Kai knew that he didn't have much experience as a world traveler, so he thought he might be ignorant, but he couldn't help but compare the Commonwealth of Traebor to the Krysal city states. A week into their explorations, he was beginning to see how he was both right and wrong.

Both were nations dominated by pure personal interest, without much of a sense of patriotism. On the other hand, Krysali were generally more loyal to their city state, whereas the Commonwealth seemed to be proud of its shared heritage. Merchants literally ruled in Krysal, whereas in the Commonwealth they were just a significant power. There was more overlap between merchants and warriors - he didn't think he was going to run into many like Suortril who despised cultivators.

Another major difference was geographic: Krysal sat at the edge of Deadwaste, whereas the Commonwealth was right in the middle of Rosemount. It had a dizzying number of different races and cultures, more than he could keep track of. Sometimes it felt like he saw literally everything but elves.

And demons, ironically. Despite all the politics and rumors about demons taking over, so far he'd seen more demons outside the Commonwealth than within it. They were apparently an extremely elite group, so they were rarely seen by normal citizens. For most, life went on as it always had, simply one conqueror replaced by another.

Once their trio had confirmed they weren't going to be immediately assaulted by demons, they dared to split up. Even though they had enough money to last them a lifetime, when they reached a major city they pretended to be looking for work. People of their strength were likely there only to work or to gain power, after all, so they needed to play the role.

Separated from the others, Kai was glad to actually disappear into a crowd again. With just under 400 Power visible in his human soul, he was stronger than average but hardly exceptional. He didn't want to make the same mistakes he had in Krysal, so he wandered the streets and tried to hear from the lowest workers of the city.

Many of them seemed to congregate in a strange sort of restaurant, with a large terrarium that had orange lizards skittering around in it. After paying, customers would snatch up the lizards and eat them raw. His first instinct was to think it was cruel, but he was a newcomer, so Kai paid and sat.

"Not many humans here." A man with scaled skin and sharp teeth leaned closer. "You a connoisseur?"

"Won't even pretend to be," Kai said with a guarded smile. "I'm new to the Commonwealth and still trying to figure everything out. What are these things?"

"Delicious, is what they are. Go on, catch one."

The lizardkin stared with an odd expression, and some others nearby were chuckling, so he guessed that it was a test. They all had under 100 Power, which wasn't much for Rosemount. Kai decided that he might as well play along: he shot out a hand, grabbed a lizard, and bit it in half. After everything he'd eaten, he wasn't going to be squeamish about something like this.

"Not bad." The man nodded slowly. "Should have known a cultivator would be fast enough. Try one of the blue ones. They're the best."

"Thanks for the tip." Kai had to look around before he spotted a smaller bluish lizard hiding between some rocks. He finished off his first and then reached out to snag the blue one, popping the entire thing into his mouth.

Immediately he felt a slight heat on his tongue that grew stronger instead of weaker, and he hesitated. He was fairly sure that the lizard was supposed to be hot, probably too hot for humans, especially the way the lizardkin were watching him. Maybe the majority of humans would have been shocked, but his mouth was a semi-magical entity that regularly ate entire monsters whole and spewed death flames.

"Whew!" Kai pounded on his chest and let out a belch. "Shouldn't have eaten it all at once."

"Ha! Most smoothskins would be crying right now!" The worker shoved a cup of something white and milky at him. "Take this, on me. It'll help."

Kai took a drink and it tasted a bit like pond scum, but he could see how it could be soothing. He pretended to nurse it to avoid eating any more lizards, less because they were disgusting or too hot and more because they were unsatisfying.

"You're a tough cultivator," the man said eventually. "Life can't be so hard that you're looking for work with teamsters like us."

"Not as a teamster, maybe," Kai said even though he had no idea what that was, "but surely you need guards? Commonwealth seems like a pretty dangerous place these days."

"Oh, it's not so bad. The demons don't care about most of us, so life goes on."

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"Had a cousin who disappeared," another of the lizardkin said with a grimace. "They took the entire caravan. Just gone."

"You sure he didn't get drunk and wander off?" Plenty of the others laughed, but not all. They didn't look like a terrified population, but they weren't exactly carefree.

"If you ask me," one of the lizardkin opined between bites, "leadership needs new blood every so often. You gotta admit, the demons cut through all the red tape. Officials try to give them trouble, they get thrown off a cliff. Makes things easier, doesn't it?"

Many of the others laughed and the closest lizardkin struck Kai on the back. "What about you, human? What do you think?"

"I think I shouldn't eat the blue ones," Kai said, to scattered laughter. But there was still attention on him, so he shook his head. "I just got here, I don't even know how long the demons have been in charge."

As it turned out, the workers weren't sure either, or at least not sure enough that they couldn't argue about it. It seemed like the demon sect had probably taken over about five years ago, with some infiltration or conflicts before that. Kai had a hard time wrapping his head around a complete change in leadership being such a minor detail for them, but apparently that was life in the Commonwealth.

"You ask me," one of the lizardkin said, "life was better until about two years ago. When they started working with the CTG, that's when things got rough."

"Merchants always team up with 'em," another said gruffly. "Inevitable."

"But it means we get squeezed from both sides."

Kai pretended he knew what was going on until he figured out that "CTG" referred to an organization called the Commonwealth Trade Guild. Apparently they were a group of merchants that usually served the leaders while also moderating their worst tendencies. Two years ago the demons had somehow gotten their hooks into the organization and began using it to gain more control, though workers like these had no idea how it had happened.

Apparently one of the most popular rumors was that a major merchant had been seduced by some sort of courtesan - the workers used a lot of slang, but the Alltongue Fruit consistently gave Kai the gist of what they were saying. Ceryyn had given him a better gift than he'd known and he felt a surge of responsibility to pay her back.

Soon enough the workers started to drink, so Kai joined them and got as much information as he could. They might not have shared any critical secrets about the nation, but he got a much stronger sense for the culture. By the time the others were passed out or staggering home, he pretended to be unable to take any more and slumped out of the restaurant.

Once he was lost in the crowds again, he squared his shoulders and refocused. It wasn't much, but it was a start. He headed back to their meeting point and discovered that Omilaena was already waiting there.

"From your breath, you've been staying with lizardkin." She wrinkled her nose and pulled back. "Was it worth it?"

"I know more than I did before," Kai said. "Apparently the demons took over about five years ago."

"Kai, everyone knows that. I could have told you that just based on when I left for Deadwaste."

"Alright, but have you heard about the CTG?" He went on to tell her about those rumors and Omilaena seemed more interested. Apparently the CTG was one of the major organizations keeping the Commonwealth stable. The demons were hardly the first rulers to have taken control of it, but it was a mark of how they were becoming entrenched instead of merely looting the nation.

"The artisan guilds in this place are nothing special," Omilaena told him, "but they're a good bellwether for the others. And it seems like most of them are accepting it, or even say the demons are better than average. They aren't going to drain chakra artisans, and apparently they don't micromanage."

"What does all of this mean for the elves?" Kai asked.

"We won't know until we talk to some. They're thin on the ground here."

It looked like she was about to say more, but at that moment Zae Zin Nim approached them. She looked distraught and had a large cloth wrapped around her shoulders that she hadn't worn before, so Kai instinctively started to get to his feet. When she approached she sat down heavily and drew him down with her, though.

"This place is horrid," she muttered. "I have received two marriage proposals, three offers of dual cultivation, a dozen vulgar suggestions, and more rude comments than I care to remember."

"You trying to make me jealous?" Omilaena asked lazily.

"It is obscene. They should be put to death, or at least someone should put out their eyes." Kai wasn't sure whether or not Zae Zin Nim was joking, but after sitting with them and hearing about their investigations she calmed down and spoke in a quiet voice. "There are no cultivators here, so I couldn't gather much information. I did learn that apparently there were only thirty pure demons in the entire Commonwealth, when they were at their strongest."

"That's enough. How many do they have using demonic arts under them?"

"Unclear. But it doesn't matter, because their leader is allegedly unstoppable."

"Right." Omilaena winced and looked skyward. "Matiavel the Destroyer, right? Most of the people I spoke to didn't want to speak his name, so I haven't been able to gather much information about him. I'd say all the rumors were just legend-building except that the other great powers seem to respect him."

"He is taken quite seriously by chakra cultivators." Zae Zin Nim regarded them somberly. "They told me about a man known as the Great Shield of Traebor, some sort of armored warrior who was the mightiest in their capital. When he went to fight Matiavel, the demon allegedly killed him with a single magical flame. Defensive auras, lamias with chakra scales, warriors specializing in regeneration... all of them died the first time they were struck."

Kai swallowed at the seriousness in her tone. "Is that... plausible? Omilaena, you don't think it's just trying to build his reputation?"

"Some call them god abilities, and they're rare, but they're real." Omilaena met his gaze and shook her head slowly. "My best theory is that they aren't just overwhelming power - there's something deeper there. But I was never strong enough to investigate before."

And based on the stories, they might not be strong enough now. After starting to feel relaxed in the Commonwealth, Kai wondered yet again if they were in over their heads.