“L-Lord… I feel much better.”
Tina was certain this wasn’t an illusion, nor Heaven.
She caught the familiar scent of Lafeier’s citrus cologne—a fragrance Heaven could never possess, one that intoxicated her, blurring the line between dream and reality.
“Good.” Lafeier took off his coat and gently draped it over Tina.
Only then did Tina realize how she had lost her composure.
“Lord!” She hastily clutched the coat, but feared soiling it. Hesitating, she felt Lafeier’s hand lightly touch the horn on her forehead.
“Just two days apart, and it’s already grown this much?”
Lafeier remarked.
That horn had only just budded the night before last; now it was at least five centimeters longer.
Unbelievable. The affairs of fantasy species truly defied common sense.
“Mmm… Lord…”
Tina panted.
“What’s wrong?”
“It tickles, but… it feels nice~”
“Is that so?” Lafeier paused. Perhaps stroking a half-demon’s horn felt like scratching a puppy’s neck. “Then that’s good.”
Lord Lafeier knew nothing about the physiology of the Blood Race—he was blissfully unaware~
“Let’s go. Outside.”
Taking Tina’s hand, they left the prison district and walked across the empty plaza bathed in the setting sun.
Lafeier’s coat was large enough to completely cover Tina’s small frame, like a blanket.
For some reason, Tina still trembled as she walked.
“Side effects from the potion?” Lafeier murmured.
He looked up at the sky.
The evening breeze carried moist air migrating from the Great Inner Lake; occasionally, a bird’s long cry left an ancient, enduring trace across the azure sky.
A layer of mist, dyed with the fiery glow of sunset, wreathed the horizon, cutting through the deep blue of Sky Lake and the romance of daylight that belonged solely to Silver Land.
The bells tolled.
The siren of nightfall, the warning of death and silence, rang unceasingly day and night behind the Empire’s fifty years of prosperity.
“By the way, Tina,” Lafeier stopped, crouching down to look at this half-demon girl who only reached his chest, “Do you feel anger? At the injustice you’ve suffered?”
Anger…
Hearing that, most of the burning desire within the girl subsided.
“So that feeling is called anger…”
Anger—a word whose very syllable carried roaring flames, blending hatred,委屈, and resentment into a violence that consumed everything.
Now, it was growing fiercer in Tina’s heart.
Having never known happiness, she had locked away her painful past in a prison of bliss called ignorance. When the gentle key turned the lock, overwhelming rage, together with an unceasing yearning for beauty, burst through that dust-covered, rusted heart.
People’s emotions aren’t simple lines; they are colorful specks refined in the crucible of self from their complex experiences.
Anger is red, sorrow is blue.
Love is pink, happiness a soft orange.
All these colors adorn the innocent heart, leaving colorful footprints on the white canvas.
Tina saw it.
That uncontrollable anger and bloodlust—it was her soul painted in the red of blood.
Seeing the pain hard to conceal on the girl’s face, Lafeier knew the first step had succeeded.
Hatred and anger, companions to happiness, had already taken root and grown within her. Having tasted the sweetness of candy, she could no longer ignore the bitter malice.
“Make those who wronged and hurt you for no reason pay the price.”
“Your anger isn’t just for your own hatred. Those who suffer the same fate as you also harbor fury.”
“Will you take up arms for yourself and for all those suffering injustice?”
Before this, Lafeier had thought only of granting favors so Tina would obey him without question.
But Estina’s report showed him another path.
Forces built on personal prestige would ultimately be limited by that individual.
When you are present, they listen. When you are gone, they turn on each other, vying for power.
Such is human nature.
But what if you added a touch of faith?
History had shown him that groups united by shared faith were invincible and unstoppable.
No force could inspire the heart more than a resonant faith.
Such faith often originated from identity, bloodline, ethnicity, and the like.
And its manifestation was the struggle forged by anger.
Just in time, that anger had descended upon this prison.
“Take up arms, Tina.”
“Endure the pain of this rage, and carve a path for your future, and the future of your kin.”
The dagger left its sheath. The smooth silver blade made Tina’s heart quiver.
But she quickly calmed, letting the terrifying silver light dance in her eyes.
“Lord, I…”
Without further words, the girl took the dagger. A white smoke with a burnt smell instantly rose from her palm.
“Gyah—!”
If she could not bear this pain that cut to the bone and pierced the heart, how could she, Tina, bear the mission this man had given her? How could she attain the sweetness and happiness she longed for!
Blood boiled, soul burned.
The agony of flesh and spirit intertwined, reaching the taboo inscribed in the marrow of the demon bloodline.
Black patterns spread from the base of her horn, crawling across her scarred face, carving marks of unease and despair into her fair skin.
“This is…” Lafeier’s eyes went wide, hardly believing it.
“Pulling the gacha… and hitting gold.”
The cursed seal禁制 of a pure-blood demon—now appearing on a half-demon—could only mean one thing: the Demon King.
Demon King Chris, who rose after the fall of the Imperial Capital, carving out vast lands in the eastern Empire and dividing the world with the Mixed-Blood Kingdom.
What he was most famous for was retaining his sanity while in a cursed seal state and being immune to sunlight and silver.
A mixed-blood capable of demonization was already rare, but cursed seal…
The main storyline hadn’t yet progressed to the Mixed-Blood Kingdom ruled by Demon King Chris, so no player had seen his true face.
Unexpected…
“That Demon King took the name Chris. My Demon King took the name Tina.”
“Maybe it’s the same person, but regardless…”
—Regardless, the half-demon girl named Tina had found a cause to bleed for.