The three great Guilds at this point in time were Dollmaker Sa Ujin, , and .
In the history where I did not intervene, Sa Ujin always took more than ninety percent of the contribution to clearing the ninth Gate.
Jang Seohyeok of was busy treating his Demonic Deviation and could not move properly, while Hwa Yejin……
“Ah, uh? Aah? Eek, c-could you please go away?”
“Beautiful lady, why do you reject me? This Dave’s heart feels as though it is being torn apart. Only you are the gem that can soothe the storm within my heart!”
“Ahhh! Do not say heart-fluttering things with that handsome face!”
She was an inexperienced person with extremely little romantic experience, so she froze and could not overcome a situation like this.
Still, I always wondered……
“Is that supposed to be heart-fluttering?”
“Apparently. I do not understand it either. Some people must like that kind of oily talk.”
“Leia, I would appreciate it if you shut up.”
Leia was sitting atop a blond, puppy-faced man kneeling beneath her with a satisfied expression. She looked around four times more pathetic than usual.
Four more men with similar impressions had gathered around her, massaging her shoulders and arms.
I left those fools behind and began walking first.
There was only one kind of monster in .
Lust Demons.
They accurately grasped a human’s ideal type, transformed their bodies into that appearance, then beguiled their target and consumed their energy.
Honestly, because this Gate contained only creatures like that, its clear difficulty was not especially high.
They lived so instinctively that they had plenty of weaknesses.
Of our party of three, Hwa Yejin was S-Rank and Leia was supposedly a goddess, so every Lust Demon was drawn to those two.
They would not die merely from having some energy drained, so I only needed to leave them like that and subdue the source of the problem.
I walked for a long time.
A few Lust Demons jumped out along the way, but perhaps they smelled the enormous Mana emanating from Hwa Yejin at the far end of the corridor. None of them paid attention to me.
Then, at the end of the fourteenth floor, I arrived at a door that was decorated far more extravagantly than the others. Giant bird statues stood on either side of it.
“Come in.”
The door opened at the welcoming voice before I had even knocked.
The sweet scent that poured out the moment it opened made me furrow my brow instinctively.
“You are quite a strange human.”
A large bed stood in the room, which was not small.
A woman sat on its edge and looked at me. She had long black hair, golden eyes, and the same face as Yu Danyeong.
Although it was not my first time seeing her, the woman wore clothing that made it difficult to know where to look. With a seductive, half-lidded smile, she beckoned to me.
“This is the first time I have encountered a human whose desires are so difficult to read. Normally, even if nothing is consciously decided, it is easy for us to read the subconscious and change our appearance accordingly……. But I could not do that with you.”
I followed her gesture and stepped forward. The moment I entered the room, the door slammed shut automatically.
“You do not lack desires, and you have not set up any defense. This is……. Yes, your consciousness is too deep. It is a consciousness no single person could possibly possess.”
“Then will you let me leave? First, I would appreciate it if you changed that appearance. It is the face of someone I know, so it is uncomfortable.”
Yu Danyeong would never wear clothing like that. She would certainly never speak in such a sticky voice, either.
Perhaps my reaction amused her, because the woman burst into loud laughter.
“Ahahaha! Why? I thought you would like it. This is pretty enough, and……. this face is the clearest one visible in the consciousness I can read. Or should I use this face instead?”
The woman’s face changed instantly from Yu Danyeong’s to Hwa Yejin’s.
Hmm. After seeing Hwa Yejin’s embarrassing behavior, this was less uncomfortable than before.
“So, are you going to let me go or not?”
“I cannot, human. We have our own circumstances. I cannot let you leave, but I will make you happier than anyone else. I am different from the other Lust Demons. I am……”
“You are a Succubus Queen, right?”
A Succubus Queen.
A being with exceptionally powerful strength even among Lust Demons. Ordinary Lust Demons could be driven off through mental strength, but a Succubus Queen possessed Charm and mental domination abilities that were almost coercive.
When I revealed her identity, the woman’s eyes widened. Then she laughed with interest.
“Ahahahaha! You knew that and still came close to me? You are quite bold, human. Or perhaps…….”
The Succubus Queen wearing Hwa Yejin’s face grabbed my collar and pulled me close. Her hand touched my waist and slowly moved downward as she pressed her forehead against mine.
“Did you come all the way to my door because you expected this from the beginning?”
[Succubus Queen, Harmon, has used the Skill 「Deep Sympathy」(A).]
Through our locked gazes, my consciousness sank all at once.
***
“……What exactly are you?”
“Who knows? Do I need to tell you? You entered my consciousness, so read through it yourself.”
The Succubus Queen named Harmon looked flustered.
The surroundings were filled with blood, filth, and debris.
Hundreds, thousands of my corpses were scattered everywhere. Countless corpses of familiar faces lay among them as well.
[Succubus Queen, Harmon, has used the Skill 「Queen Charming」(B).]
Harmon continued using Skills as though she intended to read my inner world and charm me somehow. However, she could not endure for even a minute before vomiting blood from her nose and mouth.
Harmon collapsed to her knees. Her outer appearance changed into her original form rather than imitating someone else’s. The catlike Harmon, with short blue hair, staggered and muttered,
“Huff, huff……. Wh-What is this? How can a human have suffered this much pain……?”
Trying to enter my mental-image world directly and charm me was fine, but anyone who entered another’s mental-image world experienced some of its owner’s emotions and sensations.
In other words, this woman who had tried to charm me in my inner world was experiencing, all at once, at least a portion of the 7,200 deaths and psychological suffering I had endured.
And that phenomenon would not stop merely because Harmon gave up on charming me.
Even though she had stopped trying to charm me, memories and pain continued flowing into her. Harmon screamed.
“Y-You, how can you…….”
“Ah, me?”
As I had said earlier, someone who entered a mental-image world shared its owner’s emotions and sensations.
That meant I was also accepting the pain and deaths my past selves had suffered.
However, unlike Harmon, who crawled across the ground, I stood looking down at her with my hands still in my pockets.
“Do I need to tell you that, too?”
I had died far too many times to start whimpering over something like this now.
Harmon held out a trembling hand.
[Succubus Queen, Harmon, cancels the Skill 「Deep Sympathy」(A).]
[Skill use cannot be canceled.]
[Mental strength is in critical condition. Skill use cannot be canceled.]
“……!”
“You did not think that would work, did you?”
It was obvious when I thought about it.
Just as a person could not properly use a Skill that required them to swing a sword or throw a punch when they had no strength or could not control their body, a person whose mind had been disrupted by pain like that could not handle mental-type Skills.
Whether they had Mana or not, if the body and mind needed to use a Skill were not intact, they could not use it properly.
Perhaps Harmon understood that, because she grabbed my pant leg and sobbed.
“S-S-Save me…….”
“I will save you.”
Hope appeared on Harmon’s face at my words.
But I plopped down beside Harmon.
She trembled with an expression of complete incomprehension.
“Y-You said you would save me…….”
“A promise is a promise, so I will save you. But I never said I would save you right now.”
“Y-You demon-like……!”
“You are the Demon.”
If I left like this, Harmon might judge me as a dangerous person and kill me immediately.
It was truly unfortunate, but Harmon would need to stay trapped here until she could not even feel hostility toward me.
***
[Skill 「Mimicry-Clear Mirror, Still Heart」(B++) has been used.]
CRASH!
With the sound of shattering glass, our consciousness returned to reality.
I did not feel especially pleasant either, but Harmon was in a state so much worse that comparing myself to her would have been shameless.
“Ugh, ugh…… ughhh…….”
The seductive appearance she had shown at first was nowhere to be seen. Harmon was completely exhausted and broken. I took one step toward her.
Harmon screamed and bowed before me.
“I-I was wrong! Please forgive me!”
“All right. Then you can answer any question I ask, correct?”
“Yes, anything, anything. So please…….”
If I had left her there a little longer, she would have become a wreck.
“Then, first…….”
Just as I was about to ask about the boss of this Gate, a scream sounded in the distance.
“Please go away!! I think my heart is going to explode!!”
It was Hwa Yejin’s scream.
When I listened carefully, I could also hear Leia laughing like a wicked woman while commanding Lust Demons.
With a slight headache, I pointed toward the source of the noise.
“First, get rid of the Lust Demons over there.”
A round of cleanup later, everyone gathered in one place.
Hwa Yejin was completely exhausted and lay spread-eagle in front of the door, while Leia grumbled in disappointment.
“First, when did the ‘Princess’ fall asleep?”
“……!”
Harmon silently stared in shock.
‘Princess’ referred to this Gate’s boss, and no Hunter should have known that title yet.
“H-How do you know that title…….”
However, I had no reason to satisfy her curiosity.
Instead of answering, I took one step forward.
Harmon screamed and replied.
“T-Twenty-five days! Since twenty-five days ago!”
“Twenty-five days……. This time is at least all right.”
Everything else remained the same, but when this Gate’s boss fell asleep differed with every regression. Sometimes it had been more than sixty days, and sometimes only ten.
Considering that this Gate boss’s Ability was deeply related to the amount of time she had slept, it was fortunate that it had not yet been a month.
I spoke to Hwa Yejin, Harmon, and the other Lust Demons.
“You all, I would like you to move according to my requests from now on.”
***
“My, my……. Honestly, I thought you would be helplessly caught here.”
Sa Ujin smiled unpleasantly at the woman standing before him.
Hwa Yejin responded with an equally displeased expression and raised her staff.
“You still have not broken that habit?”
“What habit could you mean?”
Sa Ujin laughed and released what he held in his hand.
A human head dropped to the ground and rolled away.
I did not know whether it belonged to a Hunter or a person from this Gate, but that distinction was not important to Hwa Yejin.
Gritting her teeth, Hwa Yejin quietly recited a chant.
“Multiplier adjustment. Target fixed. Configuration complete.”
Above Sa Ujin and Hwa Yejin, three magic formations unfolded and covered the surrounding area.
A gentle heat descended, and Hwa Yejin spun her staff.
“Three Formations, Triad-Unus.”