Chapter 5
The demons grow up quickly, I get it, but don’t lump me in with that!
I’m human!
‘If you weren’t going to listen to the fairy elder at all, why did you go there and cause all that trouble?’
As I trembled and collapsed onto the floor, the demon lifted me up with magic, floating me in the air while looking completely baffled.
Honestly, I had no idea what the problem was either.
‘No.’
There were so many problems I didn’t even know where to start pointing them out.
The only fortunate thing was that whenever I collapsed, the demon used magic to catch me so I wouldn’t get hurt.
“Adyauu!”
I clenched my fists in protest, and the demon nodded like she completely understood.
“Right. You’re angry because you want to run but can’t. You’re growing too slowly.”
Ugh. That’s not it!
“Ah!”
I tried to hit my chest in frustration, but my arms wouldn’t move the way I wanted, so I gave up and flopped back.
Not that I could actually fall properly—I was floating in midair anyway.
I drifted around before settling into the demon’s arms.
Then I opened and closed my mouth like a fish.
“Again? You drank milk less than an hour ago.”
I’m hungry, what am I supposed to do?
‘Am I growing?’
I seemed to get hungry faster than before.
I opened my mouth again.
The demon, as if she had no choice, fed me milk.
After this happened a few times, she seemed to sense something was off.
“Is this normal?”
She tapped my opening-and-closing lips with her index finger, then fell into thought.
“I think… humans said something about this before.”
Muttering, she reached into empty space and pulled out a small notebook.
‘What kind of skill is that?’
It was so strange I kept looking back and forth between her arm disappearing and reappearing.
Unfortunately, she was too busy flipping through the notebook to respond to my curiosity.
‘It must be magic, I guess.’
Some kind of storage magic space for convenience, or maybe a portal to a library…
‘Ah. That sounds kind of cruel.’
Anyway, something like that.
After a moment, she seemed to find something and muttered to herself.
“Baby food. Rice? Can babies eat rice? How to make baby food?”
Ah. Is it time for baby food? Or rice?
Maybe neither she nor I actually knew anything about babies, which is why my growth was so delayed.
‘But do you even know how to make it?’
She never seemed like someone who ate properly herself.
The demon looked at me with a suddenly determined expression.
For some reason, that made me uneasy.
As I feared…
When I woke up after a nap, the kitchen was a complete disaster.
The good thing about magic was that it could make food look decent.
The problem was that if the caster didn’t know how to cook, it only looked decent—the taste was awful.
Apparently, to fix that, you had to actually cook and learn the taste.
And that’s how the kitchen ended up like this.
‘Honestly, it’d be better to just fake it with magic.’
What she made looked terrible even on the surface.
‘Even if she’s bad at cooking, what did she do to the kitchen?’
It looked like a bomb had gone off.
Was that admirable effort… or should I just tell her to stop helping?
I sighed and pointed at the only somewhat intact apple.
“Shaga.”
The demon glanced at me, then peeled the apple and fed me milk.
“I’ve always been terrible at cooking. For today, just eat this, and we’ll figure out what to do next.”
Was there even a solution if her cooking didn’t improve?
Could it even improve?
I ate the chopped apple without expecting much.
My teeth weren’t fully grown yet, so it was hard to chew, but I gobbled it up anyway, not knowing when I’d get proper food again.
And then, the next day, she surprisingly found a solution.
Buying it.
“Adyana!”
You should’ve done this from the start! You could’ve!
“Alright, alright. I’m sorry. You’re so small but already so naggy.”
The demon chuckled while feeding me proper food.
“I didn’t know babies had so many expressions until I met you.”
Me?
“At first I thought you were just frowning every time you ate something you liked. Turns out you were scolding me all along.”
How did she figure that out? I was only glancing sideways a little—okay, a lot.
‘Try being raised by yourself then.’
Of course I’d be naggy.
She gently pressed my forehead with her finger, smoothing out my frown.
“You shouldn’t make this face so early. You’re going to be stressed a lot in the future.”
Are you ever planning to improve at all?
I flattened my expression in disbelief, and she seemed pleased, feeding me more food.
“But isn’t this progress?”
Well… for a demon, I guess…
To be fair, she was raising someone else’s child, and she actually asked humans for advice and even read books when she didn’t know something.
Even though she didn’t have to.
‘Is she really trying to raise me?’
No, probably not.
Once I grew a bit more, she’d probably make me do something awful.
Demons enjoy corrupting humans, after all.
I had seen people who sold their souls to demons in my past life.
All of their endings were horrific—they were basically eaten alive.
‘Some of them were my parents too.’
I had never really had good parents, but those ones were the worst of them all.
So bad that even the ones who abandoned me seemed better in comparison.
They tried to bring back my dead older brother by selling their souls, and then even tried to sell me too. I ran away at a young age… and died.
I glanced at the demon raising me with surprising sincerity, then looked away.
Compared to the demon my parents had summoned, she was completely different—but still, she was a demon.
Even if the world was different, I doubted demon nature changed much.
‘But come to think of it… I’m going to die anyway before she even uses me.’
Once I regained my memories, I’d die anyway.
Honestly, surviving a year was already impressive.
I relaxed my guard and let myself be cared for.
I decided to enjoy it while this demon was still being kind to me.
What’s the point of life anyway?
Might as well eat well before dying.
One year passed… then two.
Strangely, I didn’t die.
And before I knew it, I had ended up staying by her side for three years.
During that time, she developed what I called the “my baby isn’t growing” disease, constantly poking and pulling at my arms and legs.
She even learned stretching exercises from somewhere and made me do them.
“Even though I feed you so much, why are you still so small? Little piggy. Where does all that food even go?”
“Ah!”
Neriuwen always muttered that while pulling my legs.
It was basically her catchphrase.
“Why aren’t you growing?”
Now I could move better, control my tongue a bit more, and even run.
Of course I had grown too.
It was just that, to her eyes, I was still tiny.
“Liriya.”
That “Liri” nickname came from her lazily shortening my real name because she found it too long.
At first I hated it, but she kept insisting, so I gave up.
Thinking I probably wouldn’t live long anyway.
‘Never thought I’d stay here for three years.’
I stood on the ground and turned to look at Neriuwen.
She asked seriously,
“You can’t run?”
No…
I thought about how to explain it.
I had been here three years—physically I was about four years old—so of course I could run.
The problem was that the house was in the middle of a forest, and the ground outside was uneven, with rocks and tree roots sticking out.
I would’ve fallen many times if not for her magic catching me.
“Th-the ground is rough.”
I pointed, but her expression didn’t soften.
“You can’t cross that? That weak?”
…Sorry my legs are short, okay?
I stomped my feet.
“It’s just hard.”
“Your legs? No way. If those chubby legs don’t have strength, whose do? Are you incapable of building muscle?”
I was speechless.
They are muscular, you demon.
And babies are supposed to be chubby!
“Stubborn.”
“Then you should grow properly. Why are you still small after three years? Humans are strange. I even made you stretch every day.”
There she goes again.
I shook my head and went inside.
I left the door open for convenience, so I just climbed the steps.
‘See? I can climb stairs fine!’
I had to hold the railing, but even that was progress she didn’t recognize.
Inside, I drank water from the table and reached for a neatly cut apple—
Then I noticed Neriuwen’s bracelet.
It was the one she used to communicate with the demon world.
The gemstone in the center was glowing a deep blue.
