The moment I passed through the portal, what caught my sight was, surprisingly, not the landscape of the Demon Realm, but the back of a demon.

There was a gatekeeper guarding the portal.

“Eek!”

Startled by the sudden appearance, I hastily utilized my ability to stab the demon’s back.

“Ugh.”

Instead of a dying scream, the demon let out a low groan and collapsed, dead.

‘What is this as soon as I enter? I almost screamed out loud.’

In the past, I wouldn’t have had the strength to move my body when surprised, but these days, perhaps because I’ve fought a few battles? Although I’m still far from being calm and I’m flustered, I can diligently carry out what needs to be done.

I swiftly glanced at the back of the fallen demon’s hand. It seemed the opponent was a lower-level demon.

Fortunately, the first opponent I encountered upon entering was a weak one.

‘If I couldn’t defeat them in one blow, other demons might have swarmed in.’

I threw the demon’s corpse outside the portal.

It was to prevent their comrades from noticing my intrusion later on.

I appropriately cleaned up the remaining blood and surveyed the surroundings.

Finally, the proper scenery of the Demon Realm came into view.

‘How should I put it… It feels like a coal mine.’

In God’s memories, the Demon Realm appeared wide open.

However, the place I was standing in now was narrow and dark, like a coal mine with only one path.

Unknown groundwater dripped from the ceiling, and the stone walls had a unique color not seen in the human world.

The appearance of black and red mixed together almost looked like blood flowing at a glance.

Strangely, even though there was no separate lighting anywhere, the surroundings were filled with a faint light.

As my eyes gradually adjusted to the ambiguous darkness, I began to see far ahead.

However, the only thing visible so far was the long, extending path. It seemed I would have to move.

I was about to take out a light from my bag but stopped.

If I carelessly turned on a bright light, it might alert someone of the intrusion.

So I just walked slowly along the path.

Since the path was in one direction, if enemies swarmed from the front and back, I could be trapped, so I continuously checked behind me to see if any enemies were coming.

Fortunately, the path behind the portal was blocked, so the possibility seemed low, but I couldn’t let my guard down.

This place was the Demon Realm.

A place where demons who couldn’t properly use their powers in the human world could demonstrate their true abilities.

It wouldn’t be strange at all if a demon suddenly appeared behind me through teleportation.

I proceeded cautiously.

Every time the occasional sound of dripping groundwater echoed like a reverberation in the narrow space, the tension doubled.

Originally, humans couldn’t sense demonic energy, but perhaps because the concentration was too thick, my skin felt stuffy.

The chills and goosebumps all over my body were a bonus due to the cool temperature.

‘…I’m scared to death, seriously.’

I thought that if I were to die in the Demon Realm, it wouldn’t be at the hands of a demon, but because my heart would shrivel up.

‘I want to go home…’

However, it was already too late to turn back now that I had come this far, so I just moved forward.

After walking for about 20 minutes, the coal mine-like path finally ended, and a cliff appeared.

Carefully looking down, I saw a wide area.

Huge red boxes were stacked everywhere, and next to them were several demons who seemed to be concentrating on something.

I took out binoculars from my bag and observed more closely.

‘Wait a minute. Looking again, those aren’t ordinary boxes, are they?’

Because the color was entirely red, I momentarily mistook them, but what I thought were boxes were closer to collection bins with numerous tiny holes.

The inside was packed full of insects, making it look like an opaque box.

‘Could all of those be Ledanipus…?’

As Veronica predicted, this place seemed to be a Ledanipus breeding ground.

They were breeding the insects here and releasing them into the human world through portals at specific times.

I quietly counted the number of demons.

‘One, two, three, four… eleven. Eleven of them, not too many.’

I couldn’t clearly see the backs of their hands to identify their ranks, but most of them seemed to be lower-level demons.

While fighting demons, I learned that since they also have a class society, the clothes they wear overall differ according to their status.

The flashy and bizarre designs that make you wonder who designed them, if the fabric quality looks good, they are usually higher-level demons, and if they resemble human clothing, they are typically lower-level demons.

Those who were neither, with an ambiguous style, were the middle-level ones.

The ones spread out below looked unremarkable in terms of clothing, so there was a high possibility they were lower-level.

Of course, I couldn’t completely misjudge based on this.

‘You never know. There could be a higher-level demon hiding among them.’

I just confirmed that lower-level demons still can’t match me in the Demon Realm, but I didn’t know about the higher-level ones.

‘Unlike in the human world, I might not even be a match for the higher-level ones here.’

So if there were signs of a higher-level demon appearing, I had to flee without hesitation.

Of course, I still needed to throw a bomb at that breeding ground.

‘Don’t even think about trying to fight, just run away.’

For now, I continued to observe the demons’ actions.

Actually, the initial plan was to find the Ledanipus breeding ground, take out the prepared bombs without looking back, throw them, and run away.

However, I decided to watch a little longer in case I could obtain other information through the demons.

‘Maybe I can find a cure for the Ledanipus disease.’

It might be a futile hope, but if this succeeds, I could save countless lives.

So for now, I concealed my presence and observed the demons’ actions.

After a brief observation, they were all repeating the same actions.

They took out bright red lumps from the box on the left, ground them into powder, and evenly sprinkled it on the bottom of an empty collection bin.

Next, they took out about ten Ledanipus and placed them in the same bin.

Then they brought another collection bin and expressionlessly repeated the process.

It was like watching a factory.

‘Is that red powder the food for Ledanipus?’

The eerily glowing red powder reminded me of the stone walls I had seen on the way here.

If the red parts of the black and red mixed walls were scraped and collected into powder, it might give a similar feeling.

‘It seems to be a method of providing food, confining them in a bin, and waiting for them to breed.’

It was a simpler and more primitive method than I expected.

‘This shouldn’t be the case…’

It appeared that all that was needed for Ledanipus breeding was that red powder, bins to confine them, and a bit of labor.

The fact that it was this simple meant that no matter how much I destroyed this place, they could repeat the same actions anywhere.

‘Even if I destroy this place, the demons will create a breeding ground again. And they will release a bunch of Ledanipus into the human world once more.’

With no way to treat it yet, people would continue to be bitten by the insects and eventually meet their deaths.

‘This absolutely can’t continue. I have to find a way to treat it somehow.’

I kept looking around with the binoculars. Then, at a slight distance from the working demons, I spotted an empty desk.

Several notebooks were stacked on top.

It seemed to be the spot of the person in charge of this place.

Squinting to somehow read the contents of the notebooks, I could faintly see the text.

However, the characters I managed to read were unfortunately not the language of the empire but unfamiliar characters I was seeing for the first time. It seemed to be the language used by demons.

‘This is troublesome.’

Still, I had a hunch that I should take those before leaving.

The empire had excellent cryptanalysts and linguists, so if I entrusted it to them, they might be able to extract important information from those notebooks.

However, clues to cure the disease were still unclear.

I pondered for a moment, then got up.

Although it wasn’t in the plan, it seemed to be time to do something crazy.

Activating my ability, I threw myself down the cliff.

I swiftly and quietly took down the lower-level demons one by one before they could notice.

The opponents were a mere 11. I efficiently swung the sword in my hand, piercing their vital points.

Since they were completely defenseless, unaware of the intruder’s appearance, it wasn’t a difficult task.

Finally, when only one was left, I strongly struck the back of the demon’s neck with the back of my sword.

With a choking sound, the demon fell to his knees, losing consciousness.

I grabbed the demon just before he collapsed. Then I took out a rope from my bag and tied the demon’s limbs and wings.

Stuffing a wad of cloth into the demon’s mouth was a bonus. In case he woke up and screamed, it would be troublesome.

‘Doing this really makes me feel like a kidnapper.’

Well, I was originally a kidnapper, to be honest.

Anyway, that wasn’t important right now. What mattered was that I had to take this demon to the human world like this.

‘Since he works at the breeding ground, he should know a lot about Ledanipus, right?’

The purpose of kidnapping this guy was to make him spill what he knew.

Of course, even if he claimed to know nothing, he would still be useful enough.

I could make him translate the notebooks I saw earlier.

I hoisted the demon, who was unable to resist, onto my shoulder and headed towards the desk.

Then I shoved the stacked notebooks into my bag.

‘The clues to curing the disease should be in here…’

Now, all that was left was to set up the bombs and return to the human world.

But suddenly, an eerie voice was heard from behind.

“Hmm? What are you going to do with that? Miss Vivian Schmidt.”

At the high-pitched voice calling my name, I turned around, extremely tense.

A woman in a flashy dress torn in various places leaned against the wall, smiling at me.

I wished she was human, but the two horns on her head shattered my hope.

I could tell without looking at the tattoo on the back of her hand.

The opponent was a higher-level demon.