Lord Baby Runs A Romance Fantasy With Cash [EN]: Chapter 271

☆ Chapter 271 ☆

“Is he around my age?”

Unlike his boyish appearance before, his jawline is now firm and chiseled.

A solid body, with long, well-proportioned arms and legs.

Two pairs of wings, larger than my own body.

His eyes are deeper, and his shoulders are broader.

His clothes are much more extravagant, and the dilapidated temple is now quite decent.

It looks like a reasonably well-maintained old temple.

“It’s been a while, Reader.”

Thankfully, the demon has navigated puberty well.

His voice is quite pleasant to listen to.

Or is he the type to grow up suddenly, skipping puberty altogether?

I’ve been watching him since he was young (?), so I was secretly worried.

“Huh? Are you surprised?”

The demon grinned and brought his face close to mine.

“Did I become more handsome while you haven’t seen me?”

He’s consistent, even after all these years.

Well, it’s been a while since I saw his face, but he sent me a pointless message just yesterday.

“Huh? You’re speechless, so it must be real—”

“Were you ever handsome to begin with?”

“Wh-What did you say! Just you wait! It’s because I haven’t found my true form yet!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Hmph! When you see my true form, you’ll definitely regret it!”

Flap, flap.

Even in this large state, the demon clenched his fists and fluttered around like before.

“Hey, it doesn’t suit you anymore. Stop it. It had some cuteness to it before.”

“You pretended not to, but you did find me cute, didn’t you? Well, I think I was fatally cute myself.”

“…….”

Never mind.

“But I’m still cute now, right? What do you call this? A twist charm?”

“More like a twist of nausea.”

“In the world you lived in, grown men were throwing hearts and winking all over the place, right? And people loved it.”

“That’s idols. Compare apples to apples.”

When I showed my disgust, the demon sulked.

“Hmph! It won’t be long before you’re indifferent to me like this. My true form is the epitome of beauty.”

I highly doubt that will ever happen.

“But doesn’t that mean I need to gain more power?”

At my words, the demon’s face, which had been pouting, turned serious.

“The stronger my power becomes, the more you grow, right?”

More precisely, every time I level up.

“…….”

“No, is the premise and order wrong?”

“When I gain influence, your power becomes stronger, and you need to gather enough power to grow like this for me to level up, that would be right.”

The demon stared at me for a moment, then grinned.

“I didn’t expect you to figure out the mechanism so quickly.”

I knew it.

“That’s right. That’s why you and I are inseparable.”

The demon, who had floated up slightly, cupped my face in his hands.

“We need each other.”

In the end, this wasn’t a contract that gave me special abilities to enjoy the romance fantasy world.

This demon needed me.

“A contract is originally about giving and receiving what each other wants.”

“I said before that my birth in the Paeraton family was not a coincidence, but inevitable.”

“…….”

“I understand the reason now. It’s because of the magic power of Paeraton, right?”

The demon smiled.

“Magic power—the power inherent in the blood of Paeraton is a fragment derived from Aphternes [likely the demon’s god or source of power].”

“It’s not that I was born without magic power.”

“Rather, it’s the opposite.” My demon hesitated for a moment, then continued, changing his words.

“……You were born with complete power that no one else possessed.”

The magic power, a fragment of God, was too powerful for a human to possess.

Because of that, my dad and brothers had lived without the emotions that people naturally feel.

A life that was unstable and precarious.

“The reason my brothers became stable while with me was because I had complete power.”

It was the same reason why there were no problems when Dad injected magic power into me.

“I’ve been thinking it was strange. When I level up, it’s not said that new features are added, but that some of the restricted features are unlocked.”

As if I had that ability from the beginning, but it was restricted.

The demon grinned.

“To think you’d have such questions there. Is it because you’ve read thousands of romance fantasy novels? Your ability to read the clues is amazing.”

“Don’t joke around.”

“That’s right. Even incomplete magic power is hard for humans to accept, so something is bound to go wrong.”

“…….”

“Could you have accepted that power as a baby, when you had even greater power?”

“You put restrictions on me so that I wouldn’t go crazy and be able to handle the power of Aphternes?”

“I gave it to you little by little, as much as you could handle. Well, as you said earlier, leveling up was only possible when my power was gathered, but there’s that too.”

In reverse, it meant that my abilities were also limited if the demon’s power was weak.

“So, the condition you put on me to awaken ‘Rush and Cash’ was also to protect me? Because if I had that power without restrictions as soon as I was born, something could go wrong?”

The demon nodded.

Realizing that my guess was correct—.

‘It’s unfair!’

To be honest, what was the reason I suffered so much when I was young?

It was because I wasn’t born with magic power.

And since I didn’t even have the special ability that the demon promised, there was nothing I could do as a baby.

But.

‘The truth is, it was all an arrangement to protect me!’

Just as there was a reason why Dad left me with my uncle, this demon also had his own reasons for giving me the ability late.

‘I thought you were just feeding me sweet potatoes without any countermeasures [giving me empty promises]!’

I’ve been complaining to the demon about this until now, but now I can’t do that anymore.

“Hmm?”

The demon circled around me with a smirk.

“Do you feel a little sorry? Do you finally know my love?”

“…….”

“Oh? You really seem sorry? Are you sorry? Are you sorry? Then tell me I’m the most handsome. Then I’ll forgive you.”

His smirking face—.

“It’s so annoying.”

“That’s too much!”

“It was for my sake, but I also suffered a lot, so let’s call it even.”

“Tch. Is it that hard to admit I’m handsome.”

Why does he want to hear me say he’s handsome so much?

The demons were like that too, so is it a similar type?

“Anyway, I understand now.”

Combining it with what the demon said, I came to a conclusion.

“The Saintess is just a convenient term people use. To be exact, she’s God’s proxy. Or a contractor.”

The demon’s silence was as good as an affirmation.

“In that sense, Liel was actually a Saintess too, right?”

“No, do you call that a Saintess?! You should call her a lowly proxy of the filthy Kiyas Edel!”

The demon was utterly disgusted.

“Well, calling Liel a lowly proxy of the filthy Kiyas Edel isn’t entirely wrong.”

‘So Kiyas Edel was a god.’

I got an alert when I defeated Muriel before.

It said I had defeated the high priest of Kiyas Edel.

Seeing the high priest, I thought, ‘Could Kiyas Edel also be a god like Aphternes?’

‘And when I fell into the Demon World, Actsheraken told Sid to control Kiyas Edel’s mark first.’

And that mark was the Geas [a magical compulsion or binding] that Sid was under.

Putting it all together, Kiyas Edel’s power is a scam.

The power of Aphternes is the power of destruction.

‘Of course, it would be hard for them to get along.’

“Just as Kiyas Edel set up Liel as his proxy, Aphternes set me up as his proxy and contractor.”

“…….”

“That’s why he gave me the quest to increase my influence.”

“…….”

“Having a high level of influence means that people follow and believe in me that much. If the influence of me, God’s proxy, increases, doesn’t that ultimately mean following and believing in God?”

“That’s right. God’s power comes from faith.”

The demon came down to the ground and stood facing me.

“Even if you don’t preach God’s will, your influence will strengthen faith because you yourself are God’s proxy.”

“What is Aphternes trying to do by building up power like that?”

The demon looked at me for a moment.

He chose his words a few times before opening his mouth.

“……He just wants to stop Kiyas Edel.”

“What is Kiyas Edel’s purpose?”

“The end of this world.”

“……!”

“The day of the end is approaching. Haven’t natural disasters already occurred in three places?”

“Wasn’t that Liel’s plot?”

“It’s Kiyas Edel’s doing.”

So that’s why Liel was able to receive revelations!

“And there have been signs of the end for a long time. You know that, right?”

“Are you talking about mana stones being mined without mana and priests’ divine power hitting rock bottom?”

“Those are abnormal phenomena that couldn’t happen if this world was running normally.”

“So, it’s been like that for hundreds of years—”

“That’s all I can say. But I was able to say a lot this time.”

As soon as the demon finished speaking, the surroundings began to distort.

“Wait a minute! There was something I wanted to ask!”

I hurriedly opened my mouth.

“The quests don’t come as often as they used to, why is that?”

In the past, quests would come fluttering even for small sweet potatoes, but that’s not the case anymore.

Sometimes I have to wait and wait, and sometimes they don’t come at all.

“It’s a natural flow.”

“Then where am I supposed to earn cash! Wasn’t it good for you if I got stronger?”

“You don’t need quests anymore.”

Darkness grabbed me and pulled me in.

In the distorted vision, I saw the demon standing upright alone.

“Now, without needing someone to lead you, the path you take will become a holy war.”

What does that—.

“You are Aphternes’ contractor, proxy, and the pioneer who can set the limits of causality [the relationship between cause and effect].”

Whoosh,

Darkness swallowed me.

In the midst of everything fading—.

“Please stop the end with your own decisions and will. And me…….”

Even the demon’s words became blurred.

* * *

“Damn it! So how do I earn cash!”

I hit the pillow with a thud.

“To make it impossible for a romance fantasy reader to get cash!”

Thud, thud, thud!

“Just let me pay in cash! I have a lot of money!”

What’s the point of making money?

I can’t even read a novel in peace.

Waaah.

I hugged the pillow and collapsed.

‘But there might be a way.’

The special cash that appears when influence is strengthened by my actions and decisions.

‘Now I have to get it that way—.’

“Eek!”

I screamed in horror as I rolled over to the side.

It was because of the demon minion who was lying on my bed as if it were his own, propping his head up with one hand.

Cain smiled languidly.

“That’s too much. You screamed as soon as our eyes met.”

“You, you’re crazy?! This is my bedroom!”

“But you didn’t give me a separate room, did you?”

“Get out right now! Why are you even in my house in the first place! Weren’t you with Sid?”

“I came secretly. We’re in a relationship where we’ve promised to cooperate, right? We need to get to know each other better— Ouch! That hurts!”

Thud! Thud!

I beat the demon minion with the pillow.

“You hopeless demon minion! You wanna die!”

“Demon minion? That’s species discrimination?”

This demon bastard was smiling, saying it hurt but still enjoying it.

But.

“Mama!”

Crash!

Nike appeared, breaking the window with a front paw punch, and his face turned pale.

“Dare you crawl into our Mama’s bedroom? You wanna die!”

No, Nike……. Don’t repeat those words.

“You need to be beaten to come to your senses! Papa’s spot is next to Mama’s bed!”

Nike, who had grown bigger, couldn’t enter my bedroom and howled in the garden.

Oh, but it’s dawn now, aren’t the people in the mansion all waking up?

If my family wakes up, it’ll be a complete disaster—.

“My daughter has rough sleeping habits and has to sleep alone. Absolutely!”

Dad, isn’t that an insult?

“That’s right! The person next to her might die!”

I won’t die!

Or is that a determination to make sure I die?

The lights in the dark mansion began to turn on.

“You wanna die? Are you coming out or not?”

My bedroom wall began to collapse from Nike’s paw swinging.

“You’ll die if you come out, and you’ll die if you don’t.”

Black magic power seeped through the collapsed wall.

It feels like our house will end before the world ends.

Ha.

I miss Sid.

* * *

A few days later.

Mrs. Sherwin’s tea party.

“It’s truly a beautiful painting.”

“Just looking at it warms my heart and brings peace to my mind, wouldn’t you say?”

People gathered, exclaiming in admiration.

I approached the people with a proud smile.

That’s because I could fully guess who the person who drew that painting was.

‘My kid is quite the talented one.’

I looked at the painting with my chest puffed out proudly.

But—.

“You’re truly a Saintess!”

Why is my face drawn so largely?!