"My queen.... are you certain about that? Are you.... in a state to accept guests?"

The woman peeking her head into the room spoke in a low and humble tone, carefully picking her words so as to not offend the woman before her.

Lightly landing as she departed the bed, the woman smiled as she walked over to a mirror, plucking one of her reddened eyelids.

"I thank you for your concern, my sweet little thing.", she said while applying a bit of makeup to the area. "But why would I not be in a state to accept guests? As the queen of this domain..... it should be my responsibility to receive them. No?"

The woman nodded vehemently, overtaken at the sudden change in demeanor of her queen, who was just a moment before depressed like a girl who received a nasty comment on an attention seeking post.

Without a word, she pulled her head out of the room and shut the door, returning to her own position standing guard.

"How was she?", the man who hadn't moved asked, clearly concerned.

"How adaptable.... at the mere mention of business she became motivated. Perhaps we were worrying too much about her."

"I see..... thank goodness.", the man said with a sigh of relief. The other men who had reported the scene seemed relieved as well, and the four smiled at one another.

"It doesn't matter if the antiheroes have arrived on our very doorstep. If our queen has set her heart to taking action, nothing can go wrong.", one man said.

Returning to his position outside, the spiritual guard saluted before trailing off.

With full trust in their queen, and the complete and utter will to do nothing more than serve her even as a footstool, these people couldn't think of anything but the goodwill of their queen.

----

Meanwhile, inside a certain shack in the yard, a single ghastly man shouted out in pain.

This man seemed to be covered in the spiritual equivalent of bruises with his own phantom body becoming more transparent and less solidified in certain areas where he had been injured,

However, this man was alone in this dark shack.

There was not another soul inside.

"Lock..... lock me up... I've deeply hurt the queen..... I.... I must atone!!!!"

Just earlier, this man shouted these words towards the group of people who were furiously beating him for having offended their queen.

"That's right!"

"You need to atone!!!"

Shouting in agreement, the people had brought this man to this shack, locking him inside with saddened faces.

"Will our queen ever overcome these psychological wounds that you've given her?"

"Reflect on your actions in here...."

The door was shut and locked, leading to the present situation.

The smacking sound of a cracking whip was followed by the screams and shouts of the bruised man, whose armor had been removed to reveal his bare back- covered in such lacerations.

This man was performing an act of flagellation.

The whip would smack the thickened parts of his spiritual body, loosening the fog and making it more transparent, leaving the marks of a wound behind.

"A hundred..... a thousand..... no, a million!!! A million lashes will not even be enough!!! The pain I inflicted on our queen was likely much greater!! Oh.... my queen..... how terribly sorry I am for having offended you so..... how I wish that I could reverse time and close my own mouth with my own two hands....."

This man was bent down in sorrow, his own eyes filled with tears, yet these tears were not because of the pain he inflicted upon himself, but rather for the guilt he felt for hurting the very gem of his life in such a crude manner.

"Death..... yes, death..... death is the only path remaining for me..... for a piece of insignificant dirt like myself who dares to rise above his own stature, acting as if he is worth something..... a fake!!! I am nothing more than the grime at the bottom of the shoe of our queen, and yet even that is too much!!!"

The man began to whip himself harder as he rambled in madness, beating himself even worse than the others had just earlier.

"Even that is too much!!!!! If it were not for her magnanimous person, we would never amount to anything more than the grime of the earth..... the spirits of the world, the dead who refused to die..... we were nothing more than wandering souls of those who existed long ago, yet we do not hold such valuable things as memories!!!! Our memories have been wiped from our lives among the living, and so even though we still exist, everything which we were once is no more!"

The man clenched the whip, which was also something made from a spiritual fog just as the weapons and the armor of the guards had been.

"We were nothing..... we lost everything we were, and were doomed to roam this earth as nothing more than monsters.... demons with no purpose! No light! No hope! No future! No past!"

The man stopped speaking for a moment, breathing in with terror in his eyes as he imagined life without his queen.

"No present."

After visibly trembling, the man once more resumed his flagellation, speaking to himself in quiet tone.

"But it is through the queen..... it is under her guidance that we have been given purpose to live... she has become our light! Our hope! Our everything! Why then..... why did I not think before spouting such offensive words!? I knew well within myself that the queen is a sensitive person! It is our duty to protect her from all harm, and yet I have become the very source of this harm!!!!!!"

The man looked up with rage directed towards himself, standing up and walking over to a post on the wall.

"EVIL!!!! EVIL!!!! EVIL!!!!! I AM EVIL!!!! I HAVE DONE SOMETHING HORRIBLY EVIL, AND MUST ATONE!!!!!!"

The man began to furiously bang his own head on the post as he shouted to the point where the entire shack began to shake and creak, chips lodging themselves into the head of the man's now bleeding forehead.

The blood was almost like a liquid mist, spilling gently from the mans head, but he did not cease at this.

"Ah..... how I long to see the joyful face of the queen..... and yet it is myself who ripped that joy from her with my insensitive and thoughtless words."

The man leaned on the post with exhaustion, looking down with shame as he wept.

"My queen... perhaps you can hear me even now..... I do not know, but perhaps... perhaps you can. I spoke without thought. I let my guard down for even a moment, and did not properly filter my words. It is through this that I have deeply hurt you....."

It was as the man stated this that a feminine voice entered his mind, speaking in a tone that reminded him ever so much of his own queen, yet with a slightly different voice.

[If you said it without thinking, then doesn't that mean it's what you truly thought in the first place?]

The man's eyes went wide as he heard this voice, but not because he was concerned about a voice entering his mind.

"W....what are you saying? I would.... never think such things about my queen!!! She is as young as she is beautiful, and I would never even consider her age...."

[Hmm? I see..... so you brought up a woman's age? And now she has been saddened by such a statement? But from what I can tell, this statement you made isn't exactly..... demeaning. Of course, if I were hundreds of years old I would be pretty sensitive about it too, so I guess I can understand.]

"What are you talking about!?!? Any statement I made that has caused grief to my queen..... it is something that cannot and should not be forgiven!!! Even if my queen herself were to forgive me, I would not forgive myself!!! For I harmed the very hand who fed me! I have bitten at the very woman who is my radiance! I have scarred her, tossed her heart around, and destroyed her very being!"

[A bit dramatic, aren't we? If bringing someone's age up is enough to destroy them, then they won't make for a suitable opponent nor for a reliable ally.]

The voice spoke with a sinister tone, and feminine laughter filled the heart of the man with a chaotic terror unlike anything he had ever known.

[Fortunately, I don't believe in the ramblings of every lunatic I meet.]

With a shrill tone, the man now began to look around.

"Why do you say such things about my queen? Who are you to threaten her?"

[Did I make a threat? Haha.... I don't remember doing so. She must be quite the woman to have you strung around her fingers like this.]

"Our queen.... she does not have us strung around her finger! She would never use us, not even for a moment! It is by our own decision that we have wrapped ourselves around her finger, begging for her to play us like her puppets, ordering us to do her will! She herself is nothing less than an angel who only cares for us!"

[Oh? That brings a certain person to mind. However, I am not so sure about that. Either way, that doesn't truly matter. However, I have to say..... your queen certainly is strange. The head of the house of Lust, I believe? Lust is a strange thing, is it not?]

"What are you going on about?"

[Is lust not the desire for pleasure? The insatiable desire to be satisfied in the sins of the flesh, engaging in degeneracy to the point of obsession? She seems to be controlling you well, and as a fellow master of many slaves I cannot say that I disapprove. But there is something that I would question your queen on.]

The voice of the woman became slightly confused, and the man was stunned with her words, unsure of what to even say.

[Why would she damage her goods like this?]

The voice which the man heard did not seem to be disturbed or concerned with this situation. Whoever was behind it seemed to know all, yet did not hold even the slightest bit of worry.

Rather, she spoke with pure curiosity.

[Is it for pleasure? The pleasure of having your own servants fawn over you to the point of death? Or perhaps she has no control over those she has control over? Perhaps it is like a switch, which can be turned on or off, but there is no such thing as a middle ground?]

The man became confused at these statements, unsure what to make of them. He couldn't tell if this voice meant harm to his queen or not, yet he was certainly suspicious.

"What do you wish with our queen? Who are you?", he asked while standing.

[Oh? The mad man has regained his sanity, for the sake of his queen. Is that right? You wish to play as a shining knight? No, I don't believe that is the case. You cannot forgive yourself. Allowing yourself out of that room is impossible in the first place, and even if it were.... you would not. Because you are punishing yourself.]

As if the voice could read the very mind of the man, she spoke a line which tore into his very heard.

[Because the person who has hurt your queen more than anyone right now... is you.]

Being thrown around and toyed with by a strange voice that may very well have been his own imagination, the man began to hold his head in terror.

"Please.... no..... stop...."

[I am merely curious about your queen. That is all. We are curious. We don't mean to fight her, or to cause her any harm. If she is civil, then we intend to negotiate here. After all, only a monster would attack without at least speaking first. Right?]

And then, as if driving a dagger further into the heart of the spiritual man, the voice spoke with such coldness that he fell onto the ground, writhing in agony.

[Ah, but words can hurt even more that wounds sometimes.]

"Agh!!!! What have I done to my queen!!!!! How could I do this to her!!!!!"

With a crisp laugh, the feminine voice seemed to trail off, allowing the man to sulk in his own agony.

The wounds that he had inflicted upon his queen had been deeply driven into him like a nail with a hammer.

He knew better than anyone even before being beaten by the others that he had made a grave mistake, and that their own anger was justified.

He had begged to be locked up and intended to never come out unless the queen herself ordered it. If he starved to death on his own, it would not even compare to her pain.

Even with such resolve, the guilt would have remained. This man truly believed with all his heart that he had done something so horrible that it was worthy of a hundred deaths over. And the words of the feminine voice only continued to slam him with the reality of his situation.

Yet as the voice trailed off, one final statement was made.

One which made this man freeze with terror, for there was a weight behind it that made him fear not for his own life, but for the life of his queen who he would give his life for a thousand times over.

[You need not worry about your queen. I only plan to make her our slave.]

----

"Your smile is adorable when you close your eyes like that. Is something happening?"

Trevor, who sat within one of the barrier thrones next to Samantha, looked over to the succubus as he spoke with confidence.

"Oh, I just was relieving a little stress, and gathering some information while I was at it. Reading people's emotions..... it's quite interesting. I have a number of questions to ask this 'Queen of Lust' when we meet her."

"How prudent of you. And here I was simply waiting for the time to pass.", Trevor said while checking his watch.

"That's obviously a lie, isn't it?", Ashley responded while hanging over her chair with her head upside down. "You're running simulations right now, aren't you?"

"As I've said before, your intuition is terrifying. Or perhaps you sensed me doing so?"

"How would I sense something like that? I just know. It's kinda obvious."

"Keh heh.... how diligent of you two to be working hard at a time like this. Should I do something myself?", Garett asked.

"I don't see much that you could do until we are invited inside. Simply sit by and wait, Gary."

"Got it."

The four had light conversation in front of the guards, who were clearly disturbed by the four.

'The antiheroes..... do they pose a threat to our queen? I myself do not know. I trust that our queen knows exactly what she is doing, however if anything were to go wrong.....'

"All of you seem to really care about her. Or perhaps care isn't exactly the right word."

Putting her demonic finger to her lips, Samantha brushed aside a tassel of hair with a snide smile.

"You desire for her well being. This desire..... it is her power, is it not? This is the ability of lust. To instill a desire within others to love.... to serve.... and to want."

"You've discovered so much already, my woman? Desire, eh? To want something, to the point where you would do anything for it... even give up your very soul... is that not the true essence of lust?"

With a nod, Samantha looked around to see a couple of guards rushing back from the tower, likely with a response.

"Exactly. They all have been instilled with a desire for the person that has cast the spell upon them. A desire that overwhelms even their own emotions and desires."

"Is that a bad thing? Or a good thing? What do you think, Sarah?", Ashley asked while swirling her head around, her hair flailing about like a wildfire.

"I wouldn't say it's necessarily a bad thing. After all, loyalty is important among slaves. It is a method I would not hesitate to use. There is only one issue with it."

As Samantha made this statement, Trevor smirked, knowing what she was about to say.

In unison, the two lovers spoke.

"It decreases efficiency."

The guards who were sent to their queen with the message returned with strangely happy expressions, however Samantha knew the reason well before they could even respond.

"I see. Then let us go."

"Eh? I haven't even said anything yet!", the man replied as the four were now getting up from their seats.

"Do you even need to speak? I already know your answer. And even if I did not, then we would be entering either way."

"Er....."

The men stepped to the side, unable to argue as they had been given orders from their queen to invite the guests inside. Even given their own rude statements, the fact of the matter was that they had been ordered to invite these people in.

"Please come right this way, guests of our queen. She will be receiving you on the topmost floor."

One man motioned to the entrance, about to lead the four into the tower, however Ashley looked up with a bored face.

"Eh..... nah, I don't think so. I don't like climbing stairs."

With a creepy grin, her green eyes seemed to light up just a bit.

Her ragged hair, which was even more of a mess than usual from being twirled about, seemed to spark with energy.

The four beings shot into the air with such speed that it would look as if they had disappeared from view.

The guards looked around in confusion, unsure where the four had rushed off to.

"Where.... where did they go?", one asked in surprise.

"I.... I'm not sure....."

It was then that they heard the creaking of a window which had been opened as it swung back and forth.

Looking up on the top floor, the window which led to the throne room had been left open, as if on purpose.

"Don't tell me they just flew up there....."

"In that second....."

"I didn't even see them cast a spell or use any sort of incantation.... there was almost no indication at all...."

The men in the courtyard were merely left to speculate, however upon realizing the situation, they all rushed inside.

"We must get to the side of the queen!!!"

"We will be by her side as she speaks with these antiheroes!!! We will support her from behind, if only the slightest amount!!!!"