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Chapter 03
I had nothing to say to that.
Demons started off so perfectly that they could be thrown straight into battle the moment they were born from the Divine Demon Tree.
Let alone the Demon King. It was obvious how useless the existence of a human infant like me would look to him.
After staring at me for a long time, Lucifel suddenly grabbed my arm and yanked me straight up.
Yikes! My arm, my arm!
Seeing him use fire to cleanly burn away the damp, hot blanket reeking of moisture, I swallowed back the scream I was about to let out with all my might.
My arm felt like it was genuinely going to detach, but thanks either to the Demon King’s aura or the fact that I was the hero’s child, it thankfully didn’t pop or tear off.
Compared to what I had expected, this body seemed quite sturdy for an ordinary baby.
Still, the pain was real, so tears pricked my eyes once more.
Not bursting into a shrill wail as usual, but just silently leaking tears, I caused Lucifel to let out a short, “Hmph,” and twitch his brow.
Then, as if something had just occurred to him, he stopped holding me by one arm like an object, and instead firmly scooped and supported my bottom against his arm.
…I don’t think I have any capacity left to feel shame.
Although my mind belonged to a clean-cut young lady who had lived for thirty years, the ‘me’ right now was merely a ‘baby’ who hadn’t even lived fifty days since birth.
“It smells foul.”
Yes, indeed.
So please, I beg of you, do not commit the atrocity of hurling me into a bathtub.
To survive as a helpless newborn infant, all I could do was silently and desperately grovel before them in my mind.
Fortunately, Lucifel had spent quite a long time observing how humans lived by visiting the forest cabin of the hero’s wife—who was now my mother—every single day.
Thanks to that, Lucifel possessed a fair amount of human ‘common sense.’
Although it wasn’t in the storybook, among the scenes I witnessed while reliving the live-action fairy tale as a dream was my mother studying childcare so she could handle things smoothly when the baby was born.
‘Has it come out?’
‘Not yet.’
‘Then what is that you’re doing?’
‘I’m learning in advance for when it does.’
‘And that right now?’
‘I’m practicing how to give a bath.’
‘Why bother? You can just go in together.’
‘I suppose one could do that. But babies need to be washed often. There will be times when we can’t go in together, right?’
‘Human babies must be so filthy that they need to be washed frequently.’
And thus, Lucifel acquired the common sense that ‘human babies are dirty things.’
Unfortunately, my mother hadn’t bothered to correct the Demon King’s words.
Why on earth did you do that…
Even though all of humanity’s infants were instantly relegated to ‘filthy things,’ my mother had only offered a brief smile.
Perhaps due to the common sense he acquired back then, Lucifel seemed to have recalled ‘how to bathe.’ Deciding I smelled bad, he carried me right then and there to an outdoor bath that made my eyes and mouth drop wide open.
It was a place that could only be reached after pushing through dense, unfamiliar woods and walking for quite a long time.
Reminiscent of an outdoor hot spring, the massive bath was surrounded by mysterious pillars straight out of Greek mythology, and its polished marble floor was covered in unique patterns.
Rolling my eyes diligently to look up at the sky, I saw a giant red moon so close it looked as if it were about to embrace the earth.
With twinkling stars crowding around the red moon, the scenery was so breathtaking that anyone soaking in the bath would naturally exclaim, “This is truly the life of a god!”
It was a place with a view just that fantastic.
With a flick of his outer clothes, Lucifel tossed them aside and casually stripped off the rest.
My eyes, which had been blankly admiring the scenery, popped wide open.
Through my field of vision, swollen and puffy from all the crying, I watched Lucifel progressively turn stark naked.
Wow!!!
Pire, unadulterated awe echoed in my mind over and over again—Lucifel’s physique was absolute perfection itself.
It was a good thing I didn’t know how to speak. Otherwise, tacky exclamations of admiration would have spilled out of my mouth non-stop.
If my fingers could move, I might have even given him a thumbs-up.
Talk about embarrassing sycophancy.
Just to that extent, Lucifel’s body was so flawless that even the gods would have fought over who got to claim it.
Oh, dear gods.
What kind of trial are you inflicting on me to make me witness a scene like this?
As Lucifel approached me, I squeezed my eyes tightly shut.
I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I accidentally saw your naked body.
However, that apologetic sentiment lasted only a moment before I was forced to tightly cling to one of Lucifel’s arms as my absolute lifeline.
One could easily guess just how high the water temperature of the steaming bath was merely by looking at it.
If I fell in, my entire body would likely be scorched by the terrifyingly intense heat of the bathwater.
Looking closer, the water even had a slightly purplish hue, suggesting it wasn’t just ordinary water.
Ending up with just minor burns from the water might actually be a lucky outcome. Wouldn’t I just melt and dissolve the moment I went in?
That’s magma. That’s a magma bath.
It had to be a tub reserved exclusively for demons!
Trembling violently, I clung to Lucifel’s arm as if it were my sole lifeline.
Glancing sideways at me, Lucifel remarked:
“Human infants sure are high maintenance.”
Having said that, he casually flicked his finger.
Then, sliding his hand straight under my armpits, he lifted me up and plopped me right into the bath with a splash.
Save me! The Demon King is murdering a human baby!
I fully expected to become a well-roasted human infant right then and there, but feeling the unexpectedly cozy and warm texture of the water, I stopped thrashing and blinked.
“Is this sufficient?”
Watching Lucifel speak as though he were actually asking for my opinion, I couldn’t help but blink my eyes wide.
It was sufficient. It was absolute perfection.
At that, Lucifel curved one corner of his mouth upward in a smug huh.
His criminally handsome appearance shone even brighter.
The only problem was that, no matter how one looked at it, it looked like a sneer looking down at something utterly trivial.
Anyway, it was certain that Lucifel had adjusted the water temperature of the bath specifically for me.
I loved the comfortably warm water temperature that instantly put me in a good mood.
However, feeling the pressure easing from the hands supporting my armpits, I frantically began paddling my arms.
D-Don’t let go! I’ll drown!
Looking at him with desperate, terror-stricken eyes, Lucifel tilted his head slightly and said:
“There is no chance of you drowning, so rest easy.”
True to his word, before I could even mentally prepare myself, Lucifel withdrew the hands supporting me.
I squeezed my eyes shut in sheer panic.
Contrary to my expectation that I would plunge straight into the depths, my body floated, half-submerged in the water.
It felt as though I was wearing an invisible inner tube.
“To be such a coward.”
Hearing the tone laden with disdain made me unreasonably indignant.
Ask every baby in the world. Is there any infant who wouldn’t be terrified in this situation?!
Of course, if I were a perfect demon infant born ready, I wouldn’t be scared in a situation like this.
Since they were thrown into battle right from birth, there was no way they’d be frightened by a mere bath.
Does he think I’m some kind of demon…
I let out a sigh, but all that escaped my lips was a soft, wheezing puff of breath.
Regardless of everything, my very first bath in this world felt genuinely wonderful.
Though I could do little more than wiggle my fingers, good things were good things.
True to its appearance from the outside, the bathwater carried a faint, hazy purple tint.
What kind of water is this…? It certainly isn’t hot spring water…
Given that the location was the Demon Realm, it was utterly suspicious.
Not that I could thrash around demanding to leave just because the water was sketchy. To begin with, I couldn’t even thrash around in this body.
Well, whatever kind of water it was, its haziness luckily allowed me to see only the upper half of Lucifel’s holiness-inducing naked body, which was a relief.
I thoroughly enjoyed my half-body bath while harboring thoroughly impure thoughts.
Uhm.
However, even that soon grew boring. It wasn’t like a song was playing, and marveling at a scenery that made your eyes pop out was very short-lived.
Damn it, this newborn body required me to strain my eyes just to see things in the distance, and that wasn’t something I could keep doing for long.
In the end, all I could do was float around listlessly, guided by Lucifel’s mysterious magic.
I’d be happy if I could at least swim.
Overcome with boredom as I drifted along, I sneaked sideways glances at Lucifel.
It wasn’t like I was doing it on purpose. It was just that my gaze naturally drifted toward him…
Yikes!
Yet every single time I sneaked a glance, our eyes met, making my heart skip beats and pound frantically against my ribs.
His waist-length black hair and smooth white skin were damply slicked.
Someone once said that men look devastatingly sexy when they’re sweating or soaked in water.
That must be why athletes are so popular.
So, what happens when that kind of athlete is also carved by the gods to be impossibly handsome?
Anyone would drop to their knees and bow.
My heart was racing for no other reason than that.
On top of that, those blood-red eyes, looking as though he had plucked the red moon right out of the sky, were glaring at me as if he meant to murder me.
To an outsider, it would look exactly like he was about to devour me.
No, even someone who knew him would see it that way. Without a doubt.
Right, no matter how handsome he is, he’s a Demon King who can easily kill people with a flick of his finger. I need to keep my wits about me. If I don’t want to be killed like this, the only option is to get on this man’s good side.
Just like how he grew intrigued by the hero’s wife and stayed by her side.
The Demon King had felt an interest in my mother. Based on the vague dream I saw and the extremely concise contents of the storybook, I didn’t know what actually transpired between the two of them, but that much was certain.
So the reason the Demon King was keeping me alive instead of killing me right now was probably due to that exact same ‘interest.’
There might be complicated circumstances entangled with the contract’s price and wish, but looking at Lucifel’s expression, which didn’t seem troubled in the least, even that didn’t seem like it would be a binding constraint.
Right, for someone of the Demon King’s caliber, tearing up a contract or two must be child’s play.
Thus, I had no choice but to act like the cliché characters in the cheap novels I used to read.
Whenever I read those books, I’d grumble, How can those tropes be so cliché!… but those characters were just trying to stay alive.
Was I some nobleman who sold out his country during the Joseon Dynasty in my past life? If not, why on earth is this happening to me…
However, I quickly dismissed that thought.
In life, it was always much more comforting for the mental health to think “What do I do now?” rather than “Why on earth is this happening?”
Since our eyes kept meeting, I stopped sneaking glances, slapped the water with my hand to create splashes, and forced myself to concentrate on thinking.
Lucifel’s gaze—still entirely inscrutable as to its motive—continued to linger on me, but having endured it for a while now, I was gradually growing used to it.
Fortunately, the breath-stealing pressure I felt when our eyes first met was no longer there.
Whether he had concealed his aura just as he had regulated the water temperature, or if I had simply adapted to his aura already, was anyone’s guess.
Thinking back, wasn’t ‘I’ technically the hero’s daughter, after all? Even though I’d only been born a few days ago, my current physical state looked sturdy enough to easily pass for a hundred-day-old infant.
I honestly have no clue what’s going on…
Right as I was pulling myself together to think things through, hadn’t I just peed myself and been dragged off to the bath?
There was no way I could calmly deduce my current situation.
Struggling against sheer mortification to preserve my human dignity took absolute precedence.
At that moment, Lucifel, who had been lounging lazily against the edge of the bath while watching me, spoke up.
“I have been thinking of a name for you.”
Pardon? All of a sudden?
As I was busy rolling my little brain around in circles, I blinked my eyes rapidly.
Watching me splash my hands and float around the tub, he crook-beckoned with his finger.
Never failing to live up to the title of the Finger Demon King.
With a swoosh, a water current formed, propelling me right in front of him.
It felt like riding an amusement park water slide.
D-Damn it… i-it’s fun.
Come to think of it, the ‘me’ of my past life had truly loved riding amusement park attractions.
“Kya-ha!”
Even though I was fully aware of the grave situation and the terrifying Demon King sitting right in front of me, I instinctively burst into silly giggles—proving that infant instinct had just overpowered adult reason.
So… it wasn’t my conscious choice.
“Ho.”
“Giggle!”
Pull yourself together, me!
Don’t you dare giggle right in front of the Demon King!
