Holding a grudge isn’t something you just leave behind, is it?

The end of the war with the Empire.

Alphard began recounting the scene—how they’d captured the demon, Lucas, only to have their mouth sealed shut by a final, desperate fart from Bell, and then, in a moment of misjudgment, having killed Lucas themselves.

Bella gasped and died, foam bubbling from her mouth after being struck by Lucius's poison dart.

Kyle Goldendown von Eriksil, the Marquis of the Frontier, standing beside him.

Kyle stood before the corpse of his stepmother, Vera, reciting the funeral prayer.

Craft Walken is praying in silence right beside me.

So the first one to notice was the knight from Kyle’s guard.

Bella’s eyes snapped open—she was dead.

At the exact same moment, Kyle finished his prayer and opened his eyes. His gaze met Vela’s.

Craft hadn’t finished his prayer yet.

Two antennae shot out from Bella’s forehead, moving at blinding speed. They were an eerie white-and-black striped pattern.

Of course, the knight tried to move. Too late.

Kyle let out a small, stunned sound.

“…huh?”

The antennae pierced Kyle’s chest—his heart—in an instant, far faster than the knight could react.

And then they pierced Craft’s chest too.

Both Kyle and Craft collapsed, staining the ground rapidly with blood.

“Lord Kyle!”

The knight fumbled for a Healing Potion, but one sweep of Bella’s antennae sent their heads flying high into the air.

Instant kill.

‘GGAHAAARRRHHH!’

Bella was no longer human. She’d already transformed into a grotesque insect-like abomination.

She had become a demon, her exoskeleton a patchwork of black and white, two long antennae sprouting from her head.

The demon Bella used her tentacles to whip up the dirt around her, blocking out the view from all sides. It had all happened in an instant.

“What the hell is going on!?”

“Stop that monster!”

“Save Lord Kyle… gyaah!?”

The people around her quickly reacted, blasting the sandstorm away with magic, finally grasping the situation.

“Lord Kyle! Lord Kyle!”

“Craft!”

Raidock was the first to notice, kicking off the ground and lunging at the mantis-like demon—but she flicked him aside with her long tentacle.

The monstrous mantis let out a muffled, gurgling voice.

‘Agh… agh… agh… agh… I’m still a demon… I can’t even stay human… not even a little… nooo…!’

Raidock launched a fierce assault on Bela, now transformed into a demon, and spat out.

"Demons?!"

Almost had it... could’ve stayed young forever, turned into a demon, just like that!

Bella didn’t answer Raidock—she was just shouting whatever came to mind, and it still counted as an answer.

Sell it all… sell it all! After so many years! Just before becoming a demon in human form—eeeeee!

The shouting monologue of the madwoman, Vera, finally made it clear to many what she was doing.

So, he sold his soul to the demon Lucas just to keep his youth and beauty.

Once I’m in this form—ahhh! Takes a century to become human, and you’re saying it’s fine, fine, fine!

Ironically, after a hundred years, you can return to human form. Lucas, the demon, had already transformed into a human—perfectly, no less.

I’ve been patient—this backwater, this provincial marquis, Lord Bairoroad! I married him just to use him as a stepping stone! To use the kingdom as a foothold to seize power!

Vera’s form continued shifting, becoming more and more like an insect—now indistinguishable from a giant longhorn beetle.

Swinging its massive feelers wildly, Raidock deflects them with his sword, keeping the surrounding area safe.

Raidock shouted, holding back Bela’s attack like a storm.

"Live or die, protect Kyle!"

But what came back was Eva’s agonized scream.

Noooooo!

Evie! Calm down!

Raidock shouts, but Eva clings to the blood-soaked Craft, frantic.

Damn it! Follow me, Camille!

Camille lunged at the mantis-like Vera with both swords instantly.

"Got it! I’m killing this thing!"

Eva’s face went pale as she gripped the blood-soaked Craft.

"Craft! Why! Why are you covered in blood!?"

As the holy knights guarding Kyle were all sliced apart by Vera’s tendrils, Marilyn hurled healing magic toward Kyle and Craft.

Seeing Eva—usually so calm—lose it over Craft’s state, Raidock steeled himself.

"Anyone! Save Kyle and Craft!"

Camille stepped in, holding back Vera’s attack, buying a brief moment of safety around them.

Marilyn, still hurling healing spells from afar, sprinted toward Kyle and Craft.

By this point, Craft was confirmed to be only unconscious, his wounds healed by Marilyn’s magic.

The problem was Kyle.

Marilyn, half-crying but still casting advanced healing spells at Kyle without pause, couldn’t get any response from his body.

“Nooo! It’s not working! The healing magic isn’t working!”

Alphard, furious-faced, sprinted to Raidock and Camy’s side, who were holding back Vera, and slammed his technique straight into them.

“Whaaat?! Why?! Why would you hate Kyle so much!?”

‘Of course I do! He’s Illumina’s child!’

“Illumina?!”

Alphard remembered Illumina—the wife of Lord Bairoroad, the Marquis of the Frontier.

Mother of Kyle and Maina. Mother of their eldest son, Flatten.

She was already dead. Alphard had no idea why Vera hated her.

"Why hate Lady Illumina!?"

"Because of her! Because of her, the kingdom’s weakening! Orthros couldn’t be won over properly! It’s only right I was cast out!"

"Wha—!?"

"Orthros! He didn’t even grasp a single shred of my charm! Treated me like a womb—nothing more!"

Alphard didn’t believe a word of it. The Marquis was strict, yes, but kind. A good lord. A good father.

He was a noble trusted by the king. Had to bear burdens no one else could know. That’s why Bell couldn’t understand him. That’s why she only saw herself.

And that was the problem. How could she not see she was unfit to be the Marquis’s wife?

"Illumina’s whore! You’re always eyeing other women—so I only had two children, that’s all!"

It was a roar. The blood leaking from Raidock, barely a trickle, looked almost like sobbing tears.

‘I cursed them all! Illumina’s whore! Always eyeing other women—so I only had two kids, that’s all!’

Raidock held back the killing blow, controlling his attack as he spoke to the babbling Vera.

‘She says—because they were twins, the curse changed! What kind of curse? I don’t know! I don’t know!’

Vera’s sensory assault tore at the ground wildly, brutally, like fury made flesh.

‘Illumina alone—went according to plan! She died! But Kyle was a failure! Didn’t fight Flatten! So I had to use Zaid!’

That meant Vera was the one who harmed Illumina.

Alphard was already furious—but the fact that Kyle had been called a failure only lit the fire further.

"Damn you!"

Alphard's blade grew wilder. His defense slipped, but Raidock and Camille covered for him.

Raidock had already read Vera’s movements, ready to strike at any moment, but he held back, careful not to spill blood. He worried about Craft, but there was nothing he could do for the wounded.

"Zaid too! Even though he’s Illumina’s child! Because you doted on Kyle! Now you’ve gone and cursed me, twisted my thoughts! Why won’t anyone listen to me?! Why won’t any of you listen to me?!"

Raidock gritted his teeth, barely holding back the onslaught, but he listened through it all.

But inside, he was torn between two thoughts: “Just kill him now,” and “Let my furious best friend finish him off.”

“Kyle too! Illumina too! Flatten too! Zaid too! Even Rayla, who betrayed us at the very end—none of you are getting off scot-free!”

Alphard had long passed his limit. Raidock decided he’d squeezed out all he could, and changed the nature of the attack.

No signal. No coordination. Still, they moved—Alphard attacking, Raidock covering.

Alphard roared.

“You… you’re the only one I’ll never forgive! Die! ‘Tiger’s Roar, Fang Shatter!’”

He unleashed the ultimate move, leaving himself wide open. A tendril from Vera shot in—but Raidock slammed it down, shattering part of its exoskeleton.

Vera screamed, her insect face twisted in agony—yes, agony, I’ll say it.

“Alphard—! Stop—!”

Of course, her childish cries didn’t halt the blade’s edge.

“Stop! ‘Wolf Pierce Collapse’!”

The demon, body now insectile, shattered into pieces. Only her head rolled, lifeless.

“Why… no one… listens to me…”

That was Vera’s final breath.

Alphard drove his sword through her skull and spat.

“You die here, as a demon—ugly, pathetic, and unworthy.”

The sad woman who sold her soul to demons died far from the youth and beauty she once desired.

April 28, 2023 — Volume 7 of *Kubi Alchemy* is now on sale!