Chapter 113 - Chapter 110: Episode 108 - Yu-ra's Misunderstanding
As morning broke, clear sunlight began to seep into Min-ah's house.
Bianca, who had been sleeping on the living room sofa, had long-dried tear stains on her face when the dazzling light struck her eyelids, causing them to flutter and slowly open.
She opened her eyes, hoping last night's nightmare wasn't real, but sure enough, it was reality.
She stared at the unwrapped game console sitting in front of the TV stand and thought.
There were traces of her playing games with Seon-ah yesterday, proof that the Demon King, who had arrived with him, was living in the house too.
The moment that thought crossed her mind, she felt like her luck had been cursed for the past few days.
Not only had some weird woman from the Hwaryong Guild been loitering around the front of the house, but now the Demon King was living here, too.
On top of that, she'd even given up her own home and was playing the role of a helper.
For someone who had made a fresh start seeking a small, simple happiness, this was far too harsh and unreasonable.
Her happy life on Earth was already out the window.
But she couldn't run away, either.
South Korea was smaller than she'd thought, and there was no way to escape the Demon King, who seemed to have an uncanny ability to detect magical power.
And she couldn't leave the country, either...
'Even if I tried to live in another country... using translation magic to sustain my power would be too hard... There's just... no way out...'
Since she needed to hoard enough magical power to flee to the Demon Realm in an emergency, she couldn't afford to waste any more.
With no way to secure a new identity, Bianca finally realized she had fallen completely into the Demon King's clutches.
She had no choice but to give up on escaping this hell.
She let out a hollow laugh and felt like collapsing, but a sound caught her attention and pulled her back together.
The music from the intercom snapped her back to reality; it was the morning that woman was supposed to come by again.
That thought made her blood boil.
'Because of that woman... I had no choice but to misunderstand... Because I mistook her for the Demon King and screamed, this happened... It's all her fault... Yeah... I really need to give her a piece of my mind.'
Bianca, venting all her pent-up resentment, stomped toward the front door as if her footsteps could crush the woman on the other side.
Still, thinking it might be someone else, she grabbed the handle, threw the door wide open, and checked who it was.
The person who had rung the bell was...
Indeed, that woman who had handed her the business card reading "Park Yu-ra, Executive Director of Hwaryong Guild."
Under normal circumstances, she was someone Bianca never wanted to see again, but she felt like she'd go insane if she didn't vent her frustration, so she shouted at the top of her lungs.
"Hello—"
Yu-ra, not expecting the homeowner to actually come out, gave an awkward smile, hoping to greet her with gratitude.
But the homeowner cut her off, exploding in anger.
"Can't you see I'm doing this because I don't want you coming around? I'm not even leaving the house because I don't want to show my face! So why do you keep coming here every day to harass me? Because of you... do you know what happened to me? It's because of you... I feel like I could die any minute... I can't breathe! Get lost!"
As Bianca poured out her resentment, she felt a sense of relief, though her eyes grew moist.
Contrary to the relief, as her anger subsided, she couldn't help but realize that what had happened couldn't be undone.
The gravity of her situation hit her harder, and she felt tears threatening to burst out at any moment.
But Yu-ra, seeing Bianca on the verge of tears, misunderstood.
The tanned, thuggish impression from their first meeting had vanished; seeing her so emotionally fragile, it was obvious she had suffered a deep psychological wound.
'As I thought... she's definitely... a bereaved family member of one of the hunters I sent on the Demon World Expedition... I... was too greedy...'
"I-I'm sorry... I won't... come by anymore... But if you ever think of selling this house... please contact me through the business card... I'm truly sorry for everything."
She quickly apologized, feeling it was all due to her own lack of virtue.
Having never dreamed she would cause such a burden and dredge up such painful memories, Yu-ra handed over the business card again, bowed deeply, and sincerely apologized to the woman before her.
Though the homeowner seemed to have lost all desire to sell, Yu-ra thought there might still be a chance to change her mind, so she handed over the card once more and quickly turned on her heel.
'Ah... it's because of me... everything... because of me...'
Seon-ah had suffered because she hadn't given Yu-rin proper guidance, using her busy work schedule as an excuse.
The large-scale expedition to the Demon World to rescue Seon-ah had resulted in numerous casualties and left families in agony.
It was all because of her greed.
To stand at the pinnacle of the Hwaryong Guild, she had sacrificed all her family time.
The sin of deceiving so many people by pushing through a hopeless, large-scale project to rescue just one person, Seon-ah, packaging it as a high-risk, high-return venture.
All of that was her own doing.
Yu-ra felt like vomiting at her own disgusting hypocrisy.
She hated herself for continuing to act brazenly even after making such mistakes.
'Seon-ah... I'm sorry... It might be hard to reclaim your childhood home now... This ajumma is truly sorry...'
Yu-ra inwardly apologized to Seon-ah and headed home with heavy steps.
Her heart, growing heavier with guilt, drained all the strength from her body.
"Ha... fuck... When I think about how that bitch caused me all this suffering... If this were the Demon Realm, I'd really be dead... god fucking damn..."
Unaware of Yu-ra's inner thoughts, Bianca cursed to herself, spat, and slammed the door with all her might.
Bam!
The sound of the door slamming—so loud in the morning, just as others were starting their commute—made office workers walking by glance over once before continuing on their way.
On the bed, two women and one man were sleeping together.
The women on either side of the man were already awake, staring at him as he slept peacefully in the middle.
Their eyes, gazing at him as if he were something precious, yet filled with sorrow and grief, told of the complicated thoughts crossing their minds.
Sophia hadn't woken Seon-ah up even though the sun was high, because it had taken him a long time to fall back asleep after waking up earlier.
She wanted to imprint his peaceful sleeping face in her mind.
Without Miel, it was hard to see him sleeping so soundly, and she didn't want to waste this precious time.
Miel, seemingly thinking the same, lay quietly beside Seon-ah, silently admiring the sight.
It had been quite a while since the sunlight had begun streaming through the window.
But Seon-ah seemed exhausted, not waking up until around lunchtime.
After waking up from a nightmare and trembling for hours, he had only fallen back asleep around six in the morning.
Considering they had walked along the mountain path yesterday, he was clearly drained.
Then suddenly, Seon-ah's eyes snapped wide open.
With unfocused eyes, he darted them around as if searching for something, then looked at Sophia beside him and spoke.
"Omma...?"
The first person Seon-ah looked for upon waking was his mother.
"Yes... Seon-ah, Omma is here..."
Sophia imitated Min-ah's manner and hugged Seon-ah.
Seon-ah, seemingly pleased by the embrace, buried his face in her chest and pushed forward as if trying to sink into her bosom.
He rubbed his face against her, enjoying the warmth.
Sophia moved the arm that was hugging him and gently stroked his back while speaking.
"Should we wash up and get moving, Seon-ah?"
"Uh... yeah..."
Though he didn't want the feeling to disappear, Seon-ah obeyed when it was time to move.
Miel, watching from behind, was envious of Sophia.
She had the audacious thought that if her own body were Min-ah's, Seon-ah would probably be in her arms right now, and jealousy rose in her heart.
Sophia had quite a lot to do today.
She needed to correct the missing/death declaration filings and file a lawsuit regarding the property Min-ah had owned, which had been transferred to the state.
Since it required working with a lawyer, she also needed quite a bit of money.
But that was no problem at all.
She could just squeeze the money out of Bianca, the house helper and "high-class slave."
Considering how Bianca had acted when she first opened the door, she should be grateful Sophia didn't put a contract on her and make her a slave—so it was only natural.
Sophia, still unable to break free from her Demon King mindset, thought this way and extorted a considerable sum from Bianca.
Since Min-ah had no bank account due to the death declaration, Bianca, with tears in her eyes and trembling hands, handed over a bag filled with cash—half of her hard-earned fortune—all while screaming internally.
After that, they went to a lawyer to request the correction of the filings and to reclaim the property.
After signing the documents, they returned home, and quite a bit of time had passed.
They had left just after lunch, and now the sun was already setting.
Sophia could somewhat ease the worry she felt about Seon-ah.
'Miel is taking good care of Seon-ah, so at least that's reassuring...'
In her mind, Miel was a more trustworthy demon than she had expected.
When she first left Seon-ah with her, she had gone back and forth from her office dozens of times a day to keep an eye on them.
But now she could trust her.
She was so devoted to Seon-ah that it naturally made Sophia think that Miel was truly remorseful and reflecting on her past actions.
Yu-rin would never have thought this way, but since Min-ah didn't know much about Miel, Sophia, recalling Min-ah's memories, had a good impression of her.
She even wondered how such a girl could have done such terrible things to Seon-ah.
But she thought it wasn't her place to judge that.
Seon-ah's opinion, the one who suffered those horrible things, was the most important.
If, when he regained his sanity, he asked to kill Miel, she would kill her; if he asked to drive her away, she would drive her away.
That was the only atonement she could offer.