Chapter 74
A chilling sensation poured down his back, and the man gripped his sword even tighter, raising it high.
“Hey, don’t kill her!!! You’re just supposed to hurt her!”
“It doesn’t matter. The phoenix can bring back even the dying anyway!”
It was the moment the man’s sword slashed down from above toward Bunny’s arm.
Slish.
Clang!
Thud.
Something was sliced through, the sword rolled across the floor, and soon after, something else dropped to the ground.
“Huh……?”
The man’s eyes flew wide open.
“Argh, aaaaah!!!”
Screaming in excruciating pain, the man rolled across the floor before coming to an abrupt halt. Right at the feet of the child before him—the little girl—was what he had just been clutching in his hand…
“That eye… no way…….”
The man muttered dazedly, tilting his head back.
“Bunny… hates humans.”
A tiny horn sprouted from the top of her head, and soon after, a pair of adorably small wings—matching the size of her body—unfurled from her back.
“D-Demon…….”
“You… human.”
Bunny raised her arm and pointed at the man with her tiny index finger.
As if branding him.
“Humans gotta die.”
“D-Demon… how are you still alive…? They were all exterminated back then……. Ah, no, the Yudia Ducal Family exterminated them, so that would mean the Yudia Ducal Family was hiding demons…….”
Muttering softly as if he’d forgotten even his pain, the man no longer seemed sane.
There were countless rumors about demons. But in truth, very few people had ever actually seen one.
They devoured humans, shattered them to pieces with a mere flick of a finger, and even their young possessed ferocious savagery beyond measure.
After the Holy Demon War erupted, tales spread of demons reducing dozens of villages to scorched earth. Stories circulated of people approaching demon young out of pity, only to meet instant, gruesome ends.
Demons weren’t human to begin with—they were monsters!
“M-Monster…….”
Bunny raised her hand, extending her thumb and index finger into the shape of a gun.
In any other circumstance, it might have seemed like innocent child’s play, but not in this situation.
“W-What are you doing? Kill that monster! Kill it!”
Bunny clamped her mouth shut.
Human baby Bunny was weak, but the real Bunny was not.
“Daddy hates demons?”
“Hates them.”
“How much?”
“Enough to want to wipe every last one off the face of the earth, if possible.”
If Bunny’s identity as a demon was revealed, Daddy would hate her.
She wouldn’t be able to stay with Daddy.
She wouldn’t become a wonderful grown-up. She didn’t want that.
But……
“Sniff…….”
If Bunny hesitated now and didn’t become the strongest Bunny, Roel would be in danger.
“…Daddy dummy.”
In fairy tales, they always came rushing to save the baby right away.
“Humans who bully Noel gotta be punished.”
The moment Bunny clenched her fist tight and parted her lips to cast her spell—
Boom!
Something shattered from outside, followed by the powerful rush of water gushing in.
At the familiar presence, Bunny’s eyes widened just as the flood of water pouring into the cramped room swallowed the bad men whole in an instant.
“Bunny.”
Flinch.
At the voice coming from beyond the door, Bunny’s shoulders quivered and she leaped in place. She froze with her hand raised high, then slowly turned her head.
Tilting her head back as far as it would go, the first thing she saw was a massive, elongated dragon.
The beast, covered head to tail in brilliant blue scales, had coiled its enormous body around Kiriel at the center.
‘Sooo big dragon…….’
Bunny lowered her gaze a little further and met Kiriel’s eyes.
The vivid red irises perched high above stared steadily down at her. His slightly furrowed brow and dilated pupils made him look utterly shocked.
“…Ah.”
Gotta run away.
Hadn’t hidden the horn and wings yet.
Her lips flapping in panic, Bunny frantically scanned her surroundings until she spotted Allen’s robe on the floor and scrambled inside it.
‘What do I do?’
Bunny’s face crumpled in distress.
‘Bunny total flop…….’
Bunny tried desperately to stuff her power back inside, packing it down tight.
Luriel had said not to use her abilities today, but she hadn’t been able to hold back. It would’ve been fine if only Bunny had gotten hurt.
Bunny got big when she transformed, so she’d be okay—but Roel was a weak human, so he might die right away.
Her heart went thump-thump.
Pounding fast.
Eyes quivering, Bunny squeezed them shut and mumbled under her breath, “Go back in quick.”
Even huddled inside the robe’s hem, her little bottom poked out, wiggling around.
Gazing down at it, Kiriel pressed his lips together.
Because unlike that somewhat endearing backside, the robe draped over the child was trembling like leaves in a storm.
“Gasp.”
Hic, hic!
The sharp gasps of her tense breaths grew audible.
After staring for a long moment at the child who was hiccupping from sheer fright, he slowly turned his head. There lay the crown prince, collapsed in a heap on one side.
Turning a bit further revealed several men trapped in the water—water conjured not by him, but by his divine beast.
The men flailed desperately in the oxygen-deprived prison of water, their breaths slowly fading.
‘…Bunny’s a demon?’
No, he had occasionally sensed faint traces of demon energy, but never the distinctive aura unique to them.
‘Should I kill her?’
Demons had no right to exist in this world. Not even the young ones—who could say what monstrous threats they’d grow into as adults?
The right thing was to eradicate them at the root. In the past, he wouldn’t have hesitated. Even shortly after first meeting the child, he surely would have.
‘A single clean cut to the neck… it wouldn’t hurt, would it?’
But what had this child done wrong?
In truth, the ones who deserved death here were the men trapped in his water. They were the villains—not this child who had only defended herself.
‘But she’s a demon.’
So what?
Even if she was a demon, could he bring himself to kill her?
“Daddy, Bunny four now, so super big?”
“No, you’re still a baby, so super small. The phoenix is still small too, isn’t it?”
“…Waaan. When Bunny get super big?”
“Eat your meals well, don’t be picky, play lots, study hard, grow up big and tall like Daddy—then you’ll be super big.”
“Wanna be grown-up fast?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Grow super slow anyway…….”
“That’s right, take your time growing up. If you become a grown-up too fast, Daddy will get lonely.”
Kiriel clenched his fist as the memory surfaced.
But if he didn’t kill her, what of all the demons he had slain before?
What of his mother, who had birthed him and died under a demon’s curse?
What of his eldest brother, surely ravaged and killed by demons?
Spare this child, and all of it would be rendered meaningless.
And yet, even so……
Drip, drip, drip.
The deeper his turmoil grew, the more blood welled from the crescent marks of his nails in his palm, staining the floor.
Could I… kill this child?
The moment the expedition ended and they exited the dungeon, an urgent telegram from Levon had arrived.
The child was gone. Missing, it seemed. Probably kidnapped.
He hadn’t even glanced back at the report—just summoned his divine beast and rushed back.
Returning to the mansion to assess the situation, the frantic phoenix searching for its master had guided him straight here.
Yes, he had come running. Without a thought for anything else, all to save this child.
So? Could he kill her now?
