"Do your worst, demon of lust!"

"..."

I was going to chat with the cat first, but this masked adventurer demands all the attention. His mask is pure white and featureless, while his clothing consists of loose dark robes. That faceless, formless appearance of his that brings to mind some kind of oriental spirit makes his behavior seem exaggeratedly vulgar by contrast.

"Try me! Whether it's exquisite pain and pleasure, I shall not falter!"

I get the feeling those two are synonyms for him... I again must question why I'm a lust demon of all things? I feel I'm rather a complete opposite of that, really. Well, except for certain very exclusive conditions, but let's not talk about that now...

I try to ignore him and concentrate on the cat anyway.

"HISSSSSS!"

The cat adventurer hisses at me furiously. He really doesn't like me. Which is fine, since I want to find out why animals hate me.

"How does a cat become an adventurer anyway?"

"Don't washte your time, demon! No meowtter what you do, I'm not anshwering any queshtionsh."

He must have resisted whatever the mages tried. Its resolve would be more impressive without the lisp and meows though.

"Leave Mr. Whiskers be, I'm your opponent!"

"Mr. Whiskers? Seriously?"

Wait, it was a he? I check it. Yep, a tomcat.

"Shtop touching meow!"

"I knew succubi were depraved, but that a cat is fine too...!?"

Oh come on, I didn't plan to do any weird things with a cat! But I don't really need the peanut gallery interrupting this all the time, it's awkward enough all by itself. I push a piece of cloth I found lying on the floor into his mouth and gag him. Was that a dirty sock? Well, as long as it puts a sock in it.

Now I can, maybe, start the actual interrogation.

"We can do this the easy way, or the slightly harder but still quite effortless way."

"..."

The cat gives best approximation of stubborn scowl with its cat's face and then refuses to say anything.

How to get it to open up? Hmmm... I can't say that I remember any prior occasion where I'd have had to make a cat talk. This is Terra Incognito of weirdness for me.

The obvious one, torture, is out - I'm not quite ready to cross that line. Intimidation failed earlier and I don't think I can salvage that anymore. So... I need to fool or distract him to make him slip up something. It's a shame there are no laser pointers, that'd do the job... Ah, I know! I'll treat him like a kitty cat... completely excessively!

I take a string of cloth and start fiddling it in front of the cat, back and forth.

"Here here~!"

Hah. His cat's instincts won't let him ignore it, even if he wanted to. The cat's head twitches as he tries not to follow the string. I continue for a while, but the cat resists. Hmph. I need to up my game, clearly.

The next step, I pinch his foot and tickle it.

"Who's got a tiddly widdly feet~?"

The cat's scowl deepens. He looks really disgusted now, but still refuses to speak.

"Tch. Don't force me to do this..."

"Do your worsht!"

"You asked for it."

PRIDE HERALDETH THE WARRIOR'S FALL.

"Oozooo boo boo doo doo."

"Meow?!!"

"Oozooo boo. Oozooo boo boo doo doo!"

"Shtop thish traveshty!!!"

Thanks Ace Ventura. The proud warrior cat is just about ready.

"Do remember that demons require no food nor sleep. I can do this all day. EVERY DAY. Oozooo boo--"

"FINE! Jusht stop!! ...Ashk whateverrr you want, you absholute monshter."

And now we shall proceed with the famous Ais special interrogation method... namely asking inane questions until anyone would get crazy.

"Why animals hate me?"

"Eh? ...Meowby becaushe you're a meowrderoush fiend?"

"Do you add a 'meow' on some words on purpose, or is it involuntary?"

"What ish the point of that queshthion?!"

Still defiant. That's to be expected.

"Why animals hate me?"

"I don't know!"

"Why are you a cat?"

"Sherioshly, just shtop with the shtupid queshtionsh."

"Isn't trying to kill someone for being what they are evil?"

"That'sh shomething coming from a demon and a dark mage'sh pet at that."

"Does it coming from me make it less true?"

"Yourrr mind gamesh won't work on meow."

"Why are you a cat?"

"I jusht am! How many timesh you'll ashk that?!"

"Are you someone's pet?"

"I'm not! I'm a free shentient!"

Tsk tsk, it's actually 'sapient'. Oh, and his pride is starting to get better of him again.

"Who's a good kitty?"

"By the moonsh, shtop shaying that inane thing alrrready."

"Do you have a little litter box when you stay in inns?"

"No, I don't have a litter boxh!"

Wait, what was it I needed to know? Ah, yes...

"How did you find here?"

"The asshembly'sh magesh divi-- We jusht happened to come here on unrelated quest."

Gotcha! He messed up and let two keywords slip. Assembly is presumably the city's government, while 'divi' must be 'divination'.

There are ways to detect magic, that process is commonly known as divination. And large scale dark magic ritual like the one this mage triumvirate is cooking up would definitely blink in any radar. But I'll keep on interrogating to get more info.

"What made the assembly specifically divine this location?"

"There wash no divinathion!"

He still tries to pretend he didn't mess up, huh.

"Are you the mascot of your group?"

"Wha-- Don't look down on meow!"

"Why are you a cat?"

"Why ish anyone anything?!"

"Why animals hate me?"

"You shmeowll unnatural, that'sh why."

I see. Well, I guess being from hell does that.

"IF there was no divination, then why'd the assembly send you here?"

"Thish wash a... routine rat exterminathion."

Pfft. Are you going to claim there are giant rats in sewers next? This isn't an RPG tutorial level!

"Why are you a lying cat?"

"I JUSHT AM! ...Agh! I'm not lying anything!"

"Do you lick your own balls?"

"........ Yesh."

"Thank you for your cooperation. I have finished extracting all the important information now."

"Jusht how wash that lasht one important!?"

Hmmmh. As for the results, I didn't get more than what he let slip up that one time. But the rest is pretty easy to deduce in any case.

If I recall correctly, this city, the Etmi Freeport, is led by several rival noble houses who barely function together. According to the cat the mages serving the local ruling assembly picked up the magic from the ritual. These mages probably aren't match for, say, the empire's, and while they could triangulate the rough location of the magic detected, they didn't find out more about it. Something vague like that wouldn't be enough to alarm the nobles, so they only bothered to employ these idiot adventurers to check it out. Of course, had they known what exactly is going on here, they'd surely have come in force to stop it by now.

That's my best guess anyway. But I'm pretty confident it matches the truth and will satisfy the mages. The sense of defeat from the two adventurers gives further affirmation.

"I'm shorry. That irate shuccubush got meow there..."

"Mmmhmmhhmm! Mmmhphhh!"

Hearing him mumble is annoying, so I remove the gag. I've won, so I can be magnanimous.

"It isn't a shame, Whiskers. They'd sooner or later got it anyway. I only wish I could have shielded you from it..."

"Thanksh..."

Oh shut it. That perv just wanted to be interrogated by a succubus. I regag him immediately.

There's still the question whether they have comrades in the city, and if so, how many and where. I think I should continue with either of the other two prisoners. ...I don't want to touch the masked guy though, he has been making weird noises ever since I put the gag back on him. Which leaves me with the... elf woman.

I take a closer look. She has long brown hair and wears dark green robes leaving majority of her legs that would be called 'sorceress robes' in any RPG. Currently it's also artfully teared to maximize titillation. And during this whole time she has been hanging limp... Is she even alive?

I poke the elf with my finger. She twitches.

"Ngggh..."

She looks rises to look at my face, and the dazed face instantly lightens up.

"Mistress Ais!? I have searched you everywhere!"

"... Who the hell are you?"

"(Ohh, neglect play!) ...It's me! Silvana! You know, 'the bunny elf'?"

That name doesn't say anything to me. But seriously, 'bunny elf'? Who describes herself as that? ... Shit. It's her.

I dodge away from her so fast it was practically teleporting.

"Mistress!?"

She looks like she's about to cry at my reaction, but don't let that fool you.

A short recap is she's an elf whom I made jump around like a rabbit, then subsequently charmed. The charm worked bit too well and her fanatical love made me so uncomfortable I commanded her to forget all about me. Then I met her again and she had shaken off the effect and was tad bit overtly excited to meet me... no, let's call it as it was... she was a foaming at mouth incarnate of unleashed lust. I mind wiped her even more thoroughly before she managed to rape me. After that I seemed to have mercifully got rid of her for good. Until now...

What are the chances of her finding me here?! That's bit worrying. I keep my distance in case she breaks the chains with pure willpower or shows other superhum-- superelven feats. You can never know with these yandere-types!

"Please say something, mistress!"

However... while there's a noticeable glassy look in her eyes as she eyes me, there's no drool or heavy breathing coming from her now. In fact, she looks at least 50% more sane than she was previously. Did the second mind wipe fix her head? Better not mention anything about that though. She might relapse.

I decide to carefully approach her...

"...Aren't you supposed to have forgotten me?"

"I'm ashamed to say I did... But then one day it all came back to me. And so I began the search for you across the lands..."

She just randomly went around looking for me? Why would... Wait, why am I trying to find rational reasons from irrational elf?

"And you joined these losers, because...?"

"I heard they were attempting to find magicians capable of summoning demons. I was hoping one could summon you so we could be reunited! And here you are, mistress!!"

The other two turn to her, shocked by her gleeful confession of ulterior motives.

"Shilvana, demons are evil. Eshpecially shuccubi are inshidioush! All you think you feel is jusht because of her glameowur."

"Mmmhhph!"

"No, you're wrong! I felt like this even before I met mistress, but when she hit me with it... I could finally express my true self!"

"Geh... To think we harbored shuch pervershe elf with ush..."

"Mmphphhh."

This should make gaining the rest of information trivial. On hindsight interrogating the cat was pointless though...

"So, what else can you--"

"...Tell you, mistress? Anything!! Like... there are four others in the group; two warriors, a mage and a houndmaster! They are staying at the Crowned Cock inn..."

What a name...

"...and the job to search for the source of magic pulses was issued by the assembly of Etmi Freeport itself"

"Traitor!"

"Mmmph!!"

Judging from their angry reaction, her information is all spot on.

"Mistress, did I do well?!"

"...It was helpful."

"Hehee."

She beams a smile, while the cat looks like he just sucked a lemon and the masked adventurer stays sullenly gagged.

Four more... Great. I probably will be the one dealing with them next. Zombies or flesh golems aren't exactly fit for quietly taking out adventurers in a city after all.

Usually your average adventurers wouldn't be a serious danger to me, but without charm, flying, and hellrime it'd be just up to my magically boosted fighting skill. And hey apparently plan to fight these mages, so they probably have countermeasures against demons as well. Frankly, I don't like those odds at all.

But, it just so happens I have this loyal elf magician sycophant, eager to please...

"Say, if I asked you to assist me with slaying your former comrades...?"

"Now or immediately, mistress?!"

Yep, I think I'll give her benefit of the doubt in this situation and let her be my minion. If she starts molesting me like that one time, I'll head-butt her unconscious though.

"Excellent. Then I'll let you rejoin me."

"Thank you mistress!"

While opening her chains, I ponder what to do with the other two. The fleshmask mage said I can do whatever I want with them, but I don't really want to do anything. But, if I leave them be, who knows what stupid things those mages will do?

"I wonder what I should do with those two..."

"Mistress Ais! You want to get rid of them?"

"Well... They'd attack my contractors if they escape, so--"

"Understood! I shall dispose of them for you!"

Too eager!

"Now just wait a minute... umm... Silvenar? Don't--"

With mad glint in her eyes she conjures a huge lightning bolt and shouts...

"MISTRESS AIS COMMANDS: DIE!"

"I didn't say--"

"Are you crazhy!? SHTOP THISH SHILVANA!"

"MMPHHHH!?!"

*CRACKA-BOOOOOM*