That's how it's...! Oh... umm... tee-hee...?

"Well, then there's no reason to worry then, right? I've heard she kills only those who support the Demonkin! None of us have done that, right?! Why not tell her that?!"

"Did you already forget about the ones she killed in the pawnshop!? None of them had anything to do with demons! How about you will do your job and protect Victor instead of trying to put him in unnecessary danger?!"

The bodyguard shrugged his shoulders and pointed out, but his words made the woman clench her fists and slam them on her desk, breaking the quill she was using for writing. She stood up and scolded him, clearly agitated.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! If you have nothing to hide, there should be no reason to block the inquisitor, shouldn't there?"

The bodyguard scoffed back, walking towards the door.

"Both of you should stop acting as if I'm not in the room."

"...sorry…"

"Tsk."

The black-haired man stopped pacing around and declared with a grim expression, making the young woman lowered her head apologetically while the burly bodyguards clicked their tongues with dissatisfaction, standing by the door.

"For me, it all still sounds like excuses. How about you explain yourself to the inquisitor instead?"

Suddenly, the bodyguard reached to the door and pointed it, announcing with a rather nasty smile.

"?!?!"

"!!!"

The black-haired man and the light-brown-haired woman flinched, staring in disbelief at the black-haired girl with a grim expression entering the room.

"Hello. I have a few questions, but first, let's deal with the demon follower in the room~"

"!!!"

The intruder let in by the bodyguard smirked in a rather nasty way as she announced, staring straight at the light-brown-haired woman, who cowered and started to tremble.

"Wait! There must be some kind of mistake! Molly would never…!"

Victor raised his hands, shielding his underling with his own body, and tried to reason with the black-haired girl.

"Oh, shut it. I just heard your little conversation. Things can't be clearer."

But the black-haired girl merely rolled her eyes, shaking her head and reaching out one hand.

"Do you know how annoying it is to listen to the plan of some idiot whose intellect is being devoured in real time by Sophia?"

The girl added, flicking her finger and…

*SQUELCH* *WHOOSH*

"!?!?"

…turning the bodyguard holding the door open for her into a crimson stain on the floor and wall while the shockwave of the attack sent all the papers on Molly's desk flying.

Disguised Melinda then lowered the hand she was putting up towards the local crime boss and his scribe as a distraction and pouted grumpily.

"Demons infiltrated more than I expected. Sophia is one thing. She is THE wisdom-devouring demon, but even Gore? That meat-for-brains Gore?! His followers are the easiest to identify because of the body horror and stench, and still they are the ones popping up everywhere as if no one could figure them out?"

The girl shook her head in disbelief, letting out an exaggerated sigh as she spoke to the bewildered pair.

"Anyways. Back to the point. Victor. You're the one involved with bothering the orphanage in the west? The one run by a man named Jude."

Melinda shook her head to clear her mind and asked the black-haired man, taking him by surprise.

"I… I am… What does the inquisitor want to be involved in, though…?"

"I-if we're allowed to know that, of course!"

Victor responded hesitantly, furrowing his brows at the intruder, but his words were quickly followed by the panicked Molly, who tried to lessen the potential backlash despite shaking like a leaf.

"Listen. I do not care about this country in the slightest, so I will not even attempt to make it a better place. But let's be honest. Sex work should be exclusively for adults. This country considers humans fifteen and over as... adults... and... umm..."

Melinda straightened her back and pointed out, explaining things plain as she saw them, only to slowly stop talking with an awkward expression.

"...crap... I totally forgot that the age of adulthood here is fifteen... that girl is a legal adult, isn't she...?"

The disguised girl muttered to herself, getting slightly red in the face from embarrassment.

"A-anyway...! Abducting people is still extremely wrong! Forcing them into sex work against their will is just as bad! Besides, I'm quite sure your thugs would not stop at kidnapping that one girl in the first place, and all the other girls from that orphanage are under fifteen!"

"...?"

"???"

Melinda became flustered and lost most of her confidence, making Victor furrow his brows and glance back at Molly to see if she was feeling just as confused about the situation as he was.

And she indeed was.

"Of course. Society requires rules to function. And like it or not, criminals are part of it too. Even monsters runnign on pure instinct have some sort of rules."

After a brief moment of hesitation, Victor nodded his head and responded eloquently, hoping that he was choosing the right words that would not anger the person he thought of as the inquisitor.

"EXACTLY! I'm pleased that you're seeing it that way."

Melinda jumped at the chance and nodded back at him.

"That said, I hope you understand that forcing underage girls to any sort of preparatory training, and even… attempting to hire them against their own will or the will of their guardian, will be considered by yours truly as a breach of that rule. And as such, will earn my disapproval."

She cleared her throat and decided to say the speech she had prepared beforehand, even though the main point of it was a result of her mistake.

"...if you wish so, we could draft a bonding contract right now. I will pledge that I will purge any instances of the activities you find distasteful from my organization, be it abducting girls or forcing them into sex work…"

"I don't need a contract. I can just kill you and everyone else involved. Don't think that works just on demon followers, sweetie."

Victor bowed slightly towards Melinda as he made an offer, but the disguised girl merely scoffed, raising her hand and moving back a finger to prepare for a flick.

"N-NO! Please, don't! Victor is serious!"

"What are you doing!?"

As a reaction to the motion, the light-brown-haired young woman jumped out from behind the black-haired man to shield him with her body, which in turn resulted in him grabbing her and pulling her back to once again get her to safety… although in that case, the so-called safety was just an empty word, all things considered…

"...waah~! That was so cute...! Should I try acting like that around Zane…?"

"...?!"

"...eh…?"

Watching them, Melinda lowered her hand and let out a happy noise, making both scared individuals deeply confused for a change.

"Alright. Since you lifted my mood like that, let's have this whole contract ready after all. Just remember to stipulate that the punishment for breaking the rule will end up in swift annihilation for the person responsible~"

The disguised girl decided, walking past the pair and taking a seat of honor behind Victor's desk.

"You know what? Make it possible to only work as an escort after turning eighteen years old. Get on it. I don't want this to be my whole day."

"..."

Melinda added, leaning back in the rather comfortable chair and waving her hand at Victor and Molly with a benevolent smile.

After the document was done and signed in two copies, Melinda took one and hid it within her clothes after folding it.

"..."

"...can we do anything else for you…?"

Then the girl stood up and walked to the door but stopped, looking back at the pair, which made Vincent fidget nervously before asking.

"Not really, but I do want to make one thing straight."

Melinda shook her head and said.

"When I speak about demon followers, I mean the followers of the four demon kings. Sophia, Gore, Lilith, and Bob. As long as they will not try to get in my way, I have no problem with any of the species under the wide umbrella of the collective name of demon kind."

She pointed out before turning around with a satisfied expression, about to leave.

"Wh-what do you mean four demon lords?! There are four demon lords?! I always thought there was supposed to be only one and that it hadn't appeared yet!"

"...!"

But as she was walking away, she heard the bewildered gasp of the black-haired man and flinched in realisation.

…the knowledge she accidentally imparted on the pair was something that - in the game's timeline - would not become common knowledge until two years into the future…

"The one you think you're referring to is Domonic god's champion. Four demon lords have been around for thousands of years, each having at least three generals. The generals are replaced every couple of decades as are actual demon kind and hence get older in a similar way that humans do. I could give you a whole encyclopedia worth of explanation, but… I will not. Just make sure your underlings will stay away from the orphanage. Oh, and it would be nice if you make sure that other organizations would too."

Instead of trying to play it off, Melinda dropped an even bigger information bomb right on Victor and Molly's heads, ending it all with a shrug and a reminder before leaving.

"...I believe we just heard something that should not be released to general public… does… does that mean that she is putting us to some test…?"

Molly ended up gulping down her saliva, looking up at the black-haired man as she tired to comprehand the motives of the person she believed to be one of the inquisitors.

"It very well might be so… Putting that aside, I'm glad you didn't point out that all of our girls are consenting adults in the first place. Types like our Miss Inquisitor often hate to be corrected and proven wrong, and it's not hard to imagine how she would react upon learning that she came here being completely mistaken. It really is best to just play along."

Victor breathed out, rubbing his neck and pointing out after a short glance at the stain that was his bodyguard only a few moments ago.

"You say so, but even then, she put us on the spot with that age limit... Ah... but… wasn't Jude the person John complained about…? The one trying to get into the business without following the proper steps?"

Molly nodded before hesitating for a second as she remembered an important detail.

"She'll figure it out, and then her anger should be focused on him alone."

Victor shrugged his shoulders with a rather nasty smile.