Ch.280Side Story: End of War – 1

“Well, I win. What are you waiting for? Hand it over quickly.”

“……”

With a sullen expression, Priscilla glared at Rosaria as she handed over the money.

One silver coin. It was an incredibly modest sum exchanged between two individuals of such high standing—the Crown Princess who was certain to ascend to the imperial throne and the heir to one of the Empire’s three great ducal families.

This was only possible because neither of them needed to worry about money. More important than the amount was the fact that one side had won and collected the prize from the loser.

Laura spoke with a smirk.

“No need to be so disheartened, Priscilla. Your opponent was me, after all. Defeat was inevitable, so don’t take it too hard.”

It was teabagging.

Priscilla barely acknowledged those words, glaring at Rosaria with narrowed eyes. Her lips protruded about a foot outward.

“You were the one saying you’d never do such things.”

“Well, if I may explain—”

“Forget it. No explanation needed. I was right, wasn’t I? Those who pretend to be innocent, like you—playing the holy sister or nun who must preserve her purity—become the most eager once they get a taste.”

“Urgh……”

The terms of their bet had been simple: how many times would Rosaria beg for more after her first experience? Laura had bet on double digits, while Priscilla thought it would be single digits since it was Rosaria’s first time.

And this was the result.

“Lewd nun.”

“……”

“Saint.”

“……”

“Pervert.”

“That doesn’t even resemble the original anymore!”

Perhaps because something had struck a nerve, Rosaria, who had been trembling silently without offering any rebuttals, suddenly burst out. Priscilla shot back without the slightest concern.

“Doesn’t need to. You might as well embrace your talent and get some lessons from Nika. If you fainted at first but then enjoyed it enough to beg Mira repeatedly, you must have natural talent.”

“……”

“It’s okay, Lady Rosaria. It does feel incredibly good, doesn’t it? I felt the same way. It’s only natural for a woman.”

Nika offered comfort with a bright smile to Rosaria, who stood frozen like a mute with honey in her mouth, unable to deny anything since there was no distortion in what was said.

“Even succubi, during their first experience, focus solely on pleasure rather than extracting life force or energy. If we’re like that, what about humans?”

“…Is that supposed to be comfort? Should I be happy to hear such things from a succubus?”

Whether it was comfort or not was unclear. It was surely meant sincerely, but given her species, it sounded more like teasing than anything else.

“It’s perfectly fitting, what’s the problem?”

The demon goddess, sitting at the table with her sister and stuffing her cheeks with desserts, spoke up. All the treats had been dutifully brought by Rosaria.

The reason Rosaria had been able to spend so much time with me was largely because the two goddesses had read the atmosphere and stayed away. Both had tried to appear several times but failed and had to remain inside the magic sphere.

“Why not give up your position as a saint and come over to our side? It’s an unnecessary title anyway. If you join me, I’ll let you tease Equinox with me.”

At those words, the celestial goddess gave Rosaria an aggrieved look. Once again, Rosaria avoided her gaze with a guilty expression. Leona and Latina, who were wiping the corners of the two goddesses’ mouths, smiled awkwardly.

“…I’ll say it again, human. I never said such things. I never called male reproductive fluid ‘sin,’ never said injecting it into a saint’s body would grant absolution, and never told you to repent using your lower parts because your mouth wasn’t enough. Those were all the saint’s own ideas.”

“Could you please stop bringing that up since you know very well……”

Rosaria pleaded in a shriveling voice. The celestial goddess, her lips protruding like Priscilla’s, huffed and ate a piece of chocolate. She seemed quite upset that her name had been used for such acts.

“……”

Fortunately or unfortunately, the celestial goddess didn’t seem to notice that Leona, sitting right beside her, was avoiding eye contact and pretending not to hear. The hero herself had also used the celestial goddess’s name for such acts.

Latina, who had done the same with Leona, was also keeping her mouth shut as if it were only natural.

“I don’t mind, so feel free to use my name as much as you want, current Demon Lord.”

The demon goddess said this while looking at her sister. Latina, who was wiping crumbs from her clothes, opened her eyes wide, as did Leona and the celestial goddess. Nika also asked in surprise.

“Oh my, really?”

“Yes. I’m not as uptight as my sister. Use me however you want.”

“Wow, that’s great. Thank you. Would you like another snack?”

“Hmph. I won’t refuse.”

Nika handed over a cookie, which the demon goddess quietly accepted. The celestial goddess gave her sister a half-tearful look.

“That’s unfair, sister. What does that make me?”

“You need to remain as the goddess of light, so I’m stepping up. I’m the demon goddess anyway, so it doesn’t matter. I’ve heard of saints preserving their chastity, but never of witches doing so.”

“Witches? Is that a thing too?”

“Just a term I made up. If women who use holy power are saints, then women who use demonic power would be witches. I only needed one Demon Lord as my representative, so there was no need to divide it further. Hmm, this is delicious. Is there another one?”

“Of course. Here you go.”

The demon goddess calmly accepted another cookie and munched on it. Despite her stiff speech and haughty expression, she was really just an adorable mini-Latina.

The original Latina nudged Leona.

“Would you perhaps consider switching to the demon goddess’s side, Leona? I think life might be more free-spirited with the demon goddess than with a goddess.”

“Don’t put strange ideas in my hero’s head! The saint already did such things, and now you want to steal my hero too? One saint doing strange things is enough!”

Mini-Leona hugged the original Leona tightly with a tearful expression. Leona was still wearing an awkward smile.

“……”

In the end, Rosaria was the victim.

The Gate’s appearance changed not only Earth but also the world in Laura’s novel.

The demon realm was among those that had changed.

It was thanks to the Gate that the war between humans and demons had entered a lull, and it was also thanks to the Gate that Nika could aspire to unify the demon realm and achieve peace.

Without the fight against monsters, even if peace had been achieved, war would have broken out again someday. Blood and violence were in demons’ nature, after all.

“How are the other demons?”

“They seem to be taking my words more positively than before. On the surface, no demon opposed me. Even those who used to oppose me seem to have changed their minds.”

“On the surface?”

“Well, even a Demon Lord can’t read minds. They agreed to my words, so that’s what I mean by ‘on the surface.’ Still, it’s a good thing. They might grumble internally, but they’re not openly opposing me. If we can achieve a peace treaty with that small sacrifice, it’s a cheap price to pay. It’s not our concern how many demons die.”

Nika smiled brightly. She had just returned from negotiations with the opposition.

“If that had appeared on Earth……”

“Even with us there, destroying a country would have been nothing.”

The gap between Earth and this world had been widening, to the point where recently, an S-rank Gate on Earth was comparable to a D-rank in this world.

So an S-rank Gate in this world was objectively and subjectively a disaster. A prime example was the Gate that had recently appeared in the demon realm.

The “S-rank Gate of this world” that appeared in the middle of a battlefield where loyalists and opposition forces were engaged in fierce combat caused a dungeon break as soon as it appeared, vaporizing 30% of the available forces on both sides.

Both sides, having suffered tremendous damage, formed a temporary alliance in shock—that says it all. As a bonus, the area around the Gate became a land of death that was difficult to restore even with demon swords.

“If Master hadn’t come, the damage would have been worse… though too many deaths would have been troublesome.”

But even with the two factions forming an alliance, they couldn’t properly handle the boss and monsters that emerged from the Gate, so Nika eventually had to come find me and ask for help.

After that incident, even the demons who had adamantly opposed Nika’s rule seemed to have changed their minds somewhat.

“What about your kind? Are they okay with it?”

“More than okay? They’re already excited about the prospect of sucking energy from humans.”

“…Why?”

“Hmm… I think it’s because we succubi can take the initiative when dealing with humans? I didn’t ask specifically, so I’m not sure.”

It was a strange reason, but I decided to let it go. As long as they didn’t kill, it didn’t matter.

“Anyway, I lost quite a bit of energy because of that……”

Nika, who had transformed from Succubus Queen back to Maid Yustera, smiled broadly.

Her skin, which had previously revealed more than it concealed, was now tightly wrapped in a neat maid uniform, with only her neck and face exposed—though the outfit still failed to hide her large breasts.

“You’ll give me energy, won’t you?”

Without waiting for an answer, Nika buried her face between my legs and spent time moving her tongue and head. She only raised her head again when the Sword Saint appeared to deliver a message from the Emperor.

The Sword Saint, with an incredulous expression, looked alternately at Nika, who was swallowing what was in her mouth, and me, who was calmly sitting in my seat, as he fixed my disheveled clothes.

“…Do you know how a subordinate should react when seeing their boss doing such things?”