Chapter 16. Yohan Miyatro (1)
“Bring more.”
Unclear pronunciation and a young voice. The baby’s first words were very clumsy, but sufficient to convey meaning.
Ilea said with a mischievous expression.
“What? I can’t hear you well.”
“Pour it all in.”
“Babies should drink like babies.”
Yohan frowned and grabbed the glass bottle in Ilea’s hand. He intended to snatch it away.
He lacked strength. With hands as small as fern fronds, he could not resist even a young girl.
As his displeasure showed on his milky face, Ilea smiled with satisfaction.
“Just teasing. Ah, go ahead.”
The contents of the bottle trickled into Yohan’s mouth.
The baby began to burn like fire. The sap was circulating through his entire body.
Ilea let out a small exclamation.
The Yohan in her arms was growing in real-time.
Hair covering his face, limbs lengthening, torso swelling. The cloth the baby was wearing could no longer handle the growing body and tore apart.
Ilea collapsed onto the bed. It was difficult to endure the weight.
The baby was gone, and in the girl’s arms was a boy.
Unlike Gaf, who froze in shock, Ilea smiled brightly.
“You should cover up.”
Yohan’s lower body was fully exposed.
“Put me down.”
“Use this.”
Ilea handed over her cloak.
Yohan stood on the floor, covering his naked body, and began to check his grown body.
His height was about the same as Ilea’s, and his hair came down to his knees. It was the length one would have if they hadn’t cut it for about eight to ten years.
Estimating his age, he was around ten.
He had seized several years of growth in an instant.
“Is that all the sap?”
“Yes, I harvested it all. For an elixir condensed over hundreds of years, the effect is minor.”
According to Ilea’s expectations, Yohan should have grown to at least over twenty. Yet he was merely a boy.
“It’s because only the stump of the World Tree remains.”
The larger the tree, the denser the sap would be, but due to the aftermath of the Great War, over ninety percent of the World Tree had been cut down.
The efficiency of the sap had no choice but to decrease.
“For me, it’s rather good.”
“What do you mean?”
“It feels like I’ve gained a friend.”
Yohan scoffed.
“Words you don’t even mean. A witch could never understand friendship.”
“You say that as if you can understand it, even though you’re a demon.”
“Look at my current appearance. Red blood flows within. I can’t help but empathize with human emotions.”
“Then shall I try learning about friendship from you, Yohan?”
“Pointless. More importantly, you’re not surprised at all. Did you know I am ‘Yohan’?”
Ilea looked at the mother.
“It was originally just a hunch, but the moment I opened the door, I was sure. That woman smelled too strongly of Yohan.”
Because it hadn’t been long since childbirth, the mother was covered in the lingering scent of miasma.
“I will need to be careful for a while.”
“Don’t worry too much. Unless it’s a high-ranking priest from the royal capital, no one will notice.”
Ilea did not know, but before long, a group of pilgrims with strong holy power would visit the territory.
That was how it was in the original.
They needed to prepare for them.
“There is nothing bad about being cautious.”
“Of course, you are correct.”
Gaf, who was listening to the conversation, let out a small, bitter laugh.
“…This is ridiculous.”
He could not understand this entire situation. Setting aside the suddenly grown baby, the relationship between Ilea and Yohan seemed too comfortable, as if they had known each other for a long time.
“What is all this?”
“I’m sorry, Father.”
“I am not asking for an apology!”
At Gaf’s shout, mixed with resentment, Ilea erased her smile and lowered her head.
“I wanted to hide my identity at least from you, Father, but I failed in the end. As I said, I am a witch. A being that cannot coexist with humans. I am truly sorry to be such a daughter.”
Gaf shouted with a face that could not believe it.
“A witch! What nonsense are you talking about?”
It had already been fifty years since the last witch, ‘Rahel’, had perished.
“Witches always prepare alternatives. While foreseeing their extinction, they prepared me as their countermeasure. Perhaps the fact that I was found and raised by you was also part of their plan.”
Memories from over ten years ago flashed through Gaf’s mind.
At that time, wandering after having lost everything, he had once encountered an ice palace in the desert. An ice palace standing tall on the scorching sand. As if bewitched by a mirage, Gaf began to run.
He chased it day and night but could never reach it.
Exhausted from dehydration and fatigue, he eventually collapsed.
As he was burning to death under the hellish sun, wet grains of sand cooled his body.
A stream of water was flowing from somewhere. The ice palace was melting.
The man who had wandered to die desperately licked up the moisture, betraying his resolve to die.
Though he had long lost any pillar to support his life, the attachment to life remained.
Why was he so desperate? Even if he asked himself, no answer came.
It was in that moment of self-mockery. His eyes caught sight of a small cradle.
The only ice structure that had not melted. Inside, a baby as white as snow was sleeping.
Was it a joke from the gods? They had taken away his pregnant wife, and now they gave him a new life.
Even amidst the confusion, Gaf’s hand moved toward the baby.
As the baby giggled, playing with his beard, he felt an overwhelming emotion rise within him.
Perhaps it was salvation. That day, for the first time in his life, he made the sign of the cross.
A tear fell from Gaf’s eye as he recalled the past.
To think that everything he had considered a miracle had been someone’s plan. He did not want to believe it.
Without a word, he turned around. Step by step, he began to leave the inn room.
Yohan looked at Ilea.
“You won’t stop him?”
“He needs time to think.”
“He might leave forever like that.”
“That would be for the best. A witch is nothing but a seed of misfortune to humans.”
A shadow fell over Ilea’s expression. She looked somehow lonely.
As someone who had grown up as an orphan, Yohan could not fully empathize with the feelings between father and daughter, but he did feel a slight bitterness.
It made him uncomfortable for no reason.
“A seed of misfortune, huh. Not entirely wrong. But aren’t you a little different? Depending on how you act, you could get along with Gaf.”
“Are you worrying about me and my father? You’re quite human for a half-demon.”
“I just don’t want to see a melodrama.”
“I’ll try, so don’t worry too much. You have your own tasks to focus on, don’t you, Yohan?”
“Tasks?”
“Your own survival. What could be more important than that?”
“You say the obvious. I’ve already made a plan.”
“Share it with me too. We’re on the same boat, after all.”
Yohan stood up from the bed and looked over his grown body. A teenage human boy. A bit young, but there was no problem in carrying out the plan.
With an expressionless face, he spoke.
“I will swallow the baron family with this body.”
Lost in thought, Ilea smiled softly.
“Yohan Miyatro. It’s a surname that suits your name quite well.”
***
Dusk settled outside the window.
No matter how beautiful the sunset scenery was, it was invisible to the blind.
Raguel could only guess the time.
It was almost time for Gaf to visit. He usually arrived before sunset to bring Yohan.
But not these days. For the past three weeks, Gaf had not shown himself.
It had been nearly a month since Yohan had visited.
Raguel curled up like a shrimp.
“Said he’d read to me, didn’t even finish Kazan’s biography, I haven’t even gotten my eyes back…”
Then why had he made that promise? Had he used him and abandoned him? Maybe he had intended to deceive him from the start.
Negative thoughts followed one after another.
“I was a fool to trust a demon.”
Swayed by a sweet voice, only to be discarded like trash.
There were countless such humans. He was just one of the betrayed fools.
He could not even complain or make excuses, as it was something he had brought upon himself.
His guilt toward God was overshadowed by the disappointment he felt toward Yohan, so how could he dare to claim himself a victim?
Even as he resented Yohan, he worried if something might have happened to him, and someone like that had no right to speak of atonement.
It was a pain he had to bear alone.
He would once again be trapped in darkness, paying the price for his sins.
Raguel began to sob. His cries grew louder, filling the room.
As he wept for a long time, the door suddenly burst open.
He shot his upper body up.
“Yohan?!”
“You bastard, even killing you wouldn’t be enough!”
It was not Gaf’s voice. It was a terrible scream that made Raguel shrink the moment he heard it.
“F-Father…?”
“Who is your father! I told you not to call me that!”
A flowerpot flew and struck Raguel’s head.
The blind boy instinctively curled up his entire body.
Because it suddenly brought back the memory of the past when he had lost one eye to a candlestick thrown by the baron.
“I-I’m sorry! I was wrong! Please forgive me! I will never call you Father again!”
The baron, with a frenzied face, climbed onto Raguel’s body. The smell of alcohol was strong from his body.
“If you were someone who would understand when spoken to, you wouldn’t have been born after eating your mother alive! You beast, worse than an animal! Answer me, answer me!”
The giant man began to beat the boy madly.
“Where is Ilea! I know the mercenary and Ilea have been sneaking into this room often! What plot were you all hatching! Don’t tell me you hid Ilea away!”
“P-please spare me! I don’t know anything!”
“Stop talking nonsense and bring her here now! Do you think the Watcher of the Abyss is a joke!”
The merciless violence continued. It had been quite a while since the last beating. The baron, who had been lying helplessly on the bed, was unusually energetic today.
Pak! Pak!
Raguel screamed. It hurt so much he felt like dying. His body and heart were rotting away.
At the moment he was about to lose consciousness from the pain, a shout rushed in.
“Stop it! Are you trying to kill him!”
It was Gaf. He ran in and pulled the baron away from Raguel.
The baron’s face turned red.
“How dare a lowly mercenary!”
Paaak!
A sharp sound exploded. The baron had slapped Gaf’s cheek.
Feeling as if he had struck a stone, the baron’s expression twisted in bewilderment.
“W-what…”
With such meager strength, he could not even turn Gaf’s head.
Gaf shouted without any change in his expression.
“Are you planning to kill your own child with your own hands? What kind of parent in this world would do that!”
“That’s none of your concern! Get out of my sight!”
“If Raguel dies, how will you stop your brother! Are you planning to hand over the heir’s seat just like that!”
The baron’s younger brother was claiming the position of heir to the Miyatro Family. Krill Miyatro. He even had an army of nearly three hundred.
As the baron was about to shout something in a frenzy, another voice cut in.
“A blind man cannot inherit the family anyway.”
Gaf and the baron turned their heads at the same time. Yohan, in his human state, was entering the room. Ilea was with him.
Seeing her, the baron’s eyes widened.
“I-Ilea!”
Ignoring the baron’s reaction, Yohan added,
“And not every parent in this world is like you, Gaf.”
The baron’s gaze shifted to Yohan.
“Who are you? Why are you with Ilea? Reveal your identity!”
“You don’t know me? How disappointing.”
Yohan lifted the corners of his mouth as he approached the baron.
Outside the window, the sun was sinking low.
“Look closely. We’ve known each other for quite a long time.”
The baron’s face turned red and blue.
The boy in front of him was too insolent. His face exuded nobility, but his attire was shabby, and his hair was unkempt like a beggar.
He must be a beggar’s child. Someone who should not even dare to meet a noble’s eyes.
“Still don’t recognize me? You’re no different from a blind man with open eyes.”
“You insolent brat! How dare you!”
The baron raised his arm. He would beat him to death to teach him his place.
The moment he was about to strike down, the sun vanished.
Dusk drowned in darkness, leaving not even a trace behind. The room was dyed in pitch-black darkness.
The baron began to step back.
“This is the first time we’ve met face to face. Pleased to meet you.”
The baron’s pupils opened wide. In the expanded pupils, a red light was reflected.
Eyes of crimson, all too familiar. The gaze that dominated his dreams now appeared in reality, staring at him.
“Y-you are…”
“A demon.”
Enormous wings spread out to the left and right, covering the room.
“I am the death god who will tear your soul to pieces.”
The baron collapsed to the floor.