The group would approach the city together. It was strange. Kazius spent most of his life believing only ‘people’ had cities… Yet Monsters were capable of building a city more impressive than anything he had seen before.

As they neared the city, Azanor would freeze for a moment, as if staring at something. He would keep walking, but not without looking back at the spot over his shoulder.

“Something wrong?” Kazius questioned in confusion.

“It’s nothing important.” Azanor assured.

Kazius was curious of course as to what had gotten Azanor’s attention, but decided to just take his word for it and instead kept walking.

The Demon could be quite elusive at times, but he did still provide great information about their location… Even if it was limited.

All knowledge they had on The Wastelands… If you could even still call the place that… Was either lies or outdated information mostly. Azanor was a very useful source of information, but he was sealed away for a 1000 years. That was a large gap in terms of knowledge… Which was why Kazius really hoped that they could find a map in the city…

Still, as interested as he was in the city, he had no intention of staying long.

The reason was because they had several issues.

One was that they did not have any of the currency of this place… Whatever it may be….

And Two… Kazius wasn’t sure they could even afford anything there. People who even used Mithril as decoration… Perhaps selling some of their supplies could help, but he was not optimistic about the experience they would have.

Kazius supposed he should just be happy the place was not hostile…

But he could not help but think about the fact that not every place they would find would be so welcoming. Considering the past, there may even be need to hide the fact that Alice is Human… Even more about her lineage… Then there was Eve though… It would be hard hiding that she is an Elf… But that would be an issue when it came up. Not now.

Kazius put his thoughts aside as they entered the city. Unlike Ratier, there was no huge wall surrounding the place… Then again, who would be idiotic enough to attack the territory of a Leviathan?

The city, as expected, was filled with people. The inhabitants all seemed to be the same race, at least for the most part.

They looked human, but had some scales peppered around their skin. It wasn’t drastic, but notable... Their hair matched the color of the scales on their skin. Their eyes, most notably of all, had irises that resembled those of a snake.

They wore clothes unlike anything he had ever seen, robes, togas, and the like. Wearing white seemed especially popular. They were also not hesitant to use a lot of jewelry.

As they walked, they would see the people interact. A few glanced their way, but they were surprisingly unphased by visitors.

This had Kazius scratching his head in confusion. Were visitors common here? Then again, a city like this would surely attract visitors… Still… None of them even seemed to even care that they had a Demon walking with them either.

“Do Monsters not hate Humans? What about Elves? Why are they okay with you?” Kazius asked in confusion.

Azanor seemed to think about the question.

“For starters, the term Monster is too broad. Before the War, Demons were in that group too. Go further back… And I heard even Elves were once part of that group too. The term honestly refers to those that are not Human….” Azanor began, playing with his cane while in thought.

“Really?” Alice asked in shock, it really was strange hearing something like that after Ratier’s brainwashing.

“Yes, that is why out here you won’t find a lot of people that will care about what you are unless their Race has some sort of specific grudge. In all honesty, I wouldn’t be surprised if from the perspective of some Monsters, they think Human, Elves, and Dwarves lost their minds and went to go hide somewhere. At least that is what the ones that were not involved in The War would think. The 8 heroes were nothing but idiots in the eyes of many… The plans of the Demon King were not well known to begin with. Combine that with the fact Monsters are not an organized group that have a City, Tribes, Towns, or sometimes even just a Village to call home… And tend to just mind their own business… I doubt the people here even know about The War. This Race did not even exist back then… They definitely have something to do with Leviathans… But that is as much as I can tell for now.” Azanor explained.

Alice frowned. It was likely discouraging to hear about such an important event to her family and arguably the world itself was ignored by so many who did not even know it happened.

“But wait, weren’t there only 7 heroes? Four Monsters and the 3 heroes?” Kazius questioned in confusion.

Azanor perked up at this, frowning now, looking almost offended, but above all shocked.

“Is that what you were taught?” He questioned.

“Yes?” Kazius responded, beginning to doubt himself at how shocked and upset Azanor looked.

“…”

“….I guess there were only 7.” Azanor responded back, still looking unhappy as he looked away.

Alice looked like she was dying to ask about his reaction, but she restrained herself. It was clear Azanor did not want to talk about the subject anymore.

There was some silence at first, but thankfully, Eve changed their focus.

“Look! They are hissing!” Eve pointed out curiously.

As they turned, they would spot two residents arguing over something. It seemed to only get worse, the two ending up just hissing at each other like angry snakes.

‘So, they really are snake people… That could explain why there is a Leviathan here….’

“I just realized… But how will we even communicate with them? Or anyone? If everyone is so spread out… Do they even speak the same language?” Alice asked in confusion.

“They just hiss. They aren’t talking." Eve stated in confusion.

“Well, they hiss, but they use words too.” Kazius pointed out.

“They just sound like snakes though?” Alice stated in confusion.

“I don’t know how we would ask them to be friends.” Eve added in concern.

“Well, they are snake people… But they still talk normally, for the most part.” Kazius stated in confusion, wondering why the group thought it was such a problem. They were even looking at him like he had a second head or something.

Deciding to prove his point, Kazius searched the area with his eyes until they landed on what appeared to be a vendor of different food items.

“Look, let me show you.” Kazius began.

"Excuse me, sir. We are new to the city. Could you tell us where to find a place that sells a map? What currency do you guys use around here?” Kazius would ask the snake man.

At Kazius’ words, the snake man seemed surprised.

“You’re new here? But you speak like a local! That is incredible! Welcome to Veleno. You are not the usual type we get around here… Usually our guests are way, way shorter. What are they called again? Oh yeah, Dwarves… Something like that… They always come here to buy metal and smuggle it out to the West… Something about some weird laws, I never cared to pay attention to such details though. First time I’ve heard about someone looking for a map instead of metal… We do have them though… The bookstore down the street should have them… As for currency… Well we usually barter with foreigners, but we use these.” The snake person would respond, holding up rectangle shaped solid gold coins. The coin had an elegant design featuring snakes. The purity on the bar was insane… That alone was worth more than a bag of gold coins back at Ratier.

Kazius nodded, content with the friendliness. It was strange to be welcomed so openly. Refreshing, even.

He was happy, but considering how he was used to hiding the fact he was not Human… It would get some getting used to.

At that, Kazius would look at his friends expectantly only to realize how confused they looked.

“You hissed too!” Eve asked in awe.

“How do you know the language?” Alice asked in confusion.

“Huh? You didn’t understand any of that?” Kazius asked only to remember the events back at Marv… He understood the Orcs back then while the Holy Knights didn’t…

‘Can I… Speak any language?’ Kazius wondered in shock.