Chapter 28: I Love That Smile So Much

Strange.

It’s strange.

No matter how I think about it, this is impossible to do with normal thinking.

What reason is there to try so hard? What benefit is there for you?

Questions kept arising, but no answer could be found anywhere.

The Saintess, who came to kill me, smiling faintly before my eyes.

Why me?

Everything was confusing and incomprehensible.

I just stared blankly, endlessly, at the person pouring divine power into me.

Blood splattered here and there, and one arm’s blood vessels had burst, making its shape barely recognizable.

Vast power was clearly erupting, but for some reason, I felt no pain.

Coming to my senses, the woman in front reached out her other hand and hugged me.

It must hurt.

She shouldn’t be able to fully receive this amount of power. Even if possible, perhaps only a Hero or a Demon Lord could manage it.

For a human who looks so weak just by looking, it should be unbearable pain.

I should push her away and flee to my wrecked lair, but I felt no desire to do so.

For a moment, the warm and cozy embrace felt so good that I closed my eyes.

Just being born as a Demon Lord meant enduring tasks difficult even for ordinary children. And fearing when the Hero might come to kill me.

Moreover, just two days after being born, I heard the Hero had already arrived nearby.

Not wanting to die less than a week after being born, I destroyed my lair and fled.

However, knowing nothing about the world yet, I encountered an obstacle.

Hunger. Starvation.

Just 3 hours after leaving the lair, hunger struck.

Even though I had finished a meal before leaving.

And wandering around, I learned how to overcome hunger by eating fruits and killing beasts alone.

Did I really flee just because of the appearance of those bastards who taught me? They already saw me as a lifeline, forcing sacrifice upon me.

Before even talking to anyone, I learned how to walk and handle magic. Also, how to suppress Miasma and even rumors about the Hero.

That was just the day before yesterday.

Still, I thought some parts of living in the lair were okay.

I learned about various mysteries.

First, Demon Lords supposedly possess the language level of a 10-year-old from birth. I agreed with that.

I remember uttering random words after being born. The first thing I said was asking for food…

Besides that, questions about my body and why Demon Lords exist were covered in a day. That was the very day I was born.

After that, I had to endure the educators’ nagging.

Saying I had to be perfectly prepared before the Hero arrived.

But still. Isn’t that too much? I was just their dummy. Their doll.

A doll.

Yes. A substitute to block disaster in front.

An object that doesn’t matter whether it exists or not.

A doll they only thought of as their lifeline.

Is it because demons are demons? Compared to the Majin I encountered in the forest, their judgment could be seen as rational and logical.

But why was my sacrifice considered natural under that judgment?

To them, my existence was not family, friend, or spouse.

A meat shield.

That phrase seemed most fitting.

So I ran away. I didn’t want to die either. Nor did I want to be stuck in the lair, persecuted by demons.

I was so bewildered and angry.

Compared to a human child, wouldn’t it be like telling a newborn to go out and die?

A sigh escaped.

Circling around, the problem ultimately came down to hunger.

Eating fruits and catching beasts still left me hungry.

But eating like that, I realized one thing.

It was because of the Miasma.

Miasma, which decomposes and destroys everything, even consumed the environment.

But the Demon Lord’s Miasma even decomposed substances inside the body, converting them into Miasma.

No matter how much I ate, the hunger wouldn’t subside; the moment of despair was just earlier.

When I finished the meal that felt like salvation. It was a meal so filling it brought not just satiety but fullness.

I wondered what the difference was, but seeing that those who gave me food were clearly the Hero party, I immediately tried to flee.

-Where do you think you’re going?

Got caught just like that.

And so, as the woman who gave me food and the woman who seemed poised to conquer the world with charisma conversed, I felt a warmth spread within me.

Feeling a warmth I hadn’t felt even in the lair, I forgot about forcibly escaping and remained still until the woman who looked like a Saintess placed her hand on my head.

And what happened after that is the current situation.

Opening my closed eyes, I burrowed deeper into the woman’s embrace.

It was warm.

The coziness and comfort I experienced for the first time since birth were with her.

Unconsciously wrapping my arms around her waist, I saw trembling legs behind the woman.

As if the uncomfortable situation continued, her restlessness was fully conveyed through the trembling legs.

Finding it funny, I laughed.

And simultaneously, the woman holding me also laughed.

The vast power enveloping us began to emit white electricity.

Starting with that, blood spurted and flowed even more violently than before from the woman holding me, visibly soaking the ground.

Yet, the woman held me tighter and spoke into my ear with a voice too low for others to hear.

“From now on, your name is Jahy.”

Jahy.

Come to think of it, I wasn’t even given a name.

Just Demon Lord.

Or sometimes called ‘Hey you’.

Just receiving a name. Why did my heart pound like this? I didn’t understand.

I couldn’t tell exactly what she was doing to me.

But I felt the Miasma that had been in my chest ‘disappearing’. With that feeling, I closed my eyes again, lost in thought. I didn’t know what would happen while eating, maybe they would kill me.

But if there was someone who held me like this.

If she was the first person I saw when I was born.

If only I had been born as an ordinary human child, not a Demon Lord.

I wouldn’t have had to go through such a situation.

A bitter smile formed. Even now, her embrace, taking all the pain for me, felt warm. I felt that even while she was hurting, she was thinking of me.

The first humans I met were the Hero party.

And I definitely felt that the Saintess of that Hero party was saving me, the Demon Lord.

So.

Since she did this much for me.

Shouldn’t I give her a fitting reward?

I brought my hand to my head.

Then, of the horns sprouting on both sides, the one on the left.

Snap.

I broke it off.

It didn’t hurt.
Bringing the plucked horn to my mouth, I chewed and ate it.

Crunch. Crackle.

A bitter taste rose from my mouth, making strange sounds.

The taste of the horn was somehow… bad. Chuckling, I stretched out both arms and wrapped them around her neck. Then I uttered a magic spell I hadn’t learned in the lair.

“Contract.”

The magic had no name.

It was just about making a contract with the other party.

And here, I decided to form an eternal contract that no one else would know.

As the contract magic emerged, I wrote the contents.

Confirming the entered contents, I executed the contract, completing a deep contract unknown even to the recipient.

The left side of my head felt empty, but compared to what she did for me, it was nothing.

If I had to say, the contract contained absolutely nothing harmful to her.

Smiling contentedly, I burrowed deeper into her embrace.

Sometime later, the work seemed finished; the surroundings were quiet, and only the small crackling sound of electricity echoed.

Wanting to see her tired face, the moment I lifted my head.

My mouth fell open.

A face severely marked by blood.

Blood flowed from her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears; there wasn’t a spot untouched by blood.

Her white hair and pure white skin were stained with crimson blood.

In her appearance, where everything seemed cold and red, the only thing that felt warm was her expression.

Even with a pained face, far from pushing me away, she hugged me tighter and stroked my head.

When I thought, ‘So one can make such an expression even when about to die.’

Her lips opened.

“Jahy.”

A cracked and dry voice called me.

It was the name I received just now.

But somehow, it felt like a name long lost and found again.

Nodding at her call, I hugged her back. Though due to my height, it looked more like I was being held.

“My name is Sia.”

Still, even her cracked voice, her weak voice, felt beautiful.

Sia.

Finally, I knew her, no, Sia.

Sia, it was a pretty name. Like her personality and smile.

Stroke stroke.

The warm touch stroking the back of my head felt good.

Is this what having a mother feels like?

“Ah…”

The hand stroking my head fell away. The loss of the warm hand left a sense of longing.

Sia held me and lay down beside me.

The ground, soaked with blood, was cold.

But thinking it was Sia’s blood.

The puddle of blood no longer felt cold, but rather hot.

Sia put her arm under my head, using it as a pillow, and we faced each other.

Then she grinned and burst into laughter.

That laughter felt so good.

I unknowingly laughed along with her.