My Childhood Friend the Demon Knight Hates Me - Episode 36: Reiss Edition
36 Reiss Edition
Translator: Lioness
Editor: Arya
I was six years old when my parents died.
The carriage I was riding in with my father and mother was attacked by bandits on the way to the city.
Until then, the days that the three of us, father and son, had spent peacefully and quietly in a silent village at the edge of a large country were lost in a flash. My mother defended me, and my father fought with the bandits until the last breath to protect the other passengers, but both were killed in front of my eyes before help could arrive.
Luckily, I survived and was taken in by a distant family on my father’s side, but no one called me ‘Reiss’ by name and I was treated coldly as a ‘shameless son.’
I later found out that my father was the second son of a powerful family, even in this country where there was a marked difference in nobility. However, his father was making a lot of money through a shady business, and my father rebelled against his way of doing things. He refused to accept the arranged marriage, then fell in love with my mother who had lower status, and left home eloping, as they say.
It may sound silly, but the scars left by the parents would affect their children as well.
I had no intention of holding a grudge against my dead parents,…, but rather, since the day I bathed in their blood, my emotions had been completely inoperative. I don’t feel resentment, I don’t feel pain from being abused, and I don’t feel lonely from being alone.
It must have been very creepy for a child to be so expressionless and unmoved no matter what was done to him.
In addition, the black-haired, red-eyed girl who was accepted in the village seemed to be an object of awe in the place where she was taken in because of her parents’ position and her appearance. On the other hand no one was interested in being close to me.
However, as long as I could pass off the occasional mild violence, abusive language, and disapproving glances, I was provided with the bare minimum of food, clothing, and shelter. Also I knew that when I was old enough to work, I would just be able to live on my own somewhere.
There was no particular hope for life, but there was no despair either.
I didn’t want to die, but even if I did, I could close the curtain and say that was how it was.
‘So, my parents have a deep grudge against you. I will take revenge on your child instead of your dead parents.’
A woman who claimed herself as a ‘devil messenger’ suddenly appeared in front of me with those words. I felt she was vaguely unreasonable, but that was all.
The devil messenger who distorted space and appeared out of thin air was a woman with long, thick black hair, black eyes, pale skin and a black robe, whose existence was like a dark night.
She was surrounded with fluttering black butterflies, until I found myself in a cabin in a creepy forest.
“I am the woman who used to be your father’s fiancée.”
She told me that the last thing she needed to do in order to fix up her family was to get engaged to my father.
She had planned to take over her father’s house and stage a comeback.
“Shortly after that, your mother got in the way. The house collapsed, and my mother and dad died in vain. You have no idea what I went through when I couldn’t pay my debts and was sold to a– …! I won’t ever forgive you, absolutely never. That woman who was abominable along with that man who chose that woman and abandoned me, and you, their child.”
The exacerbation was boiled in the sludge-muddy eyes, and the woman put a sharp nail on my cheek.
I rolled on the creaking wooden floor, unable to move my body properly, I accepted the momentary pain without resisting.
It was a misplaced recrimination.
I had nothing to do with the ugly bruises and scars on the woman’s arms and legs when I saw it out of her robe, or the parts of her face hidden by her hair.
But unlike me, the woman who lived in a poor environment and had gone crazy with her emotions and was left behind as an object of hate.
The woman lifted her lips, it was red and poisonous.
“Do you know what a ‘demon’ is?”
“The Devil …?”
“If you pay the price, you will be able to fulfil any wish. I am following many of the demons. After crawling and surviving, the old demon messenger expected his talent and gained power. The power to take revenge on those who despise me…. I hate it and I can’t stand it, your parents died first, but I’m glad you were left alive, Reiss.”
“I can enact my revenge with this,” she hurt her arm with a knife, mixed blood burst out with the black ink she took out, and began to draw something like a camp around me.
It was … ironic, I thought.
After my parents died, this was the only person who had ever called me by my name properly, and the only person who had ever been happy with the fact that I was alive.
“I am, Reiss. Ever since I found out that you were alive, all I’ve been thinking about was how I can make you suffer longer. Let me tell you something… good, shall I? If you are born with black hair and eyes, you would be a good match for the devil. I will now possess you with a powerful demon under the most wonderful conditions. I will convert you into a ‘demon possessed’.”
It was night.
It was a beautiful full-moon night, with the moonlight streaming in through the small window.
With her blood dripping out, the woman smiled and said, “I’m ready.”
“If you possess a demon, your physical strength will increase. You will gain extraordinary physical abilities. In return, when you find someone you truly love, you must kill that person with your own hands and offer his or her soul to the demon that will live inside you as the price of the contract.”
“…. Someone I truly love?”
“Yes. When you find someone you truly care for, you must kill them yourself.”
The woman was delighted that it was the best revenge, but even with that situation, my heart was calm somewhere like it was someone else’s affair.
Even if the devil was possessed, the price cannot be paid unless there was a target person. Then the devil would be murdered by me for the rest of my life.
It was hard to believe that I could ever —- love someone with all my heart.
But the woman saw through my thoughts and denied them.
“In the not too distant future, you will surely have such an existence. I understood, because you are the son of that d*mn couple who strongly thought of each other as their only one.”
The woman bit her lip hard and then began to laugh like a crazy person.
“Oh, I look forward to it! When and what kind of person would you love? And how will you kill that person? How much will you suffer if all your love turns into murderousness! I’m sure about what you will do with your emotions. You will deny that loved one, refuse the loved one, and try to protect it, right? How enthusiastic just imagining! ”
The woman, bathed in moonlight and dyed black and red, just kept laughing.
The sight of the black butterflies dancing to the woman’s loud laughter was bizarre in every way.
“Oh, and don’t reveal your demonic possession to anyone, okay? I won’t let you be foolish enough to ask for help. I won’t allow you to kill yourself. I’ll add that to the contract. You will suffer and live alone, and weep over the corpses of your —- loved ones.”
As the woman chanted something, a burning pain pierced through my chest.
It was as if countless needles were being pressed into my chest. She stroked my black hair as I slumped in pain, unable to speak, and said, “Until that time comes, I’ll let the demon inside sleep. Only when you have someone you love and want to kill him or her will the contract be set in motion and the demon’s power will reside in you. Until then, forget about everything,” the woman said in an eerily gentle voice.
The last thing I saw was a satisfied smile on the woman’s face as she said, “Now you can finally go to your mother.”
My consciousness was slowly slipping away and it was tormented by the pain.