Alice Benjamin

Once upon a time, a Founding Father of Southern Demons fell in love with a human. It was the forbidden love he ever had. He knows loving a human being is wrong and should not happen. However, he could not betray his feelings. Even if his heart is uncooperative, he can't betray himself. And in the end, he conveys his feelings to a woman as a "pretend human".

Life as a "pretend human" he had lived with the woman for many years. His life has now been mixed with human life. There are no more activities that he used to do; disturb the peace of the world. Now, he is just an ordinary demon; even the title—Founding Father of Southern Demons—is no longer held.

The predecessors knew that he had left his position. They decided to look for him, discussing why he chose to leave. But since he realized that when he was told he was out because of being "a human", he decided to avoid them at all costs.

But in the end, the Demon predecessors still knew of his existence. They are aware and know that he now lives on earth, in the home of living beings. They sent a demon named Michael to pick him up there.

Of course, he couldn't know that. He, Gio, and his wife, Cindy, are unaware of the presence of Michael, who has been sent to pick him up. He and his wife were too happy to think about their first child being born. They were too happy not to think about the dangers that would come to them.

Alice was born to different parents. Her mother is a human, and her father is a demon. She is a descendant with the blood of a demon and a human. She became a half-demon. Even so, she still found happiness there.

But when Michael comes...

When Alice was two years old, Michael finally came to the Gio family's house to pick him up. He purposely allowed Cindy to give birth to Alice first and was patient to wait for two years, but after that, he carried out the task.

He picks up Gio there, forcing Gio to follow him. Gio realized his family would be in danger if he didn't follow him. He knew Michael was a powerful demon, and even he couldn't fight him alone. He was unwilling and unable to ignore him, who had come to pick him up.

"Father?"

But just then, Alice, who was only two years old, realized something dangerous had happened to her father. Her heart told her that if she let her father follow that person, her father would be hurt. She couldn't let her father go to follow that person.

"Father, don't go!"

She hugged Gio, accompanied by her mother, who carried her. Neither of them wanted Gio to go with that person. However, Gio couldn't help but walk away from them. He cares more about his family than himself. Even if his love for them was higher, he had to sacrifice for his family's safety.

He still had to go and leave them.

Since then, Alice and her mother have been waiting for Gio's return. They were waiting patiently for Gio's return. They wasted even four years of their time waiting, waiting, and waiting for Gio's return. Finally, the man, Michael, came back to their house.

Michael came because he had been ordered by his predecessors again. He had a goal to solve that problem, the problem that happened to Gio. He came to kill Mrs. Cindy and Alice.

"Mother...?"

Alice fell silent when she saw her mother being carried away by Michael. She saw her mother forced to leave the house. Her mother, Mrs. Cindy, kept screaming and telling Alice to go and not follow her.

Alice was confused by what had happened and wondered, "Actually, where is my father? Where did you take my father? My father… where is my father?"

She kept wondering and staring at her mother, who was further away from her. Her heart is too fragile to remember her happiness. Her mind was too small to think about what had happened to her parents. Her body was too weak to help her parents. Even so… she was still a half-demon human.

"Hikari..."

Those were the first words Alice said when she couldn't see her mother there. Hikari (Light)... She sees hope in front of her, a hope to save her mother. Her eyes, cheeks, nails, and thoughts changed as she stared in that direction.

She ran and lunged in the direction she wanted, where Michael had taken her mother. Her sharp nails, her canine teeth that could be seen between her lips, her eyes getting darker red, and her fading consciousness continued to help her run in that direction, Hikari.

"Don't take my mother!"

She jumped at Michael after seeing her mother there helplessly, resigned to being taken away by Michael.

"Alice? W-Why... why did you come here? Why don't you go?"

Mrs. Cindy was shocked when she saw her daughter scratching Michael. She had begged Michael to let Alice go, but Alice had come towards her instead. It surprised her to know Alice was in danger.

Michael moved away from there. He got a wound on his arm. Alice had injured his hand.

"Oh..."

He was surprised when he saw blood coming out of his arm. He didn't expect someone to hurt him like that suddenly. He didn't expect Alice to have come this far, to be so aggressive.

"Alice... Please..."

Mrs. Cindy continued to look at Alice, who had turned into a demon.

"I don't want you to take my mother!"

She is honest with how she feels. She had experienced how she let her father be taken away by Michael. She didn't want to go through that again, waiting for her father to return.

Michael just stared at Alice. He looked at Alice seriously, looking like he was watching her. Then, he licked the wound on his arm and disappeared quickly.

Alice was surprised Michael wasn't there. She searched for Michael, looked left, right, back and forward, but she couldn't find him. She was confused and kept looking for him.

"Where? Where are you!?"

She is just a little girl. She didn't know how dangerous this world was, including the man she was fighting. There's still a lot she doesn't know. This world... this world was new to her.

"You are still too early to be able to fight me!"

She was surprised when she heard the man's voice. The voice was behind her, 2 meters behind her. She wanted to turn her head to ensure it was the man behind her. However, before turning her head back, the man hit her on the neck. It made her crash and fall to the ground facing her mother.

"Mama..."

Her eyes grew blurry. She could still see her mother beside her but with increasingly blurry eyes. She tried to reach for her mother, and her mother also tried to stand up and crawl toward her. But before that happened, before she could get to her mother, she closed her eyes and passed out.

"Hate me! Like it or not, hate me! Look for me whenever you want! I'm the one who killed the people you love. I'm the one who did this job! So, look for me when you're ready, ALICE!"

The man said something he accidentally said through his mouth. He looked at Alice, kept muttering, and looked at her wound several times. After that, he...

***

Alice opened her eyes after two days of fainting. She felt almost her entire body immobile. She felt aches all over her body and her crying heart.

She tried to get up, confirming that it was a dream. But what she wanted, she couldn't get. She had to accept that her mother was not by her side.

After that incident, the knights and adventurers came to Alice's house. They asked what had happened there, and Alice could not answer that.

From then on, someone from the orphanage took care of her. She gets the care that other kids deserve. However, because she was being too honest, many kids shunned her. The other kids didn't like Alice being too honest. They almost hated her. And from then on, Alice knew the head of the orphanage, which took good care of her there.

Before she met "Veronica", when she was approaching seven years old, she was still in a state of sorrow in her heart. She sometimes cries when she remembers the night of the incident. She could only stare at the stars and hope that her mother and father would come home soon to pick her up.

Realizing the fact that had happened and passed, she seemed not to want to accept it. She still hopes to have a mother and father to guide her in her life. She still has real hope; that is "false hope". She couldn't accept her mother and father leaving her because they were taken by the man, Michael.

And even today, she still has that hope.

***

King Eric came to the orphanage with his family and the knights guarding them. That's when Alice first met Veronica.

King Eric visited there to accompany his two kids, who wanted to find a friend for them. He realized his rank was too high, so he found his two kids a friend through the kid in the orphanage. That way, he doesn't have to be afraid of the kid who will take advantage of his two kids.

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Alice... my name is Alice."

"Nice to meet you, Alice. I'm Veronica Armstan. You can call me Veronica."

The two of them started to be friends. Veronica often invites Alice to her house, and Alice always asks the head of the orphanage for permission to play outside. From then on, they began to be friends and became close. But when that incident came...