The Demon Wearing Her Face
Watching the male demon reappear alongside Ryeonhwa, I noticed a subtle undercurrent flowing between the two of them. But… was it just my imagination, or did the male demon, showing me his back, actually seem to be trembling with fear…? Or could something have happened between them while I wasn't looking—something after he ran off? A chill ran down my spine. Before my questions could linger, Ryeonhwa drew her sword again, announcing the resumption of battle.
"AAAAAGH—!!"
As if fleeing were no longer an option, the male demon let out a shriek and threw himself desperately at Ryeonhwa. A clash much like the one before unfolded—but this time, different from the start, the male demon began to be pushed back, slowly but surely. Desperation, impatience, panic, dread. Emotions so varied and so extreme that no demon should have been capable of them filled the male demon's face.
Thud!
"Gghk… khhak…!!"
At last, the male demon collapsed in front of me, his entire body carved open with terrible wounds, moaning in agony. He fell at my feet as though prostrating himself in apology, and with a face smeared in blood, desperately stretched his hand toward me.
"Sa…ve… me… ple…ase…"
Clear terror and dread radiated from the eyes that met mine. The being that had only moments ago worn a leisurely smile while fishing me up from a predator's position was nowhere to be found. What could terrify that male demon so completely? Fear of death? Or…
Thwack!
The outstretched hand was struck by the knife Ryeonhwa threw and nailed to the ground.
"——!!"
In an instant, a horrific scream echoed through the mountains like a reverberation. The male demon's eyes rolled back as he writhed in pain, then his head slumped lifelessly and he passed out. …Is he dead?
"He's not dead. That demon mustn't die yet. He hasn't paid for his sins in full."
When Ryeonhwa approached and held out her hand to help me up, I took it in a daze. Warmth passed through our clasped palms—the full, genuine heat of human skin pressed against human skin. The physical friction that only blood and flesh could produce proved beyond doubt that the hand holding mine belonged to a human.
"You're not hurt anywhere?"
When Ryeonhwa asked with concern as I rose to my feet, I felt a faint flicker of wrongness, however brief.
"Th… thanks to you… I'm… fine."
My heart was still pounding wildly from nearly being killed by the male demon, but with the situation resolved, I quickly steadied myself.
"Thank god. I was wrong about you."
Ryeonhwa continued with a tender smile. "You saved a human captured by a demon. That was something I should have done myself… something I should have prioritized… I'm sorry. And thank you."
The Ryeonhwa who came over and gently took my hand was brimming with a softness that made her seem like a completely different person.
"…Your hand… it's soft."
Ryeonhwa gazed at our joined hands with slightly unfocused eyes and asked, "Huh?"
"It's nothing."
A prickle of unease ran through me, and I tried to pull my hand away—but Ryeonhwa let go a beat faster and smiled as if nothing had happened.
"So, I should kill him after all?"
When Ryeonhwa looked down at the male demon sprawled on the ground and asked, I wondered why she was seeking my opinion on such a matter. Don't tell me… is she testing me?
"All suspicion against you has been cleared—the moment you saved a human from a demon, in fact. I'm only asking because I genuinely want to hear your thoughts, so feel free to speak your mind. I truly want to hear what you have to say."
Ryeonhwa spoke as if reading my thoughts, putting particular emphasis on those last words—what you have to say.
I couldn't tell why, but she seemed to be asking without any hidden agenda, so I answered haltingly, feeling my way through my thoughts. "Well… that feels like a heavy question for me to be judging, doesn't it? It's a matter of whether to kill a living being or spare it." Though, could a demon really be called a living being? Could it be equated with a human? I was briefly thrown into confusion, but what came out of my mouth was conventional and, on its face, undeniably the right answer.
"Still, we can't just leave him like that. Whether he lives or dies isn't for me to decide, but I don't think we can let him go free. He shouldn't be allowed to harm any more humans."
"So you don't want demons hurting people?"
"Isn't that obvious?"
I answered the question so obvious it bordered on absurd as if it were the most natural thing in the world. There were parts of me that had gone crooked and off-course because of my sister, but I didn't consider myself someone who had derailed from humanity. …Not yet, anyway. Which was why what I'd just said came from the mind of a normal human thinking what a normal human would think.
"Okay, I understand. I hear you clearly. Thank you for answering. Since we're on the subject, let me ask you a few more things—what do you want done with that woman?"
This time, Ryeonhwa gestured with her eyes toward Seohyun, collapsed on the ground where she had crumpled down while I was carrying her on my back. When she fell, her skirt had folded backward, leaving her underwear fully exposed. Looking at her legs splayed unguarded on either side and her ruined, bliss-drunk face, a shivering feeling rose from somewhere deep in my chest—then vanished.
"Seohyun… that woman… there's still feeling left in her, but if it was ultimately because of the demon, I don't think I can hate her. I'd like her to find her own life again, whole."
It wasn't a conclusion I'd reached out of noble magnanimity. The truth was that Seohyun had simply been used by the demon, so it wasn't as though I could hate her blindly and be done with it.
"Still, it doesn't change the fact that she did something vile to you?"
Ryeonhwa narrowed her eyes, her tone sharpening slightly. "That's…" I couldn't immediately say no. The humiliation Seohyun had inflicted on me at the university, and the emotions it had boiled up in me, were still vividly fresh.
Ryeonhwa silently waited for the answer that would follow—then suddenly smiled, as if a clever idea had struck her. There was something unsettling in that smile.
"The organization will alter Seohyun's memories. Don't worry—it only changes her memories of the demon. Even with her memories rewritten, she'll be able to return to an ordinary life. And at that time, the memories of your sister that you're worried about will be erased too. But… there may be… some lingering aftereffects. A very small amount."
"Aftereffects?"
The talk of memory manipulation startled me inwardly, and the mention of aftereffects worried me.
"No matter how careful we are, human memory and perception can never be stitched together perfectly. So she might experience some confusion from the reconstructed memories, but within a few months she'll adapt and live as she did before—so there's no need to worry. Still, I wanted to warn you in advance that there might be minor aftereffects. Unavoidable aftereffects."
Ryeonhwa looked down at Seohyun and, for some reason, kept stressing that the aftereffects were inevitable.
"All suspicion against you has been cleared. So you can go home now. There won't be any more surveillance on you or anything like that."
"What about her?"
"The organization will send people soon to clean up this place. You won't need to go through anything painful like this again."
Ryeonhwa spoke in a gentle, soothing voice, as if smoothing everything over. Unlike her first impression, was this considerate attitude toward me truly because of that one act of saving Seohyun? I had my doubts, but I decided a person's personality couldn't just flip upside down in an instant. After all, the human standing before me was, unmistakably, Ryeonhwa herself.
With the situation wrapped up so hastily and hollowly, an uncomfortable residue lingered, and I said I wondered if I should stay until the very end—but Ryeonhwa shook her head.
"Before you go, one last question. What do you think of me? What do you want me—Ryeonhwa—to do for you?"
Just as I was about to leave, Ryeonhwa suddenly asked. Again, it seemed like she was probing my intentions, but exhaustion was catching up with me, and part of me no longer wanted to keep being suspicious, so I answered without much thought.
"I don't need you to do anything, but I'd rather not…" I was about to say get entangled with you anymore when I froze. Everything I'd said so far had been a performance—the reaction any ordinary person unconnected to demons would have after stumbling into danger. But what was my true feeling? Hadn't I come here in the first place with a purpose of my own, despite being able to ignore all of it?
"Rather not… what?"
Ryeonhwa prompted me when I failed to finish. I hesitated for a moment, thinking of the other demon waiting at home, then steeled myself for rejection and asked.
"Nothing… it's just… could I… learn more about demons?"
"Of course."
…Huh? That's it? Before I could add any explanation, Ryeonhwa readily accepted what wasn't even much of a request, leaving me flustered. My question had been so vague that I'd genuinely worried about what form her acceptance would take.
"It's late, so head on home. Your family will worry."
I wanted to keep exchanging words about the many questions I had, but Ryeonhwa's mention of family reminded me how much time had passed. The thought that if I got home any later, my parents and my little sis… my family would worry made me anxious to leave.
"Dohyun."
Just as I nodded and hurriedly turned to head home, Ryeonhwa called out to me from behind.
"Thank you for telling me what you're thinking."
When I turned my head, Ryeonhwa was beaming. It was a smile I had never once seen from her in all the time I'd known her.
Watching his back as he left for home, a loneliness stirred in my heart. I would see him again at home anyway, and yet even tearing my eyes from him for a moment felt like a loss. Then, the moment he slipped out of sight, the excitement I had so painstakingly suppressed came surging back. Our clasped hands. Feeling that the touch and warmth of him still lingered on my palm, a lewd thought popped unbidden into my mind.
"P…please spa—"
Crunch!
I snapped back to myself and crushed the wretch's limbs as it pleaded for mercy beneath me in a single motion.
"GGKIIIIEEE—KHH!!"
The wretch's remaining body crumpled like paper being squeezed into a ball, making a grotesque sound. The being that had once been a living creature folded down to the size of a candy pellet, its physical form ignored entirely—and I lifted the shriveled thing up before my eyes and spoke.
"A shame, but I'll neither kill you nor spare you, just as he said. His word is absolute. So you'll remain neither dead nor alive, trapped in that place, feeling everything—in the little hell I've made for you."
"Ghhehhk…"
Another desperate scream seemed to escape the crumpled mouth, but it could no longer take proper shape.
Gulp.
I swallowed the ball down my throat and tucked it inside my body, returning the demon I'd spat out into the world to where it belonged. What remained was the human woman called Seohyun. It was true that I'd called the organization to handle the cleanup, and they would rewrite Seohyun's memories just as I'd said. Memories riddled with aftereffects—rewritings designed to make her atone to him.
A slow trickle… I realized my lower half was already damp, still thick with the aftershock I hadn't released earlier. My lust and love for him responded honestly even in this stolen body.
"Haah♥"
When I deliberately ran the hand he had held over the top of my damp leggings, a cry burst out of me like a snap.
And with it, I realized my burning body would never get past this without release.
"This woman's body isn't bad."
Learning just how well-developed the erogenous zones of the human woman called Ryeonhwa were, I decided to use this stolen body to slake my desire for him. Judging it a perfectly serviceable vessel for accepting sexual appetite, I also resolved to tool it up nicely so it could be put to his use later.
My lust for him reminded me, unbidden, of something in the memories of the woman I'd awoken in: there were photos of him on her phone. Scrolling through the pictures I'd secretly taken to surveil him, I sank down in the middle of the deserted road and gave myself over completely to masturbation, desperate for release.
Squelch, squelch…
"Dohyun! Hah…! I love you, Dohyun♥ I love youu♥"
Every time my fingers slid in and out of my slit while I stared at his picture, the sensitive flesh inside me twitched violently. The soaked arousal poured endlessly out of me each time my fingers pumped back and forth. The wet, squelching sound of fluids churning inside my cunt rang out obscenely in the empty darkness. The fuller my head became with thoughts of him, the louder the sounds of my self-pleasuring grew. The wetter my arousal became, the denser the lewd friction noises piled on top of each other, and with my mind consumed by nothing but him, I knew instinctively that this human body's lust had reached its end. At the same time, I felt the consciousness of the human called Ryeonhwa—the original owner of this flesh—slowly fusing into my own.
Psheeeeew!!
"Hiiik♥"
A jet of liquid burst from my cunt, arcing through the empty air. My head tipped back, and a scream-like cry tore out of me in reflex. With no room left to think of anything else, I kept touching myself with only him in my mind, until the body reached its limit and crumpled to the ground.
"I love youuu♥ Hehe… Yoon Dohyun, you're mine… I'll love you forever."
Even collapsed limp on the ground, my consciousness—drenched in love for him—remained pinned to his picture on the screen, fingers still idly stroking between my legs.