Translator: Nox

Chapter 23

“What should we do?”

“We have to find it. We need to uproot the demons from this land.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll assemble a team. Now, Miss Bunny. Young Master’s adjutant is waiting outside.”

“Y-Yes, nyaang….”

Bunny was done for if she got caught.

Putting strength into her trembling body, Bunny jumped down from the sofa with a composed expression.

When she stepped outside, a man with a stern face came into view.

After exchanging a few words with Pel, the man approached Bunny.

His red hair and blue eyes stood out, along with his lips pressed into a firm line and his utterly expressionless face. Even to Bunny’s eyes, he looked like a person devoid of emotion.

“Hello, Miss Bunny. I’m Levon, adjutant to Young Master Kiriel. This is the first time I’m greeting you in person.”

“Hewwo. Bunny is fow years old. Young Master’s baby.”

Levon bent at the waist to bow to her, watching her with an impassive face.

When Bunny tilted her head, he pulled something out from his jacket pocket.

“I see. If you don’t mind…”

Levon trailed off and took two or three steps back.

“Could you stay right there in that pose for a moment?”

“Nyaang….”

What was this?

The moment Bunny made a puzzled face and tilted her head.

Click, click.

Bunny’s body jolted at the noise from the small orb Levon held.

She blinked left and right—chick, chick, chick—turning her head to find the source of the sound.

Click. Click. Click.

Of course, Levon didn’t miss that timing.

“Wh-What’s th-that…?”

“It’s nothing. There was some dust in the air, so I cleared it with this latest device. Young Master Kiriel is looking for you. Is it all right if we go together?”

Levon’s words came fast and long-winded, making Bunny’s eyes spin.

As Bunny’s body swayed, Levon carefully scooped her up into his arms.

“I’ll carry you.”

“Nyaang….”

Bunny, who had been blinking her heavy eyelids, suddenly dropped her head with a thunk.

“You must have been exhausted.”

Levon carefully supported her head so it wouldn’t fall back and slowly started walking.

By the time they reached the room, Bunny was already fast asleep.

* * *

Huff, huff—

Kiriel Yudia slowly turned his head at the breathing sounds echoing through the usually silent space.

His eyes took in the two children sprawled across his bed.

It was Bunny, whom Levon had brought earlier, and Allen, who had come looking for her, seen her asleep, and snuggled up beside her before dozing off.

He had never once thought about raising children for the rest of his life. He had never felt the desire to take responsibility for anyone. To live as if he existed or didn’t—it was Kiriel Yudia’s mindset.

The world was structured to exploit the capable, treating it as a given.

A world where those with power were condemned if they didn’t share it, and those with ability were criticized if they didn’t use it for all.

In that world, his brother—called a ‘hero’—had crumbled and vanished.

He hadn’t even lived past thirty, meeting his end in the war against the demons.

A miserable death where not only his whereabouts were unknown, but even his body couldn’t be found. No one knew what kind of end he met.

Not until he stormed the Demon King’s castle and faced the Demon King herself.

“Hero? You mean that hero of yours? If you’re talking about the wretch who groveled at my feet begging for his life, he was a pathetic fool. He screamed himself hoarse about changing us demons. Even when he was drenched in blood, even as his limbs were severed one by one.”

“His body? His corpse… let’s see. Where did I put it? Fed it to the dogs, or maybe the monsters…. Heroes are utterly worthless. Even on the verge of being crushed by you humans’ pathetic expectations, trembling yet unable to back down—the sight was laughable….”

When he finally reached the Demon King’s castle, slaughtering demons and covered in their blood, the Demon King who spoke of his brother’s death was beautiful.

Yes, a beautiful woman.

And more cruel than anyone.

Every word dripped with malice, overflowing with it—you could see she was the very incarnation of evil that the demons worshipped.

Black wings spread wide, enveloping the vast hall.

Two large horns jutting firmly from her head.

Sharp fangs.

And the pitch-black magic roiling fiercely.

“Just as I’d heard—a stubborn, skilled, utterly unlovable bastard…. Poor human… So the world says you’re the next hero…. That fool will cry again….”

The curse-like words she left behind when he plunged his sword into the Demon King’s heart still haunted his mind after the fierce battle.

“Poor human… So the world says you’re the next hero….”

The proud eldest son of the Yudia family had a somewhat soft heart, but he was a true hero who had summoned the sword of the hero destined to exterminate the demons.

Yet because he was a hero, his brother had to stand at the forefront of the demon war, fight the Demon King, and ultimately meet a miserable end.

It was Kiriel’s future as well.

So after the war ended, Kiriel Yudia set down his sword. He didn’t summon his divine beast.

He went nowhere, lounging endlessly in what was now his prayer room disguised as a bedroom, sleeping the days away.

He helped no one. He offered kind words to no one.

Instead of leading by example, he turned away. He let go of everything in his hands and gave up.

He lazed about like a wastrel, ate and played, steeped in lethargy.

Years passed like that.

Kiriel Yudia was still called a hero of the holy war, but no one expected anything from him anymore.

To live unnoticed and slowly fade into obscurity.

That was what Kiriel Yudia had wanted.

And yet, the reason he had declared he would adopt the hot-topic kids Bunny and Allen this time was…

Perhaps because of the demon energy he sensed, nagging at him.

The fact that only he felt it probably meant it wasn’t that strong.

Kiriel Yudia was born a bit special, after all, making him particularly sensitive to demon energy.

“Pet it, pat pat! Bunny and big snake can’t carry mommy and daddy. So together….”

“Hah?! I don’t need that crap. You’re just a brat way younger than me anyway—get lost! You ugly little shit!”

“Bunny not ugly… It’s Bunny’s turn….”

Or maybe because he saw his brother—who never yielded no matter what—in the pluckiness of the child stroking her own head.

“Bunny, big demon….”

Kiriel stroked the head of the child mumbling faintly in her sleep a couple of times, then lay down in the empty space on the bed.

He froze as the two children squirmed toward his warmth, burrowing into his arms. Kiriel slowly rolled his eyes before gradually closing them.

Sometime later, Kiriel’s arm rested over the children’s bodies.

* * *

Bunny was serious.

Because…

“Hey, that’s the bastard kid, right? The beggar who got adopted.”

“Yeah, what an unlucky-looking face.”

“Running around chattering everywhere—it’s so annoying.”

The crisis Luriel had mentioned had arrived.

‘Bunny, bullying…!’

It was something all the protagonists in ‘Top 28 Romance Fantasies for Young Demons’ that Bunny had heard about from Luriel had gone through… A necessary ordeal to become a true protagonist.

‘If she gets bullied, Bunny’s a real protagonist too.’

Hmph.

Bunny smirked with a snort and shrugged at the boys gathering in a cluster.

Bunny wasn’t scared. Because up until now, she had imagined going through this countless times.

‘Bunny is super big and super amazing, perfectly invincible.’

Having imagined it so many times, words from kids like these didn’t hurt her one bit.

Hmph.

Bunny snorted again and puffed out her chest.

“Hey, ugly! Stop showing off! With that ugly face of yours!”

She wasn’t hurt by words like that. Because Bunny was a splendid adult.

“Pipsqueak. You think wearing that rabbit backpack makes you cute? It just makes you uglier!”

…She wasn’t hurt by words like that either.

The chest she had puffed out slipped slightly back.

“Yeah, yeah. Who in their right mind carries a bag shaped like an animal? No sense of being nobility, huh?”

Bunny was a splendid adult…

“Ahaha! As if she has any. No wonder it reeks so bad whenever she’s around.”

“Reeks? What kind of smell?”

An adult…

“Peasant stink~!”

Puhahaha!

Bunny’s patience snapped at the bursting laughter and the rough hands shoving her shoulders.