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Join the ServerRecalling it now, that was the first time Su Yuan had ever mustered the courage to speak to a human.
Dusk.
The sky at the edge of the city was dyed in layered hues.
Su Yuan stood in the shadow of the building across the street and looked up.
A gaunt silhouette stood on the edge of a seven-story residential building, the wind stirring the hem of her plaid skirt.
She was a girl of about seventeen, standing at the railing’s edge, teetering—clearly intent on ending her life.
Should she go save her?
Su Yuan didn’t know.
She was a succubus.
Demons were born as the natural enemies of humanity, incapable of ever developing feelings for humans—the elders of her clan had taught her that since childhood.
But at this moment, watching the girl lean slightly forward, staring at the scattered lights beginning to flicker on in the street below, Su Yuan felt something in her chest tighten—something that did not belong to a succubus’s instinct.
She couldn’t do it.
No matter what, she simply could not watch a life extinguish before her very eyes.
Su Yuan took a breath.
Once.
Twice.
Demonic mana flowed through her body.
She closed her eyes and imagined the endearing images she had seen on roadside billboards or on human television screens.
As a low-rank succubus, she wasn’t skilled at transforming into a man, so she could only choose the form of a woman.
Mana began reshaping her physique.
Bones creaked softly, her frame stretched taller, curves became rounded and smooth, and a wine-red knitted dress wrapped around her newborn body.
When she opened her eyes again, she had become an alluring woman, standing before the iron door of the rooftop.
Creak.
The sound of the door pushing open startled the girl.
The girl whipped around, her eyes full of wariness, but then a mature voice rang out.
“Little sister, standing there all alone is quite dangerous, you know?”
Su Yuan, now in her adult form, smiled as she stepped forward while subtly releasing a charm-inducing pheromone.
“Want to escape this world?
What a coincidence—so do I.”
“I don’t know what you’ve been through, but there are many ways to escape.
Jumping off is the most boring one.”
She moved toward the girl, her steps like those of an elegant cat. “Little sister, since you want to escape, I have a much more interesting proposal.
How about you run away with me?”
Su Yuan deliberately stopped three meters from the girl—close enough not to feel distant, yet far enough not to be oppressive.
The wind howled through the gaps between buildings.
The girl looked up, her eyes brimming with complex emotions.
“Run where?”
“Anywhere.
But in any case, just give me a chance, alright?”
The woman stopped before her, reached out her hand, her gaze blazing. “If when the sun rises tomorrow you still want to die, I won’t stop you.”
“But before that, give me one night.
I promise you—that night will belong only to us.
Just one… big sister who might understand you a little.
Want to give it a try?”
Though this script was a common ploy used by the succubus clan to deceive humans, at this moment, Su Yuan meant it with all her heart—she genuinely wanted to make this girl happy.
The girl was clearly stunned.
She hesitated, staring at Su Yuan’s outstretched hand but did not take it.
After a long pause, she whispered a single sentence.
“Sister… saving someone like me has no value.”
She averted her gaze.
“How could that be?”
Su Yuan laughed.
“A cute girl like you—I fell for you the moment I laid eyes on you.”
“Fell… for me?”
“Yes.
Fell for you.”
“A complete stranger?”
“You’re very pretty,” the woman narrowed her eyes and smiled.
“Such a beautiful face—it would be such a pity to see it marred.”
“I…”
The girl looked at this beautiful woman, and her heartbeat suddenly quickened, inexplicably.
She didn’t understand why this emotion had arisen so abruptly.
She only felt that she, too… seemed to have developed ambiguous feelings for the woman before her.
How strange.
Just moments ago she had been dead to the world, yet now she found herself anticipating the future.
She hesitated for a second, then placed her cold fingers into Su Yuan’s palm.
“Good girl.”
The woman smiled.
Hand in hand, they slowly retreated from the rooftop’s edge and walked toward the open iron door.
The dim lights in the stairwell flickered on one by one.
They descended seven flights in silence.
The woman led the girl all the way to the ground floor.
That night, Su Yuan took the girl to an amusement park, to the coast to watch the star-filled sky, and treated her to a delicious omelet rice.
Though the girl never opened up about her troubles, under the influence of Su Yuan’s mana, her dim eyes gradually brightened.
Her emotions, too, were gently guided by Su Yuan’s manipulation.
Late at night, inside the hotel room, Su Yuan looked down at the blushing girl on the bed and knew she had fully fallen under her charm.
“Big sister…” The girl reached out, brushed a stray lock of hair from the woman’s cheek, and tucked it behind her ear.
“Tomorrow… can we still be like this?
Can I have your contact information?”
The woman smiled faintly.
What a delicious soul.
If she wanted, she could drain all of this girl’s vitality right now and devour it entirely.
But Su Yuan couldn’t bring herself to do it.
Once she shed this disguise, she was just a timid, socially anxious succubus who could barely even strike up a conversation with anyone.
“Of course—as long as you behave.”
With that, the woman leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to the girl’s forehead.
The girl instantly covered her burning cheeks in embarrassment, but the woman made no further move.
“Get some rest.
Good night.”
With that, Su Yuan switched off the light.
Then, while the girl slept soundly, she quietly slipped out of the room.
The next morning, sunlight streamed in.
When the girl woke and turned to look for that sister—
The woman in the red dress, with her enchanting smile, had already vanished like a phantom dissolved into the night, leaving no trace behind.
“…Big sister?”
The girl stood blankly at the doorway, her fingers curling unconsciously.
***
“It’s been… three years now?”
Su Yuan opened her eyes and sat up on the narrow single bed.
Morning light filtered through the thin curtains of the old apartment, casting blurred patches of light across the floor.
That dusk, that rooftop, that girl with dead eyes—they still wandered into her dreams from time to time.
Was she doing well?
Su Yuan hoped that what she had done back then had truly opened a different door for the girl, that it had made her life better.
Even if just a little.
Unfortunately, the world had not evolved in a gentle direction.
The long-simmering conflict between humans and demons erupted not long after, like a suppressed volcano finally exploding.
The Security Bureau issued a “Demon Extermination Order,” and the living space for demons within the city was violently compressed.
Any suspicious magical fluctuations could invite pursuit from demon hunters.
Su Yuan could no longer, as she once had, occasionally roam the shadows of human cities in her succubus guise to observe.
Fortunately, the demons’ underground network had not been completely paralyzed.
With the help of her kin, she obtained a more permanent disguise—she assumed the identity of an ordinary human girl and enrolled in Ruis Academy.
Ruis Academy—an ordinary secondary school comprised primarily of human students.
Here, Su Yuan had to live like a true human girl.
Her disguise was flawless.
Her mana was sealed and concealed by layers of talismans and spellwork, so thorough that even the most precise detectors would find nothing.
Everything seemed perfect.
Only her personality flaw proved impossible to disguise—or rather, it required no disguise at all.
Though several years had passed, her social anxiety and verbal awkwardness hadn’t improved.
If anything, they had worsened in this environment where she had to maintain her human act with constant vigilance.
In class, Su Yuan was always the figure in the back corner, the last row.
She had become the unpopular, unnoticed little shadow of the classroom.
But deep inside, Su Yuan harbored a small longing—a wish belonging to this human girl identity.
She too wished to be like the girls in the front rows—gathered in groups, laughing and chatting.
Sharing bento boxes and secrets, running in the sunlight.
She too wanted friends—even just one.
Another bland, uneventful day.
Su Yuan huddled as usual in the corner by the window in the back row.
A popular manga was spread open in her hands.
But her gaze secretly drifted over the pages, tracing the movements of others in the classroom.
Would anyone glance her way by accident?
Would anyone smile at her when handing back assignments?
She even deliberately cleared her throat, letting out a tiny cough.
Hoping for even the simplest greeting—”Are you okay?”
Nothing.
Her cough dissolved into the noisy chatter of the passing period, not even stirring a ripple.
The girls in the front rows were heatedly discussing a newly released idol album.
The boys were arguing over game strategies.
No one looked back.
She slumped disheartened onto the cold desktop.
Just as she was nearly drowning in disappointment, the classroom’s buzz suddenly spiked.
“Did you hear?
There’s a transfer student coming!
Today, to our class!” an excited voice announced.
“No way?
Transferring at this time?”
“Of course!
And do you know who it is?
It’s that one… Bai Shimo!
Magical Girl Molly!” another voice practically shrieked.
“What?!
The magical girl who single-handedly repelled a Tier-1 dangerous magical beast on the Eastern Front?
The Security Bureau’s star ace?”
“That’s her!
Oh my god, why would a big star like that come to our ordinary class?”
“I heard it’s for recovery and adaptive adjustment after her last battle… Anyway, she’s incredible!
Can I get an autograph?”
The buzzing chatter swelled, nearly lifting the roof.
Magical girl.
Security Bureau.
Repelling magical beasts.
Each keyword struck Su Yuan’s heart like an icy needle.
Someone from the Security Bureau?
She instinctively curled her body tighter, her heart pounding uncontrollably.
Though her disguise was flawless, the primal fear of being deep in enemy territory seized her.
Oh no.
Would she be exposed?
Was this a coincidence or…?
But compared to this guilt and fear, what she witnessed next truly petrified her, as if her entire body had turned to stone.
The classroom door opened, and the homeroom teacher entered, accompanied by someone.
All the chatter died instantly, replaced by a hush of suppressed excitement.
Sunlight poured in from the entrance, enveloping the new arrival.
She stood tall and straight, her posture poised, wearing a sharply tailored academy uniform—yet somehow giving the impression of one clad in armor.
Shoulder-length tea-brown hair shimmered with a metallic luster under the light.
Her eyes were a clear amber.
On her face rested a polite yet distant smile.
Su Yuan’s pupils contracted sharply, her fingertips instantly turning cold.
Wait…
This face…
The fragile girl from the rooftop at dusk three years ago, and the sunlit, celebrated star magical girl before her now…
Their silhouettes slowly overlapped.
The human girl she had once saved.
The stranger she had silently blessed for three years.
Now, she stood before Su Yuan—a demon in disguise—as a “hero” who hunted her kind.
What a bitterly ironic twist of fate.
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