CH 64

From there, the welcoming banquet fizzled out. 

Since a woman had suddenly dropped into the venue, everything had descended into chaos. And to top it all off, the atmosphere had become even more awkward since I had stopped the guards who had thought she was an intruder and tried to punish her. 

Nevertheless, the child who was crying out of fear seemed like a high school student, no matter how many times I looked at it. So I couldn’t just leave her to herself. 

I finally managed to persuade the knights, who tried to follow me as an escort, claiming that she was suspicious, and eventually brought the child to my room by myself. Obviously, that included Lecht and Kelber as well.

“So, to summarise it all, you suddenly lost your senses on your way to the internet cafe after sneaking out of self-study, and when you opened your eyes, you found yourself in that place earlier.”

“Huhuuu, yes…” Song Ara blew her nose and sipped on the warm tea that the maids had prepared. Compared to her teary appearance when we first met, this seemed to be a much more genuine appearance.

“A senior in Daehan High School…” 

I rubbed my forehead at the student ID that was found in the child’s belongings. Daehan Private High School was often talked about a lot and was involved in many scandals since it was a place where the children of the cream of the country’s richest families and conglomerates gathered.

‘It’s the media that keeps inflating the news—looking at it right now, they’re no different to ordinary high school students.’

She was ‘on the way to the internet cafe after skipping self-study’. It was such a normal sentence that I ended up feeling a little sour. 

“It’s not like there was an accident either. You didn’t fall into a manhole or anything, right?”

“No way, no matter how much I walk while looking at my phone, there’s still no way that I’d fall into a manhole.” Song Ara, who was saying that, then shouted ‘Ah!’, placing down her mug and fumbled. “My phone!”

There wasn’t a pocket in her uniform jacket, nor in her skirt. Song Ara flipped her bag upside down and shook it, but there was no phone that dropped out. 

“I must have dropped it when I lost my senses… Hing… I just bought it last month though…”

“It wouldn’t have worked here anyway.”

“Where exactly is this place?” Song Ara quickly gave up her thoughts about her phone and looked at me upon hearing my words. 

Although the tip of her nose had slightly reddened since she had cried for so long, she was still extremely cute since her face was the type that was round, and her eyes were also large due to her double eyelids. The beauty spot at her jawline also made her young face even cuter.

“Hey, that mister… is his horn real?” Song Ara hid behind me and pointed at Lecht while talking. 

The sound of her using ‘mister’ to describe him made me laugh. I quickly put away my expression and said, “Yes, the horns are real, and like I said earlier, this isn’t Korea, nor is it Planet Earth, but rather, it’s a completely different world.”

“Wow… so it’s something like a fantasy world, right?”

“That’s right. Did you not read <A Divine Retribution> that was serialised on Series?”

Song Ara shook her head. “I don’t normally read webtoons or webnovels…”

That’s what I had also suspected, seeing as she hadn’t even heard of the title before. It had even topped the rankings for several months, so if you had even a smidge of interest in it, there would’ve been no way you had never heard of the name before.

“Anyway, it’s a world that’s similar to that of the novel. To be more exact, what happens in the novel occurs in the ‘human realm’, while this is the ‘demon realm’.”

As I was speaking to her, I had the thought that it wouldn’t have been of any help to know about the novel anyway. Since this was the demon realm anyway.

“So eonnie is either a reincarnator or a transmigrator… and this is the demon realm… so that mister is the demon king, right? So is that puppy over there Cerberus or something…? No, that would be at the gates of hell…”

t/n:  언니 is used by younger females to address older females. can be translated literally to ‘older sister’ as well, but i think i’ll just stick with the korean term.

“Woof!” 

“Ahhhh!”

But somehow as she was talking, Kelber’s three heads suddenly barked simultaneously, causing Song Ara to scream and cling onto me. 

“Hing… I normally like dogs… but he just looks too scary…”

At her sniffling appearance and body that seemed to cling to my arm, I laughed while calling out to Kelber. “Good boy. He’s no different from other dogs. Go on and pet him.”

Kelber, who ran over quickly, placed his head on the end of the bed where we were sitting and wagged his tail gently. I stroked Kelber first, and after looking over at him cautiously, Song Ara also hesitantly placed her hand on Kelber’s head. 

“So soft…!”

Since Kelber had closed his eyes and stayed still at her touch, Song Ara gained more confidence as she started to pet him more proactively.

“There’s nothing to be scared of. Although the guys here may look different, they’re all still exactly the same in the end.”

Whether it’s earth, the empire, or the demon realm. The way people lived was all the same. I had felt it while I was in the Grand Duchy, but even more so when I came over to the demon realm. 

“But that mister over there is a ‘king’—the king of this world, right?” Song Ara removed her hand from Kelber and shifted closer toward me. 

“That’s right.”

“Wow… then is eonnie the queen then?”

My breath became stifled when the child asked me such an innocent question. 

“No, well, we aren’t married…”

“But everyone calls you ‘Your Majesty’, so isn’t that like, ‘Your Majesty the Queen’?”

“That’s…”

Ah, how was I meant to tell her about the complicated story from a hundred years ago that I had become entangled with?

“Aha! So you’re not married yet, so you’re both engaged then?”

I mean, that’s kind of… it’s true that Lecht and I were in a relationship, but we had never actually talked about marriage. So we weren’t engaged. But a hundred years ago, we were married or did something similar to that, and it wasn’t like I would say no if asked to do it again… Even I got confused trying to explain our relationship!

“Anyway, eonnie is the top figure in the hierarchy in this world, right?”

“No, the top figure is Lecht…”

“No way, I can tell who’s in the higher position just from the way that mister is looking at you eonnie.” Song Ara snickered and hugged my waist tighter. “Then I’ll just stick right next to you eonnie. Since this is the safest place to be, isn’t it?” She nestled her face against my chest and looked up at me with her eyes shining. “Eonnie’s name is also ‘Ara’, right? Hehe, please take care of me, eonnie.”

Was it a survival instinct, or was she just normally this adorable? I didn’t know which one it was, but I laughed anyway at the appearance of Song Ara who was smiling brightly and clinging stickily to me. It was a smile that was so bright, it was to the extent that it even made the viewer feel better. Let alone feel burdened at the appearance of a person I had only met for the first time today approaching me so unhesitatingly, I even took a liking to her. 

“Okay. Just stay safely by my side. I’ll find a way to send you back.”

“Alright! Eonnie is the best!” 

Song Ara squealed happily and dove into my arms. Sensing the bright atmosphere, Kelber also barked a few times and wagged his tail, trying to squeeze himself in between me and Song Ara. 

Lecht was the only one who didn’t like this situation. He was staring at us with an expression full of dissatisfaction. 

“Just for the time being.” If there really was no way for me to send them back, then I thought that I would just protect the child until she became an adult and found a place to stay. 

Lecht let out a sigh at my apologetic expression. “How could I stop you if you want to do it? Then just do that,” he said in a resigned voice. 

After hearing that, Song Ara laughed quietly and buried her head into my arms, whispering, “Just look how much that mister is into you, eonnie…! How romantic—!”

It was a sentiment that made me even more embarrassed than her, who had said those words.

pls do not share this anywhere or u will always stub ur toe when u walk past a door frame !! this translation has been stolen from mioscorner.com, pls only read there i’m begging u :kneels:

* * *

A thorough investigation was conducted on how Song Ara had gotten here, and why she had suddenly fallen into the venue. However, no matter how much was investigated, there was nothing that came out of it. 

It was impossible for us to know the identity of the light that had covered the venue in the first place. I had wondered if she had been teleported, but they had said it wasn’t that. It had felt similar, yet different, so the guards and the researchers related to it were reportedly agonising over the investigation. 

What was fortunate was Song Ara’s ability to adapt to the situation. 

“Eonnie, eonnie! What is this? It’s really tasty!”

“This is a fruit that’s native to the demon realm. It looks similar to a raspberry.”

At first, she felt uneasy about leaving my side in case those ‘scary misters’ would come and point their spears at her again. But as she lived closely with me, eating together and sleeping on the same bed, she actually adapted to the demon realm faster than I thought she would. 

“Oh, right. The gatekeeper mister from earlier did say that as well. Apparently demonic creatures aren’t particularly divided by species! They’re all just ‘demonic creatures’!”

Was it because everyone in the Demon King’s Palace treated her kindly due to the way I took care of her like a younger sibling?

“Just like how sparrows and pigeons are both birds, yet don’t mate, I thought demonic creatures were also like that, but apparently they aren’t!”

She showed a tremendous amount of sociability, and before I knew it, most of the employees had already met her. Rather, I could also see that Song Ara had an easy to approach appearance, while for me, it was harder since I possessed the image of the ‘Demon King’s woman’.

“Apparently, if they just mate with someone they like, they’ll end up giving birth to a demonic creature that’s never been seen before.”

It was also cute to see the child fascinated by the things that I had once heard and been fascinated about. Did Lecht feel like this when he looked at me? Although the fact that she had a natural cuteness to her also played a part, she was fundamentally just a child who was filled with innocence and naivety.

“Right, right! There were a couple of larger demonic creatures that were picking on a tiny baby, so I went and scolded them. I did good, right?”

Her cheerful nature and character that was unable to endure injustice was also one of the reasons that made me like her even more. 

Although I had guessed to some extent upon seeing she was a Daehan High School student, it was clear that she was also a child from a formidable household when she started to talk more about her family. And even the youngest daughter of a household that any Korean would have heard of before. 

Perhaps because she had grown up receiving only an enormous amount of love, she also had a tendency to be stubborn, but it was to the point where it was loveable since she seemed used to giving love to others as well. The reason she was able to be brave also seemed to be because she still didn’t know to be scared of the world, and didn’t think that anyone could hate her either. It was probably also thanks to this somewhat reckless personality of hers that she was able to adapt so quickly to the demon realm as well.

“Right, eonnie! I asked Solte eonnie earlier and she said that she’s done preparing my room! I can sleep separately tonight!”

“Hmm? You said that you were scared and that we should continue sleeping together though.”

“Come on~. Still, how could I keep taking up the time of a person who has a fiance every night?” 

Song Ara squirmed with an even more embarrassed look on her face than I had as she used the word, ‘fiance’. 

To me, who couldn’t find the words to reply because I didn’t know what her words meant, she added, “I’ll take Kelber and sleep somewhere else today! Don’t keep kicking out Mister Demon King because of me, so today, the two of you… hehe.” Song Ara covered her mouth with a napkin and sprang up from her seat with an indecent smile.

“You’re really sleeping by yourself? Will you be okay?”

Just as I was going to ask why she was suddenly doing this when she was a child who normally didn’t like being away from me even for a moment, Song Ara then said coyly, “Of course! I’ll have Kelber with me too anyway.”

Having spoken bravely, Song Ara sprang up from her seat and gestured to Solte to come over. Solte then approached us with a box that she had been holding, as if she had only been waiting for the signal. 

“I feel really sorry for Mister Demon King because I feel like I’ve been hogging you too much… so I prepared a present!”

“Present?”

I smiled, finding it praiseworthy that she had the time to prepare a present, as Song Ara said with a face full of excitement. “It’s sleepwear! I painstakingly chose it out for you!”

Then she burst into happy giggles and disappeared with Kelber.

Wondering, ‘Why is she being like that?’ I opened the box and immediately knew why.

“Heok.”

It was a present that I couldn’t help dropping my jaw at. 

At me, who was so flustered by the contents of the present that I couldn’t find the words to say, Solte asked, “Then, would you like to return to your room and have me help you try it on?”

“W-What do you mean help?! I won’t wear it!” I slammed the lid on the box with a completely red face. 

It was sleepwear alright. Yeah, it was sleepwear, but…

“H-Hurry up and take it away!”

How could I wear that piece of string, where not even a single piece of cotton could be found? Shameful!

I pushed the box containing the wild clothes (?) in Solte’s direction. But as Solte slowly put away the box, my eyes still continued to dart there. 

Hmm… it’s an extremely embarrassing looking outfit, but… 

‘No matter how I think about it, I’m just not used to it—there isn’t actually anything strange about it though…?’

Yeah, it’s a little sly and promiscuous, but…

‘What’s wrong with being perverted between lovers…?’

I began to rationalise without end in my head. And most of all, there was only one thing that I was really curious about. 

‘What sort of expression would Lecht have if I wore that…?’

The curiosity that was rising from my heart was even more powerful than the shame that wrapped around my body. 

“S-Solte!” 

Solte, who had reached the door at a pace that was even slower than a sloth’s, turned her head sharply like a weasel at my call. 

“Ahem. Bring it here. No, to the room…” 

The words that I would try it on at least once didn’t seem to want to come out of my throat. My face turned red instead.  

“I-It’s because it’s rude to throw away a present without even using it! That’s why!” After throwing out an excuse that no one would ever believe, I jumped out of my seat and rushed toward my room. 

Solte followed after me with the box in question.