CHAPTER 68…………………………
“……”
Even Esther, who was rarely startled, was taken aback.
The rigid hand suddenly shot out toward Esther’s neck.
But before it could touch her, the hand was severed and fell to the floor.
No blood flowed, even though the wrist had been cut.
“A wraith that doesn’t even know its place dares to lay hands on—”
Raksa’s sharp fangs and claws sprang out viciously.
The first head of House Eggbert’s eyes glowed blood-red.
His lips quivered as if trying to form words.
[You… are…]
When he finally forced his mouth open, the voice that spilled out was too rough and chilling to be human.
Yet too clear and vivid to be called a ghost’s voice.
[Who… are… you…]
It was a very ancient language.
Even demonic speech had once been derived from the ancient tongue, but this was older—before that derivative ever existed.
It was closer to the very first language, before even the “First Ancient Tongue” was codified.
Even Esther did not know this language.
[Ah… it has been a long time since I last heard it. Thousands of years since anyone spoke this tongue.]
But Raksa seemed to understand, for he answered the man.
[…You are… chaos’s…]
Dragging along a body that should have been dead, he forced the words out.
[How… much… time… has… passed…]
[Well. What do you think? Long enough for even a wraith to have faded, don’t you agree?]
Raksa continued conversing with whatever it was wearing the mask of the first Eggbert lord.
‘What are they saying?’ Esther frowned.
It was said the very first language had been created so that all races could communicate.
Primarily humans and elves had built it, a shared tongue for all.
But as time passed, each race went its own way, and the First Ancient Tongue vanished.
Each created their own new languages based on it.
‘But something even older than that… I can’t understand a word.’
Esther scowled.
[Kill… me…]
At last, after a long silence, the first Eggbert lord muttered something.
“Raksa, what did he say?”
“He asked us to kill him.”
“Who is he then? The patriarch? Or the Demon King?”
At Esther’s question, Raksa stared quietly at the one trapped in the coffin, unable to move freely.
“Neither.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Just a life long overdue to die.”
After so much time together in one body, no one could tell where one ended and the other began.
Resentment dulled. Curses faded.
[Do you know… my dear and hateful child… what became of Eggbert… Ah, my… noble… Surtr…]
Raksa’s eyes widened slightly.
[Ah, so that was it. You… loved this man, didn’t you?]
The man’s eyes trembled. Slowly, he closed them.
[…No.]
He shut his eyes.
And then, as if waiting for Esther, parchment appeared before her.
[Complete release.
Every moment with you was like hell.
I resented you.
I resented you.
I resented you bitterly.
When you were happiest, I wanted nothing more than to drag you into the abyss.
That was all.]
In that instant, the dagger flew into Esther’s hand.
She frowned. Raksa nodded.
Wings sprouted from Esther’s back. They fluttered lightly before she lifted into the air.
The child landed atop the body in the coffin and drove the dagger straight into his heart.
From the old blade spilled radiant silver light, and a single tear rolled down the man’s face.
[…That was never what I meant to do.]
With the fading whisper, the first Eggbert lord’s body began to crumble.
“Ah…”
What had filled the coffin was reduced to a mere handful of ash.
So little, Esther could hold it all in one hand.
The ashes drifted up and seeped into Esther’s chest.
[Ah, she has suffered a great failure. Perhaps one that even you in the future might face!
★ Surely you won’t repeat such a mistake?
And so, a ‘Wrong Answer Notebook’ opens for you.]
Her vision blurred.
‘This damned parchment… what is it babbling about…’
Esther staggered, then collapsed forward.
‘Damn it.’
Somewhere, pages flipped. Darkness swallowed her sight.
“Accursed humans, accursed humans, accursed humans!”
The woman tore at her hair and screamed like a banshee.
Her beloved children were dying. Screaming. Begging for their lives.
The Demon King descended to the human world to tend to his followers.
But humans slaughtered the Demon King’s believers, tortured the demons, and built their nation atop heaps of corpses and pools of blood.
They named their kingdom, awarded medals and riches to those who killed the most demons.
“If you truly dare do this… then at least that man—I’ll drag him down into hell myself…”
Into hell.
Into the most wretched depths.
I’ll make him swim in despair at the peak of his happiness.
The Demon King knew better than anyone.
The most fragile human emotion. The one that could turn heaven into hell and hell into heaven.
Appearing as a beautiful woman he would desire. Waiting for him at the lakeside he often visited, late at night.
None of it was out of goodwill.
“Good evening.”
“…Who are you?”
Even their first meeting had been carefully planned.
For him, it might have felt like a destined encounter that thrilled the heart.
For the Demon King, it was a meticulously laid trap.
“Rune. Just call me that.”
The man had everything.
Anything he wanted, he could buy with a reach of his hand and a pouch of gold.
So the Demon King chose to be the one thing he could never have.
What he overlooked was this:
Emotions are not bound by race.
…Yes. It was never meant to be.
The Demon King became a beautiful woman to seduce him.
To be the one unattainable thing for a man who could have everything.
So that he would endlessly long for her.
Thus the founder of the Eggbert family and the Demon King continued their secret meetings at the lakeside.
But she did not appear every night.
Some nights she came, some she didn’t, making him restless.
Sometimes she was kind. Other times she cut him with cold words.
Yes. She meant to be something he could never quite grasp.
And the plan succeeded.
The first Eggbert lord knelt before her, kissed the back of her hand, whispered of love, and did everything he could to please her.
“I want strawberries. Spring strawberries.”
“…It’s winter now.”
“…You’re right. It must be impossible. I just feel like I’ll die if I can’t taste them.”
Before the words even left her lips, he rose from his seat, troubled but resolute.
“How about we meet here again in three days?”
“…Fine.”
He did his best.
Desperately. He searched high and low.
If she wanted spring strawberries, he would travel to a land where spring had come early to find them.
And so…
Perhaps that was why.
Why the plan, meant only for vengeance, slowly began to crumble.
Every moment with him was like hell.
After losing so many followers and children, happiness was a phantom that could never return.
Yet he tried to bring it to her anyway.
“…Rune?”
Even while speaking to someone else, the moment he saw her from afar, the man recognized her instantly.
Without looking back, he ran toward her, eyes only for her, and promptly tripped and fell flat.
“Ugh!”
What a fool of a human.
She had thought him more demonic than any demon, after cutting down so many of her kin.
But he was clumsy and careless, rejoiced over small things, saddened over little troubles. Just a foolish human.
And yet, why…
‘Why did my children…’
Why did he kill them so cruelly?
“S-sorry. I was so happy to see you, I…”
“Pfft…”
Tripping over a stone in his haste, falling flat on his face just because he was excited to see a woman.
What an idiotic, laughable man.
“……”
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“…I think it’s the first time I’ve heard you laugh aloud.”
Even at her mocking laugh, he looked awed, voice filled with wonder.
“……”
That was why she was startled.
She hadn’t forced it. She hadn’t faked it.
She hadn’t laughed in so long, as Demon King, that the shiver running down her spine was terrifying.
“So what brings you here in the daytime?”
“…Am I not allowed?”
“No, of course not! I’m glad. I just thought you could only come at night…”
The Demon King smiled faintly, lips curved in a picture-perfect smile.
‘It’s just to hasten vengeance.’
That must have been why she stepped into the sunlight.
Yes. Surely, that was all.
