The Poet Who Traveled Around the World

Still in the castle courtyard, a plucked Chocobo was on the grill.

This place was almost becoming their restaurant.

The original plan was to catch them and raise them, but the bird coop hadn't been built yet, so they ate one first.

There was no other way; after all, so much had happened today, and it was thanks to Stone that he was able to save his life, so he had to reward it.

The first batch of potatoes had also been harvested; today, Tina brought Fat Tiger and Fu to collect a portion of the potatoes, totaling over a thousand catties.

This was only a little more than one-tenth of the entire field's harvest; Caelan estimated that tomorrow, he would let out more Kobolds, and the total harvest could reach seven or eight thousand catties.

This variety normally shouldn't yield such a high harvest, probably because this land has some mysterious bonus.

But even this one-ton-plus of potatoes took them a day to harvest, and it was estimated that most of it was done by Tina herself, so she also needed compensation.

Tomorrow, they would try to harvest all the potatoes and then plant the next batch, which was expected to ripen with the corn.

It would be even busier then than it was now.

Fat Tiger finished building the fire, Fu finished boiling the water, and Caelan was hanging the marinated Chocobo on the grill, while also pushing back Stone, who was drooling and trying to get closer.

Tina was absentmindedly poking the fire with a wooden stick, while Violet was quietly strumming his lute, seemingly preparing to compose a tune for his new story today.

However, he seemed to be constantly dissatisfied, eventually putting down the instrument, sitting by the fire, and then curiously looking at Tina.

"Madam Tina, you are human, why are you here?"

This sentence made both Tina and Caelan freeze.

Although she had been living in the castle for some time, both of them actually had some guesses about each other's identities.

After all, the castle was full of demonic script; although Tina couldn't understand it, she wasn't foolish and could guess that she was in demon territory.

In such a place, how could a castle belong to a human?

And Caelan, from the first moment he saw Tina, knew she was human.

However, both of them had always tacitly pretended that this matter didn't exist.

As a result, as soon as Violet came over, he directly brought up the matter.

"This..."

Tina was flustered and didn't know how to answer, but she didn't expect Caelan to casually say first, "She fell into the water and was injured, and I happened to see her."

Tina secretly glanced at Caelan, and seeing that he still had his usual expression, she slightly relaxed.

Violet didn't show any hostility towards humans but was surprised and said, "Then you floated here? It's far from the Iron Kingdom!"

"...Iron Kingdom?"

Caelan then looked at Violet in confusion.

It seemed like he knew where Tina came from.

Seemingly sensing Caelan's confusion, the Bard pointed to the symbol on Tina's shoulder armor: "There, the emblem of the famous Iron Shield family."

"You know this too?" Caelan asked in surprise.

"Of course!" Violet said proudly, "I went to Platinum City when I was traveling back then!"

"Platinum City... where's that?"

Caelan felt that his common knowledge was indeed a bit lacking.

Tina, on the other hand, looked at the Bard in confusion: "But aren't you...?"

"A demon? Hmm... not really."

Violet stood up with his hands on his hips, then exaggeratedly spun around.

"I, the Bard who sings epic heroes, Violet Andrew... am a half-demon!"

"Ah?"

"Ah?"

The other two simultaneously made a sound.

Half-demons are hybrids of humans and demons.

Although humans and demons are generally said to be irreconcilable, because their appearances are indistinguishable and there is no reproductive isolation, many have children.

However, after birth, whether they are human or demon primarily depends on the mother's race, meaning that most will only be one of the two.

Only with a very small probability will a half-demon appear.

From the outside, half-demons are indistinguishable from humans or demons, except that they do not possess Chaos Adaptation and have an additional talent called Unstable Magic, which allows them to manipulate Aether more easily than normal people.

Therefore, although neither humans nor demons openly acknowledge the existence of half-demons, many old mages specifically search the world for half-demons to take as apprentices.

Half-demons don't even need special training; they only need to focus on developing their bloodline in the manner of a warlock to learn a large number of spells.

If it's a half-demon who has visited the capital of a major human nation, it's not a strange thing at all.

Caelan, however, thought of another very crucial thing: "Then you really know magic?"

"Of course! Why would I lie to you?"

Caelan immediately questioned, "Then you were completely useless when you were being chased by that dragon?"

"Dragon? What dragon?" Tina was confused.

"This... I said it, I'm not good at combat." Violet spread his hands helplessly. "And my spells aren't suitable for dealing with... that kind of thing."

"Then what magic do you know?" Caelan still looked suspicious.

"This... it's troublesome to explain, I'll just show you."

Violet said, picking up his lute and gently plucking a string.

A light, airy strumming sound passed, and Tina looked at Violet in confusion.

There was no fire and no light; nothing seemed to have happened.

Only Caelan seemed a little strange, his feet constantly lifting and putting down.

"This spell can make a person feel like their underwear isn't on straight, and they'll constantly want to adjust its position. I've named this spell..."

Violet revealed a mysterious smile.

"...Adjusting the Ball Track."

"What kind of broken magic is that? Undo it for me!"