Unfair Trade
The secret hideout where the half-succubi schemed was tucked away in the winding paths behind the academy, in a garden rarely visited by people. True to its name, it wasn't obvious at first glance. They'd dug out their own space beneath a flowerbed in a clearing, with the entrance hidden by magic. Of course, it wasn't much of an obstacle for me. I could just force it open with Explosion.
The real problem staring me in the face right now was...
"Why do you keep following me? I told you I have something to take care of."
"Hehe, I already said it, didn't I? For today, you're mine."
Today, the one trailing after me like a lost puppy, insisting I belonged to her, was Lucia. I knew I shouldn't have gone to collect that money from her. Trying to save a few coins had only made things annoying.
"I told you, this is incredibly dangerous business involving a saint. You should turn back here."
I hadn't mentioned that the place we were heading to was the half-succubi's main base, but the fact that a saint who hadn't even attended the entrance ceremony was involved should have been enough to convey the scale and danger. I'd explained it by saying I had the high-ranking holy knight's rosario that I'd taken from the crown prince. Most of it was true, so I'd thought she'd understand and leave.
"I'm pretty good in a fight too. Wouldn't things wrap up faster if I came along?"
But Lucia was far more stubborn than I'd expected. No matter how many times I repeated that it was dangerous and she should go back, she'd only grow more determined, saying that if she helped, the matter would be resolved even quicker. As if to prove it, she looked at me with eyes blazing like fire and added,
"The guy who agreed to be mine is off doing something weird and not keeping his promise properly. Shouldn't I at least help him finish that weird business quickly?"
"...That wording seems a bit misleading."
At that, Lucia hugged me so tightly I could barely breathe, as if she'd been waiting for those exact words.
"Even after this, you're saying you're not mine?"
"I'm not anyone's, Lucia."
"Aww... you're no fun."
She clicked her tongue in clear disappointment and slowly withdrew the arms wrapped around my waist. Then she darted forward, spun around, and winked at me.
"Even if I didn't take the money, my heart is already yours. So why is it that even after paying twenty thousand gold for yours, I only get to own it for a single day?"
She pretended to ponder it seriously for a moment before scrunching up her face in exaggerated frustration and continuing.
"This feels like a seriously unfair trade to me. Should I just report you to the empire as a criminal?"
"They'd probably dismiss it with no charges. After all, you're the one who forced the money on me even though I said I didn't want it."
As I exchanged this silly banter with her, I glanced back and saw Grayson quietly following us. He was smiling faintly while watching our bickering, looking almost paternal. ...To think I'd feel such warmth from the man stalking Heidi. This world is doomed.
"Ah, so when are you finally going to fall for m—mmph!"
We were less than fifty meters from the garden behind the academy now, so I clamped my hand over Lucia's endlessly chattering mouth.
"Mmmph."
At the same time, something soft and moist brushed across the palm covering her lips.
"What... what are you doing?!"
I yanked my hand away in a hurry. Lucia pulled her tongue back into her mouth after licking my palm, then stuck it out at me again and giggled.
"Heh. A bit salty."
Dear god. I'd only tried to cover her mouth and she licked my hand without hesitation. Did this person have no sense of human dignity?
"Don't do that again. You startled me."
She nodded obediently right away, gazing at me with sparkling eyes. Then those same eyes gleamed with a predatory light as she flashed a smile that looked ready to devour me whole. In a voice so soft it was barely audible, she murmured to herself.
"...Ha, so cute."
A chill ran down my spine. Even though I knew it was all an act, that she'd deliberately adjusted her volume so I'd hear that whisper, the words still pierced my chest. They carried a strange, obsessive possessiveness.
Thump. Thump.
'What the hell is wrong with me.'
What annoyed me even more was that my heart was actually racing after hearing such a clingy, obsessive remark. To put it more bluntly, I was excited. I wanted to slap myself for feeling butterflies from someone like her saying something like that.
It seemed I wasn't the only one who'd abandoned human dignity.
"Stop getting distracted and focus. It's about to get really dangerous from here."
I lightly cut off Lucia as she seemed about to say something more. Doing my best to calm my fluttering heart, I quickened my steps toward the garden where the half-succubi's base should be.
"...Huh?"
I'd even prepared an Explosion on a large rock, ready to smash open the entrance to their main hideout. But all that preparation was pointless. The ground beneath the flowerbed was already gaping wide open, as if inviting us in.
"Why is there a hole like this in the garden? Are we supposed to go through here?"
Lucia pointed at the hole, waving her hand excitedly. No, this was indeed the right way in, but why was it already smashed open?
"...Something's wrong."
It should have been an ordinary flowerbed, slightly overgrown with grass and concealed by magic. Instead, it looked like someone had forced their way in, the ground brutally torn up. And from inside that hole, a faint but unmistakable metallic scent of blood wafted out.
"Lucia, could you wait outside?"
For some reason, an intensely ominous feeling gripped me. I grabbed her arm as I spoke. It was ridiculous that I, of all people, would worry about the Geumtaeyang archetype, but whatever was down there felt truly dangerous. I had a strong sense that I shouldn't let her go in.
"You deserve punishment in all sorts of ways, but not like this."
"What? Are you actually worried about me right now?"
Lucia grinned, then in the blink of an eye raised her club above my head.
"Ouch."
She gave my head a light tap and said,
"You haven't seen me fight yet, have you? I'm better than Heidi, you know."
"Even so, I can't help but worr—"
Ah, shit.
The thought in my head and the question she'd asked overlapped, producing a weird answer. I saw Lucia freeze and quickly added,
"If you die here, you won't be able to receive the punishment for stealing Heidi's man, will you?"
Whew. At this point, she should just brush it off as typical me and—
"Hehe... hehehe..."
She wasn't going to let it go, damn it.
Lucia stood there with her mouth hanging open, giggling like an idiot. To think I'd make such an easily misunderstood slip of the tongue in front of her. Lately, I'd been wanting to give my past self a full-swing punch more and more often.
"How touching."
Even Grayson, who'd approached without me noticing, nodded and rubbed salt in the wound. I seriously felt like crying.
I decided to ignore them all and was debating whether to enter the hole when—
"Aaaaaagh!"
A scream leaked out from inside. It was faint because of the distance, but the terror-laden cry was unmistakably a scream.
"You've got to be kidding me."
If that scream had come from the saint, things were extremely bad. If even that 'saint' was screaming, the overwhelming divine power he boasted about must have run dry long ago.
'The saint can't die here.'
If the saint—who was supposed to become a key force in later episodes—died, the entire future plot would go off the rails. And without divine power to reduce pain and prevent bodily damage, his death was practically inevitable.
There was no time to argue with Lucia anymore.
"Grayson, I'll go in first. Make sure Lucia doesn't follow me!"
I quickly told him and pushed myself into the hole. The metallic stench of blood was far thicker than outside. The revolting odor that triggered instinctive revulsion stabbed mercilessly at my nose.
"Good thing I have this, at least."
I wrapped a handkerchief around my nose and mouth and stuffed a lemon candy into my mouth to block the smell. It seemed to mask the blood scent a little. Just as I was feeling grateful for the Geumtaeyang's lemon training for the first time—
"You... you're... that womanizer...?"
A strange voice came from below as I hurried downward. I looked down and saw Fate, beaten to a bloody pulp, gasping for breath.
I was a bit offended at being called a womanizer, but now wasn't the time to care about that.
"Please... please save me. It's a monster..."
The moment she saw me, she thrashed like someone who'd grabbed a life preserver in the middle of the ocean, begging for help. But her body was crushed so badly in places that it was hard to recognize her original shape, and blood was pouring out of her. She didn't look like she had much time left. My crude emergency kit wouldn't be able to treat injuries this severe.
"What happened?"
When I asked, she flinched, then shed a single tear as if she'd already given up on the fact that she was going to die. It seemed she'd realized that even the last hope she'd pinned on me couldn't save her.
Resigned, Fate opened her mouth to tell me what she'd learned.
"We just heard that the saint was here and scattered demonic energy to find him, but..."
From that point on, I started to feel a chill. The familiar cold sensation I always got when events didn't flow the way I'd predicted.
"Don't tell me the saint noticed it and came here himself?"
I asked quietly, hoping against hope that my guess was wrong.
"That's exactly it."
In the end, the ominous prediction became reality and kicked me right in the gut. Clutching at my last shred of hope, I changed the question and asked desperately.
"Is the entire Holy Empire trying to exterminate you all? Seeing you in this state, it can't be the saint acting alone, right?"
I clasped my hands together, praying that her answer would go in the direction I was hoping for. If the saint alone had beaten the half-succubi like dogs, the story would definitely go off track. The timing was too early, but I'd rather it be that the saint and the Holy Empire's support forces were fighting them together...
"It was the saint alone."
"God fucking damn it."
As expected, her answer burned away the last bit of hope I had left. The build-up I'd done years ago to promote the saint's growth for the best possible outcome had just come back as the worst possible result.