CHAPTER 70……………….
“…Well.”
With a hole through her chest, she muttered with a pale face.
When he turned his head, a bouquet, soaked in blood and dirt, lay rolling on the ground.
“How foolish…”
She reached out and carefully picked it up.
Though stained with blood and dust, its colors lost, it was unmistakably a rare and precious flower.
“Congratulations. You’ve finally become the hero who defeated even the Demon King. How does it feel, living side by side with him for ten years?”
“…I knew.”
At Rune’s mocking words, the First Head of the Egbert family muttered, arms hanging limply at his sides.
The Demon King’s eyes widened.
“What…?”
“I suspected you were a demon, and of high status too. I…”
He clenched his teeth as he spoke.
Esther, watching the melodrama unfold in front of her, was getting hungry.
As she imagined food, a cookie suddenly appeared out of thin air.
Crunching on it, she decided to simply lie down and watch the past play out.
“I was born with holy power. I can distinguish who’s human and who’s demon.”
“…Then why?”
“I also knew your intentions. I was resolved to kill you the moment you drew your sword. I knew you didn’t love me. And yet…”
He couldn’t do it.
In the end, he was the same as her.
He stayed with her for the sake of killing her. And in the end, for the same reason, he couldn’t bring himself to do it, putting it off again and again.
“Haha… Even to the very end, you make me miserable.”
The Demon King laughed in despair.
The First Head of the Egberts raised his sword.
He pointed it at her heart. The holy sword would kill her without fail.
“So in the end, love was nothing but illusion and lies.”
She had been nothing more than a fool dancing in the palm of his hand.
“…If only you hadn’t killed our child, then I too…”
“Ah, I curse you, I curse you! None of your family will ever know happiness. My curse will run through your bloodline, down to your descendants’ descendants—!”
Stab—
The sharp blade pierced her heart.
With searing pain, heat spread through her body.
“I curse you… I curse myself for meeting you… curse you…”
The Demon King, bloodshot eyes glaring, did not die.
Her blood became poison, her breath spread as a miasma.
“Rune!”
“The curse…”
“I’m sorry.”
The family head sealed the spreading poison into his own body.
It was his act of atonement.
Crunch, crunch. Gulp, gulp.
Esther kept chewing cookies and drinking orange juice as the scene changed once again.
‘Since it’s a dream, I don’t even feel full.’
Even while watching the so-called love of the century unfold, she felt no emotion.
It was simply boring.
‘I mustn’t become an idiot like that.’
A Demon King who got swayed by humans and failed to fulfill her vengeance—what a fool.
That was why she died so pathetically.
And this was probably the hidden truth of the Egbert family.
‘See, human history books can’t be trusted.’
Esther shrugged.
‘I just want to break this seal quickly, become the free Demon King, and live happily as a carefree loafer!’
At that thought, she saw the First Head again—this time with one of his eyes grotesquely tainted.
The whites of his eyes were pitch black, the iris blood-red. It was too inhuman a sight.
He was looking around the mansion.
Not a single rat had survived.
“Waaah! Waaah!”
Then, from far away, a baby’s cry rang out.
Both the family head and Esther, who was watching, widened their eyes.
“No way…”
Limping wretchedly, he ran toward the sound.
Having lost an arm, he fell over again and again before finally throwing open the door of the room they had once shared.
Their chamber was spotless. No blood, no corpses.
The curtains were drawn, shutting out the outside world—it was peaceful and cozy.
And within that kindness, a baby had just woken, fussing lightly.
The peaceful sight of the child contrasted so sharply with his own wretched appearance that he drew in a deep breath.
“Ah… Rune.”
The child’s belly was round, as if it had just been fed.
“Ahh…”
He sank to the floor.
“Aaaagh!”
Clutching his head, he screamed in despair.
His cry was full of anguish, as if he were falling into hell.
That was the end.
Darkness fell.
Esther finished her last cookie and stood up.
“…That man and I—we both made the same mistake.”
A voice rang clearly in her head.
It was telepathy, easily understood no matter the language.
“He didn’t live long either. My resentment and poison were too much for him to endure.”
The Demon King—no, Rune—appeared before her.
Esther gazed blankly at her spirit form, floating in the air.
“Even so, the Egbert family somehow survived, and my child became the next head. That’s the bloodline that continued.”
“Of course.”
There would have been no other survivors.
“The curse lingered for generations, but in truth it had long weakened, nearly disappearing centuries ago. Yet I was trapped here and couldn’t tell anyone no more offerings were needed.”
Buried so deep, who could have known?
“So I began separating and imprisoning souls, one by one. For the day the door would open, so I could return them.”
“So that’s why there were so many useless souls.”
The place had been so crammed with them it was hard to breathe.
“Yes. Thanks to you, it’s finally over. At most, you can restore maybe the last two who came in.”
Esther nodded with an indifferent look.
She only needed one of them anyway.
‘Two, though?’
So two had come recently?
One must be her brother’s father.
“You must have your reasons for inhabiting that half-demon body.”
“Of course. I won’t fail as foolishly as you did.”
Even at Esther’s cocky smirk, Rune gave a weary smile.
“I thought so too once. But feelings… they don’t obey reason.”
Her form began to shatter.
“Thank you. Because of you, he and I can finally be freed from this life.”
Esther sighed.
“I’ll wipe out the Egbert family. Kill every last one. That’s fine with you, right? Don’t come back clinging with regrets or cursing me—just vanish for good.”
“…Why?”
“The owner of this body wished for happiness. That was our contract. Having been neglected at home, the greatest happiness is revenge on her family, don’t you think?”
Esther spoke flatly, and Rune gave a faint smile.
She looked as if she understood—and that displeased Esther.
“You… you remind me of myself. Fine, do as you wish. This place means nothing to me anymore.”
“…”
“But be careful. I don’t know why that founder is at your side…”
Murmuring, her figure finally shattered completely.
‘What was that supposed to mean…’
Esther didn’t resist her heavy eyelids and closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, she saw an endless ceiling.
“…Lady Esther? Are you alright? Did something happen?”
Raksasa knelt before her, asking with concern.
‘So not much time passed out here.’
It had felt like two whole days in the dream.
“No, nothing happened.”
Esther shook her head.
Nothing of importance, really. She hadn’t solved anything—it was just… irritating.
“I’ll return these souls to where they belong.”
She turned her head toward the two children who had come close.
“Did you find them?”
“Yes, I think this is the one.”
Dylan spoke with certainty.
“But he’s holding some woman’s hand.”
Esther tilted her head, then chuckled.
‘Ah, so that’s what it was.’
That explained the “two.”
“Brothers.”
“Hm?”
“What you’ve seen here—can you keep it secret?”
“A secret…? What do you mean?”
“You mean not to tell anyone we came here?”
Dylan and Aaron asked together.
“Everything. Everything you’ve seen here.”
“…I promise, as long as Father returns.”
Aaron knelt on one knee and kissed the back of her hand.
Dylan awkwardly followed suit.
It was a knight’s vow.
Childish, perhaps, but not taken lightly.
“You’ve promised?”
“Yes, but what are you—”
Dylan didn’t finish.
Esther’s eyes turned red, and wings sprouted suddenly from her back.
“…Wings… and red eyes?”
“A demon…?”
Before their voices could even finish, Esther stepped lightly across the air.
