What if you are reborn as a demon after a funeral?

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"If you agree to keep your promise now, I can return your clothes to you, or... are you planning to go back to church like this?"

"...Normally, at this point, shouldn't they at least return the money to me?"

"No way! That's money I earned through my own abilities. Why should I pay you back?" Ash argued vehemently, refusing to return the money.

This made Philon, who was still unaware of the situation, immediately have a bad feeling when she heard this. She couldn't help herself and walked up to him with a sinister smile, whispering in his ear:

"—Lord Ash... what are you doing?"

"Ugh, that's so unfair! I just asked you to recruit teammates, and you only had to put in a little effort, but you stripped them naked? That's just too much!"

Frillie squatted down beside her and began to stir things up with her own words.

Ash couldn't hold back any longer and slapped Frillie on the head, saying sternly, "This is nothing more than the deserved end of a reckless and weak loser who sought his own death."

"What loser?" Philon, who had already grabbed him by the back of his collar, pulled him up while asking in confusion, "...Did you use force?"

"How could I possibly bully someone? We were just having a good time playing cards together, and he was the one who lost miserably."

"Damn it... The village chief was already as strong as a demon, but this guy is even stronger, like a monster! I can't even win a single game...! I'm starting to doubt if I'll even have the courage to sit at the card table again tomorrow!"

Zain muttered resentfully, curling up on the ground once more, looking like a wronged big child.

"...So it was gambling? None of you monks are serious." Upon learning the truth, Frilian shook her head and said, "But never mind...Zane, didn't you say you regretted it before? Aren't you coming? Come with us for a trip up north."

"...I've said it before, that's all in the past. I should have caught up with him sooner, but now I'm just a down-on-his-luck... middle-aged man who only has his underwear and shorts left."

Frillie closed her eyes and pondered for a while before slowly uttering serious words: "...I'm talking to you about the present, not the past."

"Now? Now you're my teammates, and the village chief turned me into this!"

"Huh? Uh... is that so?"

Frillie's serious expression froze instantly, and she involuntarily looked at Ash beside her.

However, Ash also subtly shifted his gaze, staring at the distant night sky, a faint smile playing on his lips, and muttered to himself in a pretentious manner, "The moon is really big tonight."

"...What is this? What kind of vulgar and indecent language is this?"

Even Frilian couldn't help but want to roll her eyes now.

Philon was even more displeased, his brows furrowed, and he said sharply, "—Return the clothes back right now! And the money too!"

"Why? I earned it through my own skill..."

“Gamblers are the worst! I hate it when Lord Ash gambles!” Philon’s cheeks puffed up with anger, and he put his hands on his hips and said indignantly, “—Besides, bullying people is wrong! Isn’t that what you taught me before?”

Although she looked angry, the purple-haired girl's pufferfish-like appearance was surprisingly cute.

This made Ash sigh in surrender, and then he took out Zain's money bag and threw it next to the old man on the ground.

"...I've been talking to him for so long and it's no use, but this kid actually listened to me when he got angry?" Zain looked at the money bag that he had lost and found again and couldn't help but doubt his own eyes.

“Because Ash has always spoiled Philon.” Frillie chuckled and shook her head, but when she looked at Zain again, her expression became particularly serious:

"Zanin".

"what?"

"...I really hate you, so I've decided that I'll force you to join me."

"--No? Why? This is so strange. By the way... what's going on with your team?"

Startled by Frilian's strange words, Zain was completely bewildered. He looked at Ash and Philon, wanting to ask for confirmation, but only saw Ash patting Philon's head.

And Philon, who had initially seemed a bit sullen, now had a beaming smile on her face, and the atmosphere between the two seemed quite harmonious.

This left him completely bewildered. What exactly was the relationship between Philon, who had been taking care of these two, and them?

But after they left, he silently returned to the tavern... with a hint of resentment and tears, he put the clothes that the village chief had stripped off back on.

Alone in the cold night, he looked up at the night sky, exhaled a smoke ring, and returned to the church full of doubts.

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Zain never expected, nor could he understand, how Ash could be so good at playing cards on his first try.

But... Fellen and Frilian only knew a little about the situation, and based on their understanding of Ash, they could probably figure out that he had probably cheated.

After all, Ash would normally lose at the beginning, but he certainly wouldn't accept defeat. With the ridiculously fast speed he used to kill the mountain lord, he could easily cheat openly when playing cards in the village, right?

It would be strange if he didn't dominate the field; even the gambling king didn't have that kind of hand speed.

As a warrior standing at the pinnacle of "humanity," playing cards with the villagers wouldn't result in anything other than bullying, as Philon mentioned.

Normally, a warrior that skilled wouldn't gamble, but...

"Lord Ash, really... what am I supposed to say to you?" Although the pat on the head had calmed down most of his anger, Philon was still quite troubled by the fact that Ash not only played cards but also readily admitted to cheating with his speed when he returned.

He should have been an extraordinary person, but not only did he play cards with the villagers, he also cheated...

But he just lay silently on the bed, pulled the blanket up and pretended to be asleep. Even when Philon said a few words to him, there was nothing they could do.

I could only remind him to brush his teeth before going to bed before I went back to my room to pack my luggage.

Frillie was still sitting on the chair by the bed, swinging her legs freely. After a long while, she looked up at him and lifted her leg, unceremoniously shoving her cold little feet into his blankets, even placing them directly on his stomach.

"Wake up, Philon is gone. I have something I want to tell you."

"Are you being polite? Just say what you want to say. Who sticks their feet into someone else's bed? And..."

"I took off my shoes, and I had just washed them before going to bed."

He opened his eyes and launched into a string of complaints, but before he could finish, Frilline, expressionless, retorted with a single sentence.

This silenced him for a moment before he couldn't help but let out a long sigh. Although he had no intention of getting up, he lay down on his side and stared at her seriously.

"While I want to commend you for taking off your shoes, you lack common sense and may not realize that your behavior is still extremely impolite."

"Really? But didn't you say before that friends shouldn't worry about small things? We've known each other for thousands of years, haven't we? And to be honest, the first time you woke me up, it was always by..."

"—Very well! Let's put this topic aside for now, you win!" Frillian's sudden mention of the past made him sit up quickly, interrupting, "Let's discuss what you really wanted to say!"

"What? Why are you suddenly so guilty..." After spending so much time together, even the usually oblivious Frilian could roughly figure out what he was thinking.

But with other things to do, she didn't say much. She simply put her feet in his blankets to warm them, looked into his eyes, and slowly said, "Whether Zain can become a partner or not is another matter, but I think he should become an adventurer."

"...Because you see your past self in him, right?" Ash, lying on his side on the bed, opened the covers and glanced at the girl's little feet, which were now covered by black stockings again as she hurried downstairs. He was too lazy to say anything more.

He simply sighed and lay back down, casually resting his chin on his hand, his tone slightly unintentional: "It's because you seem to see a reflection of your former self that you dislike him, which is why you had that 'hatred of one's own kind' that's hard to explain before, right?"

"Huh? How did you know?"

"...How many years do you think we've known each other?" He smiled calmly, yawned, then lay back down on the bed, closed his eyes, too lazy to look at the person in front of him who was all too familiar: "Maybe... I might even know you better than you know yourself."

"Really? Hmm, that's certainly possible... Although I'm a little annoyed that you saw through me." With no room for rebuttal, Frillie muttered with a hint of disdain.

But beneath that disdain, a smile quietly blossomed, prompting her to retort in a tone that seemed both provocative and inexplicably gentle: "Don't underestimate me. I might not be as slow-witted as you think."

"...How do you know?"

"You're hiding something from me, something very important."

"...Is that what you think?"

“That’s right, but I won’t ask. I’ll wait… because you’re my most important friend.” Frilian gazed at his reopened eyes and then gave a faint smile.

"This surprised me a bit."

"Be surprised, and then... until your life comes to a complete end, I will wait for the day you confess to me."

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On what seemed like an ordinary night, Ash and Frillie finally had a long-awaited open and honest conversation—albeit only the tip of the iceberg.

However, the next morning.

Perhaps feeling a little ashamed of her remarks last night, Frillie chose to act as usual, as if the profound conversation of the previous night was just a dream and had never happened.

She naturally pulled Philon and Ash together to join in the harvest festival celebrations, and spared no effort in lobbying Zain.

Although Zain was an even more extreme version of a drunken monk, not only drinking, eating meat, smoking, and gambling, he was surprisingly diligent in the village, doing all sorts of odd jobs such as preparing decorations and helping farmers harvest vegetables.

Meanwhile, the monks, who were busy preparing for the harvest festival, invited Ash and Philon to join in as well. Frilian then pulled them in to work as well, and kept persuading them along the way.

Even though Zain tried to persuade them to give up, it was to no avail. He couldn't even ignore the dreams and hopes that he had once longed for in their eyes.

Those eyes, so different from his current self, like those of an old friend, were so dazzling that he couldn't look directly at them.

However... there was one person who was different, and that was Ash.

Ash didn't have the same sense of dreams and hope that the two of them shared. In fact, during their time together, he unconsciously recalled the strange sense of unease he felt when Ash left the church, but it quickly disappeared, making him wonder if he was just imagining things.

Even now, he still can't figure out what caused Ash's awkwardness in the church.

Ash is particularly unique among the three. He is neither like Frilian and Philon, whose eyes sparkle with pure adventure and dreams, nor like a free-spirited adventurer.

Although he was indeed the most free-spirited in his actions, Ash always maintained a subtle tension, as if he were always on the verge of battle.