BTDKD 06

Chapter 06

My past life had been ordinary—if one could even call it that.

Even though I worked hard and was accepted into a prestigious four-year university, I lacked the money to pay the expensive tuition, so I enrolled in a relatively cheap two-year college and graduated instead.

Society was bitterly cold to someone like me, and the company looked down on me. Endless overtime and weekend shifts wore my body and mind—both desperately needing rest—down to absolute exhaustion.

There was no time to make friends, go on trips, or do anything of the sort.

My salary was a pittance, yet the cost of living was sky-high, and I was saddled with mounting debt from a college degree that hadn’t even helped me.

Every month, I had to survive on whatever was left after paying off debt and interest. Fixed, necessary expenses like rent and phone bills kept my stomach constantly growling.

I scraped by, struggling desperately. I thought everyone lived like that.

Having neither time nor money, my social life naturally revolved entirely around work.

I thought I was the only one without friends. I thought that even if I felt lonely, I just had to endure it and live on. I thought everyone lived like that.

‘Why do you live such a hard life?’

Unlike me, who remained a low-level employee even after working for seven years straight out of college, my boss—who was much younger than me—had been hired directly as an assistant manager right after graduating from a four-year university.

She had said those words with a gaze full of pity.

That was the first time I realized it: the world is unfair, and not everyone desperately scrapes by the way I do.

I didn’t bother looking for where or how things had gone wrong. After all, that was time already lost.

So, right then and there, I submitted my resignation, intending to do nothing at all and just take a proper rest for a while.

Were those words really that heartbreaking? If asked, it wasn’t even quite that.

Yet, as I sniffled and wept bitterly, I couldn’t easily bring myself to empathize with why I was crying as though I had lost a whole country.

Even though it was I who was crying.

Just then, I felt a cool touch on my forehead.

It felt as though a cold washcloth—something I’d only ever seen in dramas—had been placed there.

Who would possibly nurse me?

However, feeling a bit too firm to be a washcloth, it slowly moved from my forehead down to my cheek, lingering there for a long while with utmost care.

Is this… a hand?

The touch gently caressing my forehead and cheek felt unfamiliar, yet strangely comforting.

Reassured, my tears ceased entirely.

Only then did I realize:

I was no longer in that cold, desolate world; I had begun a new life in a world where I could die at any moment.

Above all, here in this place… I was not alone.

This hand, which I had felt only once before, belonged to the Demon King, Lucifel.

There was no way anyone else could have a hand this chillingly cold.

Still, it makes me feel… a little at ease.

I didn’t know why.

The Demon King, Lucifel, was someone who could easily kill me the second his interest faded. Yet, I felt comforted by his touch.

Still, one thing was certain:

As long as Lucifel’s interest in me didn’t wane, I would not die.

I must stay by his side. That’s my only way to survive.

I have to get on his good side.

I need to keep the Demon King’s interest alive.

The realization that this was the only way to live began to root itself deeply within my heart.

“Papa?“

Lucifel furrowed his brow at the unfamiliar word.

He wondered if this impudent child had just uttered a human curse word at him.

“Did it just swear at me?”

The only humans Bellatrix had encountered since coming into the world were the bastards who had kidnapped her, so she couldn’t have learned human profanity. Even so, the thought crossed his mind.

Her expression had looked distinctly like someone spewing curses.

“No, it did not.”

Regnator corrected the meaning of the curse-like word.

“From what I hear, human infants use that title for their parents.”

“Parents?”

“Yes. The parents who bore and raised them.”

“I did not bear this thing.”

“However, you intend to raise her, do you not? According to what I looked up while establishing her title as your daughter, they call the woman who birthed them ‘Mama’, and the one who provided the seed ‘Papa’.”

“Is it mistaking me for that hero or something?”

Lucifel swept back his cascading hair, his brow furrowing deeper. How dare she mistake him for a pathetic excuse for a hero?

Just entertaining the thought that she had mistaken him made him intensely displeased.

If that were truly the case, it was utterly insolent.

The one who had saved her life upon birth, named her Bellatrix, and stayed by her side while she grew inside the belly was himself.

Yet she dared to mistake him? What a wretched creature.

Noticing that Lucifel’s mood had subtly soured, Regnator spoke hurriedly as if to cut off his train of thought.

“Did you not say the hero died before the child even grew inside the belly?”

“That is true. This brat has never even heard the hero’s voice.”

Then could it be that she viewed him through the ‘parent-child’ relationship unique to humans?

Lucifel felt the foul, stomach-churning displeasure from moments ago vanish in an instant.

“She truly seems to regard you as ‘Papa’, Lucifel-sama. To a human baby, a parent is an absolute, irreplaceable existence, after all.”

“To dare address me, the Demon King, in such a manner.”

“Indeed, she is truly the human child who kicked you, Lucifel-sama.”

Seeing Regnator marveling, Lucifel felt unreasonably pleased.

As if he had never been displeased in the first place, the corners of his mouth twitched upward.

Bellatrix, who had seemed utterly insolent moments ago, now appeared somehow praiseworthy.

She had certainly been arrogant and admirably bold since she was inside the belly. The Demon King’s daughter ought to have at least that much nerve.

Lucifel felt thoroughly glad that he had brought Bellatrix along. To the point where he thought once again that not walking past the hero’s wife back then had indeed been the right choice.

“To think the very first word she uttered in this world was ‘Papa’. Bella-nim must be exceedingly fond of you, Lucifel-sama.”

“Come to think of it, she does constantly smile whenever she sees me, so it does seem that way.”

“I saw it as well. That means her trembling earlier wasn’t out of fear, but because she was overjoyed. They say humans sometimes cry or tremble when they are overwhelmed with happiness.”

“She was so happy that her body trembled?”

“Would it not be so? People naturally call for the one they long for most when they are sick.”

Regnator’s honeyed words were exceedingly pleasant to hear.

He had thought humans were merely trivial and noisy, but the more he learned, the more fascinating a species they proved to be.

He also quite liked the word ‘irreplaceable’ that Regnator had uttered.

However, her fragile body was quite inconvenient. Unlike before, seeing her unable to cry properly due to her elevated body temperature made her look downright pitiful.

“What does a human ‘Papa’ do when the baby is like this?”

“Mm, I shall verify immediately.”

Having acquired books about the human world while assigning Bellatrix the role of the Demon King’s daughter, Regnator pulled a thick tome from his robes.

“Ah! I found it. They say a baby’s body temperature rising and crying weakly like this means it has contracted an ‘illness’. Judging by the symptoms, it appears to be an illness called a ‘cold’.”

“An illness?”

Demons do not contract illnesses.

Naturally, he had no concept of what a ‘cold’ was.

“Human infants are extremely fragile creatures lacking immunity, making them highly susceptible to all sorts of illnesses.”

“Can it not be cured with my aura?”

“No. It is written that one must prescribe and feed it medication suitable for the illness. Oh, and it says a baby must not be given medicine that is too strong.”

“…The medication a human infant can take varies depending on the illness?”

“And since the baby may feel anxious, the parents must provide ‘nursing’ by its side.”

Lucifel’s brow furrowed as the list of tasks a human ‘Papa’ had to perform seemed to continuously grow.

“What is that now?”

“It simply means staying closely attached to its side without leaving.”

“Are you saying it might die if I am not by its side?”

“It does not explicitly state that, but there seems to be a possibility. Human infants are fragile, after all. Should you take your eyes off it and it stops breathing, it would be disastrous.”

“Is a human infant truly this weak and trivial?”

To the words spat out in rising annoyance, Regnator replied:

“Seeing as even adult humans are pitifully weak and trivial, a human infant seems to be at a level lesser than a wildflower in the Demon Realm.”

“Truly a nuisance.”

Even as he said that, Lucifel could not take his eyes off Bellatrix lying in the wine basket.

Having wept weakly since dawn, her swollen eyes seemed too heavy to open properly.

Her breathing was so shallow that one had to listen closely to tell if she was breathing at all; occasionally, it faltered as if even that took too much effort, forcing him to infuse her with aura again and again.

Lucifel realized that the actions he had been taking since dawn were precisely what Regnator termed ‘nursing.’

Indeed, it felt so precarious that looking away for even a moment made it seem as though she would stop breathing, so he hadn’t taken his eyes off her—which proved to be a relief.

A relief?

Surprised by his own thought, Lucifel narrowed his brow in disbelief.

Did he just think it was a relief that a trivial human baby hadn’t died?

He tilted his head, but quickly dismissed the thought.

“What do you intend to do? You do not seem inclined to leave it be like this…”

Regnator asked, trailing off.

Lucifel didn’t need to think twice. It wasn’t even something worth agonizing over anyway.

If Bellatrix died like this, he would end up failing to grant the wish requested by the hero’s wife.

For the great Demon King to fail his very first contract made with a mere human—

That was a thoroughly unpleasant outcome, so Lucifel gestured toward the basket with a flick of his chin.

“Regnator, carry this.”

“…Are you going to the human world?”

“Yes. Must we not feed it that ‘medication’ so this thing can live?”

“Understood.”

Regnator held the wine basket rather precious in his arms.

Holding the wine basket tenderly with a stiff, stoic expression devoid of emotion looked quite comical, yet he remained entirely unfazed.

“While we are at it, it would be wise to learn what must be done for a human baby to grow without dying.”

Having left the human realm not too long ago, Lucifel now knew:

Appearing openly in the human world in a manner obvious to all would only cause a commotion.

And Lucifel hated noise above all else. Furthermore, he did not want Bellatrix—who had barely fallen asleep—to wake up from the racket.

Thus, concealing their demon aura and even altering their distinct red eyes, Lucifel and Regnator departed for the human realm.

It was a modest outing for a small baby’s medical appointment.