Chapter 108
Suspicion
Late at night, screams echoed throughout the dark manor.
“D-Demon! It’s a demon!”
“A-Aaaaargh!”
Two masked men raced down the corridor, wailing in terror.
Their eyes were filled with overwhelming fear.
Mapheltan’s lips stretched into a broad grin.
The humans’ fear and screams brought him pleasure.
Suppressed laughter gradually began escaping his lips.
Mapheltan kept snickering.
If he followed his heart, he would have burst into roaring laughter.
Surrendering himself to ecstasy like any other demon would have felt supremely gratifying.
Mapheltan shook his head.
‘Control yourself. Control it.’
He clung desperately to his fading reason.
He slapped himself across the cheek and raked his claws over his own chest.
His wildly gleaming red eyes gradually regained their composure.
The madness disappeared, but a faint sense of excitement remained.
There was no way to eliminate even this subtle pleasure.
‘It should be fine to enjoy it a little.’
He needed to compromise.
It was difficult to resist his instincts completely.
For a demon to grow, it needed to be capable of enjoying human fear to some extent.
He had to learn how to control the resulting pleasure.
Mapheltan steadied his breathing and took flight.
The pitch-black demon began gliding through the darkness.
His red eyes left long trails of light behind them.
A sharp sound split the air.
Sensing his presence, one of the thieves looked back.
His pupils dilated enormously.
“A-Aaagh! Don’t come any closer! Stay away from me!”
Mapheltan chuckled.
“Not enough. Scream a little louder.”
His chilling voice echoed through the corridor.
It was like an awl digging into the brain.
His voice possessed the power to freeze a human’s limbs.
One of the fleeing thieves collapsed.
“H-Huuugh!”
His arms and legs had stiffened from extreme tension.
He lay on the floor, writhing like an insect.
Mapheltan’s grin stretched all the way to his ears.
“What an amusing sight.”
Mapheltan folded his wings and descended into the corridor.
Still lying on the floor, the thief looked back at him.
“N-No! Don’t come any closer! Get away!”
He desperately crawled across the floor.
Mapheltan slowly approached him.
The distance between them steadily narrowed.
“Caught you.”
At last, Mapheltan completely caught up with the thief.
His red eyes calmly gazed down at him.
The thief spoke while trembling uncontrollably.
“I-I’m sorry. Please spare me.”
Mapheltan crouched and met his gaze.
He was savoring the man’s terror.
‘...It’s more manageable than I expected.’
Pleasure was unquestionably welling within him, but it felt somewhat different from before.
Mapheltan was not being consumed by madness.
‘Is this the result of all my training?’
Ever since being transmigrated, he had continually fought against himself.
He had worked tirelessly to avoid being consumed by evil.
Those efforts were beginning to bear fruit.
The fear of a single human could now exert almost no psychological influence over Mapheltan.
A satisfied expression appeared on his face.
“If I followed my heart, I would show you mercy.”
He felt quite pleased that his efforts had produced results.
Hope filled the thief’s eyes.
“Th-Thank you! Thank you so much! I will never forget this kindness!”
Mapheltan chuckled.
“Very well. I shall grant you a painless death.”
He had originally considered trying his hand at torture.
It was cruel and repulsive, but he needed to practice torture if he wished to survive in this world.
A day would undoubtedly come when he needed to torture someone.
It was far too difficult to survive in this savage world while adhering strictly to his morals.
Some degree of compromise was always necessary.
Mapheltan was not yet prepared, however.
He lacked the courage to dismantle the man before him.
More precisely, he was not confident he could remain sane while listening to the man’s agonized groans and screams.
The moment Mapheltan tortured the thief, he would undoubtedly experience overwhelming ecstasy.
He would lose himself.
Until he could control himself completely, he needed to postpone acts such as torture.
Besides, the current Mapheltan possessed another way to extract information from the thieves.
Profound despair settled in the thief’s eyes.
“I-I want to live. Please. Spare me.”
Mapheltan shook his head.
“That is not a request I can grant.”
At that moment, a strand of black demonic energy erupted from his body.
The thief screamed and covered his head with both hands.
He thought he was about to die.
The demonic energy did not attack him.
Instead, it flew directly toward his companion.
The thief who was still running was seized by the demonic energy.
He let out a shriek.
“A-Aaaagh! Let me go! I said let me go!”
His body was instantly dragged toward Mapheltan.
Mapheltan swiftly seized his head with a pitch-black hand.
“You fled quite far after abandoning your companion.”
His crimson eyes gleamed as he stared at the thief.
The man struggled and shouted,
“B-Be gone, evil one! I command you in the name of the Great Saint!”
Mapheltan chuckled.
“Margiel will not hear your prayers.”
With his free hand, he seized the head of the thief lying on the floor.
Then he lifted him.
Both thieves were suspended in the air.
Agonized groans escaped their lips.
“D-Don’t! Please! I’m begging you! Spare me!”
The other thief pulled a dagger from his clothes and repeatedly slashed Mapheltan’s arm.
“Release me! Let go, you filthy fiend! Now!”
He could not leave even the smallest scratch.
The dagger produced metallic scraping sounds as though striking an iron plate.
Mapheltan’s carapace was harder than most suits of armor.
He spoke in a chilling voice.
“Mortals, recite your identities and every detail of how you came to this place, without the slightest omission or embellishment.”
The words emerging from Mapheltan’s mouth began transforming into ancient demonic language.
『The mortals shall explain why they dared enter the Apostle’s sanctuary.
(Mortal’ekh daruul, kha’rem Azel’tan nox’ir, sha’gol envek thar’an.)』
The Words of Command were engraved into them.
The two were nothing more than petty criminals. They could never resist an Apostle’s Words of Command.
Mapheltan could extract more than enough information from them without resorting to torture.
The thieves’ eyes became clouded.
One of them opened his mouth.
“...We are low-ranking members of Those Without Keys. We entered your sanctuary because we dared attempt to steal the property of a Council noble.”
‘What? Why would they possibly...?’
Those Without Keys was the largest Thieves’ Guild in the kingdom.
“You knew that my manor would be empty at night. Who gave you that information?”
This time, the other man answered.
“A notice was openly posted at the guild’s underground counter. It said that the Watcher of Narak had entered the capital and that his manor would be completely empty at night. Most people didn’t believe it. The two of us came here on the off chance that it was true.”
Mapheltan carefully considered his words.
‘Information about my manor was openly posted in the Thieves’ Guild?’
Information being displayed somewhere accessible to everyone meant that it was considered nearly worthless.
That was impossible.
Information concerning a family on the Council was worth more than gold.
Detailed information about the interior and layout of such a family’s manor could easily have been classified as the Thieves’ Guild’s highest-grade secret.
Yet it had been displayed publicly on a notice.
Mapheltan found the situation deeply perplexing.
He sank into thought.
Silence flowed through the room for a while.
Someone had deliberately spread information about the manor to the public.
Why?
It probably was not for money.
If the culprit had needed money, they would have secretly sold the information about the manor.
They would never have posted information worth its weight in gold on a public notice.
Mapheltan groaned.
For now, it was difficult to determine the rat’s intentions.
He opened his mouth.
“Do you know who posted the notice?”
One of the thieves answered immediately.
“We do not. No one in the guild knew their identity.”
Mapheltan clicked his tongue.
It was deeply frustrating.
The culprit was most likely one of the manor’s servants, but there was no evidence that would allow him to identify a specific individual.
‘I do have one suspicion, but...’
It was merely intuition, so he could not allow himself to become certain.
He needed to find concrete evidence first.
Mapheltan spoke.
“Do either of you possess information that could help me with this matter?”
No useful answer came.
Instead, completely unrelated words left their mouths.
“...I want to live.”
“Please spare me.”
Mapheltan frowned.
They were no longer useful.
There was no other way to make use of them, either.
He briefly considered turning them into thralls and ordering them to monitor the guild, but dismissed the idea.
The risk was too great.
He needed to exercise caution in every action he took within the royal capital.
He could not leave behind any trail connected to Mapheltan.
“My apologies, but you must die.”
Mapheltan tightened his grip.
Crack.
An unpleasant sound rang out.
The thieves’ necks snapped cleanly.
Mapheltan released them.
Their bodies crumpled like puppets whose strings had been cut.
They had died instantly.
Mapheltan quietly stared at the corpses.
He remained there for a long time.
There was far too much to consider.
***
The morning sun rose.
Johan sat blankly behind the desk in his study.
His thoughts had continued uninterrupted from the previous night until now.
That long chain of contemplation was suddenly broken.
A knock came from the door.
“It is Haman. May I enter?”
Johan paused briefly before replying,
“Come in.”
The door opened.
Haman stepped inside.
He smiled awkwardly and spoke.
“Did you sleep well, my lord? Was your bed comfortable?”
Johan’s expression remained blank.
“It wasn’t bad.”
Relief passed over Haman’s face.
“I’m glad to hear that. Since it was your first night in an unfamiliar place, I was quite worried. Did anything unusual happen during the night?”
Johan carefully studied his expression.
He could sense nothing suspicious from Haman.
The man merely gave off the same bumbling impression as yesterday.
Johan replied calmly,
“It was a peaceful night, much like any other. More importantly, how was your evening? You must have been rather busy.”
Haman answered with an innocent expression.
“If you mean the errand you entrusted to me, it took very little time. House Marcano welcomed me warmly. It was all thanks to your prestige, my lord. Allow me to say once again that it is an honor to serve you.”
Haman had visited House Marcano the previous evening and delivered Johan’s message.
He had probably arranged a private meeting between Johan and Horentz.
Johan spoke.
“What time is the appointment?”
“Viscount Horentz said that you may visit whenever it is convenient for you.”
As expected, Horentz had shown Johan considerable goodwill.
Johan nodded.
“I’ll go around noon. Make the necessary preparations.”
“Understood. I shall take my leave.”
Just as Haman was about to turn away, Johan spoke.
“Ah, there is something else. Let us have dinner together this evening. I would like to speak with you.”
Haman looked puzzled.
Only yesterday, Johan had instructed everyone to vacate the manor after sunset.
“Will we be dining outside?”
Johan shook his head.
“We’ll eat here in the manor.”
Haman bowed deeply.
“Understood.”
Johan could not see his expression.