Overture of the Madmen.
Overture of the Madmen.
The next morning.
We were finally able to see the face of the mansion's owner.
"Nice to meet you. I am Kyle Lemontra, the current head of the Lemontra family. I also serve as the owner of a magic doll workshop here in the Magic Tower City."
Seeing him in person, he had pale skin and wore thin, round glasses. His hair was grayish and unkempt, and he was a man with tired-looking blue eyes and an oddly gentle, easygoing aura.
He wasn't an unattractive man.
It was just that he was a man so buried in his work that he spent more time staring at dolls than at his own woman.
"Oh, and if there was anything lacking during your stay at the mansion, please, I ask that you let me know."
"Honey."
"Hm? What's wrong?"
Eloise stopped Kyle, who was getting a bit excited looking for problems, with a gentle smile.
Just looking at this, they truly seemed like an ideal couple.
And I thought it was truly remarkable. Even if Eloise didn't know, he had watched his wife fall apart in the first-class seat last night.
Yet, he didn't seem to mind at all.
There wasn't much else said afterward. Other than the pleasantries of meeting and a brief explanation about the dolls...
Eloise decided to take Seraphina and Claire to the garden to have tea.
Ah, of course, before leaving, Claire glared at me with quite an angry look. I suppose she must have felt some pleasure due to the purple line the old hag had cast on her.
Noel left the room because the old hag contacted him via the crystal ball in his office, and now, only he and I were left in the room.
I tried to give a rough greeting and leave, but the one who stopped me first was...
"Raul... ssi... right?"
"Ah, yes, I am Raul. I'm a commoner, so I don't have a surname. Please feel free to call me comfortably."
"No, not at all. A mere workshop owner in the city couldn't possibly do that to a member of the hero's party..."
Seeing him scratch his head and act weak, my mind was a bit complicated. What on earth did he want to talk about to keep me here?
As I pondered how to... persuade him, he unexpectedly brought up a topic.
"By any chance... when do you plan to leave the Magic Tower City...?"
"I'm just a party member myself... so you'd have to ask No... the hero about the specific details."
"Ah... I see... Hmmm...."
It seemed like there was some kind of problem. Seeing him stroke his chin with a pained, agonizing expression, I became even more confused.
I couldn't get a grasp on what he was thinking or what he wanted at all.
Soon, he sighed and opened his mouth.
"....By any chance, before you leave, that... um..."
"Please, speak freely."
He kept fidgeting, biting his nails, taking off his glasses, and rubbing his face dry, struggling with himself, until he finally seemed to resign himself.
He opened his mouth.
I could tell by the way his words dragged on that he had put a lot of agony and thought into completing that sentence.
"Phew... I would like to... observe... you sleeping with my wife..."
"Are you... serious?"
"...Yes."
Perhaps I was the one who was wrong in this world.
How is it that everyone I meet, everyone I get involved with, is so abnormal?
No.
Perhaps this is just how the world is.
Even if I think about it for a moment, I, too, have slept with women whenever the opportunity arose, without properly considering status, the future, or the consequences.
The conclusion is that they aren't the strange ones.
Perhaps I am only now seeing the true, naked face of the world I live in.
"...How do you intend to explain this to your wife?"
"I'm not certain, but... I think she would allow it... She is a good woman, and my kind... wife."
"....."
His voice and demeanor were drained of energy, unable to lift his head out of guilt. But to me, having come to recognize myself to some extent as an Incubus, it was visible.
The twisted sexual desire, anticipation, and ecstasy he tried so hard to hide.
While it didn't show in his expressions or gestures, it was all visible to me.
"Even if it might ruin your relationship?"
"Haha... Raul-ssi, you don't know Eloise... her well. She will still love me. Though the scent and the way she looks might be different from before..."
"Understood. Please convey this to your wife separately. I will also speak to the hero."
As I said that and turned around to grab the doorknob to leave, he bowed repeatedly, thanking me over and over.
If it were me, my blood would be boiling, and I'd want to kill everyone, hero party or not....
With a complicated heart, I returned to my room, smoked a cigarette on the terrace, and watched them drinking tea in the garden.
The three of them were elegantly drinking tea poured by a doll, laughing and chatting.
I watched them quietly, finished my cigarette, went back into the room, and waited for Noel to return. I had cursed him and pushed him away, but I suppose a friend is a friend after all.
Seeing as he's the only one who comes to mind to rely on in a situation like this.
Noel didn't return to the mansion until late in the evening. Today, I joined him for dinner, and after the meal was over, we went to the room together.
"Did the old hag say when we're leaving?"
"Not yet. Do you need something? Anything is fine, except leaving the party."
His bright smile as he said that made me wince, as it brought to mind the dark, gloomy side and the scent hidden behind it.
"....Forget it. The day before we leave, the mansion owner wants me to sleep with his wife."
"Heh..."
"Ask how many days are left and let me know."
"Got it. I thought Raul would refuse... should I consider that you're enjoying it now?"
Noel smiled in a way that felt bewitching.
At that sight, the words I had only been thinking couldn't be stopped and came right out of my mouth.
"Are you hiding it? Or is it because of me?"
When I said that, Noel slowly walked up to me.
"You should call it 'Raul's blooming'. Didn't I tell you when I was chosen by Eria-nim? I realized it thanks to you, and I think of this as fate."
Noel said that, lightly pivoting on his feet and turning around.
"There's no need to feel guilt, and no need to have self-loathing. You just need to act according to the role that fits you."
"...I can't understand you."
At those words, Noel turned to show his face again and smiled brightly.
"Raul. Fate isn't meant to be understood. It's meant to be accepted. Look, you're in so much pain because you're trying to escape it, aren't you?"
I had nothing to say. Since the hero who is to save the world said that, no words of refutation or denial came to mind.
With the conversation ended like that, Noel quietly left the room.
I lay on the bed, ruminating on the conversation I had with Noel, and took a rest.
While Noel and Raul's conversation was in full swing.
In another place, there was a man who had become honest about his desires and a woman who had come to face those desires directly.
"....Eloise. I want to see... the affair between you and Raul-ssi... with my own eyes."
"......."
Eloise. Kyle Lemontra's wife and the mistress of the Lemontra family.
Upon hearing those words, she covered her mouth with one hand and widened her eyes. As if she couldn't believe it. And she said in a trembling voice, with a hint of anger.
"Kyle. I am your wife."
"...I know."
"That's right. I was held by Raul-ssi. I'm such a dirty woman. Instead of casting me out, you want to see that scene?"
"...I have seen it."
"...Then you should be angry! You should be mocking me and cursing at me, so what is this look right now?!"
"Look. You love me, don't you?"
Seeing Kyle smiling softly, she was left speechless.
She made a look as if she were sickened by his bizarrely calm face, and the way he carefully poured tea and offered it to her.
"Are you... really okay...? Even if I'm held by another man...?"
It was a voice trembling as if it would collapse.
It was a truly ridiculous sight, as if the one who committed the affair was the one clinging on.
"It hurts... it hurts so much... but by watching that scene, I come to know. That I love you."
"....You're crazy. Really... you're insane..."
"Artists... or researchers... they are all inevitably crazy in one way or another. And I am crazy for you, too. I love you. Eloise, my lovely you."
"...Yes. I love you too. Kyle, truly..."
Kyle heard and saw Eloise's tears and trembling voice. And he was overjoyed, hugging her tightly.
Like a person who had collapsed.
At the same time, like a person who had been saved.
Eloise felt it as she watched him. It was disgusting, yet pitiful, and lovely.
No, she loves him. Kyle.
It was a truly contradictory emotion.
Not a beautiful relationship where you only see the good points because you love them, but a strange relationship where negativity and positivity coexist. Or a twisted relationship.
Because the two of them understood that point, they thought they were a pair that suited each other well.
The two were not a normal couple.
But they were not a couple that didn't suit each other either.
Rather, they were people who would have met a more miserable ruin in their own ways if they hadn't met each other.
Time passed, and afterward, Noel came back after hearing from Rieselotte that they would be departing in a week and relayed it to me.
After hearing the news, for that week, Kyle holed up in his workshop as usual, and Eloise took care of the mansion as usual.
On the surface, nothing had changed.
However, both of them knew.
That on the night before departure, they would no longer remain the couple they used to be.
The couple and Raul gathered in one room, naked, one day before the hero party was set to leave.
Perhaps because there was still some shame left, they didn't meet in the mansion, but gathered in the workshop in the basement, which had been remodeled into a bedroom over the past week.
"...Are you ready?"
"Yes."
"Yes..."
Kyle answered immediately.
Eloise hesitated slightly.
Kyle's face flushed with a mix of excitement and ecstasy.
Eloise's face flushed with a mix of shame and a little despair.
As if they were slaves waiting for their master's command, the couple stood still, looking at Raul.
"Ah-hut...♥"
"First... kneel down. Kyle."
Raul, holding her breasts in his hand as if they were his own, spoke down to Kyle.
Watching that, Kyle, having let go of everything, knelt and answered.
"Yes...."
That servile answer and expression were filled with ecstasy.
It was a truly sickening sight.