Explosion
It might have been guilt that made Gerta fall from the window.
The guilt of simply watching as she was so brutally violated.
Though she herself had not consented, Gerta—who had been called a genius by so many—knew all too well what a grave crime it was to interfere with the Hero’s affairs, and what consequences it might bring.
Besides, it was something Lillias had warned her about once more after arriving at the outpost.
She had tried to avoid the annoyance, even attempting to erase any point of contact with the Hero, but in the end she had witnessed this scene.
And so Gerta’s head—filled with a premature sense of justice—began searching for a way to change the situation.
…No. This can’t be.
No matter how much she thought about it, she could not come up with a single method available to a mere mage when the opponent was the Hero.
Telling the Hero to stop tormenting the Saintess. Reporting the matter. Every path she imagined ended with the kingdom’s elite forces assassinating her without a trace.
Damn it. Damn it all!
Gerta was a clever woman, but she was not mature enough to ignore the Saintess who had cried out Dain’s name in that moment.
She began descending the stairs, muffling her footsteps.
Her destination wasn’t clear, but in her mind right now, she pictured Dain—the man who was hiding his fluttering heart, unaware of the truth.
…He won’t do anything reckless. Not Dain.
She herself had no solution, but Dain, the Hero’s childhood friend, might have one.
The only option was gentle persuasion, but even that possibility belonged solely to Dain.
Besides…
It was unbearably heartbreaking that Dain still didn’t know what was happening.
Knock. Knock.
At the sound of someone rapping on his door, Dain’s eyes flew open from his shallow sleep.
Who could it be at this hour…?
The first names that came to mind were Lillias or Rillen.
The fact that Ceres only occurred to him afterward filled him with a strange pang of guilt.
“Yes?”
He got out of bed and opened the door, only to find Gerta—someone he hadn’t expected at all—standing there with her head bowed.
“Huk, why… why…?”
First Lillias, then Rillen, and now even Gerta?
Far too many women had come looking for him at night lately.
Had he always been this popular?
But unlike the others, Gerta simply stood there in silence, head lowered for a long time.
“…Gerta?”
“…Can I come in for a moment?”
Gerta stepped into Dain’s room and
Click.
closed the door behind her.
Dain flinched for a second, but Gerta let out a long sigh, slowly raised her head, and looked up at him.
“…Dain.”
“Y-yes?”
“…You like the Saintess, don’t you? You like Ceres?”
“Pardon?”
He couldn’t keep up with the situation.
“What… are you saying…?”
“Tell me. Whether you truly like Ceres or not.”
“Why… why are you asking?”
“…”
Gerta bit her lip.
“Gerta?”
“…Haa…”
Her head dropped again.
“Just tell me. Please.”
He had no idea what was going on, but one look at her face told him she wasn’t joking.
“…Is this really necessary?”
“Yes.”
An immediate answer.
Seeing the look in Gerta’s eyes as she stared at him, Dain scratched the back of his head.
“Don’t tell anyone.”
“…Okay.”
“I mean it.”
“I really, really won’t tell a soul.”
“…Sigh.”
Dain’s face turned slightly red as he ran a hand through his hair.
“…Yes. I like her. Ceres.”
“I see.”
“…Was it that obvious?”
“Hehe. Yes. Very.”
Though a small laugh escaped her, Gerta’s expression remained shadowed.
“Now tell me what’s going on.”
“…Um, Dain.”
“Yes?”
“Promise me one thing.”
“What is it?”
Gerta suddenly grabbed Dain’s hand.
In any other situation he would have been startled and pulled away, but strangely, even as surprise filled him, he couldn’t tear his eyes from Gerta’s desperate gaze.
“Resolve this in a good way.”
“…Huh?”
“I’m sorry. But I can’t tell you until you promise.”
“O-okay… I promise.”
Dain nodded, but Gerta remained silent for a long time.
What words could she possibly use so this pitiful man wouldn’t be shocked?
So he wouldn’t be hurt?
She had agonized over it endlessly on her way to his room, but since she couldn’t find an answer, she had extracted that promise first.
Even so, the only person both she and Ceres could rely on was Dain.
“…Dain.”
“Yes.”
“…Have you ever been to the command center?”
“Uh, no. Hasn’t it even been built yet?”
“…Well…”
If she told him now, the man before her would go there and witness the sight of the naked Saintess accepting the Hero and other men.
It might scar him for life, but she decided to trust the eyes that had watched Dain—the belief that his feelings for Ceres wouldn’t vanish so easily.
“Dain…”
“Yes?”
“Could you… go to the command center right now?”
“…What?”
The face of Gerta looking up at him was drenched in apology, pity, and worry all at once.
“Don’t forget the promise you just made. No matter what.”
“…Uh…”
“Go and… stop them.”
The reason Gerta’s sense of justice had been so reckless wasn’t simple, but the biggest factor was that she hadn’t realized she was pushing her own helplessness onto Dain, who was only a year older than her.
Dain was climbing the stairs, but he still had no idea what was happening.
Stop what?
The bright expression Gerta had worn earlier that day when she’d come to the wrong room was gone. Now her face was dark and anxious.
I’m only going up because of how serious she looked…
That grave face made him both curious and uneasy about the command center.
Grahn’s forge came into view on the side.
He had specifically asked for it to be built a little farther out than the others, and Dain had often visited the solitary half-dwarf there.
A little higher up, the nearly completed command center and several other wooden buildings appeared.
What could possibly be there to make her act like this?
Candlelight flickered beyond the windows.
It looked like someone was inside.
Step. Step.
Dain’s footsteps grew heavier as he walked. An inexplicable anxiety wrapped around his entire body.
Intuition was an extremely important sense for any warrior, yet in this situation there was no clear reason for it.
He told himself he was simply feeling anxious because of Gerta’s strange words and forced his feet forward, then opened the door to the command center.
Creeeak.
The warm heat brushed against skin that had grown cold in the night air.
“Huh.”
Dain’s face hardened rapidly at the sight before him.
“Huh.”
“H-huhhh!”
Crash!
Yujin, who had been sitting beside Ceres, tumbled backward.
The two soldiers who had already finished once with Ceres and were now embracing Rillen didn’t shout, but they clearly felt the heat of sex rapidly cooling.
But only the Hero continued without pause.
Thud! Thud! Slap! Slap!
He did not stop violating Ceres, who had already been taken by four men countless times and had passed out between pleasure and pain.
“Oh, Dain. Hah.”
He didn’t even register the Hero’s lewd expression.
The sight of Ceres’s naked body that he had seen in the bathhouse and through the wall of the next room.
And Zarco’s cock, familiarly buried inside that beautiful body, along with Ceres’s face—expressionless, staring blankly into the air.
Thrust! Thrust! Thrust! Thrust!
The Hero’s waist—now grotesquely enlarged—kept hammering between Ceres’s legs.
Every time their hips collided, the body he had dreamed of swayed softly yet firmly.
“How did you get here?”
“…Uh…”
“Who told you? Haha. Damn. I didn’t want to show you yet.”
“What the…”
“You already know just by looking, don’t you?”
Zarco jerked his chin toward the others.
“Did you come because you wanted a turn too?”
“…”
Zarco began changing positions right in front of him, but Dain couldn’t react at all.
The image of Ceres burned itself into his eyes one detail at a time; he couldn’t even think of moving his body.
Zarco rose slightly, crossed his legs over Ceres’s thighs, then leaned forward to embrace her voluptuous body.
In this new position, Ceres’s anus and the place where she was connected to Zarco were completely exposed as he began moving his hips again.
Squelch. Squelch.
This wasn’t the view through a small hole in the wall.
Right before his eyes, Zarco’s massive member was piercing Ceres.
He stared at her blue eyes for a long time, but she wasn’t looking at him.
How long had they been at it?
Ceres, Zarco, and everyone else were drenched in sweat.
They seemed to be rushing toward climax, because the moment Dain realized he had stopped breathing, the Hero suddenly erupted, flooding the Saintess’s womb with thick, white semen.
“Ugh, krr…”
“…You…”
“Wait, wait. You want to go too, right?”
The Hero’s dark red cock was pulled out mercilessly.
“But there’s an order, you see.”
Zarco’s words echoed in his ears, but his mind refused to process them. His body simply staggered forward, moving slowly.
“Since I just finished, it’s number two, three, four. You’d be fourth.”
“…”
Only now did Zarco’s lewd smile register in Dain’s vision.
“We’ll have to go around again.”
Zarco had deliberately emphasized the word “again.”
He didn’t know how Dain had gotten here, but it was earlier than he had anticipated.
A little disappointing, but…
In the Hero’s judgment, this was more than enough to break Dain.
And he was right.
His face… it’s even better than I imagined.
This was the first time he had seen despair cast such a shadow over someone’s face.
The fact that such an expression had appeared on Dain made Zarco laugh without realizing it.
Where’s the sword…?
Soon Dain would turn into a demon, and all he had to do was cut him down.
The situation was far too explicit, but with Ceres having taken four men and lost consciousness, it was actually fortunate.
Now, transform.
The warrior’s body creaked unnaturally.
His face twisted, expressing a blazing fury, while thick veins writhed across the forearm gripping the only blade he carried—his shortsword.
Zarco’s prediction had mostly been correct, and Dain was indeed tasting the despair Lillias had calculated would turn him into a demon.
However, there was one thing both Zarco and Lillias had overlooked.
The emotion Dain had always suppressed—his murderous intent toward the Hero, Zarco—exploded before the despair could even take root.
“ZAAAARCOOO!!”
The promise with Gerta was completely forgotten.
The warrior, his entire body flushed red, lunged at the Hero like a vengeful ghost.
And at that beast-like roar, a faint light returned to the half-lidded eyes of the Saintess.
“Dain…?”
