成人本色

The two in the south annex were Ephael and Hestio. They sat at the dinner table according to the rules of the game.

“Hestio, aren’t you hungry because you were dragged into the dungeon the moment you were about to eat lunch? Come on, ah~”

“Why don’t you clean that up?”

Hestio slashed Ephael’s kindness of giving him a hot pink cupcake with a knife and the cake splashed to the floor.

“No, Hestio! Throwing food on the ground, won’t you be punished by ‘strict order and goodwill’?”

“Eat by yourself and get a reward.”

“Ah, I wondered what would happen if I ate it.”

“A bastard who is more like an enemy than an ally. What kind of dungeon subjugation I’m doing with this guy? As expected, I have to leave this party…….”

Except for the two boys quarreling, the dinner hall was quiet. Nothing has happened since the dolls had served dessert half an hour ago. The fair Butler demon did not appear either.

Thanks to this, only the children were sitting in front of the dinner table. The children were generally wary of the food, but they were also hungry, drooling, and crying.

Ephael looked at the fork and knife and commented.

“It’s sharp. I’ve got a rough estimate of what they’re up to.”

“It’s best not to let other kids eat, but….”

“If we do, we won’t be able to leave this banquet hall forever.”

Because the mean demon will lock the kids here and won’t let them go until he gets the show he wants.

Although Hestio and Ephael had different personalities, they had similar thoughts.

And by that time, there were some children who just run out of patience.

“I can’t take it any longer!”

“Me too! I want to eat too!”

The children picked up the cookies and poured them into their mouths.

Desire is contagious. Even the children who had been holding back well, stretched their hands for the dessert while looking around.

At some point, the look on the children’s eyes changed beyond gluttony, as if they were possessed. One dug up the cake with their hands and whipped cream was all over his forearm, another swallowed so many cookies that it was hard to breathe.

Eventually, a fight broke out over food.

“Give it up! I took this first……!”

The children opened their eyes out of focus and began to pick up forks and knives.

“Don’t touch the food…It’s all mine….”

“Sa-sausage……I want to eat sausage instead of cake……. Where’s the sausage……?”

There was a man, or a demon, who appeared as if waiting for this bizarre atmosphere of madness.

“Ohh! Looks like the game is just about to start In the South Annex!”

Butler Rodrigo appeared. He had freshly bathed and had a moist face flushed from the heat. He seemed like some kind of perverted for some reason.

“Now, the third game is ‘Playing House of Hallucinations’! Forks, knives, plates, silver candlesticks, and more! There are a lot of playing house sets, so let’s use these to kill people our age!”

Ephael and Hestio stood back to back.

Ephael wiped the fork where the cake had been taken before with a napkin and held it vertically in front of his face. Hestio crossed his arms, with one knife in each hand.

“Hestio, blessing please.”

“When dealing with kids, let’s stop using divine power as a fellow human being.”

The children found Ephael and Hestio and approached them. It was a time when they were nervous thinking about the other kids rushing.

Whoofs!

There was a small explosion in the fireplace. The banquet hall was filled with smoke in an instant.

“Cough! Cough-Kuh-Cof! What! Didn’t they clean the chimney properly?!”

Rodrigo had just washed up and was now covered with ashes. In the corner of the fireplace, Helverus looked at him.

When the strong smoke and the sound of coughing subsided, the situation in the banquet hall was quite different.

“Ugh, my head hurts……”

“What……? Why am I on the table and holding my knife upside down……?”

“Hey, someone stabbed my arm with a fork! Blood!”

“I-I’m sorry! I thought it was a sausage…Why did I….”

The children came back to their senses one by one.

“I think there’s no need to fight anymore.”

“I know, right?”

Hestio and Ephael bewilderedly lowered their knives and forks.

Only Rodrigo ran rampant.

“What! How did this happen! Why is the hallucination gone? Hey, Hellfire! You come here!”

<…….>

“Hey! What is that smoke that you brought with you? What did you eat! Huh?!”

<…….>

Helverus reduced his size to as small as a candle. He tried to exercise his right to remain silent, but every time the flame flickered, black smoke flew out.

“It’s a detoxifying herb!”

Rodrigo, who was angry to the top of his head, stepped on Helverus recklessly.

“You useless firecracker bastard! Die! Just disappear like this!”

<Ah, oh no! No…! I’m wrong! Please spare me……!>

Pshhh!

Rodrigo was a fairly high-ranking demon. With a few stomping of his feet, Hellfire, one of the representative monsters of the demon realm, was extinguished in an instant. Only a lump of black charcoal, presumed to be its nucleus, was left in the place.

Crack!

Rodrigo even stepped on and crushed it.

Around the time he was about to sweep his bangs with a refreshing smile as if his anger had been resolved. He wrinkled his face again to see if something unusual had happened elsewhere in the mansion.

“Wait, what is the situation in the West Annex?! Psychedelic desserts weren’t even served! Kitchen, kitchen! What are you doing…Hold on, why does the kitchen look like this!”

It sounded like the crackling of his teeth could be heard by miles.

Hestio and Ephael whispered.

“The West Annex is where Thesilid is. Do you think he had something to do with the detox?”

“No way. He’s not the kind of guy who can fool people like this.”

“As expected, right?”

“Of course.”

They had earlier on defined Thesilid and cider were completely unrelated.

(Note: cider in here = a cunning slap backfilled with satisfaction on revenge. But it’s usually about satisfaction.)

Around that time, something strange happened to Rodrigo.

“How dare……You are making me mad!”

His white hair turned red and flew upwards. It was the true face of a demon.

“……Ha, I was beside myself for a moment without realizing it. This can’t be done anymore. I think the difficulty of the game should be raised sharply according to the level of the children.”

His exposed gums and fangs were threatening like those of a wild beast.

“I will skip from the fourth through ninth games and go straight to the tenth game. The name of this game is ‘A Spider Lily has bloomed’!”

The children made faces of what is that, but there was no kind explanation.

“Just to your knowledge, this is a traditional game in the history of the demon world. Playing games is all about learning.”

Rodrigo tapped his finger, and black powder fell from the ceiling. The children were terrified and shook their heads.

Meanwhile, Rodrigo’s fingers clicked again. This time, the banquet hall vibrated and a giant Mole doll appeared through the floor.

He looked like a gardener, wearing suspenders jeans, and a checked steamed bun hat.

“The tagger is here, it’s the Mole Gardener! Let’s proceed right away without a break. Game start!”

<A Flower……has……bloomed…… !>

The mole doll leaned against the wall and vaguely recited the game name, then looked back.

“What the hell is this…….Uh, wait! Y-Y-Your head… … !”

“My head? What’s wrong with my head…….Oh? I can feel something!”

“Hey, it’s sprouting from my head!”

Mole continued to be faithful to the tagger role.

<The Flower has……bloomed……!>

“I-It keeps growing! Aww!”

“What’s this! I-I hate it! Mom!”

The black powder were seeds.

On the surface of the children’s heads, a demonic plant that took root in an instant was sprouting and even flower buds were blooming. The growth rate was different for each.

Hestio with a cute green bud on his head looked back at Ephael.

“Ephael, why is there nothing in your head?”

“Really?”

“Yes. Because your head is a field of flowers, I thought it would bloom in bunches, but I was surprised.”

“Thanks for the compliment. Anyway, if there’s really nothing in my head….huh? Wait……I can feel something small right now.”

“What? It’s growing up, growing up. The more you pet it with your hand, the bigger it gets? Keep petting it.”

In that state, the two looked at the Mole doll.

<Flower……has…….>

Plant growth stopped while the Mole doll looked at the wall reciting the tagger’s special lines.

<Bloomed……!>

The moment it looked back, the flower started growing again. However, when Ephael stopped moving his hand, the growth stopped again.

Hestio shouted around.

“Don’t move! If you move when the Doll looks back, it will grow!”

“Oh, that’s amazing I can’t believe you already know the rules! Pretty good for a snooty br-, no, pretty good for a little lamb!”

Children with buds and flowers on their heads stopped moving. The dinner hall went silent in an instant.

The only thing that resonated in the stiff air was Rodrigo’s excited voice.

“Right now, you have a Spider Lily seed infiltrated into your head. Whenever the tag catches a movement, it will grow quickly, take root, and flowers will bloom. Aren’t you looking forward to seeing pretty flowers blooming in your head?”

“Hi-Hing……!”

“I-I-I don’t like it…….”

“The Spider Lily is the most loved flower in the underworld. Flowers of various colors bloom, but among them, dark purple is the best. It’s a rare color that only comes out once in a thousand years, so I’ve never actually seen it. However!”

“Uw-UWahhh!”

“Hiccup!”

“You never know. Maybe some of you can grow a dark purple Spider Lily, right? I’ll recognize this child’s value as a flowerpot and save their life! So, get ready and make pretty flowers bloom!”

No one was tempted. The feeling of the roots tentacles, which gently groped the surface of the head, was terrible. Besides, even if it looks okay right now, as time goes by, the roots of the flower will dig into the head and feed on flesh and body fluids.

It was obvious that they would quickly turn into a doll when everything was over.

The children struggled not to move and were holding back even crying.

“Oh, I’ll let you know in advance in case you have an ignorant but brave friend. If you try to forcefully pull out or cut the flower, the roots will dig deep into the skull in an instant. Be careful.”

Ephael gently retrieved the hand that was holding the fork above the back of Hestio’s head.

Another plan was needed.

“Hestio, what now?”

“Why are you asking something obvious? We need to go out of the dungeon and be treated by a cardinal-level healer. Do you want me to tell you how to get out of the dungeon? We just have to subdue the boss.”

“Hmm, then I’ll have to deal with the Mole and the butler first.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Hestio answered and placed his hand on Ephael’s back to give a blessing, that is, to apply a buff.

“Ephael, go and bite!”

“……Uh, yes.”

Contrary to the shaky reply, the movement was swift.

Ephael, holding a fork in his right hand, smashed the floor with his feet. In an instant, the distance between the Mole doll was reduced.

<Flower..…has……bloomed…… !>

“……!”

Flinch!

Ephael came to an abrupt halt stomping on his brakes. His eyes met the button eye sockets of the mole doll.

<…….>

“…….”

✠

Well I did my best to look for what flower he was talking about. I did find this one and after reading its meaning, I guess it does relate to the plot. So I’m pasting this little explanatory memo.

Praying all the while that the webtoon does not draw a different flower lol.

Note from Wikia:

Seoksan (石蒜, scientific name : Lycoris radiata ) is a perennial rooted plant belonging to the Amaryllidaceaefamily. Also called Red Spider Lily. It grows in groups at the foot of a mountain or in moist soil and is often planted near temples.

Originally from China, Korea, and Nepal, it was introduced into Japan and from there to the United States and elsewhere. It flowers in the late summer or autumn, often in response to heavy rainfall.

Legend as a Symbol of Death- (Funeral Flower, Ghost Flower, Flowers from Hell, Flower from river Sanzu – a river of the underworld.)

The bulbs of Lycoris radiata are poisonous.[13][14] These are mostly used in Japan, and they are used to surround rice paddies and houses to keep pests and mice away.[4] This is the reason most of them now grow around rivers.[10] The Japanese common name Higanbana (彼岸花, Higan bana) for Lycoris radiata[15] literally means “flower of higan (the other shore of Sanzu River, or a Buddhist holiday around the autumnal equinox)”.

Many Buddhists will use it to celebrate the arrival of fall with a ceremony at the tomb of one of their ancestors. They plant them on graves because it shows a tribute to the dead. People believe that since the red spider lily is mostly associated with death, one should never give a bouquet of these flowers.

Since these scarlet flowers usually bloom near cemeteries around the autumnal equinox, they are described in Chinese and Japanese translations of the Lotus Sutra as ominous flowers that grow in Hell, (Chinese: 黃泉), and guide the dead into the next reincarnation.

Some legends have it that when you see someone that you may never meet again, these flowers, also called red spider lilies or corpse flowers, would bloom along the path.