13 (32)

Louis looked at the woman before him. Batenberg Linsia. More precisely, he was in a situation where he had failed to resist her seduction. The place where Louis had originally been staying had been changed three times. This place was, quite literally, a fairly top-secret location. She was sitting demurely on a small chair. Louis looked at her red hair. The sound of the bonfire burning and her thick hair suited each other in a way.

She rose from her seat and came closer to Louis. As she approached, her exceptionally white hands gradually loosened the knot fastened at the center. Louis recalled the assassin who had come to take his life not long ago. He vividly remembered the final collarbone that had moved up and down with her last breath. And also the vivid red drops of blood that had streaked between them.

More than that, yesterday a new assassin had come to Louis. A sly and skilled fellow who had been within the range of his mana detection. He had seen the fellow’s eyes, and he liked them. Louis smiled deeply. Linsia seemed to have mistaken it as a smile directed at her, because the movements of her hands undoing her clothes became even lewder. Louis’s train of thought broke at the sight of the flesh she was gradually revealing. The softly hollowed flesh curved gently and parted downward.

It was smooth and as white as ivory seen only in the far south. Now it was time to slowly remove the corset that was tightening around her waist, leaving marks on her body that seemed ready to burst. Ever since his complete transformation, Louis had become more obedient to his desires. In truth, this feeling of being tightly pressed down and suppressed had become the sort of thing he could not endure. His new body was greedy. The only difference from his original body was that it had the recovery to bear it.

Perhaps because she had bathed before coming to meet Louis, her hair smelled pleasant as she approached closely. Louis pulled her by the waist. It was a nape on which he wanted to hang some large jewel. A faint moaning sound slipped from her lips. As though responding to that voice, Louis opened his mouth.

“I failed to catch the assassin a while ago. Which means they might still be somewhere around. Are you all right with that?”

“The more dangerous the fire play is, the more fun it becomes.”

Louis laughed shortly. Louis looked clearly into her vivid eyes, and as though she were growing more heated, she unconsciously touched her lips. That was the beginning. Louis kissed her. She trembled briefly as if convulsing, but soon embraced Louis even more tightly. She climbed on top of Louis. He had only opened the door a little, yet she was the more aggressive one.

It felt as if the desire he had restrained until now burst like lightning. Louis embraced her as if crushing her. Her buttocks filled his grasp. She was a noble among nobles. A fruit no one had easily been able to touch. The corset was completely removed and lay twisted on the floor. Carrying her, Louis moved the thoroughly soaked Linsia to a place smaller but more comfortable than his usual bed. Louis admired her. Narrow shoulders, a smooth straight back, a slender waist, breasts filled out just enough. She was perfect.

Hazdar’s face looked utterly worn. He made the decision to swallow his pride. By tomorrow, he would leave this place. Before him, a prostitute bought in this place was pressed flat against the floor. The more soldiers there were, the easier it was to find prostitutes. Prostitutes were easy to find. It was a room with nothing but a single moldy bed. The mud walls were old and cracked all over, and this place was just like Hazdar’s current state.

The times he held women were when he was under tremendous stress. Assassins usually did not live apart from women. That was because of the fear that they could die at any moment. Hazdar had not touched a woman for nearly six months. There had been countless temptations, but today that taboo was broken. Voluntarily, at that. A thoroughly ordinary prostitute had attached herself to him, and Hazdar agreed. On the right side of the bed lay the clothes he had just hastily thrown off.

Even though her lower half was completely exposed, the blonde woman with a bit of flesh on her body turned her back and raised her buttocks. When her thighs glistened in the candlelight, Hazdar grabbed her ample breasts.

“Ah…. It hurts.”

“……..”

A warm feeling wrapped around his grasp. This sensation was like the only kind of salvation he could obtain in this world. Salvation. He muttered it briefly, and the woman asked back, “What?” Thinking that sounded like a beast’s answer, Hazdar suddenly felt hunger. Then a fiery heat swirled through him, and he pounced on her. The bed began to creak. Moans burst out, whether natural or artificial, impossible to tell, and Hazdar admired the swaying blonde hair. He pressed down on the back of the prostitute’s neck.

“Ah……. It hurts…!”

Hazdar paid no heed at all to her wishes. After thinking for a moment, he opened the pouch beside him with his left hand and grabbed two coins. Then he dropped them one by one before her eyes. Though she writhed, the moment she saw the coins, greed seemed to rise in her, and she quickly clenched her mouth shut. Even with tears filling the corners of her eyes, she took on an even more stimulating posture.

Hazdar thought as if the woman laid beneath him was the same as himself. He even considered killing her, but soon forgot the thought. After it was over, Hazdar gave her one more coin. She wiped away her tears, and as though her mood had improved, she even kissed Hazdar on the cheek.

Hazdar left the brothel. Unlike when he had gone in, no woman tried to catch hold of him at all. He planned to take his siblings and leave this place tomorrow. He had to make a report, and he would have to accept punishment as well. It would be quite painful. But Hazdar remembered the eyes that had met his.

‘He will come south in the end. Perhaps……. he may even meet Grand Duke Apsen.’

When he returned to the lodgings, a woman was waiting in his room.

“You held a woman.”

“……”

“You’re truly the worst. Even though you never embraced Rin even once.”

“…… That’s right. I’m the worst sort of man. In any case, go back and sleep. We leave this place tomorrow.”

“Are you running away? Shouldn’t you at least try for revenge?”

“……….We’re leaving.”

‘Both of you sisters are Master’s daughters. I cannot kill both of you.’ Hazdar swallowed those final words.

“I’ll do it alone if I have to.”

“For now……. Later, I will not permit it.”

The woman tried to slap Hazdar on the cheek, and he caught her hand. In the end, the trembling woman gave up and went outside. The next day, the assassin’s head hanging in the square disappeared.

Dawn. Louis opened his eyes. His body had slept for only one hour, yet it felt as refreshed as if he had slept a full eight. Louis thought that perhaps he might not even need sleep. He casually received the greeting of the soldier standing attentively beside him, then took the waterskin the man offered.

Louis opened the waterskin and poured it into his mouth. His thirst eased a little. He handed it back to the soldier beside him, then received a longsword from the soldier kneeling on one knee. Louis lightly examined the bare steel of the longsword. The sharp cross-section gleaming vividly reminded him of a woman’s naked body. The longsword, which had been finished with another round of care, was even better than before.

Louis fastened the longsword at his waist and walked over the leather covering. Soon, with a shouted cry, the soldier opened the tent flap, and Louis was met by the air outside. The cold feeling refreshed Louis’s mood. After rubbing the dried mud a few times, Louis listened to the shouted cries echoing from all directions and looked around.

‘I was rather expecting it, though.’

After the assassin’s head had disappeared from the square, Louis had half-expected revenge. Those skilled assassins from the south were quite peculiar in many ways. Louis was their target, but at the same time he wondered if he might be able to make use of them. But after the one person he could question took poison and committed suicide, the one who appeared after that seemed to have fled like a rabbit that had seen a beast.

Though it was dawn, parts of the encampment were already busy in motion. Carts loaded with provisions rattled past here and there. In some places, people had already begun preparing food, and the hot, savory smell of stew spread all around. Having ample provisions had a tremendous effect on morale. This war seemed like it could proceed even faster. Unlike Gedria, which had once belonged to the barbarians, the cities the king possessed had roads that were extremely well developed. Before Louis had even taken three steps, a large-framed, pot-bellied, fierce-looking chiliarch came running up in a panic and stopped before him. He immediately shouted a salute, struck his chest once, and then thrust his hand straight toward Louis.

“I report. There are no problems whatsoever with the food supply.”

Then the officers began pouring in. The second to arrive was an officer with stew on his knee, as if he had come out in a hurry while cooking. He too pounded his chest hard and extended his hand toward Louis.

“I report. Breakfast is being carried out perfectly.”

The third officer was a man overflowing with confidence. Puffing out his chest, he completed his report to Louis that there were no abnormalities among the soldiers in the formation in question. Louis received each of their reports one by one. If this went further, it would be enough to receive a simple overall report from General Gaion once, but the soldiers were desperate to report face-to-face to Louis.

Because that itself helped morale, Louis was personally receiving reports concerning the units under his direct command. After receiving the simple reports, Louis raised his head and looked at the sky. The sun had not yet risen, so everything around was still mostly dark, but there were not many clouds. That meant there was no immediate need to prepare for foul weather. Louis received from the chiliarch in charge of meal preparation, one of the officers who had just reported, a thick sausage wrapped in paper.

That was enough for breakfast. In truth, his stamina showed no sign of declining to the point that he felt he would be fine eating once every two days. Still, he ate just in case. When he opened the paper, a thick sausage was revealed. Holding it in his hand and taking a bite, Louis started walking forward. The earlier breakfast was, the better. If he went just a little farther, the first city would come into view. That was why he ate while walking.

Receiving the soldiers’ fervent salutes all the while, Louis arrived at an open lot blazing with heat. Though it was dawn, the time Louis had risen could not really be called early, so there were already a few armed men and officers there pouring out sweat and heat. They were warming up. Anok had stripped his upper body with a grave expression, and his spear slowly swept through the air twice horizontally and once. Since he was moving it with only one hand, his broad deltoids, triceps, and latissimus tightened in a line. Once one possessed mana, it was fine to grow a little lax in physical training, but Anok was the stubborn type who valued pure training.

At Louis’s appearance, a few officers and soldiers were startled and saluted. Louis received the salute. Anok lightly spun the iron spear that had been around the midpoint of its horizontal motion with one hand, planted it vertically, and knelt on one knee before Louis. It was the posture used upon meeting a duke, one offered to someone above a simple salute in status. It also meant that he respected Louis that much.