I Became My Son's First Love - Chapter 63

‘The two daggers are a set.’

Wasn’t Dane initially trying to meet Aeshath for that remaining dagger? Eve struggled to calm her growing anxiety as she looked at Aeshath.

“There seems to have been a mix-up with the schedule. It wouldn’t be right to leave just the two of them, so let’s hurry as well…”

Aeshath gazed at Eve with a gentle smile. “Eve, my friend.”

“Yes?”

“A note has arrived.”

At that moment, a note fluttered down before Eve’s eyes and landed in her hand. She caught it absentmindedly and glanced at Aeshath, but there was no surprise on her face.

“Read it.”

Despite the paper having appeared out of nowhere, Aeshath remained calm, confirming that she knew everything. Eve swallowed the urge to ask about Azazel and unfolded the note.

“I’ll make sure you can trust me. Please wait just a little longer.”

The handwriting was unmistakably Azazel’s. Thinking of him made her face flush with heat again. She felt foolish, blushing over a single note. But what could this note mean? Was it a continuation of their earlier conversation? Yet something about it felt different.

Aeshath spoke again, “The daggers come as a pair.”

Eve looked at Aeshath belatedly.

“One is with Dane, and the other used to be with me.”

‘Used to be?’ The wording seemed off. Eve frowned.

“And just now, I handed the dagger over to Dane.”

“You gave it to him?”

“If the two daggers are used together, they can purify evil.”

Why? Why would Aeshath give the dagger to Dane and help him? Azazel is her son.

“Why? Why give it to Dane?”

Aeshath responded with a serene expression to Eve’s accusatory question. “Because he wanted it.”

That was all? Eve abruptly stood up from her seat. “I need to go to the gallery.”

“Very well, I’ll have a carriage prepared.”

Aeshath rang a bell to summon a servant, her expression unfazed.

Eve blinked in surprise. She had expected Aeshath to try to stop her, given that she was helping Dane. But instead, she was offering a carriage?

“You’re not stopping me?”

Aeshath shrugged at Eve’s bewildered expression. “Because this is what you want.”

“Aeshath, what do you really want?”

Aeshath gave a bittersweet smile and replied, “The end.”

With those words, Aeshath fell silent. As a servant arrived to prepare the carriage, Eve hurriedly followed them out of the room. Just as she was about to leave, Aeshath spoke from behind.

“Trust your instincts, Eve.”

Eve left the room without answering.

***

Dane glanced suspiciously at Azazel, who had followed him to the center of the gallery without any resistance. Even though Dane had threatened him with a dagger, Azazel had had ample opportunity to call for help from the servants. Instead, he had sent the gallery staff away at Dane’s request.

‘Is he so confident that he won’t get hurt? Or is there something else…?’

Azazel’s voice interrupted Dane’s thoughts. “How long are you going to keep glancing around?”

Dane shoved the dagger toward Azazel’s back, pressing the sharp blade against his clothes.

“All the staff are gone now. If you have anything to say, say it. I’m tired of playing along.”

Indeed, there was no one else in the gallery. Dane yanked Azazel roughly by the shoulder and forced him to a stop.

“You know why I brought you here.”

Azazel, who had been walking calmly, turned his body slowly. As soon as he was halfway turned, Dane pressed the blade against his throat. Memories of the shopkeeper, who had desperately tried to avoid Azazel’s gaze, flooded Dane’s mind.

“Don’t look back.”

“You’re not completely foolish. But are you just going to keep threatening me? If you know what I am, you’d better hurry and do something.”

“What?”

Instead of meeting Dane’s eyes, Azazel glanced indifferently at the paintings around them.

“No matter how good the weapon, it’s useless if you don’t use it.”

Azazel smirked when Dane glared at him silently. It was a mocking smile.

“Are you scared? So terrified you can’t even use the dagger?”

Azazel tapped the blade aimed at his neck with his fingers.

“As expected from the Hound bloodline. You weren’t the first to figure out my identity. But none of your ancestors ever dared to act on it. They were too afraid of me, too scared that destroying me would ruin the family.”

Azazel spoke in a monotonous voice as he evaluated the Hound lineage.

“Humans are greedy creatures. Even as they grow angry, they realize something. They understand that as long as I exist, the family survives. Haven’t you noticed it too?”

Dane’s lips twisted in a bitter smile. As he studied the records, he had realized that many Hounds before him had been aware of the evil within their family. But none had ever attempted to destroy Azazel.

Perhaps they lacked the power. Or perhaps some of them had thought about the benefits the family gained from Azazel’s presence. As a human and the head of a family, Dane couldn’t say he didn’t understand those thoughts.

Humans never want to let go of what they already have. Still, one question remained: why had this demon chosen his family?

“…Why our family?”

Dane’s question was hard to voice, but Azazel answered it with indifference. “Because when I needed a human body, your ancestors were the first to kneel and beg for help.”

“What?”

“Did you think I seduced your ancestors into making a deal? How do you think your family’s founder earned the title of ‘the reaper of the battlefield’?”

Azazel had been the one who laid the foundation for the family. The empire was built on that foundation, and the Hound family became one of the empire’s founding families.

Dane laughed bitterly before suddenly glaring at Azazel. “…Even if that’s true for our family, what about Eve? Why involve her?”

The Hound family may have made the initial deal, but Eve had nothing to do with it. She was an innocent woman who had become his wife by chance. With no answer from Azazel, Dane pleaded.

“Eve has nothing to do with us. So, leave her alone.”

“…How dare you.”

Dane flinched as Azazel’s face darkened with a deep, terrifying anger. The demon’s voice was filled with venom as he spoke each word slowly, as if trying to suppress his emotions.

“Are you telling me to leave Eve alone?”

Dane struggled to breathe under the weight of Azazel’s fury. The demon took a step closer, the blade sinking deeper into his neck, drawing blood. Yet Azazel didn’t seem to care.

“Eve has always been mine.”

Azazel’s eyes glowed an icy blue as if to drive his point home.

“She’s been mine for a long time, long before you knew her.”

His seething desire dripped like venom, a possessiveness that was not just terrifying but grotesque. Even knowing that this monstrous emotion wasn’t directed at him, the sheer intensity of it made Dane’s mouth dry and his body tremble.

Azazel, looking down at the insignificant creature that had dared trespass into his territory, twisted his lips into a cruel smile. “Eve has been mine since before the Empire was even founded.”

Though he was still standing upright, Dane felt as though he were kneeling at Azazel’s feet. The sheer intensity of Azazel’s gaze made it seem as though the demon were born to rule over him.

“And she will continue to be mine.”

Azazel’s eyes returned to the painting. Only when the demon’s gaze shifted away from him was Dane finally able to breathe again. Gasping for air, Dane looked up at Azazel’s face, which now bore a look of disdain as it glared back at him.

It wasn’t fear or greed that had kept Dane from acting. He knew Azazel was a demon, but he couldn’t bring himself to act because the demon looked so much like him. Even though he despised Azazel, he couldn’t shake the thought that this demon was his son.

But for Eve’s sake, Azazel had to be dealt with. To claim that Eve had belonged to him since before the empire’s founding? It was absurd.

At that moment, Azazel, as if mesmerized, took a step forward and spoke again.

“Isn’t it beautiful? My sacrifice.”

Dane turned to look at the painting Azazel was staring at. It was one of Rose’s works, and it depicted a golden-haired woman.

“Eve, shining like the light, your soul has remained unchanged.”

Dane’s face twisted in disgust. Though the words seemed to be directed at the painting, it was clear that Azazel was speaking to Eve as well. A sacrifice. Did he really just say that?