Chapter 687: Arrival

Eiro watched people step off the skyship. As he had promsied them, after signing the magic contract, they were going to be forbidden from talking about anything related to this incident for the next year. In return, Eiro sent them off with some money, and gave each family a home that they now directly owned. They were grateful to Eiro, but they weren't grateful enough to become the servant of a demon. At least, that was the case for a third of the villagers. Only a third chose the first option, leaving to lead a peaceful life, disconnected from all these events. The demon was pretty shocked; he had expected more of them to choose that option. Just a dozen or so humans joining his side would have been more than enough. More than anything, Eiro wanted them to introduce the monsters in town to humans so that they learned how to deal with them. Obviously they weren't just a tool though; Eiro was going to treat them as well as he could, as he had promised.

The demon looked at Marius, who was one of the first to decide he was going to join him, "The villagers seem to put their trust in you. From now on, unless you can name someone more suitable for the position, you shall be the humans' representative in the town."

Marius gulped nervously, "I... I see... and what does that... entail?"

"Well, honestly not too much, considering that you are not that many," Eiro replied, "If any of you are lacking in anything, they will come to you, and you will bring it to the attention of the other leaders. You will assist those leaders in planning what changes could be made so that everyone can live as comfortably as possible. And of course, if the humans are causing any trouble, you will be the one tasked to correct that behaviour."

A bit surprised, Marius stared back at Eiro, "Wait, so I'd really just be... a representative? There wasn't any hidden meaning there?"

"Of course not," the Demon sighed loudly, "Listen, your life in the town, especially for the next few weeks, won't be... extremely comfortable. As you get used to the monsters, and the monsters get used to you, things will begin to go more smoothly, but until then..."

Marius frowned slightly. He was still unsure about this situation. Although they had seen that Eiro wasn't a normal monster; being a demon that could actively use holy magic, this situation was still so new to them all. Frankly, they were already uncertain if they had made the correct decision, just a few moments after the ship lifted off once more.

"I... understand. But... you are sure the monsters won't... you know..." Marius asked, but Eiro just replied rather bluntly as the ship lifted back off the ground. Mislan had stayed behind with the other villagers for now to ensure that they would find their way to their new homes and could settle in properly. So until then, he was the only one to take care of these people, and it was his task to calm them down, "They will not even touch a single hair on your heads," he said confidently, "This is something that I can promise to you."

Marius frowned slightly. He was still unsure about this situation. Although they had seen that Eiro wasn't a normal monster; being a demon that could actively use holy magic, this situation was still so new to them all. Frankly, they were already uncertain if they had made the correct decision, just a few moments after the ship lifted off once more.

Eiro continued to explain, "Monsters aren't necessarily as wild as you may think. Of course, they do what they want, and their habits are extremely different to those of humans, but monsters with a certain degree of intelligence do follow a certain law. The law of the strong. It is another side-effect of the monstrosity I mentioned; it is an extreme bestial instinct that the Monster King takes advantage of to control Monsterkind. Those whose monstrosity is stronger amongst the townsfolk won't attack you, or even come close to you, because they listen to my power. And those whose monstrosity is already near-extinguished won't attack you simply because they don't feel the need to," or so Eiro hoped. He knew that a lot of monsters, including those like Gobo and Kitsue, who already had extensive experience with people, weren't the most excited about having to interact with them. There would be conflicts, there would be struggle. But that was something that was just part of the process, and Eiro would be there as the mediator between Monster- and Personkind.

"And you don't need to worry for now. I won't throw you into the city's center. You will be at its outskirts for now, in a safe area where you can slowly get used to the presence of kindhearted monsters," Eiro explained, and Marius couldn't help but let out a light scoff, before shoving his hand in front of his mouth, "I-I'm sorry, I just-"

"No, don't worry. I understand that this seems like a grotesque concept. How could monsters be kind, right? But really, you'll see what I mean," Eiro replied, continuing to steer the ship into the direction of the Monster Town.

It took a while for the vessel to arrive at its destination. Even from up here, the town wasn't currently visible. Its barrier worked off the principles of the invisibility potion. While it didn't use any of the potion directly, since Eiro simply wasn't able to produce enough to supply this whole barrier, it still had similar effects. While the town wasn't hidden from one's own attention and the world, it was at least obscured from sight.

As the ship passed through the barrier, the town came into view, and the villagers held their breaths in shock and confusion. There really was a town below them, and it wasn't small either. There were many large buildings that most of these people had never even imagined before. Of course, since this place used to be a floating island, there was vastly limited space to work with. That was why, instead of spreading out horizontally as most other towns did, this city had expanded further into the sky. That was why there were a lot of tall buildings, though most of them had collapsed over the years that the town had become a nest of monsters. Monsters that still lived in this town to this day.

Harpies were flying through the air or sitting on rooftops, large Trolls wandered through the streets alongside the short molemen. But even so, this city was beautiful and unique. It was closer to a city in its size, much beyond what the village these people came from had been. There were rivers flowing into the city through canals that connected into a lake at its side. Vast fields had been built onto flattened and elevated edges of the mountains surrounding the town. And then there were the large grassy areas with enormous goats and bulls scattered over them. And then, the ship slowly lowered itself into a small village-like place that had been built on the outskirts of the town. While it looked a lot more like what they were used to, even these small, wooden houses were clearly of a much higher quality than they were used to.

Eiro turned toward the humans and smiled, "I had these houses built in anticipation for the town's first people. I'm sure you will be able to get used to this place more easily there. And then, if at any point, you feel like you want to move into another part of the town, you may do so. This is on an individual basis, of course. If you wish to stay in this part of town, you may do so as well. Once the reconstruction of the main town has finished, however, the plan was to begin expanding into this direction, but that is still quite a bit away. And until then, there might be other people to live beside you as well," Eiro explained, watching as these people stepped off the ship, looking at their new home. The children seemed quite excited, but the adults were a lot more weary. And that was when Eiro noticed a certain monster approaching. She was usually much more lazy than this, but he figured that the flying ship had made her rather curious.

It was the harpy queen, whose body by itself was three meters long, with a wingspan six times that. Though al least, when folded up, her wings seemed a lot smaller, but it did not make her any less intimidating to the humans. She sat there on the ground, tilting her head while curiously looking at these new people.

"What are you doing?" Eiro asked in the harpies' language, which was made up of sequences of whistling and clicking, "I told you all that once I bring people here, you should introduce yourselves to them slowly over time."

"I introduce. Not right?" the harpy queen asked confused, and Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose, shaking his head, "No, not right. Though, I guess it's not as bad as it could be," The Demon pointed out.

While the harpy queen was certainly the monster leader that was most directly intimidating and scary to many people, as she had an oversized human body with a bird's legs and wings instead of arms, seeming both familiar and foreign enough to inflict a certain type of fear in people, she was also one of the calmer ones. Gobo or Boju, a mountain hobgoblin and a highland orc, and by far the calmest and most intelligent amongst the monster leaders, would have been a better choice if he wanted to introduce them to this place slowly over time, at least compared to Rashi or Kitsue, who were far too rowdy and violent still. But with the harpy queen, Eiro could approach this very differently. He stretched out his hand toward her, and she instinctively did what she did every time she spoke to Eiro. She placed her head onto his hand, allowing him to scratch the underside of her chin as though she were his pet.

"This is the leader of this town's harpies," Eiro explained to the scared humans, "She's really not as scary as she looks."