These Demons Will Do It for Free.
From today onward, we will...
Leaf was always fiddling with the staff he never seemed to let go, his fingers darting nervously as if searching for something lost.
"Since it's a rest day, why don't we chat outside with Ray-sama and Leaf? I only sent Roman away, so..."
Leaf's voice trembled slightly as he clasped both hands together, his resolve steeling.
"I don't want to pretend I didn't know anything about it."
Ray glanced at me, her grey eyes sharp and challenging, daring me to back down.
"Right. I won that bet fair and square, so I get to claim my wish."
Leaf's face lit up as if the prize were already his.
"That's right! That red-haired woman was ruthless—trying to steal another team member..."
Ray's gaze sharpened with a mischievous glint.
"Speaking of which, the help you gave me during that bet... it wasn't just a coincidence, was it?"
"What are you talking about?!"
"Your tone is weird, Roman-san!"
"Looks like you're rattled."
"No, I'm not!"
I never once thought of Ray as some advanced biological navigator or a guiding light. She was simply Ray—the brash, loyal, silver-mana beastman who had lost an arm and had it restored by my alchemy and the World Tree's grace. Innocent. Uncomplicated.
After a few more teasing jabs, the thought surfaced.
"By the way, how old are you?"
"Huh?"
"You look way younger."
"Sixteen. Why?"
Ray answered casually, but my hand froze mid-sip of the cup. Sixteen? The age of the two-by-eight generation? The very height of youth I could never hope to reach?
My inner Confucian Dragon stirred, awakening with a roar of indignation.
"Sixteen? Sixteen? Hah... this is the end times... If you had been born in the Eastern Courtesy Kingdom, you would have been long since disciplined—hahaha!"
Here, Korean age did not exist; only full years mattered. Sixteen meant high-school freshman at best, or second-year senior at worst. Younger than the moment I had fallen into this world.
"Eastern Courtesy Kingdom? Where's that? Your hometown?"
"Yes."
"We don't have that here on the grasslands. Anyone over fifteen is already an adult."
"Anyway, Roman, how old are you? You don't seem that much older than me."
"I'm twenty-one."
"...Twenty-one? That's practically my big brother!"
"Ray-san."
Leaf's voice cut in, strangely solemn and serious—the tone he had never used before.
"I'm eighteen."
"What? So?"
"I am eighteen years old!"
"...So?"
"An... older sister, then..."
"Enough."
Poor Leaf. The sheer force of will it must have taken for him to speak so boldly, yet he collapsed so pathetically now.
Ray silenced my age jab with a single word.
"To celebrate us finally being a real team, let's come up with a name."
"Wait, the Three Great Heavens? Don't you know them? Yeompa, Inseong-nyeo, Josa...?"
"What? How about Pride? Pride. We have one guy and two girls."
"I think the team name should be something everyone can accept..."
'What ridiculous people.'
Ray lay sprawled on the bed, chuckling to herself.
How long had it been? The first time in ages I had slept comfortably and talked openly with someone. Even Leaf, only two years younger, wanted to play big-sister act. And me, the hot-headed bounty hunter who was feared and shunned by every slave, yet so brazen about it.
Everyone on the grasslands was a stranger until now. But both of them had open hearts—wide enough to see beyond scars.
The three of us were alike. Roman and I, bound by the same nightmare of slavery. Leaf, though he never said it outright, carried the same beastly instincts.
I had known it all along. We were all tired. Sharing wounds with someone who understood made the stubborn resolve I had clung to melt away.
They had simply been waiting for someone to reach out. Even to a Demonologist like me, the one they hated most.
'No, it's different. That guy...'
His father had been killed by a Demonologist. His uncle's ally. The kind of mage who could slaughter a demon-touched powerhouse. But even the greatest Demonologist paid a price for every ounce of borrowed power. The price that made all Demonologists fear the contract—self-destruction.
Roman had accepted it gladly. Time and time again. He had paid the staggering toll himself, leaving me in awe.
In the end, he had slain Malebris, the infamous Demonologist hunter who once chased us like prey.
How much had it cost him? What had he lost? I didn't know. But it couldn't have been light.
'Magic wasn't involved. He suffocated the Demonologist to death with raw mana. At least a few years of his life, by lifespan standards.'
Probably for my sake too. By exposing his face, he had already walked into the fire. If he had to pay such a heavy price here, he could have simply eliminated anyone who saw his face. But that was only a temporary fix. Another Demonologist could always be hired, and their powers were slippery—impossible to track.
He didn't need to be a Demonologist. Unlike me, Roman still possessed leftover mana. With it, he could sense demonic traits through low-tier elemental magic—a technique rare even in Res Limen.
Most importantly, he had chosen to stand by me instead of fleeing while I fought Malebris.
Even knowing the cost.
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"That's why..."
Ray hugged the blanket tighter around her body, clutching the bundled pillow as if it were her most treasured possession.
"...I didn't want to."
She had to pay me back.
Ray had never learned how to simply accept humiliation and walk away. Nor how to receive kindness and pretend not to notice.
'If I don't tell him, he'll figure it out himself?'
Roman had already paid a price I could never repay. So she would repay it in her own way. For as long as she lived.
Tired.
I dragged my lethargic body to wash and returned to find Leaf already there, something I rarely saw. Usually I woke first and trained while he slept.
"Yo."
"Huh?"
"Body reinforcement. The beastman taught you?"
Ray had already pulled off her hood, revealing her pretty face beneath the rough exterior. In Res Limen, beastmen weren't exactly rare, but her striking features had definitely drawn stares.
My eyes narrowed slightly as I looked at her.
"Anyway?"
"No, no. You must be exhausted. I overdid it. Rest now."
What a lackluster excuse.
That guy even knew how to make people angry. The coach had taught him the same trick last time.
Had he learned it from the coach?
I was too tired to ask, so I just flopped onto the bed and passed out.
As soon as I lay down, Roman's snoring filled the room.
I watched him quietly, having already seen through the Body Reinforcement method he had learned from Ray.
She had poured so much mana into him that I could even see it with my limited Clairvoyance.
'Beastkin Body Reinforcement.'
There were many ways to enhance the body—forming a mana core and pulling power when needed, or directly amplifying physical abilities through magic. Some circulated mana to reduce consumption. But beastkin were different. They accumulated mana directly into bones and muscles because their innate bodies were already so strong.
The basic mechanism was the same.
So Roman, who had learned it from Ray, was following the exact same method. With demon mana, no less. Unsparing and ruthless.
'Is this a new kind of suicide technique?'