Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: The Name Delta
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With her gaze fixed on me, wearing an extremely ominous smile, I finished emptying all the soup bowls. Lize then grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet.
"Now, let's head to the drawing room."
"What about the others?"
"They're all doing their own thing. You're the last one up. We've been awake for a while now."
Sure enough, it wouldn't have been strange if everyone else had gotten up ages ago. After all, I was the only one who had gotten blackout drunk despite chugging all that booze last night.
That said, Aurora being perfectly fine was pretty surprising. The knight captains were tough as nails, so that made sense for them, but Aurora was just a regular person. For her to drink as much as I did and come out unscathed...
Full of questions, I made my way to the drawing room. Lize flung the door open with gusto. There sat Aurora on the sofa, elegantly sipping her tea.
"......?"
Wearing what could only be described as that infamous "city slut" dress.
No mistaking it. It was the exact same dress she'd worn to the banquet last night. Clinging tightly to her body, exposing her cleavage and underarms wide open, with no sign of any underwear lines.
What the hell was going on? As I tried to sort through my jumbled thoughts, Aurora gave a slight smile and spoke.
"You're up later than I expected. The sun's already high in the sky. Was last night too intense for you?"
"......What?"
Her words hit me like a hammer to the head, freezing my thoughts. But then I saw the smile on her face and instantly realized it was a joke.
As I'd predicted, Aurora soon admitted it was a joke and set her teacup down on its saucer.
Led by Lize's hand, I sat on the sofa across from Aurora. The one who'd dragged me here plopped down right next to me, of course, sticking close as if it were the most natural thing. Aurora's eyebrows twitched at the sight.
I'd long since gotten used to Lize acting this way with me. Besides, that wasn't the important thing right now.
"Why are you still wearing that outfit, my lord?"
"Hm?"
Aurora looked down at her own attire.
Her chest was so exposed it showed sideboob and underboob. Her waist clung tight, outlining her navel. Her hips made it crystal clear she wasn't wearing any underwear.
No matter how I looked at it, it was the dress from last night's banquet.
"That's the dress from yesterday. Hasn't the banquet been over for hours?"
"......I thought you meant something else. Looks like you're under a big misunderstanding. You need to work on your fashion sense."
Aurora let out a snicker.
"All the dresses I've worn so far were just random picks from the closet. This one was custom-made to match the banquet dress. I couldn't just wear what that pig bastard bought off the rack, could I? It was a bit too plain to show off my dignity as lord. I'm glad you noticed I got a new dress made, but your eye for detail needs some honing."
'......What did I just hear?'
I had to desperately manage my expression to keep my shock from showing. In my eyes, all the dresses she'd worn up to now suited a lord's dignity and grace far better.
That thing was just a sex-appeal dress designed to turn on the modders who made it.
But Aurora seemed to think the exact opposite. One wrong move, and her nipples might pop out—that ridiculously lewd dress was, to her, a true symbol of dignity and authority.
'I can kinda guess why she's like this.'
In the game, Aurora's outfits changed after she took over as lord and some time passed. I'd thought her previous clothes being normal was a relief, but apparently, the mods had messed with this side of things.
The banquet dress being the same slutty mini style was just lazy model recycling.
"Oh, you really are up?"
"Just like Iris said. How'd you know?"
"Intuition."
As I stared at Aurora, who was sensually crossing and uncrossing her legs—probably misreading my gaze—I felt baffled. Then the door opened, and the rest of the knight captains filed in one after another.
Not in the see-through dresses, garter belts, and lingerie combos from last night, but in their usual white sleeveless tops and dolphin pants matching their hair colors.
'Yeah, that's way better.'
I inwardly sighed in relief at having somewhere safe to look now that the sleeveless tops and dolphin pants suddenly seemed angelic. Last night's banquet outfits had been tough to endure in every way.
With six people gathered, the once-quiet drawing room instantly grew lively. More precisely, Lize and Claudia were the ones chattering noisily.
If it were just me, Aurora, Erika, and Iris left after those two left, four or two wouldn't make much difference.
"Well then, shall we wrap up the chit-chat?"
Aurora's words flipped the boisterous atmosphere 180 degrees.
Silence filled the air where noise had been, replaced by stares. Five pairs of eyes locked solely on me. It was a bit eerie.
"......Why's everyone looking like that?"
"We were wondering how much of last night you remember. But it seems you don't recall everything. Generously, maybe halfway at best?"
"......"
I had no response to Lize. Truth was, my memory cut out around the middle.
In fact, Lize had probably figured out from the moment I answered her question with another that I didn't remember much of last night.
Her behavior was childish, but her actual skills weren't inferior to any of the other knight captains.
"Well, in the end, we didn't get much out of it either."
"......?"
An unexpected remark from Iris. I'd blacked out, and they got nothing? Did I not just pass out—did I fall straight asleep?
"Half our fault, half Lize's, I'd say."
"Half Lize's fault?"
I gently pushed Lize off my arm and asked. What the hell had she done?
The five of them hadn't found any clever way through.
The newbie had clammed up tight, and forcing more drinks here would've broken not his walls but his consciousness outright.
Even now, he seemed on the verge of nodding off any second. From how he kept swaying, it looked like he could drop off anytime he wanted.
So they needed a way to keep him awake, sober, and talking without more booze. No easy answers there.
"Surprisingly sensible of you, Lize."
"Huh? What?"
Iris stared at Lize—who was occupying both sides of the newbie, groping his face to her heart's content—and Aurora, then dropped a line.
"I figured you'd never miss a chance like this. Thought you'd suggest seducing him or something."
The newbie usually resisted Lize's temptations well, but not last night.
From the moment he seemed drunk, he'd openly stared at her chest, and not just that—he'd sneak peeks at the other captains' and Aurora's dresses too.
They'd let it slide because being eyed like that by him felt pretty good, but any other guy doing the same would've gotten a lump the size of his head on his crown.
Or a broken bone somewhere.
Given that, expecting Lize to tempt him with her body like usual was natural.
Of course, Erika and Iris would've stopped her the second it looked like she might.
"Oh, that?"
Lize puffed out her chest proudly. Aurora next to her eyed her warily, wondering what nonsense she'd spout now.
"There's no thrill of corruption in it. No thrill. He'd fall for my seduction now, sure. But what's the point? That's not the version of him I want."
Iris tilted her head. Seeing that, Lize went on, as if she were clueless.
"What I want is for the guy who was weaker than me at our first meeting but had insane potential—for him to suddenly shoot past me one day and dominate me in every way, pinning me down. The thrill comes from that gap. The moment when I, who seemed strong enough to take on the world at first, realize to him I'm just a mere bitch in heat. Got it?"
"......"
"......"
"......"
"......"
"......"
Silence blanketed the drawing room.
Not just Iris, who'd asked, but Aurora right beside her, and even Erika and Claudia—who'd been seriously debating how to pry open the newbie's mouth—froze in shock at the taste confession.
"But when he's drunk, that can't happen, right? No thrill, just instincts left. So of course I backed off. Gotta wait for the perfect moment."
"Lize, you really are..."
Iris muttered in disbelief. She'd heard Lize's tastes were a bit unique before, but never imagined they'd be this set in stone.
"Are you sane, sis? You keep that stuff to yourself! Why do we have to know what sexual walls you've got? What's our sin in hearing this right in front of us?"
Erika unleashed a machine-gun rant. Her face screamed utter absurdity. Having to watch her own sister bare her kinks up close justified it.
"Iris asked!"
"I didn't think you'd spill every detail like that. Blaming me for this is too much, isn't it?"
"So what?"
Lize grinned, poking the newbie's cheek with her fingers. The others just watched with eyes full of complicated emotions.
"Why do I need to know what sexual quirks my comrades have?"
Claudia muttered softly. Everyone there could relate.
"......"
"......?"
Iris started to speak but flushed red and trembled instead. She glanced around. Erika, Claudia, and Aurora were much the same.
Only Lize acted normally.
"No, seriously, what happened while I was out?"
"......I don't want to remember."
'What the hell did she do?'
Excluding Lize, everyone's reaction confirmed she'd done something, but with Iris refusing to spill, I was in the dark.
*Ahem, ahem.* Anyway, while time dragged, you ended up passing out, and our chance to get secrets flew away. The only thing we pieced together was that you know way more than we thought."
Iris cleared her throat and added. She saw it as a failure, but that alone was a solid gain.
That I knew far more than expected. And that I was hiding something. Figuring those two out meant half the battle won.
"But our job ends here. If it's something you refuse so stubbornly to share, pressing further would be rude."
"Really?"
"Instead, can I ask one more thing?"
Iris's expression turned serious. I tensed, wondering what was coming. After a pause, she spoke.
"The secret you're keeping—is it something you can eventually share with us?"
"Of course. I definitely will."
I nodded reflexively at Iris's question. No need to think. I didn't know exactly when, but I absolutely planned to.
"I see. That's good enough."
Iris's lips curved faintly at my answer. Aurora, Erika, and Claudia looked satisfied too, each in their own way.
"Wait, we've still got more to say."
Lize cut in abruptly. I turned to her, curious.
"After we dropped you off at your room last night, we talked it over. Even if you forgot your name, we can't keep calling you 'newbie' forever, right?"
Come to think of it, yeah.
Since I claimed the booze made me forget, I'd been going by "newbie" without a proper name. I'd gotten so used to it that I'd overlooked it.
"Fair enough. So?"
"You still don't remember your name?"
I shook my head. I didn't want to use my pre-possession name here. Hearing my Korean name called out felt cringey, like it didn't fit.
"We came up with one. What do you think?"
The "we" suggested they'd all brainstormed it together. No harm in hearing it out, so I waited quietly for Lize.
"Delta. It means 'change' in old tongue. Perfect, since you're the one bringing change to us, right?"
'Delta?'
For some reason, it evoked an image of something wandering the deep-sea ruins of an Atlantis-like city, clad in a wetsuit and wielding a drill.