Lucy, Trained by the Succubus (5)
***
"Did you call for me?"
A maid working in the kitchen came running at the summons.
Maru stepped out into the corridor and gave her a few instructions.
"Slice the belly cut thick, and..."
After a moment, the maid nodded and hurried off.
When he returned to the room, Lucy was still sitting slumped on the floor, sniffling.
Her uncharacteristic behavior kept rubbing him the wrong way.
How had she turned into this?
That person sitting there was definitely not the Lucy he knew.
The real Lucy had been headstrong, mischievous, and foul-mouthed.
But the woman before him now was a completely different person.
'Whatever her reason for coming to apologize, this is beyond humiliating.'
Crying, throwing a tantrum, begging to be called a mangy dog.
He felt no pity for her at all.
If anything, his wariness only deepened.
For all he knew, she might turn around later and cackle, "Ahaha, it was all a joke! I faked being pathetic just to mess with you"—and slap him across the back of the head for his trouble.
"Wipe your tears."
He tossed her a clean handkerchief.
"We're heading out to eat soon."
Looking at that crying face was like staring at a ghost.
Her makeup had run with the tears, streaking down her cheeks.
Lucy always wore dark, heavy smoky makeup, lining her eyes in black.
That shadowed, intense look did suit her crimson hair, he had to admit.
Either way, black tears sliding down her face one after another made for a pitiful sight.
But it didn't move him.
All he could think was that he wanted to feed her quickly and be done with it.
"Hurry up and get ready."
Lucy picked up the handkerchief lying in front of her and looked up at him with wide, round eyes.
"You're... sharing with me?"
"You said you wanted samgyeopsal."
"Samgyeopsal?"
Color flooded back into her face.
"I can eat it?"
"I told the attendants to prepare some. You can go down and eat."
"Th-thank you!"
"You just cut off the belly portion and grill it. You never once thought to do that when I wasn't around?"
"I-I didn't know which part that was..."
"Anyway, wipe your face. Use the water in the pitcher here."
"Yes!"
Lucy hurriedly scrubbed at her face with the handkerchief, practically glowing with delight.
That smile, at least, seemed genuine.
She truly looked happy.
A little while later, they grilled samgyeopsal together in the dining hall.
They cooked it right there on the table.
Fire and grill plate were taken care of by gathering a pile of stones from nearby, heating them red-hot, and laying a silver tray with drainage holes punched in it over the top.
Since Lucy was a fire-attribute mage, warming the stones was no trouble at all.
"Lucy. Still sleeping on your side?"
"You remembered that?"
"You curled up like a shrimp every single night."
"I still sleep that way. It's the most comfortable for me."
As they ate, he brought up three or four old stories, and Lucy's eyes began to glisten all over again.
Not tears of sorrow, but of longing and regret.
"This is what I wanted. I missed this feeling of being with you so much..."
She stuffed her mouth full of samgyeopsal, chewing away while sniffling between bites.
"Maru cooked for me, Maru grilled my meat, Maru made sure to wash my clothes for me, Maru woke me up every morning."
Romanticizing all the free labor he put in, huh.
Was she reciting the whole list to ask him to do it all over again?
"Hey."
He set down his chopsticks.
"That time was miserable for me. Bring it up again and I'm throwing you out."
"Wh-why, what's wrong? Was I that bad...?"
"That's a story about how only I suffered. I don't even want to think about it."
Lucy flinched and managed an awkward smile.
"I-I'm sorry. Come to think of it, I had it pretty easy, didn't I..."
After that, she spent the rest of the meal watching him warily, saying nothing.
Then, apparently deciding she needed to redeem herself for the slip, she cautiously brought up the past again.
"Thinking about it now, Maru really did work so hard for all of us. Even though carrying heavy loads must have exhausted you, you hauled everything around without a single word of complaint, and whenever we asked you for something, no matter how worn out you were, you always gave it your all. How did I never appreciate you back then? It's such a shame I only realized it after we broke up."
Something was definitely wrong with Lucy.
That wasn't the girl she used to be.
She'd been the type to torment people for fun—never the type to acknowledge someone else's hardship and show them consideration.
What was her angle?
What did she want?
His guard only climbed higher.
'Is someone putting her up to this?'
Chewing over these thoughts, he swallowed and let out a long sigh.
"Lucy, I want you to be honest about one thing. When I got kicked out of the party—when you all announced you were disbanding, and then the very next day you all got back together again. Whose idea was that?"
"Did it hurt you a lot?"
"I'm asking you. Did you plan it?"
"No! No, I didn't!"
Lucy jumped and waved her hands frantically.
"It was Kiera!"
"Kiera? Got it."
He nodded lightly and went back to eating his meat.
If they were going to kick him out, they could have just said so to his face. What left a bad taste was the sneaky, backhanded scheme they'd pulled instead.
Which was exactly why he'd always wondered whose head that idea had come out of.
It was Kiera, of course.
That goddamn bitch.
Good riddance.
***
Eating samgyeopsal with Maru, Lucy found herself smiling for no reason at all.
Ever since Maru had left the party, nothing had tasted right—but today, for once, it was a true delicacy.
It wasn't sentimentality. It genuinely tasted good.
With no one in the party who could cook, every single camping meal had been an absolute ordeal.
She'd only learned how well Maru could cook after he was gone.
'I'm happy.'
How long had she ached to taste this again?
Maru grilling her meat, Maru fussing over her to try this and that, Maru chatting with her about this and that—she'd missed this whole atmosphere, so rich with his quiet thoughtfulness.
She'd hired this person and that person trying to find a replacement for Maru, but no one could ever fill his place.
Maru was one of a kind. Only he was the best.
Truthfully, the reason she'd teased him and bullied him by calling him a mangy dog was that she'd been interested in him.
Trying to sneak surveillance magic into his room, too—that had been because she wanted to know more about him.
She knew expressing affection that way was wrong.
But that was how she'd learned to approach people.
She'd lived her whole life as a mage superior to everyone around her, and it had made her arrogant.
But lately, her thinking had begun to shift, little by little.
These days, a feeling of guilt toward Maru had started creeping in.
Only after being utterly devastated by the succubus had she finally understood.
What it felt like to be the one being tormented.
'Back when we were in the same party... Maru must have struggled just like this, didn't he?'
Tonight terrified her.
Just imagining what horrible punishment might come next made her shudder.
Mangy dog.
Please, she begged—let Maru call her a mangy dog, and soon...
***
"Why are you following me? You've eaten, so go."
"I just wanted to watch you work."
After the meal, they were walking toward the office where Maru worked.
The morning sun spilling down over the green grass was warm.
"Don't be a nuisance."
"Call me a mangy dog and I'll leave you alone."
"A mangy dog?"
Maru stopped dead in his tracks.
"Hmm..."
He stroked his chin, deliberating over something for a long moment.
A different reaction from yesterday.
Was it finally happening?
Judging by his expression, it seemed like he might actually do it.
'Say it. Hurry up.'
Lucy swallowed her saliva in anticipation.
Maru raised his eyes and looked at her.
"Fine, I'll do it. Mangy dog. There, done? Now get lost."
The moment he turned to leave, Lucy grabbed him in a panic.
"You can't do it like that! You have to do it properly!"
"Properly? How?"
"'Lucy, you are a mangy dog, you mangy bitch!' Like that!"
"Unbelievable."
Maru laughed in sheer disbelief.
It was humiliating for Lucy too, but the succubus had ordered it, so she had no choice.
"You're the one who asked for this. Don't you dare whine about it later."
"I won't say anything. Really."
"Fine. Ahem!"
Maru cleared his throat.
Was it finally about to happen?
Lucy clasped her hands together and beamed with anticipation.
"Do it already!"
"Lucy, you are a mang—"
"Hey there, Maru! There you are!"
Natalie's voice boomed out of nowhere, cutting Maru's words short.
"Been looking for you."
"For me?"
Maru and Natalie struck up a conversation.
Lucy stepped back a pace and glared at Natalie with narrowed eyes.
'Ugh, I'm losing my mind. It was almost done and that muscle-bound sow ruined it.'
She and Natalie had never gotten along particularly well.
Natalie was constantly running her mouth about mages this and mages that, saying they were worthless compared to warriors.
If not for Kiera, the two of them would have torn each other apart long ago.
"I'm sorry it took me days after arriving here to finally say hello. You weren't hurt about it, were you?"
"No need to apologize. What exactly would I do with a greeting from you lot?"
Natalie was acting friendlier than Lucy had ever seen her, while Maru was nothing short of frosty.
'What is that woman doing?'
It looked strange to Lucy.
Natalie had always made a habit of declaring she'd smash Maru's head in if he ever dared speak to her first.
So what was with this picture?
Nothing like the woman who used to strut around bellowing threats.
She was laughing heartily, playing the friendly comrade.
Seen another way, she almost looked like she was groveling.
No.
She was groveling.
She was fidgeting around, desperately begging for something.
'Aha, is that what this is? The Paradise Grass?'
Just as Lucy caught on to Natalie's game, the atmosphere shifted in an instant.
"No matter how much you beg, I can't give it to you. Go home. Paradise Grass is banned in our kingdom. Doing this to me right now is grounds for arrest."
Natalie's face hardened—then erupted like a fire.
"You want it so bad you've lost your mind, you pig bastard? If you wanted some, you could've just handed it over instead of pissing me off like this!"
She balled her fist and swung it straight at Maru.
In that instant, an image of Maru's skull shattering flashed through Lucy's mind, and a curse burst out of her before she could stop it.
"Has that woman lost her mind!"
She was just frantically casting a protection spell when something utterly impossible unfolded before her eyes.
Maru—who knew nothing of the martial arts, who had always been nothing but weak—casually deflected Natalie's punch, then threw a punch of his own and sent her flying.
"Maru beat... Natalie?"
Lucy stared at him, eyes wide as saucers, her mouth hanging open.
Only then did she see it.
Maru's body had changed—sleek with muscle now, nothing like before.
One look was enough to tell he'd grown strong.