WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Whispers of a Scheming Demon ◈
Chapter 3: Damn Half-Breed
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“Mmph, mmph! Mmph!”
A wheezing sound escaped from the village chief’s mouth.
“Will you confess?”
The moment Johan asked, Gaf released the village chief’s face.
“Y-You bastard, Gaf! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
Even with the gag removed, the village chief remained defiant.
“Answer him!”
“This is an attempt to drive us apart! Gaf, don’t let the demon toy with you!”
Johan clicked his tongue.
“Your guilty conscience is making you lash out.”
Then he looked at Gaf.
“Isn’t that uglier than a demon?”
Gaf frowned.
“I’ll hear it from you directly. Speak.”
“That would be best. The village chief clearly intends to play innocent.”
The village chief shrieked wildly.
“Cover your ears! Those are harmful whispers!”
Johan’s smile vanished. A low voice flowed from his mouth.
“Ilea is at the lord’s castle.”
At the same time, the village chief gradually stiffened. Cold sweat gathered on their forehead.
“This concerns all of you. Listen carefully.”
Every gaze turned toward the infant demon.
“The missing girls were presented to the lord as tribute maidens, under the village chief’s supervision.”
It was a calm revelation.
The flustered village chief could not speak. That little lump of flesh had uncovered their shame. How? It was incomprehensible.
“V-Village Chief, is that true?”
“Say something!”
“Village Chief!”
No answer came.
Gaf strode forward.
“...Explain.”
The towering man looked down at the village chief. Nearly two heads taller, he was overwhelmingly intimidating.
“T-Trickery.”
The village chief’s voice trembled.
“I-It’s the demon’s trickery.”
Johan shrugged.
“Search the village chief’s house. You’ll find something.”
Then he added,
“You could also interrogate the men who usually associate with the village chief.”
Finding evidence would be easy. The village chief was not a particularly meticulous person. In the original story, they were eventually exposed.
Johan had merely brought that day forward.
“I’ll ask one last time! Did you take my daughter away?”
Gaf’s roar thundered through the granary. He sounded like a wild beast.
“I-I...”
Overwhelmed, the village chief could not continue.
“Why can’t you speak? Answer me!”
The village chief bit their lip hard. Then they shouted,
“There was no other way!”
Gaf reached for the sword at his waist.
“I took in a damned begging vagrant, and this is how you repay me! Gale! Tonya! Jod! Get in here, now...!”
Before the village chief could finish, a nearly invisible arc cut through the air. A chilling slicing sound followed.
The village chief’s head fell limply.
The headless body slowly collapsed.
Gaf had severed the village chief’s head with his sword.
The gathered farmers froze in horror. Amid their screams, hurried footsteps rang out, then faded away.
They must have been the people guarding the main gate. Gale, Tonya, and Jod, was it? Whoever they were, they had to be the village chief’s lackeys.
Johan pointed toward the gate.
“Gaf, go after them and kill them.”
They were a risk. If they escaped to a neighboring village and spread rumors about a demon, Johan would be in serious trouble.
He had to nip the problem in the bud.
Yes, it was certainly rational thinking...
Johan felt an unfamiliar sense of dissonance.
He felt no aversion to murder. Even the beheading he had just witnessed had not seemed particularly significant.
It must have been a side effect of possessing a half-demon.
Gaf looked down at Johan.
“Damn it. You want them dead simply because they know what you are?”
It was a decision devoid of humanity. Even Johan was startled by his own words, yet his mind continued to think logically.
“If the Great Saint Church finds out, I die. So do you. Our fates are bound together, Gaf.”
Gaf turned his head. His gaze fell on the trembling farmers.
“Then do you intend to kill them too?”
Several people desperately cried out.
“G-Gaf, spare us. My old mother would be left alone.”
“Please. Didn’t my son always follow you so well?”
“Don’t forget who built your house!”
Johan spoke expressionlessly.
“Besides the people gathered here, is there anyone else in the village who knows what I am?”
Gaf shook his head.
“These are all of them. The others know nothing.”
About ten people were gathered in the granary. They were likely people who made important decisions for the village, or villagers who had happened to witness the birth of a half-demon.
Coldly speaking, killing them all would be right. There was a high chance they would become a threat later.
But Johan did not want to do that.
‘My essence is human.’
He could not let malice consume him and lose Kim Johan. He kept reminding himself of who he was.
At the very least, he would not harm innocent people.
Johan swept his gaze across the villagers.
“Taharan is a village that produced a half-demon. If the Great Saint Church discovers it, you will lose the place where you live. Some of you will be burned at the stake through collective punishment.”
Areas where demons were born were exterminated in the name of purification. A half-demon’s relatives would naturally be put on the punishment frame as well.
“Do you want to suffer such a tragedy?”
It was horrifying even to imagine. Several people swallowed groans.
Johan nodded.
“I doubt it. You aren’t foolish enough to dig your own graves.”
He paused and watched their reactions. Worry shadowed every face.
“Don’t make those faces. You only need to cut today out of your lives. It’s very easy.”
The demon began to whisper.
“Once we leave, set fire to this granary. It’s the village chief’s funeral, so leave the bodies as they are. The evidence will disappear, and even your remaining memories will scatter with the smoke.”
The fire that broke out last night would swallow up this day.
“When the sun rises, begin your routines as usual. Plow the fields and sow your seeds, then suddenly...”
The demon formed a gentle smile.
“You’ll find a daughter nestled in your arms.”
The farmers were utterly bewildered.
“A-A daughter?”
“Don’t tell me you’ll return them!”
Binding them through contracts would have been safer, but it was impossible. Johan had exhausted all his Demonic Energy through his deal with Gaf.
“I-I heard that too.”
“How will you bring our girls back...?”
Ignoring their lingering hopes, Johan looked at Gaf.
“Then let’s clean up the rest.”
Suspicion flickered in Gaf’s eyes.
A demon pretending to be merciful? That was probably what he meant.
Johan frowned slightly.
“Do you have time to stand around? The fugitives have gotten far away by now.”
Gaf sheathed his sword.
“None of the three can ride a horse.”
In this era, very few people possessed horsemanship.
“You’re different. The Kandea Mercenary Company must have been cavalry.”
How much did that infant demon know? Gaf could not understand it at all.
“...Are you reading the past?”
“I read it before. Not now.”
“It isn’t pleasant.”
“Don’t complain. Thanks to that, you’ll find your daughter.”
Gaf narrowed his eyes.
“Ilea isn’t before my eyes yet.”
Johan snickered.
“And yet you want to chat. What makes you so relaxed?”
Gaf glared at Johan, then let out a short sigh.
No matter what, his daughter came first.
Just as they were about to leave the granary, Johan spoke.
“I nearly forgot.”
Then he pointed toward one side of the straw pile.
“Take that woman too.”
A woman sat crouched in a corner, utterly dazed.
Gaf snorted.
“So demons can be filial, too?”
The hem of her skirt was stained black. Anyone could tell that she was the half-demon’s birth mother.
“Think whatever you want. Hurry.”
“That wasn’t part of the contract.”
Johan frowned.
“Stop arguing. It’s directly tied to my survival.”
In a broad sense, that was true. The information he could gain from the woman would be the foundation for preparing for the future. If events followed the novel’s original plot, Johan would die without fail.
He had to twist it somehow.
First, he needed to find the demon who had lain with the woman. Through that demon, he could learn this body’s bloodline.
“...A convenient excuse.”
Gaf muttered in resignation. Then he walked over and slung the woman who had given birth over his shoulder. Drained of all vitality, she showed no reaction.
“Let’s go.”
Without answering, Gaf began walking. He left the granary with the demon in one hand and the new mother slung over his other shoulder.
* * *
Dawn was beginning to break. Morning light rose beyond the hills and scattered warm sunlight.
It was time to begin the day’s work.
Farmers would sow seeds in their fields, blacksmiths would hammer iron plates, and hunters would check the traps they had set the night before.
Unlike them, Johan was overwhelmed by such extreme weakness that work was impossible. It had begun after he saw the sun.
Now, he could barely even move his lips.
Clop, clop.
The uncomfortable ride made him dizzy.
‘Thoughtless bastard. He should’ve tied me more tightly.’
The bundle hanging around Gaf’s neck swung wildly. It was far too flimsy to protect a fragile baby.
Johan looked up at Gaf.
“...”
Stop and tie it again! He wanted to shout, but no words came out.
They only circled inside his mouth like babbling.
Why was this happening? The moment he noticed something was wrong, Gaf’s expression changed.
“They used their little rat brains. Those rat bastards.”
He kicked his horse’s side.
The huge warhorse began racing through the reed field.
“Stop hiding and come out!”
He was searching for the three fugitives, the village chief’s lackeys. They had expected pursuit and hidden among the reeds, but they could not evade a mercenary’s tracking skills.
They had left trails where the reeds had been brushed aside.
Gaf shouted,
“Fight like men and die!”
At the same time, the reeds before them began to fall.
“Pathetic bastards. Running until the very end.”
They had run toward one point, then spread out in a fan.
If they scattered, perhaps at least one would survive. That must have been their plan.
Gaf turned the horse to the right.
He intended to deal with that one first.
“Hyah!”
He raced forward and caught up in an instant.
“Gale! You maggot!”
The first fugitive turned around. His eyes met Gaf’s from atop the horse. Already large, Gaf looked even more massive.
“G-Gaf! W-Wait...”
Slice.
The man’s head flew into the air. Drops of blood splattered across Gaf’s face.
Without stopping, Gaf went after his next target.
The one who had run toward the center. He caught up quickly and cut him down the same way.
Finally, Gaf faced the man running toward the left and dismounted.
He walked forward and asked,
“Tonya, why did you do it?”
The third fugitive had already given up on running.
He raised his sword.
“I needed the money. I won’t make excuses.”
“Yes, that sounds like you.”
Tonya let out a battle cry. He charged Gaf and brought his sword down vertically.
His momentum was strong, but he could not even nick Gaf’s skin.
His sword was simply knocked away by Gaf’s blade.
“Goodbye.”
Gaf thrust his sword forward. The enormous blade pierced Tonya’s throat.
Gush.
Blood burst out.
Tonya convulsed. Gaf kicked his body away and pulled out his sword.
The corpse crumpled to the ground.
After shaking the blood from his sword, Gaf looked down at Johan.
“There. Every mouth has been silenced.”
No answer came.
“Is that enough now?”
The demon remained silent.
Frowning, Gaf inspected Johan more closely.
Something was strange. The reddish tattoos had vanished without a trace. The pale horns were gone as well. Even the Demonic Energy around him had disappeared.
The wicked hybrid was nowhere to be seen. In his place was a soft, pale baby babbling.
Gaf doubted his own eyes.
“What is this...? Hah.”
A hollow laugh escaped him. So this was what it meant to be a half-demon? It was absurd.
As he stared for a while, an old memory came to mind.
The time he had found abandoned Ilea.
She had been so plump and pretty.
Gaf immediately shook away the thought.
How could he see his daughter in a half-demon? There could be no greater mistake.
Blaming himself, Gaf handed the bundle to the mother.
“...At least let it nurse.”
Then he mounted the horse and moved forward slowly.
It was a journey with a damned half-demon.
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