The Land Between
A treacherous mountain range, known as the Demon Mountains, exists.
This range consists of three layers.
First Layer.
A range of steep mountains, perpetually covered in snow throughout the year.
Creatures dwelling here are far stronger than those on the surface.
The dominant threat level is Class C, with species such as wind dragons and ice dragons also present.
Both humans and demons refer to this layer as the Demon Mountains.
Second Layer.
Beyond the towering peaks of the First Layer, there is nothing.
Only mountains so high they block the path, and freezing winds that drive travelers to exhaustion.
The only visible features are snow and rock.
Those who accidentally pass through the First Layer and reach the Second Layer face the full force of nature.
Third Layer.
The endpoint of the Demon Mountains.
There, a dragon resides.
As the final guardian.
The Demon Mountains stretched in a half-circle.
From above, the peaks appeared as three distinct waves, cleanly formed.
A reincarnated soul might have predicted the range resulted from crustal deformation caused by continental collisions, as seen in plate tectonics.
Yet this prediction would be half correct, half incorrect.
The Demon Mountains were indeed formed by the collision of continents—but not through the movement of tectonic plates.
A certain individual had deliberately shifted continents and joined them, resulting in the formation of the Demon Mountains.
No one else knew this truth.
If the mountains arose from continental collision, then vast landmasses should lie beyond them.
No one within the human territories or the demon territories knew this truth.
Only those who lived on the land knew it.
A vast continental island, half encircled by the Demon Mountains, the other half by the sea.
Its area measured approximately 1.57 million square kilometers.
Comparable in size to Mongolia on Earth.
Slightly narrow to be called a continent, yet sufficient in scale to be considered a single nation.
This nation had no name.
If one must name it, it could be described as a realm of liminality—neither human nor demon, independent from both.
Neither humans nor demons knew of its existence.
Because neither could cross the Demon Mountains nor sail across the sea.
Likewise, the inhabitants of the liminal nation could not leave their land.
Yet they knew of the human territories and the demon territories.
The inhabitants of the liminal nation are, by virtue of their geography, required to achieve complete self-sufficiency.
Thus, the primary industries are agriculture and animal husbandry.
Other industries are also predominantly allocated to necessities, with very few dedicated to luxuries.
Most notably, there is a scarcity of weapon-making specialists or artisans trained for combat.
In a world where demons—enemies of all living things—proliferate, weapons and armor are essential.
Yet this does not apply in the liminal nation.
Demons do not exist within the liminal nation.
The mechanism of demon emergence is no different from that of ordinary animals.
Demons do not appear suddenly from empty space.
Occasionally, dungeons arise, from which demons emerge, but aside from such exceptions, most life forms reproduce through conventional biological processes.
If there are no monsters to begin with, then no increase is possible.
Furthermore, as long as none enter from outside.
The Land Between had cultivated an environment devoid of such creatures.
All animals native to the Land Between were calm by nature—none could be called monsters.
Predators existed, but they were not monsters.
The existence of animals and monsters was distinctly separate.
With no monsters present, combat was rarely necessary. Thus, weapons and armor were not produced, and warriors did not exist.
This was the form of a nation that embodied奇迹 in this world.
Miracles did not end there.
The people who lived in the Land Between were likewise miraculous.
If every resident of this nation were examined individually, one would discover an astonishing truth.
The fact that, in this nation, humans and demons—two races that had fought throughout history—lived side by side.
Not only that, but the two races intermarried, producing half-breeds.
In fact, pure humans or pure demons were the exception; most residents of this nation carried blood from both races.
A nation where warring races joined hands and lived in peace.
The Land Between was such a miracle.
There, a perfect nation had been built—by a man who sought to fulfill the goddess’s will.
Yet, an unprecedented crisis now approached this nation.
A single oni, having lost everything to the humans and now driven into the Demon Mountains by human hands, had arrived at the third layer of the Demon Mountains.
Having crossed the frigid second layer with barely any food.
The demon, at the threshold of life and death, ignored the ice dragon’s warning as guardian.
It had never heard the warning to begin with.
The demon, standing at the edge of death, possessed no reason—only the dragon before it, seen as food.
Possessed by rage, it had become nothing more than a demon, driven solely to kill and consume.
The ice dragon, having lost half its body, barely escaped the raging demon.
To deliver a message to its master: a fearsome entity approached the Land of the Narrow Gap.
And the demon crossed the mountain range.