I felt the muscles of Terion tense at my whisper.

However, after a moment, he unexpectedly acted boldly.

He approached me closely, turning his head slightly.

‘Oh no. I told him to pretend to kiss, I never allowed him to actually kiss.’

A somewhat cool sensation touched my lips.

It was completely different from Merem’s lips, warm and hot like sun-heated grains of sand. If I were to compare, this side felt like a desert dominated by the moon after the sun had set.

Something that had once warmed up, now chilling to the point where I wondered when the heat had disappeared, brushed coldly against my lips.

“……. ”

Leaving Terion to kiss me, I focused my attention on the aura behind and slightly above me.

I couldn’t grasp every detail like I used to, not even a crawling ant, but by concentrating on gathering my magic, I could undoubtedly sense the flow of the surroundings.

The subtle sound of hydraulic devices moving. The airwaves created by a single venomous stinger cutting through the wind.

And… even the breathing that, as a human, I had to inhale and exhale at least once.

‘Here it comes!’

If I were a devil, such things as this would be nothing but insects, but now, it felt unjust to have to concentrate so much. However, there was no time to lament.

Having separated my lips from Terion, I forcefully pushed him back and quickly stepped back.

“Oops!”

Terion, taken by surprise and unable to react, gasped. In that moment when the sunlight glimmered, I saw a silver thread.

Passing by my clothes and firmly embedded in the dirt floor, it was undoubtedly a venomous stinger.

‘Caught you. I knew you would show up if I brought Terion out.’

This was, in a way, a fight where the one who strikes first wins.

Now that the vulnerability of assassination had been revealed, the advantage had already been halved.

Even in such a situation, they had to complete their objective at all costs.

Even if they lured me into an obviously trapped area, they had no choice but to appear.

Because erasing me meant securing a good deal for themselves.

‘Most importantly, with Terion by my side, I can easily pass the blame onto him.’

Given that Sukrel was from the Muhi lineage, distinguishing between dirty and clean instruments was my trump card.

Merem was a foreigner, Terion was a noble, and I was a demon, so, oddly enough, no one had ever seen a common instrument in this country.

So, even when I saw a flute right in front of me, I missed it.

“Yo-Your Majesty?”

“Just a moment. Stay still.”

The venomous stinger stuck in the dirt did not corrode.

It seemed to be made to react to human body temperature.

As thin as a single strand of hair, it would be even less noticeable at night.

“Kuuaah!!!”

That was the moment.

A short scream echoed from the top of the high tower.

‘An assassin trained to endure pain so much that they make no sound in any situation…’
Merem did something, and regardless of what it was, the assassin emitted agonizing sounds.

In my ears, it was a very short scream.

“Thanks to you, I feel really disgusted seeing such a sight.”

At the same moment, on top of the tower.

Merem, who had escaped from the spirit king’s extradimensional space, grabbed Gabriel’s wrist and twisted it backward.

Even though the joints were completely turned in the opposite direction, Gabriel’s expression remained indifferent, as if feeling no pain.

It was a stark contrast to his usual trembling and stuttering.

Merem noticed that as soon as the assassin failed, he bit down on the venomous fang embedded in his teeth without a moment’s hesitation, attempting suicide.

Wasn’t he an assassin who had experienced this since the age of five?

Merem already had their behavior patterns all figured out.

“Kuuaah!!!”

Coldly solidifying his face, Merem ruthlessly grabbed the guy’s lower jaw, devoid of any mercy.

This time, an unprecedented kind of pain seemed to produce the desired reaction.

Merem knew better than anyone how to torture the top-notch assassins into revealing everything eventually.

It wasn’t something he learned willingly.

It was something he learned desperately to survive.

“Leo dislikes those who need to be helped due to their weaknesses.”

With the guy’s jaw dropping in an instant, Merem crushed his ankle while murmuring dispassionately.

“There’s a liking for those with weaknesses who absolutely need help.”

With a thud.

Pressing down heavily, the bone joints split apart.

Gabriel, with his ankle practically severed, could only tremble, unable to scream or even whimper.

Merem looked down at such a guy with dry eyes and chuckled.

“But now, because of you, it seems I’ve been caught doing things I never thought I would.”

For the first time, a sense of fear crossed Gabriel’s eyes.

They were usually unfazed before any torture.

Not human but a weapon.

A tool for authority.

They were used to being treated as disposable objects.

However, they had never been treated like insects playing with each joint like this.