Chapter 82: Meanwhile, the Hero's Party...?[R-18]
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 82: Meanwhile, the Hero's Party...?[R-18]
Lucia’s face flushed red before she could stop it.
She had never expected such a question.
“...Why the hell are you asking that?”
“Just curious.”
“...I haven’t done it with anyone. I’m a virgin.”
Truth.
Hyun-woo, having asked the question, simply nodded as if he couldn’t care less.
Lucia, who had just been forced to declare her virginity in front of her subordinates, bit her lip hard.
‘So annoying.’
She felt a surge of anger but forced it down.
She couldn’t let something so trivial ruin this precious opportunity.
When would she get another chance to have a Zen dialogue with this damn magician?
She had to bring back solid information for the Demon King.
“Alright, my turn. Everything you’ve told me so far—including that you have no intention of saving the elf and that you’re hostile to the Hero—is all of that true?”
“Of course.”
Truth.
The answer came without a second of hesitation, which was almost baffling.
‘I thought he’d been comrades with the current Hero for a long time.’
They say Hyun-woo was by the Hero's side even at the moment he was chosen by the Holy Sword.
...Then again, perhaps that was precisely why his disappointment and resentment ran so deep.
In any case, this eliminated the possibility that he was hiding some ulterior motive.
“...Alright, now it’s your turn. Ah, if you ask me something like that again—”
“By any chance, are you the type who gets turned on by being hit?”
Lucia squeezed her eyes shut.
The Demon King’s Army was beaten by a perverted bastard like this?
Was this for real? A sudden sense of injustice washed over her.
“...Yeah.”
“I can’t hear you. Are you saying that’s true?”
“Ah, shit! I said no, I don’t have a fetish like that!”
“Hoh. Now that’s surprising.”
“Why, exactly?”
Hyun-woo’s gaze swept lightly over Lucia’s body.
Under his blatant stare, Lucia instinctively covered her chest.
“...You pervert.”
“Let’s just say I have a strong thirst for knowledge. I’ve grown curious if all succubi these days are perverts.”
“A succubus merely absorbs life force. We’re not particularly perverted. We’re professionals.”
“...Ah, so that’s how it was originally.”
Hyun-woo’s expression shifted in a very peculiar way.
Lucia tilted her head, but decided to just move on to the next question quickly.
“Can you swear that you have no intention of fighting the Demon King’s Army in the future?”
“As long as you don’t touch the Armeina estate, even by mistake.”
Lucia’s eyes widened.
That statement was as good as revealing that he was in the territory called ‘Armeina.’
‘This bastard...’
It was a clear declaration of war.
Come at me if you dare.
But if you do, I won’t just stand by.
It was an incredibly arrogant thing for a single individual to say to the Demon King’s Army.
But from the army’s perspective, it was also true that they had no need to provoke Hyun-woo.
‘The Hero appeared much earlier than planned... we need more time to regroup, too.’
At any rate, the Demon King’s Army could now exclude Lee Hyun-woo from their strategy.
That alone was a huge gain.
“Alright. Now it’s your turn.”
“Is the Demon King a virgin?”
“Why do you keep asking that?!”
“I don’t really have anything else to ask.”
“Then ask something else, something normal! Or ask something completely useless!”
“So, what’s the answer?”
“I don’t know!”
Lie.
“...”
“...”
A strange look passed between Hyun-woo and Lucia.
“Ah, fine! As far as I know, she’s a virgin! Happy now?!”
“Yeah. To be honest, I wasn’t really that curious.”
“You’re a complete lunatic!”
Lucia flared up, her own lord having been insulted.
But perhaps because the question itself was so absurd, she failed to realize the implication of Hyun-woo naturally asking if the Demon King was a ‘she.’
The Demon King was still gathering her power and had yet to make any public appearances before humans.
‘Can’t her head wrap around that? Or is she just the type to get easily flustered?’
Lowering his assessment of his opponent by a notch, Hyun-woo proceeded calmly.
“So, what’s your next question?”
“...This one is mixed with a bit of personal curiosity.”
Lucia glanced at him cautiously before speaking.
“Why did you leave the Hero’s party? After enduring for so long.”
In that instant, all expression vanished from Hyun-woo’s face.
Lucia flinched, even though she knew he had no intention of attacking.
A pressure she had never felt even on the battlefield weighed down on her shoulders.
Instinctively, she realized that this man was that mad magician.
Hyun-woo’s expression was just that cold.
But then, as if it had never happened, he answered with a smirk.
“...The Hero kicked me out of the party.”
Truth.
Lucia’s eyes widened.
He kicked out a magician like this? Why?
‘...Is the current Hero that much of a moron?’
She wanted to hear more of the story, but the atmosphere wasn’t right for more questions.
Lucia simply gave a silent nod.
With this, she concluded that the current Hero’s party was completely shattered.
An incompetent Hero and a single Saint wouldn’t be able to do anything now.
Having lost the trust of the Magic Tower, the Knight Order, and even the royal family, the Hero was now nothing more than a puppet of the church.
“Shall we end the Zen dialogue here? We’ve both found out what we were curious about.”
“...For some reason, I feel like I got the short end of the stick.”
“The fact that the Demon King and her subordinate are virgins is pretty hard-to-get information, you know.”
“Urgh.”
Besides, a Zen dialogue was fundamentally three questions, so she couldn’t ask for more.
Lucia grumbled as she asked.
“Anyway, you definitely said this was a deal, right?”
“I did.”
“That means in exchange for letting you have your way with the elf, you have something to offer. What can you give me? And just so you know, I’m getting paid upfront.”
Since the conversation had come this far, she figured she might as well get something substantial out of it.
Judging by the way he’d stormed in here, he seemed desperate to break that elf.
This was actually a better deal for the Demon King’s Army.
It wasn’t like they could get much useful information out of that elf anyway.
“The Hero’s current location and the method to counter this teleportation. How does that sound?”
“...That’s not bad.”
Whatever the circumstances, the Hero’s whereabouts were their biggest concern right now.
There was no guarantee something similar wouldn’t happen again.
If the Hero could escape like this every time he was in a crisis, that would be a huge problem in its own right.
‘If we know where the Hero teleported, responding in the future won’t be difficult.’
With this, she could add another page to her report for the Demon King.
Without hesitation, Lucia sold the ‘free pass to the elf.’
This way, even in the one-in-a-million chance that Hyun-woo rescued that blockhead elf, it would still be a profitable trade.
Besides, she was curious to see what kind of torture this magician would inflict.
Guided by Lucia herself, I headed toward the prison.
It felt strange, walking alongside the Demon King’s Army I had always fought against.
‘The girls in the Demon King’s Army are actually pretty stylish.’
On the outside, they didn’t look much different from humans.
My familiarity with Lilith’s demonic form probably helped me get used to it.
More importantly, Lucia had a decent chest and a nice, big ass.
She was short, too, so she’d be fun to lift and take.
If only I had the time, I would’ve given her plenty of affection.
Feeling a slight sense of regret, I watched her ass sway with each step.
“...Where is this Armeina place?”
Lucia suddenly asked.
Her attitude made me smirk.
“Trying to dig up some information for your Demon King?”
“That’s not my intention. Just simple small talk.”
“No, I think you are.”
I said, walking behind her.
“‘I’m familiar with most of the kingdom’s major strongholds. But I’ve never heard of a place called Armeina. Does that mean it’s in the countryside? Wait, then how did this magician get here? It hasn’t even been a day since the Hero’s party’s battle ended. That means he came here immediately after hearing the elf was captured. What kind of intelligence network does he have? How did he get here so fast? What is he hiding?’”
Lucia kept walking in silence, even as my monologue dragged on.
But I could feel a slight tension in her stiff shoulders.
“‘Is that even possible during a war? If so, can we even stop him? We’d be truly finished then. There must be a trick. In any case, we need information. Let’s at least figure out his possible travel distance.’”
“...Is it fun for you to tease people like that?”
“I’m just trying to reassure you.”
“Reassure me?”
For the first time, Lucia stopped walking and turned to look at me.
I gave a light shrug.
“I really have no intention of messing with you guys. In return, don’t you interfere with what I’m doing.”
“...”
“This Hero is going to fail anyway. I guarantee it. So you guys should just prepare for the fight that comes after.”
“...You say that as if the next Hero is going to appear right away.”
I just smiled silently.
I don’t know how she took it, but Lucia started walking again.
After that, we didn’t speak for a while.
The place we finally arrived at was the deepest part of the prison.
The solid iron door looked so heavy that an ordinary woman would struggle to open it.
“The path is a straight line, so to escape, you have to pass through here. I’ll be waiting right here.”
“You can just go rest, you know.”
“Hmph! Even with a magician’s pact, I don’t trust you.”
Well, it was only natural to be suspicious.
And Lucia seemed to have a rather prickly personality.
‘It’s especially satisfying when girls like this are pinned down, whimpering.’
In any case, I nodded and entered the prison.
Thud! The door slammed shut behind me.
‘Hmm.’
Beyond the door, there was another set of iron bars.
And inside, I saw a very familiar elf sitting there.
Her weapons had been taken, but she wasn’t tied up.
‘She’s a mess.’
I heard they hadn’t touched her.
But judging by her state, she looked as if she’d been rotting in this prison for days.
‘Let’s see, Claire abandoned the two of them and ran away with Leon?’
The shock of being abandoned was probably greater than the situation itself.
She must be exhausted, having just finished a battle without any proper rest.
“Rose.”
At the sound of her name, Rose weakly lifted her head.
Soon, her eyes met mine.
Her face lit up as if she had seen the light.
“Ah...!”
‘Well, I’ll be damned.’
Seeing that reaction, I was honestly dumbfounded.
Still, it wasn’t bad.
It would be much easier to handle her exactly as I pleased if she was like this.
Now then, what should I do to this bitch to completely shatter their minds?