Chapter 407 - 277: Zog’s Little Trick
Asmodis took less than an hour to give the *Silence of the Lambs* script a rough read-through.
It wasn’t long, only around 200,000 characters, so it was an easy read.
After getting a feel for the story, the Lord of Hell fell silent, then went back to carefully study a few specific scenes.
The more he read, the stranger the expression on his face grew.
Finally, filled with confusion, he asked, "I’m not exactly well-read, so I might be misunderstanding this, but if I’m not mistaken, this is a story about a brilliant psychopath helping a young detective catch another psychopath, right?"
The profession of "detective" had emerged in several countries on the Feilin Continent. This distinguished them from the Guard Corps system implemented in the Sutton Kingdom; detectives served the nation rather than a City Lord, and their responsibilities included protecting the populace, not just the city’s safety like the Guard Corps.
The distinction was significant.
"That’s one way to put it," Zog affirmed.
If one had to boil it down, the plot of *Silence of the Lambs* was indeed that simple.
"That brilliant psychopath," Asmodis continued, glancing at the script again, "the one named Hannibal—he eats people, and he even gets away in the end."
"He gets away."
"Then what’s the point?" Asmodis completely lost his composure. "Doesn’t this perfectly fit the Human stereotype of a Devil?"
The Lord of Hell’s chubby little hands trembled as he held the script. "He’s evil, cunning, and powerful. He plays both the detective and the criminal for fools, and in the end, he gets away. Is this supposed to improve the image of Devils or deepen people’s prejudice against them?"
In Asmodis’s view, the character of Hannibal was as devilish as could be—precisely the type that Devil-worshipping cultists would idolize.
Noble, elegant, exuding an air of absolute confidence, always one step ahead of everyone else, and wickedly smart.
He was far more impressive than the many brutes in Hell who only knew how to fight and kill.
Asmodis was even convinced that if a Devil like Hannibal truly existed, he could probably work his way up to becoming a Duke in Hell.
From the perspective of a traditional Devil, he actually quite admired a character like Hannibal.
The problem was, what they needed now wasn’t a traditional Devil, but one that would appear harmless in people’s eyes.
He felt that if this Shadow of Evil was produced, it wouldn’t improve the Devils’ situation one bit. In fact, it might even trigger another wave of panic about them.
"Calm down," Zog countered. "Where in the script does it say Hannibal is a Devil?"
"Huh?"
Asmodis froze at the question.
’That’s right... The script never actually said that.’
He recalled Hannibal’s scenes from the script; his described characteristics were more like a Human’s.
’Then again, that wasn’t proof. Plenty of Devils like to disguise themselves as Humans when they’re operating in the Human world.’
As he was recalling this, he also realized that Hannibal’s screen time in the script was very short, not even a fifth of the total, yet he gave the impression of being the absolute protagonist.
’What a brilliant character.’
’But why did I automatically assume he was a Devil?’
Asmodis reflected. It was because he himself defaulted to the idea that Devils were no good. As soon as he saw a villainous character, he assumed they were one of his own kind.
’If even the Lord of Hell held such a stereotype, how could they ever convince Humans that Devils were worth establishing relations with?’
"My thinking is too old-fashioned," Asmodis said. "But if this Hannibal isn’t a Devil, then what race is he? He can’t be a Demon, can he?"
’A Demon is out of the question.’
In Asmodis’s opinion, Hannibal could be a Devil, but he absolutely could not be a Demon. Demons were mindless and insane; they weren’t allowed to have such a charismatic villain representing their kind.
"Of course not. In fact, his race isn’t important. What he truly represents is the desire hidden deep in the heart—the desire to be superior to and control other living things. You can think of him as an amalgamation of evil. He doesn’t believe he’s doing evil; he considers himself a more advanced life form, for whom controlling the life and death of lesser beings is only natural. Believe me, once this Shadow of Evil is released, plenty of people will worship him."
Zog explained the concept behind Hannibal’s character.
"However, I’m planning to cast a Human actor for the role."
"A Human?"
Asmodis couldn’t help but feel that Zog’s last statement was an allusion to the Deities, which gave him a start.
"Yes, a Human actor. As the most populous race on the Continent, Humans have produced their fair share of psychopaths. The cruelty they inflict upon their own kind is staggering. Even when conflicts arise within the Dragon Race, it’s almost always due to the pressure to survive. As for Humans, the reasons they attack their own are bizarre and varied. Some do it just for fun."
Zog shrugged.
Most Five-Color Dragons and Metal Dragons don’t get along. He and Furin Doudou were an exception, but even so, there had never been a large-scale conflict with mass casualties between these two Dragon types.
’As for Humans... Oho, they were truly vicious when it came to hurting their own kind.’
"To be honest, I think because of your initial enmity with Humans, you Devils ended up taking the blame for a lot of things. That’s how your image got to be this way."
"’Taking the blame’... What does that mean?"
"It means Devils have taken responsibility for many faults they shouldn’t have," Zog explained. "I’ve reviewed many cases of people claiming to be tempted by Devils. Many of them had absolutely nothing to do with Devils. For others, it’s hard to say who was using whom—the person or the Devil. Perhaps those people were hoping a Devil would seek them out."
Hearing Zog say this, Asmodis’s face lit up with excitement, as if he had found a kindred spirit. "Yes, yes, yes! That’s it exactly! The Gate of Hell is controlled by the Church, so there are hardly any Devils running loose on Feilin. How could we possibly tempt that many people? If we really had that kind of power, would we even need to be..."