Hell's Actor-Chapter 46: Divine Betrayal

Having executed the butler, Asmodeus climbed into his car.

He left ten of his men behind to keep watch over the hostages. They were to lie in wait on the second floor, in case Leviathan returned.

He wanted to avoid the word reaching his brothers until Leviathan was in his hands. But with twenty shots fired, he knew that someone would certainly notice. freewёbnoνel.com

He called his brothels. Many of his brothers’ men were regulars there.

"Drug them. Make up some lie. Offer discounted service. Tie them to beds. Fuck them to sleep. Accuse them of assault. Threaten them with knives. Kill those who resist. Do whatever you must to keep Leviathan’s men unable to leave."

Out of the seven brothers, Lucifer, Asmodeus, and Mammon were most suited for war. They were unflappable and calculating.

"Torture them if you have to, but I want to know where Leviathan is."

According to Asmodeus, in modern warfare, something had gone wrong if one had to lower the bulk of enemy numbers during the war. In his view, culling enemy numbers before the war even began was the best strategy.

He knew how to take advantage of what was available to him, and he was not shy of taking hostages. In that sense, he was one of the best when it came to guerrilla warfare.

"Gather as many of our men as we possibly can within a day."

His subordinate made a few calls before turning to him.

"Within twelve hours, we’ll only be able to summon around seven hundred men, sir."

Asmodeus nodded.

"It’ll have to do."

He took the rest of his men—eight in total—with him to one of his gambling houses.

Seeing as the Altobelli hit was still fresh, he would need to bribe a lot of authorities. But money was never an issue to Asmodeus.

The scene changed.

A struggling Belphegor was helping Beelzebub into his car.

The latter was just released from the hospital.

The doctors had suggested against it, but who could possibly detain the third eldest of the Binsfeld family?

Watching the pair from across the street was Leviathan. He cleared his throat and approached the two.

Beelzebub scrunched his nose as soon as he spotted his younger half-brother.

"What do you want?"

None of the Binsfeld brothers had a particularly high opinion of Leviathan.

If they were to be asked whom they considered the most unlikable of the seven, every single one would point towards Leviathan.

In his agony, Beelzebub could not hold back his disgust, and it only served to fuel Leviathan’s hatred.

He produced a ripped page from his pocket and showed it to Belphegor.

"Your favorite brother is stealing from your restaurant."

Beelzebub frowned, and Belphegor looked confused.

The page contained accounting numbers in Beelzebub’s nasty handwriting. The entries showed several discrepancies in the flow of cash.

"He got so used to stealing that he stopped forging false records. This is... sloppy."

Beelzebub held Leviathan by his collar.

"What the fuck are you on about, you clown!" he screamed in his face.

Leviathan produced another piece of paper from his pocket. It was a picture of Beelzebub with two bags of cocaine.

"Two kilos. That’s not for selling either. He is doing it all himself. Fat fuck is overeating and swimming in cocaine. No wonder his heart is failing."

Belphegor looked half lost and half in disbelief.

He turned to Beelzebub for an explanation.

But no answers were given.

"What are you looking at? You believe him, you nancy?!"

Before it escalated, Leviathan took his leave. He had done his job, and his presence was no more required. It felt good; it felt like justice.

But Belphegor was in no jovial mood.

He found it difficult to believe that the brother whom he had trusted the most all his life could act so horrifically against him.

Yet the overworked reaction from Beelzebub was enough for him to realize the truth.

Suddenly, he saw his brother’s dismissive attitude in another light. His emasculating words now seemed far sharper.

He was being taken advantage of.

It was abuse.

It was betrayal.

For the first time in his life, he raised his voice against his older brother.

Leaving Beelzebub to his subordinates, Belphegor left on his own.

The drive back home only made him nervous and agitated. He tapped his fingers and wiped the sweat off his brows, looking into the back mirror as if he was being chased by something.

The silence tortured him, and nothing felt right. He could do nothing to alleviate his fears, and there was nowhere to run.

Unlike his brothers, Beelzebub lived in a smaller house. He had enough money to live luxuriously, but he chose a mundane lifestyle nonetheless.

As he opened the door and entered the living room, the static sound of the TV—that he always left on—welcomed him home.

The self-help books sprawled across the unclean coffee table fluttered their pages as he passed by.

The leaky faucet melancholically sounded his return as he entered the bathroom.

In the end, these were his only true connections. No matter how difficult his mental stability became, only this dull house remained unchanging.

He washed his face and cooled his head before lifelessly staring at his reflection in the mirror.

After exhaling a heavy breath, he called Lucifer.

"Beelzebub broke the family rules," he said. "He stole from me."

"...I see."

Belphegor cursed under his breath.

"You knew, didn’t you?"

A moment of silence passed.

"Of course."

Belphegor felt frustrated. He wanted to yell and scream profanities, but life had been sucked out of him. He was exhausted.

For a moment, he stared at the scenery outside his balcony. Reluctantly, he took a sleeping pill, switched off his mobile phone, and threw himself on the bed.

Trying to forget everything, he fell asleep.

The scene changed.

Leviathan had returned, and he had good news.

"Those two had a falling. They won’t be talking for days."

Mammon was pleased.

His younger brother had turned out to be far more useful than he had initially predicted.

"How far along are we?" Leviathan asked.

"Our guest should be here soon," Mammon answered.

Right on cue, a subordinate entered the room and whispered something in Mammon’s ear. Shortly after, he ushered a woman in.

"Where’s my son?"

It was Asmodeus’s housekeeper.

Watching her so restless, Mammon smiled.

"Calm down. He’s fine."

He signaled the subordinate standing by the door behind him, who rushed in and brought out an eight-year-old boy.

As soon as he saw her, the nervous child tried to rush towards his mother, but Mammon held him back.

"You shouldn’t be so hasty, dear. We have some business to discuss with your mother." He patted him on the shoulder. "She couldn’t collect you from the school, so she must be very busy... Am I right?"

Every last word of his was uttered while he stared at the housekeeper.

She trembled with anger and fear.

"Just a little longer, my dear," she said to her child. "Once I finish talking with these gentlemen, we will go home. Okay?"

Once the child was out of sight, Mammon asked, "Tell me something, is that bastard Asmodeus’s?"

"No." The housekeeper trembled in anger. "And it’s none of your business."

Mammon liked that desperation.

He needed to thank both Leviathan and Policeman Butler for providing information on Asmodeus’s house staff.

"Now, let’s get straight to the point." Mammon licked his lips. "Do you understand the word blackmail?"

The 𝘮ost uptodat𝑒 novels are pub𝙡ished on fre(e)webno(v)el.𝒸𝑜𝘮