I turned ten. Amalia baked me a cake, and Quintin had Harkin, the town blacksmith, make me a new bow and a cheap sword. Turning ten and fifteen were considered significant milestones in a person’s life, so my adoptive parents spent more coins on me than they probably should have.

  One bright morning, Quintin woke me up, saying he wanted to take me on a little adventure. He shared that it was finally time to tell me “what I wanted to know.” Ominously, he led me south toward the coast.

  The path we took was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. It confused me until I saw the shape of the shore before us. When I did, everything made sense. We were where Quintin found me all those years ago. It was the beach I’d shipwrecked on with my dead mother, where the demon nearly ate me.

  I guess he wants to tell me everything that happened to me. Or at least the parts he knew. How kind of him. It feels scummy that I’ll have to pretend it’s all new. I’d better start working on some fake tears. I thought.

  Quintin and I stood side-by-side, looking at the shore. I held a blank expression while Quintin’s tinged with worry. I could tell from his eyes that he was struggling to start his sentence, so I gave him a little push.

  “Very pretty,” I said loudly. “What does this have to do with devils?

  “You said you wanted to learn about them,” Quintin answered after a while. “For you, the story starts here.”

  Quintin then recounted the events of my life that I already knew. I feigned surprise where I should have, faked tears when I could, and the entire story ended with a big, dramatic hug. Honestly, I was surprised with myself. All my reactions came easily, just as I wanted them to. It made me feel guilty and proud.

  “Why do my ears make me a devil? Why use that word?” I asked as I broke apart from Quintin, wiping my eyes. “Is something wrong with me? Am I evil?”

  “You are not evil. You are no different from anyone else,” said Quintin firmly. “Don’t you dare think that.”

  “But people have called me a monster behind my back most of my life. Other devils won’t even talk to me, and I’m not sure why,” I retorted. “I’m different. I’ll always be different. Why does it matter what I am? Tell me.”

  Quintin frowned. “People are always wary of what is different, Yen. You can only change those who are willing to change and should ignore those you cannot. But there is nothing wrong with you. Nothing at all. I promise.”

  “Then why do grown adults feel comfortable shoving me to the ground, spitting on me, and throwing food in my face?” I questioned, bringing up what happened to me at the market years ago. It wasn’t the only incident I endured, but it was definitely the most dramatic.

  Quintin winced in discomfort but began to speak. “Humans and devils have waged war countless times over the centuries. Such tragedy is never forgotten; it always sows hatred in people’s hearts. Even so, the lives of devils aren’t top of mind for most people. They care more about feeding their families, finding work, and keeping a roof over their heads. Times were worse decades ago, and some northern cities are still bad. However, most people do not hate you, Yen, as they are concerned with their own interests. If you’re kind and polite, most people will act the same way.”

  I fidgeted with my hand as I took in all that information. On some level, I already knew that from what I’d experienced and heard in town. It was another thing to hear it stated so bluntly.

  Sensing my discomfort, Quintin knelt before me. “You’re my daughter. I raised you. You’re mine. I love you, and I’ll protect you until the day I die. I’m not the reason you were born, but you’re my little girl, and that’s more important to me than anything else.”

  “I love you too,” I replied warmly with a light smile. I let that linger in the air before dropping into a more neutral expression. “I guess…I guess I want to know…what exactly is a devil? What are we? What am I?” I’d put together my own answer over the years from listening in on conversations, but I still wanted to know more.

  “Devil’s just a catch-all term for humans that aren’t quite human,” described Quintin. He scratched his head again as he thought of the right words. “If you ask me, there are six kinds of people in the world, including humans, but we name everything that doesn’t look like a human a devil, so there are five types of devils.”

  “Only five?”

  Quintin nodded. “Beast devils, forest devils, sea devils, sky devils, and archdevils. You, my child, are a forest devil.”

  “Because of my ears.”

  Quintin nodded. “Yes, because of your ears. When you get older, you’ll grow a lot taller and be very...thin and nimble.”

  I doubt it.

  “Could you…explain the differences for me, please? If that’s possible.” I asked. “I don’t want to push you if you don’t know.”

  “You’re implying something annoying,” scoffed Quintin. “Your dad’s a smart guy, you know.”

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  I nodded but didn’t say anything.

  Quintin snorted. “Fine, fine. They drilled the differences into our heads daily when I was a knight.” He cleared his throat and fixed his posture like he was imitating a scholar. “You’ve seen beast and forest devils in town a bunch of times. In this country, they tend to be adventurers when they’re not, um…”

  “Slaves,” I answered for Quintin.

  “Y-Yes. Slaves.” He cleared his throat. “Beast devils are naturally strong. Really strong. Like ripping trees out of the ground without using mana strong.” Quintin’s eyes paled like he was remembering something from his past. “When they do use mana to augment themselves, they’re considered some of the finest warriors in the lands.”

  “Or workers,” I added. “They make up most of the slaves in this country, don’t they?”

  “Y-Yes. Um, well... yes. Moving on. Sea devils can live and breathe underwater. They possess gills on their necks and can create or remove webbing from their hands and feet depending on whether they are on land or in water. Oh, and their eyes are enormous,” Quintin continued. “Among all the devils, they remain neutral and have never fought for anyone but themselves, with some exceptions. Zalevet maintains peace agreements with some of their colonies to guarantee safe shipping routes. If humans anger them, we wouldn’t be able to leave the continent due to the sea devils’ complete dominance over the ocean, making them likely the most liberated of all the devils, after the archdevils.”

  Interesting. Power matters more than superficial physical differences. Sea devils aren’t treated poorly because they could destroy international trade. My focus on survival skills and learning to fight were the right call, then.

  “There are sky devils,” continued Quintin. He started looking up to the sky. His eyes strained as if he were searching the far reaches of his mind to remember things. “They’ve got wings and…something else,” muttered Quintin. He shook his head. “Most of them live in a clustered chain of islands to the south called the Broken Bits that’s got a lot of humans and devils living in it equally. You have to go through them to trade with the rest of the world. We get them in Zalevet sometimes. The devils are mostly nomadic.”

  They had wings? Lucky. I’d prefer that to ears and, well…

  He continued on. “Beast and forest devils manage a continent we call the Devil Continent. Forest devils govern the northern half cause it’s forested and warm. Beast devils oversee the southern half because it’s colder. I mean, there are a lot more devils there than just those two, and humans do live there, but those two dominate.”

  So most of the world has devils, we trade with them, and there’s even a territory called the Broken Bits where we live with them peacefully. I summarized. Why are people so pissy here? The answer came to me immediately. Religion. That stupid book I read. Is that really it? There’s got to be more.

  Putting that aside, I nervously asked my next question. “What was that last one?” I cocked my head to the side. “Archdevils?”

  “Oh yeah. Those. Don’t really want to talk about those,” muttered Quintin. “They’re the reason everyone hates devils.”

  My face hardened. “Why? What’s wrong with them?”

  “They’re powerful. The strongest devils. The reasons why are lost to history, but every time there’s been a war, archdevils were the ones rallying all the other devils against humans,” said Quintin. “Seems like every century or so, the devils go through a civil war and then attack us.”

  “Unprovoked?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Although it’s been a long time since the last war, the stories have persisted. When you tell people story after story, generation after generation, that archdevils control all the other devils and always initiate wars with humans, it inevitably breeds hatred.”

  That explains so much.

  Steeling myself, I asked my final question. “What do these archdevils look like?”

  “They’ve got horns growing out of their heads.”

  “Horns?”

  “Yeah, horns. And a tail, I think, but I’m not sure,” said Quintin with a nod. “They’re supposedly the strongest beings in the world besides the Voiced in Agias. No one’s seen one in decades, though, and definitely not on this continent. The archdevils stay on Paradise. It’s their own little island out to the west off the coast of the Devil Continent. Never heard of one leaving there. Never.”

  “Are they…evil?” I asked slowly.

  “Nothing’s evil,” replied Quintin. “Everything has its circumstances.”

  That felt wrong and idealistic, but whatever. They’re the ones that apparently start all the wars, though I’m not sure I entirely believe that. Another question formed in my head. “Do people perceive them as evil, then?”

  Quintin paused. “Um…”

  “If one were to appear in the middle of town today, what would happen?”

  My father didn’t say anything for the longest time. “People would run away. If they were brave enough, some adventurers and townsfolk might band together to try and kill it.” His face was firm. “In the minds of all humans, archdevils are the source of all evil in this world. The Pantheon’s ultimate goal is to eradicate them.”

  I shivered. “But other devils are okay?”

  Quintin scratched the back of his head. “If you grew up your whole life hearing bad stories about devils, you’d hate them all regardless of the kind. But if you’ve grown up around all kinds of people—humans and devils alike—you’d know that things are a little more complicated than that.” He shrugged. “But I’ve never met an archdevil. Some of them are probably good. Or maybe they’re all evil. Don’t know. I’d assume the former, but healthy caution is a good trait to have if you like breathing. That make sense?”

  I nodded.

  Quintin smiled. “That was a little more than I thought we’d talk about today. Sorry. Not a very fun day.” He scratched the back of his head. “There’s no sign of a war anytime soon. Most people have worked with or lived in the presence of devils their entire lives. You’ll get a few assholes every now and again, but most people only worry about themselves. Your life is yours, Yen. It’s up to you what you want to do with it. Your mother and I will support your regardless.”

  “Is this you trying to cheer me up?” I teased, fixing my face. “Do I look sad or something? I’ll have you know, I’m very mature for my age.”

  “I know, I know.” Quintin chuckled. He reached out to pat my head, but I swiftly dodged him. That made him frown. “Rebellious stage,” he whined. “You used to love you daddy.” He sighed.

  That wasn’t the reason why I avoided him. If anything, I felt more respect and love for him now than I did before. Something else caused me to act that way.

  Protecting my head, I briefly rubbed my scalp until I found the reasons why I didn’t want him touching me.

  Two horns barely poked out the top of my head. My hair hid them for now, but they’d grow bigger someday.

  I didn’t have a tail yet. Either Quintin was wrong on that point, or it hadn’t grown yet. I was hoping it was the former.

  So that’s what I am, huh? An archdevil. I suppressed a sarcastic chuckle. Whoever put me in this world like this is an asshole.