Chapter 7. Raguel Miatro

After leaving Yohan in Raguel’s room, Gaf headed toward the battlements.

From atop these high walls, the lord’s estate could be seen at a glance.

The rice paddies stretching out to the left were dyed red beneath the twilight. To the right, the clustered commoners’ houses were bustling with hurried residents.

They were rushing to finish whatever work remained for the day. The curfew would soon be imposed.

It was an old rule of the South.

The time of demons—nighttime—is when the streets must be emptied.

One by one, the people returned to their homes. Before long, silence descended upon the estate. Moonlight began to settle over the land.

The territory was swallowed by darkness, but the church glowed faintly. The symbol of the Great Holy Church absorbed the moonlight.

Gaf gazed up at the church roof.

He traced the sign of the cross, following the points of the pentagram.

“Great Saint Marziel. Your foolish servant has committed an act of blasphemy. Please, do not forgive me.”

As if making a deal with a demon weren’t enough, he had even become involved in an evil scheme. It was a sin that could never be pardoned.

“You should confess to me rather than the Great Saint.”

It was a sudden, beautiful voice.

A familiar voice.

Gaf turned toward the source of the sound.

His pupils widened dramatically.

“Isn’t that right? You started keeping two households without your daughter knowing.”

A girl with a gentle smile was walking from the fortress tower toward the battlements.

“Ilea……?”

The girl gave him a slight bow. Her platinum-blonde hair fluttered in the night breeze.

“It’s been a long time, Father.”

Gaf’s entire body stiffened.

“I… truly…”

His feet, firmly planted against the ground, could barely move.

He had no choice but to force himself forward, one step at a time.

“Really……”

His eyes trembled. He looked like a man who had encountered a mirage in the desert.

“…………Are you really my daughter?”

He struggled toward her and dropped to one knee.

“Yes, I am. I’m Ilea, your daughter.”

Gaf carefully caressed his daughter’s cheek. Ilea placed her own hand over the back of his large hand.

They shared each other’s warmth.

Gaf’s eyes reddened.

“It really is you, Ilea.”

“Don’t cry. I’m here beside you now.”

“I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. I should never have taken my eyes off you, not even for a moment…… I made a terrible mistake.”

Ilea gently patted Gaf’s back.

“But you came to save me in the end. No parent could have done what you did, Father. So don’t blame yourself. Come on, stop crying.”

Ilea’s voice was remarkably calm. There was even a faint smile on her face.

“Are you hurt anywhere? Did the baron lay a hand on you? I heard about his strange proclivities. If he touched you……”

Ilea shook her head.

“He didn’t touch a single hair on my body. If anything, he’s been treating me very well.”

Her tone was utterly composed.

Gaf couldn’t help but feel that something was wrong.

An abnormal sexual pervert was lurking in the place where she had been kidnapped and brought, yet how could a young girl remain so calm?

It was an incomprehensible reaction.

“I-Ilea. Are you perhaps pretending to be all right because you’re worried about your father? You don’t have to. If you’re suffering, you can leave right now.”

Ilea smiled faintly.

“And what happens after that?”

Even if they succeeded in escaping, they would be pursued for the rest of their lives.

Gaf spoke in a trembling voice.

“Let’s conceal our identities and live somewhere else. We can go to the West, the North, even the Empire. Wherever you want, we’ll go immediately……”

“I don’t want to live like that.”

“But!”

Ilea gently wrapped her arms around Gaf’s head.

“Father, go find your own life. You’ve found a new family, too, so you should be happy with them. You deserve that much.”

“I-Ilea. What are you talking about? They……”

A strange current passed through Ilea’s expression. She carefully pushed Gaf away.

Then she stared intently into his eyes.

“They?”

“They……”

Gaf found it difficult to continue.

He couldn’t bring himself to tell her the truth—that the woman was an intercourse demon and the baby was a half-demon.

Ilea smiled tenderly and shook her head.

“Don’t force yourself. It doesn’t matter. But……”

A strange light flickered in her eyes.

“I would like to see my little sibling’s face at least once.”

Just then, hurried footsteps could be heard from below.

Someone seemed to be climbing the stairs.

Ilea calmly composed her expression before helping Gaf to his feet.

“Anyway, from now on, we’re strangers.”

Gaf’s face darkened.

“You only need to be careful, Father. I’ve already silenced the children who were with me.”

The girls from Taharan who had been kidnapped alongside Ilea. They knew Gaf’s face.

“You understand, right?”

At the same time, a young voice rang out sharply.

“Big Sister!”

Ilea turned her head.

A small girl was running toward them. She came to an abrupt stop in front of Ilea.

“Rowen, you’ll fall if you run like that.”

“But it’s almost time for evening study, and I couldn’t see you, Big Sister.”

Ilea stroked the girl’s hair.

“You came looking for me. How thoughtful of you.”

“If I’m late, the witch will punish me. I don’t want Rowen to get hurt.”

“All right. Let’s go.”

Ilea interlaced her fingers with the child’s.

She glanced back at Gaf briefly before walking away.

The retreating figure of his daughter.

Gaf stood rooted to the spot, staring for a long while in the direction Ilea had disappeared.

It was definitely Ilea.

She was still the daughter who smiled often and cared deeply for others……

Yet somehow, she felt unfamiliar.

Almost as if she were another person entirely.

“Big Sister, who was that person?”

“Hmm…… A hopeless man?”

“Even though he’s an adult?”

“Yes.”

Ilea’s lips curved into a faint smile.

“But he’s a brave man.”

***

A delicate hand rested against the rough stone wall. The torches mounted along the walls merely cast long shadows; they offered little help in finding the way.

The blind man’s firefly was somewhere else entirely.

“It seems the stairs are a little frightening.”

It was a demon.

Yohan poked his head out from Raguel’s fur coat.

“I feel like I’m going to fall……”

The boy muttered as he extended one foot downward. As if hesitating to take the step, his leg trembled slightly.

Unable to watch any longer, Yohan spoke.

“Why don’t you just go down on your butt?”

“I want to walk with my legs.”

The imp let out a hollow chuckle.

“Such pointless stubbornness.”

“Just guide me properly. You said you’d be my eyes.”

Raguel was far more assertive than Yohan had expected.

Had he been like this in the original story, too?

Yohan couldn’t quite remember. Raguel had barely appeared in it, after all.

“Didn’t you manage to come all the way here from your room? Now it’s your turn. Don’t be afraid. Take the step.”

The spiral staircase descended so deeply that its end could not be seen.

“Come on.”

Raguel cautiously stepped onto the first stair.

Relief flickered across his face.

Yohan chuckled.

“See? You can do it. Well done.”

The corners of Raguel’s lips seemed to rise, only to abruptly stop.

“Being praised by a demon doesn’t make me happy at all.”

“Your expression says otherwise.”

Raguel was the sort of child who would be happy at even the slightest bit of attention or praise. Anyone who knew his background could have guessed as much.

A mother who had died giving birth to him, a father who routinely abused him, servants who coldly looked at Raguel while projecting their hatred for his eccentric master onto him, and even accusations that he was a vile child who had been born by devouring his own biological mother.

Raguel had no choice but to be lonely.

“You saw wrong. It actually makes me feel bad.”

“Every last one of you has such an attitude.”

“That one?”

Gaf had grumbled every time he encountered him, too.

“You don’t need to know. Just keep moving.”

The staircase stretched deep underground.

At this pace, the sun might rise before they reached their destination. It couldn’t have gone worse.

“Even if you hurry me, I can’t do anything about it. This is as fast as I can go.”

Yohan couldn’t exactly scold a blind boy for moving like a snail, so he could only feel frustrated.

He wanted to possess the boy, even if only temporarily, but even that was impossible.

The method for using transmigration had not been engraved into his mind.

‘If I can make a contract, then why can’t I use this?’

Just like a contract with a demon, transmigration was something any demon could use.

Except Yohan couldn’t.

‘Is there some setting in Human-Demon Chronicles that I don’t know about?’

As he mulled over the original story, he heard a grumbling voice.

Interrupted from his thoughts, Yohan spoke curtly.

“Stop mumbling and tell me properly.”

“If I could see, we would have arrived already. You said you would give me eyes, but you deceived me.”

Yohan clicked his tongue.

“You’ll have them soon, so there’s no need to complain.”

“Really?”

“The speed at which we reach the library will be proportional to how soon that happens.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Raguel quickened his pace.

He was surprisingly enthusiastic.

‘He’s rather simple-minded.’

His pace gradually accelerated.

“That’s enough. Be careful.”

Raguel had stumbled several times, making Yohan uneasy for no particular reason.

“Slow down……”

As expected, the boy’s two legs crossed over each other.

Raguel let out a startled groan as his body pitched forward.

“You idiot!”

He toppled over and began tumbling down the stairs.

‘He can’t get hurt.’

Yohan sprang out of the fur coat.

He tried to somehow support the boy, but he was powerless.

They tumbled down together.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The impact struck their two frail bodies in full.

At some point, their consciousness began to fade.

***

“……Where are you?”

His head throbbed painfully.

His entire body felt as though it had been burned.

“P-Please don’t leave me alone.”

His vision was spinning.

“I can’t see anything.”

Yohan swallowed a groan and suppressed the pain.

“Where are you, really……”

Then he looked around.

A vast cylindrical interior.

The underground library of the Miatro baron’s estate spread out before them.

It was extremely dark, but demons weren’t hindered by darkness.

Their eyes gleamed sharply even in the depths of the blackness.

Their sense of smell was also highly sensitive.

A musty odor stabbed at his nose.

It came from the mold covering the enormous bookshelves that encircled the entire room.

“Please.”

Only then did he hear the sound of sniffling.

Yohan looked toward the source.

A boy was curled up tightly, trembling.

“Tsk.”

Yohan got to his feet and walked toward him.

Yesterday, the boy had only just learned to stand on his own.

And now he had already taken his first steps.

‘Should I at least thank Gaf?’

His feelings were complicated.

Yohan stopped in front of Raguel.

He was even shorter than the crouching boy.

“Maybe I should’ve taken your little manhood as the price for the deal.”

Raguel abruptly lifted his head.

“Y-You!”

“A man shouldn’t be sniveling like this.”

The boy flinched in surprise, then slowly relaxed with relief.

“I thought I was alone again…… You should’ve told me you were there.”

“Stop whining. You’re not alone anymore. More importantly, are you hurt anywhere?”

The boy was clutching his right shoulder with his left arm.

“I can’t put any strength into my shoulder.”

A dislocation?

Considering the height they had just tumbled down from, they had gotten off rather cheaply.

“Your ancestors will fix it.”

The boy looked puzzled.

“……My ancestors?”

“More precisely, the legacy they left behind.”

There was no way for the boy to understand what he was talking about.

Yohan swept his gaze across the library and spoke.

“It’s spacious, but it’s an ordinary library. There’s no reason to bury it this deep underground. Have you ever wondered why it was arranged so inefficiently?”

He hadn’t.

He had only thought that the depth was a good thing and had never questioned its practicality.

He was simply grateful for the space itself.

It had freed him from abuse and accusations.

For him, it must have been a refuge.

Raguel shook his head.

The demon raised the corners of his mouth.

“Because there’s a lot to hide.”

“Hide? What……?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

Yohan helped Raguel to his feet.

“Follow me.”

Then he took hold of the tip of the boy’s index finger.

It would serve as his guide.

Because of the difference in their height, Raguel followed behind with his back awkwardly bent.

“Where are we going?”

“To the place where you always sat.”

They headed toward the round table in the very center of the library.

It was a small table, but it had been crafted from golden crystal, the most expensive mineral in this world.

Yohan stopped before the grayish-white round table.

“It’ll sting.”

With a sharp fingernail, he lightly cut the boy’s palm.

“Ouch.”

A thin stream of blood seeped out.

“W-What are you suddenly……?”

“There’s a table in front of you. Place your palm in the center, like you’re stamping a seal.”

Raguel looked puzzled but didn’t question him.

He did as instructed and placed his hand down.

“A little farther to the left.”

“L-Like this?”

“Down from there.”

“Down……”

Yohan sighed and climbed onto the round table.

He took the boy’s hand himself and guided it to the exact center of the table.

A drop of blood seeped into it.

At the same time, the golden crystal began to glow brightly.

The pure white radiance brought the hidden magic array to the surface.

Lines intertwined like a spiderweb, spreading across the round table.

The boy’s blood traveled along the engraved magic array.

The golden crystal gradually turned red.

At last, when it confirmed that he possessed the Miatro bloodline, the very foundations of the earth shook once.

The round table fell straight downward.

Dust that had accumulated over countless years filled the library with a hazy cloud.