Jackin, Hereis’s right-hand man, observed his master carefully. Jackin had been by his side since before Hereis came into this world. But in those 26 years, he had never seen such a smile that came from the heart. Wasn’t his master always quiet and silent like an ocean submerged in darkness?
At first, he thought it was because the shackles that had imprisoned him had been broken when he awakened as an incubus. But seeing how he kept breaking into smiles, constantly reminded of something, it was clearly his partner’s influence.
After pondering, Jackin carefully spoke up.
“It seems something good has happened?”
“……”
As soon as Jackin asked, a flash of wariness gleamed in those red and blue eyes. The gentleness that had briefly seeped in disappeared, returning to dark silence. This was exactly why he had held back from asking anything.
But he couldn’t back down now. Today, he would definitely find out the identity of the partner who had captured his master’s heart.
The one who had refused to become an incubus, suppressing all glory, status, and even instinctive desires, thoroughly restraining himself—suddenly got married and awakened.
If word got to the demon realm, everyone would be shocked, but the master himself said nothing except that he had fallen in love at first sight and revealed his true name.
“Did something pleasant happen with your partner?”
“No.”
Hereis cut off Jackin’s probing gaze in one stroke.
There really hadn’t been anything particularly pleasant. He had just seen a strange dream and barely consumed a small amount of vital energy.
Yet he couldn’t stop the laughter from bursting out. The image of Rosenthal hiding his body under the blanket like a turtle and screaming kept flickering before his eyes.
Hereis had wanted to live as a human, but he knew he could never become a complete human. There was a fundamental difference in thinking from the start.
Prostitution, gambling, drugs. He had created venues where those who pursued pleasure could freely indulge their instincts. People criticized him, but Hereis didn’t understand.
Why regulate, suppress, and look down on it? By what right do they interfere with individual desires? They say if you’re consumed by drugs and obsessed with sex, you’ll eventually be destroyed? So what? What does that matter?
Everything is one’s own choice. Whether you prioritize success or desire, it’s your own burden to bear. There’s no reason for others to worry, interfere, suppress, or criticize.
Known as the ruler of darkness, countless requests poured in. Murder, kidnapping, rape, theft.
The Tern Guild was known to do anything for money, but in fact, Hereis had strict standards. No, others said they were arbitrary standards impossible to figure out.
Hereis respected both buying and selling sex. Whether someone dated ten people at once, dozens held an orgy party, or sadism and masochism ran rampant with the use of monsters or tools—he didn’t care. But he despised non-consensual relationships.
He especially scorned and loathed rape or kidnapping requests that burst forth under the guise of love.
Then requests about one person suddenly began to pour in.
‘Rosenthal Chendewden.’
He was someone Hereis knew well. Of course, Rosenthal had never made a request to him. There were just many requests about him.
Rosenthal was an omega faithful to lust to the point where even an incubus would cry. Those who had been his one-night stand partners and were discarded, or those who had their lovers stolen by him, endlessly knocked on the Tern Guild’s door. But Hereis didn’t accept them.
Love is instinct. Promises or vows are meaningless. One cannot resent or blame someone for their heart changing or cooling. It was simply not meant to be.
But suddenly the content of the requests changed. Beyond petty revenge in the name of affection, requests filled with vile desires and possessiveness poured in.
‘Kidnap Rosenthal, I want to make him my slave, I want to have him by any means necessary….’
They all seemed to be possessed by something.
Hereis sensed an unusual shift in the atmosphere and had Jackin investigate.
The cause was simple.
For some reason, Rosenthal had apparently been put up for auction at a slave market.
A noble omega, the second son of a ducal house, and the Crown Prince’s fiancé. Even untouchable beauty.
One who had been floating in the sky had come within arm’s reach. If only they’d had a little money, if only they’d been there, they could have had him. A fleeting opportunity ignited the fuse of desire, and requests poured in.
Among them was Rosenthal’s stepbrother, Martin Chendewden.
Hereis rejected all the requests. Then, as if possessed, he headed to the party venue.
After the slave auction incident, Rosenthal Chendewden had remained secluded in his separate palace. But as the Crown Prince’s fiancé, he had no choice but to attend the Empress’s birthday celebration.
And numerous clients were targeting that timing. Although Hereis had refused, they might have entrusted the request to someone else.
Hereis normally didn’t interfere that far. He would reject distasteful requests. But that was all. Punishing clients or preventing incidents wasn’t in his dictionary. Such human sense of justice didn’t exist within Hereis.
As soon as Hereis arrived at the party venue, he tried to leave. This wasn’t behavior befitting the Master of Tern. But he couldn’t.
Rosenthal Chendewden entered the hall. The moment Hereis saw the blond-haired man, he froze. The desire that had been blazing like an incubus disappeared somewhere, and a frightened white rabbit was looking around nervously. Hereis approached him without realizing it. And spoke to him.
‘Her Majesty the Empress has not yet arrived.’
It was to confirm whether this was really that Rosenthal Chendewden. Perhaps he’d already been kidnapped? The one before him now might be a fake using illusion magic.
Rosenthal’s blue eyes stared intently at Hereis. He wasn’t a fake. He couldn’t be a fake. No matter how sophisticated a mage might be, they couldn’t express such a beautiful creature. Hereis assessed the situation objectively.
‘Is there something on my face?’
‘Ah, no. Thank you for letting me know.’
But this was strange. There was a sense of incongruity in Rosenthal’s appearance as he bowed his head in embarrassment.
Sure enough, there was an attempted kidnapping. Brazenly enough, at the Empress’s party, they drugged the food and planted people around the venue.
Without realizing it, Hereis managed the food and searched the surroundings. And while lightly dealing with them one by one, he heard voices.
‘Rosenthal Chendewden, finally showing his true colors.’
‘Indeed. Suddenly pretending to be docile, but I suppose one’s true nature can’t be hidden. How dare he think to serve His Highness the Crown Prince with such a lewd and filthy body?’
They weren’t the guild’s lackeys. Men dressed in elegant knight uniforms were looking at the balcony. And there, Rosenthal and Arleigh were entangled together.
From the conversation, they were people the Crown Prince had planted to monitor Rosenthal.
He had been reported that the rumor about Crown Prince Eldon deliberately selling Rosenthal to a slave auction was false. But weren’t they on bad terms? Or was it the excessive loyalty of subordinates who wanted to reject the rumor-plagued Crown Princess?
Either way, it wasn’t something for Hereis to interfere with. In fact, stopping another guild’s request wasn’t appropriate behavior either. There was no reason to stop the knights. But his body moved faster than he thought.
The knights were wary of the man who suddenly appeared. But before they could shout or take their stance, they collapsed. Hereis’s left eye glowed red.
He erased the knights’ memories. The lewd memories they had just seen disappeared into the cold night air.
Hereis stared at the balcony again. When Third Prince Arleigh left the balcony, Rosenthal collapsed with a thud. His appearance as he straightened his clothes looked extremely precarious. Just like that person….
He didn’t look like a shameless omega who boldly enjoyed trysts while having a fiancé, as the rumors claimed. He should leave now. Hereis thought so, yet entered the castle again.
It was the right decision. While dealing with the trash trying to rape Rosenthal, Hereis sincerely thought so. He should have stopped there, but Rosenthal’s condition bothered him.
Rather than Rosenthal as a person, it was the sense of incongruity felt from the sudden change that held Hereis’s ankle.
Was he making that expression because of the chastity belt and toy? Rosenthal Chendewden?
This emotion must be curiosity. Hereis tried to remove the chastity belt while reassuring the worried Rosenthal.
‘Thank you for your concern. But I’m fine.’
He would help only this far and then leave. This much curiosity was enough. Then a word that should absolutely never be called, and that there was no reason to be called, came from Rosenthal’s mouth.
‘Hereis.’
They say people die if they do things they don’t usually do. Was it because of that? As the price for meddling for the first time in his life, the life of the human Hereis ended.
‘How did you know my name?’
Having his true name called, Hereis awakened as an incubus. But this wasn’t the problem.
When one’s true name is called and the marriage ritual is performed, constraints are activated.
Incubi instinctively crave sex. They are a species for whom marriage, the union of love, is impossible.
Incubi and succubi placed constraints to keep their own vows.
First, during the marriage period, they can only consume their partner’s vital energy.
Second, as soon as the marriage ritual is performed, hypnosis toward the other person is activated.
To maintain the marriage, hypnosis called the ‘chains of vows’ that prevents change of heart toward the other person operates on oneself.
And lastly….
An unwanted person had called his true name. He had to kill them before the marriage ritual was established. There was no time.
‘I’ll ask again. How did you know my name? Young Master Rosenthal Chendewden.’
But even when killing, he had to know how they knew his name. If his true name was spreading somewhere, he had to stop it.
‘Ahng… F-first, l-let me deal with this.’
‘L-leave the room!’
‘I need to hear how you knew my name.’
‘Th-then, turn, ahng, a-around…. Turn around… ngh.’
‘Understood.’
This is a person who must be killed. There’s no time. He had to make him talk, even through torture. Once the marriage is established, he can’t kill him with his own hands.
But why are you obediently turning around, Hereis!
He found his own actions absurd. But he stopped blaming himself too.
The moans of Rosenthal, who was getting wet and didn’t know what to do, and the splashing sounds of him rubbing his own bottom.
Rosenthal had touched upon the incubus instincts that Hereis had struggled to suppress.
