Chapter 24
Chapter 24
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Curse (3)
Passing through the gate revealed a city bathed in magenta glow below.
The red-light district lights of the entertainment quarter that occupied half of Redlegio Town.
Laughter—ha ha ho ho—echoed even from afar.
Though the night was deep, the city brimmed with vitality.
Redlegio Town lay close to the battlefield, drawing knights, adventurers, and mercenaries who guarded it for rest and respite.
The members of the mercenary group Zeke had belonged to would come here on their days off, reveling wildly. The next day, they'd boast to the others as if recounting heroic tales.
It was the mercenaries' simple pleasure.
"Gates really are convenient, huh."
A journey that would've taken over a week by carriage had been crossed in less than a minute.
Shortening the travel time was great, but the motion sickness was brutal.
To soothe his spinning head, Zeke pulled a cigarette from his pocket.
He'd bought it at a shop before stepping through the gate.
It had been ages since he'd last put a cigarette to his lips. He took a long drag.
"Fuuu..."
Now he felt alive.
Among the cigarettes sold in the markets, Zeke always chose the strongest ones.
Inhaling that harsh smoke after so long made his head float, sending him into a nicotine high.
"Cigarette?"
Freya, standing beside him as she smoothed her wind-tossed hair, asked.
"If it's unpleasant, I'll put it out right away."
"I wasn't telling you to put it out. I was just curious."
"Ah."
Zeke tapped the ash off the tip.
"Picked it up during my mercenary days."
Mercenaries drowned battle stress in booze and puffed cigarettes whenever boredom struck.
They had to, just to endure.
Staying sane on a battlefield where death danced merrily was no easy feat.
Even the jolliest mercenaries crumbled when they watched a comrade die right in front of them.
So they relieved the stress with alcohol, smokes, or sex.
Zeke's choice had been cigarettes.
"Wait just a sec. I'll finish it quick."
He stepped to a corner and exhaled a plume of smoke.
Freya watched him quietly.
What's so cool about smoking?
Zeke's face bore the deep weariness of a long mercenary life.
That fatigue lent him a mature air.
Combined with the smoke he exhaled so casually, it created the effect of a man with a storied past.
It stirred a maternal instinct.
"Let's go."
Zeke returned after stamping out the cigarette, flashing a bright smile.
The wolfish loner from the group had vanished, replaced by a big, smiling puppy.
This side was cute in its own way.
2.
Following his memory, they reached a mansion on the outskirts of Redlegio Town.
The Healer's mansion.
That's what the locals called it.
People came here whenever they needed treatment.
Those unaware of her true nature assumed she was a mage versed in healing magic or a priestess who had entered the secular world.
But her real identity was that of a witch.
In the days of witch hunts, she had to hide, but now, with the peace treaty signed, witches no longer needed to conceal themselves.
Yet she did so anyway—because her hobby was rather unique.
The Witch of Seduction.
True to her name, her pastime was seducing men.
She especially relished luring those with lovers and shattering their relationships.
Hiding her identity made indulging in that hobby all the easier.
"This is the place."
Freya said, standing at the mansion's entrance.
The mana emanating from the mansion matched the traces woven into Zeke's mana circuits.
They'd found the right spot.
"So... how do we get in?"
The central door leading into the mansion was shut tight.
If there'd been a guard, they could've just asked to be let in.
But the door wasn't the issue.
An invisible barrier enveloped the place.
It was active, as if warning not to disturb whatever important business was underway inside.
"Something to worry about?"
Freya elegantly extended her hand and tapped the air with a finger.
The barrier shattered into fragments.
The reason the Witch of Sorrow was renowned among witches was simple.
She was strong.
Having attained the highest existing rank in the hierarchy, she commanded respect from witches devoted to magical research.
Moreover, when the peace treaty ended the witch hunts, she had stepped forward, volunteering to handle the demon cleanup herself. Small wonder she was revered.
"We just go in."
"That okay?"
"What's not to be okay? She touched my precious disciple. As her master, I can afford to be this bold."
She could have leveled the entire mansion, but she avoided such crude methods.
"Zeke, open the door."
"Yes."
As expected of her master.
Zeke admired her affection for her disciple, but what impressed him more was the depth of her magical knowledge.
The barrier encasing the mansion was a complex web of thousands of straight lines and thousands of curves.
Mage tower researchers would rack their brains just to barely unravel it.
Yet she'd destroyed it with a mere flick of her finger.
Simply by looking, she'd analyzed the magic circle and completed the calculations to dismantle it.
To think such an extraordinary witch was pathetic in bed...
That gap was thrilling.
Zeke shoved the central door aside.
A heavy iron gate.
He had to strain his forearms until the tendons bulged to force it open.
"It's open."
Freya, who had been stealing glances at Zeke's forearms, cleared her throat with a hem-hem.
"Good job."
They entered the mansion.
Tracking the mana, they headed toward the Witch of Seduction.
"Aang...! Haaang...! Good...! So good...!"
The moment they stepped inside, a woman's shrill moans reverberated through the corridor.
"......"
"......"
Master and disciple froze in the hallway.
"Thrust deeper! Haeng! Fill my pussy and ass with your cum...!"
Vulgar words battered Freya's eardrums.
Pussy and ass full of cum.
First time hearing "ass pussy," but the vibe told her exactly what it meant.
The rear entrance.
The scene painted itself in her mind.
Zeke's cock stuffing both holes, filling them with semen.
The mere imagination made her dizzy.
"So vulgar..."
"Aaang...! Don't pull out—cum more... Haaaang...!"
Freya coughed repeatedly, hem-hem.
"Let's wrap this up quick and head back."
"Head back quick?"
"N-not like that! Don't get the wrong idea!"
It didn't mean finish the job and rush back for sex.
She just wanted out of this awkward place fast.
Still.
She did want sex.
She couldn't say it, though.
She wondered how ecstatic it would feel, body and soul connecting with the one she loved.
"Let's go!"
Freya strode inside.
Zeke followed behind.
The deeper they went, the louder the lewd moans grew, mingled with the wet slap of flesh on flesh and the men's grunts.
"Here it is."
They arrived in front of a room.
The Witch of Seduction was inside.
"I'll open it."
"No. Allow me."
Freya gave a light knock with her dainty fist.
-Bang!!
A gentle tap, but its force was anything but.
A mana strike blew the door clean off.
A bit of venting anger.
"Heng?"
Seduser, the Witch of Seduction in the midst of a frenzied orgy, halted her up-and-down hip shaking as the door flew away.
"What the—?"
She turned to look where the door had been.
Her eyes widened at the woman standing there.
"Eeeeng?"
The Witch of Sorrow, Freya Astellin.
The great witch revered by all witches.
Seduser respected her too.
She was the idol of every witch.
Seduser knew she'd been secluded in her mansion for years, skipping witch conclaves. Yet here she was.
The first word in Seduser's mind was "Why?"
She couldn't fathom why she was here.
Or why she'd smashed the door.
They weren't particularly close.
No invitation either.
This was trespassing.
"Oh my, what brings Lady Astellin to such a humble abode?"
She decided to greet her warmly anyway.
A welcome guest.
Seduser had always wanted a one-on-one chat someday.
Never dreamed it'd be today.
Seduser, entangled wildly with five men, released the cocks she'd gripped like handles and rose from her position. She wiggled her hips, pulling the shafts from her front and back holes.
-Pop! Splurt!
A crude fanfare sounded as semen oozed from Seduser's rear.
She paid it no mind.
"Sorry about this. Mind waiting a moment? I'll dress and be right out."
Seduser snapped her fingers.
The enchanted men hastily gathered their clothes and shuffled out of the room.
"No need."
Freya's expressionless voice was ice cold.
This was her usual demeanor.
The image the world knew.
"Straight to business."
"But being naked in front of Lady Astellin is embarrassing. It's poor etiquette."
"Etiquette went out the window long ago."
"Pardon?"
Seduser blinked, as if to say what do you mean.
"Daring to lay hands on someone else's disciple."
"Eh?"
The moment she spotted the man in the corridor, Seduser remembered.
The first man she'd ever failed to seduce.
Out of spite, she'd cursed him never to have sex with other women.
But why was he here...?
Disciple?
A chill ran down Seduser's spine.