A tour around Cantis.

Though I was completely naked as I walked through the streets, I felt quite comfortable and not at all embarrassed. I didn’t care if the other people could see my penis, my breasts, nor even my rear. I was proud of these things, after all. But frankly, I didn’t need to be so concerned in the first place. Most of the demons who saw me didn’t even spare me a second glance before going about their business.

It was only once I noticed that these demons frequently would spare my newly collared Korivia a second glance that I remembered the reason. Demons actually had a sense for someone’s attraction toward them, and it played a role in determining how attractive that someone was to them. So only the ones who I was attracted to would give me that interested second look, or outright stare. The others weren’t attracted to me either.

Something about that felt very one-sided, though. After all, I didn’t have that sense, which meant I might occasionally come on too strong to someone who wasn’t interested in me. It was probably for the best that I played it safe in that area and didn’t take the initiative unless I already knew someone was interested in me too. It clearly didn’t seem to be the only factor in determining attraction, after all.

“We’re almost there,” Korivia said, nearly skipping beside me.

“You’re certainly happy,” I said.

“Mel always told me that humans get into ‘relationships’, and she always compared it to how we feel when we collar ourselves. Maybe that will help you understand why I’m so happy.”

It did, actually, and I was sort of glad that it was that way, and to a certain degree that was how I felt too. It was like I had agreed to be her lover, even if this was significantly kinkier.

“I like kinky too,” Korivia said, after reading my thoughts and giving my butt a gentle grope, “I’m happy to be anything you want me to be.”

Before long, we arrived at the tailor’s shop. It was a small, quaint little storefront with a mannequin featuring a rather elegant dress in the window. I stepped inside to find stacks and stacks of cloth, as well as various tools and supplies that seemed appropriate for the profession of making clothes.

We were approached by a very lovely slender blonde woman. At first, I thought she was an omen until I saw the horns and tail, making me realize she was likely a succubus like Korivia. She wore a collar around her neck, and a plate announced, “free touch and kiss”. She otherwise wore nothing at all and had a neatly trimmed blonde strip of hair above her lovely womanhood.

“Kori,” she smiled at the other succubus, who wasted no time in approaching the slender blonde and kissing her on the lips, deeply.

“Sareth, I missed you!” Kori said, giggling and groping her breasts.

“I see you’ve followed in my footsteps,” Sareth replied, tapping the collar around Korivia’s neck. “Is she your mistress?” she asked, turning to me.

I nodded, “Nice to meet you, I am Silus Serpentis. Madam-in-training for the Scarlet Tail.”

“Ah, wonderful. You must be quite the woman to have tamed Kori. I can’t even remember the last person she collared herself to.”

Kori held up her hand to her mouth, feigning a whisper, “Her cock is delicious, her cum too.”

I felt myself blush slightly, especially since this statement seemed to make Sareth look at me with much different eyes.

“Sareth, is someone up there?” another voice called from somewhere in the back, and emerging from a doorway was an omen man with an athletic build. His appearance actually shared quite a few notes with Sareth’s, with the same shade of blonde hair, same skin tone, and even the same light grey eyes. They even had similar hairstyles, both being slicked back, though Sareth’s was slightly longer. If I didn’t know anything about demons, I might have assumed they were siblings.

“Hello,” I greeted, holding out a hand to shake.

He took it and nodded, “Customer?”

“And an old friend,” Sareth said, nodding to Korivia.

His eyes widened as realization seemed to strike him, “Aha! So it is, I barely recognized you with those huge teats.” He chuckled and nodded to her chest. After our encounter earlier I had her shift back to her large-breasted form and put her clothes back on. She remained topless, however, for two obvious reasons.

She giggled, “Well, what can I say? Silus loves ‘em,” as she said this, she leaned over to me and mashed her two obvious reasons into my arm. This was a welcome gesture.

“And a collar too? By the Abyss, Kori, you’re full of surprises today. Next you’re going to tell us that she’s the new Duchess of Dystopia,” he said.

“She’s going to be the madam of the Scarlet Tail, actually,” Korivia replied.

“Well in any case, allow me to introduce myself, I’m Castor, best tailor in all of Cantis. This is my lovely servant and model, Sareth.”

“Silus Serpentis. It’s a pleasure.”

“What can I do for you today? Seems like I wouldn’t be the kind of person you’d come to,” Castor said, nodding to my nudity.

“Well, therein lies my dilemma. I do rather enjoy showing myself off, but I am to be a madam of a brothel, I must take great pains to ensure I don’t look like one of the workers.”

“Ay, indeed,” Castor agreed.

“I have been wearing a simple sheer robe these past few days, but I’ve grown bored of it and would like something new.”

“You’ve come to the right place. I have a few ideas that might be suitable,” he said.

“There are many ways to show off the best aspects of your appearance without being completely nude,” Sareth continued, “sheer, as you’ve discovered, but articles that are skin-tight can work wonders as well. Take Kori, for example.” She gestured to the pants my succubus servant was wearing, “You don’t have to look at her naked legs to know that a pair of juicy thighs hides beneath that leather. They’re fitted perfectly to her frame, showing off what she has quite well.”

I stroked my chin thoughtfully, “This is true, and I definitely don’t mind that idea.”

“Well, let’s get to work,” Castor said, “change if you would, Sareth.”

The blonde succubus nodded, and just like what happened with Korivia earlier, it looked like her whole body was suddenly being washed with water that carried with it a whole new appearance. When it finished, I was immediately stricken with awe.

I was now looking at myself. A perfect double.

“Whoa,” I said.

“What, never seen a succubus mimic someone else before?” Castor asked.

“Just never seen one mimic me,” I replied. “So, this is what other people see when they look at me. Fascinating.”

“Well, I could do things the hard way and take your measurements and work off those, but why bother when I can have a live model?” That was a rather brilliant way of taking advantage of a succubus’ transformation ability.

“Good point.”

“Now, I always have to ask, does it bother you that I’ll be touching her while she has your appearance? Sometimes in, shall we say, awkward places?”

I shrugged, “She’s not actually me, it doesn’t affect me one way or another.”

Castor gave me a thumbs up, “I have a few ideas already. Three, in fact. It should take me the rest of the day to get them done.”

“That fast?” I asked, stunned.

He laughed, “Magic helps. And I’m sure you’ll be impressed with the outcome.”

“That sounds fine by me then.”

After agreeing to these conditions, I asked if I owed him anything upfront and Castor shook his head. Apparently, he could use magic to recycle anything he made back into their basic materials, and he never liked the idea of charging labor for his passion. He’d only charge once the outfit was complete and I was satisfied.

Once this was confirmed, I promised to be back later and left the shop with Korivia in tow.

The succubus immediately chuckled lewdly, “Sareth likes you.”

“Wha—really?” I cocked an eyebrow at her.

“Yup, we were having a telepathic conversation that whole time.”

“I see, a shame that she’s owned then.”

“How greedy, Mistress,” Korivia whined teasingly and pressed her breasts into my arm, “you just got one cute little succubus and you’ve already got your sights on another!?”

Recognizing the facetiousness in her tone, I just smiled mischievously in response.

“Of course, if you like, I can just change into her. We’ve been friends for so long that I can mimic her all the way down to how she acts.”

I nodded, “Maybe you should surprise me some day then.”

She giggled and licked her full lips, “That sounds like fun. Anyway, where are we going next?”

I had a pretty solid plan for my trip planned out, the tailor was only the first stop. I wanted to get to know the city of Cantis better, so I planned on visiting all the most important spots. Next up on the list was the clocktower in the center.

On the way, I had Korivia explain the layout of the city to me, she assured me it would be really easy to memorize. Basically, the city was one big circle, and all of its major streets were set up in one of two different ways. Firstly, there were thirteen roads that were straight and ran from the clocktower to Cantis’ outer walls. These streets were simply numbered one through thirteen and began and ended with the Duke’s Palace in the north.

“Like a clock!” she proclaimed.

Then there were a number of roads that were essentially just circles, one after another, surrounding the clock tower like ripples. These were each named after the coins in demonic society, in order from most to least value starting with the clocktower itself.

“There’s shade, blood, gold, silver, and copper street,” She explained, gesturing as we passed by one of the curves streets. “It’s really hard to get lost here. If you’re on a curved road, you can keep going until you get to an intersection, then you’ll be able to see the clocktower in the center if you’ve hit one of the major streets.”

It was a remarkably organized system for demons, I had to admit. Though perhaps the key was that it was intuitive. Demons were not evidently allergic to order and organization, they just preferred chaos unless order was the easier and more intuitive option. Haphazard and disorganized streets and districts would be much more chaotic, but also more difficult to navigate.

We were currently traveling up the fifth street, where the Scarlet Tail and the tailor were located. This particular part of the city was known as the “Beelzebub District”. Each of the different districts were named after some of the greatest kings Abyssia had ever known. Beelzebub had been infamous for his avarice and love of hedonism, so this district was more or less the “market” district, a place where people could spend their hard-earned money.

The clocktower was evidently in the “Asmodeus District”. This ancient demon king was revered for his extensive knowledge and keen tactical prowess. As such, this district was where the libraries and various academies were located.

Once I was standing in front of the clocktower, I was amazed. It was much bigger in person. I’d frequently seen it from a distance, but up close it wasn’t difficult to see how it would be visible from nearly anywhere in the city. Still, I had a question about this clock and all the others I’d seen so far.

“This clock has three hands; I get that one is for hours, and another is minutes, but what’s the third one?”

“Ah, that hand marks the passing of the days. There are ten positions for this hand, one for each day and the rest day right at the top.”

I supposed that made sense. Dystopia had no moon, and their sun was completely still. Tracking how many days that went by would be difficult without this hand. I’d noticed that most demons don’t really track things like weeks, months, or years. I supposed it didn’t ultimately matter when you could live forever; only scholars would really need that information.

In any case, the clocktower was quite the wonder. I stared upward and pondered it for a few moments.

“If I remember right, there’s a mage lady who lives in the tower who maintains it. I think her name is Scarlett or something like that. Nobody ever sees her because she rarely leaves. Supposedly, she was the previous court mage in service to our last duke.” Korivia explained.

“Ah,” that seemed like good information to remember. Speaking of that, “Well, next on my list is actually the public library. You mentioned one being around here, right?”

“Yep, its right there,” Korivia pointed to one of the buildings surrounding the clocktower. A structure with an elaborate multiple-story design and imposing columns along its front. “What are you going to do there?” she asked.

“I just want to research more about this layer and about demons in general. While I’m a lot more comfortable now than I was when I first arrived, I still feel in the dark about a lot of things. I’d like to be somewhat independent at some point.”

“That’s fair. Mind if I wander around a bit, then? I’ll just end up sleeping if I go in there,” Korivia giggled.

“Go right ahead. Meet be back at the Scarlet Tail.”

“Sure, be careful, Mistress,” with those parting words, she leaned in and gave me an exceptionally lewd goodbye kiss. I watched as she jiggled and bounced away before moving toward the library.

I planned on going to the library on a somewhat regular basis to keep myself informed. However, my goal for this particular trip was researching all of the different demons I had met so far. To that end, I learned a lot about the omen, imps, ifran, and especially the succubi. Eventually I began reading up on the arachnae, the species of demon that Vixilica belonged to. I had only been told the most cursory facts about them, and always felt it might be rude to ask the exotic porcelain-skinned lady herself.

I learned that arachnae were an unusual species of demon in many ways. Unlike many of their brethren, the spider demons were unusually strict and regimented. Their society had a caste-system based on their physical appearance when they first spawn. They had some interesting powers at their disposal as well, including a venom which could turn its victims into wood or trees.

At one time, the swamp-like layer of Erebus was a great and sprawling forest, the trees of which are believed to be the unfortunate victims of arachna venom. The current ruler of Erebus, the son of the current king, Vanthos, despised the arachnae and all but drove them to caverns on the fringes of the sixth layer.

But the caste system was what drew my attention the most. Identifying Vixilica’s caste was fairly important to understanding her better. Therein I found a very interesting discovery. Each of the caste’s forms were very distinctive. The lowest caste, the thain, looked a lot like giant black widow spiders and were the servant class. The commoner class, the dulth, had the lower body of a spider and the upper body that was humanoid. The highest class were the loth, who were able to change their form between any of the other castes.

But the caste between those latter two, the akla, was the one Vixilica almost undoubtedly belonged to. It was the nobility class, and its description was that of a humanoid with chitinous arms and legs and three eyes, one on the forehead. I knew she wasn’t a loth in disguise because no matter what form the fourth caste took, it always had a blood red mark on its body like a black widow spider, and Vixilica didn’t have one anywhere.

Another interesting point of note was that the reason the arachae considered penis kissing and sucking to be a sign of submission was that only the highest two castes, the akla and the loth, had the penis-like appendages. The other two castes had no genitalia whatsoever.

But in any case, this was a fascinating discovery. Basically, this begged a very important question. If Vixilica was an arachnaean noble, what in the Abyss was she doing as a whore two layers up from her homeland? Surely her life would be one of abject luxury if she were in Erebus.

I spent a good long while just thinking about the possibilities, as well as wondering if it would be rude to bring this up with Vixilica, before I realized I had basically lost interest in research for the day. That was fine, though, I had plenty else to do before returning home.