A cold room.

My hands seem to be chained, so are my legs, and I feel like I have had one heck of a hangover, sitting on the stone floor.

Just as I thought. I am not inside the Karatengu territory. Then the big question that pops into my head is- “Where the Hell am I?”

This place seems to be some sort of a prison of sorts, and I am sitting inside one of the cells. With the itching sensation on my rear prompting me to scratch myself, I ended up looking across my cell.

I wasn’t alone in this large room. There was limited light from the ceiling but there were torches on the walls that made it possible to see the occupants of the other cells.

One was definitely some kind of canine demon. His tail, ears, and greyish white hair made it obvious. He has a rather disheveled appearance to say the least, almost as if carriage ran over him at least thrice. For some reason he looked familiar, but I couldn’t quiet place it. He was in a cell to the right of mine.

There were other occupants as well, but they were sleeping in the cells across the place and I couldn’t see them clearly.

There were two prisoners in the cell left of mine. Two small figures, they had tails as well, but their colorations were completely different, they didn’t seem to be canine type demons but more like felines, they reminded him of giant cats, though they resembled more of foxes with their fluffy tails and white fur. They were awake, clinging to each other, shuddering. I wasn’t sure if I was the one scaring them, so I just looked at them, both of them flinched. What a pair of scaredy cats! They seem to be twins, one boy, one girl.

Then I saw something strange, those twins had only a single horn on their heads, and not in the center, but on one side. If there supposed to be one horn on the right and one horn on the left, then the boy had only a horn on the right while the girl had only a horn on the left. Looking closely, their bodies looked bruised, some cuts, and even blood on their ragged clothing. The demon inside the cell to the right of mine didn’t look any better, though unlike me who had the luxury to be sitting on the ground even if chained, he was strapped to the wall by his hands and feet.

Suddenly it hit me, this is a dungeon, and I am a prisoner.

Just as I thought that, the sound of footsteps could be heard.

Into the room entered three demons. Each one had three horns. Leading them was a demon of rather handsome appearance, thin, but muscular, his smile seemed to put everything at ease, but the look in his eyes said otherwise. He had a tail and fur of orange and red coloring. He seems to be a saber tooth type demon.

He approached the cell in which the canine demon was strapped to a wall by handcuffs and spoke to him.

“Will you not submit, Korkau? You have nothing left. Your clan is finished. Your sister is dead. You lost your chance to take the throne and the Selection has already started, you can’t even participate anymore. So why don’t you take the smarter option, support me, the one who shall unite them all!”

Korkau did not answer. He just stared at him with eyes filled with anger.

“Fuck off.”

That was his answer.

“As you wish.” The saber tooth demon took a knife and proceeded to stab it into Korkau’s arm and proceeded to twist it. The blood was leaking, but Korkau did not utter a single cry.

Not pleased that Korkau did not even utter a single cry, the saber tooth demon proceeded to punch Korkau in the gut, before releasing a stream of electricity from his hand.

The saber tooth demon seems to be lightning magic user. That type of magic causes most pain when in contact with the body.

The body of Korkau convulsed in pain, but did not utter a single word.

“Oh, how boring. But no worry, it is just a matter of time before you break.” Saber tooth demon proceeded to punch helpless Korkau across his face, leaving a mark size of a fist.

He exited the cell, and now proceeded to come to my cell.

He opened the door.

“I hope the accommodations are to your liking, Ren Tengu. I sincerely hope so, I wouldn’t want to make my guest feel uncomfortable~”

I just looked at him with a confused expression. I don’t think I ever met him before.

“Of course, how rude of me. Let me introduce myself. My name is Nar Kas, the current leader of Kas clan of Saber tooth demons. Glad to make your acquaintance.”

“Same here.” I said with a smile. This demon seems to be relatively nice.

“Then I shall begin. It really is honor to see my esteemed rival brought before me. I never thought it would be so easy. But here we are…”

“Uhm, ok?” I muttered, confused where this conversation is going.

“I have learned of you a few month ago, when a slave of ours had escaped and my brother and his troops were sent to recapture him. The troops came back without a slave and with my brother’s mutilated corpse on their back. They claimed the Red Reaper got them, but I made sure to find out for certain who did that. I do have my methods for finding out the truth.” He said it in a matter of factly manner.

“This incident prompted me to look into the reports sent by my spies a few days before this accident. They saw a humanoid burst into the meeting between the Demon king, Akil Ras, and this fool.” He pointed at the cell next to mine. “Supposedly, that humanoid ended up saving the Demon King’s life by breaking Korkau Jou’s neck with a single kick, preventing the uprising in the process. The Demon King subsequently imprisoned the usurpers. What struck me as odd was the fact that the one who did this happened to be wearing the cloths of the Tengu clan, and my brother was killed inside the Tengu territory. The odds that the one who did such actions would be one and the same were too likely to be false. To be sure, I obtained the picture of the one involved in both events and compared them. And what do you know, perfect match! Ren Tengu, you probably know by now, but I have spies everywhere, acting as my eyes and ears. Anything they know, I know. There is nothing you can hide.”

“Ah, you are talking about that? I see, I see. I remember that.”

“So you admit it, don’t you?”

“Well, it’s not much of an admission as much as it is running for my life.” I admitted.

“What do you mean? Did you not intentionally thwart the attempt at the life of the Demon King?”

“Demon King? I don’t think I ever met him when he was alive.” That was the truth; I only saw his casket, not the demon himself. Before I could even meet him, he already was killed.

“But you were the one who crippled him, were you not!?” Nar Kas seemed to be losing patience. He pointed at Korkau Jou.

“He looks kind of familiar, hmph, right! He was the idiot who passed out inside that house, I remember!” Now I got the gist of it. I remembered what I did back then. Orin mistook me for a human being and started to chase me across the city. I tried to climb a large pole to avoid him, but instead he proceeded to cut the pole. I fell along with the pole. I jumped in order to avoid crashing, so I ended up bursting through the window of the building that was nearby. When I confirmed that I was ok, Korkau was already on the floor, passed out. Now I knew why he was on the floor. I must have kicked him when I entered. “Sorry, but it was an accident.”

“But what about the murder of my brother!? Are you saying that was an accident as well? Don’t you dare lie to me!”

“Did he also have three horns but look more muscular?” I asked.

“YES.” Nar Kas now seemed to be angry for a different reason.

“Ah, him. Well, I might have killed him. Sorry.” I said with a smile that seemed to say, my bad.

“I do not blame you for doing so. In fact I must thank you for it. Had you not killed Jar Kas, I would never have become the one to succeed my clan. So you have my thanks for getting rid of that fool.”

“You are welcome?” I said with a silly smile. I really lost track of what the heck we were talking about.

“Accident or not, your intentions are clear- to take the throne.”

“Uhm, what throne?”

“The throne of the demon king, is that not why you have entered the selection and have weakened your enemies?” Nar Kas now seemed to be confused.

“My enemies? I didn’t know I had enemies aside from humans. As for the throne…you can have it if you want to.”

“WHAT!!!?”

“Why such an overreaction? It is just a very fancy chair, what’s the big deal?” I asked.

“Is that what you think the throne of the demon king is? Are you a complete fool? No, it can’t be…” Nar clutched his head. It was inconceivable. The demon he regarded as biggest threat to him was in front of him, but somehow he was nothing like the demon Nar was expecting. He was not calculative nor wise, nor strong. In fact, Nar did not feel any energy coming from his body at all. He even wondered whether mana restraining chains were even necessary.

“You want to take the throne, don’t you?”

I shook my head.

“Then what do you want?”

“Well…To cook something that will not give me food poisoning and raise a large garden, I suppose?”

“Enough with the jokes.” Nar Kas approached me, his red eyes now turned completely white. “Now I will see for myself, what you have planned. If you resist, I shall torture you until you break. Korkau refused to submit even after I read through his past. I hope you shall not be as foolish.”

Nar Kas used his demon eyes, the special ability which was named “Memory.” It allowed him to peer into the mind of anyone he made eye contact with and read through anything the target has seen, thought, in a sense, the mind was an open book for him to read. He used it to look through the memories of his enemies and find out their secrets. That was how he obtained Ren’s picture, by scanning the minds of the ones who saw Ren.

Now he was reading memories and thoughts of Ren Tengu. He saw all of the events of his past. But for some reason, it was not what he expected. There were neither grandiose ambitions nor complex plans. The mental landscape was just a farming place and a very messy kitchen.

One memory was of Ren Tengu being chased by Jilan Snakes. Thus, Nar Kas ended up seeing part of Ren’s trauma as he was running wild. And then the decisive moment when Ren ended up striking a large demon with a scythe.

‘He mistook my brother for a Jilan Snake? Is he serious?’ Nar wondered.

Then came another memory, it was of Ren being chased my large beetle demon who kept shooting balls of fire at him with his mandible-like horns. He saw as Ren ended up climbing the pole next to the building where the Demon King was meeting with Korkau Jou, and how he fell into the window when the beetle demon cut the pole at the bottom.

‘So that means he did not stop the rebellion, not intentionally. This is ridiculous!’

Then Nar tried to look into Ren’s personal thoughts.

He saw his fear of being chased by green haired demon, saw little bit of the escaped slave, and then he tried to look into the most secret thoughts. His secrets.

He saw Ren burying lots of melted and broken dishes into the ground and looking around to make sure none was watching.

He saw Ren walking around at night, in his underwear, taking a leak from the top of the tree, rooftop, and once into the river.

He saw Ren dig a giant hole and then fill it with mud and water and jump into it with a splash. He was swimming in it like a greasy pig.

He saw Ren sneaking into the female demon’s bath in order to peek at the ladies. He hid himself inside the towels and pretended to be an object.

He saw Ren wearing his underwear outside his clothing while posing in front of a mirror.

He saw Ren trying to flex his muscles, but it looked more like him trying to squeeze himself into a very uncomfortable shape. It was painful to watch.

He saw Ren making an abomination of a soup that looked absolutely horrendous, it seemed like he kept adding hodge-podge ingredients without even caring about their quality. And was that an old shoe inside the pot?

He saw Ren tasting his own food and promptly throw up on the ground.

He saw Ren planting seeds into the ground while accompanied by a six headed monstrosity he was treating as his pet.

He saw Ren make a bust sculpture using ground meat and making it look extra realistic with egg for eyes and leaves for hair. Then there were body parts made of ground beef as well…

He saw Ren use a large sword as a barbecue stick, with skinned rat on the tip, then proceeding to cover the rat in cheese and oil before serving it.

The last part prompted Nar Kas to deactivate his demon eyes and throw up on the ground.

“Hey! Have some decency!” I shouted out.

“Decency? Decency? I do not want to hear that from someone who fries filthy vermin on a skewer! Maggot infested bread, eyeballs in soup, not to mention cooked snakes! How in the world is it that your most intimate thoughts are such abominations you call cooking?”

“Argh, you heard of those, what did you think about the cooked head of cattle marinated with beetle sauce?” I asked.

“You, bleargh…” Nar Kas ended up throwing up again.

His attendants helped him get out of the cell. Apparently just visualizing it was too much. Poor guy. They now left, leaving the prisoners alone in their cells.

“What did you do?” The prisoner to my right asked.

“Just told him of my newest culinary masterpiece. That’s about it.”

“Are you really who he said he is, Ren Tengu? The one who defeated me?”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” I said with a chuckle.

“I don’t blame you. It is natural for strong demon to rule the weak. That is the way of nature. Weaker demon follows the stronger one, that is the rule. Anyone who is weak shall meet defeat at the hands of the strong. In my case, I was the weak one. But alas, both of us are going to perish like this, without fulfilling our goals.”

“What kind of goal did you have?” I asked.

“I wanted to revive my clan. When I was young, my clan, Jou clan, was completely annihilated by our enemies. Only I and my sister managed to survive. Slowly, but steadily, we managed to get more members to join us, and our clan, at least in terms of power was beginning to gain influence. But the only way to prove our strength was to get rid of the weak king and takeover so that there would be none left to challenge us. It sickened me that our leader was so weak, he was the demon King, but he couldn’t even protect our clan, we were almost driven to extinction, while he did nothing! I wanted to take his place and show how a strong king rules. But then you came in and this happened.”

“Uhm, I apologize again.”

“Save it. Now we are both stuck here with no way out. If only I could get these chains off, I would have killed every single damn one of them with just a single spell…”

“Oh, are you perhaps a magic user? Horns or mana?” I saw grandfather use two different types of magic, one using Mi from horns, and one from his body, the Kuat, also called mana.

“Either one works, but these chains make it impossible, that bastard has made sure I couldn’t move an inch from this place…”

“Then I guess we have all the time in the world now, so as I said before, me causing your downfall was not intentional, so let’s consider it a water under a bridge.”

“Fine, what choice do I have? He will keep torturing us until he gets what he wants, and then some more just for fun’s sake…Just look at the two behind you.”

I turned to face the feline demon twins, each missing a horn on one side of the head.

“Not only did he cut off each one’s horn, he made the other watch while he did it. He slices the horn off with a sharp hot knife. They are just kids, they don’t deserve such cruelty, and the least mercy they deserve is quick death, not prolonged suffering.” Korkau described.

“Is loss of horns such a traumatic thing?” I asked.

“Indeed it is. Horns are for demons are like wings to a bird; we are not demons without them. With no horns, the Mi magic is no longer available, nor demon eyes. Such demons, in essence are weakened to the point that they are physically weaker than humans and their bodies are irreparably damaged. It is like taking away a kidney, you will live, but you will never be whole. We consider it better to die than to live in such a humiliation. But to subject such shame and pain onto children, Nar Kas!” Korkau tried to flex his muscles to no avail; the chains were holding him tight.

“Wow! Settle down there buddy, well, I guess being strung up there like that does you in badly, but let’s keep it civil, shall we. I mean, since we are stuck here, might as well talk without resorting to rage, right?”

“Aren’t you angry he imprisoned you?”

“I don’t see a reason for me to do so. It gives me a great excuse to slack off and enjoy some sleep.” I proceeded to lay my head upon a wall, but the wall creaked slightly, and the oil torch attached to the wall crashed down, hitting my head in the process. “Ouch! Oh, c’mon! Does everything have to fall on my head? Now I am covered in oil!” Apparently the torch was made with a container that supplied the oil. And now the content of the container was on me.

“Well, might as well use it as a skin conditioner, oil does wonders for the skin, but was it after taking a bath, well, a bath is not available, so the oil will have to do.” I smeared oil on myself hands, and to my surprise, my cuffs slipped off me, I might have slimed myself tad bit too much. I smeared some on my legs, it was trickier but I managed to get the cuffs off my legs as well.

“Ta da! I am free!”

“How did you do that!?”

“Well, the trick was the oil, but the door of my cell is still closed, so I might as well sit down, standing up after sitting for such a long time is such a relief!”

“Are you not going to try to escape?” Korkau started to question Ren’s sanity. He effortlessly escaped handcuffs, but he did not seem to be trying to escape, at all.

“Well, I don’t see any reason to rush, I mean, I can just wait it out. Maybe it will snow soon, who knows?”

“This is Kalkan kingdom, not Frost Empire!”

“Meaning?”

“It never snows here you damn fool!”

“He he he…Then never mind. I wonder how Fanghead is doing…”

“Who is that?”

“My pet. I hope he is doing well.” I scratched my hand upon which contract that Fanghead made on my hand. I wonder though…

As I was lost in my thoughts, I saw a pair of slitted yellow eyes looking at me, from my hand. Few seconds later, there were three pairs of eyes, and then finally six.

“Fanghead? Is that you?” The eyes blinked in affirmation. “Perfect! Wanna play with me?”

Now the hydra started to emerge from my hand. Apparently it can teleport from any location using my hand as a proxy as part of its contract. It was a common thing for familiars bonded to their master, but experiencing it firsthand was surprising to say the least. I freaked out a little. Grandfather already told me this, but still, to have something this big emerges from your hand was rather disgusting.

“Well, that was gruesome.” I examined my hand for injuries, there were none.

“Fanghead, can you please…” I didn’t even get to finish, the six headed hydra chewed upon the bars of my cage and in a few seconds ate through it. Right, hydras eat anything and grow larger and stronger, which means the reason he grew from a foot length to two meters was due to him eating everything that I did not forbid him from eating, namely the Tengu clan members. There are lots of vermin, pests, and dangerous creatures like mice, rats, gigantic Jilan snakes, and parasites that plagued the farmers. The most likely explanation for his sudden growth spurt is most likely the most obvious one. I noticed I saw less and less of vermin recently, and now I know why.

Fanghead ate them all.

With all six of his head, it proceeded to mow through prison doors and bars. Apparently it has developed taste for steel. Grandfather did warn me that hydras are attracted to strong metals so that their can absorb their toughness. In a sense, hydra is a sponge with unlimited capacity to absorb as long as it eats, and it acquires the properties of those materials afterwards. Now, after eating through all the prison bars in this room, leaving only the chained prisoners, it proceeded to go towards the other rooms.

“What the hell is that thing?” Korkau asked, his eyes expressed pure terror as though he just saw an unimaginable abomination.

“That would be my pet. I believe the Kas clan is going to have a huge surprise waiting for them.”