“I heard you would know. They say when a human bears a demon’s child, they stop aging and become half-demon.”

“…Where did you hear that?”

Veris merely raised an eyebrow. Zepar didn’t expect him to reveal the source of that information.

Zepar roughly tousled his hair. There was a memory he didn’t want to think about. But Veris didn’t seem like he would back down until he got an answer.

“Yeah, well. If they bear a child, that’s what happens. But you should also know it’s not as easy as you think.”

Zepar’s expression was bitter as he spoke from experience.

“Even the beastfolk, who are supposedly tougher, struggled with it, so humans will obviously have it worse. Will you still be okay with that?”

It was uncharacteristically gentle advice from him. For demons who lived lives close to eternity, memories that never wore away were literal “h*ll.”

“Thanks for the advice. In return, let me tell you something interesting.”

Zepar’s steps toward returning to the Demon Realm paused briefly. Wondering what he would say, he turned around, and Veris spoke.

“Unlike us who live eternally, humans die quickly. They’re beings who live fleeting moments. But in exchange, they received a good gift from God.”

“What do you mean?”

“That beastfolk of yours. She’s been dead for about a hundred years now. She should have been reborn by now. Having forgotten all those painful memories.”

Zepar’s shocked expression gradually turned serious.

“You mean…”

“Ask Naberius for details. Since necromancy is his specialty, he should at least be able to find out whether she’s been reborn or not. Of course, don’t mention that I told you.”

“That would be best.”

Zepar said with a hollow laugh. Given Naberius’s personality of disliking troublesome matters, bringing up unnecessary topics might annoy him.

“Wait a moment. Does that mean that woman is also someone’s…”

“Shh. That’s not something you need to know any further.”

At Veris’s words, Zepar closed his mouth. Zepar snapped his fingers and quickly disappeared. Soon the tower became very quiet.

* * *

It was a very old story.

Everything in the world happens according to God’s will.

Then an angel falling in love with a human was ultimately God’s will as well.

The sin of daring to love a creation rather than God. The unforgivable transgression caused him to lose his beautiful pure white wings and be cast down to the depths of h*ll.

And the woman who received the angel’s love met her death. Not being able to find even a trace of her—that was the punishment God imposed on Veris.

Learning that humans die and are reborn was purely by chance.

It was because of a joke Libelius, who had come to visit his castle, made while asking about his time as an angel.

〈My ability is originally necromancy. But since angels aren’t living humans either, I might be able to summon them. You must miss your time as an angel, right? Just say the word. I’ll be kind enough to do it once instead of paying for drinks.〉

If it hadn’t been for that casually mentioned story from Libelius, he probably would have missed her current life.

There were no moments he missed.

However, even though he thought he would regret it, Veris ended up telling Libelius the name he should have buried in his memories forever.

〈Hmm?〉

〈Is it impossible after all?〉

〈No. It’s not that hopeless. Wait a bit longer. Someday it can replace the drink payment.〉

〈Someday? What do you mean?〉

〈The time hasn’t come yet. What, you were an angel and you don’t even know that?〉

He still remembered what Libelius said to him as he frowned.

〈Humans are reborn. Someday. They’re probably reborn about once every hundred years, and I can see why you fell from grace. To dare receive an angel’s love. Angels are supposed to love only God, right? That’s why she hasn’t been reborn until now.〉

That day.

There probably isn’t a word in this world that could describe the emotion he felt.

He thought he had to forget forever.

He thought he had to bury it in his memories.

Just the possibility that he didn’t have to made Veris feel alive.

* * *

“Mmm.”

Veris gently embraced Angela, who burrowed into his arms, so she wouldn’t wake from sleep.

“It took so long.”

The one thing he couldn’t give up even while falling from grace, having served at God’s closest side.

Time so distant he couldn’t even remember had passed. But only his memories of her weren’t erased and became even clearer.

Even though he fell from grace for the sin of loving a human with an angel’s body, he didn’t regret it one bit.

And the one thing he wanted—it took far too long to obtain it in his hands.

Even after hearing from Libelius that she had been reborn, he searched for twenty years. 

That the woman he found again became a priestess with a name meaning “one who receives an angel’s love” was nothing short of God’s joke.

Demons may corrupt all humans, but they cannot touch priestesses. However, with her finally before him, the unwritten rule held no power.

He finally obtained her. He would never let go again.

“But the contract alone won’t satisfy all my greed, Angela.”

When he tickled her nose, Angela frowned and burrowed deeper into Veris’s embrace.

Thousands of years had passed since falling to h*ll.

His unsatisfied greed had transformed into something even more sinister during that time.

Posing as a lowly human, he became a prisoner and met her every week.

Angela might not know, but for him, every moment brought both joy and despair simultaneously.

Enduring the thing he wanted most, shimmering at his fingertips, felt like a child obeying a command to wait with candy right in front of them.

Every day. Every day.

He waited only for the moment she would fall completely into his hands.

And finally, today came.

〈I’ll do a contract or whatever!〉

Her lewd appearance straddling him and shaking her hips. Her appearance begging him to ej*culate inside her opening, saying she would bear his child.

All of it was stimulating enough to burn Veris’s mind white.

“You promised. To bear my child.”

Angela, who had been kind even to a prisoner of the Demon Army, wouldn’t be able to run away leaving the children behind, even if she regretted her contract with him.

“When you get pregnant and bear a child, I’ll let you bear another. Once I’ve fastened shackles that will bind you eternally, then I can be at ease.”

Zepar said bearing children was difficult, but he was wrong.

What’s truly difficult isn’t that. What’s difficult is when you can’t even discuss the possibility itself.

The moment he fell and dropped to h*ll, no one—not even himself—thought he would meet Angela again.

But Angela was sleeping beside him. With her dazzling n*ked body barely covered by a blanket, held in his embrace with marks of love engraved all over her body.

“Angela? Angela?”

“Mmm.”

Veris gently shook Angela’s shoulder. Her eyelashes twitched, and she soon opened her eyes.

“Is it morning?”

“No. But it’s time we should depart.”

“But I’m sleepy…”

“Then sleep more.”

Veris lifted her up, blanket and all. She looked like a child wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Holding Angela, who was too tired to open her eyes properly, Veris snapped his fingers.

The surrounding scenery changed in an instant.

“Master?”

“Shh.”

At the sight of his master standing holding a blanket in an unfitting manner, the butler slightly furrowed his brow. Through drowsy eyes, he thought he saw a woman’s face peeking out from the blanket.

“Master, what is this?”

“Starting today, she’s the mistress you’ll serve. Take good care of her.”

The butler’s eyes filled with shock.

“Pardon?”

“Shh. She’s sleeping. We’ll talk about the details later.”

His master had never once taken a companion until now. The butler was stunned at the sight of someone who had never shown this side to anyone being careful not to wake a human woman.

“Prepare food and send it to the room. She’ll probably be very hungry. After that, gather all the castle’s servants. They’ll need to formally greet the mistress.”

Whether the butler was shocked or not wasn’t Veris’s concern.

A smile appeared on his face as he looked down at the tossing Angela.

At the unexpected appearance of the master he had served for thousands of years, the butler could only stand there stunned, watching his retreating figure disappear toward his room.

fin.