The morning arrived inside the town of Agrona. I felt the sensation of waking up without a brain-breaking hangover as I stretched my body.

No party happened last night because I instructed them not to because I don't think I would survive another night of hardcore drinking. Good thing they agreed and rescheduled the celebration.

Yep, there still is, but at least it's not last night.

I can drink but I won't kill myself for the sake of it.

I looked outside the window and gazed upon the human slave shops positioned at the marketplace.

"First things first."

I went out to the rooftop with the hope of finding the person who I needed to talk to. Luckily, he's in there standing at the edge of the roof, smiling while gazing upon the scenery of the town.

He looked at me and flashed a gentle smile. "Mister Casimir."

I nodded. "Mister Rudwick." I walked towards him and stood beside him.

He turned his gaze back to the marketplace and felt the morning wind. His eyes were full of nostalgia as he smiled.

"Congratulations for succeeding the entire town of Agrona, Mister Casimir."

"Thanks."

He shifted his gaze on me. "What are you planning to do now?"

"I have few plans in mind, but I need to resolve something first."

"What is it then?"

I paused for a while and answered his question. "It's about Leo."

Without any signs of surprise, he nodded as if he already knew that I would ask him about the said topic. "Is it about his hatred for humans? I have a hunch that you are quite fond of humans because, since the day you arrived, you have never shown even a little hostility towards me or even questioned why there's a human peacefully living here, unlike what the other demi-humans did, which is an understandable thing to do."

Maybe because I lived the entirety of my life as a human up until these freaking horns sprouted on my head!

"Let's just say I'm quite accustomed to humans. I have human friends. Humans are diverse, there are bad humans, however, more or most of them are kind-hearted. For some reason, I can't feel sympathy towards them, but I can't bring myself to hate all of them as well." I scratched my head. "It's quite complicated."

"I understand."

You do?

A soothing silence shrouded the both of us as we gazed at the shops beneath the inn.

Mister Rudwick cleared his throat. "However, don't misunderstand Leo, he doesn't hate us humans for the sake of hating us, he has a good reason to, a very tragic one."

"May I know what it is?"

"You came up here to ask that question, aren't you?"

I chuckled. "I can't deny it."

"Don't worry, it is alright."

"I owe you this one, Mister Rudwick."

"You don't have to go that far. With that said, I will tell you about Leo." His eyes immediately showed pain in them as if he just remembered something depressing. "I can say, Leo is just one of the many victims of the 7 years war between the demi-humans and humans. He arrived in this place 3 years ago after barely managing to escape from his former human owner after enduring 4 years of being a slave. He's the sole survivor of his own tribe. With his own eyes, he witnessed how humans annihilated his entire tribe." 

He removed his glasses and cleaned them using his clothes.

"Maybe you are wondering how I know about it. I was the one who picked him up after seeing him lying on the ground, full of wounds and almost on his very limit. And his suffering and hatred towards humans was the very first thing he said the moment that he realized that he was saved by a human. His eyes were full of hatred but the only thing he did was to scream and after that, he politely ate the food I served for him and said his thanks before leaving and challenged Mehrad the very next day, not because he wanted to become a faction leader, but to find a way to vent his uncontrollable anger."

"That went on an unexpected turn."

"Indeed, that memory still puts a smile on my face every time I remember it."

"But I can imagine him doing it."

He chuckled and put his glasses back, he faced me once more and revealed his gentle smile. "I still vividly remember that day, his eyes were filled with hatred towards humans, however, all these years as being the faction leader, he never treated me unfairly, not even once. He is a kind person, just a broken one. Please don't judge him so easily, Mister Casimir."

I nodded. "I won't and I'm not planning to. He's more of a newly acquired friend to me than an obstacle."

And I mean it.

The next thing I felt was his gentle tap on my shoulder. "Your personality really is completely different from the way you look."

I narrowed my eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He just chuckled. "Don't worry, it's a compliment."

If it really is, maybe it's fine.

I cleared my throat. "Ahm, now that we're at it, may I know how do Leo getting his hands on those human slaves?"

"It's the Marionette mercenaries who were the ones doing the work."

I see now, that makes a lot of sense. Leo doesn't have that precise personnel so he's hiring Leal's mercenaries for abductions, perhaps even the investigation and information gathering to a potential slave.

If that's the case, it means Leal's mercenaries are a bunch of high-class assassins and infiltrators. I mean, they are going around abducting nobles without getting retaliated on or much more found out, that alone is already saying a lot.

That's the last piece I need. Now, all I have to do is to fix this problem.

Now, I have to move on to the second part of my plan.

I said my goodbye to Mister Rudwick and rushed to the Fang faction headquarters while Misha was still sleeping in our room.

After passing through the street where everyone was gawking at me, I reached the headquarters.

I opened the metal double door, went inside, and found Mehrad and Leo sitting on the black round metal table, they casually stared at me with their newly awake eyes while taking a bite of the bread in their hands.

"Oh, do you need something, boss?"

I put my hands on my waist and faced them. 

"I'm going to conduct a meeting, gather the faction leaders."

Leo and Mehrad stared at each other and slowly nodded. "Sure."