Lucy Trained by the Succubus (6)
"Guard Captain, what's going on here?"
The knights and soldiers patrolling nearby came running at a gallop. The soldiers rushed straight to the fallen Natalie, surrounding her with spears leveled at her body.
A middle-aged knight approached with a puzzled expression.
"Isn't that woman a warrior from the Hero's party? What on earth happened?"
From a distance away, a seething voice carried through the air.
"Maru, you little bastard…!"
Natalie was trying to get up, shoving aside the splintered wooden pillar that had pinned her down. She must have been furious beyond words—her face was beet red.
"You dare strike me…?! Grrr!"
When the muscular, giant of a woman bared her teeth and let her killing intent flare, the soldiers shrank back step by step on pure instinct.
"Aaargh…!"
"S-stop right there!"
"Halt! I said halt!"
Maru gazed at the maddened Natalie in silence, weighing his options for a moment. Do I really have to fight her?
He had no desire to stir up a commotion with the Hero's party, but right now it seemed like the only way forward. Natalie was a simple-minded, violent woman. Conversation was useless with her. If he wanted to settle this situation, fists were the best answer.
"Everyone, fall back."
"What? What do you intend to do? Surely you're not planning to subdue that giant woman yourself?"
While the knight watched him with anxious eyes, Maru stripped off his outer coat.
"I have no particular talent for the martial arts, but I'll give it a try."
At that very moment—
A gleaming rope of light flew toward Natalie just as she was rising to her feet, binding her entire body in the blink of an eye. Trussed up from ankle to shoulder, she crashed to the ground once more.
"Who did that?! I'll kill every last one of you! Damn it all!"
Her strength was so monstrous that the magic rope was already straining at its limits. Lucy sprinted over, laid her hand on the head of the thrashing woman, and swiftly cast a sleep spell.
"Stop making a fuss and go to sleep."
"You fucking bitch, Lucy! You're betraying me?! Ugh—!"
Natalie's eyes slid shut and her head flopped forward with a heavy thud.
"Hnnghhh…"
With the giantess asleep, silence finally settled over the area. The soldiers exhaled sighs of relief and wiped the sweat from their brows.
"Whew. We survived."
"Her strength is genuinely insane, though."
"I thought today would be my funeral, I swear."
Maru quietly gazed at Lucy from a distance. When she finished checking on Natalie and turned to leave, their eyes met. She flashed him a bright smile, as if asking for praise.
The more he looked, the stranger it seemed. Going by her usual personality, she should have been furious at him for striking Natalie—yet instead she'd helped him without a word of complaint.
He couldn't help wondering what was going through her mind. Has she actually learned something?
Lucy, reformed. It was unthinkable even a few months ago.
"How shall we handle her? Should we lay her in a room?"
When the knight came over to ask, Maru put on a stern expression.
"The warrior Natalie has committed threats and violence against this official, demanding the release of the Paradise Grass we previously confiscated. Her crime is grave—arrest her at once and throw her in the cells."
"Yes, sir!"
The soldiers who received the order moved without hesitation. Under the knight's command, they hoisted Natalie onto their shoulders and trudged heavily toward the prison. Watching them go, Maru found his mouth twisting in distaste.
The state of the woman praised across the continent as a magnificent warrior was a sorry sight indeed. When I first met her, she was the very image of a dependable warrior. How on earth did she fall apart like this…?
Tsk.
Come to think of it, they'd all been like that. Lucy, Natalie, Yoris—every one of them had been kind and righteous people when he first met them. But as time passed, they'd changed. What had gone wrong? Wasn't it the leader who led them down the wrong path?
Kiera.
You should have stopped Natalie before she got hooked on that drug. You're the Hero, aren't you? The Hero who's supposed to bring benefit to all. The Hero shining with justice. Where are you looking right now? If you've been given power, then do what befits it. Starting now.
"What are you thinking about?"
Lucy had come up close, smiling slyly.
"You were amazing back there. Took Natalie down in one blow? When did you get that strong?"
At those words, Maru's brow twitched. It worried him a little that the one person he didn't want knowing about his strength had caught on. If Lucy knew, then Kiera would find out too. He didn't want that. And because of it, his feelings slipped out onto his face, plain as day.
He spoke coldly.
"Go back now. Enough."
"Go back? I'm going to follow you around until you call me a mutt…"
"Quiet."
Mutt. What the hell is with this mutt obsession? He was sick of hearing her say it over and over. This was no child's game—what was she even trying to do? He had no intention of playing along with her little performance.
"Go home. That's your last warning. Ignore it, and you'll never exchange another word with me as long as you live."
"No…"
Lucy must have sensed how serious he was, because she couldn't get another word out. Her eyes simply welled up with tears.
"Crying won't help you."
When she began to sob, her whole body trembling, Maru turned his back without a flicker of emotion and walked away.
"……"
Lucy sniffled and glared resentfully at the receding figure of Maru's back. She had faked the tears as part of her plan to stop him from leaving—but once they'd started, the tears wouldn't stop, streaming down in an unbroken line.
"What did I do wrong this time, that you're angry at me? At least tell me why you're mad. Tch."
So today was a failure too, huh. Her mind was already a chaotic mess thinking about what was coming tonight.
"Just call me a mutt once, you jackass…"
That evening, inside the prison, Lucy's screams echoed without end, mingled with the delighted laughter of a succubus.
When the final "torture" was over, Luciela licked her glistening palm with a satisfied smile.
"Fufu. You were clumsy at first, but your scissoring technique has gotten quite good, hasn't it?"
Lucy lay sprawled on the bed, utterly spent, unconscious.
***
Deep in the night, Natalie's ferocious roars rang out through the barracks prison without pause.
"Just try leaving! I'll smash every one of your skulls in! Mark my words, I will keep that promise!"
Bam!
Bam!
She threw her body against the iron bars again and again. Even as the skin of her shoulders tore open and blood ran down, her rage knew no end.
"You've humiliated me! Fuck! You bastards!"
Bam!
Bam!
Her head simply could not process the situation. Throwing the warrior who traveled with the Hero into a cell? And all while a foreign visitor was staying in the city? The audacity was beyond insulting.
"I'm a hero destined to slay the Demon King! This is no way to treat me!"
The shame of being locked up left only one thought in her mind: revenge, no matter what. And the target of that revenge, naturally, was Maru.
"It's all his fault! That bastard…!"
As she ground her teeth picturing herself clubbing Maru with her mace, footsteps suddenly sounded from somewhere down the corridor.
"Hm?"
Natalie leaned against the iron bars and pricked up her ears in silence.
Tap.
Tap.
The calm, measured footsteps drew steadily closer. They were heading this way, most likely.
For a moment she waited quietly, hoping she was about to be let out. Before long, the owner of the footsteps appeared beyond the thick iron bars.
"So, how do you feel about being in jail?"
It was Maru.
"You son of a bitch!"
Natalie hurled her massive frame against the bars like a wild beast.
Bam!
But the bars didn't so much as tremble. This was a specially constructed prison, built to hold the strange and powerful beings that existed throughout the world.
"Just get out of here! You're dead!"
Her spit flew and landed on Maru's face as she snarled. He wiped it off with the back of his hand, then quietly folded his arms behind his back.
"About this afternoon. When you threw that punch, I originally intended to just take it."
"Don't make me laugh!"
Natalie hurled curses and pounded the bars with her fist.
"Just you wait, you bastard! I will have my revenge!"
"You haven't changed a bit. You can't control yourself when you're worked up. That's why I decided I had to beat you."
"What?"
Natalie burst into incredulous laughter.
"You're going to beat me? Heh heh. Am I dreaming? Now I've heard everything."
"I already hit you once, didn't I?"
The moment Maru said it with a smile, Natalie bristled.
"That was me going easy on you! I was afraid your head would go flying! Next time I won't hold back, not ever!"
"Natalie. Right now, you look less like a shining suit of armor and more like a rusted one caked in filth. You didn't used to be like that."
"Heh heh. Right, mock me all you want. Let's see if you can still talk like that once I'm out of here. Go on! Go on! Talk your fill! Spout whatever you like before I tear that mouth of yours apart!"
Maru tossed the sack he'd been holding through the gap in the bars.
"It's alcohol and chicken. Figured your mouth might get lonely."
"Is this a tribute so I'll go easy on you? Too late. I'm going to kill you."
"Consider it a token of thanks for the past few years, when you stood at the front of the party and protected us."
"A thanks?"
Natalie snorted at the absurd remark.
"Out of nowhere, stories of the past? You think something like that will shake me?"
Maru simply kept smiling in silence.
"You may find it hard to believe, but just as you protected me back then, I saved you today. When you went on your rampage, I realized I had to put a stop to it. Leave you alone, and I had a feeling you'd do something far worse."
"Saved me? You call this a jail cell saving me?"
Natalie spat curses even as she sneered.
"The only way to stop you from your Paradise Grass addiction was to lock you up. This was the one way to protect you. You'll be released tomorrow when Kiera and Duke Toledo leave the city. Until then, behave yourself."
At the word released, Natalie's expression visibly softened. She was quiet for a moment, then asked in a serious tone:
"…What does Kiera say about me causing all that trouble?"
The corners of Maru's mouth curled up in a silent smile.
"You know how it is. You two are sulking at each other and not speaking. I have no idea what she's thinking."
"Ah, right, that's true."
Natalie burst into loud laughter at Maru's joke. But the laughter soon died down, and she asked:
"Are you… angry with me too?"
At that, Maru let out a long sigh, then showed her a smile of easy relief.
"Not at all. Anger is something you only feel for someone you actually care about."
He released his arms from behind his back and raised his hand in farewell.
"I'll be going. It won't be comfortable in there, but get some rest."
"W-wait! What did you mean just now? What am I, exactly? That I don't matter to you?"
She gripped the bars with both hands and shouted with all her might, but Maru was already passing by the cells beyond hers. He said nothing more, only grew further away.
"When someone asks you a question, you answer it, you pompous bastard. What a piece of work."
Natalie turned around and looked down at the sack lying on the floor. She raised her hand and idly stroked her swollen cheek.
"I've never once in my life been hit in the face by another person… The man who struck my cheek… he's a first."
Maru, that guy. That composed air he'd carried just now, too—it was clear he'd gotten stronger. Warriors knew warriors. Natalie could feel it. It wasn't merely that he'd grown stronger. He was unmistakably her equal now, or above her—perhaps well above.
"If we'd actually fought, I might have been screwed, huh."
Lost in deep thought for a while, she eventually shook off the complicated feelings and sank down onto the floor. She opened the sack, tore into the chicken, and gulped down the booze.
"Ahh, that hits the spot~ That bastard Maru really knows my tastes. Must be royal-grade meat—the flavor's incredible!"
With a single round of alcohol and chicken, she washed away every ounce of the day's resentment. Simple as ever, was Natalie.
But then again, this was who she was.