Another demon. I peeked from behind the wall. A demon with long and desaturated indigo hair, in sophisticated but minimally adorned clothing. She took an instinctive defensive stance with a hand covering her mouth.

  "What sort of massacre..?", she struggled to catch her breath.

  A half-demon? I didn't notice any horns or any sort of demon appendages.

  Then, that means I'll have an easier time communicating. I turned back to give a few gestures to Lully.

  Wait here. Only talk at my signal. Copy my expressions.

  I waited behind the wall for now as the girl continued to talk.

  "1, 2, 3...This has to be more than 20 monsters. They're all burnt to a crisp!", she looked around if there was still anything alive, or perhaps demons buried under the monster bodies, "Ah! I miss my father, he would never let me get close to such dirty things... I have to call Verna."

  "Oh- what is this..?"

  Hearing another voice, she jumped, "I-is someone there? Hey..hey!", she waved her hand.

  I exited from the corner and looked at the pile of dead monsters in horror.

  I feel kind of guilty, but I can't just act like I know what's happened here... I'll atone later.

  "Who's that..?", I mumbled, then shouted, "Hey, do you know what happened here?"

  The girl shook her head vigorously, "No, I just got here. Where did you come from? Did you see anyone walk past you?"

  "No, I didn't. I was just wandering the maze.", I held my chin, "But it's strange, the corpses at the edges seem freshly burnt. I wonder who did this..."

  I looked at her, "By the way, are you alone? Come over here. If you don't mind, we could join up and move as together. It'll be safer that way."

  Subtly, I narrowed my eyes.

  Meanwhile, she widened her eyes, "Me, alone? No, I'm already part of a 'group'."

  "Mmm...", she closely observed my stained clothes, my hands, and my appearance, but didn't do so for long. Afterwards, she hesitated briefly, "..You, you wanna join us instead? We have 4 people, including me. Are you alone?"

  I gestured to Lully, "No, I'm not. I came with a friend."

  "Yeah, friend."

  Lully exited from the corner of the wall, and despite being far away, I could see her focus her eyes to his wings and hair color briefly, and do a double take.

  "That's fine! Come here quickly, we've already cleared out our area, but we don't know when monsters would come back again. Especially with...this, these smells.", she pointed to the pile of burnt monster corpses.

  That's true. I hopped and crossed over the monster corpses, Lully following behind.

  "Anyway, I'm Cael. What's your name?"

  "You can call me Millie.", she laughed, "What about you?"

  Lully glanced at both of us, "I'm Lully!"

  I raised an eyebrow at her carefree demeanor, "You don't seem too concerned on who killed these monsters."

  Millie turned to face me, "Huh? Oh, yeah. It's a little scary but I think it'll be fine if we leave it to our leader. She's...definitely much stronger than them!"

  How trusting. Is this blind or justified? I thought for a little bit.

  "So, where are we going? Back to your...", I trailed off.

  Her nose twitched, "No. I was actually sent to do some scouting, so I'll look over the area real quick. But if you follow these directions..."

  She explained in detail where we needed to go to find where she and her group set up camp.

  "As long as you say I sent you guys, they'll understand. The group leader believes the more people the bette- oh, wait, can you guys go by yourselves? Your leg..."

  "It's fine, I can still walk."

  How considerate. I memorized the directions she gave us.

  "And when would you be done 'scouting'?", Lully asked.

  For that question, Millie thought for a second before answering, "In just a little bit! I'll probably arrive right after you guys do."

  With that, we nodded to each other, and Millie set off to continue her scouting tasks.

  Now that Millie had left, Lully looked at me.

  "So, are we going to that group?"

  "Hm...", my head sunk into contemplation. My job here is to make sure Lully either survives or passes upon death...yeah he's not passing. So to figure out the most surefire way to survive...

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  My thoughts on the pros and cons of each route were clear. Going alone means more autonomy but risking dying to either Lully or from monsters due to my decreasing strength. Joining a larger group means being able to better manage Lully's mental stability and gaining protection from multiple people...

  The thing is, I don't know who they are.

  I looked at Lully. Though I also don't know who he is.

  ...Asking for irrelevant personal details here would only be suspicious.

  "Do you have anyone that has a grudge against you?", I asked carefully.

  At my question, Lully didn't have trouble answering, "Well, they aren't the type of people to."

  I paused. They..?

  "You don't have to worry about it!", he smiled.

  "...", my eyebrow twitched.

  ...In the end, I decided to trust my own judgement, believing that considering I was able to make it this far, dealing with minor social conflicts would be far less dangerous than dealing with Lully alone or a monstrous frog. After all, Lully's nearly killed me twice now.

  Making up my mind, I smiled, "Yes, it'd be best if we joined up with Millie's group."

  Lully laughed, "Oh, great! That's a relief, I was worried we were going to split up when I left for their camp."

  I took the lead. Regardless of how he talks, it's still surprising how familiar he acts when it's only been around a week since we met.

  Ah, right, and I'm not even doing this for any payment... I mean, he did fly me to the nearest town, but I wish I asked for at least a little something... I sighed.

  And before I realized it, we arrived at the campsite.

  Several people were huddled around a controlled fire, cooking meat and talking to each other in boisterous chatter. They noticed us and quieted down.

  One green-haired demon looked at me suspiciously, his gaze full of probing, "...Who are you two? How did you find us?"

  I stopped approaching, and tried sounding friendly, "We met someone named Millie, and she said we could go here."

  Lully joined in, "Yeah! She was the one that gave us directions. You know, blue-purple hair, half-demon?"

  The green-haired demon sunk into contemplation, and another person around the fire with short, brown hair stared at us sharply.

  The brown-haired demon spoke, "Your names?"

  "Cael. Lully."

  The female brown-haired demon then too sunk into contemplation, but the last, third female demon spoke with a tone full of paranoia.

  "Verna! These two just came from nowhere, why are we even thinking about accepting them? What if they forced the information out of Millie-Millie? And we don't even have enough food to feed the both of them.", she pointed at me, "Look, one of them's even injured!"

  The brown-haired demon, referred to as Verna, glanced briefly at her, then after a few more seconds, uttered calmly.

  "Lilah, don't be so quick to accuse. Millie can hold her own, and she's tight-lipped. That's why we sent her scouting alone in the first place. Let's trust her.", she used her thumb to point at my injuries, "Moreover, you said it yourself. He's injured, so it makes it even less likely that Millie would lose to them. His injuries don't seem fresh either."

  "Let's accept them. It won't hurt to have more people."

  Hearing Verna's words, I thought to myself quietly. So it seems my injuries are actually adding to my credibility.

  I glanced back at Lully. His complexion looked unwell. He had no obvious injuries, but was clearly tired despite his bright smile.

  Lilah hesitated upon hearing her points dismantled so cleanly, but was unable to bring herself to fully agree with Verna.

  "But you-", Verna looked at me and was just about to speak again before I interrupted her.

  "Oh, did I say we needed to be fed with your food?", I reached my hand into my pockets.

  In one clean grab, I brought out a thin piece of meat as long as my arm and as wide as my torso.

  "How does this do? We can share it.", I showed a bright smile.

  Lully was almost salivating, "Ohh, is that edible? I'm really hungry though, why don't you give that to m-"

  I stared Lully down threateningly.

  "...", he paused, and looked away awkwardly, "Ah, looks delicious."

  Lilah's gaze locked onto the piece of meat, and after an awkward silence, she backtracked, "Uh, mm.. Actually, I think letting them join us would be a good idea..."

  The demon referred to as Handon seemed to be gazing elsewhere, daydreaming.

  Verna, having a somewhat complicated expression, seemed to be wrestling with different lines of thought, but eventually nodded and returned to a calm expression.

  "Alright, sit."

  Without missing a beat, I approached and sat down in an empty spot at the fire.

  "Thank you for letting us stay. Now, how should we roast this?", I struggled for a moment, saying it all in one breath. I passed the slab of monster meat to Verna.

  Just before I regained my composure, a bubbly voice shouted from behind.

  "Hey guys, I'm back!"

  "Millie-Lilie!", Lilah's eyes glowed.

  Millie ran and reported what she found to Verna.

  I eavesdropped a little bit and managed to hear Millie talking a little bit about the pile of monster corpses, and us being 'suspicious' people who happened to arrive right after her. However, when I peeked at Verna's expression, it was unfazed, and she nodded her head slightly without saying anything.

  After seeing Verna's confident expression, all forms of concern disappeared from Millie's face, and she sat down to bicker with Lilah.

  At the same time, Lully sat next to Verna, "Hey, who are you? Are you a noble? You look like one. I am too! What's your na-"

  I didn't pay their conversation any mind, looking at the continuing hallways on either side of us. They must have taken a long time to clear this area out. Even on the way here, we didn't encounter any monsters. Though, I can't get the feeling that this is a particularly efficient group...

  Nevertheless, I shook off my gut feeling, stowing it away for another time.

  Instead, I focused my attention to the people here. Millie, Lilah, Verna--didn't recognize them much among major characters, but when my gaze shifted to Handon, the green-haired demon, I suddenly remembered something deep in my memory.

  Wait, Handon? He's an extra, but wasn't his family in some political heat at this time? My gaze lingered momentarily. Hm..

  But Handon noticed it and frowned, "What? What are you looking at?"

  "Oh, sorry. I was zoning out a little.", I grabbed a cooked piece of meat next to the fire to eat. I averted my gaze and diverted my attention to something else. My memory of Handon's past as an extra was also a little blurry.

  Chomp! The moment I took the first bite, a wave of relief washed over me. I have to savor this period of calm and regain my energy.

  I closed my eyes. I remember there was a method to sleep with your eyes open and autopilot on in this world. I haven't learned it though, let me just compromise...

  Using [Immersion], I took my focus and scattered it, zoning out just enough to let my mind breathe without anything to think about.

  Meanwhile, in another section of the maze, unknown of how far from Cael and the campsite:

  "Boss, there's no people. What are we going to do? We don't have a fire to cook anything.", in the dark hallway, golden blonde hair subtly shined, "If we want to be in tiptop shape, we'll need to eat something."

  A silver-haired demon peered down the long winding hallway, and said coldly, "It's fine. We'll keep looking."

  "But boss Argyros, we've been looking for over two hours!", another blonde demon complained.

  The man referred to as Argyros glared at them sharply, then narrowed his eyes, "It's good then. It just means that they're gathering in one place."

  At the same time, he let go of a dull, bloody knife gripped in his hand.

  It fell to the ground unceremoniously. Clang!

  He looked behind him.

  "Give me your weapon."