Chapter 50
Chapter 50
Even though he had taken human form, not much seemed to have changed. As Derion fumbled over his naked body, the hairy man grimaced in disgust.
“Is this guy mentally unstable or what?”
“He can talk.”
“So what if he can talk? Since when did being able to speak mean someone’s not crazy?”
“…Don’t be too harsh. He’s still a child, after all.”
“Haven’t you heard that appearances mean nothing to demons?”
“That may be true, but… either way, he looks pretty confused. Don’t scare him.”
“Ha! A demon like him is scared? Are you seriously saying a demon would be scared?”
“He’s just a kid!”
“Don’t make me repeat myself, you fool. There are no ‘children’ among demons.”
With that, the hairy man turned on his heel and walked away. But what he said was true. There were no children among demons.
‘A surprisingly clever human.’
One who even seemed to know about demons. He’d be a tough opponent if it came to a fight, but not someone Derion feared. Rather, the human who had been defending him moments ago made Derion more uneasy.
‘What is that smell?’
The man gave off a scent Derion had never encountered before. He seemed to be of the same species as the hairy one, yet lacked the typical fragile stench of humans.
“What are you?”
Realizing he wouldn’t get anywhere just by thinking, Derion chose to ask directly.
“You can reason?”
“I asked what you are.”
“They call me Sylvanas.”
“Why do you carry such an unpleasant scent?”
“Huh?”
Derion wasn’t interested in the human’s name. He had no intention of ever using it.
“Smell? Maybe because I got caught in the rain yesterday… Is it that bad? Does it really bother you?”
Blushing, Silvanas sniffed his own arm. Derion raised an eyebrow and tilted his head.
“You’re wrong. The damp mildew from your clothes and the musty scent from the rain are different.”
“Mildew and must… You mean I smell like Lawrence?”
“Don’t change the subject. The hairy one stinks even worse, it smells sour and fishy. That’s a stench.”
“…”
“But you… you reek of something I don’t want near me. What is that?”
He said ‘scent,’ but what Derion was sensing from Sylvanas was more than that, it was a kind of energy. In the midst of his still-unsettled transformation, he couldn’t clearly distinguish between smell and aura.
Gripping his head, Derion winced.
Another wave of headache crashed over him. He had tried to control it, but his powers had surged so dramatically after his growth that he couldn’t yet gauge them.
“Ugh…”
“Are you hurt?!”
Without hesitation, Sylvanas rushed over. Coming closer only intensified the unpleasant smell. No, in fact, this was worse. Derion couldn’t allow it near.
“Are you injured? You were crushed earlier, maybe something’s… no, wait, you look okay.”
“Answer me. What are you?”
Despite his throbbing headache, Derion pressed on about Sylvanas’s identity. It disturbed him how such a foul presence carried so much of Bellatrix’s scent.
Worse yet, the man’s smell resembled hers in an unsettling way.
“What did you… do to Bella?”
There were beasts that absorbed their prey to gain their strength. When Derion had once been abandoned and wandered the forest, such predators had often targeted him. According to Regnator, many humans also gained power by defeating and absorbing their enemies.
The thought that this human might have harmed Bellatrix made the few strands of hair on his new body bristle.
“Why do you smell like Bella?”
Derion didn’t hesitate. He lunged, trying to grab Sylvanas by the throat. Or at least, he tried to. As he rose, he stumbled and collapsed forward, his body still unfamiliar and uncooperative.
“Oh dear! Are you okay?”
Sylvanas knelt and reached out to help him. Seizing the moment, Derion latched onto the man’s neck. Had he still been in beast form, he would have torn it open with his prized fangs. But human teeth weren’t sharp.
“Speak. What did you do to Bella?”
“Ugh, you… you know Bella?”
Even as he was being choked, Sylvanas didn’t resist violently. He simply let out a strained groan. Derion narrowed his eyes but didn’t twist the man’s neck.
He wanted to kill him but something made him hesitate.
Perhaps it was that strange resemblance to Bellatrix’s scent.
“Bella…”
She was nowhere in sight. Not even her scent lingered clearly. Just a faint trace remained, lacking her unique fragrance.
‘Since she formed a familiar contract with me… she probably didn’t escape unscathed either.’
And she was human. A human forming a contract with a magical beast? She wouldn’t have come away from that unscathed. Realizing that, Derion’s grip on Silvanas’s neck loosened.
“Hah… calm down. Bella is safe.”
“…Where did she go?”
Derion scanned the area again. This time, things that had gone unnoticed became clearer. Everything was scorched and blackened. Something large had burned fiercely here, leaving behind stench and ruin, as if it had been trampled by a great force.
Only now did he realize the extent of it. He’d been so used to this kind of aura in the demon realm that it had taken him this long to recognize it.
‘Ah.’
It was the overwhelming force of a powerful demon lord.
“Did the Demon King come here?”
Sylvanas, rubbing his sore neck, let out a cough.
“Cough. Yeah, he came… and took Bella.”
“…”
“Don’t know all the details, but according to Lawrence, she cried so hard she passed out.”
“…She cried?”
Tzzzzz.
A shrill pulse rang in his head again. Derion winced, clutching his skull from the pain. Pushing through it, he spoke with certainty.
“Bella doesn’t cry unless she’s hungry.”
“…Kids cry easily, you know. She was in an unfamiliar place, something scary probably happened.”
She had stepped into an unknown gate without knowing where it led, faced a top-ranking demon who had once served the previous Demon King, and didn’t even cry then.
Derion gave Sylvanas a skeptical glare.
“That can’t be. Bella only shows tears when she’s hungry.”
He might be lying. That disgusting scent made it likely.
‘Except for that…’
Aside from the smell, this man seemed like a relatively ‘good human.’ Even knowing he wasn’t human, he’d helped and spoken kindly.
‘Regnator said that among humans, there are some extremely rare good ones.’
The smell was off-putting, but he didn’t seem like the type who would lie or deceive with words.
“…Bella… ahem, I didn’t see it myself, so I’m not sure. But you… how do you know Bella? Are you really… a demon, like Lawrence said?”
Sylvanas rubbed the red mark left on his neck as he asked. Derion looked down at his own unclothed body. He tensed his toes, his knees, rotated his wrists. The headache remained, and his body still didn’t move freely but he was getting used to it.
The human body required far more delicate control.
To use his power in this form, it demanded greater focus than his beast form ever had. Still uncomfortable, but Derion understood that the human form was far more useful.
“What do you see me as?”
At that, Sylvanas thought hard. He examined Derion carefully, wearing a puzzled expression. After much contemplation, he even groaned aloud.
“I’ve never struggled to read someone like this. You… you’re a magical beast and a demon… and yet there’s human energy mixed in.”
A beast and a demon he could understand but human?
‘Ah, that must be from Bella.’
Bellatrix’s energy must’ve seeped into him through the familiar contract. Being close to her while he was growing must have played a role too.
“So? What are you, then?”
To that, Derion hesitated. His red eyes had already been exposed, so denying he was a demon would only complicate things. Yet claiming to be a magical beast was also risky. Hirpus was the only beast species that could become demons.
Sylvanas clearly knew a fair bit about demons.
If he revealed his beast origin in this form, their species’ secret might be exposed.
Not that Derion cared about the fate of the Hirpus but if they captured him and started experimenting to uncover his secrets, that’d be a problem. Humans were known to be as curious as demons, after all.
‘There’s no need to explain.’
After brief thought, Derion chose not to answer. Instead, he considered what he could say about himself. He is a beast? Demon?
“I am…”
Bellatrix had returned to the demon realm with the Demon King, but he was still here in the human world. To be separated from one’s master right after forming a familiar bond is a cruel fate.
The farther they were apart, the weaker the bond. The bond with the master was directly tied to the familiar’s power, so proximity was everything.
‘Bella, you…’
And this wasn’t just distance, it was a whole other dimension. At this range, they likely couldn’t even feel each other’s presence. Besides, he was only in juvenile form.
He still didn’t know why he had grown despite never drinking his mother’s blood, nor if he could even reach full maturity.
‘Come to think of it… how did I even grow?’
Unless Bellatrix carried Hirpus blood in her veins, it shouldn’t have been possible. It made no sense. A coincidence? Could a familiar contract alone trigger growth? He didn’t know. There was no one to teach him.
So many unanswered questions but there was one thing he could say to Sylvanas.
“I am… Derion.”
The small human child, bearing the one and only name ever given to him by his lifelong master.
