In the end, copying Ellen did nothing to improve her acting.

Rather, it only seemed to cause more trouble for Audrina. Without any actual benefit for her.

Are the very least, when she was rehearsing her scene again. The reactions were still the same. The same blank stare that just said ’that’s it?’.

She glared into a random direction, her glare—which was especially cold today. Caused any of the poor bystanders caught in her gaze to shiver.

Standing quite far from her, Thomas cheerfully helped another person. A girl with long white hair, that seemed to then blend into a light pink color.

Just the way she seemed to look at Thomas and Raymond was enough for Audrina to deduce what her motives were.

Especially the way she constantly hung out with Raymond, finding any excuse in the book to chat with him.

This was one of her earliest lessons on humans after all, the strange emotion they called love.

Human emotions were really complex, even now Audrina still didn’t understand it fully. Her best understanding being that it seemed to be a strange mix of greed and lust. A complex thing that combined sin and virtue.

Since Raymond and Ellen were also clearly in love, that would make Lily a homewrecker as she understood it.

But to think that she was even going after Thomas as well...

It was unbelievable to think that some humans could be just as greedy as demons. Being a demon from the clan of Wrath, her encounters with demons from the clan of Greed were always the worst. Them and the clan of Lust as they almost always seeked to posses her.

A few of the bystanders around her yelped as Audrina suddenly melted into the shadows.

Reappearing inside the storeroom where she had been with Thomas, she locked the door again before sitting down on the floor with her legs crossed.

Just remembering her memories of the past already made her bloodlust flare up. Her demonic energy ramping up her emotions and causing them to enter a frenzy.

A dark crimson aura emanated from every part of her body, if there was a living creature in the room. They would have been able to feel the temperature drop, and a feeling as if a predator was eyeing them down.

Taking a deep breath, Audrina forced her mind to start thinking of other things. The techniques she had learned from the self-control club coming in handy as she stabilized her mental state.

The constant threat of her emotions taking over her was something that always kept Audrina on a thin wire. Any small thought or action, and her demonic energy would immediately amplify whatever emotions she was feeling no matter what it was.

All demons were born as blank slates after all, upon experiencing the environment of the demonic realm. As well as experiencing demonic energy. These two factors were what determined which clan a demon was from.

Demons who had their greed especially amplified would be a demon of greed, and Audrina. Who had her bloodlust especially amplified by demonic energy was considered a demon from the clan of wrath.

This was despite the fact Audrina had never interacted with any of the true members of the clan of wrath. It was more so just a method of separating demons based on what they pursued. True clan members were the worst, their pride alone made it so they expected every other demon below them in the same clan to unquestionably obey their orders.

Yet, this was the consequence of the demonic life, as well as demonic energy.

Demons were practically forced to be evil creatures from birth, the environment they grew up in. The effects of demonic energy, it all forced a world where it was kill or be killed.

Maybe that was why Audrina became a demon from the clan of wrath. Seeing her mother get killed just so another demon could become slightly stronger, all just to become a slightly bigger fish for other predators. Only for the cycle of killing and absorbing to repeat agin and again.

It made her blood boil.

Even now, she still never understood why her mother wished to send her here. Away from the demonic realm and to the human realm instead—or as the humans called it, Terra.

Standing up, Audrina exhaled. Her immense bloodlust having calmed down, hiding within her again for when the time was finally right.

Returning to the main room of the auditorium again, Audrina ignored the several attempts at conversation.

Her mood visibly soured in real time, and with the influence of the demonic energy residing within her. It only soured more and more.

She wanted to lie down, curl up into a ball with something covering her and go to sleep already.

But she couldn’t, because even when he was as busy as an overworked and underpaid salary man, he still found the time to locate her and drag her back. No matter how far or how elusive her hiding spot was. She even once hid under his own bed inside of the flooring, yet he still managed to find her and drag her back.

She regretted not sleeping for the two hours when Thomas was on her lap, even if it was uncomfortable sleeping while seated. Audrina was more then used to sleeping in uncomfortable positions.

So in the end, Audrina had to endure another four hours of theatre practice. Despite being at the E-rank, she still felt tired or exhausted after a long day like this. If she wanted to, she could probably force herself to keep going for days on end. But rest was crucial for physical recovery.

When they were finally let go, Audrina got ready to dash away. Only to feel a hand grab her wrist once again. The feeling something she was beginning to get used to.

Just by the touch alone, she could already determine whose hand it was.

"...let go."

"There’s going to be a small party to help us loosen up for the actual performance tomorrow. You should be there."

"...I don’t want to."

"There’s going to be free food."

"...I can cook at home."

"You set off the smoke detector eight times in the last week already."

Grr

Audrina unknowingly let out a small growl, the reminders of her eight failures in the last week irritating her.

Trying to wrom her way out was impossible as well, his grip seemed to be more concrete blocks then flesh and blood. With how exhausted she was, there was no way she could escape.

"...I want to rest first."

"It starts in one hour, you can rest until then can’t you?"

Why was he persistent about this?!

Audrina had heard the term mom be used in many ways, but she figured this was what they were referring to. A mother figure rather then their actual mother.

Trying to worm her way out of his grasp again, the two of them paused. A low grumbling sound erupting from Audrina’s stomach.

Grumble

Given how she hadn’t eaten anything the whole day, it was only natural after all.

He raised an eyebrow, "You need to eat."

"...I can eat at home."

Grumble

Audrina stared at the floor, feeling a strange heat rush to her face without even understanding why.

In the future, she would come to understand this uncomfortable feeling as ’embarrassment’. But for the current still uninformed Audrina, she just felt a strange sensation that made her want to run and cover herself under something.

It was horrible.

"You need to eat something healthy, even the instructors are worried."

"...i don’t need it."

"The party is at a barbeque restaurant."

"..!"

Audrina felt the slightest amount of temptation arise. Her demonic energy immediately amplifying this temptation.

What was a demons favourite food?

Well it was actually demonic energy, since absorbing it felt extremely pleasurable and technically nourished their body the same way that food did.

But their second favorite food was almost always the same consistent answer.

Meat.

Beef, chicken, fish, pigeon, alligator. Some demons might have different preferences, but meat was always the number one option for actual day-to-day life. Since overconsumption of demonic energy could be dangerous.

Once the seed of temptation was planted, the demonic energy only nurtured it.

Maybe...just this once?

***

"Boo mommy!"

Both Raymond and Ellen stared at each other for a second, before turning back to Erin.

"Why are am I getting booed?"

Picking her up and ruffling her hair slightly, Ellen felt an unbelievable amount of shock when Erin actually tried to escape out of her grasp.

Erin had always loved being squeezed or squished around. But she was actually trying to escape this time!

"Hrnngh!"

The keyword was tried.

"Bad mom!"

"What did I even do??"

She paused, her body going slightly limp with her legs dangling in the air.

"I can smell a lot of boys on you mom, cheating is bad!!"

Before immediately resuming her escape attempts after getting that statement out.

Raymond looked away to the wall in a desperate attempt to hide the smile that was forming on his face. Failing to do so in time and getting spotted by Ellen who glared at him.

Sharply asking him, "What’s so funny?"

"Nothing."

Erin may have been in a human morph right now, but as evidenced by how knives were unable even cut her skin. She still had many of her dragon characteristics.

Such as a particularly good nose. That was able to detect and differentiate several different scents.

Ellen’s eyes narrowed a bit, she could understand Erin detecting the scents that lingeted on her, but how come she wasn’t doing the same for Raymond?

Unless...

"Erin, what does dad smell like right now?"

She went limp again, sniffing the air briefly.

"He doesn’t smell like anything."

Ellen turned to look at him, still desperately looking at the wall instead. This time for a different reason.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened.

Raymond always used his magic to clean himself whenever he was too lazy to do so normally. The spell would clean him completely from head to toe, leaving him completely scentless and pure.

Now he was using it to monopolize on Erin’s nose. While Ellen was made out to be a ’cheater’.

’This cheating...’