The Demon Realms could be said to be in their own separate dimensions due to how secluded and isolated they tend to be. The Abyss Valley was no exception. It was situated far into a dark plain west of the world. The plain was so vast that it would take weeks to traverse by horses from the closest human settlement to the Abyss Valley and that wasn’t taking into account the vastness of the Abyss Valley itself. But Demons travelled between the Abyss Valley and the human world to and from almost on a constant basis due to the methods they travelled by. There were two methods the Demons used for going in and out of the Abyss Valley. The first method was the most commonly used by the Demons and also the most well-known by humans, flying mounts. Whenever humans saw a large flying monster in the sky, they would automatically attribute it to a flying mount of Demons. The second method, however, was reserved for only the prominent figures among the Demon ranks and only a few humans were aware of this method. This method was the usage of Mass-traversal Portals.

There was a portal room on every floor of the tower and only those who received permission from the Queen or the Prince could activate and use these portals. As the Prince’s chamber took up nearly the entire floor, the Prince’s chamber itself was the portal. More specifically, the spell’s inscription was engraved into the very floor of the Prince’s chamber.

Once a Demon was in the human world, it could return to the Abyss Valley at any given moment as long as there was no magic interference or disruption, but they could only return to the portal they used. But the Prince and the Queen had no such limitations. They could use a portal from one floor and return to a portal on another floor.

As all Demons were telepathically linked in a queer one-sided way, Augrun didn’t need to convey his intentions verbally to the maids or servants, such as where he was going or where he had gone. But of course, he could choose how much information he wishes to share with the maids and servants. If he so desired, he could just choose not to convey anything at all and sneak out without them knowing but that would incur the ire of the Queen should she ever find out.

“Ugh!” Augrun groaned as he was hit by the sun’s dazzling smile upon coming out of the portal. It was noon and he was finally in the human world after some much trial and error at getting the portal to work. He had intended to arrive at the human world during the morning but it took him a few hours to get a hang of using the portal spell.

“Put this on, young master,” Sera said, handing him a cloak. Due to them travelling incognito, Sera could not refer to him as her prince or “Your Highness”. Augrun had wanted her to address him by his name but it was too high of a hurdle for her to cross and they compromised with her addressing him as a young master, which wasn’t uncommon for how a human servant would address their non-royalty employer.

“Thanks.” Augrun took it and put it on. “Are Demons weak to the sun?” he asked.

“We are not, Your Highness. You are just too accustomed to the darkness. Give it some time, that feeling will pass.”

Now that Augrun thought about it, he had been in the darkness ever since he was reborn as the Demon Prince. This fact kept slipping his mind due to the Demons’ innate ability to see in the dark and now he was exposed to light after nearly a whole day without it.

Augrun touched his forehead and grabbed a few locks of his hair to inspect. “How long will the spell hold?” he asked. His horns were gone and his hair was dark brown. His eyes had turned from reddish-gold to the same current colour of his hair. As for his garments, he was wearing plain trousers, a long-sleeved white shirt, and a brown boiled leather vest.

“As long as I can sustain it, Your H—, young master,” Sera answered. She too had changed her appearance. Her horns were nowhere to be seen. Her hair was light brown instead of pink. Her eyes were now pale bluish instead of green. Sera was still wearing her maid uniform but with fewer frills and white as those were too ostentatious for their intentions.

“And how long can you sustain it?”

“My magic vigour recovers faster than its consumption. As long as I’m not required in a battle or encounter any disruption or interference, the spell lasts forever, young master.”

“That’s very impressive, Sera.”

“It is nothing compared to what you can do, young master,” Sera humbled herself but her blushing grin was undeniable of her delight over being complimented.

“Anyway, where are we?” Augrun asked, looking around. There were only grasses, trees, boulders, and hillocks no matter where he looked. “I didn't open up a portal to the wrong place, did I?”

“You did not, young master. We are very close to Rosvid Road, the main road that leads into Rosvid City. The road is just past the trees here.” Sera pointed east as she said so. “It will take us less than an hour to reach the city if we follow the road.”

“You’re quite knowledgeable, Sera.”

“It’s the least that I should be able to do as the Prince’s maid, young master.”

“And consort,” Augrun added.

“Are you truly serious about that, my prince?”

Augrun chuckled. “Really, Sera? You’re still doubting me after I poured so much of my seed into your womb?”

“Mind your words, young master! That’s very uncouth of you.”

Augrun tutted. “Don’t change the subject, Sera.”

“Of course, I’m not doubting you, young master… I’m doubting myself. This joy I’m feeling… It’s just too much. It just feels too unreal for me to be feeling so happy.”

Augrun smiled and pulled Sera into a hug, kissing her on the forehead. “Me too, Sera. I know exactly how you feel. Everything feels unreal to me too but when I’m holding you tight like this, I know that this isn’t just a dream.”

“My prince,” she gasped feverishly and returned the hug.

They stayed like that for a couple of minutes before they eventually remembered what they were here for. They hastily separated themselves from one another, tidied up their garments, and began walking through the forest with Sera at the front as she was the one who knew the road.

Contrary to Augrun’s expectation of dirt roads riddled with shallow pits filled with rainwater from previous days, the road was well-paved with cobblestones and lanterns were aligned on both sides of the road with a reasonable distance between each one. And they weren’t the only ones on the road. There were many others on foot but not to the point of crowding. Carriages and horses would pass them by frequently. The clothes the passers-by were wearing varied in terms of period. Some looked to be clothing from the mediaeval era while some looked to be from the nineteenth century. There were quite a few that were dressed in garments that Augrun had did not look like it was from any period at all. Overall, it was nothing like the twenty-first century he lived in. 

In just half an hour, they arrived at the south gates of Rosvid City. The walls were high and seemed to surround the entirety of the city. Ramparts were built atop these walls with ballistas mounted and soldiers stationed. The soldiers on top had firearms that resembled muskets with bayonets. Through his imparted knowledge, Augrun knew those muskets were unlike the ones from his former world. These ones were propelled by magic instead of gunpowder. 

As the two neared the gates, Augrun saw a relatively long line was formed before one of the three gates while the other two were nearly barren.

“The leftmost gate is for the common folks without a proper residence inside the city,” Sera explained. “The middle gate is for the local citizens and merchants. As for the right gate, it’s for nobles, state guests, or other figures with equal importance.”

“I assume we will not be taking the left gate?” Augrun asked.

“Of course not, young master. That will be too unseemly for a prince even if we are trying to be covert. Your visage has to be respected at the very least. We will be taking the middle gate,” Sera said and handed Augrun a piece of paper.

Augrun unfolded the paper and read through the contents. “Identification papers? Forged?”

“The guards have the means to identify forgeries. No, these are real. We have agents inside the capital city of a kingdom in the position of a ministry.”

Suddenly, something seemed to click in his mind. “Agents?”

“Humans who have made a contract with Demons. They are our spies and informants, sometimes our representatives.”

“I did not know that... Do we perhaps have agents in every human settlement?”

“We do, young master. We have at least a few in high places in every major city in the west.”

Augrun arched an eyebrow. “Wow, it's good to be the Prince,” he muttered under his breath. 

“Halt,” uttered a guard when they arrived right in front of the gate. “Papers, please.” 

Augrun eyed the guards for a short while before handing over their papers. The guards weren’t dressed in metal armour but in military uniforms with some kind of artificial fibre vests donned over. Instead of long swords or polearms, each of the guards carried a short sword and a wooden baton. It really brought out the different world feel to Augrun.

“Everything appears to be in order,” the guard said and gave them back their papers and ushered them to move along.

“That was easy,” Augrun muttered once they were out of the guards’ earshot.

“You sound disappointed, young master.”

“A bit. Their security is too lax. Other than the papers, they barely paid attention to anything else. They’re not even paying attention to what my other hand was doing.”

“What did you do, young master?” Sera asked.

Augrun held up a pouch of coins for Sera to see. “These guards can’t even prevent themselves from getting robbed.”

“Is that the guard’s pouch?”

“Yes, the guard that was inspecting our papers. You didn’t see it either?”

“I was… looking at your face, young master,” Sera confessed with a fading voice and an averting gaze.

Augrun thought he was just being vain and imagining things from how Sera was stealing fervid glances at his face every once in a while but it turned out he wasn’t.

“Young master, if money is your concern, we have brought more than enough from the Queen’s reserves.”

“I know, Sera. I just want to find out how good the guards are but I didn’t expect to find something more interesting.” Augrun stared at Sera with a grin.

“S-so, young master,” she cleared her throat with a cough, “where would you like to go first?”

Augrun tittered and let that quirk of hers be. He would have plenty of chances to tease her about it later. “The marketplace would be a good start. I would love to see the basis of the economy of another world.”

“Young master, this isn’t the other world anymore. This is your world now.”

“I know, Sera. I know.”

As they walked through the streets that were paved better than the roads outside the walls, Augrun took in the surroundings that had always only existed behind a screen or on paper. Everywhere he looked, everything was simply just fantastic and novel. It was sights like these that kept making him question the reality before him. And he wasn’t just some plain character in this completely novel fantasy setting. He was the Demon Prince. Gradually, that line became his mantra to ground himself to reality whenever he began to feel detached from it. 

As if to ground Augrun to reality further, fate had bestowed him a chance encounter but not the fortuitous kind. Augrun wasn’t looking at where he was going and he didn’t need to with his heightened senses as a Demon. However, the less savoury peoples were far too greedy to let that opportunity slip past their notice. A thin man in worn clothing appeared out of nowhere. He ran right into Augrun’s path. As hard as he could, the thin man made a dramatic show of him tumbling backwards as if Augrun’s speed was like a truck. Needless to say, it was a deliberate act but not to the eyes of the passers-by who only took notice of the act after the thin man started screaming, clutching his legs, and pointing at Augrun. 

“My legs! My legs! He broke my legs!” the thin man kept shouting as his index finger hovered stiffly over Augrun.

Augrun sighed and ignored the man’s terrible acting by walking on without offering him a glance.

“Hold it right there, young man!” an old man shouted even louder than the thin man.

Augrun stopped in his tracks but he did not turn around. Instead, it was Sera who turned around to glare at the old man. “What?” Sera demanded.

“What? Your friend there hurt this poor man right here and he thinks he could just walk off scot-free?”

The peanut gallery began to gossip and murmured their speculations of what could have happened and what might be happening.

“Pathetic,” Augrun muttered, loud enough for all to hear.

“Pathetic!?” the old man scoffed. “You have the guts to call me pathetic when you’re the one who hurt my friend? Or is that all that your rich merchant father could teach you?”

Augrun understood then that the old man and the thin man saw him as some son of a rich merchant instead of a noble, which meant they had been watching over him ever since they got through the gate. And this also meant these two had been around the city for quite a while to know who to target. However, they just had to pick Augrun of all people.

Augrun’s greatest struggle was holding Sera’s wrath back, who was on the verge of tearing all these people to pieces. He managed to calm her down by whispering some sweet nothings to her.

“If you’re thinking of giving me the slip, think again, boy. Everyone has their eyes on you. The good people of this city will not let you walk free.”

Spurred by the old man’s praise of them being “good people”, the gallery nodded in agreement and began to stand closer to one another so as to not give any window for Augrun to slip past them.

Augrun chuckled. “You know, just name your price, old man. We can move on faster that way.”

The old man tutted. “Snobbish till the end, I see. But at least you’re starting to see reason. Since you’re young, I’ll be lenient to you. Twenty gold will do.”

The gallery gasped and began another round of gossip. Augrun could hear their surprise at how high of a price the old man was asking considering a single gold coin was more than enough.

“Twenty?” Augrun snorted. “How about I double it? Forty gold.”

The old man frowned in astonishment. He wasn’t expecting Augrun to lower the price but instead, he increased the price. Although the old man knew something was wrong, his greed won over his senses. “If you’re that reasonable and generous, who am I to refuse?”

Augrun took out a big pouch of coins from the treasury vault in the tower through the use of a mini traversal portal. No one was questioning where he got that bulging pouch from as they were too engrossed in the content of the pouch itself. “I think there are more than forty gold coins inside this pouch. Here, keep the change,” Augrun said and tossed the pouch at the old man. As the pouch wasn’t fastened at all, all the gold coins came spilling out before the pouch even landed in the old man’s open palms. The gold coins scattered across the ground, glittering its glory under the dazzling sun.

Everyone’s eyes were on the scattered gold coins of around a hundred. Even the thin man, who was supposed to be gravely injured, was slowly standing to his feet as his breathing turned heavier from the sight of the gold coins.

Augrun sneered and gestured for the frozen crowd to help themselves to the gold coins. Augrun didn’t stay to look as everyone instantly rushed for the coins on the ground like a pack of frenzy starving wild dogs fighting for the only piece of meat in a vast barren land. The old man and the thin man were shouting for the “good people” of the city to leave the gold coins be but they were eventually silenced by someone in the crowd. Augrun heard the cracking of bones and the splitting of skulls, followed by agonising screams. They were trampling and fighting over each other for the gold coins. Augrun even caught the whiff of blood as he slowly walked away from the pathetic display of the city’s “goodwill”.

“Well played, young master,” Sera said.

“Human nature… it’s the same even in another world.”

“You sound like you regret ever being a human, young master.”

“It has its terrible moments but it also has its good moments… I don’t regret being a human, Sera. I wouldn't be enjoying this current life of mine so much if I hadn’t had a taste of what being a human is like.”

“An interesting perspective, young master,” Sera praised. “You may be young but you’re certainly no child.”

“Was last night not sufficient enough as proof?”

Sera rolled her eyes and continued walking.

After leaving that farce of a commotion behind, the pair turned right on the main street and went down a gentle hill, they arrived at the market district of the city. It was equally close to the west and south gates for the ease of the outsider merchants who wished to make a trade in this city.

“Whoa…” Augrun gasped as he feasted his eyes on the sight before him. It was a large plaza that was brimming with carts, tents, caravans, and picnic cloths doubling as booths. Each booth sold different categories of items or different labels. There was rarely a booth that sold the exact same products and goods. It looked like a flea market but that was neither completely true nor false as a few of these booths were probably selling used products or goods. It was up to the buyers themselves to not be fooled. At a glance, Augrun already saw a few items that he could not quite make out what they were as he had never seen those items before in any of the fiction he had consumed. They were magic tools, he realised as the knowledge came surfacing. These magic tools weren’t rare but neither were they all too common as they weren’t reliable to be used, especially those purchased from an offhand market.

“This thing is a fake!” someone shouted. “You sold me a fake!”

“No, it’s not, you idiot,” the merchant retorted “I sold you a good product in which you broke it yourself and tried to sell it back to me while claiming it as a fake.”

“You’re calling me a liar, you lowlife merchant? Do you know who my father is?!”

“Certainly no noble,” the merchant scoffed. “Now begone, you idiot. I have other customers to take care of.”

And that marked the start of a brawl. And that wasn’t the only fight that happened due to some sham of a disagreement. Augrun could hear clamours coming from nearly every direction. The merchants were dishonest and the customers were dramatic. It was not a good combination. He started to wonder if this was just one huge flea market in disguise. The marketplace sure was lively but not in a good way.

But the most glaring aspect of the market wasn’t the queer trinkets or the clamours between the vendors and customers, but the slaves being put on sale atop the wooden platforms. Those slaves were mostly scantily clad nubile females with a few soft males mixed. Some of those slaves, male and female alike, were even completely nude and those nude slaves shared something in common; they all had very impressive assets. There were also slaves being displayed on the ground but these ones were all just burly males with nothing but brawns to their appeal. They wore only loincloths and Augrun couldn’t help but notice the absence of the slightest bulge down there.

“The ones being displayed on the side of the roads, they’re eunuchs?” Augrun asked as they walked down the slaves' aisle.

Sera was sporting a grimace while glancing at those slaves. “They are, young master,” she answered. “If a male slave is not used for recreational purposes, his genital is cut. They don’t want to risk having the slave doing something they’re not supposed to. The ones on the ground are all labour slaves. The ones on the platforms are sex slaves.” Her hands were clenched tightly into fists.

“Clever, I suppose,” Augrun mulled vaguely.

“This is revolting,” Sera muttered.

“The slaves?”

“The humans, young master,” she chewed her words as quietly as she could. “They’re deplorable. How could they do this to their own race?”

Augrun shrugged. “It’s just how humans are, Sera.” He wasn’t sporting a face of disgust nor of anger. He was just disappointed and exasperated, like always. Human atrocities were nothing new to him. “They don’t even treat a member of their own race well. Don’t expect them to treat the other races any better. Speaking of which, these slaves are all humans. Where are the Beastfolks?”

Sera looked around them for a while before leaning close to Augrun’s ears. “Demis are considered commodities, luxuries. They don’t sell them here.”

“Ah, I see.” Augrun nodded. Commodity, luxury, those two words were enough clues as to where he would find those kinds of slaves.

“Young master, pardon me if my question is presumptuous, do you intend to liberate the slaves?”

Augrun chuckled with a scoff. “Why would you think so, Sera?”

“You may not be a human anymore but surely you would feel some sentiment for them, do you not, young master?”

So they knew, Augrun mused in his heart. Of course, they would know, he thought. Like hell, the Queen would just use a soul she knew nothing about as the foundation of her child’s conception.

“Do you, young master?”

Augrun smiled wryly and brushed her cheeks softly. “Are you worried that I might replace you with a slave?”

“I am not,” she denied, turning her face away from his hand. “But you were staring at those sex slaves very intently, young master.”

“I don’t deny that, Sera,” he admitted, staring at the female slaves atop the platforms. “I’m still a person with desires but fret not my dear Sera. I will never replace you.” He suddenly pulled her in for a hug with no attempt at being subtle at all.

“Y-young master… we’re—”

“There is nothing wrong with this, Sera. I’m just some young master who’s a little bit too intimate with his maid. Not uncommon, wouldn’t you say?” 

Sera nodded and loosened her shoulders, letting herself relish in her Prince’s embrace in broad daylight among the public.

“To answer your question, I have no intention of buying slaves but that didn’t mean that I won’t. If one caught my eye, then perhaps?” 

Sera nodded faintly. “I understand, young master.”

Augrun wasn’t one to go out of his way to endorse these sorts of indulgences but he wasn’t exactly repulsed by them to the point that he would think of putting on a cape and mask. He had never considered himself to be a hero nor some paragon of virtue. Of all the things he had done and as far as he was concerned, he was just as guilty as these people who were gazing at the slaves like they were some exclusive limited branded items that they couldn’t wait to purchase show it off to their peers. The more he thought about it, the more he realised how fitting it was for him to have been reincarnated as a Demon. 

“So, young master, you wish to go to the underground market?” Sera asked, sneaking another fervid glimpse at Augrun.

“You know where it is?”

Sera shook her head. “The avenue changes every two months. We’ll need to ask someone who knows and we’ll need to be on the guestlist or else we won’t be granted entry.”

“Even a Prince?”

“Our human agents do not know there’s a prince among Demons they serve yet.”

“Perhaps it’s high time that I introduce myself to these agents of ours, so long it ain't a tedious process. I’m sure this is how the Queen intended for things to happen. Now, who do we need to ask about the underground market?”

Sera nodded in acknowledgement and led the way. They walked out of the plaza without much difficulty. Even with their cloaks draping over them, their fancy garments could not escape the people’s eyes entirely and those who took notice of their pricy apparel immediately made way for the two.

After the plaza blurred into the horizon, they made a turn into a narrow street with buildings that were of dark colours that the ones on the side of the big streets. This narrow street wasn't devoid of people. There were just fewer people here and nearly all of them were wearing armour, leather or metal, and also carrying swords and weapons around by their waists. Augrun could smell the stench of blood from these people.

Loyal to his old habits, Augrun was already assessing the threat levels these people could pose and the number of routes they could use to escape should a fight or a scuffle break out, but he stopped himself before he planned any further. It was doing him no good if he kept defaulting to those old habits. Damien was dead and gone and dwelling on the dead was no way of living. Those skills of his past life were without a shred of doubt, handy, but using them for reasons ignited by his past insecurities just wasn't the way. Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself and tried his best to not be too paranoid.

“Young master?” Sera called out worriedly. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. It’s just old habits. Anyway, who is this person we will be talking to?”

“I don’t know but I will know when I see them. They wear a bronze ring on their thumb with claw-like engravings. You usually find them in places where the lights are bleak, such as this street.”

“Hmm…” Augrun hummed, combing over his surroundings with a fine-tooth comb of a gaze. “That person there, to the right in front of you.”

Sera looked over in the direction her prince told her. There was a man in plain garments loitering with a bunch of scruffy individuals and on his right thumb was a bronze ring with claw-like engravings. Sera nodded. “That will be him,” she said.