Chapter 160 - Chapter 157: Episode 155 - Serious Injury
Min-ah and Seon-ah had escaped their mansion.
When the news broke that Lee Seon-ah had become the Demon King's consort, a cold dread settled over them as they reflected on their past actions.
If he held a grudge over the time they'd locked him away and forced him to be violated by their daughters, there was a very real possibility that not only their mansion but their entire ancestral territory would be reduced to ashes.
Yet, Lee Seon-ah hadn't touched them.
Was it because I'd stopped my daughters from violating him halfway through?
Or was he satisfied seeing me capture Miel for execution, or the punishment I'd inflicted on Yu-rin?
I couldn't be sure.
Perhaps he'd simply forgotten for a moment.
There was only one reason they remained part of the Demon King's faction even after the council had dissolved.
They were desperate to secure a position so firm that the Demon King wouldn't dare cast them out.
They never knew when Seon-ah might beg for their heads.
Lee Seon-ah was staring at them now with wide, round eyes.
Did he know?
Did he have any idea how fearfully we'd been living?
.
.
.
Lee Seon-ah found it difficult to judge whether the Succubus Lord was a good person or a monster.
She was the one who had ordered her daughters to gang-rape him every day until he was half-dead, yet she herself had never once laid a hand on him.
In a way, the Lord's attitude toward him was purely professional.
The gang-rapes weren't done out of lust or for fun; they were a calculated move to harbor a grudge against Miel.
He remembered when the Lord had looked into his mind and realized he'd been deceived by Miel; she had stopped the torment immediately and confessed it was all driven by her desire for revenge.
She'd even treated him like a guest afterward, promising not to violate him again—the first among the demons to show him any semblance of kindness.
She had even helped punish Yu-rin right before he left the mansion. In terms of favors versus grievances, he felt he'd received more favors.
If not for her, Aunt Yu-ra might have had to live with the grief of burying her child, killed by his mother Lee Min-ah's rage.
If that had happened, their families would have become enemies, and they might never have thought to send Yena to Earth, which would have left her to be used as a vessel for Sophia.
Or even if they had sent her, they might not have found a place to settle, and he might have spent an eternity searching for Yena.
The fact that he had been mercilessly drained and violated every day didn't just vanish, but he still felt enough loyalty to turn a blind eye, considering the kindness she'd shown him.
That was why he hadn't told Sophia—who had taken over his mother's body—to punish them.
After weighing all the facts, he concluded that she was, in her own way, a benefactor.
He wanted to greet the flustered-looking Lord, but the timing was terrible.
Seo Ju-ha was still in stealth, targeting the throats of Ji-ah and himself.
Lee Ji-ah, however, saw the Succubus Lord and pointed her sword in that direction.
"Now even monsters are showing up as reinforcements... and a succubus at that... that's an A-rank monster..."
Ji-ah felt like she was losing her mind.
Just after she and Seon-ah Oppa had finished off the B-rank Gargoyle, Seo Ju-ha—an A-rank wanted criminal and scavenger—had appeared. And now, a succubus.
If they attacked the succubus, Seo Ju-ha might stab them in the back. But they had no way to break her stealth or even detect where she was.
In a standoff where everyone except Seon-ah and Ji-ah was wary of each other, the Succubus Lord broke the silence.
"Lee Seon-ah... no... Consort, were you perhaps a scavenger?..."
Lee Ji-ah looked at Seon-ah, stunned.
To think he knew not only wanted criminals but monsters as well.
His connections were just too wide.
Besides, 'Consort'... it was a respectful term for someone else's husband.
It was shocking enough to learn her cousin was married, but hearing it from the mouth of a monster was a situation she couldn't possibly grasp.
Seo Ju-ha, still in stealth, also felt the situation taking a bizarre turn.
"Long time no see, Lord... have you been well? I'm not a scavenger, though... may I ask what brings you here?"
Seon-ah responded with a greeting, acknowledging the monster's presence.
He spoke to the Lord as if he were equally suspicious.
He'd worried she might have sided with the rebels, but the Lord waved her hand, dismissing the notion.
"I, too, am a noble who follows the will of Her Majesty."
For Seon-ah, that one sentence was enough.
There were no Demon King faction nobles who would harm him.
She would help him.
However, Seo Ju-ha, who had interacted with them for a long time and traded goods, had caught glimpses of the Demon World's political structure.
She knew the rebels and the Demon King faction were at war, and that those who traded the males she supplied for ore belonged to the rebel forces.
Seo Ju-ha pulled several daggers from her belt.
She prepared to deal with the most dangerous-looking threat first: the succubus.
She hated throwing them because the stealth enchantment would break the moment they left her hand, but she couldn't approach rashly, fearing whatever mental-type abilities the succubus might unleash.
With four daggers held between her fingers, Seo Ju-ha threw them toward the Succubus Lord.
They shot out quickly, and two embedded themselves in the Succubus Lord's body before she could react.
"Ugh!"
"Lord!"
Seon-ah, worried, lunged forward in the direction the daggers had come from, trying to shield her from any further attacks.
Daggers were embedded in her neck and shoulder.
He wasn't sure about the shoulder, but the one in her neck looked fatal.
"It's not as deep as it looks. Consort, there is no need for you to go that far... My troops will escort me now."
The Succubus Lord, her face pale, seemed genuinely flustered by his attempt to protect her.
Seon-ah watched the direction the daggers had come from, pulled them out of the Lord's body, and channeled his healing ability to mend her.
The Succubus Lord's elite soldiers stepped in front of Seon-ah to protect him and their master.
Seeing the light emerge from Seon-ah's hands, Seo Ju-ha realized he was using a healing ability. Sensing an opening, she threw another dagger toward the Lord, whose neck was exposed between the elite soldiers.
Ting!
However, it was Lee Ji-ah, not the elite soldiers, who blocked the flying dagger.
"Seon-ah Oppa... I don't know what this situation is, but you're going to have to explain it to me later."
"I'm sorry, Ji-ah... you probably don't understand, but I'll explain everything once this is over."
Since he'd been found out, there was no way to gloss over it.
He had no choice but to resolve to explain it all to Ji-ah later.
Seo Ju-ha was not happy that the three of them had become allies.
When she'd seen the monster emerge from the gate, she'd assumed it would be on her side, but that clearly wasn't the case.
Now, she was the one cornered.
Seo Ju-ha steeled herself and pulled out her trump card.
A deadly poison that would kill instantly with just a scratch.
It was a concoction she'd bought from Juan, an S-rank hunter who had taken a liking to secret assassinations, eventually becoming a scavenger.
The poison, created by an ability user of the material-generation type, was nearly impossible to neutralize, regardless of how good one's healing ability was.
If an A-rank hunter or a monster of similar rank were poisoned by something created by an S-class material-type user, even immediate healing would leave them disabled or dead.
With that thought, she held a dagger coated in the poison and moved slowly, ensuring a hit.
They were looking around, expecting a projectile, never imagining she would stab them directly.
Just like now.
As Seo Ju-ha got within arm's reach of the Lord and Seon-ah, she swung her hand to slash at them both.
The sound of the wind from the swinging dagger was heard first, and Seon-ah pushed the Lord back, taking the attack in her place.
"Argh!"
Seon-ah let out a loud scream as the blade bit into him.
Seo Ju-ha tried to pull back, but the elite soldiers and Lee Ji-ah, who had spotted the movement, swung their weapons toward the spot.
"Kyaaaagh!"
She hadn't been visible, but when several people attacked the empty air, her stealth broke with a scream, and she fell forward.
Bright red liquid splattered from Seo Ju-ha's body as the blades struck home.
Lee Ji-ah's sword had pierced her neck.
Seo Ju-ha died instantly.
It was the futile end of a scavenger who had tormented the Han-il Guild for years.
Lee Ji-ah and the Succubus Lord rushed to check on Seon-ah.
He had taken the blow intended for the Lord's neck, but unluckily, the sword had grazed his eye.
Seo Ju-ha had been aiming for the Succubus Lord's neck.
Seon-ah's height was a head shorter than the Succubus Lord's.
It was a cruel coincidence, and Seon-ah's condition looked dire.
He was screaming continuously, the agony evident.
"Aaaaaaaagh!"
They watched light gather in Seon-ah's hands, but the pain wouldn't subside.
They stood by, helpless, as he screamed.
It was only after thirty minutes that Seon-ah finally went silent.
Seon-ah, who had been treating his eyes in the pitch-black darkness for a long time, realized the pain had finally stopped.
And he also realized that his eyes would not open.