Chapter 174 Half-Demon

As the hands of the Demon Academy clock pointed to exactly five in the morning, time seemed to slow down in an instant, waiting for some transformation to occur.

A sliver of dawn's light, delicate and quiet, slipped into the botanical garden through the gaps between the leaves.

A hazy, clear light diffused, and the entire Demon Shadow World began to rise and dissipate like a bubble.

Lanchi finally closed the book in his hand.

The next second, this ancient Demonic tome, seemingly weathered by the years, slowly dissolved along with the scene of the Demon Realm plant experiment garden.

In the blink of an eye, Lanchi and Hyperion found themselves standing in a transparent little room that seemed to be wrapped in an eternal night sky, with only sparse starlight shining around them, providing enough light for them to see clearly.

This was the liminal space between the real world and the Shadow World.

Lanchi could see a fine crack in the transparent barrier not far away, and a few strands of serene purple light flowed out from the narrow gap; it was a small Void Gate.

In a moment, as long as they passed through it, they should be able to return to the real world.

However, the Shadow World's settlement didn't seem to be appearing just yet.

Although the real Shadow World wouldn't fail to process the results like an artificial Shadow World, Lanchi had heard that if too many non-standard situations that bypassed the mechanisms occurred during a challenge in the real Shadow World, the settlement process would be slightly longer.

He wondered how long his would take.

Lanchi smiled, raised his head to look at Hyperion, and prepared to chat with her.

He remembered that Hyperion had been talking to him just now, but he had been too focused on reading the last bit of content in the book.

Immediately, a slight look of confusion appeared on Lanchi's face.

"Hyperion, what's wrong?"

Lanchi murmured, looking at Hyperion's expression in confusion.

"Oh, right, is it because that guy said you were a mixed-blood demon?"

Lanchi realized that Hyperion had been fine before, but her state had become a little strange after the criminal swallowed by the demon said Hyperion was a "mixed-blood demon" just before he died.

"Yeah."

Hyperion met Lanchi's usual gentle gaze, and for some reason, the weight on her heart was finally relieved by half.

Until this moment, she was very sure that she didn't want to lose Lanchi as a friend, no matter what.

But then.

She never expected.

"Oh my god, you have demon blood?"

Lanchi didn't hide the admiration in his eyes at all, and stared at her as he said this.

Hyperion was completely stunned.

It was the first time she had seen someone who didn't show disgust, but instead, a sincere... fondness, after learning about her mixed-blood demon identity?

"You really don't hate demons? You've been with one for a whole day."

Hyperion said in disbelief.

She had never met a contemporary person who was so amiable towards demons!

Even her father had initially loathed demons, and only gradually changed after meeting her mother.

"Uh..."

Lanchi hesitated, stroked his chin, and thought for a moment, his eyes seeming to reminisce about the leadership team he had formed in the Purgatory Corridor Academy.

"..."

Hyperion was speechless.

Forget it, this guy was completely a demon among demons among demons, so it wasn't strange for him to be amiable to demons.

Hyperion recalled what Lanchi had done at the Demon Academy.

In the end, she felt relieved.

"My mother was a Great Demon who wandered from the north, and fell in love with my father, Duke Micah Aransar, while disguised as a commoner girl, and finally gave birth to me."

Hyperion lowered her eyes, her expression seemingly filled with thoughts, and confessed to Lanchi.

Hyperion didn't know whether her father, Duke Aransar, had realized that her mother was a demon at the time, or whether her father had actually known it all along, but had only pretended not to know.

Until the birth of her, a mixed-blood demon infant, the truth could finally no longer be concealed, and her mother quietly left Hutton Capital not long after...

Hyperion still remembered the sad and heartbroken expression that her father often showed; even though her father knew that her mother was a demon, his greatest wish was still to bring her back.

Duke Aransar was also the only person Hyperion used to think, in Hutton Capital, who genuinely wouldn't dislike demons.

Of course, there might be one more of this kind of kind-hearted outlier now.

Lanchi scratched his head upon hearing this.

Why did it sound so familiar?

Another demon from the north, and a Great Demon at that; could she be related to Talia?

"I feel like the demons I've met are all pretty nice, why does everyone dislike demons so much..."

Lanchi said in confusion.

He felt that the world was too malicious towards demons, even though they weren't harmful at all.

"...Is it possible that you're just too kind-hearted?"

Hyperion didn't want to criticize Lanchi for anything.

If that heaven-defying statement had been said by someone else in a human country, they might have been attacked by the crowd and called a holy mother, but if the speaker was Lanchi, the nature would change, because the demons in front of him really were as gentle and harmless as little white rabbits.

"Sigh, that's also why I, as a duke's daughter, am disliked by everyone in the royal capital of Ikterite. After the war decades ago, everyone is convinced that demons and humans cannot coexist, even if I'm a half-demon with only half-demon blood."

Hyperion said to Lanchi, as if she could finally say words that had been weighing on her heart for a long time but she couldn't find anyone to tell.

Lanchi had just come to the royal capital, which had been invaded by war in the north, from the southern border territory not long ago, and it was only a little after five in the morning on the second day of school, so he was a bit unfamiliar with the place.

In fact, as long as he attended school for a few more days, and interacted with other people more, he would probably learn that Hyperion was a half-demon.

At that time, he would naturally understand the hostility of the people of this royal capital towards demons.

"In other words, the people in this royal capital, even if they know you have demon blood, still respect you as a duke's daughter?"

Lanchi said with a faint smile on his lips.

Hyperion was stunned when she heard this, and she gazed at Lanchi's verdant and gentle eyes.

For a moment, she didn't know how to respond.

She didn't understand.

Why the fact that "as a duke's daughter, she is rejected by everyone because of her demon blood"...

Became a different way of saying it in Lanchi's mouth.

It seemed to sound like a fortunate thing again.

"You're really..."

Hyperion looked at Lanchi helplessly, with a "I give up on you" expression.

"Last time, between me and Vivian, you spoke like that too, making it impossible for people to respond to you."

Although it sounded like a complaint.

But she finally smiled with relief, not a fake smile, nor acting skills that she had learned in this Fourth-Order Demon Shadow World, but a genuine smile that a human could show.

(End of chapter)