The Aphrodisiac Air Raid
"Ugh, goddammit, it's freezing." Ntel clutched his poorly fitted winter coat, struggling against the biting night air. While the flames from the torches and firewood warmed the immediate vicinity, the chill of the deep night was far too intense to be kept at bay by a mere campfire.
"Damn, what rotten luck. Having to pull night guard duty on a night like this..."
"Watch your tongue, old man. You keep talking like that, and the Knight Commander will have your head," a younger man replied, adjusting a helmet that didn't quite fit his head as he smirked. Just outside the perimeter, the body of a mercenary who had been executed by a knight for insulting the Baron lay as a grim warning.
"What, did I say something wrong about the Baron? It's not like I'm going around saying I want to 'ooh-ah' like some people."
"Your face is practically dripping with lewdness, and your heart is no different. Is your mind just filled with nothing but lust?"
"That's just how I was born, you brat. Watch your mouth." The young man chuckled and straightened his helmet again. "So, why'd you join the subjugation force, old man?"
"They said they'd pay. I lost my home. And I'm here to save a woman." It was a quick and concise answer, but anyone could immediately understand why Ntel had joined the ranks.
"A woman?"
"Yeah. There's someone. She's not my wife, but, well, she's there."
"...Hmm." The young man stared at Ntel with a meaningful look, and Ntel, feeling unnecessarily guilty, let out a dry cough. There was nothing inherently wrong with joining a war to save an acquaintance's woman, but if that woman happened to be the wife of an acquaintance, it created all sorts of complicated problems.
"I see. I hope she's still alive."
"Of course she is. But what about you? Why did you join?"
"To smash the Demon King's army." The young man lifted a battered, worn-out mace from his waist. The weapon, which likely had a decent shape once, was stained deep with blood. Ntel swallowed hard.
"Do you know what this is? It's a gift from God, sent to crush the countless demons. This mace has claimed over a hundred monsters."
"......That's impressive. You don't look like the type, but did you really kill them all yourself?"
"No. This one is mine." The young man pointed to another mace strapped to his back. It was the standard-issue mace used by the Goddess Church’s Holy Knights, and only then did Ntel realize the man's true identity.
"A, a priest?!"
"May the Goddess's guidance be with you. But for now, let's just talk as man to man. I'm just out for a stroll, so don't mind me."
"Ah, yes...." Ntel’s throat went dry. Even if he was a priest of the Goddess Church, he couldn't possibly read his inner thoughts. Ntel stood even straighter, staring fixedly ahead.
"Were you assigned to the rear this time, old man?"
"Yes, unfortunately, I won't be participating in the night raid." It wasn't unfortunate; he considered it a stroke of pure luck. Ntel had no desire to throw his life away trying to retake Zabiayaba. He just wanted his home and property back; he had no intention of dying for it.
"I see. Then—"
Thwack.
Something soft and wet landed on the helmet of the young priest, Francis. Francis didn't say a word, and Ntel froze in tension. Above them, the sound of wings flapping echoed through the night sky as a flock of birds took flight.
"...Should I wipe that off for you, Father?"
"Please."
Ntel suppressed a gag and picked up the object that had fallen onto the helmet. He felt a mix of disgust and confusion at how clumpy it was. It felt too strange to be bird droppings—
"Gah?! What the hell is this!"
Ntel threw the mysterious object to the ground, illuminated by the torchlight. A fist-sized red mass rolled across the dirt, and Ntel's hand was smeared with the slime that had coated it.
"......Wait!" Seeing Ntel's hand, Francis turned pale and grabbed it. After forcing the hand open to inspect it under the light, Francis wiped the slime with his finger and touched it to his tongue. Ntel nearly vomited, but Francis’s words made his heart sink.
"Slime?"
Naturally, his head tilted toward the sky.
"......Father, something is—"
Whir, whir-whir-whir!
With a spinning sound, something like a stone—a glass bottle—fell from the sky toward Ntel's face. Ntel fell backward, and the bottle shattered against his face. Splat, splat! As shards of glass scattered, the slime fluid inside the bottle sprayed everywhere.
Francis managed to catch Ntel before his head hit the ground, but his lips trembled at the chilling sound descending from above.
"Oh, Goddess...."
High in the sky, invisible to the naked eye, dozens of glass bottles were being poured down indiscriminately toward the barracks.
***
"Ah, I dropped it by mistake."
Andras felt dizzy looking at the slime fluid splattered on the ground. She had been ordered to break the bottleneck if the cap didn't open properly, but her strength was so great that the fluid inside had slipped right out.
"Well, it's not a big problem. Everyone~!"
Instead of the glass bottles she had already dropped, Andras lifted a wooden barrel tied to her belt. The long, cup-like wooden container was filled with the bodily fluids of a Slime Dragon. Andras teared up, remembering how, just three weeks ago, she had been so hungry she had to drink that very fluid from a wooden cup.
"To think it would be used like this, *sob*."
"Captain? Are you crying?"
"No, a feather got in my eye. Is everyone ready? No one has any glass bottles left, right?"
The hundred or so Harpy troops led by Andras all extended their talons. Like her, they had already thrown everything else down, save for the wooden barrels tied to their belts. The human barracks were already in chaos.
"Everyone, prepare to throw~!"
Andras lifted the handle of her wooden cup with a relaxed voice. Thanks to the 'L'-shaped handles they had attached, Andras and the Harpy Angels could arrive at their destination without losing their wooden cups. They had flown very slowly, specifically for this night raid.
"Listen, you don't have to aim perfectly. But the Master has offered a reward. He gave me a very special mission."
Andras licked her lips and extended the handle of her wooden cup. Every Harpy Angel held a heavy wooden cup in both hands. Each one weighed well over a liter.
"If you manage to hit and kill a soldier with this? I'll tell the Master about you personally after the battle. You understand? Then... oh, right, you girls."
Andras's lips curled upward more than ever.
"With the Master's children... *hehehe*."
"Kieeeeee!!"
"Ugh, so noisy! Quiet down! My ears are killing me! Ahem, focus again!"
The Harpy Angels cheered, shrieking with excitement. Andras, fully understanding their feelings, cleared her throat to regain their attention. Below, soldiers were scrambling out in a panic.
"The humans are starting to come out. Alright girls, three, two, one—"
Thud.
Andras gently released her wooden cup. The Harpy Angels followed suit. Inside the cups was the cold, solidified fluid of a Slime Dragon.
The knight's shout echoed throughout the camp. Soldiers scrambled to raise their round shields to protect their bodies or heads. Perhaps because the wooden cups were much lighter than the initial glass bottles, there were no major casualties despite falling from such a great height.
"It's just hail! Don't take off your helmets, you idiots!!"
"Tch." Andras bit her lip in frustration. Deciding that the current method was no longer effective, she untied the knots of the belt she had strapped tightly around her waist.
"Pour it all out!"
Following Andras's command, the Harpy Angels used their talons to cut their belts. The wooden cups that had been dangling from their waists fell toward the ground in a single, unstoppable torrent.
Patter-patter-patter!
The wooden cups shattered against the dirt, crates, shields, and helmets. After the first soldier Andras had hit in the face with a glass bottle, there were no deaths or serious injuries from the cups falling like hail. At worst, they caused bruises or contusions.
"Hmm...."
Even though the strike had failed to cause significant casualties, Andras was satisfied that they had dumped every last drop of the fluid. The camp was now soaked in Slime Dragon fluid.
"That stuff was actually pretty tasty...."
They had used ten Slime Dragons for this raid. The dragons they had hunted in the sub-dungeon over the past three days had been repurposed as tools of war. While they hadn't caused many casualties compared to a surprise attack, the mission was a success.
"Mission complete."
Andras smiled brightly and signaled to the Harpy Angels. As their load had become much lighter, they were able to depart the area at high speed.
"Kya-hahahaha!!!"
Andras and the Harpy Angels let out mocking laughter as they headed back to Las Vegas. The enraged humans fired arrows into the sky, but the Harpy Angel unit had already escaped to a height far beyond their reach.
***
The harpies had returned from their first air raid. Fortunately, no one was hurt. They had red lines on their waists from the tightly cinched belts, but it wasn't even a scratch, let alone an injury. Thus, I had successfully managed to terrorize the camp with wooden barrels via the harpies.
Gremory, who had climbed the watchtower to see my first operation with her own eyes, let out a dry laugh and scolded me.
"An air raid using harpies. The intent behind a surprise attack was good, but the effect is completely useless."
Gremory sighed, pointing at the enemy camp where the commotion had quickly died down. The torches flickered here and there, but it wasn't enough chaos to cause a real uprising.
"It's not like you poured down boulders; you should have just made blade shards and rained those down instead. To make the camp unusable."
"That's a good idea, too. I'll use that next time. But don't be angry, Gremory."
I pulled her into an embrace from behind and tickled her gently to soothe her frustration. Gremory acted as if she hated it, but she was clearly enjoying my touch.
"Hmph, so what now? The enemy will be thoroughly prepared for air raids. You didn't even kill many of them."
"Heh, you think the goal of this operation was slaughter? It's a debuff."
"...What?"
Gremory didn't understand my intent at all. And that was the same for Ryun and Eila. It was a difference born from gender, and a difference born from experience.
"You see, soldiers are placed in a highly repressed environment where they are subjected to unreasonable treatment. They have no place to periodically release their desires."
I took a handful of Lime's fluid from a glass bottle. Lime—or rather, the fluid of a Slahole—was many times more effective than that of a Slime Dragon; even the slightest contact would make the body burn with desire.
"The main purpose of our air raid using the Harpy Angels wasn't to crush their heads with glass shards or wooden barrels. This—this is the main purpose."
The Slime Dragon fluid I had added for weight wasn't just a counterweight; the goal of the operation was to drench the entire camp in it.
"It's less than a ton, but isn't that whole thing just a lump of aphrodisiac? Hehe."
Would they move the entire camp they had built, or would they clean it up and use it as is? Either way, it was sure to be a spectacle worth watching.
"In this world, there are armies that will send you to the brig for masturbating because it causes a loss of combat power. Hehehe, I wonder what the Baron will do?"
The knights and officers might be one thing, but since the commander, the Baron, is a woman, she won't easily understand the suffering of her male soldiers. Furthermore, if she tries to control them and forbids them from resolving their burning desires on their own.... Just thinking about it was thrilling.
"Khehehe, the entire unit is going to be in heat and not know what to do with themselves."
Before a proper fight, whittling down the enemy's strength was always the basic of basics. A debuff skill exclusive to the Legion of Wrath. Area-of-effect rage. How much composure could the subjugation force maintain in the face of this terror that stimulated one of the three basic human desires?