The King's Mate - Part 2: Yaoshi

Chapter 3

"An... inn?"

Hua Cheng gave an impatient nod.

"I'm afraid I don't know what a... an inn is", he said, and seemed to be honestly confused.

"It's a place where you can rent a room for a night, or several nights", Hua Cheng said, frustrated that he had to explain such a simple thing to a grown man- creature, thing, whatever.

"Oh! We call that a brothel here. There is one right down the stre-"

"I am not asking about brothels", Hua Cheng snarled, properly angry now.

Being at the receiving end of such a vicious snarl made the creature jump in obvious fright.

"I-I apologise if I off-f-fended the esteemed s-s-sir, but I t-truly do not know w-what you mean by an inn. B-b-b-brothels are the o-only es-stablishments w-we have where a-anyone can rent a room f-f-for a night."

It was at this point that Hua Cheng realised it would make sense for this city not to have any travellers. If this was a safe haven for demons, obviously they would all set up permanent residences within that barrier. There would be no need for inns and such. Looking at it like this, it made sense for this creature not to know the concept of a normal inn.

"Let me change the question then", Hua Cheng said with an exasperated sigh. "How can I purchase a residence here?"

Understanding lit up in the ox creature's eyes, and he perked up a bit.

"Oh that's easy! We make deals. It can be any sort of deal as long as both parties agree to it", he replied readily.

Hua Cheng was having a rather strong gut feeling that there was more to 'making a deal' than simply shaking hands. However, the creature didn't give Hua Cheng the time to ask the obvious question before he proceeded talking.

"As it just so happens, a good friend of mine and his wife have built a new manor for themselves since they're expecting their first offspring and wanted to expand their home. They've been looking for someone to make a deal with over their previous home since last week. I can introduce you if you like", the creature said, sounding almost excited.

Hua Cheng thought about the offer for a few moments. It didn't seem advisable to go into any 'it just so happened' sort of situation without proper precautions. If this creature led Hua Cheng to his friends, Hua Cheng would be outnumbered. The pregnant wife didn't have to exist, and could be any other creature. However, there was no motive to lure Hua Cheng into any sort of trap. Well, the creature had said he'd identified Hua Cheng as a demon of the upper ranks and he also said that the upper ranks looked down on the lower ranks, which this creature was obviously a part of. So the motive could be revenge.

Though the creature had also recognised that Hua Cheng had only just arrived here and didn't know anything about this place. While this could be disregarded by some and exploited as well, this creature didn't strike Hua Cheng as that sort of character. He was rather confident in his ability to see through other people's bullshit as well, so eventually he decided to take the risk.

"Alright. But first I'd like you to answer my last question", Hua Cheng said with a bit of a frown.

"Of course, my lord."

"What's your name?"

The creature flushed a bright red upon hearing the question, and bowed several times in a rapid manner, all the while apologising before he finally straightened up again to actually answer Hua Cheng's question.

"My name is Ming Yi."

_________________________________________________________________________

The walk towards Ming Yi's friend's current residence was a surprisingly short one. The building Ming Yi walked up to was built in the same strange design as all the other houses Hua Cheng had seen so far, so he couldn't help but feel a little glad to get to know how the inside of these strange buildings looked as well.