Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Lucifer’s hand blocked her vision, prompting her to blink and think. She had assumed Regnator must be an extraordinary demon, always glued to the Demon King’s side. But the ability to handle corpses? That was entirely unexpected.
‘A necromancer… well… I think I’ve heard of those before…’
She searched through the dusty vault of scattered knowledge from her past life, but nothing came to mind.
‘If I had known I’d be living a second life like this, I would’ve at least read a few fantasy novels or played some games.’
“But there are no corpses for me to use in the Demon King’s castle, are there? As long as I don’t activate my powers, I’m probably the safest demon around. Isn’t that why you sought me out?”
Lucifer didn’t respond. Whether that was the correct answer or not, it was impossible to tell but she was certain his cold expression must have contorted into something fierce.
“There are no corpses that exist as corpses from the beginning.”
Lucifer’s voice dropped even lower.
What… what kind of menacing statement is that?
She desperately wished Regnator would refute it, but instead, he let out a strained groan and said,
“Well, creating corpses isn’t hard for me… but I would never dare do that to the Demon King’s daughter.”
“I wasn’t referring to her. Don’t tell me… you were even considering the possibility?”
There was a loud thud. What was that? Are they fighting?
Sure enough, a terrifying killing aura crept up from the tips of her toes. She’d felt this before and it was definitely Lucifel, once again unable to contain his wrath, radiated his dark energy freely.
‘Was that thud the sound of Regnator falling to his knees?’
She was imagining all sorts of scenarios when a carefree laugh suddenly rang out.
“Haha! You win! I didn’t think you’d get this upset just because Lady Bella looked at me a little too passionately.”
“…”
“Don’t worry. I’ve never once considered anything of the sort.”
Lucifer let out a short, sharp click of the tongue from above her head, clearly unimpressed by Regnator’s antics. Then, the hand covering her eyes finally lifted and for some reason, Lucifer’s disapproving gaze was aimed directly at her.
‘What?! What did I do?!’
“Stop staring at him like that.”
“…”
“It’ll rot your eyes.”
Coming from Lucifer, of all people, she seriously began to believe that maybe her eyes really would rot if she kept looking at Regnator. Even though she knew it was nonsense, she hesitantly glanced over at Regnator, just to be sure.
‘What the…?!’
Where his firm abs should’ve been, there was nothing. Had her vision gone blurry for a moment?
No… she had clearly seen his stomach so why could she now see the wall behind him? Frozen, her eyes locked onto Regnator’s torso as she swallowed hard.
There was a gaping hole in his stomach and yet Regnator continued to laugh and joke around like nothing had happened. That thud sound earlier hadn’t been him falling to his knee it had been the sound of his abdomen being punctured.
‘Is this guy insane?!’
But then, who was the real madman? Lucifer, who blew a hole through his subordinate’s body just because he was annoyed? Or Regnator, who smiled like nothing was wrong despite having a massive hole in his gut?
No… it was her. The girl being raised by these two lunatics was clearly the unluckiest one here.
Even in the midst of this horrific scene that scrambled her brain, she couldn’t stop blinking. Strangely, there wasn’t a single drop of blood coming from Regnator’s wound. Instead of blood, all that fell were white, powdery crumbs, like crushed biscuits.
Regnator, despite the hole in his belly, casually dusted the white powder off his clothes with a nonchalant expression.
Then, as he noticed her staring in horror, he quickly offered some comforting words.
“Lady Bella, you may stare at me as much as you like. I promise I’ll never let your eyes rot.”
His squinting smile looked almost manufactured, like it had been manually folded into place.
‘These maniacs…’
She squeezed her eyes shut.
‘He said he’d ‘make sure’ my eyes don’t rot?!’
So that means… if I do stare, my eyes might actually rot just like Lucifel said?! No way! Was that literal?! Will they physically rot?! Despite her panic and confusion, the fear Lucifer had instilled in her earlier had completely vanished.
Still, perhaps not entirely satisfied, Lucifer lightly tapped her on the head with his index finger.
“Even if they won’t rot, stop staring.”
“…”
“I don’t like it.”
Like a child refusing to share his favorite toy, Lucifer spoke with quiet but firm possessiveness. From the frown between his brows, it was clear that if she didn’t do as he said, something very unpleasant might follow.
She blinked rapidly in response.
It was the most eager agreement she could manage.
“Trying to keep her all to yourself? That’s just cruel.”
“Of course I am.”
“… Pardon?”
“She’s mine.”
With a smirk tugging up one side of his mouth, Lucifer picked her up and carried her into the bedroom like a proud victor. If nothing else, it was a relief that whatever sour mood he had left behind was now completely gone.
Since no one was allowed in Lucifer’s bedroom without permission, Regnator grumbled endlessly from the hallway.
She glanced back with a flicker of concern. How could Regnator act so unfazed, despite the gaping hole in his torso? But she immediately regretted it.
He was stooping down, picking up the powdery white dust from the floor and stuffing it back into the hole in his stomach like he was patching up a broken vase.
‘This isn’t a horror movie… right?’
She had seen something she wished she hadn’t. It would’ve been better not to know. She’d known, deep down, but this moment confirmed beyond a doubt: they were not human.
A grim realization swept over her. She let her head fall limply against Lucifel’s arm.
‘Will I… really survive growing up here?’
***
A tiny village so obscure it might not even appear on a map.
It was so sparsely populated that not even the merchant caravans, famed for traveling anywhere, bothered passing through. Born and raised in that kind of place, Melkin had recently been suffering from intense stress.
Even now, he was shaking in fear, standing in a narrow alleyway after being summoned once again by the source of his dread.
The man had appeared one day without warning.
He hadn’t even been alone. He’d shown up out of nowhere and demanded Melkin treat a sick infant and that’s how it began.
Ever since, the man kept appearing at random intervals, asking in a chilling tone what needed to be done to keep the baby healthy. Melkin, desperate to stay alive, had no choice but to answer sincerely each time.
That part he could live with. He could tell himself it was for the sake of the child.
But that wasn’t the real issue.
“…Damn it. I’m not even a doctor…”
That was right. Melkin wasn’t a doctor. He wasn’t anything close to one, either. Did he work as a nanny? Not even that. He was simply the eldest of nine siblings.
Being the oldest in a large family didn’t automatically make one good with babies. Melkin had been forced to act as the de facto head of the household after their worthless father abandoned them.
The responsibility of actually raising the younger children fell to the second-oldest, Veronica. Melkin was just an herbalist. He gathered herbs from a nearby forest, dried them, and traveled two days on foot to sell them in a slightly bigger town.
In truth, he knew next to nothing about babies. Being dragged into this situation and interrogated about child care left him feeling helpless and terrified.
Every day, he lived with the anxiety that they might one day realize he wasn’t a doctor, and didn’t even have enough knowledge to fill a thimble.
“What the hell am I supposed to do…”
“What’s wrong?”
“Aackk!”
Just as his head was about to explode from the stress, a voice rang out, the last voice he wanted to hear.
No… the scariest voice.
“L-Legna… Legnator…”
“Wrong. It’s Regnator.”
“Y-Yes! Regnator, sir!”
“Why do you look like you’re on death’s doorstep? Do you want to die?”
“Eh? N-No, sir!”
“That’s good. It’d be troublesome if you died now since I still have more questions about Lady Bella. Once that’s done, it’s fine. If you want to die, just let me know.”
“A-And… if I do…?”
“I’ll make it painless.”
Melkin went pale, lips clamped shut like he’d just heard something horrifying. Afraid he might accidentally convince himself he wanted to die, he mumbled very quietly:
“I… I want to live…”
Luckily, Regnator didn’t care whether Melkin lived or died. Melkin lowered his head and waited nervously, wondering what bizarre question the man had come to ask this time.
He was so tense it felt like even his heart and liver were shriveling up. He swallowed hard.
“Lady Bella sometimes makes this expression when looking at me; like this. What does it mean?”
“… Sorry?”
Melkin glanced up slightly. Regnator had raised both index fingers and tilted them forward.
Melkin tilted his head in confusion.
That expression… wasn’t that a frown?
“D-Does her forehead wrinkle, too?”
“Yes. When she makes this eyebrow shape, there are always wrinkles.”
“… Ah.”
“She doesn’t make that face when she looks at Lucifer. Only with me. What does it mean?”
“Ah… well…”
It was clear now. The baby frowned every time she saw Regnator. But how could he say that to someone looking at him with such hopeful curiosity?
He wanted to blurt out, ‘She probably finds you so repulsive she can’t help but scowl.’ But of course, he couldn’t.