Chapter 9
In the room where deep darkness had settled, Bezel lay on the half-sunken mattress with his eyes closed.
“Andre.”
In his deliberately scattered mind, he called out the demon’s name, and a form emerged through the darkened field of vision.
“Oh my! Lord Beelzebub!”
This demon, who hurriedly clung to him had a high voice for a man, and was a male-type incubus he used as his subordinate.
Each demon had their own power. Just as Marbas could curse and make his opponents sick, and Beelzebub could devour everything in the world, incubi moved freely between Hell and the human realm through dreams. It was thanks to this that they could absorb human life force.
Although there were numerous incubi, each one was individually weak. They mainly latched onto the strong, sharing the life force they’d absorbed in exchange for protection. Andre was one such incubus.
“I heard the news! Some foolish human summoned Lord Beelzebub! What happened to him? I heard that a demon summoned elsewhere last week got angry at being suddenly dragged over and devoured everyone there!”
“He wasn’t worth it. He was an old, ugly man. The Holy Knights dragged him away, so they’ll handle it.”
“Ugh! The Holy Knights?! I hate even saying that name. Ptui, ptui, how blasphemous.”
Andre made a show of spitting into the air.
“So what happened to that demon?”
“You mean the one summoned last week? He went down to a nearby village and killed everyone, trying to open the gates to Hell, but was eventually subdued by the exorcist priests. But I only heard it from other incubi, so I’m not completely sure.”
A pathetic death. Killing humans wouldn’t open the gates to Hell. Over a hundred thousand people die every day. If that alone could do it, there would be no point in a boundary between Hell and the human realm.
Perhaps if they drew magic circles like demon worshippers do, but to gain the power to open a gate through mere death, village-level slaughter wasn’t enough. There would need to be a disaster great enough to threaten an entire nation, like war.
“By the way, Lord Beelzebub, what’s the reason you called me all the way here?”
Andre’s voice turned sultry as he rubbed his cheek against Bezel’s chest. The arms that had been embracing Bezel’s thick torso gradually moved downward, and his delicate hands, befitting an incubus, wrapped around Bezel’s member.
“Let’s stop with the boring talk… and enjoy ourselves now, shall we?”
If this was what he wanted, then why even ask why he called? Andre firmly believed that Bezel had summoned him because he needed life force.
However, Bezel pushed his face away with a disinterested hand.
There was no need to absorb life force through Andre when there was a fresh human beyond that door.
The energy wafting over was powerful, as if it were pulsating, harboring cold resentment and hot anger in her chest—one who had received the curse of a high-ranking demon.
She was a human so appetizing that if placed in Hell, everyone from kings to slaves would have rushed over to covet her madly.
“There’s something I need you to look into.”
Andre pulled away obediently, though his face betrayed disappointment.
“Yes, my lord. Anything you ask.”
Gathering information was an incubus’s specialty. There were many of them, and their ability to move freely made it easy to pick up news here and there.
“There’s a woman cursed by Marbas. From the taste of it, the curse has been on her for at least a few years.”
“That long? And she’s still alive?”
“He must have kept her alive on purpose.”
There was no need to think deeply about the reason. He had aged his prey, let her survive while cursed, accumulating layers of pain for all that time.
“I need to know what happened between this woman and Marbas.”
“Ah… anything related to Lord Marbas is tricky to investigate.”
Andre pouted as if uncomfortable. Marbas was a demon notorious for being temperamental, even in Hell. His mood swings were so extreme that he could act incredibly sweet when he was in a good mood, but he would devour even his own subordinates if his mood soured. Even incubi, who normally favored the strong, avoided Marbas.
“That’s why I’m asking you.”
Bezel’s expressionless face softened into a smile. He gently stroked Andre’s face with the same hand that had just pushed him away, and Andre’s expression became dazed.
“Ah, Lord Beelzebub. Yes, I’ll find out.”
Andre grasped his precious master’s wrist with both hands and rubbed his cheek against the large palm. Bezel shoved his thumb into Andre’s mouth and pressed down on his tongue. The body of a demon that was neither alive nor dead was cold like a corpse. An incubus’s mouth was no different.
“One more thing, I need you to find out that cursed woman’s taste in men.”
He had heard that human bodies were warm and soft, unlike this. Bezel, having never experienced it, was curious about what it felt like inside.
***
The night was long for a demon who didn’t sleep. Having ended his brief meeting with Andre, Bezel opened the door of the room that had once been a closet and was now serving as a temporary bedroom, and stepped into the living room.
Unlike other houses in the Brighton Empire, Eden’s home was a small apartment rather than a mansion. It was only called small because the apartment had few floors and units, but the interior itself was spacious. It was more than enough for one person to live in.
The bedroom he reached after crossing the standardized living room had its door firmly closed.
Bezel carefully turned the doorknob. It wasn’t locked, and the door opened easily.
Gororong, gororong. Soft snoring sounds could be heard, like that of a child rather than an adult. Bezel approached the bed and leaned his upper body toward the source of the sound.
“Eden.”
Even though he whispered with his face right in front of hers, Eden showed no reaction. Not even when he smoothed her disheveled hair with his hand, or when he touched her downcast eyelashes.
“She’s sleeping deeply.”
Discussion
0 CommentsReactions
No comments yet.