Ryku's body trembled. Not from fear, or pain, like it had so many times in the past month. Ryku was in awe, complete jaw dropping awe. The only thing that stopped him from physically dropping his jaw, besides the fact that it already laid on the floor, was his desperate desire to not pass out. It took the vast majority of his mental strength to keep the Devil Glass from knocking him unconscious. He could only periodically peek at the fight ensuing in the hall lest the glass slip him into an indefinite slumber.

It was a risk more than worth taking. He'd witnessed a monster, a skyguard. He was like a Titan in human skin. No, he was stronger. Just being in the presence of his ahjer felt suffocating. Ryku had never felt anything like it. Comparing it to his own was like comparing a bottle of water to the Chi’Umi lake. How could you? They were incomparable.

It started when the Baron's boy walked by, ever eager to look like he was doing something. Ryku had heard some commotion about an angel, but he thought little of it. He didn't believe the Baron was that reckless. Enslaving an angel would be pure suicide. What could he do with it other than keep it in complete secrecy? No one in their right mind would buy it off him. That was practically daring the royal family to come after you.

There was definitely a new prisoner though. He sensed the extra guard they stationed down here, the only guard they stationed here for that matter. The bottom layer of their slave compound held all the potentially problematic ones, but each got a Devil Shard shoved in their head and chains that weakened them so physical guards weren't necessary.

The newcomer did have a guard though, so even though he refused to believe it was an angel he was vaguely intrigued by what they caught that made them so scared.

It turned out they were right to be sacred. When the mythical beast of a man broke out of his cage, he walked out like the doubly reinforced orcanite door was just straw to be blown away. Ryku had seen powerful beings before, many times in fact. He was a silver badge after all, access to the upper echelon was a given.

Once upon a time he'd even been in the presence of one the leading beasts of the jungle, an exceptionally terrifying human-sized lizard. He'd been trespassing in their land of course and beat a very hasty retreat once the opportunity presented itself, but he kept a clear picture of what feeling their ahjer was like. He thought that was massive then, but it felt absolutely puny in comparison to what he was experiencing now.

Most people took ahjer sense for granted. It was the most basic of basic skills that even children had. Those people just didn't understand its potential. Sure, for simpletons its main use was internal, but it could be so much more when used externally. If you trained and studied it well enough it could tell you everything.

How much ahjer your opponent had, when they were using it, when they were casting spells, what kind of spells they were casting, how long it would take to finish casting. Ryku couldn't do all of that just yet, but it was still possible. So much information right there, right at your fingertips.

If any of the Baron's men cared to properly train their ahjer sense they'd have known fighting this human hurricane was as foolish as fighting an actual hurricane. It was probably more foolish. How could they possibly win? Even without training their ahjer sense, did they not hear that wail? That’s a run very far away kind of wail, it sounded like his soul was being ripped from his body.

Of course, the human natural disaster cleaned them out effortlessly. He even made time to mock Sunset White, the second most menacing figure in the whole region and the very reason Ryku laid prone in a cell right now. In fairness though, is it mockery if it's true? He absolutely toyed with him before the rest of the fools arrived and then he just wiped them all out.

Even knowing the impossibly wide gap between them, seeing Sunset White get swatted to death with his own weapon shocked him. What a pathetic way to go out.

He carried his defeated corpse all the way back down the hall before dumping it next to the boy’s guard. Ryku couldn’t remember the guards name, but he was a man of little importance anyway. What the force of nature made human planned to do next was of far more import.

He seemed to be talk to the boy, but Ryku could only hear the boy’s frantic yells. From what he could make out of the hysterics, the Titanman was likely a mainlander. He definitely wasn’t from one of the islands. The boy yelled some very basic information, the kinds of things you only had to tell someone who didn’t live in the area.

More than just the area though, the boy went on to explain that this was no man's land in between the Taiyo Dynasty and the Kingdom of Whitesails. Who but a complete foreigner would need to be told that?

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

It was at that realization that the awe he felt shifted towards apprehension. He hadn’t expected the man to be a local, but a complete foreigner? Why would someone that strong, come here? What was his goal?

----------------------------------------

"So why are you, a 'mercenary' from the Kingdom of Whitesails, protecting a slave camp by the border of the Taiyo Dynasty?"

"Its—I… um."

The man had calmed down from his earlier hysterics, but he still stammered in response to every other question. Dalric already had to spend a great deal of mental effort translating his words. Mixing in the constant stutters wore him down even further.

Thanks to the ahjer he pilfered off the summoning ritual, he’d been able to keep Thunderfield active for longer. Which was good. It wasn’t out of the question that there was another like ‘Hiroto’ here that could erase their presence completely. Unfortunately, it also compounded the strain on his brain.

“It's, um, well…”

It likely didn't help that Dalric had been carefully analyzing the enchanted blade while he spoke, but the simple truth of the matter was that ‘Hiroto’ didn't have a drop of composure in him. They hadn't been speaking for long and Dalric barely understood him yet he still picked up on a number of his cues. The most obvious one was the 'um'. It only really came out when he was pausing to come up with a believable story.

There was a long list though, from his word choice to mannerism to the tone of his voice. He gave away the fact he was lying in so many ways that Dalric vaguely wondered if it was all bait. Part of his original ill-advised plan had been to rattle the man, but this felt excessive.

"It pays great! I… just—my family desperately needs the money."

The family excuse. Humans seemed to love it. Family dynamics were somewhat different between giants and humans and Dalric had the even more unique situation of being raised by a committee, but he still felt they overdid it. By the time he turned five hundred he had met just six humans. Four of them claimed they had families they needed to support.

"And how much does it pay?"

‘Hiroto's eyelids rose a bit.

Elders. How did you not think I'd ask that?

"It um…"

Dalric waved his free hand, "Nevermind, nevermind. Back to this 'Devil Glass', so it's illegal in the Kingdom of Whitesails and not the Taiyo Dynasty. What do people use it for?"

"Slaves…?"

"That's it? It has no other uses?"

"Uh. Not that I know? W—they use it to keep the slaves under control."

Dalric eyed the 'glass', "Do they also use the same spell you used to make it undetectable?

“It wasn’t me!”

Dalric fought hard not to roll his eyes, “Yes, yes. Nothing is you. You’ve never been at fault for anything in your life. Just answer the question.”

He noticeably deflated, "They… they don't."

"And why is that? Is the spell, perhaps, unique to you?"

"No!" The man yelled.

Dalric's face yelled 'horseshit' back.

"It isn't my spell!"

"Then why do you know a spell that's identical? If it's not yours, then whose is it?"

He stammered, “I… can’t tell you that.”

Dalric was officially tired of this back and forth. He learned much of the general knowledge he needed to know about the surrounding area already and he most definitely wasn't going to pry any meaningful information out of the man without resorting to torturing him. Everytime he went for intimate details, he met poorly conceived lies or blatant refusals to speak. He was done with it.

Interrogations did not suit his strengths and yet somehow how he’d conducted two in as many days. At a certain point in his life that could have been common, but he was far from a practiced conversationalist at the moment. The fact he got so much information out of his first proper dialogue with a human was good enough.

Hm. It is actually possible that it isn't him who cast the spell on these. I had assumed he was in some sort of leadership position, but he's clearly inexperienced. Incredibly inexperienced. He can't possibly be running this place… but the way that brute behaved… No. I don't know what's going on here but this man is definitely not the head of anything. He can't even stay composed enough to come up with consistent lies.

The potential that this was all a ruse still lingered, but Dalric shrugged at it. The general info he learned would likely be useful either way. Lying about it when it was so easy to prove or disprove held little to no value. If the man made everything up anyway, then Dalric would just have to take that on the chin. In the end, it would only serve to waste a bit of his time so he felt fairly secure in taking that bet.

"Final question. What God do you worship?"

"God?" He made a number of bewildered faces, "Gods are… outlawed?"