For the first time in a long while, she felt a chill run down her spine.
“Why are you looking at me with those eyes?”
“But circumstances are always changing. If you grant me one request, I might be able to help Kate.”
Yuliana instinctively grew wary and took a step back. An ominous thought was already taking shape in her mind.
‘Surely he isn’t trying to use this as bait to demand my body……’
Goosebumps rose all over her. Kate did not miss the moment and shouted tearfully.
“No. The fact that you thought of me this much is already enough. So please, stop. Don’t ever agree to his demand.”
Yuliana turned her head and glanced at Kate, her expression hardening. She had already steeled her resolve.
“What exactly is your condition?”
“It’s simple.”
When Yuliana heard Damon’s demand, her eyes widened. The same was true of the mercenaries and Kate.
“Every morning, you kiss me on the cheek and call me as sweetly as you can, ‘Mister.’ How about it?”
“You’re… you’re insane.”
Yuliana shook her head and staggered backward. Of course, it was a relief that he had not demanded her body, but the condition was far too absurd. Moreover, to Yuliana, it was something she would rather die than do. Just thinking about it made goosebumps rise all over her body.
“I… I can’t. Not even if I die……”
Damon stared expressionlessly at Yuliana as she shook her head fiercely.
“It seems your words and actions don’t match. Until just now, you were so desperate to help Kate…… You were even trying to make Mitchell and Kasim use their charms on her, yet you’re not willing to do even such a small thing yourself?”
“Th-that’s a small thing?”
“Then is it a big thing?”
After saying that, Damon looked around at the mercenaries.
“What do you men think? In exchange for helping a woman who has fallen into misfortune, is one kiss every morning really such a great burden? And not even on the lips, but on the cheek.”
Only then did Kasim understand the meaning of Damon’s glance and began to play along.
“Well, that much certainly isn’t difficult. No matter what anyone says, Sir Dark Mage is old enough to be our grandfather. If it were us, we’d be willing to do it a hundred times a day……”
This time, it was Damon’s turn to feel goosebumps rise all over him. The thought of receiving kisses from those rough-looking mercenaries was horrifying in itself.
‘These damned bastards……’
But he did not show it and turned to Kate this time.
“See? Kate, is my condition unreasonable?”
Kate said nothing and lowered her head deeply. In truth, the condition Damon had proposed could not really be called unreasonable.
“If you don’t want to, then there’s nothing to be done…… It wasn’t going to be easy anyway, so this works out.”
Damon turned away without hesitation. The mercenaries began to subtly needle Yuliana. Very intelligently, at that.
“It’s not like it’s something difficult.”
“If I could help poor Kate with just that much, I’d do it a hundred times……”
“Sir Dark Mage would probably refuse that. Just look how fearsome your face is.”
“Come now, aren’t we both in the same boat?”
Listening to the mercenaries mutter among themselves, Yuliana finally made up her mind.
“You can definitely make it happen, right?”
As if he had been waiting for that, Damon nodded.
“Of course. I guarantee it on my name.”
“What will you do if you can’t?”
“Then I’ll do whatever you tell me to do. But don’t worry. At the very least, by tomorrow, I’ll have that fellow named Philip running here in one breath and kneeling before Kate. Sobbing his eyes out as he begs her to please forgive him.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
Hearing Damon’s confident boast, Yuliana let out a long sigh.
“But I can’t do it every day even if I die. So how about we end it with just once?”
“That won’t do. If you absolutely can’t, why don’t we set a time limit of one month? Thirty times.”
“No. I will never accept more than a week.”
After haggling back and forth, the two of them finally fixed the period at ten days. Having achieved the result he wanted, Damon thrust his face forward with a triumphant expression.
“Then shall I receive the first kiss today? Do your best to act cute and make me happy……”
Yuliana stepped back with a look of revulsion.
“Are you insane? You haven’t even started the job yet, so what are you talking about?”
“When commissioning a job, there is such a thing as an advance payment. You could call it a deposit. I’m trying to receive that deposit now. Gentlemen. Isn’t that the truth?”
The mercenaries supported Damon without a single exception. They were truly a party whose teamwork clicked perfectly.
“That’s right. Of course. You can’t start a job without a deposit.”
“If there’s no advance payment, there’s no way a deal can be made.”
When the mercenaries all rose to Damon’s defense, Yuliana looked as if she were about to cry. She had agreed because of Kate, but she simply could not bring herself to do it. Still, she forced herself to harden her heart.
‘It’s only ten times. I only have to do it ten times and it’ll be over…… I must think only of poor Kate.’
With her face twisted in every possible way, Yuliana hesitantly brought her lips toward Damon’s cheek.
“What’s with that face? I told you to do it sweetly.”
“This is as sweet as I can get.”
Yuliana shot back without backing down. In the end, she squeezed her eyes shut and planted a loud kiss on Damon’s cheek.
“Good. Now it’s time to call me Mister.”
“Mi… Mister……”
At Yuliana’s voice, which was barely audible, Damon glared.
“Did you not eat lunch? I told you to do it as sweetly as possible.”
“Mi… Mister.”
“Not sweet. Again!”
“Mister.”
When Yuliana, teeth clenched, called him as sweetly as she possibly could, only then did Damon look satisfied.
“Good. It did feel a bit clumsy, but I’ll forgive you. I hope you continue like this from now on.”
As Damon continued speaking, an ambiguous emotion floated in his eyes. Perhaps he was experiencing a kind of vicarious satisfaction—reliving old memories of Daphne while looking at Yuliana’s face. Damon closed his eyes for a moment and savored the sensation on his cheek, then slowly rose to his feet.
Ignoring Yuliana as she hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief and scrubbed at her lips, Damon looked at Kasim.
“Good. Leader. Prepare to stay here for about two days. In the meantime, I’ll begin preparations to turn that fellow Philip’s heart around……”
After saying that, Damon strode off toward the mountain. Kasim stared at his back with an extremely troubled expression.
“What on earth is he planning to do……”
In Kasim’s view, this was impossible. Since ancient times, people said that a woman’s heart was difficult to turn, but a man’s heart was even more difficult. Moreover, they could not very well force a proud royal guard knight of a nation into submission through coercive means, so Kasim’s doubts only grew.
“It can’t be helped. We’ll pitch the tents here. Everyone, prepare to set up camp.”
The mercenaries, too, began making preparations with bewildered expressions. They could not even begin to guess what method Damon would use to turn Philip’s heart around.
“Kate. You’ll share a tent with me.”
Yuliana, who approached with a sour face, came over to Kate and took Timmy from her. Kate bowed unconsciously.
“I’m sorry. Because of me, for no reason……”
“It’s fine. I’ll just consider it as having been bitten once by a mad dog.”
Yuliana’s heavily scowling face brightened the moment she saw Timmy smiling brightly.
“Just wait a little, Timmy. That dark mage is certainly wicked and rotten, but his skill is beyond doubt, so you’ll definitely be able to see your father.”
But Kate’s face, too, was filled with doubt. She also thought that turning her husband’s heart back would be impossible……
Having left the group and entered a deserted part of the mountains, Damon sat down cross-legged.
“I boasted big, but will it really be possible?”
If he had gone so far as to abandon his wife and child, then he must have made up his mind firmly. It was clear that turning Philip’s heart would not be easy. But Damon was confident. Considering the experiences he had gone through until now and the power of the dark magic he possessed, he should be able to make it happen.
“Then shall we begin?”
When Damon lightly gestured with his hand, the weeds on the ground turned to ash in an instant.
Fwoosh.
In that place, a grotesque magic circle soon appeared. The magic circle formed by the gathering ashes was none other than a summoning magic circle. Damon intended to use a dream demon to make Philip change his mind.
“An ordinary Nightmare won’t do. Only an Incubus, called the lord of dream demons, can accomplish this.”
Incubus. As the lord of dream demons, it was an existence that approached the level of a Demon King. Its ability to invade the mental world of humans could not be compared to that of ordinary dream demons, and for that reason, summoning one was never easy.
But for Damon, who possessed the magical power of the Great Demon King Neidelhark in its entirety, it could not be called completely impossible. After all, Neidelhark was a powerful Demon King who could not even be compared to the likes of an Incubus. Recalling that fact, Damon began pouring mana into the summoning magic circle.
The reason Damon was carrying out the summoning away from the group like this was because the Incubus itself was an existence with power that could not be ignored. If, by any chance, the others were affected by the Incubus, it would become quite a troublesome problem, so Damon had been forced to come into this deserted part of the mountains.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa.
Mana concentrated into the summoning magic circle, and it began to emit an eerie light. The mana of darkness was not only used to create undead, but was also an indispensable element in summoning beings from the demon realm.
A short while later, the magic circle spewed forth a terrifying radiance, and at the same time, vanished. Because the consumption of mana had been extreme, Damon’s complexion had turned somewhat haggard.
“It’s done.”
Damon let out a sigh and waited for the Incubus, lord of dream demons, to appear. The Incubus, too, was normally an existence invisible to human eyes. A moment later, a sinister voice echoed from the air.
“Are you the one who summoned me? How surprising that a trifling necromancer would call me forth.”
At those words, sparks flew in Damon’s eyes. He already knew very well that one had to always take a strong stance with summoned monsters.
“A lowly thing dares, in whose presence……”
The Incubus’s attitude changed in an instant. It happened after it grasped the source of the mana inside Damon’s body. From the necromancer’s body, an immense and highly pure mana of darkness was pouring out. Astonishingly, it was mana comparable to that of a Great Demon King.
“Th-this aura is……”
“Do you wish to be extinguished in the human realm for your insolence? Do you truly think I lack the power to do so?”
Without hesitation, the Incubus revealed itself and prostrated. At the very least, the creatures of the demon realm were beings that thoroughly submitted to the logic of power.
“Forgive me. I failed to recognize you.”
The Incubus that revealed itself had a rather bizarre appearance.