The claim was crazy, but there were no other probable explanations. Still, the ability was a confusing one…How did it work? Why did he have it? Most confusing of all, Kazius could genuinely not hear or tell when he was speaking a different language. It was as if his mouth followed his intent, but that was it.

“Uh…Excuse me a second.” Kazius told the Merchant before turning back to talk to his friends. He intended originally to finish his conversation first, but Azanor was motioning him over.

Azanor seemed to be curious, staring at Kazius. He was deep in thought before speaking up.

“Tell me… Do you understand me now?” Azanor would ask in a whisper.

“Of course, I do… Why are we whispering?” Kazius would answer in confusion.

“Well Demon is a language that freaks out those who do not understand it… And I rather not bring any distress to Eve… And I guess Alice too… Anyway. I just I wanted to test if you could understand it… You are quite the interesting and dangerous fellow, Kazius… Some Races have similar abilities… But not to such an extent… We Demons can communicate with mortals by looking into their souls, so we can resonate with them and make a deal… But it has its limits… You shouldn’t have been able to understand a language that only Demons know. You could so frightening things with a power like that… For you…Though I suppose if you act like an idealistic fool you could use it for a good cause and all that garbage. A waste of your time though, in my opinion…. No one will thank you.” Azanor would chuckle out no longer whispering. Despite his chuckle, there was a hint of bitterness at his advice.

Alice narrowed her gaze at Azanor.

“So, if Eve was not around you would have spoken it out loud.” Alice questioned accusingly.

“I won’t answer that.” Azanor responded hesitantly.

“Don’t be upset, Azanor is a good person.” Eve assured Alice.

“Okay okay, don’t argue… I should finish talking to that vendor. Then we can go get the map… He told me where to buy one, but I want to see if I can trade some supplies with him for enough money to do that. “ Kazius intervened. It seemed the two were on better terms, but they still would bicker.

“Fine…” Alice stated with a sigh.

“Sorry about that, thank you for waiting… So, you mentioned bartering… What sort of things have decent value around here?” Kazius questioned.

“Since you are a traveler…” The vendor perked up, seeming eager about something.

“Do you by any chance have food from the West? I would recommend you barter with that… You will get a good amount of coin… Especially chicken eggs, chicken, duck, oh those pheasants they have out West are especially tasty in my opinion… Just don’t try to use metal here… No offense… But travelers use the ugliest scrap metal I have ever seen as coin…” The vendor seemed to almost fantasize about the food.

‘Poutry? Really?’

Kazius wondered in shock only to realize something… Upon entering the dark forest… He did not recall seeing any birds… He didn’t think any of it back then… Especially considering it could be dismissed as the trees being too thick to allow any to fly around… Did the people here hunt them into extinction? Then again… Perhaps due to the place being full of Leviathans in the past, birds may have just avoided the area all together.

“I see, thank you. That is really helpful… We do have food supplies… We might part with enough to get a map and some extra coin.” Kazius stated, relieved they had something of value here.

“I do think we have some cured poultry…” He trailed off, rummaging in his bag.

It was then the snake’s eyes would go wide at the sight of cured duck. His slitted pupils practically dilated at the sight of it.

“I will buy that, name your price.” The Vender would state, determined. Did they value food that much? Or was it because they couldn’t get such Poultry around here?

“Huh? This?”

“Yes! I will give you 4… No! 5 gold coins. Please! That looks incredible!” The Vendor exclaimed with excitement that was almost concerning Kazius. He was starting to fear getting bit with how excited the guy seemed.

“Is that poultry!?” Another passerby snake man would ask.

“No, go away, this one is mine!” The shopkeeper would hiss.

Oh, this was quickly becoming a mess. He didn’t want to be the source of a scene.

“Look, this guy helped me out so I will have to give it to him and only him.”

With that, it seemed passersby left it at that, but very begrudgingly. Kazius would trade with the shop keep after that.

“Please do come back!” The vendor exclaimed.

“Maybe some time.” Kazius stated, still weirded out by the exchange.

“What was that about?” Alice asked in confusion.

“People here get way too excited about poultry…” Kazius admitted.

“Really? Well, birds have always avoided this area like the plague… And even if they tried farming them… I am not sure they would be able to last long… Part of me wants to let some chickens loose here and see what happens.” Azanor mused with a slight wickedness to his smile.

“Don’t you dare.” Alice scolded.

“Teasing people is bad.” Eve reminded him.

“I won’t, but you can’t blame me for wondering… I’m still a Demon, just a very well behaved one…” Azanor chuckled out before he shook his head as if trying to chase away the urge to do something that would probably cause a riot if everyone in Veleno shared such an enthusiasm when it came to poultry.

Alice sighed before looking at Kazius.

“So what do their coins look like?” She asked curiously.

Kazius perked up, realizing he accepted the coins without even looking at them. He would take them out only for his jaw to almost hit the floor.

Even though the coins were simple currency… The purity and shine they had was almost unbelievable. Kazius was not sure even Dwarven royalty has such easy access to such pure and beautiful looking gold… The coin itself had intricate designs. Each one had a one carved as well as some sort of snake on it… The snake itself did not look like a normal snake though… It seemed to have weird fins on its head. While the rest of the coin was gold, the carving of the snake was done in a beautiful platinum that made the snake look white.

“It is like a work of art… Is that just their normal currency? Look at that snake… It looks so pretty.” Alice asked in awe.

“That is not a snake… It is a Leviathan…. You can tell by those fins… She managed something amazing…” Azanor admitted, genuinely impressed.

“She?” Kazius questioned.

“There is only one white Leviathan… At least as far as I know… Serpente… She is a terrifying one… Never saw her for myself… but I’ve heard of her… She must be the Leviathan here... The fact they have her on their currency… Makes me think she founded the place…” Azanor explained.

“I wonder how she did it… Maybe she invested a new way to purify metal.” Alice stated curiously.

“No clue… Anyway, that should be more than enough for one map… Let’s go.” Azanor stated, likely wanting to be on their way.

Veleno was an interesting place… Kazius knew they had to keep moving, but one day he hoped to return and make the best out of a visit here.

They went to bookstore, indeed getting a map and it only took one coin.

One their way out though, they all froze… It became clear why the people here were so used to visitors… Out in the distance, Kazius spotted them… A whole group of them… Dwarves. This place bordered Thimdur… And it seemed Dwarves were not even near as secluded as Ratier…. They had not spotted them… But Kazius knew it would not be a good thing to be seen.