I Summoned the Demon King and Got a Dad - Chapter 9

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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9. The Demon Lord and the Princess (3)

The magic Theodor used was a demonic spell that dredged up a person’s trauma and made them relive those memories.

Of course, this time he had taken special care to ensure it wouldn’t harm Shuria.

The house in her memory was an ordinary rural cottage.

As he looked around, somewhat impressed that the situation hadn’t changed from his expectations at all.

“Mama!”

A familiar voice reached his ears.

When he turned around, he saw Shuria toddling along.

Her short pink hair and much smaller stature than now struck him as quite adorable.

So she could get even smaller than this.

He thought she might even fit in the palm of his hand now, and just as Theodor let out a chuckle.

A pink-haired woman came running from somewhere and scooped Shuria up.

Probably the cause of this entire situation.

It was Fila, Shuria’s birth mother.

But the reason Theodor was flustered upon seeing her lay elsewhere.

He couldn’t sense even a trace of magical power from her, despite the fact that she should have possessed magic strong enough to summon a demon lord.

Even assuming Shuria was one year old at this time, there were only four years left until the present.

Gaining enough magical power to summon a demon lord in just four years—that couldn’t be possible.

Shuria had said the Magic Circle was certain the person who summoned him was Shuria’s birth mother.

What on earth was going on here?

Just as Theodor was thinking this.

A man appeared from somewhere and picked up Shuria.

“Papa!”

Even without Shuria calling out to him, it wasn’t difficult to tell who he was.

He looked exactly like Shuria at first glance.

Seeing Shuria laughing happily in her birth parents’ arms, Theodor felt a strange emotion.

An indescribable feeling that was both sad and joyful.

But Shuria, unaware of Theodor’s situation, simply continued speaking.

“Is Grandma okay?”

“Yes, let’s go together tomorrow, Shuria.”

At those words, Shuria’s gaze turned eastward, and following her line of sight, Theodor also looked in that direction.

At the end of her gaze was a cottage so small it was barely visible behind the trees.

From within it, he could sense a strange aura.

Rather than simple magical power, it was something murky and more sinister.

Theodor could easily realize what was causing it.

…Someone killed a demon.

And that meant the source of all these troubles was the being Shuria called grandmother.

He wanted to storm into the cottage right now and see that face, but all Theodor could see were Shuria’s memories.

The Shuria in the memory looked happy.

She smiled brightly without a care in the world, and didn’t watch others’ reactions like she did now.

She ran around the garden joyfully, acted spoiled when she wanted certain foods, monopolizing her parents’ attention and affection as she played cute.

The three people laughing and chatting together looked truly close.

The incident happened the moment the three began eating the omelet rice Shuria had said she wanted for dinner.

With a knock, a woman opened the door and entered the room.

“Grandmother has collapsed.”

Since the woman speaking emanated the same magical power he’d sensed from the cottage, Theodor could easily guess that she was being controlled.

At the woman’s words, Fila put down her spoon and stood up.

“Go ahead and eat first.”

With those final words, she went outside.

Not long after, a loud roar echoed from outside the house as black flames burst out in all directions.

“Papa, outside…!”

He could hear Shuria’s tearful voice and her father’s attempts to comfort her.

At the same time, Theodor could sense the presence of powerful magic enveloping the entire village.

Did they use the whole village as a sacrifice?

But for what purpose?

Unable to understand the motive, Theodor bit his lip.

After a brief time, when Shuria’s father confirmed the flames had died down and opened the door, they could see the village turned completely to ash and a woman standing in the center of it.

It was Fila, Shuria’s birth mother.

The problem was that unlike before, she now emanated magical power so strong it even surprised Theodor.

But the two didn’t sense anything strange about Fila’s oddly unharmed appearance. In a village where disaster had struck in an instant, how many people could make rational judgments when their family had survived?

They would simply think this situation was a miracle.

It didn’t take long for the two running toward Fila to realize something was wrong with her.

After all, the being that had taken over her body had no intention of hiding that fact.

“Mama!”

She paid no attention to Shuria calling her and focused only on her own reflection in a broken mirror.

“This is it, this is it, this is it.”

With both cheeks flushed red, she was clearly smiling brightly in her ecstasy, but the sight was somehow grotesque and filled with twisted joy.

“This is my original form!”

It wasn’t difficult for the two to sense something was wrong.

“Mama?”

Sensing Fila’s unusual atmosphere, Shuria called to her as if she couldn’t understand.

And only then, as if realizing the two were there, Fila’s gaze turned toward them.

After briefly looking the two up and down, she muttered quietly as if she couldn’t understand.

“What? Why didn’t this one die too?”

As soon as those words ended, Shuria’s father shouted.

“Run, Shuria!”

Without even a moment to despair at the fact that the source of all this was his own wife.

Grabbing a completely burned tree branch to save his daughter, he shouted those words.

Even knowing his actions posed no threat to her whatsoever, for the slimmest possibility.

To save Shuria.

He had no choice but to act that way.

But after easily knocking him down, Fila lifted Shuria with one hand and began walking.

“Papa, are you okay? Let me go!! Papa!!”

Shuria tried to resist her somehow, but it was futile.

She subdued Shuria with one hand while wearing a leisurely smile.

“Don’t worry, I won’t kill this one.”

At her words, a look of relief appeared on his face as he lay on the ground.

“I’ll need a body to enter later if I fail.”

The relief was brief, as his expression filled with despair again.

And having finished speaking, she instantly stabbed through his chest.

Shuria’s screams echoed as she saw her father beginning to bleed.

Tears began streaming down her eyes.

Her struggles to somehow reach her father were easily suppressed.

Carrying the sobbing, thrashing Shuria in her arms as she walked, she stopped when she felt a weak hand grasping her leg.

She let out a small sigh and was about to draw her blade to properly finish him off.

“…I love you most… in the world. Shuria.”

With those final words, the strength left his hand.

Shuria’s screams of acceptance filled the ash-covered village.

But she didn’t even blink at Shuria’s anguished cries.

Rather, as if annoyed by the noise, she frowned and placed her hand on Shuria’s forehead.

“Making such a fuss over something she won’t even remember tomorrow anyway.”

She had begun erasing the memories.

Bright light emanated from her hands and Shuria fell into sleep.

With that memory as the last, Theodor returned to reality.

Before his eyes, he could see Shuria sleeping peacefully with steady breathing.

Thinking it was fortunate she wouldn’t remember, he gently stroked her head and was about to leave her room when.

Shuria grabbed his hand.

“Don’t go, Papa.”

In that moment, Theodor realized.

The contract didn’t only affect him.

The reason Shuria had trusted him so much.

The reason she had believed in that promise.

The reason she had asked him to love her more than anyone else in the world.

Shuria was already recognizing him as her father.

On the day her world collapsed.

On the day she forgot everything.

The one who had stayed by her side until the very end as her papa.

“Hah…”

Theodor let out a quiet sigh and took Shuria’s hand.

He felt like things had gone terribly wrong, but he couldn’t let go of this hand.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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