Ch.76Chapter 76. Can You Take Responsibility for What You Just Said?

Even loyalty once thought eternal finds its end, and as days of glory fade into the past, I sought to leave his side.

The lingering attachment born from unforgettable intensity led me to break free from the shackles that had long constrained me, guiding me to this place.

Having lived countless eons in emptiness that no human could possibly imagine.

That single day of passion, formed by chance, felt blindingly brilliant.

“…Ms. Merilyn.”

“Just like this.”

That’s why I cannot easily let go.

Though I’d grown accustomed to enduring for long periods, and expected someone would eventually take my place.

Rather, precisely because I had endured for so long, my desire to act on my impulses had been building up.

“There’s no way I could send you back. For your sake…”

“Ms. Merilyn, I…”

“I abandoned everything to be with you. My position, my loyalty, my past—everything.”

“…”

“…I know you tried to forget me for my sake.”

I could keenly feel through our time together today that he too had taken our brief encounter seriously.

And that he had found a new companion, feeling lonely in my absence.

“Still, just once…”

I don’t want to let him go like this.

If he still harbors feelings for me, I’m even less willing to give up.

Even if I’m not his first, I want to be close rather than just watching from afar.

“Even if it’s the last time, could you do as I wish?”

“Ms. Merilyn.”

“If I can be fulfilled just a little… Then, perhaps I could let go.”

The increasing pressure in the hands embracing him out of attachment.

Facing her desperation, the man closed his eyes after a moment of inner conflict, relaxing his body.

His silence without any response indicated his submission to the situation.

Though he wouldn’t act of his own will, his resolve showed he would calmly accept whatever she might do.

“…Thank you for indulging my selfishness.”

His steadfast character maintaining his heart. Yet his thoughtful mind not rejecting her.

That’s why she came to like him.

This pounding in her heart surely stemmed from an emotion called love.

No matter how impossible such emotions were said to be for the Demon Tribe, there could be no other way to describe how her heart raced simply by facing him.

“Thank you, truly.”

So she felt no hesitation in placing her hand on his lips.

Nor did she hesitate to press her lips against his after caressing them.

‘It’s warm.’

Her first kiss in life.

That first experience felt more intense than when she first became aware of desire.

Realizing how intoxicating it was to seize something with her own hands rather than just waiting for someone else to fulfill it.

-Thump.

Yes, to seize…

The days of merely watching were over; now was the time to be true to her feelings and seize what she wanted.

-Thump, thump.

She felt that instinct whispering, urging her on in this moment.

“Mmph, mmm. Mmm…!”

The object of her desire was right before her.

Why should she suppress these overwhelming emotions and continue to endure?

“Haa, Ms. Merilyn. W-wait… Mmph!”

True to those feelings, she covered his lips with hers again and again, pushing forward step by step.

Moving beyond the light illuminating the dark alley, until his body was about to hit the wall… but it wasn’t enough.

After enduring for so long, there was no way she could let go of this reward she had sought out herself.

“Mmm, haa, hmmm…♥”

Beyond the meeting of lips, she parted them and inserted her tongue, continuing with an intense French kiss.

The more she felt the heat from her body seeping into him, the more she sensed his saliva thickening and transferring to her.

The moment she realized he too was feeling ecstasy from this act.

“I’m sorry, Hyoseong. I know we shouldn’t be doing this…”

“Me-Meri…”

“I… can’t hold back anymore.”

She blocked his floundering gestures of guilt with her own hands, forcibly pulling his hand to her chest.

Hands that could surely stimulate his desires, through her clothes.

And so she could clearly feel his touch.

“Haa, haa… ugh, haa~♥”

Twisting his wrist and forcibly drawing out his strength, afterward she simply followed her desires without thinking.

Casting aside concerns about reality, worries about the future, and all other trivial matters.

She wished for him to immerse himself endlessly in this moment of feeling her.

“Hyoseong, I like you, Hyoseong…♡”

As she pushed more passionately and became more immersed in the rising pleasure, she whispered her desire-filled words into his ear.

“So please, don’t resist.”

Don’t resist me…

If you have even a little attachment to me.

“Please… don’t abandon me.”

Responding to that wish, the demonic magic of madness spread, seeping into his body and dominating his mind, suppressing his reflexive resistance.

Something was dangerous. Even with his strong mental fortitude, he could vaguely sense it.

“Ms. Me-rilyn. I…”

But the plaintive whispers barely audible amidst the forced pleasure.

Were making him lose his resistance even more than the pleasure he felt.

-Thud.

As demonic magic invaded through that moment of hesitation, his reason became paralyzed, and strength left his body as he began to go limp.

Though they could have enjoyed more time together, did he choose to lose consciousness as a final act of rebellion, unable to prioritize himself?

“Hyoseong… I’m sorry.”

But that didn’t matter now.

The demon, realizing her desire was in her hands, leaned her head against his body without suppressing her flowing tears.

Wetting her happiness-soaked lips with tears born from passion that even the cold night air couldn’t cool.

“I thought I could give up, but it seems impossible.”

Yes, she was happier now than ever before.

And because of that, she was afraid.

Because she sensed that even the simple everyday moments she had shared with him today would someday shatter in this chaotic world…

****

Before returning to his side, she spent some time wandering the world.

She needed the assurance that it was safe to return to him.

She felt it necessary to confirm over a long period that her feelings weren’t just a momentary impulse.

‘It’s a chaotic world. Even humans, and even the Demon Tribe are being swept away meaninglessly.’

She witnessed signs of collapse in the Demon Lord’s army, and encountered uncontrolled demons who had left the army causing unexpected problems.

She saw even the Beastman tribes, considered enemies of humanity, facing annihilation by the Undead legion.

She tried to venture beyond the continent, but even there, unimaginable disasters were so prevalent that she didn’t dare set foot there.

Perhaps the Demon Lord could have prevented it, but if there had been any hope with him, she wouldn’t have left his side in the first place.

And that led her to one realization.

That in this land more chaotic than any dimension she had traversed before, a land destined for imminent destruction, the time granted to her would be her final pleasure.

‘There’s nowhere to return to now. There’s only a path forward.’

Lost in such reminiscence while wandering aimlessly, the demon suddenly realized she had arrived at a place with the precious person in her arms.

A slum area that had housed a criminal organization until just a few months ago.

But after they were all annihilated for angering a wizard, even the vagrants who had settled there fled, turning it into a ghost town.

‘With you.’

This quiet, desolate place would be sufficient for resting for now.

Realizing this, the demon entered the abandoned ruins and laid him, unconscious, on an old bed, caressing his face.

‘Going forward with you is the only path allowed to me, who has abandoned everything.’

Sleeping without knowing anything.

His face illuminated by moonlight seems so lovely.

“I adore you.”

So much that she wished to gaze at it for a lifetime, if permitted.

“You who freed me from the shackles that should have been eternal…”

Just like this, not leaving her.

So much that she even wished he would never wake up, consumed by her demonic magic.

“…But this too will end up being just a momentary dream, won’t it?”

Knowing that was an unreasonable wish in this chaotic world, urgency began to overtake her heart.

Because even the Demon Lord’s army, having lost its central figure, was now facing collapse.

Many other groups were fighting to protect what was theirs, but eventually the moment of resignation would come as unstoppable disasters grew.

“Hyoseong, just like this.”

That realization was enough to turn into anxiety that even this happiness she had barely grasped would not last forever.

“Should I just do as my heart desires, without thinking about anything?”

If the demonic magic of madness born from that impulse seeps into his body, he would be unable to think about anything afterward.

If consumed by madness, he wouldn’t have to think about anything or suffer.

No matter how arduous and painful that life might be, at least its end would be intense and pleasant, without despair or regret…

Perhaps becoming intoxicated like a drug, eliminating reason and indulging in pleasure was the “happiest ending” they could face in this gloomy world.

-Crackle.

Her fingertips stopped as she felt a sense of discomfort overtaking her amid such impulses.

Though her vigilance heightened at the presence felt from outside the abandoned building, Merilyn maintained her composure, merely pulling her cloak over her head.

“…It seems we have an uninvited guest.”

A previous occupant of this land? Or a tracker?

Either way, if they threatened her and him, she couldn’t just end it by running away.

“Don’t worry, Hyoseong. I’ll finish this quickly and return.”

After kissing the forehead of her precious one, Merilyn quietly left his side and exited the abandoned building.

As she emerged onto the road amid the desolation, she suddenly felt a slight vibration where she stood.

An earthquake?

-Ziiing.

No, this was a physical reaction caused by magic.

Sensing danger, Merilyn quickly moved backward, and just as she did, a physical form began to materialize through light emerging from the ground.

-Crack!

Sharp crystal blades surged up from the ground. If she had continued standing there, her body would have been split alive.

But the danger didn’t end there.

-Kwaggang!

Streams of light descended from the center of the dark night sky.

Like falling meteors, the attacks struck where she had been, creating explosions that scattered dust in all directions.

Whoever it was, they weren’t attacking with half-hearted intentions.

-Crack!

The moment she realized this, crystal formations surged up again where she had just stepped.

Merilyn grimaced, sensing the magical reactions around her one by one, biting her teeth.

‘This isn’t an ambush. It’s a trap…’

A trap someone had set here in advance.

Not one that activates when stepped on, but one programmed to function at a predetermined time—a “time-delayed” trap.

A trap that could only be set with “prediction” that perfectly understood her movements, assuming the target would stand in that spot at the specified time.

“…That was a warning.”

As she realized this, a faint light began to emanate from the opposite side of the dark street.

“If you don’t withdraw from here, I’ll attack with the resolve to kill you.”

A woman threatening her while holding a crystal orb filled with magic.

Sensing that the presence emanating from her was by no means naive, Merilyn asked in a tense voice:

“…What are you after?”

She wanted to avoid fighting if possible, for his sake.

So she thought if the other party had a demand, she would generally comply and leave this place, but…

“Stay away from him.”

What came from those lips was aimed precisely at the one she most wanted to protect.

Yes, that must be it.

In this district where an entire criminal organization had vanished overnight, causing even vagrants to flee in fear, there was only one person besides herself who could be referred to.

“…I don’t understand, could you say that again?”

“I said stay away from my man!!”

As the shout in response to her questioning echoed throughout the area.

Merilyn’s face stiffened, then began to smile as she recognized the identity of the face illuminated by the crystal orb’s light.

“Ah, I see. So you’re…”

Irie Haven.

The one chosen by the man she wished to spend her remaining life with, to be his eternal companion in her place.

“My, it seems a lot has happened while I was away.”

Facing such an existence, the demon.

With eyes flashing more brilliantly than the stars covering the sky at this moment, thought:

“Can you take responsibility for what you just said?”

So it’s this woman.

The bitch trying to steal my ‘last’.