Chapter 11 — The Red Dragon and the Dragon Rider: The Shared Toilet
And so, after much back-and-forth, Sylvia and Seraphina managed to get permission to bring prostitutes along on the expedition.
Surprisingly, there were quite a few who wanted to take part.
It was a dangerous journey — once you left, there was no telling when, or if, you would ever come back.
Naturally, the pay reflected that: a staggering sum, hazard bonus included. A single expedition would earn a prostitute what would otherwise take ten years of ordinary work to scrape together.
A windfall. Prostitutes who dreamed of buying their way out of the brothel with one single journey all clamored to join.
But not every prostitute could come along. Only those with the stamina and fortitude to survive the expedition were selected, and in the end, five women were chosen.
Among those five, of course, were Sylvia and Seraphina.
"So there's really a way to pull this off?"
"Of course. You think I'd make a plan without thinking it through?"
Getting the prostitutes included in the expedition had been a success, but one last problem remained for Sylvia and Seraphina to solve.
Namely: since Sylvia and Cassie, Seraphina and Ruby, were all the same person, two of them could never be in the same place at the same time.
"I'll handle it with magic, so don't worry."
"Mm. Okay. I trust you."
She could be unreliable at times, but a dragon was still a dragon. If she couldn't trust her, who could she trust?
And so the day of departure arrived.
Right before they set out, Sylvia took one look at the Cassie and Ruby that Seraphina had crafted and gasped in admiration. Even the tiniest movements — the blink of an eye, the flex of a finger — seemed to carry a life of their own.
"Wow. How does this even move?"
"Hmm, well. The underlying structure is a golem built from wood, and this…"
Seraphina rattled on with mounting enthusiasm, but none of it reached Sylvia's ears.
What the hell is she even talking about, this nerd.
"Yes. Yes. Got it. We have to leave now, so hurry up and get ready."
"Tch. Fine."
In the open ground before the knights' headquarters, the Bahamut Knights had assembled.
Even on a purely military campaign, the number of personnel handling logistics always exceeded those who actually fought. To put it simply: out of an army of a thousand, perhaps three hundred would be soldiers doing the real fighting, while the remaining seven hundred existed to keep them supplied.
The Tiranus Empire was different.
By employing subspace pouches, they had slashed that ratio dramatically — seventy knights and thirty support soldiers, and nothing more.
Behind the hundred members of the Bahamut Knights stood five prostitutes, shifting awkwardly where they stood.
That two of them were golems — not a single soul knew.
"Everyone, check your equipment and supplies one final time! Once we enter the Red Fang Mountains, there is no turning back until the expedition is over — prepare yourselves thoroughly!"
Vargan, the vice-commander, bellowed his final instructions at the knights and supply corps.
With every preparation complete, the Bahamut Knights set out on their first mission: the expedition to the Red Fang Mountains.
Ordinarily, before an expedition departed, the commander would deliver a rousing speech to fire up the men.
Sylvia had no need for any of that tawdry theater.
Mounted atop Seraphina, who had taken her true form as a Red Dragon, Sylvia drew her sword and raised her voice for all to hear.
With Sylvia's brief address, Seraphina wheeled through the sky in a wide circuit, and the knights' roar erupted.
"WOOOAAAH!!!"
That the dragon — the strongest being in the world, the most feared of all — fought on their side made them feel utterly invincible.
And so the first mission began.
The knights rode on horseback, while the supply corps hauled wagons loaded with whatever hadn't fit into the subspace pouches. The prostitutes rode in the wagons the supply soldiers led.
"…Ah. Th-that's… we'll be fine, right?"
Anna forced a smile to shake off her fear and struck up conversation with Cassie and Ruby, the two she knew best.
But the pair gave no answer, offering only a faint smile before settling into a corner.
For all of Seraphina's craftsmanship, her golems simply couldn't talk.
"…Maybe I should just keep quiet? Yeah. That's probably best."
Never suspecting that the two of them were golems, Anna smacked her lips at the awkwardness, curled herself up in the corner of the wagon, and sat.
How much time had passed?
The rattling wagon rolled to a halt, and at the same moment a booming voice sounded from outside.
"We make camp here for the night! Everyone, get ready!!"
They had reached the spot where they would stop moving and sleep.
The knights and supply soldiers prepared their bedding with practiced ease.
An ordinary army would have fumbled tent poles out one by one — but the knights of the world's strongest empire were built different. They used what they called one-touch tents: complete tents pulled fully assembled from subspace pouches and simply spread on the ground.
In no time at all camp was set up and a simple meal was underway, when Sylvia and Seraphina likewise retired to the tent their subordinates had prepared for them.
Thanks to her position as commander — and to being the only woman in the order — the two of them each had a private tent, unlike the other knights who shared theirs several to a canvas.
"Commander. How would you like your meal?"
"I'm fine. Don't fuss over me — I'll be resting now. Make absolutely sure no one disturbs me."
"Yes, ma'am! Understood!"
After drilling her subordinates on the absolute necessity of leaving her tent alone, Sylvia and Seraphina slipped out quietly and made for the tent where the prostitutes were staying. There they secretly summoned Cassie and Ruby — the golems — and switched places.
"Ahem!"
"Cassie. You feeling better now?"
"Huh? Me?"
"You haven't said a word this whole time. Just sat there staring into space."
"Oh — ah, I get motion sickness pretty bad, that's all."
When Anna asked after her worriedly, Cassie brushed it off with a half-baked excuse.
Night deepened, and the hour arrived for the prostitutes to work.
Prostitutes weren't merely there to please men with their bodies. The girls had their own ways of bringing comfort that had nothing to do with sex at all.
"Sir Knight, here — have a drink on me."
"Ahem! Well now, I ought to be turning in soon — big day tomorrow. But I suppose I can't refuse."
weaving between the knights at supper, the women turned on the charm, doing their best to melt the fatigue from their shoulders.
Ruby outshone the rest without question, radiating raw seduction and coaxing the knights along; even Anna did her part, rubbing away their aches and weariness.
Only Cassie, still unaccustomed to this line of work, drifted around the edges, not quite belonging anywhere.
"Hey. You there — come over here and pour a drink too."
Just then, one of the knights called her over. He had her sit beside him and pour his wine, then let his hand wander casually across her ass.
Once upon a time she would have shrieked and taken his head off. But a man's touch had grown familiar by now — and it felt strangely good, too — so Cassie gave her hips a subtle shift, angling herself to make him comfortable, to make it easier for him to keep groping.
Then a man came striding up and clapped a heavy hand on the knight's shoulder.
"I need this woman. I'm taking her with me. Any objections?"
"V-Vice-Commander! No, sir! Not a problem at all!"
The man was Vargan.
"We meet again, Vice-Commander."
"…Cassie. I hadn't expected you to join the expedition."
Vargan studied her with an expression tangled somewhere between feelings. He'd taken a liking to her — a slight liking, no, an enormous one — and seeing her again filled him with joy even as the thought of her on so dangerous a journey knotted his stomach with worry.
"…If anything dangerous happens, you call for me."
"Hoho. Thank you for worrying, Vice-Commander. Though… are you planning to just talk tonight?"
"Like hell I am."
Vargan pulled her along toward a secluded corner.
"First day of the expedition — no sense wearing ourselves out. Let's satisfy each other with your mouth instead, hmm?"
Vargan fumbled his trousers down and hauled out his cock.
He'd ridden on horseback the whole way, but riding was exhausting work in its own right, and with no way to wash, his cock gave off a rank, musky reek of sweat.
Cassie, though, had grown used to that smell since she'd started visiting the brothel to work off her stress — and if anything, the stench was starting to turn her on.
She opened her mouth, careful to keep her teeth off him, and took his cock between her lips, sucking.
Having already tangled with Vargan several times back at the brothel, she knew exactly where to touch, exactly how, to make him feel good.
She started by licking his balls, then ran her tongue all the way up the shaft, slurping him to full hardness — and when she flicked her tongue playfully at the spot just beneath his crown, his cock swayed up and down in unmistakable pleasure.
Vargan stroked the head of the woman who knew precisely how to work every spot he loved, then seized a fistful of her hair.
Vargan had always liked holding a woman's head and driving himself into her mouth. Cassie opened wide and obediently surrendered her throat to him.
Thrust. Thrust. Thrust!
His massive cock plunged recklessly down her throat.
Her neck bulged out like a pelican's, and snot and drool backed up from her nose and mouth, spilling down in strings.
Even so, Cassie didn't spit him out. She endured the pain and waited for Vargan to come.
"Khoh! I'm cumming — take it all, and swallow every last drop!!"
Vargan had always loved watching a woman gulp down his seed.
Pursing her lips into a tight ring, she caught and swallowed everything that poured into her mouth, then leisurely wiped her lips and readied herself to return to her place — at which point Vargan looked at her with wide-eyed amazement.
"You struggled so hard with it at first. These days you're a proper whore, aren't you."
"…Is that supposed to be a compliment?"
"Of course it is."
Chuckling together, the two of them went their separate ways.
Days passed, and the Bahamut Knights arrived at the threshold of the Red Fang Mountains.