CHAPTER 31: DEMI-HUMAN

"Yeah, we made the top ten. I’m ranked 6th and Jeage is 7th."

"Wow... I’m speechless..."

"Yeah... how is Gael? Has Qweri left? How was the wedding?" Xenon asked Elsa through the necklace.

"Gael is fine, he misses you actually..."

"I do not!" Gael shouted in the background prompting Elsa and Xenon to laughter.

"Yeah, Qweri left this evening... and the wedding was fine." Elsa replied. "I wish we could talk longer but I have to go, I’m running out of àse..."

"Yeah, me too... bye!"

"Bye, be good... and call me every weekend!"

"Yeah, yeah, I will." The gem’s glow flickered and dimmed until the glow was completely off.

"Ah! Why does she always remind of Melcrow." Xenon muttered to himself. "Hey system, is there any chance... any way I can go back to my world?"

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•None that I know of

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"Dang! Show my inventory." The system came on, showing his inventory which was occupied by only one item, yet taking up all the space.

Since there was little space in the inventory to accommodate a lot of things, Xenon managed to exploit a loophole the system hadn’t managed to cover.

There was a clear limit if the number of things he could put in the inventory, but the system didn’t mention a weight limit, so Xenon just stuffed his belongings into one large bag and then put that in the inventory. While he might have succeeded, the system removed all other inventory spaces, leaving him with nothing but an overstuffed bag.

Xenon reached into the bag and searched for a while before bringing out a long, black and red, rectangular case. On the case was a note attached, Xenon read it once again, it said;

’This is my gift to you. You may not need it now, but I’m sure it will serve you well in the future.

Your Teacher, Qweri.’

It was the thing wrapped in a cloth which Gael threw right at his forehead two days ago. Xenon opened the case, and inside rested a sheated weapon.

’There’ll be time tomorrow.’ Xenon said to himself as he closed back the case and returned it to the inventory. He stood up and headed back to the tent.

When he got within a few feet of the tent, he waited till the guards were distracted and blinked into the tent again. He went back towards the table he dined at to search fo his cousin, luckily he met Jeage just as he finished his dinner and stood up from the table.

"Hey!" Xenon called.

"Hey, I’m very... very tired" Jeage yawned. "We should probably get some rest so we can wake up early tomorrow."

"You can’t sleep yet, you promised to explain what’s up with that girl earlier and you’re not sleeping till I get my explanation."

"I’ll tell you tomorrow man, I need to sleep." Jeage replied and tried to move towards the wooden bunks at the back of the hall, only to feel an electric shock ring through him.

"Yeowch!" Jeage screamed, he turned around to face Xenon who had a smile plastered upon his face. "What was that for!?"

"You give me my explanation or you don’t get so much as a wink of sleep throughout the night." Xenon replied.

"You know I can just burn you to a crisp right now."

"Not if I cut off your head first." Xenon raised his right arm and moved it very fast until it turned into a blur, to emphasize that he had the upper hand.

"Okay, okay! you win, I’ll tell you what you want but at least let’s secure our beds first before all the good ones are taken." Jeage advised.

"Good point... meet me there in a minute." Xenon said, his figure blurred as he dashed away to where the bunks were arranged. He inspected each unoccupied ones and chose one of the ones that were in good condition. He went out to meet with Jeage who just got to the bunks.

"Let’s look for a good one." Jeage said.

"Already done." Xenon replied

"Huh, how... oh, I forgot you could move very fast. Lead the way then." Jeage followed Xenon to the chosen bunk bed.

"I’ll take the bottom bed, you go up." Xenon declared.

"Why? I want the one below too!" Jeage protested.

"Oh, it’s simply so that I can electrocute you if you start to doze off without explaining. Now get to the top if you don’t want me to start now!" Xenon replied.

"You have more of Grandfather’s blood in you than you know." Jeage said as he reluctantly climbed unto the top bed.

"Why is that?" Xenon asked as he also climbed into the bottom bed.

"You’re both maniacs who like to torture people!".

"Ah!" Xenon stood on his bed and reached his right arm out grab Jeage. "Say that again."

"Get your hand off me!" Jeage stood up abruptly, dislodging Xenon’s grip on him. "You see, I tell you something and the first thing you do is try to shock me!..."

"Whatever. So about the girl... what is she?" Xenon changed the topic abruptly.

"She’s a demi human... You know how demi humans come about right?"

"Yeah, they’re offsprings birthed from the union of a human and an animal race..."

"What! Who in their right mind will bang an animal! That’s utterly despicable! Ew! Where did you get that damned idea!?"

"Hey, don’t yell at me, I was just guessing."

"Well, you’re wrong. Demi humans are birthed when a spirit, mostly in the upper reaches of their hierarchy, employs a physical form and does you know what with a human." Jeage explained.

"Oh!..." Xenon whispered.

"Yeah, and this act is considered obscene and lowly among spirits, spirits who engage in these acts are outcasted and most times punished by more powerful spirits."

"The offspring created from the unholy union is often spared by the spirits as they are innocent of their own creation, but that doesn’t mean they’ll escape the scorn of we humans.

"As the spirits regard their parents with disdain, we humans in the guise of upholding the honour –or any other bullshit we come up with– of the spirits often maltreat, cheat, abuse the demi humans. It got so bad in the past that the spirits themselves had to intervene and create a whole different continent for their distant relatives to live on.

"They basically live very comfortably and peacefully on their continent that they rarely leave it’s embrace. That’s why you probably never saw any on our island or anywhere until now, and she’s probably going to be the only one in our year."

"Was it really that bad that they had to keep to their continent completely?" Xenon asked.

"It was worse than bad. Even though I don’t know much of what happened, the things I heard from Grandfather were terrible enough to justify their complete withdrawal from humans. Even the red heads have it a million times better than the demi humans of the past." Jeage answered.

"So can y..." Xenon attempted to say.

"No no, no questions..." Jeage yawned loudly. "I have given you your explanation and I’m very tired, goodnight." He yawned once more.

"Good night." Xenon replied. He shifted in the bed for some time, not able to sleep.

"Kusin." Xenon called.

"Yes?" The spirit replied.

"Is all that Jeage said true?"

"I am a very young spirit so I do not know very much about our history, but according to what I’ve heard, your cousin’s story is very true. If you want to know more you should ask your grandfather, because according to my knowledge, you Prasedymums played a great part in it all."

"What part exactly did we play?"

"That... I do not know. You should get some rest."

"Yo, System." Xenon called after pondering on what Kusin said for a while.

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•Yes...

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"Can you confirm what both Jeage and Kusin said?" Xenon asked

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•I arrived on this world the same time as you. I do not have sufficient information to prove or disprove anything said as this world’s history.

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"How come you know about the composition of objects, and other important stuff like spiritual energy, etc. If you claim that you know nothing of this world because we arrived at the same time?" Xenon said a bit loudly in frustration.

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•It is imperative that you get some rest. Good Night, Xenon.

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"You fucker!" Xenon cursed as quietly as he could, he tossed and turned as he didn’t feel sleepy. And when he did fall asleep, it hadn’t felt more than a minute before he heard his cousin calling out him.