Chapter 43
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Red Demon Tribe
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"I'm here to sell some rabbit meat...."
"Looking good today as well, huh? Let's see.... I'll give you ten silver coins for the lot."
In a butcher shop located in Delron, a man with his hair wrapped under a hood sold the rabbits he had hunted. Then, using the money he received, he bought some simple foodstuffs before heading into his crumbling old house.
"Jerome. You're back? You weren't spotted, right?"
"Yeah."
Inside that house, people with their heads just as tightly wrapped in hoods like Jerome's welcomed him back. As he set down the food he had bought today, Jerome checked that the windows were securely shut, let out a sigh, and removed his hood.
Revealed were blazing flame-like red hair and the pointed ears he had been hiding as well.
"Damn it.... To think we have to live among humans...."
Jerome, who somehow managed to scrape by in the midst of humans, spat out curses while lamenting his situation. The others likewise removed their hoods, revealing the same red hair as Jerome.
"No helping it. The forest is crawling with humans these days...."
They were not humans, but demons. Survivors of a Red Demon Tribe village that had recently been hunted down by humans, in fact, the only ones left.
On the day humans raided their village, they had been out hunting as usual and thus avoided the calamity that struck. When they realized everyone in the village had been killed, they shed tears of blood, but to perhaps snatch even a few crumbs that might fall, they slipped into the humans' city, avoiding the humans who scoured the forest.
The hunters among them had occasionally disguised themselves as humans to buy necessities for the village, so they successfully infiltrated the humans' city. But separate from having saved their lives, living hidden among the very humans who massacred their kin made their hearts heavy.
"First things first, we have to survive. Only then can we do anything."
"Damn it.... What's the point of living like this! Hiding among those dog-like humans who slaughtered Rohan, Luni, Rio.... even the kids in the village!"
Jerome vented his rage, but his kin hurriedly covered his mouth, worried his words might leak out. If they were ever discovered to be demons, they'd be hunted by the humans.
"What did we ever do wrong...."
In the end, unable to hold back his fury, Jerome shed tears, and the expressions of the other Red Demons darkened as well. They had simply been living peacefully in their small village, yet humans came solely because they were demons and massacred them brutally.
They had avoided contact with humans as much as possible while living in the village and had never harmed any, so why should they be hunted?
Among the Red Demons listening to Jerome's lament, the sole female, Lina, muttered absentmindedly.
"....What if we just go to that dungeon?"
"What?"
At Lina's words, everyone including Jerome stared at her in shock. Because they knew what 'dungeon' she was referring to.
"That's.... just some nonsense from humans."
One of the hunters shook his head. About two weeks ago, a suspicious rumor had spread among humans that a dungeon had appeared nearby.
As if to corroborate that, Rox's hunting party—the ones who annihilated their village—had returned in ruins, which secretly pleased them....
They didn't believe the rumor of a dungeon appearing in the area. They had lived as hunters for over fifteen years. In all that time wandering the forest, they had rarely even found traces of other demons, let alone a dungeon— the area around Delron was barren and remote, utterly devoid of anything.
"Then what about those heroes that supposedly appeared recently?"
"Hmm...."
But it was hard to outright dismiss Lina's words because of the heroes who had appeared not long ago.
Terrified of heroes, they had hidden in their shelter ever since the news broke, but even they kept ears on the rumors circulating in the city.
And it was currently accepted as fact that they had been dispatched from the temple headquarters to conquer that 'dungeon'.
"Hold on, Lina. Even if you're right.... the heroes who came this time are supposedly dozens of times stronger than the one who raided our village. Doesn't that mean the dungeon's already been cleared?"
Another hunter, Kay, raised a valid question. Regardless of why Lina wanted to go to the dungeon, if the heroes really came for it, wouldn't it have been conquered by now, with them already departing the city?
"I thought so too.... But didn't you hear the rumors spreading in the city today?"
"Rumors?"
Lina had thought the same, but the rumors starting to spread through the city from yesterday were different. That the three-star hero who left to conquer the dungeon, along with his two-star subordinates, had all been devoured by it.
"That rumor is circulating in the city right now, and the temple isn't even managing public opinion properly."
Even in a small remote town like this, the temple's authority was absolute. If such irreverent rumors of heroes falling spread, the temple would normally step forward immediately with an official statement, yet it showed no movement at all.
"They say even the high priests at the temple seem out of sorts right now."
"Isn't that a bit too flimsy? Just based on rumors...."
"Yeah. Just rumors.... for now. But...."
But Lina had witnessed it. In a back alley, the very person spreading those rumors. A man with no particular distinguishing features, utterly ordinary-looking. Yet dressed as if hiding his ears and hair, just like them.
'A demon....?'
On any other day, she would have passed him off as just a normal human. But being in the same situation themselves, hiding among humans in similar attire, the more she observed, the more she noticed.
The man spreading the rumor.... was definitely a demon.
"A demon spreading such rumors....?"
"Maybe.... one belonging to that new dungeon?"
"......."
A rumor spread by a demon, not a human. That changed its weight entirely. After a moment of silence, the hunters asked Lina.
"So, Lina.... what do you want to do?"
"Isn't it obvious? I want to go check out that dungeon."
"And do what there? Living among humans must've made you forget— not all demons are good demons. Hell, if a dungeon really exists, do you think it'd accept the likes of us?"
Kay sighed, conjuring a small fireball in his hand. A race that wielded fire, the Red Demon Tribe. It sounded like they possessed tremendous power at first glance, but they were pathetically weak.
Unless one was born with the legendary [Seed of Fire] passed down among their kin.... the fire they wielded was barely better than no magic at all.
"Dungeons only accept strong demons. Even if we went...."
"Then."
Dismissing it as a pipe dream, Kay tried to dissuade her fervently, but Lina cut him off with blazing eyes fixed on him.
"You wanna live like this forever?"
"......"
"Huh? Answer me. Living day to day among humans, never knowing when we'll be found out and hunted.... barricading the doors whenever demon hunters or heroes show up, praying to the Demon God they pass by.... you wanna live like that your whole life?"
"Lina...."
Starting calm, her voice grew laced with sobs toward the end as she wailed, and the Red Demons sharing her pain fell silent all at once. How could they not know? This precarious life hiding among humans couldn't last forever.
"Even so, heading straight to the dungeon like that is...."
"....I'm going too."
"Jerome?"
As everyone hesitated to respond, Jerome—the first to erupt in anger—stepped forward.
"You all know it too, right? That for us demons, the safest haven is a dungeon. Demons outside dungeons just get hunted by humans. If such a dungeon really appeared.... sink or swim, I'm going to check it out."
"And that hero who raided our village died thanks to that dungeon too, right?"
While hiding in the city to preserve their lives for the moment, the surviving Red Demons had been honing their blades of vengeance, vowing at least to kill the culprit 'Rox' with their own hands to soothe their kin's spirits.
But Rox's hunting party, who claimed to have found the dungeon, returned with their leader Rox turned into a cripple, dying not long after.
"Even if the dungeon doesn't accept us.... we owe it a thank-you for avenging our kin in our stead."
Hearing Lina out, the Red Demons sank into thought. Then, seeing Jerome and Lina packing as if ready to leave right then, they exchanged glances before one by one joining them in packing their belongings.
"...Yeah. Let's go."
To the dungeon.
"....By the way, Erzsebet. Do you happen to know how to farm?"
"You just plant the seeds and water them, right?"
".....The kin might know."
The kin had prepared the fields so they could start farming right away once the humans returned from the city—that was good.... but the problem was neither I nor Erzsebet knew the first thing about farming.
There was also the manpower issue I'd thought of before..... argh. What to do. Seeing as those kin were hiding in the city, they probably hadn't farmed either.
Unless someone knowledgeable about farming who could also provide immediate manpower popped up, this wouldn't be solved.... what now.