Chapter 32
After leaving the boy’s room, Bunny resumed her exploration of the Imperial Palace.
‘The Imperial Palace has a hundred rooms.’
No matter how many doors she opened, new ones kept appearing everywhere. Of course, the doors that were open or could be opened were limited.
Anyway, it was just as Bunny was diligently exploring and turning a corner.
“Hey, did you hear? They say His Highness the Crown Prince is going to pass away soon…”
Bunny’s steps came to an abrupt halt at the suddenly overheard voices.
‘Crown Prince…?’
The future human big boss from the fairy tale book.
‘The one with that sparkly, pretty hair from earlier.’
Bunny pressed her back flat against the wall and waited for the maids to pass by. After all, she was secretly gathering information, so she couldn’t afford to get caught.
“Yeah. Even the doctors have given up. It seems even the great Yudia Ducal Family can’t do anything about it. They say the purification isn’t working. And he’s only just turned nine…”
“Exactly. It’s His Majesty the Emperor who’s the most heartbroken. He’s the only heir. Her Majesty the Empress can’t have any more children now either…”
“Hey! You two, watch your mouths! What are you saying in the Imperial Palace?”
Someone jumped in with a startled voice amid their whispers.
Bunny peeked her head around the corner, then quickly pulled it back.
“No, we were just…”
“If you want to keep working here long-term, you’d better watch your mouth!”
At the fierce shouting voice, Bunny tapped the floor lightly with the tip of her shoe. Tap, tap.
Tap-tap-tap.
After quietly listening, Bunny spun around and retraced her steps back the way she came.
* * *
’Not here either, not here either…’
Bunny poked her head into slightly ajar rooms and lightweight-looking doors she had passed earlier, checking each one again.
“Found it!”
A door that looked heavy, just like before, was slightly open.
Bunny slipped her head in for a peek and glanced around. No one was inside.
Squeezing through the gap, Bunny toddled over and stood on tiptoe, dangling from the edge of the enormous bed.
The bed was so tall and huge that even flailing while hanging couldn’t get her up.
With no other choice, Bunny dragged over a nearby chair, positioning it in front of the bed, then clambered onto it while fidgeting.
Then, with a hop, she jumped onto the bed, which sank softly, enveloping her in cozy warmth.
“…The future big boss has a nice bed.”
Bunny’s bed back home.
Remembering her own bed, which wasn’t nearly this fluffy, Bunny’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“…Hah, huff… sob…”
Bunny gazed down at the child drenched in cold sweat, breathing raggedly with his entire body soaked. She placed her tiny, maple-leaf-sized hand on the boy’s forehead. Tap.
Hot to the touch.
If the future human big boss dies, the current big boss will be sad.
‘…Families getting separated makes people sad.’
Bunny thought.
‘Bunny was sad when she said goodbye to Mommy and Daddy too.’
Surely everyone would be sad if this child died.
Bunny didn’t like sad things. She shook her head firmly and glanced around the room once more.
‘If I get caught, Bunny’s done for.’
She had to leave without getting caught, no matter what.
“Hngh… heuk, haaah…”
“You’re okay now.”
Pat-pat.
Bunny gently patted the cheeks of the boy, who lay as still as death but without pain.
『Come here.』
Clear demonic tongue slipped from between Bunny’s lips.
Her round pupils elongated vertically into slits, her deep pink irises turned vivid red, increasing in saturation until they gleamed brightly.
Small horns sprouted bulging from atop Bunny’s head.
The heart of the demons.
The master of the demons.
The essence of the Demon Realm.
At the command from the future master, the pitch-black energy gnawing at the boy’s insides began seeping out through his mouth, nose, ears, and other openings, flowing into Bunny’s horns.
Ssssh.
Bunny pressed down firmly on the sharp horns sprouting from both sides of her head with her palms.
“Not yet, go away.”
Not yet.
She had to stay human.
That way she could grow up, meet Luriel again, and become the great Demon King.
As Bunny pressed down on her horns with her small palms, they gradually receded from view.
“Done!”
Bunny giggled and looked down.
On the bed lay the boy, his complexion much brighter than before. No more gasping breaths, no more sweating.
‘Bunny feels all gooey…’
Somehow, it felt like she was buried deep under heavy blankets—her body was incredibly heavy.
Wheeeeel.
“Eung. Gotta go back…”
With her vision spinning, she strained her eyes and tried to step back onto the chair, but her body suddenly swayed violently.
Plop.
As if her legs had given out, Bunny fell butt-first onto the bed with a thud.
Bunny shook her head side to side. Her vision kept wheeling around.
She struggled to get up somehow, but with everything spinning, she couldn’t regain her senses.
“Gotta go…”
Her tottering body pitched forward and collapsed.
Bunny groped upward one more time to check for horns, then closed her eyes.
‘The bed’s so fluffy…’
The fluffy bed wouldn’t let her go, so she couldn’t leave.
Soon, Bunny’s face flushed bright red, her breathing growing rough, and her thoughts cut off abruptly. She couldn’t think anymore.
“……”
Not long after Bunny fell asleep, the boy with golden hair slowly opened his eyes.
“…What is this child?”
The boy’s red eyes blinked slowly.
In truth, he had been conscious ever since the child entered the room, dragged the chair over, and fussed around. He was just curious what she intended to do once she climbed onto the bed.
He hadn’t seen exactly what happened with his eyes closed, but the moment this little child’s hand touched his forehead, the something that had been wracking his body with pain began to fade away bit by bit.
And… now he felt no pain at all.
The strange discomfort that had always scorched his insides was gone, and the sensation of something gnawing away at his organs had vanished too.
‘My body feels light.’
The boy thought, opening his eyes wide.
Several years ago, when news spread across the empire that the Demon King had died, a demon hiding in the royal palace left a curse upon him before choosing death.
Hell began that day.
The boy was incessantly devoured and eroded by Demonic Qi throughout his body. He couldn’t sleep properly, and even when he did, he wandered endlessly through nightmares.
What difference did keeping his eyes open make?
None. As long as he was conscious, his body ached; if he slept, his mind suffered.
How many times had he prayed to the gods?
He had received baptisms with holy water at the Temple, and people from the Yudia Ducal Family had come multiple times to suppress the Demonic Qi, but that was all.
Days of waiting for death.
A terminal illness.
Everyone said so.
No one could know.
The horrific feeling of the Demonic Qi—that devil—crawling at his feet day and night, relentlessly gutting his body at every moment.
Today had been one such day.
One of those days when days passed without him regaining his senses far outnumbered those when he did.
He knew. Everyone now looked at him with pitying eyes, assuming his death was inevitable.
He smiled outwardly, pretending all was well, but inside, he was already rotting away.
But…
‘A child who suddenly appeared…’
It must have been this child who entered and left earlier.
“Hngh… heuk, haaah…”
“You’re okay now.”
The moment that small voice reached him, he really did feel okay. Like magic. This child had accomplished what no one else could.
『Come here.』
Remembering that strangely unchildlike voice, Roel’s eyes narrowed.
Roel had heard that pronunciation exactly once before.
『I curse you. I curse you again and again and again, you who killed our great god, our noble king, our lives, our one and only guide!!! You shattered our moon, so your sun must shatter too… Repay with death, atone with death, regret in eternal torment.』
It was the language his nursemaid, who had raised him since childhood, spoke on the day she transformed.
He still didn’t know what it meant or its significance, but he could tell the child’s words earlier were quite similar.
‘She’s burning up with fever.’
Roel placed his hand on the forehead of Bunny, who had collapsed as if fainting, and quickly tugged the bedside cord.
“Who are you, little one?”
Roel scooped Bunny into his arms and whispered softly into her ear.
