Book 1: Chapter 37: The Call of Distress From the Quarantined Town

Book 1: Chapter 37: The Call of Distress From the Quarantined Town

Inside the Dark Sanctum, Bella was enjoying a pleasant meal. She was currently the only one of the Dark Sanctuary’s demon kings present as both Eleanor and Dolores were busy with the Dark Sanctuary’s matters and most likely wouldn’t be back until at least midnight.

The Dark Sanctuary didn’t really have the concept of ‘night’ and ‘day’ as it was constructed in a parallel space beneath the surface, where the natural light of the sun didn’t reach. However, during the construction of the Sanctuary, Bella had obtained two dark treasures from Mystica, the 【Dark Creator】, ‘Black Sun’ and ‘Blood Moon’, these two could replicate most of the Sun and Moon’s functions and served as their replacements.

Due to lack of a real ‘daytime’, one could sleep an entire ‘day’ in the Dark Sanctuary and it wouldn’t feel unnatural, making the Dark Sanctuary a heaven for those who enjoyed sleeping in. As for meal times, there wasn’t really an allocated time for ‘breakfast’ or ‘dinner’, instead, the demon kings would decide whenever they wanted to eat. After all, the ghost maids didn’t need any sleep and were always at the demon kings’ beck and call, even if they weren’t given any commands, the ghost maids would continue working like machines.

Bella’s meal was brought in by the two demon king exclusive maidservants, Roland and Annie, apart from a pink apron the two didn’t have anything else covering their body. Bella had implemented the ‘naked-apron’ rule with the excuse of ‘preventing disloyal maidservants from hiding weapons on their body and attempt to assassinate their masters’.

While Roland and Annie found this rather embarrassing, but there was nothing that they could do about it. On their necks was a special silk choker, the product of a collaboration project by Noesha and Mia, wherever the wearers of the choker went, the ‘owner’ would be able to know. The choker could could only be take off by the owner, who was, in this case, Bella. The choker also gave Bella supreme control over Roland and Annie’s lives, as all it would take from Bella was a simple command and the chokerS would tighten until the wearers asphyxiated.

At the beginning, Roland and Annie weren’t so willing to oblige, but Bella had threatened them that it was either this silk choker or Bella would make them wear one of those strange red collars. As the two of them had some rather unpleasant experiences with collars, they could only give in to Bella’s threats. Although they still wore an apron, it was made of an almost completely transparent silk, which meant that the apron barely covered anything more than if Roland and Annie were full-on unclothed.

Normally Bella would have kept these two maidservants completely unclothed but she had some other ‘event’ to attend today, so she decided to spare the two of them for now. Bella casually sat in front of a large table that was filled with all sorts of delicacies imaginable, including some made from monster-products as well as various types of fruit-based fermented drinks with low-alcohol content.

Irene had already awoken from her slumber and was currently sitting to the left of Bella, her hands and legs still bound by strips of red silk. Lisha sat to Bella’s left, to Bella’s dismay Lisha had returned to her human form before Irene had woken up, as Lisha’s true form was quite eye-pleasing.

Lisha was the only girl in the room apart from Bella that didn’t have anything restricting her movement. Lola was currently in Bella’s arms with a dumbfounded look on her face, her limbs tied tightly with spider’s silk, depriving her the ability to move. Bella had taken the soft material that Skryme had given her out of Lola’s mouth, as she knew that Lola wouldn’t try to kill herself with Lisha beside them, because Lola still needed to understand what was going on between Bella and Lisha.

Hadias was probably the one who had it worst, as apart from the fact that Bella was no longer restricting her sight or hearing, everything else remained in bonds. The other end of the short elaborate metal chain attached to the collar around Hadias’ neck was still in Bella’s right hand, forcing Hadias to prostrate herself in front of Bella, like a pet before its master. For some mischievous reason, Bella had ordered Roland and Annie to place some of the lighter plates of food on top of Hadias’ porcelain coloured back.

Bella wondered how angry the Demon Lord would be if he were to find out that Bella was using his daughter, a princess of the demon world, as a table. However, it was just a thought, as no matter how furious the demon lord would be, there wasn’t anything that he would be able to do to Bella. Bella chose Hadias as a table because if how much stronger her body was than a normal human girl, and the plates on top of her wouldn’t really hurt much more than just Hadias’ pride.

Hadias was too scared to resist, she had already signed a master/servant contract with Bella, meaning that Bella didn’t need to much more than give the command and Hadias would be forced to carry out the order anyway. Hadias knew that if Bella was forced to use to power of the contract, Hadias would most likely be in a much more shameful state.

“Little Felia, why is little Lisha here? Her companion too?”

“Irene-nee, Lisha has already joined my side. Is there anything wrong with one of my allies being here?”

“You lying demoness! Lisha-sama is the commander of the Anti-Demon knights, devoting herself to exterminate those filthy demons, why would she fall to your level! I know, you must have used some evil magic and manipulated Lisha-sama’s heart! Lisha-sama, snap out of it! I..”

“You sure talk a little girl, will some fine wine shut your pretty mouth?”

Lola, who was still in Bella’s embrace, was stopped from finishing her sentence by Bella forcefully making her drink from a small bottle of fine wine. Lola couldn’t resist and could only watch as Bella forcefully made her drink the entire bottle.

“Roland, bring me a couple bottles of that wine, the one that you and Annie refuse to drink.”

“Master, this…”

“Hmm? You want to drink it in her place? Go ahead!”

“I’ll fetch it immediately, master!”

Roland’s wasn’t able to voice her resistance and could only go and bring Bella a few strangely shaped bottles containing what seemed to be wine. The name of this wine was ‘Fallen Heaven’, a proud creation by 【Demon’s Heart】Lilith, and 【Devil’s Wisdom】 Lilian, who had given Bella a few bottles previously.

The main effect of ‘Fallen Heaven’ was that it was able to massively increase the power of demons who consumed it, it worked even better on humans as it was able to directly convert their race to demon. After a human drinks this wine, no matter how fortitudious their resolve, their body would be forcefully altered by this magical wine. It was the perfect thing to use against one as stubborn as Lola, Bella couldn’t bring herself to force Roland and Annie to drink this wine as they had followed her with loyalty ever since they had joined her.

“Let me go, you demoness! Lisha-sama, please…”

“After you finish all of these, you’ll also belong to my side, dumb little girl. After that, you’re going to have to call me master~!”

Seeing the bottles of wine that Roland was bringing over, Lola squirmed even harder, trying to force her way out of Bella’s embrace. Even a kid could tell that something was wrong with this wine, they didn’t even need to smell the sinister fragrance, all they needed to do was look at the jet-black fluid.

“Relax, this isn’t poison, it’s just that you’ll someone of my side after you drink it~. If you try to kill yourself or keep resisting, I’ll make Lisha drink it~!”

“Don’t do that, please, I’ll drink it… just don’t force Lisha-sama.”

Lisha looked ill-at-ease as she looked at what was happening in front of her. Lola probably didn’t know that Lisha was already a long-time member of the dark side, and even if she drank a few kegs of ‘Fallen Heaven’ it wouldn’t do anything to her.

This girl sure is loyal to Lisha. After witnessing Lola’s loyalty, Bella wanted Lola more than ever, to join her side of course. Although Lola had agreed to drink in place of Lisha, but after Roland brought the wine to her face, Lola tightly closed her mouth and a stubborn look had returned to her face.

She had originally thought that Bella would be at a lost as to what to do, but felt her hopes and dreams shatter when she saw a sinister smile creeping onto Bella’s face. While she was in a state of internal panic, Lola suddenly felt a hand traversing her body, slowly travelling up to her chest, when suddenly a strong stimulation made it so that Lola could no longer shut her mouth properly.

In the split second that Lola opened her mouth, Bella who had already taken a mouthful of the dark wine in her mouth, forcefully stole Lola’s lips; feeding her the wine in this method while moving her tongue around. Lola wasn’t able to spit out the wine with a tongue forcing its way around inside her mouth.

“Girl, your mouth is really sweet~! If you’re not going to work with me here, I’ll squeeze you here every mouthful that I feed you, if you don’t want to suffer I suggest you open your mouth for me like a good girl~!”

Lola no longer closed her mouth while Bella fed her the dark fluid mouth-to-mouth. Lola turned her eyes towards the gently smiling Lisha, and a tear of humiliation tricked down her face, had Lisha already been controlled by Bella?

Bella paid no heed to this and continued her feeding of wine to Lola, each kiss being longer than the previous. It didn’t take too long for all of Lola’s attention to be brought back to Bella, and eventually she stopped showing any signs of resistance to Bella’s actions and instead welcomed Bella’s lips with a flushed face.

As for this ‘secret skill’ of Bella’s, Irene and Hadias had much experience and froze all movement in fear of Bella changing targets to one of them. While Irene was truly afraid, there was something about the way that Hadias kept secretly glancing towards Bella and Lola while trying to look away that told Bella that Hadias might actually have enjoyed the feeling of having her lips stolen.

Lisha’s expression didn’t change much as she looked at what was unfolding in front of her, Bella had already spoken to her, all Lisha needed to do was pretend to be a mute for now. After Bella finished ‘taming’ these three beauties, they won’t question why Lisha had joined Bella’s side anymore.

___

Around the Gabriel Empire’s(Swordsmen) military town of Sakerid, the Church of Light’s templar knights as well as the Gabriel Empire’s royal guards had set up multiple lines of defences and were currently engaged in fierce conflict with the undead who had caught the scent of the living.

“Hayley-sama, the undead had already broken through the three defensive lines that we set up previously and are currently headed our way, should we retreat?”

“Tell the dragon knight Leopold to fall back!”

The Church of Light’s 2nd holy maiden looked gravely at the scene not too far in front of her, quite a few undead had managed to get close enough to the templars’ ranks under the cover of night, and were currently throwing themselves at the knights. If it wasn’t for the fact that the party of templars were led by the dragon knight Leopold, the thin line would probably have broken some time ago.

Dawn had not yet broken and Leopold had only advanced to the cultivation level of dragon knight recently and was still unfamiliar with his abilities. Leopold’s dragon mount had not yet arrived yet, as he had rushed his way here after selecting his mount, which was still currently in Dragons’ Canyon for some final preparations before it was ready to become Leopold’s mount. If Leopold had his mount right now, the templars most likely wouldn’t have fallen into such a dangerous situation.

“We should wait a little bit longer, Hayley. The Aldrich Empire’s(Magic) mage company as well as the Octavian Empire’s(Knights) knight regiment should arrive by tomorrow, it would be best to wait for their support before we continue our assault on the town. The Octavian Empire’s forces are led by the young and talented dragon knight, Shawn, he should be more reliable than Leopold.

The 1st holy maiden Sophia voiced her suggestion towards Hayley. The 4th holy maiden, Daisy, who had been relentlessly arguing with Hayley prior now stood quietly on the side, looking up at the night sky, it was almost unnatural that she wasn’t trying to start something against Hayley. Daisy had already contacted the members of the Church of Darkness who had been secretly keeping contact with the Salo faction, asking them to send the 3rd unholy maiden, Natalia Liz, to aid her.

The secret collaboration between the Church of Darkness and the Salo faction had existed for quite a while, both sides were trying to find any evil relics and they were sure that there was some evil relic present in the town of Sakerid, one powerful enough to cause such a strange and powerful outbreak of undead.

It was the goal of the Salo faction as well as the Church of Darkness to find this ‘evil relic’, Daisy didn’t care about the fate of the 3rd holy maiden, Susan, who belonged to the opposing Alan faction. In fact, it would be much better to the Salo faction if Susan was to die, the Alan faction always had two holy maidens, one more than the Church’s other two factions and it would level the playing field if Susan was to die.

“Sophia, Susan is in serious danger, these undead are completely unafraid of our holy magic, and all those malicious spirits that we can even sense from here… I’m afraid…”

“Hayley, I’ve talked with the Gabriel Empire’s general here, general Klemens will use the empire’s name and put up a hefty commission at the mercenaries’ guild to look for some people in Sakerid, Susan included. There will be a bunch of fodder coming to help us tomorrow, we don’t need to waste the Church’s precious manpower.”

Hayley averted her eyes away from Sophia. The Miga faction’s history had been a mystery, not too surprising for a faction that seemed to be shrouded in mystery. Hayley would rather argue with Daisy than argue with Sophia, Hayley was unable to see through the 1st holy maiden, Sophia, and could never tell what her true intentions really were, it was a feel that Hayley really disliked.

___

In the Dark Sanctum, Lola’s face was completely red, she had gotten drunk on the wine that Bella had fed her. Even if Bella were to let Lola go from her embrace, Lola wouldn’t try and run. Apart from altering Lola’s body, ‘Fallen Heaven’ was still technically a fine wine, and it wasn’t strange that someone would be able to get drunk on it.

“Little Felia, don’t do this, Lisha’s looking at us! Stop…uu..”

Bella hadn’t even spared her older sister, Irene, she wrapped her left arm around Irene’s waist and pulled her closer, before using the same method that she had used to Lola to force the dark wine down Irene’s throat.

The two maidservants, Roland and Annie, kneeled behind Irene, holding down the shoulders of the Octavian Empire’s 1st princess and keeping her from breaking free of Bella’s demonic clutches.

“Miss Roland, princess Annie, why…”

Irene wasn’t able to finish her question when another mouthful of alcohol entered through her lips, it seemed that Bella didn’t plan on letting Irene ask any questions. Although Roland and Annie felt a little guilt at their actions, as they were still human, but they didn’t ease up their grips on Irene’s shoulders. If they were to let Irene break free, they would most likely suffer the same treatment that Irene was going through right now.

Lisha pretended to be calm and took a sip of the dark wine from a chalice in front of her, there was no way that she didn’t have any reaction towards such a stimulating scene, she was only drinking to hide her agitated heart. While Lisha hadn’t rejected Bella’s confession, she hadn’t completely accepted it either, she was still currently unsure of her true feelings and wasn’t ready to reciprocate Bella’s feelings. Lisha had never knew that such things could be done between girls, for some strange reason she felt like joining in on the action, but hesitated due to the identities of Irene and Felia as her older sisters.

Looking at Lisha who was struggling to keep her composure, Bella laughed inwardly at how dishonest this little sister of hers was to herself. If Lisha didn’t like what was happening, she would have left long ago, as she wasn’t restricted or bound right now. Lisha was probably the kind whose heart wasn’t honest to herself, but had quite the honest body.

Right as Bella was about to initiate her next step of action, the communication stone that she had left on the table suddenly lit up. Who is it that’s interrupting me at such a time? Bella grumbled to herself. While Bella really didn’t want to pick up, but the number shown was that of Ivy. Did Ivy have another request after we just parted ways? Bella decided to herself that she wouldn’t accept her business unless Ivy offered herself as the payment, as a bit of payback for interrupting her at such a time.

“Ivy boss, you got some more work for us? We just finished our last project! Labourers have rights too, can you…:”

“Is this Bella?! Hurry, come and save us! We’re trapped in…”

Bella hadn’t expected to hear Kriss’ voice on the other side, Bella sighed inwardly as it seemed that she would have to work without pay again this time.