The nest that Flauros had carefully nurtured was without its master.
It was all because Flauros had failed to fulfill his role. He couldn't even properly face Astaroth, and to make matters worse, he had no choice but to watch helplessly with both eyes open as the knights escorted Lady Evangeline away.
He wanted to immediately hack to pieces everything that had touched Lady Evangeline's body. He would cut out the tongues that had insulted her and use them to plow fields, and pluck out the eyes that had glared at her to hang them in bunches and cultivate orchards.
"Stay quietly until I call for you, Pudding."
The reason he couldn't bring himself to do so was because Lady Evangeline did not wish it. He forcibly suppressed his rising hunger and murderous intent, cherishing Lady Evangeline enough to mingle with humans. He didn't mind being called by such a trivial snack name like Pudding. He transformed into a cat, nestled in her arms, and performed tricks. He was desperate to receive affection.
How lovely she was. How pitiful and heartbreaking. And so he only acted cute, and now his pride lay shattered. If it had been long ago, that would be one thing, but Flauros, who hadn't feasted on humans for quite some time while following Evangeline, naturally couldn't match Astaroth.
Only after being toyed with and suffering a crushing defeat by Astaroth did Flauros come to his senses.
Rather than receiving pampering from Lady Evangeline, he wanted to be of help to her. But he couldn't even properly stand against Astaroth, so there was no way he could be of help to Lady Evangeline. Therefore, he first needed to kill that eyesore Astaroth. Since he couldn't even be a proper opponent right now, he needed to feast and fill his stomach.
Flauros asked for permission before Evangeline was taken away.
"May I hunt until Lady Evangeline returns?"
"Yes. You must be quite hungry, so you may eat as much as you want."
Evangeline added a condition.
"But you must choose your prey carefully. Hunt the weak and sick ones first."
What the weak and sick ones meant was self-evident. Flauros was deeply immersed in the languid and gentle voice calling him "Pudding," but his immersion was broken by the interrupters.
Dozens of hands reached out from all directions. Each hand was desperate to touch Flauros. They dislocated their shoulders to get even a little closer, and even crawled on the ground with their teeth to approach him.
The handsome boy, who could boldly be called an angel's manifestation, grimaced with disgust and crushed the reaching hands with his shoe heels. But instead of screams, cheers erupted from the dozens of hands. They had finished preparing to be sacrificed as food, unable to think properly.
Andras, who had returned from visiting Evangeline, clicked his tongue at the dizzying scene. This prey was a domestic violence offender, and the other prey next to him was a rapist. And this one was a crazy bastard who enjoyed eating human flesh despite not even being a demon. He wondered how they had been gathered—they were all nauseating creatures. Seeing them huddled together was as revolting as looking at a basket full of maggots. These were the weak and sick ones that Evangeline had permitted to be eaten.
"Pudding. Did you bring all this to eat? Are you in your right mind?"
As soon as he received permission from Evangeline to feast on what the world called trash, he never expected this picky eater to try consuming such lowly things. It seems his pride was quite hurt from losing to Astaroth.
"Is it because you lost to Astaroth? But he's your natural enemy, so there's nothing you can do about it."
"Shut up. I went there to be of help to Lady Evangeline, but I came back without being able to do anything."
"True, if I had been there, Master wouldn't have fallen for Astaroth's cheap tricks either."
Flauros kicked a ball toward Andras as if venting his anger. Andras only realized after snatching the ball that it was a human head. How could Pudding throw a pedophile's head at a friend? That wicked bastard.
Andras picked up the head by the hair as if touching something filthy and gently set it aside. Andras was disgusted just by the smell, yet Flauros ate it so well. And then, with a ferocious expression unbefitting his gentle face, filled with rage, he declared.
"Next time I see Astaroth, I'll tear him apart and kill him."
"Do that. I'll cheer for you."
Rather than eating this kind of thing, he would rather pick and eat cherry blossom petals from the Rohanson Count's estate, but apparently his pride wouldn't allow that either.
"Hurry up and eat. When you're done, come run an errand with me."
Jelly ate melted cherry blossom petals and turned his back so the maggots wouldn't be visible. His appetite would have disappeared anyway.