429 They Whisper In Your Ear



He actually did have one… And it clearly has more energy than the one from before as well, which I guess it's because of the fact that this one had a higher Magic stat than the other one.

I hefted both of the Demonic Cores in my hands, testing their weight and finding that the new one was just a little bit smaller than the old one.

It was still quite large considering I had to carve out a giant hole in his chest to take it out from where his heart should have been. I did note that despite being smaller, it felt a little heavier than the other one.

The next thing I noted was that Lisa was staring at me like I was handling a pair of bombs or something.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

She pointed at the Demonic Cores, "Those… Do you not feel it?"

"Feel what?" I asked, giving those two balls a few squeezes but finding nothing weird with them.

"They… They're whispering… I think? Just by being here it sounds like there's whispering coming from them…"

I cocked my head slightly before leaning forward to press my ear against one of the Demonic Cores. Hearing nothing, I tried again with the other one but that just returned the same results.

"I don't hear anything? What are they whispering?"

"Umm… I know that this might sound like I'm making this up… Considering how I'm usually like… But I have to ask Aster to trust me for this?"

It's a little weird to see Lisa looking so serious but I nodded to show that I would.

She took a moment to take a deep breath, "They're… They're telling me to push you down and fuck you until the both of us pass out…"

Ok, if she didn't say that warning before I would have thought she was just trying to get under my dress again.

I tilted my head at her, "Are you going to do that?"

"I… I would say no… Not unless you want me to… But… The voices seem very… Convincing…"

I tucked the Demonic Cores back into my Pack of Folding, "What about now?"

She breathed out, "That's… Better. Thank you, Aster."

I looked at my Pack, "Don't tell me these things have some kind of passive mind control thing going on around them?"

"I don't know… But it felt really yucky…"

"Does no one know about it? I thought that these things would at least be known somewhat?" I asked.

Lisa giggled, returning back to her normal cheerful self, "Ehehe~ Oh Aster~ Have you noticed? Demons are in critically short supply around here so it's not like anyone can just go out and grab a Demonic Core to study whenever they want~ And even if there happens to be one, you can be sure the wealthy collectors will be the first to nab it up~"

Now it was my turn to stare at her with a shocked look.

"Wait… No way… Don't tell me this is how those cults started? Some stupid noble got his hands on one and the thing then started mind controlling him to do their bidding?"

Lisa tilted her head at me, "But for me they're just asking to let myself loose… Oh… I… I think I know what they do… They encourage you to do your deepest desires… And if one of those nobles was wishing for more power or… Or to overthrow the Royal Family…"

"The Demonic Cores would guide them towards trying to achieve it," I finished for her, before 

I caught myself. "Wait… Your deepest desire is to push me down and fuck me?"

Lisa actually blushed. Like really, really blushed. Even though she's still currently in her Mahun form which was supposed to be an illusion.

"I… I… Ermm… I can't help it, ok? I'm fine with not doing it but… When you… You're so sexy… Unnghh… Especially when I got to feel your ass squeezing on me today… I just want to… Ahhhh!! Please just forget about it!"

Hmm… Well… Sorry Lisa but as much as I love you, it's still a no from me right now.

Thankfully, the awkward atmosphere was dispelled when Katsuki returned at that moment.

"Mistress, I have relayed the message to the parties involved, but I fear that they would be too late to respond to the situation. As we speak, a few of the nobles that were ambushed have already been taken away."

I frowned, "Taken? Not killed?"

"That is correct Mistress. I believe the demon from earlier was also not planning to kill you, at least not here."

"Where are they taking them?"

"I unfortunately do not know, Mistress. They are escaping using some kind of teleportation spell using a fire portal of sorts that I have never seen before. I suspect that that was also how they appeared to ambush their targets. I also believe that there are people helping the demons with their ambush from how each of these attacks were conducted in places coincidentally empty at this time."

With our earlier hypothesis about the Demonic Cores having manipulated some people, that was also very likely.

"Katsuki? Could I ask if you remember hearing any voices coming from the Demonic Core that we first got?" I asked.

"What is Mistress talking about?" Katsuki asked back, just a little too quickly for me to think that it was normal.

Which meant she most definitely heard something coming from the Core that day… But either ignored it or the thing didn't affect her at all.

I'm quite curious though… What exactly did she hear?

I looked at my Inugami maid seriously, "Katsuki… What do you hear when I bring this out?"

I pulled out one of the Demonic Cores again and I could see Lisa shiver the moment it was brought out.

Katsuki's eyes darted down to look at the orb in my hands and I think I saw a little bit of disdain in her eyes like she was looking at trash.

"Mistress. You do not need to listen to the nonsense that this thing is spouting."

So she really can hear something from it.

"No, no… Katsuki. I can't hear anything from it and I think the contents of what it whispers to you differ person to person. Right now I only have Lisa who told me what she heard so I want to see if you're hearing the same things or something else."

Well… It's a half lie to be honest… I really just want to hear what Katsuki's deepest desire is, unless this thing really just tells everyone to push down the nearest person and start fucking them.

Katsuki hesitated, "Is that… Mistress's order?"

"Erm… If that would make you feel less reserved about saying it… Yes."

"It's… It's telling me to ask Mistress to… To… To pat my head…"

…

Awwwwww~ You should have said so earlier!!

I pulled Katsuki in and started giving her all the headpats that she could want~ She's so cute~ Ahhhhh~ Even her hair is so fluffy and nice to stroke~

Pat~ Pat~ Pat~

"Waahh… Not fairrrr! Aster, pat me tooooo!" Lisa cried, snuggling herself up to me.

Of course, I had to pat my Infrid lover too who practically preened when I did so.

"Mnn… Mis… Mistress… I have to remind you… The city is still under attack… By demons…" Katsuki spoke up, barely holding in her moans.

Oh right…

I retracted my hand and both of them looked almost disappointed that I had stopped petting them, though Katsuki hid her disappointment better than Lisa.

"So… I guess we can now confirm what the Demonic Core does to others… Though I wonder why it doesn't affect me?" I mused.

"It might be because you are immune to external influences, Mistress," Katsuki suggested.

I guess she must be referring to my Unique Skill but that needs to be activated to have an effect. And since I do not have it activated now, I don't think that's the reason… Unless there's some other passive effect of the skill that I don't know about.

Or maybe it's because I learned Infernalmancy? But I don't remember hearing any voices when I was interacting with the Demonic Core back then either…

Ok, granted… The first thing I did with the orb back then was just straight up try to absorb its mana so I don't even recall if I heard anything like whispering or whatever… Maybe that action was guided by the Demonic Core in the first place?

Oh well, not that it matters anyway… The main thing right now is that we apparently did not stop a demon invasion from happening despite saving the princess anyway…

So what do we--

"Heeeelp!!"

"Please help us!!"

A pair of voices came down the road and I recognised the two to be Mary and Ashley, the two girls that Lisa and I acquainted ourselves with during the earlier party.

Chasing behind them in the sky were two demons, both of them looking quite similar to the one that I had defeated not too long ago.

Great… As if having one of them was not bad enough…