Chapter 119 : Chapter 119
Chapter 119: Queen of the Night (3)
At first, Lily wore an expression of not quite understanding what the priestess had said.
“The Succubus Queen…?”
That's how much the name of a being she couldn't have even imagined had come from the priestess's mouth.
“What do you mean by that, Sister Catherine?”
“When I first saw her from afar, she had a very, similar feeling to her… I guess I was mistaken….”
After all, even the voice of the succubus priestess, Catherine, who was saying this, was laced with doubt, as if asking if this could be right.
The Succubus Queen.
‘Queen of the Night’ Lilith.
Even if there were people who didn't know of the existence of succubi, it was safe to say that there was practically no one who knew about succubi and didn't know of Lilith.
To be precise, should I say that even if they didn't know the name, they knew of the ‘concept’.
Because it was no exaggeration to say that she was the very person who created the image that first comes to mind when humans today think of the existence of succubi.
It was Lilith who had elevated the status of succubi, who were originally ignored and treated as lowly lewd demons not only by humans but also among the demon race, to be revered rather than disdained as representatives of the so-called ‘Femme Fatale’── charming yet deadly beings.
That was the reason why, for hundreds of years while the owner of the throne of His Majesty the ‘Demon King’, the king of all demons, changed several times or was sometimes completely vacant, Her Highness the ‘Queen of the Night’ alone had firmly kept her position.
It was also the reason why she, as one of the seven strongest devils after the Demon King, was given the position of the 3rd Corps Commander.
But that's why.
“P-Please don't mind me. I must have been mistaken….”
It was that absurd of a notion.
“I've never heard a story of Lady Lilith having a child with a human, and she's not the type to do so… I-I must have been confused…!”
As if retracing Catherine's words, Lily seemed to be lost in thought for a while.
Then, she finally parted her lips with a renewed look of caution.
“Um, do we look that much alike… for you to make such a mistake…?”
At Lily's question, Catherine seemed to hesitate with her answer, but eventually, she slowly nodded her head.
“Y-You do look… quite a bit, alike… but the impression, or the aura you give off…”
But that was also brief.
Catherine, as if she were caught committing blasphemy, frantically waved her hands as if to deny her own words and added.
“B-But there's really no way! The Queen, having a human child… P-Please, just forget it! If it gets out that I dared to say such a thing…!”
She even seemed somewhat frightened.
No matter how much the Church of Arhat held no prejudice against the demon race, if she was serving as a priestess, a very long time must have passed since she crossed the Wall and started living among humans.
So the fact that she showed such a reaction when there was no real need to address her as ‘Queen’ anymore, meant that Lilith was a being of both reverence and fear to the succubi.
“…….”
Perhaps for that reason, Lily, who had been lost in thought again, also seemed to have dismissed the possibility that had come to her mind.
“…I guess, that can't be possible.”
She had judged it to be a story that made no sense no matter how she thought about it.
“Um, by any chance, are there any other places in Tiaria besides this temple where many succubi gather?”
Therefore, since Belin had said he didn't know, she must have figured that there was no more new information to be gained here.
“A place where many succubi, gather…”
At Lily's question, Belin and Catherine looked at each other without either of them having to go first.
Both of them had slightly troubled expressions.
“There is one, but…”
And indeed, they trailed off, looking troubled.
“It’s not a place a nun of the Church of Sistina should go…”
“Pardon?”
Belin carefully sent a glance my way, as if asking for my opinion as her companion, and I, too, discreetly shook my head so Lily wouldn't see.
Seeing this, Catherine continued.
“Besides, even if you go there… you won't be able to talk with them easily….”
Lily tilted her head, as if she couldn't understand at all what the two were talking about.
“The atmosphere is too different from here… there, they don't treat succubi like us equally, like the brothers and sisters here do….”
“And in the first place, even if you do meet them, the probability that you won't find the answer you want there is high.”
Belin added to Catherine's words in a firm tone.
“Why is that…?”
“As I mentioned a moment ago, the pregnancy rate for our succubus sisters is extremely low.”
The priestess, who could be called a witness to that, immediately nodded in agreement.
“Is that… because we've inherited the blood of devils…?”
“…Pardon?”
“Because we are descendants of devils who sinned in the past, I wondered if the gods do not easily send down angels…”
“Pardon? W-What does that…?”
Belin and Catherine, who seemed greatly flustered for a moment, looked at each other once again.
Their expressions were ones of having no clue what on earth Lily was talking about right now.
After all, no matter how much she was a nun of the Church of Sistina, they would never have imagined that a half-succubus would still only possess knowledge on the level of ‘babies are brought by storks’.
“That is… probably not the case, I think…?”
Perhaps for that reason, Belin, though puzzled, did not point that part out.
It seems he just roughly accepted it as her using a peculiar expression.
Instead, after a clearing his throat with a ‘keum’, he continued speaking.
“By any chance, could you explain instead, sister?”
To be precise, he passed it on to Catherine next to him.
Saying that it would be much better for someone of the same kin to explain.
“Well… to put it simply, unless we succubi strongly desire it ourselves… in the first place, it's impossible to get pregnant if you don't know the method.”
“The method…?”
Catherine nodded at Lily's question.
“For us, if I had to be specific, it's an act of eating, not an act of reproduction.”
Because the body instinctively accepts it as a meal, it is absolutely impossible unless one learns how to perfectly control one's own body.
Catherine said.
“And learning that method… is a very difficult thing.”
In other words.
“So for us, we absolutely never have an unwanted pregnancy.”
It meant that the decision rested entirely with the succubi themselves.
“Of course, even if we know the method, I've heard that the chances are much lower than for other humanoid races….”
“The reason we could sincerely bless each and every one of them was because we knew it was a new life that the sisters had obtained with difficulty in a state of genuine desire.”
To put it another way,
“In places where we succubi are not treated properly as individuals… like we are here, there are generally almost no cases of pregnancy….”
That's why Belin had said that the probability of Lily not finding the answer she was looking for if she went there was high.
And for the same reason, Catherine had said that there was no way Lilith could have given birth to a half-succubus.
Because it would mean that the Queen of the Night, that Succubus Queen, had strongly desired a human child for herself.
Lily—due to the absence of important knowledge—didn't completely understand their words, but she seemed to have grasped the main point to some extent.
However, because of that, one question must have lingered in her mind.
“If you can choose not to bear an unwanted child…”
The more she listened to them, the more she couldn't understand this part, no matter how she thought about it.
“Then why… was I abandoned…?”
“…….”
Unable to answer this question, Belin and Catherine ultimately fell silent.
***
After leaving the temple, Lily could not hide her complicated feelings.
She was constantly lost in thought, looking somewhat spaced out.
Watching her from the side, even her walking seemed precarious.
In fact, I had to point it out a few times when she failed to see a person or an obstacle in front of her.
Thinking this couldn't go on, I suggested we stop by a park and rest for a bit, and Lily, as if she had the same thought, quietly nodded.
Having found a suitably quiet bench and sat down, Lily immediately let out a small sigh, as if relieved that she no longer had to force her body to move.
“…In the end, I couldn't find the answer I was looking for.”
Mixed with a hint of disappointment.
“I'm sorry. Because of me, Lord Yubin, you spent your precious time…”
“Don't say that.”
I gently took a seat next to Lily.
“Because the time I can spend for you is much more precious to me.”
“Lord Yubin…”
“I'll make time whenever you need it. So don't feel burdened and just tell me in the future.”
At my words, said with a faint smile, Lily expressed her gratitude and nodded.
Then, she once again looked off into the distance in front of her, as if lost in thought.
“…I grew up receiving more love than I deserved.”
She began cautiously.
“The Bishop, the other brothers and sisters, the villagers, and Lady Sistina… everyone embraced me with love.”
Thanks to that, there was never a moment she felt lacking, Lily said.
“I was curious about the being who passed down these… horns and tail to me… and sometimes I even resented them… but I never once felt that I needed them.”
So she just thought that, by now, it wouldn't bother her.
Lily muttered in a bitter tone.
“But now that I've heard the detailed story… that wasn't the case.”
With a bitter smile, as if to say she didn't expect to be like this either.
The more she mulled over the words that an unwanted child cannot be conceived, the more the fact that she was abandoned like an unwanted child in the end came to mind.
“…….”
That feeling was something I could never know.
To be precise, while I could understand it intellectually, I couldn't deeply empathize with it.
Because I had never experienced such a thing.
So I couldn't easily say the common words of comfort… that I understood.
“──Actually, you know.”
So, I decided to do what I could.
“We did hear one of the answers we were looking for.”
“…Pardon?”
Looking at the tilting head of Lily, I cautiously continued.
“At least we found out who it was. The being who… passed that blood down to you.”
Though Lily and everyone else seemed to have dismissed it as an impossible story, in fact, that ‘no way’ was true.
“You mean…”
The Succubus Queen Lilith, was Lily's birth mother.
“Lord Yubin, do you really think that person… that Queen of the Night, is my blood relative…?”
“I think there's a high probability.”
That was the truth.
“I couldn't say it rashly earlier because there were too many ears listening.”
“…Wh-Why do you think so?”
“Ms. Catherine still revered and feared Lilith. She wouldn't easily forget such a being. As such, the words that you look alike wouldn't come out easily either.”
And in fact, the two did look alike.
The Lilith I remembered was, to anyone's eyes, Lily's blood relative.
Of course, she was a pure demon, different from Lily, but nevertheless.
“Besides, if your birth mother really is that Succubus Queen… then as Ms. Catherine said, it would have been something that must never be known.”
The fact that half-human, half-demons were discriminated against was the same here as it was beyond the Wall.
If anything, they were despised even more.
But for the Succubus Queen, who stood at the pinnacle of all succubi, to have given birth to a human child… was not something that could be passed off as a simple momentary mistake.
As Catherine said, it was something that could never have happened unless she had strongly desired it herself.
Therefore, this could have been a fatal scandal.
It was something that could have single-handedly destroyed the status of the succubi that Lilith had worked so hard to build up until now.
No matter how much she was praised as a strong and fearsome being, in the end, she would be seen as nothing more than a lowly lewd demon who couldn't overcome her desires and even had a child with a long-time enemy, a human.
That's why Lilith abandoned Lily.
Between her own kin and her own child, she chose her kin.
That was the truth I knew.
So what I could do now… no, what I had to do, was.
--
Companion Quest
「Devil on My Shoulder」
Confront the Succubus Queen Lilith, with Lily.
--
To stay by Lily's side, until she could find the answer for herself.