Chapter 65 - Chapter 63: Episode 62 - The Scam
The Arandel territory was ruled by a Succubus Lord who held the rank of Count.
Within the family, the eldest and second daughters were locked in a bitter struggle for succession.
The second daughter had pushed herself too hard to earn merit during the interdimensional conquest, only to run headlong into a group of hunters on the other side of the Gate.
And now, here I was, captured.
It was a truly foolish move.
If I hadn't been blinded by the greed of wanting "just a little bit more," I never would have been caught by those hunters.
The idiot succubus currently locked in a twenty-pyeong containment cell was none other than me.
I was a little different from the others of my kind.
Whenever I went on expeditions beyond the Gate and rummaged through human memories, reading their stories, I found it genuinely amusing.
It felt like reading their lives like books.
It was just like reading a novel.
In the process, I discovered something humans were actually superior to demons in: the internet.
Videos, books, pictures—everything.
If there was a network containing such a vast amount of information, I wouldn't have to catch humans one by one to read their memories.
I could find much more fun and better information that way.
The fact that I was finally able to use it, right after being imprisoned...
It was quite ironic.
After I was locked up, several humans came to investigate me.
They didn't try to inflict physical torture or harm.
They only wanted one thing.
They asked me to help them open a Gate so humans could cross over into our world.
Their tone was half-threat, but they promised to give me anything I wanted in exchange.
So, when I asked for internet access, they provided me with a smartphone and a computer.
At first, I was just amused by the videos, though I couldn't understand the language. I desperately learned to read their writing so I could finally understand the text mixed into them.
I picked it up quickly, convinced it was essential to accessing the vast array of fun content online.
Eventually, I was killing time with everything from community sites to games, manga, anime, and movies.
I was studying human culture to understand them, all while waiting for a chance to escape.
One day, an expedition staff member named Yu-rin came to visit.
She introduced herself as the daughter of the Hwaryong Guild representative who had imprisoned me, and said she needed my help.
If she was the daughter of a representative, that meant she held a high position.
In the dramas I'd watched, "representative" was usually the highest rank.
I figured if I helped the daughter of someone so powerful, I could make my life here much more comfortable.
At first, I just thought about solving her problem.
Until I heard that story.
"I have one thing I want to ask. The Yin Mark... you know it, right?"
"It's something only a succubus carves onto her mate. How do you know about that?"
Despite my rude behavior of answering a question with a question—a human habit I'd picked up—the woman paused, contemplating for a moment, then spoke again immediately.
"Is there a way to remove a Yin Mark?"
I was stunned.
She clearly meant a Yin Mark carved onto a man's abdomen, not the kind a succubus bears on her own.
In our world, it was almost unheard of for a succubus to carve a Yin Mark onto a man.
Since succubi were bound by the rule of not attacking first, you had to put in a lot of effort to earn a man's confession.
It was a long, slow process to seduce a human taken to the Demon World and make him your own.
I couldn't even imagine being able to claim a mate on Earth.
Yet, this woman knew about the Yin Mark.
And on top of that, she was asking how to remove it.
The nuance suggested she was likely hiding a man with one carved into him.
In a way, this was a massive opportunity for me.
"Hmm... well... have you perhaps seen someone with a Yin Mark carved on them?"
In truth, there was no way to remove a Yin Mark.
Especially if it had been carved as a mate, it was completely impossible.
Nevertheless, I couldn't pass up this chance, so I decided to play along and pretend to cooperate.
"..."
The woman looked deeply troubled.
"I was just wondering if there's a way to remove it once a Yin Mark is carved."
She mumbled it, as if it were something she couldn't speak of proudly.
Her caution made it clear this was a secret that had to be kept.
Finding out what she was hiding turned out to be easier than I thought.
"Hmm... I think I'd have to see it myself to know? There are some Yin Marks that can be erased, after all. Of course, the problem is that I have to erase it myself, so you'd have to bring the subject here."
The one who looked desperate wasn't me—it was her.
She would definitely bite the bait after thinking it over.
Her pale complexion and restless behavior gave her away completely.
After a moment of contemplation, she finally spoke.
"Actually... there is a man with a Yin Mark carved on him... could you keep it a secret?"
What I had suspected and what she asked me to keep secret were one and the same.
Park Yu-rin had spoken briefly, but the information was shocking.
It was clear she was keeping a man with a Yin Mark.
And she had come to me to get rid of it.
I almost smiled at the joy of realizing a way to escape had finally appeared.
I suppressed my excitement and told her to come anytime, though I desperately wanted her to return as soon as possible.
"Then... I'll come here in 3 days..."
"There's plenty of time, so you can come whenever. It doesn't matter if you're a little late."
I shouldn't have said anything that made me look anxious for no reason, so I put on a relaxed, laid-back act to deceive her.
Even if I returned to the territory having lost all my troops, I'd be pushed out of the succession race anyway, but that was still better than breathing the foul air of Earth and growing weaker by the day.
Finally, an opportunity to escape had arrived.
The woman was crazier than she looked.
I thought she would bring the man here normally, but...
She had brought him in a carrier bag while he was unconscious, as if she were kidnapping him.
And a massive carrier bag at that.
Although there were traces of her having washed him, there was a faint smell of semen and vaginal fluid.
That scent was identical to the woman standing in front of me.
I could roughly guess what she had done to him.
It had to be rape—an act that would be strictly prohibited by human law.
I was even a little scared after reading the label on the carrier bag.
"Adult product caution?"
It felt as if the man was nothing more than her masturbation tool.
To think she brought him inside a bag with such a phrase carved on it.
It even seemed like she had "already used him several times" before coming here.
When I first encountered 19+ videos on the internet...
I was shocked to see the insane behavior of humans overlapping their bodies not for the sake of offspring, but just to feel good.
I didn't understand the point of throwing away such precious energy.
In demon culture, there are cases of violating captive human males, but pleasure is just a byproduct.
The real purpose is always reproduction.
After getting to know human culture, I realized there were many cases where they put reproduction on the back burner to explore pleasure first.
But this bitch had gone beyond that.
I saw her treating this man like a toy solely for her own gratification.
A man delivered naked in a carrier bag labeled "Adult product caution."
I was so sickened by this madness that my breath caught in my throat.
However, I couldn't miss this opportunity, so I quickly pulled myself together and looked the man over, acting as if I were about to get to work.
He looked better than I expected.
He was beautiful, like a work of art, but I felt a sense of moral corruption knowing he had been violated just a while ago.
Furthermore, his face was enough to put the sex slaves of most high-ranking nobles to shame.
'Gulp'
"This is possible..."
Originally, touching a man with another succubus's Yin Mark was taboo, but with this level of beauty, I could easily ignore it.
The thought that even with another bitch's mark on him, this level of beauty was worth it suddenly slipped out.
Realizing I'd made a mistake, I quickly corrected myself.
"...I think it's possible?"
Park Yu-rin, who seemed to have noticed the slip, glared at me.
Since I was skilled at acting, I met her gaze confidently, acting as if nothing had happened, and she eventually convinced herself she'd misunderstood.
'Phew~'
I started to focus on the work.
I was surprised when I saw the shape of the Yin Mark.
It was similar to my own.
It matched the pattern of the Arandel family's noble succubi.
Come to think of it, before I was caught at the Gate, I remembered my youngest sister, Miel, had obtained a mate.
Among my sisters, Miel was the only one who had one.
Although we catch prisoners on expeditions, we rarely like the human males we find on Earth, so we usually sell them off.
And sex slaves were too expensive to keep.
Thinking the mark must be Miel's, I looked closer.
It was hers.
I remembered that before leaving for Earth, Mother had brought up Miel's mate and threatened to have him caught and gang-raped.
'Ah...'
As the puzzle pieces fit together, I began to understand the situation.
It was certain that Miel and her mate had fled to Earth to avoid Mother.
Originally, I had intended to say I would erase the Yin Mark and escape to the Demon World by myself, but...
I thought that if I took this human with me, I might receive a reward from Mother.
Judging by his appearance, selling him off would easily cover the cost of the troops I had lost.
I had to go, not just by escaping alone, but by taking the man with me.
The greed for the succession position I had long given up on drove me to action.
Therefore, I had to deceive this woman even more thoroughly.
"Looking at it, this Yin Mark shape seems to be the pattern of the Arandel family among noble succubi? Originally, succubi of the same clan can recognize it because the pattern is derived and inherited from the mother. If you look here, the wing shape is raised upwards and the heart is a bit pointed."
I boasted of my knowledge, acting like an expert to feed her information she didn't know.
Park Yu-rin looked back and forth between my Yin Mark and the man's, clearly confused.
She looked like she couldn't tell the difference.
Watching her, I laughed inwardly.
'Yeah, you're right, they're almost the same. You have eyes like a knot in wood that can't even notice that.'
However, it didn't seem like Yu-rin would notice.
I continued the act.
I checked her reaction, then spoke.
When I carefully asked her to disable my magic suppression device, Park Yu-rin unlocked it.
I had been under immense mental pressure because of that device.
I'd been told dozens of times that the moment I disabled it, the room would fill with high-pressure oxygen in a second, an alarm would sound, and a kill team would descend immediately.
It was impossible to take it off and leave by myself.
I needed at least twenty seconds for my magic to return to the territory.
After placing my hand on the man's abdomen, I cast the magic while making an expression as if I were checking his condition.
And when the casting was almost complete...
A smile formed on my lips.
I don't know if she saw me, but...
The scenery around me changed.
The man and I were already in the Demon World.