TSMFTDG 32

TSMFTDG

Posted by george, Released on November 4, 2025

Chapter 32

❖ ❖ ❖

Before leaving the castle to meet Shayla, the system gave me a new quest.

SYSTEM: Main Quest – Take human lives. (0/6)

For an ordinary human like me, who was merely borrowing the Demon King’s body, the quest’s objective was shocking. Taking human lives isn’t something you can approach casually.

“I need an explanation for why the quest is like this.”

SYSTEM: There is a cost to saving lives.

“So, in other words, to save the children, I have to take human lives?”

SYSTEM: That is correct.

The system was crueler than I expected. I had assumed I could complete any quest easily, but this one completely defied my expectations.

“I wonder what Rian would think of me…”

We had gotten so close. If I killed people, wouldn’t it push him further away?

SYSTEM: Will you give up?

“That’s the first time I’ve heard of that. Did I even have the option to give up?”

SYSTEM: As a human, it’s understandable that you would find the quest’s content unpleasant.

“Thanks for the concern. Really.”

But if I failed the quest, the children would never wake up.

The system pretended to be considerate, but in reality, I never truly had a choice.

“So, it doesn’t matter who I kill, right?”

To me, the lives of the children who trust and follow me are far more important than six unknown humans.

After that, I visited Arden Harbor to meet Shayla and stayed on Cordelia Island, showing myself openly.

I told Rian that changing my hair color would make most people fail to recognize me. That was partly true and partly false.

Ordinary humans wouldn’t notice, but the priests were a different matter. Thanks to their holy powers, they could easily sense the presence of demons.

“I’m here. Come find me, Esia.”

I deliberately provoked her, telling her to bring the humans I would kill as offerings.

And she accepted my provocation, sending them without hesitation as the sacrifice for this quest.

But to kill them, I first had to separate Rian from me. He would never want me to kill humans.

So I asked for help from someone who could restrain him.

“I need a favor.”

“……?”

“Bind Rian’s feet. Just until this is all over.”

“What are you saying? Are you crazy?”

Shayla frowned deeply at my request and added that she refused.

“I’m going to do something Rian would hate. He’ll probably keep trying to stop me.”

“So, I need you to keep him out of the way temporarily?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think this is some kind of temporary shelter? You brought the humans, so handle them yourself.”

I never expected Shayla to agree so easily. She liked humans, but only to observe them, not deal with them directly.

To persuade her, I needed a reasonable explanation, something that would move her heart.

“I have to save the children in the castle.”

“……Children?”

“You know. You saw what humans brought me as gifts.”

Shayla’s expression stiffened noticeably. Even though she was underwater, she wasn’t completely unaware of what happened above.

Humans had tried to enter Lehel’s castle with the intent to kill the young demons. Most demons were aware of this.

“…You intend to use human lives as a sacrifice?”

“Yes. That’s the only way to save them.”

She looked at me with suspicion. Even I wasn’t entirely sure if it was truly possible to awaken the sleeping demons using human lives as a cost.

…Honestly, even I would find it hard to believe. If it weren’t for the quest, I wouldn’t have had any other options.

“I know you like humans. But if those humans were to kill the ones you care about, would your feelings remain the same?”

My gaze shifted toward the small demons hiding near the pillar.

“Can you be sure you won’t regret it?”

“Well… I can’t be sure of that.”

People killing people—regret was inevitable at some point.

“But I’ll make the same choice anyway.”

I didn’t want to show her the empty annex when returning Lehel’s body. Plus, after living in the castle, I had developed some attachment.

“…I’ll try. It won’t be easy, but I’ll try.”

Perhaps moved by my words, Shayla reluctantly agreed. She added one final warning:

“Don’t let humans hurt you.”

❖ ❖ ❖

Rian, plunged into the sea, was helplessly dragged by the strong current. When the force finally released him deep underwater, he barely resurfaced.

“Tch… I can’t believe they actually sent me.”

Waiting for him was none other than the sea’s owner, Shayla.

She looked at Rian, dripping wet, and clicked her tongue in irritation. She regretted agreeing to Lehel’s request even now.

Rian sighed briefly as he looked at her.

“I was supposed to stop Lehel, and I just got dragged here without resistance.”

“You knew from the start? That Lehel intended to kill humans?”

“I probably said that to warn you.”

Shayla had no choice but to comply with Lehel’s request, though she still disliked the idea of him killing humans.

That’s why she had secretly given him some advice earlier—but now, that advice was meaningless.

“Send me back, please.”

“No. Lehel asked me to keep you here until everything’s done.”

“Hah…”

Rian let out a bitter laugh as he pushed back his wet hair.

‘It was all planned from the start.’

From the moment he left the castle until now, he realized he was merely part of Lehel’s plan. That thought didn’t sit well with him. But what really troubled him was something else.

He could not forget the last expression of hers he saw before falling into the sea.

She looked so fragile, as if the slightest touch would shatter her entirely.

Yet in her cold eyes, there was resolve. As if she had decided to bear everything alone.

“What could have pushed her so hard…?”

Shayla both liked and disliked the changed Lehel. She was glad the child she had known had grown so much, but she didn’t approve of him living while discarding his old mindset.

‘Humans are really strange creatures—so admirable yet so incomprehensible.’

Shaking her head slightly, Shayla asked Rian:

“So what are you going to do? Chat with me politely here?”

“Try to find a way back.”

“Swim your way?”

She laughed mockingly. Normally gentle, she often let this twisted side show when it involved Lehel.

“You also don’t want Lehel to kill humans, right?”

“That’s true. But he says there’s a reason. What can I do about it?”

“…A reason?”

Sighing, Shayla looked at Rian curiously.

“You don’t… know anything?”

He couldn’t possibly. Lehel hadn’t mentioned even a small detail to him.

When Rian’s expression hardened, Shayla realized her mistake and covered her mouth with her hand.

‘He seems to care about humans, yet he wasn’t told the reason?’

She looked around, pretending ignorance, but when his cold gaze fixed on her, she finally spoke.

“Lehel said the children he had were all on the verge of death. Well… basically in a near-dead state.”

“…….”

“And to save them, he said human lives had to be offered as a sacrifice.”

“Is that even possible?”

“I don’t really know either.”

Shayla had never been interested in experiments or research. Even when Lehel locked himself in his room, deeply engrossed in something, she paid it no mind.

“But if you stayed by his side for a few days, you’d know. He wouldn’t lie about something like this.”

Rian clenched his fists tightly, trying not to let his emotions show. He couldn’t understand why he was so angry.

‘Why didn’t he ever tell me this?’

But he quickly understood why Lehel hadn’t said anything to him.

‘Because I would have tried to stop him.’

Whatever the reason, taking another life was unacceptable.

Watching him desperately suppress his emotions, Shayla saw Lehel reflected in him.

‘They’re kind of alike, aren’t they?’

Lehel sometimes lost his temper, but for truly important matters, he often suppressed his emotions. Shayla found that pitiful and touching.

No matter how much he was now a Demon King who made all life tremble in fear, inside he was still a human with only a few decades of life.

“Lehel sending you here means he’s already made up his mind. Persuading or stopping him will probably be useless.”

“…I understand.”