Reincarnated in a depressing erotic world but living a normal life (right?)
Hell Unleashed

My name is Ethan Beaumont, and I hold the privilege of being the direct heir to my father's position, the current Duke of the Great Valerius Empire.

It is thanks to my position that I have been able to enjoy all kinds of luxuries and privileges, though at the same time I have also received the heavy burden of expectations imposed by others that I have had to carry on my shoulders from an early age, leading me to long for freedom, but...

Perhaps that is what led me to the current situation?

"What will we do?"

"How much longer will we remain prisoners here!"

"Your Highness, please answer!"

"...."

Amidst the echoes of discussions among the frightened nobles, I can still remember the vivid sense of freedom I experienced that banquet night when I had freed myself from my terrifying fiancée, Seraphina Duval, in front of a large crowd.

I still remember the mix of emotions I felt that night: I was somewhat scared, anxious, but above all elated with joy, barely able to maintain my stoic expression with a slight smile at the reality of having achieved the annulment of the engagement with Seraphina that had worried me so much throughout my life.

After all, that "thing" was supremely unsettling despite her cute youthful appearance, which everyone secretly feared.

Although I admit to having had a hand in her bad reputation by creating rumors and falsified evidence, she never tried to deny them or do anything about her public image, simply limiting herself to inaction as if she were waiting for "something" to happen.

But she didn't just limit herself to total inaction; every time she looked at someone with those eerie, empty white eyes, with no trace of emotion reflected in them, she did so with immense intensity and passion, as if trying to discover what motivated someone, what moved them, or how they worked...

There was something in her gaze that scared everyone, almost as if she truly wasn't human and instead some kind of creature was trying to imitate and understand what a human was.

Even now I still don't understand what Seraphina was thinking, but at least now I understand that perhaps she was always planning this situation in which she trapped the empire's greatest figures of authority along with the empress here in the royal castle itself, taking advantage of the celebration banquet.

.....Although I understand that I am only letting myself be guided by an unfounded premonition, driven by my own prolonged fear and hunger, somehow I am sure that the culprit of all this is Seraphina, because that's what my instinct tells me, and the Beaumont family, to which I belong, is renowned for our instinctive sixth sense that always guides us to the best solution.

Besides, after all, it's not normal that on the very night she is imprisoned, a formation of countless beings resembling straw dolls with the ability to take control of the entire lower zone of the castle appears...

Although I don't rule out the most probable and logical possibility that this is caused by some kind of enemy of the empire who revels in watching us slowly suffer from hunger and thirst until death.

However, whoever planned this committed a fatal error in thinking that we would stand idly by waiting for the end.

During this last month, we managed to contact Commander Vulcan remotely using an ancient relic in the empire's possession that was guarded in the royal castle vault.

Thanks to this, we were able to devise a plan in which, over the last month, the troops constantly attacked, acting as bait to draw the enemy's attention and efforts outside, thus weakening the internal defenses while reinforcements were sent using a formation created through the efforts of external and internal mages to counterattack.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan until the terrible report received by one of the royal guards stating how a figure appearing to be Seraphina, wearing a strange dress and accompanied by what apparently were a small silver armor and a floating golden straw doll with a cape, followed by an army of more standard straw dolls, was approaching, eliminating all defenses and soldiers in her path towards here, plunging the entire place into chaos until...

(BOOMMM!!)

"I FINALLY FOUND YOU....!"

She arrived, destroying the wall with a terrifying smile, accompanied by an army of straw dolls, while holding a frying pan glowing as if charged with energy in one hand, and in the other, she held a kind of plush doll.

"It took me a long time to get here, but I'm finally here, so I'll finish this plot now!"

Seraphina began to say nonsensical words while proceeding to hit everyone as if there were no tomorrow with that mysterious frying pan in her hand, continuously spouting incomprehensible things about needing to hurry for inexplicable reasons.

Is this really the same Seraphina I had seen my entire life?

Because seeing her behavior, I couldn't help but doubt the identity of the person in front of me who felt somehow more "alive" but at the same time felt more "unstable" than before...

"Stop your madness now, Seraphina!"

Trying to calm everything down and thinking that I was her target, I spoke, exposing my identity to her.

"Mmm... excuse me, but... who are you...?"

"Huh...?"

I had thought of all types of reactions she might have, from hatred, fury, or the most probable indifference, but I never imagined that the answer she would give me would be confusion about my identity...

"...I am your former fiancé, and if my assumption is correct, I am also the reason you are doing all this."

"....This might sound bad, honey, but... I really don't care~!"

"Huh...?"

"Oh, but you must know where the heroine is, right?"

"......"

"Please tell me where she is♪!"

I was shocked by the fact that I was simply ignored, despite having been involved in everything that led to her downfall and culminated in the current events which, after her public appearance, revealed her as the mastermind behind all this, consequently making me partly responsible for the current situation, only to be simply ignored as if I were nothing more than a secondary nuisance.

"If your target is this woman, then take her."

"Your Highness?!"

While I was still in shock from the sudden turn of events, the empress took the woman who had voluntarily served as a false victim to blame Seraphina before the crowd, and threw her at her feet.

"Well, well, well, look who we have here~ Thank you very much for (FLASH!!) EH...?!"

"What is this?!"

....But what happened next was beyond everyone's expectations: when the medallion Seraphina wore around her neck began to glow with an intense rainbow light while unleashing a beam of light that struck the empress, covering the entire space in light.

(Collapse!)

Only for the light to stop, leaving nothing but an unconscious Seraphina on the floor, suffering from spasms.

("Mom?!")

("...?!")

(?! )

(?! )

(?! )

Momentarily, seeing the scene in front of me, I thought it was our opportunity to counterattack, however...

<"HOW DARE YOU!!!">

The reality was that at that moment, the gates of hell had only just opened for the empire.

("Mommy is hurt.... Hurt... HURT...!")

("?! |} ?^] ??÷¦?!")

(MOMMY... HUrt...)

(....We FaiLeD)

(....VeNGeAnCe...)

Accompanied by that inhuman scream, laden with such immense hatred and resentment that it left everyone present immobile, enormous serpents began to sprout from Seraphina's unconscious body, while the small straw dolls around mutated into incomprehensible and monstrous forms.

At the same time all this was happening, a reddish mist began to emanate from Seraphina's body while bats made of blood fluttered everywhere, attacking every living being nearby...

"Kyyyaaaaa!!!"

Who was the first to scream?

As if that scream was the trigger that unleashed a chain reaction of panic, the entire castle crumbled as everyone tried to save themselves...

....However, at that moment we had forgotten the cruel reality that those straw dolls were concentrated outside and how the massacre had already begun...

"What the hell is this...?!"

That day I saw everything fall, that day I knew hell, and that day a monster was born...