Path of the Demonic Villain

"Mmm... ah,"~ Dante moaned as he felt a great sensation flow through his entire body.

"Lower. Go lower. Yes, right there, right there." He leaned back on the armchair with a smile as Edward continued the foot massage.

"Is this okay, Master?" the boy smiled as he worked a thumb deep into the arch of Dante’s foot.

"Mm-hm," Dante hummed softly and closed his eyes.

On the couch not far away, Michael sat with a glass of whiskey in hand, watching the two of them with a completely blank expression.

He didn’t quite know how to feel, so he just shrugged inwardly and took a sip.

Then, he suddenly began to feel like he needed a massage too.

’A neck and back... no, a full body massage would be nice,’ he thought to himself.

At that moment, thoughts of visiting a local brothel began to settle in his mind, but after a few seconds, he shook his head to banish the idea.

"Boss," he called out, sitting up straight.

Dante only opened one eye and cast him a lazy glance.

Michael continued, "When are we going back to the Capital?"

Dante shut his eye again as he was too tired to reply.

Edward then spoke in his stead. "Tonight. Master will take the 10:30 Express back to the Capital."

"Ah..." Michael bobbed his head back. "Then that means we still have time to take out the remaining top dogs of the Victor Family."

Edward smiled as he began to grow excited. "Yes. That’s why we brought more than one Cooling Box of flasks."

"Fantastic!"

"I like your thought process, Senior."

"I like you too, lit — I mean, Edward!" Michael snapped his fingers as he spoke, then swallowed the last of his whiskey.

"So. Victor has three at the top who are actually dangerous. His right hand is a woman named Gunner. She’s a Warrior, and based on my findings earlier today, I figure she’s reached Tier 3. I have to say, she’s a crazy bitch who’s obsessed with explosive arts. I’m not sure what artifacts she possesses, but I’m sure she’ll have at least one on her."

Earlier, after finding a new tavern to stay, Michael had gone out in the crack of dawn to do some findings on Victor’s gang.

"Then we had Victor’s second-in-command, Thomas. Oh, Lord damn his soul. Ptui." Michael made a spitting motion to the side after saying the man’s name.

"Fortunately, he’s already gone. From what I heard, Thomas was the one running the debt and gambling operations alongside another Tier 2 who goes by the name Muscle. So far, those were the main ones we needed to watch out for. The rest are just low-level Tier 1 scrubs. They aren’t hard to deal with. Just... you know, put a bullet in their head and they’re done." He dragged his thumb across his throat with a quick click of his tongue before sighing.

He stood up, walked over to the side table, and picked up the dark glass bottle. Then he poured another measure of whiskey into his glass.

While he was doing this, Edward pulled a silver cigar case from Dante’s coat pocket and gently took the fliptop lighter from Dante’s hand.

Edward brought a fresh cigar to Dante’s nose for him to catch the scent. Following that, he flicked open the lighter, snapping the mechanism to light the tip before extending the glowing cigar to Dante. "Here, Master."

Dante opened his eyes and licked his dry lips before reaching out to take the cigar. "Thank you, little one."

"Of course," Edward beamed as he moved behind the armchair to begin massaging Dante’s neck.

Meanwhile, Michael continued casually as he began to pace around the room. "I was able to get a layout of Victor’s schedule. You see, every evening by six, he goes to a bistrot called The Crawfish for dinner with Gunner, Thomas, and Muscle. From there, they head over to the ’Yard.’ It’s a warehouse that sits right before his gambling den and office. That’s where he keeps those who haven’t been able to settle their debts and have ended up ’giving up’ themselves or their families to him."

He halted and turned around to face Dante. "So here’s the plan. We find a way to separate one of them from the group before they leave for the warehouse. Then, we head in and boom! Kill the other two before they realize someone’s taking them down. If they do, they’ll bring up their manpower. Victor doesn’t play."

Dante exhaled a thick plume of smoke and dropped his hand to the side. Then, he finally spoke in a dreamy, fatigued voice. "What tier is Victor?"

"Hm?" It took a second for Michael to process the question. "Oh. Tier 3."

Dante opened his eyes slowly and shot him a dark look. "Are you sure you’ll be able to bring down someone in Tier 3?"

"With enough preparation, yes." Michael shrugged. "They’re both Warriors, you know. It’d be much, much harder if they were Rogues or Mages."

Dante kept staring at him in silence as he reached up to Edward. The demon then returned the lighter to him, allowing Dante to resume his rhythm of snapping the lid open and shut.

Eventually, he sighed and smiled subtly as he leaned to the side to flick ash onto the side table. "I’ll be the one to come up with the strategy. Also, the moment we notice any anomaly, we are aborting the mission. There’s nothing wrong with leaving to prepare better. It’s much smarter than getting ourselves killed."

Michael nodded. "Of course, Boss."

Dante took another drag, exhaled, and spoke as an Appraisal Lens materialized in his palm. "In the meantime... let’s see what we looted from poor Thomas."

Upon hearing that, Michael beamed and a wide smile flashed across his face. It was the expression of someone who was stopping himself from yelling: finally!

For a moment, he seemed to lose his coordination as he took two steps to the right, before abruptly turning left and hurrying over to the side table to drop his glass. Then he stepped forward while taking out a silver ring from his pocket.

He then willed all the items inside to drop to the ground.

Like rain, several items suddenly materialized in front of them with a series of thuds.

One was a massive greatsword with runes carved along the fuller. Green metallic accents ran along the crossguard, and its hilt was wrapped in supple black leather. It featured two round sockets where mana-gems could be inserted right above the rain-guard, and currently, two green mana-gems were locked in place.

A black, tarot-sized card also fell into the pile, alongside another silver ring, a carved jade pendant, a leather wallet stuffed with high-denomination notes, a small brass key, and three sealed vials of dark crimson liquid.