The ostracized and abandoned Warren King was brought to the human lair, his heart full of humiliation and resentment.

“Despicable humans, I am a dignified great demon—how could I serve a mere human as a servant?”

“Shameless human, you even touched my tail. Once I recover my demon power, I will tear you to pieces.”

Who would have thought that woman would take him in for several days, feed him delicious food, smooth his fur, bandage his wounds, and then take him back to the mountains and forests.

She undid his restraints, patted his ears, and said to him, “Go back. I give you freedom.”

Emily Bennett, having just completed her training, entered the demon forest, intending to capture a small demon and make it her familiar.

She saw a wolf demon, wounded by other demons, lying weak and dying on the ground, covered in blood. Emily Bennett, unable to bear it, brought him home, fed and tended to his wounds, and cared for him meticulously. The wolf demon was wild and hard to tame, baring his teeth at her every day, extremely fierce. So she let him go.

From then on, every day when Emily Bennett returned home, she was delighted to find strange gifts left at her doorstep.

The secretly hiding Warren King gnashed his teeth in hatred: that woman has made a contract with a cat demon again—what use is the cat demon besides having a pretty face?

She even touched that fox’s tail. The fox is nothing compared to me; my tail is the best.

Chapter 1

To the south of Bennett Village there is a clear stream. In the height of summer, the air is filled with the sounds of cicadas and birds, and the fragrance of lotuses drifts by. It is the children’s favorite place to escape the heat.

Rural children are not like the pampered sons and daughters of the towns. For them, being able to play in the cool stream while gathering pigweed or digging for clams is the happiest time of the summer day.

After all, once they return home, they still have to help their parents feed the chickens and chop firewood, doing plenty of hard work. The older ones even have to prepare meals for the whole family, waiting for their parents to return from the fields after a long day.

Emily Bennett hefted the basket on her back, shaking out the water. The basket was almost as tall as she was, filled with pigweed just scooped from the stream. She adjusted her breathing, trying hard to keep up with her older sisters. At seven years old, she was already considered part of the family’s labor force, no longer allowed to play all day.

Because of a car accident, she had suddenly crossed over from the bustling modern world to this impoverished medieval era. But in any case, seven years had gradually helped her adapt to this rural life—no electronics, information cut off, everything done by hand.

That morning, there had just been a thunderstorm, and the dirt road was full of puddles.

The children walked barefoot, laughing and playing as they passed the puddles, not noticing that in a small pool by their feet, a tiny humanoid creature was struggling desperately.

It was so small, not even as tall as a child’s finger. With slender limbs and fair skin, it looked just like a human, except for a pair of thin, membranous wings on its back.

Its wings, soaked and dragging in the water, made it even harder to escape. It could only stretch its tiny arms above the surface, flailing desperately, its face full of fear and panic.

Yet the children passing by seemed completely unable to see the dying creature in the water, still laughing and splashing through the mud right beside it.

At the end of the group, Emily Bennett suddenly stopped.

She glanced at her sisters ahead, who noticed nothing, then quietly squatted down and used a finger to scoop the little creature from the puddle, placing it on a blooming sunflower by the roadside.

The drowning little being, rescued in its terror, clung tightly to Emily Bennett’s finger with all four limbs. It took some effort for Emily Bennett to get it off, finally hanging it on the greenish-brown center of the sunflower.

The little creature collapsed on the soft yellow petals, its tiny face showing a very human-like expression, features scrunched together. It put its two little hands together above its head and bowed to Emily Bennett, then spat out a few bubbles of water.

It was actually kind of cute.

A small smile appeared at the corner of Emily Bennett’s mouth.

Perhaps because she had experienced death once, ever since crossing over, she had discovered a unique ability: she could clearly see all kinds of spirits and monsters living in this world.

But out of caution, Emily Bennett never told her family about this. This was a village where people still worshipped and feared ghosts and gods, and an unusual ability without the means to protect herself could easily get her labeled as a heretic and rejected.

As for whether anyone else in this world could see these monsters like she could, Emily Bennett didn’t know. Since she was born, she hadn’t had a chance to leave the village and see the outside world. She only knew that in this not-so-populated Bennett Village, she hadn’t found anyone else with the same ability.

Neither her parents and siblings, nor the village shaman rumored to be able to channel various spirits, seemed able to see the special beings in the wild or sense the little spirits mingling among them.

The eldest sister ahead, Grace Bennett, stopped and looked back at her little sister lagging far behind. Seeing her not-yet-seven-year-old sister grinning foolishly at a sunflower by the road, she sighed helplessly.