After waking up from his short thoughts, he slowly tapped the forehead of the woman who was still sound asleep. Even in the midst of sleeping, she still turned her head while wrinkling her brow, which showed that she could feel bothered by him. As he saw this, Bael’s lips began to relax involuntarily.
“What have you done to me? What do you even want?”
He wasn’t actually asking the key herself. His eyes were fixed on the Demon God’s tower that had just been beyond the window. As it sensed his gaze, the crystal ball proceeded to radiate the purple magic.
“I’ll just find out soon. The moment when the seal is broken and you finally wake up…”
His eyes soon drew to a close. He didn’t know what the future would hold, but for now, he just wanted to take a rest—beside Julia Vestra, who was simply sound asleep with a calm face without knowing anything about cruelty at all.
* * *
On a late night when the red moon rose brightly, a pair of black shadows were walking silently through the basement of the Demon’s Castle. It clung to the walls as it moved stealthily, but whenever it felt the presence of people around, it would quickly hide behind any sort of pillar.
The sound of footsteps soon became farther and farther away. Then, the small shadow began to sigh as it clutched its own chest.
“Phew, I really thought that we’re going to get caught this time.”
“Woof! Heh heh.”
“Shh, shh.”
“Heh.”
“Right.”
The large shadow that had just been praised instantly stretched out its tongue while wagging its tail. Due to its own size, the wind would flurry every time its tail made a waggle. But even if she were to stop it from doing that by saying so, it still wasn’t a part that could be arbitrarily controlled, so Julia eventually chose to move on quickly instead.
‘What do you mean?’
‘He won’t be able to leave the castle anymore—alive, that is. I somehow feel relieved inside, just like my aching tooth is now finally gone. Of course, you would feel that way as well.’
‘But I’m just safe and sound. Thanks to the Demon King’s treatment, I didn’t even get hurt……’
‘The reason why the Lord directly ordered Paimon’s punishment was because of the fact that you, the key, had almost died. But then, there were many other guys who still had some grudges against him. They would never want to miss this kind of opportunity then, right?’
Lerazier, who was utterly oblivious to his brother’s intentions, chatted excitedly in front of Julia, which ultimately made Julia sneak away right in the middle of the night. Bero, who had already become her watchdog in its own way, eventually turned into a great helper too.
If someone were to ask her if she wasn’t afraid of Paimon or even if she didn’t hate him, she wouldn’t have the confidence to honestly answer it with a no. She still trembled in fear when she thought of that time as she got trapped in a huge wall of fire and was cornered as well.
‘If I didn’t have any magic resistance, I would have definitely died the moment I sustained the first attack from before. But both Kimaris and I had managed to survive safely in the end and above all else, Paimon……’
She recalled the old memories of her own time back at the orphanage.
They only pointed a finger at her as an orphan and in fact, no one listened to her words at all. Adults were in a hurry to pass her on to one another as they remarked how it was annoying whenever she cried during the time she had gotten hurt. As time passed, she would then shut herself up and hide away her feelings. Even if she were to talk about it, she would only become a nuisance to those around her anyway.
If there had been just a single one who held her by the hand and listened to her story without any words, what would she have turned out like by now?
Julia actually knew the answer herself. She might have lacked by a whole lot compared to the others, but she was still changing little by little right after arriving here. And it was all thanks to the kind people who had been around her.
There were even times when she wondered if this had been a mere dream since she was too unfamiliar with the reality where everyone would smile at her even though she was just being silly.
‘I want to be that sort of thing to Paimon. It may be too greedy of me, but I just don’t want to be a naive person who would simply watch a child getting abandoned alone in the far west.’
This was the second time where she had come down to the underground of the Demon’s Castle. Due to that reason, only after wandering through the maze-like hallways for a while did she finally find the staircase that was rather familiar to herself. If she were to proceed down there, it would be directly connected to the prison itself.
“Oh, I’m so glad that I’m not too late.”
Julia swept down her heart as she opened the door that was fortunately unlocked and entered. She then froze at the terrifying sight that instantly unfolded before her pair of eyes.
Hundreds of venomous snakes were clumped together in just one corner of the prison. Every time the snakes slithered around, something in the center would be revealed, but it was long before Julia could finally realize the identity of that strange being.
“Why is it so terrible…”
There were no words that could come out at all. Julia didn’t even care about the venomous snakes that were holding their heads upright as she dashed frantically before picking up that bloodied lump.
The distraught baby dragon drooped helplessly in her arms. When she lowered her head at the tingling sensation of her own fingertips, several nails which were the size of forearms could be seen to be driven into Paimon’s small body. An innumerable amount of fangs had pierced its skin and its entire body was stained with dark red by the deadly poison.
She tried to take Paimon out, but the shackles that had entwined tightly around his body were preventing her from doing so. It had been so thick that it was simply not enough to break it apart on her own.
She hurriedly looked around. Hundreds of snakes encircled around her as if they were threatening her, but Julia realized that their shapes were awkward somehow or rather.
The tip of their tails were billowing like that of puffs of black smoke—which meant that they were not real snakes after all.
“Command. Transfer.”
As a bright effect emerged from her hand, the magic snakes within the range of resistance soon disappeared like evaporating fog.
“Bero, come here and break the chain.”
“Woof, woof!”
Bero, who had been running away from the snakes as if it was afraid of them, soon came running and bit the restraint that hung on the wall. Nevertheless, she didn’t really know what to do next. The wounds were so severe that they could not be healed at all. She was afraid that if she were to wrongly touch it, the nail would pierce even deeper.
