章 22: The Kid
The crowd disappeared after only a couple of blocks as Kir went away from the heart of the city.
Here, on the southeast side, the houses steadily grew more ramshackle and poorly maintained, crowding together with narrow alleys that Kir would never fit into with his wings. People hanging out on their front steps stared at him as he walked, and the few inns he saw were definitely not on the cleaner side.
The streets were clean even if the buildings were not, which made Kir wonder how the city maintained them. The first person Kir tried to ask about the Madame Dragon's location simply responded "Not here." It was a marked improvement, compared to the merchant's quarter.
The second person Kir tried to ask tried to get some coin out of him, and then when Kir turned out his pockets, he said he'd barter the information for Kir's boots.
Kir didn't accept that trade because he only had one pair of boots, and the man he'd asked scowled and said "Fine. Didn't know where it was anyway."
Two-thirds of the way to the wall, Kir saw that it had another gate, likely leading down to the docks. Since the few likely buildings close to it looked like bars instead of inns, he decided that now was a good time to turn around, since he wasn't about to get stopped at the gate for another "demon tax" or however they tried to delay him.
At the nearest bar, he saw a beastman who seemed half-otter like if he knew where the Madame Dragon was, only to get taunted by the beastman's fellow sailors. "Tell you what," the otter man said, "You let me use those horns as handlebars, and I'll take you there myself." He laughed, followed by the rest of the crew behind him, who all smelled piss drunk.
Kir flipped him the bird, then walked away as the beastman looked up. He didn't even care to insult him properly, he just wanted to leave.
He was halfway back to the market when a group of brutish-looking men blocked his path.
One was an elf, who looked like one of his ears had been bitten half-off. Another was a boar-man. And the other two were humans that were more beer-belly than buff, but still had arms that looked threatening. All of them had knives out.
"If you're looking to rob me, I literally have just the clothes on my back," Kir said, turning out his pockets and gesturing with both his arms in a flippant expression of his lack of solvency, raising them and then letting them fall to his hips.
The men chuckled, and from behind the boar man stepped a demonkin, dressed in merchant garb that reminded Kir of Renaissance paintings from Earth.
There was so much poofy purple and gold, Kir wondered why the man thought it would look good against his dark-orange skin. He didn't have wings, and along his chin was an array of tentacle-like protrusions of skin that dangled limply.
The man was quite round, and even his tail looked more like an alligator's tail. His horns were practically gilded with gold rings, and everything about his appearance screamed conspicuous wealth.
The clashing colors were irritating, but then Kir forgot his annoyance and even his hunger as he saw who the merchant was holding by the hair.
It was the humqn girl who'd stolen his feather.
"Let go of me! Let go of me!" she shouted.
Instead of anyone trying to help, Kir watched as people sitting on their porches stood and entered their homes or walked away. He felt incredulity, but very quickly understood that it had to have been his feather that got the girl in this situation.
A quick attempt to fully circulate his mana told him that he still hadn't recovered from turning lead into gold. He guessed that he could maybe produce one full-body shield for himself, and felt stupid for not figuring out something to eat.
"Is this the man?" The man asked, his voice reedy as he squeeze the girl's already taught locks in his fist.
She screamed in pain before admitting, "Yes! Yes! Let me go!"
Instead of letting her go, the demonkin man simply loosened his grip a little, pushing down and forcing the girl into an awkward stance. "Get at him," he ordered, and soon Kir was only a couple paces away from his assailants on each side as they surrounded him.
"Let the girl go," Kir said. "We can talk."
The man pulled a feather, Kir's feather, out from his pocket. Kir could see a straight line in the side where its down had been cut away for sampling...
"When Nona here said she had an angel feather for sale... I found it hard to believe that an angel would decide to set foot in the lower city... even an angelkin... Yet lo and behold, here you are..." he held up the feather, "And it is just like the real thing... Tell me, how does a fellow demonkin get angel wings?"
"What's it to you?" Kir asked, taking an internal exception at being called a "fellow" to this man.
"What's it to- You clearly never learned advanced alchemy," he sneered. "Angel feathers are one of the most powerful reagents in the world. A potion made from just one can regrow a limb! All that gold, carried on your back... You don't deserve to have them."
Kir felt more than saw as the human behind him lunged. He aimed a sidekick out and took the man in the stomach, forcing him back.
The boar man took his turn next, charging in at Kir from the front, and Kir flared his wings and used them to hop five meters in the air, coming down on the boar man with an axe kick that sent his face into the ground and knocked him out cold.
Darlae was no slouch training Kir, and while he hadn't fully adjusted his fighting style to his wings, he knew he could rely on the basics of the martial arts she'd taught him, along with some adjustments he'd made incorporating half-remembered styles from Earth.
Seeing their heaviest hitter go down, the other three thugs took a step back.
Kir was returning to his ready stance when the demonkin pulled a knife and held it to the girl's throat.
"So you're a little tough," he acknowledged, "but I always get what I want. So how about you surrender, let me carve those wings off your back, and then you can have the little human runt."
Kir looked at Nona. She had such terror in her eyes. The tip of the knife drew blood...
"Alright! Alright..." Kir took a step away from the unconscious boar man and put his hands on his horns, lowering himself to kneel. Immediately the elf and human walked forward and grabbed Kir by the wings, roughly pushing him forward until his face was inches from the ground. "Just let her go."
The merchant's smile was ghastly, revealing a mouth full of gold-covered teeth. "This is for inconveniencing me," he said, before plunging the knife into the girl's side, covering her mouth with his hand and cutting off her scream.
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