Chapter 100 - Chapter 97: Episode 95 - Encounter
In a way, she was my savior.
After being violated countless times by demons and suffering, she rescued my crumbling mind
and helped me step outside the room where I'd hidden myself to escape those terrifying gazes.
She replaced those agonizing moments when all I did was lock myself in the bedroom, trembling in fear.
At first, led by Sophia's hand, I toured the gardens within the Royal Castle, and then, guided by her, I gradually ventured further and further afield.
Looking back, it had been a long time since I'd felt this free.
Ever since I turned twenty and entered university, freedom had ceased to exist for me.
I ended up living under Yu-rin's constant surveillance, and right before the wedding, under the pretext of filming a video, she locked me in a room and violated me daily to my breaking point using drugs and all kinds of tools.
After being dragged to the Demon World on my wedding day, I was captured by Miel, imprisoned, and violated again. Even when I briefly returned to Earth, I was confined to Yu-rin's house.
Whether it was being violated by Miel's succubus sisters or assaulted by soldiers in various Council prisons, I hadn't known a moment of freedom since turning twenty.
For a little over two years, my mind, trapped in narrow spaces, had clearly been breaking down.
I couldn't endure it anymore unless I holed up in a corner of the room.
Sophia, pitying me—seeing how I would freeze up just from the sight of a woman's gaze—embraced me and gradually took me to more open places.
To help erase my trauma toward demons, she also prepared escorts I wouldn't be afraid of.
She said that the 'Lily Knights,' whom she'd personally selected after dismantling the Council—not the Royal Knights—were composed of female demons who wouldn't harbor sexual desires toward me.
Honestly, I didn't believe it at first, but when I met them, the knights didn't send me any sleazy looks.
Lately, though, it seemed like the escorts sometimes shot strange glances at my daughter, Yena.
Seon-ah held Yena's hand and looked at her face.
A daughter who looked exactly like him.
In a way, she was also a sibling born from my mother's body.
At first, she was a child I created by contracting with Sophia, driven by the desperate need to get my mother back.
It hurt every time Sophia didn't even give the child a name and treated her like a tool.
Even though Yena was a child born from our mutual love, I couldn't help but wonder if she was only valuable to Sophia as a vessel.
Myself, who tried to sacrifice Yena to get my mother back, and Sophia, who only saw her daughter as a vessel to transfer her own soul.
Do the two of us really deserve to be called parents to this child?
Yena said that Sophia used Bio-magic to rapidly grow her, intending to use her as a vessel.
A growth rate nearly five times normal.
When she was about a year old, we took the escorts and Sophia and went around the bustling districts of the Demon World together, sightseeing with Yena.
Sophia confessed to me that at first, she made the contract out of her own greed.
And then, after Yena was born, when she tried to convince me not to grow attached, I said I intended to faithfully fulfill the contract to get my mother, Min-ah, back.
She knew very well how much I missed my mother.
It was so painful.
In this situation where I had to give up either my mother or my daughter, could Sophia ever accept the conclusion I had reached?
Even if I sent Yena to Earth to protect her, could this child, born and raised in the Demon World, truly be happy?
So many worries began to flood in.
Now that the time to send Yena away was approaching, my chest felt tight.
At the thought of not being able to see my beloved child for a while, I felt like tears would spill out.
Only now did I understand how hard it must have been for my mother and father while I was held captive in the Demon World.
And yet, I had to send my daughter Yena away soon.
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I told Yena that when she went to Earth, she should seek refuge with Park Yu-ra, Yu-rin's mother.
Knowing that my father was no longer of this world, the only person I had enough of a relationship with to entrust Yena to was Yu-ra.
One day, when my mind had recovered to some degree, I asked Sophia, who had my mother's memories, about my father's whereabouts, and she said:
She told me that my father, Hyeon-tae, was no longer of this world.
For me, not knowing the truth, that story was a shock.
When I locked myself in my room again and cried for quite a long time, Sophia told me how much my father, Hyeon-tae, loved me and comforted me—I will never forget that image of her.
As if it were her own experience, she too held me with tears and comforted me.
I still can't forget that memory.
But to protect my daughter, I couldn't afford to dwell in sentiment now.
The gate in the Arandel territory where Miel lived was surely connected to Korea.
I had passed through that gate twice.
I told Yena what she should do first when she went to Earth.
First, I told her to go to a police station and ask for Yu-ra.
I gave Yena a piece of paper with Park Yu-ra's home address, smartphone number, and personal information as I knew them.
Even if she had moved or changed her phone number, her name and personal details wouldn't change.
And since she was a famous face often featured in the media as the representative of the Hwaryong Guild, it wouldn't be hard to find her.
Even if she had stepped down from the representative position, many people would surely remember her.
.
.
.
This was the first time I properly saw the Arandel territory, ruled by the Succubus Lord, as if the fact that I had been here for a little over a year and a half was a lie.
Always confined to the lord's mansion, I could only see the landscape through a small window, and during the chaotic situation when numerous expedition teams had gathered to escape through the gate, I couldn't properly see much of anything.
I hadn't known at the time, but it was a rather vibrant territory.
At the entrance to the territory, a line of people who looked like mercenaries and merchants was queued up.
Once inside the territory, the market that unfolded was filled with countless crowds, and the sounds of buying and selling never stopped.
But there was no time to slowly look around at those things.
Although this was my last trip with my daughter before sending Yena to Earth, if Sophia found out I had come to this territory, she would surely come looking for me directly.
She had been vowing to kill with her own hands all the succubus sisters who had violated me in the past, but due to the work that had piled up over thirty years, even the time she could spend with me was tight.
But if she learned that I had come to this territory, the hatred she had forgotten amidst her busy schedule would surely resurface.
When it came to me, she didn't spare any fire or water—I could tell from her past behavior.
Once, when we went to a territory other than the Royal Capital just the two of us without escorts, a demon who didn't recognize who we were and tried to hit on me disappeared without a trace.
Seeing a demon vanish without a single drop of blood, not even a speck of dust, I thought it was horrifying, but I could see how determined Sophia was to protect me.
After it was revealed that the dead demon was the eldest daughter of that territory, chaos erupted, but it was shocking when the lord herself stepped up to apologize.
What I felt then was that the logic of the Demon World was closer to a medieval era where survival of the fittest ruled.
If the king led her army and invaded this territory, the current vibrant look of the territory would probably disappear, leaving only ruins and ashes.
I didn't want these demons to end up like that because of me.
.
.
.
In the end, at the gate, Seon-ah was about to send Yena away.
"Yena-ya... I'm sorry... Dad will definitely come find you. You know I love you, right? Once what I need to do is finished... I'll come to you..."
Yena, who looked about five years old, sniffled and said to Seon-ah.
"Dad... please, let's go together. I know everything that bitch does to you every day. When she takes you to the bedroom, I hear curses coming from her mouth, and you scream every single day... You hate her too, don't you..."
"My daughter, even so, you shouldn't call your mother a bitch. I didn't expect this from you, Yena."
Seon-ah, who had been gentle, spoke angrily.
Honestly, since I couldn't explain our marital sex life to my child, I had no way to clarify it.
All that remained was to get angry and warn my daughter.
"How can I think of a woman who only brings pain to you and me every day as my mother? That woman who sees me as nothing but a tool to transfer her soul..."
"..."
To Yena, Sophia was not a mother.
She knew well that Sophia was just someone who gave birth to her and considered her a vessel to transfer her own soul.
It seemed Yena knew what would happen to her.
It was shocking that she had been calmly going out and playing with me all this time even knowing that fact.
"Yena-ya... Dad loves you... Just wait a little... I'll definitely come find you..."
Seon-ah resolved firmly.
To finish all this and go find Yena...
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.
.
Even though Seon-ah felt she should send her quickly, she couldn't easily let go, and Yena's feet also wouldn't move.
The two had held each other for a long time, but Yena, having steeled her resolve, finally left for Earth.
In the end, Seon-ah saw her off with tears.
Feeling that Yena had truly left, Seon-ah's heart felt empty.
Ever since Yena was born, Seon-ah had always been by her side.
Thinking that Yena's life might be short, he always took care of her and stayed close.
Now, Yena wouldn't disappear due to Sophia, but not having her in sight filled me with worry.
I didn't know if a human raised in the Demon World could adapt to Earth.
Considering the magical power, magic, and physical abilities dwelling in Yena's body, she surely wouldn't fall victim to criminals or awakened people, but a parent's heart always worries about their child.
The pure magical power that also resided in his own body.
I recalled that his mother, Min-ah, and daughter, Yena, could use magical power without hindrance.
Yena, in particular, was so talented that after Bio-magic was cast on her body, she could use it immediately after seeing it once.
Seon-ah couldn't use the pure and vast amount of magical power within himself.
No matter how much he tried, his magical power didn't budge, so he couldn't even use physical enhancement or magic—in fact, if Sophia hadn't told him he had magical power in his body, he wouldn't have known.
Now it was time to return to the Royal Capital to report the truth.
It was the first time he had done something and then told Sophia about it, so his heart was pounding fiercely.
Moreover, he was afraid to tell the truth—a terrible story that should never come from a lover's lips, practically no different from saying he was going to cheat with another woman.
But to save Yena, there was no choice.
Even after giving his lover, Sophia, a new body, this was the only way to save both his mother and his daughter.
Just as Seon-ah, thinking this was something he absolutely had to do, turned to leave—
He heard the sound of some armed group moving behind him.
At the clanking sound of metal striking, he involuntarily looked in that direction.
The armor they wore and the weapons at their waists lacked uniformity.
Seon-ah realized they were a mercenary group.
They seemed to have been quietly watching the behavior of him and Yena in front of the gate.
They were probably waiting to use this gate.
But he couldn't send Yena away as soon as she used the gate.
The hunters might try to attack Yena.
After crossing to Earth, Yena needed to spend a day or two in the gate and then be rescued by hunters.
She could use magical power to leave the gate on her own, but if someone witnessed it, Yena might be designated as a monster.
"This gate will be blocked from use for a day. I already told the gate administrator, but it seems you didn't hear."
"No, it's you we're interested in."
A woman who seemed to be the leader stepped forward.
It was a voice I had heard many times somewhere.
The woman, who had her hood up, seemed to be a horned demon.
Her head bulged on both sides, protruding in a way that looked very familiar.
"Don't you recognize me?"
The voice of the woman who laughed and pulled down her hood was one I had heard before.
A giggling, tittering laugh.
The memory of that very laugh coming from above me began to surface.
When I looked straight at the woman's face, I remembered.
A face I could never forget.
The one who deceived Yu-rin and brought me back to this world.
The Second Daughter of the Succubus Lord was right before my eyes.