Chapter 22: Stay in My Room

“Huayin, are you… there?”

After failing to get help from Rita, Ange finally, helplessly, hung up the phone.

Now, standing in front of Huayin’s door, the teacherly authority she was supposed to have felt miles away—she couldn’t even bring herself to knock on her student’s door.

Huayin’s door was tightly closed, and it was utterly silent inside.

Ange couldn’t hear a thing, and the quiet made knocking even more difficult.

“I… Teacher, I… Hoo—”

Ange let out a long sigh.

She had thought about this, really thought about it deeply.

Although the Magic Mark wasn’t her fault, she was still the one who’d done this.

Since that was the case, she had nothing left to say.

In the end, she chose to accept it, even if she didn’t understand—she would still accept it.

“Huayin, I’ll take responsibility, at least… I’ll do what I can. If you really ended up with it, I’ll accept any arrangement from you or your family.”

“Whether it’s marriage or raising a child, since the mistake was mine, I’m willing to take responsibility for the consequences, as much as I possibly can.”

That was all Ange could do. No matter how much she tried to push it away, she was the one at fault.

She couldn’t refuse—she had to accept Huayin’s decision.

“Take responsibility…”

Huayin seemed to have just gotten up from bed.

Ange heard her voice from behind the door, sounding muffled; just from the tone, she could tell Huayin wasn’t in a good mood.

“Come in.”

“Then, I’ll open the door now.”

Pushing open Huayin’s bedroom door, Ange crept into the Phoenix girl’s room.

Unlike the easygoing Ingrid, Huayin’s room was filled with an unmistakable sense of girlishness—well, to be exact, the prideful air of a haughty girl.

A bookshelf, origin unknown, was crammed full of all kinds of Demon Hunter books: Demon Illustrated Guide, Demon Handling Methods, and…

“First Demon Hunter”

“So even that…”

Ange suddenly felt a bit disheartened. In all her years, this was the first time she’d truly felt like she’d let someone down.

She finally understood why Huayin was so harsh with her—maybe she’d really hoped for a lot, truly believed Ange was much stronger than her…

Of course, she really was too much—wouldn’t even let her use the bathroom. That part wasn’t changing.

Not that Ange had actually gone there just to use the bathroom…

“I’ll probably lay the egg tomorrow night. By then we’ll know if I ended up with it or not.”

“Tomorrow night?”

Huayin had changed into her pajamas, even though the sun had only just set. Was she really planning to sleep this early?

She wore loose pajamas and glared at Ange with obvious annoyance, both hands stiffly at her sides.

It was clear she cared a lot about what was about to happen to her.

“Close the door. I have a lot to tell you.”

“All right.”

Ange hooked the heel of her boot back and shut the door behind her, plunging the room into an awkward silence.

“Um…”

In the end, Ange was the first to speak.

“I honestly never thought you Phoenixes would actually lay eggs, just like birds.”

She scratched her neck, tilting her head, trying to lighten the mood with a casual topic.

“My mother has a rare atavistic bloodline. I inherited it. Normally, we’re live-bearers.”

“I see…”

That’s it, after saying that she couldn’t come up with anything else to say… Now she was just awkwardly stammering, like she had social anxiety…

“I’m not entirely sure if it’ll be tomorrow night, but anyway, it’s today or tomorrow. I’ll lay the egg. You have to watch.”

“Huh? Why do I have to watch?”

“Tch, how can you even ask! Because you’re the child’s mother! Oh no! Father! Ugh, whatever, you’re one of the parents anyway!”

“Sorry… I’m sorry…”

At this point, all Ange could do was keep repeating that utterly useless apology.

“I’ve changed into pajamas, and I’m not wearing any underwear.”

“You’re not wearing underwear?!”

“What else could I do? I might start laying the egg at any moment.”

“All right, got it. So I…?”

“You’re staying right here, in this room, waiting. If it turns out I didn’t end up with it, you can get lost after that.”

“Get lost…”

Even using ‘get lost’ now—what a brat… Sigh—oh well, it’s my fault anyway…

“Fine, fine. Then I guess I won’t be teaching anything today. I’ll message Ingrid, let her go do as she pleases, then tell her you’re sick and I’m staying here to take care of you for a couple days.”

“Not bad. Thorough, at least.”

“Uh… Okay, sent. She replied with ‘Received.'”

“‘Received’? Hah, what an obedient child.”

“What, got something against obedient kids?”

What? Even Ingrid, who fights with everyone the moment she meets them, counts as an obedient child? Ange felt her worldview was being twisted by these problem children.

“Sit.”

Hearing Huayin allow her to sit, Ange dragged a chair over and slumped onto it.

She didn’t need to keep up appearances anymore.

It was best these problem children saw clearly that she wasn’t that First Demon Hunter anymore—just a useless, mysterious silver-haired woman.

“What on earth happened to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why did you… do that to me?”

“Eh… Take a look at this.”

Ange opened her shirt. The lines of her toned abdomen were clearly visible.

Huayin rubbed her eyes and unconsciously tightened her pajamas.

“Is that… a Magic Mark?”

“Yeah, it’s part of the Curse I received.”

“Curse?”

“That’s right. As a descendant of Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies, I was supposed to be immune to almost every curse. After all, those demon curses don’t work on the Lord of the Flies. But that day, I miscalculated.”

“What did you run into?”

“A Succubus, descendant of the Jealousy Demon King Leviathan. Her curse was very powerful, and since it wasn’t meant to kill me, it worked. That’s how I ended up like this, branded with this Magic Mark.”

“And what does it do?”

“You can think of it like this—it’s a time-released, pure drug, at an ultra-high concentration. That’s the real truth behind what just happened.”

“You…”

Huayin’s expression was complicated, and she didn’t speak for a long time.