‘I really have become a complete idiot.’

That was the thought that popped into my head as soon as I saw the half-demon lord wriggling on the ground. Just a moment ago, he had been the lord of this city, a half-human, half-demon, but now he lay there in a pathetic heap.

The reason I had intentionally hunted the undead and gathered their flesh to recover the demon’s power was precisely this. If I fed him exactly two pieces of flesh, I could clear the situation without a fight.

If I recovered none of the demon’s power, or just a single piece of flesh, I would end up in a boss battle against a weakened demon lord awakened to his full half-demon form.

On the other hand, if I gave him more than three pieces of flesh, he would be unable to control the demon’s power and die, leading to a boss battle against the demon that had descended upon the earth.

The specs of the demon that appeared as the boss varied based on how many pieces of flesh the player returned, and the ultimate form was achieved when all 100 pieces were fed to it.

There was an achievement for fully awakening the demon and defeating it, but first, I had to meet the condition of having 99 in divine power to carry that 100-piece flesh book, which was quite a hassle.

‘By the way, you look really disgusting.’

I carefully observed whatever it was that used to be the lord, now writhing on the floor.

In the game, it felt like they had just crudely mashed together a human and a demon, but here, it felt much stronger that they had truly merged into one.

The body shape had no difference in width and height, but countless scales sprouted from the skin. Its mouth was torn up to the ears, revealing sharp fangs in between.

Its eyes had vertical pupils like a goat, and partially formed horns sat on top of its head. All its limbs were double-jointed, and the claws at the ends were very sharp.

The half-formed wings were just a bonus.

“Yessss, nooooom, yessss, noooom!!!!!!”

The lord glared at me while spewing out black blood. It seemed to be trying its hardest to crawl towards me, but soon its head got buried in a puddle of its own blood.

“Why are you acting so pathetic? You had an already idiotic face, and now it’s hard to call you human even once.”

I waved my hand with a smirk. The lord muttered incomprehensible words as he looked at me, before choking and throwing up blood again.

I could hear a gurgling sound coming from its throat. It seemed it wanted to say something, but it couldn’t manage to speak because its throat was filled with blood.

“Looks like you can’t understand why you’ve ended up like this. Hey, if you have a brain, try to think. How can a human handle a demon?”

I picked up the book that was still oozing black energy beside the lord. Unlike that fool who had lost his sanity the moment he harbor desires for it, this book didn’t affect me at all.

I hadn’t harbored any desires for it, and more importantly, I had raised my divine power to 5 before coming to this mansion. A mere half-demon with only two pieces of flesh couldn’t interfere with my mind.

“Don’t you feel something’s off when you think back? Your mind must have been filled with the thought that you absolutely had to summon a demon. You know full well that according to imperial law, anyone associated with demons is subjected to death penalty, including royalty.”

I snapped the book shut. The black energy that was leaking out stopped abruptly. The lord’s writhing slowed down a bit.

“Why did you do that? I’ll give you time to think.”

I said that and paused for effect, then continued with the most annoying tone I could muster.

“Oh, you can’t think because there’s nothing to eat here, right? I apologize; let me just give you the answer. The answer is, ‘I lied to you from the very start.’”

“……!!!!!!”

The lord stared at me with demon-tainted eyes wide open. What? What are you going to do if you glare at me? I kept my annoying voice and continued.

“That’s how all demons are. Once trapped by desire, the humans who can overcome it are rare. And there’s no such thing as a demon of lust. What? Giving a guy limitless stamina and turning a woman into a thing that climaxes just by brushing against a man’s sleeve? Do you really believe such nonsense? Use your head for more than just eating.”

I gave the lord’s head a thump, thump with the book. The lord coughed up another mouthful of blood, which, due to the absorption of black energy stopping, was now a bit redder than before.

“What, you told that foolish one something like that? And he believed it?”

“Yes. He believed it wholeheartedly.”

Demons are said to evoke desires, but even their powers have limits. They can manipulate desires to consume one, but they can’t create desires out of nothing.

The reason for clearing the mission when making the lord want the book was exactly that. If it got the slightest desire, the demon bound to that book would take over from there.

“That pig bastard must have priced me quite high, and it’s a bit strange that he only exchanged a book inhabited by a demon. So that’s why I was sold to you as a sex slave?”

“Hey, can’t you phrase that a bit more delicately?”

“Forget it, can I just give it one kick and be done?”

“You can kick him not just once but a hundred times. He can’t move anyway.”

With the permission that it was safe, Aurora, without any hesitation, approached the writhing lord, lifted her dress slightly, and stomped down on his head with the heel of her high heel.

“You idiot! Did you want to have women like that? Huh? But you know, if that was your goal, you should’ve just died and been reborn. Do you have any idea what the women you called were whispering about you behind your back? They said you’re a total loser, idiot. No matter how much you shake it, all they felt was the jiggling of your belly, not any sensation from below. Did you know that? Huh? Did you know?”

‘Goodness.’

For a moment, I thought my ears had malfunctioned.

I never imagined Aurora would use words like that so casually. The lord’s character had transformed drastically from the game, and it seemed she was not completely unaffected by that.

Still, considering she managed to grow up somewhat normally under such a terrible lord, I guess that was a relief.

After that, Aurora kept stomping on the lord’s head with her high heel while hurling insults and mockery for quite a while. Only after some time did she take a deep breath, looking satisfied, and smile widely.

“Ah, this feels refreshing. From now on, I’ll sleep with my legs stretched out comfortably. Wait. What’s with that look? Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I just think it’s amazing in various ways.”

“Ha, I know what you’re thinking, but you try living under such a bastard. It only takes one year to become like me! And honestly, I’ve held back a lot here. If it weren’t for you, it would have been worse. Want me to show you what I was going to say?”

“No examples needed. Just please maintain some decorum. Why is someone about to take the head of the family speaking like this?”

“According to that, now that I’m head of the family, I can say whatever I want, right?”

The lord, who had his head buried in the ground from being stomped on, responded to the mention of being head of the family and raised his head. Aurora, seeing that, lit up with excitement.

“Oh, was that just now your weak point? But what to do? It’s all true. You’re going to die here, and all your assets are going to belong to me. Thank you for managing to grow your wealth up until now. Were you desperately hoarding money hoping to give me more? You wanted to die with all the blame on you while I just took the money and fame? That’s a bit touching.”

“……!!!!!!”

The lord was about to flip out upon hearing that mockery. It desperately thrashed its half-turned double-jointed limbs, but there was nothing it could do.

Finishing her words, Aurora looked at me with a refreshing smile.

“I’ve teased him enough; let’s wrap it up and kill him. There’s no need to keep watching this disgusting thing, right?”

Her expression and tone did not match at all, but regardless, her original beauty was so striking that it didn’t create any sense of unease.

“Sure, then. What do you plan to do next, Aurora? Do you want to watch me kill this guy, or would you like to step outside for a bit?”

“Of course, I want to watch every bit of it from beginning to end. I have to see this pig bastard die with my own eyes.”

The refreshing smile she had just shown faded away, replaced by seething hatred glimmering in her golden irises.

I allowed her to do as she pleased, then pulled out a dagger from my pocket. It was the dagger I had taken from the skeleton priest. Aurora tilted her head as she saw the dagger I held.

“What? Your weapon is a dagger? It doesn’t look like one at all.”

“How does one look if it doesn’t look like a dagger? And this isn’t originally my weapon. I brought it to kill that demon.”

“You brought that to kill it?”

“Yes. Demons can’t die unless they’re hit with weapons imbued with divine power.”

In Brightest Darkness 4, only weapons or sacred spells with the modifier ‘Blessed’ dealt damage to demons.

To be precise, attacking with an ordinary weapon would deal damage, but the demon would casually recover from it.

Only damage inflicted with a blessed weapon or sacred spell would remain and not get recovered. And the condition to use this dagger was a divine power of 5.

I approached the lord, who was struggling pathetically on the ground, holding the dagger.

“It must hurt enough to make you want to die, but can you bear it?”

Thump! Without waiting for an answer, I plunged the dagger into its body.