Chapter 24
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Delicate Touch
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“The promise. The one about disarming.”
I nodded toward her body with my chin.
“You’re not telling me that massive hunk of steel is your casual wear, are you? Or is it the fashion in Roselia to enter the bedroom in full armor?”
“Th-this is...”
Helena stammered in confusion. Her hand instinctively rose to cover her breastplate.
“Wh-when did I say I’d come out naked? I said I’d wear a dress. I never said anything about taking off my armor!”
“Playing word games, are we?”
I let out a cold sneer.
“What I wanted was mutual trust. I’m chained up, crawling on the floor, while you stand over me with a sword at your side and armor on your body. Is this a conversation? Or a one-sided declaration?”
I leaned forward. The chains pulled taut.
“And besides, I can see what you’re hiding under that armor. White... very thin...”
Helena’s face flushed beet red in an instant. She reflexively tugged her cloak to cover herself. But draping fabric over solid steel couldn’t hide its contours.
“Isn’t armor a weapon, Helena?”
I called her by name. Not her title, but her name as a woman.
“Are you all wrapped up tight because you don’t want to show what’s underneath? Afraid I might see? Scared my gaze might pierce that thin fabric and lick your bare skin?”
I infused my words with persuasion.
“Answer me. Is that the ‘sincerity’ you were talking about?”
“I can’t take it off!”
Helena shoved back her chair and stood. Clank. The sound of her breastplate clashing against her gauntlets scraped through the crystal orb’s speaker into my eardrums.
Her emerald eyes blazed with venom, but beneath it lurked unmistakable fear.
A visceral rejection, close to survival instinct, against the vulnerability and shame that would be exposed the moment her armored shell was stripped away.
“No matter what you say, I won’t take this off. This is my honor! A Queen of Roselia disarming before the emperor of an enemy nation? What would my soldiers think? My people?”
She jabbed a finger at me, bellowing at the top of her lungs. Her face burned red, her chest heaved. The white lace peeking from under her breastplate trembled with her ragged breaths.
It wasn’t logic—it was an emotional outburst. Hiding behind the word ‘honor,’ but really just a tantrum over not wanting to be seen.
I raised my upper body from where I’d been sprawled on the floor, chains binding me. Kneeling, but my gaze carried an arrogance as if looking down on her.
The energy of [Persuasion Lv.2] danced on my tongue. If logical talk wouldn’t work, then illogical shock therapy was the answer.
“Honor, you say.”
I crooked the corner of my mouth and brought my chained hands to my waist.
“Then for fairness, I should show you mine.”
“Wh-what are you doing?”
Helena’s eyes widened. She instinctively sensed what I was about to do. The nightmare from our last meeting—no, the intense image seared into her subconscious—revived.
“No! Don’t! Stop!”
“Why? You won’t take off your armor. So I’ll show my ‘sincerity’ my way.”
Without hesitation, I yanked the cord of my prisoner’s pants. Shrrk. With a rough friction sound, they slid down past my hips.
My already swollen member sprang free, tasting liberation. Days of abstinence and tension, especially last night’s unfinished business. And the conquest lust before my eyes had produced this massive result.
“Kyaaaaah!”
Helena screamed and staggered back. Her chair toppled, and the wine glass on the table shattered on the floor.
“You maniac! Perverted bastard! Put it away! Hide it!”
She covered her face with both hands, but her fingers gaped wide. Her eyes darted lost, finally locking onto my lower body. Disgust? No. It was closer to the awe a human feels witnessing a colossal disaster.
“This is my honor, Queen Helena.”
I shook my chains and thrust my hips forward. Thud. The heavy flesh slab sliced through the air.
“What do you think? Far more honest and hot than your cold steel, isn’t it?”
“Ugh... please stop!”
Helena’s legs gave out, and she slumped down. The weight of her armor pinned her. Her breathing grew ragged.
It wasn’t just shock. Her body was reacting. Her face burned crimson, cold sweat trickled down her nape, soaking her white ceremonial dress.
I took it one step further. The fused mana whispered directly into her mind through the crystal orb.
‘I’ll put it away. If you want.’
“St... put it away! Now!”
“You know the condition?”
I gripped my member with my hand and slowly stroked up and down. Helena let out a hitch and curled inward.
“Tomorrow morning. We meet again. For real this time.”
My voice dropped low.
“Shed that hideous shell. Come in just that white dress underneath. The one that shows everything.”
“You mad bastard... you really...”
“Otherwise, tomorrow I’ll show you something else. In detail. What I can do with this.”
Helena bit her lip until it bled. Her pride was torn to shreds, but the visual assault before her eyes and my mana-laced threat paralyzed her reason. All she wanted was to escape this situation.
“F-fine.”
She answered in a crawling voice.
“I’ll... I’ll wear it. Just please...”
“The territory negotiations then, too. Understood?”
“Yes! I’ll agree to everything, so put it away! Now!”
Her scream, close to a wail. A declaration of surrender.
I smiled in satisfaction and pulled up my pants.
“A wise choice, Your Majesty. See you tomorrow.”
Pop.
The connection cut, and the crystal orb’s light faded.
Silence filled the room.
I sprawled out on the floor like a starfish. Strength drained from my whole body. Cold sweat soaked my back. Success. I’d bought another day. And more than that, I’d peeled another layer off Helena.
Creeeak.
The door opened, and Duke Karls entered. His expression was still stern, but anxiety flickered in his eyes.
“How’d it go?”
He frowned at the room’s odd heat and me adjusting my pants. But he didn’t pry. Only the result mattered.
I caught my ragged breath and looked up at him.
“Delayed another day. We’ll talk again tomorrow morning.”
I didn’t mention the details. Not that Helena would come in just a sheer white dress, nor that I’d waved my dick at her. And especially not the territory negotiations... that was a secret between just me and Helena.
I pressed my forehead to the icy marble floor and held my breath. The dusty scent at my nose tip mixed with the metallic tang from the chains seeped into my lungs.
My wrists, bound behind my back, throbbed where the shackles dug into the bones. But my nerves were all prickling toward the crystal orb screen hovering above my head.
“Lift your head.”
Helena’s voice crackled through the speaker, sharp but faintly trembling. No need to check—the tremor screamed shame, not anger.
I slowly raised my upper body. The thick chain around my neck rattled, scraping the floor. Lifting my gaze, an unreal sight filled the crystal orb screen, searing my retinas.
“Ha.”
I barely swallowed a gasp.
Morning sunlight pierced the gaps in the Roselian commander’s tent, creating backlighting. Helena sat with the light behind her, wearing the Roselian royal “pure white ceremonial garb” as promised.
It was less clothing and more like mist.
The highest-grade silk dress was so thin and transparent it had no weight at all.
White fabric draped from her shoulders, not so much wrapping her body as merely resting atop her skin. In the backlight, her contours showed starkly through the hem: her slender waist curving into full hips and thighs, and the dark shadow between her crossed legs.
The imposing steel armor from yesterday was gone without a trace. Only peach-toned skin and a white silhouette filled the screen.
She wore no undergarments. The thin fabric clung to her breast curves, covering the tips, but with each breath, it stuck to her skin, faintly revealing their red hue.
Helena gripped the chair’s armrests, knuckles white. Her face burned like a ripe tomato, her glare at me shaky, as if desperate to cover herself.
“I wore it as promised. Now get to the point.”
She jutted her chin, feigning dignity, but her voice was an octave higher. The depravity of exposing her near-nakedness to a deposed emperor of an enemy state gnawed at her sanity.
I swallowed dryly and forced a serious expression. I tried fixing my gaze on her face, but instinct kept sliding to the cleavage under thin fabric and between her thighs.
“As expected of Her Majesty. Far more dignified and beautiful than any armor.”
“Shut up. I didn’t come for flattery.”
Helena cut me off and picked up a document. Paper rustled, but my ears caught only the faint swish of her dress hem as her arm moved.
“The terms I mentioned yesterday. No changes.”
Her eyes sharpened. A defensive aggression to mask her shame.
“The Emerald Plains in the Empire’s south. Cede ownership to Roselia. Then I’ll accept it as your apology for the rudeness and withdraw my army.”
The Emerald Plains.
The Empire’s largest granary and strategic hub. Handing it over would be devastating. Duke Karls guarding the door outside would bust in and behead me on the spot if he heard.
“Your Majesty, that’s impossible. The Emerald Plains are the Empire’s heart. How about we empty the imperial treasury instead and increase the reparations?”
“No!”
Helena slammed the desk. Her thin dress sleeve fluttered, shaking her pale arm. The impact made her breasts jiggle, vivid through the fabric.
“I don’t need money! It’s payment for sullying my honor. No land, no deal. I’ll rip off this ridiculous outfit, don my armor, and march right now!”
She was being unreasonable. Her psyche, craving compensation for humiliation, manifested as outrageous demands. She wasn’t a logical negotiator now—just a sulking child, or a woman nursing wounded pride.
This wouldn’t do.
“No” meant war; “yes” meant Karls’s blade. I needed a third option. Break her stubbornness, paralyze her reason, steer her to other terms.
Words weren’t enough. Even [Persuasion Lv.2]’s eloquence couldn’t pierce her furious heart now. Visual shock? I’d already flashed her three times.
Something stronger. Something to stimulate her senses directly.
I glanced at my hand on the crystal orb pedestal. Shackled wrist. And the ten fingers at its end. Thanks to [Delicate Touch], the marble’s chill pierced sharply through my fingerprints.
‘If I could touch her.’
If I could touch her beyond the screen. Lay my hand on that thin dress, stroke her trembling shoulder, caress her tense thighs.
Lightning flashed in my mind.
[Fusion] skill.
The power to designate a target and imbue it with ability. Last time, I fused [Persuasion] into the orb, lacing my voice with mana. Then this time?
Fuse [Delicate Touch] into the orb?
The crystal orb was a mana conduit linking me and Helena. This magic tool transmitted sight and sound—could it carry ‘touch’ too?
Crazy idea. But I was the madman in the Lust Emperor’s body.
I moved my hand stealthily. Minimizing chain noise so Karls outside wouldn’t hear, I pressed my palm flat against the orb’s smooth surface.
Cool, sleek glass texture.
‘Fusion.’
I focused. Poured the bundle of hypersensitive nerves from my fingertips into the orb along with mana.
Wooong—
The orb vibrated lowly. White light flickered red for a moment.
[Fusion Successful]
[Target: Continental Conference Resonance Crystal Orb]
[Effect Granted: Delicate Touch (Lv.1)]
[Details: The caster's touch converts to mana waves and transmits to the connected target. No physical contact, but the target's brain perceives it as real skin sensation. 'Phantom Touch' activates, ignoring distance and space.]