I Saved a Demon, and Now He’s After Me - Chapter 77

Eden slung her sword on her shoulder and stepped inside the house. The moment she crossed the threshold, a strong, metallic stench hit her, far beyond what she had smelled outside. What greeted them at the entrance to the living room were a dozen or so corpses strewn about with gaping holes in their chests.

Even if they were dead, stepping on them would be disrespectful. Eden weaved her way around the bodies and moved further inside.

“You arrived later than I expected. I have been waiting.”

It was then that a sweet, friendly woman’s voice rang out.

Eden hid her tension behind an expressionless face and looked straight ahead. In front of a tea table in the middle of the living room sat a woman in a white dress.

The dress, which should have looked elegant, gave off a grotesque impression with blood staining the sleeves and hem of the skirt. As the woman swept her wavy black hair upward, the strands that had fallen forward settled into place, revealing bewitching features.

“Are you Sena?”

“Oh my, could you refrain from using my first name when we’ve only just met? Please call me by my last name. Mrs. Garcia would be appropriate.”

“Mrs.?”

“Yes. I am to be wed to the Young Baron Garcia, you see.”

A faint blush flickered across the demon’s pale face before vanishing. To someone who did not know the demon’s true nature, it was an enchanting sight that would have captivated even other women. But to Eden, who had seen the corpses she had killed, it looked like nothing but revolting pretense.

“Haven’t quite learned human customs yet? You don’t take the man’s surname unless you’re already married. Being betrothed isn’t enough.”

Eden stretched out her arm and pointed her sword at Sena.

“And this man you call your future husband. Is he even alive? You didn’t eat him, did you?”

“Pfft.”

Sena bowed her head and burst out laughing. The demon shook with laughter for a good while before lifting her head, her mouth splitting into a grin that seemed to stretch to her ears.

“What kind of woman eats the man she loves? Ah, though of course, his liver is inside my stomach.”

“Figures. Husband, my a*s.”

“Even so, it wouldn’t do to treat him the same as the men scattered around over there. He sacrificed his fading life for me. Because he loved me.”

Love. A word Eden never expected to hear from a demon’s mouth. Eden let out a scoff loud enough to make sure it was heard. Demons did not know the emotion called love. That was precisely why they could not only devour humans, but toy with them and kill them for fun too.

If they knew love, if they had ever once looked into the eyes of a dying human and the family forced to watch, they could never enjoy themselves that way.

“To repay that sacrifice, I must become human no matter what.”

Eden’s hand slipped on her sword. Doubting her own ears, she asked again.

“Wh-what? Human?”

Eden was not the only one taken aback. Bezel too dropped the tense expression he had been faking, his eyes widening.

A demon wanting to become human. It was as absurd as wanting to become an ant or a mayfly. If Eden had not been beside him, he would have asked Sena if she had lost her mind.

“Why that look? Are you mocking my devotion?”

“At least say something that makes sense. Love, devotion…. A passing dog would laugh.”

Sena glared at Eden, then slowly turned her head. Her eyes, clear and blue in a way unbefitting a demon who had killed over a dozen humans, fixed on Bezel’s chest.

“I wonder if you’d still be able to laugh like that when the man you brought with you dies.”

A bright red tongue licked the bloodstains already smeared around her lips. The pupils within her blue eyes narrowed, and the woman’s form vanished. Eden swiftly threw herself sideways and shoved Bezel out of the way.

“Move!”

Not ‘Watch out!’ but ‘Move!’ Bezel obediently tumbled as she shoved him and murmured weakly.

“Ow….”

It was a performance he had put his whole heart into, but Eden had no time to spare for him. She blocked Sena, who had rushed in at an invisible speed, with her sword and launched into a fierce close combat.

Clang, clang.

It was a clash between nails and a sword, yet it sounded like metal against metal. Sena knocked Eden’s sword aside with her long nails and reached for her throat. Eden twisted her upper body to dodge the attack and swung her sword at Sena’s side in return.

“For a human, you’re quite… Argh!”

Sena, who had blocked the sword with her arm, let out a sharp scream.

“Aaah! What the hell is this?!”

An ordinary sword couldn’t leave so much as a scratch on a demon’s body. But this sword was different. Not only did it pierce the skin of a high-ranking demon and inflict a wound, but also caused a searing pain as if the flesh were burning.

“What do you think it is? It’s a consecrated sword, dumbass. I’ve spent thousands on this thing alone.”