—A room in Balse.
Curled up on a bed in a room in Balse, Neimu trembled.
She had made a catastrophic error in judgment. Driven purely by a desperate desire to save the Dark Country, she had attempted to summon their god to this land. She had believed with all her heart that their god would deliver her homeland from its dire predicament.
Yet what had actually manifested was no benevolent deity looking to save the demon race. It was a mass of pure malice, bringing ruin to every living thing in this world.
To those beings, demons and humans made no difference. Their sole purpose was to watch and laugh as the living creatures of this world writhed in grotesque terror and despair.
That much was painfully clear from how Demon King Aldebaran of the Four Great Demon Kings and his subordinates had been turned into their playthings—and how Neimu's own subordinates had fallen victim as well.
"It's all my fault..."
Clutching her head, she groaned in anguish. Because of her misjudgment, not only her homeland but the entire world was doomed to ruin.
Worse still, those evil gods had openly declared that Neimu and the demon race were extraordinarily useful for summoning more of their kin to this land. If so, as long as the Dark Country belonged to the demon race, it remained in grave danger of being targeted. That was precisely why she could not afford to draw their attention. Neimu had already been detected by them. If she returned to the Dark Country, nine times out of ten, they would expand their rampage right to its borders.
Even if the world's destruction was only a matter of time, her homeland and Lord Ashu were the ones she had to protect to the very end. That was the last shred of pride—and atonement—left for Neimu, who had fled and abandoned her precious subordinates.
In that sense, Balse lay within human territory—a city of the Holy Amelia Kingdom, where that abhorrent Hero Mashiro resided. If Neimu's presence brought an invasion by those evil gods, Mashiro, the kingdom's strongest, would surely be forced to respond. Of course, the Hero was merely human after all. It was hard to believe she could actually defeat the armies of those evil gods. But she ought to be able to buy time.
While the evil army's attention was fixed on the Holy Amelia Kingdom, Neimu could cooperate with the other surviving Four Great Demon Kings to begin evacuation efforts. Though the plan was fraught with a mountain of problems, it was far more realistic than fleeing straight back to her homeland right now.
"Have I truly fallen so low as to become a villain...?"
Human though they were, she was about to sell out innocent, blameless civilians to evil gods. Few acts could be so utterly monstrous. If Lord Ashu ever heard of this, she would be beside herself with fury and object vehemently.
Even so...
"I have no choice. I just have to do it."
She forced the words out to steel herself. Yet even with that resolve, she couldn't bring herself to actively drag humans into her mess; instead, she had stockpiled provisions and spent the entire time holed up inside this single inn room.
"Even in a mess like this, I still get hungry..."
The food she had purchased weeks ago had long since run out, leaving her subsisting purely on the inn's tap water. Gnawing hunger kept her stomach in a constant, hollow growl.
To buy more food, she sluggishly dragged herself out of bed, changed her clothes, and stepped out of the inn.
It was evening, and the streets were bustling with adventurers returning to their lodgings and shoppers crowding the commercial district. Countless humans walking about at this very moment would fall victim because of Neimu. That crushing guilt drove into her heart like a sharp stake, making it bleed.
(I feel sick...)
A sudden wave of nausea overwhelmed her. Crawling on all fours in a back alley, she was vomiting repeatedly when a voice called down to her:
"Hey, you feeling sick or something?"
A sharp-eyed, blond man who looked like a hunter was looking down at her.
The man, who introduced himself as Raiga, barely listened to Neimu's frantic insistence that she was fine, dragging her straight to the Hunter Guild's infirmary.
When she explained to the medical staff that she simply hadn't eaten in days, Raiga led her to the dining hall inside the guild, pulled up a seat, and ordered a meal for two.
"I don't know what happened to you, but don't beat yourself up too much."
Picking at his food, Raiga casually touched on the exact agony eating away at Neimu's soul.
"I'm not beating myself up..."
"Don't lie. Right now, you look just like I did a little while back. Those are the eyes of someone who lost something precious through their own fault and is drowning in regret."
"That's not..."
She tried to deny it, but the words caught in her throat. Only silent tears spilled down her cheeks.
"..."
Raiga watched her in silence for a moment, and then—
"Hey. If you've got nowhere to go, why don't you join our team?"
He threw out an utterly unexpected proposal.
"I appreciate the offer, but I—"
Just as she instinctively opened her mouth to decline—
"Raiga-san! So this is where you were-ssu!"
A woman came walking toward them, waving her right hand in the air.
"Huh...?"
A gasp of pure shock escaped Neimu's lips. And for good reason. The woman's skin had a distinct bluish tint, and small horns protruded from her head. That skin and those horns were undeniable proof of the demon race.
"Hook-san was absolutely furious because you vanished out of nowhere-ssu!"
Approaching the table, she pulled up a chair, snatched a piece of meat right off Raiga's plate, and popped it into her mouth.
"My bad. I'll head over in a sec."
As Raiga dipped his head apologetically, the girl turned to Neimu with a smug, knowing grin.
"You're quite the smooth operator yourself, Raiga-san-ssu," she whispered into his ear. Though, her voice was so loud that everyone nearby heard every word.
"Whoa, whoa, you gotta be kidding me! Raiga landed a beauty like that? No way in hell!"
"Not a chance, not a chance! He's just gonna get dumped again in five minutes anyway!"
The surrounding hunters erupted into a raucous chorus, shouting whatever came to mind.
To Neimu, their banter was completely inconsequential. Naturally so. An unbelievable reality was playing out right before her eyes.
"Wait a moment... Aren't you a demon?!"
Neimu shoved back her chair and stood up.
"That's right-ssu. Pam is a demon from the Dark Country-ssu," she replied, brimming with effortless confidence.
"Why is someone from the demon race here in Balse?!" Neimu pressed immediately.
"Pam was captured during the last campaign and was supposed to be sold as a slave here in Balse, but the slave trader who bought Pam suddenly went out of business and turned into a moneylender-slash-job agency, and they introduced me to Raiga-san-ssu! Right now, I'm working as a hunter in Raiga-san's team to pay off my debt to the agency-ssu!"
Unable to process Pam's explanation, Neimu simply stood there, opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of water.
"Besides, the hunter regulations never said demons weren't allowed in the first place. Nobody's got any right to complain about who we choose to party up with."
Raiga added to Pam's explanation, his tone devoid of even the slightest hint of prejudice against the demon race.
"Though to be fair, everyone freaked out when we first saw a demon, right?"
"Yeah, at first. But setting aside the royal capital and other towns, Balse has had demon slaves scattered around for a while now. Once you actually talk to them, they're pretty normal. People stopped caring after a while."
"Same here. Lately, there've been tons of demon and beastfolk hunters around. We're so used to it that nobody even bats an eye anymore."
"At first, it was just Raiga working with the job agency owner to actively recruit demon hunters, but before long, everybody else started copying him, didn't they? I mean, demons are absurdly strong, but they don't demand crazy high pay, and a lot of them are really humble."
"Cute, too."
"Raiga-san, look what they're saying about us-ssu!"
When Pam peered up at Raiga with big, expectant eyes, he let out a heavy sigh.
"Well, they're not wrong."
He answered without missing a beat.
"..."
Evidently not expecting him to agree so casually, Pam turned bright red and stared down at the table in stunned silence.
"Whoa, whoa, look at that reaction! Is she seriously into him?!"
"No way, no way! Pam-chan, just how terrible is your taste in men?!"
The hunters continued to toss around jokes, thoroughly enjoying the spectacle over their drinks.
Stunned and completely unable to follow the hunters' easygoing reactions, Neimu stood frozen.
"Well, word is that a new country for demons and monsters called Fiesta was founded recently, so Balse isn't even that weird anymore. Before long, won't hunters from that new nation be swarming into Balse to use it as a base?" an older hunter mused casually, leaning back with his arms crossed.
"—?!"
What did he just say? If Neimu hadn't misheard...
"Did you just say a nation of demons and monsters?!"
"Yeah. Heard a new country like that popped up in the land of Northground recently."
The middle-aged hunter answered, visibly taken aback by Neimu's intense glare.
"Northground...? That's impossible..."
Northground was the epicenter of those evil gods' domain. Had those evil gods actually created a country for demons and monsters? No, judging by their sheer malice, they wouldn't have the slightest interest in governing anything. If so, did that mean some massive anomaly had occurred after Neimu fled?!
"Please! Tell me everything you know about this new nation!"
Neimu slammed her forehead against the wooden table, begging him with every ounce of desperation she had left.