Leave a comment

“I was once captured by the Dark Elves. I was then offered up to their goddess, the Spider Queen, as a sacrifice…” I paused for a dramatic effect. “I honestly thought I was done for then, but I somehow ended up becoming Lolthe’s god… daughter…”

Blast… why do I have to pretend to be a girl in front of Nicole? Is this what they mean when they say, to cover up a lie, you end up telling a hundred more?

“Was there any special reason for that?” Nicole asked, slightly intrigued by the story.

“A special reason, huh…” If I were to say there wasn’t one now, she wouldn’t believe me at all. In that case, I’ll just try to fudge my way through.

With that in mind, I looked skyward without any explanation, head tilted up a perfect 45 degrees, and eyes pensive like a depressed emo kid. “Because of origins… Sorry. But I do not wish to talk about it…”

(TL: I did not choose that comparison btw. I’m innocent if anyone is offended.)

Nicole stared at me in shock, her eyes slightly glazed over.

“Nicole? What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.” Nicole shook her head as if she was trying to get something out of her head. “So are you a Human or an Elf?”

“I… am a Human.”

Honestly, I wanted to say that I was a Devil with a Human heart… but there was no way I was going to say that. Perhaps. Perhaps if I had just a little more time to get her trust… I would come clean with her then.

“A Human…” Nicole lowered her head in thought, then, as if having come to a realisation, she suddenly glared at me judgingly. “You know. I’m fairly certain we haven’t met before, but you seem unusually concerned with me… Rather, extremely concerned. The circumstances behind our first meeting was strange as well. You clearly aren’t weak, but those bandits were chasing you -I’m sure any one of those Dark Elven Assassins hiding in the shadows could have wiped them all out. What are your motives for approaching me?”

“I just…” I paused to sigh at that point. And not by choice as well. The way she suddenly cornered me like that made me realise that things were about to spiral out of control. I knew I had to do something quick to salvage this situation, but that thought alone gave me a headache.

“I heard rumors that Lyon was facing difficulties. My intention was to check it out and perhaps rid them of the problem. However, the moment I arrived, I bumped into those bandits. They started harassing us more than usual because the majority of our entourage was female. That was when I lost my temper and killed most of them -the scumbags. They… I don’t care what reason motivated them to banditry, but it’s a fact that they harmed innocents, and should be punished!”

Seeing me so worked up, Nicole merely shook her head coolly. “I have no intention of pursuing the matter of those slain bandits. My charges do not include the dead. Furthermore, killing evildoers is one way of saving others as well… my younger brother said that before…”

(TL: When? Why? Fishcakes, I can’t believe I wasted time looking again.)

“I see. He’s absolutely correct.” Naturally, I wasn’t going to let go of this chance to explain away the bandit problem. “After killing those bandits, my companions informed me that there were people approaching. Based on the path you were taking, I was sure we would eventually bump into each other. And soon too. Even though we had the ability to hide all the corpses before your arrival, there was no way I could erase the traces of battle in time. That was why I had Leeder change your course… I was just afraid that you and Neneth would mistake me for a murderer… after all, I’m a–”

I didn’t have to continue as she unceremoniously cut me off.

“Well. Regardless. There’s nothing wrong with defending yourself when you are under threat. However…” A glint of coldness flashed past her eyes then.

“I could tell right from the start that those bandits were extremely afraid of you. Yet they still had to pretend to rob you. I was suspicious of that, and thought you were with the creatures of darkness as well. That was why I agreed to you accompanying us: in order to watch you better. It wouldn’t be late to kill you after we found out what you were up to. Leeder also revealed himself when he immediately surrendered after seeing your Fire Elementals. He was the weak point in your little act.”

Demon Hunters often had to take on missions where they had to expose the hidden spy amongst the masses. Because of that, they were trained not to take things at face value. Being one of their brightest recruits, Nicole easily spotted the strangeness right away.

“I had no way of knowing that those bandits were actually the villagers of Lyon. If I had known, I wouldn’t have killed them…”

“I believe you on that point. But do you deny the fact that you tried to control Leeder with your evil arts?”

“Because I was afraid he would suddenly turn on me; that’s the only reason why I planted that spider in him. But I definitely removed the spider the night before the Undead attacked. As for that leech… it has to be that spy hiding in the village…” While we might not have found the spy yet, the events leading up till now had given me much insight. Insight, which I was eager to share in hopes of proving my innocence.

“Leeder and the rest must have met that spy after I removed the spider from them…” I proceeded to tell her my conjecture about how the leeches were probably implanted after my spiders. I then told her about my deduction that the Dracolich had to have been left there early on by a Witch.

“… Also. Remember how Leeder got us to stay for that feast? That feast that lasted a whole three days. Was that really just to thank us? Clearly, he was in cahoots with that Witch. He just didn’t realise how disposable he actually was.”

(TL: Altered the text a little here. Original text was “Clearly, he was already controlled by that Witch”. I don’t think that would make sense since he just said the leech was put in after the removal of the spiders. The removal was after the celebrations so that timeline would be off.)

“You feel it’s an evil Witch hiding in the village?”

“That’s right. Evil witches are proficient in body modifications and rearing cursed parasites.”

“I see. I’ll be sure to report what you just told me.”

(TL: original text was “marvelous/wonderful/brilliant” in the context of a performance. I just thought “I see” fits her character more. Also, marvelous wouldn’t make sense given what she said next and what she said before.)

“Better to be careful than sorry. Those creatures of darkness are plotting something. I’m afraid turbulent times are ahead.”

An urge to tell her about the Apocalypse came over me at that point. However, I resisted it. Until I told her about my identity, talking about the Apocalypse wasn’t an option. She wouldn’t believe me if I had said so.

After all, there were doomsayers in every world, fantasy or not. Yet the world was still standing, wasn’t it? That was what most people would think.

“You have some news regarding that?”

“Nothing concrete. They have just been more active recently; quite worrying.”

“I agree. It seems like they are planning something big. But that’s all in the future. Right now, I’m more interested in you…”

“You give me a very nostalgic feel. We’ve only just met, but for some reason, I feel like I know you well enough to predict your behavior… just like… just like…”

Your younger brother? I guess it’s time to show my hands then… I never expected her to be as familiar with me as I was with her… a miscalculation on my part… but it’s only to be expected, seeing as she was the big sister who helped raise me…

“Ke… Ke, is that you?”

Nicole reached out to touch my cheeks all of a sudden. I did not know how to react to that, so I merely closed my eyes while I leaned slightly back against the tree behind me.

My heart was in turmoil right now. Since meeting her, I realised how bad her mental state was currently. There was an unhealthy level of aggressiveness in her. Her hate for Devils was so apparent, I wouldn’t be surprised if it could slice up a rock. Other than me running away from home, I really could not think of another reason why she would end up like this…

It’s all my fault… If I hadn’t done that… But I wouldn’t have rescued Yi Yi otherwise… I wouldn’t be the person I was now… I would just be that worthless piece of trash living under the protection of Roscar and Nicole…

An urge to come clean came over me all of a sudden. She had basically guessed who I was by now. If I didn’t tell her now, another opportunity might never appear again. With that in mind, I opened my eyes and smiled in the way I often did. “That’s right. It’s me. Ke. I’ve come back.”

“…”

I just told her about my identity. But she did not come running into my arms, as I had expected. Neither did she try to hit me or scold me. She merely stayed quiet. Expressionless as always. Suddenly, I felt a surge of killing intent directed at me from her ruby-red eyes, one that almost made me choke.

Hold on… what’s going on here? Director, I would like to report an error in the script…

She looked me right in the eyes before asking as such, every word painstakingly emphasized. “What. Happened.”

“I was jealous of Sares so I decided to run away from home. After that, I ran into a girl called Yi Yi, a Fallen Angel in trouble. I rescued her, but I died doing so. In order to repay me, she sent my soul to hell… I clawed my way up from there… just to see you…”

I briefly explained what happened after I ran away. Because of how absurd the whole story was, I did not wish to go into all the details. Yet as I was recounting my tale, tears began to roll down her cheeks.

“So are you a Human now?”

“I’m… I’m a Fallen Angel… probably. I have the Original Sin of Lust in me as well. My current appearance is due to the transformation magic I used…”

“Please believe me. I might be a Devil now, but my heart remains the same as before!”

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE

Leave a comment

“Thank you.”

As expected, Nicole came up to me to express her thanks when I gave the command to protect the other villages. A shred of liveliness seemed to seep into her eyes as well. Her change in attitude was especially a relief for me given her opinion of me had worsened thanks to that little incident of Devil summoning. Truly a close call there…

Seeing as we had time to spare for once, I found a random empty patch of grass to sit down on, took out some of the dry rations I had stored in my dimensional ring, and invited everyone for a quick snack. A brief moment later, the creases on everyone’s eyebrows lessened noticeably.

However, the way Neneth vacuumed down the food I gave her was a little worrying. At this point, I wasn’t even sure if I should be worrying about our dry rations running out, or her bursting at the seams first…

“Sister Mo Na, why are you looking at Neneth like that for?”

“I was just thinking to myself, how can such an adorable girl have such a big appetite, that’s all.”

Faced with that potentially sensitive question, Neneth merely laughed and proudly smacked her chest. “That’s because Neneth is strong, that’s why she needs more food!”

You eat more because you are strong… I can’t even refute that…

Now that our meal was over, it was time for serious business.

We still had no way of confirming whether or not the mastermind behind this whole incident was watching us from the shadows. The steps we took next would likely be crucial.

As of right now, there were two choices facing us. First, all of us could head to the nearby towns to notify their local leaders for aid. However, the fact that there was an Undead horde running amok unchecked, there was a high likelihood that the local nobility had been compromised. Perhaps the lord of the land had been bribed, or perhaps he was one of the evildoers to begin with. There was a chance that the lord wanted us dead as well. Even so, given Nicole’s unique status, all we had to do was report the situation to a nearby Demon Hunter branch. The lord would surely be indicted then, though there was still the possibility of the nobility acting to silence us.

The second choice would be to send a small detachment to the neighbouring towns to report the situation while most of us stayed behind to contain the situation. This way, the nobility would find it harder to kill us all, since they would have two groups to deal with. This method would allow us to gain the aid we wanted as well. However, there was a glaring risk in that if another Dracolich were to pop up… well… we would be done for then…

Both choices had their own strong points, and were valid in this situation.

“It’s fine if we just wait here.” Just as I was mulling over which decision to take, Nicole coolly interjected, “I’ve already sent out a message with my magical tool. My teacher should be here soon with reinforcements.”

Huh? She did that? Everyone was equally surprised as they turned to look at her. The ‘I didn’t even see you doing that’ look was clearly plastered on everyone’s face.

“I used it last night. When I returned to our room.”

So that’s why. Still, that teacher she’s talking about should be the branch leader of the Demon Hunters’ Guild. A bigwig of the Demon Hunters. If someone like that were to come over, then there’s no need to worry. All we gotta do now is hold the line for the reinforcements.

However, I couldn’t help but notice the awkwardness of my situation right now. After all, the Demon Hunters were an association dedicated to slaying Devils. And, this wasn’t me bragging or anything, but I was the proverbial wild p0kemon to their eager trainers.

Even so, the fact that I assisted Nicole so much should work highly in my favor. If I was lucky, I might even get in her teacher’s good graces. That would allow me to accompany Nicole long term. I still had my transformation magic to cover up my Devil scent, at the end of the day. I just needed legal status for my Occultist practise.

What followed next was a lull period where we really did not have much to do. Nicole mentioned her teacher would arrive soon, but she did not tell us how quickly. Minutes? Hours? Perhaps tonight?

Truthfully, there were still a bunch of questions left unanswered regarding the village saga. Who released that Dracolich? What was Umbra even after? And that barrier too…

I had next to nothing on the identity of the mastermind. Actually, I had nothing at all. I had no way of investigating either. As for Umbra’s goal, the signs were pointing to him trying to get Nicole to kill those villagers. Was that perhaps how they would seduce her to join the dark side? Probably. Next was that Anti-light Barrier. Umbra mentioned that this was the first time they had used it in such a public manner. Were there many Anti-light Barriers deployed in secret then? That would be a pretty logical deduction.

However, there was an even scarier implication if that was true. That Anti-light Barrier basically allowed a Vampire to walk around in the sunlight like a normal person would. That meant they could be that handsome villager next door and no one would realise. That barrier most likely blocked out the ultraviolet rays in the sunlight. In that case, normal people wouldn’t notice the difference even if the barrier was deployed in, let’s say, a town.

Since ancient times, the fastest way to differentiate a normal Human from a Vampire was to roast him in the sun. But if the barrier rendered this method useless, then that begged the question: how many Vampires are hiding out in, or even controlling, the various Human settlements?

Of course, Umbra could be telling the whole truth as well. And it could just be that this was really the first time they took it out to use. However, I was more likely to favor my earlier theory.

Vampires were creatures that relied on Humans for sustenance. They would want to have some Humans living near their nests. What better way to ensure a constant supply of blood then to control the Humans like sheep?

If that was the case, this Undead horde made sense. The nobility was under their control, or maybe they were the Vampires…

Crap. It just gets more scary the more I think about it…

It was at that moment that one of the Dark Elven Assassin came up to me and handed me a tiny bottle of white powder. I gave the bottle a quick look then gestured for everyone to have a break first. Having done that, I threw a look at Nicole, signalling for her to follow me to the forest.

Having understood my intentions, she stood up to follow me. Neneth initially wanted to come along as well, but was stopped by Regine.

Regine shook her head at Neneth who pouted in response but sat down in the end.

As we walked towards the forest, I turned around and asked Nicole, “what are your opinions on the Lord’s inaction this time around?”

“Suspicious.” A straight to the point answer.

“Yes. I suspect that the nobles of this territory have some sort of underground dealings with the creatures of darkness. Perhaps the lord himself might be one of them.” We continued onwards.

“That Anti-light barrier intrigues me as well. That’s why I had my subordinates take a sample of it. They found unusual traces within a five kilometer radius of the village. According to them, there were a lot of traces left behind, so you can just get your Demon Hunters to retrieve them as well. But for even the lord of the land to be a suspect…”

“I understand.” Nicole coldly cut me off.

“Here’s a sample I just received.” I took out the bottle I just received for her to see. “You can use this as a future reference.”

“Thanks.”

“There’s no need to thank me, because…”

I stopped talking at that point. Rather, I couldn’t. Because I was no longer the person I was before. None of us were. Nicole was now a Demon Hunter, while I was a Devil. Two entities doomed to be at odds with each other. Even though I had faith that she would still accept me even after knowing of my identity, now wasn’t the time to tell her. I could tell she held a deeply seated hatred for Devils. Until I gained enough trust, I mustn’t reveal my identity.

“How about we talk about you instead? I’m quite interested in what you have to say.” She suddenly threw me a curveball after a deathly long period of silence between us.

“I… guess I’m an Occultist who wants to be a productive member of society?” Awkward silence once more… I couldn’t figure out what else to say to her question, thanks to how different Nicole was from before. In the past, I could fairly accurately predict how she would react to my words; I was just that familiar with her. Now, however… I did not understand her at all. The only thing I knew about her was that she was searching for ‘Mo Ke’.

“Productive member of society?”

“That’s right.” I nodded my head. “We might not be able to choose how we were born, but I firmly believe that we can choose how we live our lives. I wish to be someone useful, and I think I’ve accomplished that today.”

Having said that, I turned to find Nicole looking at me, a little misty eyed as she muttered, “So similar…”

“Similar?”

“Similar to what my younger brother said in the past.”

I began to sweat a little. Did she find out already? “Which part?”

“The part about choosing how we lived our lives.” She then mimicked the voice I had when I was young. As she did that, a smile crept onto her lips. “Just like that.”

(TL: Quite sure he never said that. I checked the previous chapters from 2 to 7. I doubt he actually said the following phrase as well, so I’m not going to bother searching…)

I dryly laughed. “…A coincidence, I’m sure. Just like being struck by lightning, a pure coincidence…”

“He used to say that too.”

“…”

Why am I even bothering at this point? Talking to her is tiring…

Thankfully, this atmosphere did not continue for long.

“They address you as Her Holiness. Those Dark Elves all seem to be experts in their own right. If I were to go up against them, I don’t think I can win in a one on one.” She suddenly stopped walking and looked me right in the eyes with an empty expression. Finally, in no uncertain words, she said, “You’re some kind of big shot, aren’t you?”

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE

If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.