Is It Strange For A Succubus To Be Wearing Clothes?

Chapter 2

—–CROW—– 

“Welcome.”

With the tired, bored voice of the convenience store clerk as background music, I headed for the refrigerator. 

Ah, it was that time of night when, worn down by the night shift, every customer must have seemed irritating. 

I was visiting late, it was true. But that was what convenience stores were for. And I was in a position where it was difficult to wander around in broad daylight.

Anyway, what should I eat today?  

I didn’t dislike carbonated drinks, but the tingling sensation in my mouth and throat was a bit too stimulating. 

Succubi were generally sensitive, even to minor things, and easily felt ‘pleasure.’  Especially me, a Succubus Empress, whose senses were even more heightened, choosing a drink was a matter of careful consideration. 

Well, it wasn’t that I felt ‘pleasure’ from drinking carbonated drinks, but if I experienced that kind of stimulation while trying to quietly appreciate the night sky, it would really ruin the mood.

‘Should I just get something smooth?’

I considered a sports drink, but those were quite sweet these days… Then, a new product caught my eye.

[(New!) Strawberry-flavored Protein Drink]

Oh.

The sweetness of a protein drink was just right. Even if it said chocolate or strawberry flavor, the actual sweetness wasn’t as intense as real chocolate milk.  The texture was also smooth, like yogurt.

Hmm, yes, yogurt.

Good. Yes.

I grabbed all the strawberry-flavored protein drinks from the refrigerated shelf.  And it was a 2+1 deal. I was lucky today.

I also grabbed a bag of snacks to go with it.

Snacks with a picture of a sea prawn.

It seemed familiar.

I used to eat them often before I became like this; would they taste the same?

Loaded up, I went to the counter. The clerk, without making eye contact, mechanically bowed his head and scanned the barcodes.

“That’ll be 7,200 won…” he mumbled, his face still tired and weary. I almost felt the same fatigue myself.  He seemed quite exhausted.

“Hunter Pay, please. Is that possible?”

“Ah, yes… Ah, you’re a Hunter.  Please place your fingerprint here for Hunter Pay…Ah.”

It was then, as our eyes met, that the clerk froze.

And I felt the vital essence.

Its foundation was admiration, liking, curiosity, affection, and intense impulse. The color of the impulse was the crimson of lust.

Oh dear.

I hadn’t intended to have a meal…

“Are you alright?”

“…Ah. Y-Yes, ma’am!”

The clerk, seemingly jolted back to reality by my voice, replied with a face from which all traces of fatigue had vanished.

For a succubus, vital essence was fundamentally obtained through physical contact. To be precise, through sexual intercourse, but my method of absorbing essence wasn’t limited to that.  Liking, popularity, love, reverence, admiration, joy – even intense emotions like hatred – could all be absorbed as vital essence.

Because of this, if I openly showed my face, I would literally overeat to the point of bursting.  Could anyone, even if they loved chicken, eat only chicken for three meals a day, 365 days a year? If I ate like that, I would definitely get indigestion.  It would be too much.

For me, vital essence was just like that chicken. Something that could come at me relentlessly, 365 days a year. This face and body, even I had to admit, were at the pinnacle of aestheticism.

“H-Here. Here it is…”

See? Even now, this poor clerk was having his vital essence sucked away just by looking at my veiled face.  The focus and reason seemed to be disappearing from his eyes… At this rate, he might die of overwork, even though he was just a night shift worker.

Before that happened, I snapped my fingers, forcibly cutting off the flow of essence.  The clerk, his expression dazed, seemed to regain his senses.

“Ah, w-what, what’s happening? I-I’m sorry.”

However, perhaps due to the aftereffects, a trickle of blood flowed from his nose.  A drop landed on my hand as I was about to pay.

“I-I’m so sor…”

“Here.”

Before I knew it, I was holding out a handkerchief to him. Handkerchiefs were essential for succubi when going out, so I always carried several.

“You don’t have to refuse. I have plenty.”

“….Y-Yes….”

It might have been unnecessary meddling, but since he seemed to be bleeding because of me, I had to give him something, right?  It wasn’t intentional, but I had taken the essence of a student already struggling with a night shift job.  He had a dreamy look on his face.

“Is the payment…done?”

“Ah….”

The clerk stared at me with a look of longing. I could clearly see what he was thinking. Asking for my number, or if I lived nearby, etc., etc.

Before he could say anything, I grabbed the bag with the drinks and snacks and left the store.

“Have a good night.”

“Ah, good night…”

I raised my hand, and the drop of the clerk’s blood that had stained it was already gone.

“Hmm, I can’t come here again.”

3:38 AM.

Late, but for me, it was the most active and vibrant time.

My destination was a place with a good view of the night sky.  Fortunately, due to the hour, there weren’t many people around.  Perhaps because of the awareness that monsters and goblins could emerge from the shadows of alleys and sewers in the late hours, the streets were deserted at night, unlike in the past.

‘I heard that was often the case in the early days of the rifts? Monsters that flowed out of the gates would hide in the city’s sewers, back alleys, and abandoned buildings, creating their own ecosystems and attacking passersby…’

Buildings like convenience stores had electric fences, so if monsters approached, an alarm would immediately go off to a private security company staffed by Awakened.  And Awakened individuals tasked with maintaining public order patrolled regularly.  However, it was still not recommended for civilians to wander around at 3 or 4 AM.

Even in the dead of night, I couldn’t remove the veil covering my face.  If I happened to run into someone, they would be forcibly charmed the moment they saw my face.

After walking for a while, I saw a small hill, not quite a mountain, in the neighborhood.  There was a pavilion at the top where locals could rest while taking walks.  Normally, even at this hour, there would be many elderly people or middle-aged women exercising around the pavilion, but with the world having changed so much, no one was in sight.

They said there might be goblins hiding in the hills, that you might get mugged for a toll, so early morning or night walks were absolutely forbidden.

“It works out well for me. I can have this nice place all to myself.”

I took a sip of the strawberry-flavored protein drink.  Mmm, perfect.  The subtle thickness characteristic of protein and the faint sweetness of strawberry.  It was a drink any succubus would love.

Why would they love it?

Well, because it was delicious.

I sat down on the pavilion, swinging my legs, and sipped my drink.  Earphones were too stimulating for my ears, so I decided to listen to music through my smartwatch speaker. The song playing on the random playlist was some meditation music I didn’t recognize.  Fortunately, it wasn’t some intense metal rock with electric guitars.

“Ah, it’s coming.”

4:04 AM.

The sky opened.  This wasn’t a figure of speech; the night sky literally split open, and once again, new light and darkness, and things that had fallen from another world, made their home on Earth.

The government called this phenomenon “Night Sea.” Based on the Night Sea phenomenon, they made gate forecasts for the area and, if there was a dangerous area, issued evacuations, warnings, and commissioned requests to Hunters.

“Beautiful.”

This phenomenon might cause trouble for some, and others might have to wake up in the middle of the night to control the safe zones… but the sky opening up during the Night Sea was a beautiful and rare sight for me.

“So pretty…”

Looking at the night sky, my eyes filled with an entranced light. For succubi, and for me, beauty was the most abstract yet important instinct, and at the same time, a tool for survival.  Simply put, beauty was like a hunting tool for a succubus.  With their appearance, figure, sex appeal, and innate beauty, succubi charmed others, absorbed their essence, and continued to live.

So, it wasn’t strange that succubi had an aesthetic instinct in their subconscious.  It was an unconscious act based on instinct, maintaining their beauty and being sensitive to the beauty found in things different from themselves.

Lewdness, lust, charm, seduction, obscenity, sensuality, arousal.

I always suppressed these things with reason as much as possible.  That’s why I… loved looking at the night sky, the Night Sea dotted with stars.

They said the true nature of stars was no different from the sun, but I loved those stars that descended with a gentle shimmer in the night, like fine winter frost.

If other succubi or incubi saw me… no, if anyone with even a little knowledge of demons saw me, they might call me crazy.  How could a succubus, who craved the essence and life of others and prioritized physical relationships and lust, satisfy their desires by looking at the night sky?

Well, I was a Succubus Empress. I could plunder the essence of others without needing to mingle bodies or skin.

“Ah, is it over?”

The Night Sea phenomenon didn’t last long.  Five minutes at most.  But the harmony of the stars and the rifts in the sky felt like looking at a giant work of art.

Gazing at it, I took another sip of my strawberry-flavored drink.  Before the subtle sweetness of the pink liquid faded, I popped a sea prawn snack into my mouth.

*Crunch, crunch*

Hmm, it tasted the same as before.  But why did the chewing sound feel somewhat softer? The texture itself was the same.

Looking at the ingredients list on the package, the prawn content was a whopping 50 percent.  What was the prawn content before?  I couldn’t remember exactly, but it must have been around 1 percent…  Perhaps the ecosystem resources had increased drastically thanks to the rifts?  It seemed like a small advantage of the rifts.

“Haaaa. I’m feeling a bit languid today.”

Even though the Night Sea was over, the starry sky was still beautiful.  Staring at the light embedded in the starry sky for a long time, I sometimes felt like eyes engraved in the darkness were looking down at me. The beauty of the night sky was faded by the city’s neon signs and the lights illuminating the ground, but the shining stars were still there.

Looking at the night sky, I felt that even the artificial, brilliant lights created by humans couldn’t block the stars.  I looked at the stars, and the stars looked back at me.  Spending that time long and leisurely, I had the illusion that my gaze met the night sky’s, and an unspoken inspiration and exchange flowed between us.

Some artistic genius might be inspired by this alone, but unfortunately, I simply enjoyed the personal beauty I felt; I didn’t have any outstanding artistic sense.

Then what was I?

I was just a succubus. A succubus who loved beautiful things.  Of course, I had the title of Empress, but fundamentally, I was a succubus who loved beauty.

*Ring!*

“…”

Ah, I was having such a nice time…

I sat up at the loud noise coming directly from my wrist and ear.

“Sigh, if it were anyone else, I wouldn’t have answered.”

Slightly frowning, I answered the incoming call. The sound of something collapsing and being destroyed came from beyond the ringtone.  And a familiar, yet friendly, very urgent voice.

[J-Jaehee-nim! Jaehee-nim! I’m so sorry to call you so late at night!]

“Yes, yes. Good evening, Agent.”

[Good evening, my…Kyaa! D-Don’t come here!]

And someone’s scream.

The sounds of something breaking and being destroyed followed.

After waiting quietly for about 30 seconds, the friendly, yet somewhat goofy voice returned.

[Huff, huff, huff… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Jaehee-nim! Actually, right now…]

“Is it because of the Night Sea?”

[Yes, yes!  An unexpected anomaly and an unidentified violent entity have been observed, and the Gimpo field unit is currently responding to the emergency!]

“Is it urgent enough to call me directly at 4 AM?”

[Huh? Yes? W-Well…]

I could almost picture Agent Dana Yeon’s bewildered expression on the other end of the line. She was probably thinking, ‘A-Actually, it might not be serious enough to call Jaehee-nim. But, the situation on the ground is so serious, and my superiors told me to call Jaehee-nim immediately.  Oh, what do I do…’ with all sorts of thoughts running through her head.

I disliked everyone else in the government, but I didn’t dislike Dana Yeon.  She was fun to tease and cute.

“I’m just kidding. I’ll be right there.”

[G-Gasp! Th-Thank you!]

At first, I was a little annoyed at having my alone time interrupted, but I would satisfy myself by teasing our cute agent a bit.  After all, something that could kill someone might be happening over there.

I got up from the pavilion and ran a hand through my hair.  Although my suit covered my entire body, there was one exposed part: the small area on my lower back, just above my hips, where my wings emerged – a neat, slit-like opening.

Wings.  It was natural for a succubus to have wings.

They were quite convenient.  Flying was quite pleasant.

Why wings also sprouted from my head like a crown when I spread my back wings was still a mystery.  What were the head wings for, really? I couldn’t even fly with them…

“I’ll be right there, Agent. Please hold on a little longer.”

[Yes, yes! Thank you! Thank you so much again! And I’m sorry! I’m sorry and thank you!]

Well then… should I go help this poor agent, caught between a rock and a hard place?

—–CROW—–