This demonfolk tribe sat on the edge of a grassland that had already started to look barren.

Large and small buildings of dirt and stone were scattered around without any order, like ugly mushrooms that had sprouted after rain.

Around the outside was a stone wall piled up carelessly, but there was no one guarding it. When Muen reached the gate, the only thing he saw was an elderly low-ranking demonman with blue-green skin curled up in a corner, half-asleep.

Sensing Muen’s presence, the old demonman jolted awake at once and bared its teeth at this unfamiliar visitor, like a house dog guarding the door.

Muen thought for a moment, then kicked the old demonman.

“Scram.”

“Wuu!”

Feeling Muen’s powerful aura, the old demonman’s momentum instantly collapsed. It curled back into the corner again. Aside from a bit of whining, it didn’t even dare look Muen in the eye.

The lower a creature’s intelligence, the more it feared creatures stronger than itself. The hierarchy among demonmen was even stricter than Muen had imagined.

“But if it can form a tribe, that means it can’t all be low-ranking demonmen with low intelligence.”

Muen looked inside through the stone gate. The tribe was even more desolate than he’d guessed. He couldn’t even see any living things. Only a muddy little river flowed through the center of the tribe.

The war’s impact wasn’t aimed only at the Empire.

After all, demonfolk’s million-strong army didn’t blow in on the wind. Demonfolk’s completely unrestrained conscription of cannon fodder would inevitably leave small tribes like this in an almost completely hollow state.

That made Muen relax a little. It seemed that before entering Gutongs Fortress, he didn’t need to be quite so tense yet...

“Hm?”

Muen suddenly lowered his head.

He felt the hem of his clothes get tugged.

And when he looked down, he found that it was... a tiny, frail demonman.

It looked about three to five in human years—not even as tall as Muen’s knee. On that little face smeared with dust and filth, the only things that stood out were a pair of big eyes set with faintly red gems, blinking and blinking.

The little demonman’s skin was a bluish gray, but it had very little mutation. It looked more like an ordinary human little girl, forming a sharp contrast with that old, ferocious demonman from before.

Maybe because it was so young, this little demonman didn’t have the viciousness of the demonmen Muen had seen earlier. Instead, it showed a trace of the innocence and softness unique to a small child.

She just stared at Muen with those big eyes, her throat making a meaningless “gu-gu” sound. Following her gaze, Muen realized she was staring fixedly at his hand, which was still dripping blood.

“Did you smell the magical beast?”

Muen didn’t think too much about it. He simply took out a chunk of magical beast meat and handed it to the little demonman.

Even if humans and demonfolk were at war, it shouldn’t spread to children.

“Maybe if demonfolk won, they wouldn’t treat humans like this.”

Muen mocked himself inwardly for his overflowing goodwill.

But perhaps because he’d witnessed too much cruelty along the way, seeing this little demonman—still cute and innocent, not yet washed by the Abyss’s brutality—gave him a small sense of consolation.

“Gu-gu!”

Seeing the chunk of magical beast meat, the little demonman’s eyes instantly lit up.

She glanced at Muen cautiously. After instinctively confirming he had no malice, she snatched the meat like a wild monkey and nimbly slipped into a narrow alley to the side.

After quite a while, she slowly poked out half her little head, peeking at Muen.

“Pretty cute.”

Muen waved at her.

Then he remembered the fierce-demonman persona he was supposed to maintain, so he immediately followed it up with a vicious snarl at the little demonman.

“Gu!”

The little demonman was startled and vanished into the alley.

“Looks like this trip isn’t as dangerous as I imagined. At least, here it’s like that.”

Muen smiled, put away his playfulness, and took out the map again.

But this time it wasn’t the complete map that covered the entire Abyss.

It was a map that was obviously a casual doodle—lines crooked and wobbly—yet somehow, it looked extremely detailed.

“Let me see... left... right... right... this should be right, I think.”

Following the map, Muen wound around in circles through this tribe camp, which was fairly complicated for him.

It still took quite a bit of time.

Most of these mushroom-like dirt-and-stone houses were built almost exactly the same. Without specific guidance, it really would be hard to find the place he was looking for.

“Finally... I need to turn left in front of this red building, then left aga—”

Muen’s muttering suddenly cut off.

The entire demonfolk tribe was quiet and dead. There wasn’t even a crow’s cry at dusk. Yet Muen seemed to sense something, and his movements paused.

But only for an instant.

Still, the route that should have been a left turn—he suddenly cut right instead, turning into an even more secluded path.

On both sides were untrimmed dirt walls overgrown with weeds. And after he entered this path, Muen realized the road ahead was actually blocked by a collapsed wall.

It was almost... a perfect spot for an ambush.

So...

“You can come out now, right?”

Whoosh!

The moment Muen turned around, something flashed in front of his eyes.

It was a small figure, moving extremely fast. In just the blink of an eye, it closed the distance with Muen.

In that spinning, closing shadow was a sharp weapon glinting coldly. Paired with that speed, it could easily cut through a magical beast’s scales.

But—

Still too slow.

Muen raised his hand. With two fingers, he lightly pinched.

The rushing blade stopped without any surprise. Only then did Muen see that the so-called sharp weapon was actually just a bone knife that had been sharpened a bit.

And the owner gripping the bone knife was staring wide-eyed, the viciousness replacing the innocence in those big eyes, looking utterly shocked.

“So that’s how it is.”

Muen looked at the little demonman with a blank face.

“Was it my kindness that made you think I was weak and easy to bully?”

Muen flicked his fingers.

The little demonman was immediately sent flying.

Her physique was even nimbler than Muen expected. She stabilized herself easily mid-flip, lifted her dirty little face, and bared her teeth at Muen.

“Hh...”

But just as Muen thought she would pounce again like those demonmen who didn’t fear death, the little demonman suddenly turned around and... ran?

“That’s interesting.”

Muen raised an eyebrow, tucked the newspaper into his robe for the moment, and followed at an unhurried pace.

...

...

“Gu-gu!”

The little demonman darted left and right through the tribe. Using her small body, she squeezed through narrow places even adults couldn’t pass. After nearly circling more than half the tribe, and after confirming that dangerous demonman hadn’t chased after her, she finally stopped in front of a stone house that was a bit larger than the usual dirt-and-stone buildings, but also far more broken-down.

A very human-like annoyance flashed across her little face, as if she regretted picking the wrong target and almost getting herself dragged in too.

But that annoyance quickly turned to relief, because it wasn’t a total loss.

She carefully pulled out the chunk of meat Muen had given her earlier from her chest.

The chunk wasn’t big, but it was fresh magical beast meat—enough to provide more...

“Ng...”

Before the little demonman could appreciate it, a suppressed groan sounded from inside the stone house.

She immediately ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) forgot rest. Lifting the tattered curtain, she slipped inside.

In the center of the stone house, on a bed that was basically cobbled together from a few pieces of wood that couldn’t even be called flat, lay an adult demonman.

“S-so... so painful...”

The adult demonman’s expression was twisted with pain as he groaned softly.

The little demonman hurried forward, stepped onto the wooden blocks by the bed, and held the meat chunk above the adult demonman’s mouth. Then she squeezed hard.

Fresh blood from the meat ran through the little demonman’s fingers and seeped into the adult demonman’s lips, bit by bit.

No one knew how long she fed him. The little demonman was so tired she was almost limp. Only then did the adult demonman’s pale face seem to regain a hint of red, and his painful groaning temporarily stopped.

The little demonman let out a breath.

But before she could truly relax, the stone house’s curtain was lifted again.

“So that’s how it is.”

Muen walked into the stone house and looked at the demonman on the bed.

“This is the high-ranking demonman of this tribe? He actually ended up like this?”

“Gu!”

The little demonman bristled like she’d been shocked. With trembling hands, she gripped the bone knife and stood in front of Muen, extremely wary, shielding the adult demonman behind her.

Muen didn’t pay her any attention. He kept studying the demonman on the bed.

Without question, this was a high-ranking demonman.

Because aside from the horns on his head and a few rough scales at his neck, this demonman’s appearance was completely no different from a human’s.

His mutated parts were even fewer than the little demonman’s.

Yet a high-ranking demonman like that was lying there in disgrace, eyes shut tight, face bloodless, his upper body wrapped in bandages.

As for his lower body...

He didn’t have one.

“Did he go to the battlefield?”

Unlike how he’d treated the little demonman earlier, Muen felt not the slightest pity for this crippled high-ranking demonman.

He observed him carefully, as if he were looking at some ordinary object.

“Because he became a useless cripple on the battlefield, he got abandoned. A high-ranking demonman who could build a tribe, and now he can only lie here waiting to die. Heh. Demonfolk really are as cruel as ever—cruel to enemies, and just as cruel to their own.”

Muen’s mouth twitched as he laughed in mockery.

After carefully sensing this high-ranking demonman’s aura, Muen already knew he didn’t have long.

Demonfolk weren’t good at magic, and they didn’t have that many resources that could restore injuries. At this level, it was basically already a death sentence.

Even if he didn’t die, a tribe with a cripple in it would inevitably be swallowed by other demonfolk tribes before long.

That was the Abyss’s law.

“But that’s fine too. I don’t know how many human lives are on your hands, but you’re dying anyway, so it saves me from having to do it myself.”

Muen quickly lost interest in this crippled demonman. If he were still conscious, it would’ve been fine—Muen could at least question him.

But a guy in this kind of unconscious state wasn’t worth wasting time on at all.

“As for you...”

Muen looked at the little demonman who was still baring her teeth at him.

“You should be grateful. For someone like me who might soon have a younger brother or sister, I don’t want to lay hands on children.”

Muen turned around, preparing to leave.

But at that moment—

“Ma... ma...”

He heard crying.

Muen turned back in astonishment and found that the high-ranking demonman on the bed had two crystal-clear tear tracks flowing from the corners of his eyes.

His eyes were still closed, but his pale lips moved, making clumsy sounds.

“Ma... ma...”

Muen blinked, then looked again at the little demonman who was still blocking him—so terrified she was trembling, yet refusing to leave—and confirmed she really was only about three to five years old, just like she looked.

His mother wasn’t here.

Only his poor daughter—who, like him, didn’t even have a mother.

“So he’s not even clear-headed anymore?”

Thinking that, Muen let out a soft chuckle, shook his head, and said,

“How pathetic and ridiculous.”