Become Mine
"Slurp~! Slurp~! Chup! Buhihit! Arme's morning kisses always taste so good."
"Oh, for fuck's sake.... Your mouth always smells like a sewer. You bastard. Brush your goddamn teeth properly."
Strange. I brushed thoroughly every single day. Unsightly as this fat body of mine was, I had a complex about it, so I was always meticulous about staying clean. Whether Arme was just saying that to piss me off or whether she actually thought so, I couldn't tell — but from now on, I was definitely going to gargle every morning.
"Buhihit! That's enough morning kissing for today. I've got something to tell you. Something very important."
"Huh? So you've finally decided to let me go?"
Arme's voice jumped with excitement. She'd been playing along with my whims all this time, and she seemed to think she was about to collect her reward. Naturally, I had no such intention. If anything, I wanted to tighten the noose even further. Then again, in a certain sense, it was a reward. Arme was about to experience a world she'd never known.
"It's the opposite, Arme. I'll be blunt. Become mine."
I skipped the messy preamble and went straight to the point. Flowery rhetoric was wasted on this pint-sized thief.
Arme blinked her oversized eyes at my words. She seemed to turn them over in her head for a moment — her head tilting from left to right, her eyes falling shut, her lips working silently. Then, all at once, she snapped those enormous eyes wide open, looking for all the world like someone who'd just heard the most insane nonsense of her life, and shouted.
"What the hell kind of bullshit is that?! Have you completely lost your mind!? You want me to be your slave? I'd rather bite my own tongue and die."
"For someone who says that, you've been eating your semen meals without missing a single one. You've gotten pretty used to the morning kisses, too. And if you really wanted, you could always bite my tongue."
"Th-that's because you threatened me with food.... Anyway, I will never submit! No matter what torture you put me through!"
Arme shouted it with total confidence. Defiance still glinted in the sharp upturn of her eyes. But this wasn't the first day. Back then, she'd felt like a loyal retainer captured by an enemy nation — unshakable will, venom dripping from every word. Now she felt more like a tsundere heroine. The kind of manga lead who throws up an iron wall against some dense protagonist, then turns into a panting bitch in heat the moment a tanned blond upperclassman walks in.
"Buhihit! I can tell your heart's already wavering. I think it's about time I revealed my true identity."
I'd had my fill of playing with Arme. Her psychological threshold felt like it had dropped considerably. If Solari World had been a dating sim, Arme's affection meter would have been sitting at nearly eighty to ninety percent. Or rather — in this case, should I call it a submission meter? Either way, it was time to harvest the seeds I'd sown.
"Your identity? I already know you're a rich pervert merchant. Wait — are you not even human? An orc? Wouldn't even surprise me at this point."
"Buhihit! Don't be too shocked when you hear this. I am the Solar Hero."
"......"
The Solar Hero. There wasn't a soul on the continent who didn't know that name. In Korean terms, the Solar Hero was a legendary figure on the level of Hwanung. No — Hwanung was a being out of myth, which made him feel unreal. The Solar Hero was a living person, one whose line had been inherited without interruption to this very day. To the people of Solari World, the Solar Hero was something beyond even the protagonists of myth — greater than Hwanung, Zeus, or Odin.
"So you're a lunatic. Figures. The kind of man who'd do those disgusting things to a beautiful woman like me was never going to be right in the head. Tch. I really picked the wrong bastard to get caught by."
Even I had to admit that what I'd just said sounded like unbelievable bluster. Who would believe that a perverted pig like me was the Solar Hero? Arme's reaction was perfectly realistic.
No ordinary person would ever believe I was the Solar Hero, no matter how many times I said it. Luna had believed me because she knew about the Solar Hero — and more than that, because she knew about the Solar Medal.
Every person on the continent was familiar with the Solar Hero's legend, but almost no one knew anything about the Hero's power or the token that proved it. If anything, the Lunar Clan — exiled from the continent — understood those details far better. Luna was a case in point.
Arme, however, was different. In the original story, she had been one of the very few continental characters who knew about the Solar Hero's power and his token. She'd learned of it by chance, after stealing a certain rich man's treasure. That treasure had been an ancient historical text, and Arme — whose archaeological knowledge was outstanding — had deciphered it, learning about the Solar Hero, the Solar Medal, and the abilities it possessed.
What's more, in the original story, it was thanks to Arme that Jin first truly awakened to the fact that he himself was the Solar Hero. In other words, by showing her the Solar Medal, I could prove that I was the Hero.
"Do you know what this is?"
I drew the Solar Medal from my pocket. Arme's gaze shifted to the medal in my hand. Something strange flickered through her pupils the instant she saw it. At first her face said what is that? — and then astonishment bled into it. Like a drop of ink falling into clear water, the shock spread across her entire face.
Her expression locked up as if she'd seen two suns hanging in the sky. Then her mouth slowly fell open, and she spoke in a stumbling, broken voice.
"Th-th-th-th-that's.... that.... no, how do you even have....?"
A perfect circle at the center, wrapped in an equilateral triangle, forming the image of the sun. The design was extremely simple yet clean, a complete emblem engraved on a medal just large enough for an adult man to hold in one hand.
It would have been easy enough to counterfeit if someone tried — but it looked so simple, so ordinary, that the thought of forging it would never even occur to anyone. And yet the meaning this humble medal carried was enormous. This was the Solar Medal, the token of the Hero. Ordinary people didn't even know it existed.
"It's exactly what you think it is."
"........ It's fake! There's no way you're the real Solar Hero. A pervert like you.... the savior of the continent? That's insane! I don't know how you found out about the Solar Medal, but.... this is fake! A knockoff! A scam! I don't believe it! Something this easy to copy.... any blacksmith could make one of these!"
She cast Reality Denial. Up to this point, it was an entirely logical reaction. The Solar Medal itself was an extremely simple object, so if you knew it existed, forging one wouldn't be difficult at all. Of course, so few people knew of it in the first place that counterfeits never circulated.
Either way, Arme clearly did not want to accept that I was the Solar Hero. Even I had to admit it was a shocking fact. And just as she'd said, I wasn't the Solar Hero. I'd merely killed Jin, the actual Solar Hero, and stolen his token. Arme had made an extraordinarily rational judgment.
"Buhihit! So it's fake, is it? You only believe what you want to believe. In that case, I'll prove it isn't. You know the power of the Solar Medal well enough, don't you? The Solar Medal shows its master the past, the present, and the future. And I, having been rightfully acknowledged by the medal, can borrow that power to see all three. I've already used it to look at your past."
"My.... past?"
"Arme. Nickname: the Cat of Gilden. Born the daughter of a brothel keeper in a barren shantytown in the south of the kingdom, and lived there until you were ten. Mother unknown. Your father picked a fight with the local thugs and got himself killed. You left the shantytown and worked as an errand girl for some two-bit pickpocket until you were fifteen. You learned his techniques, cleaned out his fortune, faked your own death, and vanished. After that you drifted from town to town honing your skills, and from the age of seventeen you started operating as a master thief in earnest. Quite the colorful life."
I recited Arme's backstory from the guidebook, smooth as silk.
"......"
Arme said nothing. There was even fear written on her face. What was she afraid of? That I'd laid her entire past bare? Or that a man like me was the Solar Hero?
"You asked me before, didn't you? How I knew you were weak to cockroaches. The answer is simple. Because I am the Solar Hero."
"...... That's impossible...."
Arme's eyes wavered like a candle in the wind — an uneasy flicker that looked ready to go out if someone so much as breathed on it. Push her this far and she'd have no choice but to believe, whether she wanted to or not. And yet she still wouldn't let go of her stubbornness.
"That.... you clearly used money to dig that up! While you had me locked up and tortured, you must have investigated my past...."
"Oho. Arme. Were you some sloppy thief who went around leaking her own information? You already faked your own death, didn't you?"
"That.... you found it out somehow! You, the Solar Hero.... that's just not possible."
"Buhihit! I'm curious how far you'll take this little escape. Fine. Then if I tell you something that no one else knows — no, something no one else could know — will you believe me?"
"Something no one could know?"
"Just as I saw your past, I saw your future. And in it, I saw your dream."
Arme's dream. In the original story, it came up now and then if you talked to her, but she was tight-lipped — she never told a soul what it actually was. It came out naturally later as the plot progressed. Her dream was to steal a certain treasure.
"My dream.... yeah.... that's something nobody.... nobody knows...."
She must have already felt how wrong this was. The fact that I already knew she had a dream she kept secret from everyone else.
"Your dream. It's to get your hands on the Tears of the Soul, the royal family's treasure, isn't it? That's why you've been grinding your thieving skills all this time."
The Tears of the Soul. An item that, just once, would summon the soul of a dead person for its owner. It was one of the greatest treasures stored in the royal vault, and Arme's dream was to steal it so she could see her childhood friend one more time.
"...... So you even know that. Fuck.... it was real."
In the end, she conceded. There was nowhere left to run. She looked at me with eyes full of hollow defeat and spoke.
"A man like you, the Solar Hero. I can't believe it. But I can't believe it's a lie, either. Not when you already know that much about me...."
"What a Hero needs isn't noble morality or a pretty face. Outstanding strength, exceptional strategy, and a vessel vast enough to hold the entire continent. My abilities fit the role of Hero perfectly."
Even as I said it, I couldn't help thinking how shameless that sounded. Arme seemed to feel it too, but she didn't call me on it.
"Arme. Just like every Solar Hero before me.... I have a goal I must achieve. Defeating the Moon Demon King. And to do that, I need the power of the greatest thief on the continent. Yours."
"I see. Wait — don't tell me that's why you gathered those two maids too? They didn't look like ordinary fighters."
"That's right. Luna is the daughter of the current Demon King, Halo Bluemoon. More precisely, the daughter he abandoned. Sera is an outstanding beastkin warrior. Both of them are girls who aid me on my journey."
I laid both of their identities bare for Arme. Sera's was one thing, but Luna's was truly top-secret. Even so, I told Arme that too. My final nail in the coffin.
"Ha.... that's hilarious. That's insane. It really is...."
Arme started giggling like she'd come unhinged. Rage, then shock, and finally laughter. Her emotional swings put a roller coaster to shame. This wasn't her original personality — the conditioning I'd put her through had clearly worn her down.
"So I've just been dancing in the palm of your hand this whole time? Did you know in advance that I'd rob your house too?"
I hadn't, but I said yes anyway. Denying it here would just make me look bad.
"That's right. Everything unfolded exactly as I'd seen in the future."
"Haa.... a pervert like you, the Solar Hero. I can't believe it. I really can't. But.... no matter how I look at it, it's real. Your name.... what was it again?"
"Derick Walker. Address me as Lord Walker. Master is also acceptable."
"In your fucking dreams. Shit. Anyway, so you want to take me on as a companion? To take down the Demon King."
"Not a companion. A sex slave. I demand that you offer both your body and your heart to me. Of course, this isn't a one-sided demand. If you accept, I'll help you achieve your goal. I'll help you steal the Tears of the Soul you've been so desperately searching for. You could never steal it on your own."
No matter how legendary a thief she was, raiding the royal palace by herself was impossible. She seemed to know that well enough. She closed her eyes and thought it over deeply, then nodded. A heart worn down by all the conditioning so far, the hunger to achieve her goal, and the thrill of joining the Solar Hero's party — a tangle of conflicting feelings had led her to this decision.
"Fine. As long as you're the Solar Hero, getting out of your hands is probably impossible anyway. All right. Fuck. I don't know how my life ended up like this, but I'll do it. I surrender. Total surrender. Sex slave, whatever — I'll be it. But.... you have to keep your promise. You. If you break it, I'll find a way to ram a knife into that fat gut of yours, no matter what it takes."
"Buhihit! I hate breaking promises. Good. The contract is sealed."
"I don't trust you, but I'll take your word for it. For now. Ah — wait. Did future-me ever meet her? Seral."
Seral was her old childhood friend — the one she wanted to see again once she had the Tears of the Soul.
"The Solar Medal didn't show me that far."