You Promised, Didn't You?
Finding the exit with her didn't take nearly as long as I'd expected. The goblin she'd been gripping vanished all at once, and in the same breath, heavily armed soldiers came pouring into the dungeon.
The passage running between the 2nd Layer and the 3rd Layer was a hive of activity. Priests, physicians, adventurers, and a throng of guild staff rushed back and forth, all of them straining to make sense of the chaos.
It wasn't until we walked out into the light that I could finally see her clearly. To my astonishment, she stood a little taller than me now. Her fur had grown even thicker and fluffier than before, and dark crimson blood was smeared across her body in patches. Worst of all was her face: a long, heavy streak of red ran across it like a brushstroke, and the sight of it stopped my heart.
"Ely!"
"Y-yes?"
"Your face — there's blood—"
"...Ah. This isn't mine."
She patted at her cheek with those long fingers, each one sheathed in soft, dense fur, then rubbed the dried flakes of blood away and flicked them off.
"As if a mere goblin could leave a scratch on me."
She smiled sweetly and accepted the hot towel a guild staffer held out to her.
"...Let me wipe you down first. You're a mess yourself, Marcus."
She drew the towel across my face in slow, careful strokes, and a smile bloomed on her lips as she worked.
"You've been through a lot."
"You did far more than I did. I don't feel like I accomplished much of anything."
"Well, there wasn't much you could do about that... but you'll make up for it from now on, won't you?"
"Huh?"
I blinked. I stared at her blankly, and she covered her mouth with one hand and smiled. Then her eyes fell shut, and opened again. Half-lidded, she gazed at me with a quiet, unnerving stillness.
Ah.
The promise.
We made our way slowly through the crowd. She really meant to go through with it. With me.
A creeping dread climbed my legs. I glanced at her from the corner of my eye and shivered — she was looking at me the way a predator looks at prey, swallowing the hunger in its throat. Her eyes, her mouth, every line of her face was curved tight with joy and anticipation.
It was almost unbearable. Who did she think I was?
We walked on in silence for some time before a guild clerk stepped into our path and stopped us.
"Excuse me — were you coming out of the 3rd Layer?"
"Yes... we were?"
"We're collecting evidence to determine what happened. Of course, we wouldn't ask you to hand anything over for free."
"...Do you need additional testimony as well?"
Ely stared at the clerk — or rather, pinned him with a look that was very nearly a glare — and parted her lips as if to whisper something. The man hurried on before she could.
"Ah, we'd be grateful if you have any, but if you're in a hurry, even a brief account would help."
Ely regarded the bowing clerk for a moment, then turned toward me.
"Marcus, you still have the sword, don't you? And the things inside your coat as well."
I set the black blade on the table as she said, then handed over the discs from inside my coat. The clerk's face grew considerably more grave as he took them in.
"The Goblin King...!"
"It didn't seem like just one of them had appeared. There were quite a few."
"We'd received reports of an anomaly... but if it was the Goblin King, that would explain it. These are excellent pieces of evidence. Thank you!"
He set the items aside, pulled the glasses hanging from his neck onto his face, and examined them closely. Then he drew a slip of paper from his coat.
"This is a promissory note issued by the Guild. One Meteor Steel dagger and four ancient emblems confirmed — I believe we can offer you ten gold coins. How does that sound?"
"T-ten gold...?!"
"A Meteor Steel dagger is an extremely rare weapon in its own right. And these emblems represent something of the ancient empire. They hold considerable value for historians who study the history of monsters."
He wrote the figure with a flourish and held the note out to me.
"If you'd sign in the blank here, we'll consider the items sold to the Guild."
"...Excuse me."
Ely's hand came down on the desk with a soft thud.
"Y-yes?"
"I think you can do two gold more."
"Two... more?"
"A Meteor Steel dagger. And one this intact doesn't come to market easily, from what I understand. Even if you're buying the emblems at one gold apiece, that blade is worth at least two more."
She ran her hand along the sword, pinning the clerk with a look sharp enough to cut, then tapped the amount field on the note with her finger — once, twice.
"Two more is difficult...! I might be able to do one more, perhaps."
He spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness and shook his head. Ely seemed to figure that prying one extra gold out of him was victory enough, and nodded.
"Fine. Eleven gold, then."
The clerk let out a breath of relief, added the extra figure, and looked back and forth between the two of us.
"Ah — who should I make this out to...?"
"Shall I write it?"
I nodded at her suggestion. She took the pen and wrote the name in an elegant, old-fashioned hand, then held it out for the clerk to confirm.
Received in good condition: one Meteor Steel Dagger and four Ancient Emblems.
Amount payable to the undersigned: Eleven Gold Coins.
Payee: Marcus Ahn
"Marcus Ahn — do you confirm receipt of a promissory note for eleven gold coins, in exchange for one Meteor Steel dagger and four emblems?"
"Yes. I confirm."
"Then that concludes the transaction. Thank you for your cooperation."
He bowed and went off to press towels into the hands of the survivors filing out behind us, questions already forming on his tongue. Leaving him to it, Ely and I were finally able to step out of the dungeon.
"I'm suddenly so exhausted..."
Maybe it was because we'd finally escaped danger, but my eyelids suddenly felt twice as heavy, blinking slower and slower. My knees, my arms, my wrists — nothing felt intact. My legs kept trembling unsteadily beneath me, and then my toe caught on a stone.
"Whoa?!"
Fwump—
It was a different kind of impact than I'd braced for. Of course it was — she'd pulled me sideways, and I'd landed softly in her arms.
"Ah— oh... thank you."
Warmth bled into me from every point of contact. But riding that same current came something else — a dark, viscous hunger, thick and clinging. It poured from her eyes. From the scalding breath that soaked into my neck and the shell of my ear. From the arms coiled around my waist, the hands gripping my hips. Black threads unspooled from every part of her and began to wind around me, binding me tight.
Her fur was a fleeting, snow-white thing. And yet the heart beating underneath seemed to paint itself in a red so deep it had gone black.
"The promise... you remember it, don't you?"
A long, wet lick. Her tongue painted my ear. She soaked the tip, then filled the shell with slick, obscene sounds, all the while slyly working her long thigh between my legs. The strange sensation wrenched a ragged breath from me, and she pressed herself even closer.
The distance between us had surely shrunk, and yet her voice was endlessly small and ticklish. Or perhaps she was only brushing against the most sensitive parts, teasing them on purpose. By the time I barely managed to collect myself, I was clinging to her, panting out breaths that were startlingly hot.
"Mm. Putting on a face like this out in public is certainly dangerous. You look far too tempting right now."
This time, the nape of my neck went slick under her tongue. Another deep sigh spilled against her shoulder.
"To give off a male's scent like this and still react so weakly, so adorably... at this rate, every female in the area will come running without knowing their place."
"That's... nngh, what are you— hiek?!"
Schlp — her lips sealed against the nape of my neck. She was only pressing her tongue there and sucking, and yet my body reacted with unbearable sensitivity, trembling without stop. I could barely keep myself upright. My legs were desperately trying to give out, so I clung to her with my arms instead.
Of course, clinging to her like that only made things worse. She dragged me into a secluded alley, still holding me, and by the time she was done, no fewer than five deep red marks had been left on my neck.
"...If I go any further, something truly serious might happen. To think you have such a sensitive body."
Her pink tongue wet those vivid red lips. That lethal beauty, that erotic sight — my hips bucked again in spite of myself.
"I-it's my first time... is it really okay to do this?"
I whimpered at her in a voice that wouldn't stop shaking.
"If you mean me, I'm simply leaving a mark on a mate I fancy. An attractive male ought to be claimed with scent and visible marks, after all..."
She met my eyes as if it were the most natural thing in the world and went back to licking me. I let out a sharp cry.
"That's not what I meant!"
Tears pricked at my eyes. They weren't from sadness or pain. They were tears of shame... mixed with resentment at myself for floundering in a pleasure I couldn't handle. Her merciless tongue and lips — that plump, devouring, lethal touch — had me completely at their mercy, and I felt as though I'd lost something precious. I was taking it out on her with pointless complaints.
It was in that very moment that I realized this was my last desperate struggle, and a terribly weak rebellion at that.
"I-it was my first time! My first kiss, my first mark on my neck, the first time anyone's ever confessed to me this passionately! And more than anything... the first time I've met someone who makes my heart truly race... I'm clumsy at this! If I look pathetic being dragged around without managing to do a single thing right— mmph—"
Her tongue pushed in. Both my arms were caught in one of her hands and lifted straight above my head. Her other hand slid down my chest, past my navel, and kept going lower. Slowly, but surely, her sharp... claws pressed in, digging over my armor.
Her voice pierced through my dazed mind.