Whispers from the Pleasure Tower
The territory lay shrouded in darkness, the moonlight swallowed by thick clouds. Ironically, on such a pitch-black night, one place glowed all the brighter—the red-light district. The street Ed walked was alive with raw crimson light spilling from every doorway. The women bathed in that scarlet glow stirred men's blood far too easily. Patrons who had come seeking release prowled with flushed faces and obvious arousal, eyeing the women displayed along both sides of the road and choosing who would receive their coin and their lust.
“Sir~ Why not spend some real time with us? We’ll make sure you’re well taken care of.”
Yet when the women spotted a well-dressed customer like Ed, it was they who grew eager. He looked like someone worth bleeding dry. “Not interested.”
Ed ignored their calls and kept walking straight ahead. His destination was the largest entertainment establishment in the district—the Pleasure Tower. Straight down this street and he would reach it. No better place existed to gather intelligence on Argie Territory.
“Welcome, sir. The deposit first, if you please.”
Two large men blocked the entrance when he arrived. They demanded payment before allowing entry. The Pleasure Tower only admitted carefully vetted nobles and the extremely wealthy; the deposit served to judge a visitor’s status. If it proved insufficient, one was turned away at once.
“Will this do?”
Ed produced the plaque he had kept inside his coat. Upon it was engraved the imperial crest—a demonic eye—entwined with three dragons ascending to the heavens.
“T-This is!!”
The demonic eye was the imperial seal. Its presence meant the bearer had received official imperial recognition. Three dragons signified someone the imperial family regarded with particular favor. Only the emperor’s closest retainers or the greatest magnates who brought enormous profit to the throne were permitted to carry such a plaque.
“P-Please, come inside at once!”
Following the men’s guidance, Ed entered the tower. One of them whispered urgently to the staff at the counter. Moments later, a golden light burst throughout the entire building. At the same time, the ornate wooden plaque at the entrance lit up with the characters ‘Noble Guest’.
“We greet the noble guest.”
“We greet the noble guest.”
Dozens of women lined both sides of the red carpet, bowing in perfect unison. A neatly dressed woman approached, offered her greetings, and escorted him to the uppermost floor. Ed rode the spell-powered elevator upward. When the doors opened, thirteen stunning beauties awaited him—each one so exquisite that no clear ranking could be made among them.
““We greet the noble guest.””
The women bowed in a single line, lowering their bodies just enough to reveal generous cleavage and pale thighs. The gesture was clearly deliberate, yet it carried an undeniable allure.
“To think I would have the honor of serving such a distinguished guest in my lifetime.”
A middle-aged woman stepped forward from among them and introduced herself as the mistress of the Pleasure Tower.
“These girls are all yours tonight, my lord. Each one is the finest we have. Choose whichever you desire without hesitation.”
She invited him to select his companions. Ed answered without the slightest pause.
“I’ll take them all.”
“·····!!!”
The mistress’s eyes widened. After a stunned moment she stammered, “M-My lord… you are truly generous. But these girls… their prices are by no means modest.”
“It doesn’t matter. Send them all to the room. How many girls are currently not entertaining guests?”
The mistress blinked, visibly flustered. “S-Surely you don’t mean… all of them…?”
“That’s right.”
She covered her mouth. Immediately she summoned her secretary and ordered her to count how many women remained available. While they waited, the mistress eagerly listed every luxury the tower could provide—aphrodisiacs that heightened pleasure, aesthetic massages, pleasure baths, erotic entertainments, music and wine—offering them course by course.
“M-Mistress!”
The secretary returned and whispered the numbers. The mistress smiled brightly.
“Thirty-eight are currently waiting, my lord. If we exclude the slightly lower-grade girls from the first and second floors, that leaves eight. So only eight—”
“No. Bring them all up.”
“·····!!”
Once again the mistress looked shocked. She swallowed hard. “A-All thirty-eight…?”
“Yes. All of them.”
She hesitated only a moment before her merchant’s instincts took over. A smile curved her lips. There was no reason to refuse a customer willing to pay for thirty-eight women at once.
“I apologize for my earlier rudeness, my lord. Your ambition has overwhelmed me. Yes, I will summon them all. How would you like the course arranged?”
“I don’t need any of that. Prepare the main course immediately. Ready a room large enough for all the women.”
“····Understood.”
The mistress bowed deeply and withdrew. Roughly twenty minutes later, fifty-one women filled the spacious chamber originally designed for group encounters. Ed instructed them to gather around him. Soon they sat in a circle, every eye fixed on him.
“I will let you taste the greatest pleasure.”
He took the Diffuser from his inventory. The device sprayed stored hallucinatory liquid into a fine mist; when combined with the proper spell, it could induce orgasm through illusion alone.
“Breathe the smoke in deeply.”
Ed activated the diffuser and donned his mask. By the time the room was filled with violet vapor, the women’s eyes had begun to glaze over. The drug was taking effect.
Now all that remains is the spell.
He tore open a prepared spell scroll. The incantation was originally designed for extracting confessions; anyone under its influence would suffer excruciating pain when lying and relief when telling the truth. But the version I modified… would grant pleasure instead of relief when the truth was spoken. It was perfect for drawing out information through forced ecstasy.
“I have questions for all of you.”
He wanted every scrap of information they possessed about Argie Territory—internal affairs only locals would know, rumors that spread in whispers. These women knew it all. Every man in the territory, from commoner to noble, had visited this place at least once.
“The first one to answer will be allowed to climax.”
It was time to learn the true state of his territory.
***
“Worse than I expected.”
Ed’s expression had hardened as he summed up what he had learned about his domain. After three hours of questioning the courtesans and piecing their answers together, the picture was nothing short of disastrous.
The people’s livelihood has been completely destroyed.
The greatest problem was the crushing tax burden. The territory’s residents could barely survive. Some had even sent their daughters or wives into the brothels just to earn enough to eat. That explained why the red-light district here flourished so unnaturally.
Count Argie… He was even more of a piece of trash than I thought.
The mines that should have been the count’s greatest source of income were mismanaged beyond belief. Miners received pitiful wages, and repeated uprisings had been crushed by the count’s private soldiers. Each rebellion ended in failure, leaving only more resentment.
A textbook example of a tyrant.
A ruler who abandoned every duty to chase his own desires. As a result, Argie Territory was drowning in beggars, prostitutes, and bandit gangs. Ordinary citizens had been driven to crime simply to survive.
Most urgent of all…
Signs of the Demon Cult had appeared. Special rituals held every full moon. Women offered as sacrifices. Whispers of power gained through forbidden means. All the classic symptoms were present. The Demon Cult was clearly active somewhere in the territory.
“That should be enough. You’ve all done well.”
Having obtained every piece of information he needed, Ed granted the women the climax he had promised. They cried out in ecstasy, lost in illusions of passionate union with a man. The false memories would help conceal the fact that they had revealed sensitive information about the territory.
“How much?”
When Ed emerged from the room, the mistress greeted him and named an astronomical sum. He paid without hesitation. To an ordinary commoner the amount would have been unimaginable, but to Ed it was pocket change.
“P-Please visit us again! We will prepare the finest service to ensure your complete satisfaction!”
The mistress followed him all the way to the entrance, fawning shamelessly. Once Ed had disappeared into the night, she hurried up to the top floor and entered the room he had used. What she saw made her freeze.
“W-What kind of beast is he…? How on earth…”
Fifty-one women lay sprawled across the floor, every one of them lost in the afterglow of climax. In that moment, rumors of the “King of Vitality” were born.