Chapter 23
In the heart of Lilith, the capital of the Devil’s territory, stands a massive building with towering spires, glittering embellishments, and patrols of griffin riders under the direct supervision of Satan Lucifer herself.
Atop the highest of these spires sits a lavishly decorated office. Ornate mahogany furniture, magical crystal walls with a commanding three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the capital, enchanted to zoom in and focus on her subjects at her leisure, not that she had the time for that these days.
A massive stack of paperwork occupies the single desk in the room, with the scratching of a quill being the only sound in the otherwise quiet environment. Elysia Lucifer hated tradition. They had computers, with Beelzebub providing her with cutting-edge magi-tech not available to the market. Still, those old doddering fools of nobility would see it as a personal slight if she chose not to sign official paperwork with a quill. She forgoes the traditional ink, made from blood sacrifices of the faithful, small mercies, and all that.
How her predecessor managed to get anything done, with all the murder and torture in between, she will never know.
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She will never regret rising against the establishment. The Old Satans were driving them to extinction after all, but bashing heads in beats paperwork any day of the week, though. No one told her that the job of a Satan is that of a glorified babysitter for the bickering nobility. At least the Leviathan dealt with foreign dignitaries; they can’t be this stupid, right?
The report she was currently tackling was a prime example. The Forneus heir has applied for a duel to the death with the Shax brat over a snarky insult. After rejecting it in bright red ink, she moved on to the following report. The Uvalls have signed a petition with half a dozen other houses in the Old Satan Faction to bring back human sacrifice. She didn’t even bother signing her denial. She gets a report like that at least once a week.
You would think that having two wars, which cut down the Devil population to a few tens of thousands, would strike some sense into these idiots and make them a bit more cautious about making enemies, but no, far from it. If not for the implied threat of her and Beelzebub, the Devils would be just a fairy tale that humans told their children.
She looked at the clock at her desk and realised she still had six hours left before going home to her wife and child. This is going to be a long day.
As she was psyching herself for more paperwork, she got an urgent magical summons from her Queen. That never happens. A disaster sounds just like the thing she needs right now. She got up from her throne and walked to the teleportation circle at the corner of the office. Glad to be free of the bane of all sentient beings: paperwork. She would be happy with even a single murder coming out of this.