"Have you tried the effect on yourself?" He then asked me.
Huh? Why would I?
"N-no?" I answered.
Silence fell in the room. In the meantime, he changed from using a pen to a pencil; he was intently noting down his theories while I was slowly curling into a ball in the corner of the bed.
"Mhhh, color, demon enhancements, illusion breaking… I was thinking, originally it… restored things to their natural state, but that wouldn't explain the fact it enhances demonic energy. Mhh… it causes headaches. But why would it not work on the floor and on the walls?" He muttered to himself.
He was walking in circles while trying to take notes and scribbling on his notebook, trying to find something that tied all the clues together.
"We should test it out!" he said, shutting his notebook loudly.
"Can we do it next time?" I proposed immediately after.
It's pretty late; we just got over a pretty horrible day, and the whole house is in pure chaos. Right now it's not exactly the time to start making—
He got out of the bed, grabbed my hand, and without uttering a word, he dragged me outside the room, removing the clothes stuck on the door and dragging me throughout the house in search of a test subject.
We were able to find our test subject in no time; it was a masked maid. She was hiding in a small storage container containing all the tools necessary to clean the house, as well as the chemicals needed to clean our clothes.
Along with her were over a dozen other maids, trembling in fear, all cramped in such a small space, all to avoid the other bodyguards who were slaughtering the remaining servants as per the order of the family head.
When Leo suddenly opened the door, I could see their souls almost leaving their bodies; they were terrified and seemed ready to even attack us, yet they didn't; they stayed as still as possible, waiting for our first move.
It can't be helped; they cannot be trusted, not after pulling such a crazy stunt, so everyone has to be uprooted and substituted with more capable and loyal maids.
I thought while watching Leo scrutinize every maid to choose which one will be lucky enough to survive tonight's slaughter.
I felt a bit sad for their situation; I'm sure it was frightening. Some of them could have surely been innocent, but now because of some bad apple, they were also next in line on the chopping block.
Leo didn't seem to think in the same way that I did; he stared intently at each one of them and quickly chose the test subject to find out the true extent of my weapon's abilities.
"You, you'll do just fine. I can't smell the scent of demons on you. I was hoping to find more pure individuals, but I guess the others were too fast at cleaning up the place." He commented as he pointed at the girl he chose.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"It's simple; these are probably the only remaining maids. Doesn't matter; they'll most likely not survive—" In an act of panic, one of the other maids tried getting a hold of him as he was speaking to hold him hostage.
Before she could utter a word, flames came out of his body, burning the body of the maid alive.
"Ah, she stained my clothes, fuck!" He complained as he watched the smear left on his clothes by the blood and charred flesh of the maid.
The maid he pointed at quickly stepped forward and began to follow us as we headed downstairs towards an unused room of the house. She was trembling like a leaf, sobbing as silently as she possibly could with every step she made.
"Relax; if you can satisfy me, you'll be able to make it out alive." Leo said to calm the maid; unfortunately, that didn't work. He didn't bother making a second attempt.
As we walked past one of the bodyguards inspecting the rooms, Leo had to explain why he needed her alive and agreed to keep that bodyguard by his side during the experiments.
So now here we were; I was at the center of the room, facing this poor and completely helpless maid. She was tied to a chair; the veil over her face at least covered her face, but I could tell that she was trembling in fear, fighting to be as quiet as possible while silently sobbing.
I didn't want to continue; I wanted to take it back, return to Leo's room, or maybe go visit Ilay's and return to the times we were happily playing board games together, or video games, but if I did that, that maid would have surely been killed. She was kept alive so long as Leo was interested in finding out my power.
But torturing her like this… death could probably be a better fate.
"What's wrong?" Leo asked me.
Do you really not see what's wrong with this situation? Is this what you truly are? Where is the sweet and caring Leo I always knew?
I sighed and raised the blue handgun. My hand was sweating profusely; I was also trembling a bit. The images of all the people affected negatively flashed before my eyes: the sound of a head smashing and cracking itself against the wall, the delirious patient, the feverish lady. It all came back in a flood of twisted emotions.
I gripped the weapon with both hands to stop the trembling, took a deep breath, and fired at the maid.
Leo then immediately came in to inspect her, followed by the bodyguard who was on high alert.
Putting his hands under the veil, he checked her temperature, then he removed the veil to inspect her eyes. She turned her head away as soon as he removed the veil, and the bodyguard intervened to stop her, forcing her eyes open with his hands.
"I don't see any visible changes right here; how do you feel?" He asked her.
The maid didn't answer.
"If you cooperate, I can let you live and join as one of my personal maids; you don't have to worry about the stupid rules here; after today's incident, I'm sure there will be nobody willing to enforce them on us." He said to the maid.
I was feeling lightheaded; the room was spinning around incredibly while slowly twisting itself; that's how it felt; my stomach was tying knots around itself while pushing the food back towards my mouth.
Before I knew it, I was on my knees, sweating profusely, breathing with my mouth as I felt as if something was slowly suffocating me. I could only hear static noise around me as Leo and his bodyguard were trying to help me.
They got me a chair to sit on, and with a fan, blew some air to me as I was slowly recovering. In the meantime, I could see many smiling faces emerge from the walls.
No, you're not real, you're not real… Get out of my sight! My pills, quickly… No, no, no, no, why did I leave them at home today?
I raised Colorful Madness and fired at one of those creepy faces; the projectile bounced around a bunch of times until it hit me, making the discomfort partially disappear.
"Young master, please get away; the young Lucifer is currently experiencing a panic attack; it's not safe to remain here." The bodyguard pleaded with Leo, but he didn't hesitate for a second and came hugging me.
We remained silent for a couple of minutes. I was slowly recovering myself; I could still feel my stomach upset. The act of constantly swallowing back my puke had tired me quite a bit, and Leo remained silent, hugging me until I was able to speak again.
"Sorry, I'm sure that must've been scary to see." I apologized.
"Don't worry, everything is fine." He assured me by tightening the hug.
"How do you feel?" He asked.
"Much better. After the bullet hit me, I was finally able to calm down." I answered.
He then let me go, and his bodyguard handed him his notebook along with his pencil, and he immediately began to scribble something on it.
"The maid also immediately stopped crying the moment she got hit; she is still extremely scared, but nowhere near as much as she was before. We're back to square one." He explained.
This means…
"I think we've done enough testing for today… I don't want you to force yourself; you're tired enough as it is. Why don't we go back to my room and enjoy some snacks?" I was glad to see that he had returned back to his cheerful old self with his childish smile.
"Yeah, let's do that." I answered.
"Ah, keep her alive; we're going to need her in the future since she's one of the few that doesn't have either demonic artifacts or powers. I'm sure Father will not object to it." He said to the bodyguard before we left the room.