“Look at those fools, setting up camp here where there are no other travelers gathered…” Ricky scoffed as he eyed the small camp that had been set up to the side of the road. “Don’t they know this is our territory?”

“Evidently not,” Jaden answered, shaking his head. “If they did, they wouldn’t have set up camp here.”

“But still, they should be able to tell this area is not safe, considering there’s nobody else around.” Ricky crossed his arms.

And Mason piped up, “Perhaps they’re adventurers, here to investigate us. I mean, they do look like adventurers…”

The three bandits looked over at the campsite. Ricky couldn’t see it. At best, it looked like a pair of adventurers— the muscular, half-naked man and the giant of a man wearing a bucket on his head— were hired to escort a grandmother, a mother, and a young daughter.

Shaking his head, Ricky turned to the other two bandits. “Doesn’t matter. Let’s just report this back to the boss. We’ll round up a few men and deal with these fools.”

“Do we even need any backup?” Jaden asked with a raised brow. “We could just deal with them right now.”

“You know how the boss is. Better safe than—” Ricky started.

But Mason interrupted them. “Hey, what’s that noise?”

“What noise?” Ricky frowned as he glanced back. “I don’t hear any—”

And Ricky froze when he came face to face with a pair of glinting crimson orbs staring into him from between the trees. He tried to work his jaw, but nothing came out of his mouth. Jaden raised a brow at Ricky as Mason looked in the same direction as Ricky.

Mason immediately paled, while Jaden just poked Ricky’s side.

“What are you trying to say? Spit it out already!” Jaden exclaimed.

And Mason raised a hand, pointing past Jaden. “T-that-s…”

Ricky slowly nodded in agreement, still trembling in fear.

“Hm?” Jaden slowly turned to face what the two others were facing. And then his eyes grew wide as he saw what they saw.

“Hey,” a young girl’s voice greeted them, followed by a grin that revealed a dozen sharp fangs that glinted under the moonlight. “Papa and mama both say I cannot kill humans unless it’s in self-defense. So when will you attack us already?”

Jaden recoiled as the creepy little girl spoke. He immediately raised a wand as he screamed.

“What are you—”

The wand shone, before unleashing an ice spear straight at her. And the little girl laughed as the attack shot towards her, which she casually flipped over. The fireball exploded where she had been as she landed between the three men.

“Thanks!”

And her laughter was followed by their terrified screams filling the night.

***

“Aria…” Damien crossed his arms as he stared down at the little demon girl. “What did you do?”

She immediately protested, raising her hands. “I saved us— those guys said they were going to kill us! So I killed them first!”

Damien furrowed his brows when he heard that. Lena crossed her arms next to him. Meanwhile, both Ulric and Elana paled at the sight of the bloodied scene up ahead. Right before a small smoking crater, there were a pile of limbs stacked up alongside mangled chunks of organs and innards.

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“W-what did she do?” Elana asked in horror.

“I was protecting us!” Aria repeated herself. “They said they were going to kill us!”

“You should’ve woken us up if you noticed danger,” Lena said in a reprimanding tone, her gaze boring down into the little demon girl. “What if you got hurt?”

Aria bowed her head. “I’m sorry! But I could tell they were pretty weak!”

Damien nodded as he tilted his head back. “I mean, she’s got a point. I didn’t even sense them, which means they must’ve been under Level 100.”

“Damien!” Lena exclaimed, glaring at him.

He shrugged back at her. “But it’s true.”

“See, papa gets it!” Aria piped up.

Lena sighed as she shook her head. “This time, things were fine. But next time, that may not be the case. So please, just let us know first next time around, alright Aria?”

“Yes, mama…” Aria said as she nodded begrudgingly.

Damien scratched the back of her head as he glanced between them. But the discussion was over, so there was nothing else for him to add, except to address the corpses.

“Should we be worried about them? I am assuming they’re bandits.” Damien glanced over at the people Aria had killed.

Lena waved a hand dismissively at them. “I’m sure it’s fine. We’ll be out of this area by tomorrow anyway.”

“Alright, I guess…” Damien trailed off as he glanced back at them one last time.

If anything ended up happening, he knew that these bandits would be easy to deal with anyway. So with that settled, he ended up heading back to sleep. After all, it was late at night, and it was not like anything else was going to happen tonight.

***

Aria was upset.

She thought she did the right thing. She thought she hadn’t done anything wrong. But ever since they had left the city, she had been getting scolded by mama over everything.

Sure, maybe intercepting Ulric had been a mistake. Because apparently Ulric was one of papa’s friends. But Aria hadn’t known that. She had only sensed someone approaching them quickly. So she reacted how she could and intercepted him.

But that accidentally revealed herself to be a demon. Which was apparently a bad thing. Even though Aria still didn’t understand it yet.

And now, when she killed those three humans who were very much bad guys, she was still reprimanded for her actions. Why?

Aria had been told she couldn’t kill humans other than out of self-defense. And that had been exactly what this was. They attacked her first. Not only that, they had been talking about attacking mama and papa and their friends!

So why had Aria been scolded?

“I don’t get it…” she sighed as she hugged her legs by the campfire.

She sat there alone, while mama and papa had gone to sleep. Normally, Aria slept next to mama. But the little demon girl couldn’t fall asleep because of how bothered she had been over what had happened in the past day.

So she mulled over what she did wrong. She tried to understand where she had fallen short of what mama and papa told her to do. They gave her a set of rules, and she tried to follow it. She only failed in one regard, as far as she knew. And that was in revealing herself to be a demon.

“But what’s wrong with being a demon?” Aria asked herself as she closed her eyes.

“Nothing,” a tinny voice came in reply.

And Aria looked up, seeing a large figure emerging from one of the tents. She stared at the helmeted head, before looking the giant of a man up and down.

“You’re papa’s friend.” Aria blinked at Ulric as he sat down next to her.

“Can’t sleep too, huh?” he chuckled as he looked up at the night sky. “I assume it’s because you have a lot in your mind.”

“I do.” Aria huffed as she crossed her arms. “I just don’t understand it. Why is it such a big deal that I’m not a human?”

“You’ve seen the way Elana looks at you, haven’t you?” Ulric said, eyeing Aria curiously. “And it bothers you?”

Aria raised a brow back at Ulric. “Um, it doesn’t bother me. But it seems to bother papa and mama. And that’s what I don’t understand.”

Ulric nodded understandingly, before he raised his head. “I see. Well, it’s complicated. Do you want to walk with me? And we’ll talk more about it.”

“But won’t mama get mad at me for wandering around at night?” Aria asked with a frown. “Especially when I should be asleep?”

“I’ll take the blame for it,” Ulric said as he rose to his feet. “Besides, your mother is most worried about how humans will react to you because you’re not a human. And you don’t have to worry about that with me.”

“Why not?” Aria cocked her head as she slowly got up, following after Ulric.

He lifted his helmet up, revealing his face underneath. Aria’s eyes grew wide as she saw a rotund face— cheeks that almost seemed to meld with his neck, and a crooked nose. Ears that were basically just holes. Ashen-pale skin. Glinting golden eyes. A bald head.

Ulric smiled reassuringly at her, revealing two rows of flat teeth in his mouth. “Because I’m not a human either. So don’t worry about it. Now come on, let’s walk and talk.”

Aria blinked a few times as he placed his helmet back on his head, before she nodded and followed after him.

“Mkay!”