The Devil Princess Vol. 1, page 7
Malt could not be so optimistic; however, he was relieved enough to consider treating the hardworking members of his clergy to drinks and roasted chicken from the nearby food stalls. Nevertheless, that would have to wait until after the day’s work was finished. Such were his thoughts as Malt conducted the blessings. That was when one last high and noble lady carrying her baby in her arms walked in.
She was the daughter of a viscount he was acquainted with, and Malt had conducted the woman’s blessing when she had just been born. Malt had no wife or children of his own and considered Liasteia to be like his own daughter. Due to recent circumstances, she had been unable to go out in public, but now she had borne a child with the man she loved. Liasteia had always been beautiful, but motherhood had served to make her dazzlingly radiant.
He regretted that he could not greet her without ceremony. Nevertheless, Malt already considered Liasteia’s daughter like his own grandchild. Her babe had beautiful golden hair and eyes. She was so pretty, just like an angel. Malt couldn’t help but smile.
Hmm? For some reason, little Yulucia seemed scared.
He attributed her fear to being faced with an adult who she was meeting for the first time and was sprinkling water on her head. However, she didn’t burst into tears. He was impressed, thinking it a sign that this little girl was truly Liasteia’s daughter.
Even so, the way she was scared seemed a bit unusual. Maybe she was feeling something that the other, regular babies didn’t? The second that thought popped into his mind, an evil creature emerged from one of the other babies a pastor was blessing.
“He really did go into hiding inside of a baby!”
Due to his position, Malt hadn’t been able to participate personally in taking care of that demon-summoning cult, and it was because of that and his exhaustion that he believed he had finally found the demon they sought.
The report had said that the demon looked like a golden cat, but demons could change their appearances based on the body they possessed. He must have changed himself in order to turn into something more humanoid. Perhaps that was why the creature looked more like an evil spirit than a demon, or it was just as likely an effect of having his summoning interrupted and his power considerably weakened.
Nevertheless, the demon was strong enough that the entire force of the clergy hadn’t been able to defeat him. He had no trump card up his sleeve either, so he must have realized that he was going to lose. He began looking for another pure soul to possess anew and headed straight for Liasteia and her entourage, who had been left behind in the evacuation.
As a noble, Liasteia could wield powerful magic, but fighting was against her nature. Malt feared the worst. However, the second the demon laid eyes on Yulucia, he suddenly became frightened. Malt and the clergy then seized the opportunity to vanquish the demon once and for all.
Malt thought that perhaps, as she was such a pure soul, Yulucia had sensed the demon’s presence and felt fear out of instinct. Conversely, the demon had also been scared of Yulucia because of that same purity of her soul. These thoughts brought back memories of the legend he had heard in his youth from the man who had been archbishop at the time: Evil creatures like demons tremble in fear before the pure soul of the Saint.
I see… It all makes sense now! Malt immediately understood then that this baby—Yulucia—was a gift from the gods to their holy kingdom in the wake of the dark shadow cast over it. She was a Saint.
Their holy kingdom had long passed down legends of Heroes and Saints. Even after they had become a religious country, the first daughter of the very first king was said to have received a divine mandate from the Goddess of the Land and worked together with a Hero to purge a great evil.
The princess married the Hero and she became known as the True Saint. She went on to found the Church of Kostor, who worshiped the Goddess of the Land as the Goddess of Good Harvests, which then became the country’s official religion.
Given this history, Saints were special to not only the Church, but the kingdom as well. Moreso than any of the royal family and the pontiff of the Church of Kostor…
It was also possible that if the purpose of the Saint was not to purge the kingdom of evil, but to oppose an even greater evil, then perhaps a demon had sensed a Saint had been born and used the demon-summoning ritual in order to manifest in the kingdom to harm her.
Malt was sure of it now. The fact that a powerful demon had appeared at the same time as Yulucia’s birth and then appeared again here at her blessing ceremony was proof. Malt stroked the child’s head in order to get one last chance to touch the Saint and Yulucia smiled up at him like an angel.
Seeing that smile, Malt was fully convinced that Yulucia must indeed be a Saint, a blessing from the gods. He found it reasonable then that he sensed such strong magic coming from her: It was because she was a Saint.
Numerous trials likely awaited her in her future as a Saint. Malt felt as if a powerful goddess had just told him that the reason he had become archbishop in this age and time was in order to support her in her journey.
“O great Goddess above. Thank you for allowing me to meet her.”
Malt returned to his room and began to write letters to the king and pontiff to let them know that he had discovered a Saint.
***
Vio, one of the manor’s three maids, had graduated from the Academy of the Magical Arts and worked as Liasteia’s personal maid since she was fifteen years old. Despite being a commoner, Vio was as educated as any noble and was a rare beauty. She had received offers to work at the academy or even as a noble’s mistress and all other kinds of solicitations, but ultimately, she’d picked the path of becoming Liasteia’s lady-in-waiting.
She felt she owed a great debt to Liasteia, whom she called “Big Sister.”
As a commoner going to the Academy of the Magical Arts, which nobility attended, Vio became the target of their envy for her good looks and smarts, putting her ill at ease. However, the academy had a custom in which the older students acted as mentors for their juniors. Hers was Liasteia, who was five years older than her. Despite her noble ranking, she fully took on the role of older sister and adored Vio like a younger sister.
Not only that, but because of Vio’s talent for holy magic, some of the religions tried to coerce her into becoming a priestess. When she refused, they began harassing her family’s store and Liasteia had stepped in to help, asking the archbishop of the Church of Kostor for their protection.
Just when Vio graduated, she heard word that Liasteia was with child, and promptly asked her mentor if she could serve her. Liasteia and everyone else in the manor maintained that Yulucia’s good health was thanks to Vio’s healing magic, but Vio doubted that anything she had cast had done much at all.
Perhaps the gods truly do exist. Because of what some of the churches and temples had done to her family, Vio had stopped believing in the gods. However, she now considered Liasteia’s daughter a blessing from the gods who favored them.
Liasteia’s baby, Yulucia, was anything but ordinary.
She hardly ever cried. Not even at night. It was surprising how little she fussed. Eventually, Vio began to feel there was something strangely unsettling about her.
The child’s appearance had clinched it. A few days after she was born, she had become remarkably beautiful. Liasteia and her husband were both quite attractive people in their own right, so it was only natural that their baby was adorable, but Yulucia greatly surpassed them both in that category.
Fer and Min, who were two years younger than Vio and had been hired after her, doted on the girl so much that it almost bordered on obsession. However, it was the fact that Yulucia looked just like an angel—like the ones in the fairy tales—and Yulucia’s powerful gaze, which conveyed her desires, that drew Vio’s interest.
Ever since that day, Vio began to observe Lady Yulucia.
One day, Yulucia appeared to be trying to stand, so she was holding onto the bed frame for support. She couldn’t get up, though, so she tried to kick off it to stand instead. That was when she bonked her head hard into the bed’s railing and lost consciousness. Vio hurriedly used healing magic on her.
Another day, she heard some kind of noise and went to check on Yulucia in her room. The girl was humming some nonsensical tune when she opened her mouth wide and this bug flew right inside, causing Yulucia to choke. The maids all worked together to get her to throw it up.
On a different day, Vio had given her one of the baby cookies that Min had worked so hard to make, especially since Yulucia had such a small appetite. To her surprise, Yulucia liked the cookie enough to stuff her cheeks with it. However, because she had no teeth yet, she had no way of chewing, and with her cheeks puffed up like a squirrel’s, Yulucia looked at a loss for what to do.
And then one day, Yulucia was crawling along on the rug when she left Vio’s sight for just a moment—and just completely disappeared. Everyone in the manor searched for her, only to find that she had upended the trash can in the living room and hidden herself in it.
Having witnessed all of this, Vio began to believe that Yulucia was a fortunate child beloved by the gods, a heavenly maiden whose eyes shone with such intelligence. She was a beautiful girl, as lovely as an angel. And yet…
“She is a very unfortunate girl.”
Despite all of her gifts from the gods, Yulucia was to be pitied.
Upon coming to that conclusion, all of Vio’s feelings of unease when it came to Yulucia vanished. Because of the disparity between her looks and her actions, the manor had been filled with more light and laughter ever since Yulucia was born.
“I think that our lady may truly be an angel.”
“Why do you say that, Vio?” Liasteia asked curiously as her maid happily brushed her hair.
Liasteia had not led the happiest life, so to her, Yulucia really was an angel who had come down from heaven to bring her joy.
“I hope you’ll continue to take such good care of Yulucia, Vio.”
“You can count on me, my lady. Every single one of us loves Lady Yul.”
Picturing Yulucia in their minds, the two of them smiled at one another.
And that was the birth of this manor’s little “princess.”
Yulucia, who preferred the little snacks that the maids poured their hearts into making over the delicious food that the chefs made, would surely grow up to be a wonderful lady who understood the hearts of the common people.
However, Yulucia’s beauty itself was a danger to her. Yulucia had no idea why they were so overprotective of her that there was always someone by her side, why they always carried her whenever they went somewhere, and why they wouldn’t even use a baby stroller with her.
“Hee hee.” Recalling this, Vio chuckled to herself. Figuring that they should be home soon from Yulucia’s one-year-old blessing, she got to work preparing tea with her charges on her mind.
Episode 3:
I Am Two Years Old Now
“HOW AWFUL,” I SAID IN MY CUTE, CHILDISH voice.
There was no one else in this room. It seemed big to me, but it was probably on the smaller side compared to the other rooms in the mansion.
An artist had painted flowers all over the light-pink walls. My new smallish bed had a canopy complete with swaying, flower-patterned lace curtains. There was a small dresser for playing make-believe with and a small stool.
From an adult’s point of view, it probably looked like there was no one in the room. However, if they looked down, they would notice someone.
Even though such large panes of glass must be very valuable in this world, this room was furnished with a full-length mirror that must have cost an unimaginable sum. And before this mirror stood a small, golden-haired toddler.
Yes, that toddler was me—Yulucia.
I had just turned two years old and I was stunned when I saw my whole self for the very first time.
“How could this be?”
My mom—I mean, my mother—was very beautiful.
Her bouncy blonde hair was soft and smelled nice. I was so happy whenever she carried me in her arms and I would always bury my face in her hair.
After my blessing at the church, I met my father for the very first time. I figured he must be very busy with work. He had come to check up on us because he had heard about the evil spirit at the church and he apologized to Mother for not being able to come home more often.
My father was a very wonderful person. He looked to be in his mid-twenties with reddish-blonde hair and was quite handsome and charming.
Seeing the two of them together, I imagined it was a wonderful moment for them; they were all over one another like sugar and honey mixed together.
I was the daughter of such an attractive couple, so they must have had very high hopes for my beauty as I grew up.
Aiming to get someone as high as a prince would’ve been a bother, so I didn’t want to do that, but I figured that my looks should be good enough to easily woo an attractive middle-aged man who was the heir of a house of decent standing and who would dote on me. As I was only capable of such lower-middle-class ways of thinking, I underestimated what my future would be like, assuming I would want for nothing.
At the very least, I wanted my mother’s affections, and seeing my reflection in the glass window at night, I figured that since I was such a cute baby, I would be able to get by.
At least, that’s what I had thought.
“This is impossible.”
Now, don’t get the wrong idea. I didn’t dislike my appearance; I believed I was very beautiful in a way. But…I would be happier if I were beautiful several years from now instead. Like, coming into my beauty at like ten or so. From now to then, I would have preferred to be told I was cute and adorable and have my parents be told what an angel I was.
I shook my head, swaying my straight golden hair that reached my shoulders.
What was with my hair? It looked more like gold thread than blonde hair, as if I had brought the golden color of my fur with me into this life.
My skin was a normal shade of white, but when I took a close look at myself, I didn’t see any pores. When you look closely at human skin, you can see texture in it, but mine didn’t have any. I seemed to have inherited only the best of my parents’ features. With my tiny pink lips and long, gold eyelashes, I was very lovely and pretty. Makeup was meant to be used for defining one’s features, but wasn’t it uncanny when someone’s face was able to naturally replicate the effect on its own?
Well, I was glad to have been born beautiful, even if I felt my looks were a bit overboard. However, that was not the end to the disquieting nature of my looks.
The problem was that I, uh…had no “flaws.”
I had no idea how to explain it.
But, like, humans were living creatures. And being alive meant that you suffered from flaws, whether it be your veins, your skeletal structure, or from the effects of your lifestyle, eating habits, even the way you walked. However, I had not a single flaw.
It would’ve been nice if that was all. I mean, it wasn’t good, but I could accept it for now. It meant that when the ladies in the neighborhood told my mother that I looked like a doll, they really meant it—they weren’t just being nice.
Unfortunately, I was not a doll. In fact, if there were a doll who looked like me, I would have hated it.
My eyes looked like my mother’s and father’s: gold with a tinge of pink.
But my gaze seemed way too intense?
I had such a gentle eye color, but there was this weird penetrative look in my eyes, like I was gazing at them with crazy intensity. And I didn’t think it was just me who thought so either. The maids should’ve been plenty used to how I looked by now, yet they averted their eyes whenever I stared at them!
This was impossible. It wasn’t possible for such an uncanny two-year-old to exist.
Did something happen to my body in the past year? Was it my hair? Maybe it really was because of my demon body’s coat? Maybe I would be better off going bald, but that would be counterproductive, because I just wanted to be cute like any normal person. His ire must have followed me all the way to this world because I wanted to live like a normal girl in this World of Light.
Maybe the people of this world wouldn’t notice my “flaw.”
However, I certainly did. I was able to see it because of what knowledge I possessed of the world from my dreams. And when the recognition hit me, it gave me chills.
I looked like one of those 3D CG model characters. If such a flawless virtual image made to match people’s ideals were to actually appear in real life, people would naturally be freaked out.
“This isn’t what a human is supposed to look like,” I muttered in a daze as I gazed at myself in the mirror in my room for the very first time at two years old.
I had decided my life’s goal: live like a human.
For normal people, this would mean living the honest life of a good person, and that certainly did apply to what I meant.
However, I meant it the same way a weak demon attempting to live among human society would: They may not be traditionally attractive, and in fact may not even look human at all, but at the very least, they would try to fool those around them by pretending to act like a regular human.
Thinking back on it now, my father had probably dropped the flowers he bought for my second birthday party because he was shaken when he saw me all dressed up…
Well, my father would just have to get used to my appearance, even though we rarely got to see each other due to his busy schedule. At the very least, my father and everyone else at the manor had gotten pretty used to me, so they stopped freezing up so much.
I decided that next time I saw my father, I would go snuggle up to him like a cat. I was actually a cat, after all, and it was what I was good at.
Now then, one day, a month after I turned two years old, my mother, Vio, and I—oh, and the coachman as well—went on an outing.
