"A… A demon!" a man in an antique-looking cuirass pointed to him. His silver gauntlet's finger shone the yellow light from the setting sun. Feng Huan raises his eyebrow. The man calls three men with similar-looking armor, minus the silver gauntlet and the head up towards the base of the castle.
"Demon! Can you come down and meet us?" the man says, his voice quivering, but his sentence ends with resolve. "We… we would like to meet you." He continues.
Feng Huan doesn't know how to come down from this castle, but at least he can understand what the locals are saying. He raises his hand, signaling them to wait, but they kneel. "Oh Demon! We have been waiting for so long!"
Feng Huan looks at the people around the four armored men. The men and women are in worn leather, shredded in some places, and old. These men and women look like they've been through a lot. They look warily at him, but some of the younger ones look on in awe.
Rong taps him on his shoulder.
"Mhn mhn." She points to the staircase at the car corner of the throne room. Feng Huan smiles at the crowd and walks languidly, making his way down the winding stairwell to the bottom of the castle. After a few minutes, he finally reaches the bottom.
Rong opens the large wooden gates and he is met with the four armored men, kneeling on the ground. Both their knees are on the ground, their faces filled with grief and melancholy. The men look like they're in their thirties, except for one who is the youngest, who looks like he's in his teens.
Feng Huan walks slowly toward the man with the silver gauntlet.
"Let me guess, you're the king?" Feng Huan asks. Knowing these fantasy worlds, this important-looking guy is the King.
"I… I am the President." The man says.
"What?"
"I am the President." The man repeats.
"Ah."
Feng Huan awkwardly shuffles. He scratches his nape. Rong stands beside him, and the men and women look in horror, sweat trickling down their foreheads, but some look on in curiosity…
At the armored duck resting on her arms. She's holding it like an infant, and it nestles on her bosom in a tranquil sleep.
"Mr. Demon…" the man pauses. "Let me introduce myself… I am President John Student II. President of the Union of Three States."
"The United States?"
"Uh… yes. Three states." John repeats, his forehead coated in sweat.
"What's up with these impoverished people?" Feng Huan asks.
"It is the last of us… Mr. Demon. We are the last of the Demon worshippers…" he says. John gives him a map.
"Mr. Demon… here. You'll know where our settlements are once you see this map." John says, trying to be helpful.
"Thanks." Feng Huan thanks his and John's face lights up in pride.
"I… I try to be helpful!" he stammers.
Feng Huan looks at the people standing around. What pitiful people. Living in Poverty. The small valley is pretty spacious. The three 'states' are just small Podunk towns in three separate places in the valley, connected by a road.
The map is nice enough to put population numbers on the labels in the legend. The map looks old and worn down, and the writing has not been updated. Looks like this map has been around for a long time. The edges are jagged, and the corners are cut.
"Let's see McCready first." Feng Huan says.
"You are already here," John says. "McCready formed around this old castle."
"Ah… I see that."
He tours the little settlements, the people living in small stone huts, wooden sheds, and tents. The houses are arranged in rows. There is a small central street and there are little shoot-off roads around the 'town'.
The demon worshippers live in pairs. Pairs of men, women, or men and women. Fifteen variations of sheds, and tents, and in the middle, there is a large wooden cabin. It looks like the center of the little settlement.
The castle seems to be at the south end of the town. The four men a faceless maid holding a duck, and a Demon walk towards the wooden encampment in the middle. The residence is not necessarily luxurious but in this cold weather, it provides better warmth than the tents and sheds sprawled around it.
On the door of the cabin, there is a little placard. 'CELTIC' it says.
"Senator Celtic lives here…" John says.
Feng Huan knocks on the door thrice. He can hear footsteps approach as he waits. The door opens a little, and a little woman in her thirties opens the door. Well… she's short. About 4'11 and her diamond face and little nose perk up as she sees him.
"You! You're the demon!" she gasps. She opens the door wider. She's wearing a plain gray dress, and it's worn like the others. A sash goes around her waist and it looks like she's handling chemicals. Her hands look wrinkled like it's been soaked in something wet for a very long time.
"Come in, come in," she says, ushering them to enter. The cabin is large enough to fill their group in the living room. The room looks tidy, and the seats they're sitting on seem to be clean, though discolored.
Outside the window is the view of the lush green pastures and long tranquil fields built by the small number of demon worshippers in this area. Is the world large with a small population? If so… what happened?
A myriad of questions floats around Feng Huan's mind. If he's going to have a peaceful life here, he should build the foundation in the long run. He should find out what's happening in this world. He notices that the little woman has scampered off.
After a few minutes, she walks back with a newborn… 'What is happening here?'
"Demon!" she looks to Feng Huan. She blinks twice. "Please name my daughter!" she holds out her daughter, who looks like she popped it out just a week prior. It's covered in rough linen but looks well taken care of.
"Uh… we are here to meet your husband. Don't make trouble for the esteemed demon." John says, waving his hand, and shooing her. "Just bring Ron here, we don't need you to trouble the demon further." He continues.
"Well well… Don't be too harsh John. I'm sure she was waiting for a long time as well." Feng Huan sighs. "Come here… child. Let me see your offspring" 'I'm a demon now, I should talk like it at least.'
"Haah..! I can't believe this is finally happening!" she sniffles, tears dropping from her eyes. She quickly wipes it with… the linen on the baby. Huh. 'These people are kinda brash sometimes.' She takes a step forward and hands Feng Huan the baby.
"Huh… This baby shall be named Nozomi!" hehe of course. He always wanted this kind of power, maybe he can stop his life of begging people for power… Always begging, always running, isn't it time to face destiny?
"Nozomi huh… I don't know what that means, but thank you Mr. Demon!" she bows.
"Raise your head…" Feng Huan laughs. Well, he's not used to this. The baby starts glowing slightly, returning to normal. Jana quickly covers up the baby and runs off. After a few moments, a man in crutches enters the living room.
Jana is helping him up, his legs look a little smashed… well a lot. Looks like a fracture there. He looks scruffy, and he's wearing leather armor, the undergarment of the cuirass worn by soldiers. He walks to them, the wooden floor creaking slightly with every step he takes.
"Demon…" he sighs. "Why are you here?"
"Don't be disrespectful!" John points at him. "This is an esteemed Demon! This is what he has been waiting for!"
Ron D. Celtic sits down on one of the chairs. Jana scampers off to her room. Feng Huan can smell what was inside from here because there seem to be pretty strong chemicals present there.
"Waiting for? I'm sure you know why there are so few people left." He sighs. "This world," he gestures towards the window, "is dying. Its inhabitants are going extinct."
"What do you propose we do?" Feng Huan looks at Ron. His piercing eyes make him suck a breath in.
"This world, this continent, it is filled with small Kingdoms, squabbling over land and power," he looks down. "We've had to resort to fighting each other to survive."
Feng Huan stands up.
"Ron D. Celtic. That's your name, right?" Ron tenses for a moment, before relaxing.
"Yes, that's me." He says, his mustache moving to the right and left slightly. 'I should address these people.' Feng Huan thinks.
"Do you all have a main function hall in this small Republic?" Feng Huan asks.
Ron shakes his head. "If this place was bigger, then yes, yes we do. But as we have fewer residents here now, that would only take up space." He shrugs.
Feng Huan clicks his tongue. He turns around and taps John's shoulder. "Do you have some men you can gather? I think I have an idea."
John nods and stands up. "I will bring them here."
"Excellent." Feng Huan sighs. He looks to his left where Rong is sitting, silent as she strokes the feathers of the Duck, now out of its armor and being fed seeds that seemingly came from nowhere. After waiting for a few moments John comes back to the cabin and ushers them out.
Outside, Feng Huan sees seven armored men. Each has a sword strapped to their waist and a cuirass on their person. The seven men look scruffy and they smell like they were swimming with the pigs. One of them, standing at the front with a monocle catches Feng Huan's eye.
He steps out of the cabin followed by Rong and the duck. He looks back to Ron who's sitting on his wooden chair and waves at him. Ron only responds by shrugging, closing his eyes to rest. Closing the door behind him, Feng Huan takes a step forward to meet the men.
"Hello." He says simply. The men tighten their fists, in their eyes are a mix of emotions. Reverence, understanding, disbelief, and despair swirl underneath as they look at the tall demon, faceless maid, and duck right in front of them.
"I would like you all to follow me." Feng Huan, followed by Rong start walking in the direction of the stone castle at the far side of McCready. The men look left to right before following suit and walking behind the Demon.
They walk past the nursery with a surprising number of children. Now that Feng Huan thinks about it, half of the camp is children under the age of 17. Is this a remnant of a remnant? Walking past the people walking about and doing their business they finally reach the castle gate.
The stone gate is three meters tall, magnificent carvings are on its surface and around the frame.
"I would want you all to clean up this place." Feng Huan points to the castle. Rong steps forward and hands the duck to him. She also drops a couple of seeds.
"Um… Follow her. She will tell… Figure out what to do with her." Feng Huan says, giving the duck a back rub. Its cuirass is suddenly gone, in its place are the seeds handed to him.
Once John, Rong, and the men have gone inside the castle, Feng Huan decides to walk around the Town. He looks around the camp, the children are running about and playing. The gravel road crunches as he takes a step, and the adults in the camp look at him warily.
He takes a deep breath and exhales, his eyes giddy with excitement.
'Finally! Finally, I have a kingdom of my own! I am the only demon here! I am on top of the world!' he smiles to himself. Hahaha! Finally, the Gods are listening to him and they gave him a world he can dominate, hahaha!
Feng Huan walks into the corner and spots a man cooking yams. The other adults are standing around him, holding their plates up, waiting silently for the yams to finish cooking. Next to the stall cooking yams is another stall deep-frying yams.
People are lining up and buying yams with the stuff of their own. Like in a backward barter system.
'Having fun?'
Feng Huan stops in his tracks. He turns around, looking up down, and side to side, but he doesn't see who's talking to him. Huh, that's weird.
'Over here!'
"Quack quack!"
Feng Huan looks down to see the duck's beady eyes staring back at him.
'Just because I'm now in this form, you can go sauntering around and claiming this place as your own!'
Feng Huan looks at the duck, then looks to the distance whistling to himself.
'Hey! Stop ignoring me!'
Feng Huan's cheeks puff up… and he finds himself laughing out loudly.
'Ahahaha! How can I take you seriously when you sound like that?' the Duck sounds like a man who inhaled a tube of helium!
'Ya! What kind of demon are you?! Do you think I care!?' The Duck yells. It turns away from Feng Huan and glares at a kid coming by.
'You can't just ignore me! You're lucky I decided to let you live hmph!' The duck wallows in its hubris and settles itself in Feng Huan's hands. Feng Huan looks around, the people around him mind their own business, busy being too hungry to care.
'You've got some nerve laughing at me, Domplumo.' The duck looks away from him. It looks sad, almost. The duck looks stoic as it looks at the people waiting on the cooked yams.
'It is about time you grow up Domplumo, and take care of these people.' It says in a soft voice. Ah! The first plot point in a game!
'All right! I accept.'
'Huh..? Ok… Well, go on then. Leave this old man… old duck alone.' The duck closes its eyes. Hehe. It is a game. Feng Huan… now Domplumo?
Feng Huan walks back to the castle after half an hour, his hands full of yams. The sky is still red as if no time has passed at all, and the sun still sits in the sky. He enters the castle and sees everyone gathering near Ron and a bunch of soldiers. When he gets near enough, John speaks.
"Mr. Demon. I have gathered the important citizens from the three States. They… they would like to hear you speak."
The men and women gathered in the throne room seem tense. The green fires now lit around the hall illuminating it in a slight eerie light, mixing and contrasting with the yellow light. The room smells musky and warm, and the people in front of him are armored.
The women have embroidered handkerchiefs hanging from their pockets. One, in particular, is suited with a tight cuirass, her hair tied to a neat bun, her sharp chin pointed up. Her proud and distant eyes looked past him, her lips turned up in a smirk.
Feng Huan feels stripped bare. The middle-aged woman seems to be experienced, as well as the others in the room. The oldest of them, a man looking to be in his sixties is sitting on the far side of the room. Feng Huan finally notices that they've added a long table into the room.
On the long table, is a banquet, a plate of roasted yams, mashed yams, yam soup… and other dishes involving yams. He looks past the yam food and sees what looks like greens wrapped in spring rolls wrappers. And right next to it is a little bowl of white goo.
A sauce of some sort.
"Sit down."
The woman who has been scrutinizing him for the past thirty seconds says as she walks to him. Looking at her face, he sees pain. He sits down on a chair facing the table. The rest of the men follow along, each of them taking a seat next to him. Feng Huan glances up to find everyone looking at him.
They're all watching him.
Feng Huan takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly.
"Thank you all for... gathering here." He swallows his saliva, the sound reverberating in the room. Relax… relax, they are NPCs, they are supposed to bend to his will… yes, yes. He clears his throat once more.
"Thank you everyone for gathering here. I would like to discuss with you the future of this country-."
"And why should we negotiate with the likes of you?" the stern woman speaks up.
"Uh… I~."
"You don't even know our names, do you? Didn't you read about the members of the Senate? Negligence." She says pointedly, laying her hands on the table, making a soft thud. She grabs a steamed yam and takes a bite.
The duck is sleeping in Rong's hands, and there he was quivering on his seat. Under her gaze.
"I wouldn't care to introduce myself to you. You're negligent." She giggles.
The old man in the far corner of the table clears his throat. "Excuse her."
"Alana Parr is very skeptical, but it's true. We are just a part of a region in a wider Kingdom. You've only come across a small part of the world." He continues.
"In ten days, the Duchess will visit this place." The man closes his eyes and continues eating.
'Nooo! This is not supposed to be this way! I was supposed to be welcomed with open arms! Why is this happening? I'm the main character damn it. Why is it that I never get anything I want…'
"Please guide me then… what should I do?" Feng Huan bows his head slightly, his face hidden from the people around the table, his face that's crunched with a scowl.