After a few minutes of following the security personnel, who as they called themselves, we finally reached the venue.
And oh boy, I think all of the citizens of this faction's territory are here!
The celebration took place in the middle of a huge road under the moonlight. Lights were everywhere, and the crowd of people cheered at me.
And there's a lot of them!
From the crowd, Leo came out and raised his wooden cup. "And here comes the star of the night!"
He walked towards me and handed the cup containing booze to me.
"I didn't expect it to be this extravagant."
"Aren't you underestimating the weight of being a faction leader a bit too much? You are now the most important person in this place, and it's the least thing we can do to congratulate you." He walked back and waved his hand. "Let's go in here; everyone wants to see you."
I shook my head and turned my gaze to Rafaela; she responded by smiling at me.
It's quite overwhelming, especially knowing it is just the beginning of what I want to accomplish.
"Let's go, big bro Troy." Rafaela pulled my hand while sweetly smiling at me.
One down, two to go.
We entered the crowd of people cheering for me while I was walking through them. Most of them were looking at me with happiness, but there was also an abundance of them glaring at me with such jealousy. Most of them were newbies who may or may not have challenged Leo before and didn't manage to win.
There were tables scattered throughout the place, with waitresses serving booze for everyone. One of them immediately attended to me and showed me the way.
I reached the center of the venue and found the table where Leo and Xin were sitting. Two vacant wooden chairs were at their table; we walked towards them and took our seats.
"I'm surprised that you managed to easily organize such an event in a very short period of time."
"The moment our battle ended, Xin ordered the people to arrange this celebration immediately. The same thing happened after I miraculously won against him; the moment I woke up after a bloody battle, I was in the middle of the road while lying on my bed with booze in my hand, and people were celebrating around me. Xin is one hell of a merciless person."
He shook his head while recalling a somewhat tragic story.
Does that mean I am lucky enough to have healing magic to turn me back to health, or else I will end up in a situation like he?
Xin just chuckled. "I'm not." He handed Rafaela a cup of orange liquid.
"That's for you, Little Missy."
"You haven't drunk your booze yet." Leo's narrowing eyes dwelled on my cup. "Don't tell me the people of your tribe don't drink?"
"Ah, I forgot." I chugged the cup bottoms up.
The beer here is much more bitter than our one on Earth, but it's not bad.
Leo cackled. "That's what I'm saying! We'll drink until one of us is dead!"
He poured the booze on my cup from his comically large bottle.
"We're already dead once it's done."
"Don't underestimate the power of beastfolk Summon, not just me; even Xin is good at drinking!"
Xin just laughed at him and drank the cup of booze.
The party went on, and many things were happening while we were drinking. Some of the people decided to dance to the music of string guitar. We watched as they encircled the area with a dance based on what Leo said was a native dance of one of the beastfolk tribes.
We clapped as everyone joined them, not just beastfolks but also Demons and even humans, all of them showing their enjoyment as they danced.
"Demi-humans and humans. This is the only place where you can see them living in harmony," Xin commented while his eyes were still in the crowd.
I stared at Xin. "I heard about it. Why can't every race live in peace? What we're seeing right now is apparent proof that everyone can live in harmony as long as they want to."
Xin shook his head. "It has something to do with humans seeing us demi-humans as just inferior races, and they disdained us so much that they even attempted to wipe us all out; the good thing is they didn't succeed."
"Wow, that's a lot to absorb."
He chuckled. "Don't worry about it."
"Ah, now that we're at it, I have been seeing some human slaves shop around the marketplace, are you the one who established them?"
Leo, who was watching the crowd, veered his gaze at me. "I did. Why? Are you interested in one of them?"
So, it's really him.
I chugged the booze from my cup. "Not really, it just makes me wonder. How come you are operating human slave shops in a place where humans can peacefully live with other races? Where do you get those human slaves? Because something is telling me they were the citizens of this place, just based on what I'm seeing of the humans happily living here. Or maybe my assumption is wrong."
Of course, I already knew who they were. I just want to listen to Leo's reasons.
He poured another full into my cup. "No, you're right; none of those slaves are citizens of this town. It's one of the main rules of this town never to hurt the citizens as long as they're following the rules. Maybe we are not a bunch of benevolent heroes, but we are also not pure evil."
He drank the cup of booze in his hand and looked at me with his eyes filled with pain as if he recalled something he shouldn't.
"And besides, All the human slaves we have are just scum who enslaved, abused, and killed demi-humans, and I mean all of them, none of those captured human slaves is innocent. Don't waste your time sympathizing with them. The demi-humans who went through their wicked hands suffered more than those humans ever will. I'm just giving them a bit of a taste of their cruelty."
Hatred and pain, his voice was full of it.
I nodded. "I see."