To put it simply, she had petted her to her heart’s content. By the time Ai Yue emerged from her room, it was already time for lunch.
The food was naturally as delicious as ever, but it simply couldn’t dispel her hunger. She even began to wonder if she had a hidden Bottomless Stomach skill that hadn’t been sealed by the weakening.
In contrast, petting Bululu this morning had made her feel full for a while. ‘It seems petting a cat really can serve as a meal.’
“Um, Master Ai Yue, where are we going?”
Bululu followed closely behind Ai Yue.
After the meal, Ai Yue had left the dining hall without stopping, ignoring every servant and subordinate she encountered along the way.
“Nothing much. I just want to head to the library and take a look.”
As the castle belonging to the final boss, the Demon King Castle naturally housed a vast collection of books. While it might not have covered everything from astronomy to geography, it certainly contained a full range of profession and skill books, spanning from basic to the highest levels.
Back when she wanted to increase the players’ desire for exploration, she had even placed many skill and magic books—those normally obtainable only through a series of special tasks and steps—inside this library. She had even mixed in quite a few “trap books” just for fun. It was just a shame she had logged out of that life before she could see any players coming to hunt for treasure.
However, she valued the reference books more than any of those. Skills were useless to her now; she already knew them all, they were simply sealed and unusable. Instead, information was far more important.
‘If it’s a world-building setting, the library should have information on it…’
“Did you say something just now, Master Ai Yue?”
“It’s nothing. We’re here.”
Thinking while she walked, Ai Yue and Bululu arrived at the Demon King Castle’s library.
Since this was a fantasy-style world, the library was naturally anything but ordinary.
Aside from the bookshelves embedded in the walls, the other shelves weren’t resting on the floor. Instead, they defied gravity, moving slowly through the air of the library like floating cubes.
For the generally powerful members of the Demon Race, this height was no problem at all. They didn’t even need to fly; they could simply use Magic Telekinesis to bring the books down.
But unfortunately, Ai Yue currently couldn’t do that.
Her current strength was roughly on par with a Slime, and her mana was the same. The threshold and requirements for a mid-tier technique like Magic Telekinesis let her know that even if she tried to use it, she couldn’t activate it.
Fortunately, Ai Yue didn’t need to do it herself.
“Great Demon King, it is truly an honor that you would visit a place like this.”
A demon beauty with wings and a tail growing from her back bowed to Ai Yue.
“At ease. I need you to help me find some books.”
The demon beauty before her was named Florence. She was the Librarian here, and no one was more familiar with the library’s collection than she was. Usually, when people who rarely visited the library needed to find something, they would ask her for help.
“Understood. What kind of books are you looking for?”
“Just some books regarding the characteristics of the various sub-races within the Demon Race.”
“I understand.”
As soon as she spoke, the Librarian focused her mind. Books scattered across different corners and shelves throughout the entire library quickly gathered together, piling up into a small mountain.
“Mm, not bad.”
“I am truly humbled to receive your praise.”
“You may leave.”
“Yes.”
After dismissing the Librarian, Ai Yue began to quickly flip through the mountain of books.
The claim that she wanted to investigate the characteristics of all demons was merely a pretense. In reality, she was only looking for one: the Succubus.
Ever since she woke up, she had been feeling this constant sense of hunger, to the point where it was even affecting her normal judgment. No matter what, she had to find a solution first.
“Master Ai Yue, is there anything I can help with?”
“Hmm? Ah, then help me organize these. Categorize them by race.”
“Yes, Master!”
Assigned a task by Ai Yue, Bululu happily began to sort through the mountain of books. Thanks to this, the efficiency of the investigation increased significantly.
“…Blood Demons, also known as the Blood Race, can utilize unique Blood Magic and feed on blood. Their strength is considered top-tier among the Demon Race, and they were once independent. Thus, they are generally referred to as the ‘Blood Race’ rather than the ‘Blood Demon Race’…”
“…Night Demons possess extremely powerful strength during the night, but they are significantly weakened during the day. This may be related to ultraviolet rays…”
These were all things that Ai Yue, as the developer, already knew. Even if parts of it were filled in by the game’s automatic content generation system, it basically followed the direction she had intended. Anyone with a bit of knowledge and an imagination could have guessed as much.
More importantly, these weren’t the things she wanted to know right now.
“Master Ai Yue, I’ve finished the sorting.”
“Mm, thank you.”
“!”
Hearing those words of thanks, Bululu, who had been about to stand up from her chair, froze.
As a personal maid, she believed that helping her master was part of her duty. Yet, even so, Ai Yue had thanked her.
What gentleness! What mercy!
As expected, her choice to follow the Great Demon King had been the right one!
“…”
Looking at Bululu, who had fallen into a self-indulgent state of ecstasy, Ai Yue chose to ignore her for the moment and checked the organized books.
Honestly, as expected of a personal maid, she did have administrative skills. The books that had originally been piled like a small mountain on the table were now neatly categorized, even labeled with tags of the race names.
With a single glance, Ai Yue spotted the tag labeled “Succubus.” She picked up the topmost book and flipped it open.
“…The Succubus Race generally possesses high levels of beauty and can use Charm and Polymorph for ‘predation’.”
‘Wait, calling it predation is a bit too terrifying, isn’t it? Though quite a few races in the Demon Race actually do eat humans.’
Ai Yue criticized slightly in her mind before continuing to read.
“Aside from their mental and physical abilities, the Succubus Race also possesses powerful magic and abundant physical stamina, making their danger level among the highest in the Demon Race. However, their weakness is also very apparent—whether using magic, physical activity, or even in their daily lives, the Succubus Race consumes an energy called ‘Vitality Essence’ that all living beings possess. This special energy must be replenished through other living beings…”
‘Wait, Vitality Essence? No way…’
“…Therefore, it is currently speculated that the appearance and mental-type abilities of the Succubus Race evolved specifically to solve their dietary needs, or perhaps vice versa. Regardless, the Succubus Race needs to absorb Vitality Essence from other living beings to maintain a normal state. Once Vitality Essence is insufficient, a Succubus’s instincts will gradually override their rationality, leading them to disregard the consequences and forcibly extract essence, which is to say…”
Before she could even read the next line, Ai Yue slammed the book shut with lightning speed.
Now that she had read this far, she understood what that hunger was all about.
Doesn’t this mean she’s being forced to do that kind of thing!?