The twin demons were about to leave after saying so when the old man Orneo called out to them.

"P--Please excuse me, but would you please move me and Her Highness the Princess to a neighboring cell?"

"Huh---- Why----?"

"Because they have been violent with the princess."

Orneo pointed with a crooked finger at the muscular man and fox-eyed man.

"Old thing! You bastard!"

The two men\'s faces turned red with rage. Still, Meru and Kiru grew bored and absentminded.

"Hmmm. I see----"

"A transfer of cells. What a hassle... Yeah. Well, get along. That\'s all. See ya."

They were about to leave. Orneo panicked and then pointed at Takashi.

"P--Please wait! They assaulted that boy, too!"

The two sisters turned around at the same time, their faces red with rage.

"What did you say!?"

"Huh---- unbelievable----!!"

Then they rushed toward Takashi in a panic.

"Suzuki----! Are you okay----? Are you hurt----?"

"If you look closely, he is holding his stomach, isn\'t he?! Let me see!"

Kiru rips Takashi\'s clothes open. The blue bruises from Logue\'s punches and kicks were clearly visible. Kiru approached the muscular man and the fox-eyed man standing a short distance away.

"Hey. The one who did something terrible to Suzuki, was it you?"

"W--What if I was?"

"I\'ll murder you!"

"You said it earlier! You don\'t kill slaves!"

"I don\'t care! I\'ll murder you!

Kiru\'s eyes shone with a strange light that Takashi had never seen before. Logue raised his fist as if he just had a major epiphany.

"Don\'t joke with me, you weak-looking little devil!"

Logue winded his arm out wide and drove his fist into Kiru\'s abdomen as if to gouge her. With a thud, the small body floats in midair.

"Hehe..."

Logue smiled smugly. Suddenly, however, his face became distorted with pain.

[Crunch crunch munch crunch]

A bone-crunching, gruesome sound echoed through the slave cell. 

"Guaaaaaaahh!!!"

Logue\'s arm remained stuck in Kiru\'s abdomen as he screamed. Takashi, however, couldn\'t believe his eyes. Logue\'s thick arm was gradually becoming shorter and shorter.

(W--What, is that...!)

Kiru\'s clothes ripped open, revealing a huge mouth with fangs emerging from it. Logue\'s arm was being devoured by the huge mouth that had opened up in Kiru\'s abdomen. Then, as if sucking up from his arm, the mouth opened wide and bit off the upper half of Logue\'s body. The lower half of Logos\' body was left, splurging guts and fresh blood, and it crumpled on the straw.

"Phua. Oh, no---- This guy, was so oily."

"E--Eeek!"

Kiru pounces on the man with the fox eyes, who tried to run away screaming. As she tightened her hold on him tightly, the fox-eyed man pleaded.

"P--Please spare m--"

Snap. The fox-eye man\'s plea disappeared mid-sentence. The man was engulfed from head to torso, and like Logue, was reduced to only its lower half. The men and women in the cell all let out a shriek.

"Hm---this guy\'s like the guy before. A piece of shit on the inside." 

The sound of bone-crunching chewing was emanating from her stomach, but Kiru completely changed her attitude as she turned and smiled tenderly at Takashi.

"Suzuki! I killed the bad guy! Now you can live more comfortably!"

However, Takashi was horrified and abashed by the sight of Kiru eating a human right in front of him.

"F--For real, she, she ate a human...!"

He muttered in a trembling voice. Kiru covered her stomach with her hand suddenly as she realized her mistake.

"I do not eat humans, you know!"

"No, you eat them!! And you ate two of them in a row!"

"N--No, you are mistaken, Suzuki! I thought I was doing the right thing...!"

Takashi was frightened. Kiru covered her eyes with her hands and ran out of the cell.

"Waaaaaah!!"

"D--Dear older sister----!!"

Kiru started to cry and left the slave cell while Meru chased after her.

◆

For a while, Takashi was stunned, but then he calmed down and reconsidered.

(Hmm... Kiru helped me... didn\'t she? N--No, I still think that\'s a bit of a stretch!)

Takashi shuddered as he took one look at the two dead bodies that only had the lower half of their bodies left, wondering if anybody would quickly clean up the mess.

Orneo walked toward Takashi, who was inwardly unsettled. Then, he suddenly held Takashi\'s hand.

"Huh?"

"As I thought, you are indeed the summoned hero! You have a great ability!"

"N--No, no. You saw the way they hit me, right? I have no ability whatsoever,"

But Excella, holding her torn clothes, stood beside Takashi, her eyes shining.

"In the eyes of demons, humans are an abomination! Despite this, the demons are not hostile toward you! On the contrary, they treat you as if you are one of their own!"

(So to say...)

When he was summoned, he received scorn from the king who called him a failure and was treated roughly by everyone around him. But that was because they were human.

Thinking back on it, Nephira, Meru, Kiru, the skeleton soldiers, and Uhouguru... all the demons treated him well. He had thought he was being played with because of their different behaviors from humans, but... that wasn\'t how it was. Was it their own way of being nice to him?

Looking at the lovely food and portable toilets placed only around him, Takashi recalls the Goddess\'s words.

[I\'ll gift you the ability to be loved unconditionally by the local race]

(I see. The other-world I was sent to was wrong, but the ability I received was the original one.)

Finally, Takashi became convinced. Excella was staring at such a Takashi who had a serious expression on his face. Takashi noticed tears in Excella\'s eyes. She held Takashi\'s hands in hers as if to envelop them.

"Lord Hero! Please use your ability to save the world!"

"B--But, that\'s assuming I have the ability to make demons like me, right? Even so, I can\'t save the world with that kind of ability!"

Takashi smiled bitterly in denial, but the old man Orneo turned his deeply wrinkled face toward Takashi.

"Fighting demons with swords and magic does not necessarily make you a hero. For example, if those demon\'s leaders take a liking to you... And if you could move from the shadows...\'

"Orneo! That is too dangerous! If he does that and he makes a mistake, he will lose his life!"

"Yes, that\'s right. Let\'s just treat that as the rambling of an old man."

"Ah, aah..."

◆

That night, while lying on the straw in the slave cell, Takashi thought to himself. Originally, Takashi had hoped for a light-hearted life in the other-world he would be sent to. However, the situation was not quite what he had in mind. This was a terrifying world where humanity had been conquered by demons.

(But, I have the ability to be loved by demons. In that case...)

Takashi stood up and walked to the entrance of the slave cell. He then approached the skeleton soldier on watch.

"Can I go to Nephira\'s quarters?"

"I have been instructed to listen to Suzuki\'s requests as much as possible. But, what are your intentions?"

Takashi told the skeleton soldier clearly.

"I want to become Nephira\'s slave."