Chapter 171: He Cherished Him

1: At that moment, the Duke scoffed.

2: Nothing is as foolish as relying on emotions, yet they expect affection from me of all people.

3: I assure you, I will definitely kill them as needed when the contract period ends. Even if I keep them alive, it won’t be out of affection, but because they are useful or there’s no need to kill them.

4: [Anyway, it’s ten years. Until then, please take good care of them as if they were your nephews and nieces.]

5: [Your Majesty, even if it’s the other princes and princesses, the age gap between me and the 9th Prince is only five years. Nephews and nieces, really?]

6: [Then younger siblings?]

7: […I will think of them as nephews and nieces.]

8: Years passed, more than ten years since then.

9: It may not have been intentional or known to the 1st Prince, but setting a ten-year term was an excellent choice. Not long after inheriting magic power from the Demon King, the Duke realized he could use this power to nullify the contract.

10: He simply let it be to conserve magic power because there was a set term. If there hadn’t been a deadline, he would have used magic power to eliminate the restrictions imposed by the contract. Then the lives of the ‘children’ the 1st Prince wanted to protect would have been in danger.

11: ‘I thought it was a simple contract, but it became more complicated than expected. Still, I endured, only looking towards the end of the term.’

12: Originally, the Duke intended to replace the 1st Prince after his death and install another puppet candidate. He planned to wield the king at will and use that power to protect the 1st Prince’s ‘children’.

13: Unexpectedly, Eudoardo Deserte, the 9th Prince—the very person he was supposed to protect—killed others and ascended the throne. As a Duke, he inevitably fell into a dilemma.

14: To protect them, overwhelming power was necessary. The pinnacle of that power was naturally the position of the nation’s ruler.

15: But the person sitting in that seat happened to be the one he was supposed to protect. Removing him was out of the question, given the contract to respect ‘free will.’

16: The Duke made a decision.

17: ‘Let’s take it over peacefully. If I pressure him appropriately, I can make him want to hand it over.’

18: This much should be acceptable.

19: This judgment came from failing to realize Eudoardo Deserte’s incomprehensible and extreme sense of responsibility. Even if he had known, there wouldn’t have been any other way.

20: In any case, the Duke watched over the three people for ten years as per his contract with the 1st Prince.

21: So, has the Duke developed affection for the children—for Eudoardo Deserte?

22: ‘…….’

23: Even after the ten-year contract ended, the Emperor remained the Emperor.

24: Even after the ten-year contract ended, the Crown Prince remained the Crown Prince, and the Princess remained the Princess.

25: ‘It’s not a good time to touch them anyway.’

26: It was a time when they were too busy moving to protect the Empire.

27: The Duke turned his gaze away from the thorny subject he couldn’t easily answer and looked back at the present. With his options limited, he was focusing on the Salvation Church instead of rash actions, helping to unite the Human Realm internally through public opinion.

28: Even this process was not smooth, and there were annoying things in sight, so it was indeed the worst.

29: ‘The Demon Church, the Revolutionary Army… things that wouldn’t have dared to show their faces before are crawling out now.’

30: Especially the Revolutionary Army, their image was rapidly improving with this opportunity. It was to the point where they were practically branded as an organization for humanity’s sake.

31: Annoyance surged, but separately from that, the Duke had to put aside his personal feelings because he knew they were helpful. Because there was a more irritating group right now.

32: ‘The Demon Church.’

33: It was a religion that clearly seemed to have demons backing it, yet why was it so popular?

34: The Duke, who had received reports that people murmuring ‘De-se’ quietly were increasing everywhere in the slums, finally couldn’t bear the soaring stress and ran a hand over his face with a miserable feeling.

***

36: ‘Lord Deon told me. He said there’s no harm in doing anything, so advance into the Human Realm.’

37: Lirinel, the Commander of the 11th Corps, recalled the past while processing paperwork related to the Demon Church that had advanced into the Human Realm.

38: [Wouldn’t it be better to do things in advance, even if it becomes unnecessary, rather than not being able to do them due to lack of time when you need them?]

39: [Y-yes, you’re right.]

40: [Right? The Demon Church can be used for public opinion warfare, and although it seems unlikely to yield much, it can also be used for demon summoning.]

41: It was a rapturous private audience.

42: The human man before her, touching his elegant jawline and smiling gently, was terribly graceful and beautiful. Even the shadows under his eyes couldn’t hide his beauty, so Lirinel nodded as if possessed.

43: [Y-yes, you’re right, Lord Deon! I will seek permission from the Demon King and immediately advance into the Human Realm…!]

44: [No. Do we really need to seek permission from the Demon King?]

45: [Yes? Well, because it’s related to the Human Realm….]

46: [Hmm?]

47: Deon Hart tilted his head and folded his eyes into a smile. Fingers that had risen as if to tap the desk circled over Lirinel’s knuckles.

48: Thump. Her heart stopped.

49: ‘No, I can’t die now!’

50: She absolutely couldn’t die with Lord Deon before her eyes.

51: Grabbing her escaping spirit, she shot up. Holding down her nose, which had been bleeding profusely since some time ago, Lirinel shouted with overflowing enthusiasm.

52: [Of course, we can! I will proceed immediately!]

53: Deon Hart simply smiled.

54: He didn’t think the Demon King wouldn’t know even if they advanced secretly. This was just a test.

55: Demons follow their parent, the Demon King, so is that absolute, or is it just respect for the being responsible for the fate of the race and a bond of kinship with a parent?

56: If it’s the latter, then ‘rebellion’ is also possible. It would even be possible to rebel against the Demon King.

57: [There’s no need to change the name of the Demon Church. Advance as is.]

58: [Yes!]

59: And now, he confirmed with his own eyes that the legion commander prioritized ‘me’ over the Demon King.

60: The red pupils that peeked out between softly smiling eyelids gleamed.

***

62: To pick up a life is an act that requires a certain resolve.

63: Recently, two demons were keenly aware of this fact.

64: “Derniban, the baby keeps crying. What should we do?”

65: “…….”

66: No, only one demon was keenly aware.

67: Derniban blankly met his superior’s gaze, then reached out a hand to the baby.

***

69: Was it from when he received the head of the King of Rweche’s brother, or from when he heard the news that Paras Territory had fallen? Sometime from then, Deon Hart started having nightmares.

70: They were quite bad.

71: Dreams where vengeful spirits in very, very gruesome states appeared, to the point where it was hard to watch in one’s right mind.

72: [You killed us, and you sleep peacefully?]

73: [Why did you do it. Why did you do it. Why did you do it. Why did you do it.]

74: [Die! Don’t shamelessly live, please just die!]

75: Ah, if there was any conscience, he shouldn’t say their states were gruesome. Because the one who made them like that was none other than himself.

76: Deon stood in the middle of the dream, silently watching the vengeful spirits pressing in on him in all sorts of bizarre shapes. He could have turned his gaze away or closed his eyes, but he didn’t. He simply stood his ground, met their eyes, and then woke up from the dream.

77: As this repeated, the vengeful spirits who once took on the gruesome states from when they died—which Deon Hart himself had once turned away from—seemed to realize that it had little effect, and started to transform into people he knew and shout for him to die.

78: ‘It didn’t matter anyway.’

79: Today as well, Deon, watching the vengeful spirits that had transformed into various people and were pouring out curses, raised an eyebrow as if sensing something.

80: [Die… die!]

81: He ignored the curses he always heard.

82: Black fog, distorted and murky, wriggled and took shape as if trying to imitate someone’s appearance.

83: Familiar physique and familiar height. Deon faintly smiled, as if he knew who it was.

84: “Finally.”

85: He had been waiting. Waiting for when it would appear, when it would try to imitate his appearance.

86: For a vengeful spirit parasitizing in my head to be this late in realizing what would be most damaging to me. Really, I was waiting so eagerly my neck was getting stiff.

87: Gradually, the shape became complete, and familiar black hair came into view. Just as the face was about to be completed.

88: Whoosh!

89: From a corner of his vision, a strong light burst out as if to cover everything.

90: “……!”

91: Deon opened his eyes.

92: A quiet room scene greeted him, as if the shrill, resentful voices were a lie. He blinked for a moment, then slowly got up.

93: He remained blankly for a while, not feeling real, but then the wind that came in through the slightly open window dried his sweat-soaked body, and only then could Deon realize that this was reality.

94: “……Ha.”

95: He let out a deep sigh and buried his face in his hands. Haha, a hollow laugh leaked out.

96: “To think I’d be chased out….”

97: He could instinctively tell. He was chased out of the dream.

98: ……No, there’s no way I was ‘chased’ out. I am the owner of the dream. So, I must have wanted to wake up from the dream.

99: Is this what they call the survival instinct that all living things inherently possess? Disgust surged, and he lifted his head. Fluttering curtains came into view.

100: Along with that, the windowsill where a cool breeze came in entered his sight, and a single flower placed there captured his gaze. The sight of it blooming brightly under the faint moonlight was quite out of place, and he couldn’t help but fix his gaze on it as if possessed.

101: ‘……Hien said it was a flower he plucked from the Human Realm, maybe.’

102: He slowly stepped down from the bed.

103: As he got out of the blankets, his sweat-soaked body was directly exposed to the cold air and cooled down in an instant, but he didn’t care and approached the windowsill.

104: The flower he saw up close was more intact than he thought.

105: “There’s no sun… but it’s still so fresh.”

106: Is it because it’s the Demon Realm and it’s influenced by magic power? Anyone who sees it would think it’s a freshly picked flower.

107: He stared blankly at the flower that showed no signs of wilting, then leaned his upper body against the windowsill and rested his chin crookedly. In that state, Deon tilted his head, examined the flower, and murmured quietly.

108: Words to no one in particular spread gently in the quiet space.

109: “If hyung had told me to die, I would have gladly died.”

110: At the last moment, the instant the vengeful spirit’s shape changed, he immediately noticed.

111: That’s Cruel. It’s my brother, whom I’ve been waiting for. To the human who couldn’t die and lived because of the life his brother saved, the vengeful spirit was trying to tell him to die in Cruel’s form.

112: Cold wind whipped through his hair. Along with it, the flower, unable to withstand the wind, swayed. Its appearance was as if it was telling him not to, and Deon chuckled quietly.

113: “Well, fine. Seems like today isn’t the day.”

114: If your mind changes, come find me anytime, hyung.

115: Ironically, after that day, he never had nightmares again.

116: It was a quiet dawn when the world was submerged in silence.

***

118: “…What are you doing?”

119: “I’m fastening your belt, sir.”

120: “Yes, and I’m asking why you’re fastening it to my thigh.”

121: It was a day for a meeting, not a battle. But why was he fastening the belt used to attach the dagger sheath? And just the belt, without the dagger sheath.

122: Whether the bewildered gaze stung or not, Ben diligently fastened the tough leather belt to Deon’s thigh and said,

123: “You keep putting out cigarettes on your thigh, so I have to tie this on for you.”

124: “…….”

125: The subject was omitted, but it wasn’t difficult to understand.

126: Ben, who had glanced up at the silent Deon, added as if hammering it in.

127: “From now on, put out your cigarette butts on this belt.”

128: “…We’ll be late for the meeting. It seems like you’re done, so get up now.”

129: Ben’s eyes narrowed at the blatant evasion of his words, but Deon ignored it and got up from his seat.

130: He should be used to it since he often wore a dagger sheath, but today, the sensation of the belt tightening his thigh was annoyingly bothersome, so he couldn’t help but glance at the belt.

131: Walking down the hallway, he organized his thoughts.

132: ‘What should I say to convince them?’

133: Last time, he had pointed out a route passing through the Duke’s territory. He even pressured Idelia, who commented that they would have to go around.

134: He was about to overturn those words again. The Demon King wouldn’t step in to help with something trivial like this, so he needed a valid reason, but….

135: “Commander of the 0th Legion has arrived.”

136: …Before he could even finish organizing his thoughts, he arrived at the conference room door.