Faced with Emily’s concern for her, Xilina was also a bit at a loss.
Even though Xilina could tell from her current situation that Emily wasn’t the bad person she had imagined, her wariness and prejudice against humans still lingered.
So she could only silently nod to indicate that she was fine.
“I see…”
Seeing the girl’s reaction, Emily breathed a sigh of relief.
Emily had been really worried that she would be scared into tears by the pressure Natalie had just released.
Emily had no confidence in calming down a crying girl.
‘But Xilina’s guts are bigger than I thought… If I had to face that Demon King’s aura head-on, I’d definitely pee my pants! Wait, how come I suddenly feel like a little girl is braver than me?’
After all, Emily had originally just been a “big baby” protected by modern society.
After coming to this world, she had also been coddled and sheltered by the Church and Hadia.
Naturally, she couldn’t compare to Xilina, who had fled from the human side and then had to survive alone on the streets.
If Xilina had lacked courage, she wouldn’t have lasted so long on the streets by herself.
Xilina was only this afraid of Emily because of her psychological trauma.
Setting that aside, Xilina’s bravery was at a level Emily could only dream of.
“…What about your parents?”
Seeing that Xilina was willing to communicate with her, Emily tentatively asked this question.
Although Emily already had a basic understanding of her parents’ situation—after all, if nothing had happened to them, she wouldn’t have ended up on the streets so young.
“…They were killed.”
Faced with Emily’s inquiry, Xilina answered while enduring the pain.
When she said those words, Xilina used all her strength to keep her tears from falling.
“…By… humans?”
Emily voiced the most likely answer.
Even though Emily felt like she was rubbing salt into Xilina’s wound, if she didn’t find out clearly, she wouldn’t know how to handle Xilina next.
Emily didn’t think that Natalie, the Demon King, would keep her forever.
So she had to quickly find out Xilina’s situation and figure out a place for her.
‘But… a mere slave like me can hardly do that. I’ll probably have to beg Natalie, the Demon King, for help…’
Just as Emily was thinking about how to convince Natalie to help, Xilina said quietly, “No… it was the Demon Race…”
‘It was the Demon Race?!’
Xilina’s unexpected reply made Emily’s eyes widen.
To get the full picture, Emily continued to question Xilina.
Finally, from Xilina’s fragmented responses, she pieced together the answer.
Originally, Xilina had lived with her parents in a foxkin village.
But one day, human knights discovered the village’s existence and immediately launched a “righteous” purge against it.
After all, in the human doctrine, any race other than humans and elves was considered the Demon Race.
Demon Race must be eliminated!
Xilina’s family was one of the few foxkin who managed to escape the human purge.
The other foxkin in the village were either killed for resisting or captured by humans and turned into slaves.
Males became laborers, doing all kinds of hard labor, living only a few years.
And because most foxkin girls were beautiful, their fate went without saying.
The elderly and children were killed outright, since humans considered them worthless.
The elderly had lost their ability to work, and living was just “wasting” human food.
Humans had no interest in raising “Demon Race” children; rather than doing such thankless work, it was more worthwhile to raid other “Demon Race” villages.
Xilina’s family, having escaped, understood that they couldn’t stay in human countries.
Even if they miraculously found another foxkin village, it was questionable whether the villagers would take them in.
Even if they were accepted, one day they might become targets of human purges again, ending up homeless once more.
So Xilina’s parents chose to take her across several human countries to the Demon World—the only “paradise” for non-human races.
Of course, calling it a “paradise” was only in comparison.
Although the Demon Race would take in all races rejected by humans, that didn’t mean they would provide food and shelter unconditionally to these refugees.
Whether they could survive in the Demon World depended on their own ability.
After Xilina’s family endured great hardship to reach this town, they barely had time to catch their breath before they were targeted by Demon hoodlums.
After all, Xilina’s mother was truly beautiful.
Scumbags existed among both humans and demons.
And since Xilina’s family were refugees, they had no one to rely on.
Even if something happened, no one would particularly care.
After the thugs attacked, Xilina’s parents fought back with all their strength, but the long journey had left them exhausted.
They had no strength left to resist the thugs’ assault.
All Xilina’s parents could do was buy time for her to run alone into the maze of alleys.
Thanks to the alleys and her small stature, Xilina managed to escape the thugs’ pursuit.
As for what happened to her parents, Xilina didn’t know.
She did go back to look for them, but didn’t find them.
So Xilina assumed they were dead.
After all, under those circumstances, it was hard for them to survive.
With her parents gone, Xilina could only make the alleys her base and struggle to survive.
Usually, she would try to steal food from the streets, then immediately dart into the alleys to shake off the shop owners.
Some people took pity on her and gave her a little money.
Xilina had been living this way for over a month.
Until today, she happened to run into Emily, who brought her home.
Of course, after hearing all this, Emily felt conflicted.
But as a mere slave, she couldn’t avenge Xilina or anything.
The only thing she could do was try to persuade Natalie to take her in or send Xilina to an orphanage.
‘Okay, let’s go see how Natalie reacts after hearing all this!’
Just as Emily stood up to leave, a growling sound came from Xilina’s stomach.
Xilina covered her stomach, looking a little embarrassed.
Although Emily wanted to give Xilina food, she obviously couldn’t.
After all, the whole reason Emily and Natalie had gone out in the first place was to kidnap a chef to cook for them.