Vol II, Ch 58 – I think it’s about time I upgraded my troublemaker reputation, don’t you think?

Three days had passed since my encounter with the moth demon. I’d yet to spot her again, for which I was considering myself lucky. It meant that she likely wasn’t searching for me and that I hopefully wasn’t in trouble for assault. Though I’d done my best to stray away from where I encountered her, just in case.

The more time that passed, the more violence I encountered, as expected of a city full of demons. Thankfully none of it was directed at me. The groups of armored demons seemed inclined to frequently have altercations with one another. I’d spotted three groups in particular that were the most prevalent, with their own colors and insignia. More similar to differing gangs or perhaps some kind of martial guilds than guards, in my quite humble opinion. They seemed to simply dislike each other rather than being fully at war. Mostly they either ignored or taunted the other “guilds,” with the rare instance of a bloody fight breaking out. No one stopped them, because of course, there was no one to stop them. Either they all served as the demonic version of a city guard or there simply were no guards.

Demons were strange creatures.

The strange sixth sense showed up once more on the second day, flooding my head with foreign emotions. I was thankful that it was less severe than the first episode. Given that no one approached me the second time, I could only assume that it was something of my own doing rather than some kind of attack. I worried that it was some lingering effect from the potion my father had forced me to drink and could only hope that it wouldn’t grow worse with time.

Unfortunately, I’d yet to find an alternative source of blood. The demon blood I drank from the concerned moth demon was lasting me far longer than anything I’d ever gotten from Lilis or that crazed healer, Aevn, but I knew it wouldn’t keep me going forever.

Pondering my options left me with only one real solution—absconding with some from another unwitting demon. It would need to be someone that couldn’t simply overpower me or try to drag me off somewhere like the last demon had attempted. I would need to pick my target carefully. The idea of it left a bad taste in my mouth, but what else was I to do?

My mind drifted to the demon that had recently become my temporary neighbor. I doubted they would be able to put up much of a fight against me.

My first night in this realm, I’d gotten little sleep, having found an obscure bench to lay down on only for some hulking brute of a demon covered in armor to storm up to me. His yelling made me quickly scurry off, though I got no more sleep. Luckily, by the next night I’d found some half-destroyed little building that looked to have been for storage before a corner of it collapsed. When it seemed like no one was using it, I tossed some hay and things into a pile and settled down late into the night, hoping the shoddy thing wouldn't collapse in my sleep. Only to be woken a couple hours later by a creak of boards as someone strode inside.

Luckily for the both of us, I hadn’t stabbed the short lizard-like demon when he stumbled upon me. He appeared just as surprised to see me as I was him. After attempting a few words of his unintelligible language and getting no response, he thankfully moved to another room. It was only after he began snoring that my mind settled down enough to go back to sleep. The next morning, the shorter demon was still there, his tail and scaly body curled up into a ball on the bare floor as he slept.

We’d since become silent “roommates.” The fact that I now resided with another demon of all things was both unnerving and strangely calming. It helped to almost normalize things in an odd way.

Given that he knew where I currently slept, perhaps it was better if I didn’t try taking his blood, however. I didn’t want to tempt fate in trying to find somewhere else to rest, given that any new potential neighbors I happened to stumble upon may very well end up much less accommodating.

Right now, I had a different goal from obtaining blood, however. My cloak that I’d been hiding my foreign clothes in was beginning to smell worse, if that was somehow possible. It was time I fixed my clothing issue, and I’d found what I hoped was the perfect target.

Rather than shops and stands, one section of the market was a sprawling series of lengthy tents with numerous vendors all clumped together within. It was an area where goods were a bit more chaotically spread, and where I hoped I would have an easier time swiping something than elsewhere if I was covert enough. The downside was that they might also be expecting it more there than in other areas and that there would be eyes everywhere to potentially catch me in the act. It would all come down to skill and some amount of luck.

With the afternoon underway, and the market hitting one of its busiest times, it was time to make my move. I strode up to the first tent. The fog was thicker today, enough so that even in the daylight, the streets were fully tinted in the scarlet color of blood. I’d yet to figure out why they hung the red lanterns up even during the day, but there had to be a reason beyond the creepy aura it tended to give everything. With so many demons around, disappearing in and out of the fog, it was impossible to avoid getting close to them. Even before I entered the tent, gazes began to linger on me, partially due to my increasingly rancid cloak and partially because of what I was.

There was one thing I’d learned from watching the many demons in and around the market for the past several days. Succubi were very rarely present. Whether it was because they were simply that rare here or if they didn’t go to the market area often, I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t as if they needed the food, for instance. The handful of times that I had seen a succubus, however, they’d been accompanied by another demon. Or more accurately, it appeared as though they were accompanying some other demon.

I’d gotten the impression that my presence here, alone, was strange. Subsequently, I kept the cloak’s hood over my head, my two horns poking through the holes I’d made for them, and kept my head down.

It helped. A little.

The tent interior was more crowded than I remembered from my previous trip inside. Though I’d intentionally picked a busier time, knowing that the chaos would help. Between the sun shining through the entrances and the lamps, the interior was plenty bright at least, if obscenely red. Which was for the best, I felt, given that darkness would only give me a false sense of security. There was no telling how many demons could see as clearly in the dark as I could in the light. Even my vision was better than it had been as a human.

Many of the tables were much too tall for me to comfortably see their contents, reinforcing the fact that those of my height tended not to come here. Luckily there were a few exceptions, and I was hopeful those might have things more suited to my size. Of course, there were very few merchants here selling clothing. Jewels, pots, and other such things were far more common. Even quite a few magical objects that I couldn’t truthfully make heads or tails of. But there were a lot of tents, and when I’d come through in my search for blood, I’d found two that had grabbed my interest.

I made my way through the first tent and into the next, careful to keep my face mostly hidden, even as I looked around, occasionally pausing to “browse.” As one vendor, some demon with bat-like wings, caught my face and began speaking to me, I gave a small bow before hurrying away. Better to be thought of as perhaps a bit rude or odd than for someone to believe something was wrong.

I did much the same to the next couple of people that attempted to speak with me, thankful that no demon seemed inclined to chase after me as I moved from tent to tent. As I finally made it to my first target, I slowed. To do this right, my timing would have to be perfect.

Pretending to stare at some pretty necklace, I eyed the vendor hovering around her three tables. The tables were all too tall to likely have anything that would fit me, but that wasn’t what mattered. One of them had a stack of thin cloaks, that while I doubted would fit, I was certain would still be better than my current one.  She was one of the rarer types of demons, from what I’d seen, with her upper body fairly humanoid in shape while the rest of her resembled that of a spider. An arachne. Three sets of dark-brown legs held her massive form off the ground. The rest of her body had similar brown coloring and carapace-like appearance. But what was most disturbing was when she opened her mouth to speak. Her mouth split into three parts, revealing needle-like teeth and two large fangs.

As though sensing that I’d been staring, her gaze momentarily moved from her potential customer over to me. I looked away well before I could figure out what she was thinking.

In front of me, a large ogre man began to growl out in their unfamiliar language. His words were directed at me, and I realized I’d stood still for too long. With a murmur too quiet to hear and a short bow, I shuffled away. Given what I was wearing, it was obvious from a glance that I had not the money for his wares.

Glancing back to my target, I saw that the spider demon had turned away to speak with someone else and that the perfect chance to snag something was happening right in front of me. I strode forward, a bit faster than I normally would, while making it look like I was still just rushing away from the ire of the previous vendor. My gaze wandered everywhere other than in front of me, like a tourist looking at things she couldn’t hope to actually buy. As a group of demons in my path got closer, I shifted around them.

It was clear that I didn’t belong here to anyone that thought to pay me any attention or happened to even smell my unfortunate cloak. But absently looking around wasn’t a crime; what I was about to do next was.

My movement brought me right into the path of some demon with large antlers. We crashed into each other, and one of my hands reached out for the table. As I tripped and fell with a small shout several large, folded cloaks came down with me. The other demon, to my surprise, actually tripped over my own cloak and stumbled as well, barely able to keep his balance as he smacked into some unfortunate winged demon.

I moved back to my feet, murmuring several apologies under my breath that I hoped they couldn’t hear the actual words to. Then I loosely stacked the cloaks back up onto the pile with one arm—minus the one already hidden beneath my cloak. My other arm clutched my waist, as though the demon had injured it, the stolen cloak sitting tightly beneath the pit of my arm.

As I prepared to rush off, I made the mistake of facing the arachne, who had of course turned to see the commotion. Her eyes caught mine, trapping me in place—entangled in a web. Then her mouth opened to speak, splitting apart and the weighty hold on me shattered. Still clutching my stomach and the hidden fabric, I ran off, not even bothering to give an apologetic look toward the other demon in order to sell my act. I thanked my good luck when no one shouted or looked to be chasing after me. Even after several minutes passed, I still didn’t fully relax.

The wise thing to do would likely be to leave quickly with my spoils. However, I didn’t want to come back here, and I wanted to at least make an attempt at my second target. Rather than in the middle of the sprawl of tents, that one was near one of the exits. Should I fail, I could make a quick retreat, with or without the clothing. It was worth it if it meant I could get a bit of clothing that could replace my torn school uniform and fit in with the local aesthetics.

And so I made my way to the next target. It was a less crowded section of the market tents, and the products had turned from jewelry and other expensive items to simpler things.

The impish vendor, who was surprisingly a fair bit shorter than me, eyed me the moment I entered. I knew instantly that it was going to be more challenging than the previous one. This was by no means my first endeavor into theft, sleight of hand, or even pickpocketing, but as Gellin, I’d known to dress in such a way that no one would think to question whether I’d stolen something. I didn’t currently have that luxury. Hopefully the same strategy as before would work.

I made my way through the tent slowly, and like last time, waited for someone to be walking by the table before “accidentally” running into them. As I rose, giving a quiet apology to the demon I’d bumped into, I saw the deep scowl on the vendor’s face. His red skin turned even redder, as his expression twisted, rage filling his eyes.

I knew I’d been caught, despite the fact that he shouldn’t have been able to see me slip what I hoped was a white dress into my cloak. Without waiting for him to start yelling, I shot toward the exit. My hand loosened the strings of my cloak, managing just in time for a large hand to grab for me as I left the tent. The unknown demon gripped the fabric, intending to grab one of my arms, only for the loose cloak to fall away from me. I no longer had a need for it.

As I ran and ducked through streets and small alleys, disappearing into the fog, the shouts quickly faded. Whoever had been chasing either wasn’t fully prepared for it or simply didn’t care enough to properly pursue me. I moved to a small corner, and looked over my new clothes.

The gray cloak, as I had expected, was much too long, but cutting it to be shorter would be a simple fix, if inelegant. The fabric was so smooth and silky that I felt bad that I was going to be butchering it soon. Then I held out the white dress.

It was… small.

I could probably fit into it?

Grumbling and biting my lip, I looked up and down the alley before quickly stripping out of the ripped and messy disaster that was my school uniform. Then I squeezed myself into the short white dress. It stretched and hugged my body in a way that nothing else I’d ever worn before had. It was also sleeveless with a neckline so low that it wasn’t a “neck” line any more. Instead, it curved along my chest and around my back, revealing the upper-most part of my breasts. The scandalous thing didn’t even have sleeves!

The only bits of fabric holding it up on my chest at all were two little strips pressing somewhat uncomfortably into my shoulders. I’d seen a few demons wearing things like this, but I hadn’t thought much of it on them. I tended to be far more focused on their more demonic aspects to consider just how much collar or shoulder they were showing.

The worst part, however, was perhaps the bottom of the dress—if one could even still consider it a dress with it on me. The white fabric ended just below my hips, reminding me of one of the skirts that Lilis had made me wear. I was lucky my underwear was at least undamaged or I’d risk flashing the world any time I even thought of bending over. Though I would need to consider snatching a spare or two.

The only welcome surprise was the hole in the back for the tail. Of course, it was meant for smaller tails, but I managed to still squeeze mine through, stretching the fabric but not tearing it. And I supposed the dress matched my white hair and looked good with my red skin.

Overall, I was immensely frustrated. Both with myself and my poor luck. Of course the little imp fellow at the smaller table would be selling clothes that, unlike everything else in the entirety of the market area, was too fucking small for me! I should have made do with something oversized…

Ill fitting or not, I decided that it was time to make myself scarce as I heard voices nearing me. I slipped further down and out of the alley as I pulled the cloak around me, deciding to make my way toward the fighting arena that I’d gone to spy on twice now. It was generally quite crowded, and thus as good a place as any to hide from any potential pursuers. Of course, it wasn’t perfect. But if one of those not-guard groups came searching for me, they’d be less likely to spot me in a crowd than alone in an alley. I simply didn’t know the city well enough to find a truly good hiding spot.

Most of all, it seemed a good place to stay out of trouble for a bit as I pondered what my next move was. If only this stupid new cloak wasn’t dragging across the ground.