Second Chance in the Demon Kingdom

It was a wonderful morning in the Kingdom of Harlan. Here, things are as peaceful as can be. No blood was being shed, lives were not lost, and people were at ease. Well… one race was at least.

“Get moving, you animals!” a male merchant shouted, whipping at some bull half-humans. The latter group were in rags and forced to pull a large cart of goods. “Come on, come on! We can’t keep his majesty waiting! You’re all bulls, aren’t you?! Put those muscles into it already!” the merchant shouted, whipping the half-humans some more, ignoring their cries and winces in pain.

He wasn’t the only one who was ignoring this; many others in the capital saw the treatment they were given, but gave no helping hand. Some, mainly humans, simply ignored the commotion and just continued on with their day.

One bull half-human, a child no less, tripped on some rock and fell. Though the boy scraped his knee, that was unfortunately not the least bit important to the merchant.

“You damn brat! Are you trying to test my patience?! Get back up and pull this instant!” he ordered.

“But… my knees hurt… and we’ve been walking for hours…” the child spoke.

That only served to anger the human even more. “You think I care what an animal like you thinks?! When I give you an order, as an animal, a pet, a slave you are, you are to follow through! Failure to do so… results in some good whipping!“

The merchant raised his whip. The child crouched and raised his arms over his head in fear of the pain that was to come.

As the merchant threw his arm down, a magic circle appeared between the whip and the kid and blocked the hit. The man grew even angrier upon seeing his attack blocked like so.

“Who dares interfere?!” he shouted, looking at the crowd around him.

Everyone stopped and stared at him, wondering the same thing. Who interfered with the judgement this man was going to place on the lowly half-human?

“You have a problem with me doing it?” came a voice. A cloaked figure in red from within the crowd walked up to the merchant.

“Yeah I do! You went and defended an animal, of all things. That makes you even lower than an animal. And whose job do you think it is-?”

“You talk too much,” the figure interrupted in a bored tone. “To think there are other humans with ego this high… You bring shame on your kind, rodent.”

The merchant’s eyes twitched in annoyance at the insult she gave him. “This coming… from the rodent herself!” He raised his whip to strike the figure. Before he could bring it down, the figure simple raised a hand, causing a magic circle to appear and chains to shoot out of it, binding the merchant. “What the-?! Where did these-?!”

“If you are a human, and one loyal to his majesty, then you should know by now his most trusted servant.” As the figure said that, she reached up to her hood and brought it down, revealing her face.

Everyone was shocked at her true identity.

“Y-You’re… the current Legendary Mage of Harlan, Ruby!” the merchant gasped in shock.

Indeed, the person protecting the bull half-human child was none other than Ruby, the wolf half-human who is Caro’s best friend, as well as the current Legendary Mage of Harlan Kingdom.

“Why the hell are you doing this?!” the merchant demanded. “To lay your hand on a human is to go against all humans, henceforth means you are going against the king! Legendary hero or not, that does not mean you can go against the law that our King Greg made! Especially when you’re a half-human!”

“True… If I was harming a human loyal to his majesty,” Ruby coldly added, much to the confusion of the merchant and the people around him. “If you are a human loyal to King Greg, then you should know of the rebellion. Not only is it formed by half-humans, but also commoners of humans who are against his majesty. And as such, you should know by now, that until this rebellion is over, merchants are not welcome in this capital. Not unless they have proof of royal blood, royal connections, or if they were called by his majesty himself. And you, rodent… I don’t recall ever seeing your face in the meetings with royals and nobles.” Ruby twitched her hand, causing a dark green magic circle to form over the Chain Lock circle. Thorny vines emerged from the ground and wrapped themselves around the merchants arms, legs, waist, and neck, the spikes embedding themselves into his flesh. As the wolf half-human slowly curled her fingers, the vines tightened just as slow, causing the man to feel the crushing and piercing pain on his limbs and slowly lose his breath.

“W-Wait…” he gasped out. “King Greg… won’t forgive you… if you kill me…”

It was silent, as Ruby’s fingers ceased all movement. “… True… If he didn’t order me to find and kill even possible rebels.” Completely closing her hand to a fist, the vines completely crushed the merchant’s bones and pierced through his every being, turning him into a human swiss cheese.

Everyone was silent at the event that had occurred. All were looking at the Legendary Mage of Harlan in fear.

Ruby walked over to the bull half-human child and knelt down to his level. “Are you okay?” she asked, reaching out to see his injury.

Before she could properly take a look at it, however, a hand slapped hers away. “Stay away from my son!” an adult half-human shouted.

Ruby silently stared at him.

“You may have saved us from more beatings from him, but you’re no different from the humans, traitor!” he exclaimed. “The second you accepted King Greg’s proposal, the second you became the new Legendary Mage of Harlan was the second you betrayed your own kind!”

It was silent when the guy said that. No one dared to say a word. Not the humans, nor the half-humans.

“You’re right. I did become a traitor to my kind. That’s why… I’m buying you guys your freedom in exchange for that,” Ruby said, taking out a bag of gold coins from her person and dropped it to the floor, to many’s shock. It shocked them even more when she started to walk away from the pair of half-humans. After walking some distance away from him, she came to a stop. “It’s a shame, however… You’ve put me in a bad mood.” Next thing everyone knew, multiple light green magic circles appeared behind her and shot out blades of energy similar to Caro’s Wind Wave Slash Blade Burst. The attack struck the adult bull half-human slave, cutting off his arms and legs.

“GAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

“DAD!” the boy cried out, as he and the other slaves rushed to his side in worry.

“He can still be saved if you stop his bleeding. And the doctor mages can reattach his limbs back to his body,” Ruby spoke. “But for you guys, the price for such treatment is about as much as that sack of gold coins I gave you. Your freedom or his life… Choose wisely.” Without another word, she continued walking.

Once she entered an alley and got out of everyone’s sight, Ruby curled one hand into a fist and slammed it into a wall, leaving a slight indent on it.

“Damn it...” she uttered out. “Damn it...” She fell to her knees and shed some tears. “I… Isn’t one person enough…?”

These past few years, to this very day, Ruby still blamed herself for what happened to Caro. She always thought back to the day she helped send her away and wondered what she could’ve done instead to change all of that. Unfortunately, what’s done is done. Even if she thought about how she could’ve changed things, it didn’t change the fact that… she led Caro, her best friend who was like a sister to her, to her death. And it especially didn’t help that she was forced to make more people suffer in more ways than one, like she did to that half-human earlier.

Ruby reached up to her neck, where a collar was strapped around it. It wasn’t just any collar; the one she wore... was a custom-made slave collar. Ruby may be loyal to King Greg, but she was forced to be. If she wanted to, she could’ve committed suicide if it meant she didn’t have to deal with him for another day and join Caro. However, because of the accursed collar around her neck, she couldn’t do that. Not only did it forbid her from killing herself, it also forced her to do any of her master’s biddings, which in this case would be Greg. The only good thing about it was that it didn’t completely take away her freedom.

“Blaming yourself for what happened again?” came a voice so familiar to her.

Ruby flinched at the voice, stood back up and wiped her tears away. “Just because you’re a ninja doesn’t mean you have every right to eavesdrop on my business… Shadow.”

Emerging from the shadows was the late King Stephon’s former ninja bodyguard, Shadow. “Forgive me for prying. However, you know it is his majesty’s order that I keep my eyes on you. If you were to show any signs of betrayal, I am to capture and subdue you, take you to his majesty and report to him.”

“Like you would ever know what it’s like,” Ruby said to him. “Every night, I constantly see Caro’s face before I sent her to that dangerous land. I… We were best friends since we were kids. And I…” Tears formed in her eyes, in which Ruby quickly wiped away.

“You know it’s not your fault,” Shadow tried to comfort. “You never could have known.”

“But I should’ve at least stayed with her! Or maybe use Travel Shadow at that time to at least hide us away from the soldiers! Instead…” Ruby knelt to her knees once more, trying to hold back more of her tears.

Shadow sighed at the action. “I understand your agony, believe me. As a ninja, I am to sacrifice my life for my client, my master, who was the late king. But instead, I didn’t consider the possibility of poison that day, much less by his own son, and practically failed my mission. But I still picked up my head and lived on. Not only to protect late King Stephon’s family, but also to make up for such failure. I may not know Lady Caro as well as you do, but I do know enough that she would want you to keep going, especially when you are not at fault for what had happened.”

“… I guess so…” Ruby said.

Shadow simply nodded at her response. “Then let us return to the castle. His majesty is expecting us.”

Ruby silently followed, when she felt something, like a pull of sort. She looked behind her… but saw no one.

“What’s wrong?” Shadow asked.

“… It’s nothing,” Ruby answered, catching up to the ninja.

Though she claimed for it to be nothing, it did not really feel like so. In truth, she had this strange and strong feeling in her gut. She didn’t know what it was exactly, but the first and only thing that came to mind was…

’Caro…’