My Dad, the Demon King, Is a Big Problem

Chapter 2

‘I’m sure someone flew into the sky from here! Did I see it wrong—?’

‘Good heavens! Oh my goodness! This house has a hole in the wall!’

Several days had passed since that night.

I waited endlessly for my dad to return home.

The broken wall had been repaired by the neighbors. Masha, the cook who worked for our house, took care of my meals.

But as the days dragged on, my doubts grew heavier.

‘Where in the world did Dad go, leaving me behind?’

Was the person I saw that day really my dad?

Yes, it had to be. It was undeniably his face.

Though his appearance had changed—dark marks around his eyes, horns on his head, and crimson pupils—it was still him. It couldn’t have been anyone else.

Even the villagers were bewildered by my dad’s disappearance. Never mind the wings; this man was known as the village’s ultimate “daughter fool.”

He was the kind of person who couldn’t even bear to leave his precious daughter for half a day, let alone an entire day.

And yet, the fact that a normal human being had sprouted wings and flown into the sky was far from ordinary.

A month passed like that.

Dad still hadn’t come back.

In the meantime, I discovered something peculiar. In Dad’s room, I found a mysterious vial of what seemed to be a magical potion.

The bottle was almost empty, as if someone had drunk most of it.

Could it be that Dad drank this potion and, just as he claimed, actually turned into a demon?

I carefully took the bottle and hid it in a place only I knew about.

Another month went by.

Dad still hadn’t returned.

Instead, strange news began circulating: the Church of the Holy Palace declared that Baal, the Great Demon King, had returned.

‘How is that possible?!’

People gossiped, saying it made no sense.

Baal, the king of all demons, the ruler of hell, the greatest demon lord of the Demon Realm, had supposedly been destroyed centuries ago.

The story went that Baldwin Pluto, the head of the Pluto ducal family and a holy knight, had obliterated Baal’s very soul.

And for centuries, there had been no sign of demonic energy plaguing the human world, which proved the story true.

However, the Demon Realm had been in turmoil ever since. Without their supreme leader, Baal, the demons had been fighting among themselves for power.

It was all the kind of tale you’d hear in children’s fairy tales.

‘But now they’re saying that same Great Demon King Baal has come back?’

The things Dad had said that night were turning out to be true.

I was stunned.

‘Did Dad really become the Demon King and abandon me?’

How could that be?

The news of Baal’s revival quickly reached Neverland.

The orphanage’s headmistress, Eva, believed my lie without question.

“And what’s your name...?”

Crescent Delight.

But I couldn’t use that name anymore.

It was a precious, lovely name my dad had given me, but now it was tainted with the label of being the Demon King’s daughter.

I blurted out the first name that came to mind.

“My name is Dallas.”

“Dallas. What a beautiful name. Don’t you worry anymore. Our orphanage will protect you.”

“Really?”

“Of course!”

“Thank you...”

I was safe.

At least for now.

***

As Time Passed, I Turned Ten Without My Dad

Time went by, and I turned ten years old. By then, I had managed to adapt to life in the orphanage while hiding my true identity. Still, deep down, I knew the Church of the Holy Palace would eventually find this place.

After all, the child of the Demon King had vanished, and they wouldn’t stop searching until they found me.

Meanwhile, the Sientri Empire faced an unprecedented crisis brought about by demonic energy. Ever since the Great Demon King Baal returned, the spread of this malevolent force had intensified.

"Brace yourselves, humans. From now on, the Demon Realm will take over your world."

‘It really happened just like Dad said it would...’

Was my dad truly the Demon King?

I couldn’t stop thinking about the mysterious potion he drank. I needed to figure out exactly what it was. To uncover its secrets, I started studying herbology in whatever limited conditions I could manage.

My obsession earned me the nickname "the crazy experimenter" at the orphanage. But honestly, I owed it all to the countless ancient texts I’d read while I was with Dad.

Eventually, I succeeded in identifying every ingredient in the potion. However, despite analyzing the formula, I couldn’t begin to fathom its effects. It was a concoction unlike anything that had ever existed in this world.

Even so, I couldn’t deny the truth any longer: Dad had become the Demon King and disappeared.

After he vanished, Baal emerged. And worst of all, Dad himself had claimed to be Baal.

“Ugh, Dad, if you were going to go to the Demon Realm, you should’ve taken me with you!”

How could he leave me behind, all alone like this? The thought made my heart ache with bitterness. I missed him so much, but at the same time, I couldn’t help but resent him.

Was he really out there wreaking havoc on the world, hurting innocent people?

The hardest part wasn’t the loneliness. It wasn’t even the uncertainty. It was the longing—the unbearable ache to see him again.

His warm, smiling face. His gentle, affectionate words. The endless kisses he’d shower on my cheeks before they even had time to dry.

He was my one and only dad, someone no hundred mothers could replace.

“Hey, what are you doing over there again?”

“Huh? What do you want?”

Startled, I turned around to see who had spoken.

I had been sitting alone in the orphanage yard, flipping through an old herbology text, when the voice interrupted me.