It was during the time Julia hesitated as she was at a loss whether to do this or that when Paimon’s tightly closed eyes opened, albeit slowly.

After groaning for a little while, he stiffened his body when he finally realized whose embrace he was currently in.

“Lord Paimon, are you awake?”

“What—why are you here?”

Paimon, who was gasping for breath, had a face that was painted with such genuine disgust. He instantly twisted and struggled to free himself from Julia’s arms.

“Why, haah, are you here! Get your, dirty hands off now…!”

“You can’t afford to move right now. The wounds will burst open.”

“Go away!! Get off—can’t you hear me?!”

The more Paimon had struggled, the stronger the chains that hadn’t been loosened just yet tightened around his whole body. In the end, Julia had no other choice but to let go of him. The baby dragon frantically scratched the floor in order to get even further away from her.

“Die, die, die, die, you humans—it’s all because of you!”

“…”

“It’s because of you! It’s all because of you! How does it feel to see this body become like this? It must be so much fun! That’s why you came back to mock this body of mine! If I get to be released from here, I’ll definitely kill you first!!”

Paimon struggled and scuffled until the veins in his eyes burst and blood started gushing out from his own throat. Julia only accepted the anger that erupted out and simply waited without saying anything at all.

Only after a long time when he finally had exhausted all his strength did Paimon return from his dragon form back to the state of a young boy. He then lay on the floor weakly while gasping heavily. Then only Julia began to take a seat down in front of him before she asked him calmly.

“Are you done with the things that you want to say?”

“…”

“You can still do more. I can listen to you as much as you like. If that will make Lord Paimon feel much better.”

Julia undid the waist strap of her robe before she carefully draped it over Paimon’s body. The air over there was simply too cold for a child to lie down.

“But don’t hurt yourself out of anger. It’s going to hurt too much then.”

“…”

“Come visit me whenever you feel better then. I’ll listen to everything—any trifle is fine as well. You can just say that you feel good because the weather is nice today or that you feel happy because you ate something delicious or even when you are sad because a plant that you’ve been growing died. In fact, even when you are upset because you had a fight with a friend. Anything at all.”

The boy’s glassy eyes slowly looked up towards Julia. His face seemed to be very confused about the current situation.

“Why are you even doing this? This body, I, had tried to kill you before.”

“Well, I’m not sure, but I’m probably weak to loners.”

Whenever she saw a lonely person, she would see her own lonely past through them. And she had the feeling that if she were to simply reach out to them, her childhood days back when she had been trapped in darkness would also be saved. It might have just been a selfish thought on her own, but still……

“It hurts.”

Paimon, who had been silent all along, slowly tossed out a single phrase. The sound of breathing within the prison eventually grew a little louder. A thick trail of tears was already streaming down his cheeks.

“I’m hurt. It hurts. It really hurts.”

His bruised arm that became congealed with venom and blood slowly stretched out towards her. He still hesitated in case he would be rejected, but he just couldn’t let go of that sliver of hope in the end. In the search of warmth which he had never even touched before.

Julia knelt down and cradled the boy carefully.

“You’re okay now.”

“It hurts, I’m hurt…”

“Everything will soon be okay.”

She closed her eyes as a sign of prayer and pressed her forehead against the boy’s. The child’s sad cry slowly resounded all forlorn amidst the empty underground.

[▷SYSTEM

3rd Episode. The Demon’s Savior.]

[Completed.]

* * *

Julia couldn’t sleep all night as she had been very busy.

After sneaking Paimon out of the prison, she turned to Agares first. It was only because of the fact that during the other day, she had seen when Barbatos had infused some magical powers for Lerazier’s recovery. She thought all over the place and the only demon that could be of help to Paimon, who had been making many enemies from before, was her.

Agares was utterly delighted to see Julia who had paid a visit late at night before wrinkling her forehead as soon as she saw the young boy in her arms.

‘Little key, it’s not that difficult to share a little bit of magic power, but Paimon tried to kill you before. Even if you did help him, he was the type who wouldn’t even know such grace, so why do I need to save him after all?’

‘Paimon just didn’t know that it wasn’t supposed to be like that. Since no one had ever taught him before.’

‘Demons are completely different from humans. They don’t need any help from their own mothers. Newborns already possess powerful strength and intelligence from the first time they awaken in order to survive amidst the Demon Realm. That’s why they have to pay the full price for their own mistakes.’

Agares’s reaction was unexpectedly firm. When she couldn’t keep up with her being hesitant, she even tried to throw Paimon back into the dungeon. In the end, Julia had no choice but to bring out the trump card that she had already prepared.

‘If you save Paimon, you can then eat a little of me……’

‘A little?’

‘……A, a lot.’

From the moment Julia’s cheeks blushed, the corners of Agares’s mouth, which had been unable to control its excitement, curved in a very seductive arc. The deal came to a very successful conclusion that was promising of a future date ahead.

Julia eventually went to Lerazier next. It was because of the fact that this problem would not end with just healing his wounds. After listening to Paimon’s wrongdoings from an objective standpoint, she thought of scolding him for the part that needed to be scolded for and if there had been something that was asking for forgiveness, he should definitely go around and apologize properly.

However, Lerazier’s reaction was still very cold.

‘Huh, that’s really suspicious. His life is already over anyway, so what are you trying to do by judging the right and wrong? I’m saying this just in case, but you’d better not think about saving him like that last time. Because the weight of this matter is entirely different from that of back then.’