The drunk’s wisdom

The celestial opened her eyes, however, she only saw darkness. The upper half of her body was completely surrounded by something. Something firm, flexible, soft and fluffy.

It felt very familiar.

"Oh..." she exclaimed, having recognized the origin of the softness.

'...How embarrassing,' she added.

Pawn then began her attempt to free herself from the fluffy cocoon which now surrounded her. It took her roughly thirty seconds to succeed.

Eventually, having managed to unwrap the two soft things, her wings, from around her body, she was finally able to sit herself up on the inn's bed. The softness she felt earlier had been the plumage of her feathers.

She was blushing, just a little.

Cocooning oneself in one's own wings was a common problem among celestials as they slept. Insecure celestial children, specifically.

...On a side note, her wings were roughly twice as long as they had been in her dream, unsurprisingly, as it had taken place many, many, years ago. When fully extended, each wing could now reach approximately twice as far as the length of her outstretched arms.

Pawn looked at them. She found it slightly strange that her wings had stayed the same despite the bracer having changed all her other features to be demon-like.

However, she didn't think about the lack of change too much, as not all demons had wings anyway, and the bracer was, of course, never intended to be used by a celestial in the first place. After all, it was made by demons.

Pawn sighed as she sat on the bed. It was as hard as ever.

"T-that's right, I probably just did it because the bed was too hard and wrapping myself in my wings would be more comfortable," she made an excuse, despite being the only one present.

"And it's not like I miss my bed in the celestial realm or anything," she lied.

The celestial sighed once more before moving to the edge of her bed.

A few seconds late she summoned a golden coloured brush from her inventory and began brushing it through her wings, starting with the one on her left. Pawn did so in a very slow and methodical manner. It took her nearly five minutes per wing.

"Seriously though," She muttered quietly, "I literally have tons of stuff in my inventory. So, ignoring the bed, why don't I have even a single blanket or pillow stored in there?"

She then summoned a slightly smaller, more ordinary-looking brush, and quickly combed her hair as well, without even the slightest bit of care or finesse. She combed her hair for a grand total of twelve seconds before storing away her comb.

"All right," she declared, getting to her feet, "today's goal will be acquiring a bed."

"And to do that I'll need money," she continued.

'I've basically got a fortune of celestial silver and celestial gold, and even some celestial platinum,' she continued, in her thoughts only, so that others couldn't possibly hear her, 'let's see, yeah, ninety-eight silver, ten gold, and one platinum.'

Even among high-ranked celestials this was no small amount.

She'd only managed to gather this much due to hundreds of years of being a shut-in whenever she wasn't working, as there wasn't anywhere a support celestial could go to have fun, anyway. Having a very rich and highly ranked elder sister who gave a very high allowance helped as well.

Pawn, however, sighed upon realizing something.

'It would draw a lot of attention if I spent celestial currencies too frequently, so that plan is no good,' she decided.

"Hmm," she pondered, "I guess it's time to find out what kind of things demons do for work around here."

Such was the question she had asked her innkeeper. To which he responded with a shrug.

One of the local drunks, however, a young lady with short, dark-green hair, and red-tinted leather armour of remarkably low quality, had given a better answer... while resting with her head face-down on the bar's counter.

"Hunter's guild," she muttered, "on Guild Street..."

"Those worthless lying bastards... they'll buy anything that can be sold," she continued, drifting in and out of consciousness, "especially things either tainted or corrupted..."

The girl then, without looking, withdrew a small book from her back pocket. Its cover was made of dark red leather and it had the image of a pitch-black bear-trap on it.

"This book will tell you what's what out there," she added, "be sure to check it if you ever see an oculus in your travels."

"...There's more to them than meets the eye," she said. The girl then half-snicked half-sobbed uncontrollably, before eventually fading off to sleep.

Pawn looked at the girl for a moment, then to the book, and then, finally, to the innkeeper.

"Shouldn't you have cut her off or something?" Questioned the celestial.

But realizing the question hadn't been very 'demon-y,' she asked yet another to distract attention from the previous one.

"How many did she have, anyway?" She inquired.

The bipedal pig behind the counter held up a single finger.

Pawn waited, but he didn't raise any more.

She then looked at a menu hanging on the wall behind him.

"...Give her whatever food she wants when she wakes up, as thanks for the book," she said, motioning to the book, "just put it on my tab."

The pig tilted his head, and then shook it, either not knowing what a 'tab' was, or saying he didn't accept tabs in his inn.

"Just pay for it using the days I have the room rented for, then," Pawn said with a shrug, "I mean, how much can she possibly eat?"

After leaving behind those ominous words, Pawn left the Inn.

She headed, book in hand, towards the city gate she had passed through the previous day.

The celestial decided that she might as well get the lay of the land first, before going to the guild, as, if she went to the guild first, she feared that they would find her cluelessness regarding the city's surroundings, to be quite suspicious.

Pawn read the book as she walked towards the gate.

'...Ah, it's basically the same as the celestial realm's system,' she thought, having finished reading the book's 'introduction' page.

'Untainted and influenced beings are case-by-case, tainted beings are worth a fair bit, and corrupted beings are worth a fortune,' she summarized.

Essentially, untainted beings were any being that was totally uninfluenced by that of other races were known as untainted beings, race referring to species rather than way in which humans used the word.

Untainted beings that possessed characteristics belonging to any race, without actually becoming apart of said group, were instead known as 'influenced' beings. Pawn was in this group, as was Lumin, along with every other celestial or demon that had a human-like or nature-based appearance.

Tainted being are individuals equally belonging to two different unrelated races of different factions, half-breeds and the like.

Likewise, corrupted being are individuals equally belonging to three different unrelated races of different factions. Tainted half-humans were probably the most common of these.