085. Bunny Girl (3)
085. Bunny Girl (3)
※ This chapter contains illustrations that are somewhat explicit. Please be advised before reading.
According to the guide attached to the invitation, attendees were strictly required to adhere to a dress code.
The attendee: formalwear.
The participant's partner, if female: a bunny girl costume.
I selected Alicia as the partner who would wear that bunny girl costume.
If you have followed the situation this far, a reasonable question naturally arises at this point. Why Alicia, of all people?
Truthfully, I had not considered Alicia from the very beginning. I had actually tried to ask the others for help.
Eve in particular had volunteered to be my partner. She probably wanted to personally get back at the Vice-Chief hosting the party.
However, I politely declined Eve's request. I fully understood her feelings, but she was a hospitality-type biodroid with zero combat capability. Bringing Eve along posed a significant risk of being unable to mount an offensive response in an emergency.
...And one more thing: she didn't exactly look like the sort of partner a spoiled scion of a powerful family would bring to a party.
Her face was pretty enough, as expected of a biodroid, but... how should I put it? Wasn't she a little too slight?
To bring a biodroid to the lecherous parties of the powerful, she needed to have a suitably glamorous figure to match.
Of course, a small minority of people with unusual tastes did exist, but the very act of being considered one of those unusual tastes was problematic. We intended to quietly blend into the party, steal what we came for, and leave.
Therefore, Eve was deemed unsuitable.
For similar reasons, Laika and Rinne were also deemed unsuitable.
That naturally left only Sumire and Alicia.
Sumire, like Eve, had no innate combat power and was officially a deserter, so she could not safely operate outside the base.
If she were discovered during the operation and captured by them, things would spiral out of control.
So Sumire was also deemed unsuitable.
That left only one person who could be mobilized.
What I needed was a busty blonde who looked perfect in a bunny suit, could fight if necessary, and would not create too much risk even if the operation failed.
Alicia.
Of course, Alicia was not the sort of person who would readily agree to wear a bunny suit.
Still, perhaps because I kept explaining the situation and begging as humbly as I could—
"......This is truly a one-time thing."
As you can see, she put it on.
And now we were right in front of the Vice-Chief's mansion, where the party was being held.
The mansion had the typical look of an underworld boss's residence.
Meaning, it was flashy, beautiful, and ostentatious, yet deeply steeped in an air of wariness toward outsiders.
Things like the unnecessarily high perimeter walls, the annex that was practically a watchtower, down to the biodroids in formalwear stationed inside and out.
"Even at a glance, there are about ten units visible."
"Looks like it."
At this level, even the 'frontal assault' that Eve had initially championed probably would not have guaranteed victory.
It went without saying that sneaking in directly was impossible.
But we had our own entry tickets—counterfeit ones.
When I showed that ticket to the guard at the main gate, we gained entry with almost laughable ease.
Immediately, Alicia asked me.
"So, what is your plan from here, Commander?"
Well, now.
Before discussing the plan, there was something that needed to be corrected first.
"From here on, I am not your Commander."
In this place, I was Han Si-hu, the youngest son of a senior executive at Delark Electronics, a foreign biodroid manufacturer.
Alicia was Alicia, my lover and bodyguard.
Given that relationship, she could not call me Commander.
"......Setting everything else aside, why did you add the lover setting?"
"I did not add it because I wanted to. Think about it: if the woman you bring to a place like this is not your lover, what else would she be?"
I pointed out while looking around.
As you might have guessed from the requirement to bring a partner and make her wear a bunny-girl outfit, the party itself was thoroughly decadent.
Bald, potbellied older men stood around with wine glasses in one hand and the asses of their bunny-biodroid partners in the other.
Scattered here and there, I could also see people inhaling something in the form of smoke that I wanted to believe was tobacco.
And a little more rarely, couples engaging in physical contact too difficult to describe were also visible.
As the wayward youngest son of a senior Delark Electronics executive, I had come here knowing exactly what kind of scene I would find.
In a place like this, it was more natural to set the bunny girl biodroid I brought along as a lover, not a mere bodyguard.
"......I roughly understand the circumstances. Then, what should I call you?"
"Just figure that out yourself, Alicia."
"What do you mean figure it out myself......."
Alicia sighed before answering.
"Then I will call you this. Mas......."
"Mas?"
After a brief pause, Alicia finished her sentence.
"......Master."
......Oh.
Ooooooh.
"If you keep looking at me with those eyes, I might just pluck your eyeballs out again, Master."
"Now, now. That kind of aggressive remark is also forbidden here."
"More importantly, what do you intend to do? Please tell me the specific operational plan."
Alicia kept pressing me for an answer.
She probably assumed I had just barged in headfirst without any plan at all.
But I had a plan.
"First, the item we need to find is located on the third floor of this mansion."
Because that was exactly the height from which the signal was being transmitted.
In contrast, the space permitted to us as party attendees was limited to the outdoor terrace and the indoor first-floor banquet hall.
Stepping briefly into the corridor outside the banquet hall would be fine, but guards lined the corridor. If I suddenly headed upstairs, they would stop me immediately.
In other words, the third floor could not be reached by a normal route.
Therefore, the entry point I had in mind was the ventilation shaft.
"......Do you think there will be a ventilation shaft large enough to enter?"
"I already found one."
I showed Alicia the screen of my PDA.
On that screen, a structural diagram of the mansion we were in was displayed.
"......How did you get this?"
"I deployed urban warfare equipment."
"Using military-grade search equipment for petty theft... absurd."
I thought so too.
Apart from that, a usable entry route had been successfully secured.
"Here, a ventilation shaft starting on the first floor connects all the way to the third floor. It's large enough for one person to fit into."
"I understand, but can we actually climb to the third floor? Unless this is an intentionally prepared trap, there should be nothing inside the shaft to hold on to."
"Ah, you don't have to worry about that."
I held out the briefcase I had brought.
Inside were two sets of suction-type climbing grips.
Alicia sighed, looking more dumbfounded than relieved, then asked me.
"Then the next problem is: 'How do we approach the first-floor ventilation shaft?'"
"Exactly."
Within the 'range permitted to attendees' I mentioned earlier, there were almost no guards.
But the absence of guards did not mean there were no watching eyes. Since the party was in full swing, people were spread out everywhere.
Under those circumstances, what would happen if I recklessly ducked into a ventilation shaft?
"They may not know what is happening, but they would call security first."
Indeed.
So we needed a route with no watching eyes, one that would let us reach the shaft without making the guards suspicious.
And naturally, the ventilation shaft had to lie at the end of that route.
In that sense, the method available to us was——
"Looks like this route is our only option."
"Where does it lead into?"
Alicia asked.
I answered in as calm a voice as possible.
"The Love Room."
***
According to the guide attached to the invitation, the banquet hall was equipped with 'Love Rooms' so that guests could take a 'rest' if needed.
I asked an attendant dressed in a maid outfit for one, and entered a Love Room with Alicia.
To be perfectly clear—though the name probably gave it away—a Love Room was a room where a man and woman could have sex.
......Ah, well, men and women could share love in any space, of course.
To give examples witnessed at the Academy, there were countless cases of Commanders and partner biodroids caught sharing love in the dormitories, lecture halls, libraries, and even the parade ground.
But how should I put it.
This 'Love Room' was a space extremely specialized for sharing love, even among such places.
First, a soft, heart-shaped bed was laid out in the center of the room.
Besides the ordinary blanket, the bed had another sheet over it that could catch liquids.
On that bed, objects that looked like toys of unknown purpose were neatly arranged.......
On a hanger next to the bed, various costumes were hung.......
Beside that, various restraints, and an unidentifiable contraption roughly resembling a vaulting horse.......
Anyway, that kind of feeling.
—Well then, I hope you have a pleasant time.
The moment the attendant left with those parting words and closed the door, Alicia peeled away from me.
Which conversely meant that she had been stuck to me until now.
Not voluntarily. She had no choice but to stick to me.
After all, a couple asking to use a Love Room could hardly stand far apart trading looks of contempt and apology.
So we walked pressed close together, exactly as a rich-family playboy and his beloved girlfriend should.
But now, well...... in the not-so-spacious Love Room, she was standing as far away as possible, looking at me as if she were staring at trash.
I finally apologized.
"I'm sorry. The only other suitable entrance was the men's restroom."
"You have somehow managed to make the men's restroom sound preferable, Master."
By now, 'Master' was already rolling naturally off Alicia's tongue.
With an apologetic heart, I personally removed the ventilation shaft cover.
Soon, a space just barely wide enough for one person to pass through appeared beyond it.
I compared the re-scanned structural diagram with the ventilation shaft space to finalize the entry route—— and then handed the PDA displaying that map over to Alicia.
Of course, this meant I wanted Alicia to enter first.
However, instead of entering the ventilation shaft immediately, Alicia posed a question on the spot.
"......Am I taking the lead?"
"Shouldn't you?"
The biodroid soldier taking the lead and the human Commander following behind was standard combat doctrine according to the field manual.
Of course, there were cases where the Commander took the lead if there was a reason not to do so, but this time there seemed to be no such reason.
Rather, there was every reason for Alicia to take the lead and advance.
For example...... this, for instance.
I took a folding carbine out of the briefcase and held it up.
"Alicia, take this. It is your weapon. The rounds are nonlethal."
"Will there be a need to use it?"
"There might be. The scan results suggest there are security guards at the far end."
Meaning, we also had to anticipate a situation requiring shooting from inside the ventilation shaft.
However, if I entered first, that would be impossible. Once inside, we would not be able to switch front-rear positions due to the cramped space.
This time, it was not merely advisable or doctrinally preferable—Alicia absolutely had to take the lead.
And yet, somehow.
"......I see."
Alicia still seemed subtly hesitant.
"Or is something bothering you?"
I asked, just in case.
But Alicia turned her head sharply away.
"It is nothing."
Hmm.
She still seemed bothered by something.
Why was she acting like that?
Was she still holding a grudge over the Love Room?
I had not thought she was that petty-minded.
While I was wondering about that, Alicia picked up the climbing grips and entered the ventilation shaft.
"How is it inside? All right?"
"......It is fine."
Good.
"Then I'm coming in too. Keep advancing."
The moment I gave that order and squeezed my head into the ventilation shaft.
I realized, like a bolt of lightning, exactly what Alicia had been worried about.
'......Ahh.'
This was it.
That was what had been bothering her.