Ch.231231. Love? (2)

# Prostitution.

This industry (?) expressed by a word that euphemistically means “selling spring” in Chinese characters—implying selling for money—has surprisingly existed from quite early stages in human development.

Since it’s something that can be done with just a body and demand, without any need for technology or development, it can emerge anywhere.

Modern scientists even speculate that prostitution existed before human birth, as such transactional sexual behavior has been observed in some animals and our primate relatives.

If the first human occupations are considered to be hunters who also gathered and prostitutes, then prostitution has naturally accompanied human history throughout its course.

Around 2400 BCE.

The Temple of Ishtar in Sumerian Mesopotamia served as a brothel, indicating that sexual acts that created life were considered sacred in ancient societies.

In ancient Greece, the Temple of Aphrodite was a legal brothel, and ancient Rome’s prostitution and sex industry are so famous they hardly need mentioning.

Even in the strict society of medieval Europe, the prostitution industry was accepted as a necessary evil to prevent crimes such as rape and adultery.

Naturally, in the Rom Empire too, brothels were established under the guidance of the Temple of Bacchus, and things eventually spiraled in strange directions, producing all manner of oddities.

It was a deranged world where various sexual perversions that made sadism and masochism look like child’s play ran rampant, filled with lunatics who didn’t care what holes or sticks they used.

Of course, the Rom Empire eventually collapsed completely under countless attacks from evil gods, but the Dawn Empire that was built in its place absorbed some of Rom’s culture.

In this process, some surviving brothels began to knock on the empire’s doors again.

And regardless of right or wrong, the true ruler of the empire wasn’t particularly fond of the prostitution industry.

Since prostitution is an industry that can never fully emerge into the light, it’s too easy for criminal organizations and criminal activities to become entangled with it.

Criminal organizations are like cockroaches.

No matter how many you catch, they reappear from somewhere and scurry about.

Besides, human sexual desire cannot be suppressed even if prohibited.

It was obvious they would rack their brains to find loopholes in the law.

Then operate secret brothels without paying taxes.

Eventually, the true ruler of the empire, who was contemplating whether to permit brothels, suddenly realized they could make demons their subjects and began something new.

The result was this building the Heresy Inquisitor had just entered—a succubus brothel.

Taking the stairs on the building’s exterior, the Heresy Inquisitor went directly to the second floor, where what unfolded before his eyes resembled what in modern terms might be called a coin karaoke.

A series of completely sealed rooms that could fit several people stretched in a row, while at a small counter near the entrance sat a woman dressed in highly revealing attire.

With striking pink long hair and horns growing from both temples, her exceptional appearance and accessories clearly proclaimed her demonic nature.

This mid-level demon with a strangely seductive appearance—an elite succubus—was expressionlessly sitting there looking bored until her eyes suddenly met the Heresy Inquisitor’s.

“───?! Ah, greetings, Heresy Inquisitor!”

She immediately stood up like a new recruit who had just enlisted yesterday, assuming a rigid posture, and addressed the Heresy Inquisitor with a very respectful attitude.

“Are you perhaps the inspector we were told would come…?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“I-I apologize for my rudeness!”

Because he had the authority to execute her on the spot if he wished, this succubus, who was technically a servant of the divine, had no choice but to grovel…

Both the Heresy Inquisitor visiting to inspect the succubus brothel and the succubus being inspected understood the necessity of these strict measures.

The danger posed by succubi was such that these measures were essential.

Commonly known as dream demons who appear in dreams to have sexual relations and drain life force until death, succubi—the female versions of these entities—are magic-type demons specializing in mental magic.

They excel at gradually eroding their targets with various illusion magics, also called phantasms, and then taking advantage of weakened mental states to charm and neutralize enemies…

In truth, succubi, and dream demons in general, weren’t particularly powerful demons in combat.

Perhaps because all their stats were invested in charm, with few exceptions, they were just skin and bones in close combat and not proficient in magic.

While mental magic might be difficult to resist due to their high charm stats, other magics… they had little magical power and pathetic skill damage bonuses.

Of course, if a player deliberately built and combined traits, they could be reborn as an overpowered race, but the inherent combat weakness of monster succubi was unavoidable…

The true value of succubi as a race came from their utility in non-combat areas.

Skills that provided enormous bonuses in negotiation, bargaining, and exchange checks had become the ability to gain favor from those who viewed them as sexual objects.

The ability to unconditionally charm anyone not resistant to mental debuffs had become the power to transform into whatever sex the target found attractive.

Succubi could handle countless other powers of enchantment, and naturally, these abilities became terrifyingly powerful when used deliberately.

With just a little effort, they could enter a king’s court as a concubine or mistress, turn the king into a puppet, and devour an entire nation.

Even a lower-ranked common succubus could accomplish this, while a higher-ranked succubus could potentially occupy an entire nation outright.

Moreover, succubi could permanently drain not only life force but also large amounts of levels and experience from those they killed through erotic dreams or direct intercourse, allowing them to grow rapidly.

To put it bluntly, if they managed to charm and successfully mate with a holy person, even an ordinary succubus could instantly grow to a higher rank.

“…Perfect.”

“Of course~. When we can live safely like this while freely doing what we do, who would bother causing trouble?”

But in the Dawn Empire, the dangerous power of succubi was instead used to handle citizens’ sexual desires.

The succubus brothel was, strictly speaking, more of an entertainment establishment than a brothel.

After filling out application forms provided by succubi with exact scenarios, one would sleep deeply and experience the written scenario through erotic dreams.

Thanks to strict regulation by the elite succubus manager, clients wouldn’t have their life force drained to the point of death—just enough that they’d wake up not feeling fully rested.

As a result, empire citizens of all ages and genders could enjoy pleasure for free, and for a small fee, they could even call for home service.

Seeing these services, some might occasionally feel sorry for the dream demons.

There were quite a few heavy-hearted individuals who went around saying the demons were constantly exposed to all manner of citizens’ filthy desires.

Of course, looking a bit more closely, one could easily infer how foolish such expressions of sympathy were.

Succubi, born to naturally feed on people’s life force, often had concepts of sexuality completely different from ours, which was perhaps to be expected.

To be frank, to a dream demon, even scatology was viewed no differently than ordinary vanilla sex, and even when they experienced normal love, their conceptual framework was somehow skewed.

To put it bluntly, these were typical succubi who openly advocated for the insane marriage system of polygamy, and who spread their legs as easily as opening a can of tuna.

The succubi of the “Revenge” faction did maintain somewhat more conventional values, but they were still dream demons at heart.

For them, watching someone satisfy their desires like scrolling through YouTube Shorts while steadily draining life force was a dream life.

And the succubi of the Dawn Empire had changed greatly in this stable life; the new generation of succubi even fell into pure love and maintained their “virginity.”

These were the same crazy succubi who opened their lower bodies with the speed and ease of automatic doors—so promiscuous that calling them rags would be an insult to rags.

Anyway, as the inspection concluded.

The Heresy Inquisitor, announcing there were no issues and commending her, awkwardly smiled and said:

“The inspection is over. Continue to dedicate yourself to the empire.”

“Yes, for the empire.”

“…For the empire.”

With an expression no different from other imperial citizens, she pledged her loyalty.