Veron’s mansion was surrounded by dense magical barriers, making infiltration difficult, but the brothel was a different matter. Security was relatively lax, and there was little chance that he would enter carrying a weapon. So I decided to deal with Veron inside the brothel.
Using Stealth and Locksmith, I slipped easily into the room Veron was using.
***
The moment Veron rose from the bed, his body stiffened. He sensed an unfamiliar presence. An inexplicable pressure bore down against his skin. His instincts reacted first. He pulled out the dagger hidden beneath his pillow and threw it. But before the blade could even reach its target, it turned to ash. Black flames wrapped around the dagger and burned it away completely.
Black fire.
A demon.
“Who are you?”
Veron asked in a low voice as he picked up another sword buried beneath the pile of clothes. He never went anywhere entirely unarmed. Instead of answering, the shadow moved. A black robe brushed across the floor.
Veron instinctively stepped back. He had interrogated, tortured, and killed countless demons, but this being was different in nature. Undeniably powerful. And yet no demonic energy could be felt. Veron knew his name. There was only one Legion Commander in the Demon King’s army who gave off no demonic energy. A unique existence, and therefore all the more terrifying. Veron spat out his name as though grinding it between his teeth.
“…Shane.”
Veron moved first. The dagger flashed as it aimed for Shane’s neck. It was a swift and precise thrust, but his opponent was already gone from that spot. The blade cut through empty air.
The moment Veron turned around, Shane’s foot struck his side. Veron’s body slammed into the wall and bounced off. His breath caught. Even so, he gritted his teeth and regained his stance. The divine power unique to inquisitors filled the room like an aurora. Light flashed as it tried to surround Shane. Restraint and purification, the optimal combination for dealing with demons.
But the light never reached him. Black flames spread across the floor and devoured the spell.
“Damn it!”
Veron charged with a curse. The dagger aimed for Shane’s heart. This time, he was certain it would reach him. The distance and timing were perfect.
But his wrist was caught. The strength transmitted through the leather glove was not human. The dagger fell from Veron’s hand. Another blow followed. Shane’s fist drove into Veron’s abdomen as though piercing straight through it. Along with the sound of bones reverberating, blood burst inside his mouth. A sharp blade came down on Veron’s shoulder.
Veron staggered backward. His body was already refusing to obey him. Shane did not bother pursuing him. Leisurely, one step at a time, he approached.
“You’ve interrogated so many demons, yet it seems you still don’t know what true fear is.”
A low, gentle voice rang out. An invisible pressure crushed down inside Veron’s head. His soul was being pulled out. Veron dropped to his knees without even being able to scream. A black shadow blocked his vision.
“I won’t kill you. A soul has to be extracted while the body is still alive.”
Shane whispered softly. Veron’s body convulsed. And a short while later, the focus disappeared from his eyes. After his soul had been extracted, all that remained was a blood-soaked body. The room fell silent again. Shane looked down at his clothes, splattered with blood.
The scraping sound of the door opening broke the silence. A male prostitute working at the brothel peeked his head inside, then recoiled in horror when he saw Veron collapsed on the floor. He was a delicate beauty. The mole beside his lips was alluring. Bruises that had yet to fade remained on his face, and clear rope marks encircled his wrists. His split lip spoke of the treatment he had endured.
The moment the man tried to scream, Shane hurriedly covered his mouth.
“Ten minutes from now. If you give him a healing potion within that time, he can survive. But if any longer passes, he’ll die. The choice is yours.”
Shane murmured in a low voice. The man looked up at Shane with tearful eyes. When Shane released his mouth, he stammered in a hoarse voice.
“Thank you, for saving me, from Veron….”
He opened a drawer, took out spare clothes and perfume, and held them out to Shane. He meant for him to change out of the blood-soaked clothes and erase the smell.
Shane silently accepted them. It was obvious what that beauty would do afterward. Apparently, Veron was destined to die tonight without receiving treatment.
***
Theo was not asleep. He was only pretending to be.
After confirming that Rihen had carefully risen from the bed and gone outside, he suppressed his presence as much as possible and followed at a fixed distance. To avoid being noticed, he measured his footsteps and even controlled his breathing. Even so, he lost Rihen. His movements were quick. The way he moved lightly and silently was just like the wind.
Theo wandered for a while, unable to decide where to go, then eventually headed toward the brothel. He hid himself in the nearby bushes and waited in silence for someone to come out. Time stretched on. The night air was bitterly cold, chilling his lungs with every breath he drew.
A thought suddenly occurred to him.
What am I doing right now?
There was no evidence anywhere that Rihen had gone inside. He was simply indulging in strange fantasies alone, suspecting him alone, and blindly wasting time. It was foolish.
Right. Let’s go home. Let’s stop doubting Rihen.
Just as Theo was about to take a step, the door opened. The brothel’s light spilled out into the darkness. Rihen appeared through it. Theo froze where he stood.
Rihen’s clothes had changed. He was wearing a robe, so Theo could not see clearly, but the clothes beneath it were different from what he had been wearing when he left. They were not the rough-textured everyday clothes he usually preferred, but something bright and colorful. Theo instinctively realized that it had not been Rihen’s choice. The brothel had clearly forced him to wear it. To suit a customer’s tastes.
Rihen passed beside where Theo was hiding. A heavy perfume clung to him. Musk rippled at the tip of Theo’s nose. There were many perfumes made from musk, but this one was particularly strong and seductive. Theo knew what that scent was. It was perfume used at brothels. Several customers at the tavern had carried that same fragrance. Those customers linked arms with their companions and smiled alluringly with their eyes. Theo’s head felt as though it would split apart. It was not because of the perfume.
Theo entered the bedroom before Rihen and pulled the blanket over his head, pretending to sleep as though nothing had happened. A few minutes later, Rihen entered. Rihen went into the bathroom, washed himself clean, and changed into comfortable sleepwear. He threw the clothes he had received at the brothel into the fireplace and used them as fuel. Then he dropped down beside Theo. Turning over, he pulled Theo tightly into his arms and fell asleep.
Rihen’s arm wrapped around Theo’s waist, and his chest pressed against Theo’s back. It was a familiar warmth. Just as always, he held Theo as though protecting him. A faint trace of perfume still lingered on him. Theo’s stomach churned. What Rihen had done at the brothel, what he had endured… all kinds of ominous imaginings swelled larger.
He wanted to check Rihen’s physical condition. If he did, he thought he might be able to guess what had happened to him.
'I’ll only check.'
Theo moved carefully so as not to wake Rihen. As he undid the buttons of the sleepwear one by one, bare skin was revealed. The well-shaped lines of his body were pale and firm. Holding his breath, Theo carefully felt over his chest and abdomen. The heat of his body burned beneath Theo’s fingertips.
He felt no particular marks. That was a relief. At least there were no visible traces. But he could not relax completely. The customer that night might simply have been someone who did not leave marks.
He pulled down the trousers and drawers. Even while soft, the cock hanging limply there was quite large. He thought it every time he saw it, but Rihen’s cock was straight and remarkably clear in color. He had almost no body hair either. Theo traced down along the perineum and felt around the back hole. It was still chastely closed. Then had he used the front? He did have a face that would be in demand regardless of whether the customer was male or female. He was handsome, after all.
When Theo kneaded the cock with his hand, it quickly hardened. Pre-cum leaked out in small amounts. He gripped it more firmly and stroked harder. “Ngh, hk,” Rihen moaned in his sleep. Even this did not wake him. He must truly have been exhausted.
Semen burst from the tip of the glans. It dirtied Rihen’s chest and thighs. With a face flushed even redder than Rihen’s, Theo tasted the semen. It was thick, as though Rihen had not released in a long time. Theo realized that his own cock had become so hard it hurt.
He spread Rihen’s semen between both thighs. He pressed Rihen’s legs together and hooked the calves over his shoulders. His rigid, swollen cock slid between the tightly clenched thighs. The springy muscles squeezed pleasantly around the shaft. He knew he should not do this. He was aware it was wrong. Not using the lower hole was the last shred of his conscience.
“Rihen, hnng, Rihen, why are you….”
He wanted to know about him. Where he went every night, what he did. Whether he truly sold his body. No, the fact that Rihen earned money by selling his body now seemed almost impossible to deny.
Then who were his customers? Women? Men? Or did gender not matter as long as he could make money? If he used the front, would he become drunk on desire and thrust his hips like Theo was doing now? If he used the back, would he pant as he spread his own hole in front of the customer?
Why had he made such a choice? When had he begun treating his body so carelessly? Had there been some cause, some wound, at the beginning of it all…? Theo wanted to know everything.
Rihen was always smiling. That smile, with his eyes folded so deeply they disappeared, was lovely, yet at the same time it sometimes looked slightly inscrutable. Theo could not understand what he was hiding behind that smooth face.
When he thought about it carefully, he truly knew nothing about him. He could not even be certain whether the name ‘Rihen’ was real or false, and Rihen had never told him about his past or his true feelings.
And yet Theo liked him. He wanted to look through every last corner of Rihen’s heart. He wanted to dissect the thoughts and emotions concealed layer upon layer, dig them all out, and eventually hold every one of them in his hands.
Even knowing it was selfish, perhaps even a strange desire… he could not stop these feelings.
Theo thrust his hips like a dog. The insides of Rihen’s thighs grew hot from the friction. The force gradually pushed Rihen’s body forward. Thinking his head might strike the headboard at this rate, Theo grabbed his waist and pulled him all the way back down. The shaft trapped between his thighs throbbed violently.
In the end, semen dirtied Rihen’s lower abdomen. The sight of those attractive abdominal muscles smeared with his cum was obscene. Theo stared at the unbearably lewd scene for a long time.
Then Theo made up his mind. He would confront Rihen’s secret head-on. If there was something he wanted to know, should he not ask directly?
He caught his breath, climbed down from the bed, and looked for a towel. He had to wipe Rihen’s body clean. As though nothing had happened.
Evil Points (Theo) +600p
A vivid trace in the form of a notification window had been left behind, but there was no way Theo could know that.
Back to the present.
Shane came up with his own explanation for the newly accumulated 600p.
…He must have kissed me twice!
It was a conclusion based on Theo’s disposition in the original game, but in the current reality, his guess was completely wrong.