Alex and the fox went to the Sagur Forest. It was the forest right next to the Wilow Plain in which the war took place.
Since he came with Sherry, the journey took about 2 days running from the Celestial Forest.
He chose the Sagur Forest since it was close enough for him to observe the Wilow Plain. He could watch the war there. Alex had never seen any real war before, so he was curious about it.
This was the reason Alex wanted to go to the battlefield.
Alex reached the forest's perimeter. He chose one of the big trees and sat on it. He could see there were two big camps. On his left side, he saw a big tent in white surrounded by many smaller tents. He saw two flags, one flag had golden-colored four pairs of wing patterns. And the other was a big Z covered with five pairs of claws.
"That must be the human camp. The flag with wings pattern must be the Holy Kingdom and the one with a big Z on it must be Zircodina kingdom."
He tried to speculate the number of human soldiers down there. He speculated that there might be around two hundred thousand soldiers down there, ready for battle. Well, this was the first time he saw a war, let alone speculated the number of troops.
After he saw five big catapults, he contemplated, "Will there be any use for them?"
Alex shrugged his shoulders. Whatever the case, he would get the answer once the war started.
He then turned to his right. There was also a big tent surrounded by many smaller tents. But the tent's color was red and yellow. On top of the tents, there were flags with a black dragon's head on them. But on this site, there was no big weapon that Alex could spot from the top of the tree he sat on.
But suddenly Alex was in serious thought, "I might need to go a bit farther, I was almost outside of the forest. It will be bad if either side discovers me. Though it will be a bit harder to see the battlefield, it will be safer. After all, there are many high-ranking soldiers in there."
Alex nodded, then he went a bit further inside the forest. This way, the forest would hide him better.
The fox was sitting next to him without much interest on the battlefield and it eventually fell asleep. Alex could only shake his head looking at his fox.
Since they had arrived in the evening, the night soon came, so there weren't any activities in the plain. Alex went to sleep and waited for the next day. Since he and his fox weren't bothered by the cold, they didn't make any campfire. That way, they wouldn't raise any suspicion to both parties.
The next day, Alex woke up and he waited until noon but the war never started. He was getting bored of waiting, eventually he decided to go deeper into the forest to kill some monsters to release his boredom.
When the night came, he came back to the tree from before. The fox didn't follow him when he hunted some monsters. When Alex came back, the fox immediately approached him.
"Wuu!" The fox showed a gesture that it wanted to eat.
Alex flicked the fox's head, "You eat so much."
Alex shook his head. This fox was kind of lazy. The only activities it did were sleeping and eating.
"Wuu!" The fox felt wronged.
Alex sighed and gave him his fire to eat.
The next day was the same. He waited until noon but the war never started. When he was leaving to search for some monsters like the day before, he heard some voice inside the woods.
"YOU BASTARD!"
Alex immediately turned to the voice, "Should I go there?"
After pondering for a moment, Alex decided to go there.
The source of the voice wasn't that far. Alex arrived there in no time. Alex saw two humans arguing and seemed like they wanted to kill someone.
"You bastard! Die!"
He looked at the one who was attacked. He had brownish skin, his face was not so attractive, but the remarkable thing about him was his temperament. He looked like a gallant person. He was covered with many wounds and was bleeding all over. But what shocked Alex the most was that this person had two big horns on his head.
"A demon?" Alex muttered.
When the humans got in front of him, they swung their swords.
"Hell Flame!" A big tyrannical purple flame appeared in front of the demon.
The sword never reached the demon, because the sword was melted along with the two humans who launched the attack.
After that attack, Alex saw the two humans died and the demon was panting.
Alex frowned because he soon saw the demon collapsed to the ground.
"Should I go there?" Alex was in thought. If there were more people there, he might be exposed if he went there now.
He looked at his surroundings first. After he was sure that there were no more humans or demons in the perimeter, he then approached the fallen demon. He checked the demon. This demon looked like he was still alive but badly injured. He seemed like it had fought for a few hours non-stop.
Looking at his capability, this demon was around rank 5, similar to him.
"..." Alex looked at the demon in thought.
"Should I save him? This guy was likely a spy."
Alex hesitated. Soon he heard the fox utter a sound.
"Wuu!"
Alex looked at the fox, she seemed to ask Alex to save this demon. Alex hesitated once again. After a moment, he decided to save the demon.
"Well, we can gather some information from him too. His rank is similar to mine, so he can't defeat me(?). Well, he is injured now. So, I'm sure he can't defeat me in that condition," Alex thought.
He looked at Sherry, he muttered in a low voice, "Sometimes, a human is more dangerous than other creatures, can this fox look at the person's nature? Whatever, I'm a human too, so we are equally dangerous."
He then carried the demon to a cave in a deeper zone. It would be bad if they got caught.
Alex used his restoration pill on him. The bleeding was stopped and the wound started to heal.
After Alex saw that his condition was stabilized, he then ordered the fox to watch the demon. Then, Alex went out of the cave and killed some more monsters.
***
The next day, the demon slowly opened his eyes.
"Ugh... where am I?"
He noticed that he was in a cave, but he didn't know his exact location.
He checked his wound that was already healed. He was shocked because he knew what kind of wounds he received before he passed out. The wound he received the previous day was enough to make him laid on the bed for at least a month, he also already prepared to die in that place yesterday. But now, he was not only able to move his body, but the wounds were completely healed.
"Who is the one that healed me?" He was too shocked by his recovery.
He then searched his surroundings. There, he saw a fox who was asleep, slowly opened its eyes. He immediately put his guard up. Yup, the fox was Sherry who watched over the demon.
"Are you the one who healed me?" The demon asked.
"Wuu," the fox shook her head. "Wuu... wuu!"
It seemed like it was telling the demon that its master was the one who healed him.
The demon somehow understood the fox, "So, your master is the one who helped me? I am thankful to him. Where is your master? I want to thank him."
He secretly thought, 'It might be good if I can make a relationship with this fox's master. After all, he/she can heal that kind of wound in no time.'
"Though my Mana is still not recovered, my physical wound is already healed. If I can bear the pain, I can move like normal."
The demon sighed, "This master is special. Does he/she come from the demi-human? The demon doesn't have any conflict with the demi-human at the moment. If we can be friends, that will be good!"
Of course, it never crossed his mind that the one who saved him was Alex, a human. The reason was simple, they were currently at war with each other. If he was spotted by a human, they would kill him immediately. Considering his wound, they wouldn't torture him for information since he would die before they had any chance to do that, let alone helped him.
So, he instantly thought that his savior was a demi-human that helped him by healing his wound.
"Wuu!"
"Alright, I won't move too much. Thank you."
The demon leaned on the wall. He sighed. He looked at the fox.
"Haiz... you know, that damn father. He just gives me the throne, like he never cares about it. He gives me the position of a demon lord just because he doesn't care about it. He said, 'It is too much of a problem and I am too lazy to care about it. Since you are my son, I will let you inherit it immediately,' and then he went and passed me the throne just like that."
Turned out the demon that Alex had saved wasn't some ordinary/common demon or spies. He was the current demon lord.
If Alex was here, he wouldn't believe it. The demon lord was the king of the demons. They had the biggest authority in the demon territories. This weak and pitiful rank 5 demon was the current demon lord? That must be a joke.
And the reason he became a demon lord was that his father was too lazy to care about it? What the heck with that? Did his father was someone like 'I want a holiday for six months... twice a year?' Was he really a demon lord?
Was he the true demon lord? That would be the right question to ask.
The demon laughed bitterly.
"The demon is infuriated with my father. My father is a genius, but he somehow got fed up with the fighting so he became like that. Sigh... if not for my grandfather and his loyal retainer backing me up, the demon would lose control."
The demon was talking nonstop. Well, since he was talking with a fox that couldn't even speak, he thought there wouldn't be any information leak.
"Wuu!" The fox consoled him.
Even though he didn't know what the fox said. He knew that the fox seemed like it was consoling him. Then he stroked the fox, "Thank you."
But suddenly the fox looked at the cave entrance, "Wuu!"
Soon enough, a figure appeared from the outside and was walking toward them.
The demon was shocked by the figure he saw, "A human?"
He immediately became hostile. He poured all the Mana he had at this moment. He then launched his fist, hoped that the human would die with his surprise attack.
"Die!" The demon approached the figure.
"What?" The human was surprised that he suddenly got attacked.
His instinct took over and he dodged the strike easily. He kicked the demon on the stomach.
"Gah!"
The demon spurted blood and blew away. He crashed into the cave wall and knocked out again.
"Oops. It is not intentional. My instinct takes over just now."
He then looked at the knocked-out demon on the wall, and then healed him once again.