A non-human entity had appeared beside him in the dead of night.
The moment he realized it, Kiyoshi Nagasaki's heart pounded so violently it felt ready to flee his chest.
His first instinct was to wake Shoko, but the air around them felt suspended, as if wrapped in a suffocating stillness. Any movement might shatter it, and whatever followed… was impossible to predict.
It was like that frozen frame in an anime before two masters cross blades.
Or like the crushing silence between two people on the verge of a fight.
The horned girl across from him met his eyes. The firelight made it impossible to clearly discern her hair or eye color, only her expression stood out: a smile so perfect it looked etched onto her face.
"She" was studying him.
The last grains of sand fell in the hourglass. The horned girl extended a hand. Kiyoshi gripped his sword.
She ignored him.
Instead, she flipped the hourglass over, calmly, gracefully, and time resumed its flow.
"…, "
Then she spoke. Softly.
But Kiyoshi didn't understand the language of this world.
She spoke again. Three or four sentences this time.
Still incomprehensible.
He considered using gestures, but stopped. He had no idea what might be considered rude or provocative here.
Even on Earth, gestures like nodding or waving weren't universally understood.
So he did the only thing he could: he met her gaze, letting his confusion show.
And then he noticed something unusual.
Her eyes weren't like a human's. There was no muddled complexity, only clear, pinpointed emotion.
The best word he could think of was: pure.
Her emotions weren't shallow, but rather precise. Easy to read. If she was happy, you could see it. If she was upset, it showed immediately.
The horned girl pointed at herself.
"Solitar," she said.
Then repeated it twice.
Solitar.
A name?
Kiyoshi silently cursed himself for not studying the local language.
She pointed at him next.
He took the hint.
"…Kiyoshi."
He said it twice, mimicking her.
Her face lit up.
She smiled broader, visibly more pleased. The arc of her lips had shifted higher. That's how he knew she was happy.
Her emotional expressions were so… deliberate.
As if measured with a ruler.
Shoko smiled like that sometimes too, but with her, it was layered: her eyes, her voice, her muscles all joined in harmony. This girl, by contrast, simply displayed the smile, like a mask swapped in.
Kiyoshi, ever observant, felt a chill creep down his spine.
It was like facing a machine in human skin.
And yet… that wasn't terrifying. It was comforting.
Machines followed procedures. They had rules. Humans… didn't. Humans were chaos. Their "code" was written in contradictions, swayed by mood, memory, whim.
But this "girl", this Solitar, had smiled. And as long as that emotion remained unchanged, she probably wouldn't attack him.
That stiffness, so unlike a human, put him at ease.
Kiyoshi had always been good at reading people. He'd trained himself, so that when he did make friends, he'd know how to keep them.
…Though, based on his awkward interactions with Shoko, execution was another matter entirely.
Solitar was a demon. An unregistered one, her name didn't appear in any human records.
Her hobby? Studying humans.
Over the centuries, those few she could call "friends" had all died in the wars against mankind. After that, her understanding of humans shifted:
They were dangerous.
Say that out loud and most demons would laugh in your face.
With the Demon King and the Seven Calamities on their side, every demon walked tall with pride.
Solitar had that pride too. She didn't believe humans could ever reach the height of demonkind.
But still, she kept her guard up.
To kill a demon, one only had to pierce the heart. Even she could die if ambushed by a seasoned mage or warrior.
Just like venomous snakes were to humans, weakness didn't mean harmlessness.
Once she accepted that, she changed the way she lived.
She became cautious.
Never exposed herself to unnecessary danger. Studied human magic and customs. Hid when possible. And if she was discovered… she erased everything nearby. No witnesses.
And yet… the more she learned, the more she couldn't resist her curiosity.
Humans were fascinating.
Recently, however, she'd gone into hiding, along the coast, to avoid being conscripted by the Demon King's generals. Her stance was simple: she wouldn't obey orders, but she wouldn't interfere either.
Two weeks ago, she found a beached whale.
It was her largest specimen yet.
She spent the entire fortnight cleaning and preparing its skeleton, mounting it with care in her seaside lair.
Today, she'd finally finished it.
To celebrate, she went out for a walk.
And maybe… just maybe… she'd run into a human or two.
The Northern Empire was still resisting. Surrounded by demonkind, it scrambled to break the siege, gather intelligence, and strike back.
It was possible someone might've wandered this far.
If so, they'd have to be eliminated.
Her "home" held too many irreplaceable items: rare specimens, one-of-a-kind grimoires. Losing them would be unacceptable.
Still, her life came first.
If it ever looked like someone might uncover her location, she'd burn it all and move on.
Solitar weighed the risk with care.
She walked farther than usual today, on high alert,
And saw a firelight in the distance.
Humans?
They'd made it this close?
Had the other demons gotten lazy? Or had these humans… killed them?
Could it be the Empire's Special Mage Task Force?
No, those guys wouldn't set up a fire in demon territory. The Empire's other elite group, the Shadow Warriors, wouldn't be this sloppy either.
If it was just a small scouting party… well, now she was intrigued.
The craving hit.
She watched carefully for a while.
No traps. No wards. No magic detection spells.
Just two very weak, almost comically weak, humans.
The girl had an unmistakable air of etiquette. That kind of poise only came from nobility, or demons mimicking them.
The boy looked frail, but his instincts were sharp. He glanced toward her several times. Human eyes couldn't pierce the dark, but still, interesting.
Based on her knowledge of human culture, this pairing could only mean one thing.
Elopement?
She kept watching.
No hidden muscle. No backup. No signs of magical shielding.
They'd dropped straight out of the sky, into this barren, monster-light patch of land.
She smothered her presence.
Snuck up beside them.
Human fear never got old.
But what she saw wasn't horror, just a natural fear of the unknown.
Hello? A demon, one of the beings that slaughtered two-thirds of humanity, is sitting right next to you.
And your response is just… wariness?
She stared at him for a full thirty minutes.
Eventually, she understood.
He didn't even recognize what she was.
When he finally got a good look at her face, past the initial fright, there was a flicker of something else in his eyes.
An emotion she'd seen in many human men looking at beautiful women.
Appreciation.
Solitar… appreciated his appreciation.
So.
She'd take them back.
They might liven up her otherwise peaceful life.
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200 P.S / 1 Extra Chapter