Antagonized Bachelorette Enjoying a Simple Life - Chapter 91 (91/302) #091
Screech.
How long had she been holding her breath? The moment she stepped out of the carriage, Catherine sucked in air desperately. Only then did her chest finally ease. Something blocked her dizzy, wavering vision. It was Mars.
"Your face got even uglier in the meantime."
His tone was playful, yet utterly devoid of any jest.
Catherine leaned her forehead against Mars's chest as she shifted her feet slightly. Her pounding heart quickly regained its calm.
"Dealing with that lunatic left a bad taste in my mouth."
"Want me to kill him now?"
"Nah. No point now that we're done with him."
At least not here.
"Revenge?"
"I got it in. But he's a demon king or whatever, so his learning curve is insane. He got over the tickling in minutes."
"Should I console you with how disappointing that is?"
"No need. Mars and consolation don't mix."
"Guess I'm the one who needs it."
"Sorry. That was a slip-up on my part."
Mars pulled away. He patted her slumped shoulders, then shoved her forward.
"There, consoled. Now move."
"Where to?"
"Where we have to go. To Lilith."
Under the moonlight, the shadow of a weeping willow swayed languidly. An illusion gripped her, as if unheard screams reverberated through the air. The world itself seemed to shrink at the sound of Lilith's true name.
"That's why you came here."
Mars extended his hand to Catherine. His inscrutable gaze tangled over her cheek. But the tickle in her throat from that look vanished like mist once she clasped his hand.
As they walked through the darkened forest, Mars cautioned her.
"No idea how you'll leave, but... call for me before you go."
"I will."
"Don't run off without a word. Unless you want a beating 600 years from now."
"I'd prefer that, actually."
She hoped Cesare—no, Mars—remembered this moment. Even 600 years later.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Catherine felt the world enveloping her shift abruptly. The vast forest vanished without a trace, replaced by a pitch-black, serene expanse like the Abyss itself unfolding before her.
「I sensed it from the moment I first saw you. That you carried a scent so very familiar.」
Someone emerged through the fog-like darkness before her. A mage in a ferret mask.
「A scent I couldn't detect from demons or even Nephilim. One unique to you alone.」
Red lips curved into a smile.
Catherine asked the babbling ferret-masked figure, "Are you Lilith?"
「Yes. In human terms... perhaps an old comrade of Mars, the one you're so fond of.」
She'd even said that to Lilith! Catherine barely suppressed the heat rising to her face. She'd have to chew him out next time they met. Tell him to stop embarrassing her.
「I am Lilith. The oldest living being.」
"Oldest? Older than Mars?"
「Of course. Older even than... in human terms, his father? Older than Mars's father.」
Mars's father—the previous generation's Leviathan, perhaps. Lilith's age seemed far more ancient than she'd imagined. Catherine swallowed dryly, tension parching her throat. Time to head back. The odds of failure weren't zero, but she had to exhaust every effort.
"Lilith. You might not believe this, but I came from 600 years in the future to meet you."
「I believe you.」
Lilith's affirmation was startlingly straightforward.
「Transcending time and space isn't entirely impossible. So, what do you want from me?」
'First, I need to save you.'
How to phrase this? "Any recent troubles? A stalker? Illness? Or impending crisis?"
Lilith tilted her head quizzically.
「Speak plainly.」
"I came here to save you. Well, more like I was pushed into it."
「Pushed by whom?」
"My mother."
Too vague? Catherine added a name Lilith would know. "And Dantalion."
The moment the rat-head's name left her lips, a heavy silence descended between them. An unnaturally long stillness. Catherine racked her brain twenty times over, wondering what she'd done wrong. Shouldn't mention Dantalion? Was that shady rat her enemy?
The ferret mask's lips finally moved after minutes more.
「Ah.」
The first sound was a short exclamation. Then, Lilith removed the mask. The motion seemed three or four times slower than normal. Catherine just pondered what the issue was. Until Lilith's bare face emerged.
"......Mother?"
Was she hallucinating? She rubbed her eyes and looked again. No matter how wide she opened them, Lilith's face matched her mother's perfectly.
「Look into my eyes.」
A telepathic command shook her brain, bringing vertigo. Something probed between her thoughts, rifling through them. All her memories laid bare. Revulsion surged, but escape was impossible. Someone had stolen a glimpse of her memories. All of them.
When she opened her eyes again, the Lilith with her mother's face gazed at her.
「Catherine.」
Astonishingly, even her voice was identical.
"Mother."
The word slipped out unbidden, laced with longing. She shook her head and stepped back.
"I-I think I'm going crazy. Otherwise......"
An Archdemon couldn't look like her mother. But Lilith closed the gap faster than she retreated.
「Don't talk nonsense, Catherine. I am your birth mother. You wouldn't deny this mother of yours, would you?」
In that instant, irrefutable realization flashed through her. It was her mother. The Great Demon Lilith was her mother.
Catherine stood before the staggering truth, her head ringing, and spat her first words almost accusingly.
"Where did you go?"
The narrowing distance halted.
"You saw my memories, right? Where are you now? Why did you leave me alone?"
Pent-up questions poured out.
Lilith, standing ramrod straight, replied steadily.
「That's precisely why I called you here.」
"What reason?"
「To see how beautifully my daughter has grown.」
Her mother was tall. In childhood memories, most women she'd seen were a head shorter. Even now, fully grown, Catherine had to look up. Her mother towered a handspan above her adult daughter.
Her mother's eyes were still steadfast. Her lips thin, her smile...
「You've grown so well, Catherine. No excess, clear eyes, upright heart, perfectly healthy without a flaw.」
「Seeing you like this with my own eyes leaves nothing more to wish for.」
...gentle.
Lilith spread her arms and embraced Catherine. The warmth made tears well up unbidden.
"Why?"
Catherine hugged back, rubbing her eyes on her mother's shoulder like a sulky child.
"Why nothing more to wish for? Don't say it like that, Mother."
Don't say it like you'll never be seen again.
Lilith's voice remained calm and unshaken.
「I'm not there anymore, Catherine. In your world, this mother has already returned to the Void. Completely gone. Without a trace.」
Suspecting it faintly and hearing it from the source were worlds apart. Far sadder, far lonelier.
「But my greed must run deep. I wanted to check on your growth before dying, so I sent you here after all. To meet the woman you've become, somehow.」
Catherine had lost her mother young. Compared to then, she was now a full-grown lady.
"I..."
Sad and joyful, yet strangely off-kilter. Strictly speaking, the Lilith before her wasn't her mother.
'The demon who would become my mother,' maybe.
Yet just facing her stirred such longing. Why?
"I'm glad to meet you again like this."
Relieved her grown self hadn't been abandoned. Grateful her mother had summoned her from the past to reunite.
「My beloved daughter.」
Lilith gripped her shoulders.
「Separate from this mother's greed, our reunion fulfills all conditions.」
"Conditions?"
Lilith smiled at her question.
「Choose.」
Her body stiffened. Lilith's azure eyes pierced her soul.
「Choose.」
As her memories had flowed to Lilith, now Lilith's seeped into her.
「To inherit the Void Dominator and become Lilith, or live a fleeting life as a mere Nephilim.」
These were primordial memories.
「You are qualified to choose.」
It lasted mere seconds.
In those seconds, primordial memories flooded Catherine's mind. Lilith's birth spanned nearly a millennium.
To explain: In the universe's dawn, there was only light, darkness, and dust (excerpted)... one of seven dust motes enveloped by darkness took the name Lilith (excerpted)... gained the ability to wield magic (excerpted)... and thus began the saga of Archdemon Lilith.
The end of Lilith's thousand-year birth history. Catherine's impression was succinct.
'Freakishly long. How does birth take a millennium?'
Afterward, the Archdemon Lilith's power passed down through death and new heirs. This explained why Catherine possessed the demon-exclusive Transfer Root. She was Lilith's new heir.
'Jackpot.'
Not just any jackpot—an ultra-mega one.
'Me, the ordinary woman, turns out to be Archdemon Lilith's heir!?')
In plays or novels, that's instant riches material.
Maybe that's why it felt unbelievable.
"Why hide the truth from me?"
「I wanted you to experience a human life.」
"I thought I was a talentless fool who couldn't use a scrap of magic. Cleaning the mansion took weeks because of it......"
「Is that what upsets you most? When did my daughter become so domestic?」
Lilith covered her mouth and laughed.