Chapter 0 - The Demon Whispers
2 min read ·
Prologue.
Giving birth to a half-breed brought great calamity upon a village.
The woman who gave birth was destined to burn to death, and the villagers who had lived alongside her found it difficult to escape the consequences, either. Usually, the village’s bloodline was wiped out.
That was because the Church did not acknowledge the union of demons and humans. No—it loathed it to an extreme degree. Enough to regard it as one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
There was a village that defied such a taboo. It was Taharan, a small hamlet in the south.
A peasant woman had given birth to a half-breed.
Half-human, half-demon.
The villagers stared in horror at the pitch-black baby.
“It's the demon's spawn! We must burn it to death immediately!”
“Exactly! Who knows what harm it might bring upon the village!”
Shouts and curses filled the granary.
The baby, who had been listening in silence, slightly furrowed its brow.
“L-Look at that expression! H-How could that possibly be a human child?!”
“Right now...!”
The baby paid no heed to the hostility of the people.
It merely swept its gaze around the room.
The demon's signature red eyes left behind a long, shimmering trail.
At the baby's seemingly relaxed behavior, the villagers swallowed nervously.
The noisy interior had fallen silent before anyone realized it.
An uncomfortable silence descended—until the baby's mouth opened.
“Are you done making a fuss?”
Its voice was chillingly cold.
The villagers couldn't shake the sense of wrongness. It was far too articulate to be a newborn's first words. Everyone, flustered, took a step backward.
The baby continued.
“If you're finished, I have a deal to propose.”
A deal with a demon promised a tangible reward. It was fundamentally different from the blind prayers offered to a god.
“The price is my life. You will guarantee it.”
The baby had to survive. It didn't know how it had ended up possessing this damned world, but as long as it kept its life, it would have the freedom to choose whether to uncover the secret or escape.
“Will you accept?”
Kim Yohan had become the half-demon in the novel. Rather than panic, he intended to deal with the crisis at hand first.