Meeting His Imperial Majesty (3)
Meeting His Imperial Majesty (3)
"Nn... uhhn!?"
The moment Yune's fingers brushed her bare skin, the Empress swallowed a moan.
"Are you all right? Was that too sudden...?"
"I-It's nothing. You merely startled me for a moment."
Right before the eyes of the Grand Duchess—her most trusted confidante—the Empress was being touched all over by that woman's precious youngest son.
For an Empress who had long neglected personal pleasures while governing the realm, the situation was overwhelmingly stimulating.
Perhaps that was why a thread of illicit thrill crept through Yune's fingertips and set her heart pounding.
"Mm... Not here. Let me try this way."
"...!"
Yune brought both hands together and placed them near the nape of her neck. His hands glided over the Empress's slender throat, then slowly traveled downward.
The thick liquid smeared on his hands stretched across her body like strands of saliva, exuding a bewitching sheen. His small palms caressed her collarbones, her shoulders, her underarms.
Then Yune's fingers traced down from her underarms.
-Squish.
"......!!!"
He carefully stroked the area around her sides. Every time the flesh of her sides was pressed, her breasts swayed with soft, languid motion, reshaping under the fabric.
She flinched at the sensation. Yune flinched too, his fingers trembling briefly.
Composing himself, Yune resumed moving his hands.
As if determined not to startle her again, he began to move cautiously with only a single index finger extended. For the Empress, though, such faint, teasing contact felt far more stimulating.
His finger traced sticky patterns over her pale skin, drawing circles down her sides before returning once more toward her collarbones.
Only then did Yune let out a heated sigh and withdraw his fingers for a moment. The liquid had already dried, leaving his fingertips tacky and stiff.
-Schlick.
"...I'll resume now."
Yune dipped his fingers into the slick, pungent liquid once more and began moving them again.
Those fingers descended slowly from her collarbones.
Toward the Empress's chest, where her deeply cut dress left her décolletage exposed. He drew progressively closer to the cleft.
If he lowered his fingers just a little further, they would slip into that heaven-sent valley—imparting a warmth, and a measure of illicit thrill, from which Her Majesty might never recover.
But just before his fingers could bury themselves in her cleavage, Yune lifted them away.
"Ah, that's it!"
-Twitch.
He raised his hand abruptly.
The sticky, pungent liquid clinging to his hand—
The blue potion dripped down and pooled in the hollow of her breasts.
"...Is it over?"
"Yes! I think I've figured out how to make Your Majesty better!"
* * * * * *
Let us turn back time. About one hour earlier.
Kaiserin, the Empress, had readily granted the private audience requested by Erengard and Yune.
When told that all was prepared and the Grand Duchess and her son were waiting, she made her way to the conference chamber, supported by her attendants.
She arrived at the chamber reserved for confidential discussions.
And there, what she saw was...
"Your Majesty, thank you for granting us your time twice over."
-Bow.
Erengard, who had sprung to her feet and bent at the waist as if truly sorry for having stolen the Empress's time twice, and beside her, Yune, offering a matching deep bow.
...And the table, covered with countless potion bottles.
The Empress's expression stiffened slightly at the sight.
She had been drinking potions like water of late, searching for anything to cure her mysterious illness. She remembered all too well that every beneficial potion in the Empire had failed to improve her condition.
"You said you wished to see me again, so I wondered what this was about. Have you come to offer tribute in the form of an elixir? Take it away. I've already drunk and consumed such things to the point of nausea."
"Your Majesty! These aren't elixirs—they're perfectly ordinary, common potions. And they aren't meant to be eaten or drunk."
The Empress had been about to wave them off in disgust, but Yune firmly denied they were elixirs.
"I spoke with Mom... I mean, with Mother. I believe I can make Your Majesty better."
"...Erengard. What scheme is this?"
"It is exactly as Yune says, Your Majesty."
Her mysterious illness—the one that even renowned priests and physicians had failed to diagnose, the one they had given up on. And Yune was claiming he could treat it.
The Empress's expression grew even darker as she regarded the cheap potions of the sort mere adventurers might use.
Ever since her condition had sharply deteriorated, she had scrambled to procure every kind of elixir. But the pile of elixirs had only grown, and so had her disappointment.
Not wishing to be disappointed again, she spoke curtly.
"Erengard von Nordkirchen. You know the price for trifling with me. Explain yourselves. What exactly do you intend to do with those low-grade potions?"
"It would be best for Yune to explain directly. Yune."
"Yes!"
Yune had sensed the Empress's mood souring rapidly. He hurried forward and began to explain.
"The truth is, I can perceive a potion's efficacy. Or rather, how much of its effect remains."
After lying—claiming that the mysterious 'Status Window' ability, which let him check detailed information about any item from the game, was magic he had learned—
Yune began to explain how low-grade potions could help her.
"You normally drink potions, right? Because the effect takes hold right away. But you can also apply them to the skin. It's just that the effect emerges much more slowly compared to drinking them directly."
His explanation, in summary, ran as follows:
Potions were meant for oral consumption. But similar effects could be achieved by absorbing them through the skin—just far less efficiently.
And Yune could perceive a potion's remaining efficacy.
He intended to apply potions to her skin, check their residual efficacy, and determine which potion she absorbed the most. In other words, he would find which potion her body truly needed.
For example, if she absorbed a healing potion most, it would mean she lacked HP. A stamina potion meant a stamina deficiency, and so on.
Since he couldn't view other people's status windows directly, Yune's plan was to reverse-calculate her status by using this method.
The Empress furrowed her brow as she listened. Yune's explanation was riddled with logical holes.
Yet Erengard appeared fully convinced that Yune would be able to treat her.
"Erengard. Do you truly believe that? Yune is but a child, so I can overlook it. But I never expected you, of all people, to sincerely credit such a fanciful tale from an infant."
"Yune has a record of overcoming his own illness by himself. It was an ailment that even the many visiting priests declared beyond help, and he conquered it alone. Because of that, I consider his claim that he can treat Your Majesty to be credible."
"Hah. This isn't like you. I thought you were the sort who would not stir even with a blade at your throat unless you believed something right. And now you move at the word of your child. Have you let sentiment override reason? I am disappointed, Erengard."
"I apologize, Your Majesty. But given the loyalty I, Erengard, have shown Your Majesty and the Empire over the years—will you trust Yune, and me, just this once?"
The Empress scolded Erengard for trusting such a nonsensical claim, but Erengard bowed without the slightest waver.
'...I shall let myself be fooled this once. Should it succeed, even by the longest of odds, nothing could be better. And should it fail, I can hang this debt around Erengard's neck.'
"Very well. I will trust you once."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Seeing that, the Empress resolved to play along with the preposterous proposal.
Had anyone else made a similar suggestion, she would have thrown them out, suspecting ulterior motives. But she knew that Erengard, at least, was an upright person who would not resort to underhanded tricks.
Above all, the reason she had accepted the proposal...
...was that what Erengard was bowing so low to request of her
amounted to nothing more than a massage using potions.
To avoid any succession disputes—and because the weight of state affairs had long left her no leisure to conceive and bear a child—the Empress had only a single daughter.
In her heart, she had always secretly yearned for a son as adorable as a little fox.
So she had unconsciously come to regard the son of the Grand Duchess, whom she held dear, as if he were her own child.
Thus she offered her body to Yune, hoping to fulfill a parent's fantasy of having her son rub her shoulders.
"There. Do as you wish."
"Yes! Since I'm at it, I'll give you a nice, refreshing massage!"
But it was a mere three minutes later
that she realized this massage was not the cozy, wholesome family intimacy she had imagined, but something far stickier and more embarrassing.
* * * * * *
In the garden, I had laid out my golden plan for treating Her Majesty the Empress to Mom.
Mom wore a look that said, 'Is this really right?' but after seeing my supremely confident expression, she contacted the Empress without another word to request another audience.
Mom had said that if we submitted the request now, we'd likely be granted an audience about a month later, so we should finish preparations by then.
But oddly, the Empress summoned us immediately, so we had no choice but to move like lightning.
Well, I moved while being carried in Mom's arms.
"Is this correct? This?"
"...For now, just put everything in the subspace pouch! We don't know what I might need!"
"Fine."
We took a teleportation array back to the North and swept through the family treasure vault, grabbing every artifact inside.
"Nibuer, do you have a potion set in stock? The adventurer kind."
"I always keep them on hand. Do you need them?"
"Yeah. I'll pay you later."
"Understood. ...Here they are."
"Thanks!"
We returned to the Imperial Capital and quickly obtained potions from Nibuer.
After the rare experience of traveling between the North and the Capital in a mere ten minutes, we managed to arrive at the small conference chamber before the Empress.
Then I persuaded a displeased Her Majesty to receive my massage.
Granted, because absorption times differed across body parts in ways I hadn't seen in the game, I committed the atrocity of groping the Empress's body here and there. Still, I succeeded in reverse-engineering her status.
It did feel a bit odd that Mom, watching from behind during the massage, wore an expression of extreme displeasure. But she was probably just anxious about whether the Empress could truly be healed. That must have been it.
So I began to piece together the Empress's problem, which I'd roughly discerned, and the combination of artifacts that might solve it.
A short while later.
"Your Majesty. Would you try holding this?"
"...Good heavens. My body has grown lighter in an instant. What in the world is this? It looks a bit peculiar for a staff."
"It's, uh... a Magical Girl Wand......."
"What was that?"
"Oh, n-nothing! It's just an utterly ordinary artifact staff!"