His eyes fluttered open. Birds on branches overhead took flight. Small animals that had been bustling about recklessly dashed for safety. Every living creature took to their own, fleeing from the crimson eyes that blinked awake. Even insects made themselves scarce as they hid for safety.

            The slight breeze tugged at his hair, which fell to his lower back. The young man pushed himself off of the large tree. His powerfully-built lean body got him up with ease. His porcelain skin glowed with perfection.

            Suddenly, the sound of whimpering broke his automated behavior, bringing him out of his stupor. Turning towards the sound, his eyes fell on a small girl with a fluffy tail. Flowers were on the ground in front of her.

            Without knowing, his body disappeared only to reappear in front of the girl. He hugged her gently and patted her head to try and calm the girl down. He gently shushed the girl, letting her clam down. After calming down, she immediately began to play with him and his hair, but he didn’t mind. Actually he quite enjoyed this.

            A sudden voice rang out from nearby, “Reina, where are you? Reina!”

            “Luckily, it’s the Common Tongue,” he thought.

            After a bit of time, a young woman, with an orange tail, ran out into view. She held a bow in her hand with a set of bows strapped to her back. A couple of rabbits were tied to her belt by their feet.

            The young man was sitting on the ground with his legs crossed while the little girl was placing flowers into his long hair. She laughed while running around him. Her appearance stopped the girl, who smiled and waved at the young woman.

            His eyes ever so slightly sharpened, but seeing the little girl, Reina, wave at her innocently, the young woman seemed to be someone related to her in some way. Even when she raised her bow and arrow at him, he remained perfectly calm.

            She called for Reina to come over, who reluctantly went.  

            She continued to aim her weapon at him and finally asked him a question after briefly speaking with Reina. “Come, I’m taking you to the village. You are to be questioned.”

            He easily submitted and followed the orders of the young woman, Elise, which he soon found out from the ever-so-helpful Reina. They made their way towards the tree line in silence. Or what was supposed to be silence. Reina, who had pleaded with Elise to let her walk with him, was thoroughly denied.

            He could tell that the young woman’s abilities were quite below the average humans and demons he had known. Although he wasn’t all too familiar with beast men, other than those he had killed, he knew of their small existence and the powerful bodies they possessed. Beast men were similar in ways to demons because both races were able to manipulate parts of their bodies. However, beast men internally utilized mana as well, in order to give them a greater physical advantage considering they were generally weak with normal mana manipulation.

  They were the perfect war machines on a frontline battlefield. Form what he’s heard, they are considered territorial and isolated compared to humans or demons, tending to their own people. But those who left for occupations like mercenaries, they had rather good prospects. 

            Entering a giant grassy clearing, the sight of a village came into view. He found several people watching him from different distances hidden in the forest. Each seemed to be much more powerful than Elise, but as far as he knew, they were not able to hide themselves from his senses.

  In fact, they all seemed to be less than what he thought they were supposed to be capable of. But one place is too small of a smaple size to make such a comment, he figured.

  He kept an eye on them and looked over the pair in front of the gate. Although nowhere near the level of those trying to hide, they were also rather strong.

            While thinking such things, Reina asked him a question, “Hey, what’s your name?”

            From behind, he could hear Elise trying to stifle her coughing. It seemed like she forgot to ask the important question.

            Smiling, he answered, “Its Lucifer.”

            Elise, who calmed down quickly, asked, “You don’t have a family name?”

            “I was never given a family name.” Lucifer’s answer seemed to stun Elise for a moment.

            A short silence ensued and would have continued if not for a merry Reina, who asked Lucifer if his name had any meaning.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

            “Meaning…” For a moment, Lucifer lost himself in his memories before returning just as quickly to answer the question, “It may have meant something at first, but something like meaning has never meant anything to me.”

            That was the last of their personal questions as the three soon approached the gate. Reina ran over to an older beast man, who she called Reylin, and began to play with the man’s triangular ears. However, Lucifer could tell that the beast man’s concentration lay mostly on him, even if he was trying hard to feign it.

             A young feline beast man with messy brown hair talked to the three of them, “Come, we’ll take you to the chief. Don’t cause any trouble. We won’t use force unless we have to.” After the command, he threw a white cotton shirt at Lucifer who received it with a helpless smile. Reylin who was watching him put the shirt on through the corner of his eyes, flexed his muscles reflexively and nodded approvingly to himself.

            Lucifer smiled and nodded, “It seems that you guys aren’t very trusting of outsiders.”

            Before he could make any response, Elise nonchalantly whispered to Jenks, “Jenks, let’s go. There’s something I need to tell the chief about.”

            “Why can’t you tell me?”

            “I don’t want others to hear about it, and possibly cause some kind of panic.”

            Jenks nodded his head in agreement. Lucifer, who could also hear the conversation, was slightly curious what information Elise had, but decided not to bring it up.

            Carrying his spear, his sword strapped to his hip rattled when he swiftly turned leaving Reylin and Jenks’ own replacement at the gate. Reina said her goodbye as well before trotting after the Lucifer, who was also being guarded by a few extra beast men, each with a hand on their own swords.

            “Bye Lucifer!”

            Lucifer slightly smiled and nodded his head toward the young girl, who left happy.

            As they walked along the dirt trodden path, Lucifer examined the village. All of the buildings were simple in structure and relatively similar in size, except for those near the center. And each place seemed to have its own small open space. A presumable smithy had gray plumes rising out from its chimney, while the some other large buildings. He figured there was also a large field of some kind since there was an area of space with no buildings within it. None of the buildings had glass windows like he was used to, just wooden openings that could be shut. Nor was their way of living by any means easy it seemed, not that he was used to that either.

  Along the way, Lucifer saw many beast men watching him, all with rather hard expressions on their faces. For the most part, they all had similar bushy gray tails with occasional black spots, similar to Reina’s. But every once in a while, there would be some with different feline tails or even a canine tail. While there was a number of men, Lucifer noticed that women were much more prevalent. He should ask about the little things while he could.

            Curious as to why, he asked the group, “Is there a reason why there are more women than men?”

            Elise, who had recently made a reluctant Reina go back home, answered, “In our village, men have a tendency to die much sooner. Even though warriors aren’t discriminated by gender, there are typically more male warriors and they seem to die much more often than us women.”  

            Even with such a serious response, Jenks scoffed at the notion but said nothing more as he professionally kept the silence. Lucifer simply nodded his head in understanding, although he felt that she wasn’t telling him the whole truth.

            “I don’t know much about beast men. Tell me more about your village.”

            Jenks answered this time, making sure Elise wouldn’t give up certain information, “Place is called Yuki Village. We were originally a tribe of snow leopard beast men, but a couple of years ago, the slave industry in human countries sharply increased. Together with the last of the local Direwolf beast men as well as other feline beast men in the southern region, we were forced to settle up in this cursed mountain while constantly defending outselves from the occasional raids by the human group at the base of the mountain. That’s the reason for our diversity, if that’s what you were wondering about.”

            ‘So it seems beast men don’t typically care what sub-race they are, all beast men are the same huh…’

Elise butted in giving Jenks some time to cool down, “We’re here.”

            Because the size of the village wasn’t all too big, the escort didn’t take too long to reach the larger buildings.

            Jenks took a deep breath and slammed the butt of his spear into the ground attracting quite a few looks who then carried on as if it were a normal occurrence. 

            Two guards stood outside the door, nodding to the escort as they passed by. The inside was furnished very modestly. There was living space with a couple of tables. A set of stairs most likely led to a bedroom. Everything seemed to be in perfect order. Sitting at one of the larger tables was muscular beast man in simple tight-fitting clothes that accentuated his body. His height probably stood somewhere near six feet six inches, and his fluffy gray tail with black spots was thick and long as well. An older beast man, with a similar tail stood beside him.

            He pointed to a chair, “Sit.”

            “How telling. His entire character screams out ‘strict warrior chief.’ He even has a scar down his right eye,” Lucifer mused.

            Following the order, Lucifer took his seat as the others stood by him ready for swift action if need be. Crossing his legs, Lucifer relaxed and waited for the questions to start. He had his own he would like answered as well so this was a great opportunity. He knew that an equal trade for answers would be beneficial for everyone. But for that to happen, they have to believe that such an option is in their best interest rather than risking a full on interrogation against someone they aren’t familiar with. Lucifer knew he had ways to make them talk regardless. Not that he preferred to use such methods, unless necessary.

            “I’m Nix, chief of Yuki Village. I’d like to hear who and what you really are Lucifer.”