Having surveyed my handiwork, I first made sure that no one else was going to come in anytime soon by moving the desk with one arm to block the door for the time being. While I could have gotten a little more creative, the child was still crying. So I sat down for a moment and popped the thing on one of my breasts. The dress was torn anyway.

Speaking of which, the child wasn’t the only thing crying at the time.

“Hey there, got anything to say? I think you’re the only other living thing in here at the moment.”

A young female demihuman cowered in the corner of one of the cages and had tears streaming down her round face. While the lighting wasn’t too good, I could tell she was a mixed type. Tiger and a lion? Lion and a tiger? Some other big cat?

“Heeeeey. If you don’t let me know that you can be of value to me, I’m just gonna kill you. Can’t leave any witnesses ya know.”

Of course I say that while breastfeeding...oh the child is asleep again. Do they really sleep that much?

“W-whad are yoo?” she managed to get out.

“Death incarnate...probably. Last chance, got anything of value for me?”

That got her to calm down; on the outside at least.

“W-wait, do you have somewhere to go after this? There's two adventurers that live in Sector C3 that help out non-humans. I can take you to them until you figure things out?"

I nodded for her to keep going.

"Uhh and I can be your slave or something?"

“Let’s see do I want something else to take care of...mmmmmmmm.”

“And I can help take care of your daughter!”

Eh works for me. Not like I had a mother that showed me how to be one. I had more of a crazy uncle that I wanted to disown.

“Alright, sounds like a plan. Now before we get you out of there, are you able to use any of these weapons and do you know how to operate one of those levitating things?”

“Uhhhh I’ve never really held a weapon before but the managuns should be easy to use right? Just point and fire. And you’re talking about cars right? Not too many people have em so I’ve never used one but I know how it should work in theory...” she responded tentatively.

Satisfied that this demihuman could prove useful to me, I crouched down next to the Captain’s body and picked some keys off of him. I set the demihuman free and made sure my wings were back in place.

“How are we gonna get out of here?” she asked.

“It’s simple. We cause a distraction and we burn all the evidence.”

Seven undead soldiers and a random civilian undead were currently wreaking havoc as the building we had previously been in was ablaze.. While no master necromancer, I was pleased by the results. I had turned some of the dead soldiers into lesser undead but I made three of them into ones that retained some of their memories and could use their weapons. Observing the managuns in use was interesting to me: it appeared they fired compressed mana that would burn through armor and kill something with kinetic force as well. They weren’t terribly loud but it was rather flashy with their light blue blasts.

My undead were keeping the remaining soldiers and now arriving firefighters busy. The undead that was previously known as Sonny was already down though. I had turned him more out of spite than anything. I never said I was perfect did I?

“Hey, keep your eyes forward. You’re gonna make us crash into something.”

“Why don’t you try driving? This is my first time!”

“I thought slaves weren’t supposed to be so sassy.”

We were casually going away from the scene in the merchant’s vehicle. The demihuman was operating it but she kept looking back at the fight and the blaze. It was still the middle of the day so there were plenty of farmers and laborers outside curious at what was going on. But we kept veering left and right cause the dang demihuman couldn’t keep focused. Not that I cared if we hit anyone but that would be a waste of time right now.

“What are you staring at now?”

“Its...its just that you’re so cool and scary at the same time.”

“Shut up and keep your eyes on the front.”

Luckily in the chaos that we left behind, no one noticed us or the vehicle leaving the area. The demihuman mentioned something about a “camera system” that records the building and the surrounding area but I figured with the present I left behind, there will be nothing left. Just to be cautious though, after we got a short distance away, I changed the color of the vehicle from a steel grey to a blue color that I had seen in passing.

The demihuman gave me a weird look after that and I just glared at her in response. She quickly looked away.

The child meanwhile was still fast asleep in my arms. Does anything wake this thing up?

“We’re in Sector C3. Just another minute or so and we’re there.”

Those were the only words anyone had spoken since truly leaving behind our “captors”. Roughly 20 minutes had passed as we went along the curved road that looped around the outer tier. We passed multiple farms without running into any trouble. I obviously had questions about everything but I wasn’t going to engage this demihuman in conversation...yet.

She stopped us right next to a relatively sizable and nice farmhouse and got out with the managun that we had taken with us. Following suit, I grabbed my pack which had been left in the vehicle earlier and tailed the demihuman up to the front. Observing the area, I could tell the farm was flourishing and that the crops were for more than just local subsistence. Good for them.

The demihuman turned around before doing anything else.

“Ummmm…”

“Just spit it out.”

“Fine. What do we even tell them? I don’t even know your name. Plus I still have this slave collar on me...”

To tell you the truth, I could guess what a slave collar did but I wasn’t sure what it would do if it remained on her. It certainly wasn’t fashionable.

“Will it do anything if we break it off?”

“I’m pretty sure trying to tamper with it physically will end up killing me…”

“Well we can’t have that now can we…”

Looking at it closer, it had some colored lights. While I had any number of ideas as to how to get rid of it, all of them pretty much had a high chance that this demihuman would die. Even for someone as reckless as I, I thought better of just electrocuting the thing.

“What happens if we leave it on?”

“There’s a high chance that she will die or that she will feel extreme pain whenever the controlling party notices.”

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A female voice came from the open door of the house. I was no judge of how old humans are based on appearances but she seemed middle aged. Despite that, she still sported a lean and toned figure. Along with her red hair and sharp green eyes, I'd say she looked formidable. Especially with that expression on her face…

"Tania, what happened? And who is this?”

“Auntie Nina, I know you told me not to try and go after her, especially by myself but-”

No more words had to be said. The glare on Nina’s face was enough to even make my cold-blood run slightly colder.

After a moment of silence, Nina prodded Tania to go on. She explained that after sneaking around that she got caught, got forced into the slave collar, and was awaiting the slave auction before I had arrived.

The red-haired woman turned to me and asked, “And you, are you a necromancer?”

I cocked my head at her and didn’t say a thing.

“Fine. Come inside and listen to this.”

We followed Nina into her home which I assumed to be well-furnished; I wouldn’t know for sure as I had no frame of reference. Never was invited into anyone else’s home before...and Ziden doesn’t count.

It was also surprisingly well lit due to some glowing bulbs that provided light. That's new.

On a desk nearby was a device that emitted a voice that sounded crackly. Nina went to it and turned a knob that made the voice get louder.

“-diers were heavily wounded along Route 17 while on patrol between Chamont and Loxgow. One Jaguar tank was damaged while two Lynx walkers were destroyed. Fortunately, the crews survived the encounter. Due to the increased monster activity that has been reported in the area, the government has advised that travelers do not use Route 17 until the situation has stabilized.

In other breaking news, criminals are still at large for setting fire to a military checkpoint in connecting Sectors C1 and B1. Eyewitness reports say that the culprits are a devil and a demihuman working together. Twelve military personnel and one civilian are confirmed dead. Three soldiers remain missing but have most likely been turned undead by the criminals as five former Veplar citizens were put down after being turned into undead. Extreme caution is advised. Military and police forces are being dispatched to pursue them but have yet to apprehend them.

Turning to the current state of Chamont, food production levels are down as-”

The voice stopped speaking all of a sudden as Nina flipped a switch on the device. She suddenly turned around with a weapon in hand, pointing it at me; a smaller version of the managun that Tania was holding. Considering that this was my first time seeing one directly pointed at me, I was not keen on having it tested on me.

“Auntie Nina! What are you doing?” Tania cried bewildered.

“This devil is wearing torn clothes that are hundreds of years out of fashion and raised multiple undead! My instincts are screaming that this woman is extremely dangerous and needs to be dealt with!”

“I’ve given myself to her as her slave for saving me! I can’t let you do that!” Tania’s hands were shaking as she raised her weapon against Nina, her tail occasionally twitching.

The kid started crying in my arms. As I stared between the two gun wielding women, I came to a decision. I started to walk over to Tania, dropping my bag on the floor, and holding the child out to her.

“Don’t move!” yelled Nina.

“Tania was it? Hold this for me please.”

“Wha?”

A stunned Tania kept her weapon pointed at Nina while taking the crying child in her right arm. I was surprised she had her weapon still pointed at Nina; the demi was starting to grow on me. What a weird feeling.

I eyed Nina as my skin and hair gradually changed back to their natural colors and I let my wings spread out slowly and gracefully.

With my fangs bared, I hissed “What now, human?”

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as Nina eyed me carefully. Taking a sideways glance at Tania, she looked even more confused and shocked as to what was going on. I could tell what Nina was going to do next.

Inhaling, Nina fired the small managun five times. The sounds from the weapon were fairly loud for this enclosed space, startling the child into silence and leaving Tania even more dazed than she already was.

Nina’s expression on the other hand had changed from one of a hardened fighter to complete bewilderment.

All five shots had left one scorching hole about the size of a small orange in the wall.

“You know, you’re a pretty good shot” I whispered into Nina's ear from behind.

To her it must have looked like I teleported. While that would have been cool, only dungeons and certain locations were set up for that kind of stuff. Teleporting would be too overpowered in the middle of a fight would be rather overpowered wouldn’t it?

Before Nina could turn around, I grabbed both of her arms, pinning them behind her. The sudden movement caused her to drop her weapon to the floor and she cried out in pain. I decided against maiming her for now as I sensed another presence approaching the house.

“Someone’s approaching...could it be a friend, a family member...or perhaps your lover?” I asked.

I then told Tania to sit down as she would not be needed for this. At least she continued to comfort the child after a slightly traumatizing experience.

Turning towards the door, a well built middle aged man walked through it and examined the situation. He had a small managun on one hip and a sword on the other. With a dark complexion and short black hair, he was the opposite of Nina in terms of looks.

Cocking his head to the side, he said with a chuckle, “Nina, I leave you only for a few hours and you’ve already gotten into trouble with a demon. I can’t keep my eyes off of you can I? You’re giving red-heads everywhere I bad name.”

“Lukas, shoot her! I don’t know how you can tease me at a time like this!”

“I apologize profusely for whatever my wife did to deserve this. I don’t suppose we can just let this go and start over?” he queried.

“What makes you think that I’d be willing to do that?” I sneered in reply.

“Well Tania’s made herself comfortable over there...though it looks like she’s really uncomfortable at the moment...and demon’s don’t usually show up at someone's door unless they want something in particular; cause otherwise we’d be dead already. So if you wanted something, let's start things right shall we? The name’s Lukas by the way.”

A moment of silence passed.

Things weren’t going the way I thought they would. It's not like my life has been peaceful in any way. I guess I just wanted to try and raise a child and things weren’t starting off right. I probably screwed things up royally anyway but who knew what issues I was going to run into. And it's not like punching my way through this one was going to change anything anyway.

“Fine” I muttered, “let's start over.”

So the kid was sitting on my lap now. At their dining table. With the rest of us. As we sat awkwardly drinking tea that Lukas had brought out. And that’s about it.

Also I hate tea. Who decided to brew a plant anyway.

After releasing Nina, the tension was still present but Lukas invited us to sit down. The kid had started reaching out to me when things settled down and now was happily pounding on the table. Nina’s expression had softened a little after seeing this but went back to glaring as soon as we made eye contact.

Tania sat next to me and was constantly fidgeting. Her tail kept twitching as well. Lukas on the other hand just had a cheerful smile on his face. Of course, he was the first to break the silence.

“Well then. Let’s do this properly then. I’m Lukas and this is my wife Nina. Again, we’re sorry for what happened. Or at the very least I know I am. But before we continue, why don’t we take the slave collar off of Tania first?”

I nodded my assent and Tania looked relieved. Lukas left thereafter to grab some sort of tool. He explained that it was a tool used by Veplar slavers and he had acquired it for purposes like this. Not too long and the collar popped right off.

That was a little anticlimactic…

“Now then, what can we do for you?”

“I want your help raising this little one in this city.”

Lukas choked a little on his tea. Nina started laughing hysterically.

“Surely, you must be joking! Is that kid even yours? Can demons even get pregnant?” she snapped.

“Forgive my wife, but this is highly unprecedented. If I may ask why do you want to do this? Especially here and now.”

“First off this isn’t biologically mine. I wouldn’t let anyone touch me anyway. And before you give me that look, I technically didn’t kidnap it either. Regardless, I’m still unsure of my feelings but I just felt like trying this out, ok? Things just took a rather unexpected turn is all...” I grumbled.

Lukas fell pensive for a moment while the red-haired woman looked like I had mentally broken her a little. The kid had started squawking at this point and it started playing with my hand. My first inclination was to pull away and I almost did but what stopped me was the look Tania was giving the two of us. I had only witnessed it rarely. It was a look of tenderness.

And so I started carefully playing with the child’s hand. I heard it giggle in response.

“Well that's something you don’t see everyday,” muttered Nina.

“Not what I expected from the triple S ranked demon Amethyst. But life is full of expectations being subverted...Miss Amethyst if this is what you really want to do, we’ll help you do it. Just please understand, that if things don’t go the way you want it, I want you to promise you won’t destroy Chamont or go on a killing spree in a fit of frustration. I want you to promise that you’ll talk with us as this is going to be all new for you and for us.”

“Triple S demon…” whispered Tania.

“I picked a fight with Amethyst?” Nina stammered.

I could count on one hand the number of promises I’ve made and kept. Lying of course was a part of my nature.

Of course, that’s when the child turned its head around and smiled at me, it’s hand still clasped with mine. Alright. New experiences...that's what I’m here for. Sometimes a demon has to make sacrifices right? Actually, demons don’t make sacrifices.

Oh, whatever.

“Let's do it,” I declared.

It wasn’t just for the challenge anymore; I was actually starting to feel attachment. Never really felt it before but now I was determined to raise this little girl. Who she’ll become...I have no idea.