Chapter 210 - Chapter 206: IF Side Story - Still Getting Devoured (8)
The world is always unfair.
Every child born into the Arandel family has a right to succession, yet just because they were born first, they're treated as if they've achieved some great feat of merit.
The eldest daughter, Arandel Vivian.
That bitch gets to command elite troops simply because she was born before me, and she was named the primary successor to Mother's position for that exact same reason.
Even now, when I've gathered a force that rivals the elite unit she was just handed after my own blood, sweat, and tears, Mother still hopes for her to be the successor.
In the end, desperate to widen the gap between us, I carried out larger and more frequent plundering expeditions through the Gate, which eventually backed me into a corner.
"Fucking hell... This is absolute dogshit..."
I could see human women armed with weapons and armor standing before me.
Most of my troops had been slaughtered by those bitches, and their encirclement had me trapped.
Even if I tried to run now, I'd lost so many soldiers that it was effectively total annihilation; I might as well have had nowhere left to return to.
Setting aside the fact that the successor position was already gone, it was obvious I'd be held responsible for the loss of my entire unit the moment I stepped back into the territory.
"Section Chief Park Yu-ra. That thing over there is the succubus that's been consistently engaging with Duty Hunters and causing numerous casualties; codename: White Claw."
"I know. The codenames are designed to mimic the appearance of high-level monsters, after all."
The hunter called Section Chief Park Yu-ra replied vaguely to the woman beside her and gripped her sword once more.
The woman who had slaughtered most of my troops felt like a powerhouse—half a step, no, a full step ahead of my own skill level.
At the sight of that hunter, who looked like she might pounce at any moment, I focused all my nerves, sharpening my claws and waiting for her to charge.
In that moment of mounting tension, I thought.
How could I land a fatal blow on the hunter who looked weaker than her, standing right beside her, and escape this place?
"Time to end this, right? I'll send you to join your subordinates. Monster!"
As luck would have it, the moment I finished that thought, Section Chief Park Yu-ra charged in alone.
I pretended to charge toward her, then slipped to the side and targeted the weaker-looking hunter next to her, slashing with my claws.
As I passed, the expression on Section Chief Park Yu-ra's face was one of shock, as if she'd been caught completely off guard by the move.
After a moment of mocking her simple reaction, I slashed my claws diagonally at the weaker hunter as planned, and fresh blood spurted out from her right shoulder down to her left waist.
"Section Chief Kang!"
As expected, she hadn't anticipated it; Section Chief Park Yu-ra ran toward the hunter I'd just cut.
It was an action that made it seem like she'd forgotten she was even fighting me a moment ago.
They said humans were full of affection and prioritized protecting their subordinates if they were hurt, so even if she was wary of me, she likely wouldn't chase after me.
Leaving the hunter who was holding her subordinate in her arms behind, I dispelled the barrier of mist and fled.
Returning to the Arandel territory would only result in a reprimand anyway.
Rather than that, I wanted to melt into the human world and preserve this pathetic life of mine.
And so, the blonde, sheep-horned succubus, Bianca, who had barely managed to save her life, fled alone toward the human world.
"Haa... Haa..."
My breath was hitching in my chest.
I barely managed to escape into the deep alleys of the city, avoiding human eyes.
The further I got from the mist spewing out of the Gate, the heavier my body became.
The magic power remaining in me was so small it was barely a speck.
Now that I had no way to replenish my magic, I'd likely just keep getting weaker.
Even so, I wanted to live.
Even if it meant crawling like a bug, wasn't this world better than the afterlife?
It wasn't the Demon World I was used to, but I acted this way because I figured as long as I was alive, there would be an opportunity someday.
"What should I do now?... To pretend to be human... I'll need a lot of things."
I could disguise the sheep horns on my head by wearing a hat.
But to blend into the human world, I needed to grasp a vast amount of information, from their daily lives to their behaviors.
"I have to extract information from a human's head. First, I need a target..."
But if I moved rashly, I'd definitely be spotted.
In that case, I had no choice but to wait in this dark, dingy alley where human traffic was sparse until a victim came along.
A human who would pass on all the information in their head to me.
"Ah... he's so cute... I'm so glad I became his manager..."
Watching Seon-ah's broadcast again today and seeing him do cute things made my heart feel warm.
Sena, the manager of the streamer Seon-ah.
Living alone, she was a freelance illustrator who had drawn countless pictures, from game illustrations to broadcast thumbnails.
"Seon-ah said 'do it for me' over ten times today... The chat room has definitely been going to shit more often... Why did he help that Seonttamok-jwa start streaming..."
Since a week ago, when Seon-ah said he would boost Seonttamok-jwa... no, the streamer Yu-rin, and started doing joint broadcasts, the channel had been heading toward the abyss little by little.
Once the internet detectives revealed that the streamer Yu-rin was Seonttamok-jwa, crazy bitches who treated Seon-ah like a rag started appearing in the chat room one after another, and there was even a scandal with Yu-rin, so Seon-ah was currently wrapped up in controversy and rumors.
"Even though he's not that kind of person... I guess no one but the old-school Seon-ah fans will ever understand."
I had never seen Seon-ah's face in person.
But as we became close by calling and texting countless times to coordinate work schedules, the one thing I learned was that Seon-ah had been continuously stalked by numerous women since he was young, which gave him trauma and made him afraid of women.
Knowing that, when I saw Seon-ah doing a joint broadcast with Yu-rin, watching him glance at her occasionally and flinch in fear, I just felt pity for him.
"I don't know the reason, but... he's really reckless... seeing him look so miserable. Could it be... that he likes Yu-rin?..."
If Seon-ah overcame his trauma and started dating Yu-rin, what should I do?
Should I hide these feelings I had for Seon-ah and congratulate him?
'That kind of thing would never happen... That's ridiculous...'
My heart felt heavy.
My mouth was getting dry.
I moved to rummage through the refrigerator looking for water or a drink to wet my throat, but there was nothing left.
"Ah... I'm out of water and drinks... Come to think of it, I'm running out of soap, shampoo, and toilet paper too... I should go to the convenience store."
I threw on some clothes to go to the convenience store to buy daily necessities and headed out.
Mid-November, heading into winter.
The weather was very cold.
It wasn't snowing, but at dawn, the temperature was near freezing, making my body shiver.
It would be nice to have a boyfriend like Seon-ah by my side, but since I'd never dated a man in my life—a lifelong solo—it was just something that only happened in my delusions.
"Haa... I should have worn something thicker... It's seriously freezing..."
Just breathing caused white vapor to puff out of my mouth.
I guess we were really entering winter now.
While walking toward the convenience store, I heard the sound of someone sniffling and coughing somewhere.
"Is that sound coming from inside the alley?..."
As I focused my ears, the sound persisted from deep inside the alley.
I could have just walked past, but it sounded like someone was sobbing, so it bothered me to ignore it.
"Is anyone there?"
I stopped for a moment and called out toward the unknown person sobbing and sniffling inside the alley.
And the sound that came from inside was, strangely, a cat's "meow," made in a person's honest voice.
"No, if you're going to pretend to be a cat, at least make a convincing sound... What on earth is this?..."
To solve that mystery, I went deep into the alley, and what I saw was unbelievable.
It was something that made me remember the days I served in the military.
There was a brown-skinned monster, shivering with a pale complexion, looking like it was dying, its whole body limp, looking at me with tear-filled eyes.
"Mo... Monster..."
It had been two weeks since I started waiting for a victim in the alley.
I had no strength left because I hadn't been able to eat anything.
The air of Earth was pressing down on my body, which had completely run out of magic power, in a terrifying way, and since my body temperature had already dropped rapidly, I didn't even have the strength left to defend myself if a human weaker than me came along.
Knocking out a human and taking information from their head was already close to impossible.
My coughing wouldn't stop.
The sound of me sniffling from a runny nose kept spreading.
While that state continued, it seemed like someone had heard the sound I was unintentionally making inside this alley.
"Is that sound coming from inside the alley?..."
'If I get caught like this, I'll be beaten to death by human hands...'
Let's stay as quiet as possible until that human loses interest and passes by... as quiet as possible...
"Sniffle, cough, cough!"
However, my body wouldn't move the way I wanted it to.
"Is anyone there?"
Convinced that someone was in the alley, the voice of someone calling out toward here was heard once again.
'If I get caught, I'll die... What do I do?... What am I supposed to do?'
At that moment, the cry of a small, furry animal among Earth's creatures came to my mind.
Because I clearly remembered the cry of one of the animals that frequently came into this alley.
"Me... Meow"
Praying that they would lose interest and leave, I tried to mimic the cry of that small animal as exactly as possible.
'Did it work?...'
"No, if you're going to pretend to be a cat, at least make a convincing sound... What on earth is this?..."
It seemed like a complete failure.
To think they noticed it even though I mimicked it exactly; judging by their sharp instincts, the owner of this voice might be a hunter.
A hunter, when I was already in a situation where I might get beaten to death even by a regular human...
The spark of hope inside me began to fade.
Having given up on everything, I did nothing and just resigned myself, thinking whatever happens, happens.
I guess my efforts, having lived fiercely for the successor position against the eldest daughter, end here.
Tears kept flowing.
I was just sobbing because I was so frustrated and sad.
Step, step.
The sound of someone entering this alley was getting closer.
Now I'd be beaten to death by human hands.
It was that kind of fate from the beginning.
Effort and whatever else were all useless, and my life would end here in a state worse than a bug.
The sound of footsteps heading here stopped.
"Mo... Monster..."
And a voice mixed halfway with fear and surprise was heard.
Now that human would charge in to kill me, right?
Because humans and us demons were beings that hunted each other.
But even if I died at that human's hands, wouldn't it be better to maintain the dignity of a noble of the Demon World?
I thought it would be better to end the last words of my life with something cool.
That's why I spoke with my trembling lips.
"Sniffle... Save me... I don't want to die... Please, save me... Please, I'll do anything. Even though I look like this, I'm a succubus, so I'm very useful. I can do mind control, and the bodily fluids that come from my body are all aphrodisiacs, so they help when seducing men. Please... I'll do everything I can to be of help, so please save me."
As expected, I didn't want to die.
To not die, I sacrificed all my subordinates to Section Chief Park Yu-ra's sword, and in the end, I even betrayed myself.
Is it because I felt a bit relieved now, or because the strings of tension had all snapped?
After uttering those words, I fainted.