Chapter 5: Something weaker than a slime

“Why is there a human village in the Demon Realm?”

“Didn’t I tell you? Humans live in the Demon Realm as well.”

“But to the extent of building a village like that?”

Arsep had mentioned that humans lived in the Demon Realm.

However, what I imagined was that they were hiding from the demons, not boldly forming a village and living together as a group.

Moreover, this place was about an hour’s walk from her castle.

While an hour isn’t exactly close, it’s not particularly far either.

Perhaps that’s why the humans came to her castle first.

After all, she called herself the Demon King, and the castle was grand and majestic enough to be mistaken for one inhabited by a Demon King.

“…I knew there was a village around here, but I didn’t know it was a human village.”

“Well, it makes sense that you wouldn’t know since you couldn’t leave the castle.”

“Anyway, how are humans living here? The Demon Realm surely isn’t a place suitable for human habitation.”

“Do you think asking me will give you an answer?”

We observed the area from a distance, slightly away from the village.

Though there weren’t many people, it was unmistakably a village.

There were several people living together inside what seemed to be a small, not particularly sturdy, wall.

In fact, in terms of size alone, Arsep’s castle seemed larger and more robust than the village walls.

“Uh, what should we do… I don’t know of any other villages nearby…”

Arsep’s voice wavered, showing signs of disappointment.

When I had looked around from her castle, I hadn’t seen any other villages either.

Though it didn’t seem like there was no place to buy provisions, Arsep, being a demon, couldn’t possibly enter a human village.

I pondered for a moment on what to do.

Wait a minute, since I’m a human, wouldn’t it be fine for me to just enter the village?

If I leave Arsep here for a moment and go to the village…

“What do you think we should do…?”

No, that’s not an option.

Arsep wasn’t just disappointed; she was also scared after seeing so many humans.

‘She calls herself the Demon King, and yet she’s trembling just at the sight of the villagers? Leaving her alone here would be dangerous.’

Sending her back alone didn’t seem like a good idea either.

‘Should I just escort her back to the castle and then come back by myself?’

No…

“Would you trust me for a moment?”

“What do you mean, trust you all of a sudden?”

“Since it’s a human village, we won’t need to come here twice anyway, right? I just want to try something.”

“What kind of experiment… Ah!”

I grabbed Arsep’s hand and boldly walked toward the village entrance.

At the village gate, a man, seemingly a guard, turned his head towards us while holding a spear.

“Hello, you must be working hard. May we enter the village?”

“…Are you travelers?”

“Yes, we were traveling nearby, but we’ve run out of provisions. We’d like to restock if possible.”

At first, he looked at us with suspicion, but fortunately, after I took off my hood, he no longer seemed to think I was a demon.

“Then why were you wearing that hat? With the horns, I almost mistook you for a demon.”

Naturally, he asked why I was wearing a hat with demon horns on it.

I came up with an explanation on the spot.

“That’s exactly it. From a distance, doesn’t it make me look like a demon?”

“…I see. Come to think of it, I’ve heard of people who disguise themselves as demons to travel through the Demon Realm. From far away, it must have seemed like a demon was approaching our village.”

“So, why is this village in the Demon Realm?”

While I was at it, I asked how a human village could exist in the Demon Realm.

Since Arsep didn’t know about it, humans probably hadn’t been building villages in the Demon Realm for at least several centuries.

Of course, given the vast expanse of time, it wouldn’t be strange if the culture had changed.

“This is a village of people who somehow ended up in the Demon Realm and settled here. Sometimes, travelers or people with business in the Demon Realm stop by as well, like yourself.”

I see.

Now that I thought about it, there was no reason to assume that humans couldn’t form a community in the Demon Realm.

Just like the people who had come yesterday to defeat the Demon King, there could very well be a village of people with various business or missions in the Demon Realm.

“Isn’t it dangerous? The Demon Realm is home to demons and dangerous monsters.”

But for that to be possible, the issue I just raised had to be addressed.

Demons, who were hostile towards humans, wouldn’t just stand by and let them build a village on their land.

“Haha! You don’t need to worry about that. Our village is protected by a stone left behind by an ancient hero. That stone has the power to ward off demons and monsters. That’s why I found you suspicious—demons shouldn’t be able to approach our village, so I wondered how you got so close.”

The issue seemed to have been resolved in its own way.

Wait, according to what he just said, the stone is supposed to block demons and monsters from approaching, so how did Arsep get here?

“Is that stone really safe? Does it truly block demons and monsters from approaching? For instance, if a demon hides its power and tries to enter the village?”

“To be honest, I don’t know for sure. It’s only been passed down through stories. But it blocks even the approach of weak slimes, so I guess demons or monsters weaker than that might be able to get through?”

Weaker than a slime, huh.

“Of course, no matter how weak a low-ranking demon is, it’s probably still stronger than a slime, so that’s unlikely.”

“Huh.”

Upon hearing the guard’s words, Arsep seemed deeply shocked.

That meant she was currently weaker than a slime, which is why she could approach this village without issue.

“Even if there were such a demon or monster, my eight-year-old son could handle it. Even if one entered the village, it wouldn’t be able to harm anyone or cause trouble with the stone, so there’s no need to worry.”

The guard laughed heartily, but Arsep looked utterly despondent, as if regretting coming here.

Though she knew she had weakened, she never imagined she’d be weaker than a slime.

I’d never actually seen a slime myself, but I didn’t imagine they were particularly strong.

“You said you needed provisions, right? Come and buy what you need. Though our village is small, we’re well-stocked since most of our visitors are travelers.”

In the end, we were able to enter the village without any trouble.

I was ready to leave immediately if the guard tried to remove Arsep’s hood, but fortunately, I explained she was just shy, and he let it go.

Given that this was the village where the guard’s family lived, and they easily let us in, it seemed they had great faith in that ancient hero’s stone.

Or perhaps they figured that even if we were demons or monsters, we wouldn’t pose a serious threat.

“Still, isn’t being compared to a slime a bit much…”

‘And it was true.’

“Don’t be too discouraged. Thanks to that, we were able to enter the village safely.”

“You don’t understand! Slimes, you see…! That means I’m weaker than creatures that dissolve when you sprinkle salt on them!”

Oh, so slimes melt when you sprinkle salt on them.

It seemed they were classified similarly to snails.

Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to buy some salt in case we run into slimes later.

“There seems to be a grocery store over there, shall we go and do some shopping?”

“Are you saying you don’t care about my problem?!”

Of course, I was a bit shocked by the fact that she was weaker than a slime, but since it was true, I wasn’t too bothered by it.

Besides, it was precisely because of that fact that we were able to enter the village without issue.

The ancient hero, whoever he was, probably didn’t expect there to be demons weaker than slimes.

“There’s nothing we can do about it right now, is there? In situations like this, it’s better to just focus on what we can do.”

“…You’re right, but this is still a serious problem for me. What I’m facing now is something I couldn’t even have imagined in the past.”

“Well, for now, let’s forget about that and pick out something you’d like to eat.”

“You really don’t care at all, do you?!”

As the guard mentioned, though the village was small, the grocery store was well-stocked.

Due to the location, there wasn’t any fish, but there were plenty of smoked meats, vegetables, and grains.

Though Arsep was initially upset about being weaker than a slime, her eyes soon lit up as she looked at the products in the store.

It seemed she wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of continuing to live off water and those mysterious fruits she had been eating.

After making a few rounds through the grocery store, we bought most of what we needed, since we had enough money.

At first, the shopkeeper didn’t seem to expect much from us, but when I opened my pouch of gold coins, his attitude changed completely, and he greeted us with enthusiasm.

“We’ve bought everything we need. Shall we head back? Your legs were tired earlier, so I could carry you on my back…”

“Huh?”

Although we had a lot of goods, my body, which had grown stronger, easily shouldered the burden. We were ready to leave the village, but Arsep seemed reluctant to go.

After we left the grocery store, she started looking around and seemed to be lost in admiration of the village.

‘She was so scared of entering the human village a moment ago, but now she seems captivated by it and doesn’t want to leave.’

“Would you like to look around a little more before we go?”

“Could we really?”

“Well, since we’re already here, I wouldn’t mind exploring a bit more.”

“Then let’s look around a bit longer. It’s been thousands of years since I’ve visited a human village.”

Considering she had been asleep for tens of centuries, it wasn’t surprising that it had been that long.

As she tugged lightly on my sleeve, asking to explore more, she didn’t look much like the great Demon King.

‘She was once the ruler of the Demon Realm, but how long does someone have to sleep for them to change so much?’