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“I don’t know. It’s all because of you and your damn book. I’m doomed–”
Ravi’s sad elegy began. It was always the same each time she was rejected like today. Being rejected that much was an unfamiliar experience for her.
“Why is that my fault?”
Seyr stared at her with a raised eyebrow. It was an unscrupulous look.
“You touched that book to steal my money.”
He used to think that succubi should be devilish, but there were times when he felt that even demons should have a minimum conscience. Now was one of those times.
“You were punished for robbing an empty house.”
Ahk! Ah… haha… Ravi stopped crying as he deliberately pulled out the correct words and stabbed the core of the subject. The tears that flowed down seemed to want to run uphill. She realized who was responsible for the remaining 1%. But moments later, she brazenly shuddered and rolled her eyes. She did. She believed she had an unavoidable circumstance that any demon could sympathize with, and therefore she was not at fault.
“The hunter was chasing me, what should I have done?”
Ravi, a small and precious succubus, only needed money to escape. What kind of crazy bastard burns everything in his path just to catch her? What else could she do? She tried to borrow it for a while, and intended to pay it back someday when she ran into him. However, the burglary, which was easier than she had thought, ended in tragedy; and when she met the only person who could save her from the book, she gave up her last hope.
“If I had known I would end up trapped inside the book, I would have never touched it.”
Somehow, the owner of the house, Seyr, was also imprisoned here. Although it was less boring than being trapped alone, that was cold comfort. Ravi was becoming emaciated because she couldn’t consume vital energy on a daily basis and wanted to leave this place before she died of starvation.
“When the hell are we going to get out of here?”
So today, she nagged Seyr. Ever since accepting the fact that she was completely trapped in here, it was her daily quest to show up every day and whine about her escape. It was because she believed that if she pestered him enough, that arrogant demon would find a way out, even if it was too annoying.
“We can only leave after finding the writer.”
Nevertheless, every time she demanded a solution, Seyr just gave the same answer.
‘You damn asshole, you’re not even a parrot!’
“So when are you going to find the writer?”
And then Ravi would be frustrated again. He said that they can only leave by finding the writer, but all he does is stay in the corner of his room and smoke cigarettes.
“So frustrating~”
Seyr muttered in a slightly annoyed voice and, biting the cigarette between his lips, said while opening the window with a loud bang.
“Among all these humans, do you know who you are looking for?”
Through the wide-open window, countless characters went about their business. Overwhelmed, Ravi and Seyr watched them as if their number was increasing day by day. Finding the writer among all those people was like finding a pearl buried in the sand.
“Go and hand out flyers.”
Yet, that didn’t mean you couldn’t find the pearl.
Ravi urged Seyr to do something without making excuses. If he were really desperate, he would jump into a fire pit, even if it was for a grain of sand.
“So annoying.”
Seyr finally revealed his true colors. After a long yawn, he closed the window as if he didn’t want to see outside anymore. Staring at him earnestly, Ravi’s expression quickly turned rough.
“You’re living and eating well, aren’t you?”
Inevitably, aggressive sarcasm erupted. The difference between them was so great and harsh that they couldn’t escape that place unless they joined forces. And only if they faced desperate situations equally, they could leave that place. After all, weren’t demons like that? Like a chronic disease, the habit of idling lazily if they felt full and comfortable had worsened here.
Unlike Ravi, who was rejected every time even if she did her best, Seyr could crawl into bed with just a flick of his finger, no matter if it was with a man or woman. The novel was similar to the outside world, only the place name and country were different. No, it was even better. There were no demons, no hunters, no wars, no weapons. Therefore, from Seyr’s point of view, even if this was a BL novel, it was beneficial.
‘Such a filthy lucky bastard.’
There was no way to hide her growing envy even though he grunted that she was annoying. Ravi’s melancholy gaze turned to the messy and crushed bed. The faint yin energy * that remained above it still shimmered like a haze. The smell of ripe food, difficult to acquire with her own strength, made Ravi swallow hard enough to feel warm saliva going down her throat.
‘Oh, I want to eat too…’
“I really thought I could do it this time.” She muttered bitterly, not taking her eyes off the bed. No exaggeration, this time she had worked really hard. The evidence was that Ravi’s opponent didn’t two-time until 444.
‘Right. At least he hesitated a bit after receiving the confession, so next time…!’ She tried to ignite a spark of hope that she might succeed next time.
“It will be futile. The kids here don’t like you.” Seyr’s cold words were like a bucket of ice for her.
Shaaah Ravi’s embers were doused by that jerk’s cold-hearted words. The laughter that flowed a bit later was a sneer at her helpless struggles. Ravi wanted to squeeze Seyr’s snout, as he only said unlucky things.
“I threw away all my pride and even dressed as a man, what more can I do?”
Ravi didn’t know what else to do and pounded her chest resentfully. She felt the tight bandage wrapped under her clothes. It had already been over half a year since she started dressing as a man with the sole intention of surviving in this impoverished world where she had to be a man to even try something similar to intercourse. What a waste. Something incredible was hidden under those bandages, and no one could tell. Ravi felt truly sorry for her beauty rotting inside this dirty world. Holding her head, she muttered hopelessly.
“My attractiveness doesn’t work.”
“I don’t think you’re attractive enough to go against their inclinations,” Seyr spat with a smile after hearing her gloomy lament, “It’s like anyone can instinctively tell that you’re a woman.”
Nevertheless, that was the reason why there was no good harvest. No matter how much she pretended to be a man, the people in the book’s world didn’t pay any attention to Ravi, as if all of them were licensed male genital detectors.
“Why is there such an extreme view in this world-”
She hated to admit it, but just as Seyr said, she was surrounded by a tight wall enclosing her on all sides. Seyr looked at the suffering round bent head and spoke in a voice that showed no sympathy for her pain at all.
“Just eat my energy, I told you already.”
Ravi’s face distorted in an instant. She couldn’t hide her disgusted expression full of written interrogation marks that asked why she would rely on the one being who was the same as her. Eating devil’s energy. If she ate such a venomous thing every day, it was certain that all her organs would melt or her brain would go crazy.
“Fuck off. Please.”
When she refused him so honestly, Seyr didn’t respond. He had reminded her just in case she might come and hold onto him later. It was rather common for her to reject Seyr’s energy vehemently, but eventually, unable to sate her hunger, Ravi would ask him to share only once. Still, she had her devil’s pride. She couldn’t live obligated to Seyr forever.
Once again, to avoid the offered crotch of his pants, she had to go out in search of new food.
“Anyway, just don’t intercept my food from now on.”
‘Let’s go hunting.’ Having vomited all her anger until satisfied, Ravi got up from her seat. They both knew it was a warning lighter than a bat’s wing, but no one dared to say it out loud. Seyr was curious, as Ravi had placated her anger much earlier than usual.
“Where are you going? To find something to pick and eat again?”
Speaking frankly, Ravi’s only meal was to absorb any remaining energy left throughout the streets every night. To express that lofty act as just scavenging. This time, upset by such accurately sarcastic remarks, Ravi shouted as if wanting to burst her vocal cords.
“It’s a walk!”
It was true that she was going out to collect some energy, but it was a lie in case she failed.
“Be careful. Tonight is a starry night.”
Seyr warned Ravi’s back as she left the room.
It was an old myth passed down among demons. It was said that stars were the heavens’ eyes, so it meant not to go out when a lot of them were scattered in the night sky. ‘Although no one believes it because it is an old saying, both heaven and whatever.’
“There’s no such thing in fiction.”
Ravi turned around primly and mumbled, “You’re like an old geezer.” Even though he knew that she was referring to him, Seyr pretended to not hear. Whether he heard her or not. Ravi, snorted loudly and banged the door.
Thomp, thomp, thomp The sound of angry footsteps faded away, just as when she arrived. Seyr, left alone, rubbed off the leftover cigarette with a bored face. A twilight sky spread out from the unintentionally tilted gaze. Darkness had not yet fallen completely, but the stars that were already shining were unusual. Facing that ominous light, Seyr muttered something he couldn’t bear to say to Ravi.
“You will regret it.”
A night where many stars rise. Time for the heavens’ eyes to monitor demonic movements everywhere.
It was the perfect night for devils to face bad luck.
* * *
Where is the most efficient place to gather vital energy? Oh, well~ She was confident that even if someone asked a hundred times, she would give the same answer each time.
If you want fresh food, raise your nose to the air and follow the alcohol.
Following her own theory, Ravi followed the smell of alcohol and observed young people wasting their time in the corner of a bar near the academy.
All humans are equal before alcohol.
Decent people, quiet people, and even friendly people, all showed their true nature once they got drunk. And yet, whatever hidden truth they carried had nothing to do with Ravi.
Her interest was in the extent to which a person could be honest.
“Is it because it’s a new semester? There’s a lot of fresh energy today.”
A new semester with an excellent number of new characters. Perhaps that was why the energy filling the bar fluttered like never before.
The only good thing about this novel’s world was that everyone was honest about their greed for skin and lust, probably because it was a collection of hot-blooded, impure men. Each character was writing their own story and were busy acting out their own scenes in the novel, regardless of who watched from the side. In other words, no matter who was looking, they were focused on biting, sucking each other, and putting their hands into each other’s pants. Well, Ravi, who would only receive any excess energy, was thankful.
Her job was to sit blankly and eat the lust and energy spilled by human couples… No, it was all about preying.
‘Quickly. Get up quickly.’
There was nothing special about a succubus’ predatory behavior. Some books claimed it hides in people’s dreams and steals human vital energy, but such a tremendous ability was only found in fantasy novels. In reality, all they did was ‘enchant’ their prey using mana to seize human souls and then drain the vital energy. However, in the instance of an inability to attract humans as now, the energy was absorbed indirectly, and that method was more inefficient than using mana.
Just as Ravi did now, the method was to sit in a place where the energy was at its best.
“Cha Ji-soo, are you sleeping?”
“Ugh…”
“You’re really drunk. Let’s go to my house.”
Like that, she just had to approach a couple before they dived into bed.
“Ah…!”
As soon as their shoulders touched, she had to devour the energy twirling off.
“I’m sorry. I’m a little drunk…”
Ravi deliberately bumped into the couple who was just about to leave the bar, staggered and apologized as if she was drunk. The moment their bodies touched, the energy flowing through the shoulders permeated into her hungry stomach.
‘It’s been a while since I ate something good.’
Ravi discreetly licked her lips and glanced at the face of a boy carried like a Princess.
‘I envy you so much! You think it’s okay for you to eat alone?’
“It’s fine.”
At that moment, the man carrying the boy in his arms spoke coldly. Wrongly interpreting Ravi’s gaze, he hugged the boy tightly as if protecting his goods. The steamy energy emanating from the man’s body grew stronger.
Wow, This is really a big catch.
Ravi hid her emotions and gulped regretfully at the loss of a nice catch. She bit her lower lip sourly. If it wasn’t for the novel, she could have spent a delicious night with that couple.
“Have a good time.”
If she pushed any further, she would get hit, so she stepped backward and blessed the steamy night of lust and flesh. As soon as Ravi moved aside, the man left the bar without looking back.
Perhaps that boy would have a hard time under that man tonight. The golden rule for a man with such strong and thick energy was to fornicate all night long, even if their partners cried asking them to stop.
“…I want to have a hard time too!”
Ravi returned to her seat and buried her face on the table. The energy that had climbed over that shoulder quickly dried up and disappeared like a single drop of rain falling on drought-stricken ground.
Life. Dirty and bitter…
Still, she had to be diligent to gather a huge amount of energy. As she sat down, she busily observed whether any more couples could offer her their carnal energy.
“…?”
Feeling a ticklish sensation brush her face, she suddenly looked around. There, among the focused humans gathered in twos or threes in a lustful war without end, Ravi made eye contact with a man sitting alone.
——
* Yin Energy: It refers to feminine energy. Succubus is a demon that feeds on men’s vital energy and lust. They enter a man’s dreams and possess their bodies to suck up all their life by representing their most inner desires and sexual fantasies. Succubi only attack men (that’s what mythology says) and Incubi are the demons who attack women.