Who's Your Mother?
The door opened.
Juin Marcus stepped into the assembly hall.
The new Emperor William rose from the throne.
His voice thundered through the silence-choked chamber.
"We meet again, traitor!"
Startled, Satin clung to Juin's arm and hid behind him.
Every eye turned toward Juin Marcus.
The hall, thick with the stench of blood, sank into a heavy silence.
Satin stared up at the palace with her mouth hanging open.
Wow, it's so huge and magnificent.
When she came back to her senses, she was standing before the human palace. She had always known she would come here someday, but never like this.
She had imagined arriving as a sovereign, side by side with her father, to rule over the humans.
Her mother had always said the same thing.
"The human world will be yours. This damp continent of Magi is no place for my daughter."
But her father was gone now.
She had been torn away from her mother's side as well.
What happened to Mother in the Demon Realm after the Demon King died?
Satin's eyes reddened again.
She snuck a glance up at Juin Marcus's face. No matter how she looked at him, he was nothing like ordinary demons. Was it because he had lived hidden among humans? Or was it because he looked like this that he could pass for one?
She quietly sniffed his scent.
The noble-class demonic aura she had first sensed was gone.
Well, of course. If he still had it, he would have been found out long ago. He never could have walked into the human palace like this.
Once Lord Marcus revives Father, everything will go back to normal.
Mother.
Just wait a little longer.
I'll work hard with Lord Marcus.
Please stay alive and unhurt until then. I can't go on if I lose you too.
"Let's go in."
Lord Marcus took Satin's hand.
The palace entrance was a hive of activity.
The moment the guards saw Lord Marcus's face, they scrambled into motion. Something important was clearly happening inside. Every face was taut with tension, and they kept glancing sideways at him.
And at her face as well.
Satin hid her face behind Juin Marcus's back.
What if they catch me and kill me?
I've heard demon girls are popular as slaves.
No, wait.
I'm already Lord Marcus's slave, aren't I?
Right. That's why he's pretending I'm his slave. So I can relax. I just have to trust Lord Marcus.
The Demon King's daughter Satin peeked out from behind Juin's back, only her head showing.
The assembly hall doors opened, and the imperial court came into view.
So that's the human king!
He's so young?
I heard he was an old man with a thick beard and lots of wrinkles.
The young emperor shouted toward Juin Marcus.
"We meet again, traitor!"
Satin flinched and ducked fully behind Juin.
The emperor slowly descended the steps, then kicked the head lying on the floor.
It rolled and tumbled until it stopped right in front of Satin.
Ugh, disgusting.
That's a demon's head. There's a horn on its forehead. Even dead, I can still feel the Magi.
But it's just an ordinary demon.
Why is a head like this rolling around in the human palace?
"The coward fled, but I slew the Demon King. Even without you, we sacked the Demon King's Castle. Are you ready to atone for your treason?"
That king killed Father?
"The Empire asks you: what punishment will you accept for the crime of betraying me and running away? In consideration of the bond we once shared as comrades, I will show mercy and let you decide your own sentence."
Why is the king treating Lord Marcus like that?
Did they find out?
It did not seem so. The king was clearly treating Marcus as a human.
"Why so silent? Has the sight of the Demon King's head rolling at your feet driven you mad?"
The Demon King's head?
This thing?
Satin's eyes went round as she stared at the head on the floor.
This is Father?
What nonsense is that?
Looking closer, it did resemble him a little.
But it was definitely not her father.
Juin Marcus was also staring quietly at the demon's head.
Satin clung to Juin's arm and looked up.
Lord Marcus, why are these people acting like this?
This isn't our dad.
Juin's expression shifted, subtle and strange.
Then he slowly raised his head toward the human king.
Hero William.
Even a fool like him couldn't fail to recognize the Demon King.
Juin turned his gaze toward the mage Liris.
Don't tell me she believes this is the Demon King too?
Saintess Helena spoke.
"Great Alchemist Juin Marcus. How does this scene strike you? You never imagined it, did you? In the end, we killed the Demon King."
You too?
Juin swept his eyes around the hall.
There was not a flicker of doubt on the High Priest's face.
The Archmage was the same.
Their eyes were far too honest to belong to co-conspirators in some grand fraud.
Attitude could be faked, but mana could not be hidden.
Their mana flowed steady and unwavering in a single direction.
Did they deceive even their own hearts?
But the concentration of mana was far too weak for that. Magic of that scale would never be possible with mana this thin.
Look at this.
William leveled the Holy Sword at Juin.
"You should start by kneeling before your new emperor. If you dare rely on that famous skill of yours and think of treason again—"
William's eyes flashed brighter than the chandeliers overhead.
"—every kingdom, every knight, and every mage under the Empire will unite to punish you."
The old emperor was dead.
William had cut off the emperor's head himself and taken the throne.
"Why did you kill His Majesty?"
"I thought about keeping him as a puppet, but I changed my mind. In case the ones who followed him got any clever ideas."
Is that even possible just because he claims to have killed the Demon King?
Juin slowly studied the faces of everyone gathered in the hall. Their pupils were faintly unfocused.
He approached Saintess Helena.
She did not step back.
"William killed the Demon King?"
"You're looking right at it. The Demon King's head is rolling on the floor."
"Look again. Is that really the Demon King's head?"
"What are you doubting right now? With the Archmage and the High Priest present? Do you think we would pull a scam with a fake Demon King's head?"
"Say it with your own mouth. Did William really kill the Demon King?"
"I saw it! I saw it, Liris saw it, even Bella clearly saw the Demon King die! And as proof we brought the head right there! For a Great Alchemist, you can't even recognize the Demon King when you see him?"
That's because I am a somewhat Great Alchemist.
Even at a glance, that's just an ordinary demon's head.
A low sigh slipped from Juin Marcus's lips.
Something absurd has happened.
The mage Liris walked toward him as well.
"Kneel before the new emperor. The world has changed. No matter how much of a fuss you make alone, it will do you no good. The Magic Department, the priesthood, even the saintesses have all sworn loyalty to the new emperor."
Juin looked around the hall.
There were quite a few people capable of powerful magic.
Dozens of them fell under it at the same time?
This is the act of killing an emperor and raising a new power. The nobles with tangled interests are one thing, but mages, priests, and saintesses all submitting in a single moment—is that even possible?
Just from that idiot William's presence?
Anyone who thought for even a second would know better.
If the Demon King were truly dead, the opposite should have happened.
Hero William's usefulness would have vanished completely.
There was only one answer.
Juin Marcus lifted Satin into his arms.
"There's something I want to ask."
He brought his ear close to Satin's lips.
"Did your mother use her power, by any chance?"
Satin's small, soft lips brushed against Juin's ear.
"I think so."
Juin held Satin out in front of him and looked into her face.
The roundabout question had returned an outrageous answer.
I never imagined this.
So the mistress of the Demon Realm wasn't a demon after all.
This power was Dream (Illusion).
The ability to cast countless people into the same dream at once.
If this was Dream, then there could be only one possible owner of that power.
The Demon King's wife was the Succubus Queen?
There was a reason he had never even imagined it.
Demons hated dream-demons.
Every history book in the Empire recorded it that way.
The wars between demons and dream-demons numbered in the dozens.
Demons hunted dream-demons, and dream-demons took revenge on demons. They were races that could never coexist—and yet.
The Demon King married a dream-demon and even had a princess with her?
How was anyone supposed to imagine that?
William came stomping down the stairs.
"From this moment, every Magic Tower in the Empire will be managed by Archmage Liris."
William's Holy Sword scraped along the marble floor.
"From this moment, all citizenship in the Empire will be issued through Saintess Helena's Adult Ceremony."
William narrowed his eyes and glared at Juin's face.
"From this moment, I will pass judgment on the traitor Juin Marcus."
The silence in the hall grew even heavier.
"I will spare you the chopping block. I, Emperor William, hereby strip Juin Marcus of his title and confiscate his territory. From this instant, Juin Marcus is a dead man. No one in the Empire may look upon him or speak to him. He will become a being who is there and yet not there."
A smile rose at the corner of Juin Marcus's mouth.
Jackpot.
So that's how this plays out.
If the queen of the Demon Realm is the Succubus Queen—
Then this child?
Juin looked into the eyes of the girl in his arms.
In Satin's jewel-clear pupils, his own face was reflected.