This Is the Real Hell
"Huh? Nah — c'mere. You look even hotter up close."
"You doing some kinda cosplay? We know a nice place. Wanna come with?"
The ogre of a man spat the words out like garbage and clamped a hand around Liliana's left arm.
Whack!
"Y-you — you fucking bastard. Don't you dare put your hands on me!"
Liliana slapped his grip away, recoiling from the filthy, crawling sensation on her skin.
"The fuck? You hit me? I was going easy 'cause you're a girl, you stupid bitch. You looking to die?"
The man she'd struck snarled and cocked his fist back to smash her in the face.
"Oh, please. A mere human, daring to—!"
Liliana unleashed her mana. It wasn't as if she'd spent fifty years as an old maid because she lacked the power. She hadn't drawn on this ability in decades, but her skill hadn't rusted in the slightest. Charm rolled off her in a wave and settled over the men in front of her.
The ogre-man's eyes glazed over. The enchantment seemed to take hold.
"Hah. Horny bastards are all the same, no matter the world."
A moment later, Liliana's mana ran completely dry, and the suggestion shattered.
"Hah! What the—? I just blanked out."
"Did this crazy bitch just do something? I may not look it, but I'm Awakened too, you know."
One of the men gathered mana into his palm and started toward her.
"W-why…?"
A sudden, crushing wave of exhaustion and powerlessness hit her. Liliana crumpled to the ground like a balloon with all the air let out. She tried to pull her mana back up, but nothing answered.
She had bolted without reading the contract. She had no idea what had been done to her.
Charm magic, no matter how crude the casting, was mid-tier at its foundation. And Liliana — bound to remain weaker than her contractor, Lee Ho-yeon — was not strong enough to hold a mid-tier spell for long.
"Ch-Charm!"
"Charm, my ass!"
"Aaagh!"
The man's hand seized the collapsed Liliana by the hair and yanked, hard and ugly.
"Hey, hey. Easy. She'll look like shit if you leave marks."
"Shut up, you dumbass. Lucky for us I'm Awakened. This bitch is Awakened too, I'm telling you."
"It hurts… it hurts…! Hhck…"
The more Liliana whimpered, the harder the fist in her hair twisted.
Ah. So this is the real Hell.
Tears welled and spilled in Liliana's eyes. She still couldn't believe any of this was happening. She had just been playing a game. How had it come to this?
Thoughts flickered through her head one after another. I should have listened to Mom. Why didn't I just listen. I wonder if the engineering college is getting by without me. I should have at least heard that contractor guy out…
"Get up, you bitch."
The man hauled Liliana's head upward by the hair. The motion sent tears sliding down her cheek, tracing her jawline, and dripping onto the concrete.
She thought, Anyone. I don't care who. Please just save me.
"You sons of bitches. You put a mark on my summon?"
A familiar voice cut through the alley. The same youthful voice she had heard the moment she first fell into the human world.
She lifted her head a fraction. That handsome contractor bastard was standing there.
"Do you have any idea what she's worth — no. Do you have any idea how precious that summon is?!"
Liliana realized, with a jolt that surprised her, just how much she had missed that handsome face.
"How far did she even run."
I had come out into the shopping district to find Liliana, but the place was far too big to hunt down one girl on sight alone. In the end I started asking people one by one, working the street like a detective on a missing-person case.
"Excuse me — you didn't happen to see a woman in a succubus costume pass by, did you?"
"I could do a succubus costume for you, if you want. If you'd settle for me…"
"Sorry."
I decided not to ask any more women after that.
"Hey — you didn't happen to see a girl in a succubus costume around here, did you?"
"Oh, I think I did. About five minutes ago there was a girl screaming her head off, running that way."
Oh. Lucky break. I'd only asked three people before I got a witness — the man selling fish-shaped pastries at a stall.
"I didn't get a great look, but she was booking it toward the tower in the middle."
"That's more than enough. Thank you."
"Nah, don't mention it. She your girlfriend? Weird hobby."
"…"
I didn't have time to waste on explanations. I ran for the center of the complex.
"Okay, from here — which way?"
Even the so-called center had too many branching paths to search properly. Five minutes wasn't that long. She couldn't have gotten far…
Just in case, I spread my mana sense as wide as it would go. With my control, I could cover about five hundred meters in every direction.
"Huh?"
Less than ten meters to my right, I felt it — the same mana signature I'd sensed from Liliana earlier.
"What do you know. Found her already."
I'd been on edge the whole time, half-expecting something to have gone wrong. Relief hit me harder than I wanted to admit. I headed straight for the alley my senses were pointing to.
"You doing some kinda cosplay? We know a nice place. Wanna come with?"
Right before I stepped into the alley, a greasy, fat-soaked man's voice drifted out to me.
Cosplay? That had to be about Liliana.
I eased my face around the corner and peeked in.
"Y-you — you fucking bastard. Don't you dare put your hands on me!"
Whack!
Liliana slapped away the hand of the tattooed pig who had grabbed her arm. From the look of it, the guy had been trying to pick her up.
"The fuck? You hit me? I was going easy 'cause you're a girl, you stupid bitch. You looking to die?"
The tattooed pig's pride had taken the hit worse than his hand. He cocked his fist back.
Oh, hell no. What did this bastard think he was about to do to my summon?
I was a half-second from bursting in — I couldn't let Liliana get hurt — when her voice rang out, full of swagger.
"Oh, please. A mere human, daring to—!"
I held back and watched a little longer. Mana poured off Liliana's body, and the tattooed pig froze in place.
Oh. Succubus magic?
That might actually be useful. Succubi had charm magic, didn't they? Inside my head, Liliana's evaluation score ticked up by one point.
But she's supposed to be weaker than me right now, isn't she? Charm is a pretty high-level spell.
The doubt had barely formed before the tattooed pig started moving again.
"Hah! What the—? I just blanked out."
"Did this crazy bitch just do something? I may not look it, but I'm Awakened too, you know."
Tattoo Pig Number Two delivered a line worthy of a background extra. Number One was a complete nobody, but apparently he had enough of an Awakened's pride to notice the shift in mana.
Damn.
Liliana's mana cut out, and the charm broke. The stunned look on her face told me she had no idea the contract kept her weaker than her contractor.
Yeah. Hiding that contract was the right call.
Liliana sank to the ground with a hollow, emptied-out expression. The man started toward her.
Alright. Time to step in?
Hmm. Then a better idea occurred to me.
Would a demon succubus die from a few punches? No matter how I turned it over, I couldn't see it. The contract was explicit: she had to die, or suffer a disability on that level, before the terms kicked in. And this guy's mana reserves were trash. A complete beginner — Awakened in name only, barely able to push a little power around. That might fool civilians. It wasn't going to fool a Victoria Academy cadet.
So would a few hits from a novice like that actually put Liliana's life in danger?
Not a chance.
I decided to keep watching. It was a chance to get a read on her personality — and she'd be a lot more grateful if I swooped in when things looked bad.
"Ch-Charm!"
"Charm, my ass!"
"Aaagh!"
The man grabbed Liliana by the hair and yanked.
Ah. Okay, that actually looks like it hurts.
"It hurts… it hurts… hhck…"
Tears welled in Liliana's eyes.
Alright. Time to make an entrance.
"Get up, you bitch."
The tattooed pig-insect took hold of Liliana's hair and started dragging her somewhere.
Yeah, no. Liliana was mine. Did this idiot have any idea what she was worth?
"You sons of bitches. You put a mark on my summon?"
I opened with a double-barreled curse and stepped into the alley. The tattooed pig startled at the sudden voice, then got a look at my face and puffed right back up.
"The hell is this brat? Big brothers here are busy. Beat it while I'm still asking nice."
How much of a nobody did you have to be to not even recognize a Victoria Academy cadet uniform?
The tattooed pig still had a fistful of Liliana's hair.
"P-please help me…! I'll apologize for calling you a beggar! Please!"
Liliana's eyes met mine and she cried out for help. She'd been talking down to me earlier. Now she was using formal speech? Saving her later really did make a difference.
Her expression had changed, too. Before, she'd had that bratty, no-respect look on her face. Now she was teary-eyed and sniffling, and it was actually kind of cute.
Wait. Do I have a bit of a sadistic streak?
I looked at the tattooed pig still gripping Liliana's hair and drew up my mana.
"H-huh? K-kid. What the hell is that magic—!"
"What do you think, asshole. You'll know when it hits you."
Whoosh—!
"Gaaah!"
The fireball formed in my palm and launched in the same breath, slamming into the tattooed pig's right arm. His grip went slack all at once, and Liliana's head dropped straight into the concrete.
Thud!
"Uh…?"
"Aaaagh! M-my arm!"
"A-are you okay?! Shit! That bastard—!"
"…"
Liliana didn't move. Her head was planted in the concrete floor; she must have been out cold. The tattooed pigs were thrashing around, clutching a right arm that was still on fire.
"Ah, just get lost already, you bastards."
I lobbed a few more fireballs their way. The ones that caught fire fled down the alley shrieking like pigs at slaughter. Their arms were already burned beyond any hope of recovery. Whether the rest of them burned to death or not was none of my business.
"Haa."
I slung the still-unmoving Liliana over my shoulder and headed back to the dorm.
By some genuine stroke of luck, I didn't run into a single person on the way back to the dorm.
"Hhck. Hhkghhk."
Liliana came to not long after we got inside, buried her face in her knees, and had been like that ever since.
"Hhhck. Hhck. Mommy. I miss youuu."
"Good grief."
Problem children always came to their senses after the disaster had already happened. By then, of course, it was too late.
I was starving, so I ordered two chickens and sat waiting. I didn't know if she'd eat or not, but my wallet had some room in it, so I figured better safe than sorry and got two.
Then I thought about it and realized that thanks to this girl, my wallet wasn't exactly flush anymore. Fuck.
Ding-dong—
The bell rang. I opened the door, and the chicken was sitting right there.
"Hhkggh. Snff. Hhck."
I left the still-sobbing Liliana where she was and set the chicken out on the table.
"Hey. Eat something."
"Hhkh… sniff sniff."
Liliana lifted her face from her knees. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and she was twitching her nose, sniffing the air. She swallowed. The recovery speed was almost insulting, coming from someone who had been bawling her eyes out thirty seconds ago.
"What is that smell."
"…Unbelievable."
Liliana stared at the table, tears still wet on her cheeks.
"I'm your contractor. The least I can do is feed you. Let's eat."
"…Yes. I understand."
Why the hell was she talking so formally?
Liliana sat down at the table and looked at me with her eyes shining. She clearly wanted to eat. She just as clearly had no idea how.
Good thing I'd gone with boneless, just in case. I was not about to sit there teaching someone how to eat around a bone.
"Here. Just put it in your mouth and chew. Easy, right?"
I demonstrated by biting into a piece myself. Fried chicken really was never the wrong answer.
I'd been worried she wouldn't know how to use chopsticks, but apparently even Hell had those.
"I-it's delicious! To think I'd get to eat food like this — are you royalty after all…?"
"Royalty…?"
What the hell was she talking about?
"W-what kind of food is this?"
"Ahh. This… is called fried chicken."
"Fr-fried chicken!"
"And drop the formal speech. Talk the way you were before. This is getting weird."
"Y-yes! I mean. Okay."
"I don't know what weird idea you've gotten into your head, but I'm just an ordinary contractor. Relax. And I'm not going to steal your food, so stop piling all the chicken onto your own plate."
"O-okay. You're a good person."
Liliana had stacked a full ten pieces in front of herself.
Fortunately, once she had food in her, she seemed to settle down. Maybe now we could actually have a conversation.
"I still don't know much about succubi, so why don't you tell me about yourself? We're going to be living together from here on, after all."
"Ah. O-okay."
And so began the tale of a succubus who could spin a web like no other.