Devote Yourself to the Witch! - Chapter 2

Von Heinrich was the newly reincarnated king of the demons.

An unknown accident had interrupted his awakening, leaving him without his memories or power and at the mercy of human slave traders.

In the original timeline, a wealthy merchant would buy him.

At first, the merchant’s family treated Von reasonably well. They regarded him as nothing more than a convenient servant, but at least they stopped the arbitrary beatings and gave him a stable place to live.

That false warmth made the young demon—who had known nothing but whips and torture since gaining consciousness—form an attachment he never should have had.

When the merchant’s enemies came seeking revenge, Von forcibly awakened a portion of the Demon King’s power to protect the family.

Instead of earning the merchant’s gratitude, this merely showed the man a new way to make money.

From that day on, Von became a source of alchemical ingredients. The merchant harvested his nails, horns, teeth, and even his flesh to make potions.

The power Von had awakened was enough for him to escape.

But he did not.

Years in chains had taught him to forget how to resist. That earlier scrap of kindness was arsenic coated in honey, making him walk willingly toward his own ruin.

To remain in this “home,” Von endured inhuman torment.

At last, one day, after even half his core had been dug out, the Demon King truly awakened amid his suffering.

The humans who had humiliated him paid the price. But the Demon King’s fury did not abate so easily.

War engulfed the continent, dragging every living creature into the flames.

Everything perished. All that remained was the consciousness of the world, weeping where no one could hear—

[Boo-hoo-hoo…]

The sound gave me goose bumps.

I woke from the vision of the original timeline and realized the System was the one making that noise.

[The villain is so pitiful! Lady Savior, you must change his fate. Show him that there is true kindness and true love in this world!]

“Mm,” I said.

With power like that, why waste his life as a punching bag?

I decided to teach Von how to fight back ahead of schedule.

Teaching someone to be good might be difficult, but angering them until they resisted was always easy.

My years of dealing with emotionless-path cultivators had honed that talent to perfection.

As a witch of the Joyous Union Sect with a masterful grasp of human nature, I could make an icy emotionless-path grandmaster draw his sword eighteen times in three sentences. Provoking one expressive young demon should have been nothing.

What I had not expected was that the fierce little dog from the cage would lose nearly all the hostility in his eyes after one hot bath at my house.

No longer baring his teeth, the young demon submerged himself in the bathwater and watched me warily. But his clear eyes had already betrayed his guileless nature.

He was far too easy to placate. No wonder that merchant had exploited him so completely.

So, to remind him not to give away his trust so readily, I threw out his old clothes.

Then I prepared a new outfit for him—

A knee-length maid dress trimmed in lace.

Von: “?”

Von, who had maintained an obstinate silence until now, endured for as long as he could before finally forcing out a halting sentence.

“I am… male.”

“I know.” I teased him on purpose. “But you’re pretty enough to be androgynous. This will suit you perfectly.”

I had expected him to take offense at the remark, or at least show some displeasure.

Instead, Von hesitated only briefly before accepting the dress without the slightest resistance. He turned his back and put it on.

The fitted waist emphasized the adult demon’s lean, long-limbed figure. A lace headband held back his bewitching crimson hair, while garters hugged his firm thighs in sharp contrast to the skirt’s hem.

A demon manservant really did belong in a maid dress.

I wiped an emotional tear from the corner of my mouth, fully intending to keep going.

“Come over when you’re dressed. I’ll put medicine on your wounds.”