Afterwards

[Ding!]

[Both, [Devour] and [Soul Devour] have finished processing their meals.]

[You have received 20,400 EXP and 16,500 Soul EXP and +15 Stat Points.]

'That's him taken care of~ Now to deal with everything else.'

With the criminal now dead and devoured, I left the room and went back into the entrance lobby area and saw both the nobles the nobles and the elves talking. And as I got closer, I could tell that the elves weren't particularly happy, but weren't being overly aggressive with the nobles due to their status.

"Look, we wanted a show so she did one at our request, besides you only came here to see the execution, and she did that!" Runaq said, clearly annoyed that he was even having this conversation.

"Did she have to do such obscene things though?!" The female elf screamed.

"I just told you, yes, she did, because we paid her to!" He shouted back.

He then turned his head and saw that I'd come out of the room and smiled. "Oh thank goodness you're here. Can you please explain to them what you did and why."

The two elves turned to me with a clear aggression towards me.

I tensed up slightly at their intense stares and asked, 'What exactly is the problem?'

The woman fumed and said, "You weren't supposed to pleasure him! You were supposed to just kill him!"

'But I did kill him.' I responded, slightly nervous due to their attitude reminding me of my trauma.

Her face turned red in anger as she screamed, "You weren't supposed to eat him though! Just brutally slay him!"

Her screams reminded me of that man, no, that monster. Then again... I did just eat such a monster... And what I did to him could also be seen as monstrous, I guess it just depends on your perspective.

I then sighed and did my best to explain myself, 'First of all, I killed him as I was supposed to, I wasn't told to kill him a certain way. Secondly, I asked to do this specifically so that I could eat him, that's the only reason why I'm here. And lastly, I promised to put on a show for them after telling them that I'm a succubus. Happy?'

As she read the text I created, explaining my reasoning to her, I noticed that the others were slowly shuffling away, and before I could stop them, the elf spoke up.

"That means nothing!" She screeched.

'I've already told you what you want to know, whatever gripes you have now mean nothing to me and are a complete waste of time.'

The woman trembled with rage, clearly wanting to say more but knowing that if she caused a scene, she would be punished for it.

I sighed and decided to try and comfort her to a certain degree so she would leave me alone, 'Look, if it makes you feel any better, I used my power to drain him of his life force, that's why his fur turned grey, and I assure you that it certainly wasn't a pleasurable end, not with his life literally being ripped out of him.'

She seemed to calm down after that, saying, "W-Well, it does make me feel a bit better, b-but still!"

'I've already explained myself, I'm not doing anymore. If that's all, I'll be going now.' And with that, I left the building and returned home, leaving the nobles to deal with the rest.

_

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I came back home and learned that Cythistia had gone out to do her job healing the city, so I went back to reading, something that I'd turned into a bit of a hobby. But this time, instead of reading a story, I instead chose to read a smithing book.

I got a few of the ones that contained some of the more in-depth guides to smithing as a profession, helping me increase my knowledge and become a better smith.

_

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_

I spent a couple of hours there reading and learning new techniques until Cythistia came back and brought me to dinner.

It was just the two of us today as rest of her family was busy with their own work.

"So, how did it go?" She asked, of course referring to the execution.

'It went fine, met a couple of nobles who watched the show and a pair of elves who weren't too happy with the way I performed the execution. Well, one of them didn't like it, not sure about the other one as he stayed quiet.' I told her.

"All was fine though I hope?"

I simply nodded my head in response.

"That's good then, and have your cravings disappeared?"

I again nodded.

"Good. When do you think they'll return?"

I took a moment to think. It's been some months since I first arrived here in Athenela, so probably a similar amount of time.

'Around five-ish months or so perhaps?'

"That's a lot longer than I thought it would be. Though that's not necessarily a bad thing."

The conversation then drifted away from that topic and we engaged in some small talk whilst we finished our dinner.

And as we were finishing, Cythistia mentioned an upcoming event.

"Oh! Right, I almost forgot!"

I was curious as to what she was referring to s I asked, 'Forgot what?"

"While I was out working, I noticed that the city was putting up some decorations."

Now that she mentioned, I remember seeing a couple of banners on the way back.

She continued, "And that reminded me that the festival is coming up!"

I tilted my head in confusion. What festival?

And as though noticing my confusion, she explained what this festival was.

"This festival is the 'Winter Advent' which is the coming of winter."

"Eh?" The what? Winter? I haven't seen a single sign of winter since we got here… Then again, we should be in fall by now.

"Ah, right, you probably haven't experienced or heard of this before, have you?" She mused.

I shook my head.

"Well, to put it simply, it's somewhat of a curse on these lands. What I mean by that is that spring doesn't slowly become autumn, and autumn to winter, no, winter just happens. No summer or autumn, no time to adjust, just BAM! It's cold now."

…

Okay… So it just becomes winter?

'Why is it like that?' I asked.

"Something to do with the demons that invaded the forest. Their presence here has warped the seasons so that we only get two of them. It may be a bit annoying but otherwise nobody seems to care all that much. And sure, the sudden temperature changes are irritating, but you get used to it pretty quickly."

"Huh…" That's… interesting? 'Wait, why did you bring this up anyway?'

"For one, so that you were prepared for the sudden change in the climate, and two, so that we could spend some time there together as a couple!" She smiled enthusiastically.

I smiled also, as this would be the perfect time to give her the gift I'm planning on making for her.

'So when is this festival starting exactly?' I asked so I could know how much time I had left to make the gift.

"Umm…" She thought for a second, counting on her fingers, "In roughly three weeks."

…

'That's… Less time than I'd like, but I'll manage somehow.'

…

'I hope…'