A nameless continent is located in the northeast from the Hideta Empire. An unexplored continent covered by the forests and volcanoes. This continent became a home for all kinds of monsters. In addition, the powerful monsters lived in the surrounding sea. No one can step on this continent and return alive.

There are three big forces on this continent. The rulers of the volcanoes, the purgatory demon birds, the harpies led by a general harpy, who control about the half of the forest and the belial tribe, which controls the rest.

The purgatory tribe can only live on the volcanoes, while the rest can live only in the forest. That’s why there was no conflict between the purgatory tribe and the rest.

The problem lied in the belials and the harpies. The two were always at odds. This was mostly attributed to the belials’ pride as the high-ranking demons. They held ambitions to someday rule the continent.

The belials, who had the appearance of the mini-dragons, had great mobility and hard bodies, were able to dominate every single species they came across. However, they weren’t able to force the harpies to submit no matter what. Although it wouldn’t have been a problem if they fought one on one, the harpies specialized in group attacks, which caused some serious casualties in their ranks.

There, the general harpy and the belial king agreed on the ceasefire 120 years ago, which lasted up until now.

However, at that point in time, an abnormality occurred. A tremendous evil aura appeared in the direction of the Juka Kingdom.

The general harpy reacted to it. She gathered her tribe and ventured to slay the self-proclaimed Great Demon King. The belial tribe became impatient. Harpies’ group attacks posed a great danger to them. What if…..They were worried about different possibilities. If the harpies manage to slay the Great Demon King, the equilibrium will immediately collapse. There was a high possibility of harpies bringing new subordinates with them.

The being said, you need to cross the Juka Mountain Range to reach the Juka Kingdom. There are dragons living there. Even harpies won’t be able to escape from the dragon unscathed. However, if they were willing to sacrifice some of their members, it wasn’t impossible. The belials panicked.

Adding to their misfortunes, the 300-year-old belial king was one foot in the grave. Together with the matter of the Great Demon Kind, they also needed to pick a new king.

In the belial tribe, the strongest is the king. The candidates fight each other and the winner becomes the king.

Originally, that would have been fine, but they needed to come up with a countermeasure against the great Demon King. They wanted to avoid losing their tribe’s strength. There, the belials decided to give the crown to the one who manages to slay the Great Demon King.

The almost dead king had a single daughter. Her name was Peris. In human terms, she was about 10 years old, but she inherited the king’s intelligence.

Peris was the daughter of the king, thus she received the best education. She easily grasped the basics of fighting skills and magic. However, the princess was more interested in the world. For what reason do stars appear? Why is this plant can grow here and not there? You could say that she had a disposition of a scholar.

The king’s last wish was to let her become a queen. The three belials were entrusted with this. The strongest Belialk, the best magician Seshius, the wisest Satorius. [¹]

Peris didn’t like those three too much. She wanted to avoid becoming the Queen and living a restricted life. However, she couldn’t go against her father’s will. On the contrary, the king ordered the three to guard her on her journey to defeat the Great Demon King.

The intelligent Peris immediately understood her father’s intentions. Those three probably won’t be able to defeat the Great Demon King. So when they get wiped out, run away and live a free life.

On the day of their departure, her father, the belial king had died. To distract themselves from sadness, the four proceeded to hunt for the Great Demon King.

The trip was going well. They were attacked by monsters, but it didn’t trouble them at all. Even Peris was able to easily defeat them. While the three were hyped up, Peris calmly analyzed the situation.

She didn’t hear about the dragons trying to slay the Great Demon King. The dragons, who were famous for their intelligence, didn’t move at all. There should be a reason for this. She ended up thinking that the opponent was too strong for the dragons to handle.

An abnormality happened when they were in the Juka Mountain Range. They felt the presences of the harpies together with the general harpy.

When they tried to approach the presences, they were blocked by a barrier. The didn’t manage to break it no matter how many times they slammed into it. This was completely unexpected. The pride of the strongest species on the earth was hurt deeply.

The three decided to break the barrier apart. The three position themselves with Peris in the middle and launched their assault. The power greatly increased, that much was true. However, Peris had a bad premonition.

「Gumomomomo! All right, charge!!」

「Oh! The barrier has cracked! Once again! 」

「How is that, Peris? This is our power! Gumo! 」

「Stop it! I understand, so please stop it! 」

The barrier was finally breached. There was the general harpy with her tribe and a single youth. Peris was surprised after listening. They said there was no Great Demon King. Forget about that, the harpies actually lost to the youth. She said they served him in exchange for their lives.

Why did they even come here? The belials were greatly disappointed. But if they were to defeat the man, who defeated the harpies, then the story would be different. They would be able to rule the continent, they naively thought. Their hearts danced.

However, their thinking was too naive. The youth dispatched the belials in a matter of moments. The wisest Satorius was melted completely.

Peris judged that she won’t be able to win and attempted to escape. However, in the opposite direction, there was the general harpy and her comrades. Peris desperately tried to escape but was caught up in their attack. When she tried to open the bloody path using her strongest magic, she received a tremendous impact on her head. When she looked back, she saw the youth with black katana in his hand. When she thought that she died, a chill run through her soul.

She fell on the ground before she noticed. Then, accompanied by the tremendous pain, her limbs were torn away one by one. When she looked at her wounds, she saw a myriad of tiny rats gnawing at her. [²]

「Stop it!! I beg you, stop it!! Mommy!! Mommy!! Mommy!!!」

Peris unconsciously called for her late mother.