A woman with black eyes, attractive but somehow exuding an ominous aura, lay on a bed in a cabin painted entirely black. The “Emperor’s Nightmare,” who had resurfaced due to a personality conflict with “Cecil,” desperately tried to cool her face, now as red as a ripe apple.
Thump! Thump!
As she had barely made it into the cabin earlier, the fearsome Heretic Inquisitor now stood outside, knocking on the locked door.
“The game isn’t over. I’ll sleep beside you as you wish, so open the door.”
“W-We’re done for tonight. The rest can wait until tomorrow!”
Nightmare, feeling fear at Julius’ sudden shift in momentum, tried desperately to answer despite her mouth struggling to form words.
“……”
Poof…
Had he given up?
Soon, the sound of the Heretic Inquisitor’s footsteps echoed from beyond the door. It seemed he had no intention of pushing further tonight.
“… Wow, you’re acting so outrageously all of a sudden.”
He had seemed cute in the carriage earlier, but what could have triggered such behavior just now?
As the cramps in her weakened legs subsided, Nightmare sifted through her memories, searching for the reason behind Julius’ sudden change.
“Julius! Hehe, I won, right?”
“… Do it again.”
“Okay, do it again. I’ll win again anyway.”
During an archery bet on a date, Julius had refused to stop shooting until he had beaten his girlfriend.
“Julius, you won’t escape tonight.”
“Cecil? What have you done?”
Even when she teased him with, “Catch me!” every night, Julius had gritted his teeth and refused to yield. He was a peculiar man, one who cared little about his opponent’s identity, even if it was his own daughter.
Julius Tapnel, the Heretic Inquisitor.
As Nightmare delved into Cecil’s memories, unease began to creep over her.
“Well, I was only trying to seduce him a little, but it feels like I’ve stirred a beehive…”
She recalled how powerless she had felt as a perfect Cecil in Kente Village. It was the same body, the same memories, and the same scent from when Julius had longed for Cecil. Yet, there was an undeniable difference between then and now.
“… But he’s so sweet.”
Though she realized she couldn’t win, the k!ss from earlier lingered like honey—an affection even a devil who had lived in the void couldn’t resist.
While she didn’t acknowledge herself as Julius’ wife, that one k!ss, meant to reclaim her Cecil, was intoxicatingly sweet.
If her devilish form were also accepted as his wife, how much more affection could she receive?
Her eyes, which had been shifting back to blue, darkened again.
Cecil Lionelta’s dream, once shattered, had begun to piece itself back together. For true love, Nightmare mused, perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to linger in this form for a while longer.
“I am also Cecil Lionelta,” she said, her voice calm.
It wasn’t a lie.
Cecil’s dream remained incomplete, and Nightmare, with a serene smile, steadied herself. She rose from the bed and glanced at the shadow at her feet.
The soft moonlight illuminated the cabin, but the shadow danced like a wavering flame, emitting black threads.
“La-la-la…”
The devil plucked a strand of pure white thread and began to weave it delicately.
A small, endearing bird took shape in her hands.
She gazed at her creation momentarily before leaning forward and softly blowing on it.
“Prreep!”
A tiny black bird resembling a sparrow stirred and chirped.
A gentle smile played across her lips as she admired her work.
“What color should I use? White? Or gold?”
After a moment’s thought, Nightmare snapped her fingers.
Snap!
The black bird’s feathers turned white, and its eyes gleamed golden.
Satisfied, Nightmare smiled and issued a command to her familiar.
“Stay by Leira’s side and watch over her. Just in case.”
With a playful salute, the white bird flapped its wings, flying in circles around the room before vanishing without a trace.
As Nightmare completed her work, voices drifted in from outside the cabin.
“… Julius, you’ve grown into quite the romantic,”
“… I was only following God’s will.”
The Heretic Inquisitor’s voice carried a faint hint of laughter.
“Oh no, this isn’t it.”
What had started as a plan to disarm the inquisitor with fatal charm had backfired spectacularly.
The King of Devils slammed her fists into the bed in frustration before pulling a black blanket over her head.
That night, the devil slept and dreamt—a rare occurrence.
The dream was of herself and Julius, gazing lovingly at a baby nursing at her breast.
For a being that had lived in the void, it was an incomprehensible but oddly comforting vision.
***
The middle of the city had a gloomy feel as dark clouds blocked the sun.
The name of the young child with blond hair neatly tied into two pigtails, walking around the crowded streets of the slums, was Leira Tapnel.
The girl was alone in this dangerous alley full of criminals. She was in a huge crisis, but her childlike face remained calm.
At the moment, she was on an expedition to find treasure, secretly escaping from Krail.
The gray-haired heretic inquisitor, who noticed this belatedly, displayed an unbelievable show of divine power that stopped time in the entire city. A bluish energy floated in the air, and Leira gently touched it with her small finger.
She stared at the broken energy, like a sugar cookie, from afar and started walking again.
Krail’s power reached out every moment to grab the child, but the flame-like energy emanating from her golden hair, which resembled her father’s, burned away all the blue energy.
“Well, why are they all like that?”
A comical sight of bearded vagabonds holding knives and sta*bbing each other, frozen in the air.
Leira glanced at those sights with her big eyes, as if she wasn’t scared, and then went on her way again.
The voice of a gray-haired man could already be heard coming from a short distance away.
She hadn’t found any treasure yet, but it would be difficult if she got caught already.
Had they at least granted such a child’s wish?
A black energy broke through the air and flowed from above the child’s head along with a strange energy.
“Eh?”
The child, who somehow managed to notice this, looked up at her head and made eye contact with the white sparrow that was sneaking out from there.
“Prreep… Prrreep?”
The sparrow, who had never expected to meet her right away, quickly flapped her wings and tried to run away but was shot down by the golden brilliance that came out of the child’s hand and fell into Leira’s arms.
The child looked excitedly at the incarnation of cuteness rolling its eyes in her arms.
Did she like its pure white fluffy feathers and golden eyes that resembled her father’s?
In the middle of the night, Leira smiled brightly as she carefully lifted the trophy she had obtained after all her hard work and exploration.
“Cute! Let’s live together from today, Birdy!”
If Julius had seen it, he would have been moved to tears as he remembered her mother.
The sight of the little girl, the white sparrow, and the way she tried to educate the cheeky little bird flying behind her.
It was indeed the story of a dark night where many were happy…except Krail and the sparrow.
No, it was a fun exploration story that only Leira was happy about.
Goblin: Want to read more? You can become a My Wife is the Devil ($5 per month) member at Patreon for only $5 per month. Member of this tier will get Five or More Advance Chapters (parts) immediately, and will stay 5 or more chapter parts ahead of the regular release for the month! You can become a KR WN Bundle ($10 per month) member and have access to all the KR webnovel advance chapters on goblinslate. You can support me by sponsoring chapters at BuymeaCoffee or Patreon Shop.
Check out my other projects: Rehabilitating the Villainess, Pushover Extra Trains the Villainesses, I Picked Up an Amnesiac Witch, Transmigrated as the Butler of a Defeated Heroine, My Summons Are Special