Demons do not dream nightmares, but ever since I was born as Jeong Daon, I have always had them.
The content is always the same. Corpses lie everywhere, and on a devastated wasteland, I am filled with rage. I can’t remember why I was so angry. All I know is that someone’s crying voice lingered in my memory for a very long time.
Until, at last, my head was severed by the hero’s hand.
With Yu Hanul’s help, I made it out of the dungeon, stopped by the hospital as procedure required, then returned home at dawn and collapsed straight into bed. By the time I woke up, the morning sun had long since risen.
To be honest, in South Korea, where social media is so developed, I’d already expected that things could turn out far worse than anything I imagined. I figured there’d be plenty for people to tear into, and I hadn’t really expected my personal information to stay hidden, either.
A difficult family background, outstanding grades, striking looks, a victim of school violence. If those were the only elements that made me who I was, people would have stopped at sympathy. But footage of me using violence against someone existed, and that alone gave people all the excuse they needed to gossip.
On top of that, since I’d defeated a boss monster right in front of reporters, it wouldn’t take long for those two videos to spread nationwide, or rather, worldwide. After all, even the morning broadcast I’d turned on out of boredom was already talking about me.
A professor famous for child education studies was speaking on a general programming morning show.
“I’m just an ordinary person, so I don’t really understand the ‘genius’ Hunters talk about. But the kind of violence shown toward a fellow student, shall we call it that? Some people view it as so-called ‘catharsis’ and feel satisfied watching it, but this isn’t something we should gloss over so easily. An S-rank Hunter is someone classified as having power in our society, isn’t that right?”
“So, Professor, you’re saying that because she’s an S-rank Hunter, she should be held to higher moral standards than ordinary people?”
“Yes. And I hesitate to bring this up, but there are also concerns we can’t ignore regarding the family environment she grew up in…”
It seemed the video of me threatening another student in the auditorium was becoming quite a hot topic. Well, opinions like that were bound to exist. It didn’t really affect me. After all, the quest itself was already complete. At this point, whether some members of society voiced such opinions out of profit-seeking or prejudice, it wouldn’t change the abilities I’d already unlocked.
Still, one thought crossed my mind.
Selling your soul for money, huh…
Who knew what they were trying to sell to parents by saying things like that. I’d already expected as much, having long since lost even the slightest faith in human nature, but I hadn’t thought they’d sink that low. They take what they consider a “normal” family structure as the baseline and label me as abnormal, then use their three-inch tongues to carve Jeong Daon into pieces.
Tsk, tsk. If I ever return to being the Demon Lord, I’ll start by chopping off those tongues.
What real difference is there between hurting someone with a blade and hurting them with words? I was watching the broadcast with morbid curiosity, wondering just how far it would go, when—
Click. I heard the front door open, followed by the sound of someone collapsing into the house.
“Daaoooon…”
It was the voice of someone on the verge of death. The family member who’d boasted last night about coming home early and buying meat had finally returned.
I quietly turned off the TV, crouched down beside him, and poked his back a few times. The neat suit jacket he’d emptied his bank account to buy at an outlet after landing a job was crumpled mercilessly. He got a job just to make a living, but looking at him like this, I couldn’t tell if this really counted as living at all.
“Are you alive?” I asked.
“I’m dead… I think I’m dead… it’s so dark…”
“It’s morning. Do you get the day off today?”
“If they worked me this hard and still told me to come in today, they’d have no conscience…”
“Did you get any sleep?”
"No."
“Did you eat?”
"No..."
“Want to eat and then sleep?”
"No..."
And there was no response after that. It seemed he’d died—no, fallen asleep. I poked his cheek a few more times, decided he was completely out, and snapped my fingers.
Bwoooong! Mana twisted like chains and lifted his body into the air.
In the past, since I couldn’t use magic, I would’ve had to strain and groan while carrying him on my back. But now, there was no need for that. His body was gently laid onto the cheap sofa bed we used as both couch and bed.
I stared quietly at the face of my sleeping blood relative.
That’s my older brother, Jeong Dajeong, twenty-five years old. Because we lost our parents before he turned thirteen, he was exempted from military service. He recently got a job, but these days he’s been so busy that it’s hard to even see his face.
As a demon, my standards for beauty and ugliness are extremely strict, but even to my eyes, his fairly decent-looking face had been worn down by exhaustion.
But if he was this busy… did he not even see the news?
My story must have been running nonstop on the news all day yesterday. With his personality, if he had even seen my name appear, he would’ve brought it up immediately, whether he’d stayed up all night or not.
To be honest, I’d been expecting him to burst in shouting the moment he got home… but instead, he just collapsed right in the entryway. Somehow, that left me feeling oddly deflated.
Honestly. You have no idea what I’ve been through because of you.
If it weren’t for him, I would’ve wiped out this money-obsessed Earth without hesitation, Jeong Daon or not.
This blood relative of mine, only six years older than me, took me with him when he left the orphanage. He worked multiple part-time jobs a day, getting nosebleeds from overwork, yet never once gave up on taking care of me. He’d always been like that. To Jeong Dajeong, his younger sister wasn’t a burden, but something closer to a lifeline he clung to. In truth, he could’ve lived a far easier life if he’d abandoned me.
The reason I can’t abandon “Jeong Daon” is nothing more than that. Such a trivial, insignificant emotion is the weight that keeps me from leaving humanity behind.
After giving my brother a light pat on the back, I checked my phone.
— Did you get some rest?
— Are you leaving me on read? lol ㅠㅠ
Maybe because I hadn’t replied for a while, another message had come in. The sender was Yu Hanul.
In fact, I’d already checked the messages as soon as I woke up. We’d exchanged numbers yesterday, after exiting the dungeon and before being transferred to the hospital.
Replying is a hassle.
I had a feeling that getting deeply involved with Yu Hanul would only bring trouble. From a demon’s perspective, heroes are the kind of humans it’s best to keep as far away as possible. I wanted to ignore him, but thanks to nineteen years of manners drilled into me by my brother, I replied slowly.
Yeah. —
— Leaving me on read for hours and then replying with one word… are you really that tired?^^;;
Yeah. —
— You must be exhausted… should I contact you later?
Usually, when someone keeps replying with one-word answers, the other person assumes there’s no interest or at least gets offended enough to ignore them in return. So… did he actually have business with me?
Suppressing my unease, I sent another message.
No. What is it? —
— The Hunter Management Agency said they’d be contacting you today. I was wondering if there’s a time that’s convenient for you. If you tell me, I’ll let them know to call you then.
Surprisingly, it was a legitimate reason. Though I still didn’t understand why someone like Yu Hanul needed to relay something this minor.
I appreciate it, but do you really need to worry about something like that? Aren’t you busy? —
There was a brief pause before the next reply came. Looking back later, I figured it might’ve been because I referred to him rather bluntly as “your side.” Still, I couldn’t think of a better form of address, so I didn’t bother correcting it. Honestly, if he decided I was rude and cut off contact, that would’ve been a good outcome for me.
— Until the year’s over, you’re still a minor. Of course someone should be looking out for you.
Yet again, an unexpectedly kind reply arrived. Or perhaps one that made his intentions feel a little suspicious.
Looking out for me because I’m still a minor?
So once I’m an adult, you won’t bother anymore?
That’s what I would’ve done. But maybe heroes really are different. In any case, there wasn’t much time left until the end of the year.
I left a brief message asking them to contact me in the late afternoon, turned off my phone, and closed my eyes.
It was a cheap semi-basement studio, but with no one moving around, a deep quiet settled in. Then, faintly, I heard the sound of wind stirred by mana. Wiiiing. It was the sign that the magic formations I’d laid throughout the room were activating.
The moment I exited the dungeon, I’d begun tracking the whereabouts of the man who had artificially caused the Dungeon Break. What I heard, however, was unexpected.
“Oh, that supermarket where the dungeon entrance appeared? You should stay away from it for a while. We don’t know what happened, but by the time we arrived, someone had died in a really horrific way. Like something exploded inside… ugh, everything was completely ruined.”
“Hey, why would you say that to a student?!”
“What’s the problem? She’s a Hunter now anyway.”
The one who died was probably the man who caused the Dungeon Break.
I assumed that artificially triggering a Dungeon Break would come with a cost.
But I never imagined he’d tear his own life apart like that. He likely wasn’t the mastermind. There had to be someone backing him, someone who ordered it. A backer capable of driving a man to his death just to kill me, and possessing the technical ability to artificially cause a Dungeon Break.
So what exactly was this unknown enemy’s objective?
The most reasonable assumption was that someone wasn’t pleased with the emergence of a new S-rank Hunter. An S-rank Hunter was essentially a national weapon, so international competition was fierce. Or perhaps rivalries were brewing even among domestic Hunters. Still, that didn’t explain how they had neutralized my unique magic.
Then again, if I assumed that someone from my previous world knew who I was, existed in this world, and was targeting me because of it…
Considering that Yu Hanul exists here, it wasn’t entirely impossible, but how many times could such coincidences really occur?
…My head hurts.
For now, I’ll just watch how things play out.
I closed my eyes.
One of my arms was still throbbing. I’d forcibly covered the wound so Jeong Dajeong wouldn’t panic if he saw it, but the body isn’t all that different from the mind. Once something starts hurting, it isn’t easy to forget about it.
When my brother woke up, we’d go eat together, so until then, I planned to enjoy some quiet rest.
— Then, Daon, see you tomorrow!
Thanks to that, I didn’t check the message that made my head ache just from looking at it until much later. It was fortunate; I could use that as an excuse to put off replying.