Chapter 5: The Experiment of Fear

1. There were 11 of them in total.

They all had a fierce look, but none of them were armed with items or showed any signs of using magic.

They were not intimidating.

In other words, they all looked like snails.

Lucy, who was a ranker in Ragnarok, felt that way.

‘They’re probably around the same level as the thug NPCs.

In the game, if you wander around the back alleys, you’ll often encounter thugs.

The average level of the NPCs that appear then is 20, and even the bosses aren’t over level 40.

Was this place the same?

It was natural to wonder.

Lucy kept a close eye on the long-haired man who seemed to be the leader of the group.

It was to gauge his level, but he must have thought she was scared of him and snickered.

“Hey, are you sure that’s him?”

“Yes, that’s right, hyung.”

“Hmm, I can’t tell because you’re wearing a robe over your head, but are you really a noblewoman?”

“I’m sure, otherwise I wouldn’t have the gold coins, and above all.”

The man who had received the gold coins a moment ago whispered to the thug.

“For a brat, she’s pretty good.”

The thugs all smirked at his flattering whisper.

He was a noble with a face like a bully, and he was perfect prey for those who lived in the shadows.

On the other hand, Lucy was extremely unpleasant.

It was humiliating to be like this, and for him to look at her with such eyes, the title of ‘Demon King’ made her cry.

Because of that, she had decided to temporarily rule out the option of ‘ignoring and running away.’

“I’ll take this opportunity to test whether the illusion works on NPCs who have become self-conscious.”

Lucy untied her robe herself.

At the same time, her ash-colored hair fluttered in the wind, revealing her previously hidden appearance.

A girl with pure white skin and ruby eyes.

The thugs exclaimed in admiration at her appearance that surpassed their expectations.

Among them, a man who seemed to be the leader approached briskly,

and the snake tattoo on his face was particularly noticeable.

“Is it bad for a young lady to be out alone at this late hour~?”

“You talk like you’re my parents, no, if you were my parents, wouldn’t you have looked at me with such a dirty face?”

“..?”

The man was slightly flustered by the unexpected reaction, but that was only for a moment, and he snorted as if he was dumbfounded.

“Look at this, it’s a high-quality item, so I can’t hit it, and don’t fight back and just follow me.”

“What if you don’t want to?”

“What if you don’t want to, are you going to yell at me? It’s no use, so just leave it alone, this area is ours to control, and there’s no one to help you.”

He was brimming with confidence.

Of course, it was his area, and the opponent was a little girl, so she must have looked easy.

At that moment, Lucy took out a gold coin from her sleeve and threw it on the floor.

Torrr-

A question mark appeared above the man’s head as he saw the gold coins that had fallen to the ground.

“One gold coin, if you’ll just take that and leave, I’ll pretend this never happened.”

It was his last resort.

On the other hand, it was also a justification for what he was about to do.

However, the thugs, who couldn’t know this, answered with wicked laughter.

“Hahaha! What are you talking about, you brat, hey! Bring her here, she’s top quality, so don’t hurt her.”

The man turned around with a look of exhaustion and ordered his subordinate,

and soon after, two thugs approached Lucy.

Then “!?”

The two thugs were thrown away by some kind of force and rolled on the ground, flying right in front of the man’s nose.

The man’s eyes widened at what happened in the blink of an eye.

“What the..? What happened? Was it.. magic? Damn it! Charge at them all at once!”

The thugs who heard the order swallowed their saliva and rushed toward Lucy all at once.

They waited for a moment.

“Stop.”

At Lucy’s one word, everyone stopped moving.

Their bodies, frozen stiff, did not move at all as if time had stopped.

Word power.

A skill that uses the power of words to bind or control the movements of the opponent.

The thugs who were bound by that power couldn’t even open their mouths;

they just showed their fear with their eyes that were trembling like crazy.

Lucy, who had been observing them closely, soon walked leisurely towards the leader.

“Ugh..!! Ugh..!!”

The man, who was suffering as if he had been gagged, would have been able to resist a little if he was only level 40,

but he was much weaker than she thought.

‘Even if I hit him well, he’s probably level 20. It was easy to gauge his strength.’

The problem was how strong he was in this world.

“You can talk.”

“Phew!! Gasp.. gasp..”

When she opened her tightly shut mouth, the man took a sharp breath, his pale face showing no sign of the confidence he had before.

“S.. Please spare me! It was our fault!”

He must have grasped the situation quickly, as he began begging for his life as soon as he opened his mouth.

“Answer me when I ask you. You clearly said a little while ago that you were dominating this area, right?”

“It’s not me.. The organization I’m in..”

“Don’t trail off.”

“…The organization I belong to, called ‘Black Death’, is dominating.”

“Are you one of the strong ones there?”

“Yes.. Even though you’re a low-ranking official..”

If it was an organization active in the capital, it would have to be huge in scale,

and in such a place, someone who was one of the strong ones couldn’t stand up to something as simple as words.

‘It’s not as great as I thought.’

While thinking that, the man shouted with a frightened look on his face.

“I answered, so please spare me!”

“Who killed you?”

“G.. Thank you!”

That joy was short-lived.

Lucy added with a devilish expression.

“Single.”

“Single?”

“You’ll have to pay the price for kicking away the grace period I gave you, right?”

In fact, that was just an excuse, and in reality, she needed to check how illusions were applied to NPCs.

Memory manipulation, sense manipulation, brainwashing, hypnosis resistance, and dozens of other things to test.

“Uh.. Hey.. Wait a minute!”

“Magic Skill. Trauma.”

The surrounding space distorted as she chanted.

Soon, the thing that men fear the most appeared as an illusion and began to devour him.

Kik-!!

“Go away!!”

2. Inside the Satanic Castle.

Lucy, who had safely completed her experiment, was able to return to the imperial palace with a relieved heart.

Not a bad result.

Thanks to this, she was able to expand her knowledge of the geography and circumstances of this world,

and she also realized that her illusion skills were effective here.

It was a shame that the thugs lost their minds because of that, but what can you do?

It was all her own fault.

“But where was my room..”

The imperial hallway.

Because the internal structure was so wide and complex, it wasn’t easy to find her way back to her room.

She could have just gotten through the window from the outside,

but since she had forgotten where her room was, that wasn’t possible.

Lucy eventually entered the first floor and looked for her way.

After a few minutes, she began to hear sounds from around the corner.

‘Who is it at this hour? A guard on patrol?’

Clink-Clink-

Judging from the sound of her shoes, she wasn’t a guard.

The curved shadow that began to appear faintly was that of a woman.

“Gulp.”

For some reason, the situation was tense.

Soon, a woman with beautiful hair like obsidian appeared from around the corner.

A gorgeous jet-black dress, jewel-like purple eyes, and a luxurious updo.

Could she feel the nobility in person?

Lucy was inwardly admiring her, thinking, ‘If I had seen her as a man, I would have lost my mind.’

Meanwhile, she stopped walking in front of Lucy and immediately knelt down to pay her respects.

“Nice to meet you, Lucy Deviluke.”

“… Who?”

“I’m late in greeting you. I am Arasia, one of the Seven Great Demons.

While Satan is away, I have been entrusted with the management of the imperial family.”

The woman who introduced herself as ‘Arasia’ looked up at Lucy and smiled brightly.

Her gentle appearance, which showed no trace of hostility, seemed to have let down her guard.

“I’ll take care of you, then.”

“But, if it’s presumptuous of me to ask…”

“Huh?”

“Where have you been at this hour?”

…….Oh my.

Come to think of it, she had been out without permission.

“Uh.. I couldn’t sleep, so I was taking a walk around the palace.”

“Walking…”

Arasia thought deeply about something after hearing the answer, then immediately clapped her hands as if she understood.

“Ah! You can’t sleep because you come to an unfamiliar place?”

“Yeah.. that’s right.”

At that moment, as if she had been waiting for that answer, Arasia suddenly got up and took a step closer to Lucy.

“Then I’ll read you a storybook until you fall asleep.”

“T.. a storybook? I’ll decline.”

Lucy took a step back at the excessive kindness.

But Arasia didn’t care and grabbed Lucy’s hands tightly.

“No need to decline, it is my duty to help you adapt well to this place,

and moreover, I am Satan’s future companion, you can think of me as a mother whenever you need to….”

She suddenly became faster in her speech.

At the same time, a kind of madness was felt from her unfocused purple eyes.

This woman is a little scary..

Feeling awkward, Lucy quickly pulled her hand away and left the place.

“Go… I suddenly feel sleepy, so I’ll go to bed quickly..”

Lucy ran away.

On the other hand, Arasia caressed her cheek and made a regretful expression.

“…It was a good opportunity to become close to Satan’s daughter, what a pity.”