You've Got One Too?
We set out into the open fields amid a grand send-off from the Lord and everyone in his retinue.
The instructions the Lord had given us for the Holy Sword ritual were as follows.
After receiving the Holy Sword from the Lord, the Hero and his party were forbidden from using any means of 'transport.' Because this was a sacred rite, so they said, we had to show our sincerity to the Goddess.
As an extension of that rule, the Holy Sword must be carried by the Hero himself all the way to the church. Thanks to that, I was already running on empty before we'd even left town, sapped by the dead weight of the hunk of metal on my back.
At the sight of me struggling, Valeri could only pace and gnash her teeth. She knew the rules of the ritual, and it clearly frustrated her that she couldn't lift a finger to help.
Freesia, on the other hand... just looked thrilled. She hadn't stopped humming to herself since we left the Lord's castle.
We also got a detailed briefing about the church we were headed to. If we simply followed the road the whole way, we'd reach the edge of the forest before sundown.
Once inside the forest, a short walk farther on would bring us to a boundary marked by small standing stones — from there on, it was church territory. Past that boundary, the Holy Sword had to be drawn and carried in hand at all times. It was already crushing me slung over my back; I had no idea how I was supposed to lug it around in my hand.
The Lord had assigned escorts to guard us, but past the boundary we were to go on alone. That part wasn't actually in the ritual's rules — it seemed the Lord simply wanted to err on the side of caution, given how sacred the ceremony was.
Inside the church, while the clergy offered their prayers, all the Hero had to do was place the sword on the altar table. Then, supposedly, a Divine Light would descend from above...
A few elves were apparently already inside the church, praying. Word of the legendary Hero's appearance had spread, and arrangements for their cooperation had been made in advance. My only worry was whether those elves might try to arrest Freesia.
"Ooh~ it's been ages since I've seen any of my own kind~"
The woman herself didn't seem worried in the slightest... No, scratch that — she probably hadn't even considered the possibility of being arrested in the first place.
"At last, the true legend of the Hero begins!"
Valeri's eyes were absolutely sparkling.
"Yeah... how do I put this? It doesn't quite feel real. Though I suppose being plucked from another world was never going to feel real in the first place."
I answered Valeri with a laugh.
"It feels like a dream to me as well...!"
Amid that light back-and-forth, I felt Freesia's gaze fixed squarely on the two of us.
"Why are you two talking to each other all formally?"
"Huh?" "Pardon?"
"I mean, Valeri seems to use honorifics with everyone, but you talk down to me, Hero. Aren't you two supposed to be closer and have known each other longer?"
"Not at all. We only met a few days ago..."
Like Valeri, trailing off awkwardly, I couldn't come up with a good answer either.
"For the record, you're the only one I talk down to?"
"Why?"
"From the very moment we first met... I just couldn't bring myself to use honorifics with you."
"Wha— so you thought of me as a close friend from the start?"
Valeri and I were struck speechless by a line of thinking we absolutely could not follow.
"Anyway, all I'm saying is it'd feel more natural if you talked down to Valeri too~ You two even shared a room, didn't you?"
"Well, that's... true, I guess."
At Freesia's words, I glanced awkwardly at Valeri. She looked a little tense herself. I opened and closed my mouth several times, but for some reason the casual speech just wouldn't come out.
"I am in your service, Hero. Please, speak to me casually!"
"Okay then... I'll start by calling you just 'Valeri.' Ahaha."
"Yes, yep...!"
Suddenly, conversation with Valeri had become unbearably awkward.
"Fascinating, you two. And that's after you've already given her a fellatio."
"I'm... sorry, what?"
I stopped in my tracks. The escorts, who had been keeping a respectful distance behind us, stopped too.
"You... what did you just say..."
"Well, the Hero had Valeri's cock in his— mmph!"
I clapped both hands over Freesia's mouth in a panic. Valeri, meanwhile, shouted at the approaching escorts to wait a moment, holding them back from closing in. Having fended them off in a trembling voice, she scurried over and glued herself to my side, staring at Freesia.
"H-how, how on earth do you know about that...?!"
"You idiot...! You can't just say that out loud...!"
"I'm, I'm sorry...!"
"Ahfuiha."
"Huh?"
Freesia had said something through my gagging hands. Reacting to the sound, I carefully loosened my grip.
"I saw it."
"Saw it...? When...?"
"Two nights ago."
"Where...?"
"The guild lodgings. You could see right through the window from the rooftop across the way."
She... watched... the whole thing...? Me getting worked up... putting that... in my mouth... all of it...?
"F-forgget it! You must forget it...!"
Valeri seized Freesia by the shoulders, and I couldn't tell whether she was begging or threatening.
"Wha— how am I supposed to forget something I've already seen?"
Freesia wore the genuinely puzzled expression of someone who truly did not know how to forget.
"At the very least, don't tell a soul...!"
I glared at Freesia with eyes on the verge of tears.
"If you breathe a word of that... of what happened... to anyone... I'll cut you down in the name of the Hero...!"
"Hero, with all due respect, that is not remotely a heroic thing to say...!"
"Fine, fine, if you both insist... I get it..."
Looking flustered, Freesia's eyes darted between the two of us.
"Above all, never mention what I did, and never, ever tell anyone Valeri is a futanari...!"
"But that's the entire content of the story... Hero."
Oh. Right.
"Why does the futanari part matter?"
Freesia put on that same innocent, utterly-baffled face again.
"What do you mean, why?! How are you asking me that backwards? Obviously... if it got out that she's a futanari... that would be bad."
Valeri's voice grew weaker and weaker.
"Bad how? I've never thought of it that way."
"I suppose it's a pain only the person living it can understand."
For Valeri's sake if nothing else, I wanted this conversation over as quickly as possible. Slowly, I took Valeri's hands off Freesia's shoulders.
"Well, I *am* the person living it."
"Huh?" "Pardon?"
Once again, the two of us froze solid.
"You're... the person living it...?"
"Yep!"
"Then you're also..."
"Yep! A futanari."
Naturally, both our gazes slid downward. We took in Freesia's lower half, clad in a skin-tight leather suit.
"You've... got one hanging...?"
"Yep! Wanna see?"
"No!" "Absolutely not!"
The march resumed. My head was a tangled mess. Of all the timing — the fact that we'd been careless with the window, the fact that someone had watched, the fact that the someone in question was walking right beside us AND was a futanari. Every single piece of it had felt like critical damage straight to the brain.
We stopped for a lunch break just to take the edge off our hunger, and Valeri murmured quietly.
"So Freesia is a futanari... and a perverted panty thief on top of it..."
She seemed to be thinking, 'So it's true that futanari have monstrous libidos after all — because I'm one.' I gave Valeri's shoulder a gentle pat.
"Don't think like that, Valeri."
I tilted my head toward the girl sitting across from us, happily digging into her lunch.
"That one... would have turned out that way no matter how she was born."
"Yeah..."
"Hm? Was somebody talking about me?"
"Nope."
Valeri ate the rest of her lunch with a face on the verge of tears. The fact that I could sense absolutely none of Valeri's lust resonating through me meant this had to be a genuine shock for her too. Although, even if her lust weren't blocked, there was still a problem.
Freesia herself. Freesia being a futanari meant my passive skill worked on her too.
Her energy was so relentlessly high I'd never noticed, but... was that why she kept coming up to me? If so... if Freesia ever felt real lust toward me... at what level would that—
Having already suffered through resonating with Valeri's lust, Freesia was to me an unknown terror. Just how far would an unhinged pervert of that caliber go if her desire truly boiled over?
And if both of them felt lust at the same time, and both resonated into me...
Trickle.
Huh? What was that? Did I just...?
I felt a faint unfamiliar sensation around my rear. It faded almost immediately, leaving behind a slightly cool feeling — the kind of coolness you feel when wet skin dries.
Which would mean... I got wet... from that thought alone?
This is dangerous... Valeri's dangerous, Freesia's dangerous... but *I'm*...
My changing body is the dangerous one!!
Desperate to ignore the mysterious lubricant making itself known down below, I stuffed food into my mouth with single-minded focus.
It felt like another three hours of travel after lunch. The Holy Sword (Genuine Article) slung on my back was so heavy that even with frequent rests, I was utterly wrecked. Though blaming the sword felt a little rich when Valeri and the escorts marched along fine in full armor.
Clank, clank.
I'd thought it many times already, but watching Valeri stay perfectly fine in that heavy armor never stopped being a marvel to me.
Even in my original body, I'd probably be dead tired by now.
With that thought, I found myself staring at Freesia, whose outfit weighed next to nothing.
"What's wrong, Hero? Want me to carry you if you're tired?"
"No. I'm fine."
Why did I even look.
Before long, the forest edge we'd spotted in the distance finally came within reach. My body felt lighter just knowing arrival was right in front of us.
We stepped into the woods, and after only a short walk, several small standing stones marked the boundary.
"Then we shall await you beyond the boundary."
Hearing out the escort, I took the sword off my back and gripped it in my hand. Leaning the weighty blade against my shoulder, I was just about to step past the stones when a familiar face appeared, flanked by his crew.
"Been waiting for you, pipsqueak!"
It was that same barbarian warrior from before. From between the trees emerged more of his lackeys than last time, surrounding us.
Valeri ground her teeth and jabbed a finger at the barbarian.
"You again?! Cock warrior!!"
"STOP CALLING ME THAAAT!!"