Chapter 15 - Growth

As Soul Slaying awakened, Yohan reached a conclusion.

'This body I've possessed never appeared in the original novel. Not once.'

No being in Chronicle of Humans and Demons could unilaterally annihilate another's soul. Even the overwhelmingly powerful evil gods and Apostles could not interfere directly with spirits.

Yohan was different. The power he had awakened defied the original novel. An anomaly—that was what Yohan, the half-demon, must be within this world.

He looked at his mother, seated on the bed in their room at the inn.

"Just who did you sleep with?"

As always, no answer came. The gaunt woman merely stared at him with vacant eyes. He stifled a groan.

'Knowing my bloodline would at least give me a lead.'

For now, he could not peel back even a single layer of the veil surrounding his identity.

While he was lost in thought, a loud noise rang out. The door had burst open.

"Ilea's disappeared..."

It was Gaf. His voice trailed off as he stared at Yohan in horror.

"You look as though you've seen a ghost."

There was, in fact, an evil spirit standing before Gaf. The bean-sized imp was nowhere to be seen; a subadult Demon had taken its place. To have grown so much in a matter of days. Gaf could not close his gaping mouth.

"Pull yourself together and shut the door first. Do you want to advertise what we are?"

The moment another guest caught sight of the room's occupants, they would all be in trouble. Coming to his senses, Gaf immediately shut the door. His gaze still wavered, the shock not yet entirely gone.

Yohan clicked his tongue. "You're late."

Normally, Gaf took Yohan to Raguel before sunset. It was safer to travel with Yohan in human form. He could hardly stroll through the castle with a Demon in tow after sundown.

Today was different. The sun had already set, and Yohan had transformed.

Gaf shouted, as though only now remembering, "I was looking for Ilea! I can't find her anywhere!"

Three days had already passed since she left for the Abyss.

"Do you know? Where my daughter is?"

"She's gone on a journey. She said she'd be back in three weeks."

Gaf scowled at his nonchalance.

"What are you talking about? A journey?"

"Ask Ilea herself for the details. Telling you would mean divulging someone else's secrets, and that doesn't sit well with me."

To explain Ilea's destination and purpose, Yohan would also have to reveal that she was a witch. He had no desire to do so. He could already picture how emotionally draining that conversation would be.

Gaf saw things differently.

"I need to hear it now. Tell me what you know."

"No. Every prolonged conversation with you leaves me exhausted."

Gaf stepped forward, his expression threatening. "You goddamned Demon!"

Yohan gave a derisive laugh. "You said you didn't need a Demon's help, yet you keep trying to rely on me. Instead of asking for something for nothing, propose a bargain. Sell me your soul, say, and I might be willing to tell you."

Gaf shook from head to toe. His fists clenched and unclenched before he abruptly turned toward the door.

"I won't fall for your schemes again. I'll find out myself."

"As you wish. But there's something we must settle first. Let's terminate our contract of protection."

Gaf turned only his head to stare at Yohan. "... What are you plotting?"

Now he suddenly wanted to release Gaf's soul? After wielding that contract as a weapon?

"I've found a new protector. You're free now. Congratulations."

That shameless smile gave Gaf an odd sense of impending danger.

"Don't tell me you..."

"Ilea. I've made the same contract with your daughter."

Gaf's face immediately twisted into something demonic. The Demon before him had finally sunk its claws into his daughter, too. Reason deserted him in an instant.

"Terminating the contract requires mutual consent. Do you agree?"

No sooner had Yohan finished than Gaf lunged. The huge man closed the distance like an arrow and threw a punch.

SMACK!

A thunderous impact rang out.

"Not as impressive as I expected."

Gaf's fist was trapped in a black hand. He could not hide his bewilderment.

"Y-you...!"

"You hardly deserve the name Lion of Kandeya. Is it because your aura core has been sealed shut?"

Gaf, captain of the Kandeya Mercenary Company, had lost his aura core to a certain Demon in the past. He could no longer wield the aura he had spent his entire life cultivating. Gone was the might that had brought even high-ranking knights to their knees.

Yohan released his fist. "At any rate, don't do anything foolish. As I said, your daughter is my protector. If anything happens to me, Ilea won't survive either."

Gaf's face flushed as though it might burst. Murderous rage poured from his bloodshot eyes. Yet he could not move. His lapse of reason had been brief; now he understood the reality of his situation. From this moment on, his daughter was the leash around his neck.

Yohan concealed his pain.

'He nearly broke my wrist.'

Even a Demon's durability could barely withstand Gaf's monstrous strength. That much raw muscle power, without aura—he was practically a beast. Had that blow landed when Yohan was an imp, his head would have burst.

His ability to track movement, his reaction speed, agility, strength, durability... Every physical attribute had improved, yet even now he was not certain he could beat Gaf in a fight.

Bearing the pain, Yohan spoke as casually as he could. "I trust even an idiot like you understands the situation. Furthermore, you have no right to refuse termination. Ilea demanded that I end my contract with you in return for her protection."

In other words, the moment Gaf refused to terminate the contract, Yohan would die. Gaf and Ilea would die as well for failing to protect him. Gaf had only one choice. He had to relinquish his duty to protect Yohan.

Yohan's lips curled upward. "Congratulations again. You've regained your freedom through your daughter's sacrifice."

* * *

Three weeks felt like an eternity to Gaf. He could not remember a single good night's sleep, so worried was he about his daughter.

Ilea and Betra, traveling alone together? This world was not kind to women wandering on their own. Bandits thronged the hills, and petty spirits swarmed in the shadows. Leaving one's domain without an escort was tantamount to suicide.

Everyone living in this world knew that much, so no one believed the mother and daughter had gone on a journey. They had fled the Baron. Or perhaps Betra had kidnapped Ilea to sell her in another domain.

Baron Grian did not believe a word of the letter claiming they would return after a little traveling. In a towering rage, he dispatched a pursuit party.

It achieved nothing. Trained troops had lost two women. That was absurd. Unless the pair had flown into the sky or vanished into the earth, they should have been caught. Yet here they were in the third week without a word, leaving everyone, Gaf included, baffled.

'Where in the world did you go?'

Biting his lip, he grasped the inn room's doorknob. The mother and baby would be asleep inside. It had been a very long time since his last visit, and he was a little worried.

The mother might have died alone. Her death would leave Gaf in a difficult position as well. There was no one else to look after Yohan in his infant form.

Come to think of it, he had not taken Yohan to Raguel for nearly three weeks either. The moment he entered, that fair-skinned baby would glare at him with bright, alert eyes.

'Goddamned Demon.'

He sighed and turned the knob. As the room came into view, Gaf froze like a statue. He had caught sight of neatly arranged silver hair.

"Y-you..."

"It's been a while, Father."

"How are you here—here of all places!"

Ilea was sitting in a chair.

"I wanted to meet my stepmother."

She looked at the woman sleeping soundly on the bed. "She's attractive. She must be your type."

Gaf was too flustered to utter a word.

"I'm sorry. Was this too sudden a visit? If it makes you uncomfortable, I'll come another time. Let me know when it suits you. I'm ready to welcome my new family."

Ilea rose and headed for the door. As father and daughter passed each other, Gaf seized her wrist.

"Wait!"

"You're hurting me, Father."

"I-I'm sorry. But please don't go. There's so much I need to hear from you."

"Ask me anything. I'll answer all your questions."

"Where on earth have you been? Are you hurt? How did you find this place..."

"Slowly, one at a time. I'll start with how I found this place."

Ilea smiled gently and added, "I followed a scent."

"A scent?"

"A wicked, sinister trace."

An unusual gleam passed through her eyes. "The scent of a Demon."

Gaf swallowed hard. "... Wh-what are you talking about?"

"Witches are sensitive to malice. Its lingering scent led me here."

"I don't understand a single thing you're saying."

"I'm confessing that I'm a witch."

The calm declaration struck Gaf like a blow to the head.

"Now that I've told you my secret, tell me about yourself. You're a Demon contractor, aren't you?"

Just as Gaf had been certain, Ilea and Yohan had already made contact.

"Oh, I suppose you aren't anymore. You must have terminated the contract."

The longer the conversation went on, the dizzier Gaf became. These unthinkable things flowed so calmly from his daughter's mouth. Ilea seemed as untroubled by the subject of Demons as if they were discussing everyday matters—what she had eaten for breakfast, or whether she was sleeping well.

"The daughter is a witch, and the father a Class One apostate. What a dysfunctional family we are."

The Church of the Great Saint classified those who contracted with Demons as Class One apostates.

"Is my stepmother normal? It would be such a relief if she were, but somehow I doubt it. Birds of a feather do flock together."

Ilea clapped her hands as though something had just occurred to her. "Oh, and there's my little sibling, too."

She pointed to the mother's arms, where Yohan lay asleep. "What about that child?"

Gaf's head was spinning. He had to say something, but the words would not come.

"I wonder if the baby is ordinary... I'm very curious."

Ilea gazed steadily at Yohan. She sensed nothing. He was no different from an ordinary baby.

"Please answer me. What sort of people are these new members of our family?"

If even her little sibling and stepmother harbored secrets, there was not a single normal person in this family. They would be the Church's highest-priority targets for eradication—a family whose very existence was a sin.

"Come now. Why won't you say anything?"

It felt like an interrogation. Overwhelmed by shock and pressure, Gaf wanted to flee. He pinched his thigh hard. This was no nightmare.

"Wh-what is all this..."

"Sad as it is, this is reality, and it's time to accept it. Let's at least be honest with each other. We're family."

Gaf shook his head, his face deathly pale. "I-it's all the Demon's scheme. Don't involve yourself any further. Your father will take care of it. Ilea, my daughter, you must forget all of this and live an ordinary life. Everything that's happened up to today, please..."

Ilea's expression settled into calm seriousness. "No. There's nothing you can resolve on your own, Father. You didn't even know what had happened to me after I was abducted. You needed the Demon's help from the very first step. That's hardly going to change now."

Gaf looked at his daughter as though on the verge of tears. She gently embraced him.

"You can't weather the waves alone. You have to work even with sailors you dislike. We're already in the same boat."

Then she gave him a playful smile. "Besides, isn't that how you'll get a chance to push the sailor you hate overboard once the waters calm?"

"Ilea, I..."

"Though someone's feelings might be a little hurt if they heard that."

Gaf's gaze shifted slightly toward the baby. Ilea's lips curved into an enigmatic smile.

"The baby looks just like an angel asleep. Have you given the little one a name?"

"N-not yet."

"How cruel."

Ilea made a show of thinking before she said, "How about Yohan? Doesn't it suit such a fair-skinned baby rather well?"

Gaf did not know Yohan's name. Awkwardness showed on his face. "It's a pleasant name."

"Let's ask the baby, too."

"What..."

At that moment, the baby floated up from the bed. Magic. A power forbidden by the laws of the kingdom. With one shock after another, Gaf's expression had gone completely rigid. The airborne baby settled into Ilea's arms.

"Now, shall we hear your answer?"

She took out a small glass vial and let a single drop of clear liquid fall into the baby's mouth.

Immediately, a few strands of hair sprouted from his bald head. His short arms and legs lengthened ever so slightly. His whole body was showing faint signs of growth.

World Tree sap. He had drunk the elixir of an ancient race.

Ilea smiled. "Yohan, do you like it?"

The baby's lips worked before he slowly opened his mouth. "Bring me more."