As much as I wanted to get into a quiet environment to be left with my own thoughts, there was still a job to do. To not waste the remaining time of the day, it was best to spend my time contributing to my goals. One of them was to scout out the place. To succeed, I could just not ignore the entire city.
When you threaten their hero, I realized how eager they would be to defend him. Fact was, they admired the man, to my great irritation. And defeating the hero could be more difficult than I imagined. Therefore, to lessen the chance of my failure, I had to take care of the city’s forces, to reduce the bothersome things. Part of doing it was to scope up the place. Learn how to ruin the gears, sort of say.
Could also be a good opportunity to breathe some air. Two birds with one stone.
As I walked, I noticed the increasing amount of people on the streets. The hero must have already returned to the castle. It was a good opportunity to attack him, but I had a panic attack. Furthermore, it was risky to suddenly attack like that without coordinating with my allies. Rogue actions would be everyone’s undoing.
I had asked a few questions about the city to my crew, and had a rough idea of the city’s layout. That being said, perhaps having a map would be essential in this.
Where would I even get a map?
Honestly, the hotel I was living in should have had a map on display. As for the map, I suppose in this city I could find it in some convenience store or a spot for tourists. But there was a good way to gain information.
I made my way to some vendors who were selling some fruits. Approaching one that had the biggest stall, I picked up a couple of apples. Yeah, there were some familiar fruits here that were present on Earth. Almost felt like this was some kind of alternate dimension, but that was not the case. Perhaps that was just how it is.
I bought the apples. Elyscia gave me some money, so I had some allowance. Once I handed out the money, I asked the seller a question.
“Do you know where I can find some maps? I am quite new to this city.”
The man smiled widely, it would seem he was quite proud to meet a tourist interested in their city. How patriotic. Anyway, he pointed out to me where I could find a store that was selling some maps. I made my way over there, and there were a few people gathering there. Fellow tourists, I presumed.
In the same store, they were also selling some local souvenirs. Some wooden necklaces, bracelets, and sculptures. They were all finely made. But I had no interest in them. I approached the clerk and asked for a map. It wasn’t expensive, so I bought it immediately — but it was not like I had any other choice though.
As I stepped out of the store and walked down the street, I unrolled the map. I had to say, there were a lot of roads or paths — as what you may expect in a big city such as this. Almost like a maze, Cyrus really did big to this place.
My brow furrowed slightly as I studied the map and searched for where I could be. I stopped to think. I was not used to it when it came to maps. Back in my hero days, I never really needed to look at maps often. Anyone else would just point out where we were. And this map here had no labels for particular buildings or businesses. The most I could get here was the label on the castle and the parks and plazas.
Where am I…?
I looked at the gate where we had entered the city first. I could use it as a basis.
Hm, from there, we walked towards here…
I used my fingers to trace our path, then stopped at a box shape on the map.
This must be the hotel.
This map should have had labels…
After looking around to make sure no one was looking at me, I subtly conjured a pen and marked the hotel. After that, I started tracing from the plaza where I just was, then followed down to Filo's restaurant, then followed my trail.
My finger stopped on where I should be. To confirm, I looked at the surrounding streets to make sure it matched with the map, and it did.
Now then, to mark where the guards’ outposts are.
I first went to observe the front gates from which we entered. Casually walking around, I saw a particular building that had men in armor hanging outside. The building was big enough to house dozens of men inside. It was certainly some sort of station.
I marked the location down on my map. This was gonna be a long day, but I had plenty of time.
“Are you forgetting your hunger?”
I didn’t forget about it. So leave me alone.
I continued on walking around, while taking in the new sights. Back on my Earth days, I always wanted to travel around far places, aside from my own home city. But I suppose it was what most people wanted, but I wanted it. Sometimes I just felt jealous of people posting pictures about their travels on the internet. One big reason I couldn’t travel was because I was poor. Touring costs money! And not because my family was poor or something, it was because I, precisely, had no money.
I started walking around the edges of the city to start simple. And because I thought they were good spots to put security stations or guard posts. A bit far from the station I saw first, I discovered a small guard post between buildings. I marked it on the map, but this possessed little threat. But it might be good to destabilize the area by, let’s just say, blow up the place. Chaos from panic.
Hm. Good idea.
I continued on, and I paused when I saw a particular open area. There were a few people that were gathering, but that was not the one that gathered my attention. It was because there were cages on display with people inside them. Curious, I walked over to take a closer look and realized they were not human.
I had not seen creatures like them before, because I was trapped before I could even go out to fight in the war. But I had heard about these.
Demihumans.
There were several creatures in cages displayed. Demihumans were beings that had features of animals. They looked mostly human, aside from the animal ears and the tails, or whatever animal-like features. I was aware they were part of our enemies. And it would seem humans still capture these beings despite the war having already ended.
I observed the reaction of the people, but most of them looked unbothered. Others looked with pity, while others with disdain.
I must say, it was bizarre to see these things. Might be a little bit of a dream come true, I always just saw them on fantasy shows, mostly anime. And they were, most of the time, cute or pretty. These ones, though, were not cute. They were thin, barely fat, malnourished, and dirty.
But I wondered what they were doing here. Why capture them and display them like this? Surely not for slavery? I had not seen anyone keeping some kind of demihuman slave around the city.
“Ladies and gentlemen! Thank you for coming!” A man came up front. “Before I introduce you to the demihumans, I must say, it was an honor to see the hero in public. I didn’t even expect to see him today.” He chuckled. “We owe all of our lives, our empire, to the heroes!”
Everyone muttered in agreement.
“We were victorious. But we experienced great suffering, suffered great losses, because of the demon king. And here are among the creatures that helped that monster! Demihumans!” He pointed his hands at the demihumans with visible disdain on his face. “They were captured sauntering around in our lands.”
“Damn beasts.”
“Destroying our lives was not enough for them?”
“They should have never stepped back to our lands.”
“They should have stayed in that barren wasteland.”
The man held out his hand. “Now, now. Let’s all calm down. Despite their transgressions, that doesn’t mean we don’t give them a chance to earn their freedom. And their time will come during the festival.”
He shifted his hand towards a particular group of cages. “The demihumans that will participate during the races. Where the fastest among them will be granted the right to freedom.” He then walked towards another group. “These are the ones that will fight in a duel with their bare hands. Where the mightiest among them will be able to walk freely into the world again!”
He stood at the center. “But the losers, they shall remain chained. They will be thrown into the dark prisons, where they shall remain until a new opportunity arises for them.”
Wow, at least they were kind enough to give them that chance of freedom.
But still, they were using them for sports. Was that good? Depends on how you look at it. Still, the promise of freedom should be too attractive for the demihumans. Anyone would do everything to get freedom.
“Even devouring your captors, huh?”
Damn right.
“Now then, feel free to take a look at them. Pick your best player before their events and place your bets. Choose wisely. Which one do you think is the fastest, and which is the strongest?”
With that, the man left, and the people started approaching the cages. They all looked closely.
So, it's just a betting game…
I also took a closer look, approaching the cages. I was curious, not everyday I get to see something that was just fiction back in the old world. The demihumans in the cages were all standing straight and stiff, feeling embarrassed or disturbed that the humans were looking at them so closely.
“This one looks like he has muscular legs.”
“He looks heavy. I might go for the lighter one.”
They sounded like they were taking this very seriously. I took a close look at the demihuman before me. Despite their bad health, they still had a pretty toned up body, muscles and all. Talk about a difference in biology.
Huh, they have four ears in total.
They had human ears on the side of their head, aside from the animal ears. That was one question answered.
I looked around some more. They had a variety, cat like demihumans, dogs, wolves, rabbits.
“That guy’s toned. I think I‘ll bet on him.”
“Is he an experienced fighter, though? His body just looks big. Experience beats those.”
“How do we even know who’s more experienced?”
As I walked around, I noticed a cage isolated from the rest inside a tent. I slowly approached. It was the harpy I saw back at the gates.
I was curious to take a look, so I moved closer. And then, the harpy slowly looked up at me.
I narrowed my eyes. “I wonder what game they want you to play…”