I have to hypnotize you, Aura!

The wolf suddenly felt a chill on its head. It turned its head in confusion, only to find that it was its master's other 'servant' touching it. It could only turn back in boredom.

"Alright, let's get ready to go!"

Fingel flung open the carriage curtain... and there he saw a female demon lying comfortably on the inner wool blanket, her legs crossed. Her plump, long legs were accentuated by black stockings, creating an alluring curve that made one want to reach out and pinch them, just like her breasts.

"Huh? Who let you up here? Get to the carriage in the back!"

Aura glared at Fingel with annoyance and then kicked him in the face—or rather, almost shoved the kick into his mouth.

?

Fingel raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it impolite to come up here and serve food right away?"

"Anyway, get down here? Wait... why are you staring at my feet?" Aura suddenly realized, raising her chin slightly and a disdainful smile on her lips. "Ah, I get it, you really want to kneel down and lick my feet, don't you? How perverted..."

?

fake news!

Fake news!

"Farewell!"

Fingel couldn't hold back any longer. Who wants to lick your feet?! There are so many people here!

You haven't washed your feet these past few days, have you? These demons are really unhygienic... But it's really outrageous. These demons seem to have impermeable bodies, and they rarely smell bad.

Only recently, after Awula entered that period, did he occasionally have a fragrant smell that made his nose itch.

"What? You don't love it? No need to hide it."

Aura pursed her lips, swaying her nimble, long, black-stockinged legs with interest, and teasingly hooked Fingel's chin with her toes.

"It's okay, right? You're a pervert who'll do anything to satisfy your desires, aren't you? You clearly really want to lick... so, you don't need to restrain your desires, okay?"

Um...s...I...

Suddenly, Fingel hesitated—and a strange sense of dread washed over him.

"Holy crap, what am I hesitating for? This is getting more and more insane, bro."

To lick or not to lick, that is the question.

He silently opened the mind-reading entry.

[If Fingel says he wants me to lick his toes, I'll make him kneel down and beg me to dogezi (a traditional Chinese slang term for prostrate prostration). That sounds like a lot of fun, doesn't it? Making Fingel kneel down and beg to lick my toes in front of everyone... Ah, just thinking about it makes me feel wonderful!]

"Nonsense! Even if it's Lord Aura, you can't slander me, okay? I'm not that kind of pervert, and I've never played Arknights."

Fingel tactically adopted a stern expression, righteously and firmly rejecting this unreasonable demand.

?

Aura had a slight doubt about your words.

[Arknights, what is that?]

[You have chosen to disable the NPC mind-reading feature.]

"Since you don't want to ride in the same car as me, then forget it."

Fingel didn't explain; he simply pulled the curtain shut, ignoring the wicked woman with the amused expression, and got out of the car into the piercing weld seam.

Then, as soon as he got off the car, he saw those soldiers who were clearly on guard duty, but whose ears were inevitably turned towards him.

"What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a handsome guy before?!"

Fingel breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm really great... You resisted temptation and upheld your dignity once again."

[The guard team member XX has doubts about your words.]

[The guard team member xxx has doubts about your words.]

【...】

The soldiers turned away, pretending nothing had happened, but inwardly they were all thinking... "So Lord Fingel is this perverted? He's clearly a very powerful warrior, yet he wants to lick a woman's toes."

Fingel boarded the second carriage, and the soldiers followed... It was freezing cold, and it would be too much to make them walk; they could only make these demon wolves suffer.

Recently, the demon wolves have almost become a symbol of Frisch, because these monsters, under Aura's control, have protected the town's safety to some extent. Now, some families have even started praying to Aura and the demon wolves.

Fingel was unaware of all this; he still believed that demons and humans were incompatible.

If he were to die one day, Aura might just slaughter the entire town out of boredom.

Back to the present, Fingel sat in the carriage, sticking his head out of the side window, looking excitedly at the world outside... This was his first long trip since arriving in this other world.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh~~!"

Occasionally, when a strong wind blows, Fingel's expression changes, and he stops pretending.

He just let out a loud shout.

"set off!"

And so, the small group slowly set off—to a region further north, the home of a great mage who had lived since ancient times, Celia.

I don't know what the future holds.

..........................

One week later.

Two demons arrived at the entrance of the town.

To be precise, it was a male demon with light eyebrows and long horns who was over two meters tall, and a female demon who was pretty but whose horns were as small as her chest.

Mahat, who is skilled in the magic of turning everything into gold, and Solitaire, an unnamed great demon.

"Huh? He's already gone? I was really looking forward to it."

"Didn't the intelligence say that Aura was here? How come he's gone as soon as we arrived?"

Solitaire walked barefoot in the snow, poking her chin with her little finger with a hint of regret, her face showing a confusion that seemed to be just like that of a human.

why?

Aula suddenly disappeared. Did she sense our arrival?

"She's not here... If she's not here, what should we do? Let's kill all the humans in this village. That way, she'll definitely come back."

In contrast to Solitaire's apparent disappointment, Mahat's expression remained unchanged, just like all demons, forever wearing an icy expression.

"Hey? Can you be a little friendlier? By the way, Mahat, you seem a bit more enthusiastic today?" Solitaire stopped and turned back with interest to look at the man who was her cousin, whom she had been raised to. "You used to immediately go back and research your magic of turning everything into gold when you couldn't complete a mission, right?"

Why ask such a question?

Mahat gazed at the town from afar... or more accurately, at the wolves roaming outside the town.

Although they had not yet entered the town, some of the dire wolves had already discovered their intrusion. However, because they sensed the strength of their opponents, the wolf king's dire wolf did not make any rash moves for the time being.

The intelligence of the dire wolf is truly higher than imagined.

"Huh? I'm just a little curious. You've always been reluctant to take on the Demon King's missions before, but this time you've come here on your own initiative."

"Although killing humans is just an instinct for us, you wouldn't normally do it without a purpose, would you?"

Solitaire turned around, tilting her head to look at the tall demon—it was truly rare; this fellow demon seldom intentionally slaughtered human villages, belonging to the unusually cautious type among demons. He rarely killed people personally unless ordered by the Demon King.

"These monsters are protecting this town... It's strange, why would Aura do that?"

Mahat gazed at the town with a faint expression, but his tone carried a clear hint of doubt.

“I have a feeling that Aura might be a rather special one among us—perhaps the answer I’m looking for is right here.”

The town's population is growing, estimated to be five or six thousand. From afar, one can see wisps of smoke rising into the sky, symbols of peace and life—a peace he could destroy with a single hand.

But he was unwilling to do so.

Mahat likes humans—he wants to understand humans better, and to understand the emotions within them such as 'guilt' and 'malice'.

To this end, he did many things, such as constantly slaughtering humans, or holding two knives and making the two brothers live and fight, just to find what he was missing in these meaningless things.

Perhaps the answer to the coexistence of humans and demons lies here.

"Haha? What are you talking about, Qiaoqiao? Are you still stuck on that joke about 'humans and demons' coexisting?"

"Stop joking, hahaha, this isn't funny at all."

"Humans and demons cannot coexist, and we will never be able to understand human emotions... Don't even think about it. Even if you slaughter this town, it won't make a difference."

Solitaire chuckled dismissively, then her tone turned somewhat serious.

"It's probably just one of Aura's wicked games... manipulating other people's magic? Sounds like an interesting guy."

Mahat remained silent, simply heading towards the town.

Killing the humans here might allow one to experience something called 'guilt, malice'—Aura might have found a special human town.

He had an idea—it wasn't that he hadn't killed enough humans before, but perhaps he had chosen the wrong place.

So... Mahat decided to kill them all!

“However…” Solitaire plopped down on the snow, gazing at the azure sky, “I suggest you don’t do that, okay? If you want to know the answer, why don’t you just wait for Aura to come back and ask her?”

"What if she senses what's happening here and is so frightened that she doesn't want to come back? What if you kill all the humans here and they still can't understand emotions..."

Upon hearing this, Mahat stopped.

"That seems to be the case... In that case, let's wait for her."

Mahat has a strong obsession with understanding humanity... He's willing to do anything for it, even if it endangers his life.

......

"That would be wonderful!"

Solitaire forced a smile while inwardly feeling a sense of foreboding; she had a feeling something big was about to happen.

'This is really...this is getting bad.'

Solitaire knew that occasionally, a situation would arise... among a large number of creatures, some individuals would exhibit mutated shapes, such as wings of different colors... or something like that.

Will Aura be like this?

Filled with doubt, Solitaire and Mahat decided to wait together outside the town for Aura's return—they were both demons and knew the habits of demons.

Most demons will find a base for themselves, and if they go out on business, they will remember the base and wait to return, then stay in their little place to study magic for the rest of their lives.

"Do you think Aura really understands things like 'malice' and 'guilt'?"

Sitting in the snow, Mahat asked the female demon next to him, a well-known human researcher among the demons, hoping to get an answer.

"Definitely not."

Solitaire firmly rejected the idea.

Do you know about convergent evolution?

Mahat shook his head. Demons rarely communicate with each other, and they kill humans on sight. They are not very clear about some of the theories.

“I have a lot of animal specimens and I’ve discovered something—for example, whales, mammals, have evolved to resemble fish in order to survive in the ocean. They look the same, but they are actually two different species.”

Solitaire talked about her research like a child showing off a toy, highlighting that magic was one of her interests.

"Humans and demons are the same! Demons only want humans to evolve, but they never have any sense of guilt, which is why we can deceive humans into killing them at will."

She spoke with conviction, but her mind was elsewhere.

Slaughtering and deceiving humans is as easy for them as eating and drinking; she is a staunch radical of the demon race.

If demons were to understand 'guilt' and 'malice,' then what exactly would be the difference between demons and humans? Demons can kill and deceive humans at will without remorse, giving them a significant advantage in battles against humans.

But what if it exists?

'The coexistence that Mahat hoped for will not happen... What we demons will receive is destruction.'

'Aura will become the source of the demon race's destruction.'

A thought crossed her mind: perhaps it would be better to kill Aura.

But why?

For once, a hint of doubt flashed in Solitaire's eyes. She didn't understand why such a peculiar individual as Aura might appear. What if she wasn't protecting the human town just for fun, but had actually developed feelings for her?

How exactly did they manage to do that?

...