The Author's POV

The pungent odour of alcohol lingered in the air, permeating every corner of the small tavern filled with demons who were seated at round wooden tables and drinking what appeared to be potent alcoholic beverages.

"There ain' nuthing better than some sweet alcohol afte' sum heavy work!"

"Ye bet."

Demons weren't the only creatures that resided in the tavern, as dwarves―or, more accurately, duegars―sat around the round tables, chatting and singing loudly.

In one of the tables near the far ends of the tavern.

"What have you guys found out?"

I asked, looking at the others in front of me.

As soon as we arrived in the city, the very first thing that we did was break up into smaller groups in order to investigate the situation independently.

Information was key in order for us to better adapt ourselves to this foreign world.

Following our initial parting, we don't go more than a couple of hours before we find ourselves back at the same tavern where we'd agreed to meet.

Right now, we were now sharing our findings.

"Should I start first?"

Jin was the first one to speak, crossing his legs and leaning back on his chair.

Though his face was covered by the hood, I could more or less guess that he was currently frowning.

"I'm sure the majority of you already know this, but from what I've gathered, the city is governed by four major superpowers. According to what I've learned, they are referred to as the seven Royal houses, and each is led by a Prince/Princess ranked demon. Each royal house represents a different clan, such as Envy, Sloth, Lust, and so on..."

Jin halted, then brought his hand up to his mouth and began massaging what appeared to be his chin.

"I couldn't learn too much given that this is sensitive information, but...from the looks of it, there is an obvious power struggle between each Royal house. Nothing needs to be said about why they're fighting, as most of you are probably aware of why right?"

"Yeah."

I nodded my head.

The answer to that question was kind of obvious.

The houses were engaged in a fierce competition for their share of the devil fruits that were harvested from the world tree.

Each year, the world tree would distribute a limited quantity of its fruits, each of which contained varying degrees of purity, with the purer ones being the most limited.

Due to the fact that they were restricted, they were considered scarce resources, which was ultimately what led to the emergence of the conflicts.

All of the houses were fighting for the opportunity to have more devil fruits.

After all, devil fruits mean more power.

who gets the best harvest. The event seems to be called the 'World's Decree', and it is where all major powers within the planet compete for the chance of increasing

crossing

been the house that monopolized the fruits, bearing the grudge of the other houses. From the looks of it, their monopoly will not last much longer, with this year probably being the

houses in Ka Mankut was not a coincidence. It was something that Jezebeth had

what he was thinking, it was obvious that he didn't want one house to have a complete monopoly over the fruits

stimulate competition, and of course, with seven houses that were roughly equivalent in power, a monopoly of resources couldn't exactly exist because the other six houses could decide to collaborate in order to prevent the house

about it. This is what I found out in

"My turn now?"

her voice unusually

talked about the main powers, I'll just share the other stuff

three coins on the table and spoke. There weren't many, with

currency known as the Xariz, which isn't too difficult to understand.

coins she threw on

say

couple

she was doing, I could tell that she was probably rolling her eyes behind

and

Xariz are divided into four coins. Xur, Rum,

tapped each coin with her

you can see, each is different in size, and so is their value. Although the names are complicated, and it seems like the

head a little, thinking for

it's more or less

voice was a little uncertain at first, but the confusion didn't last for

about 100,000U, with the coin being gold in colour. Lastly, there is the Jor, which is worth about a million U, and has a platinum colour? ...I haven't really checked. But apparently, the names of the coins

"A million U coin..."

mumbled under my breath, finding

use of coins, especially when one considers the fact that on Earth, coins have all but vanished from circulation due to the widespread adoption of

in order to hide my human hands―over the table, I fell into thought for

of this place was known as the Xariz and it consisted of four coins, the Xur, Rum,

Xur - 10U

Rum - 1000U

Mor - 100,000 U

Jor - 1,000,000 U

head, I looked

how much money have you managed to collect so

"Not much."

through her pockets and tossing a couple of additional coins into

ten Xur,

that would

"Yeah."

leaned back while mumbling

enough to cover our living expenses for

"I see..."

would sleep for just about a week. However, it was, of course, in one of the

I turned to look