For some time, Leila had been sitting at the wooden table, her eyes gloomy and unfocused as she dwelled on her thoughts and the horror she would experience if she failed to prevent it from happening. Other thoughts also flooded into her mind.

‘I was just an ordinary commoner of this world, living in a relatively peaceful town... My family were former adventurers who had settled down to live a quiet life and raise their children. Yeah, there were conflicts, but it wasn’t something too serious, mostly occasional monsters who attacked or a fight between the people.’

As for demons, they didn’t exist in this small town, with only heroic fairy tales or historical books of the past having mentioned them. Her father, who upheld his adventurous and charismatic nature, trained her with a sword in his spare time when he wasn’t protecting the town. She was happy. There wasn’t a global crisis threatening the world. It was just that—peaceful. Up until she turned fifteen.

‘The hero and his party had died at the hands of the demons.'

The peace that she cherished had come crumbling down as the demons invaded their town following the fall of the hero and his party. They killed every living human that happened to be in their path of bloodshed, whether it be men, women, or children—there was no bias towards anyone.

During all this, children were crying and running, while some were lost amidst the chaos, crying for their parents in confusion, only to be slaughtered. Most villagers tried to flee for their lives as they held on tightly to their children in their arms or left their children behind without a second thought. And some stayed behind and decided to fight back, using any possible weapon or object they could find.

With their resistance, they gave little time for some to flee for safety at the cost of their lives. The demons didn’t slaughter them one-sidedly, as the resistance wasn’t all amateurs. Even so, they were way too overwhelmed by the onslaught of demons and died in the end.

Her father happened to be among the strongest in the resistance. That wasn’t all. While he fought to protect her and her mother as they fled from the town, before her very eyes, she saw him die after gaining various injuries. At that moment, her body froze in place. Her muscles stiffened, and she lost her balance, falling into her mother’s embrace.

At the time, she didn’t comprehend what had happened to her village or her father. It was too chaotic and fast for her to understand. She slowly lifted her head, her eyes landing on her mother’s face. There was a vivid expression of shock and sadness on her face.

Then a thin red line appeared across her mother’s neck, followed by her head falling to the ground with a thud. Shortly after that, her mother’s corpse fell as well, carrying Leila with her to the ground as blood spurted out. It was only after her mother had died that her mind became clear and she understood her purpose—to be a hero. To end the demons so no other human has to go through what she has gone through. To bring peace to all humans.

‘That’s why I can’t accept this. Even if I’m now a demon, I can’t allow myself to fall prey to a demon’s nature or their desires. That said, it won’t be easy, as Succubus live off of their own desires along with the desires of others more so than other demons.’ She gradually began to break out of her thoughts.

‘It’s even worse since I need to ensure I don’t lose myself by feeding on the desire and life force of others. It’s not much of a problem, as of now, since Zain is here, but that’ll change in the future.’ 

Her eyes returned to the book before her. ‘For now, I’ll leave it for later.’

Thanks to recalling the conviction she had made that day, she regained her composure and flipped to the next page. On the page, the last four of the twelve crests were shown. As expected from the crests she’d seen, they weren’t any good.

========================================

• Crest: Primal Demon Crest of Sensitivity

• Description: The longer one delves into pleasure during lovemaking or sexual intercourse, the more one’s erogenous zones will become sensitive, reaching all the way up to three times the norm. At the same time, the rest of one’s body will grow in sensitivity to the same level as one’s erogenous zones were originally.

• Crest: Primal Demon Crest of Compliance

• Description: When one’s partner gives a command, one will comply without hesitation. If one were to try to resist such a command, one’s body would move on its own to comply with the command given, even without one's will.

* Restriction: Unless it’s specified at the time of activation, there can only be one command active at a time. Without prior specialization, the command will naturally last for an hour.

• Crest: Primal Demon Crest of Defiance

• Description: As one becomes more defiant with their partner or chooses to attack or harm with the intent of doing so, one’s demon crest will change to prevent one from committing such acts. The more one ignores the crest and continues to commit defiant acts, the greater the effects of the demon crest will become, potentially causing permanent and drastic effects.

* New Restriction: If one fails to stop themselves from committing defiant acts, they'll be immediately forced into unconsciousness without any prior warning beforehand.

• Crest: Primal Demon Crest of Thievery

• Description: As one experiences sexual intercourse, one’s energy levels will drop while those of one’s partners will rise to help them take the lead and be dominant over one. Of course, this will change if one’s partner allows one to take the lead, but only then.

* Secondary Effect: When one finishes an orgasm or their session, their energy will feel as if it has suddenly been siphoned away, leaving them feeling sluggish and exhausted.

========================================

‘Knowing that there are drawbacks to these curses makes me feel slightly relieved, especially for the crest of compliance and defiance, though one of them is more of a benefit than a detriment. It’s best to have something over nothing, I guess.’ Leila turned her eyes away from the book, falling onto the clock.

[1:07 pm]

‘I have some time left…’ Leila thought with some relief. ‘There’s still plenty of the book left unread.’

She might have read all twelve demon crests that accounted for the effects of her demon crest, but she believed that there was more to the crest than that. The book likely contained the materials needed for the creation of the crest as well as a written version of the spell.

Moreover, she didn’t forget to take into consideration that there was a chance of her finding the means to erase the demon crest. But she didn’t think the chances were that high. To have almost immediately found a book with the information on her crest was rare enough. How rare would it have to be for the means to erase it to be in this book?

For her, it was impossible. First, since she had found the book she wanted inside the academy’s library, it wasn’t something she could regard as simply a coincidence. The book was too rare for that to be the case. Secondly, the librarian said herself that the book didn’t belong to the library. This led her to one conclusion: someone had placed the book on the shelf for her to find.

She could only think of one person who had enough knowledge about her demon crest and would’ve placed it in a place for her to find it: Zain. But what truly bewildered her was: had he done this out of kindness of heart to help her escape or out of sheer arrogance that she could not escape even with this knowledge?

Without noticing, her mind fell into a focused state as she read page after page. As she read more, her understanding of her demon crest improved. By the time the clock struck two, she’d read through most of the book. And to her expectations, a page has been torn from the book, which she suspected was the page that said what means were needed for her to dispel the demon crest.

Since she’d considered this from the beginning, it wasn’t a shock when she confirmed it. What was interesting was that she could see whether one of the crests was in effect or not while being able to tell its effects in real time.

‘Before he left, he ensured I couldn’t leave the room until he returned.’ Leila's expression twisted slightly as she placed the book inside her inventory.

Amidst her thoughts, she suddenly heard a faint click coming from the door. She turned her head at that sound.

"It’s good to see that you’re awake. Did you like my note?" Zain asked as he walked in, closing the door behind him.

After hearing this, her expression subconsciously changed into a scowl, feeling disgust. She didn’t even try to hide it.

"Why are you looking at me like that? That isn’t an expression one should show to their lover, is it? Shouldn’t you give a loving smile after not seeing me for so long?"