The Punishment of A Demon General

"And what do we have here?" Ah, fuck, that's not any mortal language. I hop up onto slightly numb legs, as much as I enjoyed being spoiled by Fluffy, I'm not here to put up with shit.

Glancing over the newcomers, I can see a minotaur, a fury, and a medusa. "Eyes down, you three! Don't move a muscle!" I say to Fluffy, Killa, and Julia in a language they can understand, while I can probably resist the medusa, there's no guarantee they can.

+For context in case some don't know about this world, a minotaur is a half-man half-cow being, very tall, very muscular. A fury is similar to a harpy, but instead of entrancing song you get extreme violence. Medusa are lamia with snake-y hair and a really smug attitude. Not really 1:1 with where I come from, but close enough that heroes brought over the names.+

Honestly, I still want to throw up, but at the very least adrenaline helps that problem for the time being... I guess my little joke really was a death flag, huh? Damn you, Goddess.

The Heroine is currently out scouting, so I guess I'll just have to deal with this myself, especially considering I don't want them to get hurt with the whole 'sickness' thing they talked about before.

I don't know if they're listening to me, but hopefully they are, all I can do is just glare at the three enemies with my arms crossed. "The fuck do you want, trash?" I swap to my native language for this, the humans probably won't be able to understand, but it is what it is.

I can see the medusa's eyebrow twitch as I say that, her fists clenching as she's obviously tempted to lash out at me, but while they obviously have me outnumbered, there's no guarantee they'll win if I'm stronger than them.

I don't know what their whole plan is, but if I had to guess, they're probably just here to steal my 'slaves.' Being a succubus means I'm kind of on the 'lower class' of demons, so we're generally more picked on when we have things others want.

Not that that's a problem for me. I mean, seriously, I've been a Demon General long enough to have my own tricks, you know?!

"We just came over to check on what that smell was, but as it turns out it's just a little succubus." I'm guessing my confident attitude did actually put them off a bit seeing as they didn't immediately attack. I could just go for the charm, but it might be difficult to get it off on all three before they can attack one of these three...

Not that it matters if it's Killa or something, but if it's Julia or Fluffy, then that's a big problem. ... I need to start learning strategies to protect people around me.

Not like it's that important, but seriously! How many times have I been in scenarios now where I'm shafted based on having to protect other people?!

I cast a glance around at the three, it looks like they actually followed my orders and are looking down at the ground. ... Did I miss something? Why did they follow me so obediently?

I chew on my lip slightly, my chest feeling slightly conflicted not having them try and sass me over the slightest thing. It's probably because they know about medusa's and stuff.

Ugh, my stomach hurts for like a bajillion reasons now, can I just get rid of these guys already...? I roll my neck, pondering for a bit in frustration. I mean, I do kind of have a really annoying way to solve the issue of protection but I don't like it.

"Honestly, I would think one of Pride's ilk would have a bit more manners, but it seems like a low-birth begets a low act." My goal right now is to just piss them off repeatedly at me instead, with possibly the side goal of intimidating them enough to leave. If they attack me specifically, I can charm them, if they leave, it's fine.

Thankfully demon politics are my strength, and if I can just get the leader of this gaggle of idiots to piss off, the other two should likely join them. I cross my arms, staring them down in a deep stare.

I can see them all staring at me in a mix of anger and frustration, not knowing whether it's worth taking me on or not. With the way I'm talking it could just be a bluff, but they could also be risking massive retribution if they're wrong, and that's pretty much what I'm banking on.

"Hah, and what's a whore like you going to do about it? Put on a show for us?" The medusa is probably testing the waters for now, trying to see if I can put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. They're assuming they can get off with a tolerable enough punishment if something goes wrong, but if they win, they'll get off with three beautiful slaves.

Frankly, they probably wouldn't give any sort of fucks if we weren't carrying such a large load on us with such pretty humans on top of it. We're basically a walking talking treasury in the demon lands, and with that massive amount of noise we made I guess it wasn't a complete oddity that we would be spotted by a group or two of demons.

In fact, there's probably another group or two in the background waiting in ambush if we start fighting, now that I think about it... That's very much not good.

I wish I could just try and go 'oh I'm the Demon General of Lust' blah blah blah, but that would probably backfire pathetically with the limited knowledge I have of the situation. Annoying. Annoying. Annoying.

Alright, I could do a few more options, but frankly? We're sitting ducks out here. I'm just gonna go for the balls to the walls plan.

"Behind me you three. Immediately." I mutter at them in a familiar tongue, beginning to glare at the three who immediately sense something is off. I always love this plan! I hear it strikes fear in many a human.

Swapping back to my native tongue, I put everything I can into as much of an intimidating aura as I can while looking down onto the three before me. "What I'm going to do, is I'm going to give you three five seconds to get out of here, understand me?"

I can see beads of sweat begin to form on the forehead of the Fury, it seems someone there actually knows that I'm pretty strong! Hah! ... Well, stronger than the average demon, at least.

"Hah, you really think-" I don't wait for her to finish her little proud speech and immediately begin counting. "Five."

"That won't deter us you-" She continues to try and talk past me, keeping up her brave facade despite the growing restlessness of the two behind her. "Four."

And they skidaddled. Well, that was anticlimatic. I glance around a bit to see if there are any more in the woods around, only to be interrupted by some clapping coming from the clearing ahead.

The Heroine sits there, all but cheering for me with a happy look on her face, causing me to frown almost immediately. "Yaaay, Ilvia is so cool!"

What? Did I miss something...? What? I furrow my brow hard, shooting a glance over to Fluffy behind me, who tries to look away innocently.

... Did you all let that happen just to... Are you serious?

All energy leaves my legs and I just flop to the ground criss-cross, hanging my head, my ears burning in shame.

Did they seriously let that entire thing happen just to test me?! All of that?! Why can't you humans just... Aaagh! I pull at my hair in frustration, ruffling it in aggression, trying to force down the nausea building in the pit of my stomach once again thanks to the constant overwhelming flowery scent.

Fluffy pats me on the head gently, tempting me to try and swat it away, but I don't even have the energy to do it, it feels like this is the millionth time and a half they've done something like this to me, I don't even know if I'm supposed to be surprised anymore!

The grass crunches in front of me as the Heroine plops down before me joining patting me on the head as we sit there.

Every time I feel like they're trying to be nice to me, they do some crazy shit like this, why do they keep toying with my feelings like this?! Can't you humans just be normal for once!

The three behind me leave to go and start dealing with packing up everything while the Heroine and I sit there a bit in silence, my head a mess of frustration and misery as I try to figure the psychopath in front of me out.

"So, letting you calm down for a sec, I wanted to say something..." She says, continuing to brush my hair from side to side with her hand, twisting up my emotions more and more each time with it.

"The reason I let that happen wasn't just to mess with you or something." Then why the hells do you keep doing things like that?! I mean seriously?

"I mean, I won't say all the times I've messed with you wasn't for the express purpose of messing with you, but for that time it was for good reason, I promise!" Then let me hear it you crazy Heroine! You're not sounding apologetic so far!

I can't even look up at her right now, what little of my pride remaining from constantly being toyed with by this psychopath being protected by the hair hiding my ashamed expression, not wanting to show her just how much she can manage to affect me with so little.

"Those three are in a reaaaally dangerous position right now, okay? And I'm going to basically be entrusting part of the safety of their lives to you when we get there. So, basically, it was a test to make sure that you weren't gonna just... Well, accidentally, or purposely get them hurt in a more controlled environment."

So basically it was 'We didn't trust you, so we figured we'd test you again.' How many times does that make it exactly?! Ugh... Whatever.

Ignoring my grumbling, she pulls me over into her lap, resting my head into it while she strokes, pulling my hair back to tease my pouting lips with her fingers.

"I found a river, so we can go get you cleaned up when you feel a bit better. " She says with a delicate tone, her soft voice prompting me to glance up at her from the corner of my eyes, seeing her face practically beaming down at me with a smile, her eyes almost sparkling as she massages my lips. "You did wonderfully, Ilvia." Comes her clear voice.

I jump up, darting over to my bag and grabbing it immediately, ignoring the stifling smell surrounding me, using the sense of nausea to mask the intense burning in my cheeks.

"W-well why didn't you say so earlier! Let's just go already!" I keep my body turned away from everyone in the party, trying to keep everyone from looking at me as I stand there.

I really hate the Heroine.

+Huehuehuehuehue.+

(... Shut it.)

+Huehuehuehuehuehuehue.+

(I said shut it.)

+Huehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehue- urk.+

(That was a mean test though.)

+Kinda, but I was risking my friends lives. It was important to do, plus it got a cute reaction out of the tsundere.+

(Not a tsundere.)

+Definitely a tsundere.+

(Not a tsundere.)

+Definitely a tsundere.+

(How many times are we gonna do this repeated arguing bit?)

+How many times are you gonna argue with me?+

(You're impossible.)

+You're impossible.+

(You... ugh.)