Demons Living in the Human World

She had a curtain wrapped around her like clothing, and its patchwork state made one worry it might tear apart at any moment.

Her jet-black hair covered her emaciated upper body, while the insides of her upward-pointing ear tips were lined with pale pink fuzz.

The reason Leon could see so clearly was not because his eyesight was particularly good. It was purely because the excited You You had leaned in too close, practically shoving the camera into the little wildcat's face.

It was obvious that she was truly starving. Her entire mind was focused on the food, to the point that she had not even noticed the undead right beside her.

Besides.

There was no doubt that she was a demon—a subject of the Demon God who had ended up stranded outside.

There was a simple way to distinguish demons from beastmen. The latter were more like wild beasts, while the former were more like modified humans fused with certain animal traits.

Leon did not understand why there were subjects of Hell in the heart of the human world, but then again, he himself was a human who had received a diploma from Demon Lord Academy. Maybe demons appearing in the Ryan Kingdom was not all that surprising? Still, seeing the way this girl wolfed down her food, Leon found it difficult to imagine what kind of lives demons in the human world lived.

Perhaps they had no value worth uniting around.

For the kings of the human nations, the surface world was like a garden. There was indeed no need for them to unite such burdens.

"Lord Demon Lord! Hurry and catch her! Faith! Brainwashing! Training! Make her take your shape!" You You bounced around excitedly, practically dying to jump in and catch this "cat demon" herself.

"..."

Watching You You leap about, Leon did not even know where to begin criticizing her.

Tsk.

Why was this girl even more ruthless than him, the Demon Lord?

Seeing how much this little wildcat appreciated his cooking, Leon suddenly could not bear to make a move against her.

Since she was not an assassin.

Should he just let it go? He was full anyway.

However, while Leon did think that way, Bond, who had already received his orders, had no intention of letting her go.

"Hungry..."

With a drawn-out growl escaping his mouth, he suddenly sprang from the shadows where he had been lying in wait.

The greatsword in his hand swung out fiercely, cleaving the haystack before him in half in an instant before continuing toward the little thief who was greedily stuffing her face.

The cat girl, whose mouth was full of wooden skewers, jolted in fright. She planted her right hand on the ground, flipped over, and took several quick steps back.

It was purely the instinct to survive.

The sharp blade swept past the tip of her ear by a hair.

Just a little closer, and she would have become one-eared.

Holding the mirror, Leon saw the longsword in Bond's hand pass straight through You You's body.

If that strike had hit a person, they would definitely have been dead. Good thing it had struck a god.

As an incorporeal being, You You could not be harmed by any means of attack in the Mortal World, whether physical or magical.

By comparison, Leon was more worried about the little wildcat.

Friend, could you at least spit out what was in your mouth first? Those were sharpened wooden skewers.

That was dangerous!

"Hurry! Chase her! Lord Demon Lord! Don't let her get away!" You You shouted recklessly from inside the mirror.

Leon ignored the noisy divine fragment and simply gave an order to Bond, who was poised to attack.

"Bond, sit."

One moment, Bond was holding his greatsword and preparing to charge. The next, he plopped down on the ground cross-legged.

Having just narrowly escaped death, the startled little wildcat was clearly still in a state of shock. She did not calm down just because the evil spirit before her had stopped attacking.

Though she had no idea what was happening, her survival instincts told her that she should escape now.

If she did not run now, she would never get away!

Her slim yet firm legs lowered into a bent bow, but just as she was about to flee like the wind, her legs suddenly felt as if they had been filled with lead. She was rooted to the spot, unable to move.

"Wuh—!"

She nearly fell over from losing her balance. Only when she looked down did she discover in horror that two skeletal hands had emerged from the ground at some point and tightly gripped her ankles! Undead! At the sight of this terrifying scene, she was like a cat seeing a banana for the first time. Her whole body curled into a shrimp ball, and every hair on her body stood on end.

Seeing her struggle desperately, Leon worried that he might scare her to death, so he stepped out from the shadows.

What he did not expect was that the moment he showed himself, his Faith Points began rising rapidly.

Faith Points +1

Faith Points +1

Um...

Am I really that scary? Clearing his throat, Leon spoke in the gentlest tone he could manage.

"Good evening, uninvited guest. My name is Leon, and I come from Hell... To avoid unnecessary trouble, I hope you will voluntarily tell me your name."

To be safe, he first said it in the language of Hell, then repeated it in the language of the Ryan Kingdom.

However, the little wildcat did not appreciate it.

Those amber eyes remained fixed on him, and her mouth, stuffed full of grilled skewers, bared faintly visible fangs.

"Hrr...!"

That muffled growl was not intimidating in the slightest. Instead, the food crammed in her mouth made her seem rather foolish.

"...You're still unwilling to pull out the skewers even now? Just how many days has it been since you last ate?"

Leon made a helpless expression. As he chanted a spell, he casually waved his Magic Wand and conjured half a stone stool behind him before sitting down.

"How about you finish eating first, then we can talk properly?"

Perhaps she was tired of growling, or perhaps she was simply too hungry. Seeing that Leon did not make another move, the little wildcat finally began chewing away.

"Don't eat the wooden skewer too."

Leon casually reminded her, then picked several more skewered rat tails from a wooden crate nearby and placed them beside the fire to roast slowly.

Once the little wildcat had finally figured out how to eat the skewers, his batch was almost done as well. He sprinkled on a few grains of salt and handed them to her.

"Here."

Although those amber eyes were still filled with wariness and fear, her body honestly gave in to the lure of food. Swallowing hard, she reached out her hand.

Leon waved his Magic Wand and conjured half a stone stool behind her, signaling for her to sit.

Only after the little wildcat had completely relaxed did he dismiss the skeletal hands gripping her ankles and return her freedom.

Leon noticed that the moment she regained her freedom, her shoulders tensed instinctively.

However, after hesitating for a while, she ultimately did not run away as she had before. Instead, she quietly remained beside the fire where the skewers were roasting.

"Is it good?"

"Cooked! Good!"

"Hahaha, I knew it."

All right.

So it turned out that it was not because his cooking was so amazing. This girl was simply incredibly easy to satisfy.

Seeing the blissful look on her face as she chewed, Leon became even more curious about what kind of life she had lived before.

"Eat slowly. Don't choke."

"Ooh, ooh!"

"You can swallow before replying. No need to force yourself."

"Mhm!"

"Good girl."

"Mhm?"

"I mean, you have quite an appetite."

After devouring five thousand Hell Money worth of grilled skewers, that petite, youthful face finally displayed the painful satisfaction of being full.

Seeing her slightly swollen belly, Leon stopped feeding her and gathered up the wooden skewers, tossing them into the storage basket nearby.

He had heard that people who had been hungry for too long could forget the feeling of fullness and eat themselves to death.

Seeing that there were no more skewers by the fire, the little cat sitting on the stone stool cast a yearning look at Leon, hinting that he should make some more.

Only when he spread his hands to indicate there were no more did she reluctantly lick her fingers and the corners of her mouth, then stretch with a yawn.

"Th... thank you."

So this girl could speak human language after all.

Looking at the Cat Girl who had already opened her heart to him, Leon gently coaxed her.

"No need to be polite. Demon God Bayeri taught us that we must help one another in the surface world, because humans are all terrible people... except those humans who believe in the Demon God, like me."

"Demon God? Bayeri?" The cat girl tilted her head and said hoarsely, "Sarah has only heard of Saint Siss..."

Leon's brow twitched, but he still said with a smile.

"Then did the respected Saint Siss grill skewers for you?"

Sarah looked at him blankly and shook her head.

"No..."

"Then did He give you money? Or help treat your illness? Or give you a warm house, or a warm home? Or help you catch rats... All right, no need to answer. Your sad expression has already told me that you have nothing," Leon said with a smile. "Remember this: from today onward, you are a believer of the Demon Lord."

"Demon... Lord?" Sarah stared at him blankly, her oily mouth hanging open as her mind failed to process it. "Not the Demon God?"

Leon shook his head and spoke unhurriedly.

"Didn't the Demon God fail to give you all those things I mentioned? But! I, the Demon Lord, gave you grilled skewers. Wouldn't it be appropriate for you to believe in me?"

Leon waited for a moment, but no lightning descended from the sky.

Very good.

It seemed that neither the Demon God nor Saint Siss had heard him.

Hugging her knees, Sarah nodded vaguely, feeling that what this human before her said seemed to make some sense.

When her mother had still been alive, she had always told Sarah to believe in Saint Siss. The omnipotent holy light would one day redeem them from their lost path.

Yet every person she had met who claimed to be a servant of Saint Siss had never given her even a second of kindness... Meanwhile, this self-proclaimed Demon Lord before her had given her a full meal.

Demon Lord.

Maybe that was not so bad? Thinking of her earlier "ferocious" attitude, she suddenly lowered her head in shame.

"Sarah... is my name. Sarah doubted you before. Sorry."

"It's all right. Being cautious is only natural. Just like how I also suspected that you, hiding in the shadows, might be an assassin or something."

Leon smiled kindly and continued.

"Come to think of it, I'm quite surprised. How did you avoid the Warning Magic Array I set up outside this inn?"

"Warning? Magic Array?" A trace of confusion flashed through Sarah's amber eyes. After thinking back carefully for a long time, she finally said uncertainly, "Was it the smell of corpses...? I did smell some outside the inn, so I went around it."

The smell of corpses?

Could it be the bone ash used for casting? Could she really smell that with her nose?

Leon stroked his chin and fell into thought.

Perhaps he could improve it.

For example... what if he replaced the bone ash with plant ash? Seeing silent Leon, Sarah thought he was angry and quietly apologized.

"Sorry... There had never been anyone here. I saw firelight, so I came over to see if I could find anything useful."

Meeting her cautious gaze, Leon immediately guessed what she had misunderstood and smiled.

"You don't need to apologize. This inn isn't my home. I'm just occupying it for now."

The evening breeze of mid-autumn swayed the firelight, while rising sparks danced like fireflies.

Sarah stared at his face for a long time, like a cat crouching in a roadside flowerbed, observing a wild litter-scooper.

"You... are different from the others."

"Of course. After all, I'm not from here."

"Hell?"

"Yes."

"Is it... far from here?"

Leon glanced at her and saw a trace of yearning for a utopia—or perhaps simply longing—in those amber eyes.

"You want to go?"

"Mhm..."

Sarah nodded, making no attempt to hide her feelings.

However, Leon poured cold water over Sarah, who had bared her heart to him.

"I advise you to give up on that unrealistic idea."

"Why?" Sarah looked at him in confusion, as though she genuinely did not understand.

Leon thought for a moment and chose his words carefully.

"Over there... how should I put it? If you happened to be born in the Demon Capital, you would probably live quite comfortably. But anywhere else, well, that depends."

To put it bluntly.

If Hell were truly such a comfortable place, he would not have come here to become the Demon Lord.

And he had been born in the Demon Capital, had the status of a protected species, and even had a Godfather who was also his adoptive father and grandfather, serving as a priest in the Demon God Hall of the Ministry of Truth.

As for an ordinary demon like Sarah, especially one born in the human world, forget going to the Demon Capital. She would probably have to prove her loyalty on the front lines before she could even enter Hell.

Hearing Leon's answer, Sarah's ears drooped in disappointment. She stared at her toes, not knowing what she was thinking.

"It's not that I'm talking big because I don't understand your hardship. It's that people like you who grew up on the surface really can't adapt to the environment there, so don't dwell on it. Plenty of people want to come up here but can't... Oh, right. I happen to have a job available. If you truly have nowhere to go, why not come work for me?"

The players were all busy leveling up, and he had been worrying about where to find someone to serve as an NPC.

A Cat Girl clerk.

That would be enough to excite those animals who shouted about Succubi all day.

Sarah did not respond.

Leon thought the little wildcat had become depressed and was about to offer a few comforting platitudes when he heard steady snoring.

A thin silver strand hung from the corner of her softly snuffling mouth, and her slightly upturned lips resembled a little boat drawn across the Milky Way.

Who knew what delicious thing she had dreamed about? The poor kid was drooling over it like this.

The black-hearted boss did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"Good grief..."

She had actually fallen asleep! -(Thanks to "Lin Qingyu" for the alliance leader donation!!!)