"The first thing that we're going to do is continue making our way deeper into the village, gaining as much information as we can. I will only cast a sound reduction spell on us instead of a sound elimination spell so that we can communicate easier, but remember to follow my lead.", Melody ordered.

Lance took out another potion and the two red orbs on the ends of Melody's wand glowed as she casted a spell which engulfed the four.

After each person had taken their dose of the invisibility potion, the four were off- once more holding each other's hands in order to keep track of one another. Their footsteps were very quiet after all, to the point where it would be extremely easy to lose track of them.

Heading out of the alleyway and making their way deeper into the city, the scenery changed.

They came across an enormous building, however to call it a building would be an understatement.

It was more like a set of walls inside the city.

They were made from pure white marble, and towered high above the other buildings.

On these walls many snakemen were stationed, wearing the navy blue military uniforms. Even the outside of the walls were lined with guards, and there was a large gate heading inside- though so many guards were stationed near this gate that it would normally be impossible to break through.

While this fortress was certainly the main attraction, there were stalls lined up by the dozens outside the walls. Each station had a single guard manning it, and lined up were dozens of people at each one.

Behind each guard was a carriage filled to the brim with all sorts of meats.

Melody and the group looked on from afar to witness the snake people as they purchased the meat from the vendors.

"It appears that the production and distribution of food is handled directly by the head of the state. Well, isn't that the easiest way to take over a people? To control the food is to hold the lives of others in your hand, after all.", Melody whispered.

"That sounds really horrible when you say it like that, Melody...", Charlotte whispered back.

"But it's true, isn't it?", Pierre replied. "Melody, are you thinking of taking over the food supply to force these people into submission?"

"My, Pierre.... I didn't think you would be able to come up with something like that. While I'm sure that is something their excellencies would do, we don't know enough about these people yet to pull a drastic move like that. Furthermore, I don't think the 'provider' will take kindly to us taking over their food supply. Especially so if he is the one in control of it.'

'That's a good point, but we're a whole lot stronger than these people are, right? Do you think we couldn't pull it off?"

"It's not that we can't.... but rather that doing so would invite quite a few problems. We should continue to observe and find a weakness which we can strike at for now. After all, every disease invades at one of the openings of the body. We have to find the opening with the lowest defense so that we can infect the subjects before they even realize that something has entered their system. Heh..."

The four then looked over to the people who seemed to be exchanging the same gold coins which they had witnessed earlier for slices of meat. It seemed that a single gold coin was worth two pieces of meat.

The slices of meat were not small by any means, but going off what they had seen earlier, the payment of people for a single week ranged from 5 to 20 gold coins. If taxes were taken into account, this meant that each family would have from 2 to 10 gold coins in order to purchase food for the week.

"So that man was trying to hold onto just a couple pieces of meat so that his family could at least eat, even if they had to ration it out.", Lance said with a sad overtone.

The gate then opened and another cart of meat was taken out, where it then was pushed over by a soldier to another vending stand. The gate promptly closed after this.

"So all the meat comes from within the walls.... then, is this the only place in the city where food is produced?", Pierre questioned.

"Likely.", Melody responded. "I don't think they would go to such effort to wall up the production of food if it wasn't monopolized, and I also don't think they would have another fortress like this in this city."

And so, the four watched with bittersweet expressions as the people collected their rewards for their work.

"Could we..... could we maybe try and grab some meat and bring it to that man and his family?"

Charlotte made an absurd statement, and could almost feel Melody piercing her with her eyes, however Lance chipped in.

"We're invisible, and the second we touch something it will become invisible as well. It's fine if just one of us goes and comes back, right? It would minimize the risk, after all. And all we would have to do is make sure nobody is looking at the meat before we touch it. If we take it from the carts, then there's almost no chance that anyone would notice a single piece missing, right?"

Melody was thinning her eyes, but she could hear the earnest desires of the two to help the man.

"And where do you think that man lives exactly?", Melody asked.

"Actually.... I heard them saying thing's like, A1, A2, etc.", Pierre noted. "Don't you think there's some system here? That man was D29. Maybe there are different blocks where people live, or something along those lines?"

Melody seemed to be thinking silently as she heard Pierre explain this.

"It could be the case."

"Then why don't we check?", Lance asked.

"What do you mean?", Melody responded.

"Heh heh heh.... this is one in particular I've been waiting to try out..... unfortunately, since we're invisible we won't be able to see how it looks, however I'm really excited about this...."

The three could hear the sound of a cork popping out of a potion, and they felt the spray of liquid hitting them.

"Hm?"

"What's going on, Lance?"

"My back.... feels kinda weird.... it's getting heavier...."

"His excellency was wondering about this too, so he helped me make this one. It's a potion of flight."

"Eh?"

"Flight?"

"You mean...."

The four felt behind their backs, and realized why a sudden weight had seemed to weigh them down.

"We have wings!?", Charlotte whispered, unable to contain her excitement.

"Yep. To be exact, we have the wings of demons. But, I suppose we can't bask in their glory since we're invisible right now. You'll just have to imagine them for now, but maybe someday we'll be able to actually gaze upon them. Now then.... let's hit the skies!"

And with that, the four rose above the town, flapping their temporary demonic wings.

It took some time for each of them to get the hang of it, but eventually they were all able to at least keep themselves up without toppling over and nosediving from the air.

And so, they all rose above the city to notice a number of things.

The first was that the entire city was in the shape of a four pointed star, with this circular fortress at the center.

"Ah.... A, B, C, and D. They are each the four points of the star... and they all meet up here in the center.....", Melody noted.

"But that's...."

Pierre seemed shocked as he looked to the center of the town.

Inside the walls which made up the center of the town there was a large building in the center- presumably the palace of the leader, and around this palace was another set of walls. However it was not this which Pierre was looking at.

He looked down into the area between the palace and the outer walls, in which he saw rows upon rows of metal cages.

Upon taking a closer look it could be determined that inside each of these metal cages were some form of livestock.

Cows, chickens, pigs, goats, sheep, you name it. If it existed, it was all here.

Along with these lines of cages were rows of fields, and from this distance Melody could barely make it out, but she could see that hundreds of people were working these fields.

"Let's get a closer look.", she suggested as the four all flew over to the areas where the fields were.

When they got closer, Melody saw something which did not phase her, but she heard a number of gasps coming from the other three.

There were almost naked snakemen working in the fields, so thin that they could be described as skin and bones.

Surrounding these men were members of the military who were beating them with whips and batons as they worked.

It was a slave labor camp.

Looking over to the area where the animals were caged, a similar scene was to be found.

Snakemen so skinny that it was a wonder how they could even stand up straight were climbing onto ladders in order to place feed into the troughs of the animals.

Even while these skinny men climbed these ladders with great effort, the whipping did not stop from the soldiers underneath them. Many fell and injured themselves, only to be whipped even more.

"This is...."

"My goodness...."

"This is horrible...."

Lance, Charlotte, and Pierre were taken aback at the scene of blatant slavery and violation of rights.

Melody, however, spoke with clear annoyance in her voice.

"These people.... they were infected by the wrong disease, weren't they??"

The other three didn't see it, as the four were invisible, but Melody grinned sinisterly.

'Then, all we have to do is infect them with something so potent that it overcomes the disease which they are currently infected by. We will be the cause of death, not this pathetic disease. Even if you have a head start, we will not lose to your second rate infection, oh provider.....'

----

The four found themselves on the ground once more, still invisible.

"Melody.... we're going to help the people of this village, right?", Charlotte asked.

"Yeah, we're going to help out those people who are being treated as slaves, right?", Lance followed.

The two spoke quietly, but were clearly concerned for the people of the village.

"Lance, Charlotte, what was our mission here?"

"It was... to learn about the snakemen and prepare them for annexation."

"And where in that does it say that we will release them from slavery?"

"Er.... well, technically if we annex them into the Dictatorship, the current laws of this country will be revoked, and they will undergo the laws of the Dictatorship, right?", Lance noted.

"Oh, yeah. That's right.", Charlotte agreed. "So all we have to do is complete our mission to save those people then!"

Melody chuckled lightly at the two, and grabbed their heads, notioning for them to all walk along with her.

'If that's what they think, then that is fine. I'll let them believe that we are saving these people. However, I'm sure Pierre knows just as well as I do. By taking these people over, we will not be freeing them from the chains of slavery. We will merely be putting heavier chains on them.'

"Oh.... about that man..... I'm going to go and grab one of those pieces of meat. There's a cart that's almost full right over there. I'll be back in a sec.", Lance said as he ran off.

Melody sighed to herself.

"Always being so reckless.... but, I suppose that's why I decided to become mercenaries with you three in the first place."

Charlotte giggled at hearing Melody be honest with herself for once.

In a few moments, Lance returned, grabbing the hand of Charlotte.

"Agh!"

She screamed in surprise at touching the cold meat which he held in his hand.

"Shh. Someone might have heard if there were people around, you know?"

"Why would you just put that meat on my hand like that?", she asked.

"I got it. And look. That guy over there didn't even notice."

The four looked to the man managing that cart, however when they looked over things were a bit different from how Lance described.

The man seemed to be thoroughly investigating the cart.

He knew something was clearly up.

He called over another two guards, and they too nodded and confirmed.

"Uh.... I think they didn't notice?", Lance said.

Melody was about to facepalm, but decided that instead she should focus on getting out of here.

"There's no way they could pinpoint it to us. Even if they had dogs or something to sniff out the meat, they've been handing it out to everyone, so to try and find that specific piece would be impossible. Even so, you're too much."

The soldiers then started yelling out.

"We are missing a piece of meat!!!! There was exactly 258 on this cart not a moment ago, but now there are 257!!! We've confirmed this multiple times. Were there any witnesses to this theft!?!"

"Time to go.", Lance whispered, and the four ran off.

"Way too much.", Melody repeated.

"How the hell was I supposed to know that they would know exactly how many pieces of meat were on that cart at that exact moment!?! Wouldn't it be super easy to make a mistake like that?", Lance responded as the four ran through an alleyway away from the area.

"You're right. That is strange. I suppose that just shows how seriously they take their meat."

"That sounds wrong, Melody.", Pierre said.

Melody had question marks above her head, completely unaware of what Pierre was referencing to, but the four continued running.

"Anyways, we need to find out where this D district is, assuming that the letters actually did represent the districts. How do you think we should go about this?", he asked.

"Couldn't we just ask people going door to door?", Charlotte suggested.

"No, we couldn't do that with these human forms.", Lance responded immediately.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea.", Melody stated.

"Huh?!", Pierre and Lance said together.

"Well, think about it. It's true that it carries some risk of us being found out, but eventually we have to be discovered to make any progress, and if it's only by one or two families, then it will take a long time for them to hone in on us. Unlike if we exposed ourselves earlier to everyone. More importantly though, we haven't actually interacted with anyone in this village. We don't know for sure that they will attack us on sight, and that's something we have to confirm eventually. How will these snake people actually respond to the sighting of humans? We need to figure this out too if we are to make progress from here."

"I suppose that's true enough.", Lance replied. "And here I thought you had thrown caution to the wind!"

"Not like you did. I would never put myself at risk to help someone like that."

"You say that Melody, but you've put yourself through a lot for us.", Charlotte said softly. "If it weren't for you.... we wouldn't all be here today. Not as servants of the antiheroes, and not even as mercenaries of the Empire. Heck.... I'd probably still be waiting in that bar.... or maybe even taken away by some strange person.... if I hadn't run into you that night...."

"That's fine. But you don't need to thank me. After all, I'm not the role model you all think I am. I'm just doing what I want."

"You're so dishonest with yourself, Melody.", Pierre joked with a laugh.

"Ah, we should be far enough. It looks like this is a housing area, so let's wait around here for people to start arriving home for the day.

The other three agreed, and they all hid in a corner away from the public eye where nobody was likely to go.

"Let me ask you all one more time to be sure. Your loyalties lie with the antiheroes, right?"

The other three immediately replied in the affirmative.

"Of course."

"Then that's fine. Lets make this happen. We'll take this village."

----

Unbeknownst to the four who had fled the scene, a culling happened where the piece of meat was stolen.

"Everyone within this plaza, line up right now!!!!!"

One by one the people were lined up- and they obeyed orders without question.

"We will be inspecting each and every person here, as a piece of meat has been stolen just a moment ago. It's impossible for the culprit to have gotten away already, as we would have seen them running away. If they took it slowly, they must still be here in this plaza. Now then...."

The soldier with a black uniform stood forward, holding his baton.

"Starting with you. First take everything out of your pockets."

The man took out two pieces of meat which he had just purchased, and then a wallet and a few other personal possessions.

"Is that all?"

"That's everything, Sir."

"Number?"

"C32, Sir."

"What does the register say for C32?"

"2 pieces.", a soldier responded while looking at a record from the nearby vendor stand.

"Now strip, C32."

The snakeman known as C32 then immediately proceeded to take off his clothes in front of the crowd. They were handed to the man in black, inspected, and handed back to him quickly.

"You're free to go. Next."

An inspection was held similar to this on every single person in this lineup.

Regardless of age or gender, each person was stripped of their own dignity before all in order to confirm that they were not the criminal, and then let go.

However, after inspecting every last person, it was discovered that not a single person carried the missing piece of meat.

"Soldier, are you absolutely certain that a piece of meat was stolen?"

"Without a doubt. The meat was counted multiple times over the course of the sales. Not only my own counting, but the initial records and sale records support the thesis that a piece of meat was missing. That much we can say with absolute confidence.

"Whoever has done this has greatly disrespected the provider, and trampled upon the sacred goods which have been provided for the people of this town..... they must be found and punished. However.... it is likely too late for that. They must have gotten away before we could even find them."

"That is.... likely the case."

The man in a black uniform smacked his own tail to the ground in irritation.

"There is a dissenter within this city. They've been popping up more often recently, just like that one from the ceremony earlier. If there are too many dissenters then the people may grow restless. However.... I suppose as long as we capture the current ones, this will be a bolster to the laborers of the provider."

"Has that man already been taken in, Commander?"

"Of course. Though, I am not so sure how long he will last after the beating he took today."

The Commander turned around, heading back inside the portcullis, which had been opened solely for him to travel through.

The soldier saluted, putting his own hand to his head.

"May the provider guide you, Commander."

The Commander turned back, saluting to the soldier.

"And you as well, soldier."