Episode 105
"Then are you part of the demon worshippers too? Don't tell the kidnapping was a setup from the start……"
"Ah, what are you talking about!"
By now, he should have sensed sothing was off, but Pascal truly never failed to disappoint the Great Demon.
"Why would I tell you about the subjugation force?"
"A warning?"
"I'm telling you! So you can go scare them off or chase them away right now!"
"Why should I? They're just humans who will leave when they get tired anyway?"
At Pascal's indifferent face, Flora blinked her big eyes.
She hadn't expected this kind of reaction.
She thought he would fly into a rage and cause a scene imdiately!
Seeing her shocked face, Pascal laughed as if finding it ridiculous.
"I'm not that kind of slaughter-crazed demon. I don't know what you're thinking, but I don't involve myself in troubleso matters……"
"But there are demon worshippers among them?"
"……"
"You hate demon worshippers, don't you? Can you really stretch out your legs and sleep without dealing with them?"
"……Kid, demons don't sleep."
That wasn't the important point right now, but Pascal derailed the conversation with irrelevant talk.
"Ugh, I shouldn't have said anything. Just rember what I said. Count Tassen and his knight, Sir Piet. Those two are the main figures, and there might be more in his territory."
"Hmm, why are you telling this? You could just tell the Executor Bureau……"
It was a reasonable question, but when Flora glared at him irritably, he tightly closed his mouth.
'Why am I being mindful of a re human child's feelings?'
"Why would I trust the Executor Bureau enough to tell them? I hate the Executor Bureau!"
Unable to bear the frustration, Flora confidently stated her opinion, telling him to rember it.
"We think alike on that."
At the child's words about hating the Executor Bureau, Pascal unknowingly laughed and agreed.
"I hate the Imperial family and the ducal houses too!"
"Sa here. We get along quite well, you and I."
He nodded again.
"But I like Lucifer!"
She added an unacceptable statent.
"……We differ a bit on that opinion."
His previously agreeable voice now held a hint of murderous intent.
"I absolutely detest Lucifer, you see."
His eyes, filled with the sa killing intent he had for the demon worshippers, looked as if he would tear Lucifer apart if they were before him right now.
'Good thing I didn't reveal my na first.'
Seeing him get unusually serious, it seed ti to stop pretending not to know him.
A welco topic for revealing her identity had also co up.
Instead of stating her na, Flora quietly watched him for a mont and then asked,
"But I'm curious about sothing. Did the Great Demon Mors really die?"
For a mont, Pascal unconsciously held his breath.
When the unexpected na ca from the child's mouth, the image of his master naturally flashed through his mind.
His master, who was so noble, beautiful, and strong that her death was unbelievable.
"……Mors. It's been a long ti since I heard that na."
Pascal spoke in a calm voice, as if he had never been angry, and then chuckled dryly.
How long had it been since the demons who served her fought and scattered?
"She's dead."
At his firm answer, Flora silently stared at him and then posed a new question.
"Is that so? Then another question."
"You're so small, why do you have so many ques……"
"Was the Great Demon good to you?"
He was about to tell her to stop with the unwelco topic, but the child cut him off.
'What a strange kid. Why is she curious about this?'
It was already odd that she hated the Imperial family, ducal houses, and the Executor Bureau but liked Lucifer.
But what was even stranger in this situation was himself, who was answering her questions quite kindly when he could just ignore them.
Pascal opened his mouth, feeling like he didn't understand himself either.
"Even as a joke, I can't say she was good to ."
Unlike how she was kind to other demons, she was particularly firm and cold toward him, or perhaps his evaluation was bound to be harsh because she was a master who abandoned the demons she created and gave her heart to the Heroes who ca to kill her.
"But why do you look like that?"
"What do you an, what do I look like?"
"You look like you're going crazy from missing her."
"……Who's missing her? No, wait, why are you using informal speech with ? I am a demon, you know?"
Pascal protested, belatedly realizing she was speaking casually to him, but Flora neatly ignored his opinion.
"No way. Anyone can see that's the face you're making."
Pascal tried to open his mouth to deny it, but then bit his lip tightly as if his pride was hurt.
'Damn it, can a child's eyes see even that?'
Damn it all, demons, like humans, had emotions. The sadness of losing his only master, his family, hadn't faded even with the passage of ti, and he couldn't accept her death.
After a long ti spent alone again, trapped in longing, he had called Mors's na tens, hundreds, thousands, or even more tis, but his cruel master never appeared.
How long had it been since he finally gave up on eting her and tried to live forgetting her na?
So, he had lived forgetting her existence until now.
No, it was more accurate to say he wanted to live forgetting her.
"You really don't want to see her?"
"Yes, why would I? That stupid… who abandoned her own subordinates and died like a fool……"
Pascal couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.
"Stupid… Stupid, damn it, damn it!"
He scowled deeply and let out a loud curse.
That damn Mors was a terrible master, lord, and king who tornted him even in death.
"Fine. I miss her, I miss her! Happy now?"
"Hmm."
He had honestly expressed his feelings, expecting the child to ask another question, but unexpectedly, Flora didn't say anything and instead looked at him with narrowed eyes.
The child, who had been annoyingly asking questions, had closed her mouth. He should welco that, but he started feeling self-conscious again.
'A demon like , being flustered by a re human child. Mors would laugh if she saw this.'
Pascal had always been weak to human children.
It was a weakness for an evil demon like him, but Mors actually didn't like him trying to fix that.
'She laughed, saying that's just like . Said I'd probably live like that my whole life until I die.'
So even after Mors died, he sent children who entered the forest back outside, and helped them if monsters tried to eat them.
Sohow, this got distorted, and thanks to the tenacious demon worshippers who kept appearing no matter how many he killed, he eventually stopped doing even that.
As ti passed, the demon worshippers disappeared, and children stopped venturing into the Demon Forest, he thought his act of protecting children had been forgotten by the world.
That is, until those who worshipped demons reappeared and started sacrificing children.
When Pascal accidentally ca across the children's corpses himself, he realized, to his sorrow, that he simply couldn't turn a blind eye to the children.
After that, he started rescuing and protecting the children offered as sacrifices, but he couldn't find the worshippers, who were as quick as rats.
When he found Flora, it was the first ti he had encountered the demon worshippers directly, but he couldn't bring himself to lay a hand on them in front of the child.
When he returned to the spot a short while later, they had, true to their quick nature, long since fled.
'……I should have killed them then.'
Lost in brief regret during the quiet silence, the two arrived in front of the room Flora had requested.
"This is the place, but……"
The cave was as complex as a maze, and this place was the complete opposite of where the children stayed and very far away.
Unlike the other doors with weight-reduction magic that opened smoothly, this one seed to have the real weight of stone, making it a room an ordinary person could never enter alone.
It was a place where, a long ti ago, he had dealt with humans who ca to kill demons and were a nuisance, so he was reluctant to show it to a child.
Why did the child want to see such a place?
As Pascal wondered if he should really let her enter, Flora tapped his arm and asked to be put down.
"I don't think this is the right place after all."
"Let's act like the demons we are. How kind do you plan on being?"
"Oh, for heaven's sake. Even when I'm worried about you...... Anyway, you won't be able to open that door by yourself."
Pascal put Flora down with a sullen face.
Flora snorted, sensing him hesitating about whether to hold her again until her small feet touched the ground.
"I have one last thing I'm curious about."
"Fine, fine. Ask away, ask away."
"If you miss her that much, why didn't you recognize ?"
"……What?"
Seeing his face, still completely clueless, she now thought Janet's case was a miracle.
"By now, even my Oppa would have figured it out. Who else but a fool would…"
"Hey, who are you calling a fool……"
As he raised his voice, he fell silent, realizing this situation felt similar to one from the distant past.
"Wait a minute, let understand what you're saying slowly……"
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