Chapter 8: The Blood Demon’s Daughter

Jin Seo-a still remembered that day.

How could she forget? The day he took everything from her.

“Young Cult Leader! You must escape!”

“N, no. Where’s my father? Where is he?”

“The Blood Demon is currently engaged in a fierce battle with the Martial Alliance’s top experts. You must escape now!”

Grit-

“…Alright.”

At 10 years old, she was still young, but Jin Seo-a was a child who could make sound judgments. She gritted her teeth and fled with some of the Blood Cult warriors.

‘Father will be alright…’

Jin Seo-a’s father, Jin Cheon-woo, was the cult leader and the man known as the Blood Demon. He wasn’t someone who would fall easily.

Indeed, Jin Cheon-woo was a Transcendence expert, a battle maniac who reveled in slaughter without regard for his own safety.

The Asura’s path Jin Cheon-woo walked was stained with blood, and he was a difficult opponent even for experts of the same level to fight together.

If it weren’t for the variable called the Demon Slayer.

Not long after Jin Seo-a escaped, she heard deafening cheers.

-Waaaaah! The Demon Slayer has beheaded the Blood Demon!

-The Martial Alliance has won! Hurray!

-Demon Slayer! Demon Slayer!

Cheers that were no different from a curse to Jin Seo-a.

Unable to believe what she heard, Jin Seo-a’s legs gave way from the shock.

Thud-

“M, my father is d, dead? L-lie… It’s a lie.”

Seeing the collapsed Jin Seo-a, the Blood Cult warriors quickly helped her up.

“…Young Cult Leader. We must escape quickly. If we delay any longer, the Martial Alliance will pursue us.”

“Father can’t be dead. Father…”

However, nothing reached Jin Seo-a’s ears, lost in deep grief.

Seeing Jin Seo-a unresponsive, the Blood Cult warriors looked at each other and then tried to lift and carry her.

At that moment.

“…There you are.”

A chilling voice reached their ears.

And that was the last voice they would ever hear.

Pierce-

“Uh… huh?”

Just as the Blood Cult warriors heard the voice and began to draw their swords.

Their heads were already pierced.

“Y, Young… Cult… Leader.”

“E, escape… quickly.”

Thud-

Repeating their last words in a slurred manner just before their heads were pierced, they breathed their last.

Seeing everyone around her dead, Jin Seo-a began to tremble.

Her body felt heavy as if filled with cotton, and her breath grew ragged.

However, her eyes were full of venom, filled with the will to face her opponent before dying.

And as if he had been there all along, a man was watching her closely.

Jin Seo-a looked at the man and spoke in a hollow voice.

“Demon Slayer…”

The man who killed her father and made a decisive contribution to the destruction of the Blood Cult.

Jeong Hwan, the Demon Slayer.

Her lifelong enemy had come to take her life.

“Heuk, heuk.”

She wanted to curse him, to express her intense rage, but all she could do was glare at him and gasp for breath.

Facing the overwhelming terror of the Demon Slayer, Jin Seo-a sensed that her life was nearing its end.

“…Are you Jin Seo-a?”

A calm, emotionless tone.

Jin Seo-a nodded in fear.

“Huk, yes. I, I am…”

‘The Young Cult Leader of the Blood Cult, Jin Seo-a!’

She wanted to die bravely, like the daughter of the Blood Demon, but her young body was too terrified to speak properly.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

“…?”

Jin Seo-a was bewildered by the sudden situation, and regardless of her surprise, the Demon Slayer sealed her pressure points, paralyzing her body.

“W, what are you doing?!”

Jin Seo-a panicked and screamed as her body wouldn’t move.

She began to have despairing thoughts.

“A, are you…?”

Why would the Demon Slayer, the hero of the righteous sects and a chivalrous warrior, kidnap her?

“Y, you pedophile! Pervert!”

Naturally, he must be after her body, right? Of course, contrary to Jin Seo-a’s thoughts, the Demon Slayer had absolutely no interest in her body.

“Just kill me! I’d rather die than have my body defiled…”

“I’m not interested in your body, so shut up. Unless you want your mouth sealed too.”

“Wha, what?!”

Jin Seo-a, the Young Cult Leader of the Blood Cult and daughter of the Blood Demon, was taken aback by such harsh words, which she had never heard before.

And at his disinterested words, she felt strangely relieved yet puzzled.

“Th, then why me?”

“To save you, without handing you over to the Martial Alliance. It was the Blood Demon’s last will.”

At the mention of her father’s last will, Jin Seo-a felt a lump in her throat, yet she expressed her anger.

“…I don’t need it. Are you telling me to beg for my life from my enemy?!”

Grieving over her father’s death, she didn’t want pity from the Demon Slayer, her enemy.

“Whatever you say, I will save you. That was my last promise to the Blood Demon. After that, I don’t care what you do. Live or die. Do as you please.”

At his cold words, she realized.

As befitting the name Demon Slayer, he was a being who showed no mercy or salvation to the demonic kind.

It was the same for the young Jin Seo-a.

If Jin Seo-a had been wicked or had already committed murder, he would have killed her, regardless of his promise to the Blood Demon.

“…”

After a moment of silence, Jin Seo-a finally managed to speak with difficulty.

“…You’re a hypocrite.”

“A hypocrite, perhaps I am.”

Even at the word hypocrite, the Demon Slayer calmly nodded.

Jin Seo-a felt annoyed by the Demon Slayer’s calm expression and shouted in frustration.

“Our Blood Cult didn’t harm the Martial Alliance. It was the Martial Alliance who attacked us first…!”

“That’s right. The ‘Martial Alliance’ itself wasn’t harmed. But, didn’t you massacre at least ten thousand ordinary civilians?”

Jin Seo-a was greatly shocked by the Demon Slayer’s words.

“…What?”

“You didn’t know? Did the Blood Demon not want to tell you this much?”

“T-ten thousand massacred? By the B-Blood Cult? N, no, it’s a conspiracy. It’s a conspiracy by the Martial Alliance to exterminate the Blood Cult!”

“The Martial Alliance doesn’t move without proof. Thousands of corpses gathered for the Blood Sacrifice ritual have already been found at the Blood Cult’s headquarters. No one can deny it.”

“Lies… Lies…”

It would have been better if she had died without knowing the truth.

However, the truth hidden beneath the lies was far more cruel than she had imagined.

Only then did Jin Seo-a realize the evil deeds of Jin Cheon-woo, her father and the Blood Demon, and all sorts of complex, negative emotions began to surface.

The shock of her father’s true nature. The resulting sense of emptiness and self-loathing. Hatred and rage toward her enemy. All these shocking emotions mixed together.

The Demon Slayer glanced at Jin Seo-a’s eyes.

‘She seems to have no will to live.’

Thinking that Jin Seo-a would die soon at this rate, the Demon Slayer opened his mouth.

“Live.”

Jin Seo-a’s pupils widened noticeably at the sudden words.

“…?”

“I can’t fully understand how you feel. How difficult and painful it must be.”

Grit-

“That’s not something you can-!”

Suddenly, Jin Seo-a met the Demon Slayer’s gaze.

His eyes held an inexplicable bitterness.

“But, I know one thing for sure. If you die, you can’t do anything.”

“Ha, are you playing the hypocrite again? I’m the Young Cult Leader of the Blood Cult! If I survive here, I’ll kill you!”

“I don’t care.”

“What…?”

“Rather, when you have no will to live, think of me. Me, your father’s enemy, the one who took everything from you.”

“I will be the goal of your life.”

“So, don’t try to escape through death. If you’re alive, you can always change, but after death, there’s nothing. Truly, nothing.”

Jin Seo-a was speechless for a while after hearing the Demon Slayer’s words.

It wasn’t that she didn’t understand his words.

Rather, it was because he had seen through her feelings more accurately than anyone else, making her emotions even more complex.

As if the Demon Slayer’s intention had worked, her eyes gradually regained their light, and her empty heart was filled with the feeling of revenge.

Ironically, it was the Demon Slayer, her enemy, who fueled her will to live.

“Someday, when I become an expert who surpasses you. I will, I will definitely…”

Just as Jin Seo-a was about to declare her will.

“Oh dear. Sleep for a while.”

The Demon Slayer completely knocked Jin Seo-a unconscious, and then faced the group that had been tracking him.

Ju So-yeon, the Sword Empress, who was at the forefront of the pursuing group, was startled to see Jin Seo-a hanging on the Demon Slayer’s shoulder.

“Jeong Hwan. What are you doing?!”

“Sorry, I have my reasons.”

“…You’re already a hero of the Martial Alliance for capturing the Blood Demon. Why are you trying to save the Blood Demon’s daughter?”

“She’s still a child.”

Ju So-yeon wanted to persuade him further, but those behind her had already drawn their swords, and so had the Demon Slayer.

“…You brought this upon yourself.”

In the end, Ju So-yeon closed her eyes and raised her sword.

After that, the Martial Alliance’s pursuit team and the Demon Slayer began to fight.

Later, Jin Seo-a heard that the Demon Slayer had died along with the Blood Demon in a mutual destruction.

However, she was certain that the Demon Slayer hadn’t died.

Afterward, she also heard the news of the birth of a new Sage of the Fist, but it wasn’t important to her.

“F, Father?”

‘No. Father definitely died back then…’

Jin Seo-a’s eyes wavered momentarily, but she quickly composed herself and looked closely at his face.

“…No, you’re not my father.”

Looking closely, his face was slightly different.

He looked too young to be her father.

However, she felt inexplicable complex emotions from the man who resembled her father.

Because Jin Seo-a was born with the Blood Demon Physique, she could instinctively sense blood qi.

She felt immense blood qi from the man in front of her.

Blood qi was an essential energy in the unique martial arts of the Blood Cult. The man in front of her must have learned the Blood Cult’s martial arts.

A man who resembled her father and practiced the Blood Cult’s martial arts. Could it really be a coincidence?

She quickly organized her thoughts and opened her mouth.

“Where did you learn the Blood Cult’s martial arts?”

“…What are you talking about? The Blood Cult?”

She was momentarily flustered by his puzzled tone, but quickly asked again.

“The martial arts you’re using. Where did you learn it?”

Myeong smiled inwardly at her words, but outwardly, he made a troubled expression.

“…Do I really have to tell you?”

“If you don’t want to die. Hurry up.”

As the blade came closer, he opened his mouth as if he had no choice.

“…The martial arts I’m using is a keepsake left by my deceased father.”

“What…?”