Temptation
Having disposed of the assassins, we returned to the city without further hindrance. Intent on getting some rest, everyone retired to their respective rooms.
Exhausted after a full day of running around, I sat on the edge of the bed with a bottle of liquor in hand, hoping to knock myself out quickly... only for Muriel to post up right beside the mattress.
"...Hey, Muriel."
"Yes, Lord Alzen."
"Are you planning to sleep standing up with your eyes open again?"
"It is an efficient method of rest."
"Cut it out. Seriously, it's creepy as hell. I'm begging you, just lie down like a normal person and sleep."
"Mmm. However, there is no suitable place to sleep in this room."
"What do you mean, no place? There's a couch right over there."
With plenty of coin to spare, our accommodations were quite spacious and well-appointed. Even so, she shook her head deadpan.
"Sleeping uncomfortably in an unfamiliar place is inferior to resting on my feet."
"Are you serious right now...? You really aren't some kind of robot, are you?"
"I let it pass last time, but what exactly is a robot?"
"It's a thing. Something like a golem."
"Unlike me, golems do not require sleep."
"Haaah..."
Sighing at her deflection, I popped the cork on the bottle.
"So, you're dead set on sleeping on your feet? If you're going to be like that, go share a bed in the women's room."
"I doubt Lady Weller would welcome that. Furthermore, it would leave an opening in your protection, Lord Alzen."
"Then I'll give you money to get another room. Whatever you do, just sleep normally. Please."
"Securing a room solely for myself would be wasteful. And likewise, it would create an opening in your security."
"...Are you picking a fight with me? What do you want me to do, then?"
I scowled irritably and glared, but she maintained an unruffled expression as she sat down beside me, pressing her body close against mine.
The mattress dipped under her weight.
As her eyes peered into mine from point-blank range, glistening with an indescribable heat, an unfamiliar atmosphere pulled me in like an undertow. Warm, sticky, subtly suggestive, and deep.
"If you desire so fervently for me to lie down and rest, the issue is solved if I share this bed with you, Lord Alzen."
"What? Hey, seriously... Know your place, will you?"
A sense of crisis spiked through me. To be specific, a crisis regarding my chastity.
The prickling instinct that I would be devoured whole if swept up in this set every hair on my head on end.
"Back off, Muriel. That's an order."
I snarled, brandishing displeasure and anger like a defense mechanism, but she merely hooked her arms around mine and tilted her head.
"Lord Alzen. There is something I am curious about. Am I perhaps not to your taste?"
"What...?"
"I find it puzzling that you have yet to take me. In the past, you would not have hesitated."
"...Hah."
The past.
Sure, if it were Stanashila Aljen, he definitely would have. In his memories, I had never once seen the bastard rein in his lust. If he wanted to eat, he ate; if he wanted to take someone, he took them. Stanashila Aljen was a piece of trash who lived like an animal.
Yet being treated as one and the same with that scumbag was offensive in the extreme.
Truly, genuinely. It pissed me off.
"Are you really that desperate to sleep with 'Stanashila Aljen'?"
"Th-that..."
Her mouth snapped shut just as she was about to answer.
"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?"
"...My instincts are screaming at me not to speak. It feels as though something catastrophic will happen if I answer that question in the affirmative. I wonder why that is."
"Ha. Unbelievable. Is that the intuition of a master?"
Even as I sneered, I was genuinely impressed. She wasn't wrong. If she had answered yes, I would have given her exactly what she asked for.
I would have handed over this 'body' completely. To let her do whatever she damn well pleased with it.
"...Please calm yourself, Lord Alzen. I was in the wrong."
Her voice softened, dropping low so as not to provoke me further. Like someone soothing a bared-fanged beast, she reached out cautiously, gently drawing my head into her arms and burying it against her chest.
"I'm perfectly calm right now. Calmer than I've ever been."
"...Yes, of course. It seems I was mistaken."
Her fingers trailed down the back of my hand, slowly, deliberately prying loose my white-knuckled grip. Index, middle, thumb.
Crash!
The next instant, a broken liquor bottle shattered against the floor with a sharp crash.
"...?"
Had it broken from falling, or had it already been broken before that?
As if sheared diagonally across an edge, the jagged glass gleamed with wicked sharpness, reeking of potent alcohol.
"Muriel. How long had that bottle in my hand been broken?"
"...I could not say."
"Haaah..."
Sighing, I pushed her away.
"Muriel. Bring me a new bottle."
"Understood."
Having swiftly cleared away the broken glass, she returned shortly with another bottle of the same vintage.
"...Drinking on the bed is uncomfortable."
Unlike earlier when I merely wanted a swig to fall asleep, now I felt like drinking in earnest, so I sank deep into the sofa.
"Muriel. Pour me a drink. It's been a while."
"Yes, Lord Alzen."
As I held out my glass, she sat beside me and poured with polite, graceful movements, glancing furtively at my face.
"What?"
"No. It is nothing."
"...Fine."
Gulp!
Downing it in one go, a fiery pain coursed down my esophagus.
"Khaaah..."
Savoring the flavor and aroma, I leaned back against the cushions as my mind drifted and my body grew delightfully numb, then held out the glass once more. She refilled it without a word. Watching her with unfocused eyes—every posture and movement inherently graceful—a lingering curiosity stirred within me.
"...Muriel. Let me ask you one thing."
"Yes. Ask whatever you wish, Lord Alzen."
"Why the hell are you trying to seduce someone like me? It's not like you've fallen for me..."
"......"
After a brief pause, she whispered in a low voice.
"Because I believed that only by doing so could I remain at your side."
"...What?"
"I wish to guard your side, Lord Alzen. Together, always—to watch over the achievements and purposes you bring to fruition."
"I don't recall ever telling you not to."
"Because you do not care in the slightest what becomes of yourself."
"......"
She had hit the nail on the head, leaving me speechless.
"From where I stand, there is no one more precarious or on the edge than you, Lord Alzen. Like dying embers that could scatter at any moment, or brittle glass that could easily shatter... It feels as though you will simply vanish, leaving behind not a shred of lingering attachment for what remains."
"......"
Again, I had nothing to say.
"That is why I sought to tie you down. Even if it meant using my own body."
"...Are you really fine treating your body like a tool like that?"
"If it is for you, Lord Alzen, I do not mind. I do not dislike it. In fact, I desire it."
"......"
"I wish for you to want me. And so... I hope you will not leave. If only for my sake. That is what I... wished for."
Fidget, fidget.
Rarely one to avert her gaze, Muriel blushed faintly, her fingers restlessly twining around each other. She was visibly embarrassed.
...And seeing her this flustered, she was clearly being sincere.
"Nonsense. Where would I even go? You don't have to worry about me leaving or abandoning you. So long as you do your job properly, that is."
"...Is that so."
"......"
With nothing left to say, I was just about to knock back my second glass when—
Knock, knock, knock!
"U-um... Lord Alzen? Are you asleep yet?"
The voice accompanying the knock belonged to Rebecca.
"What is it?"
"W-well, that is... Ahem, you see..."
Sighing at her uncharacteristic stammering, I called out, "You have business, right? Just come in."
"Ah, yes! Thank you!"
She eased the door open and peeked her head inside. Seeing Muriel and me sitting side by side, she offered a bitter smile that said, I figured as much.
"Ahem... You're having a drink. I thought you might be. Um... would you like some company?"
With that, she brought forward a tray she had been concealing behind her back. Seeing the piping-hot side dishes and an assortment of liquor bottles, she seemed determined to drink in earnest.
"I'm not one to turn down a drink. Come in."
"Th-thank you."
When she stepped into the room with flushed cheeks, I flinched at her attire.
A thin, tight nightdress that blatantly displayed her cleavage and the curves of her figure... No, calling that outright lingerie wouldn't be an exaggeration.
"...Rebecca. Isn't that outfit a little too careless?"
"Pardon?! Ah... ahem. Does it not suit me?"
"No, it's not a matter of whether it suits you... Whatever. It looks great. Yeah."
"Th-thank you."
Placing the tray on the table, she offered a shy smile and warily checked my reaction. It was completely unlike her usual easygoing and bold self, leaving me thoroughly puzzled.
The drinks flowed in a quiet, subdued atmosphere.
Trading casual chatter over tilted glasses and savory snacks, Alzen and Rebecca grew increasingly merry, but Muriel, who had not touched a single drop, observed the scene with icy calm.
'It seems Lord Alzen has calmed down.'
Breathing a silent sigh of relief, she let her guard down just a fraction while maintaining an unblinking watch over the drinking Alzen. Sluggish movements, a slovenly, relaxed expression, the pungent stench of alcohol and tobacco smoke.
It was a world apart from the unfathomable madness that had possessed him moments ago.
'What was that earlier?'
Back when they had sat face to face on the bed, when she attempted to seduce him.
She had confronted it head-on.
The twisted malice pouring out toward her unfiltered. Had she provoked him carelessly, he would undoubtedly have sacrificed everything just to bewilder and wound her.
Everything—literally everything. His flesh, his soul, even his very life.
"Phew..."
To imagine the purpose that broken bottle—shattered without Alzen even realizing it—might have served sent a profound chill down her spine. The murderous intent back then had not been directed at Muriel, but at himself.
'It would be wise not to provoke him recklessly for the time being. This is not a matter to treat lightly under the guise of seduction.'
With that thought, she etched Alzen's trigger deep into her memory.
—Are you really that desperate to sleep with 'Stanashila Aljen'?
That question.
Whatever it meant, beneath that inquiry lay a masochistic malice and madness potent enough to send shivers through even Muriel.
'I cannot divine the meaning... yet questions linger. Lord Alzen has never once referred to himself in the third person. Why use such phrasing? Almost as if he views Alzen and himself as entirely different people...'
A jolt of realization seized her, sending a shudder down her spine.
'Wait. As if he views himself... as someone else?'
Her instincts screamed that she was nearing the truth.
Stanashila Aljen suddenly exhibiting bizarre behavior; Stanashila Aljen spouting crucial information from unknown sources; Stanashila Aljen showing facets drastically divergent from the rumors.
It was almost as if another person had slipped into that body...
'No. Stop. That is far enough.'
Just as the gathered information and experience were about to synthesize an answer, she deliberately severed the train of thought. Even if she reached a conclusion, there was nothing she could do about it—and she doubted she was the only one who might arrive at such a deduction.
Those who had watched and known Alzen the longest and best were all the more likely to have reached the same conclusion easily and swiftly.
"......"
Considering that sent a different kind of chill through Muriel, but she strove not to let it show.
While Muriel was shivering in serious contemplation on her own, Rebecca was lost in a pink haze of panting anticipation.
Those languid, alcohol-soaked eyes; the slight flutter of black hair; the handsome face boasting sharp features despite his lean frame; and that delinquent aura multiplied three-fold by the rings adorning his fingers. He looked strikingly identical to the Alzen from her hallucinations.
'Ah... I guess I have no choice but to admit it now.'
Severing the excuses and rationalizations boiling within her, she could finally acknowledge what was happening to her body. Denial wouldn't change reality; the more she denied it, the more it consumed her thoughts, so she simply chose to accept it.
Part of it stemmed from her nature—straightforward, honest, and bold—but as a high-tier adventurer and mercenary, she was also a ruthless realist and an egoist.
Whatever the reason, her body craved him.
A body thirsting for pleasure, ecstasy, and rapture wanted him. It screamed for her to soothe it through him.
Then shouldn't she do just that? Shouldn't she grasp what she wanted and suck it down to the marrow to quench her desires?
"Huuuuh..."
Only now could she understand the stories and actions of the few female adventurers and mercenaries she had known. Spouting filthy jokes like men and casually slipping into a room with a man they fancied the moment they felt turned on... Previously, she couldn't comprehend such behavior and had frowned at it.
Now, she understood completely. Because her own yearning to do the exact same thing burned like a furnace.
Rebecca wanted nothing more than to throw herself into his arms this very second, act coquettish, entwine their bodies, and taste pure bliss.
"......"
Yet understanding was one thing; actually doing it was an entirely different matter.
His status and position posed formidable barriers, but above all, she was still an inexperienced virgin who had never once dated. She harbored her own girlish heart and romantic ideals, which made it all the heavier and more serious.
Though she couldn't picture it clearly, she yearned for something pure and devoted, something that would never change throughout a lifetime. Something like... love.
"...Whew."
Cringing at her own embarrassingly cheesy thoughts, Rebecca involuntarily sighed and stroked her throbbing lower abdomen.
"......"
Did she love Stanashila Aljen?
She could state with certainty that she did not. Flesh-and-blood goodwill and trust were there, of course, but it was far too weak to be called love.
Which meant that what she was feeling right now was nothing more than sheer lust...
"Ugh..."
As a wave of self-loathing crashed over her, Rebecca downed glass after glass. Her feverish, aching body was sensitized to the absolute brink, delivering sharp jolts of pleasure at the slightest friction. Yet it fell so agonizingly short that it drove her mad.
...What was she supposed to do?
Her virginity and romantic ideals rejected an act devoid of love. Her pragmatic egoism scoffed that she should just do it if she wanted to, trivializing the act itself.
Torn between these clashing values, Rebecca sank into troubled, heavy contemplation.
"Why the long face? You're ruining the taste of the booze."
A low voice broke through her reverie.
"Y-yes?! Ah, I'm sorry. I was just lost in thought..."
Startled, Rebecca scrambled for an excuse, only then meeting Alzen's unfocused eyes. And only then did she notice.
His gaze was quite brazen. It was a look laden with male lust and carnal desire—one she had seen and received countless times before.
"......"
Flushing scarlet and swallowing hard under his gaze, Rebecca recalled the rumors surrounding him. In her experience, the rumors were vastly exaggerated and full of wild nonsense, but where there was smoke, there was fire. Judging by his words and demeanor, some of it seemed plausible enough.
Like the rumor that he was utterly indiscriminate about where he swung his lower half...
Gulp...
If he wanted her body, wasn't it only natural?
Even without the free commission coupon, she had never intended to refuse any demand he made after the immense debt of gratitude she owed him. Her body or anything else—she was fully prepared to offer whatever she had to give. There was no room for things like romantic maidenly sentiment or love to meddle in that.
That was just how profound and heavy her gratitude toward him was.
So, that was that. Giving what needed to be given and abandoning what needed to be abandoned was the realistic choice.
"......"
For some reason he hadn't demanded it yet, but judging by his eyes, that moment wasn't far off. With just the right push, just a little nudge, perhaps...
"...Gulp!"
And so, Rebecca made up her mind.
She would hasten that timeline.
She was going to seduce him. If possible, right now, before this night was through.