After the Fall of the Demon Race, Reincarnated as a Demon Girl - Chapter 6

Renith crossed the forest in just over an hour and emerged onto the plains. Before her lay a disorderly temporary camp, its haphazard structures propped up with waterproof canvas. The surrounding trees had been felled, leaving only stumps, their trunks likely repurposed into metal tools. Not far off, a patch of scorched earth remained—evidence of a past fire.

“Those people weren’t wrong after all.”

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than Renith felt a peculiar sensation—an intangible gaze, silently observing her. The feeling vanished as quickly as it came, leaving behind only a faint, lingering chill.

She wanted to see who had the audacity to spy on her.

But before she could take two steps, a hunched, middle-aged man with sallow skin and tattered clothes staggered out from the edge of the camp. His fingers nervously rubbed against thick calluses as he hurried toward her.

“Esteemed Mage, I’m the foreman here. My apologies for not welcoming you properly. We didn’t expect your arrival.”

“It’s nothing. I’m just passing through.”

Renith turned to leave, but the man hastily reached out to stop her, his voice edged with urgency.

“Ah—wait, Mage, if you’d please stay a moment!”

Her gaze sharpened, hostility flashing in her eyes. The man immediately recoiled, withdrawing his hand as if burned.

“O-Our boss wishes to speak with you… He says it’s urgent.”

Renith had a good guess as to who had been watching her earlier.

Off to a bad start… Looks like I’ll have to humor them.

“Fine. Lead the way.”

Relief washed over the man’s face, his earlier tension dissipating at her agreement. He seemed terrified that a single misstep might cost him his head.

The walk was short. After weaving through dozens of tents, Renith arrived at a weathered wooden hut. The foreman stopped and gestured respectfully.

“Here we are. Please, go ahead.”

With a soft creak, the door swung open, releasing the earthy scent of wood and soil. Renith’s eyes swept across the interior, taking in the neatly arranged metal tools, a nailed-down map of the plains and forest at the center, and a worn wooden table bearing two steaming cups of black coffee.

Further inside, a young man in a black formal suit rummaged through a drawer. Hearing Renith enter, he paused and turned.

“First time meeting you, Mage. My name is Gris—though that’s just an alias. You may also call me Tao Jin. I am a ‘Chosen One.'”

The foreman outside closed the door and hurried off to rouse the workers, leaving only Renith and Tao Jin inside.

“Have a seat.”

Renith had no intention of obliging. This man undoubtedly had his own schemes.

“Not exactly our first meeting… You were the one spying on me earlier, weren’t you? You’re the only one in this camp with that ability.”

“My, you’re quite sharp. My sincerest apologies.” Tao Jin smiled, though his tone carried a hint of excitement. “When a powerful mage suddenly appears in camp, caution is only natural. A matter of self-preservation, you see.”

He strode to the map in the center of the room, picked up a charcoal pencil, and drew a bold circle around the heart of the forest.

“It’s here, isn’t it? The Demonkin’s ruins…”

Tao Jin turned his head, his right pupil dilating into a vivid cross-shaped ring, his irises tinted a faint violet.

The radiance of “Appraisal.”

It resembled Hetis’s halo—yet it filled Renith with revulsion, dredging up memories of that midday a decade ago, of the violet beam that had pierced his heart.

This power… it felt eerily similar.

“So, ‘Appraisal’… No wonder you saw through me.”

Renith removed her hood, dispelling the divine mimicry concealing her features, revealing the pair of jet-black horns above her temples.

“A demon!“

Tao Jin’s eyes widened with manic glee. He stepped forward, reaching out as if to touch her horns.

Renith retreated, an invisible barrier of mana particles blocking his advance.

“Ah—forgive me. I got carried away.” He chuckled, though his gaze burned with feverish intensity. “Before coming to this continent, I was a historian. I’ve always been fascinated by the Demonkin’s history. When I heard they’d been wiped out two centuries ago, I was devastated… So I sought out the ruins of the Demon King’s castle, hoping to uncover their past.”

Though his words were apologetic, his eyes betrayed a ravenous hunger. He spread his arms wide, less like a devout scholar and more like a rabid fanatic.

“Thirty years ago, a light fell in these woods. Everyone thought it was treasure, but I knew—it was divine guidance, leading me to the Demonkin’s legacy!”

“Two years ago, I struck a deal with the nobles developing this land to log the forest and search for the ruins. I nearly gave up… until three months ago, when a surge of mana confirmed it. The ruins are real!”

His limbs twitched erratically, his expression deranged. Renith took another step back.

Yeah, as Hetis would say—better not catch whatever he has.

“Those greedy merchants, bandits, and thieves all thought it was treasure. But I was right! It’s the Demon King’s castle! It’s—history itself!“

“Thanks to these eyes, I didn’t miss you today… A living fossil! The last remaining Demonkin in this world!”

Renith had seen enough of this madman’s performance. She gathered mana within her body, ready to unleash a spell and flee at the slightest sign of danger.

“So? How do you plan to witness a history that’s been extinct for centuries?”

“Simple! My eyes don’t just ‘Appraise’—they can also ‘Rewrite Memory.’ If I maintain eye contact for just one minute, I can seize everything you’ve ever known!”

Tao Jin stood before her, violet light swirling in his irises, probing at Renith’s mind. He was moments away from touching her memories, from claiming a thousand years of Demonkin history as his own.

“It’s different from taking from others… This anticipation, this satisfaction—it’s intoxicating! It’s—”

Renith channeled mana into her leg and kicked him across the room. His body arced through the air before crashing into the table, sending scalding coffee splashing across his face.

“Rewrite Memory”? Just the name sounded dangerous. Now she understood why he’d switched from composed to unhinged in seconds—stolen memories must have eroded his sanity.

She’d once encountered a magical artifact with a similar ability. Its owner had been even more deranged, lost in a labyrinth of identities, unable to control his own body until he perished in the chaos.

“GAAAH—!!”

“MY EYES—MY EYES!!”

Probably got coffee in them.

Renith had no intention of giving him another chance. The moment he revealed he was an Otherworlder, she should have killed him.

An Otherworlder who couldn’t control his powers, poisoned by their side effects, would only bring calamity to this world. If Alethia wouldn’t act, then she would.

“Scripture, Page 14—Fire Magic: Incin—”

“I SAW IT!”

Before she could finish, Tao Jin lurched to his feet, his face red from burns, his eyes alight with excitement—and fear.

“For just a second, but I saw… You’re the Sage. The one who defeated the Demonkin over two hundred years ag—”

“—erate.”

The final syllable left her lips, and crimson mana particles converged around Tao Jin. Flames erupted, engulfing him instantly, the heat warping the air.

“No… You can’t kill me… If I don’t return, they’ll grow suspicious.”

He rolled on the floor, but the fire refused to die. Finally, he knelt, staring at Renith.

“Who are ‘they’?”

She demanded, but Tao Jin clenched his jaw.

He saw it in her eyes—whether he spoke or not, his fate was sealed.

In the end, he gave up. His gaze locked onto her, determined to die knowing the truth.

“Ah, almost forgot.”

Renith strode forward, her fingertip glowing with condensed mana. It pierced the flames effortlessly, stopping just above Tao Jin’s violet-lit eyes. An invisible barrier blocked his vision.

“I’ve been researching ‘Appraisal’ for a long time. Sadly, I could only grasp the concepts of ‘System’ and ‘Appraisal’ through Hetis.”

She tapped the cover of her Scripture. A faint halo flickered in her own eyes—a crude imitation, unfinished.

Page 0 of the Scripture contained countless compressed parchments, not spells, but records of everything Renith had ever observed.

This was the culmination of thirty years of research—what she had once hoped to show Hetis.

It was also the crystallization of two centuries of accumulated knowledge.

“To accurately discern information about something, you must first possess sufficient knowledge. When you encounter it again, your mind retrieves the buried details.”

“That’s why you think, ‘This seems familiar,’ or ‘Have I done this before?’ The ‘System’ likely operates similarly—but with far greater precision. It stores everything it learns, so when it sees something again, it can instantly recall all relevant data.”

Her finger slowly pressed into Tao Jin’s eye socket. Blood welled from five wounds, but he didn’t scream—he had no strength left.

“But I suspect the ‘System’ is more than that… Your eyes are fascinating. They can peer into memories, ‘appraise’ anything. After today, perhaps I’ll glimpse a fragment of the ‘System’ myself.”

She plucked out his eyeballs and cleansed them with water magic.

Pulling up her hood, she activated “Divine Mimicry: Refraction” and slipped away unnoticed, leaving the hut to burn.

The demon girl had killed an Otherworlder.

Tomorrow would come all the same.