Janina and I decided to ‘start’ our search by not searching at all. Aka. we waited in that park and hoped Hope would search for us. And while we waited I brought a blanket and some food out from Storage and the two of us had a little picnic. 

But by the time we were finished with the food, no demon had come to the park, so we decided it would probably be for the best to just head into the city ourselves. 

Luckily I do have a way of finding Hope. Dark Designator. It can point me to whomever I want as long as I can specify their name. So I activated the card searching for Hope, but the card ended up failing, as if there was no appropriate target.

Spoiler

[Note: Lullaby of Obedience and The True Name would have been better for this, but Brian doesn’t actually have them yet.]

Spoiler

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“... okay, why is that?” I asked myself.

“It could do with language. Hope might be using a demonic language and her name isn’t pronounced as Hope.” Janina theorized. “That spell doesn’t work on dragons, right, since you struggle with pronouncing our true names.”

“Oh yeah. … Actually, Hope had a name before I gave her the name Hope to use with our contract. She might use her original name in this world. That might also be why Summoning Magic failed. I failed with finding the target I wanted.”

“Could be. I cannot perform that type of magic, so I cannot say for sure.” Janina said. “Any other cards you can use?” 

“... I mean I could try some, but they most likely won’t work. If I can’t specify a target, what happened with Dark Designator will repeat.” I told her. “Can you search for her soul with Soul Magic?” 

“... I don’t know it well enough.” Janina admitted. “The city has a large population of demon souls and telling them apart is like telling apart one rock from another.”

“Point taken, but admittedly surprised you used rocks as an example.”

“I felt that using humans would have been inappropriate. Besides, you have attribute differences that help. Demons have alignment changes you can tell in their souls, but with very little attribute differences, it is like trying to identify a water mage from a thousand people who all have the affinity for Water Magic.”

“See. That is what I was actually expecting.” I told her.

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As we walked towards the city, I realized that while I might be able to hide amongs the demons, Janina definitely couldn’t. I mean she is clearly a dragon and her biggest giveaway is her thick dragon tail. Because while wings and horns of demons don’t look the same as with dragons, they are at least similar enough to where you have to look twice before being able to tell the difference.

“Janina, maybe you should change how your tail looks.” I suggested. “Demon tails are a lot thinner.” I reminded her as I swished my own thin tail back and forth.

“I won’t be dressing down to the level of demons. I’m the supreme dragon, and I shall exist as such.” Janina responded. And while her words sounded like she was acting superior, her tone was one that made it sound like she was stating a fact. Which she actually was.

“Ah. … okay.” I agreed, but I still felt like we could hide better so that we won’t get into a fight. Sure it won’t be a fight but an annihilation, but I’d rather not invade the demon world.

So I came up with a different idea.

“Well, what if I act as your contracted demon? And I could tell any demon that we have permission for you to be here. I mean, I did get the permission from Hope, so someone can give humans and dragons the permission to enter this world.” I offered.

“That won’t do either.” Janina said, as she quickly took my hand into hers. “I am not lowering you to the level of a servant.”

“But … we will stand out a lot more and …”

“If the demons give us trouble, we will deal with them.” Janina said. “But we are not lowering our power to make them more comfortable. We came here because we were asked to come here. They shall deal with the consequences if that isn’t something all of them agree on.”

“... Yeah. I guess I just wanted to avoid any sort of confrontation.” I admitted as I took a firmer grasp of Janina’s hand.

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As we got to the city itself, I realized that the city looked not like the cities of this world, but instead like old time cities from my old world. Like the cities you may have seen before the first world war. And while that might sound ancient, this city was still way more advanced than what the cities, even capital cities, of this world are.

The buildings were multi-story, about four or five, and built of bricks and concrete. Or at least the materials looked to be something like that. And the roads were paved with cobblestone, and I could see some carriages that were pulled by some sort of horses that kind of reminded me of those winged horses from Harry Potter, the ones only people who’ve seen death can see. The skeletal body with just a skin barely covering anything, and the large bat-like wings remind me of those. 

As for the demons, there were plenty walking around. They had clearly spotted us, but unlike what I expected, that being a large confrontation, they were avoiding us. Like as soon as they noticed us they changed to the other side of the road or even entered a random building to get away from us.

It kind of sucked because now we can’t ask them where Hope is, but at least it is better than getting into a fight.

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We kept walking hand in hand until we reached what looked to be a market street of some kind. Stalls were set up next to the road, and demons were offering goods or services. 

And since the demons were focused on business, they couldn’t all avoid us. And the stall keeper demons, while looking somewhat frightened when they saw us, kept to their posts.

Still, the customers who saw us quickly turned tail and walked away when they did spot us, which made me feel just a little bit bad. Janina didn’t seem to mind and instead moved to window shop at the stalls.

I let her as I couldn’t really stop her, and admittedly I wanted to know what the demons use for money. They deal in miasma when trading with humans, but maybe they use some other currency between each other.

The items they traded ranged from just food to things like wooden toys. I was actually quite impressed by the culture the demons have. Sadly none of these stalls were selling weapons as I honestly want some.

We did find a stall that sold skimpy outfits, like ones fantasy succubi wear. Janina was the one who stopped us at that stall, and after getting over his fear, the stall keeper attempted to sell us one. 

That allowed me to ask him about the money he wanted, to which he responded that I should offer something to trade if I don’t have miasma coins. I didn’t, but I have miasma stones, so I produced one with Corrupted Power Stone and offered it to the demon as payment.

He asked me if I wanted to buy out his stall, the slot it was held in, or perhaps his servitude, to which I responded by asking for a handful of the succubus outfits in sizes where they would fit my girls, as well as my own female form. 

… what? I can turn into a girl, so why would I not get one for myself. 

Though admittedly I was more interested in the material they were made out of. It was leather of some kind, but not one belonging to any monster I knew. But it could belong to those horses we saw earlier.

After making the deal, I looked as the demon brought the miasma stone to his mouth before swallowing it whole. After he did, his body shivered and his skin darkened noticeably. He bowed as he thanked us for our business and we headed to the next stalls, now with much more excited looking stall keepers. 

They must have noticed I was a big spender and wanted me to buy stuff from them as well.

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With plenty of excited stall keepers showing us the good stuff, I ended up spending another seventeen miasma stones for different things. Ten of those stones were eaten by the demon I gave them to, while the other seven seemingly kept them. 

Admittedly I’m a bit worried that the stones will disappear, since the magic stones made by Pitch-Black Power Stone do disappear after two hours. 

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But at the same time, I’ve been giving those miasma stones to Hope for a while now, and she’s never said anything about them disappearing, and I haven’t noticed a change in her like I’ve noticed in the demons who actually ate the stones. So it is likely that the miasma stones never disappear for some reason. Maybe because Corrupted Power Stone is a custom card?

But then again, the darkening skin might just be temporary and maybe Hope has been eating the stones. 

Well, I’ll find out eventually. Because for now, I had ‘ran’ into someone I actually recognized.

See, our shopping spree had gotten the attention of plenty of demons, and since we had just been peacefully shopping, they had begun to generally trust us. I think. At least they weren’t hiding away any more. Sure they still gave us space, but we were no longer some monsters they needed to run away from.

So between the attention and still the relative space we had to look around, I eventually spotted a demon I knew. It took me a quick second to search Storage for her name, but after I was able to get the info, I called out to her.

“Cetiri!” I called out to the demon. I know that wasn’t her full name, but instead a name she gave me. Had she given me her full name, or allowed me to name her like Hope did, we would have formed a contract and I could have summoned her whenever I want. Just demon summoning things, okay.

Cetiri, because I know you won’t know that name, is one of the demons I got skills from after I made the better demon summoning circle. Specifically she supplied me with Whip Technique and Sexual Technique. 1 CH.503 

Cetiri seemed slightly off-guard that I called for her, but seemed to soon realize who I was. So she came to us.

“Hello. Brian, was it? I don’t think I know the lady dragon with you. It is a pleasure.” Cetiri greeted us, as she also gave us a deep bow.

“Good to see you again as well, Cetiri.” I responded. “And the lady with me is…” I gave Janina the space to introduce herself.

“আমি জানিনা.” She introduced herself using her full draconic name. And while I still can’t twist my words around it, I think I’m starting to somewhat understand the names.

“It is an honor.” Cetiri said, bowing again. “What may I do for the supreme dragon and the great summoner?” 

“We were meant to come here with Hope, but we got separated from her. Do you know where she would happen to live?” I asked.

“Apologies, but no clue. She may be by the summoning gate if she is expecting you. That is where she spent her days before her contract with you.” Cetiri answered.

“Alright, could you show us the way?” I requested.

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Cetiri showed us to a building that was somewhat similar to an adventurers’ guild. A large dining hall of sorts with a bar-like reception desk where you could get food from.

But it also had a large altar and on said altar was what looked like a portal. And if I'd hazard a guess, I’d say that when someone tries to summon a demon, the portal will open showing the summoned and what kind of demon they need.

Sadly Hope wasn’t there, so I moved onto a second question.

“What is Hope’s demon name?” I asked. “I have a way to find her, but I need her name.” I told Cetiri.

“... I don’t know if I should tell you.” Cetiri said. “She doesn’t like it.”

“Ah, alright. Well, you don’t need to if you are willing to follow some instructions.” I changed my tune.

I gave Cetiri an unsleeved copy of Dark Designator and told her how to activate it. Then all she’d have to do is very quietly call out Hope’s demon name and the Designator will point us to her.

Cetiri did so, but admittedly because of my Enhanced Hearing, I heard the name she spoke. And I do have a question. Who named Hope Pioglitazone? Did no one see the problem with that name? No wonder she hates it. Everyone probably calls her Pig, or Piggy.

Also, Pioglitazone. Isn’t that a medicine? I remember one of Laura’s grandparents took it for type 2 diabetes. … oh. 

Cetiri. Cetirizine. 

Arzox is a medicine as well, I think. 

Whose idea was it to name demons after medicine?!