Taming The Villainesses novel Chapter 377

A perfect replica of Solomon.

And at the same time, Isaiah—the man who would become the father of this Teo Gospel—crossed the barrier, abandoning the peace he once held and everything he might have had in the future.

No one knew the exact reason why he made such a drastic decision. They say the bloodline of House Angmar occasionally drives its descendants to madness. That might have had something to do with it.

So, I thought it would be a good idea to find out the reason behind his eccentric actions, and I did my own bit of research.

After crossing the barrier through the Witch Forest near the northern city of Sandora, he spent a considerable amount of time beyond the wall, fighting monsters. Eventually, he met the nymph who ruled that forest and stayed with her for quite a while.

It’s not exact, but probably about two to three years.

He likely spent a honeymoon period with the nymph who lived in the monster-infested forest.

He was someone who, even when living south of the barrier, was immensely popular and received romantic attention from countless women—so how he ended up marrying a wild nymph and even having a child with her, I couldn’t begin to guess.

Was it the unfathomable nature of love?

But then why did he suddenly leave the nymph’s side and vanish without a trace?

In any case, that was the last known trace I had of Isaiah Gospel.

But thanks to the imp I met here at Fortress Gargarta, I was able to fill in a bit more of the blank that had been missing in his story.

“You’re talking about Isaiah Gospel when you say ‘your master,’ aren’t you?”

There was an imp hiding in Fortress Gargarta.

It had lived here, avoiding the horde of monsters occupying the fortress, moving through secret passageways from place to place.

Only someone like Demon King Solomon, or myself—or perhaps Isaiah Gospel, whose blood closely resembled ours—could become the master of a stubborn imp like this.

The imp, who was frantically devouring the dry barley crackers we had stored in a sack, suddenly wrinkled her face.

“Isaiah Gospel? Who’s that? My master is just my master! Anyway, give me more food. Ever since those invaders stormed the fortress, I haven’t eaten a single thing since morning....”

She didn’t know Isaiah Gospel?

The thought that my guess might have been wrong left me a bit unsettled. I might have to scrap all the deductions I had just been piecing together.

I handed over some more of the crackers I had tucked away for myself and asked,

“You don’t know your master’s name?”

“No idea!”

This imp seemed extremely clumsy at communicating with people—probably because she had lived hidden in this fortress all on her own for such a long time.

How troubling.

I started wondering if she might be lying, so I carefully watched her behavior. She looked just like a middle school girl.

Her imp tail had been torn off, and she didn’t have the horns on her forehead that were common among malicious imps. She really did seem like just a young girl.

How many years had she survived alone in this place?

I glanced around the small room that served as the imp’s dwelling. A room so low even crouching inside would have your head bumping the ceiling. The only source of light was a single flickering lantern.

Leonor, whom I met in Ayra’s dream, had also hidden himself away inside a fortress. That thought made me feel a little sorry for her.

That’s when Mirna, who had been silently watching this entire time, parted her lips.

“So, what’s your name?”

“I’m Imp.”

“That’s your race, not your personal name. Don’t you have a special name just for yourself?”

“Why does that matter? What I’m more curious about is this square, flat snack! What is it? It’s tiny and shaped like a star, and when I bite it, it melts right in my mouth!”

“......”

While munching /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ on crackers and sugar stars, the imp looked delighted. Watching her, Mirna gave her a strange look, then leaned in and whispered to me.

“She doesn’t seem malicious or dangerous.”

“Well, yeah. She doesn’t have horns.”

“Horns?”

Mirna asked, confused.

I gave a quick explanation. Imps who do bad things often grow horns on their heads. Sometimes, like Marmar, there are imps without horns, and those are usually the kind-hearted ones.

Mirna nodded in understanding.

“So that’s why Tartar and Purpur had horns. So horned imps are evil?”

“Well... it’s not that simple.”

Anyway.

It seemed like Mirna had greatly lowered her guard toward this imp.

“I thought she might be a spy or assassin planted by the monsters. That’s why I was trying to catch her before anything terrible happened.”

At Mirna’s comment, the imp suddenly puffed up her hair.

“Comparing me to those idiot monsters! How dare you!”

Alright, so she clearly wasn’t on the same side as the monsters infesting the north. Come to think of it, imps always hated the monsters beyond the barrier.

***

The imp’s name, apparently, was just “Imp.”

When I asked why, she said her master called her that.

“For some reason, I was badly wounded and dying... and Master saved me. After that, he just called me Imp. That’s all I know. I don’t remember anything before I got hurt. But that’s enough for me.”

To call an imp simply “Imp” as a name...

It wasn’t all that different from naming a dog “Dog” or a cat “Cat.” Maybe this so-called master of hers never intended to name her at all.

I asked,

“So, you really don’t know your master’s name?”

“......”

Instead of answering, she continued scarfing down the rest of the crackers. Seeing her working through her third small pouch of crackers, Mirna raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“Are imps normally this gluttonous?”