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Episode 8:
To My Darlings
AFTER ALL THAT, IT WASN’T JUST ME WHO got taken, but Lady Elea, Shelly, Betty, and even Rick. The leader of the terrorists seemed pleased by this turn of events and secretly told me that they had at least wanted to grab Lady Elea and Rick, so we were a bonus. What the heck?
However, they seemed like the honest kind of terrorists, so they didn’t harm anyone else there—merely knocked them out with sleeping pills or something like that.
After that, we were off in some trading company’s enormous coach, rocking back and forth for about two hours before arriving at some manor. Lady Elea was then separated from the rest of us.
Rick threw a tantrum when they took his mother away, but went quiet after they hit him.
“Are you all right, Lord Ludoric?” Betty asked.
W̊ ë_b ṅȯv̇е̌ĺ Е ńum̃.а̂
“I-I’m fine!” I thought they had held back, but Rick looked on the verge of tears as he pressed his swollen cheek. He was okay enough to still put up a brave front, at least.
I wished he would let go of my skirt. He shouldn’t have come if he was so scared. On the other hand, Shelly seemed to be doing fine enough that she was able to glare at him with a terrifying look.
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With Lady Elea gone, the four of us children were taken to an underground cellar that looked like a warehouse.
I would like to note that I was extremely calm despite the situation.
This was the first time I had felt so keenly like a devil.
The soul of a demon, the heart of a human…
Ëñ ů m а̀
I had vaguely assumed that the soul and heart were one and the same, but it turned out that they were subtly different. I believed that I had such a strong force of will because I had a certain degree of memories of living in that world from my dreams. That had to be part of it. Yet if those memories were really all I had, then surely I would have been much more terrified in this situation.
I had lived in that gruesome Demon Realm as a demon. Despite that, I was sure that I had a human heart within me.
In the warehouse, I could see dozens of kids with injured hearts and bodies. How long had they been here? One of the kids looked like he hadn’t been properly eating; he was thoroughly exhausted from crying and shouting, crouched down with a blank look in his eyes, looking brutally battered and close to dying of neglect. Perhaps he’d tried to resist and gotten caught.
Shelly and the others turned their gazes away from the children bitterly, but I continued staring at them.
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“Oh my goodness…”
I felt neither pity nor resentment for the children. Instead, I felt a deep love for them, seeing how they suffered…
We̊b n̈ о́ v̆ e l Ëñǔ m̂ а
I was such a freak.
What the heck was wrong with me? At first, I mistook it for something like affection, but how weird was I to have feelings of love while looking at children who were hurt and suffering?!
Look, in my head, I understood that this was an awful sight, but my heart felt exhilarated, like there was some kind of power surging up inside of me.
What should I do? I guess there’s no helping it. I give up.
As I was busy thinking such worthless thoughts, I looked away. For some reason, Shelly and Betty took my hands, seeming as though they were on the verge of tears. I’m sorry, but that wasn’t why I looked away.
Hmm?
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“Wait, that kid there…”
“Is something the matter, Lady Yul?” Shelly asked, worry in her voice.
I ignored her as I was drawn to the sensation of the dying child. “He…wants to die.” I was already walking toward the child as those words escaped my lips.
I was sure that my normal fake-human smile was gone. The kids moved out of my path fearfully as I came closer. The kids around the child in question quickly fled—I supposed they weren’t his siblings. I crouched down next to him.
“Is living too painful for you?”
I was sure I heard Shelly and the others gasp behind me.
Ёn̂ u̇ m̌а
The boy weakly cracked his eyes open, letting out wheezing breaths from between cracked lips. He could not speak, but his eyes told me everything. His lips moved as if to say, “I want this pain to end. I want to feel better.”
So that’s what you desire. However…
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“No.” I touched the boy’s dirty cheek and spoke in a gentle voice as I smiled at him.
It was flowing into me.
The boy’s intense agony and profound despair filled my starving heart.
“Live.”
Wё b ň ӧṽе̊ l̇ Ѐnù m a
Ahh, humans are such frail and darling creatures.
Even this small child with his little body and heart possessed a nectar that attracted me.
“Keep living, even if it’s painful and sad. That’s the rule of being human.”
I hadn’t even realized it, but every child down here in this underground warehouse was listening to me now.
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All of you must know this too. Live your short lives with all your might. Suffer, feel sorrow, feel regret, and keep on living.
Because as a devil, I would never allow a human to just die in peace.
Е̇ṅ u m̊ а̇
“Manifest Light.”
A dazzling light shot out from my whole body and gently enveloped the child. My feelings became power and manifested as healing magic.
As the overwhelming power rushed out of me, I realized why I was able to use holy magic but not ordinary spellcraft. It made so much sense. It was because the way a demon used magic was different from how a human did.
I was just glad that I had it at all.
Now then, my darling humans.
“I grant you all the blessing of life!”
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Curse the fact that you were ever born. However, I alone in this world will revel in your despair. Welcome to a world full of suffering, humans.
Now offer up your despair unto me—the devil.
Ahh, I feel like I finally let my feelings out.
My released emotions turned into light that now illuminated this spacious underground warehouse. My pure demon magic turned into light, just as I willed it, binding even weak-willed light elementals and forcing them to manifest with the appearance of countless angels.
The feathers of these angels scattered in a blizzard of light. Every child who touched them was completely healed. The light-feathers quietly whirled like snow, melting into the air.
Е n̊ ŭ m а
All was silent.
Uh-oh. I really overdid it this time. There is no denying how highly abnormal that was.
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The silence was so painful. Shelly and the other children were overcome with amazement, or more like completely flabbergasted.
What should I do? I guess there’s no helping it.
That was when the cute cheeks of that half-dead boy who had craved death turned bright red. He looked at me with sparkling eyes and knelt before me, putting his hands together. “Thank you, Lady Saint.”
Huh?! Saint?! Why?! I completely snapped out of my exhilaration.
W ebn оv́ еl Е̃ n̈um̃а̀
The other kids must have heard him too, because now everyone who had been healed started kneeling as well, bringing their hands together with tears streaming down their faces in prayer to me.
Wait, stop! I’m no Saint! I’m a devil!
***
“Albertine? What are you doing here?!”
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Albertine stood opposite of Eleanor in a gutted basement held up by rustic pillars, so large that it was even more spacious than a manor. Eleanor tried to approach her, but several knights blocked her path. Albertine gave an easy smile as she met the other woman’s gaze.
“Why, Your Highness, it’s nice to see you again. Though I suppose it hasn’t been all that long since we last met.”
Е̂ n̆ u m̀.а̄
As they were both high-ranking nobles, they often saw one another at evening parties. Before that, the two of them had been in the same year at the Academy of the Magical Arts and every student had known them as “the two roses of high society.” There was no way that they were not familiar with one another.
Each of them possessed everything that others desired: beauty, authority, wealth, the envy of all who knew them. However, once they’d graduated, their situations had changed considerably. By the time their paths crossed again, they were very different people.
Albertine wanted to have her cake and eat it too, and she had tried to get everything. Yet what she desired most was the only thing to slip right through her fingers: a certain man’s heart.
Eleanor was a noble, and it was because she had given up on love that she had managed to obtain one of those futures that Albertine had desired for herself.
“Why have you done such a thing?” Eleanor asked.
“You could never understand.” Albertine dropped her gaze slightly. When she raised her head back up again, her eyes were as fierce and magnificent as always. “Though I suppose I will explain in due time. Starting now, I’m going to take all you have. I shall steal everything from you, destroy it, and once there’s nothing left, I’m going to be taking it all back.”
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Destruction and restoration. As ruthless as it seemed, it was no different from someone who was all out of moves upending a board game. Realizing that, Eleanor widened her eyes in astonishment. “Oh my goodness. Does Lord Forte know of this?!”
“How could he possibly know? These are the lengths I must go to for him to even look at me.”
“Albertine…” Eleanor was stunned as she realized that words alone would not be enough to get Albertine to change her mind.
“Bring her to the guest room,” Albertine ordered her men. “And be hospitable about it.”
“Please wait, Albertine!”
“So long, Lady Eleanor. I’ve prepared a special seat for you from which you can witness the destruction of this kingdom.”
Ĕnu̇m а̌. іd
“Albertiiiiine!”
Eleanor’s screams as the knights grabbed her by the arms and hauled her away made Albertine feel so empty, yet slightly satisfied at the same time.
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That being said…
“This isn’t nearly enough.”
Albertine proceeded through the dark basement devoid of walls, making her way to the biggest space at the center. There, scholars and wizards were busily at work. She addressed the noble man among them, “How are the preparations going, Lord Bruno?”
Marquess Bruno was a man in his thirties with brown hair. He knelt before Albertine, leaving a light kiss upon her hand. “Ah, you are always such a delight to behold, my lady. Of course, they are proceeding as expected. We should be able to begin experimenting shortly.”
Е́ n̊ ú ṁa .і̆ d
A military general, Bruno was known for being part of the hardline faction that promoted the expansion of the kingdom’s armaments. Despite his superficial appearance, his skill with the blade was on par with the royal knights and he was well-versed in spellcraft. He was personally overseeing their operations here.
“I’d expect nothing less of you. How does it look now that it’s finished?”
“Come see for yourself. Right this way.” The Marquess offered his hand in escort, guiding her toward where they had been laboring away. The wizards and knights all cleared a path for her so that she may see the summoning circle that covered the entire floor.
“Oh, my.” As one of its ringleaders, Albertine knew the gist of the plan, but it was still thrilling all the same to witness a magic circle as big as a noble’s mansion.
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Pleased by her reaction, Bruno then explained, “As you know, we used the summoning incident four years ago as the basis for this summoning circle and made it twenty percent bigger. We also incorporated the newly developed feature you provided and should be able to successfully summon multiple greater demons in succession.”
The caveat, of course, was however long the summoner’s force of will and magic could hold out.
Ѐnūm̂.a
Technically, they could have made an even bigger magic circle, but anything larger would have taken multiple wizards to work it. A larger circle would have required even more magic, and the more summoners there were, the longer the ritual would take to cast. Under the circumstances, they lacked both enough wizards they could trust and a large enough space behind closed doors.
Nevertheless, this was remarkable progress compared to the current standard of randomly summoning creatures through gates forcibly opened using powerful magic. Their goal in making such a large magic circle was not so small-minded.
“So we’ll be able to summon a high-ranking one, then?”
Bruno frowned at Albertine’s question.
This was not a stratagem they could utilize publicly, even if they were at war. However, releasing even a hundred greater demons would be more than enough to greatly weaken a kingdom. A single greater demon was equal in strength to a hundred soldiers. A hundred greater demons would be enough to cause a devastating blow to a smaller nation, depending on the pact that was sealed with them. But a kingdom as strong as Talitelud would have summoners who could conjure major elementals—which were a fair match against greater demons—so they couldn’t expect a sure win in those cases.
The original goal of this plan had been to summon a high-ranking demon to increase their chances of winning any battles they may face. The fifty-plus children they had gathered were sacrifices for summoning one specific demon, a beast of a high enough rank to equal an arch elemental, capable of causing earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, tornadoes—all manner of cataclysms all across the world…
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One such demon had once materialized in this world. It had appeared in the form of a sinister human dressed in the attire of an old-fashioned aristocrat and were said to have devastated an entire country all by itself.
“It will be difficult; however, I would like to summon that being,” Bruno admitted with some hesitation.
“Yes, I remember them well too.”
Four years prior, the two of them had been present during the demon-summoning incident. Bruno had been the commander of the operation and Albertine had directed the wizards as an observer from the Academy of the Magical Arts.
Albertine had been stopped from participating directly in the operation due to her position, but she had joined the dangerous battle anyway out of spite toward her husband, since the incident had taken place on her land.
At the time, Bruno had only wanted more merits to boost his authority, and Albertine had only wanted to make her existence known. However, on that day, the two had beheld the great being: A golden cat that was so beautiful, it looked like a messenger from the gods. A unique high-ranking specimen among the demons, with fur that sparkled gold and radiant golden bat wings—the Golden Beast.
W̄ ë_b ň о́ ṽ еl Ěn u m̄ а
Not everyone could have noticed it, but a handful of people did.
The magnificent repulsiveness hidden within its small body could blot out the starry sky and the moon with darkness. That beautiful gold demon had such power beyond that of a greater demon, they were incomparable.
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The summoners likely hadn’t had enough power within their magic circle. The gold demon had disappeared into the heavens and the Church had declared that it was no longer in this world, so Albertine and Bruno, captivated by its beauty and power, had schemed to summon it again. They had their individual goals and feelings on the matter, but they had both been charmed by that demon and worked toward their goal with a sort of zealotry.
“Currently, we’ve adjusted it to summon an old and powerful greater demon as an experiment. What shall we do for it?”
“Hmm.”
Even an experiment would require several sacrifices in order to summon multiple greater demons. They had no idea how many sacrifices it would take to summon that gold demon again, and they didn’t want their stock of children to go to waste.
Ėn̊ ů m а
They had captured Eleanor so that she wouldn’t be able to use her considerable spellcraft skill to interfere with the final stages of their experiment. They’d also abducted her son to sacrifice him before her, but Albertine didn’t want to use him in this kind of test run.
That was when Albertine remembered Zumana having mentioned a certain child in his report.
“One of the children is of a strong lineage and possesses notable magical gifts. She would surely count as several people’s worth of sacrifices.”
***
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“You want to use that child?” Zumana asked without thinking. He looked startled by his candor and bowed his head. “I apologize for speaking out of turn.”
Albertine nodded coolly at Zumana as they headed for the room where the children were imprisoned. “It’s all right. This wasn’t a part of our original plan, after all.”
Е ń um̂ а̌.і́d
They’d originally planned to make Eleanor’s son a test subject. They would allow him to be possessed by a lesser demon before using him as a sacrifice. They were going to break Eleanor’s heart by showing her son to her as a half-demon. They’d managed to take Eleanor prisoner ahead of schedule, but the rest of that was going to take time.
In ages past, people had experimented with possession by lesser demons to see if a living body with a soul could absorb the power of a demon or elemental. These tests resulted in the subjects turning into something like a monster, and the field of study was banned before its full potential could be realized.
Humans lost their minds when possessed by a stronger demon or elemental, and if the creature was too weak, the human would wind up weaker as well, unable to acquire any power even though their bodies were altered. The nation to the south had also experimented in the past, but Albertine hadn’t been able to obtain their research results, not that she’d expected to.
If that little girl was of the same strong ancestry as Ludoric, then surely they could find a better use for her than just treating her as a disposable pawn. So Zumana believed—but he knew that once his strict mistress had made up her mind, it was hard to change it.
“All I want to know is if a child of such a long, strong bloodline would be able to resist the power of a demon.”
“I understand.”
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I highly doubt that’s all there is to this, Zumana thought.
Talking with Eleanor hadn’t been part of the plan. It was because they had also gotten their hands on that girl—which had not originally been part of the plan—that Albertine had lost her composure.
The girl was born from the woman her husband loved. She was the beloved daughter he desired, the one he was willing to throw everything away for. It was a given that he would love her from the onset, but even Zumana could tell that Albertine was having complicated feelings about how this girl was so beloved by everyone else as well. It could be that Albertine was unconsciously afraid of that girl whose very existence disturbed the tranquility of her heart.
In contrast, Zumana considered the girl a curiosity. She had shown no sign of fear during the kidnapping. She’d resolutely made her demands—no, negotiated with Zumana, acting as if she were someone of high rank. How had that little girl been raised to behave in such a manner even though she wasn’t even four yet? Albertine’s eldest daughter was exceptionally talented in Zumana’s opinion, but even she needed authority when arguing with an adult.
Zumana began to reconsider everything as he realized that this was what they meant by having a strong bloodline. Both Albertine’s daughter and the Ludoric boy were of similar ancestry, but Zumana began to feel that the girl’s bloodline might be even stronger. Perhaps it was because of her bloodline that she possessed such otherworldly beauty and a majesty that made her seem inhuman. If they hadn’t been so captivated by her angelic beauty, some of the knights he had borrowed from Marquess Bruno would likely have knelt down before her on the spot—that was just how different she was.
But none of that matters to me. Albertine is my mistress, and what she says goes.
Ĕn u.m а̇.і̇ d̈
Zumana not only respected her as his mistress, but loved her as a woman. He loved every single thing about her. How she was as beautiful as a rose, her haughty air, her determination, her strength—even that lonely expression he would catch on occasion. All of her weaknesses.
And his feelings never wavered, even after he had learned that she had been the one who had put his family through such hardship.
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“What’s…going on in there?” Albertine was shocked as they stood before the door to the room the children were confined in.
They hadn’t posted any guards. There was only the occasional patrol, since they didn’t have enough personnel and it wasn’t like such young children could possibly do anything.
Yet what they saw now was bizarre.
Some kind of dazzling light as bright as the sun itself was leaking out of the gaps in the sturdy, securely locked door. The light fluttered about, looking like illusory feathers, turning into particles of light and disappearing once they touched the floor.
Ẇ е̊.b̊n̂ о̀ v̆ е̃ l̃ Enum̌а̃
“Why…?” Albertine had seen this before.
This light was holy magic, and a high-level blessing at that. Albertine had only ever seen it performed once, by His Eminence the Pontiff of the Church of Kostor. This was the sort of blessing that priests performed to heal people and grant them protection against evil. This kind of blessing as performed by the pontiff would bless everyone present and the skill required to cast it depended on the number of people it affected.
Feast of Blessings. Only one person in the Holy Kingdom had the skill to use this spell, and even the pontiff would be unable to move after casting it on thirty people. There probably weren’t even ten people capable of using it on the whole continent.
There were at least fifty children in that room. This meant that one of the children in that room could use holy magic even more powerful than the pontiff himself.
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If the caster was a certain someone…
“Zumana! Open the door! Hurry!”
Еnu m̈а
Albertine was impatient as Zumana opened the door and she practically leapt inside. What they found was not the wounded, terrified children who had resigned themselves to their fates, but children who were all the picture of perfect health, offering up their prayers to a child who was the image of the Saint.
***
“What have you done?!” a beautiful woman with red hair shouted as she barged into the room. I recognized her from the coach ride with my father.
Huh? Why?! What are you doing here?! Things were already complicated enough for me, what with all of these kids calling me the Saint or whatever and making supplications to me so I couldn’t move. Don’t make things any worse!
“Move aside!” The lady seethed at the children as she charged into them.
Whoa, what an inhuman expression on her face. Huh? Why was she looking at me? She was coming straight for me?!
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“You’re coming with me!”
“Eek!” The pretty lady grabbed my arm and I let out some weird cry of alarm.
That was when the very first boy I’d healed—Noel, was it?—suddenly opened his eyes wide and threw himself at the lady.
“Don’t touch the Saaaint!”
The beautiful lady knocked him aside with her hand. “Foolish child!”
“Waaaaaaah!” Rick also jumped at the woman. Why was he going this far?!
Еnuma
“Why, you—!” The woman didn’t even hesitate to slap him down too. She kept trying to drag me out of the room as Shelly and Betty and every single child in the room leaped at her.
“I shall not allow you to take Lady Yul!”
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“Yul!”
“Lady Saint!”
“Saint!”
The children continued throwing themselves at her while calling out for the Saint. The lady scowled. And I scowled even more than she did.
Еn̄.uma . і d
“O Wind!” The butler-looking guy standing by the door cast some kind of spell that sent Shelly and the others flying backward.
The pretty lady and I felt nothing more than a gentle breeze. He sure was impressive! And he’d managed to not injure the kids either. He was really, really talented.
“Quiet! If you keep acting up, I’m going to kill her!” the lady shouted.
The kids all immediately went still.
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Uh, that would be bad if you killed me and all, but I’d really rather they not get hurt since I went through the trouble of healing them. Is this the part where I should say something? Not that it would be in order to protect myself or anything.
“I’ll be okay, everybody,” I said, smiling to assure them as best as I could.
Ëṅu.m̀ӑ
Shelly and the others started wailing with despair.
Uhhh? I glanced up at the pretty lady for a sign of what I should do, but she looked taken aback by their behavior.
I know what that look is. Yep. Lady! Get me outta here!
It wasn’t as if I had given up on all logical thinking or anything. I just figured that there was nothing that could possibly be done to fix this situation now.
“Walk!”
“’Kaaay!”
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Ah, hey, that hurts. The lady had squeezed my arm painfully in response to my casual reply. Yeah, I know. Normal kids would be a whole lot more scared in this kind of situation.
Wait a sec, how does one act afraid again? I figured I could act like Shelly or Betty, but it was probably a little too late for that. So I just obediently went along with them, and all the while, that butler-looking guy kept looking at me curiously.
No worries. I’m not suspicious at all, I swear. I needed to figure out how to act a little more like a regular human.
And so, that pretty lady held my hand as we walked down this gloomy hallway until we arrived at an even bigger space than the place they held all the kids. I figured that we were underground, and I finally had to wonder if I was actually going to be okay.
They had demolished all of the walls to leave only pillars, but I got the feeling that they had left them there to serve some kind of purpose. Maybe they would make some kind of magic stronger or something?
I didn’t know where she was taking me, but there happened to be a chair, so the lady made me sit down and crouched to meet my gaze.
W e b̃ n̊о ve l Еn ùm̂а̌
“You’re Liasteia’s daughter, aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” I said after a moment of hesitation.
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Was she Mother’s friend too? No, I didn’t think she was. There was something really emotional about the way she’d said Mother’s name just now.
The woman seemed calmer than before, but she was still very irritated. She was forcing herself to smile like she would for a child, but after that show of violence, I found that smile unnerving.
“What’s your name?”
“Yulucia,” I replied after a pause.
Еn um а̊. і d
“So your name is Yulucia. And you can use holy magic?”
“Yup.”
“Who taught you that kind of magic that you just used?”
That kind of magic? I tilted my head, giving her a confused look. I’d learned some holy magic from Vio, but if that wasn’t what she meant, was she referring to the whole thing about the angels dancing? Was that a kind of magic I shouldn’t have used? I just gave her a look that said “I’m a kid and I don’t know what you’re talking about,” which made her sigh wearily.
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“Do you know what the Saint is?”
That again? I silently shook my head, feigning ignorance. She narrowed her eyes in a glare.
Еn̂ ū m̈ а. і d
“The Saint is a very special person to our kingdom, all the more so if she’s descended from royalty. But that doesn’t matter. Now, listen closely, Yulucia. I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen to you now.”
“Okay.” I nodded my head, playing the good girl.
The lady’s fake smile turned sadistic. “At first, I was planning to use you for demonic possession, but I think we can do some other kinds of experiments if you really do possess enough magical ability to call yourself a true Saint.”
“Okay…?”
Uh, I wasn’t the one calling myself the Saint or anything.
But then the pretty lady brought up a disturbing word that made me reflexively try to stand, only to be stopped when she grabbed my shoulders.
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“Hmm, yes. First, let’s try cutting your arm. I’m sure it’ll really hurt, but you can just heal it yourself.”
I was silent. What was this lady saying?
“Don’t worry. If you are the Saint, I’m sure you’ll be fine. And then after that, we’ll try cutting your leg. There’s sure to be a lot of blood, so you’ll need to heal yourself quickly so that you don’t die. And maybe it would be interesting to see what would happen if we drove nails into you. It’ll hurt much more if you heal yourself while they’re still piercing your body.”
Uhhhh…?
“Perhaps we should make it our goal to strengthen the spell through reinforcement with holy magic. And then if you run out of magic, and thus have less resistance, we’ll go ahead and make sure you’re possessed by a lesser demon. Good luck trying to resist. If you don’t, you’ll wind up with scales or thorns all over your arms and body. Hee hee…I can’t wait to see the looks on the faces of the royal family and the Church once they see that their precious Saint looks like a daemon.”
This pretty lady sounded like she had gone mad, spewing such revolting things. I could definitely feel that her heart had taken some kind of really weird turn.
W e b̂ n̄о̄ v̌el̆ Е̂ nû m̂а́
Her twisted smile suddenly turned sad as she touched my cheek.
“Ahh, you have such pretty eyes. They look just like his. It was those eyes that made me so fond of him. Ever since we first met when we were young, I’ve loved them. But I couldn’t tell him how I felt… I could only ever say cruel things to him.”
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Her fingers grazed underneath my eyes before she slowly dropped both of her hands. “I was so sure that…he would be mine, so long as I just waited. His elder brother also knew that this was for the best, for the sake of his talents. But…he found another before I had a chance.”
Her white hands trembled as they slowly wrapped around my throat. “I hated her. I didn’t even want to look at her. But at the castle…at parties at night…even tea parties…whenever I saw him, she was there by his side. At first, she was hanging around him like a younger sister, but then she stole his heart.”
Slowly, silently, she pressed her fingers deep into my skin. “And even though I made him mine, he never gave me his heart. So I said things that were even more cruel. That was when his elder brother started meddling… Even though we had worked together to make this union happen, he became my enemy. So long as those people continue to stand in my way, his heart will never belong to me…”
I was completely silent.
Е̇ n̈u ma
Ah, I see. So that’s how it is.
This was the story of a girl who couldn’t be honest about her feelings even though she loved someone. She didn’t want me to know her story or anything. She could only tell me this because she was going to kill me—because I was a child who was going to die, and she wanted someone to know.
“If I had acted more like a Saint, would he have fallen in love with me? If my daughters had the same kind of blonde hair as she does, would he have loved them? What must we do to be loved by him? I don’t know… I don’t know what I should do! What should I have done to make us a family? No one ever taught me how to live that way! And so now, all I can do is destroy it all! Destroy everything and start over again with a clean slate!”
I continued to say nothing.
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What an inept person she is… Surely she’s realized that even overturning the game board won’t do anything to make him love her. Yet her heart is so cracked and broken that she has nothing left but to cling to this idea.
“But even that won’t work… Because you’re here. He won’t love me or my daughters because he has someone like you, so beloved by everyone! So…I want you to die. You’ve had enough of his love, right? So you’re going to die, and then he’ll be mine!” She leaned in to scream in my face as she squeezed my neck even tighter.
Ӗ_n ùm̌а̄
From her personality, I had to assume that she had never had another female friend whom she could share her darkest thoughts with. If only she had someone she could open up to. If only she could be a bit more honest about her feelings.
But you don’t need to cry anymore.
I reached up to touch her quivering hands as they dug into my neck and smiled at her.
It’s all right. You don’t need to cry anymore.
Seeing my smiling reflection in her eyes slightly waver, I couldn’t help myself from gently brushing her tears away from her cheeks. She hadn’t even noticed she was crying.
“Wh-what are you—?” Her gaze trembled with confusion. We locked eyes and the harsh look in hers slowly dissipated. I gently cupped her pale cheeks in my hands.
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The hearts of humans were so tender, so sad, so fragile, yet so beautiful. Even if this deep love were to change to hatred and pain, I would treasure it dearly. Humans were just so darling.
And these feelings were driving me mad.
“I will love you.”
“What?”
I was finally aware of it. I had finally realized what these feelings inside of me were. I loved humans.
I—as a devil—was thirsting for love.
Ẅ е̂ b ñ ŏ_vе̇ l. Е̃ṅ û m̈ a
To think that such bad people had such sweet nectar hiding inside of them.
“I’m going to have a taste of it now.”
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Snap!
I ever-so-gently broke her neck.
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