Gill entered his hospital’s ward and couldn’t help but be pleased with its art nouveau architecture and design.

Just because he was running a hospital in the Netherworld didn’t mean he had to stick to the Hell and brimstone aesthetic. It wouldn’t be original, which Gill detested more than the lack of style. Ignoring the grotesque massive pillars of red slimy substance descending from the ceiling, it was a place where even humans would be comfortable resting.

From the door openings to the stained glass, arched windows, and furniture molded with mesmerizing undulating lines, all shined with beautiful warm colors. Decorative ornaments of flowers and beautiful demonic women with curly hair covered the walls.

Gill walked across the parquet rug with a fancy pattern while eyeing the hospital’s demonic staff in their black uniforms treating his house servants. In the room, all the demons remained in their natural forms, which were beastly for some or human-like for Beta Demons (humans who became demons).

He stopped when he reached the bed where his head maid rested, having her vitals checked on a machine by a Succubus nurse. “Can you give us some space?” Gill asked the nurse as he delicately put a hand on her shoulder.

She nodded and walked away without a protest.

Amice, the head maid in a patient’s gown, had completely recovered. Her face with Swiss-like features was spotless once again, and her platinum-blonde hair returned to its original color. All traces of Kian’s infection had been erased. It was an easy job.

Sliding his hands into the pockets of his checkered suit, Gill looked down at the sylph. “Feeling better, Amice?” He already knew the answer. Of course, he did. He led the operation himself.

“Yes,” she said, smiling her beautiful smile. “Thank you for saving me, Master Gill.”

Gill smiled his hollow smile. “No need to thank a doctor for doing their job right. It’s what they are supposed to do, what’s expected. Speaking of which, why didn’t you do your job properly?”

Amice made a look that had Gill visibly twitch as he kept his hollow smile. “Sorry?” she asked cautiously.

Gill slightly tilted his head to the side without getting rid of the smile. “Why did you help Kian?”

The sylph paused, trying to read his look, and said, “Master, I’m not sure I follow.”

Gill beckoned her over. “Come here, you beautiful thing.”

Amice obeyed, sat up, crawled closer to him, and then positioned herself with her back straight, hands on her lap, and her eyes fixated on Gill like a disciplined child.

The simultaneously warm and cold intoxicating feeling of decreasing purity had commenced inside Gill. While on his high, he moved his head close to Amice until their noses touched. “Are you going to make me repeat myself?”

Amice didn’t dare to move back. She tried the same futile tactic again. “Master, I do not know what you are—”

“Amice, please answer my question.”

She stayed quiet. Finally, realizing that wasn’t the best play. Dropping the act of playing dumb, she said, “I didn’t help Kian—”

The beautiful being took an ugly punch to the lip. Working staff and patients alike stopped and stared as Amice shakily pulled herself up to sit in the same position. Back straight. Hands on lap. Eyes focused on Gill.

Her quivering lip and glossy eyes were a dismissable sight for Gill. He pressed on. “When did you start lying to me? Who taught you to do that?” Gill looked back at his spectating underlings. They quickly looked away and carried on.

Amice began to cry. The sound of the sylph’s pathetic sobs was annoying and had Gill squirm in place. Amice was a being that lacked demonic beauty and was only able to exist in such a deep level in the Netherworld, thanks to his genius supplements. Seeing her divine face twist in anguish wasn’t pitiful, just bothersome. “Ey, did I tell you to cry, or did I tell you to answer my question?”

Amice tried holding it back, but it only made her cry louder.

“Amice, what is the order I gave you?”

And she ate another fist to the lip.

“Did I order you to cry?” Gill asked, no longer smiling.

“No, M-M-Master,” Amice answered, sitting up again. Back straight. Hands on lap. Eyes on Gill. “The order was for me to answer the question.”

“So, why?” Gill shouted.

“He said he’d help me get out of the contract.”

Gill froze as his jaw dropped. “You little ungrateful….” He pulled back a fist. Amice flinched back with her eyes closed. A disappointed sigh came from Gill. “I can’t believe you’d betray me like this.” He stepped away from her bed and paced around in circles.

Once Gill stopped, a male demon nurse hastily approached him—straightened his tie, and wiped the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief.

After the demon walked away, Gill focused on Amice. “I put a stop to hunters killing your kind for your wings. I single-handedly save your kind from extinction. I give you a home. Let you be a part of a family. My family.” He spread his arms wide apart. “Our family! And this is the thanks I get?”

Amice stared back at Gill, dropping her posture, and then corrected it immediately. Back straight. Hands on lap. Eyes on Gill.

The sight of the sylph shivering with tears cascading down her cheeks and her busted swollen lip only made him want to hurt her more.

“Y-Y-You tricked me,” Amice said, digging her own grave.

“What did you say?”

“The contract you tricked me into signing. You said I’d be treated like family, but I am nothing more than your slave.”

“So now families can’t help each other. I’m sorry; someone saves your entire race, gives you food you never have to pay for, clothes, a community, and a place to sleep in exchange for you to dust off a couple of pieces of furniture makes me a bad guy. Bloody hell! The audacity!”

“It’s more than that, and you know that!”

“Did you just raise your voice at me?” Gill chuckled chillingly. “Never mind that, Luv. What do you mean by that?”

“You’re a human teenage boy. I’ve seen what the carnal desires do to the males of your species,” Amice said. “You deliberately have more females under your contract than males. I know you have them do much more for you than you claim.”

“And now you are accusing me of being a deviant.” Gill removed his glasses and crushed them in his hand. His purity continued to plummet to the point where the demons in the room shook in fear. The nimbus of black energy was blowing out of him like the chimney of a steam locomotive. Each step he took formed a large crack somewhere in the room.

Amice dropped her posture and crawled back until she pressed onto the headboard of her bed. Her knees were up to her chest. “I-I-I-I am sorry, Master—”

Gill grabbed the back of her neck. His massive hand could almost cover the entirety of it. He dragged her over to the middle of the room as she screamed and cried her heart out.

Amice was shoved onto the carpet.

“I want everybody to watch now!” Gill announced. “I mean it. All eyes on me right now!”

“Master, I am sorry!” Amice cried before being kicked in the face.

“Bring out your wings right now, luv,” Gill ordered.

Amice stared up at him without answering.

“Bring out your wings, you bloody minger.”

Amice put her hand over the bruise on her cheek and shook her head.

“Oh, I see. You still want to act like a complete twit.” A tap on the shoulder had Gill whip back, and he saw a face he could trust. Sylvie—his freckled face personal chef. She held up a vial in her hand.

“Use this,” Sylvie said while swirling red-orange liquid in the vial. “It’s a lovely cocktail of concentrated Hellfire and Jörmungandr venom with a teaspoon of chimera acidic blood and a dash of garlic because you can never go wrong with garlic.”

Gill smiled and took the vial. He turned Amice over with a kick to her side and dumped the liquid onto her back.

Amice skin sizzled like hot oil, and her long, skinny, white, insect-like wings burst out.

Gill forced the screaming creature still as he pressed his shoe on the center of her back, between the wings.

The sylph screamed and writhed as it repeatedly apologized, but Gill was way past accepting an apology. He gripped onto one of the panicking wings and pulled.

A smile began to widen on his face as blood sprayed from her back and splattered on his cheek.

After the wing was torn off, Gill tossed it aside and asked Sylvie, “Are there any dishes you can make using a sylph wing?”

“Yes! There’s actually something I’ve wanted to try for a while,” Sylvie replied, her eyes shimmering with excitement. “Roasted sylph wings with shredded satyr cheese and garlic. Served with sweet potatoes and elven veggies should be unbelievably delicious. I never tried making it because, you know… out of solidarity for Amice.”

Gill glared down at the bawling Amice. “What a waste of consideration.”

“I’ll get started immediately,” Sylvie said.

Gill snapped his fingers, and a large demon appeared to collect the severed wing. “Make enough for everybody, including Amice.”

“Understood,” she said, making the OK sign.

“Make sure she finishes the meal.”

“Oh, of course, Master Gill. I hate when people are wasteful with food. So inconsiderate.”

Gill pointed down at Amice. “Somebody treat her wounds and clean up this mess.” Staff members rushed to obey his order as he walked out of the room alongside Sylvie.

“Such a shame,” Sylvie started as a demon appeared and put a new set of glasses on Gill’s face. “Having one of our own betray us like that. And Kian, too. Does this mean you’ll return to the Human Realm soon, Master Gill?”

“Yes, but not to confront him just yet. To be honest, there is no need to.”

“Right,” Sylvie said and then made a bizarre giggle. “Ehehehehehe” it sounded like as she would stop momentarily to raise her hand to cover her mouth.

“There’s someone else I want to confront.”

“Ooh?”

“I have a hunch on who Yaalon’s killer might be….”

###

Aida didn’t feel good about leaving Zeke to deal with Queen Titania on his own. But it wasn’t like she didn’t try. No amount of mutations on herself coupled with Tsukikaze could rival the speed of the Fairy Queen, which was news to her.

Deciding to do something useful with her time, Aida explored the castle in search of the research lab. She was on all fours and moving fast. The halls and rooms she wandered in were devoid of life; however, she could sense sources of Mana. The fairies residing in the castle must’ve shrunk to the size of an ant and hid. Poor things had no experience when it came to war.

Aida could still hear Akachi’s thunder from outside as she found a door to a basement. She stood up and sped down the staircase as her mind went back to thinking about Zeke.

He’s smart. He’ll be okay.

It wasn’t just something she was telling herself. It was true. The Diagnostician made a genius gamble by spreading the word about Naomi’s identity to get her to defeat the Power Chief. Aida couldn’t imagine doing something that crazy in the first month she learned she was a part of the Tainted Generation.

Zeke was one of the good ones. She wondered if he could help her achieve peace between magical beasts and the rest of the Realm... and other goals; maybe it was time to stop acting solo and get stable help.

Before she could finish her thought, Aida was at the end of the staircase and in the royal research lab. There was no time to pay any attention to the regality or sumptuous machinery of the medieval facility as Aida scanned her second murder scene for the day.

Blood was everywhere. And laying on the red puddles were fairies—scientists in their light blue lab coats. Their faces were horribly bruised, bodies riddled with holes, and wings mangled.

Along with the metallic stench was a distinct scent she was all too familiar with and should’ve noticed earlier. She followed the scent until she found the witch on a desk covered in blood.

Violet, wearing a sweater and shorts equipped with her messenger bag, looked back at Aida with her glowing purple eyes.

###

Zeke let himself in the same tiny fairy home he arrived in when first traveling to the Realm. Holding his doctor’s bag in one hand, he helped carry Queen Titania into the house, who leaned onto him. He found the same small homeowner Akachi terrorized earlier.

She dropped her wooden cup of tea and cowered back. “You again!”

“I’m sorry about what happened earlier; I didn’t think he’d—”

“Her Majesty?” the fairy said, eyes bulging at the enervated Queen.

Zeke settled her down on the hand-carved sofa.

“What did you do to her?”

“Nothing,” Zeke said and rummaged through the contents of his doctor’s bag. He recalled one of his many study sessions in the Infirmary’s library. An interesting book about beings with an unusually high affinity to Mana.

“What’re you doing?” the fairy asked, keeping a large distance from Zeke.

“She has Mana Enervation,” Zeke explained. “I’m sure you are aware of it. Beings like you with an abnormally high affinity to Mana can get fatally ill when the Mana gauge depletes, but this is more common for beings without combat experience.” He studied the Queen. “You guys haven’t been attacked in centuries, so the Queen is out of practice, and her body no longer remembers what to do when there’s no more Mana in the system.” He produced a Mana bottle. “She needs to get some Mana in her right now.”

“You’re going to use the opportunity to poison her!” the fairy accused while pointing at him.

Zeke extended the Mana bottle towards her. “You guys have incredible energy detection. Sense it, and you can administer it yourself.”

The fairy looked away. “It feels like Mana, yes, but… the Tainted Generation is capable of doing all sorts of tricks.”

“I’m dangerously low on Mana myself. I have no more power to perform a spell like that.”

“You’re not lying… it’s not just that… I can’t sense any malice from you. Why is that?”

The Queen began to wheeze.

Zeke, without any energy left to scream, forced his eyelids open and focused on not passing out as he pleaded, “Please, we’re running out of time.” He opened the bottle and took a sip. “Convinced, now?”

The fairy stared in silence and then moved toward him to take the bottle. She kneeled to the Queen. “Pardon me, my Queen.” She slid her tiny hand under Titania’s head and moved the bottle to her lips.

The Queen drank it all.

Zeke let out a sigh of relief and grabbed a Mana bottle from his bag. He guzzled the entire thing down.

The Lilliputian fairy looked up at Zeke. “I don’t understand. Why are you here if not to kill our Queen?”

“I am on a mission to save humanity,” Zeke said. “There’s a plague, and the shrinking factor from your laboratory may be the only thing that can help us find a cure. I know what the Tainted Generation did. I promise you we won’t let anything like that happen again. We just need that shrinking factor, and you’ll never see us step foot in this Realm again.”

“Diagnostician…” The Queen drawled.

“My Queen!” The fairy shouted.

“Not so loud, my child….”

“I apologize, your Majesty.”

The Queen lifted her finger and pointed at Zeke. “I want you to do it.”

“What?” The fairy asked.

“The operation… please… get the worms out of me.”