The Witch's Request (4)
The Witch's Request (4)
#
"A solution? Do you have some method in mind?"
"First, I want to test something. Climb down."
"Okay..."
Reni trailed off as she climbed down from my back. You weren't the only one disappointed. I missed that soft pressure against my back too. ...I wanted another round, but we still had work to do. Any more and Reni might genuinely sulk.
I opened the shop, bought 「Basic Wind」 magic, then aimed at a tree full of blossoms and conjured a breeze.
-Ding!
[Symmetra's Forest: 「Pursuer of Chastity」]
[Dispel Rate: 0.5%]
As expected, this was the answer. But to only react after I'd provided the solution... I wish the system were a little friendlier. Or was the system just unable to keep up with the phenomenon?
Anyway, the system aside.
As I thought, I had to rape the forest.
A metaphor, of course. I had no intention of literally sticking my tofu in a knothole or any such insane act. Doing that wouldn't solve the problem here, either.
Because the idea of a tree losing its chastity just because I fucked it was absurd. Sprinkling my semen on a tree wasn't going to get it pregnant or anything.
In any case, since this forest seemed to have become 'chaste,' which repelled the bicorns, I needed to break the forest's chastity.
But... how could I put this?
I mulled it over for a moment, then turned back to Reni.
"Let’s return to the Witch first. I’ll explain on the way. This isn't something I can solve alone. I'll need help from her or someone else."
"Ah, okay."
...
We had to return to the unicorn forest where the witch's hideout was, but the bicorns refused to leave Reni alone.
At the forest boundary where the witch had sprinkled the red liquid, the bicorns milled about, hesitant. Reni seemed a little annoyed, but she also didn't know what to do with them acting that way.
"Wh-what should we do about these bicorns...?"
"Hm..."
Well, they were dungeon monsters, but they hadn't really attacked and had been friendly. I could see why it bothered her.
I thought briefly, then drew the Holy Sword from its scabbard.
-Neeeeigh!!!!!!
Soon the bicorns began to grow savage. But it still wasn't over.
[Using Holy Fire.]
-Fwoosh!
Once they beheld that ultimate virgin and then fire on top of it, the bicorns turned tail and fled. I immediately deactivated the Holy Fire.
"Yoo-jin... this..."
"Ah, well, this one is technically a virgin, so... ahem!"
I nearly choked while speaking. Talking about whether a sword was a virgin sounded like complete nonsense. I felt like an idiot even saying it.
"...Remember last time, how the unicorns calmed down? That's because they saw this one. Since the unicorns liked it, the bicorns would hate it."
"Ah... so that's it..."
"Yeah..."
-Ping!
[The Holy Sword asks what 'virgin' means.]
So it had been listening to everything.
But hadn't that stupid sex-ed book taught her what a virgin was?
Well, I supposed using 'virgin' to denote experience rather than age could have been a little politically incorrect. Maybe that was why they left the expression out. That was how modern books were...
-Ping-ping-ping!
[The Holy Sword keeps asking what a virgin is!]
[It's a good thing. A good thing. A very precious thing you lose once and can never get back. Since that's what you are, stay still.]
[...]
-Vwoom!
That startled me! Why was the blade shuddering so violently? Damn, it really did perform well.
"...Yoo-jin."
"What?"
"Th-then... i-if that's so... th-the Holy Sword is a virgin... s-so, that..."
You were listening to everything too! My hedging was pointless!
"S-so, with the Holy Sword and... th-that... are you saying amplification is possible?"
"W-well, who knows."
"..."
Reni eyed the Holy Sword with a glint. Reni. You were getting jealous of a hunk of metal now.
Knowing that Reni's obsession and dependency were directed at me made the sight funny yet a little frightening. Hm. She wouldn't actually awaken as a yandere or something, would she?
Well, judging by Reni’s behavior so far, that didn't seem likely. She'd even suggested that I sleep with that sickly, beautiful elf girl.
"...Holy Sword... records..."
"..."
Reni murmured something in a gloomy voice about looking through old texts. A saintess jealous of a holy sword. It sounded like a lame joke, but seeing those eyes, I couldn't bring myself to tease her.
Warily watching Reni's mood like that, I made my way toward the witch's house.
#
"As you requested, I've driven the bicorns out of the forest. However..."
"However?"
"They'll probably come back."
"Oh my."
The witch's eyes went round. She'd rested both arms on the table, leaning her upper body toward me. Body language that blatantly signaled interest. And thanks to that, her breasts looked like they were about to spill out of her dress...
"When you say they'll come back... does that mean you know the reason why?"
"Ah, yes."
When I forcibly tore my gaze away from the Witch’s chest, Reni was glaring at me instead! I turned again, fixed my eyes on the snake inside the glass jar, and continued.
"I found something strange in the forest within the Bicorns’ territory."
"Something odd?"
The dissonance I'd felt in the bicorns' forest.
The trees there displayed a variety of appearances: spring blossoms, summer leaves, autumn colors, and winter branches. But one crucial thing was missing.
Those trees bore no fruit.
For some reason, the trees had refused to conceive.
Trees that didn't bear fruit—ridiculous. But thinking about it, you could consider them a sort of virgin.
"That seems to be why the bicorns refuse to return to that forest. The trees are maintaining their chastity."
"Oh my, my..."
The Witch let out a soft groan and covered her mouth with one hand. Yeah. It sounded ridiculous, did it not?
Virgin trees. Even I thought the situation was truly absurd.
Then again, people called a mountain peak no human had ever set foot on a “virgin peak,” and uncultivated land “virgin soil,” so perhaps the phrase wasn't that absurd after all...
"Then what do we do?"
The witch furrowed her brows as if troubled. At her question, I snapped out of my musings.
"Mm. It's fine. There seems to be a solution."
"What sort of method?"
"That is..."
"That is?"
I grinned.
"That will cost extra."
#
"Cost extra..."
The witch froze for a split second, then narrowed her eyes and smiled.
"Cost extra..."
Then she leaned deep into her chair and crossed her legs. The dress over them slid smoothly aside, revealing her pale, firm thigh. Th-that slit went practically all the way to her waist...
But something that ought to be there was missing...
"...!"
Because of the dress's slit, bare skin from thigh to waist was fully exposed, yet the strap that should have crossed the middle was nowhere to be seen.
This Witch wasn't wearing any underwear at all?!
Gulp.
N-now that I looked again, this witch really had a bombshell figure. Reni's chest was large too, but this woman had what you'd truly call massive tits. And somehow, they seemed even bigger than when I'd seen her last time.
The witch gathered her breasts with one arm and gave a soft laugh. Was- was this woman enjoying my gaze?!
"So... cost extra. How do you suggest I pay? Do you have something in mind?"
"Ah, w-well, um... ack?!"
When the witch shrugged, her shoulder strap slipped down and her breasts—
"?!"
The instant the dress slid down, my vision turned pitch-black.
"N-no, you mustn't!"
...Reni had covered my eyes. What a shame. Reni, I wouldn't forget this. I'd make you pay for it later.
When Reni lowered her hand, the Witch was adjusting her clothes with a bright smile. If I kept watching her, I felt as though she would strip me bare and devour me. I needed to say what I had come to say and leave.
"Um. Th-the 'cost extra'... I didn't mean I'd be asking for more money..."
"Oh?"
I went on to explain.
Plant ecology was simple. When the pollen from the stamen reached the pistil, pollination occurred and fruit formed.
But in that forest, there were no bees or other insects, and not a breath of wind stirred, so no reproduction took place.
If the trees wouldn't bear fruit on their own, you forced pollination.
How? By calling in beekeepers.
You used bees to rape the flowers and forcibly impregnate them.
...The phrasing was strange, but interspecies or not, rape was rape. Come to think of it, honeybees were yellow and black, rather like blond, tanned delinquents.
NTR targeting flowers! But since the pregnancy itself came from the stamen's pollen, in this case the blonde-tanned thug would wreck the pistil and then cram the stamen's semen inside...
Poor stamen. The Blond-Tan Bee stole the pistil’s nectar, while the stamen was left to bear responsibility for the pregnancy. Responsibility without pleasure, as they called it...
Anyway.
"So... I think calling in beekeepers will probably do it."
Alternatively, I could have summoned wizards to use large-scale Wind Blow magic, but bees would likely have been more reliable.
"In that sense, that was why I said it would cost extra. I'd need more money to hire those people."
The witch toyed with her lip, then smiled brightly.
"That does indeed sound like a good method. Worth a try."
At the Witch’s gesture toward the shelf, a pen and paper flew over and settled before her. Reni hugged my arm tightly and trembled at the sight. For a priestess, she was surprisingly weak to such things. I filed away an idea for horror sex and watched the Witch.
"..."
The witch wrote something on the paper, rolled it up, stamped it with a seal, then handed it to me.
"Would you take this to the Guild?"
"Sure."
...
After the discussion of the Bicorn forest ended, the Witch asked a few more casual questions about our circumstances: where we were staying now, and where the archer from last time had gone.
Anyway, it was time to head back.
"Are you leaving now?"
"Yes. There doesn't seem to be anything more for me to do here."
"Then your compensation..."
The witch pondered for a moment, then spoke.
"The quest reward will be a little later... I'll contact you through the Guild once everything is finished. Stabilizing the surrounding environment is difficult... so I'll need some time to consider a suitable reward."
"Understood."
I'd received quite a lot of money for almost nothing last time, so that was fine. But the Witch was not finished.
"Still... you may look forward to it."
The witch flicked out her red tongue.