The Oracle of the Villainous Baby - Chapter 90
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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 90
{I don’t want to. Not really. But look at us. Help us. Demon King. Explain the situation. Request assistance. Where is the Demon King?}
At the Elf’s words, the Emperor’s frown deepened.
The Emperor, who had been staring intently at the Elf’s expression, turned his head silently to look at Kiriel. Kiriel’s face had grown rigid—he understood Ancient Elvish.
“The Demon King? Did I hear that correctly, Prince Yudia?”
“It seems so. However, it’s rather peculiar how casually he mentions the Demon King. As if calling out to a friend with whom relations have soured slightly.”
The two men exchanged glances before turning their attention back to the Elf.
The Elf, as if fascinated by the scenery, turned his head about the room, his eyes drinking in every corner.
{The Demon King is dead.}
{Dead? A generational change? Who is the next Demon King?}
Ah. The Emperor let out a small exclamation before speaking again.
{Let me correct myself. The Demon Clan has been annihilated. They were defeated in war. Now, aside from those who fled as refugees, there are scarcely any Demon Clan Members left.}
At the Emperor’s words, bewilderment washed across the Elf’s face.
{What are you saying? The Demon King doesn’t exist? Doesn’t exist, yet you’re still alive? How?}
At the Elf’s loaded question, the Emperor’s eyes narrowed.
Communicating in the human tongue was proving remarkably difficult.
‘It appears that side doesn’t use this language as a common tongue either.’
Fifteen hundred years was certainly enough time for languages to change, for ages to pass, for the very shape of the Continent to transform.
The Elf—Leptha.
He was the guardian of the Elf City.
Long ago, when a massive Dungeon had manifested at the city’s foundation, cutting off all paths of escape.
The Elf Clan Leader had sacrificed himself, sealing the entire city at the deepest point their people could reach.
At first, they had attempted to live within that seal, but the Elves gradually began to lose their reason.
Eventually, they decided to seal both the souls and bodies of the Elves themselves, allowing them to fall into deep slumber.
And they had set magic to awaken one Elf at irregular intervals.
They had named this role the “guardian.”
But for some reason, when he opened his eyes, part of the seal had been torn, and through that fissure, stagnant demonic energy had seeped in for so long that his kindred had already fallen into corruption.
Their once pale skin had darkened to black, and their once-blue eyes had shifted to a violet hue.
They had been tainted by the demonic energy of monsters.
Demonic energy is virulent and gnaws away at the human mind.
Even in that situation, Leptha had waited. For the moment someone would open the seal and enter.
If someone came and extended a hand to them, he had planned to seek help from the Demon King first.
Because the Demon King was the only living being in existence who could manipulate all demonic energy in the world as she wished.
Even the demonic energy already rooted like vines through their bodies—the Demon King could surely draw it out.
If that proved impossible, at the very least, she could help them find Iji.
After that, they could simply settle in the forest where they lived for a time.
Demonic energy, if not controlled by its bearer, would kill or consume the life around it, so time was needed to adapt.
{Ugh, this is frustrating. Not a single person who speaks Elvish? Really?! Does that make any sense?! Not one person I can have a proper conversation with?!}
Leptha cried out in exasperation, clutching his head.
Yet to them, it appeared as though he were simply throwing a tantrum.
Frustrated, he roughly rubbed his face with his palms.
‘Why did they wage war against the Demon Clan in the first place?’
Humans and the Demon Clan had always maintained reasonably good relations.
The Elves, who wielded noble mana and possessed great pride, did not harmonize well with most races, but humans and the Demon Clan frequently exchanged visits, so he remembered this clearly.
So much so that a village had even emerged right before the perpetually shadowed Diana Forest, where humans and the Demon Clan bound themselves to one another and lived together.
Though they could not bear children due to their differing natures, they loved each other nonetheless, and many wore purification stones around their necks as they lived. The exchange between the races ran that deep.
Between humans and the Demon Clan.
‘And yet, a half-blood was born among them once.’
A child could never be born between a Demon Clan member and a human. Whichever carried the child would have to stake their very life, for a human bearing demonic essence cannot survive.
So when a being that should never have existed was born, the world grew quite turbulent.
However, that human and that Demon Clan member were extraordinarily special beings.
The human was blessed by the divine and overflowed with sacred power throughout their body, while the Demon Clan member was the Demon King, capable of controlling demonic essence to its absolute limit.
Somehow, two beings who could achieve balance through their respective powers met, and a child was born between them.
Of course, balance is destined to shatter eventually.
Typically, the balance of the shorter-lived human crumbles before that of the longer-lived Demon Clan member.
In this case too, the human woman who carried the child did not live particularly long, or so he had heard.
‘Though I heard she endured for nearly ten years.’
How could a relationship that was once so good have deteriorated to the point of utter annihilation?
{Annihilation is impossible. The Demon King is hereditary. Even if only one remains. The Demon Clan.}
A sharp intake of breath.
‘Elves… they’re all saying it.’
Bunny’s shoulders trembled faintly.
Thinking that Bunny was frightened, Kiriel gently patted her back in silence.
【Damn it, what on earth am I supposed to do…】
The Elf who had been muttering quietly turned his head.
At that very moment, his gaze met Bunny’s, who had been watching him, in the empty air.
【Huh?】
Leptha, who had been roughly sweeping his hair back, stared intently at Bunny.
Elves possess an ability unique to their race—the capacity to pierce through the essence of all things.
They can read the aura unique to each race with their eyes.
In short, their sight is extraordinarily keen.
No matter how much one alters their outward appearance, the Elf race possesses the unique ability to see through to what lies within.
Leptha’s eyes widened sharply as he beheld Bunny.
‘Wait… the Demon King!’
A young Demon Clan member, barely born, who appeared not yet awakened… but what slumbered within was unmistakably the seed of the Demon King.
‘And the one behind is a child of the divine. A bit mixed?’
It seemed demonic essence was faintly intertwined. Yet far greater sacred power completely suppressed it, rendering it nearly invisible.
It was the moment Leptha was about to speak.
Suddenly, Bunny’s pupils split vertically in a long, thin line.
Leptha held his breath.
The moment their eyes met, Leptha felt as though something enormous was looking down at him from an impossibly great height.
‘…Ah.’
Leptha, who had unconsciously lowered his head, finally released the breath he’d been holding.
‘Indeed, so this is what they mean by the Demon King’s seed.’
Had he opened his mouth here, his throat might well have been severed.
With that thought, Leptha lifted his head again. And what he read in Bunny’s eyes was fear.
{…but it flowed. Time. Even the Demon Clan experiences change. Perhaps considerable change.}
Leptha reflexively redirected his thoughts.
The Demon Clan, whose relations with humans were poor.
Yet the Demon King’s seed rested in a human’s arms.
Eyes trembling with terror.
Whatever the reason, it was clear there was a story here.
After staring intently at Bunny and Kiriel in turn for a long moment, Leptha’s eyes suddenly widened.
‘…Ah. A half-blood.’
She was a half-blood.
‘I never thought I would see a half-blood born between human and Demon Clan with my own eyes.’
If she was a half-blood, then her being in human arms now made sense.
Because in childhood, half-bloods are scarcely different from humans, and exposure to demonic energy would kill them swiftly.
The Emperor, watching Leptha, rubbed his chin.
Indeed, with their conversation completely broken down, he had no idea whatsoever how to proceed with this man.
As the Emperor deliberated, Leptha strode forward and suddenly seized Kiriel’s sleeve, pulling it firmly.
{I follow. This man.}
“….”
“….”
At Leptha’s sudden declaration, both the Emperor and Kiriel fell silent.
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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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