Reincarnation of the Demon - Chapter 177



Only Noblemtl

Episode 177. Nightmare

My memories before that are vague. A small, shabby shack that was too cramped for five people. I lived there, and was led by the hand of a woman who seemed like my mother, and we headed somewhere.

As I was led by that hand, I could feel a woman’s tear drop falling on the back of my hand and I knew that she was being sold.

The woman holding the hand that had a teardrop falling from it had a few coins in her hand. Despite the tears, the woman did not stop walking even once while walking away or while leaving me behind.

Thinking back now, the tears I shed back then were not tears of sadness at selling my child, but rather tears of pessimism about my life.

That was my first memory. My second memory was being led into a carriage by a rough-looking man’s hand.

The carriage was as shabby as the hut, and it smelled of sewage. There were so many lice that my back itched, and there were other children my age who were in the same situation as me.

For some reason, I didn’t cry. I guess it was because it wasn’t much different from my original life. The number of children entering the carriage was different each time, and their faces were different each time. About seven.

The whimpers that would come and go whenever a new baby came in soon disappeared, and we spent our time staring blankly at each other, not saying a word.

It was my turn after fifteen nights.

The man who usually yelled at the children and slapped them was bowing, and everyone who had been locked inside came out of the carriage.

On a late night, in the empty streets, riding in another carriage, I could tell that he was a ‘tall’ man. He had an arrogance that could not be hidden, and his clean clothes.

I just kept thinking that I should go to a good place.

No it wasn’t.

The place we arrived at dawn without any words or explanation was a desolate plain of an unknown mountain. It was obvious that it was made by humans, because unlike the surrounding lush forest, it was an eerily desolate and dry wilderness.

There were ten large holes in the ground, engraved with strange patterns. Twenty sturdy adults were surrounding the field, as if surrounding it, and their bodies were facing the field, not outside the forest.

The moment I got there, I couldn’t help but stop.

Die. Those ten holes – no, the whole place was filled with a horrible, unpleasant, scary, disgusting aura.

I didn’t know what it was. But it was so disgusting, and it felt like it was eating away at my whole body. Unlike the other kids who followed the man in front of them with expressions of fear and confusion, I stopped walking and took a step back.

“…I feel good.”

A few words of regret and sympathy. At that time, I didn’t know what a feeling was. However, contrary to the emotions that faintly came out, the man’s hand grabbed the back of my neck and lifted me up.

My hands were shaking. Fear was creeping up my body as I reached my core, and the thought of death took over my body. But I couldn’t run away.

Forcibly, I was given a stone sword and a piece of boiled potato in my hand.

“Survive.”

After saying that, the man dropped me into a hole.

Did I scream? I don’t remember. It was so trivial.

Fell. The hole was large, but the space inside was even larger. With a splash, he fell into a puddle.

It hurt. But I didn’t let go of the potatoes. And the stone sword too.

My body convulsed. Not from pain, but from the immense energy.

The disgust I felt outside the hole was nothing. Inside this hole, the concentrated, old, vile ghostly aura was on a whole other level.

At that moment, I think I was sobbing. I looked around, but I couldn’t see anything properly. The only light in this place, where there were no lights, was the rising sunlight above.

Above the hole filled with death, what the sun sees in the indifferent dawn light are corpses floating on the puddle they fell into.

The puddle was full of stagnant blood.

ah.

And what I saw was a doll that stood out from the other ‘things’.

Outside the pool, a boy looks at himself, holding a stone sword like his own.

Our eyes met.

ah…

I thought I was going to die. The child’s eyes were dead, except for the body.

Because his eyes were focused on his own bloody potatoes.

**

Why should they kill? His Majesty later told me. The murderous intent that was filled in the first place stimulated murder, and two people cannot share a single potato.

If people don’t die, neither potatoes nor people will come down.

Eating a dead body or eating a potato from the corpse’s hand. What’s humane about that?

Neither of them, but everyone chose the latter.

The child did not enter the puddle. It was correct to say that he could not. As I found out later, those who had already entered the ‘cave’ could not reach the puddle until the last moment.

So it had to be me who decided. The enemy who saw me, silently, with a stone sword in hand.

Why is that? Is it because of the talent he had from the beginning, or because of his naturally dull or twisted personality? Is it because of the blood cult’s magic engraved in the cave?

I rushed at the child with a stone sword in my hand. The child’s eyes widened as if he had not expected it, and his body was sluggish, but I was not.

They were tottering. It was impossible to kill them with one blow. They both dropped their stone swords, and a nasty, childish fight with their lives at stake began.

I picked up a stone sword from an unknown person and stabbed him in the neck. That was my first kill.

Did my hands shake? I couldn’t even remember that. I did remember eating potatoes. Potatoes with blood that didn’t rot.

After that, I was able to eat potatoes ten more times.

**

Seolhonbaeknyeo looked at her quietly. Once again, she stabbed the neck of the child who had run away across from her, and picked up the bloody potato he was holding and ate it.

His eyes were dead. Even when he ate bloody potatoes and when his child under him spasmed and vomited blood, he focused only on the potatoes.

After eating, I went to a corner and curled up. Even though the space was wide, I always slept curled up. My body trembled slightly. Even though I killed people and ate potatoes, this trembling did not go away.

A girl who was half as tall as she was now. Beside her was a stone sword, and her body was covered in blood.

The girl closed her eyes and fell asleep. The moment she lost consciousness while sleeping, her body began to shake even more violently.

Then, a sight that she had never seen before as a child unfolded. A puddle in the center of the pit. The blood from that puddle began to flow towards her. Very slowly, the sticky blood flowed and consumed the girl’s entire body.

And it was absorbed. The corpse and blood that had not decayed. Just like the blood that had been absorbed into the potato in the first place, the blood in the puddle clung to him without him even realizing it.

How much time had passed like that? When Seolhonbaeknyeo blinked, the girl opened her eyes, and the cave had changed. The cave, which had been bright with the sun in the middle of the sky, had become dark, and strangely enough, the pool of blood that had been shrinking in size had completely disappeared.

The biggest change is the hole. Instead of the hole where the child holding the potato was always dropped, a ladder descended.

Seolhonbaeknyeo quietly watched her younger self blankly staring at the ladder. The emotions she had felt bloomed in her heart.

Fear. Fear of what might come.

But even so, the child climbed up the ladder. A teardrop fell onto the ladder.

Night. On that moonlit night when the moon rose instead of the sun, countless torches surrounded the field, and there were the men and adults I had seen the first day.

The man who saw her coming said so.

“One. A failure.”

Failure. What did that mean? I didn’t know, but I knew it was ominous.

He turned his back and said, wondering if it was the man who had been showing sympathy in his eyes.

“Take care of it.”

Processing? I didn’t know what it meant. But what I saw was an adult approaching me, drawing his sword from its scabbard.

From them, I felt the energy I felt from the child on the first day.

Oh, you’re trying to kill me.

“sorry.”

Short story. A raised sword.

The girl took out the stone sword she had hidden and stabbed him.

“Ugh!”

He aimed for the neck but missed. Then he stabbed the stomach, and the man stepped back in surprise.

Everyone who had turned their backs looked at the situation again, and the girl quickly ran away. No, she tried to.

“It’s a shame. You have this kind of talent.”

My body was grabbed. I was caught in the air. I didn’t know what it was, but I could tell it was the work of a man in fancy clothes.

“I don’t want to get my hands dirty… No, they’re already dirty.”

Self-deprecating words. My throat was literally strangled. I couldn’t breathe. My consciousness was clouded.

Die.

“Stop.”

As soon as those words were heard, an invisible force was released.

Ouch, ugh-

“I see. So that’s what my father was hiding from me.”

“Your Highness? How is it here-”

“I secretly read the letter you sent me. I wanted to get revenge on you for the trouble you put me through. I came here out of curiosity, and indeed… it’s interesting.”

The words of a man who seemed to be a little older than himself. His tearful eyes were turned towards the owner of the voice, but his face was not clearly visible.

The man in the fancy clothes only narrowed his eyes slightly and didn’t stop him. As soon as he left, all the other sergeants were kneeling and bowing their heads.

“Is it the Son of Heaven who does such things? No, is it because he is such an indifferent Son of Heaven that he does such things?”

“Your Highness the Crown Prince!”

“From today, all blood magic is forbidden. Tomorrow, everything will be eliminated from here to the central heavens.”

“Your Majesty has commanded!”

“You have tolerated it. It is an evil deed that was carried out by tolerance and recognition, incited by desire. My brother initiated it. Since my brother initiated it, it is possible for me to put an end to it.”

“…After reporting to His Majesty-”

“This will also be tolerated. This sorcery is ineffective anyway. After all ten caves have produced survivors, you create another blood poison to create a blood man. In the end, didn’t that blood man die at the hands of the martial artists? Is there a reason to make someone who has already been defeated this disgusting?”

A man approached her. Only then did she see the man in the moonlight.

“Tell His Majesty that I will make it more useful.”

The eyes were dead. No different from myself. No, different. Not dead… It seemed like he had no interest in anything in the world.

It wasn’t interest, it was anticipation. There was no anticipation.

He bent his knees to get down to her eye level.

“I am the blood of the one who initiated all this. I am just as evil as he is, and I am no different from the one who threw you into this pit. The reason I am stopping this blood poison is not out of pity or any goodwill, but a judgment based on a whim. However.”

He held out his hand.

“I am the only one who can save your life right now. What do you think? Will you follow me?”

The girl stared blankly at the young man’s hand. The bloody stone sword was still in her hand.

The man’s gaze was also directed there.

“The soul is already dead. It would be fun to revive it. I’ll try.”

An indifferent and free gaze. Instead, the girl put down her stone sword.

The man, the prince, laughed.

“Snow, limit. Seolhan. From now on, that’s your name. When I look at your face now, those are the only two words that come to mind. Please take care of me.”

The world changed. At this moment, and Seolhonbaeknyeo’s dream.

A slightly more grown-up Seolhan, a snow-covered mountain that lives up to its name.

There was creation before her.