Chapter 55


“Please, kill me······.”

A demon woman is kneeling in front of me, looking completely enlightened.

I wondered why I was having dreams of my past life; was it all her doing?

“Luke, you’re safe.”

“Suddenly?”

What’s up with this “safe” talk?

Is she referring to the warriors from the Joseon era?

“Didn’t you have a nightmare…?”

“Nightmare?”

I did dream something, but was it a nightmare?

Honestly, it was fun since it was a game I hadn’t played in a while.

Plus, there was a newbie involved?

With such a lewd newbie, how could that be a nightmare?

Luna glanced at the demon woman kneeling beneath me and said,

“What on earth did you do in that dream…?”

“Nothing much?”

I just had them clear the naked Malenia parry on the eighth try.

“Please, kill me··· kill me···.”

“Alright. Find peace at last. I’ll have the National Recognition Association acknowledge you.”

If you’ve cleared it with a naked parry, that’s honestly impressive.

I appreciate it, but sadly, since you were born a demon, you’re destined to be my experience points.

“Next life, be born on Earth.”

Is it true that girls who are good at games are popular with men?

Be born on Earth and maybe you can start a YouTube channel.

I pulled a sword from my inventory and beheaded the demon.

“Ah··· finally···.”

With a swoosh, the demon’s body turned to ashes and vanished.

Though she was dying, she somehow looked happy.

[ You defeated the demon Lilith! You acquired the skill Status Ailment Resistance! ]

[ Level Up! Check your status! ]

[ Level Up! Check your status! ]

[ Level Up! Check your status! ]

[ Level Up! You are······. ]

Lilith? That’s a name I haven’t heard before.

Not all demons from stories are typically present, huh?

I must have done a number on one of the stars in the Academy Total War.

As I blankly cleared the notification screen, Yui and Luna approached me.

“Luke, what are you going to do next?”

“What do you mean?”

“The Crown Marquis. Given the circumstances, he must be involved too, right?”

“Oh. Right.”

At this point, it should be obvious to anyone with a brain that the Marquis is an accomplice.

His obsessive behavior toward us is just bizarre.

The manner in which a noble treats commoners is unthinkable.

Exactly. We’ve been lured in.

“See? I told you it was right. I said we should’ve killed him on the spot.”

The squint-eyed villain is official, I say.

People always seem to regret things only after realizing them.

If only they wouldn’t do regretful things in the first place.

“…At that moment, I thought you were just being weird, Luke.”

“Wow… Yui, you thought so too?”

“Well… honestly, if you use violence against someone you just met, it is natural that…”

“Tsk. How would you know what you’re talking about?”

I’ve seen numerous squint characters in developed countries with advanced psychology. You two don’t even know what anime is.

It’s all my fault anyway.

“It’s alright. It happens! Since you’ve been through it, you’ll become like me next time!”

“Your expression feels annoying, though······.”

“It’s just your imagination.”

I sheathed the sword and put it back in my inventory.

“So now, are we heading to the mansion?”

“Guess so.”

If I hadn’t slept at all, I would have gone to bed and headed out in the morning, but since I got some rest now, I should be fine.

We left the room and went down the stairs.

On the first floor, the clerk who guided us was face-down asleep on the counter.

As we stepped out of the inn, the first thing that caught my eye was the pink mist filling the Marquis territory.

Seems like the demon I just killed had something to do with this, but since it’s still lingering, I guess it will take time to clear.

“Wow… they really went all out.”

“Do you think they were planning to feed all the territory residents to the demons?”

“Yui. Just because it looks tasty doesn’t mean you can eat it.”

“Ugh, I won’t eat it…!”

Ah, she’s not a child after all.

And to think of trying to kill all her own residents.

The Marquis really came out as if he didn’t care at all.

What could he have received to give up his status by becoming a demon?

Huh? So is it legal to kill everyone here?

Since no one would know anyway, should I kill them all for quick experience and blame it on the Marquis?

‘No. What if they escape?’

They seem calm now, maybe thinking we’ll lose, but the moment they get a hint of something, they’ll definitely try to run.

Of course, I’d chase them to the ends of hell, but that sounds like too much trouble.

Once we had our goal set, we headed straight on.

I don’t know what kind of powerful demon was coming our way, but on the road to the Marquis’s mansion, I didn’t encounter any obstacles at all.

In fact, the guards who should have been on duty were all fast asleep, leaving the mansion’s front completely empty.

So we proudly walked through the front entrance.

Finding the Marquis was easy.

All the rooms were dark, but there was one spot in the mansion that was lit up.

As if it was announcing, “I’m right here~.”

—BAM!!

Kicking the door to the office, I found a startled Marquis inside.

He seemed to be packing up in a hurry, perhaps trying to run away.

“Uh, how did you get in!?”

“Through the front door!!”

“That’s impossible…! That person has been defeated!?”

“Don’t be too heartbroken. It’s me you’re up against.”

Nowadays, even the strongest of fallen angels lose, so what’s with all this surprise over a mere demon?

Anyone would think a Demon God was defeated here.

That’s why demons are all so weird.

What’s with their excessive faith for something as simple as a demon?

“Ugh··· now that it’s come to this!”

—Crack! Crack!

He hunched his back as if trying to transform, and something started popping out from his back.

“Jet Kick!!”

“Gah!”

So I hit him with a Jet Kick.

“What the hell are you doing!? This is an important moment!”

“Honestly, who wants to watch someone transforming like a Demon? The readers would hate it too!”

What color the skin is, how the body looks, what magic they’ve got, and so on.

Why waste hundreds of characters on that pointless transformation?

You could be landing another hit instead!

These days, no one waits for magical girls and heroes to transform either.

And yet this pathetic guy expects me to watch him transform into a demon?

Not a chance. Skip it.

“And I don’t have time to mess around with someone like you. I’ve got things I want to try out.”

—Snap!

As I snapped my fingers, a refreshing sound echoed through the room.

“”······?””

Luna, Yui, and even the Marquis, who were watching, looked at me like I was some weird person.

“What are you doing, Luna, Yui? Grab him.”

“”······.””

Only then did the two of them act.

If you’re going to do it, just do it; why stare blankly at me?

There wasn’t even a need for a battle…

The Marquis wasn’t even particularly strong.

If he had any power, he wouldn’t be playing the servant to demons, trying to kill people himself.

Transform into a Demon, and his power only shifts from 1 to 2 at best.

“Cough…!”

Just like that, the Marquis was quickly subdued.

He knelt to Luna and Yui.

“Wait a moment! You should become demons too! Soon that person will descend! Then, all humans will die!”

“Shut your mouth with that kind of nonsense.”

Become a demon? Is that what he’s saying?

That’s the ultimate flag, buddy.

The last guy who said something like that ended up with his head on a platter.

The Demon God is truly a mess now.

There’s no one left to worship him, and so he ends up sucking up to someone like this.

With some desperate attempts at persuasion, but unfortunately, my faith lies in one and only one.

“Arla Kala-Tola!!”

—Bang!

“Cough!!”

*

“Why didn’t you just kill him right away? What was the plan behind catching him?”

“I had something I wanted to know.”

I figured I should try it at least once, but doing it on Earth would get me arrested for murder, so I never tried it.

“Luna, Yui. Are you holding on tight?”

How much pain would it take for someone to go into shock?

Today, I’m going to experiment until the demon in front of me goes into shock.

So first, I bent the fingers of the demon.

—Crack crack crack!

“Ugh!!!! Noooooo!!!!”

All ten fingers at once, not just one at a time.

How many experiments do I have to conduct before I let him off with just one?

There shouldn’t be enough pain from just fingers to put someone into shock.

“Ho, so it seems fingers don’t hurt much?”

“He just screamed a lot, though…?”

“Yui. That much is fine.”

What we need to do is inflict pain on him without letting him scream.

What does a scream mean?

He’s still alive.

Then I will ramp up the pain until he’s dead and no longer screaming.

Next up are the toes.

I twisted the toes upward and downward, bending them right back to the foot.

—Crack!!

“ARHHH!! Stop!! Please stop!!!”

“Silence Punch!!”

“Ugh!!”

Since he was too loud, I decided to shut him up.

Although the damage from the Silence Punch knocked out his teeth, it’s actually a win because now I have one less thing to worry about.

“Looks like his teeth and toes are still intact.”

In modern fantasy novels, characters can still swing swords even with their innards hanging out, but that’s something only superhumans can pull off.

The Marquis in front of me was at a regular human level until just now. Now with that dumb transformation into a demon, has he seriously gained any more stamina?

‘Well, it doesn’t really matter that much.’

That just means I can test things out longer.

Fingers, toes, teeth.

Now for the ears.

“Luna. Cut off his ears.”

The Marquis’s pupils began shaking at my words.

“Should I just do one side?”

“Of course, both!”

Drawing her sword from her waist, Luna swiftly sliced off both of his ears.

“Wuaaaaaaah!!!”

“Pfft. Don’t be so funny. This is a serious moment.”

Who screams like a “Wuaaaaaah”?

This guy is trying to make me laugh and disrupt my focus.

“But Luke, won’t he die from blood loss at this rate?”

“Damn! I hadn’t thought of that!”

It can’t be helped!

I took a flask from my inventory.

“Hey! Drink this! It’s a potion!”

After opening the flask, I held it to the demon’s mouth, and he seemed desperate enough to gulp it all down.

“That’s it. Drink it all up. It’s an amazing potion.”

“…Luke? That’s not a potion, is it?”

“No, it’s definitely a potion.”

A potion that truly leads to death.

After downing the potion, the demon coughed once and then started spitting up blood.

Not just from his mouth, but blood streamed from his nose, eyes, and every hole.

After a good ten seconds of vomiting blood, the demon suddenly fell still like a puppet with its strings cut, never to move again.

“Looks like it needs to be on the level of melting organs to reach shock death.”

I’ve learned something new today.

“…He looks just dead, though.”

And by the way, the experience points from the Marquis who turned into a demon were just plain rubbish.