The Incubus System

113 Chapter 111. Living Bai

I perched on the wall near the exit, making sure I could escape quickly if I got caught. My eyes locked on them.

”How long do you want to make him pretend to be Alan? Itʼs been 10 years since your son and husbandʼs death. Itʼs time for you to accept it,” Ruby said in a displeased tone. Her eyes looked at Alan, who perched comfortably on Mrs Cleaʼs arm.

Mrs Clea glanced at Ruby briefly before returning her gaze to Alan. Her other hand stroked the birdʼs head slowly. ”Iʼve accepted their deaths for a long time ago,” she said in a calm tone.

”What about the other death?” asked Ruby with a serious gaze at Mrs Clea.

Mrs Cleaʼs hand stopped. Her face turned sour. ”Stop beating around the bush. Tell me why did you come?” she asked curtly.

Ruby smirked as she gave Mrs Clea ʼI know itʼ look, but she didnʼt want to discuss it. ”I just met a great demon at Cretunt bridge today. That demon has wings and is very strong. He is different from the other demons.”

Mrs Clea turned to Ruby in disbelief. ”How do you know heʼs a great demon?”

”I know this sounds crazy. But there was a strange force pressing on my chest when I got there. And after he left, the pressure disappeared and everything around me returned to normal. Well, not completely back to normal but at least better than before, ”said Ruby in a serious tone. ”And from our conversation, I know he has higher intelligence compared to the other demons,” she continued.

”Did you talk to him?” asked Mrs Clea curiously.

”Yes. He told me about a lot of things. He said there are some cracks between the demon world and the human world and the demons who escaped had to eat humans to maintain their existence. He also said that he and several other demons are trying to fix this problem and closing the crack. ”

Mrs Clea frowned in disbelief. ”Is he trying to say heʼs helping us?”

A breath came out of Rubyʼs mouth. ”More or less,” she shrugged.

”And you believe it?” Mrs Clea added.

”I donʼt know about that ...” Ruby replied in doubt. ”But he helped me and closed the crack on the bridge.”

”What ?!” In an instant, her forehead creased. From her expression and tone, Mrs Clea couldnʼt believe what she had just heard.

”Yea, I know this sounds crazy but Iʼm not lying about this. Besides, he only countered my attacks but didnʼt attack me back,” said Ruby in a serious tone. ”But his arrogance is on another level. It really pissed me off,” she added in an annoyed tone.

Mrs Clea paused to think for a moment and tapped her finger under her lips repeatedly. ”We canʼt trust a demon. Maybe he wants to mislead us and weaken our guard.”

A breath of confusion escaped Mrs Cleaʼs mouth accompanied by another frown. ”So heʼs a good demon? Thatʼs nonsense, ” she said in a cynical tone.

”I know. It sounds like bullshit, but Iʼm telling you the truth,” Ruby said.𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

After that, they fell silent. It seems they were confused by all of this.

ʼWell, at least Ruby conveyed my warning, ʼ I thought. I knew making other people believe I was a ʼgoodʼ demon was impossible.

A few seconds later, Rubyʼs voice broke the silence. ”I think you should return to the headquarters immediately. How long do you want to keep protecting your dead loverʼs children? After all, the senate request ended a week ago and Renartʼs children are fine, right?” she said in a calmer tone.

Mrs Cleaʼs face turned sour, while I ... My heart started pounding after hearing Ruby mention my fatherʼs name.

”I still want to find Renartʼs killer. Besides ... I still feel guilty about what I did to them.” Her guilt was clear from Mrs Cleaʼs tone.

”Making them as the demonʼs baits was the senateʼs decision not yours. Besides, you already tried your best to oppose it. You donʼt need to feel guilty about that.”

My heart was beating faster after hearing Rubyʼs words. My anger, sadness and disappointment mixed in me. I couldnʼt believe what I heard. ʼFather sacrificed himself but the association made me and Celia as the demonʼs baits?ʼ Even though I was so angry, I couldnʼt act rashly since the Demon Hunter Association was the only association that could face the demons. Also, the senate members were the heads of state and kings.

”Ruby ... You wonʼt understand their plight. How they struggle through their days with the little money they have. How Et--” Mrs Clea pressed her lips since she didnʼt want to say my name because of the association rules.

Ruby plopped her back onto the sofa. ”I donʼt know who Renartʼs children are, but I have heard everything. They transferred the compensation money to his ex-wife and said that his children were not old enough to receive it. And as expected, that woman used the money to buy a new house and moved to another city. Leaving her children as easy targets to lure the demons who killed Renart. ”

My chest felt tight holding my emotions, I really wanted to scream but my voice got stuck in my throat. I didnʼt expect all of this was the associationʼs plan. They treated me and Celia like nothing.

”But you know the reason why the senate -”

Before Ruby finished her sentence, Mrs Clea interrupted her. ”Sacrificing two peopleʼs lives for public sake is foolish! Donʼt they deserve to live?” snapped Mrs Clea. Then she looked at Ruby with sorrow. ”Renart has sacrificed his life but the senate still wants to sacrifice his childrenʼs lives. I didnʼt even dare to visit Renartʼs grave before all of this ended a week ago. After the senate decided to return his childrenʼs rights and treat them as ordinary citizens.”

That explained why even though they made me and Celia as bait but not a single demon hunter helped me when I died as the demonsʼ meal a week ago. Also explained why Mrs Clea wore a mourning dress that day.

Ruby sighed. ”I know. But I think you should stop torturing yourself. Now they are fine and the demons didnʼt attack them. It could be that Renart had killed them all.”

Mrs Cleaʼs face slowly turned brighter as a slight smile began to appear on her lips. Her eyes were fixed on the ring on her finger. ”Youʼre right ... Renart is a strong man. He wouldnʼt let those demons roam around.”

Rubyʼs gaze shifted to the ring on Mrs Cleaʼs finger. ”Does his children know that Renart has proposed to you?”

”Not yet. At that time… his son had just failed his registration exam and was very depressed about it. So he decided to say it after his son had calmed down. But unfortunately ...” Mrs Cleaʼs words stopped but I already knew what was going on.

The memory when father called me and insisted on picking me up at Diamond College replayed in my mind. ʼEthan, where are you? Why arenʼt you home yet? ʼ

ʼIʼm sorry, dad. Iʼll be home late today. Itʼs raining heavily here and I didnʼt bring my umbrella. ʼ

ʼJust wait there, Iʼll pick you up.ʼ

ʼItʼs okay. Iʼll break through it after the rain subsides. ʼ

ʼYou just recovered from illness. Just wait there or Iʼm gonna get mad at you. Besides, I want to talk about something important. ʼ

It never occurred to me that what father wanted to talk about was he wanted to ask our permission to marry Mrs Clea.

Ruby cleared her throat. ”Well, at least your position isnʼt too complicated now. I mean, if they find out about this one day, you can put yourself in the villainʼs role.”

Mrs Clea lowered her hand, her gaze returned to Ruby and gave her a bitter smile. ”I know. Things would be easier if they hated me. Besides, I didnʼt deserve to be their new mother from the start.”

Seeing Mrs Cleaʼs sadness, Ruby tried to find a way to comfort her and she got it. ”Ah, I almost forgot! I just found a cute boy this morning!” she said excitedly as she pulled out her cellphone. Ruby swiped her cellphone screen several times before giving it to Mrs Clea.

As Mrs Clea picked up and looked at it, her eyes widened in shock.

”Heʼs cute, right? His name is Ethan Strongheart,” Ruby said in the same tone.