Experts had devoted themselves to research upon research, and as a result, various sects had established their own methods for rapid advancement.
Yet most of those rapid methods carried fatal weaknesses.
The Cheonja Blood Demon Art that Damon had learned was one such example. Its heaven-defying method of cultivation was a problem,
but its greatest flaw was that even if one became stronger, demonic nature would seep into one’s very marrow, turning the practitioner into a blood-starved murderer.
Internal energy cultivation methods were much the same. Generally speaking, the inner cultivation methods of the unorthodox sects were
faster to train than those of the orthodox sects, but that was only up to a certain level. Once one entered the realm of the supreme peak,
the unorthodox inner cultivation methods could no longer progress.
They would run into what was called the Demonic Wall. Compared to orthodox inner cultivation methods, the possibility of breaking through that wall and entering a new stage
was exceedingly slim. Of course, with strength at the supreme peak, one could more than make a name for oneself here
in Truvenia. Damon shook his head with a grave expression.
“There’s no way at all.”
Whether it was martial arts or magic, the best and only proper course was to train step by step over time,
according to the orthodox method. Learning through rapid methods inevitably came with its own problems,
and there was also the danger of falling into qi deviation. On top of that, the most important point was that magic
had no rapid advancement method to begin with. Of course, Doyle had established a rapid method,
but that applied only up to the 3rd Circle. Beyond that, one had no choice but to proceed
only through orthodox means.
The problem was that Damon had no time left to attempt such a method.
“Damn it… Shit.”
Damon strode through the garden, cursing nonstop. It was a beautifully tended garden,
but he was so lost in thought that nothing entered his eyes. Just then, a sharp voice suddenly rang out.
“W-wait a moment!”
Startled by the unexpected voice, Damon stopped in place. His foot, which had been stepping forward, remained suspended in midair.
Then someone came scurrying toward him. A small shadow
stopped right in front of Damon’s foot. Immediately after, a voice filled with unmistakable relief flowed out.
“That was close.”
As Damon looked down, a chill passed through his mind. No matter how absorbed in thought he had been,
to think his senses had failed to notice someone approaching… He instinctively
stepped back and took a defensive stance. The moment he carefully examined the other party, his eyes
went wide.
“It’s a girl? And one still smelling of milk at that…”
The one who had deceived Damon’s eyes and ears and approached him was a girl. Was she about seventeen or eighteen?
The girl, dressed in plain white, was kneeling with both hands on the dirt. Her hem
had been soiled by the earth, but she did not seem to care in the slightest. Damon first looked at what the girl was holding.
“A flower?”
The girl was gently cradling a single nameless flower in both hands. She looked as if she found it so lovely she could hardly bear it.
Then she spoke words of gratitude to the dumbfounded Damon.
“Thank you. For stopping…”
Damon, anger surging up in an instant, was just about to hurl curses at her.
“You damned little bi—”
Just as an unspeakable torrent of abuse was about to burst past his lips, the girl
quietly lifted her head.
“Hrk.”
For an instant, Damon felt as if his breath had been cut off. The girl’s face was far too beautiful.
No, rather than simply beautiful, it seemed more accurate to say she was infinitely adorable.
Her sparkling eyes looked as if the Milky Way itself had been brought down from the heavens, while her sharp nose and
somewhat full lips seemed to insist that this was what true beauty meant.
Caught off guard by the girl’s unexpected looks, Damon froze stiff. In all his life,
he felt as if he had never seen a woman this beautiful. And all while drool dribbled from the corner of his mouth.
At the sight, the girl burst into giggles.
“Please close your mouth. You’re going to drool.”
“Mm!”
Only then realizing his blunder, Damon gave a dry cough. Embarrassed for no reason, he
raised his head again to curse at her. But that was only his intention. Whenever he met
the girl’s star-bright eyes, his mouth froze shut as if turned to ice.
In the end, he could only mutter inwardly.
‘Damn it. What’s wrong with me? Is it my time to go?’
As he frowned and shook his head, a fresh fragrance suddenly wafted to the tip of his nose.
It was an endlessly refreshing and sweet scent. As Damon turned his head in search of the source,
his eyes suddenly opened wide. The girl had somehow drawn close and brought her face right up
to the tip of his nose. And with an infinitely beautiful smile at that…
Flustered, Damon took another step back. In all his life, he had never had such an absurd experience.
The girl, smiling softly and tilting her head again and again, opened her mouth.
“Mister, I’ve never seen you before. You must have arrived not long ago?”
“Th-that’s right.”
“Me too.”
After she finished speaking, the girl smiled brightly. The slight crinkle at the corners of her eyes was endlessly lovely.
At the sight, Damon squeezed his eyes shut and took yet another step back. The girl’s smile
was so intense it seemed capable of drawing a person’s soul straight out of their body.
‘Th-this wench is a monster. She’s definitely not human.’
As Damon kept shaking his head with his eyes closed, the image of one man surfaced in his mind. It was
the image of a demonic-path expert he had known back when he was in the Central Plains.
The Smiling Slaughter Demon Lord, Deng Tianli. He was one of the Ten Great Elders of the Demon Cult and a master of the Seduction Art.
Though he was nearly seventy years old, thanks to the Essence-Absorbing Art, he looked no older than thirty,
and he was also a lecher who could not sleep if he went even a single day without a woman.
The technique he prided himself on most was precisely that Seduction Art. Because he had cultivated the heretical technique known as the Illusory Demon Smile
to its utmost extreme, his specialty was using it to draw his opponent’s soul out completely.
Damon himself had experienced just how much power that deadly smile possessed. His Illusory Demon Smile
was so powerful that, if the target was a woman, it could draw out her soul no matter who she was.
Any woman who saw the Smiling Slaughter Demon Lord’s smile even once was helpless, even if she were the most virtuous woman under heaven.
She would forget everything and throw herself into the Smiling Slaughter Demon Lord’s arms as she was.
The girl’s smile was bewitching enough to compare with that Smiling Slaughter Demon Lord’s Illusory Demon Smile.
The difference, however, was that the former was produced by an extreme martial technique, while the latter seemed to be innate.
Damon kept his eyes tightly shut and growled fiercely. Otherwise, he could not bring himself to curse at her.
“Wench! What trickery are you trying to pull? Stop it at once!”
The girl tilted her head for a moment.
“I’m not Wench. My name is Daphne.”
“You think you can play games with me, you—”
As Damon spat out the words harshly, he opened his eyes without realizing it. Thanks to that, he ended up seeing the girl’s bewitching smile
in full. Seeing it right before his eyes, Damon’s mind emptied white in an instant.
Daphne’s smile was so charming that he could not think of anything at all.
‘That… that really is a killer smile. This isn’t some wicked art like the Illusory Demon Smile.’
Daphne’s smile was endlessly bright and innocent. It felt almost like that of a child.
Moreover, there was not the slightest trace of selfish intent in her brightly smiling face.
At the sight, Damon felt his heart lift of its own accord.
‘She really is a beautiful girl. Like a fairy.’
Damon stood completely still and stared at Daphne’s face, as if trying to fill his eyes
with as much of her beauty as he could. Daphne, who had been looking back at Damon with a smiling face, tilted her head.
“If you keep staring like that, you’ll bore a hole through my face.”
“I-is that so?”
Damon hurriedly lowered his head. At the same time, he had to seriously agonize over why he was acting this way.
How imposing had Damon always been? Even toward Duke Sergei, the most powerful man in Icarot,
he had a precedent of consistently hurling curses and speaking down to him without hesitation. Even if he stood before
a dragon, he was not the sort of man who could not speak his mind. Yet such a man as himself
was flustered before a mere girl… He could not understand at all why he was being like this.
“Judging by your clothes, you must be a noble, right? A very high-ranking one, at that…”
“No… Th-that’s right.”
Damon, who had been about to shake his head without thinking, changed his mind. Though pretending to be a rotten noble
did not suit his nature at all, his honest feeling was that he wanted to gain Daphne’s favor
by any means possible. Daphne smiled softly and took Damon’s hand, pulling him along.
“That’s wonderful. Then please help me.”
The moment her hand touched his, Damon felt as if he had been struck by a Lightning Bolt. He quickly
pulled his hand away and asked in a rush.
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“I want to water the flower bed, but I can’t get to the well at all. The soldiers on guard
won’t let me out, saying they don’t have permission from above. If you’re a high-ranking noble, please let me out.”
“Wh-what did you say?”
“Look at that. The flowers in the flower bed are drying up, aren’t they? What should I do? Poor things…”
At the sight of Daphne stamping her feet anxiously, Damon turned his head without realizing it. Sure enough,
the flowers in the bed had all dried up completely. It seemed they had not been tended at all.
He guessed it was probably because all the gardeners had been conscripted.
“You won’t leave those poor flowers to wither and die, will you? Mister, please help me.”
“That much is easy.”
Damon straightened his shoulders with a shrug. Of course, he did not actually have such authority,
but in his current state of mind, he wanted to grant Daphne’s request no matter what method he had to use.
‘Damn it, what really is wrong with me? To think I’d fall this hard for a mere little girl…’
Of course, a request of Daphne’s like this seemed easy enough to resolve. If they were soldiers on guard,
they had to be royal guards, and they would likely fear him more than they feared orders from above.
Damon resolved that if things went wrong, he would beat them down without mercy. Perhaps anxious,
Daphne hurried along in short, quick steps. Following behind her, Damon had to rack his brains
over why he was acting this way.
When they arrived at the entrance, as expected, several royal guards crossed their halberds and blocked the way.
“Halt! What business do you—urk!”
Suddenly, a cry of shock burst from one of their mouths. When Damon turned his head, he saw one royal guard
staring at him, trembling like an aspen leaf. It was all well and good that he had spiritedly stopped Daphne
from going out, but this was his reaction after seeing the person following behind her.
“It’s been a while.”
Looking at the white-grinning demon with his teeth bared, the royal guard unconsciously covered one eye.
But his face was already so bruised and blue that one hand was not enough to cover it.
His identity was none other than the royal guard who had received a Magic Missile from Damon that very morning
and been laid flat. Thus, the moment he saw Damon, the terror from that time surged up anew in the royal guard.
“Wh-what brings you here?”
The remaining royal guards fidgeted as they asked his business. Judging by their appearance,
they seemed to be well aware of Damon’s infamous reputation. Damon deliberately twisted his face into a vicious scowl and growled.
“I need to go out for a moment with this child. I want you to think carefully while I count to ten
whether you’ll open the gate after each of you gets hit once, or whether you’ll open it quietly.”
“P-please wait just a moment.”
Troubled looks appeared on the royal guards’ faces. In truth, they had been given strict orders
to control the entry and exit of absolutely everyone.