It took us longer to set out from town the next day than I would have liked, but I was glad to be on our way all the same. Apparently The Warring States were not named that ironically, and we had to plot a winding path out of the area for our own good.

  Edric Didn't have a clear understanding of the comings and goings here, but he had a broad enough working knowledge of things that he was able to draw us a path to avoid the most problematic states and regions.

  According to the prince, this whole area is constantly changing. The boarders are never clear and one day a town my be under the rule of one war-lord, clan leader, or bandit boss, one day, and taken over by another the next. Some were more 'welcoming' than others, while some would straight up kill a demon for passing into their borders.

  Needless to say, I was a little worried over this first, real, leg of my life above ground. This world seemed hectic and volatile to say the least. In my opinion, this world had bigger issues to address than taking down the nearly extinct race of beings that was demon kind. So far, even the monsters appeared to be less of an issue than humanity it self.

  Edric aside, I couldn't even say that I had come across a truly decent human since arriving here. And I couldn't even say for sure that the enslaved prince was a good person either, given I hardly knew him. Not that I had any right to disparage anyone. I was a pretty crap person myself. But, I wasn't human anymore either.

  I guess I upgraded from a shit human being, to a trashy demon. But hey, I was the queen, so everyone could just bite me. Facts!

  But, that aside, this snaking path we now had to take meant that it would take us all the more time to get out of here. It wasn't ideal, but it also wasn't like we could do anything about it.

  Pride had suggested that he could just kill our way through the country if we needed. I thought about, to be honest... But decided that I didn't want to tarnish the demon name any more than baseless rumors and ancient lore already had us painted. It would hardly be a great way to start me regency. Not that I was particularly comfortable with being any sort of leader, much less what amounted to the second coming of the demon god!

  But no one could claim that I didn't take responsibility for my choices. The second I agreed to save my own life, I traded my freedom for the weight of a crown. Though, I was pretty sure that it would be Pride and the other demons who would likely regret that in the end.

  Currently we were slogging our way down a relatively well trodden path from one town toward the village of Kardem, passing into a southern state between two others known to be particularly aggressive right now. Though, from what I have been able to get out of Edric, 'aggressive' was about the general rule of thumb for the entirety of the Warring States.

  "Why, exactly, is this place so hectic." I asked during yet another awkward lull in conversation. When It had just been Pride and I, the silence felt companionable, but somehow, with Edric, it just felt weird. Not that Pride and I have been together much longer than the prince in either case.

  "Back in my day the land was divided much differently." Stated Pride. He was walking ahead, I was in the middle, and Edric was bringing up the rear, hand on the hilt of his sword and looking on edge. "Looking at your new map, much of what is called the Warring States was once part of the Stella Empire. And there was no such thing as the Vespertine Kingdom at all."

  "Yes." Voiced Edric at my back. "Several centuries ago, the Stellarian Empire was the single, greatest human kingdom there ever was. They had played a key role in handling the monster problem, were the driving force behind removing the demons, and had exclusive access to the Eastern Sea on top of it all."

  Edric was being chatty again, so I wasn't about to interrupt. Though, I was curious as to what he thought the need for getting rid of demons was. He, personally, did not seem particularly against Pride and I as demons. If anything, he seemed curious, rather than disgusted and afraid.

  "Vespertine was founded during a war that broke out amongst the other human kingdoms scattered about the northern part of the continent, sandwiched between the elven forest of Verveara, and the Chasm. Many wanted to break from the all encompassing cloud that was Stella- for one reason or another- while others enjoyed the perks of what being in the good graces of the Empire brought."

  "So it was, like, a world war?" I asked. Back on Earth, wars happened, but I had been lucky enough in that the never affected me directly. Not unless you counted seeing bad stuff on the news and a spike in gas prices as being 'affected', that is.

  "It was a large and long war. I do not know if you could call it a world one, however. The other races mostly kept out of it, at least."

  Needing visual stimuli to go with this little tale, I withdrew our fancy new map out of my bag and opened it. Despite all the effort we went thought to get the damn thing, I actually hadn't given it a good look over yet.

  There, along the eastern coast, was the huge chunk of land that was the Stella Empire. I didn't know if this continent had trade with others, but it was clear that if they did, Stella would have a monopoly on it. Directly west of Stella was where we currently were walking, the Warring states.

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  Compared to the two nations it was sandwiched between, the Warring states were fairly small. But, a brief flick of the eyes showed that, compared to the other, labeled, human kingdoms, it was easily the third of fourth largest nation, and we were way up near the northern boarder.

  To the west was Edric's kingdom of Vespertine. In terms of land mass, I would say that it was comparable to Stella. Looking at its borders, however, I could imagine that it was a kingdom that may have to face several issues. First of all was the obvious contested border it shared with the Warring states, the only thing keeping it from Stella. I didn't know the inner workings of this world, but it seemed like a pretty shady neighbor to have.

  Then, to the north of everything, not just Vespertine, was a huge swath of land labeled: Verveara (Elf Territory), in bold italic hand writing. It didn't take a genius to know that this was clearly where the elves of this world lived. And as interesting as the though of elves was, it was the forest itself that was mind boggling to me. It was huge! It literally spanned the entirety of the northern portion of our map. I couldn't tell if there were kingdoms beyond it, or if the trees just went on forever.

  Running out of the forest was a large river that seemed to act as Vespertine's north eastern border, shared with another, smaller nation.

  But to the south, the very center of this 'world map', was the most curious thing I had seen yet. I was clearly the place the prince had called 'The Chasm'. How did I know that? Because it looked like a huge, dark, rent in the earth, surrounded by yet another forest. Other than the forked, bird foot, shaped canyon and the forest, all I could see in the center of this map was a small illustration of a bridge across the rent, right where the 'bird leg' touched the 'foot'. Nothing else. All other sections of the map had little printed words I assumed were the names of land marks or cities, but not on this part of the map. Not even the bridge was labeled.

  Leaning over my shoulder slightly, so he too could see the map, Edric said: "The Warring states are basically the left over of that centuries old war. Unlike Stella and the newly formed Vespertine, the States never settled down. It became a sort of lawless haven for bandits, slavers, and criminals. Every generation or so, either the Stellarian Emperor or the Vespertine monarch tries to bring the Warring States under their rule, but usually nothing comes from it but more senseless blood shed."

  "That does sound chaotic." Agreed Pride, not bothering to look back at us.

  "Right. Believe it or not, this is the most peace this area has seen in nearly seventy years. Though, if Stella is, indeed, summoning heroes, that makes me think that they are likely up to something again..."

  Edric sounded worried, and I guess I couldn't blame him for that. So far, everything I have seen or experienced coming from the Empire has been troublesome. And, clearly, Vespertine has many lingering issues with the empire. It wasn't a stretch to think that Edric's kingdom would get pulled into any sort of shenanigans the Empire got up to.

  "That something seems to have more to do with Pride and I than your kingdom." I told Edric. I wasn't really trying to put his mind at ease. After all, just because Stella didn't appear to be targeting Vespertine directly, that didn't mean that they wouldn't be dragged into the fight. "From what the greasy priest said after we were summoned, the Empire wanted us to help them wipe out demons for good... Safe to say that I appear to have done the exact opposite. Oops."

  "I just don't understand why." Huffed the prince, taking a step away from me so he wasn't hovering any longer. "You two may have a vested interest in demons, but in all reality, demons are about as endangered a race as you could find. I would hardly define them as a threat in this day and age, much less something a nation would need to summon Heroes over."

  That was pretty odd. Though, I really wouldn't put it past Stella to have lied to us about why we were summoned here. Its not like they had an obligation to tell us the truth. Besides, I had the lot of them pegged as liars from the get go.

  I wanted to take a better look at the map, but rerolled it and put it away for now. Best not to walk about with my face buried in it, lest I trip and rip the damn thing. I was clumsy enough to do it too.

  "It may be a little early to bring this up.." I said, deciding to capitalize of Edric's loose lips while I could. "But Pride and I are not going to get run through with a sword the moment we enter Vespertine, are we."

  "No, not at all." Stated the prince, sounding genuine. "One of the reasons Vespertine was founded was due to the fact that we did not share the same world views as the Stellarian Empire. I can not say weather the tales told of how demon kind turned on humanity is true or not, I wasn't there, but our kingdom does not hold the acts of the past against the entirety of a race now. I won't lie and say that there is no prejudices or racism about... but from a legal stand point, all races are seen as citizen of Vespertine, and in the eyes of the law, treated the same."

  At Edric's mention of 'demons turning on humanity' Pride had flicked an irritated look over his shoulder, but said nothing. I was willing to bet that it was still a raw wound for my friend, who likely spent a millennium just ruminating on it while watching over the mummified corps of his friend/god/ father.

  Not that Edric knew that. Just like the prince had not divulged any details of his past to us, we hadn't really told him anything about ourselves either. Sure, he knew that we were demons, and that I was originally from Earth... but we hadn't gone into any kind of detail or anything. I was sure all that Edric knew was that Pride was an old and powerful demon who, for some unknown reason, was taking orders from a comparatively weaker, former human, master.

  I had no clue what his reaction would be to find out that he was a slave to what amounted to the newest demon god. Mainly because I didn't think that it had really sunk in for me yet. I wasn't acting any different to my former self, nor did I feel much different either. But, I was sure that would change as I became more acclimatized to this world, and Pride and I found more of his former pals.

  Eventually, I would no longer be the woman I was now. Though it was hard to wrap my head around, and seemed almost comical at the moment, eventually, i would have to step up to the role Tristan had left me. the roll I had willingly stepped into when I decided I wanted to live.

  Oddly enough, i was okay with that. But I was also pretty sure that some people were in for a rude awakening if they thought that I was going to start wearing frilly dresses and wearing tiaras or some nonsense.

  Apparently Eating people and monsters was manageable, but the line I would die on was 'Manners'. I was special like that.