Chapter 001
0.
I knew all too well how grueling it was to survive in the human world as a demon.
After all, demons were considered an evil that deserved nothing less than total extermination.
That was why I tried my absolute best to live a long, quiet life—acting as human and as “princess-like” as possible.
“It’s alright, Dana. Anyone who dares to doubt you… we will make sure they disappear.”
But then, all sorts of tribulations began to find me, sabotaging my performance as a virtuous human.
“Wait, wait just a second.”
I tried my best to calm my racing heart as I looked at the black-haired man who was about to commit something outrageous. At my plea, he tilted his head in confusion.
“Put that… put that down.”
“Put what down?”
“The dagger you’re holding against the Emperor’s throat.”
The man frowned, looking as if he couldn’t understand what the problem was.
“Don’t worry. No one will ever know. Because this room is a perfect secret chamber.”
As if agreeing with him, a familiar voice drifted from behind me.
“That’s right, Princess! I’ve double-checked. No one will be coming here for at least the next hour!”
It was my most trusted maid. It seemed she had personally bypassed the Imperial Palace’s heavy security to select the perfect timing for an assassination.
Then, the masked figure standing beside the black-haired man added:
“No traces will be left behind. I’m here, after all. I’ll manipulate the scene so perfectly that no one will ever suspect us.”
Not to be outdone, a robed woman monitoring the outside from the window shouted in a sharp tone:
“We don’t even need your help! If it looks like we’re going to get caught, I’ll just erase everything with the explosion spells I’ve laid out all over this room!”
‘Are you telling me you’ve planted a time bomb in the Emperor’s bedroom right now?’
I reflexively looked up. I wished I could see the vast night sky to clear my head, but the dark ceiling only made my chest feel tighter.
‘This is strange. Aren’t you supposed to become a good human after overcoming hardships?’
Why did these people—whom I saved—become the “hardships” themselves?
No one was there to answer my question.
Regardless of my inner turmoil, the four individuals who claimed to have been “saved” by me pointed toward the Emperor and spoke. This time, the order was reversed.
“So, Princess!”
“What do you want to do?”
“We’re ready!”
“Shall we just kill the Emperor?”
I never dreamed that I, a demon, would end up having to teach these people the basics of being a decent human being.
1. The Assassinated Princess is a Demon
Lilibel, a new maid at the detached palace, held her breath at the sight before her.
In the bedroom bathed in beautiful moonlight, her mistress had passed away on a shabby yet elegant bed.
‘She… she’s really gone.’
Seeing a corpse for the first time in her life, Lilibel’s legs trembled so violently she felt she might collapse at any moment.
She’d had a bad feeling all day, so she had come to change the bedroom candles… but she never expected to be the one to discover the mistress’s death.
Lilibel, whose face had turned as pale as the corpse, tried to calm her frantic heart and offered a clumsy prayer.
“…M-May you rest in peace, Princess.”
The body before her was Princess Dana, the mistress of this detached palace.
As a cleaner for the bedroom, Lilibel had never even shared a conversation with her, but she knew that Princess Dana was a member of the royal family with an incredibly tragic history.
‘Her hair and eyes are so beautiful… I’ll never understand the nobility.’
The Princess’s deep indigo hair and golden eyes, which shone brighter than pure gold, were part of the reason she was persecuted.
Beyond that, there were grim rumors that anyone near her would catch a plague, or that she used black magic every night to curse people. However, Lilibel didn’t care much about that.
For Lilibel, who had to support her family, a mistress who lived as quietly as a mouse was a blessing.
‘Besides, black magic? There’s no way something that cool exists in reality.’
Lilibel, who had been interested in things like black magic since she was a child, looked at Princess Dana again and muttered unconsciously.
“But really… she died so beautifully.”
Realizing how disrespectful that sounded, she quickly covered her mouth.
Princess Dana’s appearance was far from a gruesome death; she possessed a serene beauty. Her white nightgown and the way her hands were neatly clasped over her stomach made her look perfectly composed.
The Princess, who had been too frail to even leave her room, seemed to have accepted death just as quietly.
‘That’s enough. It’s rude to the deceased.’
Deciding to stop her irreverent thoughts, Lilibel turned to leave the bedroom to report to the head maid.
“…Uh.”
But as she turned, she froze upon seeing a familiar man standing in the corner of the room.
“Attendant Hans?”
Hiding in the shadows of the room, Hans was glaring at her with murderous intent. It was shocking enough that he was in the bedroom—a restricted area for men—but his gaze was filled with such rage that her body locked up.
At that moment, Hans rushed toward Lilibel violently.
“Eek!”
“You… You hid it, didn’t you!”
“W-What?”
“Where did you hide the stake?!”
Hans’s thick hands grabbed Lilibel by the collar. He gripped her so hard that Lilibel gasped for air, choking.
“Lilibel, you’re in charge of cleaning this room! The stake that was in the cabinet—where did you put it?!”
He ranted nonsense, cornering Lilibel.
Lilibel shook her head in denial. The only “stakes” she knew were the wooden garden stakes used in her rural hometown to grow vines.
“If I don’t have that, I…!”
Hans was the one doing the threatening, but he looked more desperate than anyone. Lilibel shook her head frantically because she truly didn’t know, but he didn’t believe her.
“So, you won’t talk, eh!”
Hans pulled a menacing dagger from his vest. As the raised blade glinted in the moonlight, Lilibel finally realized what he intended to do.
He was prepared to resort to torture to get the answer he wanted.
“I don’t know, please!”
“Let’s see if you can still say that after I see some blood!”
The dagger swung down toward Lilibel.
‘Sun God, Winter Queen, Fairy King… anyone, Gods!’
Lilibel squeezed her eyes shut and called out to every deity she could think of, desperately hoping someone—anyone—would save her.
“…So noisy.”
Did someone actually hear her prayer?
A voice she thought she would never hear again cut through the air between Hans and Lilibel.
Their heads turned toward the source of the voice like creaky, ungreased hinges.
And there…
“What is all this racket in someone else’s bedroom?”
The corpse, whose breath had clearly stopped, was now sitting up and looking straight at them.
Her platinum-gold eyes, glowing even more eerily in the moonlight, took in both Lilibel and Hans.
Lilibel muttered in disbelief.
“P-Princess?”
Hans screamed as if this was something that absolutely should not be happening.
“No… No way! I definitely killed you!”
‘You killed her?’
Lilibel’s jaw dropped at the shocking truth. Regardless, Hans continued to blurt out things he shouldn’t have.
“I… I saw the stake activate! With the amount you ingested today, it should have been a lethal dose… Our calculations couldn’t have been wrong!”
‘And he has accomplices!’
The realization that her peaceful detached palace was actually a gruesome crime scene left Lilibel in a state of chaos.
Amid Hans’s screams, the resurrected Princess Dana swung her legs over the side of the bed and spoke.
“I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but why don’t you start by letting go of that girl’s collar?”
But Hans, having lost his mind, only gripped his dagger tighter.
“Protecting a maid… You really were in league with her. That’s why you hid the stake!”
“I’m telling you, what on earth is a stake?!”
Lilibel’s indignant cry only seemed to push him further as Hans swung the dagger forcefully.
“Still lying!”
The moment the blade was about to reach Lilibel…
“…”
The shadows on the bedroom floor rose up, transforming into dozens of sharp thorns. They pierced through Hans’s arm without mercy.
“AAAAARGH!”
Hans dropped Lilibel and rolled on the floor, screaming in agony.
Watching the scene in a daze, Lilibel turned her head to look at Princess Dana.
Princess Dana, her right hand extended toward Hans, let out a sigh and muttered.
“I told you… to let go.”
Black Magic.
That word flashed through Lilibel’s mind.
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