Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

\'Moxy too, I don\'t know how I\'ll convince her to come live with me even after the construction is done.\' Considering she and her father ran an inn together, Raven wasn\'t exactly sure how to get her to eventually stay with him as well. But for now, he had to let that thought go.

Wandering into the garden with the other girls strolling around trying to clear their heads as well, Raven took Erika under a gazebo so he could have a lone conversation with her and Asmodia.

"You\'re still worried about her?" Splitting apart from Erika like a conjoined twin, Asmodia took a chair of her own and settled down. For a spell, Arche who\'d been let out loomed overhead–her body was still in the process of growing back to her original size so she wasn\'t yet big enough to crush the mansion under her pincer-like feet.

"Arche, leave us alone for a bit, okay?" Raven requested, and although the Arachne queen seemed reluctant, she joined the rest of the monster girls in strolling the garden.

Once the Arachne queen was gone, Raven shifted his attention back to Asmodia. Just looking at her devilishly smirking, he knew that she was already aware of what he was about to say. Yet with a sigh, he continued.

"We can\'t always have someone like Liliyana looking after her, is there any way to help that idiot so she will change her mind about dying?" Raven asked while Asmodia fiddled with her mist-formed hair.

"Well, a soulless human with nothing left for her to cling onto, maybe this was her punishment for dealing with a devil. She got what she wanted at first, but then it was stripped away because of her own greed that had originally led her to make that wish in the first place," leaning forward with a manic smile, Asmodia playfully flicked Raven on the nose.

"It\'s a little trick of the trade I\'m not allowed to tell, but since I doubt you\'re making any deals with another devil, let me tell you that only the gods can make deals with devils without losing what they wished for…eventually."

Sitting back in her chair, the devil gave the mage some time to digest what she\'d just said. And once he was done thinking, Raven posed her another question.

"So no matter what, she was bound to lose the luxury that she had?" Glancing from Asmodia to Erika, Raven further built up on his line of questioning. "What about you two? Will that happen to Erika as well? Will she lose her powers?"

Glancing sideways at Erika, Asmodia smiled once again, although this time it lacked the hysteric hint behind it.

"Athenia made a deal, not Erika. I\'m supposed to help her," looking at Raven again, Asmodia pointed at his face. "And by extension you and your party as well. So no, none of you have a price to pay. I\'m just playing my part in the heavenly order–but that\'s not something you should concern yourself with."

"I would like to know more if it is about heaven," Erika obviously wasn\'t gonna let such information slip, but swiftly ignoring her, Asmodia kept her eyes fixed on Raven.

No stranger to what Asmodia just did, Erika squinted her eyes in anger with slightly puffed-up cheeks.

"But again, is there any way to get her out of that mentality?" Moving past Erika\'s untimely question as well, Raven pressed on the matter of healing Maria out of her peculiar illness.

Even Asmodia had to take a break and think for a while over their available options. The very first thing she could come up with was not to pester Maria about her past or her wrongdoings since it would only lead to more suicide attempts. But then, she stumbled on an answer while sipping on some lavender teas served to her by one of the many maids of the mansion.

"You intend to venture to hell for Linkle\'s promise, right?" She asked, and although still unsure if he was going to make good on that promise, Raven decided to nod and see where Asmodia was going to lead the conversation.

"She thinks she\'s hopeless, irredeemable or whatever all because she lacks a soul, then why don\'t we, while we\'re down there try to sneak into a devil\'s hidy hole and see if we can snatch her soul out of its pantry if it\'s still there?"

"Don\'t devils consume the souls as soon as they get their hands on it?" Although her suggestion had his interest, Raven wasn\'t willing to bet on something that could easily be dismissed.

"I mean that\'s a possibility unless we know which devil took her soul," fanning her hand carelessly to the side, Asmodia lifted three of her fingers each of which held an illusion of different levels of ferocity amongst demons. "Not all of them eat souls as they come, only the low-ranking demons that are starving do that."

Folding two of her fingers, she focused on the singular impish face atop her finger.

"Those are called imps and are often servants to greater demons. These are also the same demons that can be called through runes or as Amedith had done once, through holy magic," folding that finger next, she raised the middle one and drew it back to her face before resting it on her chin.

"Then there\'s me, a named demon–known for specific, like a notorious act that goes down in the darkest pages of history."

Discover more stories at m,v l\'e-NovelBin.net

"And how did you become a named demon?" Raven couldn\'t help but ask.

But not exactly in the mood to air her love life, Asmodia smirked at Raven before swiftly moving on to the last.

"Then come the primordials. I was on the cusp of being one long ago when I controlled all of the succubus, but unfortunately it never happened…" Intentionally letting the air hang in silence, Asmodia waited for someone to enquire further about the last kind.

"Are you gonna tell us more or–"

"Oh well since you asked nicely~" Asmodia interjected before Erika could finish her sentence.

But before anything, she enquired for another cup of lavender tea.

\'This feels like it will take a while.\' Thought Raven, and given the joy Asmodia was squeezing out of this, it sure was about to drag on for a while.