In The House Of The Succubus

A defenseless mansion | Chapter 12

"Tell everyone that I'm leaving for a while. I have something to investigate in Dorir!"

Those where the words that Viridia told Un before departing the day before. She hasn't come back since and the servants and even slaves were getting nervous.

What if something happened to the mistress? If she were gone for good, that would mean all servants would lose their jobs and every slave would be re-captured by slavers and slave drivers to be sold again. Wherever they would end up, they would certainly be treated worse than where they were now.

Everyone wanted their mistress to come back soon. Not to mention that the mansion was practically defenseless without her. No one could fight except for a handful of maids. Those few of Jill's maids and Un's ogre strength where the only things guarding the mansion. They could never even dream to compare to the magic power of a demon like Viridia.

Everyone was anxiously waiting for the mistress of the house of Vandela to return, but as the hours passed the only thing that changed was the sky. A clear morning blue turned dark gray with the clouds that the afternoon brought with it.

"I can't believe that she's taking so long. What's that succubus up to, leaving us all alone? Doesn't she know how dangerous this is?" Jill pondered in her office until Hannibal entered the room.

"Ms Jill, I am heading to the dungeon now. Tell everyone to be on alert," he said.

"Why's that?"

"Usually I don't feel fear when going down there, but without the magic of the mistress nearby who knows what might happen. Not to mention those clouds... I don't like them... Something's off with 'em!" Hannibal stated.

"I'm sure there isn't that much to be feared of. We're probably just overthinking all of this. We can't be that defenseless, right?" Jill tried to cheer Hannibal up, but to no avail.

"I wouldn't be so sure about it. The villagers of Amstadt were already nervous enough with a succubus next to them. When they find out she's gone they might try to storm the mansion. Even if it's built like a fortress, the mansion won't be able to handle all of Amstadt," Hannibal claimed, "not to mention that demon queen... She and the mistress don't seem to like each other. For all we know they might be planning an attack. I'm even skeptical about that whole 'audience with the king' thing."

"Now we've passed worry and went straight to conspiracy. I'm sure you're overreacting," Jill chuckled, "...but don't worry, I'll tell everyone to be careful. Your work is the most important of all in these times, afterall."

And with that Hannibal left Jill's office and went to the dungeons. It was as dark and damp as always, but for some reason Hannibal felt unusually on edge.

"This place never gave me the creeps, but what in Amaldia is this feeling!?" He whispered to himself as he went through the moist hallways, always ready to draw his blade.

After feeding the scylla he went to the cages of the chimera and the bandersnatch. He threw a piece of meat into the bandersnatch's prison-cell and went to the chimera to give her some fish.

The chimera still held on to the piece of cloth that Fii had given her a few days ago and was sitting in a corner of the cell. When Hannibal threw the fish and some meat into her cage he expected her to lunge at it. She rarely gets any fish, but sometimes she gets some of the leftovers of the scylla's feeding.