Chapter 62
Asmod shifted past Theticia just as she reflexively reached out to grab him, moving forward.
“Ugh!”
Thanks to that, Theticia could not manage her own weight and fell onto the grass with a soft thud.
‘What… What is this?’
Since he had rescued her from a dangerous situation, a touching reunion or greeting should have followed. At Asmod’s cold reaction, Theticia stood up hesitantly with a bewildered face.
“Um… Lord Asmod?”
“Levia. Why did you take my human without permission?”
Asmod moved toward Levia without even looking back at Theticia. Glacia licked Theticia’s wounds as if saying it was alright.
Levia, who had been frozen at the intrusion of the two Archdukes, slithered his thorn-bush legs back and descended to the ground. Chilly gazes collided in midair.
“S-Since the soul has not been harvested, T-Theticia can choose her own master. B-By the look of things, it is not as if she is in a state to be called y-your human anyway…?”
Levia’s gaze turned toward Glacia, who stood beside Theticia. Asmod crumpled his expression and retorted sharply.
“…That is none of your concern.”
“You say she is a p-pet human, yet you cannot even k-keep her under control.”
The sound of his muttering toward Glacia was gloomy. Unlike Theticia, who had not grasped the situation, Glacia wagged her tail restlessly.
“A-Archdukie. I can explain everyth…”
“Enough, Glacia. We will speak of this later. Right now, Levia is the one who must pay the price first.”
At the firm answer, Glacia tucked her tail deeply between her legs with a resigned face. A gaze that left no room for interference briefly turned toward Glacia before looking back at Levia.
“I know you would not instigate such a thing alone, Levia. Who ordered this?”
“…A-Are you ignoring me?”
“I speak as a friend who has watched you for a long time. No matter how much you covet the things of others, you would not touch what is mine unless you intended to break me.”
“… .”
“Will you not speak?”
Asmod’s pursuit met only with Levia’s silence as he bit his lip. Asmod raised his hand toward him.
“Then I have no choice but to make you open your mouth by force.”
The moment the words fell, pitch-black tentacles burst from the hem of Asmod’s coat and surged toward Levia.
‘T-Tentacles!’
The appendages extending from Asmod, who looked no different from a human in any other way, felt somehow familiar.
Levia also spread his thorn-bushes, entangling and arresting the tentacles.
“Speak, Levia.”
“I-I only wanted to have Theticia. It is too u-unfair that only you have a human like that.”
“Then you should have searched for your own human.”
Tentacles and thorn-bushes coiled around and tore at each other. When the brambles flew toward Asmod like whips, the tentacles caught and crushed the thickets. Branches and grass, caught in the commotion, flew about haphazardly.
“What should I do? Shouldn’t we stop them, Glacia?”
“My life is in more danger, Tishia.”
Glacia let out a hollow sigh with a spiritless voice.
‘What is wrong with her now.’
Theticia, clutching her head, watched the two Archdukes with terrified eyes. The sight of them fighting over her was quite like a romance novel, but the scene unfolding before her eyes was too brutal.
The sounds of splintering and snapping filled the air.
The plants and demonic beasts in the greenhouse, which had been beautifully tended, were turning into ruins in the fight between the two Archdukes. Theticia squeezed her eyes shut at the sight of the snow-white roots of rare plants being exposed every time the ground was gouged out.
The eyes of the greenhouse owner also shook violently.
Without missing that moment, Asmod’s tentacles firmly bound Levia’s limbs.
“Ugh!”
“The difference in power is clear. Do you desire even your own extinction?”
At the cold interrogation, Levia crumpled his brow. His gaze was fixed on the grass that had been knocked over.
“…I-I will stop, …so please do not d-damage my greenhouse any further.”
At the surrender that finally fell, Asmod crossed his arms. Levia’s shoulders slumped without strength.
“I-I thought our power would be similar. It is thanks to T-Theticia’s mana.”
A mournful gaze, as if lingering with regret, turned toward Theticia. Theticia, trembling at the obsessive stare, hesitated and hid behind Glacia.
“Stop speaking nonsense. Why did you do this? There must be someone who instigated you.”
“Instigated…”
Levia bit his lip and muttered. His cool eyes rolled around as if rummaging through old memories.
“Ah. Right. I-I did think it was strange.”
Levia nodded his head.
“I-I heard such a thing from Mammon. That Theticia has the s-same hobbies as me.”
At the unexpected name, Theticia’s eyes grew round. Even Asmod furrowed his brow.
“I-It was also Mammon who pointed out that she had fallen into m-my greenhouse.”
It was a self-mocking voice. As the story reached his ears, a deep crease formed on Asmod’s jaw.
“Why would Mammon leak such a story to you?”
“Th-That, I do not know either.”
Asmod whipped his body around. At the frost-cold glare, Theticia shrank back.
That gaze was clearly one of anger directed not at Levia, but at her.
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