I’m Sorry -1

The Demon King opened her eyes to the rattling sound.

Demon King? No, Demon King was a title bestowed later.

The Demon King recalled that at that time, she was merely a mass of organisms existing without even a name.

“I was in a small tank.”

“In a tank…?”

“Yes. I had no mother. Rather than mother… it would be more correct to say a host that shared genetic information.”

The place where she lived her life was not inside a mother’s womb, but inside a tank filled with blue-green water.

The Demon King seemed to have slept there for quite a long time. Until the rattling sound woke her from her deep sleep.

‘What… is it…?’

The Demon King, opening her eyes for the first time since birth, witnessed a child. Barefoot, bare-handed, with long hair that reached past her waist.

The Demon King could not forget the moment she first saw that child.

It wasn’t that her heart raced, or that the child was unforgettably beautiful.

‘…We look alike.’

The Demon King turned her head to the right. In the elongated tank, there were children sleeping with their eyes closed.

This time she turned her head to the left. Similarly, there were children sleeping there.

Now the Demon King looked forward and lowered her head.

The girl was so similar.

To the children sleeping in the tanks extending on both sides. That child was banging on the tank and shouting something.

‘What is she saying… I can’t understand…’

Thud-

Thud-

Thud-

‘…’

Thud thud thud.

‘…’

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The knocking sound became urgent.

The child had a terrified expression. A huge hand appeared behind the child who had been frantically knocking.

That hand caught the girl.

Whoosh!

It threw her roughly to the back.

There was a stern-faced man with white hair.

The child rolled on the floor with a pained expression. Perhaps because the man was larger than the child, his voice was much clearer.

“So a fully developed one has emerged.”

He said this and smiled coldly.

It was chilling even to the Demon King who still knew nothing.

And it seemed the same for the child over there.

The child curled up her body but looked over here.

“What’s wrong? Is there something over there?”

Nod.

The child nodded.

Seeing this, the man walked toward the Demon King.

Soon, delight filled his expression.

“Good. Two have awakened.”

The man pressed a button.

The tank opened, and the Demon King tumbled out with the gushing water.

“Haah… haah…”

“Stand up.”

“Ughhh…”

There was an irresistible pressure in the man’s words.

Not that she had the right to refuse in the first place.

“Now, follow me.”

The man took the hands of the two children and headed to the tank right next to them.

Inside it, there was another child who resembled the two, sleeping.

The man smiled and pointed at a red button with his finger.

“One of you press it.”

“Press… it?”

“Yes, either one of you can press this button.”

“Then I’ll…”

“…Don’t press it!”

The Demon King hesitated.

“Don’t press that. If you press it… the one inside will die.”

“Die? What does it mean to die…?”

“Dying is… it’s… sorry, I don’t know either. Anyway, don’t! You shouldn’t press that button!”

The man blocked the child who was shouting this.

He smiled slyly and said.

“Don’t listen to the failure.”

“Failure…?”

“Yes. You judge and act. Will you press it?”

It was a kind of threat.

To the Demon King, it sounded like: If you don’t press that button, you’re a failure too. What do you think will happen then?

She was scared.

What would happen if she didn’t press it?

“Will you press it? Or not?”

“I-I’ll press it…”

“No-“

Whack!

“Ugh…!”

“Be quiet. You’re disturbing her.”

…She had to choose.

Whether to press this button.

Or to be hit like that child.

Faced with the violence before her eyes, the Demon King surrendered too easily.

Press.

She pressed the red button.

Then the solution inside was sucked into the drain and disappeared. The child inside, who hadn’t opened her eyes yet, writhed violently and then-

Soon, stopped moving.

It was hard to put into words, but the Demon King realized at that moment. This was what the suffering child had called death.

“So the successful one has been determined.”

“Kugh…!”

“Then shall we go dispose of the rest?”

Dispose?

The Demon King didn’t understand the meaning of that word. What she understood in that situation was one thing: if she stayed still here, that child would meet the same fate.

“Excuse me…”

“Hmm?”

“Re-reward, please.”

“…Reward?”

“Yes, there… um… this child… please spare her,”

She didn’t know where such courage came from. Even as her legs trembled, she made that request.

“I’ll press for all the other children. Just spare this one…”

Please save just this child, she said she would press all the buttons for the remaining children.

The man pondered for a long time and muttered.

“Indeed, it might be good to observe how two raised in different environments grow. If possible, both could be utilized…”

“Yes… I’ll press them all.”

“Good. Alright. Wait here for a moment, I’ll put this child somewhere else and come back.”

The man carried the child on his back and headed out the door. The child just looked at the Demon King with trembling eyes.

And the Demon King never met that child again after parting.

After that, the Demon King started pressing the buttons one by one.

The sound of water draining, and her exact lookalikes struggling before meeting death, then on to the next.

How many did she kill? Just as she was beginning to lose count, everything ended, and the place the Demon King went to was a deep, dark castle.

“Now, from now on, call me Ppyong-Ppyong.”

“Ppyong-Ppyong… not father?”

“Ppyong-Ppyong.”

“…But the person who brought me into the world should be called father…”

“Ppyong-Ppyong.”

“…Yes. Ppyong-Ppyong…”

From that day on, the Demon King became the Demon King.

Actually, she didn’t know what to do, but anyway, she followed him around and worked.

As he instructed, like his doll.

+++++

“…Is that true?”

“Yes. As far as I remember. And that man is Ppyong-Ppyong, my father and.”

“Then why… haven’t you grown at all?”

“I don’t know. Not that far.”

“…Haah…”

Noah sighed and looked at me.

Her pupils were layered with slightly transparent tears.

“…Jeez…”

It was astonishing for me too. If the Demon King’s words were true, if they were truly correct.

Noah might have been born as a clone. And the father is that deranged fellow who conducted the experiment.

“Demon King, is there anything else?”

“…Hmm… ah, come to think of it, I once heard father muttering to himself.”

“What did he say?”

“This one’s name is Na Noah, he said. It was the name of a porn star he often watched? But what is porn?”

“…Ha.”

Noah’s face soured.

“Noah?”

“…”

“Noah?”

Noah stared blankly at my beer can.

I could tell what she wanted to say.

“…Want some?”

Nod.

“You can really only take one sip.”

Nod.

It’s not allowed, but. I’m becoming a bad adult giving alcohol to a minor.

“Drink. Just one sip. Don’t decline since an adult is offering.”

“…Then I won’t decline.”

“Why don’t you decline sometimes?”

“I don’t want to. I want to drink, I want to look cool too.”

“Tsk, giving alcohol to a child and doing villain things. I wonder if I’m really going to hell at this rate.”

“You can just live righteously from now on.”

Noah took the beer and gulped it down. Starting like this already makes me worry about her future.

“Ahh…”

“Feeling a bit calmer?”

“Certainly… eating something that tastes bad does help with the shock…”

Noah handed me the almost empty can.

I’m worried.

Noah was smiling again.

It’s that characteristic powerless and painful smile I’ve seen before. I pulled down the corners of her mouth.

“Didn’t I say that smiling when you’re struggling doesn’t make you first-class, but just a fool?”

“It’s… hard not to.”

She kept smiling like a deranged person. I thought she might be drunk from just one sip of beer, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

It’s probably a painful smile because she’s purely shocked and struggling.

If the only family she believed in and liked, the one she thought truly loved her… was not even a mastermind, but just someone who thought of her as an experiment.

What kind of feeling would that be?

It was hard to imagine, and I didn’t want to.

Especially those dolls resembling Noah and the Demon King.

‘Could it be…’

Is she talking about the melted lives in the abandoned laboratory?

One of the places Noah had to go to fight the Demon King was the Abandoned Laboratory, literally as the name suggests.

There were melted life forms there, and the peculiar point was that they all looked like white-haired children.

It was hard to see their forms clearly because they were severely melted.

“…Noah, are you okay?”

But Noah comes first.

Noah had extinguished the starlight in her eyes and was just letting out long sighs.

“Haaaah… mister.”

“Hmm.”

“I want to go see my father tomorrow, will you come with me?”

“Sure.”

Noah said this and then fidgeted before continuing.

“And, I think I’ll have trouble sleeping tonight… can you sleep with me?”

“If the Demon King sleeps with us too.”

“Tch… fine.”

That night, as promised, I went to sleep with Noah and the Demon King.

“Sob… sniff… sob… what is this… really…”

Needless to say, I had to comfort the sobbing Noah until late.

…Oh really.

‘I’m going to rip that rabbit bastard’s head off for real.’