We didn't have any weapons.

  I was just a demon lost in the forest until this morning, while Varen was just a dead, robbed bard, so we didn't even have money to buy a weapon.

  Our alternative was to use our fists and magic to kill the wolves, or use magic to make weapons.

  However, our problem was about to be solved with the footsteps I was listening to intently using my keen Middle-Class Devil senses.

  “Play louder,” I said quietly to Varen, who began to use even more force on the lute, making the sound a little more out of tune, but much louder.

  The louder sound gave the four thieves more openings to get even closer to us, and they weren't stupid enough to let that pass, allowing me to hear their footsteps getting closer and closer.

  When I felt that we were deep enough in the forest, I stopped walking, causing Varen to also stop beside me and stop playing.

  Silence reigned in the forest for a few minutes.

  Varen and I just stood there in silence while I looked in a specific direction.

  Realizing that I had indeed noticed him, the four adventurers came out of their hiding place and looked at Varen with scorn.

  “Who would have thought that the chatty bard would come back to life?! Hey Varen, do you remember me?” The tallest man in the group, a little fat but very muscular, holding a metal axe casually, spoke as he looked at Varen.

  “Ohh, so it's you guys who were following us, Craig?” Varen said mockingly, but I could sense the coldness in his voice.

  “Sure, who wouldn't follow a zombie walking around town as if his chest hadn't been pierced that morning in front of me?”

  He said, his voice growing colder as his gaze shifted to me. “And it seems you were lucky to find a nobleman rich and generous enough to use such an expensive healing potion at such an opportune moment... I should have kept watching your corpse longer... or just burned you to a crisp.”

  After the big man Craig said that, a smaller adventurer beside him looked at me greedily and said, “You know Craig, I'm sure just this kid's armor alone is worth more than a month's worth of missions we could complete for the boss, not to mention what other potions and valuable things he might be carrying...”

  Hearing this, another man added. “Yeah, to spend such a luxurious potion on the bard, he must have other things much more valuable with him, and he's just an E Rank Adventurer!”

  But the big man Craig snorted. “Boy, our mission is just to kill the bard. If you want to leave, we won't stop you.”

  Hearing this, the other men were surprised. “What do you mean, Craig?! You don't want this kid's money?!”

  “If you don't want your share, I'll take it for myself!” The other man mocked Craig as he looked at me, licking his lips.

  “Idiots, he's the one who sensed we were following them, not to mention that upright and confident posture, that boy must have received knight training in his noble mansion, just let him go and don't cause any more trouble for the boss.” Craig sighed after revealing his analysis. “Sure, we still have the numerical advantage, he's not going to be enough to try to stop us for a bard he probably met today.”

  Hearing this explanation, the other men were surprised and looked at me in shock.

  I smiled at how perceptive Craig was, to the point that I even considered using my [Noble Mark] on him, but feeling nothing special about him, I just let it go and continued where I was, with my arms crossed.

  Varen glanced at me a few times, apparently worried that I would agree with them and hand him over to die again, but when he saw that I just stood there with my arms crossed, his confidence returned and he smiled at Craig.

  “You're just D Rank Adventurers, right Craig? Where does your confidence come from to deal with me?” Varen asked with a smile.

  Hearing Varen's confidence, Craig was a little confused. “We already killed you once, Varen, this will just be one more time.”

  “Craig, it looks like Varen's noble little friend doesn't want to leave his side, so we'll have to kill him too...” One of the men with Craig said with a sinister laugh.

  Craig looked at me once more, wanting to confirm that this was really my intention, and seeing that I had no intention of leaving Varen's side, he sighed a little disappointedly, but then his face changed to a maniacal smile as he raised his axe in our direction.

  “Even if your friend has the strength of a D Rank Adventurer, know that I'm already about to move up to C Rank, Varen. That silver bracelet won't be on my wrist for long.” Craig laughed as he looked at us, searching for any reaction that showed fear, but he found nothing.

  Varen was a little worried, as this was the first life-or-death battle he would face, but the excitement of the demon blood pumping through his veins was making him eager for battle.

  Even I was getting excited about this battle, despite feeling that everyone there was weaker than me.

  This will be my first battle in this world, and I will have to kill a human... the race I belonged to in my previous life.

  And as strange as it may seem, it was making me more excited than I imagined!

  Thinking about the suffering that the young Devil of this world had endured while being hunted by humans for months without having done anything wrong made me eager to get a little revenge.

  “Master, can I go all out?” Varen asked with a smile.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Yes, test your strength, Varen. If anything goes wrong, I'll take care of the big boy,” I replied with a similar smile on my face.

  Hearing my permission, Varen gently placed his lute on the ground and turned to face the men.

  Even though they had swords and axes, Varen didn't care and pointed his hand forward, summoning a fireball toward their group.

  Seeing Varen use magic, the color drained from the men's faces.

  “Shit, he learned magic?!”

  “Since when did this bard learn magic?! Isn't that something only nobles can do?!”

  “Damn it, we're screwed!”

  “Calm down, idiots, he's just one, there are still four of us, dodge and attack!” Craig shouted angrily as he jumped to the side and prepared to close the distance between him and Varen.

  Since he thought Varen had only learned magic, he thought Varen would try to distance himself and continue casting spells from afar.

  But he was wrong.

  After throwing the fireball at the ground where they were standing, Varen didn't stand still and ran towards them!

  With the enhanced speed that a Low-Class Devil had, in just a few seconds Varen was already in front of one of the men and punched the unsuspecting man in the face, sending him flying towards a nearby tree.

  The man collided with the tree with a dull, nauseating thud, his sword falling uselessly to the forest floor.

  A cloud of dust and bark chips rose where he landed, his body collapsing like a rag doll.

  The other two smaller adventurers froze for a moment, their eyes wide with shock, while Craig, still in motion, shouted, “Don't just stand there, you idiots! Attack him now!”

  But Varen wasn't waiting for orders.

  With a savage grin, demonic blood pulsing through his veins, he charged forward again, reaching a speed greater than the average D Rank.

  The second man tried to raise his sword in defense, but Varen was faster... with a swift spin, he conjured a gust of wind with a snap of his fingers, using creation magic.

  The gust threw the adventurer backwards, unbalancing him by how sudden the attack was and causing him to fall face-first into the ground, groaning.

  “What the hell is that speed?!” the third man shouted, his voice trembling as he backed away, his sword shaking in his hands. “Wasn't he just a useless bard?!”

  “I'm more than that now.”

  Varen replied, his voice laden with a mocking tone that echoed with coldness.

  He opened his palm, and another fireball appeared there, spinning like a small sun as he looked with satisfaction at the fear in the bastard who had stabbed him in the forest. “Want to see what a ‘zombie’ can do?”

  Craig, however, was not intimidated... or at least he pretended not to be.

  With a roar, he ran toward Varen, his axe raised above his head, his muscles twitching in the dim light of the forest. “You may have new tricks, Varen, but if that's all you've got, I'll still cut you in half!”

  That's when I decided to join the dance. “Varen, he's mine!” I shouted, my voice cutting through the air as I advanced with the speed of a Middle-Class Devil.

  In the blink of an eye, I was in front of Craig, my right hand glowing with the magic of creation.

  A long, thin sword made of conjured metal took shape in my palm, and I raised it just in time to block the axe's downward blow.

  The impact made the ground shake, splinters of earth flying around us, but I didn't retreat an inch, even though the sword's durability showed that it couldn't withstand many attacks...

  ‘Damn, Mana weapons really aren't comparable to real weapons...’ I thought in frustration.

  Craig's eyes widened, his maniacal grin wavering. “What kind of noble carries such strength?!” He growled, pressing the axe against my blade harder, trying to push me back or break my sword.

  But he didn't know that I wasn't human... not anymore.

  “You're smart, Craig,” I said, smiling as our eyes met. “But not smart enough.”

  With a quick twist of my wrist, I used [Devil Whisper], my voice seeping into his mind like a tempting whisper. “Look behind you.”

  He hesitated for a second, instinct fighting against the compulsion, and that was all I needed.

  I let go of the sword, letting it finally break and crumble into smoke, and took a step to the side, landing a kick reinforced by my demonic strength right in his stomach.

  Craig flew backward, the axe slipping from his hands as he slammed into a rock, the air leaving his lungs in a muffled scream.

  Varen wasted no time.

  As the third man tried to recover from the shock, he threw the fireball.

  The ball exploded upon hitting the ground near the adventurer, sending a wave of heat and flames that knocked him down, burning his cloak and leaving him screaming as he rolled to extinguish the flames. “That's for stabbing me in the back, you rat!” Varen shouted, the excitement of battle shining in his red eyes hidden by his contact lenses.

  The second man, the shorter and greedier one, who had fallen from Varen's gust of wind, finally reacted, running toward me with a dagger in his hand, his eyes fixed on my imaginary “armor.”

  “If I get you, all this will be mine!” he shouted, greed overcoming fear. But he was too slow. With a quick thought, I conjured a rope of shadows with creation magic, which wrapped around his legs like a living snake.

  He stumbled, falling face-first into the dirt again, and before he could get up, Varen was on top of him, landing a kick to the head that knocked him out instantly.

  The forest fell silent again, except for the panting sound of Craig, who was trying to get up, clutching his chest. The other three were out of commission.

  One against the tree, another burned and moaning, the third unconscious on the ground.

  I looked at Varen, who wiped his hands with a satisfied smile, the lute still intact on the ground where he had placed it before the battle.

  “You did well,” I said, crossing my arms as I watched Craig slowly get to his feet. “But I think ‘Big Boy’ still wants to play.”

  Craig spat blood on the ground, his face contorted with rage and confusion. “You... what are you?!” he growled, struggling to pick up his axe. “No E Rank fights like that... not even a D Rank!”

  Varen laughed, picking up the lute and strumming a deliberately off-key note. “Let's just say I got an upgrade since you killed me, Craig. And my master here?” He looked at me with a gleam in his eye. “He's more than any knight you've ever faced.”

  I took a step forward, feeling the weight of my first battle in this world... and the strange satisfaction of fighting like a Devil.

  “You should have followed your instincts and given up this fight, Craig.” I said as I shook my head in disappointment.

  Craig hesitated, the axe trembling in his hands.

  He looked at the fallen bodies of his companions, then at me, and finally at Varen, who conjured another fireball just to taunt him.

  I could sense that Varen didn't even have enough mana to make that fireball do any damage, but the dramatic effect was decent.

  With a frustrated grunt, he threw his axe to the ground and backed away, his eyes burning with hatred. “This isn't over, Varen. And you, ‘noble one’... I will find out what you are.”

  Seeing him try to run away, two choices came to mind.

  ‘Let him go and cause even more trouble for me.’ or ‘End this here and deal with his gang's problems when I get back to town.’

  Even though he had attacked me, I still respected him a little, but not enough to let him cause trouble for me in the future.

  “Wait!” I shouted using [Devil Whisper], causing him to hesitate for a second and look back in doubt.

  When he turned around, a blade of wind that had just left my hand flew towards him, cutting his head off.

  Until the last moment, Craig had an incredulous expression on his face, not imagining that I, a “noble,” would kill him in such a cowardly manner.

  But I didn't care.

  ‘I am a Devil.’

  Varen was surprised by what I did as well, since even though he had won his battles, he still hadn't killed anyone.

  But he didn't comment on it and asked me a question. “I thought you were going to use [Noble Mark] on him, master.”

  “He's smart, but not special enough,” I replied, looking in the direction of his headless corpse. “Let's save that for someone more worthy.”

  The adrenaline was still rushing through me, but the feeling of taking a human life for the first time was confusing.

  Even though I felt bad and conflicted about it, the feeling wasn't as bad as I had imagined.

  ‘I think the demon blood is changing me little by little too...’