A New Customer
"What? An adventurer asked you for a massage? And she even paid you up front?"
Guildmaster Aisia's expression froze in sheer disbelief as she listened to my story. I met her eyes and nodded.
"Yes. She must have gotten interested after watching what I did for Senior Elin…"
"That shameless girl, moaning like a wanton without a shred of dignity—so she finally went and caused trouble after all."
"No, it isn't Senior Elin's fault. If you really want to pin it on someone, it's because I offered her a shoulder massage in the first place, trying to repay a favor."
"…Haa. Fine. So who is this person?"
"I don't know her name, but she was a squirrel beastgirl who keeps one eye hidden behind her bangs."
"…Then it's probably Coco. She's the only squirrel beastkin who ever visits our guild."
Coco, huh. The name was as cute as my first impression of her, I thought—but the moment Guildmaster Aisia heard that the one who'd requested a massage from me was her, her face only hardened further.
"Haa. Of all people, it had to be Coco? This is going to be hard to turn down with words alone…"
"Is she famous?"
"Very. She looks fragile on the outside, but she's a Gold-rank adventurer in her own right. Honestly, anyone who hits Gold-rank fighting barehanded isn't operating with a normal human body."
"…So if I refuse her, does that mean fists start flying from this Coco person?"
"No. The opposite."
"Pardon?"
"Coco hates causing a scene more than anything—she's that timid. The problem is, if she thinks she's the reason a fuss broke out, or if someone turns down a request she made, she gets so embarrassed she just packs up and moves to another city. That girl has switched guilds about ten times a year after getting some 'minor' request refused."
"……"
Even for someone in a profession called "adventurer," changing affiliations ten times in a single year was excessive—I understood that much without needing it spelled out.
A high-ranking adventurer who would simply transfer if you so much as rubbed her the wrong way… I could see exactly why Guildmaster Aisia was wearing that troubled look.
She let out a low hum of deep thought, glanced my way, then quietly turned her head and delivered her verdict.
"An adventurer of Coco's caliber does affect guild revenue, so losing her would be a shame… but it can't be helped. Refuse her."
"So that's what we should do after all."
"You're a man—you wouldn't want to go around kneading some stranger woman's shoulders either. From where I'm standing, you're a little more likely to stick around this guild longer than Coco, so you're the better choice."
……Huh?
Was the guildmaster planning to refuse because of me?
Because she thought I'd react badly to massaging this adventurer named Coco?
I'd only come upstairs to get permission, so her answer left me more than a little disappointed. I decided to try persuading Guildmaster Aisia one more time.
"If you're reluctant to lose an adventurer like Coco… wouldn't the problem just be solved if I gave her the massage?"
"…You don't have to force yourself into something you don't want just because you're reading my mood."
"No. I actually came up here to ask for permission to give Coco a shoulder massage."
"…You didn't come in here wanting to refuse and looking for my blessing?"
"No. I was worried that me, as a guild employee, conducting personal profit-making activities inside the guild might become an issue."
"……How much did Coco offer you?"
"One gold coin."
"That's certainly an outrageous price for a single shoulder massage. I can understand why you'd want to do it, Beor."
…To be honest, I would have been more than happy to do it for a single silver coin.
The squirrel beastkin adventurer named Coco was pretty cute, for one thing—and in my previous life, a man touching a woman's shoulders was something you couldn't even pay for the privilege of doing. If I could do that and get paid for it, I had no real reason to refuse. Besides…
I also wanted to see how Vitality Massage worked on someone other than Senior Elin.
I was curious which spots would be knotted on an adventurer who used her body in the field, as opposed to an office worker like Senior Elin. I wanted to register another woman as a "client" of my Unique Ability and compare the numbers against Elin's to get an average. And… well. I was also curious whether Senior Elin was the only one who made those strange sounds during a massage. Seeing "libido" show up on her client profile made me suspect that Vitality Massage affected that area to some degree as well.
"Alright. If that's what you want, I've got no reason to stop you. Go ahead."
"Thank you!"
"But I'm going to watch this 'massage' of yours from the side. Just in case Coco decides she doesn't like it and starts complaining at you—so I can step in."
With that, Guildmaster Aisia headed downstairs with me.
"I'll begin, then."
She nodded.
"If anything hurts or tickles while I'm working on your shoulders, please tell me right away."
Another nod.
Coco Skywalker, the beastkin woman, sat rigid in a chair in front of the guild counter, her face tight with tension. A Gold-rank adventurer who had paid a full gold coin for a mere shoulder massage—and she was nodding with that same nervous expression. I was a little tense myself, given the money involved, as I started working on her.
Just do it the same way I did for Senior Elin.
This was her request, sure—but I also wanted to confirm what my Unique Ability actually was. If she didn't like it and asked for a refund when we were done, I could just give the gold coin back.
"…Um, Coco."
"……Mm."
"About your tail. Could you move it down or to the side? It's a little hard to work on your shoulders like this."
"……"
She nodded without a word and tipped her tail off to the right side of her body. The enormous tail that ran from her waist all the way up past the back of her head shifted aside, revealing a back that looked relatively small and cute compared to Senior Elin's.
And this is the person who's supposedly a Gold-rank—one of the stronger adventurers out there.
The thought had barely crossed my mind when I reached for her shoulders—and a translucent window appeared.
Entering Vitality Massage Mode.
At once, several acupoints bloomed into visibility across Coco's body.
…She's not nearly as knotted up as I expected.
The points on her shoulders were a pale yellow—far lighter than the angry red ones that had clustered on Senior Elin's. And where Elin had been carrying six of them on her shoulders alone, this adventurer named Coco had only two.
For someone who'd paid a full gold coin to have her fatigue worked out… honestly, it almost felt wasteful.
Does she move around so much that her shoulders never get a chance to seize up? Or is it…
Maybe it was because she barely had any of those violently oversized fat deposits that had sat on Senior Elin's chest.
With that thought, I set my hands on Coco's shoulders as promised and brought both thumbs to the acupoints on either side.
Press.
"……!"
I worked them firmly, steadily.
"……! ……!!"
The moment my hands found her shoulders and started stimulating the points in earnest, Coco flinched hard, her whole body twitching. She wasn't letting out lewd moans the way Senior Elin had during her shoulder massage—but somehow, those little jolts felt every bit as suggestive.
"Does it hurt?"
She shook her head rapidly.
"Alright if I keep going like this?"
An eager nod.
Maybe it was because the guildmaster had mentioned how shy she was, but the way Coco answered with nothing but tiny tilts of her head was adorable. Watching the back of her head—ears flushed red as she focused entirely on my hands—I also confirmed something: Senior Elin was not uniquely lewd. That much was clear.
So Vitality Massage really does stimulate the target's libido?
I held that unresolved question in the back of my mind as I pressed firmly into the two acupoints on Coco's shoulders. The yellow points shifted to green in less than three minutes and vanished from her body.
"……Ngh, hah……!!"
The moment the points released, Coco tipped forward with a short, sharp moan. I'd cleared every acupoint on her shoulders, so that should have been the end of the shoulder massage… but taking a full gold coin for just this much would have been shameless.
Kneading already-loosened shoulders any further would have felt weird, too—so I let my hands drift naturally down toward her back, as if this had been part of the shoulder massage from the start.
"Your shoulders are all clear, so I'll work on your back next."
"……?"
"If you want me to stop, just say the word. Is it a problem if my hands touch your back?"
She shook her head.
When my hands reached the area around her back she glanced over with a flicker of curiosity—but the moment I told her she could stop whenever she wanted, she made her resistance to stopping perfectly clear. I took that as a sign she was enjoying herself and kept going. Coco simply trembled under my hands and surrendered her body to them.
I pressed deeper, working the muscle.
"……! ……Hik!"
From her shoulders to her back.
Rubbing, kneading.
"Euh, ha……! Hup……!"
From her back to her waist.
Squeezing, working, rolling the muscle under my palms.
"Nnh……?! Hnn, hyah……!!"
From her waist all the way to her sides.
By this point I'd half expected her to ask me to stop, but Coco quietly accepted my hands even as they descended to her sensitive waist. Thanks to that, I got to knead her cute little waist and flanks with both hands and indulge a selfish little impulse I hadn't planned on.
Facing a Coco who was clearly getting worked up under my touch, I could feel a matching heat rising in my own chest. But her upper body had been lightly knotted from the moment Vitality Massage activated, and even after I finished loosening the muscle all the way to her flanks, it was over remarkably fast compared to Senior Elin.
For one gold coin, this much feels a little underwhelming.
The thought made me glance lower—and there they were, far more conspicuous than anything on her upper body: a dense cluster of red acupoints. Most of the knotted muscle was concentrated in her lower half. I wanted to reach out and work them right then and there, but even I could tell instinctively that would be crossing a line.
…Her tail attaches above the waist, though. That still counts as upper body, right?
The fact that she still hadn't asked me to stop made it obvious Coco was hoping for something more. With that thought, I brought my hands to the base of the large brown tail rooted at her waist—and Coco's body launched straight up out of the chair.
I squeezed.
"Nnhyaaaaah?!"
With a clattering crash she toppled the chair she'd been sitting in as she shot to her feet. I was still working her tail and went down with her in surprise, landing hard on my backside. The next thing that filled my vision was Coco's eyes, looking down at me with a face on the verge of tears.
"T-the tail…. The tail is off-limits…"
"Ah—I'm so sorr—"
She was already gone in a frantic scurry of footsteps.
"—y."
Before she could even finish hearing my apology, Coco bolted out of the Adventurers' Guild. I watched her back vanish through the doors, and only one short thought crossed my mind.
…Ah. I messed up.