Chapter 476  

Lamart, the nightmare demon, was amazed by the sight of human hunters eating.

After the Goddess of Pleasure and Lust emerged on Earth, the nightmare demons had also become interested in humans. They feasted on the desires of one’s soul, and humans had more complex and diverse desires than any other Abyssal race, so they were naturally very appetizing.

For Lamart, who sought such desires to the point of exhaustion, the desire exhibited by these human hunters was simply amazing.

‘Is it possible to show such desire with just their appetite?’

Desires such as appetite, libido, and the one to sleep were surprisingly quite unpopular among nightmare demons. Those kinds of desires were too simplistic to have a significant quality to them, and they felt like tasteless dry bread.

Nightmare demons preferred rare desires; the grander and purer it was, the better.

...Like the desire of the household member of the Undefeated Incarnation of Training...

‘Ah... I almost lost myself again.’

Lamart’s eyes widened as she regained her focus.

Choi Yeonseung, Illaphael and Illeya were already treating Lamart as a pervert, saying things like “I’ve never seen such a beastly nightmare demon.” However, Lamart was actually one of the elite household members of the Goddess of Pleasure and Lust.

Her constellation had chosen her as an envoy for a reason. Even though she couldn’t rectify her embarrassing outburst, she had to concentrate from this point onward.

‘What are they eating?’

The appetite of those human hunters was incredible, far different from what humans usually displayed!

What had Choi Yeonseung cooked...?

“Hey, what are you eating?” Lamart asked Illaphael.

Of course, Illaphael just ignored her.

‘You annoying bastard!’

Illaphael was currently in charge of Lamart, which meant that the nightmare demon had to find a way to reason with this angel.

“Look, I’m not asking for much. If you answer my question, I’ll help you as well.”

“Ha! How can a nightmare demon help me?” Illaphael snorted.

“Nightmare demons can do a lot more things than you think. If you want to seduce someone, or...”

Lamart suddenly stopped and changed her words as though she realized she was being ridiculous. Would a noble race try to seduce someone with the help of a nightmare demon?

“...No, that wouldn’t work. I can help you uncover the scheming of other constellations or tempt them...”

“You’re too noisy. Shut up already!” Illaphael snapped.

But unbeknownst to Lamart, Illaphael had actually been tempted by her first proposal.

[The ‘Six-Winged Angel Who Hunts Dragons’ scolds Illaphael for being shaken by this nightmare demon.]

-I-I’m sorry, Master...

At that, Illaphael lowered her head in shame.

[The ‘Six-Winged Angel Who Hunts Dragons’ says that true love and trust aren’t obtained through tricks and schemes, but through sincere attitude and action.]

-I see.

Illaphael agreed with her master, but she felt that something was strange.

-But I’ve been acting sincerely and nothing has changed, right?

[The ‘Six-Winged Angel Who Hunts Dragons’ tells you to focus on your mission instead of thinking about useless things.]

-...

Sometimes, constellations abruptly changed the topic if they didn’t have an answer, but the loyal Illaphael didn’t dare to doubt her master.

“Nnngg... hhnnggg?”

“What are you doing?”

Choi Yeonseung was confused as Illaphael covered Lamart’s mouth, so he approached them.

“Um, I’m not sure if such a simple dish will suit your taste, but I want you to think of it as medicine and eat it. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s quite effective.”

Choi Yeonseung served Illaphael a bowl of fried rice with pork belly. He had chosen this simple dish with just a few ingredients because there were many hunters gathered, and he couldn’t have kept them waiting.

After all, even if he had prepared a Korean full-course meal, how much of it would the hunters have eaten? The important thing was for the hunters to quickly have a simple dish and regain their vigor. An angel or a nightmare demon might not find such food delicious, but even so, they had to eat it in order to keep fighting.

“Thank you, Choi Yeonseung. I love Korean food.”

“?”

Lamart was confused, for she had never heard of angels enjoying any kind of human food.

‘Angels are picky, so they’ll only eat certain foods from the Abyss.’

Illaphael took a spoon and tried the dish. Initially, she only wanted to look good in front of Choi Yeonseung, but after taking a bite, she found the food to be delicious.

Moreover, her magic power was swiftly restored, and she felt a special effect working on her as though she was being protected by a constellation.

“!?”

“Is it okay? You don’t have to force yourself to eat it.”

“No. I like it! When you stir-fried the pork belly and kimchi in the pan earlier, did you add green onions to make it more fragrant? It’s a great choice...”

“???”

Choi Yeonseung was slightly embarrassed by Illaphael’s reaction. She wasn’t Adaquaniel, so how did she know so much about cooking?

-Does she really like Korean food?

-How strange. It’s rare for Abyssal races to like Earth’s cuisine, but I guess everyone has different tastes.

-I thought she liked my dishes because they have a lot of magic power and various effects, but maybe she just likes Korean food. I’ll have to treat her to something else next time.

-That’s a good idea.

Choi Yeonseung didn’t actually dislike Illaphael that much. Of course, she was arrogant and hated humans, but she had always fought earnestly by his side.

Besides, it seemed that she wasn’t a picky eater.

[The ‘Manipulator of Dreams and Desires’ wonders if she actually likes it or if she's forcing herself to eat it.]

-Don’t speak nonsense, manipulator constellation. Would an angel like Illaphael do that to please me?

-Angels don’t usually do that.

The manipulation constellation cocked her head after Choi Yeonseung and the goddess of sloth disagreed with her.

Was it that absurd for an angel to do such things?

“Thank you. Ah, right. Can you give some to the nightmare demon as well?”

“I don’t think this nightmare demon will like it.”

“Nnng! Hnggg!”

Lamart shook her head as though she wanted to eat as well. In fact, she didn’t really want to eat; she just wanted to get in Choi Yeonseung’s good graces.

Nightmare demons were generally great at winning the favor of other races, and they would endure anything, no matter how hard or painful it was, in order to do that.

As soon as her gag was taken off, Lamart quickly tried the food while trying to seem as enthusiastic as possible.

“...?!”

But... The food was actually... fine?

“Hunter Choi Yeonseung, we have detected that hunters from other clans have entered the mining area where the monsters have been found. It looks like they’re going to try a raid!”

“!”

Choi Yeonseung was surprised by the report.

‘At a time like this?!’

There was nothing more stupid than rushing into a raid without being properly prepared. Besides, that dungeon had exploded quite a while ago, so it wasn’t known how many monsters were lurking around that area.

Choi Yeonseung had planned to have Illaphael scout the area while the hunters rested. However, that group of hunters was starting a raid without any information.

They had to have lost their minds or something...

‘Uh, I can guess who it is.’

Choi Yeonseung nodded and said, “I’m sorry, but we have to act. Get ready to move, everyone.”

“We’re always ready!”

The hunters weren’t just trying to look tough in front of their boss. Their faces were glowing because they had eaten heartily and recovered their strength.

Hwang Jaecheol was pleased with their appearance. ‘I’ll give them a bonus after the chairman leaves.’

“Illaphael, you go ahead first. And you can handle her, right?”

“Of course,” Illaphael said firmly before taking away Lamart’s bowl of rice.

The nightmare demon looked at her in bewilderment.

‘You..?!’

Illaphael was unaware that Lamart was glaring at her from behind for stealing her food.

***

“...Sh-shouldn’t we stop him?” Huntsman’s aide muttered in a frightened manner.

Normally, people that weren’t hunters weren’t allowed to enter a raid site. But of course, if people actually followed such rules, there wouldn’t be so many incidents.

There were always people who entered the raid scene, from the reporters who wanted the first scoop to random people who wanted to post actual raid footage on their personal accounts.

Huntsman was one of those people. He had personally hired a filming crew and was planning to enter the raid site.

“This will be the most memorable shoot in history! The whole nation will see me as a strong leader that conducts raids personally!”

Huntsman was excited, and it was clear that he wasn’t aware of how dangerous this was.

“We have to go and stop him.”

“How...?”

Everyone knew that they would end up in deep trouble if they said the wrong things while Huntsman was in such a good mood. After all, many people were fired for saying the right things. Besides, if these aides were fired here next to the mine, they would have to walk by themselves to a nearby village.

Normally, it was up to the hunters to stop Huntsman, not the aides. In fact, some of the hunters looked as worried as the aides.

‘Is it okay for this many ordinary people to attend?’

‘I don’t think we can evacuate all of them if there’s a problem.’

However, Isabella Meyer was the highest-ranked hunter at the scene and didn’t care about the rules.

“Excuse me, Mr. Huntsman. Perhaps it would be best for you to stay behind... Just in case...”

In the end, someone caved and tried to reason with Huntsman.

Huntsman frowned and asked Isabella Meyer, “Is it okay for me to be here?”

“It’s okay.”

“Such an idiot... Hunter Meyer here says it’s fine! What do you know? Listen to the expert!”

“I-I’m sorry.”

The person who had tried to persuade Huntsman stepped back with a flushed expression.

‘Is it really okay?’

‘She has to be confident if she’s saying that.’

‘She’s an A-grade hunter, so she must know something we don’t.’

The aides were skeptical but decided to back down. Even though they couldn’t trust Huntsman’s judgment, A-grade hunters like Isabella Meyer clearly knew what they were doing.

However, Isabella Meyer had a different idea.

‘Anyone can die.’

Great power came with great responsibility, and that was especially the case for hunters.

As the shields of humanity with various extra privileges, hunters had to be willing to sacrifice themselves for humanity in the event of a crisis.

...Of course, the vast majority of hunters disagreed with Isabella Meyer.

-What the hell are you saying?

-You sound like a Chinese government official!

Regardless of what other people said, Isabella Meyer’s stubbornness had no limits.

Hunters had to do whatever it took to serve humanity!

In a way, that principle also applied to politicians in the sense that if someone was trying to become president, they had to risk their life to reach their goal.

That was why Meyer had brought Huntsman to the raid scene. He had said that he wanted to lead the raid himself, so he had to be prepared to die.

Of course, Huntsman didn’t suspect that Meyer had such a crazy idea.

“As an A-grade hunter, it’s easy to protect the people here. Do you remember the last stadium attack? Hunter Choi Yeonseung protected it by himself.”

Huntsman’s aides nodded at his explanation. Of course, all A-grade hunters were different, and one couldn’t compare them as easily as that, but...

‘Certainly, as a martial artist, Hunter Choi Yeonseung did a great job of protecting everyone. For all we know, Hunter Isabella Meyer might be even better.’

‘She also said it was okay.’

Even the brightest aides at the scene misunderstood the situation. Having witnessed Choi Yeonseung in action, they had forgotten how selfish A-grade hunters really were.