Flillian, I want to live.

"I do"

Maya opened her mouth and answered excitedly, then cast an eager gaze at Xinmeier opposite her.

"I……"

Xin Meier smiled slightly and slowly opened his mouth...

"I object."

Guter, who played the bridesmaid, reached out and pinched Xinmei's mouth with her index finger and thumb, then turned her head to look at Maya.

"This is so fake. How could Xin Meier fall in love with a demon?"

Gutel said to Maya with a complicated expression.

"As expected of Fulilian's partner, you should have realized long ago that this was an illusion."

Maya put away the smile on her face, clasped her hands together and said with a sigh.

"What's the point of doing this? The demons don't even have the concept of family, yet you created these families and even put on a farce like a wedding for me."

Guter did not confirm or deny Maya's guess, but instead asked her in a curious tone.

"Because 'family' is a beautiful thing..."

Maya looked up. Like all demons, she had been living a solitary wandering life since she was old enough to understand. In the era when the war between demons and humans was the most intense, the weak demons were often used like cannon fodder by the powerful demons.

"The reason why you are controlled by my magic is because you share the same fear as me: the fear of death."

Maya looked at Guter. The only people she could control were her own kind, which was why she couldn't attack Xinmei directly.

"Are you afraid of death? So what?"

Unlike Frillian, Gutel is not ashamed to admit this. After all, the driving force behind all she does is to survive.

"Maya is clearly a weak demon who needs protection, but in the demon world, the strong will not protect the weak, but humans are different."

During her long career of fighting humans, Maya noticed one thing.

Unlike the demons, weak children among humans are protected. Some people will even give up their chance to survive and come back to die if they can escape in order to protect their children.

It's simply unreasonable.

Maya couldn't understand this behavior, but she envied human cubs. Although they were weak, they could be protected by the strong because of the bond of "family".

"Why can't Maya be protected by her 'family'? And the same goes for Sinmeier. He's clearly strong enough to defeat the Demon King, but he was willing to let me go in order to protect the weaker Freellian. I asked him why, and the reason is that he actually..."

Maya opened her arms and talked about the unfair treatment she suffered as a demon. However, when he talked about Xinmeier, her expression suddenly froze.

"Hey? What happened to Xin Meier?"

Gutel was about to continue asking questions, but the sky above her head suddenly collapsed, and then accompanied by a strong light, Gutel woke up from the illusion world.

Immediately afterwards, Gutel received the news from Fulilian that Maya had been killed by her.

"Come to think of it, did you just attack me as well?"

Gutel touched her chest which had just healed. Although she didn't know what was happening outside, she could roughly guess how Frillian had let Maya down her guard and successfully launched a sneak attack.

"Yes."

As Fulilian answered, she used her magic to explore and search the surroundings. After Maya was killed, the clone puppets she created also disappeared. The remnants of the demon clan who were sent to the woods to fight with Philen and the others also scattered after their leader was defeated.

"Aren't we companions?"

Gutel looked at Fulilian who raised her staff and used attack magic in the air to point out the names of the fleeing demon remnants one by one.

"Well, compared to these, there are a few guys over there who have escaped my attack range. Go and help eliminate them."

Flillian answered casually.

"You really know how to order people around..."

Gutel curled his lips and flew over according to Fulilian's instructions.

Chapter 168 Exposed Meow

Just as Fulilian said, Gutel didn't fly too far before he saw several demons fleeing into the deep mountains and dense forests after the situation became hopeless.

Judging from the magic power emanating from them, these guys should be young demons less than a hundred years old. With their strength, if they join hands at this time, they may be able to cause some trouble to Gutel, but at this moment they are only concerned with running around like headless flies, begging to use the death of their companions to delay their own escape.

"How sad that the former Demon King's army has fallen to this state."

Gutel shook his head. It was obvious that these demons were the new recruits Maya had recruited after they were defeated by Xinmeier. However, unlike the demon army with strong martial virtues in Gutel's impression, these guys did not dare to turn around and resist even if they were burned to ashes by her magic.

"Then you are the last one."

After eliminating the fleeing demons one by one, Gutel slowly landed beside a huge rock that had rolled down from a nearby hillside. He spoke to the trembling demons hiding behind the rock in a somewhat impatient tone, like a worker about to get off work.

……

Looking at the motionless boulder, Gutel curled her lips. She didn't want to waste time with the other party who was relying on luck, so she raised her hand directly. With a beam of white light, a big hole was pierced through the boulder by the effect of the attack magic.

"Ah, ah——"

At this moment, the demon hiding behind the boulder screamed and jumped onto the grass beside it, avoiding Gutel's attack to the extreme.

"You should be smarter than the others. You know that flying away will only make you a target. However, your basic skills in concealing your magic are really not good enough. Such a half-baked person cannot escape the magical perception of human magicians."

Gutel turned his head and looked at the demon lying on the side. She looked to be about thirteen or fourteen years old, with short white hair. Judging from the magic power emanating from her body, she was the weakest among the demons who had just escaped.

"Please, please spare me, I have never eaten anyone..."

As if she knew that she couldn't escape, the demon girl supported her body with her hands and looked at Gutel, with a pitiful look on her face, and begged for mercy weakly.

"Really?" Gutter blinked. "Why doesn't it feel like that to me? After all..."

Swah——

Before Gutel could finish his words, the demon girl who looked so frail just now suddenly grabbed a fallen leaf from under the tree and threw it hard at Gutel's head.

"Magic that transforms leaves into blades."

In the hands of the demon girl, the withered yellow leaves became as sharp as daggers under the blessing of magic and flew straight towards Gutel.

"Don't write murderous intent in your eyes."

However, the demon girl's risk-taking attack was already anticipated by Gutel. She smiled slightly, then lowered her head slightly, and the leaves turned into blades that flew past Gutel's forehead and then nailed to the brim of her hat.

"Eh!?"

An expression of disbelief appeared in the demon girl's eyes.

"Ah?"

Gutel, who lowered her head confidently, realized that after the sharp blade transformed from the leaves hit the brim of her sun hat, it did not stop, but flew out with the sun hat on her head due to inertia.

"You are a demon..."

The demon girl stretched out her hand and pointed at Gutel's head which was not covered by the sun hat. The two exposed sharp horns were the proof of Gutel's indelible demon identity.

"Ah, I'm exposed..."

Gutel smiled awkwardly, stretched out her hand, and used the magic of "making objects float" to make the sun hat that fell to the ground float back into her hand.

"Are you lurking among those humans?"

As if seeing a glimmer of hope after meeting a fellow demon girl, the white-haired demon girl sat up from the ground and asked Gutel.

"Well, the specific reasons are quite complicated..."

Guter took off the leaves stuck on the brim of his hat with his hands, then put the hat back on his head.

"In that case, you have no reason to kill me. If you just want to gain the trust of those humans, they won't notice anything so far away."

The demon girl didn't care why Gutel was hanging out with that group of humans who looked as powerful as monsters to her. At this moment, she just desperately hoped that Gutel would show mercy and let her go.

"Sorry, I told you, the reasons are complicated."

Gutel raised his hand and pointed it at the demon girl's head. Although the demon girl in front of her was indeed different from those guys who could only run away before, it did not change the fact that they were not from the same group.

"Why? What good will killing me do you?"

Seeing Gutel's dark face, the demon girl raised her hands in panic to protect herself.

"If I let you go, sooner or later you'll grow into a demon as powerful as Maya. Then, you'll devour many innocent people."

Just as Gutel said, the demon girl's previous statement that she had never eaten humans was a complete lie. Although she is still very weak now, she will definitely grow into a terrifying demon in time.

"You...which side are you on?"

The demon girl widened her eyes. It was hard for her to imagine that a demon would say such words.

"Which side..."

The words of the demon girl made Gutel stunned. For a long time, influenced by Xinmeier, she began to imitate the actions and ways of thinking of humans. She hoped to integrate into human society in this way so that she would no longer be regarded as an enemy of humans and be conquered and eliminated like Auramaya.

However, the words of the demon girl suddenly reminded Gutel of Fulilian's ambiguous attitude towards her just now.

After all, the reason why he could walk in the human world with Flilian Philen and the others was not because he was truly recognized by humans.

Gutel reached out and touched his sun hat which had just been knocked off by the demon girl.

It was this hat that covered the horns on his head and concealed his identity as a demon. If he took off this hat in a human town, it would probably cause a huge panic immediately, right?

"I just want to survive. We are of the same race, aren't we? Even if the Demon King has been destroyed by Xinmeier, isn't Xinmeier also dead?"

Seeing Gutel's hesitation, the demon girl quickly added.

"Indeed, we are of the same race."

Gutel looked at the demon girl in front of him. If he took off the sun hat on his head, it would be a demon like her who would treat her as one of their own.

"Then I will..."

Seeing hope, the demon girl tried to get Gutel to let her go.

Chapter 169: The Melancholy Demon Clan

A beam of white light pierced through the white-haired girl's chest, instantly shattering the demon girl's newly ignited hope.

"you……"

The demon girl raised her hand with her last bit of strength and pointed at Gutel in front of her unwillingly.

"That's outrageous! The demons aren't the kind of people who love and help each other. What's more, you even know my secret."

Gutel curled her lips. She admitted that the other party's words did make her realize that she was still a demon after all, but even from the perspective of a demon, she could not let the other party go.

Perhaps due to the rise of humanity, these new generations of demons were forced to band together for survival, leaving them unaware that thousands of years ago, before the birth of the Demon King, internecine slaughter was commonplace for the demons. It's precisely because of this that the great demons, able to survive the cruel, paralyzing environment of raising a poisonous insect, leave behind terrifying legends that would make even the smallest child cry.

hiss--

Watching the corpse of the demon girl lying on the ground dissipate with the wind, Gutel sighed a little. After the death of the demon, not even the corpse can be left behind. No matter how powerful the demon is, it can no longer leave any trace of its existence to the world after death.

Twenty-nine years after the death of the brave Sinmer, in the fortress city of Frisch among the northern countries.

One month after successfully defeating Maya, the great demon that had been plaguing this place, Lord Olden, who led his army back to his fiefdom, held a grand triumphal ceremony. Amidst the falling petals, Furlin and his companions followed Lord Olden and Welter on horseback and walked at the forefront of the triumphal procession.

"Before, I only heard Master tell me about the triumphal ceremonies they had participated in. Now that I've experienced it myself, it really lacks a sense of reality..."

Xutark turned his head and looked at the people lining the road to welcome him. He felt really flattered by the feeling of being worshipped as a hero.

"Compared to our last ceremony in the capital, this is actually nothing. However, I really don't like this kind of grand ceremony. It really makes me feel uneasy."

Fulilian looked at Xutark, who looked like he had never seen the world, and complained in the tone of an experienced person.

"I think it's great. There are already several beautiful older sisters flirting with me~"

Zain stretched out his hand with a smirk on his face and waved at the older sisters in the crowd.

"Huh? Real or fake?"

Xiutark curiously followed Zain’s gaze and looked at the crowd, but Philen, who was standing beside him, pressed his cheek with his hand and pushed Xiutark’s head to the other side.

"Lord Shutark..."

Philen's low voice rang out beside Xutalk's ears.

"Eh?"

Xutark glanced at Philen's darkened face and was so scared that he immediately retracted his head into his collar.

"Xin Meier and the others felt the same way back then, right?"