“You want to become human and have a family?”
The monster nodded.
Leticia furrowed her brows and looked at the creature with pity.
“I’m sorry, but monsters can never become human.”
The monster lowered its head and whispered.
“What? An ancient grimoire?”
Leticia rubbed her chin, deep in thought.
“Hmm, there is an ancient grimoire… but you need the High Priest’s permission to use it.”
“……”
“Ah, fine! Stop looking at me like that! But you must stay hidden in my chamber. If you wander around again like last time and run into the High Priest, he will destroy you. Got it?”
Leticia chuckled innocently, mumbling, “Even if we have the ancient grimoire, it won’t change anything.”
The monster nuzzled against her shoulder as if expressing gratitude.
Leticia responded with a bright laugh and hugged the creature’s neck.
‘Will Leticia’s family be killed by this monster?’
But it didn’t make sense.
If the monster had failed to be reformed, how could it possess self-awareness, communicate, and even show emotions?
Their gazes toward each other were filled with affection…
Then, the monster’s eyes met mine by chance. Its thick eyelids folded as an eerie glow flickered in them. My mind froze.
Eyes full of desire and greed.
Those eyes were undoubtedly an omen of tragedy.
The scene dissolved like a watercolor painting, transitioning into another moment.
A cathedral with pews arranged on either side.
Leticia was pale, collapsed on the floor.
A tall man with long black hair stood with his back turned to the altar.
His lustrous black hair shimmered mysteriously under the stained-glass light, and a circular geometric pattern was drawn at his feet.
The moment he turned around, I gasped involuntarily.
‘Why is Lunox…?’
He looked younger than in his portrait, but it was unmistakably Lunox.
At that moment, Leticia let out a trembling voice.
“H-how did you become human?”
“Leticia.”
It was a voice she had never heard when he was a monster. It was the same gentle voice I had once heard at a ball.
Lunox knelt on one knee and gently wiped her tear-streaked cheek.
“I’ve always wanted to be human. A human like you.”
Leticia’s twisted expression slowly turned into one of shock.
“Don’t tell me… through the ancient grimoire…”
“Did you know, Leticia? A desperate wish holds immense power. If you form a contract with a soul that carries such a wish, you can obtain anything you desire.”
“You mean you sacrificed a life to become human? That is a forbidden act! Something that must never be done!”
Lunox’s gaze turned ice-cold in an instant.
“So you’re going to say that I can never be human again?”
His glowing eyes flashed dangerously.
Leticia flinched under the terrifying pressure.
Lunox grabbed her hand roughly and placed it on his chest. His lips trembled as he smirked bitterly.
“See? I have a heart. I even made a contract with my soul through an ‘Unconscious Pact’!”
Unconscious Pact? As I frowned, Lunox continued in a cold tone.
“Do you know what that means, Leticia? It proves I have a human soul. I was supposed to be born human, but due to God’s mistake, I was born a monster instead!”
His bright smile was unnatural, like forcing together mismatched puzzle pieces.
In his excitement, he failed to notice Leticia’s eyes filling with unease.
The scene shifted again.
Leticia, with slightly longer hair, was tending flowers in the garden when she turned abruptly at a priest’s report.
“The clergy members are disappearing? Only women?”
Her confused gaze dropped to the ground. After a moment of deep thought, she ran off somewhere.
She burst into a room, only to find a man and a woman entangled together. The female priest, recognizing Leticia, gasped and hastily grabbed her clothes before fleeing.
Leticia’s face flushed red with anger as she clenched her teeth at Lunox.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
At her furious outburst, Lunox lazily ruffled his hair as he got up.
He didn’t seem to care at all.
Leticia’s fists trembled with anxiety.
“…Female priests are disappearing. This isn’t your doing, is it?”
Lunox scoffed, picked up his clothes, and walked past her.
“Answer me! I’m the only one who knows you’re a monster! Everyone else believes you’re just a lay priest. If you violate the temple’s rules and disrupt its sanctity, what do you think will happen?”
As if realizing something, Leticia gasped sharply.
“Don’t tell me… just like before, you want to create a family through reproduction—”
BANG!
In an instant, he spun around and slammed her against the wall.
“What’s so strange about that? I’m just like you, a human.”
Despite the menacing aura, Leticia’s gaze remained resolute as she looked up at him.
“I’ll say it again. You are not human.”
“Shut up!”
“I think of you as family. Please, return to who you were—”
“I said shut up!”
Lunox reached for Leticia’s neck but hesitated, his hands trembling.
His lips quivered in suppressed rage, his clenched teeth showing restraint.
“Family? We’re not even related by blood! Only you, with your ‘Purification’ ability, can create my family…!”
His breathing steadied as his eyes darkened with resignation.
“If you were truly my family, you wouldn’t have rejected me.”
Tears welled in Leticia’s eyes.
Lunox slowly erased his expression as if putting on a mask and gazed at her indifferently.
“Don’t look at me with those hypocritical, deceitful eyes. You will never understand me.”
With a glare filled with hatred and jealousy, he stormed out.
Leticia stood frozen, staring into the empty space before crumbling to the floor, her hands covering her mouth.
“I failed…”
And yet, her gaze followed Lunox’s departing figure. No matter what, she couldn’t bring herself to kill the boy who had once been her family in her lonely days.
She curled up where she sat, tears streaming down her face.
“Just a little longer… he’ll come back to being my friend.”
She whispered, delaying the inevitable.
Even if it was foolish, she needed time to prepare for his farewell.
When the scene changed again, the girl had grown into a mature woman.
“Mother, Father, Sister… Oh, Matthew really did grow a lot, just like he wrote in his letters…!”
Leticia jumped with joy by the window. For a girl locked in the temple and stripped of freedom, it was a ray of light.
Lunox, sitting on the window frame with his arms resting on his knees, looked out coldly.
Then suddenly, the two of them began to argue.
It was clear that something was wrong in their relationship.
When Leticia, full of anger, slapped away Lunox’s hand that held her wrist, he leaned in and whispered into her ear.
Leticia’s eyes widened.
It was the reason the other priests had disappeared.
A filthy and disgusting confession—it was because Lunox had seduced the priestesses and tried to make them give birth to monster children instead of ‘purifying’ them. But none survived past childbirth.
Leticia’s face crumbled in horror.
“You…! You knew what happens when a human carries a monster’s child!”
Her trembling eyes no longer looked kind.
Instead, they were filled with unfamiliar and terrifying emotions toward something she had created—something that was no longer a friend. Beneath her gaze, there was a firm decision to end it.
“How could I ever call you human?”
Lunox’s expression froze in an instant.
He grabbed her shoulders harshly.
“Don’t deny me anymore!”
His sharp, blade-like eyes were full of madness.
At that moment, a priest brought the news that her parents had arrived. Leticia’s eyes shook as she turned to the door.
As if trying to calm things down, she tightly held Lunox’s hands.
“Please, stay still until I get back.”
Anyone could feel it—the fear and irritation in her voice.
Leticia gently let go of Lunox’s hands and ran out.
Like she was running away from filth.
Without looking back.
Not knowing that those blazing eyes were following her.
That night.
In the early dawn, when everything was bathed in blue light, Leticia rubbed her eyes and woke up to a strange sound.
When she realized the sound was coming from the room across from her bedroom, she became deeply anxious.
That was where her family was staying.
I followed her as she moved.
When we arrived, the sharp smell of blood filled the air.
Someone was sitting on the bed, back turned, trembling.
Leticia, trembling with dread, walked toward the bed.
“Mom…?”
At her quiet voice, the figure stopped moving.
Crash—!
When the figure turned to her, a flash of light revealed a horrific scene. A monster was eating her mother.
“Ah…! Aah…!”
Leticia collapsed to the floor.
She quickly crawled on her knees and shook the bodies of her family hidden under the bed, but none of them opened their eyes.
Leticia hugged her young brother’s head, her forehead bulging with veins as she cried out.
“Aaaaah!”
The scream, raw and high-pitched, came from deep in her chest.
Even just watching that scene made my dulled emotions throb with pain—she was in complete despair.
“Leticia.”
Lunox, with red blood smeared around his mouth, reached out his hand to her.
With a mad smile, he showed his white teeth.
“Your family is gone now, Leticia.”
“……”
“So take my hand. Let’s become a family. You and me. And our child. Okay?”
That was when Leticia suddenly stopped crying, like a broken radio.
She looked up at Lunox with tear-stained eyes.
Large, clear tears dropped from her big eyes.
“No.”
Her voice was soaked in sorrow, but it rang out like steel. Her eyes gradually turned fierce, burning with rage.
In her gaze, I could feel the overwhelming anger, betrayal, and heartbreaking despair.
“You’re not… my family, my friend, or anything. I should’ve gotten rid of you long ago.”
Leticia spit out the words like venom and immediately unleashed divine power.
Lunox couldn’t defend himself.
The ceiling collapsed, and the floor cracked. Priests burst into the room as the battle raged.
Before Leticia could land the final blow, Lunox escaped.
“Ugh!”
After he disappeared, Leticia collapsed where she stood, pounding her head with her fists, crying the tears she hadn’t shed earlier.
“Die, Leticia…!”
She hated herself more than anyone—for not being able to destroy Lunox because of the last shred of pity.
For being the one who caused her family’s death.
