Episode 433. No Negotiation with Terrorists (3)

Liliana led me, keeping her distance from Albedo.

Lee Hoyeon, having temporarily blocked Albedo’s senses with magic, approached Liliana. Liliana smiled playfully and whispered quietly into his ear.

“What are you going to do about him now?”

“What?”

“Are you going to lock him up like Chiron?”

“…No. I have to deal with him. Are you asking even after seeing me use magic power?”

Lee Hoyeon looked down at Liliana with dumbfounded eyes.

Surprisingly, Chiron is said to be getting along well with the guild members at the Iris Guild.

It’s impossible to understand how he’s getting along well with an apostle of Pandemic who also has four legs… but he was only brainwashed and didn’t hate humans.

Perhaps he might have built up a good image at the guild.

Of course, Albedo is also an apostle like Chiron, and he doesn’t seem to hate humans.

An incubus targeting vital energy is an act like humans eating food.

I have no intention of criticizing that.

But Albedo targeted his own women.

From that moment on, excuses are not needed.

I might have understood if he had targeted himself, but targeting women is absolutely unforgivable.

Even if he didn’t succeed, he’s a dangerous species.

Lee Hoyeon looked at Liliana, frowning.

“Surely you don’t mean you’re going to kill him?”

“…You said you didn’t have any more questions. Perhaps you want to keep that incubus as a friend?”

If Liliana, being a succubus, wanted to keep him as a friend, I could understand.

The feeling is bad, but… I must also consider Liliana’s position, having no one of her own kind.

I must take responsibility and manage him.

“It’s not like that. The house isn’t boring anymore. There’s Scout and Rebecca, and Daeun and Dahee too.”

“Then what’s the reason?”

Lee Hoyeon roughly ruffled Liliana’s hair.

He wanted to get irritated, but Lee Hoyeon wasn’t unable to control his emotions to that extent.

He thought she wasn’t defending the incubus from her hometown, but looking at her eyes, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Then why is she trying to save him?

“If we keep him locked up, won’t there be a use for him?”

“For what?”

“Well. He seems to have more information than Chiron. Perhaps you might become curious about something someday. You’re too worked up right now.”

“Hmm…”

That statement is indeed correct.

Chiron, who lived a secluded life, had quite a lot of unknown information.

But Albedo has been continuously active as a successor, and while chasing Pandemic’s tail, more things to be curious about might arise.

No, more certainly will arise.

Lee Hoyeon knows that much too.

“…Still, I’m uneasy. That guy targeted Daeun. And I can’t be relieved just because she isn’t a virgin, right?”

The problem is that he’s an incubus.

And that he already has a record.

It’s true that incubi are strong towards virgins, but they can probably take women who aren’t virgins too.

As long as that possibility exists, Lee Hoyeon could not be relieved.

Liliana continued speaking, as if it were nothing much.

“What if we remove his masculinity?”

“What?”

“If we make him unable to handle vital energy, it’s done, right? We usually did that when making incubi into slaves. Ah, of course, when they are sex slaves, we’d have to leave it, but.”

“…How should we do it to make him unable to handle vital energy?”

“We have to remove that place.”

Lee Hoyeon swallowed the question, ‘Where is that place?’.

At Liliana’s chilling words, Lee Hoyeon unconsciously tensed his groin.

In the first place, even if we do that, I don’t want to live together at home.

The feeling is disgustingly bad, isn’t it?

But… realistically, it’s a decent plan.

It will be a good source of information whenever information about the Underworld is needed.

We can leave him at the Iris Guild and ask them to manage him well.

“Instead, I’ll leave him at the Iris Guild. I absolutely cannot live together at home.”

“I don’t mind. I have enough people to play with now. It’s just because I want to ask if something curious arises about the Underworld.”

Lee Hoyeon nodded at Liliana’s words.

He himself was quite agitated.

Although he messed with other women, there is currently no existence that knows the Underworld as well as Albedo.

If there’s a method, leaving him would be good.

Lee Hoyeon turned his head towards the prone Albedo.

‘First, if I escape… I must approach ordinary women first. Even if it takes a long time, I will slowly accumulate vital energy…!’

The oblivious Albedo, while lying prone on the floor, made plans for after his escape.

*

Lee Hoyeon frowned as he approached Albedo.

What should he say?

He had no favorable feelings towards Albedo.

He thought killing him right now would be the right thing to do, but as Liliana said, if the danger disappears, there’s no need to necessarily kill him.

However, as a fellow male, he just feels a little sorry.

‘Should I say my magic grazed a rather unfortunate spot? That he must take immediate measures to survive.’

No, that’s not likely to work.

Let’s just say it straightforwardly.

If he really wants to live, he will accept it.

As he approached Albedo without much thought, he turned his head and saw a red magic orb that was in Liliana’s room.

Come to think of it, he still doesn’t know the identity of that either.

Should I ask Albedo?

“Albedo.”

“P-please spare me. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do…”

“If you answer the questions well, I’ll spare you. Do you know what this is?”

Lee Hoyeon showed the red magic orb to Albedo.

Of course, he didn’t let it touch his body.

Those guys from the Underworld are so sinister, I don’t know if they might have installed some kind of device even on this magic orb.

“This is… why is an item from the Underworld here?”

“I don’t know either, you bastard. Just answer the questions.”

Albedo still could not grasp the situation.

Why Liliana Calliope was in the human world.

And why that succubus of slaughter was acting cute towards a mere human.

No information fell to him.

All he could do was answer.

“…It’s an access pass that allows entry into the Demon King’s temple.”

“An access pass to the temple?”

“That’s right. And among them, it’s the highest grade access pass.”

Lee Hoyeon turned his head and stared intently at Liliana.

“Didn’t you say something about territory marking?”

“Isn’t it? If not, then whatever~.”

Liliana stuck out her tongue and smiled cutely.

Lee Hoyeon rubbed between his eyebrows and put the magic orb back in place.

“Sigh. So, why is this on Earth? Surely the temple isn’t located in the human world, right?”

“Of course, it’s in the Underworld. That it’s here means… there must be a high-ranking demon capable of entering the Demon King’s temple.”

This magic orb was the one found in Aiden’s house.

If so, it means there are other demons in Pandemic besides apostles.

Perhaps they dropped it or gave it as a gift and left.

In the end, the Demon King summoning he wanted to avoid had approached reality.

Lee Hoyeon sighed and asked.

“Didn’t you see any other demons in Pandemic?”

“…I did not see any other demons besides myself. If there were, I would have felt their energy.”

“Sigh. Useless bastard. No, that Demon King guy is strange too. Why is he so desperate to target humans? If he’s the boss, he can just play games with his demon subordinates, right? Why unnecessarily make a royal visit to such a faraway place?”

Lee Hoyeon scratched his head vigorously and spat out complaints.

In the first place, I don’t like the existence called the Demon King.

Why are you targeting humans who are just minding their own business?

Just then, the quiet Albedo spoke.

“What nonsense is that? The Demon King targeting the human world?”

“What do you mean? Your Demon King is targeting humans.”

“…? It seems you’re misunderstanding, the Demon King dislikes humans. He has no thoughts of invading the human world. Rather, he is bestowing blessings upon various demons and striving for the prosperity of the Underworld.”

“Bullshit, really.”

He didn’t need to hear any more bullshit.

Starting from expressing the increase in concubines as blessings, those guys are wrong.

It’s their fault for being wrongly educated since birth.

“However, the successor, Lucifer, is known to like humans very much.”

“…Lucifer?”

But the words that followed somehow touched Lee Hoyeon’s nerves.

“He has been targeting the human world since long ago. Lucifer made the most investment in researching magic that connects the Underworld and the human world.”

“…Is he the one most likely to become the Demon King now?”

“That is correct.”

Lee Hoyeon retraced the memories of the original work.

The image of the Demon King who tried to change the human world into hell.

He wasn’t being controlled by Maestro.

He solely wanted to place humans below hell by his own will.

If so, the Demon King in his memory might have been Lucifer.

And he is connected to Maestro by some kind of method.

If so, the pieces roughly fit.

After the rest period ends, Lucifer inherits the Demon King’s position and appears on Earth through Maestro’s summoning.

If that’s the story of the original work, it’s normal that the current Demon King doesn’t appear in it.

No matter how shitty the game was, it didn’t cover the Underworld’s story.

‘…It’s not a particularly important matter, is it?’

Of course, knowing the fact that the Demon King was Lucifer changes nothing.

Whoever is the Demon King, Lee Hoyeon must kill them in the end.

If there’s a strange point, it’s that high-ranking demons have started crossing over, even though there’s at least a year left until the Demon King summoning.

Demons are beings originally non-existent on Earth.

In the original work, demons appeared only after the Demon King summoning began.

Lee Hoyeon stopped his frustrating thoughts and shook his head vigorously.

If real demons pop out, let’s think about it then.

If I don’t know, I can just extract the information through torture, which is my specialty.

There’s no need to worry about it now.

“Okay. Then, did you see Maestro?”

“I didn’t see him.”

“…Maestro summoned you, right? How could you not see him?”

“When I regained consciousness, the summoner wasn’t beside me. He said he went to take a rest. I grasped the situation only by listening to my subordinate’s words. And then I stepped out into the human world alone.”

“He must have happily targeted women.”

Lee Hoyeon unconsciously emitted murderous intent.

Thinking about his magic fragments being attached to Nam Daeun and Baek Ahyoung’s bodies made his irritation rise to the top of his head.

“P-please. If you just spare me, I will do anything at all. So please spare my life…!”

Albedo begged for his life, banging his head on the floor.

He couldn’t die here.

He could just start again from the beginning.

Although he was pushed back by Lucifer in the Underworld, this place is the human world.

In a place without Lucifer’s interference, he can accumulate vital energy.

He must somehow save his life and escape to a place without these crazy women and guys.

“Will you really do anything at all?”

“Of course. You can even enjoy homosexuality with my body, so…”

Lee Hoyeon closed his eyes tightly.

Why does that guy keep mentioning homosexuality?

Perhaps homosexuality is popular in the Underworld?

Really?

I felt it before when I heard Liliana’s words, but those guys from the Underworld must all be killed.

“…Liliana.”

“Yeah. Shall we do it now?”

“Start the work.”

“Ca, Calliope. What, wait. Just a moment…!”

Kkwaak. Kkwaaak!

Lee Hoyeon turned his body, and horrific sounds were heard from behind him.

As a fellow man, I felt like goosebumps would rise on my body.

Lee Hoyeon set up a rune barrier and walked out of the room.

*

One hour later.

I opened Liliana’s room door.

Inside the room, Liliana had a refreshed expression.

Somehow, the aura felt from Liliana seemed to have strengthened a little more.

“…Have you done it all?”

“Yes. I absorbed almost all of his vital energy. It’s safe now.”

Behind Liliana lay Albedo, with a sunken face as if his body’s moisture had been completely sucked out.

There was no strange physical contact that I was worried about.

She said she’d suck his vital energy, so I thought maybe… but she was just absorbing it by placing her hand on his wrist.

It is said that succubi and incubi can have that kind of interaction.

It’s fortunate because it would have been an extreme disaster if physical castration had to be done.

Since I couldn’t order Liliana to do it, I had to do it myself, but I hated that even if I died.

Rather than doing such a thing, I would rather give up the source of information completely.

I looked at Liliana while tapping the lying Albedo’s body.

“…What’s going to happen to him now? He’s alive, right?”

“He has to throw away the name ‘incubus’ now. Wouldn’t it be fine to just call him ‘Bus’? Bus. Heh heh.”

“That’s not funny.”

“Tch.”

I approached Albedo closely and examined his condition.

Liliana threw a playful punch at my back for ignoring her joke, but it didn’t hurt at all.

“He’s… alive.”

“I told you he’s alive. I just destroyed the organs for handling vital energy. I didn’t touch anything else.”

“…”

Destroyed the organs for handling vital energy in an incubus.

Although I was curious whether that was really a simple task, I swallowed my words.

For now, I must confirm what needs to be confirmed.

Using my Eye of Insight, I projected Albedo’s pants.

“…Has necrosis set in?”

“What?”

“It’s nothing.”

I didn’t want to recall it again.

I bound the foaming-at-the-mouth, collapsed Albedo with magic ropes.

“Are you handing him over to the Iris Guild immediately?”

“For now, I’ll lock him up in my room, and hand him over tomorrow.”

Since we’re saving him anyway, we should use him.

I plan to ask Albedo about the magic power of the Underworld for about a day.

Anyway, although I can grasp it quickly, it’s wise to take a faster path if one exists.

“Since I can’t give other women’s vital energy… my vital energy… Ah, does he not eat it now?”

“Let’s just give him leftover food. Slaves can be managed roughly.”

“…”

Liliana typed on her computer, seemingly uninterested in Albedo now.

She was preparing for an internet broadcast right after ending a man’s life.

I clicked my tongue, looking at Albedo with pitiful eyes.

Touching my women was a terrible crime, but as a fellow man, seeing that necrotic place… I couldn’t help but feel sympathy.

Ugh.

I shoved Albedo into my room, feeling a strange sensation unnecessarily.