After ordering Malk to take me to the nearest population centre, I go and jump on his shoulders.

"What the fuck are you doing!" He shouts.

I squeeze his neck slightly with my thighs. 

"You run away; I kill you. You come across any of your old comrades and alert them; I kill you. You talk back to me again; I kill you."

He seems to get the message, so I loosen my grip. The truth is I always was a selfish bitch. I knew that. I stayed in my house and didn't hurt anyone, but neither did I ever leave the comfort of my home to help others. I also would never text or call anyone. I liked to be alone, so all my relationships, family and friends were them putting in all the effort even before I became a shut-in.

Over my ten years of being a shut-in, I skipped out on birthday parties and funerals. At first, I felt really guilty, unable to support my friends and family due to my agoraphobia. But eventually, people got sick of my condition and started thinking I hated them... and eventually, I did. I rationalised that if people thought of me as being selfish, I should just be the bitch they thought I was. I stopped feeling guilty and only really cared for my parents. I lost all my friends and family and stopped texting, calling and visiting. And since I always wanted to be alone, I never contacted them.

I discovered I could easily turn off my empathy. I know what's right and wrong, but sometimes I don't care... and if I'm being honest,  part of the reason I stayed away from people was that I was worried they might notice. But what I'm saying is although I like Malk and need him right now, I could kill him at any moment. And I doubt I'll meet anyone in this world I couldn't kill if I needed to.

"So, is there a town or village nearby?"

"**grumble** There is a decent-sized town with a garrison of the Lord's Army near the mountain base. But I'm known there so going there would be bad. The next best place is a village at the edge of the forest. But it's a long way..."

"Well, as my head of staff, bodyguard, trusted advisor and mount, I command you to take me there."

"What about the bodies?"

"Just leave them. I doubt we could hide them from your old boss anyway. So are best bet is to stop wasting time and get out of here before she returns!"

"Okay, Boss!"

He takes off his armour.

"Not now, idiot! Save it for later!"

"I'll be faster without armour. Plus, it's best if I don't get identified as a deserter."

I balance on his shoulders, ready to kill him if he pulls anything funny while he strips his armour off. Under his plate is gambeson, but soon he takes that off too. Now he is naked.

"Hold on tight! But not too tight!"

And like that, he sprints into the woods, weaving between giant trees and bulldozing through smaller ones and bushes. He's faster on the ground than me when jumping up in the canopy, but I don't get tired, and he does. So I wonder how long he can keep this up.

Over the next few hours, I asked Malk some critical questions; the vital info I collected from him was that this world is indeed named Cruinne. From what he described, this world was just like the stereotypical isekai fantasy world until around 50 years ago. Then a demon lord took over the known world, which comprises of three large continents on a round planet with smaller islands scattered about. They have different names depending on the language and people, but in Common, they are Arbaim, the one we are currently on, Bleiz and Cyrumia.

The Demon Lord Vanstagoth, the then king of a smaller island to the south named, Garasgo, raised his armies and, over ten years, conquered all three continents. He unified the three continents and their surrounding islands into three large kingdoms, each ruled by his family members, with himself as the "Emperor of Cruinne".

This was made possible as, through an ancient demon ritual, he discovered he could close off this plane from all others. Souls could no longer leave it, so he had infinite souls for undead experiments and soldiers; the gods could no longer interfere with this plane, and since it was the gods that elevated mortals to adventurer status, no new adventurers could be created to replace those who died or joined him.

It makes me wonder how I got to this world and was able to become an adventurer. Wait...

"If his family became the rulers of the three kingdoms, why was his sister leading troops? Isn't that beneath the royal family?"

"She isn't a member of the royal family. Demon families work differently from most races. To them, 'marriage' and 'family' are the same concepts. They 'keep the blood pure' by inbreeding. All those born by two family members become part of that family/marriage; they are all married to each other at once. Those born by members of two different families are disinherited from both and start their own. And since demons can choose the number of offspring and gender of their young, they always birth a male and a female when starting a new family."

"The 'off shoots' are bound by demon law to always be lower in rank to every member of both families that spawned them. Since Vanstagoth's father had Sezeldoth with a woman from a lower-tier demon family, "General" is currently the highest she can climb until all her parent families members die or increase in rank. That's the demon social hierarchy. Until Vanstagoth, most demon families were warring with each other to wipe out every member of other families so they could increase in rank."

"Why even start 'off shoot' families?"

"Because a demon is physically incapable of harming any member of their two-parent families. So they have off-shoots and send them to kill their parent families. It's a vicious circle. You are the head of a lower-tier family, you start a new family and order them to kill your parent families, thus your family increases in rank, but now your off-shoot family has the same idea you did. But parent families can still harm their off-shoots. So the only way to defend is to have your own off-shoots... see the problem."

"Well, Vanstagoth's family spent centuries wiping out all other families besides their own and one other, Sezeldoth's family; now there are just two. They formed alliances, made and broke deals, and ordered their other off-shoots to attack their parent families. Then they ordered all their off-shoots to kill each other till only one remained. That stability is what gave Vasntagoth the chance to take over the world. The Dominosin family, Vanstagoth's, makes up the royalty and government, while the Vikamora family, Sezeldoth's, makes up the military high command and police state."

"How do the families get their names?"

"The demon parents agree on a name when they first have a child together, and any child born from their paring from then on has that name. They can technically give the family any name they both agree on, but they often combine their own first names. The parents of the Dominosin family were Dominogoth and Sinerva, and the parents of Vikamora were Vicktor and Tamora."

"You seem to know a lot about all this?"

"History of the Great Unification and demon culture is required learning in the military training programme. And in all government-run schools. However, only the upper class goes to those schools. So unless you go into a government-run field or your parents pay for you to get educated, you aren't likely to know any more than what you need to do in your profession. I assumed that's why you didn't know. Though I was surprised, you didn't even know the emperor's name and the name of this Kingdom. You must have been born in a really isolated village, right? And I assume the brothel madam or master that trained you only taught you how to whore?"

"I ask the questions, Malkolm."

"**sigh** I figured you wouldn't tell me how you became an adventurer or how you changed your name to "Whore", but I figured you'd at least tell me how you grew up and what your race is. For some reason, I can't see it in your sheet, I assume you are a sub-race of humans, but I've never met a human with your body proportions, tan skin, dark red hair and glowing green eyes before. Wouldn't mind meeting more of you; hopefully, the others are more friendly."

"Sorry, Malk. There is one of my kind in the whole world! But with your help, we can change that..."