Standing Up a Demoness

After leaving the train station, Lorne carried his luggage over to a hired carriage by the roadside and climbed aboard.

"Sir, are you heading to a hotel?" Seeing all of Lorne's bags, the driver flicked the reins and struck up a conversation.

"Yes." Lorne nodded without denying it.

"Then how about Red Tail Lane? Visitors love going there." His suggestive tone was one any man would understand.

"No, no thanks..." Lorne was running for his life. He had no time for that sort of thing.

"Take me to somewhere quiet, uh... a hotel a little out of the way."

"Out of the way?" The driver sounded puzzled, but he asked no further questions and flicked the reins to set the carriage moving.

As the carriage rolled along, Lorne looked out the window, trying to soothe his nerves with the scenery.

About twenty minutes later, the hired carriage stopped outside a hotel.

"One soli."

Lorne handed the driver a banknote, then climbed out with his luggage.

The Azure Hotel.

Lorne examined the sign and surveyed the sparsely populated surroundings. Once he was satisfied that the driver hadn't dumped him at some random hotel to cheat him, he carried his suitcase inside.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" the receptionist asked Lorne, who looked every inch a traveler.

"A single room." Lorne glanced at the price list. "Second class, for a week to start."

"Certainly. Ten soli."

Lorne handed over a ten-soli banknote.

"The room at the far end of the second floor." The receptionist gave Lorne a key.

Lorne carried his luggage upstairs, opened the door, and looked around.

"Not bad. A bed, a wardrobe... even a bathroom." Lorne entered the room, put down his suitcase and bag, then flopped straight onto the bed, spreading his limbs.

The day had exhausted him, both physically and mentally.

This wasn't a good time to rest, but overwhelming drowsiness had already engulfed him. He had stayed awake all night waiting for the train.

Can't sleep...

Can't...

A little nap should be all right, shouldn't it?

Just a little while.

A little...

Feeling the soft mattress beneath him, Lorne found his eyelids growing heavier and heavier. Before long, the sound of steady breathing filled the room.

Backlund.

The silver-haired Demoness Ilyin was still basking in the afterglow of digesting her Potion.

As a newly advanced Demoness of Pleasure, she had far less experience in such matters than the seniors who had brought her into the fold.

The clearest sign was that she still couldn't rein in the allure and charm she radiated at every moment.

She was in a good mood today, because another newcomer was about to join them.

And this newcomer harbored fantasies about the Assassin Pathway, just as she once had.

Yes, a boy, not a girl.

That was because becoming a Witch changed one's sex. Once someone drank the Potion, even a man would become a true Witch.

If her former self had known that Sequence 7 of the Assassin Pathway was Witch, she would never have chosen this Pathway, not even under threat of death.

Assassin-such a cool, enticing name. Who could have imagined it had anything to do with Witch?

Back when she was an innocent young man, she too had been seduced by her superior, the Demoness who brought her into the fold. In a daze, she had drunk the Assassin Potion, setting herself on a path of no return.

Precisely because of that experience, she was very enthusiastic about recruiting promising newcomers for the organization.

Watching them become Assassins full of joy, then advance step by step, until finally... hehehe.

As the saying went, having been caught in the rain herself, she wanted to tear away other people's umbrellas too.

If recruiting newcomers were a sales competition, she would qualify as the rising sales champion.

It was eight in the evening, and she was about to meet that newcomer. Ilyin believed the boy would never be able to resist the lure of Beyonder powers, just as she hadn't back then.

"Still, he actually managed to resist my charms to some extent." Recalling Lorne's behavior, her smile grew brighter.

"He has some real talent. Advancing should be easy for him."

"Looks like we'll have another sister soon. I can't wait to see his face the moment he becomes a Witch. It's bound to be entertaining..."

Mentally working out a suitable new name for the newcomer, Ilyin arrived at the alley where they had agreed to meet.

To her surprise, the alley was empty.

"Am I early?" Ilyin took out an exquisite ladies' pocket watch and checked it.

"No, this is the right time."

"Could he have gotten so excited about his new Beyonder powers that he lost track of time?"

"He's a newcomer, after all, and a future sister. It's understandable." Ilyin paced back and forth in the alley, talking to herself.

Another half hour passed, but no one came.

A dark expression gradually settled over Ilyin's delicate face.

"Haha." Had anyone been there, they would have seen that Ilyin's smile didn't reach her eyes. Her anger was written all over her face.

Fine, fine, fine. So that's how you want to play.

Playing dirty with me.

"Hmph." She took a strand of hair from her pocket and smiled again.

Earlier, when she had approached Lorne and pressed the Potion into his hands, she had secretly taken one of his hairs.

Though she didn't believe she could have misjudged him, she had allowed for the possibility that he might do something unexpected.

Something like this.

"Little boy, you're far too naive. A Demoness isn't so easy to shake off." A cold smile appeared on Ilyin's face.

Her previous Sequence had been Witch, after all, and Witches excelled at black magic and curses.

"There's a steep price for standing a girl up, you know~" She extended her hand, releasing her spirituality as she prepared to cast a curse and teach that presumptuous brat a lesson for daring to take her Potion for nothing.

Just then, a sudden gust of wind swept through. Flying grit stung Ilyin's eyes, and she instinctively raised her hands to cover them. Her grip loosened, and the strand of hair floated into the air on the wind before vanishing into the night.

"What?" Ilyin was startled.

"It's fine. Even if I can't curse him, I can still use divination." Witches were also skilled at divination. Even without his hair, Ilyin believed she could easily divine his whereabouts.

After all, what ability could a novice in mysticism possibly have to counter divination?

She took a small mirror from inside her clothes and gently wiped it, then narrowed her eyes.

She began her mirror divination.

"What!"

Staring at the shattered mirror, Ilyin froze.

"The divination failed!"

Lorne forced open his eyelids, which seemed stuck together, and instinctively tried to roll over, only to discover that something furry was covering his entire face.

When something wet suddenly brushed his cheek, his nerves went taut again.

"Ah!"

"What is that?"

Lorne shot upright, standing on the bed, but saw nothing unusual.

"Meow~"

Lorne turned to see Orange Cat sitting on the rumpled pillow, the cat's squashed face still bearing signs of their recent intimate contact.

"Oh, it's you." Lorne looked down at the equally bewildered cat.

"Wait, is it already the next day?" Lorne looked at the mechanical clock in the room and was startled to discover that he had slept for over a dozen hours.

He rubbed his eyes, opened the window to let in some fresh air, and stretched while he was at it.

"Aaah~"

The scenery around here really was rather distinctive... Lorne poked his head out the window and surveyed the surroundings.

For instance, the house next door had a large red chimney that made it instantly recognizable.