DUFE - SIDE STORY 5

The moment she thought she had escaped was nothing more than a dreamlike illusion.

She stood before Hereb, unable to bring herself to go to her own world, nor to return to Kahn. From somewhere, black shadows appeared and listlessly seized her arms and legs, dragging her back along the rocky path she had struggled so hard to cross.

The shadows, which had passed so easily through the path Renie had trod with such difficulty step by step, dragged her back to hell. To the endlessly dark bedroom, like the open mouth of a serpent.

“Welcome back.”

With a piercing voice, the darkness that had supported her quickly vanished. Renie collapsed to the floor. Her gaze, which had been fixed on the ground, slowly rose to see Kahn sitting on the bed. In his hand, he held the severed chain like a rope.

“Did you enjoy your walk?”

A walk.

The desperate escape that she had risked her life for meant nothing more than that to him. Renie couldn’t react to the question, which was clearly a provocation.

The reality she had just come to accept had numbed her mind. Her five senses were hazy, as if she had fallen into the deepest abyss. Even though her eyes were open, her judgment was clouded as if she were submerged in water.

Kahn slowly rose and walked towards the slumped Renie. He grabbed her slender chin and pressed his lips firmly onto her dry ones. With a soft smack as they met and parted, he casually asked,

“Shall I show you something interesting?”

It was a frightening proposition, as she couldn’t fathom his intentions. Renie didn’t answer, but he didn’t seem to expect an answer from the start, as he gestured over her shoulder.

Soon, something covered with a black cloth was presented in one corner of the bedroom. With a wave of Kahn’s hand, the cloth slid off on its own.

What was revealed was none other than a cage. Inside it was a pitch-black creature that defied definition. Its head was that of a horned sheep, and its body was like a furry cat. On its back, a pair of wings, like those of a bird, were folded. It looked as if parts of various animals’ bodies had been detached and pieced together.

But there was no time to properly examine the grotesque creature. That was because its limbs were all separated, making for a gruesome sight. Black blood pooled like a puddle under the lifeless body, and on top of it rolled two round eyeballs, probably fallen out of its head, in a chaotic manner.

“Ugh…….”

At the unexpected appearance of the horrifying sight, Renie covered her mouth and turned her head away. Kahn ruthlessly grabbed her chin and forcefully made her look at the cage.

“You have to look properly, Renie. At what your beloved child has done.”

The voice he whispered into her ear had a razor-sharp edge. Unable to suppress the rising nausea, Renie frowned, but she couldn’t help but freeze at the words he uttered.

What your child has done.

So…… Hereb did this, this thing?

“What, wh…….”

In the midst of the chaos that poured in like a turbulent wave, her instinct to deny it surged first.

<Hereb, what did you play today?>

<I played with a friend.>

<A friend……?>

<A pitch-black friend.>

The face of the child smiling brightly as he said those words flickered before her eyes. And the mark on his collar that had steeped her in dread. Black. The black that she had confidently thought wasn’t blood. It was abundant under the grotesque creature in the cage. A chilling stench wafted through the air. The gruesome sight of the animals in the carriage she had seen once flashed through her mind.

It felt as if a very large stone had been lodged in Renie’s throat. Her lungs contracted sharply, making it impossible for her to breathe properly.

Her breath, as she clutched her chest, gradually grew rougher.

“Hh, eugh…….”

“Look closely. That’s Hereb’s true nature.”

“Don’t, please don’t……!”

“Why are you acting like this when you know everything now?”

Kahn’s chuckling voice crashed over her like a nightmare.

Renie shook her head, covering both ears with her hands. It was horrifying to think that such cruelty was hidden within the smile that had sustained her until now. There was a world of difference between merely acknowledging it in her head and seeing the evidence with her own eyes.

As proof of that, the only support and center of her life was scattering into fragments. Even the energy and vitality she had regained thanks to Hereb blurred like a fog. The child’s blood-red pupils wouldn’t leave her mind like a bad dream.

“I expected something like this to happen at least once. Hereb liked you, his mother, so he tried his best to hide his true nature, and you clung only to that fabricated possibility.”

Kahn grabbed Renie’s shoulders, who was desperately trying to push him away, and knocked her over. Her direction was close to the cage, and the stench of blood grew stronger. Renie contorted her face and struggled to get away.

Kahn easily subdued her movements and grabbed her ankle.

“Yes…… I did expect it.”

“Let go, let me go……!”

“But seeing it like this, I don’t feel like letting it go with a gentle goodbye.”

His dark red pupils gleamed more chillingly than the stench of blood that filled the room.

“You still dare to think of escaping from me?”

The smile hanging on his lips was ominously sinister. Renie, who had been shaking her head and accidentally caught sight of that smile, felt a bone-chilling fear climb up each of her vertebrae. She realized that it wasn’t just a baseless fear when he snapped and broke her ankle with a crack.

“Aaaagh!”

A final, tearing scream burst from her throat. An unbearable pain surged along with the sound of her intact bone breaking into pieces. She gasped and coughed weakly.

“Huh, huh-eugh, eugh, eughh…….”

Her vision blurred with tears that burst forth uncontrollably before she could even react. Renie rolled on the floor with her upper body, which wasn’t held, and sobbed violently. A faint groan, like that of a dying person, leaked from her lips, unable to even swallow properly.

If she had been properly wearing the shackles, her ankle injury would have healed in the blink of an eye. But with the shackles broken, she couldn’t even hope for magical healing now.

“Let’s say a friendly goodbye. Today will be the last day you can meet Hereb.”

He rattled off, but it was a voice that couldn’t reach Renie, who was gasping for breath in the intense pain. It was as he said. Kahn had no intention of allowing the mother and child to meet anymore. Now that the peace he had fabricated like a mask was broken, his pretense of magnanimity was also over.

He slowly released her ankle, which he had twisted into a grotesque shape. Renie curled up in that position, panting. Then, she felt a fear that she couldn’t stay like this. The pain might just be the beginning. With that thought, she endured the pain as if being butchered with a knife and began to crawl clumsily.

The sound of thunder brushed past her ears like an auditory hallucination. The beginning of everything, the painful moment in the chapel, came to mind. Renie was desperately trying to get away from him, just like back then.

But the evil that had fallen upon her rushed relentlessly from behind, as if that level of struggle was nothing. Kahn knelt on the floor and leaned over her.

“Hngh……!”

A suppressed groan escaped Renie’s lips at the touch of his hand firmly gripping her chin.

Tears flowed endlessly from her eyes, and her ankle throbbed unbearably. Even in that excruciating pain, Renie shook her head wildly, trying to shake off the grip on her chin somehow. Because of that, the two of them shifted back and forth once.

But Kahn, even as his body swayed, never let go of her chin. Rather, as if to show off, he held it firmly and brought his face close to hers.

“You said you loved me.”

“…….”

“Why did you run away when you said you loved me?”

He knew as well as she did that those words were empty, without any substance. Nevertheless, Kahn repeatedly mentioned that meaningless confession, like someone denying reality. Just like when he had mercilessly broken her ankle, his eyes gleamed with sharp madness.

Renie glared fiercely at him with tear-filled eyes. Though blurred by tears, the resentful look within them couldn’t be hidden.

“Love?”

“…….”

“You, hngh, someone like you…… I never loved you!”

Her desperate cry tore through the spacious yet empty bedroom. The words disappeared into the air as soon as they were spoken, but strangely, they echoed in Kahn’s ears. His face hardened as if he had suffered unbearable humiliation.

“You’re so terrible I want to kill you right now…… Disgusting, I hate you!”

“…….”

“Why me. Why are you doing this to me. Why me of all people. Why……!”

Kahn gazed steadily at Renie, who was bursting into unrestrained sobs of sorrow. His expression, which had been so rigid it made the other person flinch, slowly softened. However, the resulting blankness, as if bleached of all emotion, felt even colder, like frost.

With that chilling look, he lowered his head. Renie flinched at the sensation of lips rubbing against her tear-soaked cheek. His lips, glistening wet with her tears, slowly twisted.

“The aides insisted that we separate you from him around the time Hereb started walking, but I opposed them. Do you know why?”

Renie’s chin trembled as she registered the sudden drop in the temperature of Kahn’s voice.

“Because when you were with him, at least you acted like you were alive.”

For a moment, Renie couldn’t believe her ears.

What did he just say? Me, acting like I was alive……?

That was the reason he had allowed her to see Hereb without any restrictions for years? So…… the usually listless her regained some vitality only when she was with Hereb?

When her thoughts reached that point, a memory suddenly surfaced.

On days when she held Hereb in her arms and listened to the child’s words, she would occasionally feel an overt gaze. Every time she looked up, Kahn would be standing in the doorway, watching her steadily, as if he had appeared out of nowhere. It wasn’t just a look at the child; his red eyes were always fixed precisely on Renie’s face.

Then Renie would meet his gaze, completely erasing the smile she wore for Hereb and her gentle expression. Like someone stepping out of the magic of happiness and facing the unhappy reality.

Recalling that memory, which wasn’t just once or twice, Renie soon felt a surge of anger from within. This despair, thrown at her in its entirety, yet he had shown such petty magnanimity. It was a truly contradictory attitude for him, who had turned her whole world to ruins and locked her in the bedroom.

Just as she was about to question him fiercely, Kahn’s hand covered Renie’s eyes tightly, preempting her.

“I said I would be fooled.”

“…….”

“Even though I said I would gladly be fooled…….”

His tone, reproaching her, felt strangely bitter and forlorn. As if he were hurt…… Renie felt a chill run down her spine at her own thought. Hurt? This heartless, tearless evil being? She tried hard to shake off the absurd thought that had flashed through her mind for a moment, and hastily tried to push away his arm.

His hand fell away on its own, just as it had approached.

“……!”

But something was strange.

His hand was already gone, but her vision was still black, as if covered by something. As if her sight had been painlessly cut away.

Renie couldn’t tell if her eyes were open or closed, so she blinked several times. With each blink, mournful tears clinging to her eyelashes flowed down her cheeks. Droplets that ran down her slender jawline fell to the floor, drop by drop. It was like the tears of blood that had formed within her.

“I can’t, see.”

She reached out her hand hastily, groping somewhat frantically at random places.

“I can’t see…… I can’t see…….”

The sense of smell that detected the stench of blood, the sense of taste that felt the salty taste of tears, the sense of touch that felt the floor beneath her palm. Even the sense of pain that radiated from her twisted ankle.

All senses except sight were intact.

“I can’t see, I can’t, why, I can’t see. Wh, why is this…….”

But no matter how much she struggled, her eyes were still filled with a darkness where not a single ray of light penetrated. A chilling intuition crushed her reason. An intuition that the broken ankle might heal with time, but the sight stolen in an instant would never return.

“Wh, what have you done…….”

Was that why? Renie felt like she was being sucked into an abyss from which she could never escape.

“What have you done to me! Aaaaaagh!”

Even if she hated it, even if she refused and pushed it away, in the end, she had no choice but to recognize the reality that had befallen her. The terrible reality that the evil she shuddered at so much had finally covered even her sight.

“Don’t harbor any more hope, and rely only on me.”

He forcibly pulled Renie, who was wailing with her head in her hands, into his arms and lifted her up.

“Hngh, hngh…….”

“Make me the pillar of your world. I don’t need anything else.”

Even though he had dragged her all the way to the bottom, he was displeased that her gaze still wandered in search of hope. If her beautiful pair of eyes weren’t going to look only at Kahn, then they had no need to function. It was better to make them distant rather than exist uselessly.

So that she would live a life confined only in his arms, relying only on him.

“Rather than thinking of escaping from me, just live as if you’re dead.”

The hand that stroked her slender body, which drooped limply towards him, was gentle. But the pronouncement that fell between his lips was so ruthless it made her heart shrink.

As he took step after step towards the bed, the curtains that had been drawn back gradually fell. Renie’s sorrowful weeping was buried thickly like mud, following their descent.

Soon, the black curtains swallowed his and her figures whole.

________________________________________

A sinister energy filled the banquet hall.

The dim moon was faintly visible, but the usual orgy was not taking place. Today, the hall was filled with black smoke floating in the air, even the forms resembling humans having been dismantled. Two glowing red lights floating within the smoke proved that they were demons.

Within that mist, Kahn sat on a throne that gleamed gold. His gaze was fixed, as if nailed, solely on the entrance of the banquet hall.

As if answering the direction of his gaze, Renie stood outside the entrance of the banquet hall. It was closer to saying that the attendants standing on either side were forcibly holding her up rather than her standing by her own will.

Her luminous green eyes, so prominent in this world, were covered by a black veil. But there was no need to lift it, as those eyes had long lost their light and focus.

Urged by the attendants, her feet moved forward reluctantly, and the entrance to the banquet hall opened wide before her. Perhaps it was because a thick, dark haze billowed inside, but the place felt like a pit from which one could never escape.

Of course, for Renie, who had gone blind, every day was no different from wandering in that pit.

“…….”

Renie, who was being moved by a force not her own, suddenly flinched. She had lost her sight. Yet, strangely, she could clearly feel the many red eyes in front of her focusing on her. A chilling gooseflesh crawled up from her toes, making the hairs on her nape stand on end.

“N, no.”

A sense of revulsion towards that dark and red place surged within her. Renie, who had been leaning quietly on the attendants like a living corpse, twisted her body. For a moment, the arm that had been held was freed, and she turned back hastily.

But before she could escape this place, she fell flat on her face. It was because of the injury to her ankle, which was wrapped in bandages. That terrible wound that the demon who said he loved her had broken just because he was annoyed.

“No, no, no…….”

The sound her instinct burst forth leaked from her lips like blood. Her trembling hand, groping clumsily on the floor, shook pitifully. It was then. Renie trembled as she felt a hand slip under her waist and legs, lifting her up.

She couldn’t see, but she knew who it was. Nevertheless, she offered no resistance other than trembling. It was an attitude of resignation, having realized that such things were now meaningless.

Kahn, who had willingly walked towards her, embraced his bride leaning against him and headed for the throne. Re-seating himself there, he placed her on his lap. He lifted the black veil that faintly covered her white face.

Deep green pupils.

They used to look like human pupils, but now they were just like elaborately crafted jewels. His power, concealing them, had made the fixed pupils appear that way. Her unmoving gaze was fixed solely on Kahn’s face. The demon liked that very much.

Kahn gently lifted her chin and brought the glass beside him to her lips. The reddish-black liquor, mixed with his own blood, wet her lips thickly and flowed down her throat. Watching her barely swallow, Kahn softly curved the corner of his lips.

One who drinks the blood of a demon becomes immortal. To be precise, something wicked seeps into their body, and the rhythm of their life force stops completely. Accordingly, Renie would no longer age or die, and would live forever by Kahn’s side in this form.

He could have fed it to her right after she gave birth, but Kahn had waited only for this moment when she would become his queen. A satisfied smile lingered on his lips as he finally achieved that desire.

Biron, who had approached unnoticed, held a large box. Inside it was a crown with a body the color of obsidian and densely studded with rubies. He lifted it and placed it on Renie’s head.

“You probably don’t know how much I have longed for this moment.”

Kahn took her hand and kissed the back of it.

It was a tone that was too tender for the culprit who had broken and destroyed everything of hers without the slightest bit of guilt until now. In the past, she would have shown her disgust in some way, but the current Renie was different. She simply remained in Kahn’s arms, accepting whatever he fed her or placed on her.

Truly like a doll whose soul had vanished.

“Now we will be together forever.”

My love.

His voice, filled with elation, permeated clearly and distinctly into the veil covering her. Renie remained still. However, the veil she wore was silently getting wet.

The queen’s crown, which had only been displayed grandly until now, had finally found its owner. Accordingly, the evil energy within the banquet hall raged even more wildly. Kahn also couldn’t stop laughing. Amidst that atmosphere, she alone shed silent tears, completely isolated.

Endlessly, ceaselessly, like the torrential rain that poured down in the chapel.