A Little Interlude: My Name Is Hans, 23

My name was Hans. I was twenty-three years old, from a Cat demi-human tribe. Though I was a Cat demi-human, I also had Tiger demi-human blood—my father was a Tiger demi-human.

Tiger demi-humans were distant relatives of us Cat demi-humans. They had suffered a misfortune: their proud Golden Army had been smashed to pieces by the Orcs. I sympathized with them and hoped our tribe would take in some of the Tiger demi-humans.

But once spring came, those Orcs suddenly fled. I heard they had been frightened by the humans, feared that humans would retaliate against them, and immediately hid back on the grasslands.

Then a member of the Holy Tribe came, bringing Witches or wizards from other Cat demi-human tribes as she searched everywhere for tribes, saying she wanted to carry out commercial cooperation.

She was even royalty among the Holy Tribe.

The moment the Tiger demi-humans heard this, they immediately wanted to pledge Loyalty to the King and restore the Demi-human Kingdom. But she had brought humans with her, as well as a powerful army, and they carried exceptionally fine cloth as they traded everywhere.

The Tiger demi-human chieftain heard this and immediately wanted to pledge Loyalty to the King. After he returned, he kept muttering, "We ministers were preparing to fight to the death—why did Your Highness surrender first?" He remained deeply dejected.

The other Tiger demi-humans, as well as the other demi-humans watching, all looked at those humans with a hint of fear. I did not understand, so my good friend Sasha told me that every one of those humans was a mage. They could cast Explosion Magic, and it was loud. We demi-humans naturally had animal traits, and those explosions had frightened many people.

Some children had been so scared they were practically at death's door.

Afterward, the elders said that the humans truly seemed to be here for trade. Otherwise, they would already have killed us all.

Then my chieftain, like the Blue Cat Tribe, agreed to the trade request.

After some time passed, the humans came to hire people to build some kind of road. They also taught us to recognize flags. The chieftain and the Witch gave a deathly strict order: no one was allowed to attack anyone carrying that flag.

After we had interacted for a while, I heard that people could live quite well working for the humans. So my brother Sasha, a Tiger demi-human, and I decided to go out and make our way in the world.

Mainly, I had also heard that the human city did not discriminate against humanoid species. They advocated something called Aningsbe people, meaning People of the Land of Extreme Cold—that everyone living on this cold land should unite, or something like that.

I did not really understand it. The main reason was that I could earn money in the city. I planned to buy some cloth for my parents. The cloth there was very good, and my younger brothers and sisters had been clamoring for it. Though it was already very cheap, it was still too expensive for my family.

The journey to Aninsbei City was fairly easy. We only had to go to the nearest large tribe, where there was something called a Horse-drawn railcar. Apparently, it had taken more than a month to build. Six Devil Beast Horses pulled the carriages, and it only took one day to reach the human city, with another day needed for the return trip. That was why many of our fellow demi-humans had gone to the city to work.

There were also manually operated ones.

And so, my great adventure—my first time leaving home to work among other races—began.

Throughout Aninsbei territory, red, white, and blue Tricolor flags could be seen everywhere. I saw different races carrying out what they called farming. As I went deeper in, I saw many people and merchants, and a dazzling array of goods.

Only when I saw the city walls did I realize that this was merely the Outer City.

Hans looked left and right. Everything here was so novel that he could not help exclaiming, "So this is a human city?"

"Hey, young fellow over there! Want to take a look and buy some cloth to bring back?"

"Tea! Tea bricks from the humans!"

"Fine beast hides! Come take a look!"

Hans walked through the Outer City. Everything here was beyond what he could afford, because he had no money. He had only brought a little dried meat with him; he did not even have a change of clothes, and was still wearing garments made of beast hide.

In any case, he should find work first.

Thinking this, Hans went around asking where he could find a job. To make something of himself, I chose the job with the best benefits. I heard it was called the Special Police Brigade. The main duties were following human captains to maintain Public order and clear out bandits, that sort of work.

In any case, the benefits were quite good. Since I was one of the strongest warriors in my tribe, I quickly passed the physical test.

I was assigned to the Second Special Police Battalion, Third Company, Third Squad, newly established by Commander Lynn.

When we first arrived for training, our battalion was part of the Foreign Legion, with both demi-humans and humans among us. But because none of us had resident status in Aninsbei City, Princess Lilim of the Holy Tribe personally received us. She also arranged four demi-human Political Commissars for us, telling us things like, "All Actions must follow orders. A soldier's duty is to obey commands. We are all family, all Aningsbe people. No stealing, no robbing. All Captured goods must be turned over to the public," repeating the instructions again and again.

Then we began three months of training. We were also told that if we sincerely wished to join Aninsbei and become true Aningsbe people, we only needed to stay in the city for half a year before applying for a plot of land. If we farmed it by ourselves, we would be tax-exempt for the first three years. If we did not know how to farm, we would be invited to join the Agricultural Cooperative. Then people from the Agricultural Cooperative would come help us cultivate the land, though in that case there would be no tax exemption, and thirty percent of the harvest would be collected as tax.