Repaying Kindness
Leonard's guess that Jun's body had been forged through steady training and the consumption of elixirs was not wrong.
But it wasn't entirely accurate either.
Call it missing a third of the picture.
"Your stamina still isn't enough. If you want to run well, stamina is essential."
"Durability goes without saying. Even if you take a hit or two, you need to be able to keep running like it's nothing."
"Compress your body as much as possible. The smaller your surface area, the easier it is to dodge attacks. Don't get the wrong idea — I'm not saying this because I hate big frames."
"Shrink that too? Are you insane?! That delicious-looking thing — ssip — ahem, leave it as is. No, make it bigger! Thicker, too!"
Fortuna's advice kept coming. Jun used it as a foundation, reshaping the human model in his mind. Her counsel was liberally seasoned with personal ulterior motives along the way, but Jun accepted those suggestions just as readily.
That way, she wouldn't get distracted elsewhere.
Before long, a human model was complete — one that blended preparation for the future with a certain someone's private desires. Jun checked the model over one last time, then activated the skill that would call this imagination into reality.
Realize
The Psychic Core inside his mind began to vibrate violently. An enormous volume of mana was sucked into the Psychic Core, and his mental power drained at a frenzied rate. Without the trait Endless Mental Power, Jun would have blacked out long ago.
Soon, mana transformed by the Psychic Core — so-called psychic energy — poured out from within the core and spread through Jun's entire body. His physique, already thoroughly abused by Leonard's training, greedily drank in the psychic energy without the slightest resistance, as if it were already familiar with the process.
Crack. Crack.
Slowly but surely, his body advanced toward the ideal form the two of them had dreamed of.
"Whew. Realize is my ability, but even I have to admit it's ridiculously broken."
A skill that called imagination into reality — Realize. The mental drain was enormous, the core ran dangerously hot, and the range of its power was limited to wherever Jun's own strength could reach. Still, considering the results, those drawbacks hardly felt excessive.
Especially not for Jun, who possessed the trait Endless Mental Power, a top-tier Psychic Core grown through elixirs taken steadily since childhood, and years of training.
But he could never afford to abuse it. If anyone ever discovered the existence of Realize—
I'd be snatched up without a trace and worked like a slave for the rest of my life.
Abilities that turned imagination into reality — Wishes — could accomplish far more varied things than even magic, the very byword for versatility. The body modification Jun had just performed was a prime example, and for that reason countless people would do anything to turn a person with such an ability — a so-called Wisher — into their personal shuttle, all so they would never grow old and die.
Even now, with culture advanced enough that slavery had been abolished, most Wishers were still treated as slaves alongside Oracles, the seers. A few received decent treatment, but the majority did not.
Cases like Jun's, where the cost of using a Wish was relatively low, were almost nonexistent. Most Wishers required a toll severe enough to wreck their bodies, so they hated using their power. That left beatings and threats as the only reliable ways to force a Wisher to grant a Wish.
"Don't worry so much, Juni. There's no way anyone will ever find out."
Having sensed his anxiety through the end of their soul-bond, Fortuna gently stroked his head and soothed him. That alone was enough — the dread filling Jun's chest melted away in an instant, like snow under sunlight.
"Who would ever expect a Wish-type skill to appear on a no-name Thought Superpower, anyway?"
"Yeah. You're right, For."
"Heh-heh. If you understand, then stop fretting and start worshipping the one who made you such an incredible skill."
"Haha. Yes, yes. As you command, Lady Fortuna."
Jun piled on every flattering phrase he could think of. In truth, Fortuna's role in obtaining Realize had been enormous.
Back when Jun had first reincarnated, he had been unable to control his Thought Superpower. It was a common symptom among newborns born with superpowers — but the aftereffects in his case ran in the exact opposite direction of the usual pattern.
Ordinarily, uncontrolled superpowers burned through mental energy so fast that the infant would fall asleep at the drop of a hat. Jun, thanks to his trait, couldn't sleep at all. One day passed, then two, and still he couldn't drop off. The stress that built up was more than a fragile newborn body could endure. Jun's condition worsened by the day.
Leonard figured out the cause and tried forcing him to sleep with sedatives, but only his body went under — his mind stayed awake under the superpower's influence, rendering the drugs all but useless. Eventually Jun's body reached a truly critical state.
That was when Fortuna stepped in.
Back then, unlike now, she had thought of Jun as nothing more than her shackle. Whether he suffered or not was of no concern to her — but his life and death were a different matter entirely. If he died, she, bound to him by the soul-string, would die right along with him.
Whoosh—
In a dark, empty room, the angel silhouetted against the moonlight streaming through the window was breathtakingly beautiful. Having returned to her angelic form for the first time in a long while, she spoke to Jun.
She could gather the fortune that would have come to him in the future and draw it into the present to break through this crisis. Would he do it?
Jun agreed without much deliberation. The result was his very first skill — Realize.
"Come to think of it, when will the aftereffects from back then finally be gone?"
Because of that incident, only misfortune had remained in Jun's future. Fortuna detonated the bad luck whenever it piled up past a certain point, so he only ever ran into petty misfortunes — but he was more than ready to be free of even those.
"Hmm? They cleared up ages ago. About three years back. Did I not tell you?"
"...You did not! And if that's true, then what the hell was Frank's nonsense about?"
"That was just your own bad luck."
"Then couldn't you have cleaned it up with some good fortune?"
He had chosen fortune precisely to avoid things like that. If the aftereffects were fully gone, he wanted to start enjoying the benefits. He had invested every last one of those precious hundred points into luck — the least he deserved was to pick up a coin on the street every now and then.
"You don't get it. Fortune isn't something you sprinkle around in little bits all the time. You save it up, save it up, and detonate it all at once."
"So when are you planning to set off that big one? You've been hoarding for three years — isn't it about time?"
"Soon! Until just a little while ago it was too awkward to pull the trigger, but I siphoned some fortune off Leonard and now — wait!"
Beaming at the thought of unleashing good luck, Fortuna had been running her mouth freely — then hastily clamped both hands over it. Far, far too late.
"...So that's why the two of you were alone together earlier?"
"Ha... haha. Yeah."
She tried to laugh it off, but under Jun's sharp gaze she finally nodded. Jun considered what to do with this little darling who was wilting under his scrutiny, then simply stroked her head in silence.
"I know you're not the kind of angel who'd do something for no reason. So don't look so crushed."
"Okay!"
Fortuna smiled bashfully and buried her face against his chest. Afterward, even though Jun hadn't asked, she volunteered the reason for what she had done — leaving out the part where she had blurted it out, of course.
"So Leon really was of imperial blood after all."
He had suspected it ever since learning that Leon possessed the Nullification Superpower said to be born only to the First Emperor and a bare handful of emperors after him. What had been a maybe was now a certainty.
"What are you going to do? If Sparkles asks you to join him, will you?"
"You already know exactly what I think. Why even ask?"
"People change their minds. This isn't some random nobody — it's a direct recruitment offer from imperial blood. Judging by Leonard's behavior, Leon seems to be aiming for the throne. Help him become emperor and you could end up as the Empire's chancellor."
"No thanks. I wouldn't take a seat like that even if you handed it to me."
Jun shook his head at once, as if the idea wasn't even worth considering. If this world had been a peaceful place, he might have agonized over it for a long time. But given how close war already loomed, there was nothing to deliberate.
"An invasion force is coming in ten or twenty years. By the time we'd finished putting Leon on the throne, the war would already have broken out — or be about to. So after all that grinding work to make him emperor, we'd have to grind all over again before we ever got to enjoy the reward."
"That's true too."
"Let's just live easy. Before the war, we'll travel around selling goods. After it's over, land prices will have crashed from all the destroyed buildings, so we'll pick a decent spot, build a house, and settle down. How's that sound?"
"Yeah! I love it!"
A smile as beautiful as morning sunlight bloomed across Fortuna's face. Jun answered it with a smile just as deep. The two of them were so happy that the joy flowing through the soul-string only amplified it further.
I love him, I love him, I love him so much!
Fortuna's chest filled to the brim with affection and love for Jun. She didn't want to simply hold those feelings inside.
Whoosh!
In the end, Fortuna followed what her heart demanded and revealed her true form. She shed the fairy shape, reclaimed her angelic body, and settled herself astride Jun. Then she wrapped both arms tightly around his head and drew her face close to his.
She could see his eyes — dark as the night sky. They were maddeningly beautiful. She could feel his hot breath. It was sweet as any drug.
Fortuna could hold back no longer. She wiped every thought of angels and humans and propriety from her mind and spoke.
"Jun. You're mine now."
"Got it."
"And in exchange, I, Fortuna, am yours now."
"Done."
"No complaints? Not that I'd listen even if you had any."
"None. I've wanted this for a long time."
"Then I'm stamping the seal."
"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and stamp it."
The moment Jun's utterly straightforward answer ended, Fortuna pressed a kiss onto his lips like a seal.
"Mwah♡ Haaup♡ Chuu♡"
Breathing hotly, Fortuna rubbed her lips against his with fervent enthusiasm. Her kiss-seal was intensely hot and pure. Jun loved that about it — and at the same time, found it a little lacking. He wanted a hotter kiss with her.
Tap. Tap.
"Hup!"
Jun stuck out his tongue and flicked it against her lips. Startled by the unfamiliar sensation, Fortuna flinched — then realized what had touched her and slowly parted her mouth. Without hesitation, Jun slipped his tongue inside and gently stroked Fortuna's stiff but unflinchingly extended tongue with his own.
Fortuna let out a sultry little moan — "Nngh♡" — and began breathing even hotter. Soon her tongue twined around his. The arms wrapped around his head tightened with a resolve never to let go, and a faint dampness began to gather at the tip of her lower abdomen and the peaks of her breasts.
Before long, Fortuna started rubbing her full hips and her straining breasts against Jun's body like a cat marking its territory on its master. Naturally, Jun's healthy, robust eel stretched itself awake with vigorous energy.
"Pwah— Jun♡ Let's do it♡ Something that feels even better, yeah?♡"
Grinding, swaying—
Feeling the presence of that wholesome, delicious eel against her perineum, Fortuna broke the kiss, lifted her upper body, and rocked her lewd frame back and forth, stimulating both the eel and Jun. The eel lost itself in the warm, plump sensation of her sex; Jun lost himself in the magnificent sway of her breasts at even the slightest movement. Fortuna smiled in satisfaction — and in pure lust. It was the smile of a succubus, no mistake about it.
Completely captivated, Jun nodded blankly. The smile of the angel — no, the succubus — deepened further.
"Stay still. Your clothes, Juni — Mommy will—"
"Jun! You son of a bitch! Get out here right now!"
Whooosh!
The pink atmosphere swirling around them turned to thin ice in an instant.