"Hello my lovely students~!" Trina greeted as Stolas and Raphael walked in. Much like the last two times, Raphael’s roommate/volunteer instructor had found herself a costume for the lesson, but instead of a teacher’s outfit or a military uniform, this time she was dressed like a chef.
Specifically, she wore a double breasted jacket, with pants and an apron around her waist, and even had a chef's hat on. Unlike a regular chef's outfit however, it was black and pink. Next to her desk was a small cart that had a covered dish on it.
"Oh, are we learning about Gulans today?" Chef’s attire and a dish did point to the demons of gluttony as the most likely lesson.
"Got it in one! Just what I expected from my best student~!" she praised while writing–
Lesson 3: Gulans
–on the blackboard in orange.
"Pft, you hear that Raph? Sounds like you're becoming a teacher's pet," Stolas said as she sat down, "Gotta say, surprised you aren't just wearing an apron, Tree."
"Well that was the original plan, but they wouldn't let me into the kitchen unless I was properly dressed." With a grin, the succubus posed in a way she seemed to think was cute. "Thankfully, I found a cute outfit so I didn't have to wear a regular old one~"
"Why were you in the kitchen?" Raphael asked.
"Well it wouldn’t be a class about Gulans unless we indulged our gluttony, no~?" Trina asked as she pushed the cart forward, before removing the metallic dish on top, showcasing a tray of cupcakes, "Made them all myself~"
Grabbing two of them, she handed them over to the pair.
"Oh, thank you Trina." Well, they do look well made–
"Hey, you didn't lace these with an aphrodisiac, right?"
...Should probably not bite into them.
Trina gasped, apparently affronted. “Lassie, how dare! I would never dose my cute students!”
“So you didn’t think of it?”
“I mean I considered, sure, then I decided I wanted to keep going with my proper, teacherly image–” Said the succubus in a chef’s outfit. “–and keep things at the appropriate level of sexy, instead of overdoing it.”
“Which you would’ve if you wore nothing but an apron and gave us aphrodisiacs.”
“Got it in one! See, you’re a smart student too, Lassie~!”
Stolas didn’t seem especially enthused by the compliment; she was smiling, sure, but that was her default expression. She also took a second cupcake before finishing her first, Raphael couldn’t help but notice.
“Speaking of our lessons, how’s it going with Kuilsy?” Trina asked.
If she expected Stolas to choke on her cupcake, she’d be disappointed as the human just paused before shrugging. “He’s a decent fuck, but I don’t think we’re sticking out for the long term.”
Raphael, however, did have a brief moment where some frosting went down the wrong tube. After clearing their throat, and ignoring their friends’ amusement at their near-choking, they added their own opinion, “Is this really an appropriate topic?”
“It’s on topic, isn’t it?” Stolas said, shrugging, “He’s a hot demon, we talk about hot demons–”
“We talk about demons in general, not the hot ones specifically.”
“Point is, Kuil’s a decent lay, though not really my type–”
“That isn’t the point at all.”
“It’s the point I’m making. Sides, if you’re annoyed by his presence, blame Trina. She’s the one that hasn’t sent him back yet.”
“Hey now, I would if I could!” Trina protested, “But he broke the circle on his own back then and left it completely! I didn’t even realize he needed to be sent back manually until after Dezin mopped the floors in here and wound up erasing it! Plus you’re the one who was keeping him ‘occupied’, so really, it’s super your fault all around.”
“Yeah fair enough,” Stolas admitted with a shrug, before taking another bite of her cupcake.
“Hmph. Also, quick question, what do you mean he’s not your type? You both like pissing people off.”
“Yeah, but that’s not enough to build a relationship on. The verbal sparring’s fun, but he’s not really what I’d prefer, you get me?”
“And what would you prefer?” Raphael asked, honestly a little curious.
“Well he’s gotta be rich to start.” Ah. I should have expected that. “Also can’t have any expectations of me and handles all the inconvenient stuff of life. I want like…a butler that I can fuck, basically.”
“Pff–yeah, no, that’s not Kuil,” Trina commented, “In fact, I’m positive he’d want you to do exactly what you want him to do.”
“See? Incompatible.”
“Stolas’s difficulties with relationships aside,” Raphael interrupted, earning a snort from Stolas, “I believe we were discussing Gulans today.”
“That’s right! We’re moving up a bit in circles here, going from the fifth and sixth back to the third! And which Circle would that be, hm?”
“Nihumda,” Raphael answered.
“Exactly, Vissy! You get another cupcake!”
Raphael blinked, then smiled, maybe a little smugly, as Trina placed another cupcake on her desk.
“Specifically, Gulans live in the upper half, called Nihumda-Sula. The other half, which is called Inva, is a topic for later down the line, but for now, let’s focus on Gula Sula and its gluttonous inhabitants~! Starting off with the basic, common Gulan!”
And with her typical flourish of her pointer-wand, Trina unveiled another diagram of a demonic being, titled “Anatomy of Gulans”. Much like the luxurian and iratan charts, the subject of the sketch was entirely nude, though his body was much more rotund compared to the voluptuous luxurians and muscular iratans. In general, he had a rounder figure, with a full, chubby belly, soft pectorals, and thick arms and legs, particularly around the thighs, along with a round, clean-shaven face displaying a bright smile that bared sharp teeth.
Like the previous charts, there were also smaller diagrams present with comments, saying things like “teeth shape can vary depending on type” while showing open mouths that displayed teeth ranging from “sharp like carnivores, good for tearing” to “flat like herbivores, better for grinding”. “Horns tend to be shorter but girthier” and “tails are usually longer and fork-shaped” were also present, alongside an arrow pointing to the top of the demon’s head and sketches displaying two types of tails alongside each other, one with two prongs while the other had three. The note there added “archdevils tend to have three points”.
All around, it was a fairly accurate depiction of a Gulan devil, at least from what Raphael remembered.
“Cute,” Stolas commented.
Raphael could see the moment Stolas’s comment registered because Trina’s eyes immediately lit up. “Ooo~? Did I hear that right~? Does a certain cute student of mine, perhaps, have a type~?”
“Yeah.”
“…right, you’re hard to tease. Still, tell me about it!”
“I like fat dudes. Fat means they’re well-fed and thus probably rich.”
“I don’t know what you’re expecting here,” Raphael said. Albeit while still making a note of Stolas’s preferences.
“I’m expecting details! Things I can tease her with!” Trina insisted, “C’mon, give me something! There’s gotta be more to your tastes!”
“What can I say? I like what I like.” Stolas shrugged. “If you’re looking for a physical aspect, I guess they’re nicer to cuddle against. Warm too. Warmth’s good.”
“True true. Okay, taller than you, or shorter?”
“Taller for sure. I want to be pinned, not have a teddy bear.”
“Oh so pinning is an aspect~?”
Raphael snapped their fingers, deliberately making the sound echo louder. Perhaps too loud, given Trina winced, but they persisted. “I believe we were discussing Gulans. Cotrina, would you like to continue?”
“Damn, using the full name. Someone’s in trouble,” Stolas commented, openly amused. So Raphael elected to put a stop to that.
“Stolas Patientia Sitrin, cease disrupting the lesson or I will get Beleth.”
“...Bells told you my middle name.”
Raphael gave her an unamused look. “You can tell yourself that if you want to.”
“Okay that was threatening as fuck, what the fuck.”
“Students!” Trina spoke up, clapping her hands together, “Please, stop talking during the lesson~! I have to get on with things, after all~!”
The succubus ignored the very flat looks both her friends shot her in favor of twirling her wand and pointing to the Gulan diagram on the blackboard. “Gulans~! The demons of Gluttony, as we all probably know already! Embodying indulgence and physical pleasure through consumption, these devils are known for being big eaters, plumpness, and orangeness! Though as we’ll see as we go along here, those three traits, while common, aren’t all that defines these beings! In fact, fatness isn’t even a guarantee for Gulans, since their body types can vary just as much as any other type of demon–”
“Boooooo.”
“Lassie, no more interrupting or you don’t get anymore cupcakes.”
Stolas elected to answer that ultimatum by getting up, taking another cupcake, and sitting down again.
“Rude! But demonstrative! For you see, as most people understand, gluttony is commonly defined as an excess in eating! Overconsumption, in other words, the eating of delicious things past the point of satiating your natural hunger! Pretty simple, right? Eat too much and you’re a glutton, or so you might think!”
“But we’d be wrong?” Stolas commented, before taking another cupcake–
“At least finish one,” Raphael complained.
Trina ignored their complaint though in favor of shaking her head. “No, you’d be mostly right. But only mostly! For while the overconsumption of food is one ingredient, any good chef will tell you you need more than one to make a meal! And don’t contradict me, I’m on a roll!
She flourished her wand/pointer stick, manifesting a hunk of meat with a bone through it, a head of lettuce, and an anchovy. “Starting from the top, Gulans embody a form of physical pleasure, much like Luxurians! They even form a fun trifecta with one other sin that hamartiologists, that’s those who study sin by the way, like to call the Three Indulgences! Or at least some of them do, it’s a very contentious field, but back on topic, anyone wanna guess the third?”
Raphael’s hand promptly went up. “Avarice.”
“Ah, close! But nope!” The angel blinked, a frown coming to their face as Trina continued, turning to write her words on the board. “You’re thinking of the ‘Three Temptations’, not the Three Indulgences. There’s a lot of arguing in how sin is defined, especially among those that keep wanting to categorize them, but the Three Temptations school of thought is derived from the ‘Great Temptations’ definition of the sins, wherein scholars of that school of thought regarded the primary sins, the seven deadly, as all relating to physical temptations. Essentially, the idea was that sin is rooted in desire, therefore there are physical actions and objects that thereby create sin.
“It was a pretty popular line of thought for a while but it started running into some issues wherein more internal sins, such as Wrath, Envy, and Pride, were used as counterexamples to the theory; Envy isn’t rooted in the coveting of objects so much as it is the distaste towards the subject of their envy, though we’ll save that topic for later. Point is! Definitions changed around until the idea settled on there being three physical temptations, or ‘The Three Temptations’ for short, those being sex, food, and wealth, which is part of a whole thing of trying to reconcile all the sins into groups of three which you wouldn’t think would work considering there’s seven of the standard, but if you add in Despair and Vanity, it can sort of work?
She finished all that with a flourish, underlining the words “Temptation” and “Indulgence”. “So, knowing all that, do you wanna take a guess on what the third indulgence could be?”
“...Hm.” Raphael leaned back in their seat, frowning in thought. Which of the sins could be indulged in then? Well, presumably all of them–
“It’s sloth,” Stolas said, before holding her hand out for her reward. And Trina delivered it to her with an amused smile as Raphael felt their frown deepen.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Heh, you got it~! Nice to have you participating too, Lassie~”
“Mmn.” Stolas didn’t reply, instead going back to eating one of the cupcakes she’d already stolen.
“So yeah, there’s a fun trifecta there of Gluttony, Lust, and Sloth, or as I like to call it, a successful date night! Essentially, the idea behind it is that eating, fucking, and resting are the most basic, pleasurable actions most species can engage in, to the point that they can all be indulged in to an excess! Course, what you define as an excess someone else might just consider a nice Rusday, that’s Lucday for our lightlander, and that’s what we like to call ‘the source of several religious schisms’.
“Anyhow, back to Gulans! While the sin of Gluttony defines Gulans, it should be noted that most people have a pretty inaccurate idea of what a devil of gluttony actually looks like. The main problem here is that most people tend to think of the feasters rather than the feast-makers when it comes to the idea of a Gulan, the gourmands instead of the gourmets. For you see, demons don’t eat like humans and other mortals do, at least not typically. We have mouths, we can feed, but the main thing that sustains us is eliciting specific emotions within mortals which we then feed off of.
“Luxurians are sexy because that easily elicits lust. Iratans are assholes because that provokes anger and contempt. But for Gulans, the popular concept of one is a fat glutton who eagerly gobbles down whatever’s in front of them. No control of their appetite, no desires beyond feeding, and even a tendency to eat mortals that get in their way. Now why is that? What could have provoked that idea? No need to answer that question, by the way, it’s rhetorical.”
Raphael put their hand down.
“Anyhow, the simple answer here, as I like to call it, is the concept of ‘Feast or Famine’,” Trina explained while writing the words on the board, her food constructs still present and bobbing behind her, “Essentially, the root of the problem here is that there’s a difference between gluttony and simple overeating. The latter is a form of the former, sure, but overeating is more harmful to the self than to others. You just have too much and you feel sick afterwards, not really an issue for those around you unless you’re being really rude about it, but it can become one whenever we introduce the concept of scarcity.
“For you see! While the god most commonly associated with gluttony is Delight, Goddess of Honey and Sweets, the sin also has associations with Drought, the Goddess of Famine. Which brings us to the big question, why are Gulans summoned?”
“For the purpose you mentioned previously,” Raphael answered, “Feast and famine.”
“Ooo, someone’s paying attention! Good answer!”
Raphael preened under the praise and took their cupcake reward with a smirk towards Stolas, who raised an eyebrow in reply.
“Specifically, one of the most common reasons for Gulans to be summoned is to induce famine,” Trina explained, grinning a little at the byplay there, “Usually warlocks summoning Gulans do it to attack the Light Lands in some capacity, but historically the summoning of Gulans has also been used as a tool of oppression from the elite who would deliberately set the demons in question on peasant farms and food stores, aiming to reduce the common mortals’ ability to feed themselves in order to create a dependence on the aristocracy, who were most commonly vampires that could afford to hoard food since they didn’t need to feed on it.
“Think of it like a swarm of locusts coming through and eating everything in sight, only usually more subtle so…not at all like the analogy I just made. Though Gulans can totally wipe out rows of crops pretty easily, same for clearing storehouses and even grain silos if need be. So like stealth locust, except they’re a single being instead of a swarm. A humanoid being, specifically, and they don’t have swarm tactics. They’re also doing a job instead of acting on instinct, and they’re usually orange–”
“Drop the locust metaphor, Tree, it isn’t working,” Stolas said.
“I can make it work! Probably…my point is, Gulans being summoned in order to consume harmful amounts of crops or livestock is largely the reason why the demons of gluttony are thought of as such, well, gluttons. Which they are, for sure, but in the case of these Gulans, what they’re feeding on isn’t actually the food they consume! Sure, it’s tasty, but what actually sustains them are feelings of hunger and indulgence. The Famine and the Feast, like I said! If a starving person desires food above all else, that can feed a Gulan just as well as a noble enjoying a meal at said starving person’s expense.
“In essence, the ideal land for a Gulan to operate in is one with a massive wealth inequality, where the upper class feasts while the lower class starves; the feelings of hunger and need for food are like tasty snacks and appetizers for the gluttons as they work their way up to the full meals of cruel indulgence those at the top engage in! So yeah, they’ll eat a ton, but largely because it contributes to their own ability to feed later. Following up on that, it’s not uncommon for less asshole-ish warlocks to summon gulans just to be their chefs. The gulan gets plenty of sustenance from their summoner’s enjoyment, though I probably shouldn’t have to tell you gluttons are rarely content with just one source of food.
“Funnily enough though, Gulans are actually pretty picky eaters. It does depend on the individual, of course, but because people like categories, it’s pretty easy to divide the Gulan species of demons into three distinct races! So, does anyone care to guess what those are~?”
Raphael actually remembered this one from the Luxurian lesson. “Carnivore, herbivore, and omnivore.”
“Nope!” Trina replied, making Raphael’s face immediately fall, “Aw, don’t look so disappointed! You were close!”
“Isn’t it meat, veggies, and fish?” Stolas suggested, before gesturing to the food constructs, “You’ve had those floating around for a while now.”
“Good eye and also close, but also nope! For you see, these were a deception all along~!” Trina giggled, before flicking her wrist and turning the food constructs into a trio of small demonic figures, all orange and bearing the marks of a typical gulan–short horns, forked tails, plump bodies–though each member of the group had different attributes to them too, aside from just being marked in red, green, and blue. “Quick side note, does anyone know what my tiny guys here are called?”
“Imps?” Raphael offered, a little less confident than before.
“Oh, no, not at all. Imps are a type of demon that are just shorter and usually weaker than common devils. Usually less defined too, representing a more straightforward version of the sin they embody. They’re not like children though, more like…well this is going to sound extremely rude with that lead up but they’re like the equivalent of goblins compared to orcs.”
“Wow Tree, maybe Kuil was right about that racist thing,” Stolas teased.
“Bleh, whatever, point is, these are just minor homunculi, conjured instead of flask-grown.”
Hm. Imp was more convenient to write down though… “Anyhow, these three are what most would consider the common Gulans, mainly because the three of them are the most commonly summoned ones.
She tapped the first in the row, the one with crimson hair on its head and crimson fur down its arms and legs, ending with prominent claws. “This is a carnin, the carnivore of the group. And yes, I know I said it’s not that simple, and it isn’t! But for the basic info, these demons eat meat and more specifically prefer domesticated farm animals. So mutton, beef, poultry, pork, venison, veal, basic stuff. They’ll eat other meats and yes, you can find some that’ll eat sapients, but there’s a general societal preference for cultivated meats. Not gonna say there aren’t hunters, but hunting doesn’t mesh too well with the general culture. Well, aside from hunting for sport I guess?”
“Do you know enough about Gulan culture to comment?” Raphael asked.
“Nope! But also I got in trouble for summoning Kuil, so I’m pretty sure I can’t summon someone to ask. So let’s skip that and go right over to holuns, the herbivores!” Trina decided with another flourishing gesture, this time to the greener Gulan. The homunculus was still mostly orange, of course, but where its carnin counterpart had hair and fur, the “holun” had leaves.
As a result, the holun’s head reminded Raphael of something like a carrot or radish, with green leaves sprouting up from its skull–though its horns were still present, if looking rather wooden–while its forearms were basically covered in bushes and its hands were nonexistent. Instead, there were drooping tendrils that resembled roots forming its fingers. Also, its feet were green. That was something.
“As you might guess, these guys like to eat plants. Cultivated fruits and vegetables primarily, but they can swallow down pretty much anything so long as it’s made up of plant matter,” Trina further explained, “Oh, or fungi, they’re pretty big on mushrooms too, but things like herbs, roots, fruits, nuts, and even grains appeal to them, so if you happen to be an asshole noble who wants to cause a famine, these guys are a better bet than carnins. Plenty of warlocks made that mistake just because they think the meat eater is cooler and it never turned out great.”
Stolas snorted. “‘Oh, whoops, the cool carnivore guy I summoned ran out of goats and started eating my peasants, who could’ve seen this coming?’“
“Essentially? Yup. No one ever accused asshole nobles of being smart. If they were, they wouldn’t be assholes. And while we’re on the topic–“
“Of assholes?”
“No, but maybe later. Anyhow, while we’re back on meat eaters, let’s jump over to these guys real quick,” Trina said while tapping the third in the trio of Gulans. That one lacked both fur and leaves; instead, its forearms and lower legs were a solid blue, heavily contrasting with the rest of its orange body, and appeared to have frills and fins similar to a fish. It did have hair on its head though, albeit long and wet looking in a dark shade of blue. “This is a piscin, which doesn’t fulfill the trio of major Gulans but instead helps form the trio of the most commonly summoned types. And why’s that?”
“Presumably, they are an aquatic variant,” Raphael offered, their mind going back to earlier in the lesson. Trina didn’t mention fish when it came to the meat carnin enjoyed… “Are they summoned to ravage fishing villages?”
“You got it! Good job!” Trina praised, placing another cupcake on Raphael’s desk–much to the angel’s satisfaction–before continuing, “You see, piscin are actually a subtype of Gulans, an offshoot of the standard carnin. Some thousands of years ago there was a schism between carnins regarding those who liked land meat versus those that prefer seafood, sort of like the Iratan versus Bestian thing, but even more petty. The end result was a full split between the factions in both a social and metaphysical sense, meaning the piscin deliberately took on more aquatic features and attributes to differentiate themselves from their land-based counterparts.
She tapped the Piscin homunculus, prompting it to turn to show and spread a pair of fin-like wings. “It’s stupid, but hey, it gives summoners more variety to use. That and it fits with how persnickety Gulans can be; they’re gluttons, sure, but they still have preferences and carnins can be pretty elitist. They’d probably start fighting over whether red meat or white meat is better if there wasn’t too much overlap and even holuns have some subtypes of their own, like fungans that prefer mushrooms and cerans that prefer grains. Which leads us right over to our actual third major type!
With a flick of Trina’s wrist and a wave of her wand, the Piscin homunculus shifted, turning as the blue parts of its body lightened to a warm yellow, its fins faded away entirely, and its hair appeared to almost…mold together, turning into something golden and nearly liquid as it cascaded over the construct’s plump body. “This, my friends and students, is a dolcin~! The third major archetype of the gulan species of demons, and the upper class of their society. Any guesses for what they represent?”
“Honey?” Stolas offered.
“Good guess, but vague! Anybody wanna be more specific?”
“Confectionaries,” Raphael answered.
“Nice job, Vissy! But don’t worry Lassie, you still get a cupcake.” Oh. Well that’s annoying. Made all the more so by Stolas noticing their annoyance and smirking at them. “So, dolcins! These sugary sweeties are, as previously mentioned, basically the top dogs of Nihumda-Sula, in large part because the core of their being is essentially ‘desire for sweet foods’. Candy, desserts, creams, syrups, anything that tickles the tongue and is eaten mainly for pleasure falls under what they like the best, with a few deviations that we’ll get into later. For now though, you should know this group of demons basically grew as civilization did.
“While hunger has always and will always exist in living things because nutrition and nourishment is needed to survive, there’s a difference between surviving and thriving, and dolcins exist in that difference with a key part to it all being delicacies. Meaning food that was deliberately made to be enjoyable to eat, emphasizing taste over nutrition. Because that’s a natural thing for people! Taste is one of our strongest senses, at least for most folks, and things that taste better appeal to us!
“Take the cupcakes, for example. A mix of ingredients coming together to make a tasty pastry, constructed by a chef! Not grown from a branch, sprouted from a seed, or ripped from an animal, no, it’s a fully unnatural food, and that’s not a bad thing! It’s only unnatural in the sense it didn’t occur in nature, marking it as what else but an example of civilization! Of the ability mortals have to make the world better and more comfortable for them! To make life more delicious! And that is where dolcins come in!
She gestured to her homunculus with a bright smile, visibly proud. Either of herself or mortal civilization in general. “Like I said, these tiny guys, also big in reality, represent a hunger for desserts, much like carnins represent a hunger for meat and holuns a hunger for plants! Unlike those two though, the majority of sweet foods need to be actively created instead of found in the wild! Sure, fruits and berries might be sweet, but that’s just the starting point! Honey, syrup, sugar, that’s the core the dolcins built themselves up from and it’s through cultivation and indulgence that they now stand at the top! Feasting on the labor of others and indulging in the sweetest of treats, all for only those of their lofty, cake-like heights!”
“Hey so this tangent’s neat and all, but could you sum it up?” Stolas requested.
Trina paused, before a slight blush came to her face and she cleared her throat. “Anyhow, uh…right, Gulans. They split into three major races, each race has their own societal niche but dolcins are the upper class in terms of standard devils with archdevils above them. The color they’re associated with is orange and their element varies but the most basic part to it is earth, but more specifically soil and even more specifically mud, because while soil is what helps life grow, mud is consuming in its own right, being all clingy and sucking stuff down when there’s too much of it. Only imps and basic gulan devils, commonly called ‘dregs’ or ‘omins’, actually fully use mud as an element though.
“While the major gulan races do still have mud as their basic thing, they mainly draw their magic from their preferred foodstuff, so you’ll see a lot of blood, meat, and grease around carnins, for example. There’s sort of a social status, or, like, evolutionary pathway thing you can see based on what a gulan is defined as, but that’s complicated so I’m not that interested in getting into it. The key part here is that gulans are born from mud, but rise to new heights! With the highest heights being taste-based, since there are actually five standard types of archdevils for gulans. Care to guess those, by the way?”
Raphael and Stolas both paused, glancing at one another, before Raphael tentatively raised a hand. “Ah…are they based around the five tastes?”
“Perhaps~! I don’t award cupcakes for vague answers though!”
“It’s probably that then,” Stolas commented, “So that means it’s…sweet, spicy, tangy, bitter, sour–Wait, no, salty is one of them…”
“Heh, close~! Rayfa, you wanna try to steal?”
“Ah…sweet, salty, sour, bitter…savory?”
“You got it! Though savoriness can also be called umami, if you wanna be fancy!” Trina added, before tossing another cupcake to Raphael. She really did make a lot of these... “It’s sort of a rich, meaty flavor, the type you get from stuff like fish and broths. As for the archdevils, the basic thing there, as far as I know, is that their palates ‘further refine’, developing from a preference for only certain types of food to a variety that fits their specific taste. And that’s not getting into the nonstandard ones that do go for stuff like spicy foods, because yeah, those do exist, but honestly, at this point, we should probably wrap things up. Getting into every nuance of Gulan society feels like a huge pain, so let’s just leave it for later.
Trina abruptly smiled. That wasn’t unusual, the succubus liked to smile frequently, but it happened to be one of her devious smiles, the type she grew when she had a particularly bad plan in mind. “In fact, how about I wrap things up by inviting another guest, hm~?”
“Weren’t you told not to–”
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” she said, waving off Raphael’s concerns, “I studied a bit, so I'm sure my summoning circle will go perfectly this time!"
"Trina, what was that ab-"
"No time to waste!" Grabbing the last cupcake, Trina moved the cart, as well as a previously unnoticed rug underneath said cart, revealing a magic circle that was under it. Many layers. Like a cake… "Hence why I prepped this beforehand!"
With her devilish grin remaining, Trina placed the cupcake in the circle, before clapping her hands together in prayer. “Oh indulgent beast of gluttonous earth, heed my call unto this realm! Let thine appetite draw you forth in joyous reverie at the behest of your master so all may embrace our profligacy! Come forth, you who heed my call!”
And in an instant, Raphael saw full proof of the well known axiom: Don’t call upon the forces of Hell without knowing what you’re asking for.
“...Is that a flan?” Stolas asked, staring at the custard dessert topped with caramel sauce and a cherry currently sitting inside the circle.
“Aw, what? Did I just steal someone’s lunch?” Trina complained as Raphael felt an immediate shiver go up their spine because they remembered the cherry variants were particularly vicious, “Jeez, that’s–...is it growing?”
“Trina, how secure is that circle?” Raphael asked, already moving in front of Stolas, who raised an eyebrow.
“Uh…I mean, it should be secure enough–” And the instant Raphael saw a pair of crimson eyes open on the surface of the flantasm, they’d already tackled Stolas out of the way. Just in time too, given the crimson beam that erupted from the demon’s mouth. The fact that it was still inside the circle was probably the only reason it didn’t fully pierce through the walls behind them.
Though considering the circle was already breaking apart, Raphael decided they would rather be prudent than temperate in that particular moment and grabbed both Stolas and Trina–earning a bemused noise from the former and a yelp from the latter–before vacating the room as quickly as physically possible. Which, for an angel, was definitely faster than most mortals; even then though, the second flantasmal beam nearly took their head off.
Suffice to say, Sir Dapper wasn’t especially impressed with them. Lady Bekah was though, if just because she was the castle’s head chef and they’d just procured enough dessert for a good week or so once General Lion-Bane managed to put the demon down.
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Lesson 3 - Things to Remember!
1 - Trina is not allowed to summon demons unsupervised!
2 - Trina is a surprisingly good cook!
3 - Do not eat flan provided by the Castle Valondrac kitchens!