344 Jack’s Life
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As a soldier that survived the war against demons, Jack always thought back then that he would be treated as a war hero and given a good pension to live the rest of his life in peace and tranquility, trying to forget the horror of seeing his comrades being slaughtered by the monstrous demons that he had to fight against. However, life never traits anybody fairly, for some reason, most of the soldiers after the war were given pennies for a pension, mostly for the doing of the previous Duke, who was very close with the church and the priests. Convinced that it was better to invest more into repairing his fiefdom while fighting to free the survivors of the war, he ended taking away a lot of the monetary investments that went towards the military, resulting in the miserably pay the soldiers that survived that hellish war got from their small country.
Back then, this caused a lot of commotion and the distaste of the citizens, many people went against the Duke’s decision, thinking he was insane. Many other fiefdoms had been affected severely by the war and were investing into helping to recover their countries and also paying good pensions to their soldiers to reward them for their hard work. The big possibility of slaves also emerging was an excellent time to take away the abolition of slavery after the heroes that enforced it disappeared when they defeated the Demon King. Without anybody to stop them, many governors used this opportunity to get rich and gain free work hand through war slaves. All while using the war as an excuse to hunt down other demi-human tribes living in the Gallatea Continent that had nothing to do with the war that happened, which ended causing the heavy discrimination against beast-kin.
However, the fiefdom of Eastgrain wanted to make things different, their ruler was someone that believed that people deserved a second chance, and that demons and beast-kin were people, not monsters or barbarians. He worked hard with the church to free them slaves and continue the abolition of slavery, making illegal once more the slavery of demons, beast-kin, and anybody human or non-human, with only criminal slaves (mostly composed of robbers, bandits, and assassins) staying. Jack and his fellow soldiers, and even survivors from the massacres and pillages provoked by the demons ended being left with nothing at all, not even with homes to come back to sometimes...
Jack felt incredibly resentful against the government of the fiefdom he had been living for so long and protecting... Over time, he gathered his people and decided to protect one another. They did everything they could, organizing into groups to work in many things at once, both trying to protect and restore their home country while also earning pennies. Jack always saw these people that were as affected as him as brothers and sisters, and as the many children that ended orphans after the war as his children, the many orphanages all ended being protected by him, and a large part of what he earned was spent in these orphanages. Ultimately, they slowly seeped deeper into the underworld of the country, working in shadier jobs that offered large sums of money by nobles.
Ultimately, they ended helping in taking back their country when the son of the previous Duke reveled against his father, unleashing a coup d’état and defeating him and his government. His own son took his life as old as he already was, and quickly began changing things for the better... of humans, of course. The abolition of slavery was quickly taken away and legal slaves became a popular commodity and product. Although the demons that survived the war and were already citizens, and their children that were innocent were still protected by laws and it was illegal to enslave them, it was pretty much implied that as long as the authorities weren’t looking... Jack and his brothers and sisters could do whatever they pleased.
It took a long time to finally reach this point, the government finally began to invest into the citizens once more, and also into its military, soldiers began to earn good pensions, but Jack and his group, who were desperate to earn and ended turning into criminals of the red-light district had no place on being citizens, hidden from society, they continued working in the shadows for the nobles, earning good amounts of money they invested back into the city and all those in poverty, all the while slaves became a product that pretty much brought back the declining economy of the fiefdom. Illegal slaves easily mixed with legal slaves constantly, with the authorities pretending to not know, many of the former citizens ended being kidnaped and turned into slaves, sold as products...
Jack couldn’t be happier about that, of course. Much like everyone else within his group, they hated demons and even beast-kin, and saw them as miserable and despicable monsters that even killed children and innocents. After having seen first-hand their brutality and how they even pillaged villages that were not even participating in the war, heir hate against them transcended everything. For them, those children living in that abandoned orphanage made by Darius were dangerous, it was a nest of monsters more dangerous than the dungeon for them. Getting rid of them was a priority. If it wasn’t because of that mysterious half-demon girl, Celeste, strong enough to kill them whenever they came looking for trouble, that orphanage would be long gone.
And tonight, Jack had finally unleashed another little plan he had. One of his sponsors had brought him some new merchandise named Spell Jewels, which could contain magic. He infused them with Tier 2 Fire Magic from a magician friend, and quickly gave them to some volunteers, their task? Quite simply, blow the entire orphanage with everyone sleeping on it. That half-demon girl won’t even be able to see what killed her... Jack, as the leader of this organization, seemed decided to bear the burden of such a slaughter, as he thought it was the right thing to do for the safety of his country.
.....
Sadly, things didn’t go as he planned.
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