Chapter 196
In other words, it meant that in just a few decades, Ashtel would die.
Her sisters, gritting their teeth, did everything they could to oppose her decision.
They tried to persuade Ashtel to simply run away with Payne—after all, if they combined their strength, led by the Great Demon Sermedes, they might even be able to destroy Katzel Mediale itself.
But they all knew that was impossible.
And Ashtel knew that such a reckless escape would only make things worse for Payne.
“This is my last wish. Please… let me go.”
With a face on the verge of tears, she pleaded. To convince her three sisters, who wouldn’t budge an inch, Ashtel faced them with all the sincerity she could muster.
Her sisters, witnessing the rock-solid determination in her eyes, fell silent for a long time.
Finally, Hela bit her lip and made a suggestion.
“Then tell Sister Sermedes. If our eldest sister agrees, we’ll respect your decision too.”
Sermedes—lord of the succubi and incubi, and one of the Great Demon who ruled the demon realm.
And, above all, the big sister who loved Ashtel more than anyone else.
Would she ever agree to this? Could she possibly accept Ashtel choosing Payne’s life over her own kind?
Of course not. But Ashtel accepted that calmly.
If Sermedes was against it, she would stop her.
This too was a trial on the path to becoming human. So, Ashtel returned to the demon realm with her sisters.
And there, waiting at the dimensional gate, stood Sermedes herself.
“Sis Seri!”
Had she somehow sensed what was going on?
Ashtel eyed her carefully, but the surroundings were calm, and not even her horns were showing—it was impossible to guess what she was feeling.
With her usual unreadable face, Sermedes spoke.
“Sue, come to the Asti tree.”
“Huh? Wait, I have something to say…”
“Say it there.”
She grabbed Ashtel’s hand, left Liz, Chacha, and Hela behind, and soared into the sky.
To protect her, she wrapped a barrier around them and, with a crack of thunder beneath their feet, sliced through the sky toward the deep forest.
The Asti tree, standing at the heart of Sermedes’s domain, was as green and magnificent as ever, but Ashtel barely noticed it.
Mouth agape, she struggled a bit, but as soon as her feet hit the ground, she pulled away from Sermedes.
“Sis! What are you doing?!”
“You’re trying to become human, aren’t you?”
“W-what… how did you…?”
It was so quiet. Ashtel looked anxiously around.
The tiny fiends and birds she sometimes saw in Sermedes’s garden were nowhere in sight.
It was as if the dimension itself had been cut off, and she swallowed nervously.
“How did you know?”
“From the moment you met that human.”
“…You foresaw this?”
Sermedes didn’t answer, but sometimes silence is an answer of its own.
Old demons, after all, sometimes have insights rivaling the human ‘sages’. Through long years of life, they gain a kind of foresight, able to see what’s coming.
Ashtel was no exception.
Sermedes had known, from the moment Ashtel fell in love, just how blind she could become. She could even guess what form Ashtel’s shapeshifting would eventually take.
“That’s why I wanted to kill Payne.”
She’d attacked him on sight for that reason.
If not for him, her precious youngest would have stayed by her side, grown up with her Asti sisters in peace.
If only Payne had never existed.
“But this is how things turned out.”
“Sis Seri…”
“I know how you feel. I know what love is.”
She had lived for thousands of years.
Even Sermedes had loved before.
Human, demon—it didn’t matter. She’d once felt a love so desperate, she wanted to give up her very soul.
“But you girls are what mattered most to me.”
Her family was her treasure. The choice she’d made, above all, was her Asti sisters—including Ashtel.
“I love you all, too. But… but I can’t just stand by and let Payne suffer.”
“It’s okay. I understand how you feel.”
“So, will you let me become human?”
“It’s not up to me. It’s up to Katzel.”
“Katzel? You mean… the god?”
What did that mean?
Ashtel blinked in confusion. Sermedes raised her arm.
At once, a round door appeared at the base of the mighty Asti tree, as if the tangled undergrowth had been woven into a fortress.
“Go inside. You’ll understand.”
Ashtel stared in a daze at the Asti tree.
The place where she was born—and the last remaining sacred relic of Katzel in the demon realm.
The giant tree opened its mouth wide, as if waiting for her to step inside.
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