Chapter 60 - Chapter 58: Episode 57 - Deception
Today, just like always, Yu-rin lied to Min-ah, who was busy caring for Hyeon-tae.
And she felt guilty about it.
The reason for her guilt, however, was different from all the times before.
It was the weight of hiding Seon-ah.
Because she had resigned herself to the fact that she could never return him, that guilt felt heavier than ever.
She felt nothing but remorse, even for the things she was planning to do next.
Min-ah had joined the 2nd Expedition Team, desperate to save Seon-ah after watching over Hyeon-tae's deathbed.
Yu-rin, meanwhile, was part of the 1st Expedition Team.
She already had a plan in motion.
She would head to the Demon World with the 1st team, then slip back to Earth shortly after the 2nd team departed.
They wouldn't even dream that she had returned to Earth after her sudden disappearance.
The members of the expedition who stayed in the Demon World would simply assume she had died.
When she finally surfaced on Earth, people would just think she'd had a stroke of luck and managed to make it back.
Besides, this entire expedition was a gamble, built on the premise that it was doomed to fail from the start.
Others might not know it, but in reality, Yu-ra had only launched this project out of guilt toward Min-ah.
It was a tragedy, but everyone in the expedition was destined to meet a lonely end in the Demon World.
Even Min-ah, Seon-ah's own mother.
Like so many who had tried to reach for the moon, they would all be forgotten together.
Moving freely between the Demon World and Earth was practically impossible, but Yu-rin had found a way.
Miel.
A demon who could traverse the gates between Earth and the Demon World at will.
This was only possible because the very person who had kidnapped her and Seon-ah was right there.
She would cross over with the 1st Expedition Team, then use Miel's ability to return to Earth.
Of course, Miel could try to abandon her in the Demon World and run, but she had no choice but to cooperate.
Miel needed money to survive in the human world.
Could a succubus really earn a living in human society?
Forget part-time jobs; hunters would swarm her the moment they saw her, branding her a monster and trying to kill her.
Furthermore, Seon-ah, with all his memories sealed, wasn't in any position to support Miel either.
He was barely managing his own daily life; he didn't have the capacity for anything else.
No matter how she looked at it, she was the only one who could provide for both of them.
And the option of Miel taking Seon-ah back to the Demon World was off the table.
She had heard it from Miel's own lips the day they were kidnapped: why Miel had brought Seon-ah to Earth in the first place.
Miel didn't want to return to the Demon World because there was a high chance her mother, the Succubus Lord, would hunt them down if they showed their faces again.
Furthermore, the biggest obstacle for Miel and Yu-rin in keeping Seon-ah was his parents.
Miel also knew one crucial fact, having peered into Seon-ah's memories.
The existence of Min-ah, Seon-ah's mother.
A slaughterer who had killed countless monsters, a high-ranking Awakened on the verge of becoming S-Rank.
Min-ah was currently an A-Rank Hunter.
And since she was already at the top tier, it wouldn't be a surprise if she were promoted to S-Rank at any moment.
Yu-rin's own mother, Yu-ra, was also A-Rank, but there was a massive difference between a mother whose growth had stalled years ago and Min-ah, who was still actively evolving.
Anyway, Yu-rin had nearly died at Min-ah's hands, but—
Miel was a monster; it wouldn't have been strange if Min-ah had killed her on the spot without a second thought.
She surely would have died before she could even show what kind of phenomenon the Yin Mark manifested in Seon-ah.
And then Seon-ah would have died right along with her.
"Mother... I'll be going now."
"Yes... take care on your way home... Yu-rin."
Their relationship had changed significantly since the day she returned from the Demon World.
It wasn't that the resentment was gone.
But seeing Yu-rin's desperate efforts to save her son, Min-ah's attitude had softened, perhaps because her own perspective had shifted over the past year.
It was true that Miel was also uncomfortable around Min-ah, so there was no other choice but to help her.
The human world was a completely different beast for a monster to survive in.
Yu-rin returned home after her weekly Monday hospital visit.
She was filled with a burning desire to make Seon-ah as happy as possible, to fill the void left by Min-ah and Hyeon-tae.
She told herself it was an unavoidable choice.
.
.
.
Seon-ah was in agony after Yu-rin left.
Especially after learning how that woman treated Miel-nuna, his heart felt heavy.
What had he and Miel-nuna done to deserve being kidnapped and locked up like this?
After their captor left, he had talked with Miel-nuna through the bathroom door.
When he mentioned that she'd given him steak that morning, Miel-nuna had been absolutely furious.
He learned that she had been served dog food in a dog bowl.
She also told him that the woman had turned on the shower, telling her to lap up the water from the floor if she was thirsty.
He could clearly see that while she treated him incredibly well, she was deliberately inflicting pain on Miel-nuna.
What kind of relationship did she have with him to be doing this?
Seon-ah thought about it carefully.
He didn't have parents.
He grew up in an orphanage.
Huh?
Something was strange.
His memories were a jumble, and he couldn't think straight.
There was a version of himself as a young man in his 20s, so different from now, and then a moment where he closed his eyes and opened them to find everything looking small.
He had memories of something absurd, as if he had died and been reborn.
Something was wrong with his state of mind.
With most of his memories locked away, Seon-ah was struggling with the gap and confusion between his previous life and his current one.
As he sat there with a throbbing headache, unable to speak, he heard Miel-nuna calling for him, but he couldn't stop the thoughts from racing.
After a long while, he heard the front door open—the kidnapper had returned.
The owner of the house, his captor, entered the main room.
.
.
.
Yu-rin asked Seon-ah, a hint of apology in her voice.
"Seon-ah, how are you feeling? Is there anything you need?"
"I'm fine. If I need anything... could you free Miel-nuna?"
Yu-rin's eyes flashed with an unusual glint.
It had been a long time since she'd heard Seon-ah speak with such confidence.
It reminded her of how he used to act when he was younger.
"That's not possible. I'll grant you something else, so why don't you tell me what you want?"
"Then please take off my leash. I want to go see Miel-nuna."
What he said earlier wasn't a coincidence.
Something had shifted since Seon-ah's memories had started to piece themselves back together.
To understand what that gap was, she unclipped his leash and they went to the bathroom together.
"Miel-nuna!"
"Seon-ah!"
They must have heard each other's voices often, but they hugged as if they hadn't seen each other in an eternity.
Miel knew Seon-ah's originally timid personality, but she didn't think anything was wrong.
She assumed that Seon-ah, relieved to see her, had simply become more outgoing.
Seeing this, annoyance surged in Yu-rin, and she shouted angrily.
"Hey. Miel, did you do something to Seon-ah?"
"What?"
"His personality, the one I spent so much time shaping, has changed. It's like I'm seeing him as a child again. Unless you messed with his memories, this shouldn't be happening, right?"
Seon-ah's current state was a jumble of values from his previous life and his current one, but since neither of them knew he had been reincarnated, they just assumed he had reverted to his old self.
Miel could read Seon-ah's memories, but she couldn't access anything from before he was two years old.
She lacked the skill to read memories buried that deep in the subconscious.
However, Miel couldn't help but notice the sense of incongruity coming from him.
Seon-ah had started to cling to her, breathing heavily.
In his eyes, she could feel a lust, almost like a woman's.
Something was definitely strange.
She suspected something was wrong with Seon-ah, but she lacked the magical power to investigate.
She had arrived on Earth with some spare magic, but—
Yesterday, she had exhausted it all to manipulate Seon-ah's memories on a large scale.
If this were the Demon World, she could have recovered all her power in one night just by breathing, but this was Earth.
Even her physical abilities were only slightly enhanced, and her magic wasn't recovering at all.
Currently, there was only one way for Miel to recover her mana.
She had to absorb magic power from semen through sexual intercourse with her mate.
She didn't know if Yu-rin would allow it, but since Yu-rin had also noticed the problem with Seon-ah's memories, she would eventually have to ask.
She needed that power to check on Seon-ah's mental state.
Miel had to persuade Yu-rin.
"Yu-rin, listen carefully. I'm completely out of magic power."
"So?"
Yu-rin replied indifferently.
Her expression said, So what do you want me to do about it?
"I need magic to check Seon-ah's memories, but I don't even have the minimum amount left."
"Couldn't you just chew on a Mana Crystal or something?"
Yu-rin thought carefully, remembering the Mana Crystals found in Gates.
They were ores engraved with the source of the power monsters used.
"Demons can infuse magic into Mana Crystals, but we can't extract it from them."
"So what do you want?"
Yu-rin began to feel anxious; the way Miel was dragging this out made it feel like she was hiding something.
"Let me have sex with Seon-ah... It's absolutely necessary to recharge my magic."
"You fucking bitch, trying to pull a fast one again."
As expected, she was really asking to screw Seon-ah.
"It's not a trick, it's the truth... This place is different from the Demon World, so I can't recover at all... A succubus can generate magic power from her mate's semen."
Seeing her talk like this, knowing how angry Yu-rin would be, she felt the sincerity in her words.
"If something goes wrong with Seon-ah, this is the only way I can use my power."
"Ha... fuck... fine. But you have to do it in front of me."
Since there was really no other way, Yu-rin had no choice but to give in.
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Crucially, she agreed because she couldn't take the responsibility if something went wrong with Seon-ah.
Yu-rin leaned close to Miel's ear, out of Seon-ah's hearing range.
"In return, there's something you have to help me with, so I can do it sometimes too."
Yu-rin said, the corners of her mouth rising in a satisfied smile.
The moment she had been waiting for—the chance to secure Miel's cooperation—had finally arrived.