In a desperate bid to prevent Jianmo and the twins from coming to blows, Jia bid Lady Tennin farewell and moved things along. Their next stop was New Kasuga—another of Jiaguo’s satellite villages.
Like Urayama, New Kasuga’s residents had moved from Yamato, but where Lady Tennin and her followers had voluntarily immigrated on Yoshika’s invitation, the original Kasuga City had been burned to the ground by demonic forces during the war. It had also been the site of Yoshika’s final battle with the demon Yu Meiren, and while she’d done her best to limit collateral damage, the surrounding landscape had been left barren by the demon’s toxic miasma.
With Lord Kasuga unable to provide for his people and forced to relocate his estate, the refugees had nowhere else to go. Yoshika felt responsible for their plight, and pledged to aid them however she could.
Since then, the villagers had grown to prosper and thrive in their new home, in part thanks to their own guardian protector, Yang Qiu.
As they approached the city, the Qin Princesses froze and glared at Jia.
“Lady Yoshika, it appears you have poor timing. Your village has been overrun by demons.”
Jia shook her head and smiled.
“No, look closer. I told you that this is where most of our promising candidates for rehabilitation were, didn’t I?”
Qin Xiang narrowed her eyes as she peered at the village in the distance.
“I assumed that meant you had a lower security facility here—away from the city where a breach would do less damage.”
“I wouldn’t do that to the villagers. The demons in New Kasuga are free within the confines of the village and its environs, but Yang Qiu doesn’t let them go any further.”
“This ‘Yang Qiu’ again. The name sounds like it’s from our empire, but I don’t recognize the family. Why do you trust this demon so?”
Jia pursed her lips.
“It’s a long story, and it’s not mine to tell. You can ask her yourself, but unlike Lady Tennin, Yang Qiu is far less likely to entertain an interrogation. We’ve been through a lot together, and she’s proven herself to me.”
“During her time as your bound slave.”
“Er, yes. I suppose. Like I said, it’s a long story.”
As they entered the town, it became more obvious that the demons were not occupiers at all, but rather just a regular part of everyday life in New Kasuga.
Compared to most of Yamato’s population, the refugees from Kasuga had a far lower number of martial artists. Many had died when the castle was overrun, and the remaining mortals were accustomed to a more comfortable urban life. As a result of this, the vast majority of the town’s populace consisted of either human mortals or demons.
The demons handled most of the manual labor, which allowed the town to quickly expand and flourish. While New Kasuga couldn’t keep up with the food production of Urayama and the blessings Lady Tennin granted it, they were able to produce other valuable goods, such as lumber and stone. However, their specialty was something that caught the attention of even the twin princesses.
“Are those crates full of beast cores?”
Jia nodded.
“Naturally occurring mana stones, too. Between the convergence of leylines on mount Geumji, the essence-collecting properties of our shield formation, and the boundless essence of the Sovereign’s Tear, the essence density in Jiaguo is extremely high.”
Qin Xiang frowned.
“Dangerously high, in fact. I expected to see the less populated areas swarming with beasts and elementals.”
“Well, now you know why they aren’t. Part of why, at least. Academy students also contribute to culling them down with their expeditions, and we do have a few patrols to clean things up. But New Kasuga is the center of Jiaguo’s monster hunting efforts.”
Qin Ling laughed.
“You’ve conscripted the monsters to hunt monsters? How novel!”
“That’s not how I’d put it, but something tells me that you’re going to get along just fine with Yang Qiu.”
Qin Xiang scoffed.
“We have no intention of making friends with demons.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
The princess gave her an arch look, but Jia declined to elaborate as they made their way through town. They drew a lot of attention, but the villagers and demons alike were too awestruck to do more than gawk as they passed.
In a strangely ironic twist, Yang Qiu’s dwelling was much more humble than Lady Tennin’s ornate shrine on the lake. It was still a sizable estate in the center of town, but she used the space to double as a headquarters for Jiaguo’s hunting guild and an office for the mayor. Yang Qiu herself kept a fairly spartan lifestyle—as though she worried that accepting even the slightest luxury would send her spiraling out of control.
She probably did worry about that, come to think of it.
A pair of demons at the front gate bowed and let them in without a word, and Jia nodded gratefully as she led her guests into the hunting guild’s front foyer.
Minami Yuuko was working the reception desk, as she often did. The surly young woman from Yamato was an old friend from the academy, and she’d effectively ended her military career by inciting a mutiny against her commanding officer. Though it had technically been a meritorious act that aided in overthrowing the corrupt shogunate that had been undermined by Yu Meiren’s demonic influence, few commanders were willing to take on a lieutenant that had killed her last one.
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So she’d instead moved to Jiaguo, where nobody would chastise her for fighting on their side. During the war, and despite a rather poor first impression, she’d formed a fast friendship with Yang Qiu, and the two of them continued to work closely together.
Jia wasn’t really sure how that had happened, since the two of them were both surly and short-tempered. Maybe their similarities had led to some kind of understanding—though that didn’t stop them from constantly arguing.
She smiled and waved as they entered.
“Hey Yuuko! How’s the guild doing?”
Yuuko cast a curious glance behind Jia before answering.
“Hi Jia. It’s fine, I guess. Slow day today, since we just finished processing the last big hunt. We’ve mostly just been seeing the occasional straggler as they finish cleaning up.”
“That’s great! Have you heard from Fujino yet?”
“No. I sent him a letter of apology, but I don’t expect him to—uh, sorry, but is this the time? Your guests are looking at me like I should be kneeling.”
Qin Ling smirked.
“You should.”
Jia chuckled awkwardly.
“Your Highnesses, this is Minami Yuuko, the guildmistress. Yuuko, these are the first princesses of the Heavenly Empire, Qin Ling and Qin Xiang.”
“Oh shit!”
Her eyes widened in panic as she hastily rose to her feet and bowed.
“Your Highnesses! Please pardon my rudeness!”
Qin Ling giggled and shook her head.
“We take no offense. Your empress sets a rather curious precedent, and I can hardly blame you for that.”
Her sister shrugged.
“You’re the guildmistress, then? I half expected that Yang Qiu woman would be in charge of that too, with how much power Yoshika has given her.”
Yuuko coughed.
“O-oh, well, um...I mean, technically...I guess she kind of is? I lead the guild, but Yang Qiu owns it.”
“Owns it?! How did a demon come to be the owner of such a valuable organization?”
Drawn by the commotion, Yang Qiu herself emerged from a door behind the counter, arms crossed and with her face twisted into an irritated scowl.
“By founding it out of her fucking house and supplying most of the guild members, that’s how. Is there a problem with that?”
Demons came in a wide variety of shapes, due to the demonic transformation that overtook them when they fell. While nascent demons exhibited little to no change, fallen demons would often undergo much more extreme transformations.
Some were minor, such as Jianmo who simply appeared as an excessively tall human with black nails and a demonic horn in their forehead, but Yang Qiu’s appearance was on the opposite extreme.
Her long white hair was split by a pair of spiraling black horns, and her skin was unnaturally pale, with dark cracks running through her flesh to give the impression of broken porcelain. Her eyes were completely black, aside from the glowing green irises, with the cracks in her skin running down her face like tears. In the center of her chest, a glowing green demonic core constantly oozed a sickly black ichor that coated Yang Qiu’s body and formed into a flowing dress. Behind her, several tentacles of pale green miasma wrapped around her shoulders like a mantle, each carrying a deadly corrosive touch.
Jia gave her a cheerful wave in greeting.
“Hey Yang Qiu! How are you doing?”
She sighed miserably.
“Better before you got here.”
Qin Xiang gestured incredulously at the demon.
“This is the demon you’ve entrusted so much to?! I’ve never seen one so monstrous! It’s barely even human.”
Yang Qiu looked at the princess flatly.
“Yeah, I get that a lot. Don’t worry, you’re not alone—I think she’s insane too.”
Jia grinned.
“You haven’t given me reason to regret it yet.”
“Yet. Anyway, is there something I can help you with? Or are you just here to question my humanity?”
Qin Ling shrugged.
“Both. Lady Yoshika has been showing us around, trying to demonstrate proof that her dream of demonic rehabilitation is more than just kind wishes.”
“Yeah? Well you’re not gonna find any of that here. The best we’ve managed is to give ourselves a relatively productive outlet for our violent impulses, but that also means feeding those impulses.”
“No? I have to say, while your appearance is unsettling, a settlement where humans and demons are actively coexisting is already much greater progress than I even thought possible.”
Yang Qiu shook her head.
“It took years of rigorous training to develop enough discipline for this, and it only works because there’s no shortage of magical beasts for us to kill around here. Not to mention Yoshika’s blessing. Without her, I’m not sure it would work at all.”
“Do you actually have a specific criteria for success? How would you know when a demon is ready to rejoin society without your supervision?”
Qin Ling’s question caught Yang Qiu off guard. She hadn’t expected the princesses to take an actual interest in what she was doing, rather than just brush it off as a waste of time.
“I do, actually. One year of total abstinence, followed by a trial of my own design. If they pass the trial, they get one year of probation, then freedom.”
“What’s the trial? And what does ‘abstinence’ entail, precisely?”
Yang Qiu grinned, putting her inhumanly sharp teeth on display.
“Abstinence means no consuming souls, no absorbing monster cores, and no feeding on human essence, willingly tributed or otherwise.”
“Willingly tributed?”
“Yeah, some stupid thing the townsfolk picked up from Urayama. The villagers here consider me their guardian, and they give us tiny little bits of their soul as thanks for clearing out the monsters.”
Jia chimed in before the princesses could express their affront.
“It’s harmless! Little superficial amounts that grow back naturally over time. They carefully control how much is offered with special rituals, and the demons never take essence directly from a person.”
Yang Qiu shrugged.
“It helps take the edge off when monster souls aren’t cutting it, but as long as a demon is dependent on those tributes, they’re still ruled by their core.”
Qin Ling hummed thoughtfully as she mulled it over.
“I see. I think I understand your reasoning, at least. And the trial?”
“Oh, that’s easy. Yoshika revokes her blessing and then we see how long it takes for them to go into a frenzy and mindlessly attack the nearest soul they can sense.”
“Hm. Brutal, but efficient. Have any demons ever passed this trial?”
Yang Qiu grimaced, her tentacles squirming uncomfortably behind her.
“Just two. Not many have even tried, since the first part is already hard enough. And before you ask the obvious follow up question—it’s the same two that are in this room right now.”
The twins gave Yang Qiu an appraising look as they reevaluated their first impression of her, then froze. In perfect tandem, they slowly turned to look at Jianmo, realization dawning on their faces.
For her part, Jianmo just gave them a cheeky wink.