Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 249

249.

I glanced up and saw Deron lost in thought, cradling the egg. His unusually somber expression made me curious, so I called out to him.

“Deron?”

“Yes? Ah, I was just reminded of Zak and his strong feelings. I’m a little sad that I can’t go and tell him the news.”

“Zak, as in the Northern Duke you mentioned earlier?”

“Yes, he is greatly disheartened because he lost all of his eggs this breeding season. He would be overjoyed if he knew about the existence of our lord in my arms.”

“You must be very close to care so much.”

“Well, for better or worse, we’ve known each other for thousands of years. I also grew up under his care.”

So, he’s like a father or a mentor. I didn’t expect such affectionate relationships to exist among demons. I had only thought of them as a hostile race that fights at every encounter, but I might need to revise my preconceptions a bit.

“Let’s visit him with the child after it’s born and surprise him.”

“Of course. He will be very surprised indeed.”

Deron nodded readily, smiling with amusement. Seeing his usually expressionless face soften made me feel brighter too. However, the heartwarming atmosphere didn’t last long.

“He probably won’t let me live, considering I was hiding the egg.”

“……Pardon?”

“The Northern Duke is thrillingly strong when he’s genuinely attacking. Last time, I was just a punching bag, but it won’t be the same next time. I will definitely succeed in retaliating and put a hole in his pristine belly. I’m already looking forward to the day I face him.”

“…….”

Preconceptions my foot. I really do have an excellent grasp of races. I stared at the egg he was holding with a troubled feeling. The child to be born inside will one day rule the Demon Realm, filled with beings like that. Their personality will be more extreme, not less. It felt like I was participating in the mass production of criminals. Once I thought that far, I couldn’t just stand by, so I gently placed my hand on the egg.

“Grow up to be good. Your godfather believes in you.”

“Ugh! Lord El! What outrageous thing are you saying to a demon? Grow up to be good, you say!”

Deron, horrified, quickly pulled the egg away from me. Ignoring him, I spoke even more clearly.

“Understood? I’ll be really sad if my godchild is a violent child who fights with just anyone. I believe you won’t be like that. Be born as a kind, righteous, and gentle child.”

“Aaaah! Please stop, Lord El! This is really not the thing to say!”

Afterward, until Deron, who had turned completely pale, pleaded with tears, I rattled off all the words of blessing I knew. They say even inside the egg, they are affected by external influences. If I consistently say only good things, they might listen to me to some extent. Of course, even then, they’ll most likely ignore me. There’s an even higher chance they’re laughing at me even inside the egg!

What peace for my fate? Now I had neither hope nor dreams. Still, the reason I didn’t stop was simply because it was fun to torment Deron. Seeing this, it was clear that I didn’t have a very good personality either.

* * *

A forest shrouded in thick fog. A woman lay on soft grass spread like a carpet. Skin as white as moonlight, and captivating features like a sculpture. A voluptuous body with curves visible even in a lying position, and jet-black hair covering it. She was a beautiful woman to the point that there was no place where the eyes would not go.

The sight of a seductive woman lying asleep in the middle of the forest was as impressive as a painting, but it also gave off an ominous feeling. Her appearance was undeniably beautiful, but not the kind that wins everyone’s favor. It was that of a femme fatale [an alluring woman whose charms lead men into dangerous situations] who corrupts people, closer to the illusions shown by witches. A poisonous plant that lures insects with colorful colors and sweet scents. A wise person would recognize even her fine black hair as no different from the fangs of a viper at a glance.

Soon, a dew-laden blade of grass dropped a clear drop of water on the woman’s face. Then, the woman’s tightly closed eyelids fluttered, revealing her hidden pupils. The pupils were a deep red color, as if filled with blood.

“…….”

Even after opening her eyes, the woman blinked blankly, as if she hadn’t recognized her surroundings for a while. The first thing that came to mind was the question of where this was. She hesitantly got up and slowly scanned her surroundings. However, she could only tell that it was a forest, and almost nothing was visible due to the thick fog.

“Awakened.”

“……!”

She realized that she was not the only one existing here only after hearing the voice. The woman quickly turned her head and discovered a black figure flickering in one corner.

“……Who?”

“Good. My patience was running out. If you hadn’t woken up by today, I was going to kill you instead.”

The figure lightly waved his hand, and some of the thick fog scattered in all directions. The woman’s face stiffened slightly at the familiar face revealed within. A well-groomed, handsome physique, and even before the appearance that is regarded as elegant in the world, what caught her eye first was the blue hair. A color allowed to only one person in the Demon Realm. It was also a color she had once desperately wanted but had given up on. The woman looked at the man with that color with trembling eyes.

“Dezak…….”

“It’s been a while, Serpis.”

The cold eyes, as cold as his tone, scanned her. Serpis shuddered slightly. *Why is that man in front of me?* Her mind was all confused because she couldn’t understand the situation. All she knew was that this was the northern territory, Karten.

“What…… happened? Why am I here?”

“That’s what I want to ask.”

Dezak spoke, still not withdrawing his coldness. He stared straight into Serpis’s agitated eyes. He hadn’t slept a wink for over half a month. It was like swallowing hot embers down his throat and silently enduring his whole body burning dry. The end of that patience was finally approaching.

“What happened?”

“What, what are you talking about?”

“You know better than anyone what I mean.”

Serpis’s shoulders flinched at the coldly falling voice. She looked pitiful, but Dezak was not a man so careless as to fall for that. Rather, the gaze that stared at her only sank.

That night. On that night when intense magic power exploded as if to swallow everything. Dezak disobeyed Lukareum’s warning not to follow and eventually headed to the main castle. He couldn’t just watch any longer as the black currents covered the castle and the strong pressure kept bursting within. He decided that he would rather die protecting Lukareum by his side than just watching from afar.

But what greeted him upon arrival were only the remains of the main castle that had been completely ruined. He barely managed to find the vicinity that was presumed to be where the throne was, but he couldn’t find out anything other than traces of strong magic power. Lukareum and the Demon King Karian were nowhere to be seen.

In despair, he desperately searched the surroundings. But the more he searched, the more his premonitions led him in a bad direction. The corpses of demons were scattered everywhere he went. They were those who had been caught up in the collapse without being able to avoid it. The place where not even a single blade of grass remained was filled only with the thick smell of death. In that place where only despair was foreseen, he rather hoped not to find anything. He could never bear to find Lukareum among those corpses. He couldn’t lose his king so futilely.

Fortunately or unfortunately, he never found Lukareum in the end. It was when he finally gave up all the searches and was about to turn around that he felt a faint magic power nearby. As if a revelation was being given, a weak breath was felt in the pile of stones. It was such a faint reaction that he would never have felt it if he had passed it carelessly. Dezak frantically rummaged through the pile of stones and found a dying woman inside. She was Serpis. He instinctively recognized that she was the only witness who could testify to the situation that night. So he took her and treated her. It took longer than he thought for her to regain consciousness, but she woke up anyway. Now it was time to hear the answer he wanted.

“What happened at the main castle? Tell me everything you saw.”

“The main castle……?”

“Yes, weren’t you with Karian? You must have seen Lord Lukareum there.”

“Lukareum……?”

He didn’t expect her to spill it out right away, but the returning reaction was not very satisfactory. Dezak frowned as he looked at Serpis, who had a blank expression and only repeated his words like a parrot.

“I’m not in the mood to play word games with you right now, Serpis. I have no intention of coaxing and appeasing someone who has no will to cooperate with patience. If you give me another stupid answer, I’ll break your neck then.”

“Wa, wait a minute. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t know? Are you saying you don’t remember?”

“First, tell me why I’m here. No, more than that, why was I collapsed?”

“That’s an answer you’ll have to find out for yourself. Think back. What were you doing before you lost consciousness?”

“Before I lost consciousness…….”

Serpis swept back her hair with a confused expression. There was almost nothing she could think of, as if her head was filled with ink. Come to think of it, she seemed to have been at the main castle. Recently, she had always resided at the main castle and stayed by Karian’s side. She seemed to have been worried about him as his sleeping hours had increased recently. She slowly traced back her memories.

‘Ah, right. I met Lukareum.’

The memory of him visiting the main castle came to mind. Wearing the certificates of the East and the North. He smiled nonchalantly and said he had come to depose the king. She also remembered being frightened by his eyes, which were different from usual, and the suffocatingly black atmosphere.

What happened next? Demon King Karian appeared from behind, and the eyes of two ferocious beasts met. They seemed to have had an incomprehensible conversation for a while while facing each other. The memories from that point on are all blurry.

When she recalled that far, Serpis stopped all movements with a blank face. Even as her fallen hair covered her face messily, she did not move. Intense, uncontrollable emotions took over her mind. It felt like something sticky and viscous was sticking to her.

*Lukareum, ah, right. I met Lukareum.* Of course, I remember everything. I could say it as much as I wanted. *’I’* was desperate to shake him up. I wanted to see his expression distorted and filled with pain. The more *’I’* spouted wild words, the clearer I felt his expression fading. Each time, excitement rose and a thrilling pleasure filled me. I thought it was an undeniable victory for *’me’*.

He smiled ambiguously with a face frowning as if he had bitter water in his mouth. The moment his calm gaze touched me, a thunderous realization flashed through me. My whole body trembled and I shuddered. I thought I had finally caught it after flipping it over and over again, but that world was flipped once again. He was truly someone you couldn’t let your guard down until the very end.

Aaaah, right. It was you!

“Ha, hahahaha. Hahahahaha.”

Laughter leaked from her parted lips. Dezak frowned again as he watched Serpis suddenly start laughing as if she had lost her mind.

“Serpis?”

“Hehehe, hehehehe. Right. That’s what it was. Good, Lukareum. Of course, you had to come out like that.”

“Hey, what on earth are you…….”

The moment Dezak reached out to approach, his face hardened. He felt an intense pain in his abdomen. Looking down, he found a pure white forearm embedded in his body. Following that arm, there was Serpis, laughing with a blank face.

Reflexively striking down, her body quickly retreated backward. Blood poured down from where the hand that had pierced him had been pulled out. Dezak glared at Serpis, covering his abdomen with one arm.

“……What is the meaning of this?”

Serpis, who had been standing crookedly because she had lost her balance, slowly raised her body. It was as if the strings of a limp wooden doll were being pulled. She slowly licked the blood smeared on her hand.

“Good. This is it.”

Dezak’s eyebrows furrowed at the voice that flowed out as if singing. Serpis’s eyes, staring at him, were gleaming with madness. It was an expression he had never seen on her, an unfamiliar atmosphere.

“Serpis?”

Although she was a duke, she was actually the youngest in the same class. Not only was there a significant age difference, but the difference in ability was also quite large, so he had never felt threatened by her actions. In particular, she was especially weak to Dezak, who had been with her since her childhood. He was a strict guardian, so all the demons who grew up under his care were implicitly afraid of Dezak. Serpis was the same. Even though she spoke informally and acted carelessly even to Lukareum, she almost never argued with Dezak or looked him straight in the eye. It was even rarer for her to laugh like a drunk person as soon as their eyes met, as she was doing now.

“The Northern Duke’s magic power is very special. I wanted to taste the blood containing that magic power at some point. As expected, it’s very sweet blood.”

Even her voice and tone had changed. Dezak’s eyes wavered as he looked at the woman’s face, which was laughing eerily. He felt dirty and ominous. Among the many demons he knew, there was only one who made him feel this way. He ground his teeth lowly.

“……Karian.”