A Mother's Warmth
I had given up on reuniting with my mother. Or rather, I had abandoned the dream entirely. It had once been her everything, the sole goal that defined her life: to bring her dead mother back. To achieve that, she—a promising human mage—had chosen the path of the demon race, devouring knowledge and power with every fiber of her being. Yet after all that suffering, what she created was nothing more than an empty shell in her mother’s likeness. A being incapable of speech or movement, little more than an exquisitely crafted doll. And in completing that failure, Sena finally understood. The dead could never return. The only thing she could hold in her hands was this hollow Dutch Mother.
That must have been when it started. Her already cruel nature grew even more unhinged. For half a year now she had slept while clutching that empty doll, her ruined personality laid completely bare. But in this moment, as she nursed from the magical breasts she had conjured with that same hollow affection as always, a miracle unfolded before Sena’s eyes.
“Th-this can’t be…”
The doll—no, her mother—suddenly moved, calling her name. Even as she witnessed it with her own two eyes, Sena couldn’t tell if this was a dream. She reached out with trembling fingers toward the “mother” whose eyes, motionless for half a year, were now blinking.
“M-mom…? Are you… are you really… really my mom?”
“…Ah… well… that is…”
The other party showed a hint of bewilderment. Yet even that reaction felt like an overwhelming surge of emotion to Sena, who had longed for even the slightest movement from her.
“Mom… Mom!”
“Ah…”
Sena buried herself deep in her mother’s embrace. What she felt next was… warm body heat. Hearing the heart that had once been mere decoration finally beating, Sena imprinted that longed-for warmth across her entire body.
“Hic… hic… ughhh…! I missed you… I missed you so, so much… Mom…”
Emotions welled up from the depths of her chest. Longing. Joy. And… sorrow. The loneliness and pain she had carried for twenty years since her mother’s death came crashing over her all at once. She wept in her warm mother’s arms.
The mother who held Sena while still openly baring her breasts… or, to be precise, I—Choi In-im—now possessing the body of the Dutch Mother that had been nothing but an empty shell… was breaking into a cold sweat trying to make sense of this absurd situation.
The biggest immediate problem was Sena. She had buried her face in my chest—those heavy, still-unfamiliar lumps of flesh that I honestly hadn’t gotten used to yet—while sobbing and calling me “Mom.” The sight truly resembled a child reuniting with her mother. But as I watched her like this, the person who had become “Mom” was feeling a very real threat to my life in real time.
Sena was the final boss of the original story, the strongest being in this world by any reasonable measure. Though she was a growth-type boss, it was highly likely she hadn’t yet reached the absolute power she possessed in the original work. Judging by the weapons and accessories at her waist, we probably hadn’t even left the early stages of the story. Of course, that was still more than enough to crush me to death. At the same time, because I knew the original plot, I was well aware of just how utterly broken and insane this girl crying so innocently in my arms truly was.
A ruthless tyrant who would turn even her own subordinates into nothing but “sub” and “ordinate” if they so much as displeased her. This was my second life, gained in an incredibly bizarre way, and I had zero desire to be torn apart in agony.
…Damn it… I don’t have a choice. For now, I’ll just play along and act like a proper mother.
In the original story, Sena had never given up on her mother’s empty body until the very end. Given how obsessed she was with her mother right up to her death, the chances of her suddenly blowing my head off were low—so long as the “truth” didn’t come out. Even so, the vivid threat to my life had me sweating bullets. I cautiously reached out and gently stroked the head of the “daughter” in my arms. It felt like petting a nuclear bomb.
How much time passed like that? Sena, who had finally calmed down, began to speak in detail about everything she had gone through while nestled in “Mom’s” embrace.
“…I see. You turned into a demon to bring me back…”
“Yeah. Honestly, after you didn’t move for half a year, I thought it was a complete failure, but…”
“Still… you worked so hard. To go that far just to save this mother of yours. I knew our daughter had incredible tenacity, but I never imagined this.”
“Hehe…”
Fortunately, my knowledge of Sena’s life was more than enough to respond appropriately as her “resurrected mother.” As the final boss and a fairly popular character, the original work had given her quite detailed settings, and her related stories carried considerable weight.
“So, does our Sena still hate bell peppers?”
“…Ah… um… that is… well… yeah… I still hate them.”
“Hehe, even after growing this much, that part of you hasn’t changed at all.”
“Mmm…”
Details only her real mother would know. By casually dropping them, I worked hard to erase any lingering doubts that might remain in her heart. Thankfully the tactic worked; Sena’s eyes grew brighter and brighter as she looked at me. While I felt relief on the inside, Sena—now seemingly free of even the last traces of suspicion—continued sharing her story.
From the massacres she had carried out on the battlefield to the special missions she undertook to rise to the position of demon lord. Hearing those parts of the original story that had only been briefly mentioned or omitted, spoken in her own vivid words, I gradually began to find the situation somewhat interesting despite everything.
But then…
“So… right now I’m still receiving support from the high-ranking demons, but honestly… I’m starting to like them less and less.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah… At first they helped me out when I had no connections, but now they’re clearly trying to use me. Not long ago they even tried to negotiate with those filthy elves who killed Mom.”
“My goodness… that really is too much. They knew full well how much our daughter hates them and still did something like that.”
“In the end I killed all the envoys they sent, but then they gave me an earful about it. Seriously… who’s the lord here, anyway? I went under them at first thinking I could climb higher, but looking back now, that was a mistake.”
Sena’s words carried genuine sincerity. On the surface it might have sounded like ordinary workplace complaining, but to me in this moment, it was an incredibly important story.
From what she had told me so far, the current point in time was indeed the very beginning of the original story. This was the period when Sena was still just one of the lords, before she became the Demon Emperor who ruled over all demonkind. The problem was that a conflict between Sena and the high-ranking demons—something never depicted in the original—was now clearly visible.
In the original work, Emperor Sena had been the very picture of a cruel and merciless tyrant. Both enemies and fellow demons feared her without exception, and their behavior was driven far more by terror than loyalty. She was a conqueror who wielded absolute power and strength without hesitation. Yet that very brutality eventually led to betrayal by her own subordinates, resulting in her downfall. It was the miserable end of a conqueror who had ruled through fear and war rather than politics. As someone whose original profession had been politics, I found it both absurd and deeply regrettable.
And right now, the conflict with the high-ranking demons that Sena had just mentioned in connection with that future… made me sense a single possibility.
Though she was clearly discontent and wavering, Sena was still willing to listen to others. On top of that, she was already pouring out every single truth to me—her “mother”—without any filtering. Voluntarily revealing one’s inner thoughts to someone meant wanting to rely on them emotionally. If that someone was her “resurrected mother,” it was an extremely natural instinct. Especially for Sena, who had shown clear signs of affection deficiency throughout the original story.
The most powerful tyrant in existence, whose reins had not yet been completely loosened. And those reins were now in my hands. Moreover, we were at a point where the original story’s major events had not yet begun in earnest. After organizing my thoughts that far, I naturally arrived at one conclusion… a conclusion tied to the dream that had ended in failure in my previous life.
This… if I play my cards right, I might be able to swallow everything whole.
Seize Control of the Demon Kingdom
…It feels… good…
After pouring out all the complaints she had never been able to share with anyone for so long, Sena felt a deep sense of relief. She hadn’t really expected any concrete solutions from the conversation. No matter how much of a mother she was, there was no way someone who had just come back to life could offer anything useful, right? The important thing was that she finally had someone she could open her heart to. That fact alone brought her profound comfort, and she basked in the warmth of her mother’s body that she could still feel.
At that moment.
“You’ve been through so much, my daughter. To think you suffered like that because of this mother…”
Mother’s gentle hand slowly stroked her head. It was more than a simple caress; it felt like it was soothing even her exhausted heart. Sena felt as if her already melted heart was dissolving even further.
Mother leaned close to Sena’s ear. The ticklish sensation deep in her chest made Sena flinch slightly.
“If it’s all right with you… would this mother help you a little?”
“…Eh?”
Mother’s voice slipped into her ear. It was full of kindness, yet carried an undeniable sense of trust. Sena carefully turned her head and looked up at her mother’s chest—no, at her face.
“Help me… do you have some kind of method?”
“Of course I do. A way to make those arrogant fools kneel before our daughter without daring to utter a single word.”
“Wh-what is it?”
“Well, you see…”
Advice from Mother that had come completely out of nowhere when she hadn’t expected anything at all. Yet the words that followed were so compelling that even Sena, who knew almost nothing about this sort of thing, found herself nodding.
It seemed extremely simple, yet its effect was anything but. Sena’s eyes sparkled even brighter than before as she tightly grasped her mother’s hand.
“I… I understand. I’ll do exactly as Mom says.”
“Hehe, good. Do your best, my… daughter.”
“!”
The slight expectation in Mother’s voice. The moment she heard it, a certain emotion began to bloom inside Sena’s heart. A desire, one could call it. Something she had forgotten for far too long. Something every person possessed, yet had come to her quite late. Feeling it stir, Sena clenched her fist where no one could see.
Once I succeed… Mom will praise me, right?
Looking at her mother’s still-bare chest, a quiet anticipation echoed through Sena’s heart.