“What a truly adorable gift.”
The shadows moved according to Celia’s gestures. It was because the succubus race’s charm had worked on them.
Seeing the shadows obey as if they had been her pets from the very beginning, Gulron was astonished.
At the same time, he was relieved.
‘Was charm always capable of producing that much power?’
Succubi were commonly beings that stole humans’ vital essence through dreams.
And when they rose somewhat higher in rank, they used their allure to draw in their targets even outside of dreams. That was what charm was.
But its power was only remarkable inside dreams; in reality, it could hardly exert any strength.
Yet the succubus before his eyes was accomplishing something that should have been possible only for upper-class succubi who had long exploited humans’ essence, or for the Succubus Queen herself.
‘Is she really the Succubus Queen?’
But Gulron shook his head.
‘No, she seems like an existence of an even higher rank than the queen.’
He was shocked by the fact that he had not realized the succubus before him was of such a high level.
And he felt fortunate, praising himself for coming here to surrender immediately instead of charging straight at her.
‘I nearly died over one wrong move.’
If he had made her his enemy, he too would surely have fallen helplessly under her charm, just like the shadows.
A chill ran through him, and his whole body trembled.
Look at her now.
The being above even Baalcherit, the five-star vampire the company was paying attention to, was none other than that succubus, Celia.
In other words, for Gulron, whose connections in the company had been severed, he had to grab onto the lifeline before him.
And not just any ordinary lifeline, but a golden one.
There was no need to confirm it.
“Um… then will you accept me? Please, spare my life.”
For all he might look like this, he was a manager in the company’s audit team.
Gulron emphasized this point, appealing his usefulness.
At the same time, he had already spilled every detail of the current situation to Celia.
The fact that the company had become uncomfortable with the growing power of the dungeon she managed recently. And the fact that the company intended to intervene in order to resolve the current situation.
However, even after listening to Gulron, Celia showed little reaction. She merely stared at the shadows.
When she gave no response at all, Gulron felt as if his insides were burning.
‘Please, say something!’
Celia might not know it, but he was in urgent need right now.
Since he had even bet his life on this, Gulron’s life felt like a sandcastle that could collapse at any moment.
At the very least, if she gave him a definite answer that she would accept him, he could feel at ease, but she gave him no answer at all.
“……”
How much time passed like that?
At last, Celia opened her mouth.
“Well, fine. Since you brought me such a gift, I shall show you mercy just this once. However.”
Celia raised her hand. Then she plucked out a single strand of her own hair.
“Feed this to that department head.”
“Pardon?”
What bizarre nonsense was that all of a sudden?
‘Feed her hair to the department head?’
No, why on earth would he feed him that?
Even if he did, there still remained the problem of how to force-feed someone a strand of hair.
The premise itself was wrong from the start.
Gulron looked at Celia with a bewildered expression.
“Ah, don’t worry, Mr. Gulron. I asked the shadows to do it.”
Celia smiled brightly and handed the strand of hair to a shadow.
The shadow respectfully received Celia’s hair with both hands.
As if accepting something important, the shadows handled the hair carefully.
“The shadows will take care of it, so all you have to do is wait, Mr. Gulron.”
Celia gestured toward the shadows.
Then their presence vanished in an instant.
As though smoke had dispersed.
* * *
“Kraaah!”
Moltis, a department head belonging to the Demon Realm Company’s audit team.
The owl-like man was screaming.
He had certainly been working in his office until just moments ago.
But then, from somewhere, shadows suddenly appeared.
Strange.
He had definitely attached the shadows to Manager Gulron….
But that thought lasted only for a moment.
The shadows were restraining him.
Then they began shoving something strange into his mouth.
If there was one fortunate thing, it was that Moltis had an owl’s head, so his mouth was shaped like a bird’s beak.
Thanks to that, he was able to resist at least a little, but even that lasted only an instant. Soon, yielding to the strength of the shadows, he had no choice but to open his mouth.
He did not know why the shadows he had attached to Gulron were now holding him down.
What was certain was that both his arms were already seized by shadows, and another shadow was prying open his mouth.
“Grr…”
Moltis’s mouth was forced open.
The shadows shoved the strand of hair they had received from Celia deep into Moltis’s open mouth.
“Cough, cough.”
Moltis began coughing at the substance that had entered his mouth.
After a few attempts at resistance, Moltis finally swallowed what had entered his mouth.
“……”
Huh?
What happened?
Who am I?
What was I doing just now?
Yes, I remember.
I am Moltis.
A department head working at the Demon Realm Company.
But why are the shadows here?
“……”
Ah!
That’s right.
Honestly, I do forget things sometimes, don’t I?
I must carry out the orders Lady Celia has given me.
“……”
Moltis naturally returned to his seat.
Because he had to work for the being he served, Lady Celia.
He had never met Lady Celia in person, but he always felt her presence within him.
This was undoubtedly loyalty.
“My, my. To think I was doing my work this poorly.”
If she knew, she would be terribly disappointed.
Moltis checked the documents on his desk and discarded them all.
After disposing of them, he began writing up new documents.
—I would like to share the results of the investigation regarding the recent incident in which twenty-six dungeons were merged.
There appears to be no disadvantage to our company; rather, the dungeon’s owner seems to be showing a willingness to comply well with our company’s words….
Moltis was hard at work.
“Ah, I nearly forgot again. The only person who knows about this matter is the director above me. That would be Director Kaisen. Lately, he has been troubled by the fact that there are many people inside the company who are hostile to him.”
Moltis began smoothly divulging the information he knew, even adding useless personal opinions.
“I sincerely hope my words will be of help to her.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the shadows vanished.
And the next day, the Demon Realm Company was turned upside down.
It was because news came that Kaisen, one of the company’s directors, had taken his own life.
Of course, since he was not a high-ranking executive, the atmosphere quickly settled as if it had been buried.
“What a shame, Director.”
Moltis muttered as he drank coffee after hearing the news.
“That is why one must not offend her.”
* * *
Gulron naturally returned to the company’s audit team and continued his work.
But the atmosphere was somehow strange.
It was because of none other than Department Head Moltis.
‘What did she do to the department head?’
The department head’s personality itself had changed.
Even though Gulron had not properly finished the task the department head had assigned him, Moltis did not mention it at all.
It felt as if he did not care in the slightest.
‘Is this actually fortunate?’
As a result, it was a situation Gulron could laugh off.
After all, he had somehow managed to return to the company without any problems, and he no longer had to beg the succubus for his life.
“Still…”
One thing bothered him: he wondered why she had let him go just like that.
“What on earth is going on with this situation…”
It felt as if he had had a dream.
Perhaps all of this had been a dream?
After pondering for a moment, Gulron soon stopped caring.
If things turned out well, then that was good enough.
There was no need to give himself a headache thinking about it any further; he should just focus on his work.
Then, wanting to get some fresh air for a moment, he stepped outside.
His subordinates were already outside.
“Mm…”
Upon seeing his subordinates, Gulron found his mouth itching for no reason.
He could hardly stand it, wanting to tell them about what he had experienced.
Especially the existence of the succubus he had seen.
She was definitely a being of tremendous rank.
Naturally, he ought to report it to the company, but he was afraid of the retaliation she might bring upon him.
So the method he chose was to spread rumors.
Gulron quietly approached the place where his subordinates had gathered.
“Ah, Manager. Good morning.”
One of the employees greeted him.
“Uh… yes. Good morning.”
He could not remember the employee’s name.
Probably not an employee he had paid much attention to. No, rather, the face was close to one he was seeing for the first time.
Ah, a new hire, perhaps.
But he had not heard anything about new employees coming in?
Come to think of it, every employee here was a face he had never seen before.
He felt awkward for no reason.
‘Were they people from another department?’
Just as Gulron was about to slip out of the group.
“By the way, Manager Gulron, do you have something you wanted to say?”
Someone stopped him.
“Hm?”
Gulron turned back around.
“Did you perhaps experience something unusual?”
At those words, Gulron’s expression brightened.
He had just needed someone to open the way for him to start talking.
“Does it look that way?”
He cleared his throat once.
“What happened to me was, you see.”
Stories of what Gulron had experienced began flowing smoothly from his mouth.
“No way, that’s impossible. What kind of person subjugates twenty-six dungeons? And in such a short time, too.”
“I’m telling you, it’s true. That’s why the department head gave me an earful.”
“And on top of that, you’re saying the dungeon’s owner is an existence on the level of the Succubus Queen? But she just let you go? You’re exaggerating way too much.”
The employees laughed and chatted.
“No, I’m telling you, it’s true!”
Seeing the employees barely believing his words, Gulron felt frustrated.
So he began explaining in even greater detail.
Everything from beginning to end.
As Gulron explained, he soon felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
Huh?
The surroundings had suddenly become quiet.
No, it was not “suddenly.”
At some point, he had been speaking alone.
Gulron looked around.
All the employees were standing still with expressionless faces.
All of their eyeballs began rolling around.
“Gah!”
Their eyes soon all turned toward Gulron himself.
Their mouths opened.
Everyone opened their mouths at the same time, but there was only one voice.
“Oh my, Mr. Gulron. I believe I told you my mercy would be granted only once.”
Huh?
It was a familiar voice.
The voice of the succubus Celia.
‘No way….’
When Gulron came to his senses, the sight of the company where he had been vanished.
And a familiar landscape appeared.
The dungeon that had merged twenty-six dungeons in a short period of time.
The dungeon said to be managed by a succubus.
“How was the dream? Was it sweet?”
Celia, standing before him, said with a smile.
Gulron was currently in the dungeon.
To be precise, he had never left the dungeon in the first place.
“Did I look laughable to you?”
“No…”
Gulron despaired.
“No! That was a mistake!”
But Gulron had thrown away the one act of mercy Celia had extended to him.
“Aaaaaaaargh!”
Gulron’s scream spread through the dungeon’s interior.
It was Celia’s judgment upon one who had squandered his single chance.