The Incubus System Chapter 1494. More Than Morning Gossip
The Incubus System Chapter 1494. More Than Morning Gossip
Okay. This was more than morning gossip.
I moved closer without her needing to gesture again.
Basically like a noisy neighbor who heard the word disappeared through the wall and immediately abandoned all dignity.
My towel hung over one shoulder. My hair was still messy. I still hadn’t bathed. My brain was barely done processing the cosmic eyeball visitor, and now apparently Nathan had decided to vanish too.
Celia glanced at me once, then tapped her phone and switched it to loudspeaker.
The soft crackle of the speaker filled the bathroom.
Then I heard Jenny’s voice.
Sobbing.
“I-I don’t know,” she said, voice shaking. “We thought he would come home late like usual. He does that sometimes. Training. Work. You know… stuff.”
Celia’s gaze flicked to me.
I stayed silent.
Jenny didn’t know her brother was a demon hunter.
She probably thought Nathan’s “work” was some normal, suspiciously irregular thing. Maybe security. Maybe night shift. Maybe “my brother is just weird and secretive” package.
Yeah.
Tiny detail.
My feelings?
Mixed.
Was I worried? Uh… Not really.
And yes, that probably made me sound like a terrible person. Or demon.
But come on.
Nathan was one of the guys who tortured Larry when Larry got locked up by those high officials in the Association. I hadn’t really made him pay for that properly. Not in a satisfying way. Not in a “my friend was tied up and injected with holy vaccine made from Puriel’s stolen power, so now your bones will learn regret” way.
Also, Nathan was the most annoying demon hunter I knew.
Which was saying something, because demon hunters as a group were already professionally annoying.
He was always in my way.
Always.
If I fought wild demons, there he was.
If I dealt with demon lords, there he was.
If I tried to keep collateral damage low, there he was, yelling about demon corruption and swinging weapons like moral superiority gave him bonus damage.
And his obsession with me?
That was a whole other disease.
Though…
I thought it should have ended already.
After everything. After the truth. After the Association’s corruption came to light. After Nathan saw enough to understand the world wasn’t as clean as demon bad, human good.
Apparently not.
Or maybe this had nothing to do with me.
Maybe.
Probably not.
Because my life hated simple answers.
Jenny continued, voice cracking.
“We checked his room this morning and he wasn’t there. We’re still trying to call him, but no answer. His phone died. I’m not sure if it’s since last night, or if he just disappeared this morning.”
She sniffled hard.
“This has never happened before.”
Celia’s expression softened. “Jenny, calm down.”
“I’m trying.”
“Maybe he just went somewhere and will come back soon.”
“We already called all his friends,” Jenny said quickly. “No one knows. No one saw him.”
My jaw tightened a little.
Friends.
Demon hunter contacts?
Normal friends?
Training partners?
Hard to say.
“What if…” Jenny’s voice trembled again. “What if demons caught him and ate him alive, Celia?”
Celia froze.
I winced.
Yeah. Okay. That escalated.
“I’m afraid,” Jenny whispered.
The bathroom went quiet except for the faint shifting of bubbles in the tub and Jenny’s unstable breathing through the phone.
I stared at the steam curling above the water and thought.
No.
That possibility was small.
Almost none.
Nathan was strong.
Annoying, yes.
Arrogant, yes.
Punchable, extremely.
But weak?
No.
He was a capable demon hunter. He had training. Weapons. Instinct. Experience. He wasn’t the kind of guy some random weak wild demon could grab from an alley and turn into breakfast or dinner.
And the wild demons who had escaped from the Demon World into the human realm?
Their numbers had decreased.
A lot.
Especially after recent chaos.
Most of the ones still scattered around were weak.
So demons catching Nathan and eating him alive?
Kinda impossible.
Not impossible impossible.
But close enough that my instincts rejected it.
Celia glanced at me.
I shook my head slowly.
Then mouthed without voice.
‘That’s impossible.’
Celia understood.
She looked back at the phone.
“I think you need to calm down first,” she said gently. “Maybe he went somewhere by himself.”
Jenny sniffled. “Where?”
“Somewhere to calm himself down?” Celia suggested. “You said he has been a bit down lately, right?”
There was a pause.
A shaky breath.
“I… I don’t know.”
Jenny sounded smaller now. “Somehow I feel it’s not like that.”
Celia’s face became serious.
Jenny whispered, “I’m scared, Celia.”
Celia closed her eyes for half a second.
And yeah.
That was the problem.
Celia was soft.
Not weak.
Soft.
There was a difference.
She cared easily. Too easily sometimes. Even toward people connected to trouble. Even toward Jenny, whose brother had caused me and Larry more headaches than some demon lords.
I folded my arms and leaned against the sink, still looking away from the tub out of proper brother survival instinct.
Celia opened her eyes again.
“Jenny,” she said calmly, “listen to me. For now, don’t assume the worst.”
“But—”
“If he disappeared last night or this morning, then there is still a chance he is okay.”
I nodded slightly.
That was true.
Celia continued, “Maybe his phone died. Maybe he lost it. Maybe he went somewhere private. Maybe he got into trouble, but not the kind you are imagining.”
Jenny was quiet.
Then she asked softly, “Can you ask Ethan?”
My eyes moved to the phone.
Celia’s gaze flicked to me.
I raised a brow.
Jenny continued, “He knows weird things. Nathan told me once… if something ever happened to him, I should ask Ethan.”
Wow.
Thanks.
Not wrong, but still…
That guy really prepared for the possibility something might happen to him, huh?
And the weirdest part?
Back then, he didn’t even know I was the Great Demon.
So why me?
Because I was Renart’s son?
Or because he once guessed the Angel Project would succeed, and somehow I’d become the strongest demon hunter candidate?
Either way, that annoying bastard had left my name behind like an emergency contact.