Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Demon Sisters of the Tobacco Shop (1)
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The two women who stepped outside greeted Lucia warmly.
"Lucia! What brings you here so early in the morning?"
"Big sis Lucia!"
One was a woman with gray long hair, about the same height as Lucia. The other had platinum blonde long hair and was petite, like Rosetta.
The gray-haired woman spoke up.
"By the way, Lucia. Who's this with you?"
"Ah. This person is..."
Lucia hesitated for a moment.
She knew I held no prejudices against demons. So, since we were in the area, she probably wanted to introduce me to her two close friends.
But that didn't mean she could reveal their true natures right from the start. She could only tell them the two were demons after some trust had built up.
And the same went the other way around. I was the sole grand duke of the empire and heir to Border Count Wilhelm. My grandfather the grand duke and my mother were far too famous.
'Introducing me must be tricky too. My status is just too high.'
Of course, this meeting with the two was exactly what I'd intended. But from Lucia's perspective, it was a somewhat awkward situation.
So I decided to help her out. I greeted them first.
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Julian von Reinhardt, a Pantheon classmate of Lucia's. So we're friends, right? I just happened to be passing by."
It was the cleanest way to sum up our relationship. Lucia looked a bit disappointed at the word "friends," but she soon nodded vigorously.
"That's right. Cecil, Rishi. This is a classmate from Pantheon. We met by chance and... since we were near the market, we stopped by to see you two."
Lucia beamed as she tried to introduce me. But the moment they heard my name, their expressions froze.
"Reinhardt?"
"No way, from the Essenmont Border Count?"
Reinhardt. My grandfather and mother, bearing that family name, were heroes of the Great War.
To demons, they were no different from archenemies. Realizing this, Lucia panicked and tried to explain.
"Yes, that's right. He's the heir to the Essenmont Border Count and earl of the Harsen territory. But... he has no prejudices or misunderstandings about specific groups..."
Lucia spoke hurriedly. She wanted to indirectly convey that I harbored no resentment toward demons.
But I calmed her down. The gray-haired woman, Tricia, offered me a handshake first.
She smiled and said,
"I'm Tricia, Lucia's friend. Nice to meet you, Lord Julian. I'm probably... a bit older than Lucia. And this is my little sister Cecilia next to me. She's about a year younger than Lucia. You're an important person, so please feel free to speak casually with us."
Dragons and elves were both long-lived races, so their actual ages were undoubtedly much higher. But Tricia spoke in human terms.
I shook her hand.
"Sure thing."
It was just like in Demon King's Son Surviving in the Holy Empire. She looked human, but Tricia was an elf hiding her pointed ears. And she had a refreshingly straightforward personality that defied elf stereotypes.
'Elves are supposed to be elegant, and the higher the nobility, the more uptight they seem.'
Surprisingly, the image of Essenmont and Reinhardt wasn't all that bad among demons.
During the Great War era,
the Holy Empire's forces treated demons as less than human. They committed horrific war crimes without a shred of hesitation.
Gang rapes, brutal tortures, massacres of surrendering demons, and more. Under the banner of a holy war, they inflicted unspeakable horrors on demons.
But Essenmont's forces were different. The elite troops under Border Count Wilhelm maintained strict discipline and never engaged in unnecessary actions outside of combat.
Saintess Agnes was different from the rumors too. After battles where victory was already decided, she took responsibility for treating and releasing demon prisoners.
The very concept of demon POWs existed only in Essenmont's army.
So Tricia seemed to harbor less hostility toward me. Her naturally cool personality helped too.
Tricia smiled at the fidgeting Lucia.
"The Reinhardt family, huh. What a fine house. They produced two heroes: Border Count Wilhelm and Saintess Agnes. Anywhere on the continent, those two command respect."
There was no sarcasm in it. Tricia straightforwardly acknowledged the pair who had been enemies of her kind.
Then she nudged Cecilia, who had been peeking from behind her, toward me.
"Cecil. Lucia's introducing her friend like this. You should say hi too, right?"
At Tricia's words, the petite platinum blonde stepped forward.
"C-Cecilia."
With that, she hid behind Tricia again. Tricia had the beautiful features typical of an elf. Her blood sister Cecilia was petite but equally stunning.
But Cecilia wasn't an elf—she was a dragon.
Their parents were a dragon and an elf respectively. True to their unmixable races, the sisters were different species despite being full siblings.
Unlike her healthy-looking sister Tricia, Cecilia appeared frail.
'If my knowledge holds, her Dragon Heart must be damaged right now. Cecilia's.'
That's why the sisters had left the demon homeland in the continent's east and come all the way to the imperial capital. It was also why Lucia had taken the guard job.
After brief introductions, Tricia spoke up.
"Shall we head inside? If you haven't had breakfast, join us."
The four of them entered the tobacco shop together.
The interior space was cramped. The front area served as the tobacco shop, with packs stacked in the narrow room and sales handled through the window.
The back was their living space. With four people sitting there, the room felt completely full.
As Tricia and Cecilia sat close by, a notification window appeared.
The quest had completed like this. With the quest done, there was no doubt the two were demons. My blood had sensed them as kin from the start, so it was only natural.
'But they have no idea about my true identity.'
As my demonization progressed, my demonic energy grew denser. But Agnes's rosary kept it well concealed.
The sisters hid their identities on a similar principle. There was a special magic tool crafted by demon dwarf magitech.
Through that tool, they perfectly disguised themselves as humans. Their pointed elf ears and dragon horns in humanoid form were completely hidden from view.
The tool even masked their demonic energy perfectly. I only noticed because I carried the Demon King's blood.
So up to now, our conversations had been just like any between ordinary humans.
"...That's how we met Lucia. She's our lifesaver."
"Rishi, you don't have to be so formal. I just saved who needed saving."
Lucia briefly explained to me how she'd come to know the sisters.
Last year, Lucia had been heading to the capital from the south to enroll at Pantheon. By chance, she ended up traveling with the sisters, who were also coming up from the countryside.
Along the way, they'd been attacked by bandits and human traffickers, surrounded by an orc horde, and faced all sorts of perils. Through it all, the three grew very close.
Of course, their attackers all ended up as corpses. Hearing tales of valor from such beauties was refreshing in its own way. But since the sisters couldn't yet reveal their true natures to me, some truths remained hidden.
As the casual chatter continued, the topic shifted to me. Tricia said,
"By the way, Lucia. Didn't you hate men? Nobles even more so?"
Tricia gave us a meaningful look. She continued,
"And the two of you showing up here together this early in the morning... Hmm. But with such a handsome earl, could it be?"
At her playful gaze, Lucia flushed and denied it.
"I-It's not like that. We're just classmates... And we only came here together this morning because of a Pantheon assignment..."
Lucia made up a suitable excuse. Since I was here on a quest too, it wasn't entirely a lie.
"And I don't hate all nobles or men. Just the frivolous southern guys and nobles steeped in chosen-people syndrome. Lord Julian is the total opposite!"
Tricia nodded knowingly, as if she'd heard it before. Then she turned to me and said,
"Oh, right. Excuse me for a sec, my lord. Nothing weird, so don't be too surprised. I just realized it's a bit past my usual dose time."
Suddenly, Tricia pulled a cigarette from her pocket and put it in her mouth. A low-grade fire spirit, a salamander, appeared in the air and lit it for her.
"I'm a spiritist, you see. Oh, but this? It's not tobacco, my lord."
As an elf, summoning spirits wasn't surprising. Adult elves carried a world tree seed in their hearts, closely attuned to the spirits and their source, the world tree.
And as Tricia said, it really wasn't tobacco. Instead of foul smoke, a refreshing, calming scent filled the cramped room.
"It's magic herb root dried into magic tobacco leaves. It soothes the mind. Great for weak hearts too. My sister has a bit of a heart issue, so... Sorry for the rudeness."
Tricia bowed her head slightly. Cecilia, kneeling beside her, bowed as well.
Cecilia hadn't joined the conversation but kept stealing glances at me. When our eyes met, she shyly looked down again.
'Just like I remember. No wonder she looks so frail.'
The platinum blonde Cecilia truly wasn't well. Especially her heart.
And as a dragon, she didn't have an ordinary heart but a Dragon Heart. That Dragon Heart was on the verge of collapse.
The root cause even traced back to me, in a way.
The sisters weren't ordinary demons—they were of noble blood. In the demon world, they were royalty.
They were from the same family as my father Lucifer, the Demon King clan. In other words, they too were qualified to inherit the Demon King's blood.
And Cecilia, the noble-blooded dragon, had tried to claim the succession in my stead, since the true heir was nowhere to be found.
'The demons don't know my identity. Not even they know the bard Riel was Lucifer.'
So Cecilia, a dragon of the Demon King clan, had taken on that role. As a candidate for Demon King successor, she attempted contracts with the demon grand dukes to prove her worth. But she failed. And as penalty for that failure, her Dragon Heart shattered.
'The demon grand dukes didn't recognize Cecilia's claim.'
I was the true heir. No matter that she was Demon King clan, she couldn't satisfy the requirement without being the legitimate son.
Thus, Cecilia was living on borrowed time.
'Can't have that. Cecilia's a key party member for the nest raid too.'
Her expression softened noticeably from the magic tobacco scent. Seeing this, Lucia added an explanation about Cecilia's illness.