‘The man who cherished you like an older brother and the slave from the vassal state who played at being your lover have all left. 

All the humans you loved so dearly have departed from your side. Meanwhile, my heart remained unchanged for five years. It was terrifyingly constant. Yet you still…’

The words that couldn’t be spoken aloud crumbled miserably inside Shahan’s mouth. His silver pupils that captured the woman before him floated turbidly like oil on water. 

The grotesquely twisted form slowly regained its original shape. Instead of damp silver scales came smooth, slender long silver hair, and focus returned to the cave-like empty pupils. 

The statue-pale face and chest without a trace of blood returned one by one. It was a familiar appearance.

JeJe, who had been covering her mouth and panting madly, finally caught her breath when she saw Shahan return to his original form.

“Didn’t you wish at least once that you could have a family? I clearly remember you telling me that, JeJe.”

“…”

“You were the one who earnestly begged me to remove the monster’s seed. I granted your request, and you promised to stay by my side in return.”

No answer came back. Hiccupping sounds, silence, and the sound of swallowing tears again disturbed Shahan’s ears. He felt dizzy. He had revealed his original terrible skin to JeJe in an unprepared state. 

While she trembled and cried in fear, he had prioritized only his own desires like always. Everything was his own doing, yet he felt nauseated beyond endurance. He felt like his insides were collapsing now that he seemed to understand why JeJe loathed him so extremely.

“Don’t cry. Please, stop crying in front of me. What should I do to make your tears stop?”

He barely extended his trembling hand. His fingertips touched her cheek soaked with tears. Shahan cupped her cheeks gently with both hands and pulled her close. 

He couldn’t figure out what words to use to comfort the woman who was shedding tears because of him, what actions to take. He felt like he was trapped in a nightmare swamp he could never escape from, drowning in a river of tears and suffocating.

“JeJe…”

Shahan wiped her cheeks endlessly with a dazed expression, then suddenly stiffened his body. He felt an alien presence. At some point, unfamiliar signs had mixed into the space that should have only contained the two of them. 

Distracted by JeJe, he had only now detected the suspicious movement that he would have noticed long ago under normal circumstances. He quickly turned his body toward the room’s entrance.

The moment he discovered a long shadow beyond the eerily silent door, Shahan’s eyes blazed with murderous intent unlike anything he’d ever shown. In the heavy silence that pressed down on his throat, he slowly parted his lips.

“JeJe, it seems a guest has come looking for you.”

* * *

BOOM!

“Oh my, starting again? Those d*mn demon beasts, aren’t they sick of destroying everything?”

At the massive explosion that shook the mountain range, a sentry patrolling near Ditrian Forest spat out harsh curses. The guard watching from the watchtower also shook his head in disgust.

“The rumors about their recent increased ferocity must be true. But wasn’t that sound a bit loud just now?”

“Well, maybe they’re planning to blow up an entire mountain this time.”

“Hey, watch your words.”

“How many times have we seen those demon beast bastards howling excitedly like they’re going to tear the earth apart? This time they probably want to vent their anger more violently. Don’t worry. We’re exterminating every one that crawls toward the village. The reinforcements dispatched from Cabalon should arrive soon, so we’ll be able to recover the tilted war situation. We need to end this once and for all before the war drags on. More and more of them have anti-magic resistance so magic doesn’t work, and their numbers are increasing exponentially.”

“I know that much. What happened to the evacuated residents?”

“We couldn’t accommodate all those people in the capital, so we transferred them to villages with relatively less damage, but everywhere is at capacity.”

The guard’s face turned pale as he put down the telescope he was holding.

“When are the mercenaries from Cabalon supposed to arrive?”

“At the earliest, they’ll cross the border before sunset. Some of them will be stationed in Ditrian village, and the rest will be deployed in areas with frequent damage, focusing on the Misty Forest.”

“What’s the point of using them as shields when magic attacks don’t work?”

The man asked skeptically, maintaining a suspicious attitude throughout.

“I wouldn’t know. But it’s better than having nothing at all. Since magic, our only means of attack, is blocked, the Imperial Palace Mage Association is in complete chaos. They’ve declared an emergency to summon priests and clerics skilled in divine power.”

Just then, a messenger in armor came running urgently between the two men who were focused on their conversation.

“Ca-Cabalon’s warriors have arrived at the castle gates!”

“What, already?”

“They say they came a day early to visit His Imperial Majesty in the capital. They want to hear about the damage situation in Ditrian village right now… The Emperor of Cabalon himself.”

“What?”

The Emperor of Cabalon? 

The two guards’ eyes widened at the unexpected figure. Could it be that Cabalon’s monarch had personally participated in the demon beast subjugation war? 

It was common to see vassal state emperors who couldn’t refuse the suzerain’s demands leading battles at the front lines. But why had he marched all the way to a remote rural village instead of the Misty Forest, a strategic stronghold, or the capital? 

They asked for confirmation again, finding it hard to believe, but the answer remained the same.

“F-first, let’s escort him inside.”

The old guard wiped his forehead, stiff with tension, and ordered the messenger who had brought the news. 

The temporarily erected barracks became bustling in an instant with the sudden visitor’s appearance. The soldiers who had been gathered around the campfire sharing trivial chatter also jumped up and formed ranks.

“Now that greetings are done, I’d like to hear detailed information about the village’s damage scale, demon beast movement routes, and strategies. I heard that remote villages like Ditrian suffer more damage than places where high-level demon beasts have set up camp, like the northern Misty Forest or southwestern Killian Canyon.”

Narcissus asked as he removed his metal helmet that covered more than half his face and placed it on the side table.

Sir Kalat, commander of the Lava Knights defending Ditrian Fortress, took a seat across from him.

“That’s correct. In the case of the Misty Forest or Killian Canyon, the imperial court dispatches carefully selected armies to actively exterminate demon beasts, but remote villages like Ditrian, which are small and don’t have active exchanges, are often neglected. The village farmers are making tremendous efforts, forming self-defense forces to participate in battles and conducting relief activities, saying they’ll protect their homeland, but we’re severely short on troops. We don’t know how long the close combat with demon beasts will continue either.”

Sir Kalat looked around the poor barracks with troubled eyes. Narcissus, who had been listening attentively to his words, followed a section of the widely spread map with his eyes and asked.

“Are there any other unusual circumstances?”

“The demon beasts’ movement routes are concerning. Those that mainly inhabited the northern regions of Eodiphia have recently been flocking to the east. Since demon beasts have the habit of pursuing sources of magical and divine power, it would make sense if they were heading to the capital where most mages and clerics reside. However, the problem is that they’re heading to Moon Forest, the most remote place in the eastern region – near Ditrian village. The reason hasn’t been discovered yet.”

“Moon Forest…”

“Do you have any suspicions?”

On the map, where Narcissus’s gaze lingered was also a vast forest marked as <Moon Forest>. Where the forest ended connected directly to Eodiphia’s capital.

“Are there any people living in Moon Forest?”

“That’s…”

Sir Kalat’s expression darkened at the unexpected question. He seemed to be pondering whether he should reveal all of his country’s internal affairs to a foreign emperor. However, the moment he faced the coldly chilled red pupils directly, he unconsciously opened his mouth.

“I heard roughly from Princess Kesera, so there’s no need to try to cover it up.”

“Yes, yes… The High Priest who received a guilty verdict in the temple trial is staying at Moon Temple.”

“I heard there’s one more apprentice priest attending to him.”

“I don’t know the details, but that’s probably correct. When high-ranking officials under house arrest entered temples, they each brought one attendant.”

“Then doesn’t that mean their safety isn’t secure either?”

“Although Moon Temple is in the middle of the forest, it’s surrounded by a special barrier that seals magical and divine power. Like they say, it’s darkest under the lamp – it’s as safe as the Imperial Palace, so there’s no need to worry.”

Sir Kalat replied in a stiff voice, blatantly showing that he wanted to avoid topics about the temple. But Narcissus continued regardless.

“With high-level demon beasts running rampant everywhere, who can guarantee safety? It would be best to stop by and check.”

* * *

“Lu, huk, Lucifer…”

‘This is a terrible nightmare. No, this is reality. It’s not a nasty dream that would scatter like it never happened when I open my eyes, but reality from which I can never wake up.’

Unable to breathe for a moment, Lucifer unconsciously clutched his heart. It’s definitely her voice, definitely the sound of his wife, whom he loves more than life, calling him. 

He bit his lips until they bled. Along with stinging pain, he tasted blood on his tongue. So the h*ll unfolding before his eyes is reality.

‘They even erased my child. Promised to stay by that man’s side in return. What had he heard, what had he seen?’

He remembered Lala asking him before to choose between her and the child. 

‘So you were carrying my child and yet…’

Lucifer stood frozen like stone, watching the two figures tangled on the bed. His wife exhaling heated breaths with a flushed face, Lala clinging to the High Priest’s shoulder with a soaked face, pleading that she loved him.

“…”

His mind turned upside down. He couldn’t take a single step due to the pain that felt like his insides were being wrung out. He couldn’t bring himself to approach Lala. Whether the emotion surging terrifyingly from the bottom of his chest was anger, sadness, or emptiness. 

He felt like he would die immediately from the pain that seemed to slash his entire body, yet his face reflected in Lala’s eyes was abnormally calm and quiet. He learned for the first time that he could make such an expression.

That seemed to be as far as it went, until even the handful of reason flew away. Immediately after, Lucifer couldn’t distinguish what he had done. 

A roar that seemed to tear eardrums echoed, the bed where Lala had been lying n*ked shattered into pieces, and the stone ceiling weighing several tons collapsed over her head with a terrible rupturing sound. That was all. 

Lucifer didn’t remember.