The Returnee Wants to Live Comfortably

Chapter 158 : Bloodline of a God (3)

Bloodline of a God (3)"How do you know that...?"

Jade's expression was filled with surprise, but he suddenly found himself unable to move under the weight of the rage emanating from Seongjin.

The oppressive pressure felt as if it would stop his heart. Even the will to speak vanished.

In the presence of an absolute being's wrath, all else became utterly silent.

"Come to think of it, you have a daughter now, don't you? Her name... Ai Hoon, was it?"

"Ah..."

"You may have tried to keep it secret, but Ah-rin told me everything."

It was Ah-rin, who knew Jade's face as the Guildmaster of the Sura guild.

Thus, it was natural to also learn a bit about the guildmaster's family.

Upon hearing mention of his daughter, Jade's eyes flashed as he cried out.

"My daughter! What happened to my daughter!"

Since the Hand Rift Incident, there had been no sign of Ai Hoon.

Even if he wanted to search for her himself in the Hand, he couldn't approach as he was the Sura guild's Guildmaster.

Just as guild members who had participated in the event had died or disappeared, Ai Hoon too was considered missing.

"You mean your daughter? People actually seemed pleased when she went missing."

Naturally, no one worried about their disappearance.

It was revealed that the Sura guild was responsible for causing the rift at the Hand.

Even if there were no actual casualties, the Sura guild had become a public enemy.

"In fact, more than ninety percent of people wished your daughter would just die."

She had brazenly committed murder, and had the nerve to blame it on monsters, even though she herself had done it.

Not only that, but she summoned monsters, and even threw the beloved singer—who had moved viewers to tears—straight to the monsters as their meal.

There was such an uproar that some called even a death sentence too lenient.

"I wonder what kind of person would raise a child like that."

"I asked what happened to Ai!"

Jade, worried about his daughter, grew extremely agitated.

Despite being face to face with the Demon King he so feared, his voice rose in desperation.

Seongjin, watching Jade, was half-impressed, half-flabbergasted.

"Wow... I'm amazed you even managed to have a daughter, and now you're actually worried about her? Is she really that precious?"

"Of course, I'm her father!"

"Well, she did seem to be your biological daughter."

Seongjin had sensed this when subduing Ai Hoon.

From her, he had felt a familiar yet nauseating energy.

However, unlike her father Jade, she did not appear to have inherited the authority of the gods.

Perhaps because she was the child of a demigod, only a faint aura of divine energy could be perceived.

'But still... blood doesn't lie.'

He didn't know who Jade had slept with, but Ai Hoon, too, had inherited the blood of the Eight-Foot Guardian Deity.

There was no guarantee she wouldn't manifest divine authority. It could bloom late.

If that happened, she might become a troublesome obstacle for others besides himself.

Therefore...

"I knew that, so I brought her with me."

As Seongjin signaled to Vern, Vern summoned a swarm of bats.

The bats came flying toward Vern, carrying a massive coffin.

Sensing a strange aura from the coffin, Jade's expression turned grim.

"That's...!"

The bats set the coffin before Jade. With trembling hands, Jade opened the lid.

At that instant, his face turned deathly pale, and he reflexively covered his mouth.

Inside was the corpse of Ai Hoon, horribly mangled and chewed to death.

"Ai... Ai... Aiiiiiiiiii!!!"

A beast-like scream filled the entire space.

Aside from her face, the rest of the body was unrecognizable—so badly mauled that it seemed to have been chewed several times by a colossal beast's jaws.

Hugging his now grotesquely changed daughter, Jade erupted in rage again.

"What... did you do to my daughter!!"

Overcome with fury, he began to draw forth his magic power.

"What crime did my child commit...!"

Having lost control of his emotions, he lost his composure.

As someone who had inherited the blood of the gods, Jade possessed tremendous magic power.

That was the reason he sat atop China's strongest Sura guild.

He was just about to unleash that power and obliterate everything around him.

"Ah... b—"

"Ai? Ai!"

"I... just..."

Amazingly, a faint voice flowed from the corpse.

Even though no ordinary awakened could survive in that state, she was still breathing.

Realizing his daughter was still somewhat alive, Jade reined in his power.

"Ai! Can you hear me? Huh?"

"Ugh..."

"No! Please, save my daughter! She's still just a kid! I beg you!"

Jade knelt before Seongjin, pleading.

For her to still be breathing in that state meant there was still hope to save her.

And his opponent was the Demon King. Restoring a ruined body was nothing for him. But...

"No crime? You really think that after seeing this?"

Seongjin thrust his phone in Jade's face.

The screen showed video of Ai Hoon's atrocities at the Hand—throwing people to monsters and blatantly trying to kill people hiding in the shelter.

"This is... I..."

"What? Are you going to say she's just immature? Even though she's obviously trying to kill someone?"

"..."

Jade understood the basics.

The deeds in the video were clear crimes. He could say nothing in his own defense.

"And... tell me, after shoving away your own father and killing your mother in the past, why is your daughter so precious to you now?"

Seongjin pulled Jade's head closer as he spoke.

Once you become a father, cherishing your family is natural.

But Seongjin remembered the atrocities Jade himself had committed in the past.

Compared to those, Jade's behavior now was utterly hypocritical.

"You really think you deserve that?"

"..."

Despair filled Jade's eyes as he stared at the ground.

Holding Jade's head, Seongjin's expression suddenly changed.

"All right, fine. I'll give you a chance."

"What?"

"A chance to save your daughter."

Seongjin smiled brightly, and Jade's eyes regained their light. In the face of hope, his mind snapped back to clarity.

"Is... is that true?"

"Of course. I might be the Demon King, but I've always preferred hearing good things about myself from others."

"Thank you... really, thank you!"

"So..."

Pssht—!

In that briefly lighter mood, a chilling sound rang out.

Seongjin's hand had pierced through Jade's abdomen.

"Cough! What... is this...?"

Tormented by pain, Jade wondered why Seongjin hadn't just let him off.

Because he possessed the Demon King's Power, Seongjin could disregard Jade's divine authority and harm him.

Even as he pierced his opponent's body with his own hand, Seongjin's face remained cheery.

"From now on, you'll have to make a choice."

"A... choice...?"

He withdrew his hand.

Blood poured from Jade's wounded abdomen.

Yet, strangely enough, Jade no longer felt any pain.

At the same time, his heart stopped and his body grew steadily colder.

It seemed like only his consciousness remained, as if he were already a corpse.

"What did you do to my body? I... can't move as I want...!"

Suddenly, Jade's hand burst into a flaring brightness of magic power.

His body moved involuntarily, to his great alarm.

That magic power was now pointed directly at Ai Hoon in the coffin.

"No... it can't be!"

"I told you already. You have to make a choice."

"What..."

Then, he heard a devil's voice whispering in his ear.

"If you don't kill your daughter, your body will stop forever."

"... What?"

"Time is short. Choose fast."

A single blast of power from his hand could reduce anything to ashes.

Realizing his power was now aimed at his daughter, Jade screamed once more in anguish.

"You said you'd save her!!"

"Yes, I said I'd give you a 'chance' to save her."

"Stop it! Ai is still breathing!"

Killing his daughter with his own hands, when she still had a chance to be saved—there could be nothing more horrific.

But no matter how much he tried to stop, his body wouldn't listen.

He didn't know what had been done, but whatever it was, it had happened when his abdomen was pierced.

"Don't you want to live? Then you have to abandon your daughter."

"What kind of father abandons his own child!!"

"Father? Puhahahahaha!!!"

As soon as those words were uttered, the devil burst into manic laughter.

The laughter grew louder, and the devil's body turned black, shrouding him in darkness that erased any hint of humanity.

He was a devil, pure and simple. Leaning in close, he spoke.

"You once abandoned your father to save yourself... and now you dare talk about it?"

"No..."

"Go on. Just recall what happened back then one more time."

"No..."

"Come on! You can do it!"

Jade had sacrificed the parents who raised him for his own benefit.

So perhaps it was only fitting that he might sacrifice a child he himself had begotten.

The devil's words forced him to relive those memories.

If he sacrificed just one family member, he could survive.

Jade's power-charged hand moved of its own accord, but he was tormented in spirit.

"My daughter... she's still alive..."

"Da... ddy..."

"No... NO!!"

KWAANG—!!

With an outpouring of magic power, the coffin was utterly vaporized.

Ai Hoon, who had been inside, was erased from the world forever.

Jade, realizing he had killed his own daughter with his own hands, lost all light in his eyes.

A damning inscription appeared in his now empty, hollow eyes—one that marked him as the devil's puppet.

The same pattern also appeared on his pierced abdomen.

"Stand up."

The collapsed Jade rose again at the devil's command. He then stared at the demon with the jerky movements of a puppet.

"Are you now willing to hand over the Sura guild to The World?"

At the demon's question, the now-possessed Jade answered,

"Of course."

There was no emotion left in his vacant reply.

****

"It's finally quiet now."

I, having finished Jade's brainwashing, reverted to human form.

For a normal human, brainwashing would have been easy, but Jade was different.

His bloodline alone meant that simply crushing his mind wasn't enough.

However, since I just used my 〈Soul of Curse〉 skill, his brainwashing went smoothly.

'The weaker the target's mind, the easier the skill is to use.'

That's why I smashed his mentality first.

Beyond that, I personally had a grudge against him.

When he killed the guardian deities in Mewzealand, I wanted to hunt him down and kill him myself.

Still, turning him into a puppet like this felt satisfying.

At a glance, he looked like he was standing normally, but...

'He's no different from a corpse now.'

When I pierced his abdomen earlier, he effectively died.

His body moves only thanks to my curse. In short, he is just a moving corpse—a marionette.

It might seem grotesque, but someone like him deserves to be treated as a 'tool'.

The reason I kept him like this is because I still need the Sura guild.

"I'll leave this 'tool' in your care from now on."

I spoke to a bald, dark-skinned man. He was publicly known as Orc Blake, but he had another true name.

The man began to grow larger, horns sprouting from his head. Now in orc form, he bowed deeply before me.

"Second Legion Commander Borg. I greet the Demon King again, formally."

"By the way, when did you learn to polymorph into a human? I almost didn't recognize you."

"It's an honor to finally be praised again after so long."

This time, a black-haired woman bowed before me. She, too, like Borg and Vern, was a familiar face.

"Third Legion Commander Amelda. This is my first time seeing you in person on Earth, Demon King."

It was our first time meeting in person since our earlier video call.

Apparently, people here tend to use surnames with their given names.

"You've changed a lot living on Earth."

"Yes... but Demon King."

"Hm?"

Suddenly, both Borg and Amelda wore earnest expressions.

Vern also sat down and joined them, and all three stared at me with pleading looks.

"Your way of speaking has changed a lot."

"Yes. Indeed..."

"So what Vern said must have been the truth."

It seemed Vern had relayed things properly to the other legion commanders—that I'd sealed away that embarrassing speech pattern forever.

"But! We won't give up!"

"One day... may the whole nation hear that magnificent speech again...!"

BANG!

"Guys. Shut up."

I stomped my foot and gave a loud warning. At that, they fell silent with a quick "Yes!"

I don't know why they're so obsessed with my manner of speech. It's not like it's a life-or-death issue.

"Anyway, I have something for you to do."

"Yes! Whatever you command!"

"By the way, are you the only legion commanders here on Earth?"