Ch#83
“Piyoooo!!”
The phoenix, which had been dozing with its head bobbing on one side, suddenly opened its eyes and flew in a wide circle above their heads.
Whoosh!
Flames rose from the phoenix’s body, cascading down like sparkling starlight.
As if blessing this very moment.
A faint smile spread across Kiriel’s lips. The warmth spreading from one corner of his chest felt utterly unfamiliar.
He lifted his hand and lightly pressed his chest.
His world had always been cool and cold, filled with shades of gray—an odd thing.
Yet whenever that child squeezed in, the world took on color. The colorless world grew vibrant, and something seemed to sprout from his long-dead emotions.
The sensation of emotions, lost to a demon tribe’s curse, returning.
‘That child is a demon too, after all….’
Ridiculous—he didn’t feel the slightest urge to push her away.
He reached out cautiously and stroked the child’s head.
“Heehee.”
Kiriel couldn’t help scooping Bunny into his arms as he watched her beam, accepting the touch he’d always recoiled from as if it were filthy.
“Happy birthday, Bunny.”
“…Yesss!!”
Bunny answered with all her might and threw her arms around Kiriel.
‘Please let Bunny become the greatest Great Demon King and still get along with everyone.’
It was a peaceful interlude, circled only by that small wish.
From late evening until midnight, Bunny had enjoyed a fun party with everyone in a room overflowing with chocolate. Now she tottered along, nodding off here and there, swaying unsteadily.
“Bunny!”
“Hey!”
Allen and Calvad caught her wobbling form.
Bunny halted her steps, half-asleep and clutching her armful of gifts.
“Hnggg….”
Kiriel crouched down in front of the child, who was whining sleepily.
“Allen, Calvad. Can you split the gifts and carry them?”
“Sure.”
“Well… since I’m the o-older brother, guess I have no choice.”
Allen answered readily, while Calvad shot a glance at the fussing Bunny and replied a bit gruffly. Even so, both dutifully divided up the items she’d stubbornly insisted on carrying herself—her precious gifts.
“Hnggg, Bunny’s….”
With her eyes half-shut, Bunny flailed her arms. Kiriel scooped her up and spoke in a calm voice.
“That’s right. We’ll get everything safely to your room, so hand them off to your brothers for now.”
He settled her dozing head on his shoulder, and soon she blinked sleepily before slowly closing her eyes.
“Daddy….”
“Yes.”
Kiriel rose to his feet, glanced once at Allen and Calvad, and began walking slowly as he replied.
“Bunny not heavy?”
“Yes.”
“Even so, it’s Kiriel’s shoulder. A defeated shoulder, but if you dig the ground, Purification Stones come out, it’s a huge jackpot.”
Kiriel’s steps slowed at Bunny’s drowsy words, her tongue even looser than usual in her half-asleep state.
Information no one else could know—information a child certainly shouldn’t.
It nagged at him, the way she spoke of it so casually.
He’d looked into the phoenix’s summoning as a divine beast—only the founding head of the family had ever done it—but nowhere did it mention foreseeing the future.
The moment he opened his mouth to probe where she’d gotten such knowledge—
“Bunny… still useful? If merge with Daddy, Bunny gone.”
Kiriel halted abruptly at the soft mumble. His gaze fell on the child, head resting on his shoulder, half-lost to sleep.
“I don’t dislike it. Go to sleep now.”
Swallowing the question he’d wanted to ask, Kiriel let out a short breath and patted her back.
The child mumbled a few more times before her head lolled and she fell into deep slumber.
It was a quiet, serene, and peaceful night.
Hmph.
A few days after receiving her “birthday celebration party,” Bunny had climbed one more step up the stairs to adulthood.
Through her new experience, she’d become an “adult Bunny,” advanced one step beyond yesterday.
“Orange juice or grape juice, miss?”
“Bunny today climbed adult’s ladder.”
With her nose held high, Bunny declared it from her seat at the table.
“Wow, really? Then how about something other than grape or orange?”
“Mm. Bunny today adult milk please.”
As the maid and Bunny chatted back and forth amid the group gathered at the round breakfast table, the corner of Kiriel’s mouth twitched.
“Yes! I’ll bring the adult milk with a bit of honey mixed in.”
“Mm.”
At Melissa’s natural prompting, Bunny nodded vigorously. Allen’s lips curved into a melting smile, while Calvad’s cheek gave a slight twitch.
That morning at breakfast, no one interrupted Bunny’s “adult conversation.”
“Glass Marble….”
Kiriel narrowed his eyes and propped his chin, gazing steadily at the gift Bunny had given him.
When he’d unwrapped the present Jedrian had brought, out came a glass marble.
Transparent and pristine, but that was it.
No matter how he turned it over, it held nothing special or impressive. It was an utterly ordinary glass marble.
‘Did this look pretty to her?’
A child’s heart was impossible to fathom.
A faint smile ghosted across Kiriel’s lips as he thought that.
When he’d shown the returned gift back to Bunny, she’d lit up with pure delight.
So what if it was a meaningless glass marble?
It was something his daughter had bought thinking of him.
His daughter.
“…”
Yes, that child was his daughter.
The child he’d adopted, the one he’d brought in.
At some point, his lighthearted feelings had turned quite serious.
“Levon.”
“Yes. Finally you see me instead of that glass marble, it seems.”
Kiriel clicked his tongue softly and looked up at Levon’s deadpan, indifferent remark.
Matching Levon’s expressionless face, Kiriel replied.
“Don’t get snide.”
“I wasn’t being snide. Just stating facts. So, why did you call?”
“You said no information on Bunny turns up, no matter how much you search.”
“Yes. We’ve checked every obscure rural village in the empire, but nothing fits. Same with the Baekyoung side.”
Tap, tap, tap.
Kiriel drummed his fingertips on the desk.
‘Demons….’
But the odds of her being a full demon were low.
The Yudia Ducal Family bloodline ran true in her—that much was certain.
Half-human, half-demon.
The very existence was astonishing.
Demons carried poison and turbidity throughout their bodies. Any human who bonded with one met death.
The moment their bodies mingled, it meant accepting that turbidity.
He’d even heard of certain rare demon tribes that seduced humans, granting a night of dreamlike pleasure before draining their essence.
The partner wouldn’t last more than a month. Ordinary people lacked the power to purify the poison or turbidity.
‘…With holy power, one could offset it to some degree.’
But only temporarily. Over time, the stronger energy would dominate.
If the demon was weaker than the holy-powered human, the demon would wither and die. If the human was weaker, the human would waste away.
Demons and humans belonged to worlds that could never touch—should never touch.
Without an object to shield the flesh from each other’s holy or demonic energies, there was no path for them to live happily for long.
‘And yet she was born….’
Either that unknown collateral branch had exceptional purification ability,
‘Or their powers were so evenly matched they balanced.’
One or the other.
Or perhaps… the demon had been weaker than the collateral.
‘Still, Pegasus couldn’t track them down….’
They were likely both gone from this world by now.
The demon lands were far from the empire to begin with. No short distance.
“Not the empire. Beyond the empire borders…”
Kiriel turned to the massive continent map hanging on one wall of the study.
The demons’ territory bordered several nations, along the borderline.
A land somewhere deep within the vast, unknown Dark Forest.
After the Demon King’s death, the forest had withered yellow as if its breath had been cut off, all fuel supply vanished, losing its color and light.
No creatures could survive nearby—the stench of rot hung heavy in the air.
The continent’s northernmost village.
Othelloide.
The closest to the Dark Forest border.
With the most demon and monster sightings, it was a demilitarized zone and extraterritorial area jointly patrolled by two empires and three kingdoms.
‘If Bunny was swept up during the Saint-Demon War…’
She’d most likely have arrived in that village first.
