Chapter 49 - Chapter 47: Episode 46 - Return
Miel couldn't kill Yu-rin, fearing that the brainwashing she'd placed on Seon-ah would shatter.
But if she killed Yu-rin now, while the conditioning was already broken, it would take even longer to recalibrate his trauma.
Miel recalled the time she first brainwashed Seon-ah.
On the second day, watching Seon-ah get battered by patrons, she realized she wanted to monopolize him.
By the third day, when he collapsed from exhaustion after serving, she began to tamper with his memories.
It became even easier after she carved the Yin Mark into him.
Since Seon-ah always fell asleep before her, she would slip into his subconscious and tinker with his memories while he dreamed.
She manipulated his mind to naturally foster hatred for Yu-rin, while painting her own image in the most positive light possible.
She had worked painstakingly to erase everything—from their first meeting to that unpleasant business where she'd forced him to sell his body to other monsters.
Sexual pleasure and romantic love didn't have to be perfectly proportional for her to get what she wanted.
She simply used her succubus powers to make him like her, while poisoning his feelings toward his original girlfriend, Yu-rin.
That was how she'd managed to monopolize him.
Now, if she just sent Yu-rin back to Earth through the Gate, Seon-ah would be hers forever.
Forever...
The sense of dissonance that had been dormant in Seon-ah's heart began to slowly fade.
No matter how good the sex was, there was no way he would suddenly hate his girlfriend of fifteen years and grow to love a succubus who had branded him with a Yin Mark.
Even for someone who wouldn't abandon a fifteen-year relationship, he was acting completely absurdly.
Desperate to vent his anger over this internal conflict, Seon-ah went looking for Miel.
Miel beckoned Yu-rin and Seon-ah to approach, her eyes fixed on the open Gate.
Miel had a natural talent for playing with people's emotions.
Reading others, manipulating them, even invading their subconscious to rewrite memories—she could do it all.
She'd always thought she was exempt from being a target herself, but Seon-ah was the one who suffered the most.
Miel put on an expression of regret.
"Ha... looks like I have to start over from the beginning. I'll send Yu-rin to Earth first. It was fun while it lasted, Yu-rin-ah. I couldn't kill you anyway because I was afraid the brainwashing on Seon-ah would break. Seon-ah was begging me so desperately. He's so easy to sway if I just treat him a little well; I'm worried my man is too soft. I guess I'll have to remodel him into a man more to my taste."
With the dissonance gone, Miel's madness was palpable.
She was a demon who played with others' emotions as she pleased.
"First, I'll send Yu-rin through the Gate, then I'll remodel Seon-ah. To be a man of my taste."
With those words, she grabbed Yu-rin and dragged her toward the Gate.
"No, Seon-ah! Seon-ah! Aaaaah... No!"
Yu-rin kept reaching out to Seon-ah, desperate not to lose him, but
Seon-ah was terrified even of Yu-rin.
Miel and Yu-rin.
Both were the culprits who had caused him such agony.
Crazy bitches—one who inflicted physical pain, and the other who inflicted mental torture.
If Yu-rin was a psychopath who struggled to read emotions, Miel was closer to a sociopath who understood them all too well.
He didn't want to choose either of them.
He wondered why every woman he met was like this.
Confused, Seon-ah tried to run away.
Miel, having shoved Yu-rin into the Gate, started following him.
Given the absurd difference in their physical abilities,
Seon-ah was quickly caught by Miel.
And he was moved back to the room 'filled with happy memories'.
Yu-rin returned from that hellish place after ninety-eight days.
It was indeed Earth.
Looking at the signs, it was a place not far from the Gate they were originally dragged into.
Yu-rin was wearing the maid outfit given to her by the demons, so she figured she would stand out, but that didn't matter.
Compared to the humiliation she'd suffered in the Demon World for ninety-eight days, that didn't even count as shame.
The place where Seon-ah had been dragged off to.
Miel was a sociopathic demon who played with human hearts.
It was obvious that Seon-ah was being tossed around like a doll in Miel's clutches, treated like a toy.
Unforgivable.
She knew she could cross over to that world through the demons.
Now, all that remained was to find a way to save Seon-ah.
Yu-ra, formerly the Executive Director and an early member of the Hwaryong Guild, had now become its representative.
The original representative had retired from the front lines and handed the position to Yu-ra a month ago.
As the most senior and the last remaining early member, it was a standard procedure.
Although she was an A-Rank Awakened, the guild representative position wasn't determined by rank, but by who could run the guild effectively.
It was no surprise that Yu-ra, who knew the internal affairs of the Hwaryong Guild best and had experience running most of the business, became the representative.
After losing her daughter to a Gate, she conducted clearing operations as if the Gates were her personal enemy.
In one month, most of the Gates near the Hwaryong branch were cleared.
There were some casualties, but in the Hunter profession, those weren't even considered major accidents.
Because of this, those who knew the internal situation called her a "revenge demon."
She was currently on her way home, stunned after receiving a call from her husband.
Yu-ra's husband used to attend social gatherings often, but after the shock of Yu-rin and Seon-ah going missing, he hadn't been able to go outside.
He had called to tell her that Yu-rin had returned.
Yu-ra was so shocked that she left word with her secretary that she had to go home and left immediately.
Yu-ra felt a mix of joy that her daughter had returned alive and deep resentment.
The daughter she saw in the video was a ruthless rapist who had brutally violated Seon-ah.
Even though they were family,
it was only two months ago that she was so angry at what she'd done to Seon-ah—who could also be considered family, despite not being blood-related.
She still couldn't forget that.
Yu-ra opened the front door.
Entering, she saw her husband and Yu-rin in the living room, Yu-rin teary-eyed and being hugged by her father.
Yu-rin was wearing a strange outfit.
An outfit that looked like a maid costume.
'Then what about Seon-ah?'
Yu-rin and Seon-ah had gone missing together.
Since Yu-rin wouldn't have abandoned Seon-ah, shouldn't he be by her side?
Yu-ra was more curious about Seon-ah's whereabouts than happy that her daughter had returned.
She could truly be called a heartless mother.
"Where's Seon-ah?"
To ask about someone else's child as soon as she saw Yu-rin.
She thought it was wrong as a parent, but.
Because Yu-ra knew the state of Min-ah's parents well, she asked about Seon-ah's whereabouts, thinking of their feelings.
".... I couldn't bring him back... from that... world..."
After hesitating for a long time, Yu-rin finally said.
Yu-ra threw a punch without realizing it.
She had slammed her fist into Yu-rin's face.
With a thud! sound, Yu-rin collapsed to the ground.
Yu-rin, having taken the full force of an A-Rank Hunter's punch, was trembling on the floor, perhaps suffering from a concussion.
Useless girl...
To think she couldn't even protect her own man; it was a disgrace to the family.
She was so ashamed of herself for trying to marry such a child to Seon-ah.
If you're a woman, it's only natural to protect your man.
Basically, it was expected for a woman with superior physical abilities to protect the man who became hers.
If you can't even protect what's yours, what's the point of that physical ability?
Let alone, Yu-rin was an Awakened.
Anger welled up, and she felt like the hope she had held until just a moment ago was shattering.
She only thought about how she didn't know what to say to Min-ah's parents anymore.
Their child came back alive, but Seon-ah, the child of Min-ah's parents, was dragged away by monsters and couldn't return.
Who could say that to them?
Min-ah's parents might resent their family even more if they heard this story.
Just two months ago, she felt like she had committed a huge sin and was living with it.
Now, it felt like that sin had grown even larger.
No one knew what would happen if Min-ah's parents found out that the person who made Seon-ah live in hell came back alive, while the kind Seon-ah was still wandering in hell.
Yu-rin, having come to her senses, looked at her mother, Yu-ra, with a look of shock, not expecting to be hit.
"I went to the house where you and Seon-ah lived. I also saw the videos containing the things you did to Seon-ah."
Yu-rin's face turned pale.
"..."
And like a mute who had eaten honey, she couldn't say anything and was staring at the ground powerlessly.
"Are you even human after doing that! You're worse than a beast! If you couldn't bring Seon-ah back, you should have just died there!"
With that, she threw the sofa next to her at Yu-rin.
Yu-rin's body went limp, pinned under the heavy furniture.
Even though she was an Awakened, there was no way she could withstand the strength of Yu-ra, an A-Rank Awakened.
Eventually, Yu-rin fainted.
And with a heart full of apology...
She called Min-ah's parents.
Because her conscience pricked her too much to hide this any longer...