Hell, within the domain of Duke Oakris.
This was a typical devil territory. Sunless clouds shrouded the entire city, and the gloomy ancient castle took on an unsettling dark-red hue beneath the gray light. Skulls from all manner of creatures had been fashioned into lamps and hung along the fences, while constantly writhing thorny vines served as the garden's scenery.
In the courtyard, as vast as a great plaza, squads of devil maids dressed in extremely revealing attire endured the whip-like sting of dancing thorns as they cleaned the grounds.
Though the castle's master was an evil devil, as a devil noble, he was exceedingly fond of cleanliness. Even the castle courtyard was required to be spotless, so these poor maids could only endure their exhaustion as they polished every inch of dark-red brick until it gleamed, then prayed that nothing had been overlooked in their assigned areas.
One had to understand that devils, with their rigid hierarchy and harsh rules, had never been tolerant of mistakes. In an ordinary devil noble's residence, a servant who was a lesser devil might merely be demoted to slavery for making a mistake, but in this even more sinister domain, any servant who erred would simply be killed without mercy.
After all, Hell had far too many devils. With their formidable physiques and frequent debauched parties, devils had kept their population exploding ever since the day their race came into being. Counting those inferior devils who were not even recognized as devils and had been slaves for generations, Hell could now truly be described as overcrowded with devils. Even sending them to the Blood War as cannon fodder would not use them all up. No one would say anything if a devil noble casually killed one of his own servants.
After all, this