A Secret Operation with the Butler (1)
A Secret Operation with the Butler (1)
#
Q: What is a harem?
A: Lots of women, lots of sex, threesomes, foursomes, group play, "Dick In, Can't Move"... anyway, a good thing.
That was roughly how I could sum up the harems I'd seen in fiction. The women in a harem were obedient to the man and sometimes entangled themselves with each other in all sorts of ways to please him...
Right. No matter how a harem was portrayed, the emphasis was always on 「anyway, a good thing」.
Maybe that was why, back when I'd first awakened in this other world, I'd been nothing but giddy at the thought of building a harem. Since my ability was even specialized for sex skills, I'd been full of plans to use that power as an excuse to go wild.
But the reality?
-Clink. Clink.
In the dining room, the only sound was of tableware clinking together without a single word. A quiet clatter. My girls were sitting on either side of me, and at the head of the table was Ariel.
Rebecca had glared at me as if she wanted to kill me, served the food, and then vanished, stating that she had to attend to Niniel.
Yuri with her stupid grin on, and Reni chewing her food as if it were her mortal enemy. After the bickering that morning, the atmosphere had cooled to an extreme. I couldn't tell whether the food was going into my nose or my mouth.
Reality had me sitting on pins and needles. So much so that even the owner of the house, Ariel, was watching the other two's moods!
Was I going to end up cut in half like the Judgment of Solomon? It was terrifying. Terrifying! Harems were scary!
But I couldn't choose someone now. I'd rather be cut in half myself than let anyone go. That sort of thing was impossible...
"?!"
I felt something down below and looked—Yuri had taken off her shoe and was tickling my calf! With everyone around, what the hell was she doing?!
But Yuri just feigned innocence with a coy expression, looking away.
"?!?!"
Th-this girl's teasing had gotten a bit bolder, hadn't it?! I was on the verge of exploding because I hadn't been able to do it properly yesterday, and she was raising her toes higher?!
"Pfft."
Yuri saw my face, teeth clenched, and let out a small laugh. My suffering was funny to her?
...This insolent brat. Did she think she'd gotten one over on me at night and could walk all over me now?
It looked like I needed to establish the pecking order. I'd show her clearly who was on top. I'd torment her until she was genuinely crying and begging for forgiveness.
"Hm. Hm-hm."
Ariel suddenly cleared her throat, as if she were uncomfortable.
D-did she catch us? Yuri, looking startled as well, quickly pulled her foot back. Then, she put on a brazen face as if nothing had happened.
But I saw it. A single stream of cold sweat running down that brat's cheek!
...Seeing that gave me an idea of how I ought to punish this cheeky girl.
"Hm."
Once again, Ariel drew attention by clearing her throat.
"Could you spare a little time? I wish to discuss a number of things regarding what lies ahead."
Ariel hadn't been talking about Yuri's foot-play. That was fortunate for me. If Reni had noticed this, she probably would've flipped the dining tab—...no, she wouldn't have flipped it, but anyway, it would've had me sweating bullets.
Anyway, spare some time? I glanced back at the two of them, and both gave small nods. We didn't have anything specifically planned for today anyway.
"Sure. Why not?"
At my answer, Ariel gave a simple nod and opened her mouth.
"And I wish to hear about what exactly took place last night. In some... s-specific detail."
...What?
# # #
And so, breakfast came to an end.
Ariel was seated at the tea table in the reception room. And behind her stood Rebecca.
Rebecca glared at me as if, were she able to kill with a look, I would be the first target.
I, for one, couldn't understand why this butler was acting this way. Hadn't my abilities been sufficiently proven yesterday? I'd done things exactly as she'd wanted.
...Or was it possible... w-was she upset that I had not gone all the way? In that case, she could just seduce me secretly. Why like this...
"Hrm. F-first, I wish to hear the results of last night."
At Ariel's question, Rebecca answered with a stiffly frozen face.
"This man's... Yoo-jin's w-words... are true. This person clearly possesses an ability that... amplifies human potential."
Right? What else could it be. I was about to lift my head smugly... but stayed still under my girls' glares.
"However..."
However? Rebecca's words weren't finished yet. No, her frown deepened as if she found me utterly displeasing. This woman, somehow she seemed more hostile than last night? Why the hell was she acting like this?
"I cannot simply stand by and let you have... relations with Lady Niniel."
...What kind of bullshit was this now?
"..."
I was stunned for a moment, then anger began to simmer up gradually. No matter how much the role of a guardian was taken on, there was a time and place to do it. This was basically saying you'd barge into the operating room because you didn't trust the doctor!
"Hey. I get that you're worried about Niniel, but after I went that far for you..."
"I cannot leave Lady Niniel alone with a person like you!"
"Why!"
My rage boiled over and I shouted, but Rebecca didn't back down at all. Instead, she slammed the table—bang—and snarled, shoving her head forward at me. Then, her lips twitched as if she were about to say something gravely important.
"Y-you..."
"What about me?"
"Did you not violate me while I was unconscious?!"
...Wh-wh-wh-what?
#
"Y-you... a-after I lost consciousness... did you not violate me?!!"
"What the hell are you talking about!"
"How else could it be explained! If you didn't...!"
"..."
"..."
Silence flowed. The only sound in the reception room was our angry breathing.
I was genuinely furious.
There were a few things I absolutely never did, and one of them was having sex without consent. Because that was no different from rape. And yet this butler bitch was screaming that I had raped her!
This goddamn bitch!
As the shouting went back and forth, everyone except me and Rebecca had their eyes wide open. They must have been shocked. So was I. At this bitch's ingratitude!
"...Rebecca. Calm yourself a little."
"...I've been rude."
Once again, silence flowed. I felt something warm and looked down to see Reni gripping my hand tightly. A hand that trembled slightly. She must have been scared, it being the first time she'd seen me shout.
"Wow, the more I let you talk, the more outrageous the things you say become. Isn't that way too harsh? He went out of his way to do what he didn't even want to do!"
Yuri provided supporting fire from beside me. Yes! That was it! I'd even gone out of my way to service her, and to be treated like this was too much!
But Rebecca still looked like there was plenty more she wanted to say. At this point, even my anger was giving way to curiosity. Why the hell was she being like this?
"Will you not explain precisely what happened?"
"...Yes."
At Ariel's soothing, Rebecca began recounting what had happened the night before.
#
"Yoo-jin did not state the specific activation conditions of the amplification. Did he not initially speak as though mere contact would trigger it?"
"..."
...Did I...?...N-now that I thought about it, maybe I did...
"But when the time came, he said that s-sexual caresses were absolutely necessary."
"..."
Right... because that was a required condition...
With me neither confirming nor denying, Rebecca's expression turned to one that said she'd expected as much. No, it wasn't because I had a guilty conscience; I was just honestly curious. About why you were doing this to me.
"At first... he touched my shoulder. The beginning was like a massage, but... s-soon after, he touched my neck in a very, very lewd manner..."
"..."
For some reason, I felt heat rising to my face. The anger was draining away, and embarrassment was filling the void. Hearing someone else recount what I'd done at night was an incredibly... humiliating experience...
"?!"
Reni was shuddering, squeezing my hand. And her grip grew tighter the more detailed Rebecca's explanation became...!
"And then Yoo-jin's hand moved past my side to my... my armpit...!"
"?!?!"
Y-Yuri, that damn brat stepped on my foot!
Armpit, she said... Ariel groaned softly. Rebecca's face was beet red as well, probably from embarrassment, but she didn't stop explaining. I felt like I might die of shame. What the hell kind of play was this!
"And so, when he had touched my... me like that, the amplification was finally applied. The total amount of my mana roughly doubled."
"Th-that much..."
Ariel's eyes filled with shock. Well, the first buff applied was D-rank and the increase was 100%, so roughly double.
But Rebecca's story wasn't over yet.
"And then... Yoo-jin said there was still the next stage remaining. He told me... to show him my chest."
Grrrrr... A sound like something boiling came from Reni's throat, and at the same time, the pressure being applied to my foot was growing steadily stronger... I didn't have the courage to look over at either of them, so I could do nothing but stay still.
"I said I couldn't, that I refused, but Yoo-jin said it was all right, and after making me lie face-down, he placed his hands on my chest... and I lost consciousness."
As if she couldn't bear to describe the process, Rebecca glossed over that part. But the question remained. Up to that point, you'd consented. So what exactly had I done to make you this angry?
"Okay. So what's the problem."
Without even looking this way, Rebecca answered.
"Yoo-jin said this. That the level of amplification changed according to the intensity of the caresses. When I woke up, my mana amount had risen to a whole four times what it was. How could such an increase be explained if he had not violated me while I was unconscious?!"
"..."
Ah, now I understood. The buff's level was too high, so she had mistaken that for me having raped her while she was unconscious.
What to say. It seemed this one, like Reni, had some kind of delusional disorder. Why did she have such a persecution complex?
-Ding!
[Rebecca Berman's trait 「Persecution Complex (B)」 has been identified.]
...
Unbelievable.
"Look. Rebecca. You're misunderstanding my ability. What was applied to you was only the third stage out of six stages."
"The third...?"
I somehow pushed aside the feeling of wanting to melt away and began explaining the buff.
"First, the lowest stage applies with just a hand massage..."
...
"The third stage... requires the shoulders or feet..."
...
"The second from the top... with si-simulated sexual acts... and the highest stage applies through sex..."
The explanation of the amplification stages was finally done. It was to clear up a misunderstanding, but it had been an experience mortifying beyond words. I'd never even explained it clearly to my girls. To think it would all be laid bare here in the end...
Having heard the full explanation, Rebecca knelt before me. Her expression was blank, but her whole body had flushed bright red—she seemed to understand well enough that she had misunderstood.
It had been a pointless squabble that had resulted in nothing but utter embarrassment.
"Ariel. Is he really an Apostle of the Goddess? From the sound of it alone, he seems like some kind of Incarnation of an Incubus."
"..."
This subversive conversation was going on behind me. Reni seemed incredulous, too. Normally, she wouldn't have stayed silent and would've made a huge scene about it being blasphemous or whatever.
Anyway, an incubus, huh. Honestly, I didn't think that was entirely wrong. I slumped back in my chair and sipped at the tea that had long gone cold.
The silence held, and then Ariel, with a grave expression, suddenly spoke.
"C-could you try that amplification on me as well?"