Arwen Reinhardt, His Opponent is... Jericho
"Kyaa?!"
Cordelia let out a short scream and jumped to her feet at the sudden appearance of an uninvited guest. She tried to cover her exposed breasts with her hands, but her small palms couldn't possibly hide the massive mounds of flesh. Hiding behind her brother's back to escape the intruder's gaze, she cried out in a trembling voice.
"Y-You... Jericho? How did you know to come here...?"
The uninvited guest was none other than Jericho, the man who had suffered a miserable defeat at my hands. Jericho snorted, clearly displeased by Cordelia's reaction.
"Hmph. It's not Jericho—it's Lord Jericho. How rude, both brother and sister alike."
Without taking his eyes off us, Jericho latched the warehouse door shut. Then he flashed his signature sleazy grin.
"I heard a woman's voice inside and figured you'd brought some whore you'd seduced. Never imagined it would be your own little sister. Your sibling love is truly something else. Makes me want to vomit."
Jericho mimed spitting something out of his mouth.
"Enough with the nonsense. What are you doing here?"
At my question, Jericho shook his head.
"Unbelievable. I can't tell if you're bold or just stupid. You've been caught in an illicit relationship with your sister. Aren't you afraid?"
I didn't bother saying I wasn't afraid. Instead, I simply laughed off Jericho's threat.
"Haha. Do you have any proof we're in an illicit relationship? Besides, who would believe you? They'd just think it was another rumor you spread out of spite after losing to me."
I kept needling him with my tongue.
"Sneaking around like a thief, tailing us from behind... I knew you were cowardly, but I didn't expect it to be this bad."
Finally, Jericho's voice rose. He really was easy to provoke.
"Shut that vulgar mouth! Who are you calling a coward?! You're the one who won through cowardly means!"
Jericho glared at me with eyes full of rage. The blood vessels around his pupils were red and inflamed. But I wasn't about to be intimidated by his presence. Who was really the one with the vulgar mouth here?
"The vulgar mouth would be yours—the one that can only spew words at the level of orc excrement. That was a fair duel. No one in the arena had a problem with it. Not even your mother, Jericho."
"Grr... How many times have I warned you not to bring up my mother?!"
Jericho always flew into a rage whenever his mother was mentioned. But unexpectedly, he quickly calmed down.
"I'll make you pay dearly for the humiliation you caused me in front of Mother."
Then his gaze, which had been fixed on me, shifted to Cordelia. Cordelia's shoulders flinched at the lustful look in Jericho's eyes. Seeing her reaction, Jericho's lips curled up all the way to his ears.
Jericho approached with a swaggering gait.
"I'll play with your lovely little sister to my heart's content before sending her back to you, so don't be too lonely. No one will ever know about your deaths. Not even the vice president."
Jericho licked his lips with his filthy tongue and drew the sword at his waist. Inside the dimly lit warehouse in the back alley where sunlight didn't reach, his blade gleamed.
"B-Brother..."
"Don't worry, Cordelia. Nothing's going to happen."
After reassuring Cordelia, who was clinging to my arm and trembling, I asked Jericho,
"Do you really have to go this far? This is your last chance to stop."
But Jericho didn't even blink.
"You and your sister dying is all your own fault. This is the last time I'll have to look at that disgusting face of yours. It's over. Die!"
Jericho twisted his sword and charged at me with a mad scream. The effects of [Semen Drinker] and the doping from [Drug Amplification] had already worn off. I had no weapon to counter his attack, nor any flashy evasion skills. Yet even in this near-worst situation, I wasn't the least bit flustered. It wasn't resignation in the face of despair. I'd rather die from exhaustion surrounded by women than meet a miserable end at the hands of a mama's boy delinquent's sword.
So why could I remain so confident? It was simple. I'd known from the beginning that Jericho had been following us. Leaving the warehouse door unlocked had all been intentional. And Jericho would never dream that Emilia was hiding among the haphazardly stacked crates in the corner behind him.
"The one who's finished isn't me—it's you, Jericho."
I snapped my fingers while looking at the pathetic Jericho, who had no idea he'd walked into a trap. Emilia, who had been waiting in hiding, burst out from behind him at my signal. She threw several potion bottles into the air and chanted an incantation. The bottles shattered, and the liquid inside began to coalesce into a single mass. A spherical blob the size of a basketball struck the back of Jericho's head. The unexpected impact sent him tumbling to the floor, his face now covered in the unknown liquid.
Spotting Emilia, Jericho shouted,
"Grrk! Professor Emilia? Why are you interfering?!"
"What's wrong with a professor stopping a student from attacking another student?"
Emilia replied coldly to Jericho, who was frantically wiping the sticky liquid from his face, then approached me. She ran her hands over my body with a worried expression.
"Are you alright, Arwen? Did you get hurt anywhere...?"
Emilia's soft palms slipped under my clothes and kneaded the muscles in my abdomen that had tightened after the intense match.
"You were watching from the start, Emilia. You just wanted to touch my body, didn't you?"
"Hehe, you caught me."
At that moment, Cordelia ran into Emilia's arms, sniffling.
"Emilia unni!"
"It's okay now, Cordelia."
Emilia gently patted Cordelia's back as if to reassure her. Considering how they'd been growling at each other when they first met, their improved relationship was quite moving. As expected, nothing brings people closer than sex.
Jericho, who had been seething with rage while watching Emilia and Cordelia embrace, began tearing at his hair. Unable to stop there, he started scratching his scalp as if he wanted to rip open his skin and claw at the brain beneath. Jericho flailed his hands frantically and screamed,
"Emilia, you were in league with Arwen all along... Aagh! My head hurts! What the hell did you spray on me?!"
Since Emilia was busy hugging Cordelia, I answered in her place.
"Don't worry, it's not poison. It's an aphrodisiac."
"A-An aphrodisiac?"
"That's right. An aphrodisiac that only makes you lust after blood relatives of the opposite sex. Impressive, isn't it?"
"Graaah! Impressive my ass, you incest-addicted bastard!"
"Incest addict? It hurts my feelings to be called that when I've only slept with one of my two sisters so far, and I haven't even touched my mother yet."
"Or are you just jealous? Don't worry. In a little while, you'll get to mingle with the mother you've always loved so much."
"Don't spew such filthy words... Gah!"
At my smug provocation, Jericho tried to charge at me again but lost his balance and collapsed to the floor. He really seemed to like the ground, just like during the duel earlier.
The aphrodisiac Jericho had been doused with was actually something Emilia and I had been developing as a weapon against Sophia. However, the plan to train Sophia with an incest-exclusive aphrodisiac had quickly fallen through.
"It's a fine creation, but unfortunately, the most important side effect hasn't been resolved yet. In experiments, all the mice that ingested the aphrodisiac went completely insane. It'll probably be similar for humans."
"Grrk... D-Do you think you'll get away with this? I'm from the Provence family..."
Begging for his life would have been more appropriate, yet he was still spouting nonsense about his family. Jericho was cutting his own throat with his tongue. Not that I'd had any intention of helping him anyway. After today, I would never see Jericho again. That's why I'd planned this bold operation—to completely remove the troublesome Jericho from my sight once and for all.
Emilia stroked Cordelia's back while glaring at Jericho.
"Shut your mouth, Jericho. Not only did you try to kill my lover, but you also insulted Cordelia. Spend the rest of your life as a madman and reflect on your actions."
"N-No... Graaah! You damn bastards...!"
Letting out a desperate scream, Jericho's pupils dilated like a cat's eyes in the dark. Then, suddenly, he fell silent.
"Grrrk... Grrk..."
With a disgusting sound like phlegm caught in his throat, he began stumbling somewhere. He looked just like a zombie from a movie.
Cordelia watched Jericho walk away with a disgusted expression.
"Where is he going now?"
I shrugged at my sister.
"Who knows? Maybe he's going to relieve the urges boiling up inside him?"
The mice that had ingested the aphrodisiac had instinctively sought out places where their family mice were. Among the aphrodisiac's unexpected effects, besides driving the user insane, was an enhancement of their ability to detect the opposite sex. According to Emilia, it worked on a similar principle to how ants find their comrades by scent. Drawn by the magical scent that stimulated his instincts like a beast roaming the wilderness in search of prey, Jericho had left this place. And the closest female relative of Jericho's was likely his mother, who was visiting the academy.
Jericho's mother would probably wonder what kind of bolt from the blue this was, but as they say, a child's faults are the parents' faults. In a way, it's the most just punishment in the world for a parent to atone with their own body for the sins of the child they brought into this world. Though Jericho's mother would probably protest, asking what kind of perspective that was.
Emilia stared at the door Jericho had disappeared through with a curious expression.
"It really turned out just as Arwen predicted. I was half-doubting it at first."
"Told you. He's such an easy guy to read."
Why had Emilia been carrying the failed aphrodisiac? Because I'd predicted from the start that Jericho, having lost the match, would come seeking revenge. Right before leaving the room in the morning, I'd asked Cordelia to meet me at the warehouse, and then secretly hinted to Emilia to wait there. Cordelia, who had been listening to our conversation, asked with a startled face,
"Wait, you and Emilia unni knew? That that pervert would come looking for us?"
"It wasn't that we knew for sure, but we expected Jericho to do something stupid. Sorry I couldn't tell you in advance."
"That's right, Cordelia. We're sorry."
At our apologies, Cordelia turned her head sharply.
"If you're really sorry, then give me Arwen's first and last ejaculation tonight."
"Understood. So please stop being angry now."
Emilia poked Cordelia's nose with her finger as if finding her sulking adorable. Having an actual younger sister made her seem quite sisterly. Cordelia didn't seem to dislike Emilia's affectionate touch either.
"Hmm... I should have given him a kinder farewell. I'll miss it sometimes—that pathetic look on Jericho's face when he goes from acting so arrogantly to wearing an expression of despair in the end."
"Our Jericho must be in a very bad mood."
Jericho had stormed out of the room with an angry expression an hour ago and still hadn't returned.
"His opponent was the famous heir of the Reinhardt family, wasn't he? It was just bad luck with the matchups..."
Her husband hadn't noticed Jericho's gloomy demeanor at all and had casually gone off to join the other nobles. Actually, he probably had no intention of noticing or worrying in the first place. Jericho was a son who had caused quite a bit of trouble during his childhood, overshadowed by his father and older brother's presence, but he had always been kind only to her. Though he vehemently denied it, the face of the five-year-old boy who used to say he'd marry his mother when he grew up and pluck flowers for her still remained on Jericho's adult face.
Just then, she heard footsteps outside the door—the ones she'd been waiting for. Ignoring the hem of her dress dragging on the floor, she ran toward the door at the welcome sound.
"Jericho? Jericho!"
She flung the door open while calling her son's name, and her beloved son's face greeted her.
"Jericho, have you calmed down a bit now?"
"..."
Without a word, Jericho entered the room. He must have been so upset that he didn't even have the energy to reply. She pulled her pitiful son into a tight embrace.
"Don't be too sad. This mother believes our Jericho will become much stronger than he is now."
"..."
Jericho hugged her without saying anything. His hands wrapping around her back felt so loving.
"Hehe, you're still such a crybaby. Won't you let go of your mother now?"
But instead of letting go, the strength of Jericho's arms around her back only grew stronger. Her breasts were being crushed against her son's thick chest.
"Jericho?"
Even when she called his name, Jericho gave no answer. Then something hard pressed firmly against her stomach.
"T-This is..."
From the sensation against her belly and its visible shape beneath his pants, there was no doubt what that rod-like object was. It was her son's member, which she hadn't seen since he became an adult. Jericho, still holding onto her back, was rubbing his long erection firmly against her stomach.