Do You Like Thrills Too?

Water Sage Hellus Fobidas.

A sage renowned for his outstanding abilities, yet also for living in a small village without belonging to any organization.

It was said he did so to maintain his humility, but in truth, it stemmed from greed and the instinct to survive.

The source of the knowledge that allowed him to be called a sage was a small blonde girl.

Without the wisdom of that girl, now called Mori, Hellus was nothing more than a potbellied middle-aged man.

His source of knowledge had been taken from him, and he had tried to get her back.

But the result had been disastrous.

Instead, he had been kidnapped by Ferda, and the witch’s brand on the back of his hand had created a secret he could never reveal, even in death.

What had happened since then?

Nothing.

Astonishingly, absolutely nothing had happened.

After the murdered maid had been replaced by someone else, he continued receiving the same support, using it to enjoy delicious food, alcohol, and women.

“Ugh…… This is driving me crazy.”

And yet Hellus was plagued by thirst.

Though he maintained his life as a sage by borrowing Mori’s wisdom, the fact that he was limited to only three questions in total irritated him.

If all three questions were wasted on useless matters and an apparently important question came in, he would have to wait until tomorrow.

Was that all?

As he waited, more questions accumulated, and as they were carried over in that fashion, he had a backlog of three months’ worth.

He only needed to select the questions he required, but Hellus had neither the discernment to do that nor any desire to learn.

Thus, he had no choice but to deal with them stupidly, one after another.

‘This is all that damned regent’s fault.’

Hellus resented Ferda.

As if stealing what had originally been his were not enough, Ferda had promised to let him use it freely, then put a limit on the number of questions.

His irritation rose.

Hellus reflexively picked up a cookie from the plate and stuffed it into his mouth.

He had been relieving his stress by eating, and had consequently put on a great deal of weight.

Thanks to the sticky sugar flowing through his veins, he felt considerably better.

‘At least he doesn’t know I tried to steal her back…….’

After making a terrifying contract with a witch, he would not dare do anything so reckless as to stick his neck out.

Taking advantage of that very assumption was the wisdom Hellus had devised.

‘There’s no way that mad regent would have let me off.’

He believed he had created this through his own wisdom and was growing.

Praising himself, he busied himself with eating his fill.

‘Still, I can’t just stay like this.’

He had to get Mori back.

His daily life itself was no different from before, but he could not tolerate the anxiety needling at his nerves—the uncertainty of what might happen.

How could he take that brat back?

‘Should I think about it tomorrow?’

Having eaten his fill, he was overcome by drowsiness.

He decided to sleep on it and was about to lie down on the bed.

That was when it happened.

Creak—.

The door opened without warning.

“What? Who opens a door without even knocking?”

As he grumbled, someone appeared.

Blonde hair and blue eyes.

Hellus brightened at the sight of that face.

“Olivia. What are you doing here?”

It was not the real Olivia.

She was a prostitute who had taken the princess’s name.

Any prostitute with blonde hair who was even moderately pretty used the alias Olivia.

The prostitute stared at him blankly with only her head poking through the doorway.

Hellus sensed that something was strange, but before that could register, his lower half reacted first.

“What’s wrong? Do you want to have some filthy fun with me tonight? I’ll make sure you’re satisfied this time!”

“…….”

“Honey? Are you really all right? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

The door opened a little farther.

At the same time, Olivia’s head dropped onto the floor with a thud.

It had literally fallen like a ball.

Thud.

Roll-roll—.

The smoothly severed cross-section entered Hellus’s view.

“Huh!?”

Hellus, who had lain down on the bed, let out a vacant cry before belatedly grasping what had happened.

“E-Ergh!”

He yanked up the blanket and let out an undignified scream.

While he was recoiling in terror, someone entered.

“What’s wrong, honey? Why the face? I like having filthy fun too.”

He spoke seductively, but could not conceal his gruff male voice.

Black skin, black sclera, and red irises.

Pointed teeth showed inside the sneering mouth.

He grinned.

He smeared the blood on his hand across his lips.

“G-Guards! Guaaardsss!”

He screamed at the top of his lungs.

Yet there was no sign of the servants who normally came running whenever they heard his voice.

Naturally.

He had brought Olivia’s severed head here; was there any chance that a servant in the manor was still alive and well?

Hellus’s face turned pale.

“Y-You…… What are you?”

“Oh my, asking that even after seeing this much? You really are slow.”

The male demon smiled with his eyes like a woman.

His pointed fingernails gleamed ominously.

“I absolutely hate men who pretend not to notice things.”

“P-Please spare me! My lord!”

Hellus submitted instinctively and shouted.

“I-I’ll give you anything you want! If you want treasure, go down to the basement, and if you want this land, I’ll give you this house too! So please, just spare my life……!”

The male demon’s face creased.

“Hmm……. Something’s strange…….”

The man tilted his head, looking at Hellus with eyes that had only black pupils.

“A man called the Sage of Water shouldn’t be this bland……. Lord Gokma said you were dangerous enough to make it into at least the second army, too…….”

The man noticed that something was going strangely.

He seized Hellus by the collar and hauled him up.

“Tell me, honey. Who are you?”

“H-Hellus Fobidas…….”

“The Sage of Water, the ultimate wisdom who created a breakthrough, couldn’t possibly be someone as feeble as you, could he? You don’t look like you have any wisdom at all, hmm……. Then you must be…….”

The demon grinned as if he had realized something.

“Hmm, that must be it. You’re Fobidas’s double, aren’t you?”

“I-I’m not…….”

“It’s all right. So what if you’re a double? Tell me, where’s the real one? If you just lead me to him, I’ll let you live. How about it?”

Hellus found it difficult to open his mouth.

He could say that the real one was far away, then run away afterward.

That would be the best ad-lib he could manage at that moment.

But Hellus did not say it.

His survival instinct seemed to be reading the future and warning him.

He had a powerful conviction that the moment he denied it, the demon would kill him.

“I-I’m Hellus. I-I beg you, please spare me…….”

He revealed his identity again, but the man did not believe him.

“Ah, you’re stubbornly insisting on it, so this isn’t any fun. Then…….”

He ruffled Hellus’s hair.

Hellus felt the air around his ear turn cold as a gust swept past.

A throbbing pain surged up.

Then liquid trickled down his cheek.

Hellus realized.

The man had attacked just now, and his ear had been sliced off.

“E-Ergh, aaaaagh!”

Hellus screamed in terror.

“Tell me. You are a double, right? Right? If you admit it now, I’ll give you a clean death. Just whisper the location to me.”

“Aaaagh! I am Hellus Fobidas! I am, I tell you! Please believe me!”’

The man threatened him to pry out the truth, while Hellus screamed and blurted out the truth.

In this absurdity, where even his sincerity failed to get through, Hellus shed tears.

“S-Someone, save me! If anyone’s there, please save me!!”

Naturally, there was no one who could come to save him.

Boredom settled over the demon man’s face.

Hellus Fobidas was not here.

Just as he reached that conclusion and was about to kill the double,

Crack!

Along with the sound of the wall being pierced, a ray of light cut across the space between Hellus and him.

It pierced the hand holding Hellus, as if aimed precisely at it, and the lifted Hellus was hurled onto the floor.

“Ughhh!”

Hellus did not miss the moment and scrambled backward.

Instead of finishing him off, the demon man exhaled as he looked at the mark that had pierced through the wall.

“Hmm, I wonder what rat interrupted my happy time?”

Bang!

Young men burst through the door into the room.

They had drawn their swords and were aiming at the demon.

“Put down the sage, you filthy thing!”

Five fine-featured young men.

They were brimming with the spirit of young blood, but that was all they had.

None of them knew how to use magic.

Then who could it be?

The owner of that magic appeared belatedly.

Gray hair and blue eyes.

He had such a composed air that it was hard to believe he was young and full of vigor.

The man knew who he was.

“I wondered who it was. So the handsome regent oppa fired that?”

The male demon spoke with a coquettish smile, and Ferda showed his disgust.

“A grown-ass man talking like a little girl. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

“Aww, don’t say that. You should know how to respect tastes like this, shouldn’t you?”

“Right. You must have become a demon because you have tastes like that.”

Ferda continued to taunt him, provoking the demon.

The male demon merely laughed as if he were enjoying himself.

“What a shame, what a shame. You’re exactly my type—so feisty—but it would have been nice if your body were just a little fatter…….”

The male demon glanced at Hellus and smiled.

Seeing that look, Ferda spoke as if disgusted.

“I’ve seen plenty of men who like men, but your tastes are truly vile.”

“Vile? This is the realm of gastronomy. There are flavors you don’t know, honey. That thick, lingering scent of fat is a delicacy only fat men can produce.”

The color drained from Hellus’s face as though all the blood had left his body.

“Don’t be too disappointed, honeys. It’s not as though I don’t want to kill anyone except fat men. Still, killing itself is an enjoyable thing.”

“Filthy demon bastard! Do you think I’ll let you get away with that!?”

One of the young masters charged in, his arrogant noble nature showing.

“Your atrocities will disappear like dew on this blade!”

Ferda had no time to stop him.

The demon raised a finger, and a flash of light appeared.

“Huh?”

There was no sensation below his neck.

What he saw in his field of vision was his own body.

His body was charging forward valiantly, while his view slowly plunged toward the floor.

He realized.

He had paid the price for his arrogance.

Roll.

Thump!

“L-Lord Dmitri!”

“H-His head……!”

The expressions of the spirited young masters instantly turned to despair.

Unable to track it with the naked eye, they looked back and forth between the two with utterly bewildered expressions.

“I don’t like impatient men.”

That coquettish behavior made him even more terrifying.

The young masters tightened their grips on their swords.

The first demon they had ever faced.

Overwhelming power they had never encountered before.

They once again felt that this war was not a game, but a place of slaughter where lives were exchanged.

“As expected, our regent is no ordinary man. Anyone else would be trembling like those boys after seeing something like this.”

“I’ve seen countless cheap tricks like that, so I’m not impressed.”

Though he said that, Ferda was just as flustered as the young masters.

‘This is a headache.’

He had never underestimated the demon’s abilities, so there was nothing to be surprised about.

The problem was the young master’s attitude.

Who could have expected him to ride his momentum and commit suicide?

It would become troublesome if the matter came down to assigning responsibility.

“By the way, I didn’t expect you to arrive so quickly. I thought you’d show up after I’d had a little more fun.”

“You speak as though you knew I was coming.”

“Demons have pretty good intelligence networks too. We have lots of ears, you know?”

The demon tapped his own ear.

Ferda knew that there were demon sympathizers among the nobles.

Could there really be one among those taking part in this Ipchun Festival?

‘They say you can’t trust a single person in this world.’

Saying that, he snorted.

When had Ferda ever trusted humans that much?

Ferda decided to make use of that implication.

“Hey, you disgusting bastard.”

“Why’d you call me, honey?”

“Don’t bother with a pointless hostage situation. How about a proper fight with me?”

One of the demon man’s eyebrows shot up.

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“I’m the one you’re after, aren’t I? So I’ll give you an opportunity.”

“What opportunity?”

“The opportunity to kill me.”

The demon man snickered when he heard that.

“I don’t know why you’re so cute, honey. You’ve been told you make women cry, haven’t you?”

“I’ve seen them cry. It wasn’t pleasant.”

“Oh my, that’s not what I meant. Good grief, men are so dense.”

He clicked his tongue and smiled with his eyes.

“Fine. I’ll let the small fry go. Killing them would be more fun, but since you’re walking into your own grave, that works out wonderfully for me.”

Ferda stopped chatting and looked at the young masters.

Having already lost their will to fight after witnessing Dmitri’s death,

they seemed to want nothing more than to leave this place immediately.

Men who had lost their will to fight were useless and would only get in the way.

“You lot.”

“Y-Yes!”

“Take the sage and get out.”

“B-But aren’t we outnumbered……?”

“You don’t understand plain speech. You’re in the way, so disappear.”

Ferda commanded them with killing intent in his voice.

Crushed beneath that pressure, the young masters chose to withdraw as he ordered.

These were not the sort of men he wanted watching his back.

Hellus, who was closest to the demon, was frantically wondering how he could escape.

“You go too, honey. I don’t need a double.”

“Y-Yes, sir!!”

Hellus rolled his heavy body toward the young masters and fled the room with them.

He could hear them going down the stairs.

Only the demon and Ferda remained.

“A man who’s rough on the outside but warm within? Men with that kind of gap make my heart flutter.”

“I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about. I only need witnesses.”

“Witnesses? Witnesses to what?”

“Five young masters entered, and one of them bravely committed suicide. Who’s going to believe that?”

“Haha! You’ve got a point!”

The demon burst out laughing.

Only those four and Hellus could testify to this absurd situation.

“Besides, I don’t have time to play with someone like you.”

“You’re awfully confident, oppa. Even though you’re only a fourth-circle mage.”

His opponent was a knight-class demon, a Butcher type optimized for speed.

The orthodox way to stop him was to use a binding spell or a wide-area slowing spell.

To do that, he needed a vanguard to block the way.

But with the four young masters who would have formed that vanguard gone, Ferda was effectively defenseless.

“I wonder how long that prideful expression will last.”

“I’m not sure.”

He added,

“At least, after this, you won’t know anything about me.”

Ferda sneered and pulled something from inside his robe.

It was different from the magic tool he had assumed it to be.

It was a magic circle.

‘He kept a magic circle inside his robe?’

Impossible.

As far as he knew, there was no mage capable of doing such a thing.

But unless it was that, what had happened was impossible.

There was no way a complicated magic circle that required a lengthy incantation could simply manifest in Ferda’s hand at the snap of his fingers.

“Cheap trick……!”

He meant to call it disgusting, but even that left him speechless.

Crackle!

What formed in his hand was lightning.

But it was red—not blue, nor any other color one might call radiant.

Even without knowing it was lightning that defied Heaven, he could tell that its hue had not been produced according to the natural order.

Magic that did not follow the natural order was invariably powerful.

Ferda asked as he watched the demon’s expression change.

“Do you like the thrilling stuff too?”

* * *

Meanwhile, outside the manor, in front of the village.

“Monsters approaching!”

“Form a square formation! There aren’t many! We can handle them ourselves even without the regent!”

There were only ten beast-type monsters, fewer than at the first point.

Such a small number should not have posed a threat.

And yet, strangely, they were struggling.

They tried to figure out what the difference was.

‘Is it because we’re missing five people from the vanguard?’

They speculated, but dismissed it as a foolish thought.

‘Those guys are nothing but burdens.’

They were men who had been on top from birth and did nothing but look down on others.

Their high status made them more of a hindrance than an asset when it came to putting them to practical use.

‘It must be because Regent Ferda isn’t here.’

He had used a strategy unlike those of other mages.

Instead of having the third-circle mages draw magic circles, he had them create mana spheres and throw them to him, while Ferda supported them by throwing those spheres.

There had technically been only one mage moving, but that one had controlled everything.

They had not felt particularly hard-pressed even when facing twenty monsters, so struggling against ten now made the contrast painfully stark.

All they could do was hope he would resolve things quickly and come out.

“The young masters are coming out!”

The rear guard watching the situation shouted.

When they turned their heads, they saw that, just as he had said, the young masters were coming out the door.

One of them was Hellus, so in effect they were down two men.

“D-Dmitri is dead…….”

“D-Dead? Then what happened to the regent?”

“The regent is fighting a demon. There was a demon inside!”

A demon!

It was understandable that they had been so terrified.

In this age, they were beings so rarely seen that they were practically creatures of legend.

But that was not the issue.

“So you’re saying the regent is fighting it right now?”

“Y-Yes…….”

It was absurd.

All four young masters had walked out and left the regent to fight alone, when they should have joined forces against the demon.

‘As for dealing with the monsters…… we can manage somehow.’

Should they rush over now and support Regent Ferda?

Political calculations and the situation made their heads ache.

It was then.

A red light flashed from the window of the manor he was watching.

The ominous light gradually grew smaller.

Rumble……!!

Though the light was weakening, the ground began to shake more and more violently.

It was not weakening.

Right, it was being compressed.

To create an explosion so enormous that it could not be contained.

Boom!!

A tremendous explosion hammered their eardrums.

The shockwave from the blast shook the square formation, and the wolf monsters attacking them also faltered.

The building at the explosion’s epicenter could not withstand the impact and collapsed completely.

“My……”

Hellus wailed as he stared at the place swallowed by light.

“My house……!!”