When I Got Home, an Elf and a Demon Princess Were Waiting
When I got home from school as usual that day, an elf and a demon girl were standing there.
“Huh? The ones who should be home are…”
The only people who should have been there were cute little Hunya, the Kasif girl with her brown wolf ears and tail, and my precious adoptive sister Yu Daye—the one person in the world more important to me than my own life, even if we weren’t related by blood.
“Suddenly seeing an elf and a demon… I must be more exhausted than I thought if I’m hallucinating now.”
I tried to ignore them and walk inside, but the moment I did, Hunya—who actually lived with us—fluffed her wolf-like tail straight up at the two visitors.
“Woo-kyaaaaak!”
That sound snapped me back to reality. Those two weren’t hallucinations after all.
Yu Daye, standing right beside Hunya, stared at them with sparkling, curious eyes before turning to me in a bright, bouncy voice.
“Oppa! An elf and a demon princess—both total beauties—came to our house just to see you! This is your big chance to build a beautiful-girl harem!”
I ignored Daye’s latest line that sounded like it came straight out of some weird manga and cautiously spoke to the two girls.
“Um… what brings you two to a shabby place like this?”
The moment the words left my mouth, Daisy roared in a voice that sounded ready to kill me on the spot.
“What brings us?! You’re seriously asking that?! I am the hero of dreams, Daisy! I came here to end the existence of Haru, the wicked demon god! Prepare yourself!”
Standing beside her, Sorcia gazed at me with the same heart-melting smile she always wore at school.
“Saint Haru-nim, savior of humanity and our people, welcome home. Is this humble dwelling the love nest where I shall serve you?”
“What?”
“Ah. It seems we forgot to present the documents.”
Tax obligations shall be fulfilled on your behalf.
Monthly living expenses in the amount of 2,000,000 won shall be provided.
This is a mandatory notification, not a request.
“But Haru-nim, you do remember us, don’t you?”
To Sorcia’s question I started to answer, “There’s no way I’d know people like—” but that would have been way too obvious a lie.
Sorcia’s smile told me she already knew my words were false. Daisy’s face was twisted with pure rage.
These two were my childhood friends. The ones I used to play hero with back when we were little.
The Demon King’s princess and the daughter of the Elf President had moved into my house and transferred to my school.
Not long after, the rumors about me hit rock bottom.
I thought it was because two non-human girls were following me around everywhere, but that wasn’t it.
“Haru-nim said all of you are insignificant creatures, lower than insects.”
It was because Sorcia had been boldly spreading fake news while using my name.
I tried to explain to everyone that Sorcia was mistaken, but it was already too late. Or maybe they were simply furious that I was monopolizing the two most beautiful girls in school—the only two non-human girls, at that—and decided to use it as an excuse to beat me up.
After running from the mob that was chasing me, I ended up at the Other Species Culture Research Club where Sorcia was resting.
When she saw me burst in, Sorcia pointed under the table she was sitting at, as if she had been expecting me. The second I crawled underneath, a knock sounded at the door. Sorcia calmly invited them in.
She sat there elegantly sipping tea, the very picture of a refined elf lady. The moment the others saw her beautiful smile, their faces flushed slightly. Then they remembered why they had come and spoke up, still breathing hard.
“Forgive us for disturbing your rest, Lady Sorcia! Has Haru come by here by any chance?!”
“No.”
“Excuse us!”
The sports club guys stormed off, one of them muttering under his breath, “Damn it, where the hell did that bastard run off to?”
What happened on the way home had spread to the rest of the students. I had become the public enemy of the entire school.
Countless kids were roaming the halls looking for me so they could beat me up. Sorcia had hidden me here under the pretense of protecting me.
That hiding spot was directly beneath her desk—where she was currently sitting.
I looked forward. There it was: something white and pretty, decorated with a delicate ribbon that looked nothing like the cheap underwear Hunya or Daye wore. It was the sacred territory no one was ever meant to approach in their lifetime.
If I kept staring any longer, my life would be over. I forced myself to look away.
“Haru-nim, everyone has left. You may come out now.”
At Sorcia’s gentle words I scrambled out. She turned to me with a smile full of affection.
“How did it feel?”
“I’m just glad they’re gone?”
“That is not what I meant. The maiden’s—”
She touched the hem of her skirt. So Sorcia… she knew I had seen.
“Sorcia, I’m sorry…!! I didn’t mean to look!”
“Hehe. It is quite all right. I deliberately showed you the preview for your sake, Haru-nim.”
“Preview…?”
“Since I will someday become your possession, consider it practice for when I become your woman.”
“What the hell are you even saying?!”
“Hehe. I am a girl too, Haru-nim. I know my duties as a woman, and while I would not call it full resolve, I have given the matter plenty of thought.”
“That’s impossible! First of all, I keep telling you I’m not a god. The things I said as a kid were complete nonsense!”
“No. You are a god, Haru-nim.”
“I’m telling you I’m reeeally not…”
“If that is what you wish to believe for now, I shall respect it. However, you must understand something. The colossal power sleeping inside you must be awakened. Only by returning to your true self can you save this world.”
What kind of crazy nonsense is this? …Wait. I was the one who said it, wasn’t I?
The moment the immense power inside me awakens, the world will change. Salvation… or destruction.
“What the hell did crazy little kid me even do?”
“By the way, Haru-nim, did my scent please you?”
“Huh? What scent?”
“The scent of my ‘place.’”
Heat shot all the way up to my ears in an instant.
“Did it offend you? Because I am a vulgar, filthy elf…”
“No! It smelled like flowers and it was incredible! So good I wanted to bury my nose in it and inhale as hard as I could… ah!”
I hadn’t meant to smell it, but it had been right in front of my face. I clapped a hand over my mouth too late. The damage was already done.
I expected Sorcia to look at me with utter disgust and spit out words of contempt.
Instead—
“Ufufu.”
She smiled even more brightly.
“I am delighted that my lowly body could satisfy you, Haru-nim.”
“...”
“For the record, I did not use any perfume.”
“...”
“The scent you smelled is the fragrance of my very soul.”
“H-hey, don’t say stuff like that!”
“Oh dear, have I flustered you? My apologies. Shall I prepare a drink to help you calm down?”
“A drink? Did you buy it at the convenience store…?”
“I did not buy it. I prepared it myself this morning while thinking of you, Haru-nim.”
She had gone to the trouble of making it for me. Refusing would have been rude, so I said,
“You really didn’t have to do that for someone like me… but I’ll gladly drink it!”
“Yes~”
She answered happily, pulled a small bottle from her pocket, and offered it to me.
“It is apple juice. Would you care to try it?”
It was weird that she was suddenly giving me apple juice, but suspecting people for no reason is a bad habit. Besides, she had made it specifically for me. I couldn’t turn it down.
The moment I took a sip, sweet apple flavor filled my mouth, followed by the refreshing scent of a forest.
What kind of apples were these to taste so sweet? And that forest aroma—how should I describe it? A slightly alien yet intoxicatingly rich floral fragrance lingered on my tongue.
It was a flower scent I had smelled somewhere before.
When I looked up, Sorcia was watching me with an even deeper smile than usual.
Sorcia… that scent. ‘It really does smell like her, so I guess she did make it herself.’
I have no idea why someone like her would go this far for a guy like me. She’s the daughter of the Elf leader and an unbelievably beautiful girl on top of that.
While those thoughts ran through my head, Sorcia asked,
“Is it delicious?”
She smiled, gently urging me for an answer.
“Right?”
“Every apple juice I’ve ever had before this was fake. This is on another level.”
“My goodness~ Haru-nim, you flatter me too much.”
“It’s not flattery. It’s the truth.”
It was so good I actually felt guilty drinking it.
“I am so happy I feel as though I might cry. I am glad I used the special ingredient I obtained with such difficulty.”
“Special ingredient?”
“I used the very first apple ever produced by the Serena Union.”
“The first apple? Even the name sounds insanely expensive.”
“It is not that costly. In human currency, one apple is worth only about 1.2 million won. Is that too trivial a gift for the great Haru-nim?”
Too trivial?! That’s insanely expensive! No wonder it tasted so good if she used ingredients like that.
But for some reason my body was growing hotter and hotter. It felt like something deep inside me that should never see the light of day was beginning to boil.
Was this the price of tasting the luxury of the rich that only existed in legends?!
But then… why did the person looking back at me in the mirror look like a girl?
Sorcia watched Haru with a gentle smile as memories played through her mind.
The person who had made her ordinary.
The person who had shown her a dream.
Haru.
To others it had been a trivial thing. But to her, it had become everything.
That day she had said she wanted to see him again. Her father had called it madness, yet she had stubbornly pushed forward until he finally gave her permission to do as she wished. And so she had come here.
The Haru-nim she met again was exactly as she remembered.
‘He was as kind as ever.’
He was an amusing “possession” who had no idea of her true intentions.
Looking at that Haru-nim, she smiled.
She wanted to mark this man as hers in front of all the other elves.
So she had woken early that morning. For Haru-nim’s sake, the first meal should be something light and easy. She had murmured to herself,
“Then… juice?”
She had gone through the secret portal connected to her homeland, brought back apples, and ground them into juice. But—
“Plain juice would not show enough sincerity.”
She had smiled.
“I must do it properly.”
With that thought she had made a tiny cut with a blade of wind. A single red droplet containing her [soul and heart] had fallen in.
It hurt, but it was fine. The pleasure of offering Haru-nim her “essence” was far greater.
‘Haa…’
When Haru-nim looked at the apple juice as if it carried her own taste, her entire body trembled and her heart pounded wildly.
‘Did he notice? No, he couldn’t have. If he had… if he had…’
She had worried about what she would do, but fortunately Haru-nim simply thought the flavor came from her having made it herself. He seemed completely unaware that her blood was mixed in.
She let out a sigh of relief and thought,
‘Aaaaaah.’ Haru-nim had consumed a part of her.
Her heart began to race like a predator that had found its prey.
At last she had become one with Haru-nim.
With this they were bound by an unbreakable, sticky thread of magical power. They were now fate itself.
She smiled and decided she would make juice again tomorrow. Since she was already making it, she would add even more of the “special” ingredient than today.
‘Tomorrow I will give you a little more… Little by little… I will make your body more and more like mine. And someday, Haru-nim will truly become one with me.’
She would make sure he could never leave her again.
‘You are my precious Haru-nim. My one and only oasis. The only one who can hear my true laughter.’
Wearing the benevolent smile of the world’s kindest saint, Sorcia approached Haru and said,
“Haru-nim, your collar… Oh, I mean, your necktie is crooked. Allow me to straighten it for you.”
For a brief moment her slender white fingers pulled the necktie tight around his throat as if to choke him. The instant Haru’s breath hitched, ecstasy flooded through her.
‘With this, Haru-nim and I have grown even closer.’
“Very tightly, so it will never come loose.”
“Sorcia, you don’t have to go this far. Thank you so much.”
Because he was her Haru-nim.
“Hey! Sorcia! What the hell are you doing alone with that damn Haru?!”
At Daisy’s angry shout from outside the door, Sorcia smiled faintly.
‘Ufufu… Is Miss Daisy jealous?’
She turned her head to look at Haru-nim, but in that instant she caught sight of something in the mirror—a strange non-human girl with flowing silver hair.
When she blinked again, the girl was gone. Only Haru-nim’s reflection remained.
It must have been a trick of the light.