The Siblings' Revenge
The capital of the Dark Empire, Pandemonium.
Luan and Lynn, the brother and sister, had first imprisoned the Gray Viscount's family.
Several measures had been prepared to prevent them from committing suicide, but above all else they had taken Estia with them to Jae-hyun.
That was how they now stood before Jae-hyun.
"You brought your own mother first rather than carrying out your revenge."
Seated on the throne prepared for the Demon King and Emperor of the Dark Empire, Jae-hyun looked down at Luan and Lynn. His voice was as cold as ever, yet because Lynn—who was being showered with affection right next to Irene on the bed—was aware that Jae-hyun was not angry, she felt no tension.
"Is that not allowed?"
Instead, still tearful with the joy of meeting her mother, Estia, Lynn gazed at Jae-hyun with her still-moist green eyes and asked in a tone that sounded almost seductive. Jae-hyun shook his head.
"No, it's fine."
Jae-hyun had answered, and Irene—who sat on the matriarchal throne beside him, the Empress of the Dark Empire—nodded in agreement.
"Family is something precious."
Though Irene had lost her mother in childhood, been raised in her father's love, and watched that father murdered by Ferdinand, she understood the position of the siblings who had lost their father in the same way. Yet she still envied them the simple fact that their mother was, at least for now, still alive.
"Family..."
Jae-hyun recalled his own family on Earth—his mother, his older sister, and his younger sister.
In a way, he and Irene were similar. Irene had been raised without her mother, in her father's hands; he had been raised without his father, in his mother's hands.
And as he looked at the way Lynn was gazing at him so tenderly, Jae-hyun decided to show her a little mercy. It had nothing to do with compassion.
He rose from the throne prepared for the Emperor of the Dark Empire and approached the blind Estia.
The beautiful thirty-year-old woman with golden hair long enough to reach her waist and emerald-green eyes. The sight was exactly what one would imagine if Lynn were to grow up and become as beautiful as her mother.
Even though she was now blind and could no longer take care of herself, her appearance and hairstyle were remarkably neat, suggesting that someone had been taking care of her for a long time.
They were mother and daughter, yet their appearances were so alike that Estia herself was a breathtakingly beautiful woman of a level rarely seen in the world.
And that she resembled Lynn meant she also resembled Irene.
'She really is similar.'
The sight of Irene, once turned into a sex toy by Ferdinand, and the blind Estia now gave Jae-hyun a surprisingly similar feeling.
He found the woman's appearance deeply pleasing, as well as the hatred, despair, and resentment she would likely harbor toward him in the future. Yet at the same time, the sight of her in this blind state was distasteful to him.
Especially because her appearance evoked the feeling of Irene, and because it was the exact same state as pre-rescue Irene—a fact that heightened his irritation.
Instead of showing mercy toward the siblings for their sake, Jae-hyun reached out to lift Estia's chin in order to remove the cause of his displeasure.
"What a beautiful woman."
Interest—something that should not have existed in the Demon King's red eyes—flickered there. At the same time, Lynn realized it: the possessiveness in the way Jae-hyun was looking at her mother.
As his daughter, she was already his lover, yet to a Demon King such matters were nothing more than trivial concerns.
Ethical issues? Morality?
These things had no relevance to him, a demon and Demon King.
In the first place, the mutual respect among humans was rooted in fear of one another, while ethics and morality were merely logical constructs created by humans for their own coexistence and reproduction.
One should never treat demonic and human ways of thinking as identical. The fact was something that even Lynn, a black mage, understood with her own eyes. At best, because Jae-hyun had been born human and only changed into a demon, his way of thinking had adapted to demonic logic—yet he still retained a demonic being who understood humans from the memories of his human days.
"Hm."
Jae-hyun's hand began to stroke Estia's face, then slowly trailed downward, gently caressing her full breasts and hips in turn.
Irene watched this with a mixture of surprise and delight. That Jae-hyun should find interest in a woman other than herself was one thing, but the fact that the benchmark for her affection was herself made her heart swell with happiness.
It was not that she loved him single-mindedly while he loved only her; rather, she was confident that he cherished her, that she was indispensable to him. The fact that he desired the same type of woman as herself—women who resembled her appearance—proved even more that she was truly special to him.
And even though Jae-hyun's hand was shamelessly fondling their mother's body, neither Luan nor Lynn uttered a word, nor did they feel the slightest discomfort.
They loved their mother so deeply that they would have willingly offered her to the Demon King if only he had found her pleasing. The master-slave relationship between the Demon King and the beings of darkness transcended even the bonds of family.
"You are rather pleasing for a change."
Jae-hyun's cold and elegant face broke into a smile. Truly, a woman who was pleasing for once.
"Treat her spirit gently and stably. Lynn, since you brought me a woman I like, I will reward you richly tonight."
"Yes, Your Majesty the Demon King."
Lynn smiled radiantly at Jae-hyun, her face full of anticipation. Her daughter Seria, who shared her blood with Jae-hyun, was currently being cared for by the nurses along with Alaina, Irene's daughter, and the others.
Even if they were children of the Demon King's blood, they were still beings of the dark. From the moment they were born, they were unable to disobey the commands Jae-hyun had set.
Yet the Demon King's command was always absolute, even toward infants who lacked proper will. And Jae-hyun's gaze now turned to Luan.
"And Luan, it was truly well done to bring this woman with you along with Lynn. You achieved results far beyond what I expected. You also brought back the corpses of one hundred and twenty knights."
"...Yes."
Though he had also obtained quite a few corpses of angels intended to be turned into Death Angels, one hundred and twenty corpses for creating Death Knights would certainly become formidable power.
"And all the Gray Viscount's enemies have been captured. How do you intend to deal with them?"
"With the help of those among the demons who specialize in torture, I want them to suffer a pain from which they can never die."
Luan spoke honestly about what he wanted, and Jae-hyun smiled at his words.
"All of them?"
"Uniform torture is unfair. The one I and Lynn hate the most—Andrew! That man will suffer more than anyone else as long as I am strong! And I will keep him alive forever so he can continue to feel that pain!"
"Good. Then what about the Gray Viscount?"
"...I will make him suffer just as much as Andrew. He is the father of Andrew! He raised his son poorly and showed no remorse, protecting Andrew—that is the debt he will pay."
Jae-hyun chuckled at Luan's words.
"Hehe."
It was the sound of laughter he could not quite suppress, as if something about the situation was amusing. Yet his lips kept spreading into a smile, and no matter how hard he covered his mouth with his hand, the laughter refused to be held back.
"Good. Luan, Lynn."
"Yes."
The siblings answered in unison.
"In any case, those of the Gray Viscount's family will never be able to commit suicide. They know that even death would only mean their souls would suffer endless torment."
One of the greatest fears when fighting against the Forces of Darkness was exactly this.
Defeating the Forces of Darkness would not necessarily mean killing them. If unlucky, they might become undead—Death Knights—and suffer eternal torment as souls bound to the living. Demons also delighted in taking human souls and toying with them, and they especially enjoyed tormenting souls in particularly cruel ways.
"The suffering they endure will be broadcast across the entire continent. Prepare for it. Those under me who have pleased the Demon King will receive rewards fitting for their service."
In other words, Jae-hyun's words were a promise to help with their revenge. At those words, Lynn smiled brightly and pressed herself into Jae-hyun's embrace.
"Thank you, Your Majesty~"
Lynn's tone might have seemed rude to some, yet she was permitted such behavior. As the woman who resembled Irene and had awakened obsessive affection in Jae-hyun, she was entitled to special treatment.
Irene, the Demon King's favorite—his main wife—watched the scene with a thoughtful gaze.
'The entire continent will soon be filled with supporters.'
Seeing Jae-hyun broadcast the suffering of the Gray Viscounts across the continent in the near future, Irene had already foreseen the repercussions.
Up to this point, Jae-hyun had not spread the truth of his betrayal across the continent; the matter had been known only to the people of the old Holy Kingdom of Astraea.
He was waiting for the perfect moment to expose this truth to the entire continent.
The ancient hero Yu Ji-ho had appeared, though his arrival had not yet been announced to the continent. He was already gathering sacred artifacts from the north, and soon he would demonstrate the power befitting an ancient hero.
And a demon was needed as a sacrifice to help launch the ancient hero.
More precisely, among the subordinates, one powerful and notorious demon who would willingly die.
It did not even have to be a demon, so Jae-hyun had initially considered Luan as the sacrifice. If the results were unsatisfactory, he would use Luan's notoriety to present him as a victim to the ancient hero.
But by bringing Estia—the woman he liked—Jae-hyun had been satisfied. Thanks to that, Luan had been spared his life without even realizing it.
'Ungkor, Baros, and that Mastema fellow are too valuable to discard'
Especially Mastema, who had tastes that even the Incubus King Baros and the Demon King himself could not understand; Jae-hyun kept him as a secret weapon for revenge against Karl Tenant and could never discard him.
Yet Jae-hyun recalled the perfect sacrifice in an instant.
If no one was available, he could simply create one now. There existed beings born for exactly that purpose.
Where could better sacrifices be found than the children born from the relationship between the Gale Sword Emperor William and his great-granddaughter Sophia?
At that time, he would expose the truth of his betrayal to the continent. First, he would reveal the Gray Viscount's appearance across the entire continent before the ancient hero fully emerged, gaining three benefits at once.
"Then, Irene. Hold onto this woman for a moment."
"Yes, I will."
Irene answered Jae-hyun's order to take Estia, and Jae-hyun told Luan and Lynn, "Follow me," and headed toward the place where the Gray Viscount's family was imprisoned.
Luan and Lynn immediately trailed behind Jae-hyun. Upon arriving at the location of the imprisoned members of the Gray Viscount's family, Jae-hyun looked at the Gray Viscount among the prisoners and smiled coldly.
"I simply passed by, but you recognized me, didn't you? Gray Viscount."
"Y-Your... M-Majesty..."
The Gray Viscount, who had instantly recognized Jae-hyun and spoken his title aloud, added "Your Majesty" out of fear.