A few minutes later, both of our figures emerged from the abandoned alleyway, smoothly merging into the busy streets of the city.

With my hood pulled over my head, I closely followed after the Lycan woman in front of me.

The teary and terrified look on her face was now gone, replaced by a cold, yet fierce expression of an experienced scavenger.

"You sure have some serious talent in acting."

Walking a few steps behind her, I mumbled in a low voice.

"...!"

Hearing my low murmur, the well-trained expression on her face faltered for a moment, before she swiftly recovered and carried on ahead like nothing ever happened.

"Hmm~"

I kept walking behind her with a small smile on my face, intrigued by her extremely unusual character.

Earlier, even though I threatened to end her life multiple times, she surprisingly didn't harbor any emotions of hatred or anger toward me.

The only emotions I could 'see' within her were emotions of fear, regret, disappointment, and an inexplicable longing....

I could neither read minds nor accurately decipher the meanings behind these colorful emotions, but it was certainly different compared to the rag-tag bunch of demons roaming around me.

Even though they were simply roaming around the city, I could clearly sense the intense bloodlust passively radiating from them – a reminder of the innate crazed nature of all demons.

Though she did try to take advantage of me in the end in order to save her skin, I could easily tolerate that much.

I would've needed someone to guide me out of these dreary lands later anyway. It was much better if it was someone I could easily control.

…

…

"So, this is the place you were talking about...?"

Currently, we were standing in front of a small, run-down wooden building near the outskirts of the city.

A dirty, tattered rag with the word 'Inn' written in faded black ink was nailed above the entrance of the wooden building.

"Yes. Though it might be a little uncomfortable to rest here, we can escape the city much more easily from this place. Plus, it's much cheaper than the other inns in the center of the city."

I stared at the run-down building that looked more like a haunted house than an inn, while Yera explained why she brought me here in a composed voice.

"Hmm, whatever. Let's go in then."

I was too tired to search for some other inn right now, so I simply accepted the fact that I would have to spend the night in this haunted house.

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Also, as a criminal who turned the Hobgoblin chief's son into an HP potion myself, it was certainly better to have an emergency escape route, just in case we got into some trouble before we could leave this city.

*creeaaak~*

Opening the door with an ominous creak, Yera stepped inside the building with a stoic look on her face, before I also followed her inside.

The ground floor of the run-down inn was populated with old sets of dining tables here and there, some of them showing slight signs of decay.

There were a few other customers enjoying their meal at the corner, accompanied by what I identified as some sort of demonic blend of beer.

"...Hahah, and then that fool ran straight for the exit and got his guts handed to him..."

"...What? Seriously?"

"...yeah, yeah. When he realized he attracted the dungeon guardian's attention, the look on his face was really priceless!"

"Bwahahah! What an idiot!"

"...still, thanks to his idiocy, our party could kill that guardian monster."

Their loud banter contained some disturbing details, but I tactfully ignored them for the sake of preserving my appetite.

Taking a seat at one of the tables far away from the other party of scavengers, I pulled out a pouch of coins from under my cloak.

"Yera, take this."

Yera, who was about to go for the empty counter at the end of the inn's ground floor, reflexively caught the pouch of coins I threw at her.

"...?"

She looked confused for a moment, before quickly hiding the pouch from the sight of the other customers of the inn.

"If I need something, I'll tell you to get it. You get to keep whatever remains from there."

I planned to leave the Demon Realm sooner rather than later, and when I did, these Abyssal Coins would lose their value in Etheria.

It was better to use them as a motivator for Yera to work hard for my sake. After all, money was the indisputable best motivator, no matter the world.

"Y-yes. U-understood."

From the slightly upward jerk of the corner of her lips, it seemed like my decision wasn't wrong.

"Good. Get some good meat for me, and make sure that it doesn't have anything weird mixed in it. Also, try to get me the best possible room in this place."

"Okay."

Yera nodded meekly, before taking off towards the counter.

I saw her go past the counter and slip inside the door next to it. Soon, a muffled conversation drifted into my ears – most probably from Yera and the owner of this establishment talking.

Leaning back on my chair, I relaxed my body while waiting for my meal to arrive.

After some time passed, Yera came out of the door behind the inn's counter and put down a few plates of piping hot meat dishes on the table in front of me.

"There wasn't anything fancy in their kitchen. These were the best I could find – demon beast's meat."

Well, they didn't look too hideous, so it was fine for my flaming stomach.

"It's okay. Take a seat."

Complying with my gesture, she took a seat in front of me with a slightly nervous look on her face.

"Don't worry. The food is fine. I wanted to talk about where I want to go, since you are now my guide and all that..."

Hearing my words, the nervous look on her face faded a little, before she slowly nodded.

"Well, it might be a little difficult for you to get me to my destination, so we might need to make some plans beforehand."

With a smile on my face, I arranged the plates filled with steaming meat around me. before picking up a small blade on the side and staring at her face.

"Now tell me, do you know how I can go to Etheria, on the other side of the dimensional gate?"

I saw Yera's confident expression crumble in real-time, while my smile widened a bit more.

After all, this reaction meant that she did have a method I could use to ditch this realm.