I Got a Job as the Demon King's Plaything - Chapter 85
Bonita’s face turned pale. Should she confess now that she wasn’t an ordinary maid, that she was someone the Demon King cherished? Maybe if Lucas realized this, he’d back off, afraid of what Teshiel might do in retaliation.
‘But what if Teshiel gets hurt because of me?’
In her brief hesitation, Lucas shoved a gag into her mouth.
“Now, should we start having some fun? Don’t worry, I won’t kill you, so you don’t have to be so scared.”
“Lucas.”
“Sophitia, get out. We’ll make her talk eventually. But first, we’ll take turns letting out some steam.”
Mikhail chuckled, sitting on the edge of the bed, while Raul, looking pale and uncomfortable, stepped back, shaking his head. Sophitia frowned and placed a hand on Lucas’s shoulder.
“Lucas, wait a moment.”
“What? You want a turn too? That’s a surprise, but I won’t stop you.”
“That’s not it. Just step aside for a second. I need to check something.”
Lucas moved aside without complaint, and Sophitia placed her hand on Bonita’s trembling forehead, closing her eyes and muttering a prayer in a language Bonita couldn’t understand. After a few moments, Sophitia opened her eyes and spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.
“This woman is pregnant.”
“What?”
“She’s pregnant. Don’t touch her.”
Bonita’s eyes widened in shock. Pregnant? She didn’t feel anything in her stomach. Could it really be true? It had only been a few days since her intimate encounters. Could Sophitia truly have determined her pregnancy so quickly, even with divine power? Or was she lying out of pity?
Bonita looked up at Sophitia in disbelief, but Sophitia didn’t even glance at her. Instead, she stared blankly at Lucas.
“I’ve never heard of a half-breed between a human and a demon. It must be someone else’s child. This just means she’s promiscuous.”
“There aren’t many cases, but it’s not impossible. More importantly,”
Sophitia glanced at the three men.
“What matters is that she has value as a hostage. She spent a full week in the Demon King’s bedroom, was protected by invisibility magic, and now she’s pregnant.”
“Maybe she was just a toy for the Demon King. Why would he care about a woman?”
“But Lucas, think about it. We have no cards left to play. We need to gamble on the possibility that she holds some importance to the Demon King. Otherwise, you can indulge yourself here and now, and then we’ll just have to find another opportunity from scratch.”
“…That’s true.”
Before Lucas could respond, Mikhail spoke up first, crossing his arms.
“I’m in favor of the gamble. We’re not likely to get another chance this good anytime soon.”
“Exactly. Mikhail’s right,” Raul, who had been standing further back, chimed in.
“Using her as a hostage is better than rendering her useless out of spite.”
With the group now in agreement, Lucas glared at Bonita one more time before taking several deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down. Bonita, watching as her fate was being decided in front of her, bit down hard on the gag in her mouth. A tear slid down her pale cheek, the hopelessness of the situation sinking in.
* * *
The bandages hastily wrapped around Teshiel’s wound were already soaked with blood again. The injury caused by the holy sword was slow to heal, even with a demon’s regenerative abilities. Rento glanced at it but said nothing, knowing his master’s temperament all too well. He only furrowed his brow. In truth, Teshiel paid no attention to the gash in his side.
“They’ve flown this far,” he muttered.
“I’ll track them,” Rento replied, kneeling on one knee and placing both hands on the ground. Tracking was his specialty, but after a moment, he sighed and shook his head.
“It seems they used an ancient teleportation scroll. Those are no longer possible to make. How they got their hands on one… there can’t be many left.”
“They could have stolen it from the imperial palace,” Teshiel muttered, darkly amused.
“If they were bold enough to steal the Demon King’s woman, robbing the Emperor’s treasure vault wouldn’t have fazed them.”
“Ancient magic, huh. So tracking them is impossible?”
“…I’m sorry. But I can at least tell which direction they went.”
Rento extended his arm, pointing south.
Teshiel’s lips curled into a smile.
“Toward the imperial capital, I see.”
“I can’t be certain it’s the capital. I couldn’t gauge the distance. They parted ways with the dragon, though. It flew northwest without using the scroll. The flight distance… at least sixty miles.”
“Northwest? That’s not toward its lair.”
“They’re probably trying to flee and hide. They must have used some kind of anti-tracking magic somewhere along the way.”
Teshiel clenched and unclenched his hand repeatedly, small flames bursting out with each motion. He was barely containing his fury, resisting the urge to demolish everything around him.
“I should have blown the entire place to smithereens. Let the fortress fall apart for all I care.”
Teshiel had held back his power, fearing even the slightest harm to Bonita. He never expected this restraint to lead to such an outcome. Would it have been better to risk injuring her and kill those scoundrels on the spot? But how could he bear the sight of even a single scratch on her delicate body?
“…I only wanted to keep her from getting hurt.”
And now he had lost her entirely.
A bitter chuckle slipped between his teeth, though his gaze remained icy. Teshiel turned his head to the horses they had ridden in on. Hanging from one of them was Jorge, tied up and bloodied. Teshiel pressed his foot down on him.
“Arghhh…!”
“Well then, let’s see what this one has to say.”
Jorge’s arm had been ripped off, and he had been dragged behind the horse, barely clinging to life. A twisted form of mercy from Rento had kept him alive.
“The sooner you talk, the sooner this ends for you.”
“…Just k-kill me…”
Teshiel smiled, a beautiful but chilling expression. An hour later, Jorge, now barely recognizable as human, finally closed his eyes for good. He had held out for some time but eventually confessed Lucas’s entire plan.
They knew they couldn’t defeat the Demon King alone, so they had intended to let the dragon claim the glory of the attack and take the credit. If that failed, the backup plan was to “rescue” Bonita and bring her to a neighboring country to claim a reward for saving the supposed princess.
Rento, who had been keeping Jorge alive, shook his head and sighed.
Thanks to absorbing Jorge’s fear and pain, the holy sword wound in Teshiel’s side had healed enough to stop the bleeding. He looked down coldly at Jorge’s corpse.
“It was a mistake from the start to try to engage with humans. Trying to respect their ways was all pointless. I should have crushed them from the beginning.”
Slowly, Teshiel raised his arms to either side. Behind him, the dark flames of the demon realm erupted like an inferno. Rumble… The flames shot up as if to pierce the sky, and within them, the fabric of the dimension itself tore open, creating cracks in the air. Through the burning gates of hell, horned creatures began pouring out, obedient to the Demon King’s command.
