Akira sat down beside him, having no idea of the thoughts going through Damien's head as she said, "But…whenever we are before other people, you have to call me 'Mistress'. I know you are the last person who needs to call me that, but you must have heard the conversation between me and that fellow named Khun, right?"
Damien narrowed his gaze as he nodded, "Yes…I have to live here as your slave, right?"
Akira fixed her gaze on him as she strongly said, "I would never treat you as a slave, but…you understand the situation, right? I can't reveal who you are without causing a huge stir that might very well make us both end up in trouble."
Damien said with a reassuring smile, "It's fine, aunt. I have lived in way worse conditions. Surely, living as a fake slave is nothing," Damien thought about how he even lived as Lily's gardener and actually enjoyed his time there, especially since he was busy falling in love with her.
Akira was relieved to see that her nephew was even more understanding than she expected since no cultivator would like to throw away their dignity and pride by living as a slave, even if not as a real one.
But hearing how he had lived in 'way worse' conditions made Akira press her lips together with a slight grimace, realizing that he seemed to have gone through a lot based on the way he was talking.
She felt that she had to know how he led his life so far and said, "Tell me all about how you lived so far and of course, tell me about your wives too. I want to know what kind of women they are for you to have married them."
Damien slowly nodded and asked, "But I thought you had somewhere to go? Some important guests were here to see you? The envoys of someone named the 'Daemon Lord'. Who is he?"
Damien remembered how Khun stressed the fact that she should receive those guests as quickly as possible.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Akira's brows furrowed upon hearing that name as she said, "Someone whom you should never concern yourself with. You already met Daemons who put you in that cage. They are beasts, but they can take our form as well. They are highly intelligent like us, unlike fiends who only depend on their instincts. And the Daemon Lord is someone who reports only to the Daemon King…the supreme ruler of the entire Daemon Horn Continent. His influence could reach potentially any part of this world."
By now, Damien understood that there were four races in this world. One was the Fiends like the Abominable Fiend he had fought off. The second was, of course, the humans. Third were ghouls like Akira, and fourth were Daemons that apparently seemed to rule this world or at least seemed to have the biggest influence.
Damien already had an idea of the status quo between humans and the ghouls, daemons, and fiends where humans were being suppressed by these three races.
But ignoring the fiends, he still wasn't sure of the dynamic between daemons and the ghouls.
However, after hearing Akira's words, it seemed that even a powerful ghoul like her didn't seem to be on good terms with the daemons.
"So, do you guys report to the Daemon King as well? Is that why the envoys are here?" Damien curiously asked.
Akira let out a tired sigh as she said, "This place where we live is called the Ghoul City…a single city that is large enough to fit hundreds of cities. But this city is where most of the ghouls like me live and take care of each other's business. But the strongest Daemon is the Daemon King, who hails from the Daemon Horn continent, and we pay tribute to them in exchange for helping us thrive in this city and fighting off our common enemy, the Salvation. But I consider this only as a treaty since I have no plans of being their loyal servants like many ghouls out there. You might have already come across such ghouls who aren't part of our society and let themselves get ruled by Daemons."
"What do you mean by 'thrive' in this city? Why do you people need those Daemons to survive?" Damien asked since it seemed strange.
"That is because only the Daemons know how to keep us alive as far as the future is concerned."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"Eh? I don't understand…" Damien felt even more puzzled hearing her words.
"Why do you think humans never went extinct despite being heavily suppressed by us?"
Damien pulled together his brows as he could only think of one thing.
"It's because we need them whether we like it or not. We nethereal beings are stuck in a world that is not suitable for us. With ethereal energy permeating this universe, we would have long died off if not for the Daemons finding ways to keep us going."
Damien raised his brows since he also thought about this fact. How could these ghouls thrive in a world existing in the ethereal dimension?
"Ethereal energy won't kill us. In fact, it helps us live on, but at the same time, without nethereal energy, we can never progress nor have any descendants," Akira explained, making Damien feel confused again.
"What the…But I thought you just said ethereal energy isn't suitable for you all," Damien asked to confirm.
Akira shook her head as she answered, "I know, but it is because our existences are miserable since the nethereal energy would slowly kill us even if it helps us produce descendants. It is really strange…we cannot survive on just a single energy but the longer we live, the more things around us die, including this world. Who knows how much longer this world can last before all life ceases to exist."
Damien fell into deep thought hearing her words since he did hear from Anti-God himself that his Nethereal Dimension was dying, and that was how he even ended up in the Aether dimension.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"So is this why I see a lot of human slaves here and there? What do you people plan to do with them?" Damien asked, feeling more worried about his wives.
