“That’s bullshit!” Granuel complained as we traveled down the road towards our next destination. The topic of Countess Sida had come up again, and I used my memory core to recall every single word of the conversation that happened days ago. My ishkawtan friend strongly objected to the accusations of goblin use. “They’re the ones seeding the goblins! So many of our outposts and villages have suffered because of them!”

  “Our outposts?”I raised a brow and smirked. “Sounds very plausible, but Granuel, I didn’t know you’ve had the opportunity to travel all the way to New Grandera, north or south. When did that happen!”

  “Ah, no. I’ve never actually been there, but… it’s a gotta be a hell of a lot better than here. Edengar or Angelore as a whole is just so difficult and evil. Why do people put up with this!?”

  “Pain of death, violence, plan social pressure, and fucking mind control,” I answered simply.

  “Yeah, it’s horrible.”

  “And New Grandera just did an outright terrorist attack.”

  “...That’s different. We don’t even know if it’s really them!”

  “No. It’s them.” I looked him in the eye. “Trust me. I know hate when I see it.”

  “O-okay…”

  “Well, that hate is still nothing compared to my own,” I shrugged and leaned back. “But my point is, Granuel. Don’t go romanticizing a place you’ve never even visited. You can help them, join them, or fight with them against a common foe. But you’d be no better than our current enemies if you come at this with outright fanaticism.”

  My friend mulled over my words, before nodding strongly. “You’re right! Thank you, Haell!”

  “For what?” I snorted and leaned back. The wagon rocked along the motions and I fell right asleep.

  ~~~

  “Do you guys still think we should be going to New Grandera?” Therick asked as we began to set up camp. If anything, I was surprised he had held back for this long, and just shut up during our earlier discussions.

  “It could be a brief stop,” I reiterated my position. “I don’t mind just heading straight for the Barrier Range or the Elven Lands right after.”

  “Right. I get that. But they just… killed so many people in that mall. And we’re still dealing with them! Working with them! Is that really what we want?”

  I glanced at him. He was arranging sticks and stones for our campfire tonight. “When I was seven, an inhex person attacked me. He attacked everyone. I almost died. Granuel almost died. And we were children. We didn’t do anything wrong. Does that mean that all of the inhex people should keep being enslaved forever?”

  “Well… no.”

  “Exactly. Any movement, no matter how righteous the cause, will have overeager, unthinking, if not outright fucking evil assholes among them. If that is the line you draw across the sand, then you best be ready to crack this entire world open like a fucking egg because there are no lands unstained by blood.”

  Therick finished setting up the campfire without another word, and Moonwash lit it up.

  “That was… very insightful. And unexpected.”

  “Unexpected?” I raised an eyebrow. “Do you want me to also crack you like an egg?”

  He choked, then we both shared a laugh.

  ~~~

  I relaxed atop the wagon as I watched over the men and women of differing species working on fixing the road. Some very physically strong humans, belfegors, and others churned out the ground, cut down the vegetation in our path, and crushed and placed rocks to create a stronger foundation for the road. Earth mages followed after them and flattened it all out to something more friendly to feet and wheels.

  Granuel and Moonwash had wanted to see how Edengar’s roads were created and maintained for themselves, and so we took an escort quest from the adventurer’s guild to do just that once the opportunity arose. I was glad the two of them were happy, and I found the process to be interesting enough to watch. I got lost in the rhythm of it all, and I was happy for the chance to relax, until Granuel suddenly shouted something to me.

  “Tarzanier! West!” I looked at where he was pointing, and I grew even happier. My greatsword slinked out of its sheathe, and I jumped down from the wagon to make my way towards the almost human-like hairless monster, if not for its tarsier-like face. It was a creature that was very well-adapted to life in the thick canopies of the rainforest… and it just gave up that advantage by jumping into the road. I was almost disappointed, but I was happy that it was able to dodge my first careless swing. Missing also made me angry, however, and my next strike came exponentially faster, neatly bisecting the creepy hairless creature in two.

  Granuel and Moonwash then processed the remains, and I hesitated for a second as to whether or not we should even eat it. The tarzanier’s meat was known to be a delicacy, however, and it wasn’t actually a fucking sapient human creature, so I swallowed my reservations and swallowed my first piece of roast.

  I would not be left out of a delicious meal. And delicious it was. The workers with us thought so as well when we shared our bounty with them. It was… nice to eat with this many people.

  The work continued after, and I was grateful for the occasional attacks that did not stop. We were a very slow-moving group, which gave the stalking monsters enough time to gather their courage and attack. The strangers with us gradually grew more lax as we took care of all the dangerous monsters without letting any ever get close. That proved fatal for two of their members when a swarm of barkbarks arrived, and we were unable to keep all of the little critters away.

  I clicked my tongue. It was unfortunate that they died, and it was my weakness that led to it.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I still needed more power. Much, much more.

  ~~~

  —Angerly PoV—

  I whistled softly as I walked down the streets of Yneba City. We were getting very close now to the borders between Edengar and New Grandera, and I really didn’t know what would happen once we tried to cross. I was curious about what an entirely new nation would bring, as I’d never been to one before. It both seemed irrelevant and like an entirely different world from Haell’s stories, but she’s literally from another world!

  I allowed my nose and eyes and all my senses to guide me, until I found a bar that was a feast for all the senses. I entered the fully wooden establishment, and the ambiance inside was just perfect, with its few but polite patrons and the belfegor bartender who moved with just the right amount of slowness to set the entire mood of the place.

  I took a seat by the counter. There were different chairs for people of all shapes and sizes. Even tyranights and sundertops may find refuge under the tall ceilings of this bar.

  “What would you like to order, miss?” the bartender asked. His skin was a deep brown, but would sometimes glimmer in a way that was almost bright.

  “Surprise me,” I smiled, then turned my gaze back to the establishment. It really looked quite… quaint. There was personality to it, and it felt like there was a meaning behind every choice. From the tasteful and sparse oil paintings, down to the placement of furniture and the kinds of barrels used.

  My order soon arrived, and it was a wonderfully sweet cocktail with a deceptively strong kick. I asked the bartender about his bar, and he explained just a few of the generalities, but soon talked extensively about his love and his passion once it became clear that I was truly listening and interested in the kind of life he had lived. It was one very different from my own, but I had always just enjoyed hearing people talk about what they were most passionate about. There was an energy to it that I couldn’t help but find so utterly magnetic.

  I left the building a happy and satisfied customer, but not before I got his name. He introduced himself as Paliar, and I returned the favor by sharing my own name. Angerly Lakerian, with my surname taken from Luine. It was necessary to have one for paperwork, and she had given her permission for any of us from the orphanage to use her name.

  “That was nice,” I whispered to myself as a light drizzle began. I had made a new friend today, like I always tried to do whenever we visited a new place.

  I would leave them behind soon enough.

  That was fine. It used to bother me, and I once even allowed it to control my own actions, to the point that I didn’t try to get to know new people at the many places that we visited. But I had learned, in time and in practice, that a chance meeting was worth a chance goodbye. That was a good lesson to learn, for nothing would ever last forever.

  I wished for my friends to understand that someday. They would get hurt no matter what, but at least then they might recover.

  ~~~

  “Sorry for the cramped room,” Paliar said as he led me up to his treetop apartment. We had gotten to know each other more over the weeks, and I invited myself over to his house. It wasn’t even that cramped, but rather much bigger and better made than what most people could afford. The decorations in particular seemed a cut above what he should be able to afford.

  “Not a problem!” I laughed. I almost said I was an orphan, and I was, but it would be an insult to compare my very fun and nice upbringing to theirs. Real orphans had it much harder.

  “Oh… well, that’s good. I wish I could’ve given you a better welcome, but that time has long passed.”

  He sighed wistfully. He didn’t talk quite as smoothly as he did back at the bar, for there was no pretense necessary as he was not Paliar the bartender right now. Just Paliar.

  “You want to talk about it?” I asked.

  “...Yes,” he answered. And talk about it he did.

  “I used to be a brewer, you know? I still am, but I owned my own business back then, and I wasn’t a bartender. I just brewed alcohol.” As if to demonstrate, he took an old bottle from a cupboard, and poured the both of us a drink. “I attained more success than I could have ever dreamed. Nobles and shepherds took notice of me, and they gave me the encouragement and guidance I needed to keep walking my path. I attended parties full of wealthy and powerful people who I would’ve been honored just to meet, but they were there talking to me! Asking me about my projects! Merchants bought my products, and it spread to high society all over the continent. I had everything I could have ever asked for and more.”

  He took a particularly large shot of the valuable alcohol. I joined him I moment later, and I felt the sweet and wonderful burn flow through my mouth and then run down my throat.

  “...But I am a belfegor,” he continued. “Never hid it, never been ashamed, and never will. But other people did not like that. Edengar didn’t like that. My friend didn’t like that.” There was anger in his tone, but it was mostly sad. “She was a human, the person who used to be my friend. I registered Brewlagor in her name, because I was not allowed to have it in my own. And for a time, our arrangement worked perfectly. I gave her some of the proceeds, just so she could have fun and as a thank you for helping me make my dream come true. I'd known her since we were kids, and I trusted her with my life. But then… she got involved with the same people who I had only been too happy to ever meet. From the nobles, the shepherds, the knights, and the merchants, all of them. Me and my friend gradually grew apart. I was devastated as I could only watch a friendship that I always had fade away. I tried to fix it, I tried to make it whole like before, but I did not even know what was broken or when. And then one day, she came to my office. I was almost excited, but her next words were worse than a knife through my heart. She fired me from my Brewlagor. That was my company, it was my love, and it was my life. It was everything, and I built it all from nothing. I was devastated at the news, and I refused to leave. It was a meaningless gesture in the end, as guards came to toss me out. I had nothing left, but the clothes behind my back. Maybe not even that.”

  He paused and looked at me with tears in his eyes. “I lost everything.”

  A sorrowful silence stretched between us. I thought about how his situation was very similar to Granuel and Therick’s. I imagined for a moment that something as tragic as Paliar’s story happened between them, and it made me very sad.

  “I’m so very sorry that all happened to you. What a bitch!”

  “Yes… she is,” he cracked a smile. “But ultimately I ran away. I gave up on trying to convince her again, and I just came here, and got a job under someone else.”

  I considered if I should tell everyone else about this. Granuel would be angry, and Haell would be incensed. Those two at least would be very willing to help Paliar get revenge. But I didn’t know if that was truly for the best. I didn’t know if I wanted that to happen. I didn’t know if Paliar himself wished for that sort of outcome.

  I decided against making the offer. I would do it if he insisted on wanting revenge, but I would not initiate. Maybe it was selfish, but I didn’t want to fight the whole of Edengar either. It had many problems, but the threat of a whole continental war genuinely scared me. Not so much for my own life, as risking death was just a part of my job, but I was scared about everything being destroyed. Because what would then be left?

  From Paliar’s bar, as much of a downgrade as it might be from what he once had, to the lives and livelihoods of so many other people like him. I couldn’t bear the thought of them being caught in the storm. It meant something, for people to have triumphed in spite of this difficult and cruel world.

  I wanted change just like Granuel or Haell might, but I did not want ashes.

  “It’s not your fault. There’s no shame in walking away, if it ever becomes too much for you. We all have a breaking point. And while I know it’s not the same, and I definitely don’t mean any offense, I think it’s nice how much you’ve been able to pull yourself back up anyway. I for one found your bar and your drinks to be some of the best I’ve ever had! And I’ve had the best this continent has to offer!

  “...Thanks.” He would’ve blushed if it was at all possible for belfegor skin. “It’s not my own place, but it is in every way that matters.”

  I was going to give the encounter with someone who has suffered this life to Granuel, and I agonized over that choice upon making this chapter, but I decided to give it to Angerly instead. Honestly, I think among the main cast, her characterization has been particularly weak, hence the events of this chapter. And really, I didn’t actually want to write that assassination arc! I wanted to do this worldbuilding, but I’m not feeling a whole arc dedicated to it rn. I don’t think it’d be right for the story either. I don’t wanna be stuck doing side quests forever!

  Tell me what you think!

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