the kind words...boss.”

“And so! The last person iiiiiisssss, Antonio! Tell me...I mean us more about you.” Said Alexandria looking extremely curious.

Elizabeth also wore a curious face, and I could see the same for Robbert whenever he glanced back for a second. Oh boy, how am I gonna bulshit my way out of this?

“Yeah boss, I know your my boss but I have no clue who you really are, from my point of view, it just looks like you popped out of nowhere and took on the reigns of the gang.”

“Hahahaaa...well...erm...it’s a long story you see.”

Alexandria and Elizabeth who sat close to me leaned a bit over towards me and it looked like a bunch of kids gathering around a school teacher, who was about to read a story out loud. They had curious faces and their eyes were filled with expectations, I’ve fought many things and so those two probably have some kind of image of me in their heads that’s super powerful and stuff. Far from the truth that's for sure.

“Hmm…”

They leaned ever so slightly closer whenever I said a word, made a slight movement, or made a small noise. They were clearly anticipating some great chronicle that I was gonna tell.

My eyes wander and in the corner of my eye I see a forest. We were approaching it fast, luckily an idea popped into my head that’ll include the forest and get me out of this situation.

“Umm...I gotta use the bathroom let’s stop by that forest just up ahead! I gotta use it like really badly!”

“What about talking about yourself?”

“That’ll have to wait! Nature's calling!”

Once I go inside the forest I’m gonna take some time to think of another way to avoid talking about myself, this’ll have to do for now.

“Alright I’m stopping in front of the forest! Make it quick!”

The wagon stops and I quickly get out of the wagon and run into the forest. The forest was just your average typical forest, a lot of dirt, rocks, and green plants. I’ll burn some time wandering a bit, I’ll make sure to make some good distinctive footprints on the first so I don’t lose my way.

“Shaku, yaphwani no hetyo fotrwa humanni.”

“Shashwa neswoni sesano niqutei!”

An unfamiliar language filled the air do the forest, not only was this language unfamiliar, I couldn’t understand a word of what they were saying.

“Humanni fateani forthro soni.”

“Haya, humanni soto shwani.”

Humanni? Isn’t that what Alexandria was saying in her whole history lesson of the dark kings and demons? Wait...could this be a lost-

“Shakra fortwani!”

THUNK

…………………………………

“Shawani shutawi koshoni.”

My eyes slowing open, my vision is blurry and I could feel a warm liquid slowly dropping from the top of my head. This liquid dropped down from my forehead onto my nose, and the liquid turned out to be blood.

There was a man in front of me, he had a horn protruding out from his forehead, these horns were like the ones Alexandria has on her head. The man wore a black robe and had a long wooden stick that was crooked and had some kind of skull on the top, the man looked to be about rightly and his grey hair swayed with the wind.

Behind the horned man was a campfire, and many other horned people gathered around it, there were women, elderly, men, and children.

Don’t tell me...did I find a long lost demon tribe!?!?!?