"Move fast, morons! We don't have all day here!"

*crackle–!*

A long line of chained demons walked through the winding passageways of the underground ruin, herded by none other than the trio of unfamiliar ogres Urgus brought along with him.

Weakened from starvation in their cells, the soon-to-be-sold slaves staggered on their feet as they moved forward, earning them a harsh beating and sometimes even a whip to their back for delaying everyone.

All of these enslaved demons wore gloomy and resigned looks on their faces, seemingly accepting the fact that their inevitable end was getting closer with each step they took forward.

Some of them carefully stole a few glances at us from the corner of their eyes, before inadvertently locking eyes with me and swiftly lowering their heads as they shivered in fear.

'Good. At least this way, their willpower won't be recovering anytime soon...'

It was truly lucky that we didn't have to go through the same treatment as those demons, even if it was for the sake of gaining my freedom without being hunted down by two worlds.

However, it was to be expected, since we were the only premium-class goods among the procession of all these weak and useless bunch of demons.

Needless to say, walking beside me at the end of the line, Yera, with her Lycanthrope lineage, was the most valuable demon among them all...

Normally, excluding some rare cases, Lycans were only among the lower-middle ranks in terms of individual combat strength in the overall hierarchy of demons.

...well, that was if you weren't unlucky enough to stumble upon one during a full moon's night.

However, since they usually moved around in packs, finding a lone wolf separated from its pack was almost like chancing upon a legendary unicorn – making it even more inconceivable for mere slavers to capture them!

And unsurprisingly, I ended up being the second most valuable demon in this batch, since my original race wasn't very apparent from the looks alone.

According to the bits and pieces of conversation I overheard, it seemed that my unusual physical features that resembled an Etherian more than a normal demon's features made me a great collector's piece.....or something like that.

'...but when will these idiots stop staring at me like that?'

Apparently, Urgus sold me to his boss as a mutant variation of the Night Demon race – an enigmatic race of demons well-known for their parasitic and cowardly nature in the demon society.

But even though they were called 'Night' demons, their demonic powers didn't have anything to do with night and darkness.

Rather, this 'Night' demon was just a fancy term used for collectively classifying all the succubi and incubi-based races inhabiting the northern Demon Realm.

After all, in their cruel and unforgiving world, they were the only ones who survived for so long by depending on other strong demons for protection!

They simply leeched off the abundant lifeforce of strong demons while being protected, without ever providing anything in return...

...Oh, hmm, well...except for 'those' kinds of benefits...

It was truly fascinating how a weak and non-combatant demonic race evolved to better survive in a world, where their individual strength was supposed to be everything.

However, after learning that I was a mutant-type Night demon, the ogre trio's imagination unfortunately started running a bit too wild!

It was to the point they started to believe that I had somehow bewitched the Lycan woman so badly, that she was even willing to surrender her freedom just to protect me from any harm!

'Well, in a way, they're 'technically' not really wrong, but...'

When I first heard the ogres talking about this topic with each other, I was left shocked, but it wasn't because I was outraged at the fact that they had such a misunderstanding. Rather, it was because I couldn't believe that an idiotic ogre like Urgus could come up with such an outrageous yet coherent backstory for us!

'Did the earlier hit to his head somehow improve his intelligence...?'

Though I had some conflicting feelings about their misunderstanding, especially when Yera's face kept getting redder for no reason...

I still believed that as long as I got what I wanted, everything else could simply be ignored! Shame and all was only for the weak!

Currently, me and Yera were walking ahead with our heads facing the ground, a look of frustration etched on our faces.

All this time, the ogres we frequently came across in the passageway shot envious glances at Urgus – who was silently walking behind us.

Everything was proceeding smoothly, and we soon made it outside the underground passageways, when a hulking obstacle suddenly interrupted our slow march.

"Hey, Urgus! Wait!"

Seemingly lost in his thoughts, Urgus was a bit late in realizing that someone had called out to him.

"...Ugh?"

As he lifted his head, he saw an ogre stepping towards him with a confused frown on his face, making his eyes slightly widen in surprise.

After all, it was one of his subordinates who dragged us to this camp with him yesterday!

"What are you doing? And why are you trying to sell them, and that too by yourself? Weren't we supposed to—ump?!"

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Urgus quickly stopped him from speaking by pressing down on his mouth, causing the other ogre to let out a dumb sound.

Then, pulling his subordinate closer to him, he stealthily began whispering in his ears.

"Shut up! I talked with our big boss, and he said that we can get a much bigger cut by selling them! A-Also, w-why would we want to make new enemies by letting their family know that we dared to kidnap them?"

The subordinate made an understanding expression, causing Urgus to release his hold.

"*cough*... Uhm, then it's okay, I guess. But why are we keeping this a secret?"

With his mouth freed, the ogre whispered this in Urgus' ears, earning him a swift slap to the back of his head.

*slap–!*

"You idiot! I already told you yesterday, don't talk about these two to anyone. If someone sold us out to their family members, it'd be us who would lose their neck! The big boss wouldn't go to war just to save us!"

Even with his eyes darting here and there in nervousness, Urgus somehow managed to make a reasonable-sounding excuse to his subordinate – who then widened his previously confused eyes in realization!

"Ah, I didn't think of that at all! Whoa....Urgus, from when did you become so smart?"

"Tsk. I have always been smart! You want to get beaten up or what?"

"No, no. I'm good. Then, I'll go and let the others know! Who knows when those loud-mouthed bastards would open their mouths?"

"Yeah, you do that. I will have to go now..."

"Ohh."

The ogre nodded his head and swiftly ran into the underground passage entrance, most probably to let the other ogres know about Urgus' warning.

All this time, the trio of ogres had suspicious looks on their faces, while staring at the whispering duo with slightly narrowed eyes.

But Urgus didn't pay them any heed, instead calmly sending his subordinate away after an intense bout of whispering and then gesturing to the ogre trio to start moving again.

Although their suspicions weren't erased, they still decided to let go of the matter for the time being and confront Urgus about it later.

"Break time is over! Keep moving, you morons!"

*crackle–!*

As the ogre's short whip crackled, the procession of slaves continued its journey once more, this time through the cursed lands and towards the dimensional gate in the distance.

…

…

*WHOOSH–!*

The dark, whirling fog of miasma in front of us was torn open by a bunch of hulking boars sprinting through the cursed lands, as they pulled an open-air carriage on their back.

Two of the previous trio of ogres were standing on both sides of the carriage, while the last one carefully drove the carriage through the dreary landscape, staring ahead with an extremely serious look in his eyes.

The demon slaves numbering fourteen including us, sat on the wooden floor of the carriage as it ominously creaked at every bump in the uneven lands we were traversing through.

Urgus closely followed us from behind while riding the back of a huge demonic boar, with seven more boar-riding ogre warriors following behind him.

All of them were looking around with cautious eyes, ready to respond to any kind of threat coming in our direction – be it from the cursed lands itself, or from the accursed adventurers of Etheria!

Nonetheless, it was my first time seeing the ancient battlefield outside the screen of the game I once played...

And once I saw it in person, it felt far, far more deadly and nightmarish compared to the lifeless visuals shown in the original game's later stages!

The air in this place was heavy with a sticky scent of death and decay, carrying slight traces of the destructive might of age-old powerhouses who fought and died here. Eerie and unintelligible screams, along with the ghastly wails of innumerable specters occasionally reached our carriage, making our ears ring with words we couldn't make any sense of.

Even the reddish-black soil of this land seemed to give off a bloodthirsty aura all by itself, making me wonder just how many lives this battlefield had taken for the soil to emit such a horrifying aura!

The clear sky above the barren lands was absent in this place, instead being covered by large swathes of dark thunderclouds that frequently crackled with bright flashes of lightning. The loud booming noise from those thunderclaps echoed after random intervals, causing some of the demon slaves to suddenly jerk back in surprise.

But despite their extreme levels of caution, the ogres did not encounter any kind of serious obstacle in their path.

As for the few land-bound specters we encountered, we were able to easily outrun them with our carriage, as the boar-riding ogres went ahead to distract them.

Soon, when we were only a few more kilometers away from the enormous dimensional crack, the ogres abruptly began slowing down...

The nearby land suddenly became excessively uneven, with huge rocks and boulders blocking our path ahead, while innumerable low-altitude mountains littered the entire region my eyes could reach.

After bringing the boar-pulled vehicle behind one such low-rise mountain, the ogre driving our carriage jumped down from his seat, before hollering at all of us in a loud voice.

"Get off, morons! It's time to meet your new owners!"

The other two ogres standing at our sides all this time took hold of their short-whips again, before pushing the chained demons out of their carriage.

"Get up and move! Quick!"

*crackle–!*

As we all left the carriage, the boar-riders tied their mounts to the parked carriage and began to follow us from behind.

Normally, it should've been us following behind them while they protected us – their valuable products – from any kind of harm.

But, as demons, the ogres were obviously going to prioritize their own safety first.

After all, they became slave traders in the first place because they couldn't become proper scavengers – demons who were unwilling to risk their lives for more riches and prestige.

So, if their 'business partners' pulled anything funny, or they suddenly encountered an adventurer party, we would be their first line of defense to buy time....while they leisurely figured out how to respond to the sudden situation.

We had to walk for a few dozen minutes through the dead, rocky terrain, before finally coming across a small group of cloaked bipedal creatures hiding behind a medium-sized rock formation.

"Gahahaha! Ahh, this is my favorite part!"

One of the ogres escorting us from the side let out a creepy laugh, as the other ogres showed either a wide grin on their face, or just snickered in response.

At this moment, Urgus pulled out a small, glowing rock from under his leather armor and showed it to the cloaked group of individuals, while the cloaked individuals responded by flashing an intricate-looking golden emblem in our direction.

Narrowing his eyes at the emblem for a moment, Urgus nodded his head and gestured to the ogre warriors to take their positions.

"Hmm. You people sure brought quite a big haul this time around..."

At this moment, one of the cloaked individuals stepped forward from his group with an ugly smile visible on the lower part of his face covered under a hood.

"...Isn't that a good thing for you?"

Urgus responded with a small frown on his face, causing the cloaked man to shrug his shoulders.

"Not necessarily.... Ah, by the way, what happened to our usual delivery guy?"

"That's none of your business. Let's quickly get it over with. I don't want anyone or anything to suddenly show up here."

"Haah, the previous guy was much more friendly compared to you. You're really too impatient for your own good.... Well, whatever. Hey, start loading the goods!"

As the cloaked guy gestured to the other members of his group, Urgus suddenly began speaking.

"...Wait. I would like to end our talk here, but we have two unusual demons in this time's batch. And I think you know what that means..."