I was Born in the Final Demon Realm of a Dark Fantasy

Upon opening my eyes, I saw an unfamiliar ceiling.

Having grown accustomed to seeing the red sky for months, it felt rather strange to face such an ordinary wooden ceiling.

And soon I felt warmth enveloping my back. It was cozy and comfortable.

But even that comfort couldn’t mask the pain covering my entire body. An aching, tingling sensation weighed down my limbs.

When I barely managed to raise my head, I saw my body wrapped tightly in bandages.

‘Who treated me?’

Seeing that I was lying on a bed, I wasn’t inside the forbidden zone. There couldn’t be such a bed there.

Then, had I made it outside?

At that moment, someone opened the door and entered.

It was a young girl with long white hair. Her hair, looking as soft as white thread, had a slightly brighter hue than my hair color.

When she discovered that I had regained consciousness, she opened her eyes wide.

“@!@#@#!@#!!@”

…What?

For a moment, I thought I had misheard, but then I realized it wasn’t a language I knew.

She was using a completely different language.

I was about to thank her but couldn’t bring myself to speak and fell into thought.

‘…Could it be that I didn’t return to the kingdom?’

There was one possibility that crossed my mind.

The kinsmen the king had mentioned… who lived beyond the red curtain.

Could I have encountered them?

I had never heard of kinsmen who spoke a different language within the kingdom.

In my hazy consciousness, the memory of punching through the red wall seemed to almost surface.

Though confused, my first priority was to express gratitude to her.

I slowly pulled my two legs out from under the blanket and tried to rise.

And the moment I pressed my hand on the bed’s surface to exert force.

Crack-

The bed collapsed right then and there. To be precise, the part where I pressed my hand shattered and broke apart.

The pain spread to the top of my head as my still-unhealed wounds were stimulated.

But I didn’t have time to express the pain. After all, I was used to such pain.

I glanced at the bed’s owner.

“#$#@@!”

Was she angry?

She seemed to be saying something with a surprised face while waving her arms, but I couldn’t understand a word.

‘By the way, why is this bed so weak?’

Even if made only of stone, it would be sturdier than this.

I looked down at the collapsed bed. Broken wooden pieces were scattered on the floor. Cheap wood like what could be seen around my abandoned hometown. Even there, no one used such weak wood.

Do people here make furniture with this? Is the culture here different?

…Or perhaps they can’t even afford better?

Although my curiosity grew, my regret came first. I hurriedly got up from the debris.

“I’m sorry!”

“…”

But the girl didn’t seem to understand my words, only tilting her head.

At that moment, another figure entered through the open door.

She too had snow-white hair, but her face looked more youthful than the previous girl’s.

‘Her younger sister?’

The newly entered child said something as soon as she came in, but again, I couldn’t understand a word.

The long-haired girl then quietly explained something, and the child who seemed to be her sister nodded several times.

Then she tried to convey something to me using hand and foot gestures.

She raised both arms high, then took a posture as if carrying someone.

In that state, she took a few steps in place, then stuck out her tongue and panted. She even pretended to wipe sweat from her forehead.

‘…Does she mean she had a hard time bringing me here?’

Having roughly understood, I put my hands together and apologized with an apologetic expression.

She then waved her hands. It was a gesture suggesting it was okay.

But soon she put her hands on her hips, puffed her cheeks, and made a huffing movement.

What could that mean?

Seeing her gaze directed behind me…

‘Ah, she must be angry about the broken bed.’

I apologized once more.

The girl then closed her eyes, smiled deeply, and nodded.

It seemed she was accepting my apology.

She was a generous child.

…Somehow, we had communicated without a single word.

At that moment, the long-haired girl took a step closer and spoke.

“#$#@@!”

“…”

When I responded with a blank expression, not understanding a word, the sister standing beside her waved her arms as if frustrated and scolded her sister.

The older sister looked at me with a slightly embarrassed face, then made an apologetic expression.

‘There’s no need to be sorry.’

Just then, the younger sister approached me and pulled at my arm.

…That is pulling, right?

She strained to pull my arm, but honestly, I barely felt it.

After hesitating, I pretended to give in and let her lead me, albeit awkwardly.

The younger sister continued to explain something with hand gestures while leading me toward the door.

Seeing her point to the bed and repeatedly make a gesture as if stacking something on top, it seemed she was saying the bed needed to be fixed.

I glanced back briefly. The woman who appeared to be the older sister was sitting on the floor, carefully organizing the broken wooden pieces one by one.

‘I’m not sure what they’re planning, but I should help with that first.’

To stop the younger sister, I grabbed the nearby door with my free arm.

Crack-

And that door broke.

“…”

Silence ensued.

I slowly turned my gaze.

The younger sister was glaring at me with puffed cheeks and a sulky face.

…Now there was one more thing to fix.

♦♦♦

Six months passed.

Even though my recovery ability far exceeded that of an ordinary human, the wounds I sustained in the final moments in the forbidden zone didn’t heal easily. Especially my right fist, which had completely collapsed and didn’t recover for a long time.

But I was fortunate. By my side were the overly kind sisters.

With their help, I could focus on recovery.

Although I broke everything I touched due to poor strength control, the sisters never once tried to drive me out of the house.

Instead, they taught me.

I learned a new language from them. Although it was still impossible to fully understand complex words or contexts, I could at least communicate simple intentions.

They repeatedly marveled at how abnormally fast I picked up the language. Especially the older sister was amazed, saying it was faster than when she taught her younger sister to read.

I also learned their names.

The older sister was Arnen. The younger one was Elia.

Only the two of them lived in this house. And they were often away from home.

At first, I didn’t know why they left and returned. Only after the language barrier somewhat crumbled did I learn that they went hunting to stockpile food.

Compared to the people I knew, they were unusually weak, but seeing them hunt beasts to stockpile food, their lifestyle didn’t seem too different.

They started going out less after the weather turned chilly.

Around that time, my body had fully recovered.

When the weather warmed up again and they said they were going hunting, I offered to join.

I couldn’t keep eating their food without contributing.

Seeing the sisters’ faces visibly brighten, my guilt washed away a bit.

Catching beasts was my specialty.

I had broken the village’s record at the coming-of-age ceremony, and in the forbidden zone, fighting beasts was my daily routine. Though they were a bit different from ordinary beasts.

Still, I was itching at the thought of hunting after so long. I don’t know how many of this house’s items I had broken while trying to control my strength.

It was especially troublesome when handling tableware, having to concentrate fully and handle them carefully. Fortunately, I was confident in controlling my strength and quickly adapted, so there were no major issues afterward.

Anyway, it was finally time to earn my keep.

“Will you let me ride on your neck while hunting too?”

While preparing for the hunt, Elia looked up at me from beside and asked playfully.

I had become closer to Elia than Arnen during this time. She had a tomboy-like personality that approached me without reservation, and thanks to that, I could also open up easily.

Elia had a talent for making people comfortable.

Of course, Arnen also made people comfortable, but she was more calm and less talkative than Elia.

“I told you not to play around during hunting.”

“…I can ride just on the way there.”

Arnen cautioned Elia as usual and slung her bow over her shoulder.

Elia pouted but didn’t rebel against Arnen’s words.

Her attitude made me chuckle, but I didn’t voice it.

After preparations, we left the house with Arnen in the lead.

The house where these sisters lived was nestled deep in the mountains, all alone. Their only neighbors were the occasional passing deer.

I didn’t know why such young sisters lived alone in such a remote place. I had tentatively asked after learning the language, but they didn’t seem to want to talk about it.

I didn’t ask further after that.

Perhaps that’s why they didn’t ask me where I came from either.

Actually, my origin wasn’t such a great secret. I wanted to openly ask them various questions, but seeing their attitude, I had to restrain myself.

‘The clothes I’m wearing are definitely men’s clothes…’

Anyway, I had received help from them and was staying as a guest. There was no need to go against their wishes.

As we maintained boundaries with each other, naturally, an atmosphere formed where we didn’t ask deep questions.

If you climb from the middle of the mountain where the sisters lived to the summit, you could see the massive red curtain spread out in front. That would surely be the forbidden zone where I had struggled for months.

They were living quite close to that place.

On good hunting days, they hunted beasts in the surrounding mountains, but when unsuccessful, they had to cross several mountains to get near the red curtain.

Especially as the weather cooled, beasts became harder to spot.

It wasn’t particularly cold now, but perhaps due to bad luck, we couldn’t find any trace of beasts in the vicinity.

We had no choice but to cross several mountains. In the meantime, bored as I was, I sneakily checked Arnen’s reaction while pretending not to notice, and let Elia ride on my neck.

“Kyaa!”

Excited, Elia grabbed my hair and shook it around. I had tied my long hair, which reached my waist, like a ponytail, and Elia played with it.

Arnen caught us. Fortunately, she didn’t scold us too much.

“…We might need to cross several more mountains. Are you okay with your stamina?”

“Yes.”

There was no way my stamina would bottom out just from climbing and descending a few mountains of this height. Originally, if I used my strength properly, I could reach the summit in just a few steps.

It was hard to even consider it a special ability.

In my abandoned hometown, even young girls could run up mountains like this in just a few minutes.

‘…Come to think of it, are they even more mutated than me?’

There were young girls in the kingdom where I lived as well.

These sisters were clearly weaker than them. There seemed to be traces of having learned some skills in the way they carefully climbed the mountain, wearing light leather armor and carrying bows on their shoulders, but they were still too slow.

But I didn’t show it.

‘…I know the feeling of being born weak better than anyone.’

I too was once called a mutant and pointed at.

Now that I had become strong, I didn’t want to act arrogant.

Just then, Arnen, who was carefully cutting through the grass at the front, raised her hand.

It was a signal to stop.

“There’s something ahead. …Judging by the presence, it’s a wolf. Most likely a blue-maned wolf that inhabits this area, so we need to be careful. It won’t be easy to handle with a bow. Let’s turn back.”

Arnen quickly assessed the situation with a calm face.

She found the beast even before it registered in my senses.

Indeed, she had her own specialized abilities.

I’m glad I didn’t simply dismiss her as a mutant.