Taming and Reward

“Ugh… No matter how you look at it, this is too much.”

Mandollo, who had come rushing after hearing the terror attack report, started scolding while rubbing his forehead.

The man he had sent to escort his daughter had abandoned her at the cathedral and gone off to slit the terrorists’ throats instead. Even I would have raised my voice at that, so I kept my mouth shut and let him vent.

Between us, only Iria wore an awkward, troubled expression.

“Now, now, Brother Mandollo. Please calm yourself.”

Into the middle of our tense exchange barged the chatterbox holy knight, Samson.

“If Sir Cardnios hadn’t stepped in, the damage would have been unimaginable. The high priest has something to say to you about it, so why don’t you come with me?”

“Ugh… Understood.”

I gave a passing glance at Mandollo as he followed Samson away, then approached the fidgeting Iria and gently stroked her cheek.

She flinched at the sudden touch, but only for a second. Soon she was rubbing her face against my palm like a kitten begging for affection.

“Ehehe.”

“Sorry for leaving you behind, Iria.”

“It’s fine. I know I would only have gotten in the way.”

“You know that’s not what I meant, right?”

“Yes. So please take even better care of me next ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠time to make up for it.”

Take even better care of her.

To be honest, I had been deliberately neglecting her. During the caravan trip I hadn’t spared her a single glance except when she was studying. On our date I had openly let my mind wander, and I had even abandoned her like this. Yet the fact that she still came to me like this proved that my slow, steady conditioning was working.

She really was foolishly, adorably lovable.

When she acted this cute, it made me want to reward her. And since I planned to keep dragging her around with me, there was no harm in investing a little.

I checked the mission completion rewards waiting in one corner of my System authority.

Plus the black magician’s grimoire I had obtained this time. I went over the Taishan Giant Strength Axe, Three Talents Mental Technique, and Crude Mana Circulation I had already learned, but nothing seemed suitable.

Black magic and demonic arts were impossible since she possessed no magi. Teaching her martial arts when she might not even be able to sense ki or mana sounded like a hassle.

I could let her borrow the Efficient Mana Circulation tome after I read it… but why bother? These things had to be released little by little if I wanted the taming to go smoothly, so I discarded the idea.

The image of the shield and holy power that hadn’t even gained a scratch from my axe flashed through my mind, but I had no clue how to handle that yet. Reading the Guidelines for the Proper Magic Attribute Constellation might give me some insight, but—

It was too much to tackle right now, so I set it aside.

Well, I could think about it later. For now, why not test my luck?

“Um… Iria, would you be interested in doing some training with me?”

“Training…?”

“Yes. If it bothers you that you can’t be of help, I think I could assist you a little.”

Iria placed a finger on her small lips, thought for a moment, then nodded.

“Yes. I don’t want to be a burden either. So… may I ask for your guidance?”

“Hehe, of course. First we’ll have to find a method that suits you.”

Hm… was there anything else?

I hadn’t told the slave woman that she was already mine; it was better to let her come to me voluntarily. The useless duo still hadn’t returned. Ah, there was one more thing.

“Oh, right. I almost forgot.”

“Yes?”

I caught Iria’s chin, turned her face toward me, and kissed her.

My tongue forced her lips apart and tangled with hers. The quiet cathedral echoed with the soft, wet sounds of our kiss.

I went further, meeting her dazed blue eyes as I reached for her chest.

“Mmh… mmh…”

Perhaps because of the aphrodisiac I had fed her through the kiss, her nipples quickly hardened against my palm. Yet when I deliberately avoided them and simply caressed her breasts, her hands trembled as they clutched my waist, as if the teasing was unbearable.

This wouldn’t do.

With my free hand I caught both her wrists, then pulled my lips away.

“Mmm… mm.”

Iria looked up at me with eyes full of desperate longing. I shook my head and released her wrists.

“I said I’d give you a reward today, didn’t I?”

“Uh… yes?”

“Did you like it?”

Both of Iria’s ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eyes quivered. Her lips parted as if she wanted to say something, but when I narrowed my eyes she quickly lowered her head, fidgeting and rubbing her thighs together.

“Was it not to your liking?”

“N-no, it was…”

“Good. It’s late, so shall we get some sleep?”

“Ugh… yes.”

This should be enough.

Hm. This Aphrodisiac Constitution is useful, but it’s going to get annoying later. Can’t I adjust it somehow?

As the first light of dawn slowly spilled in, Iria’s hand finally stopped moving.

“Haa… haa…”

With the maddening itch finally subsiding, she breathed hard, heavy eyelids sliding shut.

In truth, Iria had vaguely realized it.

That Cardnios did not love her.

That he merely saw her as a convenient toy to play with and torment.

That he seemed to be doing something to her so he could use her even more easily.

Even an idiot couldn’t have missed it. When he touched her, her lower belly would tingle. When he kissed her, her whole body grew hypersensitive. How could she not know?

Even so… even then… she wanted to stay with him, so she had accepted everything without resistance.

When she first noticed the strangeness, she had tried to distance herself. For a day, then two. She even refused to study, claiming she felt unwell, but it was pointless.

Being apart from him made her head spin and her heart race. Just the thought that he might have lost interest in her brought tears to her eyes and stole her appetite.

By the time she realized what was happening, it was already far too late.

“He’s aiming for the Saintess… isn’t he?”

Iria recalled the first time she had met the Saintess at the accessory stall. For a brief instant she had seen a sharp, predatory gleam in his eyes. During their date afterward he had deliberately followed the black magician’s trail, then left her at the cathedral while he went to kill the man. It was obvious.

“That woman, too…”

She thought of the red-haired woman Cardnios had brought back. The woman had looked half-dead and showed no interest in him, but he had clearly taken a great interest in her. Iria, who knew that Cardnios never approached anyone he wasn’t interested in, had sensed the moment he carried the woman back in his arms that she, too, would not escape for long.

“Sigh…”

Her mind was hazy with drowsiness, and the sigh she had been holding back slipped out.

It wasn’t that Iria felt no jealousy. But whenever she imagined Cardnios leaving her the moment she showed it, she forced the feeling down.

Because this was surely what he wanted.

A woman who never grew jealous, who was comfortable to touch whenever he pleased.

A pure, foolish woman who giggled “ehehe.”

“So sleepy…”

Where had it all gone so wrong?

With her head feeling so heavy, she couldn’t figure it out at all.

“Mm. Not bad at all.”

That was my impression after reading through the night one of the rewards I had received upon mission completion—the Guidelines for the Proper Magic Attribute Constellation.

I closed my eyes and followed the instructions in the book, linking my consciousness to my true main body sleeping within my personal sub-world.

Click.

My awareness went dark as if someone had flipped a switch. When I opened my eyes again, I was looking out from my true body.

“Whoa. So light.”

It had been a while since I had moved in my real form; the body felt incredibly light. Was this what they called reverse sensation?

I had thought the incubus avatar was quite decent, but compared to this true body that had reached the Immortal rank—practically the realm of gods—it was trash.

I didn’t have my axe, but I lightly assumed the second stance of Taishan Giant Strength Axe, the horizontal sweep, and swung.

KRRRRRRRKKK!

With a roar like space itself being torn apart, faint scratches actually appeared on the pure white space around me.

“Huh…”

I was a god who had skipped straight past the Transcendent and Demigod stages and forcibly climbed to the Immortal rank. Because I had ignored all the prior steps, the power I could actually draw out was barely at the edge of the Undying realm.

Yet even that was enough to leave marks on a world. A dry laugh escaped me.

“No wonder my weak little incubus body couldn’t even scratch that shield.”

With that small realization I sat down again.

Come to think of it, no matter how strong my true body was, it didn’t really mean much. In the end I was rolling around on the front lines using an avatar for the sake of my masters in Lemegeton. What did the main body’s strength matter?

The thought left me feeling suddenly empty.

“Ah, forget it. If I get cocky I’ll just end up getting invaded like Victoria.”

I somehow pulled my sinking mood back together.

Right now it was more important to check on my avatar than to dwell on these thoughts, so I sent my consciousness back.

With a flash before my eyes, my vision switched again.

“Ugh… what a shitty body.”

The incubus form I had returned to was… intensely stimulating. I hadn’t noticed while inside my true body, but this thing overflowed with sexual desire. The first thought I had upon returning was that it was a shame I hadn’t fucked Iria yesterday. Did that even make sense?

My body felt heavy, my mana was pathetically thin, and my dantian was tiny. Until a moment ago I hadn’t minded, but now I suddenly found the avatar extremely dissatisfying.

“Tsk… whatever.”

I scratched my head roughly and focused on my true body again, careful not to let my consciousness fly over there completely.

“There.”

Drawing power directly from the main body… was impossible.

I felt like I could do it if I tried, but the moment I attempted it the System in my head—mainly the mission window—began spamming warnings like crazy.

Ah, it had been a while since I heard Malphas’s shitty voice. Of course he would have put something like this in place.

I quickly gave up on drawing power directly from the main body. However, creating a symbol from the main body in this state… that worked.

I felt my formless, giant-like body of smoke condense into a single point. Then, regardless of my will, it began shaping itself.

The overall size shrank by half. The upper body looked exactly like my incubus avatar, and a massive axe appeared in its right hand.

But the lower half—

“…Why?”

Instead of legs, countless chains, padlocks, and keys dangled and clinked together.

No, seriously, why?

I briefly severed the connection and flipped through the Guidelines for the Proper Magic Attribute Constellation. The answer came quickly.

A symbol is the crystallization of every action taken while accumulating one’s rank.

“Ah… Iria.”

What had I done most since coming to this world? Killing people and swinging my axe. That was why the upper body held an axe.

And the next most frequent thing?

Taming and training Iria, of course. I had cast Fascination to forcibly make her like me, tormented her until she became dependent, and made her put a collar on herself. That was why there were chains, locks, and keys.

I was the one who restrained her, owned her, and released her—all according to my whim.

“Hah, damn.”

It wasn’t bad, but… it was something. Oh well. The important thing was that I had succeeded.

Time to prepare the next step.

Although pulling power directly from the main body was impossible, it didn’t matter. Even if it was only a tiny fragment, the avatar was still me. Therefore, while I couldn’t use rank points, there was nothing stopping me from using magi or internal energy.

All the pure internal energy stored in my dantian flowed out. Once it was completely empty, the magi I created as easily as breathing poured out like water from a broken jar.

“Ugh, urgh… fuck, I thought I was going to die.”

My vision spun and I nearly fainted as I squeezed out every last drop of magi. Only then did I barely succeed in creating my symbol.

What formed was a chain long enough to wrap around my waist. However, at the moment it was simply a sturdy chain. Since it didn’t contain any of my true body’s rank, it wouldn’t even reach the toes of the Saintess’s shield.

So additional measures were necessary.

“Hoo… It would have been easier to just teach her martial arts.”

I felt a twinge of regret, but since I had already started, I had to see it through.

I carved activation formulas similar to the trap spells the black magician had installed. Of course, copying them exactly would make them unusable, so I had to go through the annoying process of replacing mana with magi using the principles of black magic.

I somehow managed to finish it, but since it was my first time I wasn’t sure if it would activate properly. I’d test it tomorrow. If I triggered it now I really would faint.

I had learned [Mana Conversion: Magi].

I had learned [Beginner Black Magic: Negative Explosion].

I had learned [Beginner Black Magic: Binding Field].

I had learned [Basic Black Magic: Spear of Magi].

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

I had learned [Basic Black Magic: Erosion].

The skill acquisition alerts floating before my eyes suggested it had worked, at least.

Clink, clatter. I unfurled the completed chain. It was a black chain with a faint purple sheen. At a glance it looked extremely suspicious.

If I walked around the city carrying this, I’d be arrested as a black magician in no time.

“Hm… Should I get some kind of safety certificate from the church before ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠giving it to Iria?”

Ah, whatever. I’m tired.

I didn’t actually need sleep, but I felt like resting anyway. Putting off today’s tasks until tomorrow was the golden rule, after all.

*Main Body Image*