episode_0028

Even though the succubus was wearing an eye patch, she moved as if she could see everything around her and poured tea from the teapot for everyone.

Slurp-

“Yeah, you look quite relaxed.”

While Peria and I were watching, Master took a noble sip of tea and spoke first.

“I have no choice but to be relaxed. Because I will never die in this place.”

“Never?”

“That’s right. Do whatever you can.”

Whoosh-

It was an instant.

A surprise attack aimed at the gap in conversation and the person’s carelessness.

Master lifted Estherk with one arm and stabbed the succubus in the head.

But there was no bleeding.

Crack!

Estark shot straight towards the eyes of the succubus, but in the next moment, Estark became a form that could no longer be called a sword.

It couldn’t even reach my eyes, so it was crushed and completely disappeared in the air.

“Did you see it? Even if I don’t intend to, it automatically ends up protecting me.”

“You end up protecting it?”

It felt a little strange to say that.

The succubus stands up slightly, places her hand on her chest, and lowers her head.

“Before I explain, let me introduce myself. My name is Leto and Astesia. I am a succubus who came here looking for a place to die.”

Succubus Astesia introduced herself like that.

——————————-

“What do you mean you came looking for a place to die?”

In response to Feria’s question, Astesia speaks while straightening her hair that was blown by the wind caused by Estarke.

“I can feel the demon blood flowing in you too. If so, the story will go faster. You do know that demons are humans who have accepted demon blood, right?”

“Of course I know.”

“And the blood becomes lighter with each generation, and the only demon pure enough to be called a pureblood is the Demon King.”

Astesia opens the teapot on the table and takes out the already brewed tea leaves inside.

“We succubi are demons who inherited the blood of Asmodeus. They are the blood relatives of the humans who originally contracted with it. Because they are a long-standing blood relative, they even have a separate name for being a succubus. Well, the majority of succubi have the devil’s blood as soft as these used tea leaves.”

The tea leaves she took out were placed in a new glass teapot filled with transparent water.

When you put tea leaves in warm water, the color of the water immediately turns brown, even though the tea leaves have already been brewed once. Still, the color is a bit lighter than before.

Those are normal tea leaves.

It is natural that the more we are, the more we should continue to fade.

“But. Unlike the tea leaves, whose lifespan ends after being brewed a few times, the devil and his blood continue to live and watch over us. Until a certain condition is satisfied.”

“Condition?”

When Astesia snaps her fingers, the tea leaves suddenly come to life and begin to absorb water and grow.

Soon there were tea leaves in the teapot that had returned to their plant form.

‘Magic? No, is it the genjutsu side?’

Only the scent coming from the teacup in my hand proved the appearance of the tea leaves in the teapot before they changed.

“When the blood of a blood relative, which is continuously being diluted, becomes extremely thick, whether by chance or necessity, and its concentration approaches that of pure blood, Asmodeus explodes! And it appears.”

“Descent of the Devil…”

Peria says as she looks at the tea leaves that have completely reverted to plants.

The descent of the great devil to earth.

The devil who should be in hell comes to earth.

Peria was afraid she knew what that meant, but I was different.

I have no idea exactly how serious it is. Although I have fought countless demons and other races on the battlefield, I have yet to meet one who is called a real demon, not just a nickname.

“Is the devil that strong? I don’t know much about anything other than the devil that pagans serve.”

I remembered that I caught a group of heretics trying to gain strength by sacrificing a corpse the other day, so I asked about it and Peria answered.

“Pagans make offerings to the devil to gain power, not to bring down the devil. The devil is ruthless. When he comes, he will eat up all the believers who serve him, without distinction.”

“Are you saying it is physically eaten?”

“Yes. Put it in your mouth or in your body and munch on it, it says so in an old book. So, no matter how vicious the heretics are, they stop at the point of human sacrifice and gain power, and do not go beyond that.”

“But you can’t underestimate people’s desire for revenge. What if there is someone who wants revenge on something even if it means destroying themselves?”

Peria looks at it as if that is impossible.

“If you really want to make the devil descend, it takes a lot of effort, even if your will is strong enough to destroy everything. It can be said that it is impossible for an individual to prepare for the coming of the devil.”

Peria rubs her thumb and middle finger and shows them to me. It means money, so it seems that there are significant restrictions in the financial aspect.

“When it comes to preparations needed for Advent… living sacrifices, temples, totems containing power, large-scale priests who will chant at the same time, etc., everything must be prepared. To do that, you need a certain level of power and capital, but even if someone were to plan it, no race would be there to see it, right?”

“If someone tries to explode a bomb near their house, of course they will try to stop it.”

“I know you well. Right now, in this area, unless the heretics are of a considerable size, they will be entrusted to adventurers to subdue them, and if the scale is a bit large, the church and the military will step in directly. Even if you go to another land, the local group or tribe will come and kill you.”

“The pagan group, they were the neighborhood drum in many ways.”

When I think about the sporadic scale of heretics who do not easily disappear despite all this, I wonder what merit they have for continuing to appear.

“Oh, that’s right. The story is a bit off, but what is the story about coming to find a place to die?”

The answer to the first question has not yet been resolved.

“This story is connected to the story about purebloods I just talked about. This person explained it well, so you probably know how scary the devil is, right?”

Astesia briefly thanked Peria.

“At first, the Demon King saw my powerful magical power and gave me the title of nobleman, but he soon realized that my blood was too rich. At this level, there is a high possibility that the devil could descend directly. So he decided to kill me before Asmodeus comes.”

Astesia casually tells the story that he ordered her to die.

She then takes out a small pill-like thing from her pocket and shows it to her.

“Others argued that he should be beheaded or imprisoned right away, but thanks to his consideration, it was decided to do it in a less painful way. If you take this medicine, you will die without any pain. It takes about 2 weeks.”

The black pill is beautifully and small, as if it was made just for her.

However, what the pill contains is a medicine so mild that not even the devil can notice it, but it is a deadly poison that slowly eats away at the body.

I can understand up to that point. However, there are still some parts that I cannot understand.

“Then why did the demon army suddenly come here?”

In the story so far, there was no reason for her to come here with her dying body. If you’re going to die, why do you need to lead soldiers to occupy the castle?

“… That is the devil’s will. Instead, I would like to apologize. I have caused trouble to you all.”

Astesia stood up, clasped her hands together politely and bowed her head.

“It takes two weeks to die after taking the medicine, but the Demon King was worried that Asmodeus might descend inside him. So, to prevent anything unexpected from happening, he told us to proceed as far away as possible.”

“That’s no excuse for bringing in the soldiers. It’s too weak to say that the knights and army had no choice but to move to the capital due to a disruption operation.”

“It was never my intention to take advantage of the opportunity to invade. Mercenaries and the Demon King’s personal guard, the reason they are here is because they came as my escort. … Of course, they don’t know because my work is top secret.”

‘Is that why he suddenly created a monster’s castle and came towards us?’

Assuming what she says is true, things start to come together.

She talked about various circumstances, but it seemed to me that the king of the demons came in with a good bomb and threw it at us.

This succubus was treated as a weapon. According to Peria’s words, blood thick enough to bring down the demon she harbors is a disaster.

In that case, I feel like the devil dropped a strategic weapon on us, especially near the Grace territory, where there are a lot of people.

‘With one unstable demon and tens of thousands of humans, he must have felt so good when making a decision that he almost blacked out.’

Since it is a bomb that has already arrived, it is a clear decision to use it to the fullest.

The succubus apologizes again and again. Even though it is between demons and humans, and we are in a endless war, she alone tries to relieve our anger somehow.

“… I’m really sorry. I wanted to refuse somehow, but the Demon King said this was the least amount of people dying… so I couldn’t refuse because it was a unanimous decision.”

“It is the least possible way for people to die. That means demons and doesn’t include humans.”

It is clearly a wartime situation. This is a war between hostile countries, and any hostile actions against each other are allowed.

So, it would be easier to confidently say that since they are dangerous demons to us anyway, we have come to leave them near you and take care of any unexpected situations.

But Astesia continues to make excuses to us, her enemies. They bow their heads to humans, the enemies of the demons.

“Even though you may not understand, I promise that I will make sure that no one, demon or human alike, gets seriously hurt. So you don’t have to try to kill me. Please tell other people not to come in anymore. The plan is progressing steadily and my doctor has told me that there is now little chance of Advent happening. And anyway, the devil’s blood tried to protect me against my will. I hope you don’t get hurt anymore.”

I can see something shaking on the succubus’ back. Although I can’t see it clearly, I’m starting to feel it after looking at it in front of me for a long time.

‘It was the unknown power that was invisible earlier.’

That was the reason why the sword was bent earlier. Something intangible on her back continued to surround her.

“The only way for me to die is to take this pill and die quietly without the devil’s blood noticing. I will stay here just a little more time, 10 days.”

She said desperately trying to get our permission somehow.

In fact, even though it is okay to throw everything away, they are trying to reduce our damage by proceeding with a plan to make their own lives disappear.

conversation.

The succubus was trying to communicate with us somehow between demons and humans.