The Baby Villain Dreams of Conquering the World

Chapter 100

Episode 100

I truly hope the eastern demon looks favorably upon me and bestows many things.

"Count, the surroundings have become eerily quiet."

Sir Piet, the knight who began worshipping the demon hoping He could heal his sick son, whispered softly.

At this, Count Tassen stopped his thoughts for a moment and quietly surveyed the surroundings.

The leaves fluttering in the wind had stopped as if time had frozen; the faint chirping of crickets, the sound of wind heard from afar, everything had ceased to an unnatural degree.

In the ominous atmosphere, just as he was about to assess the situation and speak…

A crimson smoke began to rise from the ground.

"Count, over there..."

At Sir Piet's trembling voice, Count Tassen's gaze turned toward the box containing Flora.

A man now stood in front of the box, where no one had been just moments before.

The crimson smoke around the man gradually spread farther, soon filling the forest so thickly it obscured their vision.

The suffocatingly dense smoke enveloped the two men, and it didn't take long for the powerful, pure demonic energy to cause them to lose consciousness.

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The eyes of a man with a vibrant magenta hair color, unbefitting the typical image of a demon, were fixed on the box.

He reached out his hand, and the box shattered into pieces without even being touched.

The man looked down silently at the sleeping Flora.

"Hello, foolish and ignorant human child. Why are you here?"

Flora's sleeping eyes slowly opened.

Noticing her dazed look and perhaps realizing she had been drugged, his deep red eyes, resembling freshly spilled blood, clouded with anger and pity.

"It seems you've been abandoned. How pitiful and wretched."

Did her instincts sense him as someone who would protect her, even unconscious?

Flora stretched her arms out toward him.

"You're the first child not to fear me from the start. It seems you recognize who can save you?"

The man, no, the eastern demon, picked Flora up.

Her small, fragile body familiarly buried its head in his shoulder. Seeing this, the demon smiled faintly.

"Well, if you have nowhere to go, come with me."

It should be fine to deal with those two bothersome humans later.

The demon glanced toward where the two unconscious humans lay and clicked his tongue.

"It's a pity, but I can't show such a cruel sight of people exploding in front of a child."

With those words, the crimson smoke subsided.

By the time the subjugation force, no, the furious Benio and the Lucifer knight order, arrived at the location, the demon and Flora had long since vanished without a trace.

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'Damn it, my head.'

No matter how long it had been since she woke up, her head still throbbed painfully, making it hard to open her eyes.

'No wonder something felt off. What kind of bait for luring a demon is this?'

Summarizing the conversation between Count Tassen and the knight just before she collapsed, they were clearly demon worshippers.

'To think demon worshippers still exist. Impressive, in a world where everyone despises demons.'

There are all kinds of people in the world.

Humans like the Heroes, who aspire to slay the Great Demon on the battlefield; humans who, having lost loved ones, throw themselves into rage; and humans who cling to an invisible faith by offering their insignificant bodies to a demon.

Just as there are those who despise demons, there also exist humans who revere them, and the world calls them demon worshippers.

'They were also the reason the heretic inquisitors began their operations in earnest.'

The acts they committed were so horrific one could hardly believe humans were capable of them.

Threats, abductions, imprisonment, torture, murder, and even human sacrifices for demons. It was inevitable that their infamy and the anger directed at them grew.

'My second demon really hated these guys.'

Mors would take wandering souls that could not return to God's embrace and place them into demon bodies she created herself, giving them new life.

Usually, she erased the memories from their human lives when gathering souls, but the second demon was different.

It was by chance that she found a human on the verge of death, who had lost his beloved family to demon worshippers and was trying to massacre them.

A life born from a small curiosity: what would a soul that hated demons more than anyone become as a demon?

After long refusal, he accepted becoming Mors's servant. Even after his human memories were erased, there was only one demon who was weak to children.

'Pascal. So the demon in the east was my second demon, Pascal.'

I don't know where the scripture was found, but it seems Pascal's unusual kindness toward children for a demon was distorted and passed down.

"By the way, where is this?"

She could see a round, massive cave ceiling, and beside it, flowers emitting a faint light clung to the walls, blooming here and there. Unlike the hard walls, the floor was covered with a plush carpet.

Like the thick, soft furry carpets laid in children's homes to prevent them from falling.

She had clearly lost consciousness inside the box, but what she saw wasn't a green forest but a dark, gloomy, no, a suspiciously bright cave

Besides that, there were thick blankets, dolls children would like, books scattered on the floor, and discarded candy wrappers, among other things.

Seeing the scene, which looked unmistakably like a children's room to anyone, Flora scanned her surroundings quietly and let out a disbelieving laugh.

"Make up your mind. Is it a cave or a room?"

Whoever's taste this was, it was both rugged and quaint, resulting in a truly twisted netherworld chamber.

"So why am I here?"

She didn't remember well, having fallen asleep drugged, but she seemed to recall being held by someone.

However, since she was moved while inside the box, she had no idea where this place was.

'It's too well-decorated to be a cult hideout. Is it a temporary shelter, perhaps?'

She briefly wondered if Janet had rescued her, but she had specifically told her to watch over Basilian's side, so that couldn't be it.

Besides, Janet knew better than anyone that Flora wasn't weak and couldn't possibly come to harm in the Demon Forest, so she wouldn't disobey an order given to her.

'Then is it really the demon worshippers' lair?'

She didn't even know the geography, so she couldn't call for rescue. Was she just going to be offered as a sacrifice and only then meet Pascal?

Creak, boom.

Part of the cave wall opened with a loud sound, and a crowd of children rushed in.

"Uh, looks like a new kid came."

"Gasp, she's so young!"

"How old is she?"

The gathered children began whispering among themselves.

"She's not crying, unlike the last kid who came."

"She looks pretty brave."

"Then maybe she'll adapt well to life here."

"Eh, she might not be crying because she doesn't know where this is. She looks like she'd burst out laughing if you poked her."

I can hear you, you brats.

Instead of sighing at the whispering children, Flora quickly scanned their condition.

'They don't look frightened, their cheeks are plump so they aren't starving, and their clothes are quite decent. Are they being cared for before being offered as sacrifices?'

But their conversations were too peaceful for such a situation.

"Who's been here the longest?"

Thinking alone wouldn't get her anywhere. When Flora posed the question, the children gasped and covered their mouths.

"Gasp!"

"What? She's already figured out the situation?"

"That's the fastest yet!"

"Instead of chattering, can't someone answer my question first?"

"She's even super calm."

The children whispered among themselves again, and then the tallest boy among the five of them stepped forward.

"I've been here the longest among the rescued kids. It's dangerous outside, so don't even think about sneaking out and just listen to me, the leader..."

"What?"

Flora frowned, raising one eyebrow as if she hadn't heard him right.

Though clearly younger than him, the boy faltered under the aura she exuded and trailed off, closing his mouth.

'No, why did you stop talking?'

It's not like he's determined to be frustrating; why start giving valuable information and then stop?

"No, um, you don't have to listen if you don't want to."

"What are you talking about? Explain it properly."

"Uh, well, so... Do you want to be the leader instead?"

The boy suggested with a frightened face, tightly closing his eyes.

Not just the boy who declared himself leader, but the other children's faces seemed to share the same thought, as they were all nodding vigorously.

'What are they suddenly talking about?'

Though she didn't understand the sudden topic, Flora liked the title of 'leader' and nodded without hesitation.

"Okay."

Perhaps not expecting her to accept, the children's faces went slightly blank for a moment before their eyes focused.

"Then, as the leader, I'll give an order. Which of you excellent subordinates will explain this situation to me now?"

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The facts she learned after acquiring the title of 'leader' were incredible, to the point where an ordinary person wouldn't believe them.

The children had been abducted by demon worshippers in various ways: while playing near the forest, on their way home, or even falling asleep alone late at night when everyone else was asleep.

After that, like Flora, they were placed in boxes and abandoned in the forest, and just when they thought they would die, someone rescued them.

"It's an angel!"

"No, it must be a forest spirit!"

"You fools, it's a fairy! Look at that mysterious pink hair! Anyone can see it's a fairy who lives among flowers!"

The children, who had been explaining in turn, began to argue softly, trying to deduce the identity of their savior.

'You idiots. It's a demon.'

She didn't say it to preserve the children's dreams and fantasies, but the unexpected fact made the back of her head tingle.