A long time ago, about more than a hundred years ago, coinciding with the summer festival, a little boy ran around carrying a lit firework in his hand, cheerful, happy, with an innocent smile like the sun shining on him. Together with the other children he ran tirelessly, in the crowd, under the festival lights.
The adults shouted happily seeing him, with a little worry about the fire that lit up into a beautiful flower. Spinning, dodging, then jumping. In this slum area, he turned out to be like a winter prince. Blue eyes and hair as white as snow. The light of the night moon seemed to only shine on him—the most handsome one who shone the brightest among the others.
"Phe...! Wait for me!" A child, panting, unable to catch up, stopped with his body propped on his knees and shouted.
The child who was called turned around cheerfully, "Hurry up! You don't have time to linger, or uncle will catch you soon!" He kept running.
"Hha... do you see those kids?" The man who roughly wiped his face looked fondly. "I can't imagine if someday they will become young men."
"I can even less imagine if Phe will become a village youth instead of a prince on a white horse. That face... his father and mother weren't that much."
"Speaking of father and mother... how about that?" Someone was implying something serious, without knowing that a stranger was listening in.
"Yesterday I saw his father beating his mother mercilessly."
"That place where they live... isn't it worse than a livestock pen?"
"Sst.. be quiet. Don't disturb the joy of the festival." An old woman hit her cane alternately at the residents who were chatting.
The merriment of the festival continued. Dancing around the fire that burned a pile of wood. Cooking meat, boiling corn, and pouring drinks. In the dark night strewn with stars, as if the cold wind would not bother, the crowd kept growing. Both adults and children enjoyed it.
Some of them were flirting. Meanwhile on the other side, the cheerful child named Phe sat with knees bent in front of the bonfire, pensive—no longer depicting joy. He felt like he wanted to cry right then. Throwing stones irritably, regretting because he had lied. He was a fraud!
"Hiks..."
The sound of crying slowly could be heard in the middle of shouts of laughter. His tears dripped between the fire and the glowing ground. His head curled up, crying for a moment before getting up to a standing position, and walking slowly away from the festival. He turned around when he was a little far away with a face that was not cheerful. He thought, maybe this was the last time to have fun.
Those small steps went through the dense forest where wild animals and monsters lived. The rustling of bushes did not scare him, and several birds that made scary sounds seemed like just a normal alarm. Walking home from the crowded settlement to his house was something he was used to doing like this. It was not uncommon for him to fight animals and end up covered in blood.
They saw him as a poor, innocent, handsome little child who was fragile, but who would have thought that child was able to fight an adult lion alone? All because it was spontaneous, he didn't mean to. His survival instinct was similar to that of a crazy predator. He was afraid.
Hands clenched, imagining blood stains and his desire to kill from before, and before that again. There was something strange, his strength was inhuman. His breath always roared happily when killing, and his eyes would be full of lust like a wild animal. Like right now!
He stopped not far from the old wooden hut that was his home, seeing the grass full of blood. His breath was irregular, while shouting in his heart, "Please don't! Why is it happening again?!" He quickly ran inside and,
Slap!
Thud!
"Mother!"
In the doorway he froze, seeing the woman collapsed full of wounds all over her body and sobbing sorrowfully. With slow steps he approached, reached for her body and stared sharply at the man who was the perpetrator standing with a club in his hand.
"What are you doing?!" His small voice echoed loudly in that wooden house. "Are you crazy?!" He stood with both hands clenched on either side of his waist.
"Get out of the way!" The man pushed him away forcefully.
"Phe!" The woman screamed seeing him fall.
Thud!
"Who gave you permission to speak?" The man pulled up the chin of the woman who was his wife, along with Phe, their only child. "You two are ruining my life!"
"M-mother..." Phe couldn't breathe in his father's grip.
"Let go of Phe! Let go!" The woman struggled, until her husband released Phe roughly, then she was choked harder and it was very difficult to breathe.
"Let go of mother!" Phe threw at his father anything that was around, stones, wood, even cloth. "You crazy man!"
"Phe... go..." In a choked breath his mother asked him to leave, but Phe remained silent with his hands still tightly clenched on both sides.
Not just once, this had happened many times. If he ran out of money, finished drinking and lost gambling, his father would beat his mother until his anger was vented and then leave again. Phe had witnessed it throughout his growth. He knew very well that his life was not as beautiful as the smile he always showed.
With feelings of annoyance, tiredness and disgust, he looked at his father with hatred, and felt pity for his mother who couldn't fight back. Between the sound of hitting and groaning he began to laugh, slowly turning into a frightening hysterical laugh. With one hand he covered his right eye, with his head tilted up. The two people in front of him stared at him confused. What was wrong with that child?
"Noisy... You guys are noisy!" His face was no longer sweet, and the aura of his presence was no longer calming, but horrifying like a knife sharpened in someone's name. With his laughter that was starting to subside he approached, looking annoyed.
"You crazy kid!" His father threw his mother's body away, turned and approached him to deliver a blow before being cried at by him. "You..."
"Father... did you lose gambling again this time? Finished drinking? I don't understand why you have to be angry like this." He turned to his mother, "This is also mother's fault for pampering father all this time. Why didn't mother... do like this?" The man's hand that he grabbed was twisted 360° until a crisp cracking sound was heard.
"You damned child!" The man wanted to deliver another blow with his other hand, but stopped when a pair of eyes with strange pupils that were looking in another direction turned to him. "Y-y-you..."
"Yes...?" Phe tilted his head to the side. "What's wrong with me?" With a step forward while his father stepped back, he grabbed a hay rake in the corner of the room and raised it.
"Stop, Phe! Mother is already okay."
Even though his mother shouted at him, Phe didn't stop. Crazily he ran, charged, slashed at his father until he let out an even more pitiful groan. While torturing he laughed happily, as if a long-suppressed desire had been fulfilled. He didn't stop even though his father begged, from saying he would obey him, to becoming his dog.
His mother screamed from her position, seeing how her seven-year-old son slashed at his father and stabbed him mercilessly. Seeing how cruel he was, fear began to gnaw at her from cold feet to a stiff facial expression. From her mouth could be heard the words 'Not my child, he's a devil!' several times in a trembling tone.
Until, her husband's body was torn to pieces with eyes bulging. Blood dripped from the hay rake in his hand, and some blood spread to the area of his body. Casually Phe turned to look at his mother who was collapsed trembling in fear, seeing how the light blue pupils were like those of a wild animal, and blood splatters on his face. He also saw blood stains on the walls and ceiling.
"Mother... I have gotten rid of him."
Seeing Phe approaching, the mother pulled back while shaking her head and muttering loudly, "You... devil. You are not my son! You devil!" She threw bricks that were stacked behind her.
"Mother..." With a sad face he bowed his head, accepting all of his mother's throws, not caring that blood was already flowing from his forehead and hands. "Do you hate me?"
"Go away! You devil! Don't come near me! Cursed child!"
In a bowed position Phe cried, between the hurt in his heart and his body that was suppressing a great power. His tightly clenched hands loosened, he let out a soft sigh while lifting his face that was smiling. "So... you hate me. Fine." He was about to turn to leave, but it wasn't long before from behind a staggering knife slashed his neck. Believe it or not... when he turned around it was his mother who did it.
"Devil! Die!" Those were the only two words the woman said before slashing her own neck and then falling lifeless.
Phe was silent for a moment before running, grabbing his mother's body while sobbing and crying. "Mother..." His face was sad, it didn't take long for it to turn into hatred. "You have proven that your love was fake. You ended your life, without thinking about me...? Hha.." A small laugh was heard.
...
Phe stood up, laid his mother's body next to his father, then grabbed a lit torch and took it outside. For a moment he looked at the wooden building that he had lived in for seven years, along with the torment and noisy sound of commotion, before throwing the torch that burned it from the walls to the roof. From his position he watched how the red waves devoured it.
After it was charred and destroyed, leaving black ash for quite a long time, Phe turned around with his hand holding his bleeding neck. His vision was blurry, and his steps were staggering. It seemed he was starting to run out of blood. Whatever the condition, Phe didn't stop walking and tried to head toward the crowd, hoping the festival wasn't over yet.
However, he took the wrong step. His body slid into a large hole filled with deep water. Because of dizziness, and having lost a lot of blood, his eyes closed—there was no more strength left even to just open his eyes. He spent the night there, until morning he opened his eyes and saw a strange face looking at him.
"Are you awake?" The stranger had white hair and his red eyes shone brighter than the sun that was now high. "I found you sleeping inside a well."
With the remaining dizziness Phe got up, shook his head slowly to relieve the dizziness and looked at the man next to him, reminded that before he truly lost consciousness he saw a faint shadow of someone. He knew this man was the suspect. "Thank you."
The man smiled, "I have bandaged your wound, rest."
"Who are you?"
"Me?" The man pointed to himself. "The handsome Demon King." With confidence, without caring whether anyone would be surprised or not.
"Demon King...?"
The man stood up while nodding firmly. "You are also a devil." He pointed at him, "Your power.. uh, so tremendous.. From a radius of two kilometers, right when I was enjoying the festival, I could feel your rampage when you killed father."
Hearing that made Phe bow his head doubtfully, "I'm a criminal. Punish me."
"Do you regret it?"
Phe looked up and answered, "No."
"Well then. Besides, bastards like that really should be wiped from the world." He said casually.
"What about my mother?"
"You must be shaken. However, it is not your fault. That was her choice. The demon race has long been viewed like that, so, what can you do?" The man approached and with one hand patted Phe's shoulder gently. "Don't blame yourself. Your choice was not wrong."
"Then, what should I do now? The villagers will definitely find out, and call me a murderer."
The man slowly stepped back, spread his arms and said, "Isn't the Demon King already standing before you?"
Phe tilted his head in confusion, and the man sighed exasperated. "Hey! I, Ethan Demonio, Demon King of the underworld, am before you, ruling the vast demon realm. You can live there! Understand?" He saw the child nod obediently.