Chapter 14
After soaking in the warm hot spring water, my whole body relaxed and drowsiness washed over me. My eyelids had already felt heavy when I returned to my room, but after drinking a cup of warm tea, I could barely keep my eyes open. I didn’t resist the sleepiness and headed to the bedroom.
I was only planning to take a short nap, but Harry had gotten to the bed before me. By now, I was used to Harry occupying the bed in his dog form. The problem was that today, he was lying there in his human form instead of as a dog.
“What are you doing?”
“Can’t you tell? I’m lying on the bed.”
“I’m not asking because I don’t know that. I’m asking why you’re lying on the bed. I’m sleepy. I’m going to sleep, so get out.”
I waved my hand at him lazily, like I was shooing away an annoying mosquito. For some reason, seeing my clearly irritated gesture made Harry’s eyes sparkle.
“No. I’m not moving.”
“What did you say? I’m too sleepy to joke around. Move. Now.”
“I’ve never been in the mood to joke because I wanted to see blood either. But you ignored that every time, didn’t you? You need to experience it too. How hard it is to suppress basic desires! Then you’ll understand why I want to start a war. There’s a limit to how much you can endure just by eating food.”
Harry lifted his chin proudly as he looked at me, acting as if he had caught me in something big. Seeing that, my eyes narrowed.
‘Hmm. He did think this through, in his own way.’
It’s not like you can only sleep in a bed. I shrugged and curled myself up on the sofa. It was a single-seat sofa, so lying down fully wasn’t possible, but it was good enough to lean against and sleep. It was soft and wrapped around my body comfortably. Of course, it couldn’t compare to a bed, but it seemed enough to fall asleep somehow. Besides, I was so sleepy that I could probably fall asleep anywhere as long as I rested my head.
“Uh… this isn’t how it’s supposed to go… Contractor? I’m really at my limit now! I mean it!”
“Be quiet. I’m going to sleep.”
“What if I cause some other trouble like this? Huh? I’m really at my limit now… hey, Contractor?”
I didn’t even have the energy to respond anymore as sleep overtook me. With Harry’s flustered voice fading into the background, I slowly drifted into my dreams.
At first, I was myself from before becoming Ivrea. The setting was a completely different modern city. But the dream didn’t last long. The modern city full of tall buildings slowly warped. The skyscrapers disappeared, replaced by a fictional world filled with low houses. Somehow, I was dropped there, crushed under a massive rock.
‘Ah, this is suffocating. Why this kind of dream? Is it because I slept all twisted up on the sofa?’
There was no way I could get proper rest like this. Wanting a better sleep, I groaned and tried to push the rock away in my dream. But no matter how hard I pushed, it didn’t budge. After being crushed under the weight for a long time, it felt like I couldn’t even breathe.
It was clearly just a dream, but the sense of weight was so real that it felt like my breathing was actually being restricted.
‘What kind of nightmare is this vivid?’
I opened my eyes in irritation. I had fallen asleep while it was bright outside, but now the surroundings were completely dark. I hadn’t slept deeply because of the nightmare, but it seemed I had been asleep longer than expected.
‘This time, I’ll sleep properly in the bed.’
I tried to get up, but once again, my body wouldn’t move, as if something heavy was pressing me down.
‘Don’t tell me I’m still dreaming? No. I definitely woke up.’
I blinked a few times, trying to understand the situation. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, a clear image came into view. Someone’s face was right in front of me.
“Ah!”
I screamed, but when I looked properly, it was Harry’s face. The moment I recognized him, my heart, which had dropped to my feet, finally calmed down.
“Harry. What are you doing?”
Harry was straddling my legs. He had been whining about starting a war before I fell asleep. It seemed he had chosen this way to interrupt my rest.
“No matter how much you nag, it’s useless. I told you I’m not starting a war!”
I expected an immediate rebuttal, but despite my firm declaration, Harry didn’t react at all. He just stared down at me with an unfamiliar blank expression. His eyes looked lifeless.
“Harry?”
When I called him in confusion, he didn’t answer. Instead, he reached out and grabbed my shoulder tightly. He held me so hard that my face twisted in pain.
‘Is he sulking because I ignored him and fell asleep?’
It was annoying, but calming down a sulking elder was also my responsibility.
‘I summoned him myself, no one forced me. So I have to take care of him.’
“Alright. I’ll listen to you, so first let go of this—”
Before I could finish my sentence, Harry lowered his head and bit down on the back of my neck. That wasn’t all—he even stuck out his tongue and licked my skin.
‘My neck isn’t candy. Why is he biting and sucking like this?’
It was behavior that would never come from the Harry I knew. I didn’t know the reason, but he clearly wasn’t in his right mind.
“Hey, sir? Grandpa Harry? Hey, Harry!”
I called him several times to check, but there was still no response.
‘He’s not in a state where reasoning will work. Looks like I’ll have to use force.’
“I definitely called you. You’re the one who didn’t answer.”
So don’t blame me. I took a deep breath, gathered my strength, and swung my fist with all my might at the back of Harry’s head. The impact was solid. A critical hit.
“Ugh!”
With a low groan, Harry fell off me. Little by little, life returned to his eyes as he staggered.
“Huh… why do I hurt? The back of my head feels all tingly.”
Harry rubbed the back of his head, blinking in confusion.
“Did you hit me?”
“Yes. I hit you.”
“What? Why would you hit a harmless demon!”
“Harmless? You don’t remember? You were biting my neck.”
“I did? Your neck? No way.”
Harry waved his hand as if it were impossible.
‘Did he cause trouble and then pretend not to know?’
I narrowed my eyes and studied his face. But he looked genuinely innocent, blinking blankly. From what I had seen so far, Harry was bad at lying. He lived saying whatever he wanted without consequences, so he clearly wasn’t used to lying.
‘So he really doesn’t remember.’
“Look.”
Instead of explaining further, I showed him the bite mark on my neck. It was dark, but with a demon’s eyes, he should be able to see clearly.
“…Why are my teeth marks there?”
“That’s what I want to know. Why did you suddenly bite someone’s neck?”
“Well, that’s because…”
Harry hesitated, glancing at me like a guilty person. Then he straightened his shoulders, as if deciding there was no reason to lower himself this much.
“I told you! I said I was at my limit, and that I wouldn’t be responsible no matter what happened!”
“I didn’t know ‘what happened’ included chewing me up. If you’d told me sooner, I would’ve seriously thought about it.”
“I was going to tell you! But you fell asleep without listening.”
“So now you’re saying you did nothing wrong?”
“That’s—”
“That’s?”
“Of course not, but…”
Harry, who had been arguing back, slumped his shoulders. He looked completely dejected.
“I’m not usually a demon with no self-control like this! But this is the first time I’ve gone this long without seeing blood.”
“So that means if you don’t see blood, you might accidentally eat me?”
Ending my life by being eaten by a blood-starved cannibal demon. I didn’t need a grand death, but I’d rather not go out that pathetically. Still, I couldn’t just tell him to kill people either.
‘Isn’t there some good solution?’
It was time to think seriously.
“Harry. You’re a really troublesome matchstick.”
“But the best lighter.”
“Sure. But you’re high maintenance. And expensive to keep!”
I grabbed my head and let out a long sigh.
I searched the library inside the mansion and even read books about demons, but the answer didn’t come easily. The cases described were completely different from mine, so there was nothing useful to reference.
Everyone who summoned demons did it to gain power for revenge or to rule the world. Because of that, the demons’ basic desires and their summoners’ goals aligned perfectly.
‘Why does everyone summon demons for such grand reasons?’
I grumbled and closed the book. It was titled A Very Modest Demon Summoning, so I had high hopes, but it was another disappointment.
[Summoning a demon for grand reasons is normal. You’re the strange one for summoning one just to light a fireplace.]
[Is that really all you have to say to someone desperately trying to find a solution for you, Harry?]
[Hmph. As if it’s for me. You’re just doing it because you don’t want to get eaten. Do you really hate the idea of being eaten by me that much?]
‘Is there anyone who would like that?’
My mouth fell open at the ridiculous comment.
[Of course I hate it. Who would like being eaten?]
[There are people who do!]
[Stop lying. It hurt so much when you bit my neck. There’s no way anyone would like that.]
I thought it was obvious, but Harry’s expression turned subtle. He clicked his tongue as if looking at someone extremely pathetic.
[What kind of misunderstanding are you having? Being eaten doesn’t mean that.]
Isn’t that exactly what “eaten” means? What other meaning could there be?
[Then what does it mean? Is there another way to eat? Oh. You don’t mean eating flesh, you mean sucking blood? Since that’s what you want.]
A sudden realization cleared my previously foggy mind.
[I thought you meant human flesh because you talked about bread and meat. Should I give you my blood instead? If it’s just a little blood, I think I could manage that.]
When I blinked and asked, Harry clamped his mouth shut.
[…You really are a half-baked crumb.]
His face said he had a lot to say but was holding it in.
[What am I even supposed to say when faced with such an undercooked crumb?]
[Then who was it that bit and sucked on that undercooked neck? What was so tasty about my completely unseasoned neck? You could’ve woken me up and asked for a properly baked cake!]
[That was because I had no rationality! It was withdrawal symptoms, basically!]
Harry shouted angrily, but his voice was drowned out by the loud cheers of the knights outside.
‘Is that the Frost Knights? Is Lionel there too?’
Watching Lionel train was pretty entertaining.
‘Getting scolded while doing all kinds of physical comedy is fun to watch.’
I glanced out the window and saw a group of knights running in formation. But they weren’t the Frost Knights—they were the Royal Knights. You could tell instantly from their uniforms.
The knights from the capital trained lightly in the morning, then headed to the Black Forest with the Frost Knights once the sun was high. I had learned that indirectly from the noisy training sounds and the maids’ chatter about handsome knights.
Because the knights roamed the mansion like it was their own home, my range of movement shrank even more. I didn’t see Redan or El among them, but judging from my experience at the hot springs, I might run into them at the worst possible moment.
‘So the best option is to minimize contact. I don’t want to deal with unnecessary trouble.’
It had already been a week. I liked staying in my room and killing time, but choosing to do so and being forced to do so felt completely different. Feeling stifled, I asked Emma when the subjugation would end, and she said it would take at least a month. That meant I’d be stuck in my room for three more weeks.
—That long?
—Yes. Since they wait for the wyvern to weaken before attacking, it takes time.
—The wyvern weakens?
—Wyverns are weak to sunlight. Around noon, when the sun is strongest, their movements slow down, making them easier to subdue than at other times. To reduce casualties, they have no choice but to attack then.
If there were no other options, they’d charge in recklessly, but since they knew when the wyvern weakened, there was no need to take unnecessary risks. As a result, the subjugation progressed slowly.
‘Should I spread a rumor that wyvern is good for stamina?’
If that rumor spread, people would risk their lives to obtain wyvern meat and eggs. Not just that—
‘They’d boil the bones for soup and stick straws into their necks to suck their blood.’
The wyvern species would quickly die out. Eventually, instead of subjugation, it might be declared endangered and placed under protection.
‘…Wait, do they even have protected animals here?’
My pointless thoughts continued until they suddenly stopped. One idea flashed through my mind.
[Harry.]
[What.]
[You said your desire is satisfied by seeing blood, right?]
[It’s not just seeing blood. Showing me your blood won’t help. Fighting, killing, and seeing blood—that’s what’s fun. The process matters.]
[Then it doesn’t have to be human blood, right? As long as you can fight, kill, and see blood, it shouldn’t matter whose blood it is.]
[If it’s an opponent that’s enjoyable to kill, then yeah. Doesn’t have to be human. But those aren’t common. Killing bugs is also slaughter and involves blood, but it’s not fun at all.]
Harry shrugged and complained, but I was confident. An opponent far stronger than humans, one that required multiple people working together to subdue. An opponent so strong they had to wait for it to weaken.
I grinned and placed my hand on Harry’s shoulder.
[Harry, let’s have a refreshing war.]
