#033 Aria Plainble
The carriage rattled steadily along the well-maintained road.
Hmm… Looks like she’s running away, doesn’t it?
“Why?”
Because we completely dismantled the trap she set up. In simple terms, the backlash hit her instead. She gathered every noble she could to publicly humiliate the princess, but the event ended up being a roaring success. So now she’s fleeing to avoid taking responsibility.
“So she’s running to dodge the blame?”
Exactly.
Aria climbed into the carriage, and the vehicle carrying her began to move with a rhythmic clatter of hooves.
I kept a moderate distance, then cast Invisibility and Body Strengthening before quietly following behind.
About an hour passed like that.
The moment the carriage entered a forest path, someone suddenly stepped out and blocked its way.
The instant it stopped, people emerged from all directions, surrounding it completely.
The coachman scrambled down in a panic and tried to flee, but an arrow flew from somewhere and struck him dead.
How many ambushers do you think are hiding right now?
“Hold on… Three. That’s all.”
Same number as me. Then let’s take care of them first.
I moved silently, claiming the lives of the men standing guard in the bushes one by one.
Among them, there was only one mage, and to me—someone who had mastered surprise attacks on the battlefield—he was nothing more than easy prey.
By the time he sensed the flow of mana and reacted in surprise, his head was already rolling on the ground.
Once the mage was dealt with, the other two had their necks claimed just as easily under the cover of Invisibility and Silence.
Now only fifteen men remained, encircling the carriage.
As I stood with my arms crossed, lost in thought, Beres asked,
“What are you going to do?”
Well… what would you do?
“Can that bitch even live in the empire anymore?”
Probably not. As long as Pellermil is alive, she’ll be hunted for the rest of her life.
Beres let out a sly laugh.
“Then let’s turn her into our personal cum-dump. We can drag her around and fuck her whenever we’re bored! How’s that sound?”
I mean, that’s fine with me, but…
She was still a professor, after all. I doubted she would simply obey.
Given both her personality and Pellermil’s, there couldn’t have been any real loyalty between them. So how exactly had that old pervert managed to win her over?
My question found its answer in Beres’s sharp observation.
“But why is she running away alone? Doesn’t she care if her family gets targeted?”
…That’s it! That was the missing piece.
“What is?”
I heard Aria comes from a fallen noble house. Her predecessors supposedly fell into debauchery and ruined the family. She must want to restore her house, and Pellermil probably promised to help her do exactly that.
Now everything clicked into place.
Professor Aria had been doing all sorts of dirty work for Pellermil for a very long time—long enough that most nobles knew about it. No matter how loyal someone was, that kind of devotion couldn’t last that long.
The real question is how to seduce her…
“Seduce her? Fuck that. Just ram your cock into her until she falls madly in love! Simple!”
Beres, I’m being serious here.
Obtaining Professor Aria as a card would make everything that came next far easier. She was known to be exceptionally skilled in alchemy and potion-making—fields where I was still lacking. More importantly, she had operated extensively in the shadows and understood the empire’s political landscape better than I did.
“I’m being serious too! Just keep pounding her until her brain melts, that’s all I’m saying!”
Can’t you give me at least one normal idea, sis?
“Ugh. Aslan, you’re so frustrating. Fine, let’s do this instead! Make that bitch choose.”
How?
When I leaned in with genuine curiosity, Beres continued with boundless confidence.
“Tell her to pick between front and back. If she chooses front, we’ll go with your plan—give her what she wants. But if she picks back, then we shove love straight into her asshole. Okay?”
Beres’s ridiculous suggestion made my head throb, but since I had no better ideas and she seemed so sure of herself, I decided to just go along with it.
I lightly cast Impotence on the enemies who were just about to begin their assault.
They immediately lost all strength and collapsed, trembling violently on the ground.
With them neutralized, it was time to go have a chat.
I walked slowly toward her.
From the moment I used magic, she had already been staring in my direction. Her face was a complicated mixture of emotions.
She seemed to recognize me… and was clearly confused about why the Practical Magic instructor was here.
We were now only two steps apart.
She looked like a cat on high alert. If I got any closer, she might attack, so I spoke instead.
“You are Professor Aria Plainble, correct? This is our first formal introduction. My name is Kael Cleanberry. And today, I am the one who will force a choice upon you.”
“What are you…?”
“Now, choose. Front or back?”
She asked again, clearly not understanding what I meant. I followed Beres’s instructions and posed the question exactly as told.
But the moment I asked, a question formed in my own mind.
Front or back? Come to think of it, what the hell does that even mean?
When I looked at the woman, her eyes held the same confusion. She was clearly wondering the exact same thing.
When I asked Beres for clarification, she answered without hesitation.
“What the hell are you asking the obvious for?! Front means pussy, back means asshole! Isn’t that common sense?”
…That’s what it meant?
I couldn’t help but laugh at how absurd it was.
Truly, a demon through and through. Never changes.
Now that the mystery was solved, I supposed I should explain it to the woman who shared my confusion.
“Ah, was my explanation too brief? My mistake. Let me ask again.”
But the moment the words were about to leave my mouth, a wave of self-loathing hit me. Wouldn’t saying it out loud make me seem just as vulgar as Beres?
I quickly scanned my surroundings to calm myself, then added a supplementary explanation to the options.
“Choose. Pussy or asshole.”
A look of utter disbelief spread across Aria’s face.
It was the expression of someone wondering what kind of lunatic they were looking at.
Ah, fuck. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.
I suddenly wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear.
To think I had come all this way to force a woman to choose between her pussy and her asshole… Ugh. I’m insane.
And because I had said those crude words with such confidence, I could even see a flicker of scholarly curiosity appear on her face.
Like she had discovered a brand-new species of human.
Anyway, both she and I spent about a minute organizing our thoughts before looking at each other again.
Let’s ignore Beres’s nonsense and try persuading her through normal conversation.
“What do you truly want from me?”
“I want you, Miss Aria.”
“…Calling me ‘Miss’ feels inappropriate. I am quite a bit your senior, Baron Cleanberry.”
She was right.
Compared to Aslan, she was definitely young, but in terms of Kael’s age, Kael was the much younger one. I wasn’t sure of her exact age, but she had already been a professor long before I became one at the academy.
Hmm… She’s probably well over forty?
That was why people whispered that she had created a special potion to preserve her youth.
The rumor spread like wildfire and established her as one of the top five potion experts in the entire empire.
“Whoa. She’s over forty with a face like that? She looks like she’s barely in her early twenties at most.”
Lustrous black hair that seemed to drink in the light.
Beneath it, an emotionless face and slightly eerie crimson eyes.
If not for the round glasses perched on her nose, she would have given off a rather gloomy aura. But aside from that, she was an incredible beauty.
She also carried the distinct atmosphere of a scholar or librarian.
“You think Pellermil never touched her? That perverted old man—judging by how he acts, he probably fucked her hundreds of times already.”
No. I’m certain he never laid a hand on her.
“Why?”
He despises women with black hair and red eyes.
When I remained silent, Aria spoke again.
She looked straight at me and asked,
“What exactly do you want?”
“I’m not joking. I truly want you, Aria.”
She let out a deep sigh.
Then, as if scolding a child, she said,
“Please pursue a normal romance, Baron Cleanberry. I may very well be older than your mother.”
“I really do want to possess you.”
When I took a step closer, she retreated slightly.
But only one step.
She seemed to understand that running was pointless. Even when I pulled her into my arms, she came without resistance.
I gazed down into her eyes.
Though they were emotionless, they were trembling ever so slightly.
Fear? No.
Nervousness? Not that either.
She was probably just confused because she couldn’t figure out my intentions.
“What must I do to have you?”
“…Are you serious?”
“Of course.”
“Yes, unni~!!”
Both Beres and I were completely serious.
Though our goals were as different as heaven and earth.
The woman exhaled a long, unreadable sigh.
She turned her gaze toward the men twitching on the ground, then slowly tried to soothe me.
“If you take me, Baron, you will bring trouble upon yourself. The chancellor… will not sit idly by.”
Good. The door to her heart had opened a little.
Now it was my turn to gently coax and seduce her.
I reached out and gently stroked her hair.
Aria’s cheeks flushed bright red in an instant, and she didn’t know what to do with herself.
She really couldn’t control her emotions in the strangest places.
“Aria.”
“…Would you please call me Plainble? It’s embarrassing to be called by my first name by someone so much younger than me.”
“Aslan, you know what that means, right? She’s basically begging you to call her by name! Go all the way and use casual speech too~”
Got it.
Following Beres’s advice, I called her by name.
And I even switched to casual speech.
“Aria.”
“Haa… Yes, I’m listening, Kael.”
“To have you, I’ll have to get rid of Pellermil, won’t I?”
“That’s…”
The black-haired woman lifted her head.
I cupped both of her cheeks and held her face completely still. Her cherry-red eyes trembled even more than before.
She was almost there. Time to finish it…!
“Then I will kill Pellermil for you. So please, let me have you!”
She closed her eyes.
For a long time, she remained perfectly silent.
When she finally opened them again, she slowly began removing her clothes and spoke.
“I understand. From today onward, Aria Plainble… will serve Kael Cleanberry as her master. Please be sure to keep your promise to kill Pellermil.”
Bingo. Professor Aria conquered.
I smiled as I grabbed her ass and breasts.
“For your sake, I will definitely keep it.”