“Oh, greetings… From today onward… I, the former Great Demon, Yoo Jin’s attendant… have been appointed. I am Belphegor…”
“…”
“…”
|…|
They say when a person sees something too shocking, their head goes blank.
It seems to be true.
My brain has already declared a strike, giving up trying to understand the scene unfolding in front of my eyes.
A little while later.
Belphegor, with a flushed face, angrily muttered an excuse.
“It’s what Father ordered?! I don’t want to be doing this…!”
“Who said anything?”
“I was thinking to myself, ‘Is this girl going senile?!’”
“…”
How did she know?
Seeing her dressed in human maid attire in the demon world, I genuinely questioned if she had lost her mind.
I spotted a note stuck to Belphegor’s back and pulled it off.
– This is a gift. It seems my offspring has caused great trouble in the Current World. I know this apology is insufficient, but for now, allow Belphegor to serve you. You may treat her as you wish; I shall not interfere with how you dispose of her in the future.
So the hearing is already over?
It seems Satan judged Belphegor’s sins to be heavy and decided to expel her.
Being allowed to deal with her as I wish and even not being bothered by how I dispose of her means…
‘He wants me to kill her.’
It’s like saying that killing her is okay.
Knowing my feelings of hatred towards Belphegor, he must have hinted at this.
But why?
“What… does it say?”
“…”
Just yesterday, all I wanted was to smash Belphegor’s head into the ground.
But now, those murderous impulses have strangely dissipated.
It’s definitely not that my hatred has disappeared.
Is this a frog that’s just flipped?
Now that I’ve been told I can kill her, I suddenly don’t want to.
It feels like Satan has some ulterior motive.
If I kill her like this, it feels like I’m playing right into his hands.
And most importantly, it’s only fair that one pays for the sins committed during their lifetime.
In the case of Luna and Kali, since they’ve already died, I sent them to the Underworld to pay for their karma.
But those still living must be dealt with while they are alive.
To add an excuse here, there’s a lot of information I might miss out on from Belphegor, who hails from the Four Heavenly Kings.
Him saying I could treat her as I wish means I could extract information through ‘interrogation.’
|Astaroth, could you step out for a moment?|
|Got it. Call me anytime if it gets dangerous.|
“What?!”
After conveying my intent to Astaroth through demonic energy, she responded in kind and departed.
It seemed like Belphegor was bewildered as she could no longer manipulate the demonic energy and kept glancing between the two of us.
Before I knew it, only Mi Jeong and Belphegor were left, surrounded by a barrier of demonic energy.
“Wait… What are you planning to do to me…”
“…”
As I contemplated how to handle this, Belphegor seemed to have frightened herself and stumbled back, landing on her rear.
I carefully examined Belphegor while analyzing her capabilities.
The demonic energy and mana emanating from her body was almost non-existent.
Less than an average human, to the point where no matter how hard I squeezed, I couldn’t even leave a scratch.
Scratching her with my fingernails would be far more effective.
Her physical structure was no different from that of a human.
She had long, slender limbs.
There was no hint of muscle to be found on her delicate body.
Of course, as a demon, her density compared to a human was on a different level.
Yet even so, she seemed far weaker than I was.
Belphegor had no means to resist me.
In fact, she could be completely overwhelmed by Mi Jeong.
Thus, I concluded.
“Belphegor, do you know that Luna and Kali were drawn to the Underworld?”
“What…?”
“Sola has turned away. Now, you’re the only remaining Heavenly King.”
“That can’t be…”
After being abandoned by Draken, the Four Heavenly Kings were truly shattered.
Kali kept insisting that she was right and tried to persuade the God of Underworld.
Luna, on the verge of eternal life, was dragged away by the God of Underworld, wailing in a pitiful manner.
So, what kind of feelings does Belphegor show?
“Ugh! Kill me!”
“Hey.”
“It’s better to die than suffer humiliation by a human! I’d rather die while preserving my integrity!”
“Hey…”
This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.
Something entirely different from my expectations came out.
At first, I thought nothing of Belphegor being a woman.
But seeing her act that way, urges to humiliate her started to surge.
“I feel like you’re misunderstanding something.”
“…?!”
I stepped towards her and grabbed her mouth, cutting her off.
Until now, I had thought her typically deep demonic voice was irritating.
But hearing a feminine voice emanate from this brat only made it worse.
“Do you think you can die? You will never die. Your father just abandoned you. Until I permit it, you cannot die.”
“…!!”
Woosh!
Gathering demonic energy in my fingertips, Belphegor began to tremble and her pupils flickered wildly.
I could feel that tremor in my hands.
With the gathered energy, I pressed my palm against Belphegor’s chest.
I tried to replicate the Blood Oath I once saw from Seo Gong.
But it seemed, due to my lack of talent, I couldn’t replicate it just from memory.
Plus, this was an environment devoid of wandering evil spirits, so the Blood Oath couldn’t activate here in the first place.
“Swear it. From now on, you are my possession and will be unable to do anything without my permission.”
“Wh-What?!”
“Swear it.”
“Aaagh?!”
If I couldn’t use Blood Oath, I’d just create a new curse suitable for this environment.
My fingers dove into Belphegor’s insides.
The demonic energy from my fingertips gradually seeped into her veins.
Just like how she infused demonic energy into her previous contractors, I filled her body with it.
The difference being that while Belphegor secretly inserted a small amount out of fear of being caught, I’m openly filling her veins until it circulates through her whole body.
With this much energy, it’s even possible to make her an utterly mindless puppet.
Of course, that’s only if there was a vow.
“Swear it.”
“I-I don’t want to…”
“You, being a demon, wouldn’t understand how painful a frail body without any protective demonic energy can feel. I’ll teach you slowly, the extreme horror of the torture methods humans have developed over thousands of years—”
“Alright, I swear! I am Yoo Jin’s slave! From now on, I am nothing but an object belonging to Yoo Jin without his permission!!!”
“…”
Before she even finished her sentence, Belphegor shakily declared her vow.
Then, having completed the casting of the spell that mimicked the Blood Oath, the demonic energy flowing through Belphegor’s veins became infused with the curse.
I was so dumbfounded that I lost my words.
I was prepared to torture her for three days and nights to extract a vow.
Having her surrender before I even started was beyond my expectations.
Nevertheless.
It’s time to test the spell’s effectiveness.
“Sit.”
“Hik?!”
“Stand.”
“Huh…!”
“Lie down.”
“Hiiik!”
“Kneel.”
“Aah! My knees!”
“Fly.”
“Eh…?!”
One command after another, Belphegor responded as if her body was moving on its own.
While Blood Oath forces compliance by inflicting pain for failing to obey, my curse forces the body to move freely according to commands.
Things are going to be a lot easier to handle now.
“You degenerate…! So that’s how you controlled those women who followed you!”
“Am I you? To consume contractors with demonic energy and make them die?”
“I’ve never killed my contractors! They’re all precious customers, why would I kill them?!”
“Don’t you remember Lawrence Briam? The mayor of Cologne you killed.”
“That brat was taken down by this little corpse!”
“…”
Was that really the case?
I briefly glanced back at Mi Jeong and the club attached to her back.
That isn’t what’s important right now.
“Regardless, the fact that you collaborated in the numerous casualties and disasters hasn’t changed. Did you really hate humans that much?”
“…”
“Before coming here, I thought demons were inherently evil creatures, only seeing humans as prey. But now, it seems you’re the only one like that. This demon world also has morality and justice, so what the hell are you doing? Did humans ever do you harm in any way?”
“I don’t care…”
“What?”
“What did humans do to me? You really want to know? No, you won’t be curious. You just want to create a reason to punish me and are only asking in formality. You won’t believe whatever answer I give.”
“…”
Belphegor glared at me with gritted teeth.
Her pupils were filled with fear directed at me, yet within those, faintly, hatred brewed.
A deeply rooted and thick hatred.
“Are you going to make excuses? Is it because you’ve suffered at the hands of humans that you seek revenge?”
“I have no intention of doing that. If you think I will regret my actions when I am suppressed and killed by you, you’re wrong.”
“I won’t either. I don’t think I was wrong. I just lost because I lacked power. I have no regrets.”
“This is…”
For the first time, Belphegor displayed hostility towards me.
Even with the Blood Oath bonding her as my near-slave, she held her head high, glaring at me with eyes full of defiance.
