DD 301 Ch 6

I took a deep breath as we stepped back onto Haylon proper. The new freshmen this year were already on campus, waiting outside the visitor center as if they had been awaiting my arrival. They were giggling and whispering to each other in a way that made me deeply uncomfortable. 

"Shoo, shoo," Des walked out in front of me. "You'll want to get out of the way before Crimson comes through."

While her initial shooing had limited to no reaction, the mention of Crimson made the new freshmen scatter like leaves in the wind. 

"I didn't expect a welcoming party here too," I said, looking around to see if there were more that were going to ambush me. 

"You're becoming quite famous, Ken," Des smirked. "I think you need to get used to the attention. If we hadn't gotten you out of the Nagato clan so quickly, I'm sure Bellaire would have chased you down and gotten you on camera for an interview. I'm fairly certain I saw her get a couple candid shots of you when the party got a little rowdier last night."

"Is that going to be okay?" I asked Des. 

"Yeah, yeah. Bellaire is on our side. If she so much as puts a single video out there that causes a negative reaction towards you, she knows her chances are doomed. Not to mention, Sakura would probably excommunicate her from the guild if Yui didn’t string her up by her guts first." 

I raised an eyebrow at Des. “I had no idea working in our social media department was so dangerous.”

"Everything is dangerous around your grandparents. Even breathing," Felin interjected with a sudden queasy expression. I wondered exactly what training Grandma Yui had given her.

"Well, we're back," Des gestured to the building. "It doesn't really feel like where we belong." She looked at its towering spires, its castle-like exterior, and manicured lawns and hedges lining the walkways. 

"No. It's where we started, but we've gone a lot farther than this. It's sad, but the dungeon feels more like school than the campus." I agreed.

Our party was together, but Crimson had left earlier in the morning to deal with any of the headmistress' antics. 

"Do you remember when you snuck into my dorms?" Des asked out of nowhere as we walked towards the main building. 

"You mean when you performed spooky rituals on me and sealed a demon inside of me? You know, the one that then eventually got out." I added, enjoying teasing her.

"Hey now," Des narrowed her eyes playfully. "The demon did you some solid good. Besides, you enjoyed every minute of those rituals."

"Was I the only one enjoying them?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. "I'm fairly certain you were the one who wore a nightgown to it and chained me to a bedpost to drip wax all over me."

Des grinned at the memory. "We should do that again. Obviously, we won't seal a demon with you, but I'd like to relive it. And I’d like to get the ending I had originally pictured for that night."

"It didn't end exactly how you wanted?" I raised an eyebrow at her. 

"Oh no, that was far too tame for how I actually imagined that night ending." Des gushed with a sudden dreamy gaze into the distance.

"Everything's too tame for you," I said, patting her on the head.

"Well, at least you understand." Des grinned, her eyes glowing briefly. 

"Is the Haylon building in Star City finished yet?" Charlotte asked. 

I scratched my cheek nervously. "Um, I don't know? Star City is a big place, and I wasn't exactly checking up on it." 

"No, he was too busy with Crimson," Felin said, wigging her eyebrows as she tried to imitate us, but she went overboard, shifting almost her entire upper face up and down. "I'm sure he had no time to wander around and check on it. Or maybe he was with Ambrosia, or the succubus, or Slytha." Felin added one after the other. 

"None of the above. I think you guys underestimate how much Crimson loves training. I actually kept the fun stuff to a minimum, only to keep Delirious Pleasures on cooldown to boost my stats." I told them. Crimson was getting pretty used to it at this point, she might be an addict.

The sudden thought of what she might do if we ever broke up flit through my mind before I realized that it wasn’t likely to happen at all. The thought that we’d be together for a very long time somehow felt like a weight had been put on my shoulders.

"Well, at least you had some fun," Des smiled, oblivious to my sudden mood shift. "We don't want you to get boring on us." 

"Never," I promised, shaking myself out of it. "I'll probably die in the dungeon before that." My sudden morbid comment caused the group to halt. "Nevermind, let's not put that out in the world." I cleared my throat and tried to get the group to move past the awkward moment.

"He is kind of right, though," Penny offered. "And by that I mean, since we are never going to let him fucking die, he'll always be fun." 

"That's the spirit," Des turned around and pointed at Penny. "I knew it was a good idea to push Ken towards you. You’re welcome by the way. I take payment in Ken nights.” 

Penny rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you do. However, those are far too precious to trade. And I like to think I got Ken on my own merits." 

"You did," I flashed her a smile, trying to ignore all of the freshmen that stopped to stare at us with big, wide, impressionable eyes.

The new students were all young ladies and more than a few were listening into our conversation with keen interest. They all moved out of the way, somehow both clearing space but also hovering nearby.

One freshman was bold enough to approach. "Ah, Ken, uh…" she licked her lips nervously. "Do you know when the Silver Fangs are opening applications?" 

"I don't know," I shrugged and glanced at the rest of my party. 

"Two weeks," Charlotte told the freshman. "The Nagatos would really like you to have at least some dungeon experience under your belt before they come to campus for recruitment. They'll stop by and watch any dungeon exercises you might have going on." Charlotte informed the other student, who bobbed her head rapidly, and it was clear that everyone around us had their ears tuned in to our conversation now.

The freshman looked like she was going to say something more, but Des cleared her throat and she scampered.

"Is our recruitment that big of a deal?" I asked as we moved along.

"Ken, when your grandmother comes to recruit, it's a big deal. She's been given access to watch the dungeon exercises. It's really only the kind of stuff that the really big names get to do." Des told me.

"Oh," I said in understanding. "Did the big names come and look at us? Is that why we had so many people talk to us during the celebration at the end of the first year?" 

Charlotte bobbed her head, and Des rolled her eyes. "He really is clueless about some of this, isn't he?" 

"It's what makes him perfect," Charlotte was quick to respond. "But yes, Ken, they either got recordings or got a chance to watch. Most likely recordings, if I had to guess. Crimson wasn't very keen on letting other adventurers anywhere near her class. And just the fact that we were all being trained by Crimson was another massive feather in our caps. The guilds would pay an arm and a leg just to get Crimson's favor." Charlotte told me.

"Even now?" I asked, knowing Star City had changed so much of the power dynamics. 

"Oh yeah, even now. Some of the guilds have managed to set up small buildings in Star City and a few have actually started to recruit among the Orkai. Although so far it’s more perception than anything and the Orkai have not been very effective. I heard the White Tigers brought in two Orkai brothers who mostly lounge around and make fun of humans." Des went on.

I made a face. "Sometimes I can't understand the difference between Orkai like the arbiters, and those," my mind flashed back to the frothy Battle Axes and the Melon Smashers. 

"Like humans, they're all different," Penny shrugged. "You can't just lump them together. They have their bad eggs, too. And then they have those that actually give a damn.”

“Well, at least they're not that foreign. We'll have to interact with them quite a bit this year, I suspect. And we'll probably encounter others like the Nekorians." I glanced over at Felin to see her reaction. She seemed at peace with the difference in her people, at least on the surface. But Felin also tended to not worry about much until it was right in front of her face. 

"Well, are you all excited for another rousing speech by the Headmistress?" Des tried to lift the mood. 

"Oh yeah, I'm sure it'll be absolutely inspiring," I waved my hands in the air as if her speech would spark rainbows through the sky. Really, I was expecting much of the same from past years.

***

Lucian and two men that he could trust sat atop a group of bleeding and bruised Orkai. Meanwhile, one was on the ground, kneeling before him. 

"What have we done to upset you shamans?" The Orkai asked.

"Nothing," Lucian waved a hand through the air. "Just needed a bit of exercise. And I've come to learn that you and your buddies," he smiled down at the bleeding Orkai, "have been in close contact with that incubus who collects human pets." 

The Orkai looked around curiously as if someone was going to pop up and tell them that this was all a prank. 

"Yeah? What about him?" Karnak leaned forward. "I hope you aren't coming to get your own judgment, not after an arbiter stepped forward to make the decision." 

"Oh no!" Lucian reeled back as if he'd been slapped. "That would be absolutely abhorrent. Everyone knows an arbiter's decision is final for that conflict. However, of course, if one of his human pets were to cause problems for me, then I'd be well within my rights to do more. I simply want to know more about the Incubus and his humans." 

Karnak glanced down where his fellows were being crushed by the two other powerful Nekorians.

They had been ambushed, which had not helped, but it was five on three and they had still lost. He had no idea who this shaman was that led the group, but Karnak could at least see that the Nekorian had power and some type of authority.

"Well, he's been training like crazy. We see him in the gravity chambers often enough. He usually keeps the one powerful human with him." Karnak shared. If it was just information, that was a cheep price to pay for their lives.

Lucian's eyes shone at the mention of the gravity chambers. 

"Yeah, we even have tried to pick a couple of fights with him," Karnak understood what this Nekorian wanted. He would play into that outcome and see if he could align them. "The incubus and I even have a duel coming up just for me and him to compare notes." Karnak bobbed his eyebrows.

He had picked the duel largely because seeing the incubus so confidently strut around with a gaggle of women made him want to pick a fight just to show him he wasn't as much of a big shot as he seemed to think that he was. 

The shaman's smile spread into a dangerous fanged grin. "Oh, you have a friendly duel with him. Wonderful. I would love to be there for that," the shaman insisted, his eyes pouring into Karnak.

"Of course, yeah. We'll happily invite you. It's eight days from now. It'll be at the gravity chambers if you want to watch." Karnak stated. 

"Yes, I'd love to get a clear measure of his strength," the shaman grinned, "which means you'll need to push him to his utmost." The shaman snarled.

“Incubi are such disgusting creatures," Lucian began, his voice filled with disdain. "The way they manipulate and control so many women makes them the worst of the demons."

"Oh, absolutely," Karnak agreed, bobbing his head as if he couldn't be more agreeable. "During the duel, would you like me to make it a little less friendly?" He smiled at Lucian, who seemed to appreciate his initiative.

Lucian leaned down closer to Karnak. "I would expect you not to get too creative on your own. Do you understand?"

"Perfectly," Karnak replied, his smile not faltering for a beat. He wasn't an idiot. 

Honestly, if Lucian told him to kill Ken, then all he’d have to do was go to an arbiter and the Nekorian and likely his entire tribe would be wiped out by the arbiters. Even directly asking him to kill Ken would be a violation of the arbitration and you didn’t violate the arbiters and live. They were what kept order in the depths of the dungeon and to do so that meant they had to have overwhelming power.

"I don't want him dead," Lucian clarified, shaking his head. He wasn’t so stupid as to get caught in that trap. "I simply want to get to know this demon better. The way one might observe a… rival." He hesitated before that last word, putting some extra emphasis on it for the Orkai to understand. "After all, arbitration is done. However, someone that once attacked our family could very possibly do so again. Gathering information on them in the interim is not a crime.” Lucian narrowed his eyes, checking to see if they understood.

Thee Orkai were fairly broadminded, but they weren't necessarily unscrupulous. Rather, an Orkai's greatest weakness was in technicalities.

Lucian wasn't doing anything technically illegal. Trying to understand someone that had previously attacked his clan was simply due diligence. There was nothing illegal, so long as he didn't initiate any aggressive action towards the other party. Thus, even if these Orkai wanted to help the humans, there was nothing they could do at that time.

Some liked to say that Nekorians were savages, but there were some among them that had been taught intelligence and strategic planning. The shamans were not to be underestimated.

Karnak swallowed and squinted at Lucian. "What about the Nekorian?"

Lucian tilted his head sideways. "What Nekorian?" His father hadn’t mentioned a Nekorian

"The incubus has a Nekorian in his group."

Lucian's eyes flashed dangerously and the Orkai trembled.

"His raid group. It’s mostly humans but he also has a Nekorian shaman." The Orkai offered.

Lucian nearly lost control of himself. "I'm sorry. You're saying this incubus has a shaman in his thrall?"

The Orkai looked amongst themselves. "I'm not sure if he has them bound by any sort of magic. They seem pretty happy."

Lucian made a sound of disgust. "Do Orkai lie to themselves to the point that they actually believe that those in service to demons are happy with their lot in life?" He shook his head. "I can assure you that they are not. If you take them away from the demon for long enough, inevitably they will snap out of it and return to living as a normal citizen."

Lucian's nostrils flared at the idea that any Nekorian would willingly subject themselves to a demon, particularly one like an incubi or a succubus that had such loose morals.

Even though their goddess Neko fully encouraged love in all forms, it was always clear from the scriptures that the goddess only had one in her heart and the rest was just lip service that was twisting of her words to fit old shaman's narratives and the idea of parties being small packs.

Though the Leomatis and their shamans were raised with the correct interpretation of the words the goddess Neko had left behind, they believed there was only room enough in a heart for a single individual. That person would be the person’s sun, moon, and entire world.

Lucian snorted, his thoughts once again drifting to the disgusting practices of demons. Even the Orkai practiced broader interpretations of unions, though thankfully they were far less public about it. 

"Any other information you can bring me about the incubus and his humans would be valuable," Lucian said. "I would love to understand where he's keeping these humans. Sounds like he has a large number of them."

The Orkai shifted around uncomfortably. "From what's been happening in Star City, it seems that they come from a world that's been only recently connected to the dungeon.”

Lucian frowned and shook his head. "You should know that if they're only recently connected, they can't simply be this strong. That's just another hole in the demon's story. How did a demon get among them if they are so new? Really, I'm disappointed in the arbiter for not seeing through this farce." Lucian already was frustrated with the Orkai. Their judgment was considered final. And they made the strong adhere to the rules, which made strength useless anyway.

"What did you say about the arbiter?" The green toad growled. 

Lucian sneered down at him. "I can say whatever I want. But at the end of the day, you are the one crawling along the ground." Lucian stood up tall, towering over the injured Orkai. "Do I make myself clear?"

Karnak gritted his teeth, but nodded.

"Good. And don't think about doing anything strange. I'll have one of my men keep an eye on you for now. Should he disappear, I will come. And punishment will be severe. Do you understand?” Lucian drew on his power as a shaman, lighting up the surrounding area with Goddess Neko's powerful presence. The power rippled through the air. Blue lightning crackled across Lucian's skin, and the holy air of his goddess redoubled, pressing down on all of the Orkai present. 

"We understand," Karnak eked out, through broken tusks. 

"Good." Lucian released the ability. "I expect to hear back a full spectrum of information. Do not let it be second-hand demonic lies like the ones you told me today. Verify with your own eyes." Lucian stepped forward onto Karnak's hand. "And get me more information on this Nekorian that he has, whose mind he's twisted. Perhaps she has a clan I could inform of her capture." Lucian stepped off the Orkai’s hand. "That will be all." He dismissed the Orkai, his two men easing off the rest that they had penned.

*****

Karnak gathered himself and ensured that his men were okay once the Nekorian’s had left. "What are we going to do?" one asked. 

"Let the two of them settle their grudge how they wish. As long as that Nekorian doesn't cross a line, it's simply another job, right?" Karnak looked at the rest of his party to see if any of them disagreed. Many of them just shrugged. 

"The path of least risk is just to give him what he wants. It's just information, after all," another Orkai was quick to offer his opinion. 

"Right, just information. He's just doing his due diligence on someone after coming into conflict." Karnak repeated the words, feeling the need to not be doing anything wrong in the eyes of the Orkai. The request was simple enough and not illegal, but the method of delivery left something to be desired.