Confidence

"Thank you for your hard work."

The moment I stepped out of the room after finishing Elise's session, Scarlet was already waiting with a towel in hand.

"What's this? Suddenly going all out for me?"

"It's not particularly for your sake, Ho-yeon. I'm simply filling in as Miss Elise's butler today."

"Ah, right."

I took the towel from Scarlet and wiped my face. I had Clean magic, of course... but having the moisture on your body just evaporate never felt quite right. Wiping down first and then using Clean always left me feeling that much fresher.

"Clean."

After blotting the sweat from my face, I wrapped myself in Clean magic.

Hold on.

A towel was the kind of thing someone like me would need. For a normal person, Clean magic alone would have been enough. So why had she gone out of her way to prepare one?

"Scarlet. Did you bring that towel just for me?"

"Even though you're so skilled with magic, you're strangely unaccustomed to it."

Scarlet quietly took the used towel from my hands.

She was too good at this. Seriously. I had to admit, I was a little moved.

"You're a real ace. Come work for my company."

"Unfortunately, my contract with the Iris Guild hasn't expired yet."

A real shame. Still, landing a talent like her at all was something. Hell's Contract really was the best.

"Man, I'm wiped. I'm heading back."

"Come to think of it, would it be all right if I stopped by the dormitory over the weekend?"

"The weekend?"

"Yes. Weekends are when Sebas Chan is on duty, so I have time to spare."

"Hmm..."

Scarlet coming over wasn't a bad thing. Liliana would be happy, and the Nam sisters would be too. But something about it sat wrong with me. This uneasy feeling. It had settled in my chest ever since Elise said she'd told the Iris Guild about our contract.

Something's going to happen.

I trusted my gut. I was the protagonist, after all.

"Hold out a little longer."

"Understood."

Scarlet bowed her head without another word.

"Sorry. I've just got this uneasy feeling. Call it a beast's instinct? You get it, right?"

"It's all right. We have plenty of time."

"Yeah. Thanks."

"...Yes. Understood."

Her reaction was off. She must have been missing everyone after so long.

"I'll put in a good word with Liliana."

"Thank you."

Strange. Normally she'd have shown at least a little happiness when I said something like that. She'd even mentioned wanting to see Liliana when she first came to Elise's house. Well. I couldn't figure it out.

Scarlet kept her still-flushed face lowered.

"Ugh. My whole body's killing me."

I dragged my exhausted self back toward the dormitory. Outside, dusk had already settled in, and the moon hung in the sky. On the way, I felt a middle-aged man tailing me more than once and nearly jumped out of my skin, but once I'd put enough distance between myself and Elise's house, he stopped following. That was probably Elise's butler. Judging by the weight of his presence, I doubted I would have even noticed him before I was hospitalized.

That just meant I'd gotten that much stronger.

I ran the numbers on how long I'd spent at Elise's place. Roughly three hours. Three hours of nothing but massage. No wonder I was wrecked.

The door chimed as I stepped into the dormitory, and I found Liliana sitting in the living room. It was late enough that the Nam sisters had probably already gone to bed. Whenever she wasn't streaming, Liliana always came bounding out to greet me like a puppy. Not tonight.

"Liliana. I'm back."

"Yeah, you're back..."

"What's wrong?"

I walked over to her. She looked drained, and in her hand was a single sheet of stationery.

"Huh? That's..."

I knew that paper. It was the stationery that came with Hell's Contract — Liliana's means of contacting her hometown, Hell, through the contract she'd made with me.

"You got a reply?"

"Yeah, it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠came, but..."

Liliana held the letter out to me.

"...That's it?"

What kind of reply was that? She hadn't even properly answered what Liliana had asked, and there wasn't a single word of greeting. For a letter that had taken so long to arrive, it was painfully half-hearted.

Liliana flipped the paper over, then stared at it as if she could bore a hole through it. Not that doing either was going to make more words appear.

"Well. She must be really busy. Your mother has her own work to deal with, right?"

"My mom's a civil servant..."

"...Civil servants are swamped these days."

"Hell's civil servants are tax thieves. The second they catch a case, they squeeze you for bribes."

"..."

Did Hell even have such a thing as law? Every time I heard about it, the place sounded more terrifying.

Liliana set the letter on the desk and threw herself onto the living room bed. I couldn't just leave her like that, so I followed and lay down beside her. The moment she saw me coming, she turned her back to me.

Our Liliana was feeling awfully sentimental tonight.

"Come here."

I opened my arms, waiting to hold her. Liliana stayed facing away and started talking anyway.

"I was really looking forward to hearing from Mom..."

"Yeah."

"Guess I was the only one."

"That's not true. No way."

"Well, it's not like they needed a daughter like me... They've probably been glad I disappeared..."

"..."

This was a serious case. Had she come down with homesickness? Ever since Centaur showed up in France, she'd been thinking about Hell more and more.

"Tch."

She'd already been dwelling on Hell, and then her mother's letter had been this half-hearted. No wonder she was in a foul mood. I didn't have a scrap of information about Liliana's mother, so I had nothing useful to say.

This wasn't going to work. Shock therapy was the only answer.

I wrapped my arms around Liliana from behind and, without warning, firmly squeezed her breasts.

"Kyah!"

"Mmm..."

A succubus's body really was something else. Her breasts were firmer, more pleasant to the touch than any human's. I couldn't hold back. I buried my face against her back and kept fondling her chest.

"You crazy bastard! I'm not in the mood right now!"

Liliana thrashed and swore at me. She hadn't cursed me out in a while — I must have really crossed a line. She twisted this way and that, trying to shake my arms off, but I wasn't about to let go. If anything, I slipped my other arm around her neck and grabbed the breast I hadn't gotten to yet, holding her from behind with both hands full.

"Nngh! You're insane! Hah...!"

"You're in a bad mood, so we should do something that puts you in a good one. Right?"

Liliana froze at that, then quietly opened her mouth.

"...You just came back from seeing another woman."

"We didn't have sex."

"Liar. There's no way you didn't."

"Want to check for yourself?"

Liliana rolled over and looked me in the eye. I brushed my fingers across her face, taking in her faintly reddened gaze, then took her hand and guided it down to my cock. A few gropes of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her chest had been more than enough to get me hard. I'd spent the whole session servicing Elise without receiving a thing in return, so it was only natural.

"Well? Changed your mind?"

"...Yeah. Master."

Liliana's eyes shifted back into those of a succubus — the same lust-drunk look as always.

Good. That did the trick.

Even if this worked this time, I couldn't keep doing this forever... I needed to find a way to get to France. Should I probe Elise about it again next time I saw her...? She'd seemed pretty stubborn about it.

"Master... touch me more."

Liliana's sweet voice cut my thoughts short.

"Come here."

"Nnh... mmph."

I climbed on top of her, and today's Liliana came at me more fiercely than usual.

Around the time Liliana and Lee Ho-yeon had just started having sex...

"Nnh..."

Elise, lying in her own bed, slowly opened her eyes.

"Hah—!"

She bolted upright with a start, gasping for breath.

The first thing she did was check her arms and legs. She was wearing clean pajamas. Nothing sticky between her thighs — she was completely dry. She looked around the room. The massage table was gone.

So it really had been a nightmare.

Elise let out a long breath. She had clearly dreamed of Lee Ho-yeon toying with her from head to toe until she passed out. Even now, thinking back on it, the dream made no sense.

...Was it a dream?

She wanted to believe it was. But it had been far too real for that. She could still feel the way Ho-yeon's hands had moved over her body. Even the climax at the end... was vivid. Vivid enough that she wanted to feel it again.

"...Scarlet."

Elise called for Scarlet, who would be waiting somewhere nearby. Whenever Sebas Chan was off duty, she was always stationed close at hand.

"Yes, Miss."

And just as expected, Scarlet dropped down from the ceiling.

"...How long ago did Ho-yeon leave?"

"He returned to the dormitory about an hour ago."

"...Then how long was I asleep?"

"You've been asleep for about two hours, since around the time the massage ended."

"Alright. You can switch with Sebas Chan now."

"Yes, Miss. Understood."

Once Scarlet was gone, Elise clenched her teeth.

"...That wasn't a massage."

She'd been had. She should have been more careful around a man who went around seducing every woman he met. Jamming something in down there over and over... what kind of massage was that? That was sexual harassment.

"Hah... some dream."

Elise sighed and headed for the private training hall in the mansion. Still, it seemed he really had performed a Mana Massage in the middle of all that harassment. She could feel mana circulating through her body. It was an expensive massage. She ought to at least test the results.

A low hum filled the air as she raised her mana — and Elise's eyes went wide.

The mana she felt in her body was five times... no, six times greater. More than twice as efficient as what she normally got from mana stones. An absurd level of efficiency.

Elise channeled mana into Iris, her favored sword. The blade thrummed, and a refined mana blade aura took shape — larger than anything she had ever produced. Over five meters long. Considering she had never managed even two meters no matter how hard she wrung herself dry, the growth was staggering.

Elise stared at the mana she had created and murmured quietly.

"...Was that really a massage?"

Had it truly been that kind of massage, and had she just been the one with the filthy mind?

No. There's no way.

Common sense said a massage like that couldn't exist. In a proper world, it shouldn't be allowed to exist. The only reason it had happened at all was because she'd gotten strangely swept up in the mood... Under ordinary circumstances, she never would have permitted it. That's how bizarre the whole thing had been.

But then how was she supposed to explain the mana overflowing through her body?

"..."

She was probably going to have to book another session. If it was going to be that kind of massage again... it felt good, but the stimulation was too intense. She'd rest a little first.

Elise gathered her mana and stepped out of the training hall.

"Ah, Miss..."

Just outside, she ran into Sebas Chan, who had been waiting for her. Gone was his usual composure — his face was urgent.

"Sebas Chan?"