“So… monsters and demons really do exist?”

Lin Jianxue thought, feeling both a little scared and a little excited.

Because, realistically, unless some monster really was interfering, there was no better explanation for the two people’s strange behavior before and after.

As if to confirm Lin Jianxue’s suspicion,

the moon, once again emerging from behind the gray clouds, bathed the world in her cool, pure light.

The demon’s shadow appeared again.

At least, to Lin Jianxue, the shadow had horns like a demon’s and a demon’s tail.

Lin Jianxue had braced herself a little, but she was still frightened. Her heartbeat, which had begun to settle, sped up again.

Phew… Calm down. Think carefully. I only escaped being violated by those two because demons really do exist.

At least I can’t sense any malice from the demon right now, can I?

Lin Jianxue tried to reassure herself with those thoughts. Then, in a voice she couldn’t keep from trembling, she asked cautiously:

“Um… are you Mr. Demon?”

Saya sat atop the wall, watching the girl below speak to her shadow.

So none of them ever looked up?

Saya tilted her head, wondering.

“I’m not a demon.”

Saya watched, still swinging her legs as her long tail swayed behind her.

Saya couldn’t produce emotions herself, but she could detect the emotional signals radiating from humans.

Especially girls like the one below, whose emotions swung wildly in extreme situations. They were Saya’s favorite subjects to observe.

For the past half month or so, Saya had been learning about human society in this world, but she’d spent even more time observing humans themselves.

Although Saya couldn’t produce emotions most of the time, she could try to imitate them.

Under ordinary circumstances, though, human emotions tended to stay fairly steady, making them difficult to pick up. And if she wanted to imitate human emotions, people in extreme situations made better subjects to learn from.

Saya still hadn’t learned how to imitate human emotions, but she’d gotten better at recognizing them.

Hearing the word “demon” echo from every direction in the alley, Lin Jianxue froze for a moment.

The other person’s voice wasn’t what Lin Jianxue had imagined at all: hoarse, harsh, cruel, and chilling.

Instead, it was lovely—clear and cool, almost like a girl’s voice.

But as lovely as that voice was, hearing it in an alley with such an eerie atmosphere somehow made things even scarier.

After hesitating for a moment, Lin Jianxue looked at Saya’s shadow and asked again:

“Then… are you Miss Succubus?”

“A succubus is a kind of demon, too, isn’t it?”

“Ah… is that so… Sorry…”

Cold sweat beaded on Lin Jianxue’s forehead. She let out an awkward laugh, even though she couldn’t really smile and was so tense she feared the “demon” might suddenly crawl out of the shadow if she got upset.

What a strange human.

That was what Saya thought of the girl.

The previous two times, everyone had run away as soon as they saw her, whether they were men or women, aggressors or victims. One human woman had even fainted on the spot.

But this girl was scared stiff and still dared to talk to her. For a moment, Saya didn’t know what to make of her.

“Aren’t you afraid of me?”

After a long pause, Saya asked curiously.

Miss Demon spoke again!

Lin Jianxue perked up, then stumbled over her words:

“Ah… I am… I mean, no, I… Okay, a little… Yeah, just a little.”

“Do you really want to know what I am?”

A chill clung to the cool voice, and Lin Jianxue felt a shiver run down her spine.

Then the girl stammered:

“Well, actually… you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I just didn’t know what to call you, and I was afraid I might offend you.”

Lin Jianxue had chickened out again. The courage she’d struggled to summon vanished.

Whatever the case, everything Lin Jianxue had gone through that night had put her heart through the wringer. It had been pounding hard all evening.

Lin Jianxue even wondered if her heart would keep beating itself into exhaustion until it stopped.

But evidently, she’d spoken too late.

Lin Jianxue had been watching the demon’s shadow on the ground the whole time. Then she saw it move!

“Look up.”

The “demon’s” voice seemed to carry some strange, bewitching quality, and the girl raised her head without thinking.

Beneath the moonlight, half-veiled by clouds, a petite figure slowly drifted down from the night sky.

A faint silver glow covered her. Slender vines wound around her pale arms and calves, left bare by her white dress, and reached all the way to her bare feet.

A pair of fresh green wings spread behind her, growing outward as if made of layers of tender new leaves.

“Just like… a dandelion…”

Her heart skipped a beat. Lin Jianxue murmured, etching the sight before her deep into her memory.

The tip of her tail touched the ground first. The wings behind her scattered into the air like fragments, and then she landed steadily.

“I’m a monster. Are you scared?”

Saya asked, looking at the girl frozen before her.

Her deep green hair drifted around her, and a tail like a vine—or a snake—swayed beneath her skirt.

Was she too stunned to move?

Saya blinked, puzzled.

Then she lightly tapped the girl’s cheek with the tip of her tail.

Hmm, so soft and smooth. Her skin looked well cared for. I wonder if she’d taste good.

Feeling a spot of cold against her cheek, Lin Jianxue snapped back to her senses. The human-shaped girl who called herself a monster was watching her curiously, and her blue-green tail had just tapped Lin Jianxue’s cheek.

Lin Jianxue instinctively leaned her head back—and hit the gray wall.

“Ow!”

The girl clutched her head with both hands. A small bump had appeared on the back of her head, and tears welled up again in eyes that had already dried.

Saya hadn’t expected the girl to react so strongly.

Thinking she might really have scared her, Saya unconsciously took a few steps back.

“I’m sorry. I scared you.”

Saya spoke in her cool, detached voice. She didn’t actually feel guilty. She just thought that when you scared someone, you were supposed to say something like that—so she did.

Ah, she really had been scared.

But the reason she was scared… was probably that this monster wasn’t quite like she’d imagined?

The terrifying demon she’d imagined all along had turned out to be such a tiny, cute girl (assuming she counted as a girl, anyway)?

With her eyes still closed, Lin Jianxue heard the “monster girl” speak and thought uncertainly.

“N-no, I’m fine.”

Lin Jianxue rubbed her head, then looked up at Saya as she spoke.

Her heart was still pounding hard, but… it didn’t seem to be because she was scared anymore?