Chapter 81: Long-Awaited Home (1)

Everyone finds home the most comfortable place. I grabbed the horse’s mane and pointed towards the mansion visible in the distance, saying.

“Well, that mansion you see over there is my home. What do you think?”

“Ah, yes……! It’s truly a magnificent and beautiful house! It practically overflows with class, just like you, hyungnim!”

“Right?”

“Yes! Absolutely!”

“My wife lives in that house too. She’s incredibly beautiful.”

“Oh my! I’m truly envious! My fate is to live and die as a bachelor my whole life, yet you have such a beautiful wife! Truly, no one can compare to you, hyungnim!”

Compliments get tiresome if you hear them for too long. The same pattern of jokes only stirs annoyance in a person’s heart. If you’ve used up a compliment-generating machine, recycling it as scrap metal is the thrifty way to live.

“Stop, you bastard.”

We were still far from reaching the village, but I smacked the back of my nag’s head, forcing it to stop right there. The nag trembled, looked at me, and then began to whimper with the most pitiful expression it could muster.

“Wh-why, hyungnim? You, you promised you’d spare me.”

There was a band of bandits near the village of Poar who extorted money from people. This man, one of them, had begged on his hands and knees for his life while his companions were all beaten to death, managing to survive.

As I rolled up my sleeves and stretched, he tearfully pleaded, bringing up the promise I had made. Because I had promised to spare him if he carried me to the village.

“When did I say that?”

But I am a demon. When even people break their promises, why should I keep mine? The man, who had been kneeling and groveling on the deserted mountain path, hardened his expression and revealed his true colors.

“Y-you fucking bastard…!”

The man sprang up from his spot and lunged to grab my neck. However, the body that had carried me for so long didn’t obey the man properly, and his wildly swung fist flailed, striking only air. I punched the man in the solar plexus, then firmly gripped his temples and began absorbing his strength.

“Uwooooooooh!”

The man shrieked and trembled violently, his once robust body, fattened by extorted money, becoming as skinny as a mummy, nearly blown away by the wind. Even his bones lost their strength, crumbling like dust, and his bloodless eyes dried up until he couldn’t see anything.

Feeling the power surge within me, I tore the man’s corpse apart appropriately and buried it after digging a hole in the ground. While I was digging and burying, the midday sun had already begun to dip towards the western mountains, which meant I arrived home later than scheduled.

The guards recognized me, smiled lightly, and greeted me. I waved back in greeting and stretched as I passed through the village entrance. Then I asked the guard.

“Excuse me, sir. Who’s on priest duty today?”

“Priest Mikola is on duty.”

“Ah.”

I looked at the middle-aged man dozing off in the duty room. If it had been Lumia, I might have considered stopping by the duty room for a moment, but that didn’t seem necessary. I passed the duty room and headed towards the mansion.

People were milling about in the village square, but none of the local influential figures were visible. Where could those people who usually loitered around the taverns, ruining the village atmosphere at this twilight hour, have gone? As I looked around, I saw one of the local figures heading in the direction of the mansion.

I could also hear murmurs from people nearby, watching the figure’s retreating back.

“Oh my, Madam Isabel is truly amazing, isn’t she? How on earth did she get a grip on those trashy individuals?”

“Thanks to Madam these days, the village atmosphere is really lively. She’s incredible, isn’t she?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle upon hearing their chatter. The local figures had already been playing right into Sophia’s hands while I was away on my business trip. These pig-like, filthy humans, once the embodiment of evil in this village, had now become a vital energy tank for Sophia and me, periodically having their yang energy drained.

I hummed a tune as I walked towards the mansion. The local figure didn’t even acknowledge me as he opened the door and walked straight inside. Sophia, who was waiting at the door, smiled very kindly, clasped the local figure’s hand tightly, and said.

“You’ve come again today! You came to see me, didn’t you?”

That charmingly affectionate voice. It was the same voice she often used when working as a courtesan at the academy, and it sweetly seeped into the local figure’s ears. His face, pale like a man made of wax, flushed with color,

“Oh, uh, yes……! Hehehe……!”

A dopey chuckle escaped lips that usually spouted nothing but stale, old-fashioned remarks. Sophia flirtatiously guided the local figure stealthily towards the basement.

“So, are we going to do something fun together today too?”

“Oh, oh, of course……! Hehe……!”

“Alright, please head down to the basement! Fighting!”

“Uh, u-yeah! Sophia! Hehe……! I’ll do my best!”

The local figure disappeared into the basement with a goofy grin. I leaned against the doorway, watching him until the very end. As soon as the basement door closed, Sophia turned to me and said.

“Ah! Master! You’re back? How did the case go?”

As she spoke, she naturally pulled me into a hug and, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, started unbuckling my pants belt. I stroked her head and said.

“I solved it with my fantastic deductive skills. How are things in the village?”

“I’ve rounded up all the local figures! Did I do well? Now, if we get contracts and whatnot from them, transfer all the vineyards to our name, and turn them into a proper energy factory! Master, can I suck your dick now?”

Sophia’s tail wagged back and forth. I tugged her tail, stopping her as she pressed her lips firmly against my crotch through my underwear. Her breath warmed my dick, but I could wait a little longer for sex.

“Eek!”

“Hold on a second. What about Isabel and Elena?”

“I’m here!”

Elena, wearing an apron, popped out from the kitchen. The savory aroma wafting from the kitchen suggested she was in the middle of preparing dinner. The spread of food was quite elaborate, which surprised me a little.

“I didn’t even tell you I was coming today, what’s all this?”

Elena blinked and smiled.

“Ah, I was planning to have dinner with Lumia today, so I went to some trouble to prepare a meal for all of us……. You timed it perfectly. Why don’t you go wash up and change into something comfortable? We’ll eat right after, you know the drill…”

As Elena said this, she slightly lifted the hem of her maid uniform. The sight of her white stockings pulled up high enough to reveal her panties was exactly my type. I gave her thigh a squeeze and nodded.

“So Lumia’s coming today too? Perfect timing. But what about Isabel?”

“Madam should be on the second floor right now……. Madam! Evan is here!”

“Ah, I know! J-just wait a moment! Ah, I haven’t finished my hair yet!”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her flustered tone coming through the crack in the door. Every time I returned, she greeted me with sweet, newlywed-like reactions that pleased me. I hugged Sophia tightly and said towards Isabel.

“Isabel. I like you no matter how you look.”

I could hear Isabel stomping her feet. Sophia poked my cheek and said.

“Master, that’s so cheesy.”

While I bit Sophia’s finger poking my cheek, Isabel spoke in a whining tone.

“B-but I, I want to look pretty when I come out……. C-can you wait just a little longer? Huh? Evan! You understand, right? D-don’t open the door?”

I decided to indulge her fussing. Anyway, there was still plenty of time before dinner, and I wanted to see the facilities I had built in the basement. Leaving Isabel to her preparations, I tugged Sophia’s tail again and said.

“Come on, Sophia. Let’s go see what’s happening downstairs.”

“Huh? Master. It’s not exactly a pleasant sight?”

“It’s fine. It’s fine. What demons do is rarely pleasant to look at anyway.”

I said nonchalantly and opened the basement door. The stairs leading down were quite deep, something I hadn’t seen during my time working in this mansion. Sophia said.

“It seems there used to be an underground wine cellar down here.”

This was the first I’d heard of it. But it was the kind of place that could easily exist in an old mansion like this.

“There was? Why didn’t Carlson know about it?”

A guy obsessed with alcohol didn’t know about a wine cellar? Carlson liked to drink whatever alcohol he received, but perhaps he lacked the refinement to store it, which might explain it. Sophia tilted her head and said.

“Isabel unni said she didn’t know either? Anyway, that’s why we installed a new door and rebuilt the entrance like this.”

“That must have been a major renovation.”

“We hired people. Told them it was for repairing the wine cellar.”

Elena, who was setting the table, said that, and Sophia nodded. In truth, for a mansion of this scale, hiring people for construction wasn’t particularly suspicious. I nodded and started down the stairs.

Sophia was humming behind me, and from the depths of the basement, a grim chorus echoed.

“Kkeueo…!”

“Uwoooooo…!”

“Geuooot! Gwaak…!”

“……Fuck, what is that noise?”

“Huh? Didn’t you just see? Who went in.”

Now, only one door stood between me and the basement.

“Eunghueu…!”

“Uhoho…!”

“Kkeooook,,,!”

The moans of middle-aged men could be heard clearly. It also seemed like a fishy smell was spreading from somewhere. I gripped the doorknob tightly, contemplating whether I really needed to open this door.

“……Ah, fuck, I really don’t want to see this. We’re eating soon.”

“Should we just go back up then?”

I nodded at Sophia’s question. As we climbed the stairs again, I asked Sophia.

“So what exactly are they doing in there?”

“We drew a magic circle, and it absorbs vital energy every time they cum inside. Every time I receive vital energy, you get stronger by the same amount. Isn’t it amazing?”

“Damn.”

I thought it was a good thing I didn’t open the door.