259. The Pure White Blood Demon
259. The Pure White Blood Demon
- 1 -
The southern lands of Hysen, now the Orbis Duchy.
In a clearing deep in the forest where sunlight poured down, a woman stood.
"This is where I was born again..."
Shue spoke in a whisper, her languid, half-closed eyes curving softly.
Her silver hair spread out beneath the midday sun.
The way her red eyes slowly closed and opened again was like that of an elegant beast of prey.
I turned my head from her and looked around.
Beyond the thick underbrush, I sensed no presence at all.
But...
"The presence of a dungeon lord is here."
Shue drew a curve at the corner of her mouth.
A quiet amusement lingered in her red eyes.
Not the look of a predator that had found prey, but as if she were meeting an old friend.
'Of course, they probably aren't really friends.'
If that were the case, there would have been no reason not to have introduced me by now.
"Yes. They are likely living well-hidden somewhere now..."
"Is he the object of your grudge?"
On a sudden guess, I asked, and Shue shook her head.
"He might certainly have been an enemy back then... but not anymore."
"Not anymore?"
"Yes."
It was an unexpected answer.
Nodding firmly, she approached me and began to escort me.
"When I first perceived the world, I was already alone..."
Shue took my hand and led me into the deep forest.
A forest where all beasts had fallen silent due to her presence and mine.
Only the sunlight seeping through the leaves greeted us.
"There are beings in this world born receiving the power of the stars."
"The power of the stars, you say."
"Yes... and."
Her face was serene then.
At the very least, it seemed she harbored no unresolved grudges.
I began listening with somewhat greater peace of mind, but I also soon realized that was a misconception.
"What I was born with, it seems they called the Heavenly Slaughter Star on the Western Continent."
The sunlight stretched our shadows long. And so, Shue's story began.
- 2 -
"The Heavenly Slaughter Star..."
The name was very familiar.
So much so that I could roughly guess the trajectory of her life without even hearing what came next.
"As expected, you seem to know something...?"
"Was it like that back then too?"
"Yes. It was... Back then, I thought you must have heard the stories somewhere, Master. But it seems that wasn't the case. It's not a story one would commonly hear..."
Still holding my hand, Shue faced me and began walking backward.
Her face still wore a soft expression.
In contrast to the grimness of what she was saying.
"I began perceiving the world in a forest of the Demon Realm. I was born a beast, and I lived like a beast."
The trajectory of her life was easy to imagine.
The Heavenly Slaughter Star was a being commonly considered a star that granted power accompanied by a frenzy where killing intent surged to the marrow of one's bones.
"From the moment I was born, I was starved for blood... killing and devouring other creatures was a destined fate."
Her voice as she recounted it was still serene.
"First, beasts, then monsters, and later even demons. I killed and devoured countless beings... Eventually, I was no longer a mad werewolf; blood itself became my name."
Shue.
In the language of China or the Shin country, that word meant 'blood.'
"Naturally, I would have been a nuisance to the demons..."
The demons of this world were a type of primate possessing a civilized world.
There was no way they would welcome Shue, a being who shook society.
"They must have tried to kill you."
"They did."
She took out a handkerchief and spread it over a rock.
When I sat upon it, she sat on a rock lower than mine and lay her head on my thigh.
I caressed her white ears and slowly stroked her long hair.
"But you didn't die."
"Yes... I was lucky. It seems there was an opinion to send me to the surface."
"It must have been because many dungeon lords on the surface were being raised for slaughter or were dying off."
"That's right..."
Dungeon lords were made by giving a dungeon core to a child of the Demon Realm and sending them to the surface.
Though it was often said the forms of the children made that way were those of adults from the moment of birth, the reality was that they were still children.
To save those children, they would have tried various methods from the Demon Realm.
"It wasn't a very effective method... Because once I was sent to the surface, I devoured not just humans but dungeon lords too."
"You would have."
A being maddened and rampaging with bloodlust would never have distinguished between enemy and ally.
She likely devoured many humans since there were plenty on the surface, but the very idea of sparing dungeon lords probably never crossed her mind.
"How much time passed...? Not long after coming to the surface, I had killed and devoured hundreds of humans and nearly ten dungeon lords."
Shue raised her arm and looked at her palm.
The sunlight illuminated her pale hand.
"Before I knew it, I had become the most harmful being in the central region of the Eastern Continent. So..."
I took her hand and lowered it. Her hand was warm.
"Several dungeon lords who had been working in secret gathered, as did heroes from various kingdoms on the surface. Even though I was just an ordinary elite-grade monster at the time."
By now, not even the sound of insects could be heard around us.
Though there was no killing intent in Shue's voice, the atmosphere emanating from her body still plunged the forest into silence.
"Many adventurers and monsters surrounded and pursued me. Among them was the one who hides nearby now..."
Her red gaze turned toward the deep forest.
Toward that dungeon lord hiding somewhere.
"But that's not really important... Because the being I was able to meet then..."
A smile hung at the corner of her lips, and both her eyes turned to me.
"...was you, Master."
Pure happiness was contained within them.
- 3 -
"The place where I met you back then, Master, was over there."
Shue pointed to the spot she had excavated a little while ago.
A place where the ground, full of underbrush, had been roughly dug up.
It was a scene that would make any forest ranger scream, but to the current Shue, it was merely a scene that brought back memories.
"How did you happen to be there?"
"I had used up almost all the power I had gathered, and I felt I had to at least try that to survive... And it worked better than I thought."
It seemed that neither the adventurers nor the monsters had been able to find Shue at the time.
The adventurers couldn't sense Shue's killing intent because of the presence of the monsters sent by the dungeon lords.
The monsters, she said, lacked the ability to detect the hiding Shue in the first place.
"But Master found me..."
She slightly raised herself and looked up at my face.
Under the sunlight, her eyes flickered blood-red.
The emotion contained there was not killing intent, but a yearning for past memories and joy in the present.
"I'm curious about our first meeting. Tell me about it."
"The truth is..."
Shue smiled bashfully.
"It wasn't such a wonderful meeting..."
"Wasn't it?"
"Yes... I was a complete mess, a wild animal feeling death for the first time in my life, and Master was the strongest being among the surface dungeon lords I had ever seen..."
I continued stroking her head.
Sunlight seeped between her well-groomed white hair, shattering into rainbow colors.
"Hearing that, it seems it was after quite some time had passed."
"Yes."
She affirmed my guess.
"By then, Evangeline and Ran were already at your side, Master... Quite a few monsters and humans too... and Lady Sonia was there as well."
Shue gently closed her eyes.
Her white hair rippled slowly in the wind.
"Back then, I never imagined we would have this kind of relationship..."
I caressed her forehead.
Her breath, filled not with cold killing intent but with comfort, flowed toward me and scattered.
"Master's power was so immense... and so, I tried to run away at first."
The daylight illuminated her white skin.
Leaning against my touch, she continued her story.
"It was Master who took me in then..."
A low voice tinged with longing.
Letting out a voice like a sigh, she burrowed even deeper into my embrace.
"Master helped me learn to control my frenzy."
A being who had once been stained by frenzy and dyed everything around her in blood.
Yet now, she simply sat beside me, displaying her characteristic languor and elegance.
Unless in the midst of battle, I would never see the form she had in those days again.
"You helped me tame the power within you."
"Yes. It wasn't simply ramping it up or locking it away."
Her eyes, having paused for a moment, became blurry before sharpening again.
As if she had gone to examine some point in the past.
"You made me strong so that I could draw out my power and use it when I wanted..."
I stroked her back while she buried her face in my arms.
It looked as though she might be crying, but I felt no moisture.
"From then on, I was not alone."
Lifting her head, she rose from her seat and grasped my hand.
I jumped down from the rock and stood on the ground, then walked out with her escorting me.
"And at the time, my heart was simple. I wanted to make you happy, Master, you who had shown me a new path."
I patted her waist.
She held her body confidently, but kept casting glances back and forth between me and the path ahead.
Like a girl watching for the reaction of the one she loved.
"To me, Master was like a mother... teaching me the way and meaning of life..."
Her voice faded.
"And so, in this life, I became not the Heavenly Slaughter Star, but a blood demon. That foundation was built for me by the Master of the first round. Without you, Master, I would have simply died as a beast..."
"Shue."
"Master was my first mother, my first teacher, my first friend, my first benefactor, and..."
Though I felt the presence of a monster ahead discovering us and slowly approaching, Shue ignored it and looked at me.
"...the one and only love of my life."
On her face hung a smile that resembled the light of midday.
- 4 -
Shue and I advanced, dealing with the approaching monsters.
At the end of that path was the lord of the monsters that had been hiding in this region.
"Uh... How did you find me...?"
It had the appearance of an Orc Great Chieftain, but it was not an ordinary monster—it was a dungeon lord.
A body far more developed than an average orc, and magical power overflowing far beyond.
A high-grade dungeon lord, at the least.
But it fell far short of the current Shue.
She had broken through this dungeon alone and forced him to kneel before me.
He, too, was one of the dungeon lords who had cornered her in her past life.
"You would have already known this territory is my domain. Your mistake was daring to attempt to hide."
"Don't tell me, you..."
The Great Chieftain wore a shocked expression.
After giving him a simple nod, I turned my gaze to my woman.
"Shue. What do you want to do?"
"I..."
Shue gripped the orc's head in her hand.
And when he stiffened with fear and watched her every move, she gently removed her hand.
"I hold no grudge against him..."
Shue spoke with a subtle smile. Her gaze turned toward me.
"Truthfully, shouldn't I be the one who's sorry...?"
The gentle affection contained in her last words lingered in the air.
He seemed to have no idea what she meant, but neither Shue nor I paid him any mind.
I chuckled and said,
"Thinking about it, he really was just someone who got caught up in it."
She nodded, still with a languid air.
In her former life, he had simply been swept up in the beast-like slaughter she committed and responded accordingly, and in this life, he was truly nothing more than a pure victim.
Of course, from the moment I had stained this region with my power, his failure to make a quick decision was purely his own fault.
Not in the sense that he had wronged me, but in that he failed to make a swift decision regarding his own survival.
"Come pay your respects to me soon."
"Yes, yes...!"
Leaving the Orc Great Chieftain, who was smashing his head against the floor on the spot, I was escorted by Shue once more and walked out of the dungeon.
I walked upon my shadow, and she walked upon the blood-stained path she had made.
Looking at each other, with happiness hanging at the corners of our lips.
"Master..."
"Just a moment... Shue."
Under the sunlight that pierced through the forest trees and shone down, our shadow was one.
- 5 -
Flying through the sky was always an activity that refreshed the heart.
"We have nearly arrived. Master."
Kamaya, having spread her giant wings, spoke.
Her wings parted the clouds with a subtle sound.
When I asked her to bring me to where Evangeline was, she willingly nodded.
Though I could fly using my own power, experiencing flight this fast and intense was difficult.
"Thank you for carrying me. Kamaya."
"You need not say such a thing. Master."
The Harpy Queen bowed deeply at the waist in greeting.
Her giant red wings parted the sky once more, and she disappeared far into the distance.
I turned my steps toward the inside of the fortress.
Peolleok!
Under the sunset sky, a blue cloak fluttered wildly as it met the wind.
"You have come, Master."
Having sensed my approach without any prior sign, she turned her body gracefully, her blue cloak fluttering.
The red light illuminated her profile.
The name I had given her was Evangeline.
Once a human hero, she was now a knight who belonged only to me.
Her green eyes sparkled in the glow of the sunset.
"Let us go."
"Very well."
Today, roughly another month after my date with Shue, I had come here to hear the last story.
"Then, this way."
Eve approached me, kissed the back of my hand without hesitation, and began her escort.
Toward the highest place in the fortress.