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“Build!” I shouted, pointing at the empty lot. “Oh, it grew!”
No one passing by seemed to notice. That either meant magic was normal for building in this world or perhaps that the god somehow made such miraculous magic invisible. A few moments later, a small little hut appeared. I frowned and tried to make it bigger.
[You’re out of funds!]
Eh? I checked and found out that building this hut had already cost 50 drakes. This appeared to be the currency in this world. Rather, I had 50 drakes? I had been so eager to try out the magic, I hadn’t even been looking at it. Now, I could see that I built a small hut for 50 drakes. Well, I had a place to sleep, that was good, but now I had no money for food. That was unfortunate.
I looked inside my small hut and saw that it barely held two rooms. The entire place was only about 300 square feet. There was about a 220 square foot main room and the bedroom was about half the size of a college dorm room. It was barely adequate to live in. On top of that, there was no furniture at all.
I glanced through the Build Guide, which appeared as a screen in front of me. Rather, I controlled it like an invisible floating touchpad. I was glad that I was indoors now, or it’d look weird. Most everything was greyed out now, indicating I couldn’t buy it.
“Ah, there is a futon.” I said excitedly for a second, “Can’t afford it.”
A futon was five drakes. Increasing the size of this place was 50 drake. Adding a room was 25 drake. I, unfortunately, I had no clue what a drake was. My guess was that it was a small unit of currency. Right now, I only have 50 wyverns. How much is a wyvern? Oh, it was enough for a chair. Just a chair though, not even a comfy one. The comfy chair was 1 drake, fifty wyverns. Did that mean 100 wyvern was a drake? Probably.
I left my small hut, which didn’t even have a lock on the door, and walked around the city. Despite there being mostly men and they all had horns, it seemed to run like any normal city. The demons were all hulking, scary-looking creatures. Some were small. Some were fat. Some were short. I also saw a few other species, mostly women. They were usually in rags, begging on the side of the street. Most of the demons didn’t spare them a glance. When one got in the way of a demon, he just shoved her aside and kept walking.
Demons seemed to eat, so I checked out a few stalls. Prices ran from 10 to 25 wyverns. I not so skillfully did some asking, and it turned out that this world’s currency was called Drakum. 100 wyverns did make a drake, and a 100 drakes made a dragon. Dragons were the equivalent of gold coins in this world, only spent by the rich. That meant god started me in this world with 50 silver, and I spent it instantly.
It would have been enough money to support me for a month, but I had spent it all on a small hut. Worst of all, my stomach growled looking at all of the food stalls. I just got to this world and I was already broke and needed a job. I felt like a complete idiot. I was like one of those people who spent all their money on a house when they couldn’t even afford the payments.
Just as I was thinking of inquiring about an adventurer’s guild or something, I heard someone cry out. Most of the demon’s ignored it, but I glanced down an alleyway to see a young girl running.
“Someone stop her!” An old man demon yelled. “She’s stolen food.”
The girl was running right at me, and I didn’t even have to move to catch her. At first, I had been hoping for a flag. Maybe she could be my first minion. However, after catching her, I saw that she was a human girl of only ten. She definitely wouldn’t be able to do me any favors.
“Please, let me go! It’s for my mother, she’s sick! She’ll die if she doesn’t eat!” The girl helplessly tugged on my arm.
I realized only then my strength was a lot greater than it normally would be. I was able to keep this girl from moving without exerting myself at all. That’s not to say my old self would be beaten up by a ten-year-old girl, but I was still surprised at how sturdy I was despite her best efforts.
“A sick mother, huh?”
Her eyes widened as she realized I talked to her. That was right. I could speak and talk in all languages. That’s why it was so easy for the demons to ignore the women since even if the women pleaded, their voices were not understood. That’s not to say no demon ever learned, but I was probably the first demon ever to respond to this little girl in her knowledge.
“Oh… grace be to the dark gods!” The old man said as he finally caught up.
“Grace be to the dark gods!” I repeated the words.
The man looked up at me approvingly. “What a polite man! So few demons from the younger generation respect the gods!”
“Ah… yes… excuse me, this is yours!” I pulled the bag full of rolls from the starving girl’s hands and handed it to the old man like taking candy from a baby.
I got a smell of fresh bread though, and my stomach rumbled despite my best efforts.
“Haha… you’re a big lad. Hungry? Here… you can have these rolls. I’m actually pretty full.”
“Really?” I made a surprised face as I took the rolls back I had just gotten for him.
I had hoped he would give me a roll, but I never expected him to hand me the whole bag.
“Go for it! It’s nice to see a young demon willing to help an old one in need, so you’ve definitely given me a good feeling today.”
“What about her?” I glanced down at the girl, still struggling in my arms.
He glanced at her and made a face. “The savage? I don’t care. If you want to kill her, kill her. I’m too old and tired for such bloodsport anymore.”
He turned around and walked away, leaving me stunned. Fortunately, I was smart enough not to ask him why he was fine with me having the rolls but not the girl. The answer was so simple it was scary. She was a savage. It’d be like I’d be happy to give pizza to my family and friends, but I wouldn’t give them to a rat, even if it was starving. It was that kind of vibe. Like the goddess said, it wasn’t that demons hated or were cruel to the other species. It was that they nothing’d them.
I looked down at the little girl, who was starting to shake now that she saw me focus on her. She had been unable to run away, and by the old man’s tone, it sounded like killing her would be nothing to these demons.
“Little girl.” I said, “You want half these rolls?”
She stopped struggling, but she was looking at me with a suspicious glare.
“Well, It’s not like I didn’t say I’d do it for free. Take me to where your mother is, and half of this is yours.”