The Last Supper
Hmm?
“……What’s that smell?”
Click.
Ruby pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The scowl that had already formed the moment she saw me twitched ever so slightly the second her eyes landed on the table.
“……Ha?”
On the white linen tablecloth, silver dome covers stood in neat formation.
The rich, savory aroma of butter and seared meat seeping through the gaps must have tickled the bridge of her nose.
Ruby let out a disbelieving little laugh.
“……What, enjoy a last supper before the consultation? Is that it?”
I waved a hand at her words.
“Come on, no way. How could you compare a consultation to a last supper? Well…… if I had to stretch it……” I stroked my chin and smiled faintly. “You need stamina if you’re going to last twenty minutes. It’d be a problem if you collapsed from exhaustion on an empty stomach, right?”
“Bullshit……” she muttered.
I casually pulled out the chair opposite me and jerked my chin toward it.
“Sit. We’re going to keep consulting, Ruby. You haven’t forgotten about today’s bet, have you?”
Her eyes sharpened at that.
She glanced at my bandaged right hand, then snorted.
“……Cocky little quack brat.”
The words were barbed, but her body was honest.
In front of that appetite-stirring scent, the lofty high elf…… no, the starving fugitive’s instincts had outrun her reason.
Thud, thud.
Barefoot, she approached and dropped into the chair with a rough thump.
“If it tastes like crap, I’m flipping the table. No—I’ll burn this whole place down. Got it?”
True to form for a walking time bomb.
I chuckled low.
“Of course. The hotel chef’s life is on the line, so that won’t happen.”
I smiled leisurely and lifted the silver dome covers one by one.
Whoosh.
Warm steam rose, revealing the majestic presence of a T-bone steak marked with perfect grill lines.
“Here, dig in. Whether human or elf, you’ve got to eat if you want to do anything at all.”
“……Hmph.”
I’d succeeded in getting her to sit.
All that remained was to offer her that “special drink” to go with the greasy steak.
Clink.
Scrape. Slice.
Ruby picked up her fork and knife without hesitation.
The way she carved a huge chunk of the well-cooked T-bone and brought it to her mouth overflowed with wild energy—less an elegant meal than a starving predator tearing into its prey.
“You eat rather…… combatively, don’t you?”
“Shut up. I need the energy so I can stomp you flat.”
She glared at me while chewing, cheeks stuffed to bursting.
She was definitely tense. Normally she would have ignored me like an insect, but not now.
She was probably fretting over the “reflex nerve” treatment method I’d announced earlier.
Proof of that was the ringing already sounding in my ears.
Psychological Insight.
The sound I could hear whenever a heroine’s psyche was shaken.
Ruby was quite tense right now.
Which meant she was shoveling the meat into her stomach without even savoring the taste.
Now.
I quietly picked up the wine bottle I’d set at the corner of the table.
“You’ll choke if you only eat meat.”
Glug-glug-glug.
A deep crimson liquid poured into the clear crystal glass.
The dense, decadent rose fragrance unique to Walpurgis Night exploded into the air.
“……?”
Ruby’s hand, mid-slice, froze in midair.
Her nostrils flared.
No matter how tense she was, a high elf’s keen sense of smell could not ignore this alluring aroma.
“……Ha? That’s booze.”
She narrowed her eyes and stared at the wine glass.
“And it smells pretty…… sickeningly sweet.”
Zzzzt—.
Psychological Insight activated once more.
She was on guard. The psychological agitation rang in my ears as tinnitus.
I smiled innocently, as if nothing were amiss.
“Ah, don’t worry. It’s a very high-class liquor. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Walpurgis Night, but……” I made a show of casually pouring some into my own empty glass as well. “Still, Ruby Scarlet is my patient first, but before that you’re a high elf lady, aren’t you?”
“So what?”
“To match such refined tastes, I figured this vintage was the bare minimum, so I spent a small fortune.”
“Ha……? You trying to get me drunk and pull something?”
Her wariness really was on the level of a wild animal.
But I wasn’t pulling anything.
Even if she got drunk, I wasn’t in any position to jump her.
I shook my head and answered no, but……
She didn’t trust me. She set her fork down with a clack and crossed her arms.
“I’m not drinking. I can consult just fine sober, and I can crush you in the bet just fine sober too. You little brat.”
A firm refusal. But I didn’t panic.
Instead I leisurely lifted the glass and swirled it, admiring the red hue of the wine under the light.
Swish.
“You say you can win…… Then you should drink even more.”
“Ha?”
“This is actually a consideration for you right now.”
I leaned forward and whispered secretively.
“Honestly—twenty minutes sober. Do you really have the confidence to endure my treatment method?”
“……What?”
“You barely lasted ten minutes yesterday. Face bright red, legs giving out, even drooling……”
“Y-you……! Shut up!”
Her face flushed crimson like a beet in an instant.
“Frankly, if we do it sober you’ll blow in under five minutes. Wouldn’t it be less embarrassing if you borrowed a little liquid courage?”
I drove the wedge home.
“This stuff’s nickname is Lady Killer, you know. They say it’s perfect for loosening up tension.”
“……Who said I was tense?! I’m not shaking even a little, okay?!”
“Or just drink it.”
I shrugged and slid the glass toward her.
“If you’re not a coward, a single glass of wine shouldn’t scare you.”
Provocation.
A sweet excuse called “tension relief.”
Ruby’s red eyes wavered.
She was the type who couldn’t dodge a provocation even for the sake of her pride.
On top of that, the sweet scent tickling her nose was seducing her throat, which had gone bone-dry from tension.
Drink it.
What’s inside isn’t mere alcohol.
There’s a sensory amplifier in there that will strip every one of your nerves bare.
Ruby glared at the glass for a moment, then snatching it up in a fit of pique.
“Ha, don’t make me laugh!”
She smirked bitterly.
“I could down a whole bottle of this grape juice and not even flinch. What do you take my alcohol tolerance for?”
She brought the glass to her lips without hesitation.
Gulp, gulp.
Whoa, she’s chugging it like a total badass…
The red liquid wetting her lips and sliding down her white throat burned itself into my eyes in slow motion.
Like Snow White biting into a poisoned apple. No—like a fire witch walking of her own free will into a pit of pleasure.
In the end…… she finished it all.
Thud!
She set the empty glass down roughly on the table.
A red wine stain bloomed at the corner of her mouth like blood, creating a strangely sensual atmosphere.
“……Pwah. Happy now?”
“……Yes. Absolutely perfect.”
I smiled meaningfully and checked my wristwatch.
All right—ten minutes until the effects kick in.
The moment the alcohol spreads through her bloodstream, the amplifiers hidden inside will forcibly awaken every single dormant nerve cell in her body.
Contrary to her bold claims, in a little while even the brush of fabric against her skin will make her writhe.
I wiped my mouth with a napkin and slowly rose from my seat.
“Well then, that should be enough for the meal.”
I pointed toward the plush-looking sofa.
“Shall we begin the consultation soon, Ruby?”
I’ll say it again: this consultation is, first and foremost, a treatment method to calm her rage.
If I give her even more intense stimulation like this, it will become training so that she can casually shrug off any collision or any words thrown at her.
“……Ugh.”
Ruby staggered as she stood.
She pressed her temple and furrowed her brow.
Of course—downing 45-proof liquor in one shot would produce a normal reaction—but this was different from simple drunkenness.
Her white cheeks began to flush peach-red, and a faint heat mixed into her breathing.
“Oh my? Already worn out?”
“W-what is this, nn…….”
Ruby fanned her collarbone area with her hand and grumbled.
“Why is this room so hot? Is the thermostat broken?”
“No way. We’re maintaining a comfortable 24 degrees.”
I played dumb and escorted her.
“The alcohol must be hitting you all at once. Strong liquor always comes on late.”
“Ha……. Don’t make me laugh. You think I’d get drunk from this little?”
She forced strength into her swaying legs and walked toward the sofa as if nothing were wrong.
But my eyes could not be fooled.
With every step she took, the torn pants twitched and the muscles of her inner thighs trembled.
Sensory Amplifier
Progress: 15% ▲
It had already begun.
Even the trivial friction of cloth against skin was now being registered in her brain as intense stimulation, as if she were being scrubbed with rough sandpaper.
Thud.
Ruby threw herself face-down onto the sofa.
Normally she would have sat arrogantly, but right now even keeping her body upright seemed difficult.
She exhaled hot breaths and, as if stifled, undid one, then two buttons of her shirt.
“Hoo…… hoo…… Finish it quick. I’ll endure the twenty minutes like a dead mouse.”
She mumbled with her face buried in the pillow.
Her slender, trembling white nape and the line of her shoulder blades faintly visible beneath the shirt were left completely defenseless.
“Then, excuse me.”
I spoke in a deliberately solemn voice and approached the sofa.
I rubbed my hands together to warm them.
“Today’s intensity will be a bit higher than yesterday’s.”
“Hmph, do whatever you want. It just tickles.”
Her final bluff.
I twisted the corner of my mouth upward and brought my hand over her shoulder.
Slowly. Very carefully.
The moment my palm touched her trapezius.
Thud.
“Hnnnnngh?!”
Ruby’s body jerked up like a live fish.
A muffled scream burst out, and her prone upper body instantly went rigid.
“……Ruby?”
“W-w-what was that?!”
She whipped her head around and glared at me.
Her pupils were shaking as if an earthquake had hit, and already glistening physiological tears had gathered at the corners of her eyes.
“Y-you just…… hid an electric, electric shock device in your hand?”
“Pardon? What are you talking about……?”
I opened my bare palm and showed her.
“As you can see, bare hands. Must have been static electricity.”
“S-static……? Liar……”
She clutched her own shoulder as if she couldn’t believe it.
Of course she couldn’t. My touch just now had been nothing more than a feather-light rest, yet her brain had felt a tingling pleasure as if high-voltage current were flowing through her.
“Going again. Relax. It’ll hurt more if you tense up.”
“W-wait! Just a second……!”
She stretched out a hand to stop me, but I didn’t halt.
This time I pressed both thumbs firmly into either side of her nape.
Press.
“Haaaaaaaaah───────!!”
A death-cry-like shriek shook the hotel room.
“Hh, nngh! Ah! Aaaang! Hey! You crazy……! Ahhnn!”
She clawed at the pillow and thrashed.
It was just acupressure. The kind of simple pressure to loosen stiff shoulders that any neighborhood massage shop did every day.
But to her nervous system, marinated in amplifier and alcohol, that pressure was nuclear-bomb-level stimulation.
“Whoa there, Ruby. You need to stay still. Your muscles will jump. Besides, this is treatment. If you thrash like that, it won’t work.”
“Th-this…… this is weird! It hurts! No, it doesn’t hurt…… it’s weeeird!”
Ruby’s tongue began to tangle.
Confused signals of pain, pleasure, and ticklishness were scrambling her mind.
“S-stop! If you don’t stop I’ll kill you……!”
“Hey now, we’re just getting started, you know? Are you surrendering the bet?”
I shamelessly applied more force with my fingers.
She threw her head back rigidly and struggled.
“Hhk?!”
I diagnosed her with a serious expression.
“Seeing how violent the reaction is, your body is a complete mess. Can you even last like this? It’s because you’re full of rage every single day.”
“D-don’t lie! Yesterday, yesterday it wasn’t like this! Nnngh!”
“That’s because yesterday’s treatment woke your senses up. Like a healing crisis.”
Of course it was complete nonsense.
But her panicking brain had no room left to refute even this absurd logic.
“Now, we agreed to fill twenty minutes, right? One minute has passed.”
“Y-you’re insane…… one minute? Nnngh, no! Stop, stop!”
“If we stop here you lose the bet, you know? Is Ruby Scarlet’s pride only worth that much?”
My provocation landed.
Ruby, face buried in the pillow, ground her teeth.
“W-who…… said I’d lose…… hnn……”
“That’s right. That’s the spirit.”
I grinned and now slowly slid my hands down from her shoulders along her spine.
Fingertips tracing the line of her vertebrae.
Along that path, the muscles of her back twitched and contracted like they were riding a wave.
“Hh, nngh! There, there…… hnnngh! Ticklish, ticklishhh!”
“Endure it. We have to purge the toxins.”
I stroked along her erector spinae and deliberately put a faint bit of mana into my fingertips as I scraped downward.
Sliiiide.
“Hiiiiiik?!”
Ruby’s waist arched like a bow.
From her mouth burst a stifled moan that sounded like an animal’s cry.
Her legs kicked uselessly at the air, and her toes convulsively curled and uncurled over and over.
“Hah, hah…… y-you really…… I’ll kill you, nnnngh!”
She tried to spit curses, but the ends kept turning into heated moans.
She had no idea what kind of face she was making right now.
Those venom-filled eyes had gone unfocused and hazy, and her saliva-slick mouth was half-open, panting.
I asked casually.
“Is it very hard? If it’s really too much, you can ‘surrender.’”
The devil’s whisper that pretended to give her a choice while cutting off her escape route.
“Instead, you’ll have to declare your surrender to me right now—that Ruby Scarlet is a coward who folded in one minute. How about it?”
“……Y-you bastard……”
Ruby lifted her head, trembling.
Sweat-soaked hair clung to her cheeks.
“Who…… said I’d surrender……?”
“Oh?”
“Keep going. If you stop…… if you stop I’ll kill you.”
She glared at me with bloodshot eyes and hugged the pillow tightly.
Her body was screaming to flee that very second, yet the shackle called pride kept her bound to the sofa.
How adorable that stubbornness was.
“Understood. As the client requests.”
I glanced at my watch.
The bet was clearly to endure twenty minutes.
But the remaining time was eighteen minutes and thirty seconds.
We still had a long way to go.
And the drug’s effects were only now climbing toward their peak.
“Then shall we properly awaken those senses now.”
My hands dug toward the most sensitive spot on the inner side of her shoulder blades.