Resolve
“Do we really need to become adventurers?”
When it came to Fortuna’s opinions, Jun usually nodded along without much protest. This time, though, he simply couldn’t.
“It’s too dangerous. The Labyrinths are.”
Two hundred years ago, a Hero had destroyed the Labyrinth Cores. From their ruins, a new generation of Three Great Labyrinths had been born. A full century of exploration had passed since then, and still people died in those three Labyrinths by the dozens.
Fresh adventurers just starting out were said to lose half their number within the first year, no exceptions. Society half-regarded adventurers as people with a death wish.
That was how dangerous the Labyrinths were.
And for Jun, they would be even more so. Stuck to his side was the single greatest aggro magnet the Labyrinths had ever known.
“The second we step inside, every monster that remembers you is going to come charging straight at us.”
It would be like a level-1 newbie getting swarmed by level-99 elites. They’d get one-punched into oblivion before they could even try anything. He would rather pass on that, thank you very much.
“That won’t happen. So relax.”
“Why not?”
“Remembering me means they survived their first fight against me. That means they’re pretty skilled. And fighters of that caliber can’t freely climb up to the upper floors—Father’s power keeps them locked down.”
Fortuna puffed out her chest, looking thoroughly pleased with herself. Jun wanted to point out that the danger hadn’t exactly vanished, but something else in her words snagged his attention first, so he asked about that instead.
“But is it really okay for us to walk into a Labyrinth of our own free will? I feel like He’d hate that.”
“Who would? Ah—Father.”
Jun nodded.
The Bright God had attached Fortuna to Jun on the premise that Jun had chosen abilities and luck built for running away. If, instead of fleeing, he marched straight into a death trap, the god would be more than a little displeased. He might even call it a lie and hand down a punishment—and that punishment would almost certainly mean Fortuna’s forced recall. He couldn’t very well leave his own daughter to die inside a Labyrinth.
“He’d actually be happy about it. You wouldn’t know this, but before you showed up, Father was trying to pair me with reincarnators who actually wanted to fight—unlike you.”
“Oh. He was? Well, yeah—if you want to build Presence fast, that method works pretty well.”
A god’s and an angel’s Presence was the attention of mortals. To gather a lot of it, you had to burn your existence into other people’s minds. For an ordinary person that might be hard; for an angel like Fortuna, it was trivial. All she had to do was show her Angel Mode in front of a crowd, and endless attention would pour onto her.
She simply refused to do it. She hated attention from anyone who wasn’t Jun, and she hated powerful people making nuisances of themselves. She wanted a peaceful life—or rather, a peaceful afterlife—just as much as he did. So she had abandoned that approach. But there was another way to burn your existence into people’s minds. A completely opposite way.
“Nothing imprints your existence more intensely than hostility and murderous intent.”
If someone shoved a blade at your throat ready to kill you on the spot, how many people could fail to register that someone with absolute clarity? Even the most indifferent person couldn’t help it. The knife and those cold, blue eyes would lodge in the brain and refuse to leave.
In that sense, a Labyrinth—where you fought for your life at every turn—was a superb source of Presence.
“But you hate that too. That’s why you refused the god’s order to go with the reincarnator before me, right?”
“That’s right. I’m so sick of fighting. If I can help it, I never want to fight again.”
“Then why are you so determined to drag me into a Labyrinth? Once we’re in there, you won’t be able to just sit still either.”
If they started operating in a Labyrinth, even Jun—specialized as he was in running away—would face real danger at least once. Naturally, she would have to fight that danger to save him. He couldn’t understand why someone who claimed to hate fighting would head straight for a place that forced her to fight.
Why the rush?
Jun wanted power quickly too, but he didn’t want to stake his life on the hurry.
“You really don’t get it?”
In Fortuna’s eyes as she looked at him, a flame of desire she still hadn’t satisfied began to burn hotter. Jun knew perfectly well that the phenomenon came from his own shortcomings as a man, and he ducked her gaze like a guilty criminal.
Right. There was that reason too.
“Still don’t get it?”
“No, ma’am. I understand perfectly.”
“Then are we going to the Labyrinth or not?”
“We’re going. I’ll go, stake my life, and get strong.”
He would become strong. He would reclaim the male dignity he had lost—no, that he had never possessed in the first place. Jun swore it to himself.
“Mm-hm! Good thinking, my Juni. As a reward, Mama will do something nice for you.”
Jun swallowed hard.
Is it possible now because she has a Third Core? Or does she have some other method?
Just like earlier that day, right before they were about to do it, Fortuna was calling herself Mama again. Jun looked at her with a mix of anticipation and unease.
“Heh heh heh. Look forward to it.”
Catching his look, Fortuna smiled coyly, eyes curving, and then pure white light erupted from her entire body. The light-doll that had been figurine-sized rapidly swelled to adult-woman size; the radiance settled, and Angel Mode Fortuna stood there.
Except the pure-white wings and halo that were an angel’s symbols were nowhere to be seen. This was more like Human Mode than Angel Mode.
“What—you could dismiss those?”
“Of course. If I couldn’t, life would be miserable. Do you know how inconvenient they are? When you’re trying to sleep, or just walking around the house…”
“Then why didn’t you dismiss them earlier? If you’d been like this then… I think we could have managed.”
Maybe because she had stripped away the pure-white wings and halo that marked an angel, the mana cost of summoning Fortuna had dropped dramatically. At this level, even her pre-growth Double Core could have held for thirty minutes.
Thirty minutes. A lot or a little depending on how you looked at it—but if they hurried a bit, enough for one round of lovemaking.
No… that feels kind of wrong.
On second thought, he didn’t want their monumental first time to be a slapdash, water-on-rice kind of affair. Fortuna must have thought the same, which was why…
He snuck a glance at her.
Apparently not. Judging by the way she was watching for his reaction, she had simply been so worked up about their first time that she’d completely forgotten.
Honestly, for someone her age, she could be surprisingly careless.
“What were you just thinking?”
“Nothing at all, Mama.”
Fortuna’s eyes cooled as if she could read every thought in his head. Jun laughed weakly and burrowed into her arms—now larger than his own—playing the spoiled child. The chill in her gaze vanished as if it had never been, and the heat returned, burning hotter than before.
“My Juni… in this state, how many minutes do you think you can last?”
She asked gently, stroking the head of the boy nestled against her. Jun buried his nose between her breasts, drew in a deep breath, and answered.
“An hour and a half? If things go well, maybe two hours, Mama.”
“Then shall Mama and her Juni do something nice for two whole hours?”
“Yeees∼”
The moment Jun nodded, Fortuna’s slender fingers moved like lightning, stripping both of them bare. Jun watched the nun’s habit fall to the floor with a flicker of regret—whether his own clothes came off or not barely registered—then shook his head and erased the habit from his mind. He could always ask for nun play next time. Now that they were lovers, they could do it until they got sick of it.
Once she had stripped them both down to nothing, Fortuna straddled his lower belly. Jun slowly lifted his gaze.
“You’re beautiful, Fortuna. Really.”
In the dark hospital room, Fortuna’s naked body, lit by moonlight through the window, was breathtaking. Skin like white jade glowing softly in the moonbeams. Pure-white hair. Beautiful golden eyes. A waist that looked almost fragile, paired with sturdy hips that looked made for bearing children with ease. And those overwhelming, watermelon-sized breasts.
Jun forgot how little time they had. He forgot they were in the middle of roleplay. He simply stared, dazed, at her bare form.
Was this really an angel’s body? A body this lewd?
“…Don’t stare so hard.”
Flustered by his heated gaze, Fortuna twisted her body, which had grown even hotter under his eyes, and wrapped both arms around her breasts. Her slender arms sank into the soft flesh. That alone was enough—white liquid began to trickle down the curves of her chest.
Ting. The last thread of Jun’s reason snapped.
Slurp, slurp.
“Mama. More.”
Jun sat up, wrapped his arms around her waist, and carefully licked up every drop of the pure-white milk running down her breasts. When he had taken the very last drop, he nuzzled his cheek against the arms still cradling her chest, whining like a nursing infant.
Fortuna’s face, once pure white, flushed a deep red. Her softly glowing golden eyes lost their light and began to gleam with something dangerous.
“O-our Juni… want more milk?”
Jun nodded so hard it looked manic. Watching him, she trembled, then freed her arms and offered one breast—drawing a heart with both fingers over an areola as large as the breast itself—and held it out to him.
Her inverted nipple peeked out, shedding white tears as if begging to be kissed free. Jun pressed his mouth to it as if entranced. Then he buried his face so deep in her breast he could barely breathe, and sucked with everything he had.
Shluurp!
“Hyaang♡”
An enormous rush of milk flooded his mouth.