Part 2: Different World

Life became interesting and enjoyable for the first time in my short life. I was 160 years old at the time. Arcadia was a city I grew to love during my time there. Arcadia was also the place where I truly felt at home. I learned what love was during my stay as well.

I made a living as a thief, and became quite skilled at the trade. There were all kinds of opportunities to snatch a jewel or a valuable cloth during the day, when streets were packed with people; selling, buying, and trading. The rich and poor came together here in a world of colors, smells and chatter. I often spent many afternoons just watching all the commotion from a ledge or roof on a several story building. Little old female demons would send their children out to buy food or advertise objects to prospective customers. The butchers would have meat laid out on display, and the best cuts would be gone by the time the sun was right overhead. The extreme variety of animals and rich fabrics attracted me the most. The thin silky cloth with deep, rich colors was my favorite. I imagined myself wearing that right next to my skin so many times. But my lifestyle would soil it faster than you can say "pretty", so I had to lose the idea. I did make some good money as a thief, but it was always spent on food or books.

Books were not very common (usually only the nobles would possess them), so they costed a great deal of money. It could take me a week to steal enough gold to buy a small, thin one. Once I got the book, there wasn't any place where I could store it safely. And a third dilemma was that I could only read ancient writings. For some reason, I could understand the "dead" languages and easily read them on the walls of the ruins (this helped greatly in my thieving career), but I never understood the current common language of the Demon Realm. Basic Demon language. The commonness of the language is similar to the human languages of English, or Spanish. Very widespread. About a third of the Makai spoke basic demon language, and those speakers mostly lived in the industrialized country of Koutang.

Here's an interesting piece of knowledge that might prevent confusion in the future. After the Great War, when Inari was killed and the Earth was split up, the Demon Realm was divided into three countries that are each ruled by an absolute ruler. In each country there are about a couple hundred nobles that each rule their own small "kingdom". But they still answer to the Great Lord or Lady that rules the faction that they live in. At this time of my life, Koutang was ruled by Yomi, Awsuan ruled by Murkuro, and Gurnean by Raizan. Murkuro and Yomi were, and still are, constant rivals. They never truly engaged in direct conflict, but whenever those two met, there was always strong tension between the two. They both only ruled for about a century at this point in time, even though Murkuro was 500 years younger than Yomi's 900 year old self. Perhaps that is the reason for the conflict, but it seems ridiculous to me. Raizan, on the other hand, has ruled his faction ever since the world was split. He was a couple thousand years old, so he is the most powerful of the three.

Yomi's faction is the most industrialized, so machines and computers are quite commonplace. They made scientific breakthroughs a couple centuries before the humans did. Despite their industrialization, there are still many who live the traditional ways, without all the technology. Cities are found all over Koutang, But Awsuan, Murkuro's faction, would have the best trading cities. It does have some industrialization, but it's more focused on, let's say, a loose form of feudalism. Many people here also speak Basic Demon language, but as a second language. They usually speak their own tribal language unless they do business with a demon from another tribe or kingdom. Even then, it would only be the tribal leaders that would speak it. The nobles here are each leaders of their own tribe or species, so there's lots of diversity. Traditional boundaries are also used, instead of political counties like in Koutang. As you can see, Awsuan is more traditional than Koutang. Here is where you would find the Vampires, Elves, Centaurs, and other non-human, non-demon beings that escaped the massacring of humans. It is located in the Southern regions of the Demon Realm. Koutang has the Western lands. Raizan ruled the smallest faction of the Demon Realm, but that didn't lower his power. He was a Super S-class demon, which is the highest power rating that the Spirit World has (only Inari has gone past that rating, so she's in a class all her own).

The city I was currently in was Arcadia, as you already know, and the faction Arcadia is in is the Awsuan region. This city is one of the most important trading cities in the entire Demon Realm. As I said before, I enjoyed just watching the people form all kinds of places making trades. At first I stole the usual objects that was considered valuable by secularism, like jewels and gold. I was able to put my godlike speed to good use, because I never got caught. But boredom came over me eventually, and I started snatching the books whenever I could. I mentioned before how I could barely afford any good books and that I could only read the ancient ones. I finally stopped wasting my money trying to buy them, and I just spent my time stealing those instead of the traditional items. Heh, my brother would have been pissed. Of course, that diminished the food quantity a bit, and I started leaning towards poverty again. But I didn't care, nor did I really noticed. The ancient works of the scribes from thousands of years ago nourished me in a way that food never could. All the ancient legends came alive for me, and I could forget about my pitiful, lonely life on the streets. I could become a princess of the heavens, a warrior with the powers of the gods, or a goddess of the universe, it didn't matter. I fell in love with the characters, became one with them. The ancient texts were the members of the family I never had. All I had to do was read them once, and they would be with me forever, because I can never forget.

Unfortunately, these family members couldn't be permanent. I had to discard the books somehow after I finished reading them. So I just placed them back on the display in the market that was run by their original traders. They always seemed so surprised to see those books again. Once again, I was never caught. Not until I met someone that would change my life forever.