Let the Whales Fight, This Shrimp is Leaving! - Chapter 29

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 29
I tilted my head and asked.
“What about Joaquin Perez?”
Hadn’t he attacked Deyan with a Holy Relic?
‘The wound on his abdomen was definitely inflicted by a Holy Relic.’
I could tell by examining the wound left by Sariel’s attack.
Deyan’s abdominal wound was nearly identical to the one Sariel had left.
The pattern of the wound, the way it healed, the scarring—everything matched.
It was clear enough that even a fool could deduce Deyan had been struck by a Holy Relic.
“It’s difficult to say for certain. The sword he carried appeared unremarkable at first glance. Of course, I recognized it immediately, but……”
Deyan trailed off.
Still, it wasn’t hard to guess what came next.
Perhaps he’d obtained a Holy Relic by chance and mistaken it for an ordinary sword, or acquired one for some other reason without realizing what it was.
Deyan hadn’t yet ruled out that possibility.
‘When I see him like this, he almost seems prudent.’
The more I faced him, the less I could pin down his character.
He was an infuriating man.
“Having wandered the Battlefield as I did, it’s hardly surprising that a few might question my identity.”
There was something hoarse in Deyan’s voice as he added this.
He gazed at the hydrangea brushing the back of his hand, then spoke as though suppressing something.
“Without a Contract with a Demon, I would have lost my life on the Battlefield long ago. I recall at least ten occasions where I sustained wounds that should have been fatal.”
Deyan’s gaze slowly shifted to me.
“My throat was severed. My entrails were torn.”
He went on—his arm sliced off, his abdomen stabbed repeatedly, arrows lodged in his back like a porcupine’s quills.
He confessed countless deaths to me.
Whether to frighten me or to solicit pity, I couldn’t say.
“That must have hurt terribly.”
“…….”
I smiled blankly, offering hollow empathy.
Deyan, too, looked down at me with an equally hollow gaze.
“Those who witnessed my death lost their reason and were all killed by my hand, so it’s safest to assume they no longer exist.”
Ah. So that’s what he was building toward all this time.
“Though someone might have glimpsed it from a distance.”
“Yes.”
“And that someone might have sold the information to Joaquin Perez.”
“Yes.”
“But still.”
How many people would connect Deyan and the Demon based solely on such testimony?
‘Joaquin Perez does have an interest in Holy Relics.’
Not just Relics, but anything rare and difficult to obtain.
Fond of superstition, he collected Totems from other continents and boasted of them to me.
But could that alone truly make him suspect Deyan of a Contract with a Demon?
‘I should feel him out.’
I’d found a reason to face that detestable man again.
We fell silent once more.
Walking in step together, I reached out to tap at the well-tended flower branches, then told him when a fallen leaf settled on his shoulder.
I watched closely as Deyan picked up the dried leaf and discarded it.
“You said those nails were damaged during your uncle’s torture?”
“……Yes.”
“Torture to enable Demon Summoning?”
Deyan smiled faintly, sensing the subtle curiosity in my question.
It was more a bitter laugh than anything, but it was the first time I’d seen him smile.
“Are you curious how I was able to summon a Demon?”
“Yes. Very much.”
My honesty made him regard me in silence.
“……Summoning a Demon is not a simple matter.”
* * *
I objected, shrugging my slender shoulders.
“It seemed simple enough.”
Deyan regarded me for a moment, then looked away.
When he clenched his fist, his fingernails dug into his palm.
Where they’d been torn out so thoroughly that they never grew back, scar tissue sat raised and hardened.
Pressing it brought a slight nerve pain.
At some point, Deyan had begun using that nerve pain as his own sedative.
He couldn’t recall when it started.
He’d only become aware of the habit after the fact.
“In my case, it was not simple.”
He’d lived thinking it was a story too difficult to tell, yet when he began speaking, it proved easier than expected.
“Because I had to prove one thing to summon that Demon.”
His voice emerged with a flatness that even surprised him. Better that way.
“My uncle told me the Demon would put me to the test.”
“The Demon? Not God or an Angel?”
“Yes. The Demon.”
Deyan found himself smiling thinly at my reaction.
Even he thought it odd to say.
A Demon who merely seduced humans with sweet temptation—why would it test anyone?
“What was the test the Demon gave you?”
Idir Hubert accepted this story with keen interest.
Now that she herself was entangled with a Demon, it was plain she wanted to gather as much information as possible.
“The Demon said it judges the strength of a person’s will.”
Deyan answered with a brief nod and continued.
“So to gain its favor, I would have to be placed in Extreme Circumstances.”
“Endure.”
Deyan’s father had somehow learned a secret of the Nemanic Family meant only for the legitimate heir.
So when Deyan was born, he’d fled with his servants and disappeared.
To protect Deyan.
But Count Nemanic, the previous head of the family and Deyan’s uncle, found him.
The Count had failed in his attempt to summon a Demon and lost all his children as a result.
Deyan became both the next sacrifice and the family’s hope.
When I told this part, Idir’s expression stiffened for the first time.
She looked genuinely confused.
“He cut his own brother’s throat without hesitation? In front of you, his own son?”
“It appears that was part of my test as well.”
“In time, this shall become your strength.”
“If you wish, claim that strength and take your revenge upon me.”
The cold, measured voice still echoed at the edges of his hearing, tightening his breath.
Count Nemanic had thrust Deyan into the abyss of despair to summon a Demon.
He’d killed his parents before his eyes, then severed and burned their bodies.
Not content with that, he’d imprisoned Deyan in darkness, tortured him, and gnawed away at his sanity.
“My nails were pulled out then.”
The wounds were even cauterized with fire afterward.
The Count employed every cruel method imaginable to torture Deyan.
Until Deyan himself drew the Summoning Circle.
“You must do as you’re told if you wish this to end!”
“The one who taught him to draw the Summoning Circle……”
“Was Baron Holdin’s own father.”
“Correct.”
“And naturally, that man handled the succession and the aftermath of the Family.”
“Yes.”
Following the whispered instructions in his ears, he drew the Summoning Circle in his exhausted state.
Then the Count stroked his head approvingly and pulled him into a tight embrace.
In the warmth of his uncle’s affection, felt for the first time, Deyan believed it was all finally over.
But it was a mistake.
The Count placed a Dagger in Deyan’s hand and clasped it together with his own.
Then, without hesitation, he directed the blade toward his own heart and drove it in.
The previous Baron Holdin pushed the Count from behind, driving the sword deeper.
Fine tailoring and tender skin; layers of muscle and solid bone; soft cartilage.
The sensation of piercing through them all was seared into his palm.
“Now pull out the heart.”
“Almost there. Do it now!”
By then, his mind had completely shattered.
As the Count’s strength failed and his grip loosened, Baron Holdin’s hand took over, manipulating Deyan like a puppet.
At last, the Demon was summoned. At last, Deyan gained his power.
At a terrible price.
“Did the Emperor condone all of this?”
“His Majesty did not condone it.”
“Then what?”
Immediately after the Contract with the Demon.
The Emperor came himself, as if he’d been waiting, and patted Deyan’s blood-soaked, weary shoulder, saying:
“You were born safely. My blade.”
The Emperor smiled with satisfaction.
As though encouraging an Empress who’d delivered a son, he patted his shoulder, and had someone clean up everything around him.
And he ordered Deyan to kill everyone who knew of his existence.
“Your secret shall go with me to the grave. It’s far too heavy a burden to carry alone.”
Deyan was a Demon made by everyone’s united will.

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