“So…..”
Yurian asked, his face a mask of disbelief.
“You’re telling me that the note I received is dark magic?”
“Yes. I’m sure of it.”
Yurian buried his face in his hands.
“What about the people who disappeared?”
He asked, his voice trembling.
“Can we find them?”
Shekina looked down, avoiding Yurian’s eyes.
“We might find… their bodies.”
“Aaaah!”
Yurian screamed in anguish.
“No, no! I can’t believe you. It’s all lies. This can’t be true.”
He didn’t want to believe it. He couldn’t accept it.
Even as people around him vanished one by one, Yurian clung to hope. He believed that if he killed Shekina, those people might return. They were just kidnapped, he told himself. If he killed Shekina and went to the academy, everything would go back to normal.
But dark magic? They were all dead?
No, no. That can’t be. It mustn’t be. Absolutely not!
“This is ridiculous. Even if dark magic is forbidden, the idea that it could make people disappear without a trace… it doesn’t make sense. It’s just an assassination guild or something. It’s all lies. No way,”
Yurian kept denying reality.
Watching Yurian’s endless denial, Shekina lowered her gaze again. It hurt.
It was so painful, and though it wasn’t her fault, Shekina felt guilty and sorry. It felt like everything was her fault.
It had been a long time since she felt this way.
Shekina struggled to suppress her rising emotions and answered calmly.
“That’s how dark magic works.”
Each word was slow but clear. The meaning had to be unmistakable.
Sympathy was useless in such a situation. Cheap pity would not help.
“If you don’t follow the orders… the people around you disappear, one by one, starting with those you love the most… slowly.”
Yurian’s mouth opened and closed silently. He covered his mouth with his hand and squeezed his eyes shut.
“Are they all dead?”
His voice was thick with tears.
“Is it true?”
“…..….”
“Is it really dark magic? No. Tell me it’s not true. That magic was supposed to be extinct. No one should be able to use it… Oh. There is someone.”
Yurian’s face twisted with rage.
“There was someone who could use dark magic.”
He ground his teeth in anger.
“Lucifer… that bastard…”
Shekina’s eyes widened. She had never heard that name before.
“Who is that?”
“The leader of the now-extinct Celestial tribe.”
Yurian clenched his fists until they bled, recalling what Lucart had told him.
“That bastard was behind this. He dared…!”
He wanted to run to him and cut off his head immediately.
He wanted to bring him down and tear out his heart.
But.
Even if he did…
“No, no. No matter what I do, the dead won’t come back. They’re all gone. Everyone.”
It’s useless.
They’re all dead.
He’ll never see them again.
“What should I do?”
Yurian asked, his head lowered as he held Shekina’s shoulders.
“Even knowing I’m a homunculus, I mingled with humans. I liked them. They were different from demons—warm, kind, and I loved them for it.”
The Demon King’s castle was hell.
Demons who watched his every move.
Other homunculus who might target him at any moment.
A life where failure meant death.
The moment he escaped to the academy, Yurian could finally breathe.
That’s why he liked it there. That’s why he loved it.
“But now it’s all gone. Because I liked them. Because I cared about them. Lucifer used me because I was different from other homunculus.”
Yurian pounded his chest and cried.
“They died because of me. If I hadn’t gotten close to them, they would have lived…”
Shekina felt her eyes burn with unshed tears but lifted her head.
She understood Yurian’s feelings. She could say she truly understood.
But because of that, there was something important she had to say.
“That’s nonsense. It’s not your fault.”
He hadn’t done anything wrong.
“The one who cast that spell on you is at fault. Why blame yourself for something you didn’t do? Stand up. Don’t cry.”
He was just a victim.
If someone had said this to Shekina in the past, would things have been different?
Who knows?
It’s something no one can answer.
That’s why focusing on the future is more important than dwelling on the past.
Shekina grabbed the back of Yurian’s neck firmly.
“Don’t cry. You can’t cry now. Endure it. Somehow, just endure.”
At the moment he started crying, his anger would come out.
The burning desire for revenge would get diluted by his tears.
So,
“Save your tears for later, when you truly feel at ease.”
Now, he had to endure.
Yurian repeated Shekina’s words over and over in his mind, pushing them deep inside. He took a deep breath and slowly lifted his head.
“We must take revenge.”
“Yes.”
“We must, we must kill that bastard.”
“Yes.”
“I will… I will kill him.”
“Alright.”
“I will, definitely…”
Yurian bit his lip hard enough to draw blood and closed his eyes tightly.
***
“Sniff! Master Yurian…”
Didi, who was eavesdropping from the next room, finally burst into tears.
“Such a thing… Of course, it makes me really angry that you cared for those humans… Sniff! But if Master Yurian was happy, that’s what mattered… Because of that bastard, Lucifer or whatever his name is…!”
Listening to Didi’s tearful rant, Merdes and Pardes exchanged glances.
“Brother, even though I’m not the most perceptive, I think we shouldn’t go there right now.”
“Yes, I think so too.”
It was an anticlimactic end for someone who had boasted about beating Yurian to a pulp.
Or maybe, it was a sad ending.
“Brother, are you crying?”
“No? Absolutely not. Are you?”
“I’m not crying either. My eyes are just wet because of the humidity.”
“Who said that?”
“Han did.”
“Right. If Han said it, it must be true.”
They nodded, pretending not to notice.
Sniff! At Didi’s sniffling, the twins also wiped their noses.
“Brother, do you know who Lucifer is?”
“Yes.”
Pardes nodded.
“He’s an angel who started the Heavenly-Demon War.”
If you ask a demon which race they hate the most, they would all say the same.
Angels.
They call themselves angels and claim to be the agents of God, but their actions were worse than demons. They were eventually struck down by the real God and banished to the other side of the world, only to suddenly invade the Demon Realm one day.
Thus began the Heavenly-Demon War.
Of course, the Demon King won.
And the leader of the angels, Lucifer, was killed.
“I heard he was defeated and killed by the Demon King.”
“Killed?”
“But from what we’re hearing now, it seems like he’s not dead. That madman. He’s like a cockroach.”
Pardes let out a long sigh and bit his lip.
This is something that should be reported to Sir Lyat.
It wasn’t something they could keep to themselves.
“Brother.”
At that moment, Merdes cautiously spoke.
“If… if that guy casts dark magic on us, what will happen?”
“What?”
“Will the humans we’re playing with die?”
Merdes’s eyes were trembling. Hearing Yurian’s cries, he felt closer to his sorrow, making his dreadful imagination run wild.
Pardes clenched his fist tightly.
“Let’s kill that bastard before that happens.”
“Can we?”
“We have to.”
Pardes spoke with determination.
“Kids protect adults.”
“Haha!”
Merdes burst into laughter and hugged Pardes.
“I really like you, brother.”
Pardes patted Merdes’s head and made a promise.
That cockroach bastard.
He would definitely kill him.
“Waaah! Master Yurian!”
And he wished that person would be quiet.
