***
‘Why is it so cold? Am I outside?’
It seemed he had gotten shitfaced in broad daylight and fallen asleep on the street.
Maru laboriously pushed himself upright and rubbed his eyes.
It was still the pitch-black of night.
He could hear stray cats yowling nearby, and he was sitting in a secluded alley.
“Ah… my head. I should’ve drunk in moderation.”
As he slowly got to his feet, his mind suddenly snapped awake.
‘My wallet!’
He hurriedly rummaged through his pockets.
Thankfully, his wallet was still there.
His backpack was also safe nearby, probably because he had slept hugging it.
“Phew… That could’ve been bad.”
He stood up, picked bits of straw out of his hair, and dusted himself off.
“I need to get out of this city fast. But where do I go now?”
Just as he was walking along, pondering his future, three men who looked like thugs at a glance suddenly approached him.
“Never seen your face before.”
“Your clothes are too shabby for an adventurer, but you don’t quite look like a peddler either. Some new beggar who drifted in?”
“He looks different from us, too. Definitely an outsider.”
“I came from far away. I’m about to leave now.”
Maru tried to leave with the kindest smile he could manage, hoping not to get into trouble.
But one of the men abruptly grabbed him by the collar.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going, you bastard?”
It was an unexpected misfortune.
The men dragged Maru deep into the alley.
One of them was already wearing his backpack.
“If you’ve got any money, hand it all over.”
“I don’t have any money. Give me back my bag.”
“Fuck off.”
“Gah!”
The men threw Maru to the ground and beat him mercilessly.
Whenever the fists and feet stopped flying, Maru desperately clutched his wallet and refused to let go.
Then the men stomped on him again.
“Whoa, look how strong this bastard is. Let go already, you son of a bitch.”
“I told you to hand it over. You really wanna die?”
“Boss, let’s just cut off this bastard’s wrist.”
A flash of silver gleamed in the darkness.
One of the men drew a dagger and approached.
“If you don’t let go, I’m gonna stab you with this.”
“It’s all the money I have, cough…! Pl-please… not this… I have to go back home.”
“Hey, stab him.”
Two of the men held Maru down on the ground, while the other stood in front of him and gripped the dagger in reverse.
“Hah, fuck. I just got out of the slammer the day before yesterday, so I didn’t wanna use a knife if I could help it, but this is your fault, you little shit.”
All of a sudden, there was the sound of a knife sinking into his back.
“Urgh!”
The man flinched, then his body stiffened.
A moment later, there was the sound of the knife being pulled out, and he toppled forward and collapsed.
Someone was standing in the darkness.
Maru couldn’t see clearly, but it was a feminine figure.
The other two men stared blankly, eyes wide with shock.
“Who the hell are you!”
“Shit!”
They immediately scowled and charged.
But their opponent moved with an extremely supple, swift grace and subdued them in an instant.
Three corpses appeared in the corner of the gloomy alley.
“Hah, hah…”
Maru hurriedly shouldered his backpack and stood.
He was still clutching his wallet tightly in his hand.
The unidentified person walked slowly toward him, holding a bloodstained dagger.
Then she lowered the hood she had been wearing.
Purple hair spilled down with a silken sway, giving off a pleasant scent.
“Are you all right?”
She smiled.
It was too dark to make out her face clearly.
Maru barely met her eyes, muttered a word of thanks, and hastily walked past her.
A deer is torn apart by wild dogs, and wild dogs are torn apart by a lion.
He was suspicious of her.
Rather than good intentions, perhaps she had come for his money too.
The predator had merely changed. Maru wanted nothing more to do with misfortune.
Limping, he hurried out of the alley.
After that, he walked for quite a while.
When he reached the southern gate, the guards blocked his way.
“No one can leave before dawn.”
With no other choice, Maru went to a nearby secluded spot and decided to wait until daybreak.
But even if he left the city, he had no idea where he should go.
He only wanted to get away from this city as quickly as possible, where his former companions remained.
“You’re exactly the same as you were back then. Or are you…? I see. You’ve changed. How did you end up alone?”
The woman he had met in the alley a short while ago approached with a smile.
Maru, who had been crouching in a corner, stared at her in puzzlement.
The firewood burning by the roadside illuminated her more clearly.
Long, abundant violet hair.
A beauty who looked to be in her late thirties.
Her face seemed familiar.
He narrowed his brow slightly and recalled an old memory.
“The succubus… Luciella…?”
“Yes. You haven’t forgotten me.”
“Your hair’s gotten a lot longer.”
At the same time, he remembered the incident about two years ago at a monastery, where monks had been abducted.
The culprits at the time had been succubi, and Luciella, whom he had come to know while investigating the case, had been fairly cooperative with Maru.
As a result, the Hero Kiera had stormed into the succubi’s stronghold and smashed them all to pieces.
Only Luciella had survived, thanks to Maru’s request.
To be precise, it would be more accurate to say he had spirited her away from the stubborn Hero who declared she would never forgive any demon.
In any case, Luciella had helped Maru back then not out of pure goodwill, but because she had been trying to eliminate her political enemies.
“Is it okay for you to be in a human city? It must be dangerous.”
“I think you look more in danger than I do, my lord. There’s a succubus standing right in front of you.”
A faint chuckle escaped Maru’s lips.
Luciella came over to his side and sat so close their bodies almost touched.
It was a somewhat burdensome gesture.
“Judging from that gloomy expression, it seems you’ve parted ways with the Hero.”
“We didn’t part ways. I’m carrying out a solo mission.”
“I know very well that you have no talent for physical labor, my lord. Would someone like that really wander these frightening night streets alone, carrying a backpack with a sleeping bag in it?”
At her words, Maru let out a sigh without realizing it.
“Thanks for earlier. I didn’t know it was you, so I just thanked you and left.”
“You were very tense.”
Luciella reached out and gently stroked Maru’s cheek.
“Poor thing, abandoned by the Hero…”
“I told you, that’s not it.”
“Don’t try to deceive me. I know everything.”
She gazed at him with pity in her eyes, then leaned her face in close.
With their faces so near that their breaths seemed about to touch, she said,
“Tonight, my lord, you need comfort. Otherwise, you won’t be able to endure the sorrow of betrayal.”
Luciella pulled open the front of her robe, blatantly revealing the luscious cleavage beneath as if inviting him to look.
Maru’s gaze instinctively dropped downward, wandered for quite some time, then finally returned to her face.
“What are you doing? Get away.”
“Don’t be afraid. At least to you, my lord, I am not an evil monster.”
“I’ll count to three. If you don’t move, I’m pushing you away.”
“You don’t need to worry about having your vital essence stolen.”
Luciella drew back with a faint smile.
Maru let out a sigh of relief, then frowned and said,
“Is seducing people when they’re struggling some racial trait of yours? You didn’t act like this before, so why all of a sudden?”
“It’s kindness. I feel sorry for you, my lord.”
“You’re not trying to cast a charm spell and control me?”
“I’m trying to protect you. I’m worried you might do something terrible in your deep grief.”
“Unbelievable.”
Demons thought differently from humans, so he couldn’t let his guard down for even a moment.
Maru sighed again and closed his eyes.
“If you’re done with your business, leave. I’m going to at least get a little sleep before the sun rises. It was good to see you.”
“I felt it just now in your eyes, my lord. Your desire to become stronger than anyone.”
“If you’re trying something again, cut it out.”
“Do you want to grow stronger and stronger, then take revenge on the companions who abandoned you?”
Luciella’s voice was softer than ever.
Like a young noblewoman speaking gently.
“If it’s me, I can help you. I can grant you great power, my lord. I truly am not deceiving you. I only wish to fulfill the desire of the one who once saved me.”
“……”
After a pause, Maru shook his head.
“Don’t say ridiculous things.”
“Overwhelming power is incredibly sweet.”
For the first time, a hint of demonic energy emerged from Luciella, who had been perfectly disguised as a human.
As she licked her lips with her tongue, her eyes glowed red.
“Don’t agonize over it. I only want to help you.”
“You’re telling me to betray humanity. Do you think I’m insane?”
“But you’ve already been betrayed by humanity, my lord.”
“It was only a few people out of countless others. So few I could count them on one hand.”
“Can you take a new lover after today? Can you trust companions again?”
“That’s…”
“See? You’ve come to loathe humans themselves. We demons, who live without hypocrisy, may be warmer than humans in our own way. We act honestly according to our inborn nature until the day we die—purity itself.”
Maru rubbed his lips, lost in thought, then opened his mouth.
“…How exactly would you give me power?”
“In truth, the Demon King’s army has a unit composed of humans who, like you, were betrayed by the Hero. Each of them has a tragic story of their own. And each of them is filled with resentment. There, they obtain the power they desire and take exhilarating revenge.”
“You’re telling me to join the Demon King’s unit?”
“Yes.”
“Not that you’d give me power yourself?”
“I’m a powerless succubus, after all.”
“Oh, come on.”
Maru picked up a stone from the ground and threw it far away.
Then he laughed hollowly.
“Forget it. Then I don’t need it.”
“You don’t want to become part of the Demon King’s army?”
“Of course I don’t. I have my mother, too.”
Suddenly, the crowing of a rooster sounded in the distance.
Before he knew it, dawn was approaching.
“Oh dear, is it that time already?”
Luciella pulled up her hood and rose from her seat.
Then she wore a regretful expression.
“I’ll have to hurry away before I burn to death. I didn’t think I’d be out this late today, so I didn’t cast any protective magic on my body.”
“Yeah, hurry and go. If fate allows, let’s meet again.”
She looked down at Maru, who offered a half-hearted farewell, and smiled tenderly.
“Forgive my rudeness.”
She quickly reached out and touched Maru’s right ear.
With a sharp nail, she pricked the back of it.
“Ow!”
Blood trickled out, stinging.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She moved far away and licked the drop of blood from her nail.
“Don’t misunderstand. I only marked you so it will be easier to find you from now on.”
“Who told you to do that crap? Are you crazy?”
“Then run to the Hero you used to travel with and ask her to erase it.”
Luciella flung off her robe.
A fierce wind suddenly swept in, and dozens of crows burst out from within the robe, rising like a whirlwind before scattering in the sky.
In the blink of an eye, Luciella had transformed into a succubus clad in revealing leather.
Two thick horns resembling those of a mountain goat curved upward from her forehead, large black wings sprouted from her back, and a long, thin tail emerged from her rear.
“If you can’t, then leave it as it is.”
She smiled brightly, then beat her wings and rose into the air.
She briefly stopped by the guard post at the gate to give the guards a fright, then vanished into the distance with an unpleasant, cackling echo.
The blood flowing from his ear soon dried.
Maru rubbed his bloodstained fingers together and gave a bitter smile.
“Now I’m even getting humiliated by a succubus…”
After standing there in hollow disbelief for a moment, he dusted off his pants, got up, and shouldered his backpack.
As the day broke, the city gate was opening.