Through use of Princess Clarise Contzen''s highly experimental Time Reversal Toothpick, the previous few chapters detailing the succubus encounter have all been condensed and tidied up! There is also an entirely new outcome!

    Spoiler

    Succubus has joined the Royal Villa as meido!

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    Sunshine was the enemy.

    It was the first lesson in How To Be A Succubus 101. Except Tione made for a poor student. And unlike her sisters, she didn’t need the darkness to hide her blemishes.

    Her smile was proof of that.

    Not only was it faultless, but through years of studious effort and training, she’d learned how to carefully twist her lips in such a way that she could maintain her smile for 17 minutes and 42 seconds. A record which immediately earned her the honorary title of matriarch. Most succubuses could barely hold theirs for a single moment before their inner disdain for whoever they were scamming revealed itself.

    Tione was a prodigy. A peerless beauty. A unicorn amidst mules.

    And she was meant for greater things than the damp and the dark.

    Of course, it wasn’t all bad beneath the surface. There was comfort in the depths. In the gentle dripping of water as it made its journey through the stone, the song of the night orchids as they bloomed, and the cries of dwarves as they dropped their pickaxes and fled because Malgazuth, Tyrant of the Cinder Throne and Devourer of Worlds was passing by to check on how his goldfish pond was doing.

    But for all the joys that her next door neighbour could bring, there were things which not even the scamping feet of intruders could match.

    The music of harps. The intrigue of court. The swishing of a flowing gown.

    And most of all–

    “Heheheheheh.”

    There was also the mystery sculptor.

    Her mystery sculptor.

    Tione didn’t know who he or she was. Only that as she emerged from a goblin cave and almost directly into a ravine, that finding this person was her only objective. And all she had for clues was a single clay figurine clutched in her palms.

    A fruit slime in the midst of a bounce.

    It was the most immaculate work of sculpting she had ever seen.

    To lesser eyes, it would appear as little more than a children’s plaything. But for Tione who had graced the palaces of beings whose names were now lost to decaying tomes, it was exemplary.

    The details in the way the fruit slime squished itself prior to hopping were so lifelike that she’d initially thought it was a real fruit slime that had been magically petrified. And that was nothing compared to the dragon figurine she’d left behind in her home. If a mage enlarged it, she had no doubt it’d cause an entire kingdom to evacuate.

    As a result, Tione came to the surface for one reason–

    She wanted herself to be sculpted.

    A full-size statue. Nothing else would do.

    She wanted a model of her so true to life that she could leave it outside her door to collect gifts on her behalf. The time saved and the amount of cheek muscles allowed to rest would be extraordinary.

    … She also wanted to complete her figurine collection.

    Tione had no doubt that the artist would want to sculpt her. It was an honour that would have everyone above and below the surface brawling with each other to do. As a succubus, any attempt to recreate her image was normally a hideous insult.

    Sadly for her ambitious plans, issues started piling up immediately.

    The figurines originated from a kingdom called Tirea. That also suggested the sculptor was human.

    Both were excellent clues. But while she’d successfully exited the correct goblin cave, the fact remained that she had utterly no idea where to go. She needed to ask for directions.

    This was a problem she didn’t think she’d have.

    Shockingly, humans were extremely wary of beautiful women soliciting them out of nowhere. And while she could conceal her horns, she could do little about her naturally alluring nature.

    She could charm everyone for answers, but signs of her magic would swiftly mean a cadre of armed paladins gently querying her with their maces and swords.

    Instead … she had to rely on the only thing which seemed to shine more than her beauty.

    Crowns.

    Tione’s smile was enough to secure a 95% discount on everything she needed. But few things came for free. And she realised very swiftly that without offering anything in return, the only humans prominent enough to assist her stopped smiling in return.

    In fact, they became actively unhelpful.

    As she travelled from village to village, fruit slime in hand, rumours of a penniless dark sorceress soon began to precede her. It was awful. But she’d at least learned that the mystery artist was likely based in the kingdom’s capital. A journey that would require multiple carriages and crowns she didn’t have.

    Tione was soon given a stark choice.

    She could make the arduous trip back home and come back with a heap of gold crowns … or she could risk confrontation by either using magic or perhaps stealing what she needed.

    Faced with the brutal reality of her lack of preparation, she decided to do what any succubus would.

    “... Have you decided what to order … ?”

    She got a job.

    Replacing her elegant dress with a waitress’s uniform, Tione, famed courtesan, succubus and demon matriarch, smiled as she held up a tray against her chest.

    It was the most efficient and safest way to accrue what she needed.

    While she could probably find who she needed without resorting to temporary employment, the fact remained that having a few crowns made things exceptionally easier than having no crowns whatsoever. S~ea??h the N??elFirё.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Even so, it wasn’t easy.

    In fact, it was incredibly difficult.

    Tione might have cried. Several times. In front of customers.

    Waitressing was a skill far beyond anything she’d ever undertaken.

    As a succubus, she lacked for nothing. Everything she didn’t even know she wanted and a lot of things she definitely didn’t were simply handed to her for existing. Actually needing to move her limbs instead of others moving theirs to accommodate her was a new experience.

    Regardless, Tione persevered.

    She endured the broken tableware, the drunken hollering, the stained everything and the late nights.

    She learned how to take orders, serve food, clear tables, handle transactions … and she learned how to scrub.

    So much scrubbing.

    It was constant. An endless battle against the currents as she grit her teeth like a drowning sailor. From the second she started to the moment she collapsed in her lodgings above The Rosehearth Tavern, all Tione could do was survive.

    Days turned to weeks and weeks into months. Her life became a blur as stains, alcohol and the faces of her regulars filled up her memories.

    Every now and again, a reminder appeared from the back of her head letting her know she’d earned more than enough crowns to get by.

    In fact, she could move out of her shared lodgings. But it was always useful to have more.

    What if the sculptor demanded payment? What if the search went on for months?

    And most of all–

    “[Sacred Entombment].”

    What if her fellow succubuses conspired to send a powerful mage to seal her away, having learned that she was single-handedly improving their reputation?

    In that event, Tione wished she had more.

    Her bribe wasn’t enough.

    The playfully named staff door was the nearest viable prison. Wood was a living vessel, and was appropriate as a means to send a message. It was strong enough to hold her, but also weak enough to falter … eventually.

    Tione learned a lot in the time to come.

    She learned that her sisters were the least salvageable people in existence. She learned that people were now even more willing to hire her. She learned that princesses were avatars of destruction. And she learned not to accept a contract when the one writing it knew that a princess was on her way.

    But most of all, she gained a new perspective.

    The identity of her sculptor was still a mystery. And yet it was no longer more than a curiosity.

    Despite her field of vision being largely fixed, she saw more of the world as a door than she ever had as a succubus. She watched as Lady Lumielle’s domain flourished, the flowers blooming, wilting and renewing. A cycle of life and colour.

    A beauty different from her own, and one which didn’t exist beneath the surface.

    Tione enjoyed watching it very much.

    Of course, it also helped that she wasn’t alone.

    “Ooph,” came a lively voice. “I thought I was heading back home there. And not in the way I wanted.”

    The freshly released succubus blinked as she stared at the sky, the back of her head resting against her little garden she’d worked to nurture.

    Then, she turned her head slightly.

    Climbing unashamedly from a shrub he’d been hiding in, the Ashen Duke rose like a figure from legend.

    Adorned in golden and sanguine armour gifted by the Lady of the Crimson Tower, he was the very picture of a phoenix knight. Except the flames were now entirely spent. Or perhaps they’d simply been whisked away–just like a door, a curse and even an infernal contract had been.

    The Ashen Duke stretched, his bones cracking into place.

    His armour and enchanted jewellery allowed him a significant amount of damage, but the blows he received were by no means small, even if he did know to leap out of the way the moment that princess began doing … whatever that ridiculous thing was.

    “Are you unharmed … ?” asked Tione.

    The Ashen Duke gave an energetic nod.

    Then, dispensing with his act, he lifted his helmet off, revealing a face which caused nothing but problems when he was doing anything in public.

    But that was expected of a lord incubus. Especially one with as many titles as him.

    He was Master of the Smouldering Cycle. Ruler Of Mzerydon. Heir to the Seventh Plane of the Unyielding Flame. President of Tione’s fan club.

    And also her father.

    “Oh, I’m quite well,” he said with exaggerated sprightliness. “No need to worry. You should have seen what I looked like when I first started wearing this armour. Thought I was invincible. Well, I was–mostly. But invincible doesn’t mean untwistable. Your mother was wincing for a week.”

    “I heard. She says she thinks about that scene when she’s annoyed with you.”

    “Really? I can’t see why wincing would help with that.”

    “She doesn’t wince anymore. She smiles.”

    “Oh.”

    Tione’s father looked sheepish as he now considered every recent memory where an argument was suddenly interrupted by a smile.

    It was a certain innocence which most people didn’t associate with incubuses. But then again, Tione herself was hardly the representative of her kind. Like father, like daughter.

    After a moment, she stretched out her arms and rolled for the sake of it.

    “You don’t need to visit anymore,” she said into a dandelion. “... But thank you for pretending not to be bored.”

    “Please, Tione. If I ever find you boring, rest assured I’d never visit. Until then, I hardly need you entombed in a door to find an excuse to visit. Although I admit it helps. You wander slightly less. I wonder if that’ll continue to be the case?”

    Tione counted the fluff as she blew at the dandelion.

    The fact she was alive to do that was unbelievable.

    Succubuses were specialists in ways to get themselves murdered. Envy was a sin for a reason, and it was the emotion they helped pollinate the most. Most of all, however, was the fact that they were also very unlucky when it mattered most. They lacked for nothing, true, but everything worked on a scale.

    She wondered what the cost of this would be.

    “I’m not sure,” she said honestly. “I think I’ve been released ... although I’ve no idea how. The princess … she broke the door.”

    Her father chuckled.

    “She didn’t break the door,” said the Ruler Of Mzerydon, his keen eyes flashing even without a phoenix helmet. “She severed it. Just as she did your bindings.”

    “... How?”

    “Good question. There are swords in Ouzelia said to be powerful enough to shatter the laws of magic. But as far as I can see, we are neither in Ouzelia, nor was that the sword of a heroine. To do what she did … well, let’s just say I’m glad I decided to make friends with the shrubbery.”

    Tione could only stare.

    Although he spoke with his usual perkiness, there was no flippancy in his words.

    That princess … that girl, she could do with a normal sword what others needed a holy relic to do.

    For a moment, the succubus closed her eyes, wondering if her rescuer was a saintess in service to the heavens or a knight from the pages of a fairytale. Either way, she had no idea why she’d be worthy of being rescued. She had even less regarding why she’d be hired as a maid.

    As far as Tione was aware, there was nothing she could offer.

    … At least not yet.

    She still needed to find the sculptor of her fruit slime … except it wouldn’t be herself she’d be commissioning.

    Tione hummed as she imagined what sort of pose a princess would like.

    Still, perhaps she could simply ask her.

    She’d need help with her new garden, after all.