Just Try Fucking Each Other! Ch. 43: Left Alone, Even Her Fiery Temper Subsides – Flames Need Fuel to Burn Bright
Just try mating, you two!
Left alone to guard the altar, Karia Redheart shoved a hot poker into the embers of resentment smoldering in her heart, gnawing at her lips.
Han Do-yoon!
Replaying everything that had happened only made her rage boil over into something like apoplexy.
Of course, Karia had a conscience. She'd tried to kill him but spared him because he was useful. She didn't blame him for tricking her in her vengeful haze and ravaging her like a beast.
But at the very least...
If you saw me lay eggs... if you came inside me like you were trying to impregnate me... shouldn't you at least see me as your female now?!
Ever since that incident, it felt like Han Do-yoon no longer viewed Karia Redheart, the half-red dragon, as a female.
Like one of those guys who loses interest in a woman after taking her virginity.
No... that's not it!
Karia carried the blood of the king of beasts, the pinnacle of all creatures – a dragon.
...She could tell just from his scent. This male had embraced some female last night, and even though that female was no longer a virgin, he'd kept mating with her.
He wasn't a virginity predator.
Just...
Am I... not attractive to him anymore?
Depression washed over her. She'd worked hard, sweated it out, hoping to be loved again, but now the man in question didn't see her as a female.
Am I... undesirable now? Does he prefer Lumiene over me...?
Her gut bubbled and boiled... and the gloom began twisting into anger.
Her red dragon temper flared. The heat she exhaled turned the surroundings into a steamy sauna.
Just try mating, you two...!
The worst future flashed in Karia's mind. Herself, blackened and discarded in the corner, while those two sweated and panted, grinding their crotches together. Han Do-yoon watching Lumiene's egg-laying – not hers.
"...I'll kill you both and then myself!"
"Achoo!"
A sudden chill hit me. Probably from getting drenched in the downpour.
Lucky I found this cave just in time.
Truth be told, I could've used my Safe House skill right then and returned to my personal workshop for some comfy rest.
But... the lamps were the issue.
The tools provided for the trial couldn't be taken outside. I hadn't tested it, but I figured if I went back to the workshop, all the lamp spirits I'd painstakingly collected would vanish.
The Tower didn't hand out conveniences like that.
Whoosh!
I lit a campfire using solid fuel. I always kept some dry firewood equivalents in my inventory.
"Caught a cold?"
Lumiene stared at me curiously. Unless it was some magical curse, climbers in the Tower didn't catch trivial illnesses like colds. As you ascended floors, your body adapted and strengthened accordingly.
But I was under the Thousand-Year Prison.
"It's a blessing and a curse. My body's pathetically weak. I reinforce it with alchemy. When others go from 100 to 110, I barely creep from 10 to 11 – not much difference."
"So that's what your exoskeleton armor is for."
"Thanks to this, I can at least keep up."
I pulled a potion from my pouch and downed it... I'd sneezed earlier, and my body was shivering – definitely a cold coming on. Come to think of it, tanking Karia's Flame Lance head-on yesterday hadn't left me in great shape.
"What's that...?"
"Just a stamina booster potion... Want one? Tastes good."
...Lumiene recalled what Karia had said about it.
Ovulation inducer.
Ovulation... I don't do that much.
Curiosity piqued. She even suspected it might actually be an ovulation inducer, disguised to slip to her.
I caught her suspicion... it showed in her eyes.
"...It's not anything weird. Take it or leave it."
"No, give me one too. I've heard rumors of the Starlight Alchemist – not every day you get to try a potion from someone like that."
"Being Starlight grade makes it a bit different."
The stamina booster in its glass vial. No lies in the item description.
Without suspicion, she drank the pink liquid, and a sweetly addictive taste coated her tongue.
"How is it? Tasty, right?"
"Can I have more?"
"Anything in excess is poison... Here, one more."
As she took the potion, Lumiene suddenly pressed her palm to my chest...
Wondering what she was up to, I watched – and my damp clothes dried in an instant.
I'd already evaporated the moisture with alchemy, but... can't compare to a blue dragon's expert elemental control.
"I'll give you one more."
"I wasn't expecting anything... but since my cold's partly your fault."
"Pardon? This is my own failure at self-care."
"Without a blue dragon like me, you might've avoided more rain."
Dragging the topic out would just lead to nitpicking. To warm up, I downed another potion.
Ugh, body's in rough shape.
My temperature wouldn't rise easily. Even with the campfire, my hands and feet stayed cold – looked like I needed a good long rest.
"...Whatever the curse is, must be a real headache."
"Huh? Oh, yeah... You get used to it."
"You can get used to a curse? I couldn't."
I mulled over her words.
Thousand-Year Prison isn't something you pick up easily, huh?
The Thousand-Year Prison could only be obtained through a deal with the Tower World's absolute existence, the Tower itself.
The Tower Blade contract was public knowledge – anyone could do it. But not the Thousand-Year Prison.
Impossible without conditions tempting enough for the Tower to bite.
The desperate one had to be the Tower, not me.
"...Depends on the curse's conditions, I guess?"
Lumiene checked my condition and scooted close enough for our skin to touch. Compared to my cold body, hers burned like a fireball.
Wh-what the hell?
Didn't seem to mean anything deep. Her pale, clear skin showed no embarrassment.
Just a pure act of sharing body heat to help me recover.
But... I wasn't pure enough for that.
...She's touching me.
Like Karia, half-dragons had exceptional bodies, so they dressed light regardless of climate. Her sideboob and thighs were on blatant display, and squatting with knees together squeezed her already ample breasts, stealing my gaze... Plus that subtle scent, a sweet mint aroma.
Unaware her actions turned men into beasts, Lumiene gazed out at the pouring rain and continued.
"You told me about your curse first... so it's only fair I share. Or maybe you're already close to big sis Karia and know."
"Didn't say it expecting that. My body's abnormally weak either way – obvious at a glance. Good topic to kill time till the rain stops, though."
Oblivious that I'd clocked her as a female, Lumiene replied.
"It's a curse from birth. Sis and I only realized it after arriving here."
Not Thousand-Year Prison. A curse carried from her original world.
She held her palm out, gathering ambient moisture into a spherical orb of water.
"Our elemental control is restricted. Beyond a certain level, we draw on each other's power."
"Water element for you... Karia's fire is opposite, so borrowing wouldn't help much. Same for her."
In my memories, Karia's power was limitless. Like Isana becoming the Sword God, she'd risen to become the star symbolizing dragons... One wingbeat pierced the atmosphere into space, repelling countless meteors.
The propulsion for that flight came from elemental forces.
And...
Karia used water elements too, I think.
As a star, Karia wielded the pinnacles of fire and water, fusing fire's positive traits with water's negative ones.
That destructive power rivaled Isana the Sword God, who cleaved concepts themselves.
...And the base of that power was her little sister?
I replayed memories of the source of Karia's strength.
Even from an alchemist's view, no clue.
Lumiene was a mystery too. No "Lumiene Blueheart" in my recollections.
Hell, I only recently learned Karia even had a sister.
My guess...
Lumiene dies... Karia's freed from the curse and wields both elements?
I didn't know when Lumiene died, but she clearly screamed her way to death without clearing past floor 30.
If she'd challenged higher, I'd have known. Back then, grinding daily in the Heavenly Tower, I'd looked up to those tackling the Tower.
Isana stepped into the tavern district before the Tower.
Not to recruit a party.
To gather drifting intel.
What happened around this time?
Like Han Do-yoon wasting years in the Heavenly Tower to earn his alchemist credentials.
Isana had squandered years under Heavenly Sword Arachne, honing her swordsmanship.
So she knew zilch about events in the Tower World during this period.
"Hey, you saw Han Do-yoon and Karia duke it out in front of the tavern earlier, right?"
"Yeah. Fought like pros. Han won, but Karia's got at least 30-floor talent."
"What about Han?"
"Thought he was some combat machine. Pulled the trigger at a guy's face without blinking, charged into a dragon's flames without fear... Never seen anyone throw their life away fighting like that."
...No substantial rumors.
Not the kind Isana wanted.
She perked her ears toward the tavern's opposite side.
"Another Tower Blade ritual completer showed up."
"Karia Redheart? That's old news."
"Nah, not her. Heard about 'Lance' from the Heavenly Sword party?"
"Lance...? The guy exiled after floor 45?"
"Yup. Became a Tower Blade and's massacring low-floor challengers."
"Heh... Fuck, better pulverize him if we cross paths."
Couldn't pinpoint who became a Tower Blade, who they killed, or who got killed.
But if, upon A's death, B inherited all abilities – that was certain.
B was the Tower Blade who killed A.
Karia had botched her first kill as a Tower Blade and it fizzled out, but for this 'Lance'...
He'd never form parties again, couldn't show his face unscathed in Gehenna.
Inns would shun him, no residents would climb with him, public facilities banned.
Cornered Tower Blades like that obsessed over kills even more.
It was their only way out.
Lance, huh...
A name from Isana's memories. A Tower Blade active for quite a while.
Eventually apprehended by her master, the Heavenly Sword – but alive, he'd eyed her with lecherous stares.
If it's him now...
Benefits of becoming a Tower Blade: Steal everything from your target.
Tower-granted skills, blessings, special stats – literally everything.
So Tower Blades targeted record breakers mostly.
Right now, the most likely target for newly minted Lance was...
Only one.
Holder of the most record updates.
An easily killable resident.
Han Do-yoon.
In the original timeline... he'd have gone after Karia.