Ames and the others had cleaned up the barbarics base and made it into their headquarters now. The base of the demons parade.

He was sitting in his personal office while Lamia was beside him. Ames was going through some documents regarding the tax collection and shop allotment. Lamia was explaining him the details and while clearing his confusion regarding certain points.

Just then there was a knock on the door. Both of them lifted their heads.

"Come in." Ames said.

The doors opened and Zankoku entered with an old man, a young girl and a boy behind him. The old man was struggling to even walk, supported by his cane. The two young girl and boy seemed like siblings. Nervously looking around. All three of them seemed to have a common feature, red eyes and their wrapped with a bandana.

"I greet the leader." Zankoku bowed, bending his waist almost parallel to the ground, upon reaching near Ames, standing in front of the table.

"Welcome back Zankoku. How was your trip?" Ames asked. He was excited upon seeing Zankoku return.

"It was very fruitful leader. I was able to find a few of my clan. This here is elder Tsuyoshi. And the two siblings are his grandchildren. Akari and Haruto." Zankoku introduce the three of them.

"I see my one true God! I bow before the demon king!" The three of then immediately kneeled on one knee and greeted Ames.

"Don't do this. Just call me leader." Ames shook his hands, asking them not to overreact with all these rituals.

The three of them looked at each other confused. They looked up at Zankoku asking if it was okay to do that.

"Haha! It's all right. Leader doesn't like the old traditions. You can get up now." Zankoku said with a laugh.

The three of them then slowly stood up after hearing Zankoku. Though Ames was smiling at them and not acting like an overbearing Demon king, they were still skeptical and nervous.

"I also met their uncle, Kenzo. He knew about a few more of the demon clan, who are in hiding. I've asked him to bring them here with him." Zankoku said.

"Great. What about their parents though?" Ames asked.

All three of their faces fell immediately. Haruto's face contorted in anger. He clenched his fists tight, as they got red. Akari held his hand. sadness overtook her too, but she comforted him, asking him to calm down.

"The humans leader. Their parents sacrificed themselves, so that they can save their children. They burned their house and killed my son and daughter in law. My poor grandkids had to see their parents burn alive in front of their eyes while hiding underground. When the fire died down, they ran away in the dark of the night. Moving days without food and water until they reached me." Tsuyoshi said in his old and raspy voice. His voice shaky, heavy with emotions.

Ames and Lamia were furious. They couldn't believe that humans would act so cruel and barbaric to an innocent family. Though they were demons, they were just peacefully living their life.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Ames said, his voice shaky with sadness as well as anger. "Such cruelty, such hate. Who's the real demon now!" Ames said through gritted teeth, chest heavy with grief as well as fury.

Silence spread in the room. The atmosphere had turned heavy when finally, Zankoku broke the silence.

"Tsuyoshi is great at administrative duties leader. He used to be the head administrator in the clan."

"Oh! Great then. I can finally say goodbye to all these documents." Ames said, looking towards Tsuyoshi.

"I'll try to meet your expectations leader." Trsuyoshi bowed as he said with a smile.

"I'm a good fighter leader. I'll kill whoever dares to lift his eyes towards you." Haruto said with determined eyes.

"Hahaha! I'll leave my back to you then." Ames was amused seeing Haruto's enthusiasm.

"I-I'm a wizard lord…l-leader." Akari said in her meek voice. She was still shy and nervous in front of Ames.

"We'll all depend on you then Akari." Ames looked at her with a wide smile on his face.

Akari's face got red as she shyly smiled, her eyes staring at the ground now.

Just then, a new member joining Ames's demons parade, hurriedly ran inside.

"Leader! Leader! Those Bloodband gang members are causing problems again in our territory. They've surrounded the tavern and demanding to hand it over to them." he ran screaming inside.

Ames was calm. A wide grin spread on his face slowly. "So, they're finally here."

"I'll go clean it up leader." Zankoku said.

"These are just moths rushing to die in the flame. Don't worry about it. It's time to test our new members." Ames said looking towards Akari and Haruto. "Let's go."

*****

"Seems like your leader is a pussy huh!? He can't even leave his safehouse to face us. What a wuss." One of the bloodband members, who seemed like the leader of the group of ten said, standing outside the tavern, throwing insults at Ames and his gang.

The others were laughing and jeering at the gang members standing in front of the tavern, preventing them from moving inside.

"Look at that Zankoku. Small fries jumping around." Ames said as arrived in front of the tavern, followed by Zankoku, Lamia, Akari, Haruto and a few gang members.

Zankoku pulled his katana out and slashed towards the ground. A mana arc rushed out and formed a horizontal ditch in front of the opposing gang members.

"Since you all dared to barge inside my territory with such bravado. There's a price to pay for that. I'm in a good mood today. So, I'm giving all of you a chance."

"If you kneel and beg forgiveness, pay five thousand gold coins as compensation, I'll let you go. But before doing all that, if you pass that line on the ground, your heads will roll on the ground. The choice is yours." Ames said with a smirk.

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