Lucy, Trained by the Succubus (4)
"Lucy?"
When his calls went unanswered, Maru, who had been sitting with his arms crossed, rapped his knuckles lightly against the desk.
Lucy flinched and snapped out of her reverie.
"What are you doing? I asked you something."
"Huh? Oh— s-sorry."
Lucy rolled her eyes from side to side and flashed an awkward smile.
If I get caught telling him about us, she'll throw me to the incubus horde.
The succubus's words replayed in her head. She swallowed hard before opening her mouth.
"When I first arrived here, I was shocked to see you."
"That Oliver guy didn't even offer you tea before leaving."
Maru rose from his seat without another word and went to make tea. The atmosphere was nothing short of frigid. Crushed by the chill, Lucy couldn't manage a single word of small talk and just sat there fidgeting awkwardly. After a short while, Maru returned.
"Drink."
Clack.
He sat down across from her. Lucy looked down at the steaming teacup in front of her. The subtle fragrance of black tea was soothing—the same scent Maru used to brew for her so often back then.
"I'll enjoy it."
She lifted the cup carefully with both hands and took a sip. As she set it down, her expression had softened considerably.
"Your tea... is still as good as ever. It's delicious."
"I demanded you make it properly, didn't I."
Maru's voice was razor-edged. Lucy tensed.
Haa, did I mess up from the very start?
She needed to smooth over his mood somehow, and things had already gone sideways.
"I..."
Lucy fidgeted with her fingers as she spoke, her voice drained of strength.
"I'm leaving Kiera's party."
"You too? The party's about to fall apart."
She had expected him to be surprised, but his reaction was remarkably underwhelming. He simply sipped his tea, utterly indifferent.
"So are you going back home like Yoris?"
"Not sure. I'll have to think about it."
Lucy bowed her head, wearing a deflated expression. In truth, there was nothing to think about. With the Obedience Crest branded into her lower belly, she was fated to trail after Maru and the succubus for the rest of her life. If she ever tried to force her way free of the two of them, the crest would activate and her womb would rupture, killing her on the spot.
"You're... not going to ask why?"
"If you want to talk about it, talk. Why are you leaving?"
At Maru's frigid question, Lucy rolled her eyes from side to side.
He must absolutely hate Kiera, his ex-girlfriend. She's the one who drove him out of the party, after all. If I badmouth her with him, maybe I can win some favor.
With that thought, she began.
"After you left, I came to realize it far too late. Kiera—she really is rotten at heart. She never treated people like people. She saw them as nothing but money. 'She'll be useful, keep her around. He's worthless, cut him loose.' If there was nothing in it for her, she'd sever a relationship without a shred of mercy..."
Though she was saying this to curry favor with Maru, it wasn't a lie—it was her honest opinion. Lucy had long since grown sick of Kiera's habit of measuring people purely by material worth. Pouring out everything she'd been holding in, with no exaggeration whatsoever, made her words spill out faster and faster.
"Traveling with her, I came to hate it so much. A Hero is supposed to be just, so why was Kiera as greedy and wicked as any villain? She even treated you—her own lover—like..."
Maru cut her off with a scowl.
"That's enough. I don't want to hear any more."
"Why...?"
"You're badmouthing Kiera right now. I don't want to listen to that kind of talk."
"But Kiera, she—"
"I said shut up. Whatever she did, it has nothing to do with me anymore. I don't want to curse her out behind her back either. We go our separate ways, that's all."
"I-I'm sorry."
Lucy apologized quickly, but inwardly she was stunned.
This guy... I thought he'd badmouth her along with me, but he's surprisingly loyal.
Had he always been like this?
"Did you come here just to say that? I have no interest in listening to your sob story, so if there's nothing else, show yourself out."
Maru frowned and took a sip of his tea, and Lucy made a face on the verge of tears, begging desperately.
"No, wait. Don't throw me out. Please, I'm begging you."
"Hmph."
Maru pressed his lips together tightly and regarded her in silence for a moment. Then he let out a long sigh.
"I don't know why I bother meeting you at all. It's nothing but irritating."
"I irritate you?"
"Not you specifically—it's just that seeing you brings back all the old memories, and they piss me off. I shouldn't have mixed words with any of you in the first place. No—I shouldn't have met with you at all."
"Th-then... if it's driving you crazy with anger, take it out on me. I'll take all of it."
"And how exactly would you do that?"
"C-call me a—call me a mutt! Insult me! Call me a mangy mutt, like you're abusing me!"
Lucy decided this was her moment. She expected the word mutt to fly straight out of Maru's mouth. After all, he had despised being taunted as a mutt himself, and the memory of what he'd endured was bound to make him spit the insult out with vengeful glee.
But her expectations came crashing down without warning. Maru stared at her, utterly dumbfounded.
"Why on earth would I call you a mutt? You're Lucy. Your name is Lucy. Don't tell me to do something so bizarre."
Lucy scrambled anxiously.
"You hated being mocked as a mutt! You should get your revenge—this is your chance. I won't even complain, no matter how you insult me, so hurry up!"
"I told you, no. I hate your guts, but back when we traveled together, I respected your skill. The Lucy I know is not someone who should ever be called a mangy mutt."
"!?"
It was an answer she never saw coming. Lucy stared at Maru's face in astonishment.
"I thought you'd resent me to death...?"
Maru turned his gaze away. Staring at the wall, he said flatly, as if talking to himself,
"If someone asked me to name the most ill-tempered woman in the world, I'd pick you without a moment's hesitation. And if someone asked me to name the greatest mage in the world, I'd pick you just as fast. It's infuriating, but you have to give credit where credit is due."
When he finished, Maru gave a wry smile. He had said it as if it were nothing, but having spoken the words aloud, he apparently found them rather embarrassing. He drained his hot tea in one go.
"Maru..."
Lucy's chest tightened for no reason at all. She had expected him to call her a mutt without a trace of mercy. But hearing unexpected praise made her throat itch. She had heard you're skilled countless times before. Yet she had no immunity to compliments coming from a man who despised her. Perhaps that was why, beyond her worry about her failed mission, another feeling welled up inside her.
It was being moved.
"I had no idea you thought of me that way. Truly, I had no idea. If only you'd told me sooner..."
That evening.
Lucy, who returned empty-handed without so much as hearing the word mutt, lay sprawled on her back on the cell's cot, her hands and feet bound. Luciella, half-undressed, circled the bed with a smile.
"You spent the day devotedly serving my Lord, and yet you couldn't manage that because of your petty pride?"
"I-I did ask! I told him clearly to call me a mutt, but Maru...! I mean, Lord Maru refused! He said he wouldn't!"
"Heh. Excuses, excuses."
Luciella slithered onto the bed and kneaded Lucy's chest and backside, then licked her cheek.
"Nngh...!"
Lucy trembled violently, her eyes squeezed shut.
"When he refuses, you beg harder. Until he's thoroughly sick of it."
"I-I don't know how. Teach me, and I'll do exactly as you say."
"It's too late tonight. I'll teach you tomorrow."
Luciella stepped off the bed and picked up a whip. In her other hand, she held a lewd implement. Lucy's eyes went wide.
"Wh-what are you doing now...?"
"You broke your promise, didn't you? Time for your punishment."
The succubus smiled sweetly. Into the quiet of the cell, a faint, delicate voice and a shriek echoed in turn.
When he opened his eyes, morning had already come. Birds chirped outside the window, and the sunlight was dazzling. He must have been exhausted from yesterday, because he'd slept like a log without any sense of time passing. He felt refreshed.
"Haaam."
Maru stretched and climbed out of bed, loosening his stiff muscles with a brief round of stretching. Today's tasks slowly surfaced in his mind.
"I should find some time to go talk to the Princess..."
He had no intention of staying on bad terms with Audrite. He planned to mend her mood for good by the end of the day—flowers and gifts if words alone wouldn't do it.
Knock, knock.
A knock came at his door early in the morning. Assuming it was a maid bringing his washwater, he quickly threw on a robe and opened the door—then froze at the sight of Lucy, standing there with a bright smile.
"Slept well...?"
Maru's expression hardened reflexively.
"Didn't we finish talking yesterday?"
"I haven't told you everything I wanted to say."
"Tell me later."
He moved to shut the door, but she hastily grabbed it and refused to let go.
"W-wait! I have something to show you!"
"Hoo."
He let out a sigh and looked at her.
"What is it?"
Lucy stole a glance down the corridor, then looked back at Maru with an awkward smile.
"Could we... talk inside for a moment?"
"No. Say it right there."
"H-here?"
She clasped her hands together tightly, looking flustered, as if trying to work up to something. Maru scratched vigorously at his bed-tousled hair, impatient.
"Make it quick, I don't have time. What is it?"
"O-okay. I'll do it here..."
She hesitated a moment, then seemed to steel herself and opened her mouth.
"Woof."
"Hm?"
"Woof! Woof!"
"What are you trying to do?"
What on earth was with the barking first thing in the morning?
"Woof!"
"Are you insane?"
"Woof! Yes, I'm insane."
Lucy answered with a sheepish grin, though her face had flushed bright red—she clearly knew how embarrassing this was. Even so, she kept on barking.
"Don't I seem like a mutt?"
"...?"
"No? Woof!"
"..."
When Maru just stared at her strangely without reacting, she grew even bolder. Without warning, she dropped to all fours on the floor and, shaking her hips this way and that as if she had a tail, barked her heart out.
"Will you call me a mutt? Woof woof!"
That was the final straw. Maru blew up. He seized her by the collar, hauled her to her feet, dragged her roughly into his room, and slammed the door shut. He shoved her up against the wall.
"Kgh! That hurts! Go easy!"
"Are you determined to ruin my life? What if someone had seen that!"
He'd nearly been socially annihilated over the accusation that he was making the Hero's party mage do bizarre things. Two years on, it turned out she wasn't a mage at all—she was an assassin.
"What is wrong with you? Did you eat something bad?"
Seeing Maru rage, Lucy cowered in fear, but inwardly she clicked her tongue.
What the hell... I did exactly what the succubus told me to. She said Maru would love it.
Realizing it wasn't working, she hastily revised her strategy. Lucy collapsed to the floor and began weeping, big tears streaming down her face.
"The truth is... I've been craving the samgyeopsal you used to make me. Sob, sob...!"
It was true that she missed the food Maru used to cook. And her craving for pork belly was entirely sincere.