Arrival in Oidao

A couple days later, we arrive in Oidao. Helena has already used her magic on each of us to give us these tiny horns. Small enough to be hidden in our hair, so we could still mingle amongst our fellow humans and nobody would get suspicious. I regularly rub my fingers along those spots and feel around it. It is weird to me to suddenly have this extra part of me on my head. Since we are so close to the border, Helena is supposed to finish up and give the horns a growth spurt, but before she does, Shalia comes to me with a request.

“Hey, Darx.” She asks. “Since we are in my home province now, do you think we could head over to where my parents live? It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen them and well, I feel it would really boost my confidence if I could show them how much I’ve grown.”

I see no issue with it and neither does anyone else. The royal guards accompanying us land at a forest near Shalia’s home town and set up camp. That way Livia, the only one of us who would draw unwanted attention, will be able to stay out of sight. While most of us were at work setting up camp, Shalia wanted to skip out and meet her parents already. She even hangs on Ryul’s arm, practically dragging him away with her, but Ryul feels weird about meeting her parents. He asks me if I could come along. Eventually, it is decided that I and Amelia can join them to meet Shalia’s parents.

As we walk into Shalia’s home town, I can’t help myself from looking all around. The buildings here look so different, as are the style of clothes people are wearing. Shalia says they are called ‘yukata’. Now I can’t help but wonder how Amelia would look like if she were wearing something like that.

Eventually, we come across a woman who seems to stare at Shalia. She walks closer to us and asks, “Shalia? Is that you?”

Shalia smiles at the woman and says, “Aunt Rina, how have you been.” She then walks over to her aunt and gives her a big hug.

The aunt first enjoys the hug, then steps away and looks Shalia over. “Dear me, you look so different wearing those adventurer clothes. I hardly even recognize you.”

“A lot has changed, aunty.” Shalia says. She then reaches for Ryul and continues. “This is my new boyfriend. His name is Ryul and he’s an elf.”

“Oooo, and elf no less.” Aunt Rina replies. “You don’t often see elves around these parts. Let alone hook up with a human.”

“I know.” Shalia continues. “I am hoping my parents will approve of him. We’re going to them now.”

Rina’s face suddenly changes to surprise and asks, “Oh honey. You didn’t hear the news?”

Shalia’s smile quickly fades as she realizes something bad must have happened.

“Count Earl came to your parents.” Rina explains. “He declared they were guilty of not paying their taxes.”

Fear creeps into Shalia’s voice as she asks, “He did what?”

“It’s a lie, of course. He just went after them because you didn’t agree to marry him.” Rina continues. “But he used that false accusation to have them arrested. I’ve sent a letter to you to let you know about it, but I guess the letter hasn’t arrived yet.”

Shalia places both her hands on her face and sighs. “Why won’t he just leave me alone. First my boyfriend, then the **** attempt and now this?”

“I’m sorry, honey. But he is nobility. There is nothing we can do about it.” Rina continues. “I told them to escape to a different province, but your father insisted the count had already given up on you.”

Rina tries to comfort Shalia for a bit, but it isn’t working. We decide to return to our camp and tell the others about what we discovered. Everyone seems to understand how bad a situation Shalia is in, except for Livia.

“Why don’t you just find out where her parents are and break them out?” The she-devil asks.

Everyone looks at her as if she said something crazy.

“Uhm, we’d be going against nobility.” Lilith tells her mom.

Livia simply shrugs and asks, “So?”

Lilith frowns at her mother and asks, “Do demons have a habit of stealing from nobility?”

Livia just barely succeeds in holding in a laugh. “Ehe, no. The strongest demons are uplifted to nobility and they hire the second strongest into their armies. Nobody in their right mind would dare steal from them. But you humans often have nobles that have no rank, right? Yeah, if a demon duke was considered too weak to hold on to his wealth, everybody would be stealing from him and everyone would say it’s his own fault for being weak.”

“I see. You demons have a society that really lives by the idea that might makes right.” Kiara says as she leans forward.

“It is a meritocracy.” Livia says matter-of-factly. “The competent people lead the country, and the ones that are incompetent are pushed aside.”

“Sounds more like the kind of society that rewards criminals.” One of the royal guard accompanying us snorts. “Governance is a much more difficult thing then people realize and nobility is trained from childhood to succeed in that. You can’t simply have them replaced by the strongest fighter and expect the economy to improve, or even stay the same for that matter.”

Livia raises her hands and says, “All I’m saying is that if demons controlled this province, they would have no respect for the count. The guy is acting as if he has all the power, even though he has no power. Well, not in the way demons measure power.”

“It still doesn’t change anything about the situation Shalia and her parents are in.” I explain. “In this country, the nobility is untouchable for commoners like us. Maybe if he committed crimes against fellow nobility, we could go after him. But as far as we know, the guy’s only crime is that he is lusting for Shalia.”

For a moment, everyone is silent. Then Shalia says, “What if he was a criminal?”

Everybody turns their head to Shalia, expecting her to further explain what she is hinting at.

“There was this adventurer who worked for Count Earl. He might still work for him.” Shalia begins. “Rumors had it that he was **** girls to sell as slaves. What if he and Count Earl were working together?” She asks while looking at the royal guard.

The guard takes a deep breath and says, “Slavery is illegal. Even for nobility. If Count Earl has been engaging in it, he can be arrested for that.”

“But before we can do anything about that, we need evidence.” I say. “As long as we don’t have that, we can’t really do anything about him.”

“I can take care of that. My skills make it easy for me to sneak into places.” Kiara says as she uses her [Glamor] to disguise herself into one of the royal guard. “Just tell me where his mansion is and I can check if he is selling people.”