HKWM | Chapter 36

“I don’t know the details, but, ugh- there’s a rule that the Seven can’t harm each other, and if you break that rule, you have to pay a price,” Phoras mumbled weakly, seeming dizzier from talking too much.

“I need to rest for a bit…”

Phoras staggered off to his room, and Kimaris, who had been trying to hold on, collapsed onto the sofa. For him, sitting was the best he could do.

“Young master, I apologize, but I’ll treat your wound after I recover a bit more of my magic.”

Demons require a considerable amount of magic to perform healing spells. Moreover, given that it was uncertain how magic would affect Noah, who was human, concentration was needed, which was impossible in their current state. It was better to leave Noah be for a while rather than risk worsening his condition with ill-advised attempts at healing.

But Noah shook his head.

“…I’ll take care of it myself. You should rest.”

Despite his intention to stand guard in the living room in case of emergencies, Kimaris couldn’t even respond before he passed out like he was unconscious.

After a moment of thought, Noah also headed to his room.

As I felt my body being pulled into some unknown place, I closed and opened my eyes, finding myself transported to a completely different space. This place, filled with such dense magic that I couldn’t see the surroundings clearly and with a strange oppressive feeling, was the Demon Lord’s domain.

Soon, with the sound of footsteps, the Demon Lord appeared. It was the first time I had seen ‘father’ since my arrival in the Demon Realm.

As the Demon Lord began to speak to me, there was a sound of something bursting, and…

Crack-

An immense pain surged into one of my eyes.

“Gasp- Ugh-!”

I instinctively grabbed my eye and collapsed to the ground. The pain was so intense that my whole body convulsed.

Crack-

Moreover, I heard the sound of a crack forming in my core near my ear. This wasn’t just my eye bursting; it was the pain from a crack forming in the core, which is virtually a demon’s life.

“This, damn-”

Since becoming a demon, I had developed some resistance to pain, and my pain threshold had increased. Even with injuries similar to those I had as a human, they wouldn’t hurt as much.

However, this pain was beyond anything I had experienced in my human life, so even though I knew the Demon Lord was right in front of me, curses escaped my lips. Keeping my mind intact was nothing short of miraculous.

Black blood, characteristic of demons, flowed continuously from between the fingers covering my eye, like a tap was left open. The black liquid soaking the floor looked extremely alien, but there was no time to think about that now.

“My son.”

Lying on the ground, panting heavily, I slowly raised my head at the sound of the Demon Lord’s voice. Through my blurred vision, I caught a glimpse of his indifferent face.

“You seem to have adapted well.”

For Archdemons, who are supposed to maintain the balance of the Demon Realm, there’s a penalty for harming another Archdemon. It’s a mechanism and a rule of the world designed to prevent unnecessary hostility among them. I was no exception to this rule.

Of course, there’s a similar penalty for angels, but considering how they value the words of the Celestial Lord more than their lives, the penalty might mean little to them.

“… Now I see why demons can’t stand up to angels during the Celestial Wars.”

Despite knowing about these penalties, they fight and kill each other. While the crack in the core would heal eventually, the pain was incomparable to losing a limb, and one would have to remain in an incomplete state until recovery, which was the issue.

Given this, it’s no wonder they are called fierce creatures for fighting all the time, but since I was one of them, I couldn’t really criticize.

“… And this hurts like hell…”

After lying down for a while, thankfully, the pain began to subside, and the bleeding from my eye lessened. As I tried to stand up with my shaking legs, an overwhelmingly destructive and dangerous feeling pressed down on my body – it was the aura of the Demon Lord.

“I didn’t expect to meet like this.”

“Fa- father-”

“Have you already forgotten my advice to live quietly?”

Even in this situation, he was lecturing me. Though the atmosphere was too ominous to call it a mere lecture, I forced a smile, knowing the Demon Lord would never harm his children directly.

And if this counted as an accident, I couldn’t promise not to cause any more. The Demon Lord’s brows furrowed as he sensed my thoughts.

“You-”

But then, I felt my body being transported somewhere else as the price was paid in full.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back in my castle. Thank goodness. I was worried I’d be dumped in the middle of the Demon Realm.

I considered going to my room to lie down on the soft bed but ended up just lying on the floor. My legs were shaking, and my whole body was drained, making it hard to even stand.

I placed my hand over my eye, which still ached slightly. My vision was somewhat blurred, suggesting this state would persist until my core fully healed. Additionally, the magic I used to handle as naturally as breathing or moving was now erratic.

“This is an unexpected side effect…”

This would make hiding or using my magic more challenging than before. Even with Envy’s power absorbed, I was now effectively half-strength until my core healed.

“Well, what could go wrong…?”

Other Archdemons must have already noticed Envy’s death. They might not know who did it, but even if they did, it wouldn’t matter. No one would risk damaging their core just to kill me, so there was no need to worry about being half-strength.

‘Greed, that greedy bastard, would want to preserve his core even more.’

But what about Noah? I wanted to check on him immediately, but I lacked the strength to open a portal to the human world right now. It would be better to rest a bit, recover somewhat, and then go.

“Yeah, just a little rest…”

I closed my eyes right there on the floor. Sleeping on the floor isn’t bad. That was an unnecessary thought.

When I opened my eyes again, not knowing how much time had passed, my magic had recovered somewhat. The floor, which had felt as comfortable as a bed earlier, now felt hard, so I got up clumsily. Judging by the slight throbbing in my eye, I hadn’t slept for too long, thankfully.

First, I needed something to cover my eye. The one that was blurry was completely black, without distinction between the white and the pupil, and cracks around my eye made it look like it might shatter at any moment, clearly showing I was injured.

I tried to conjure an eye patch with magic as usual but instead fetched a plain black one from the storage. Given my unstable magic state from the damaged core, using an artifact was the better, albeit more troublesome, option.

After checking once more that the silver adornment nearby effectively hid the wound, I quickly stepped through space to the human world.

“…Noah?”

The house was unusually quiet. Both Kimaris on the sofa and Phoras in his bedroom seemed to have passed out as if they’d made a pact.

I felt a chill thinking something might have happened. But fortunately, when I rushed into the room, Noah was sitting on the bed, looking fine.

“Jin…!”

Upon seeing me, Noah ran over, grabbing my hands and checking me all over.

“Jin, are you okay?”

“Of course, I’m fine. Hold on a second. How about you? Let’s look at your wound first.”

Who’s worrying about whom here? I stopped him to check his shoulder first, which still bore the injury without any treatment.

“What’s this? Why didn’t you get treated? Sit down for now.”

Detailed questions could wait until after treating him. I intended to try healing magic, but with my core not fully intact, I didn’t want to risk making things worse, so I went to fetch the first aid kit from the living room. But Noah grabbed my hand.

“Hold on, what’s wrong with your eye?”

“We’ll talk about that later. Let’s treat you first.”

“But… okay.”

With medicine and a clean towel soaked in water, I returned to the room where Noah sat quietly on the bed. I pulled back his shirt to reveal his shoulder, which had developed a physique from good nutrition, bearing a long, jagged wound.

‘This shouldn’t scar…’

Thinking I might need to kidnap a holy knight or a priest, I gently cleaned off the dried blood first. Meanwhile, Phoras and Kimaris, now awake, entered the room.

I immediately started scolding them. Not because I was taking out my frustration from being scolded by the Demon Lord. When I was actually being scolded, I was in too much pain to register much, but reflecting on it, it was a terrifying sight I never wanted to see again.

“Why didn’t you treat him? You should’ve treated him as soon as you got back.”

Noah answered instead of them.

“They were worried about Holy Knights tracking the magic, so they took detours to get here, and both passed out as soon as they arrived.”

I hadn’t thought about the Holy Knights chasing after me when I was focused on dealing with Envy. I was really unprepared…

“Is that so? Well done then.”

I thought they’d be happy with the praise, but instead, their faces turned even darker as they bowed deeply.

“We apologize for not protecting the young master properly.”

“We’re sorry, master…”

Though I told them to protect Noah with their lives, it was meant more as “do your best” rather than the literal meaning. If I had really meant that, I would have enforced it through a binding contract rather than just words.

And since protecting Noah was my responsibility, I didn’t plan to blame them.

“What could you have done against an Archdemon? But you did well to avoid pursuit.”

They were expecting a scolding but got praise instead, which seemed to surprise them. Ignoring their reaction, I continued treating Noah’s wound, applying medicine, covering it with gauze, and bandaging it. Still, it bothered me. I would have liked to use healing magic, but with my unstable magic, it wasn’t easy.

“Let’s leave it like this for now, and if it heals slowly or worsens, we’ll get a human mage or something.”

Or should I buy some holy water from somewhere? The thought of using something imbued with angelic power made me bristle with reluctance.

“I’m fine, so please tell me. What’s wrong with your eye? Is that the price you had to pay?”

Price?

Surprised by the word coming from Noah, I blinked and looked at Phoras. As soon as our eyes met, his face, which had returned to normal, turned pale again, confirming he was the one who spoke out of turn.