Please Stay with Me for the Rest of Your Life, Master
Title: Please Stay with Me for the Rest of Your Life, Master.
Nahel had clearly carried the unconscious girl like a sack of luggage down into the basement. However, instead of being inside, he was guarding the entrance with a blank, unfocused expression, chasing away anyone who approached.
"……Go, go away. Access to the basement is forbidden."
If so, who was the one left alone with Ruby in the basement right now?
It was Camilla, the master of the Black Star. Though calling her a "master" was a bit much, considering she was the only one left of her clan.
Camilla’s original purpose in coming here was to form a contract with Nahel, who was blinded by power, and slowly swallow up the Church. But to her disgust, this crazy bishop was looking at her—who possessed the appearance of a young child—with greasy, repulsive eyes!
She had been looking for an opportunity to terminate the contract when a certain girl caught her eye. Even among the succubus race, who lived and died by their looks, the Black Star clan was the most renowned. To Camilla’s eyes, the girl was truly beautiful. She looked just like her mother—no, honestly, she was even more beautiful than her mother.
Sleek black short hair. Gem-like dark red eyes. Even lips as ripe as cherries.
Everything was entirely to her taste. And apparently, she wasn't the only one who thought so; she must have appealed to the pedophilic Nahel as well, given that he was suddenly crying and performing a dogeza prostration.
The only catching point was the girl’s terrifyingly massive holy power. Even the holy power of the Saintess she had seen on the battlefield long ago didn't match up to this.
‘But…’
An ordinary demon would have had their flesh instantly seared and horribly melted just by approaching her, but Camilla was different. To someone like her, who could harbor all forms of desire and energy, this was merely a 'tricky' energy to consume. It felt like an ingredient that was just a bit more tedious to prepare, like picking out thorns before cooking.
In other words, this unconscious girl was nothing short of a grand feast to her.
And she was supposed to hand a girl like this over to someone like Nahel? Absolutely not. She would rather die trying to consume her than give her to a wretch like Nahel.
With that, she unilaterally broke her contract with Nahel and brought the girl down to the basement. The penalty for breaking the contract was easily silenced just by holding the girl in her arms and stroking her.
‘Should I just turn her into a doll and exploit her energy for the rest of my life? No. That might ruin her beauty, so let's look for another way.’
As she admired the girl’s face in the basement, happily pondering how to absorb that monstrous energy, a sudden shift occurred.
Woooong—!
Suddenly, the dagger hidden inside the girl’s clothes began to emit energy and glow.
As the master of the Black Star, Camilla had never feared holy power in her entire life. But this light was different. Normally, it should have been absorbed by her demonic energy, but it was actually pushing her demonic energy away instead.
“Huh? Isn't that the Holy Sword, Solaris?!”
The legendary Holy Sword, said to keep its wielder forever righteous and to eradicate all demonic energy in the world. She knew for a fact it was supposed to be in the hands of The Pope, so why was it emerging from the clothes of this tiny girl?
Fortunately, the Holy Sword couldn't purify Camilla's own innate demonic energy. However, its power was more than enough to purify the demonic energy that had seeped into the girl’s body, and soon enough, the girl’s eyelashes trembled as he opened his eyes.
Clear, transparently shining red eyes. The girl looked up at Camilla with a hazy gaze and parted his small lips.
“…Camilla?”
……!!
Camilla’s heart dropped. She hadn't been this startled even when the Demon King was pursuing her.
‘How does he know my true name? Even the Demon King doesn't know it!’
But soon, her true name no longer mattered to Camilla. The girl's low, murmuring voice traveled into her ears, stirring and melting her brain.
It wasn't because of an overwhelming holy power or the might of the Holy Sword. It was simply because the listless, soft voice of the girl calling her name was intoxicatingly to her taste.
Looking at the lips of the girl who called her name, Camilla made up her mind. Her original goal of swallowing the Church to exact her revenge could go to hell. As long as she could stay by this dazzling girl’s side and listen to that voice for the rest of her life, she didn't care if her life's purpose was thrown to the dogs.
“P-Please stay with me for the rest of your life. Master...”
It was the declaration of submission from Camilla, the character who accounted for the largest share of bad endings in Astral Saga right after the Demon King.
I thought I would spend the day eating or reading books with Seraphina like usual. But after receiving a command letter from someone, her face turned bright red, and she dashed out of the room in an instant.
Returning shortly after while breathing heavily, she gave me a few warnings and handed over the Holy Sword, Solaris, from her jacket.
The sword I used most frequently when playing as a Holy Knight in Astral Saga! To think I'd see this sword with my own two eyes!
“Ruby. You are listening to your big sister, right?”
Completely unable to focus on Seraphina's warnings, I just stared at Solaris as if possessed. Its brilliance was on a completely different level from the crude graphics in the game. No wonder the item description read: [Possession Effect: Probability of attracting thieves increases by 50%].
Whenever I held this sword as a Holy Knight, thieves would swarm like moths to a flame, and I used to farm reputation by capturing them all and forcing them to repent. Even when playing as a thief, I would intentionally steal this sword to make other thieves swarm and then force them to repent. Of course, unlike the Holy Knight who used prayers, the thief did it with overwhelming physical violence.
As I sat on the edge of the bed with a silly grin, admiring the Holy Sword, the door clicked.
Creak—
The door, which I was told would absolutely never open, swung wide, and an old man walked into the room.
Flinch.
I was surprised to see him, but the old man seemed even more shocked to see me. Then, out of nowhere, he fell to his knees and began to wail miserably, begging for forgiveness.
‘Does the Church just generously accept mental patients like this…?’
Just as I was having rather harsh thoughts about the old man, his eyes suddenly turned pitch black as he thrashed on the floor, and he lunged toward me.
And then… I lost consciousness just like that.
‘Is fainting a passive skill for me or something…?’
When I opened my eyes again, a young child was floating in front of me.
“…Camilla?”
Camilla. The Incubbus of the Apocalypse.
For starters, if this creature ever grew into an adult (mature form), there would be absolutely no way to stop her. Her demonic energy devoured and absorbed every single type of energy in the world, making no distinction between magic, holy power, or aura. Her sole weakness was being beaten with pure 'physical attacks'. But once she reached her mature form, she would perfectly control the 'Black Star,' meaning even physical attacks wouldn't work anymore.
Camilla, who hadn't even been mentioned early on, would suddenly pop up during the game's progression and start destroying the world. The first time I fell victim to it, it left me completely blindsided.
The only way to stop her was to seal the Black Star before she could grow. As you traveled with the Black Star, a notification window would occasionally pop up at night.
[The Black Star is weeping sorrowfully.]
In this world, which boasted an insane level of freedom where you could turn any character—whether an NPC or a monster—into an ally, Camilla, the Incubbus of the Apocalypse, was no exception.
Believing myself to be a true veteran player, I tried absolutely everything to recruit her as an ally. First, I researched her background.
“You wish to borrow all of these books…?”
Logging into my veteran character who had already cleared the Demon King and unlocked all regions, I collected every single book existing on the map, from the starting village to the ends of the Demon Realm.
“E-Even if you are the Hero, this place is—?!” “Move.”
I forcefully broke into sanctuaries and forbidden zones that I usually wouldn't dare approach out of fear that my reputation points would drop.
“You scoundrel! Do you think everything in the world will go your way just because you are the Hero?!”
As I rummaged through every region and neared the completion of gathering information on the 'Black Star,' the Empire and Kingdom eventually lost their patience and formed a joint coalition, sending a massive subjugation force after me.
But who was I?
“Why the hell isn't he taking any damage?!” “Even when we manage to leave a scratch, a single heal restores him completely?!”
I was a monster with stats that wouldn't let me get scratched even if those trash mobs pounded on me all day, and my health bar would instantly fill up with just a single healing skill.
It took me over ten hours of thoroughly combing through every single corner of the game to finally uncover the truth about them.
The Black Star Clan.
Unlike ordinary demonic energy, which burned away upon contact with holy power, their demonic energy possessed a terrifying trait that devoured both holy power and other demonic energies alike. Naturally, she was viewed with extreme caution by both humans and demons. Ultimately, before going to war with each other, the two factions formed a tacit alliance.
They decided to eliminate that troublesome clan first. No matter how powerful her mother—the leader of the clan—was, she couldn't fend off both coalitions. Eventually, her mother lost her life at the hands of the Demon King, and the Black Star clan began their flight.
Hunted without a single place to settle in either the Demon Realm or the human world, she was soon left entirely alone, losing every single member of her clan. Thus, destroying this entire world became the final goal of Camilla, the Incubbus of the Apocalypse.
Learning about her circumstances made me feel a sense of kinship. It was no different from my own past, where I hovered on the fringes, failing to adapt at home or at school. So, I exerted every effort to recruit her as an ally.
“Just quietly become my ally!”
First, I tried to subdue her through brute force, defeating her multiple times. Yet, even while spitting blood on the ground, she only glared at me with murderous eyes and never opened her heart.
After hundreds, thousands of attempts, the recruitment conditions I discovered were nothing short of mind-boggling.
First, you must absolutely neither win nor lose the battle against her.
“Are you kidding me…?!”
This might sound easy on paper, but it was absolutely, positively not easy. Combat in Astral Saga was never on the easy side. To be precise, it was incredibly unforgiving.
In typical RPGs, players usually held a systemic advantage. An elemental advantage, like blasting a fire-attribute monster with water magic, or pouring holy power onto the undead. But this game was different. Unless they were brainless mobs like zombies or ghouls, enemies would conversely exploit the player's weaknesses relentlessly.
They would rain 'Slow' curses on high-agility thieves, and inflict 'Confusion' or 'Madness' on Berserkers who were vulnerable to mental attacks, causing party members to fight each other. While playing, you'd seriously end up empathizing with the plight of a raid boss getting ganged up on...
And yet, even if she wasn't in her mature form, I had to force a 1:1 'draw' against the Incubbus of the Apocalypse without a single ally?
As mentioned before, only physical attacks worked on Camilla. Which meant I had to clear all enemies leading up to Camilla's encounter location using nothing but physical attacks without any allies, meet Camilla, take her attacks 'moderately,' and attack her 'moderately' to achieve a tie.
“……Should I just give up?”
Actually, there was a trick. I could just bring a full party right up to Camilla's room and then forcefully disband them right in front of the door. However, because I didn't want to heartlessly discard the companions I had grown attached to even in a game, I had to retry countless times.
Anyway, after demonstrating extreme physical mechanics to barely achieve a draw and convincing her, she would finally reveal the second condition.
Which was to decapitate the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s army, who had brutally tortured and slaughtered her clan. And naturally, I had to do it completely alone, without a single party member.
“You crazy piece of trash developer!!”
Curses directed at the developers flew out naturally. This was sheer madness. Fighting one of the Demon King's Four Heavenly Kings alone, without a tank to draw aggro or a healer? It was an impossible domain, systemically blocked to ensure it couldn't be beaten based on stats alone.
But who was I?
‘If the system blocks it, I’ll just break through with a bug.’
Was I not a veteran among veterans who poured his entire life into this game? I mobilized every trick I knew, including systemic loopholes and map-clipping bugs.
“Die! Please just die already!!”
No joke, I spent three solid hours hiding behind a wall just spamming left-clicks on my mouse. Furthermore, I had to do all of this in a game that didn't support mid-game saves.
After shedding actual blood (I stayed up all night, and my nose literally bled) and enduring bone-breaking hardships to finally recruit her as an ally, the line she delivered was:
“I’ll give you a chance to stay with me for the rest of your life.”
Just that one line. But right now, I had just woken up from fainting and heard that exact line… and spoken with far greater humility at that!
For context, once she becomes an ally, she transforms into a fiercely devoted party member. Perhaps it was a balancing penalty for not being able to recruit other party members? Utilizing the nature of an incubbus/succubus who doesn't sleep, she would stand watch alone every single night during camp, and she would wipe out tedious regular mob encounters on her own using wide-range area-of-effect skills. Even in boss fights, Camilla was an absurdly broken ally who absorbed all demonic, holy, aura, and magical attacks…
Far from being a mature adult, she still had the physique of a child right now, so it seemed difficult to expect the same combat capabilities as in the game.
Ah! By the way, the reason she still has the body of a child is—
Boom—!!
Suddenly, a loud explosion echoed from behind, and the old mental-patient man from earlier was sent flying straight through the wall.
“Ugh…”
Looking closely, the old man’s face was completely swollen like a bun from being punched, and his bones seemed horribly twisted as if they had all been shattered.
“Ruby!!!”
From behind the flying old man, Seraphina rushed toward me with half-crazed eyes. The moment she spotted Camilla, she snatched me up and hid me securely behind her back.
“How dare a filthy incubbus wench like you approach our baby!”
A low, bone-chilling murderous intent that I had never heard before leaked from Seraphina’s voice.
“What? Who are you calling filthy right now?!”
On the other hand, contradicting her title as an apocalyptic nightmare creature, Camilla snapped back in a sharp, youthful child's voice.
“That's right! An incubbus who goes around spreading their legs for anyone to suck out their energy has no right!!”
At those words, I instinctively tilted my head.
“That shouldn't be true. The current Camilla is a complete ‘virgin’ who has never once absorbed anyone's energy before.”
…….
…….
In an instant, the hostile atmosphere froze, and both of them turned to look at me simultaneously, as if rehearsed.
“H-How on earth does our Ruby know that…?!”
Seraphina’s voice trembled heavily, all trace of her murderous intent completely vanished.
“Oh…! As expected, Master believes in me!!”
The sharpness left Camilla’s voice, replaced by an overwhelmed, blushing tone that echoed through the basement.
“…Did I just say that out loud?”
I was in deep trouble.