Chapter 152 - Chapter 149: Episode 147 - Question
Yu-rin realized that what she'd been hearing was a misunderstanding.
On the bed, she had witnessed the Demon King Sophia—wearing Min-ah's face—pleasuring herself.
The sweltering heat in the room was radiating from her body alone.
My mother, however, was frozen stiff, as if she'd seen something she shouldn't have.
'We finally found Min-ah-ajumoni after years of thinking she was dead, and our reunion is catching her masturbating... That's a hell of a shock...'
Min-ah-ajumoni—no, the Demon King Sophia—seemed embarrassed to have been caught. She quickly yanked the blanket up to cover the bed, which was plastered with her own fluids.
The way she stared at the stained sheets for a long moment before frantically hiding them showed just how immense her shame must have been.
"..."
She looked back at us, her expression lost in thought, as if she were contemplating something.
Something felt off, though.
Her face looked different than it had when we'd run into her on the street, or when she was torturing us.
It gave me the illusion that the real Min-ah-ajumoni had returned.
If that was just another one of the Demon King's schemes, I couldn't afford to fall for it. I refused to let myself be swayed.
My mother, Yu-ra, seemed to be thinking the same thing. She handed me one of the two swords she'd brought and said:
"First... I'll draw her attention. You handle the rest, Yu-rin... You know what I mean, right?"
I could vaguely guess what she was getting at.
She wanted me to go for Min-ah-ajumoni's throat while she was distracted.
Taking her out now, while she was defenseless and stark naked, was our best shot.
Mother immediately lunged at Sophia, sword raised, and thrust it rapidly toward her chest.
But the Demon King wasn't going to be hit that easily.
She caught the blade with her bare hand and tossed it behind her like it was a toy.
The weapon vanished from Mother's hand.
Mother didn't give up.
She swung her fist at the Demon King's face, causing Sophia to lean back, exposing an opening.
'Now!'
I didn't miss it. I lunged forward and swung my sword.
Mother, however, looked flustered.
She even looked angry, as if I hadn't followed her instructions correctly.
'Was it not a real opening yet?'
As if to prove me wrong, she blocked my sword with her hand, and a strange, high-pitched screeching sound erupted from the blade.
It was a feat of strength no human could possess.
The sword sounded like it was screaming.
Snap!
Shards of steel flew before my eyes as the blade shattered and clattered to the floor.
Unless Maria—the S-class hunter with the greatest physical strength—were to come back from the dead, no one could have done that.
Before I could even process the fragments hitting the ground, the Demon King grabbed me by the throat.
She glanced at Mother, then hurled me across the room into the wall.
The impact was immense; I felt my internal organs rattle.
"Keuheok... cough, cough..."
When I coughed, blood splattered onto the floor.
"Yu-rin-ah!"
Mother rushed to my side.
After checking on me, she glared back at the bed, wary of another attack.
The Demon King stood up from the bed and approached us.
She spoke in a cold, detached tone:
"I'll let you off this once. Don't ever come back... Don't ever show your faces in this house again. I live here with my husband."
I realized there was no hope.
I knew even my mother, a top-tier A-class hunter, was no match for her, but I never imagined it would be such a one-sided slaughter.
Yet, she was letting us go.
Mother helped me up, and we stumbled out of the room.
Even as we left, Mother kept her eyes glued to the Demon King, terrified of a follow-up attack.
But something was strange.
I had the distinct impression that Mother wasn't looking at the Demon King, but at the bed behind her.
'That can't be... There's nothing on the bed...'
I should have been relieved we'd survived, but a strange, gnawing feeling lingered until we were well out of the house.
Mother took me to the hospital without saying a single word.
I knew that look on her face all too well; I'd been seeing it since I was a child.
When Mother was truly furious, she went silent.
Knowing how volatile she became when she reached this point, I kept my mouth shut to avoid setting her off.
The silence in the hospital room was suffocating.
Finally, she broke it:
"Why didn't you follow my lead? If you'd done it properly, Seon-ah would be free by now... You ruined everything..."
'I... I know that... But she wasn't even a match for us...'
I wanted to protest, but I was too afraid of how she'd react.
"..."
She must have seen it in my expression, because she didn't say anything else.
A desolate silence returned to the room.
[Ugh.... Ughhhhh! No, Seon-ah! You are mine! My Seon-ah... Where are you... Seon-ah....]
It was happening again.
"Ugh!"
Sophia's screams echoed inside my head, her painful moans for Father ringing so loudly I thought my skull would crack.
"Mom..."
Yena knew this was all her fault.
That day.
The day she fought Min-ah.
She'd tried to clear up the misunderstanding with Min-ah-eomeoni, who kept calling her Sophia, but she wouldn't listen to a word.
She'd left, intending to return later to try again.
Sophia-eomeoni had even praised her for the plan.
'How did it end up like this...'
At first, the door hadn't been open.
When she entered the password Sophia-eomeoni had given her, she heard a strange sound.
She'd heard it before.
It was the reason she'd come to hate Sophia-eomeoni.
It was identical to the sound of Father's screams that would drift from the bedroom whenever Sophia-eomeoni took him inside.
Stealthily, she crept toward the room.
She turned the knob, cracked the door, and peered inside.
What she saw was shocking: the two of them, on the bed, doing that.
Before she could even process it, a loud voice rang in her head.
[No! Seon-ah! No, this isn't it!]
Sophia-eomeoni's voice was shattering her mind.
She saw Father looking at Min-ah-eomeoni, calling her Sophia, and Min-ah-eomeoni—without correcting him—hugging him and moving her waist with agonizing diligence.
[Please... this must be a dream... No, Seon-ah is my husband... No... this isn't reality!]
She couldn't even finish her own thoughts; Sophia-eomeoni's voice kept rattling her brain.
'Sophia-eomeoni... I'm sorry. Because you keep rummaging through my head, I think I'm going to get caught...'
Yena, feeling she had no choice, closed the door and turned away.
As she left, trying to ignore the voice, the mental intrusion finally faded after a few minutes.
All that remained was the sound of sobbing.
[Heheheh... Ahhh...]
She was crying so hard she couldn't speak, showing just how devastating the sight had been for Sophia-eomeoni.
Seeing her mother—someone so strong—break down like this made Yena's own heart ache.
But strangely, her own lower body felt cold.
Moisture was soaking through her pants.
'What... is this?...'
She couldn't understand it at all.
She still remembered the events of that day.
Even now, she couldn't stop recalling it, as Mother's voice—crying out for Father's name—would rattle her brain.
While she was lost in thought, the wailing had stopped.
Sophia-eomeoni had been silent for a while, only occasionally muttering to herself.
[Yes... now... that must be the only way... since there is the second contract...]
Having reached a conclusion, she stopped talking to herself and addressed her:
[Yena-ya... don't you want to have Father? There is a way to keep Father, who only looks at you, by your side forever.]
It was as if she were tickling her heart with a voice that rang out sweet and melodic.
She didn't even notice the sticky, viscous intent hidden within that soft, gentle tone.
I listened to that voice.
I couldn't even realize that the voice Mother was using was the sweet resonance of the Demon King whispering.