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The demons… are getting more and more outrageous…

The man thought to himself.

He raised the silver cup on the table and inhaled the aroma of the liquor.

The wine was rich and mellow.

But only mellow.

He really wanted to down it in one gulp.

For an old drunk like him, swallowing the fiercest Moro liquor on the continent was effortless.

Yet… he was restrained by someone.

“Dad! You’re not allowed to secretly drink!”

He recalled his daughter looking at him with slight disdain.

Cold sweat instantly broke out on his back.

That little brat…

Drinking leads to trouble…

Actually, the little girl didn’t originally exist.

It was only because of drinking that he accidentally ended up with a daughter…

He was a solitary person.

He didn’t want anyone by his side at all.

Until one day, that woman suddenly appeared and told him he had a daughter…

What a surprise fatherhood.

She was only three years old at the time.

Very destitute.

Wearing ragged and thin clothes.

Her face was sallow.

She looked malnourished.

She was afraid of him…

As for her mother.

That woman who had gotten him drunk.

One day, she suddenly told him she had a child.

She intended to dump the child on him and extort a large sum of child support.

Because she had carried around this “money-losing burden” for three years…

He didn’t hesitate at all.

He gave her two hundred old gold coins and told her to take the child and get lost.

She instantly changed.

Like a starving wolf seeing a lamb.

The arrogance she had shown while negotiating vanished.

She hurriedly tried to take the child and leave.

After all, in front of money, she didn’t dare provoke him.

Two hundred holy gold coins were enough for her to indulge for a lifetime.

As for the child?

Just throw her away.

She had already cheated the money out anyway.

Selling her wouldn’t even fetch a few coins.

Probably no one would even want her.

Well then.

She would at least leave behind the “mercy” of a mother~

And that child…

Was only three years old…

She wanted to leave the estate as fast as possible.

But the child seemed terrified of her mother.

Crying and screaming, she clung to a pillar in the hall.

She refused to leave.

Even when beaten.

Even when scolded.

She still wouldn’t go…

He had said it before.

He was a solitary man…

Hearing that annoying crying, he grew angry.

Holding the silver cup, he went downstairs with a grim expression.

And then he saw the scene.

The child cried desperately, refusing to leave.

In that instant…

His heart softened.

“Leave her here.

You can get lost.”

He drove the woman away.

She slunk off…

The child also seemed to understand.

She stopped crying.

She looked at him with tear-filled eyes…

His heart softened again…

Her mother was truly scum…

Only then did he carefully examine the child.

She was ugly.

Because she hadn’t eaten properly for too long, it was already a miracle she was alive.

Her face was sallow.

Skin and bones.

She looked nothing like a little girl.

Her messy hair had been tidied up a bit.

Yet she was still ugly…

Like a freak.

Thin and unsightly…

“Hm…”

The man pondered quietly…

First, he should probably give her a proper bath.

She smelled terribly bad…

There was no one else in the entire estate.

Only him.

So naturally, he had to bathe her himself.

She didn’t resist.

She obediently let the man wash her.

Everything proceeded smoothly.

She listened to him.

As if she had spirit…

“She doesn’t have a name yet.

Then let’s call her Lilith.”

He muttered to himself.

Time passed quickly…

In the blink of an eye, thirteen years had gone by…

He couldn’t help but sigh.

“Dad!

You drank again!

You promised you wouldn’t!”

Lilith pushed open the door and saw her father hiding in the study with a wine cup.

“Hey—listen to me, Dad didn’t—”

The man tried to explain.

“I won’t listen, I won’t listen!

You’re holding a wine cup, so you clearly want to drink!”

Lilith shook her head wildly like a rattle drum.

Her jet-black hair, inherited from her father, slapped against her cheeks like drumsticks.

Her thin brows knit slightly, expressing her strong dissatisfaction.

He had originally been alone.

He shouldn’t have had any family at all.

Yet because of one cup of wine, he unexpectedly became a father.

From the day he met her, the man who was once like a ferocious beast suddenly discovered something that softened his heart.

From then on, he found himself wanting to please her.

No matter what it was, he wanted to give her the best.

He spent huge amounts of time with his daughter.

No matter her requests, he indulged them.

Because of her, servants gradually filled the house.

The solitary man slowly adapted to the noise and bustle.

In this world, only his daughter could make him yield.

“Listen to me!

I really was just smelling it to satisfy the craving!”

He explained anxiously.

“Hmph.”

Lilith glanced at her father.

That resentful gaze.

As if she were looking at a drunkard.

As if she were despising him…

Girls really do change dramatically as they grow.

That once ugly and skinny little girl had now fully blossomed.

Perhaps because of her half-demon bloodline…

Seeing his daughter’s gaze, he sighed helplessly.

Then he raised the cup and drank it all in one gulp.

“Dad is going out for a while.

How about you travel to another continent with Uncle Coachman?”

He looked at her seriously.

“Why do you have to go out…”

She seemed to sense something.

“It’s nothing.

The Demon Emperor summoned me.

It’ll take about three months to reach the Central Valley.

Perfect timing for you to tour the neighboring continent.

Come back in three months.”

He stroked Lilith’s black hair.

“Levi, take the young lady out.”

He spoke somewhat impatiently.

“Yes!”

Levi replied.

“Miss, let’s go.”

Levi said to Lilith.

“Dad…”

“Go first…”

The man and Lilith exchanged a glance…

Then he turned away and sank back into thought.

It was time to meet the Demon Emperor…

…………

What awaited him…

Was not the Demon Emperor.

But the demon imperial guards.

The leader read out an edict to the half-demons.

Only then did he realize.

This was not a negotiation.

This was a massacre.

“Kill!!”

As a clan leader, he could not sit still and wait for death.

He had long anticipated this outcome.

Half-demons without status had never had a future from the beginning.

Born of humans and demons.

Impure bloodlines only invited death.

They called themselves Singers.

They only hoped that one day, they could sing loudly beneath the light.

He donned heavy armor and fought his way forward.

Leading his followers straight into the heart of the enemy.

Enemy generals fell beneath his blade…

Then came wave after wave of elite demon troops…

Ten times his own numbers…

In the end, he stood atop mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Spear in hand.

Like a demon from hell itself…

He was shot full of arrows like a hedgehog.

With his own strength, he fought for an entire day and night.

Finally, he was pierced to death by spear troops.

With strength to lift mountains.

With spirit that covered the world.

But fate was against him.

What could be done…

The Singers…

No longer existed on the Nolan Continent.

“I am your ‘mother.’

My name is Liya.”

The silver-haired girl said to the black-haired girl.

A girl who looked about the same age as her.

Yet she spoke in such a tone.

Lilith felt strange.

“Be good~

You’ll stay with Uncle for now.

Your father has matters to attend to and entrusted you to me.”

The middle-aged man with shoulder-length silver hair spoke.

Elegant.

Cold.

“She is Liya.

My daughter.”

Dracula stroked Lilith’s black hair kindly.

“She will take care of you from now on.”

Dracula said reluctantly.

What a pitiful child…

He thought silently.

That man had been his friend.

After all, their backgrounds were quite similar…

He had entrusted Levi with a letter.

The letter was sealed with wax.

It hadn’t been opened yet.

Dracula opened the envelope.

Only then did he realize.

It was his final letter…

The last line read—

“Lilith… I leave her to you.”

Lilith didn’t understand why.

Yet perhaps due to some shared intuition with her father…

She suddenly began to cry.

Tears fell like pear blossoms in the rain.

It made one’s heart ache.

“Good girl, don’t cry, don’t cry…”

Liya led Lilith into the slightly dilapidated garden.

She hugged Lilith and gently patted her back.

“It’s okay… it’ll be fine soon.

Your father just asked you to stay here for a while.

It’s not that you’ll never see him again.

So don’t be sad.

Smile~”

Liya comforted her.

“And you should call me Mom!”

Liya smiled gently at Lilith with gem-like crimson eyes.

“But… but…

I think I’m a little older than you…”

Lilith said in confusion.

She truly didn’t understand why this girl insisted on being called Mom.

She had only heard her father say that her mother was a bastard…

“I’m already twenty-five years old!

I just look a bit young!”

Liya said.

Because Liya rarely went out and had never traveled far.

Her mental age wasn’t much older than Lilith’s.

But she had to pretend to be older.

Only then could she secure her status…

The two girls became close friends…

…………

“Let’s take a photo together!”

Dracula said to the two girls.

Several months had passed.

He had gradually begun to treat Lilith as his own daughter.

She was simply too well-behaved.

“Mom, hurry over!”

Lilith called out to Liya.

Only then did Liya put down her magic tome and walk toward her father.

Liya was a bookworm.

As for the title “Mom,” Dracula didn’t really understand it either.

So he didn’t bother correcting it.

He only laughed awkwardly when he heard it.

The three took a photo in front of the Demon Castle.

Dracula duplicated the image scroll into three copies.

One for each of them.

Lilith took the smallest one and placed it inside the gold pocket watch her father had given her before leaving.

As a keepsake.

……………………

“Awake?”

Gray asked at Lilith’s bedside.

“Mm…”

Lilith slowly sat up and replied.

“Did you have a strange dream?”

Gray asked.

“No…”

Lilith didn’t want to mention what she had dreamed about.

“You said a lot of things in your sleep.”

Gray said helplessly.

“Mm…”

“Want to hear how you were injured?”

Gray asked.

Lilith nodded.

“Here.

This came out when we treated your wound.”

He held up a small sphere.

“A lead pellet.”

“They fired this using some kind of device.

It just happened to hit the gap in your armor and injured you.”