Chapter 55 - There Is No Eternal Queen
Is there anything as sweet as a nap on a day off?
Of course, being self-employed, there was still a mountain of work to do even on a day off.
But such leisure was rare, so I enjoyed a sweet dream for a while.
Probably because the visual stimulus was too strong.
Even in the dream, Lumi appeared, whimpering, “Master, let’s do that, whimper.”
Hehehe.
It’s just a dream.
Come here!
So I openly touched her tail, buried my face in her chest, and was having a very happy time.
But suddenly, I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
No, not in the dream, but in reality, I just couldn’t breathe…!
“Mmm…?”
“Master. Are you awake, woof?”
I saw Lumi’s face, which had somehow snuck into my blanket.
“Gasp.”
I momentarily lost my breath at the destructive power hidden in that harmless smile.
And then came a rapidly rising sense of guilt.
But my friend, who wouldn’t be subdued even by guilt.
“Um, Lumi? Could you move away a bit…?”
“Hmm, Master. Lumi is on duty today, woof? Let’s stay like this a bit longer, woof?”
As she said that, Lumi’s face came closer, closer and closer, I got dizzy and closed my eyes, then.
Lick.
Lumi was licking my cheek repeatedly.
“…I’ve been wondering, why do you insist on licking my cheek, Lumi?”
Feeling a sense of relief and slight disappointment in my heart, I asked.
Lumi sniffed, sniff sniff.
Then, without answering my question, she wore a satisfied smile on her lips.
“From today, it’s three times a day, woof!”
Leaving behind words I couldn’t understand, Lumi got up after rubbing her thigh against my lower body, whether by accident or on purpose.
“Elise is looking for you, woof?”
And then, thump.
She exited, wagging her tail vigorously with her cheeks flushed red.
Taking a moment to let my enraged friend calm down.
“Tinya? Come out, will you?”
“Gasp.”
I called out to the benefactor, no, the culprit who had allowed me to maintain my sanity in that seductive situation.
Only then did Tinya slowly emerge from the creaking wardrobe.
“…Why were you hiding in a place like that?”
“Well, I was hiding to surprise Master when you woke up…”
How is this 100 years old?
She’s just a 10-year-old kid.
Sigh, I patted Tinya’s head and looked out the darkening window.
It seemed wrong to sleep any longer.
“Master? Have you come to see your humble servant?”
Elise, who was stirring a pot in the alchemy workshop as usual, smiled at me with her eyes and unnecessarily made her chest bounce.
Normally, I would have been captivated by that swaying, saying “Ooh, ooh.”
But today I’ve already reached my lethal dose of chest.
Seen it in reality, seen it in dreams, seen it enough.
My heart is as clear as a mirror.
So I couldn’t take my eyes off Elise’s chest.
The smooth curves like well-crafted pottery were so artistic that I even compared them to Lumi’s curves, which could be unlocked with just one button.
“I have good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?”
Get a grip.
I came here to talk about work…!
“The good news first?”
“Surprisingly, the talisman actually has skin beautifying effects?”
“Oh…!”
That was welcome news.
We were starting to reach the limit of making profits with just the experience cocktail.
If we develop a new product, it would mean more room in our wallets.
Then we wouldn’t have to worry about money leaking out just because we took a day off like today, and Ari wouldn’t have to borrow my cotton punch-revolver to use as a massager.
“Then what’s the bad news?”
“The ingredients are special, and because my alchemy experience is still shallow, it might be a bit difficult to replicate exactly.”
“What are the ingredients?”
“Hmm.”
Elise’s eyes narrowed.
“Do you really want to know?”
Why is she reacting like that?
But since there’s no turning back now, I nodded.
“Among demons, to scatter such dense magic, it must be the saliva of Neb, the demon of sloth.”
“…?”
“Saliva. Spit, blegh──”
When I made a dumb expression.
Elise immediately stuck out her tongue.
“W-why on earth would such a thing be used in alchemy…?”
Common sense crumbled with a crash!
“So if you want to make that product, you’ll have to make her your captive like your humble servant? Ohoho.”
“…I see.”
I’ve already gathered three.
At this rate, I might as well collect them all and form a demon party.
There are areas in the upper floors where you need to operate multiple parties simultaneously.
“Then, what about that hypnosis? The one that makes cat lovers spring up everywhere?”
“Hmm, that’s the work of demon magic. It actually has no effect in Celestia.”
Then she whispered to me the top-secret information that she had already experimented on Harong.
I punished her for using a comrade for human experimentation by giving her a light knock on the head.
“There’s probably a huge totem spewing out magic somewhere in the Great Forest. If we destroy that, the beast-kin’s minds will return to normal.”
Ignoring Elise who was smiling with her eyes and gently caressing her head as if the knock was actually a reward.
Time for an unexpected inspection.
I touched each of the rapidly multiplying potion bottles one by one, directly checking their tooltips.
A potion that turns you into a beast with just one drop of “Bulgeun Bulgeun.”
A sleeping pill that makes you not notice even if your energy is completely drained while you sleep…
“…Are you still making things like this?”
“It’s your humble servant’s hobby?”
“Confiscated.”
I confiscated all the illegal drugs that seemed like they could be used for all sorts of impure purposes.
She was already at Alchemy level 3, but her level wasn’t rising quickly because she was only making things like this…
The next day.
“So this is what you meant by three times a day…?”
“Woof!”
As soon as I opened my eyes, Lumi was wagging her tail beside me, and behind her, today’s duty person, Yohena, was covering her reddened face with her hands.
“This really feels weird.”
“Woof!”
“Okay…”
I couldn’t bring myself to stop her, fearing she might get hurt and sulk if I did.
So I completed my morning routine refreshingly with damp cheeks.
Then at lunch time.
It was time to return to our main job, climbing the tower.
“Tinya! Tinya really wanted to do it!”
“Fufu, your humble servant is fine staying in the alchemy workshop? I still have a lot to research.”
I’m not sure how it will turn out, but for now, to include Renatel, a story character, in the deck, we need to free up one spot in the party.
It’s a bit disappointing to lose Tinya, who’s in charge of AoE, but she’s still a reserve member, so we can use her as a swap-in card whenever needed.
Lumi, Renatel, Saha, Yohena, Ari.
3 melee DPS, 1 ranged DPS, 1 healer.
No magic DPS.
Tinya as reserve member.
I threw myself into the gateway leading to the 17th floor.
I tried to recall the storyline of the 17th floor from my hazy memories.
In summary, it’s about Renatel’s struggle for the great unification of the wolf-kin!
Of course, history has changed.
“Ugh, you cowards…!”
The wolf-kin friends we encountered dropped their weapons with a clang, abandoning their hostile intentions.
The reason.
It was because of the presence of the candidate hero, Enya, who was walking alongside Lumi with an extremely pale expression.
“Release the queen!”
“…”
Some wolf-kin who still had loyalty left growled, but Enya, completely subdued by Lumi both physically and mentally, just hung her head.
When did she become so docile?
Did they take her aside and educate her separately?
There shouldn’t have been time for that.
Questions popped up in my head like fireworks, but.
It’s a bit difficult to ask Lumi.
Not easy.
I can’t just go up to her and ask, “Lumi, did you beat up Enya behind my back?”
Sometimes it’s best to pretend not to notice and move on.
Swish.
“Ugh.”
Now a blindfold was placed over my eyes too naturally.
“Kyaang!”
“Let go, let go! You cruel women!”
“To even take off the panties… Ahuk, I’m ruined for marriage…”
The friends who were excessively loyal all had talismans attached somewhere on their bodies.
And we couldn’t just leave the talismans alone.
“Kyahaha, this is fun!”
SD Ari, who had switched places with Tinya, flew around enjoying the fairy’s view to her heart’s content.s and beast-kin had almost no resistance to the hypnotic effects of the talismans, so Tinya, the only demon agent, was deployed and worked hard, pat pat!
Rip!
“Hyaang!”
Tear!
“Kugh…!”
“It’s done, nya!”
The moment Tinya’s clear ‘nya’ sound rang out was the moment my vision recovered.
I frowned at the sudden bright light coming in, and tried to look around as much as possible by rolling my eyeballs quickly, but.
All evidence of forced undressing and complete violation had been completely erased.
These hero thieves were thorough.
Since we’ve become villains anyway, we kept advancing through the zones by eagerly taking hostages, and before we knew it, we were at Zone 8.
Nearby was the wolf-kin’s base city, or capital in modern terms, ‘Red Hood’.
According to Renatel, it was named to honor the ancestors of the wolf-kin.
And what blocked our path as we marched towards Red Hood was.
“Stop!”
A quite dog-like pack of wolf-kin soldiers.
I gave Lumi a signal with my eyes, and Lumi immediately pushed Enya’s body forward!
“Woof!”
“Haah.”
And with that short bark, she conveyed the message ‘Surrender, or I’ll bite your queen’s nape if you resist’.
In reality, Lumi’s face was close to Enya’s nape, so normally this would make everyone surrender…
“Hmph! The oracle has already come down. That woman is no longer a king or anything, so do as you please, eat her or cut off her tail!”
They’re not surrendering.
“W-what…!”
Enya’s pupils shook.
“While I’m alive and well like this, who dares!”
Forgetting her status as a hostage.
She pushed Lumi away and shouted proudly.
At this point, it would be believable if someone said she had Stockholm syndrome.
As I was carefully observing the sudden occurrence of a dynastic revolution.
Two representatives from the wolf-kin combat unit took a step forward.
“…Cat bitch…!”
One cat-kin I’ve never seen before and.
One wolf-kin I’ve also never seen before.
“Meow, she’s a traitor who betrayed Lord Neb’s blessing, meow.”
“The God Cat said so! Shall we forgive this inadequate woman who dares to falsely claim to be our queen without qualification, and these insolent ones who dare to trample on the holy land of the wolf-kin!”
“Awoo!”
“Awoo!”
Watching them incite with such momentum.
“It looks like we’ll have to fight. Let’s get into battle formation.”
I whispered to the heroes.
And I gently pulled the mentally broken Enya.
She hasn’t been officially registered as a hero yet.
But I had witnessed Renatel getting beaten badly last time.
“Here, drink this.”
“…What is this?”
What else could it be, it’s an experience potion.
It’s not enough to reach level 50, but.