As the Demon Academy's clock pointed to five o'clock in the morning, time seemed to slow its pace in an instant, awaiting the unfolding of a certain transformation.
Faint glimmers of dawn slipped delicately and quietly through the windowsill into the botanical garden, scattering through the gaps between the leaves.
Clear light spread through the swirling haze as the entire demon Shadow World began to rise and dissipate like a dream's fleeting bubble.
Lanqi finally closed the book in his hands.
In the next second, this ancient demon tome, weathered by time, slowly dissolved alongside the scene of the Demon Realm Plant Experimental Garden.
In the blink of an eye, Lanqi and Hyperion found themselves standing in a small transparent chamber that seemed enveloped by a starry sky of eternal night. Only sparse starlight glimmered all around, casting just enough illumination to make out their surroundings.
This was the threshold space where the real world and the Shadow World intertwined.
Not far away, Lanqi could see a hairline fissure in the transparent barrier. From that narrow crack spilled a few quiet wisps of shifting purple light; it was a miniature Void Gate.
In a moment, passing through it should return them to the mortal realm.
Meanwhile, the Shadow World's settlement had yet to appear.
Although an authentic Shadow World wouldn't fail to process an outcome the way an artificial Shadow World might, Lanqi had heard that if too many irregular anomalies occurred that bypassed mechanics during the challenge, the settlement process would take slightly longer.
He had no idea how much longer his would take.
Lanqi raised his head with a smile, glanced at Hyperion, and prepared to chat with her.
He remembered she had been talking to him earlier, but he had been far too engrossed in the last few pages of his book.
Then, a touch of perplexity crossed Lanqi's face.
"Hyperion, what's the matter?"
Lanqi murmured in confusion, looking at her expression.
"Oh, right. Is it because that fellow claimed you were a demon half-blood?"
Lanqi realized what it was. Hyperion had been fine before, but ever since that outlaw swallowed by the demons blurted out that Hyperion was a "demon half-blood" before dying, she had seemed a bit off.
"Yeah."
Hyperion met Lanqi's ever-gentle gaze, and for reasons she couldn't explain, the tension in her heart eased by half.
By now, she was utterly certain that no matter what happened, she did not want to lose Lanqi as a friend.
But what came next...
She hadn't expected it in the slightest.
"My heavens, you have demon blood?"
Lanqi stared at her, not hiding the admiration in his eyes in the least.
This threw Hyperion for a complete loop.
It was the first time she had ever seen someone react to finding out she was a demon half-blood not with revulsion, but with genuine... appreciation?
"Do you really not despise demons? You spent an entire day with one,"
Hyperion said, incredulous.
She had never met anyone of this era with such an affectionate attitude toward demons!
Even her father had harbored disgust toward demons initially, and only began to change after meeting her mother.
"Uh..."
Lanqi hesitated, resting his chin in his hand as he pondered for a moment, his gaze seemingly reminiscing about the leadership committee he had assembled back in Purgatory Corridor Academy.
"..."
Hyperion was left speechless as well.
Never mind. This guy was practically the demon of demons. If he felt an affinity for demons, it was hardly surprising.
Hyperion recalled everything Lanqi had pulled off in the Demon Academy.
In the end, she let it go.
"My mother was a great demon who fled from the north. Disguised as an ordinary girl, she fell in love with my father, Duke Micah Aransal, and eventually gave birth to me,"
Hyperion lowered her eyes, a swirl of thoughts in her gaze as she confessed to Lanqi.
Hyperion didn't know whether her father, Duke Aransal, had realized back then that her mother was a demon, or if he had known all along and simply pretended otherwise.
It wasn't until her birth as a half-demon infant that the truth could no longer be concealed. Not long after that, her mother quietly departed the Hutton royal capital...
Hyperion still remembered the melancholic, heartbroken look her father would often wear. Even knowing her mother was a demon, his greatest wish had always been to bring her back.
Duke Aransal was previously the only person in the Hutton royal capital Hyperion believed truly bore no disgust toward demons from the bottom of his heart.
Now, of course, there might be one more of these kindhearted outliers.
Lanqi scratched his head upon hearing this.
Why did that sound so familiar?
Another demon from the north, and a great demon at that—could she be a relative of Talia's?
"In my experience, the demons I've met have all been pretty nice. Why is everyone so biased against them...?"
Lanqi said in confusion.
He felt the world harbored too much malice toward demons when they weren't harmful in the least.
"...Is it possible that you're just too kindhearted?"
Hyperion didn't know where to begin roasting him.
If anyone else in a human kingdom had made such an outrageous remark, they would probably have been mobbed and cursed as a hypocritical bleeding heart. But when the speaker was Lanqi, the context changed completely—because in front of him, demons truly were as gentle and harmless as little white bunnies.
"Sigh. That's why, despite being a duke's daughter, I'm shunned by everyone in the royal capital of Ikerite. After the war decades ago, everyone became convinced that demons and humans cannot coexist, even for a half-demon like me who only has half demon blood,"
Hyperion told Lanqi, as if finally able to pour out words kept bottled up for so long with no one to confide in.
Lanqi had only recently arrived from the southern border territory to the northern royal capital once ravaged by war. It was barely past five in the morning on the second day of school, so he was still somewhat unfamiliar with the place.
In truth, once he spent a few more days on campus and interacted more with other people, he would have learned that Hyperion was a half-demon anyway.
By then, he would naturally understand the hostility the people of this royal capital harbored toward demons.
"So what you're saying is, even though the people in this royal capital know you have demon blood, they still respect you as a duke's daughter, right?"
Lanqi said with a faint smile curving at the corner of his lips.
Hyperion froze for a moment upon hearing that. She gazed into Lanqi's warm, emerald-green eyes.
For a moment, she had no idea how to reply.
She didn't understand.
Why the matter of "being shunned by everyone because of demon blood despite being a duke's daughter"—
—once reframed in Lanqi's words—
—suddenly sounded like a stroke of good fortune.
"You really are something else..."
Hyperion looked at Lanqi helplessly, an expression of "I give up" on her face.
"Last time, between me and Vivian, you spoke like that too, making it impossible for anyone to counter you."
Though it sounded like a complaint,
in the end, she smiled with genuine relief—not a fake smile, nor the acting skills she had honed in this Tier 4 demon Shadow World, but a heartfelt smile that only a human could give.
Chapter 83