The Holy Knight Embraces the Imprinted Succubus - Chapter 2

The forest was in turmoil.

A gloomy landscape reminiscent of graves in a cemetery. Knights clad in silver armor were busily moving about. Their stiff expressions clearly showed signs of tension.

The Black Forest.

It was a massive forest located in the southeastern corner of the Empire’s territory. Anyone who stepped foot into it could not be guaranteed their life. Countless unseen dangers lurked within.

“Found someone here!”

A soldier raised his arm above his head and shouted urgently. Several others rushed toward the direction of the voice.

At the center of the commotion lay a woman, her face deathly pale, collapsed unconscious.

“She’s breathing…! She’s alive!”

A soldier who placed his palm right up to her lips confirmed her breath and shouted.

Thankfully, the woman was letting out faint breaths. The soldiers, relieved, placed her onto a stretcher and carried her away.

“Only one more to find now.”

A knight observing from a short distance turned to speak to someone.

A total of seven.

This time, seven victims had been abandoned in the Black Forest—sacrifices offered by ‘apostates’ who made deals with demons.

Those called ‘demon bargainers,’ worshippers of demonkind, committed countless evil deeds to gain demonic power.

Among their wicked practices was offering fellow humans as sacrifices.

It was known as the ‘Carnival.’

The Empire and the Holy See never forgave ‘apostates’—those who had become slaves to demons—yet the acts of betrayal never ceased.

That was because, through sacrificial rituals, there remained hope they could win the demons’ favor and share in their powers.

To contain this crisis, the Empire issued an order to the Duke of Caissen, a leading noble of the Empire and commander of the Holy Knights under the Holy See, blessed by God:

Rescue all the victims who had gone missing in the forest.

Raphael surveyed the forest landscape, like a graveyard made of endless trees.

In truth, the order had not come directly from the Emperor, but from the Crown Prince, a strong contender for the imperial throne.

The party held at the time was grandiose. The Crown Prince had thrown a great banquet to provide the knights with a final feast before their deployment. In front of everyone gathered, he laid his plump hand on Raphael’s shoulder and showered him with hollow praise like “We’re counting on you, Duke.”

Completely unaware that the day of the party was a waste.

Sure, it all sounded glorious, but realistically, the Crown Prince’s demands were unreasonable.

At the same time, such absurdity from the Imperial Family was something Raphael had long grown accustomed to.

Since the time of the former Emperor, the imperial family had openly checked the Ducal House of Caissen, known for inheriting ‘God’s Blessing.’ The Crown Prince, too, seemed to follow that tradition.

From boyhood, the Crown Prince had fiercely envied Raphael, who—despite being of similar age—had earned immense achievements and influence he could never hope to imitate.

This mission was no different. If Raphael failed to complete it properly, they were ready to smear him with disgrace.

“Just one left now.”

Only one victim abducted by the apostates remained.

But even after thoroughly combing the surrounding woods, the last trace could not be found. The search dragged on without progress.

“Commander, it seems the demonic energy within the forest is intensifying.”

Raphael had already sensed it.

The two moons in the sky overlapped completely, casting a mysterious purplish hue—neither yellow nor blue.

“It seems… the ‘Pale Eclipse’ has just begun.”

Alix, aide to the Duke of Caissen, stared at the ominous-colored sky with a grave expression.

It was clear the apostates had deliberately timed the Carnival to fall on the day of the Pale Eclipse.

On days of eclipse, when the normally sealed boundary between the human realm and demon realm blurred, demonic energy became extraordinarily potent.

And this very Black Forest was where a passage between the human realm and demon realm would appear.

Sending Raphael to such a place at such a time—revealed the Crown Prince’s true intentions.

“How cunning.”

A faint sneer twisted Raphael’s lips.

“At the very least, we’ll retrieve a corpse.”

***

When she came to again, she was no longer underwater.

Cough… Cough, cough. Soaked, ragged breaths burst forth uncontrollably. Having barely found a hole to breathe through, her body coughed and gasped for a long time.

Only after the painful hacking subsided did Rosanna have the presence of mind to look around.

“What happened…?”

She had been sure she would drown without hope. But the place she awoke in was nowhere near the black lake that had swallowed her.

“Where is this…”

The overall atmosphere wasn’t much different from the Black Forest. Dull gray trees sparsely filled the area, and there wasn’t a single sign of life.

However, what was crucially missing from this place was the black lake that had swallowed her.

‘Where am I right now?’

Rosanna looked around and searched for Damion, who had to be nearby somewhere.

‘Right, now that I think about it, today is the day of the eclipse. This works out.’

“Have a safe trip. Though I doubt we’ll meet again.”

In that moment, Damion’s parting words before pushing her into the lake resurfaced in her mind.

Why had Damion said such a thing before shoving her in?

…No way. A thin groan escaped her lips as if her throat was being squeezed. Realization struck, and Rosanna clutched her dress with a face gone completely pale.

That ominous force that had dragged her into the lake just before she lost consciousness.

The day of the Pale Eclipse was when the dimensional wall separating the Demon Realm and the human world weakened. And today was precisely that day.

If she had been swept away by the eclipse…?

“Is this really… the human world?”

If the forbidden black lake was in fact a connecting gateway between the Demon Realm and the human world, then wasn’t it a plausible assumption?

Once she grasped her current situation, Rosanna’s entire body trembled. It was a fear incomparable to all the times Damion had slapped or struck her.

‘If this really is the human world…’

Then she was as good as dead.

Demons and humans had been enemies since ancient times.

Roughly a hundred years ago, a brutal war had raged for thirty years. And even though a long time had passed since, Rosanna had heard that humans still harbored an intense hatred toward demons.

Damion used to say it all the time—if a half-blood like her, neither demon nor human, ever ended up in the human world, she’d be stripped naked and stoned to death. He threatened her constantly, saying that mongrels like her were unwanted by both sides.

“D-Damion… brother…!”

Rosanna cried out in desperation, calling for Damion, who might be watching from somewhere. But time passed, and no answer came.

‘I knew Damion hated me, but to think he’d go this far…’

Even between parent and child, the Demon Realm operated under a strict hierarchy based on strength.

He would never dare disobey his father, the count.

The count, a high-ranking demon among the Ten Elders, was someone Damion could never oppose.

‘What was he thinking…’

The heavy atmosphere of the forest pressed down on her, and tree branches that resembled the withered bones of animals only fueled her anxiety.

No matter how hard she tried to think rationally, no method of escape came to mind.

“Grrk… grgrrk… krkrk.”

Just then, a strange presence stirred behind her.

Startled, Rosanna quickly turned around.

A hideous face, features indistinguishable. Its body and legs had half-melted and seemed fused to the ground. A demonic beast was crawling toward her.

It opened its gelatinous gills wide and reached its limbs toward her. Instantly, a foul stench spread in all directions.

‘Am I really going to die like this?’

Its mouth, large enough to match her size, looked like it could devour her whole in a single bite.

Rosanna froze, as though her feet had been nailed to the ground. She wanted to run, but her body was stiff with fear and wouldn’t move.

Eventually, her legs gave out, and her body collapsed.

‘Is this really how I die…?’

Tears rolled down her cheeks in the face of death.

She could barely breathe, as if her throat were tightening. A filthy room hidden in the most secluded garden of a vast mansion flashed through her mind.

A cramped room always filled with gray dust, never cleaned properly—that was where she had spent her nightmare of a childhood.

From within, Rosanna had dreamed of the world beyond the tiny window that could be covered by her two small hands.

She once believed she could someday walk freely under that sky. Just like her father had said—if only she awakened her pheromones…

Bracing herself on the ground, Rosanna forced her unmoving body to crawl.

‘I don’t want to die.’

The feeling was all too clear. She wanted to live and see more of the world.

‘I have to escape, no matter what…’

Succubi were inherently sensitive to fear and desire, seducing others by reading those emotions. Compared to other demons, they generally had lower physical combat ability. And as a half-blood succubus, Rosanna had no such power at all.

The monster drew ever closer. The acidic saliva it drooled hit the ground and burned it black on contact.

Rosanna crawled more desperately.

Just then—

“……!”

She caught a flicker of light from behind the creature, as if something glowing had appeared.

Everything happened in an instant. So fast she couldn’t process what was going on, even as she watched it unfold.

Slash—!

A blinding flash was followed by a sickening sound. Something wet and heavy fell to the ground.

“Huff, huff… huff.”

At her feet lay the severed head of the monster that had tried to devour her.

‘What… what just happened?’

Shing.

A chilling sound of a sword brushing the air echoed from above.

“Raise your head.”