The Incubus Archduke Dreams of a Pet Human - Chapter 61

There was a door frame and there was a door, but there was no handle.

Including dimensional gates, she had seen various forms of doors since arriving in the Demon Realm, but this was the first time she had encountered one without a handle. Even as she pushed with all her might, the door did not budge.

“C-Come here, Theticia.”

The splintering groan of dry wood echoed through the greenhouse as Levia’s bramble legs forced their way through the foliage, closing in on her.

“Ah, no, no!”

She had run all this way with only this single door in her sights. Theticia fumbled against the glass door in a panic. If this took the shape of a door, there had to be a way to open and close it. If such an eerie form of a door existed in the Demon Realm, the method to open it was.

‘…Magic!’

Theticia pressed both hands against the door with a do-or-die mindset. If magic was cast upon it, it had to be an enchanted item; a slender hope arose that it might activate if she filled it with mana.

“Kngh…!”

Putting every ounce of strength into her ten fingers, Theticia squeezed her eyes shut and let her mana erupt haphazardly.

It did not flow evenly from her fingertips, and compared to the mana Asmod used to breathe into her, the density was pitifully thin. Half of the mana she desperately expelled scattered into the air, while the other half seeped into the glass door.

“…!”

Following the mana that had seeped into the glass, she discovered a single, foreign strand of magical energy. As she followed the lint-like end, she saw a delicately woven stem of mana forming a shape like a tapestry.

‘This is it, it is clear that I can open the door with magic!’

Theticia concentrated her entire mind to radiate mana. She felt it leaking not just from her fingertips, but from her entire body. Only a very small amount reached the tapestry inside the door, but Theticia possessed a sufficiently large amount of mana.

The suddenly erupting mana seeped into the atmosphere, and the nearby plants and demonic beasts began to greedily sprout new leaves. Line by line, slowly but surely, the mana crawled up along the intangible tapestry.

“A-Ah, no.”

The heavy latch gave way with a metallic clatter!

The glass door swung open.

“It worked…!”

But at that same moment, Theticia’s body was bound by the brambles and soared high into the air.

“Aaargh!”

Escape had been right before her eyes. As Theticia opened her eyes, the pale face of Levia, stained with anxiety, occupied her vision.

“I-I didn’t think you could use m-magic.”

Levia bit his lip as if he had not considered it, looking down at the area around the glass door where the undergrowth had grown thick.

Theticia struggled, trying to grab and tear at the thorn-bushes, but the rigid thickets only left small scratches on her hands.

“L-Let, let me go!”

“No. I-I cannot let you out. Stay h-here with me forever.”

As Levia repeated the same words with a chilling tone, it seemed as though he could no longer be reasoned with. The thorn-bushes that had been slithering up her arms and legs scraped against her white skin, leaving wounds behind.

“Mmph…!”

The thorns coiled around her neck and firmly fixed her head in place. As Theticia remained unable to move even an inch, Levia continued speaking in a coaxing manner.

“D-Don’t move. If you m-make a wrong move, you won’t even be able to speak.”

The sharp ends of the thorns flickered before her eyes. At the momentum that looked as if they would enter her eyes at any moment, an indescribable fear welled up and leaked out as tears.

“No…!”

The moment Theticia squeezed her eyes shut and shrieked in desperation.

“Tishia!”

With the sound of wind being sliced, the brambles connecting Levia and Theticia were torn away with a violent snapping sound. Just before her body, which had been floating in midair, plummeted to the floor, soft fur caught her.

“Glacia!”

Glacia, with her large wings spread, soared upward with Theticia on her back. Glacia spat out the thorn-bushes she had held in her mouth with a sharp sound of disdain.

“It’s okay now!”

“Haa, I was so scared. Glacia! Thank you…!”

Theticia barely held back her bursting tears and tightly hugged Glacia’s back as they flew.

“Levia.”

At the familiar voice heard from far below, Theticia peeked her head out. Asmod was standing in front of the open door.

“Lord Asmod!”

This time, she could not hold back her tears. As a surging sense of relief broke her into sobs, Glacia landed lightly beside Asmod. Theticia hugged Glacia tightly, her head barely bobbing up.

“H-Heu… uuhhh, Lord Asmod!”

An irritable gaze landed upon Theticia, who was shedding tears like a fool. The skin where the thorn-bushes had swept past was abraded and peeled in various places, leaving red marks; her clothes, torn while thrashing through the undergrowth, had become rags.