VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 28: Rules are NOT meant to be broken
Deep red skin that seemed to radiate heat, Thick curling horns that looked like they had been plucked from the head of a goat, jagged and uneven teeth with oversized tusks that erupted from his lower jawline.
This was most definitely the face of a demon. Strangely, it was missing a nose and instead just had four slits where a nose should be. ππ«ππ²ππππ§π πππ₯.πππ
Unlike the last demon-like person she had met, this one embodied the brutal and hellish nature one would expect from a demon. With a massive frame of bulging, rippling muscles that seemed ready to tear apart its crimson skin at the slightest flex, it had to hunch over just to be eye level with her as it loomed over her at nearly 7 foot tall.
She wished it didnβt stoop like that, because it was holding its face dreadfully close to hers, breathing heavily like a pit bull that had just come back from a ten mile hike. Its breathe absolutely reeked of fish and rotten meat.
It puffed out its chest, inhaling deeply as if it was about to spew flames. But when it opened its mouth and let loose the lungful of air, it was not to scorch her alive. Instead, it shouted directly in her face,
"GUESTS WILL REMOVE THEIR SHOES!"
Belladonna blinked softly, her mind having to reboot for a moment before it could actually process what in the world just happened. Yet even after she had processed it, all she could manage was a blank stare and an idiotic muttering of,
"W-what?"
The Demon let out a low grumbling growl as it pulled the cleaver out from the wall.
"Guests will remove their shoes. Or shoes will be removed from the guest, along with their feet."
Belladonna blinked dumbly again, still not entirely understanding everything that was going on, but since he had made such a compelling case for household etticate, she was happy to oblige. The fact that he was calling her a βguestβ while threatening her was both confusing and somewhat a good sign.
There was also the fact that when she even briefly considered fighting him, she was overwhelmed by an aura of dread more than a hundred times more potent than that of the rabbit.
She quickly removed her shoes and held them awkwardly in her hands as the Demon stood up straight, took another look over her before letting out a satisfied snort. Then without another word the demon turned on its heels and stomped away on its digitigrade legs.1
The word "Follow" was grunted out by the demon as it strode away, leading her through the castle, hopefully to wherever the Wizard was. While they were walking, she asked the demon where she could get rid of some rotten meat, to which it simply held its hand out backwards like a dad asking for snacks while he drove on the road trip.
Once it had received its snacks, it was a little more friendly and less murderous in its requests. The next time it grunted an instruction to her, it even added on a βPleaseβ at the end, even if it felt a little forced and still like a demand. That was sweet of him.
She was led to the study, a room filled with hundreds of bookcases that stood ten metres tall and each contained thousands of books of various sizes. Bat-like creatures, with four wings instead of two, flitted around the bookshelves or nested in the roof beams high above, where she could see some of them happily munching on small insects.
"Glistening Ink-Well Beetle, a horrible little pest," The Wizard spoke from where he sat. He was lounging in a crimson leather chair, his feet resting on a matching foot rest, while a book floated in front of him. Itβs page turned on its own as his eyes trailed across its contents lazily.
"They are attracted to large collections of knowledge. They will literally eat the ink straight off of the page. Magical tomes are especially delicious to them, it would seem. The more important or powerful the information they consume, the more it causes their shells to shine. How they know what is important, is still a mystery. Yet it doesnβt stop them.
You have no idea the amount of spells or worldly knowledge that has been lost to these creatures appetite and drive to mate. Thankfully, they are the choice prey of the Night Flitter."
Belladonna chuckled softly as she glanced around at the Night Flitters darting around the place. She saw one in particular digging through a bookβs pages until it pulled out a shining black beetle and immediately bit off its head.
"Itβs certainly an elegant system. But what about the poop?"
"Thatβs why I have assistants to clean up after them. Iβd rather have a poop filled library than knowledge being stolen off the page for some bugβs dinner. Speaking of, I see you have met my butler Zulβra."
Belladonna bobbed her head in confirmation before casting a side eye at the demonic butler, who was grumbling to himself as he slammed his cleaver down onto some Ink-well Beetles without mercy.
"Yes... I certainly did."
The Wizard sighed, " He threatened you, didnβt he? Let me guess... He wanted to boil you in the stew because you went in the wrong room?"
"Uh no, It was chopping off my feet for not removing my shoes. Whether he wanted to put them in the stew afterwards, I couldnβt say."
"Bah, feet are not good in stew." The demon muttered to itself, licking the beetle blood from his cleaver, "Itβs the heart and brain that are good in stew. Nice fatty stomach filled with goodies too."
The Wizard let out another withering sigh, gesturing to his book which closed itself and flew off into the depths of the library, where it slotted itself back into its rightful place on the shelf.
"I apologise for him, He canβt help it. You see, heβs an Amodite, a type of Hellion that is descended from the Punishers of the Pits. The oneβs who deal out torture and penance to the wretched souls.
Every single one of them is born with an innate sense of law, justice as well as a righteous and somewhat over eager desire to punish those who go against such ideals. Unfortunately due to their nature, their sense of βreasonable punishmentβ is very much skewed.
Torture and maiming is some of their favourites. However despite their dreadful impulsive behaviours, they are famously incorruptible and eager to serve justice, so they make for great guards. Especially since they will happily brutalise anyone who breaks the rules in your establishment even if they are not guards.
Itβs just who they are."
Belladonna thought over it for a second before a sly smirk spread across her lips. She side eyed the demon again, making sure he was listening, while acting like she was just naturally continuing the conversation.
"Huh... Then surely he must understand that harming a guest of their master is considered the height of rudeness and is thus, as someone whose job it is to make their master look good, politeness is the most unbreakable law of being a butler.
Not just that, but I would have thought that if they were such lovers of the rules that they would take every opportunity to tell people of the rules. Some might say that ignorance of the law doesnβt excuse breaking it, but if I had a law against chopping off my feet and he did it wouldnβt he want to know before he broke it?"
The Demonβs face fell into an expression of panic and horror as it considered her words. No matter how much he thought about it, she was right... If no one knew the rules, how could they know who was breaking them?! Not to mention, guests were supposed to be treated well...
How was he supposed to know that still included rule breakers?!
"Then again, if you did tell someone the rules explicitly and they still broke them, after a warning as a reminder... Well now thatβs someone who is intentionally being rude instead of ignorant and therefore does not deserve to be the guest of your master.
At that point, it would be rude of you not to punish them after they spit in your masters face. Since they would no longer be a guest you would have no limits on what you could do with them. They would be nothing more than dirty, extremely rude intruders."
Imagine the back legs of a dog.
