But in the end, they could never escape that spot.
"P-please spare us."
The men turned deathly pale and flailed their legs repeatedly. But they caught only empty air. They
had already fallen victim to Kateuroi's magic and were floating in mid-air. Toward the struggling men,
Kateuroi approached leisurely.
"So these are the thieves one only hears about."
"No, you're wrong. To be precise, shouldn't we call them bandits rather than thieves?"
The men were flabbergasted as they watched the two chat leisurely while keeping them suspended.
Their appearances seemed decent enough, but the way they spoke made them nothing more than children. However,
they had no leisure to ponder why.
"P-please spare us. We picked the wrong targets."
Deimon glanced at the men pleading sorrowfully, then cast his gaze toward Kateuroi.
"Shall we wrap this up?"
"Wrap this up?..."
An expression of interest surfaced on Deimon's face as he looked over the men.
"How can we let these bastards who dared try to rob us go unpunished? With your specialty ice magic,
either turn them into ice chunks or burn them. That's right! Burying them alive in the ground
would be the cleanest. Or just eat them as a snack……."
Kateuroi couldn't help but be dumbfounded by the unexpected reaction.
"T-these are humans just like you."
"Who cares? These guys chose the wrong opponents, so they deserve to die."
He could barely even remember the last time he had killed a human. Since he couldn't do it himself,
he seemed to want to enjoy watching humans die indirectly at least. Perhaps because his interest was piqued,
Deimon kept pressing Kateuroi.
"Let me teach you a good method. Freezing them and then burning them sounds like it would be quite entertaining."
As he spoke, the color drained from the men's faces more and more.
"I can't do that. You think I'd fall for your tricks?"
Kateuroi, who had looked like he was about to cast a spell at any moment, flicked his hand and stepped back. Deimon's
intentions seemed highly suspicious. Ironically, it was Deimon who grew anxious at that sight.
"If you can't do it, I will. Watch closely."
Fwoosh.
A blue fireball formed above Deimon's hand. It was Hell Fire, the strongest anti-personnel attack magic.
Spinning the fully formed Hell Fire round and round, Deimon looked at each of the men's faces one by one.
"Flame-type attack magic is the best for eliminating humans. A single blast of Hell Fire can
erase every trace of those bastards' existence from this world. Want to give it a try?"
Kateuroi furrowed his brow.
"Since you made it, you take care of them."
"No. Somehow I don't feel like killing today. So show me your magic skills for once."
"Damn it. What the hell is your true intention?"
The men watching the two bicker were pissing their pants one by one. Hell
Fire's heat was slowly singeing their hair and eyebrows; hearing such words in that situation,
there wasn't a single person who could remain sane. If their lives were going to end anyway, they wanted to die quickly—that
was their state of mind.
How had they ended up provoking such tremendous humans? The men concluded that they were high-ranking mages with enormous magical power.
Cruel mages who treated human lives like flies.
Despite Deimon's efforts, Kateuroi didn't fall for the trick in the end.
"If you won't take care of them, I'll leave them alone too."
Having finished speaking, Kateuroi mercilessly dispelled the magic binding the men.
Thud.
Though freed, the men didn't dare think of fleeing. Faced with the imminent threat to their lives,
they immediately fell to their knees and began to beg.
"Please spare us."
"Our eyes were too dim to recognize the heavens."
Deimon looked at them and clicked his tongue regretfully.
"Damn. I wanted to see some blood for the first time in a while, but that stupid bastard ruined it."
As he glared at Kateuroi with cold eyes, a good idea suddenly came to mind.
It was the thought of using the men before his eyes to enjoy some amusement.
'That's right. Judging by their appearance, nine out of ten of them must belong to the Thieves' Guild...
Then they must be well-versed in the ways of the night. Good.'
Having finished his thought, Deimon immediately rearranged his mana and rendered the men deaf.
He needed to do so in order to have a secret conversation with Kateuroi. As the thieves
flustered by the sudden loss of hearing panicked, Deimon withdrew his gaze from them and looked at Kateuroi with a sly glint in his eyes.
"Hey. Are you interested in women?"
"What are you talking about?"
"It's a kind of entertainment that humans enjoy. It's a gateway you must pass through to understand humans.
Want to try it once?"
Kateuroi thought for a moment, then nodded readily.
"Might as well try it once. Whatever."
"For that, there's something we need. Don't ever object to what I say from now on.
You have to do exactly as I say for things to go smoothly. Got it?"
"Got it."
Hearing Kateuroi's answer, Deimon dispelled the magic on the men and began to browbeat them in a low voice.
"Do you know who we are?"
Of course, there was no way the men could know.
"W-we don't know."
"Listen well. We are dragons. We've come down here to investigate something about humans.
Do you understand?"
When Deimon finished speaking, the men's mouths fell open. They had never seen a dragon before.
Yet these people who looked perfectly human introduced themselves as dragons they had only heard of in stories, so
they couldn't help but be half-doubting.
Deimon smiled as if he had fully anticipated their reaction, then looked at Kateuroi.
"Dispel your polymorph for a moment and show them your true form...."
"Do I really have to?"
"Hey. Didn't I say no objections?"
Kateuroi rearranged his mana with a displeased expression. The majestic figure of a White Dragon
revealed itself. Perhaps afraid of being seen by others, Kateuroi only showed his form briefly
before returning to his human form.
"How about it? Do you believe us now?"
The men trembled violently, their eyes wide as saucers. The shock of encountering a dragon for the first time in their lives
was immense. Because of that, they assumed Deimon was a dragon as well. Logically speaking, they couldn't dare think of a human
treating a dragon so freely as anything but a dragon himself. No longer needing to think, the men pressed their heads to the floor.
"W-we lowly humans pay our respects to y-your great existences."
Deimon's slimy voice reached their ears.
"We've come to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh that humans favor. We were curious what kind of thing
it could be that human males pursue it so eagerly."
The men stared at the dragons who had come to enjoy carnal pleasures, at a complete loss. Though it was their first time
dealing with a dragon, these could only be described as oddities. Oddball dragons that
utterly shattered common knowledge about ordinary dragons. Deimon's words continued.
"If you satisfy us, you will receive fitting rewards. Dragons are a race that clearly repays favors.
But if you cannot......."
Deimon casually tossed the Hell Fire he held. The Hell Fire shot like an arrow and
struck a large rock squarely.
Fwoosh.
The rock burst into flames. Watching a scene where a rock—which shouldn't even be able to burn—turned to ash,
the men's faces turned pale and bloodless. Looking at them,
Deimon concluded briefly.
"We intend to resolve it like this, so choose wisely......."
The men answered in unison the moment Deimon finished speaking. They had no other choice anyway.
"We understand. We shall serve you with our lives."
Deimon nodded as if satisfied.
"Good. Leave one man here and the rest go back to prepare to entertain us."
One man who seemed to be the leader sprang to his feet. He gave orders to the other men without hesitation.
"This is an emergency. You lot return to the guild immediately and report this to the Master.
Tell him to prepare to receive these guests."
"Yes, sir!"
The men shot off without hesitation. Just as Deimon had expected, they were guild members of the Thieves' Guild located in Penslot.
The remaining man bent at the waist with the utmost respect.
"Please follow me. I will see to it that you are sufficiently satisfied."
"Naturally you should. If you fail to satisfy us, I intend to wipe out the entire guild
so keep that in mind......."
Sweat was already streaming down the man's forehead at Deimon's words. He recalled
a mysterious case that had been buried as an unsolved incident long ago.
'The guild headquarters in Lorbein and Terbia disappearing into thin air must have been these beings' doing.
This is bad. If I make one wrong move, our Penslot guild headquarters will
end up destroyed...'
The man guiding them while trembling vowed to somehow cater to the dragons' tastes.
To avoid following the same path as the Lorbein and Terbia Thieves' Guilds.
That day, a momentous event occurred at the Penslot Thieves' Guild. Because of the news brought back by guild members who had gone out for a part-time job(?),
the entire guild was turned upside down. The Guild Master turned deathly pale and
shouted at the top of his lungs.
"All of you, go out immediately and spruce up the most splendid establishments within the guild's influence.
Gather only the highest-grade beauties from each establishment there.
This is a matter of the guild's life or death. Move so fast your balls rattle."
The thieves began to bustle about. Watching them, the Guild Master was anxious.
'I don't know about Lorbein, but the Terbia guild headquarters is by no means small. No,
it could be considered a cut above ours. Yet if it disappeared without a single survivor,
dragons are opponents we can do absolutely nothing about. Therefore, by any means necessary,
we must cater to their tastes.'
The anxious Guild Master called a subordinate.
"You, take my personal carriage right now and make the rounds of each establishment. Gather all the hidden highest-grade fine liquors
and stock them in the establishments being prepared. Hurry."
"Yes, sir!"
The subordinate ran out with a nervous expression, but the Guild Master still couldn't calm down.
"Hoo. I'm going crazy. I need to know the dragons' tastes to prepare the right beauties."
While the Guild Master fretted, his subordinates were finally greeting the worst guests of their lives.
"Welcome."
All the mobilized guild members bent at the waist at a right angle. Between them, Deimon and Kateuroi walked in leisurely.
Deimon looked around and put on a satisfied expression.
"Hmm. The atmosphere isn't bad, all things considered."
At those words, the guide felt a surge of joy. Since the location was to their liking, he could rest a little easier. But
problems still remained. Recalling that the dragons' main purpose was
carnal pleasure, the man quickly called an attendant and whispered.
"Did you train the girls well?"
"Don't worry. We selected only the highest grade and made sure to give them thorough mental training."
"But the girls mustn't be too nervous... If even one of them makes a mistake, our guild is
finished that very day."
"I'll remind them once more."
Hearing the attendant's answer, the man bent at the waist with the utmost deference imaginable.
"This way, please."
Deimon and Kateuroi were soon guided to a large room. It was a splendid secret chamber lavishly decorated.
Appetizing dishes were laid out on the table, while the liquors placed on one side
were all expensive fine liquors.
As soon as they sat on the plush seats, beauties poured in. Not one among them fell short of breathtaking beauty.
The beauties, who had received firm mental training, plastered themselves to the two men with seductive smiles.
"So nice to meet you."
"You truly are wonderful gentlemen."
The men watching this bent their waists once more. By now, they knew well
that they ought to excuse themselves from the scene.
"Then please enjoy your time."
After the men poured out, only Deimon, Kateuroi, and the beauties remained in the secret chamber.