During the time he had been unconscious, the humans had left—not only taking the tents but also the cages that had imprisoned the demons and demonic creatures.
Ronan searched the human camp but didn't find Kael's body.
The demon dog lowered its ears, and Ronan felt a bit lost.
The Black Forest was not peaceful, especially at night. He had fallen unconscious in the wild without sustaining any injuries. If it wasn't due to a miracle, then it was likely because he was close to the human camp.
Because of the fear of humans, ordinary demonic creatures did not dare to come near him.
If that was the case, how would he survive the night? His lower half felt as if it didn't exist, and moving with just his front legs was laborious, let alone hunting for prey. Even when he had all four limbs, he had relied on Kael for food.
As Ronan thought of this and recalled the heroic demise of the demon, his heart ached even more.
In the human camp, he found a discarded half piece of bread. After a long inner struggle, he ultimately gave in to his hunger and bit into it, finishing it off piece by piece.
After such a long time, finally tasting human food again, Ronan felt pitiful. His past life had been hard, and he'd thought that this time things might get easier. Yet, his current state was even worse, so miserable that he felt sorrow welling up inside him.
He tilted his head back, wanting to howl, but in the next second, he restrained his instinct. Luckily, he'd been smart enough last night not to speak human words in a dog's body; otherwise, things might have ended badly for him already.
With his stomach slightly fuller, he finally had the energy to think about what to do next. Before even considering the problem of finding more food, he first had to…
Suddenly, a large shadow passed overhead. Ronan immediately hid under a tarp discarded by the humans. A black creature, its wings spanning at least a hundred meters, flew low above him. Ronan held his breath, not daring to make a sound. Only after the creature circled around and flew away did he poke his head out cautiously.
He realized that before anything else, he needed to find a way to stay safe.
Gathering all the information he had obtained since his reincarnation, Ronan remembered what Kael had said about demonic aura. In the past, he'd deliberately suppressed it, but since he had entered the body of a demon aura, his aura was now completely followed the demon dog aura.
But could he release that aura again? Ronan remembered clearly that back then, because of this demonic aura, both demonic creatures and animals in the Black Forest had avoided him. Now, with his limited mobility, that aura could serve as his best defense.
He attempted to concentrate his awareness, just like he'd done when he had suppressed his demonic aura before. He didn't release it all at once, fearing that a too-strong aura might attract even more powerful monsters. Instead, he tentatively released a small amount and then tried to "observe" his own body.
This time was different from when it had been like a mist. Ronan now saw a faint black glow surrounding his body, like a dim aura.
Thinking it had probably worked, he finally crawled out from under the tarp and quickly noticed the changes in his body.
As he released his demonic aura, his two broken legs suddenly returned to normal. Meanwhile, the demonic aura he had released faded slightly, as if it had been absorbed back into his body... What was going on?
With more wounds still on his body, Ronan decided to experiment further by releasing a bit more demonic aura.
The faint black glow appeared again and was absorbed back into his body. His remaining wounds also began to heal.
"..." Just like how Ronan had mysteriously ended up in the body of a demon dog, this time, the recovery baffled him as well. The half-piece of bread he'd eaten earlier was quickly digested, and soon enough, he felt hunger creeping back.
He took another lap around the camp, his gaze lingering for a long while on the spot where Kael had died, before wagging his tail and heading back into the forest.
This time, without the help of the Strutarians, he couldn't catch any small animals. He was left with nothing but wild berries from the bushes, which not only left his nose full of painful thorns but also did nothing to fill his stomach. Worse, they gave him a sour stomach.
For several days, he persisted like this. Every day, Ronan would release some demonic aura to "repair" his body. As a carnivore, the demon dog followed the scent to a few demonic creature carcasses, but he simply couldn't bring himself to eat them.
When the hunger became unbearable, he started imitating the demon chickens, digging in the dirt to find fist-sized wild fruits. At least it filled his belly, though the fruits were dry and tasteless, with barely any juice. Not only did they taste horrible, but they also led to serious digestive problems—something Ronan never thought he'd have to deal with, even as a dog. Constipation? Really?
In desperation, he tried eating grass, not caring whether it was poisonous. He couldn't tell anyway. This led to a few bouts of stomach trouble, and he even fainted a couple of times. Fortunately, he survived, though living like this was nothing short of torment. However, ever since he'd begun releasing his demonic aura, he hadn't encountered any real danger.
When Kael had been alive, he often gave Ronan raw meat, which Ronan had been disgusted by at the time. Now… climbing trees to catch birds was out of the question. He'd tried chasing wild rabbits but always ended up empty-handed.