Delphine hugged her mother’s letter tightly and burst into tears.
Her mother’s warm comfort, saying that she loves her no matter who she is or what she does.
And these tears shed because of it.
It felt as if they were washing away the filth from her body and soul, where Ioan had touched.
“Delphine. This empire is fundamentally flawed. But as long as that man, Pryde, is here, we can never bring it down,” Belly softly recited to Delphine.
“And you, too, will never be able to escape from his grasp.”
Delphine raised her tear-stained face to look at him.
The angel-faced man, always cold yet righteous, whispered in a low voice.
“…But Delphine. You can kill him.”
He immediately added, looking at her sobbing and gasping for breath.
“Pryde, his weakness is you.”
At those words, Delphine looked up at him in confusion with her watery emerald eyes.
“…Me?”
“When he copulates with you, he loses his demonic power.”
“Hey, Belly. Give Delphine some time to…”
“At that moment, feed him poison through your mouth.”
Ignoring Lin’s dissuasion, Belly finished speaking coldly.
Two small glass vials had somehow appeared in his hand.
“That’s…poison?”
“One is the antidote.”
He instructed her to take the antidote beforehand to avoid getting poisoned herself while feeding him the poison.
“But I’m not sure if this will be enough to kill that demon. So, take this.”
He pulled out a sharp dagger from his bosom and held it out to her.
The blade of the dagger, sharpened by candlelight, shone blue.
“It’s a dagger enchanted by Lin. You need to pierce that demon’s heart with it.”
Pierce him…?
With these hands of mine, his heart?
Still holding her mother’s letter to her chest, Delphine hesitated to reach for the dagger.
Staring into her trembling emerald eyes, Belly spoke firmly.
“Afterwards, let’s go to the Northern Continent. To the Holy Kingdom. There, we’ll find a way to save this empire.”
“Del, always go where your heart leads you to…”
Oh, Mother.
But what should I do when my heart is torn in two directions?
Even though I know I shouldn’t, how do I deal with this heart that keeps being drawn to him who whispers love to me…
However, the justice she had believed in and upheld all her life pointed in only one direction.
The direction of killing that soulless man and saving this empire.
With trembling hands, Delphine took the vial of poison and the dagger.
[This is the timeline separator]“You’re pregnant.”
“…What?”
For a moment, Pryde blankly asked back, not understanding the doctor’s words.
At the clinic located in District 2.
The old doctor, holding the test results in his hand, repeated with a joyful face.
“Just in case, I also conducted a pregnancy test. You’re 2 months pregnant. Congratula- Ah! Y-Your Excellency?”
Pryde roughly snatched the test paper from the doctor’s hand.
“That’s…impossible…”
He has no soul. Therefore, he cannot conceive a child either.
The same was true for the previous contractors.
Even the first emperor died leaving behind only one child he had before the contract.
However, the results written on the test paper clearly indicated pregnancy.
“This…doesn’t make any sense…”
She and I are having a child?
Inside her, my seed has taken root…
The shock and surprise that had gripped him gradually began to fade.
Instead, what filled Pryde’s face was a dazzling joy.
He didn’t feel any suspicion about her infidelity.
Even if he hadn’t kept her captive for the past two months, there was no doubt about it.
Ever since she was a child, she had been a kind-hearted girl who stubbornly believed in the values of faith and justice.
“It’s truly a miraculous moment. Don’t you think?”
The old doctor, looking at him with the expression all fathers have when they’re having their first child, offered his congratulations.
A miracle.
Pryde savored that word with trembling eyes.
Yes. This could not be expressed by any word other than a miracle.
And the reason such fortune had come was probably because she was a descendant of the saint.
When copulating with her, he cannot use his demonic powers.
So pregnancy became possible too?
‘Ah, Delphine. You really are, to me…’
Pryde buried his face in his trembling large hands.
Never in his life had he believed in the existence of God.
He had never regretted giving his soul to make a contract with the devil.
This empire is a hell made by the devil.
So the only way to survive and fulfill his wishes here was to become the devil himself.
That’s why, until now, the fact that she was a descendant of the saint felt like God’s punishment towards him.
…But it wasn’t.
For the first time in his life, thanking God, Pryde slowly raised his face that had been buried in his hands.
“Your Excellency. Hurry and tell this joyful news to your wife as well…”
The old doctor, facing that face, abruptly stopped speaking.
Because on the face of this inhumanly beautiful man, some devilish glee was present.
Is this really the face of a father happy to have a child?
“…I will…reward you handsomely.”
But before he could properly examine that face, the marquis turned his back and left the room.
Pryde headed towards his warhorse with bold, unhindered steps.
He was happy.
Pure joy overflowed in his heart.
It wasn’t because of expectations for a child he had never wished for or seen the face of.
After all, since being abandoned by his mother, he had never felt any kind of affection from anyone other than Delphine.
His joy was based solely on Delphine.
Finally, he could keep her wholly, eternally by his side.
That tenderhearted woman who always misses her deceased mother will never be able to leave her child and him, the child’s father.
Mounting his huge warhorse in one go, he began galloping towards the mansion.
Delphine.
Facing the blowing wind, he thought, overwhelmed with emotion.
Now I feel like I can tell you everything.
I will place the truth you so desperately wanted in your hands.
And within the borders of our relationship that have become even stronger, you and I will live together for the rest of our lives.
#Chapter 7. The Most Desperate Wish
[The first thing God did upon descending to earth was to love humans.On the other hand, the first thing the devil did upon descending to earth was to tempt humans.
He found the most desperate human on earth and whispered in their ear.
The thing you want most, if I give you that, what can you give me?
Blinded by desperation, humans always answered the devil like this.
Anything.
To have that, I will do anything.
-From ‘Gaerigeum Epic, Song of Illia’-] [This is the timeline separator]
Ding-a-ling-.
Ranchis Town, located in the eastern part of District 3.
The most dangerous and filthy lawless zone in the empire where all sorts of vagrants, criminals, and those without identities gather.
The door of a shabby hole-in-the-wall store with no sign opened with the sound of a bell.
The tall, dirty blond man who entered through it immediately shouted.
“Arun. How many requests are there today?”
Then, from behind the counter decorated with cheap candy as a disguise.
The brown-haired man standing there in an apron replied with a grin.
“Yeah, that’s right. It’s a really good afternoon, Ioan.”
Then he quickly erased the smile from his face and grumbled.
“Hey, you know what? When people meet, they greet each other first.”
“Shut up.”
The man who approached with a chilling rebuke leaned against the counter and recited.
“Just give me the request.”
Arun flinched slightly at the overwhelming presence given by that unnecessarily huge body.
Anyway, a guy with no social skills. But a guy who’s damn good at his job.
‘…Where the hell did he roll around and drift into a place like this?’
It had been over two years since this young man with a strange beauty had shown up in Ranchis.
But Arun still knew nothing about this guy’s past.
Well, that’s how it is for all the bastards parasitizing this damn lawless zone.
“…As I’ve said many times, with a face like yours, there are much easier ways to make money.”
Arun, pretending to examine the request paper while busily moving his hands, casually dropped a remark.
He was also acting as a pimp, as all those doing shady business in this district do.
“If you could catch a noble lady with peculiar tastes who occasionally comes here…”
At the words spoken out of greed, thinking it could be quite profitable, the man’s face quickly turned grim.
“…Do you want to die?”
“No, I want to live. Yeah. Sorry.”
Arun apologized neatly.
Having been worn down by life in this district, he had long lost any sense of shame or self-esteem.
Right.
Usually, everyone’s like that.
Only now did Arun realize why he was so interested in this young man.
“After rolling around in Ranchis for a couple years, everyone gets dirty… But you’re a bit unusual.”
Arun mused, examining the young man with an indifferent and cold face.
Although it was evident that he was rough and had never received a proper education, he was different.
The Male lead Always Seduces Her with His Beauty (Matriarchy)
Xin Jiao Zhou is the leader of the world’s premier sect. She has just experienced betrayal from all sides, was poisoned in an assassination attempt, and faced death squad attacks while the poison was taking effect. After finally clearing out the scum from her sect, she was drugged again while trying to detoxify.
After waking up from a night of unconsciousness, she gained a “beautiful and kind-hearted” husband.
Xin Jiao Zhou: “???”
He fell ill.
She came to see him, bringing breakfast.
As she put down the breakfast and was about to leave, his hand slipped while holding the spoon. “Clank!”
She turned around upon hearing the noise.
He looked up at her, his eyebrows drooping: “My hand… has no strength.”
“Shall I… feed you?” she asked tentatively.
He opened his mouth cheerfully: “Ah—”
Thinking she was drowning, he jumped in without hesitation to save her, but nearly drowned himself. In the end, it was she who swam over to rescue him, giving him air underwater.
After emerging from the water, his ear tips turned red. He lightly brushed his cheek, tucking his sideburns behind his ear, revealing delicate, pink-tinged ear tips. He lowered his gaze, too embarrassed to look at her.
Xin Jiao Zhou: He’s truly beautiful, kind-hearted, and adorable.
A certain someone when disciplining subordinates behind the scenes: “If they don’t obey, just kill them.”
What’s that? She might already have someone she cares about in her heart? A certain someone: Find out who it is, kill them, and then there won’t be anyone.
What? She met a man by the riverside? What? That man even hurt her? A certain someone: Whichever hand hurt her, chop off his entire arm.
Love at first sight without realizing it, gradually falling in love, slowly getting closer…
Family and national grudges, schemes and desires, good and evil, crime and punishment, she and he face the future together, seeking justice with passion!
A naturally dark female lead who could accidentally destroy the world but is actually an honest person VS a weak, pitiful, and helpless but skilled fighter, beautiful white-cut black male lead
My heart is not of stone, how steadfast is your love? — Tao Yuanming “Imitating the Ancients (No. 3)”
— Reading Guide —
Cold female lead & dramatic black lotus with hidden yandere traits male lead
