Chapter 158
Chapter 158
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 158
Chapter Title: Absent
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm sorry to say this, but the lord won't be joining us on this journey."
"……Pardon?"
Hearing Lana's announcement, the vice-captain—who had spent all of yesterday racking her brain over ways to assist the lord—and several regular knights all stared in bewilderment.
It was more than understandable why they'd react like that.
Aurora's participation had been decided out of nowhere to begin with, and they'd hastily coordinated and prepared everything, only for her to unilaterally declare on the morning of departure that she couldn't go after all.
I'd be dumbfounded too if I were them.
"……Understood for now, but could you at least tell us why? If it's just a whim, we'll be pretty bummed out."
Helga asked, pressing her eyelids with her fingertips. Lana met the knights' gazes—equal parts bafflement and exasperation—calmly and spoke.
"She says her back gave out, so she can't ride in the carriage."
"……."
"……."
The vice-captain and regular knights' eyes all turned to me at once. They seemed to grasp the implication immediately.
Of course they did. The captain had stayed at the lord's mansion last night, came back in different clothes from the ones she'd worn there, and now the lord was claiming her back was too wrecked to ride in a carriage.
Even the slightest knowledge of such matters made it child's play to guess what the two of us had been up to all night.
Especially since these guys already misunderstood my relationship with Aurora.
"Did you really do it, Captain?"
Helga's question came out with eyes sparkling—not her usual bleary ones.
"Yes. They really did."
Lana answered for me. Helga nodded at me with a curt "Oh" of admiration.
This time, someone raised their right hand. Lana's eyes turned that way. It was a regular knight who was ordinarily pretty.
"But couldn't she still ride in the carriage? I hear noble carriages are designed with space to lie down inside."
There was a hint of doubt in her eyes. She seemed to suspect it was just an excuse—that the lord was being capricious and pretending her back hurt to skip out.
Lana, perhaps anticipating such a question, responded with perfect composure.
"No. It's impossible. The reason is something any of you knights would know better than me—after all, your captain is the one who caused it."
The knight paused at the answer, then widened her eyes.
"Uh…… hold on. How intense was it……?"
"Would you believe me if I said they were in the same bed from yesterday afternoon until this morning?"
She'd phrased it as "in the same bed," but no one here was oblivious enough to miss the implication. Gazes directed at me filled with shock and awe.
Even I thought it was a bit much. We'd started around 4 p.m. and only wrapped up by morning.
Aurora had been half-unconscious by the end. Over twelve hours straight—astonishing that a mere mortal like her had endured it.
Truth be told, I'd pushed a little extra hard on purpose. To ensure she stayed behind at the mansion.
The plan had worked perfectly. Even after coming to, she couldn't properly sit up and had only waved her arm in farewell.
No way she could ride in a carriage in that state.
"……."
The knight who'd asked glanced at me, flushed bright red, and stepped back. The others reacted similarly. Only Helga calmly clapped.
"Wow, Captain. You're the real deal."
"Thanks. Appreciate the praise."
"No problem."
Her half-asleep expression made it hard to tell if she was being sarcastic or sincere. Probably the latter, knowing Helga's personality.
"So, does that mean we don't need to go either?"
The vice-captain—who'd been pulled for Aurora's escort—raised her hand and asked. Lana nodded.
"That decision rests with Captain Delta of the knights, but since the lord isn't going, I don't see the need to increase our numbers."
"……."
The faces of the two additional vice-captains and regular knights darkened a bit. But that gloom melted away like snow at Lana's next words.
"Instead, to apologize for the sudden schedule change, she'll pay five times the next salary, and treat the escort as successfully completed—granting all knights of the Midnight Revelry Knights an additional bonus equal to twice their salary."
"If she's hurt, she should rest, obviously. Moving around when you're in pain is just asking for trouble."
"If the lord commands it, we obey. That's only natural."
With those words, knights from the lord's mansion entered carrying several large chests, flipping the mood entirely.
These were knights who'd served in the imperial palace for honor alone before coming here—they weren't money-grubbers, and their anger hadn't been genuine. Just some light grumbling.
Left alone, they'd have moped and complained among themselves before moving on. But with massive cash thrown in, even that vanished.
Lana, having quelled their gloom with sheer wealth in an instant, approached me. The vice-captains around parted like the sea. She stood right in front of me.
Her expression felt even chillier and more curt than usual.
"When do you plan to depart?"
"Right now. Nothing left to do here."
"Yes. Regrettably, a proper send-off is out of the question. Apologies. We still have a ton of cleaning left."
"……."
Over twelve hours meant Aurora's room was a total disaster, naturally.
The carpets and bedsheets soaked through with fluids—to the point the furniture might need replacing entirely. And of course, the maids led by Lana were handling the cleanup.
"No need to see me off."
"I haven't been okay with it since yesterday afternoon, but understood. Safe travels."
Lana poked at me with thorny quips while straightening my uniform collar, bowed, and turned away. The mansion knights who'd brought the chests nodded to me and followed her.
It wasn't hard to tell her words were her own brand of joke. The fact she could tease me so casually showed how comfortable our relationship had become.
Once Lana was gone, the already intense stares intensified. All 55 members of the Midnight Revelry Knights—not a single one missing—were eyeing me.
"Uh, Captain?"
"Yeah?"
"If it's not too rude, could I ask one question?"
"It'll definitely be rude. But go ahead."
"Were you really at it from yesterday afternoon until this morning—"
"Yeah, rude. It's true, so drop it there."
The murmurs grew louder. A few gazes slyly drifted to my crotch. Even Laxia was blushing.
Seeing them all so shocked suggested that while women's average looks were insanely boosted here, men's average output apparently wasn't on that level.
'I have a guess, though…….'
On the way back to the castle, I'd figured out one reason why this was possible.
Brutal 4 had a stamina system. This world did too. And virility was usually tied to stamina.
But in Brutal 4, stamina was only used for rolling and shield blocks.
In other words, ejaculation might not consume stamina.
Crazy as it sounded to me, nothing else explained ejaculating dozens or hundreds of times with volume unchanged and erections holding steady.
"Alright, time to head out. Helga, assemble here—the rest, back to the castle. Divide up the money Lana left however you see fit."
Feeling stares concentrating on my groin, I sent the knights back. Dozens of bunny girls sashayed away, hips and chests jiggling, chests of money in tow—including four reverse bunnies.
Another rumor was probably about to spread through the order. My head already ached.
I turned to Helga and her ten subordinates standing nearby. Whatever that headband was made of, the perky bunny ears bobbed up and down.
"Ready?"
"We can leave right now. All set."
Despite her words, Helga wore a reverse bunny suit with thick alphabet X stickers over her nipples and crotch, while the rest were in standard bunny girl outfits baring their bare legs.
They'd taken all their old golden armor to make Midnight Revelry gear, leaving nothing decent to wear.
It was absurd from my perspective, but they looked dead serious—except for Helga's mushy expression.
Honestly, they just looked like a pack of crazy whores. I desperately wished for the Silver Dawn Knights' white sleeveless tops and dolphin pants combo instead.
"Alright, then—"
"H-Hold on a sec!"
As I headed to the stables, Nix came running, her massive breasts bouncing wildly. Her figure alone made even simple running mesmerizing.
"Why's this woman here……."
Helga scowled at Nix and clicked her tongue.
No incidents since she moved in, but her explosive debut and witch reputation kept them wary.
"Why are you here?"
Her face still half-asleep, but her right hand hovered at her waist, ready to draw.
Nix ignored Helga entirely, flashing me a creepy smile.
"Um…… could you take me with you? Hehe."
"You, Nix?"
"Yeah. Hehet. The lord's not going, so I can go instead, right? I don't even need an escort……."
Nix fidgeted with her fingers in front of her chest, gauging my reaction.
Fair point. No Aurora or her maids meant no panic over Nix tagging along.
Just one issue.
"Fine for us, but how do you enter the city? How do you meet the lord?"
"Ah."
The lord who'd requested my help was an ordinary person. The instant she entered Nix's fear range, it'd be madness—total chaos.
"……Hehe. Sorry. I overstepped. Pretend you didn't hear it."
Rejected to her face, Nix laughed creepily without a care—not moping, just hehe-ing, which somehow made her more pitiful.
I paused to recall something, stopped Nix as she slouched away toward her room, and called out.
"Wait, Nix. Can't you teleport?"
"……Teleport?"
Helga and her knights' eyes lit up faintly.
Twelve on horseback would take over a week. Teleportation made distance irrelevant.
Nix shuffled back hesitantly.
"Hehe, I can…… but moving everyone here might take hours……."
"Better than a week, right?"
"W-Well, yeah. At most a few hours……."
Just hours—instead of 1-2 weeks? Huge win. I turned to Helga.
"What do you think, Helga?"
"……You arrived quite early."
The lord, who'd dashed out of the mansion upon hearing of my arrival, panted heavily.
Naturally, she was a woman. By now, NPC gender swaps from male originals didn't surprise me. They'd need something crazier to shock me.
After catching her breath for a while, she took a deep inhale, straightened up—her breasts jiggling from the motion.
"But it's just the two of you…… No, never mind. Slaying a dragon? That's more than enough."
She glanced between me and Helga, puzzled why only two, then convinced herself with a nod and led us inside.
I'd left the regular knights with Nix in the forest near the rune dungeon. Couldn't bring Nix here, but leaving her alone felt off.
I'd warned her to behave, and the teleport favor had softened their views—should be fine.
Following the lord down the hall, a curiosity from the letter resurfaced.
"By the way, this is unexpected."
"……What's unexpected?"
She halted. Her pace slowed gradually.
"You asked for my help to keep it from His Majesty, yet you seem to have forgotten whose help got me my captain position."
Her steps froze in place.
"What if I'd chosen to report to His Majesty instead of accepting? Why pour out your whole story in the letter?"
"……."
Her body trembled violently where she stood. She slowly turned to face us—face ashen, skin deathly pale.
'Oh. Hold on.'
Seeing her reaction, I realized my mistake.
I'd asked out of pure curiosity, no malice—but in this context, it sounded like a threat. My vague tone made it worse.
Before I could urgently correct it, the lord pleaded in a quavering voice.
"……W-What do you want? More money?"
"Nothing like that. Pure curiosity, really. Sorry if it came off weird."
But she showed no sign of believing me. Lips bitten, face drained, hands clenched trembling in her dress skirts.
"I-If not that…… will you take my body instead?"
"……?"
What the hell kind of crazy talk is this?