The Creditor Has Come (2)
My heart sank with a sickening lurch.
"Excellent. With this, the Righteous-Demonic War will flare up once more. A fine chance for the Young Heavenly Demon to distinguish herself."
"Since Cheon Sowol's death will surely drive the Young Heavenly Demon to take the vanguard herself."
A low, chuckling laugh leaked from the chamber.
"And it will silence those who still dare suspect the Young Heavenly Demon, will it not?"
"In my generation, we shall eradicate the righteous sects entirely. Then the Young Heavenly Demon, blessed with the greatest talent of all, shall usher in a new golden age for the Demonic Cult. A truly flawless plan."
"Cheon Sowol will rejoice in the afterlife, knowing she could devote herself to the Cult."
Crazy bastards.
They were going to use their own daughter as bait—no, as a living sacrifice—just to manufacture a pretext for war?
I let out a long, shaky breath.
The thing I was about to do wasn't born from any noble sense of pity or justice. I didn't feel sorry for the poor child. That kind of hypocrisy didn't suit someone like me—someone who'd stabbed her own comrades in the back just to survive.
So... yeah.
Let's just say I didn't want to march at the front of the Righteous-Demonic War.
Being the vanguard in a war like that was a one-way ticket to the grave. I wanted to live a little longer. I wanted to grow old, eat well, and die in comfort.
That's all this was.
That's why I silently slaughtered every assassin lurking around the Cult Leader's Chambers, making sure not to wake Cheon Sowol.
That's why I stormed toward the Former Heavenly Demon drenched in blood and demanded an explanation.
That's why I threw myself at the old monster even as he spouted nonsense, cutting down every elder who tried to stop me—either sending them to the afterlife or leaving them crippled.
And finally, knowing full well it was suicide, I charged the Former Heavenly Demon himself. A supreme master of the Profound Realm.
For someone stuck in the Transforming Realm like me, challenging him was no different from throwing my life away.
You said you wanted to live. You said you wanted to laze around and enjoy the good life.
Then why are you rushing toward death like a moth to a flame?
Shut up. Just shut the hell up.
I crushed the rational voice screaming inside my head.
I have to kill this old bastard to survive. If I don't, war will break out. I won't survive unless I do this!
I attacked with everything I had, as if burning away my very life force.
Even as my bones shattered and my flesh tore open in agony, I refused to stop.
Only at the very brink of death did I finally break through to the Profound Realm, and with that final surge I pierced his heart.
And in that instant—
"Un... nie...?"
The commotion had woken her. Little Sowol, who'd come looking for her father, stared straight at me.
In those beautiful, pitch-black eyes I saw my own reflection: standing there covered in blood, her father's corpse at my feet.
Despair. Terror. Or maybe contempt.
I can't remember what my face looked like in that moment.
I only remember repeating the same words over and over like a mantra.
This was nothing but selfish survival instinct. This isn't affection. This isn't sacrifice.
It had to be done.
*
After that day, I became the Heavenly Demon.
Well, the Heavenly Demon Cult runs on the law of the strong. After slaughtering every elder while still in the Transforming Realm, then ascending to the Profound Realm and defeating the previous Heavenly Demon, who else was going to take the throne?
The so-called "civil war"—that cowardly eight-on-one beatdown—didn't actually damage the Cult too badly. But purging the old power brokers who opposed my ascension cost quite a bit of blood.
I erased eight entire clans from the map, after all.
Ten years passed like that.
The Cult had finally stabilized. No one dared question my word anymore. I could even stroll through the rear garden like this, without a care.
"Hello, Cult Leader."
Ah. Right.
Everyone except one person.
"...Good to see you, First Elder."
"Aww, so cold. Don't be so stiff. Just call me Sowol, like you used to."
Cheon Sowol.
The girl who now stood as the First Elder of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
She had grown into a woman, her body blooming with mature, voluptuous curves. I couldn't call her "little one" anymore. That thought actually made me a little sad.
That day, I couldn't bring myself to kill her.
After all, the child had done nothing wrong.
So she couldn't die. It had to be that way. To honor the old promise I'd once made about eventually handing over the throne, I took her in as my disciple under the pretense of giving her a justification to live.
And she grew frighteningly fast.
Even though I'd secretly tried to hold her back, she devoured every obstacle and turned into a monster.
She didn't even bother hiding her naked ambition for my seat anymore.
It was as if she were saying she would drag me down from that throne herself.
That was how she rose to become First Elder.
"Or... should I call you like I did back then? Unnie?"
"......"
"Hmm? If you've got a mouth, use it, Cult Leader."
She really knew how to make my blood run cold.
What I'd done had been purely selfish survival instinct, but I still had a shred of conscience left. When the victim's own family approached me like this, that conscience twisted painfully in my chest.
"...I am the Heavenly Demon. Address me properly."
"Hehe, so I have to address you properly. Of course. One must show respect to one's superiors."
Sowol tilted her head, then spoke as if genuinely puzzled.
"Then why did you kill my dad?"
"First Elder!!"
"What? He's just a loser who lost the Heavenly Demon's seat. He doesn't deserve any title anymore." Sowol shrugged.
"So to you he's just Master, but to me he's just Dad. Right?"
In those wide, unblinking eyes, it felt like the expression I'd worn that day was still frozen forever.
"Hmm? Tell me. You were going to inherit the Heavenly Demon's seat anyway."
She leaned closer. Close enough that I could feel her breath on my skin.
"In just a little while, Dad would have stepped down peacefully and you could have taken over without any bloodshed."
"...Enough."
"Were you that desperate for the seat? Dad gave you everything."
Sowol's finger brushed lightly across my lips.
"Hmm? Did you want to prove your strength that badly?"
"Enough."
"Was it more important than all the memories you shared with Dad and me?"
"ENOUGH!!!!"
My breathing—normally tireless—grew ragged. Not because my body was exhausted, but because my mind was.
I couldn't say it. My choice had been nothing more than the desperate flailing of a pathetic life trying to cling to existence. There had been no pity, no desire to save her. None of that hypocritical sympathy.
⋯But right now, in this moment, I couldn't bear it anymore.
"Where are you going?"
"..."
"Mmm, you're leaving, Cult Leader. Have a safe trip."
"..."
"Someday... I can come collect that Heavenly Demon seat, right? That was the promise, wasn't it?"
Without answering, I left the rear garden.
Yes. That had been the promise.
It was simply a promise that couldn't be kept because of my ugly, selfish desire to survive.
So... so.
If the creditor of that promise ever came to collect the debt...
"...I'll have to pay it back."
Yes. If that day ever came, only then would my ugly survival instinct finally meet its end.
"How cute."
Watching unnie's retreating back, I stroked the flower in my hand.
The Heavenly Demon who was always so imposing in front of others became so small and shaken the moment she stood before me.
Every time that happened, I felt myself waver too, as if I might surrender to the desires raging inside my body.
"Mmm. Just a little longer. I can wait."
I'd had an excellent father.
He hadn't been a good one, though. Even as a child I'd been able to guess that he hadn't loved my mother—he'd simply used her as a vessel to bear his child.
Once she was no longer useful, she would be discarded.
That was why I'd trained in martial arts with desperate fervor. I knew full well that falling even slightly behind would mean a terrible fate.
Why would a man over ninety years old have only one child?
There had been many brothers and sisters before me. They had simply been removed once they proved useless or weak.
So when I heard that Father had taken in a new successor, I understood immediately.
Ah. I've become useless. I'll be thrown away soon.
Our first meeting.
I decided to burn the face of the culprit who'd thrown me into this cesspit into my memory forever.
With that venomous resolve, I walked forward.
"Hello?"
"...Hello."
"You're Sowol, right? Feel free to call me unnie."
I met you.
You were different from everyone else in the Heavenly Demon Cult.
You weren't arrogant. You didn't worship only the strong. You reached out first to someone weak like me.
You always said the same thing—that you were simply a coward with an abnormally strong survival instinct.
But I knew better.
I knew exactly what a person who was truly driven by survival instinct and self-preservation looked like.
Because I was one.
"Here. You're all free now."
"...Really?"
"Of course. Sorry it took me so long to get you out."
Someone truly selfish like me would never have closed that hellish place if it meant taking a loss.
A newly arrived successor rescuing utterly useless children despite earning the resentment of the established powers? In a place where every calculation revolved around pure profit and survival, such a thing was impossible.
Yet you did it.
Even though it brought you no benefit at all, you saved them with that sad, beautiful smile.
The moment I witnessed that contradictory kindness, I wanted to know you more.
That's why I started calling you unnie.
I wanted to stay by your side a little longer. I increased my martial arts training until my body was on the verge of breaking.
I wanted to stay with you forever.
"Someday, Sowol will become the Heavenly Demon."
"Huh? Isn't unnie the Young Heavenly Demon?"
"Mmm... how should I put it. Unnie is just holding the seat for a while."
"Holding it?"
"Yeah. Until our Sowol grows up and can become Heavenly Demon herself."
"Then what about unnie?"
"Unnie will go rest comfortably. The Cult will be in Sowol's hands, so don't worry about anything."
I hated it.
The Heavenly Demon's seat didn't matter. You were far more important.
So I turned to you, stared straight into your eyes, and made my demand.
"I don't like that... Can't you rest comfortably right next to me?"
"Huh?"
"I'll make sure unnie can rest really, really comfortably!"
You laughed brightly.
You probably didn't notice the desire hidden in those words. That's why you so peacefully hooked your little finger around mine.
Without realizing how hard my heart was pounding from even that small touch.
You must have forgotten that promise.
It was only made once that day, and so much had happened afterward.
But a promise is a debt. Just because one side forgets doesn't mean it disappears.
It can be collected at any time.
You killed Father, but... why would I hate you for that?
This is the Demonic Cult. The law of the strong rules here. Father was simply weaker, so he fell to your hand. If he felt it was unfair, he should have been stronger. And if that soft-hearted unnie had drawn her killing strike, Father would have tried to stab you in the back in some underhanded way.
He deserved to die.
And on top of that, you killing Father gave me one more wonderful thing!
"Unnie's expression back then was so cute♡"
If I pretend to hate you for killing Father, if I act like I'm burning with revenge, you make the most wonderful face. Mmm. Originally I wanted to be held in your arms and loved, but when I see that guilt-ridden expression... I can't help wanting to push you down and ravish you.
That face looks like it would accept anything I demanded, so it inevitably stirs up my sadistic side.
It's all your fault for being so arousing and lewd, unnie. Yep. Yep.
Aah, I'm so excited.
In the future, when I finally seize the Heavenly Demon's seat and you close your eyes, prepared for death...
I'll kiss you, push you down, and strip you bare.
It'll be covered in blood, but since it's our first time, it should have that kind of special touch, shouldn't it?
Crack. The flower stem broke.
It was too beautiful.
So beautiful that I wanted to put it in a vase and keep it where only I could see it.
"Should I call unnie my bride... or my husband?"
With those happy thoughts swirling in my mind, I left the rear garden.