The Burden of Reverence
Having unwittingly drawn a god's wrath, Kaisent found himself deeply unsettled by the completely transformed way people treated him.
"Mage-nim, I've brought water!"
"Please, allow me to carry your bow and quiver!"
The recruits who had survived the Dead Moon trailed after Kaisent of their own accord, taking on every menial task as if they were his personal attendants. No one had ordered them to do it. They weren't grudging or forced — they followed him because they wanted to.
"No, really, I'm fine…"
"Forgive us for being a nuisance!"
"I… if I need anything, I'll call for you separately…"
"Yes! Please call on us anytime!"
Their near-fanatical devotion was so oppressive that Kaisent finally managed, with considerable effort, to peel them off him.
They're exhausting to deal with…
If they would just treat him warmly the way the other mercenaries did, that would have been fine. But this feverish worship was far too much for someone as timid as Kaisent.
And his ordeal did not end there.
After a full day of rest and cleanup, when the company set out again, people from merchant caravans bound for the same destination fell in with them. A few hours of travel later, during a rest stop, representatives from several different caravans came seeking him out.
"Mage Kaisent, we are from…"
"We represent…"
They explained which houses they belonged to, how extraordinary the power he had displayed truly was, and pressed gifts into his hands. What made it even more unbearable was that these caravan envoys were not simply trying to befriend a strong man — they were offering something far more pointed in the way of favor.
"Ah… I…"
A classic trait of the timid: perfectly at ease among people they know, and thoroughly uncomfortable the moment a crowd of strangers swarms them. Kaisent possessed that trait in full, and lacking any gift for gracefully turning people away, he could only stammer and fidget.
"Enough."
Fortunately, Lillian — who understood his nature well — stepped in to rein them in.
"You all know perfectly well that approaching a member of my company without the captain's leave is grounds for me to take offense. Don't you?"
"Th-that is…"
"If you wish to speak with Kaisent, submit a formal request to me first. Take your gifts and get out."
She succeeded in driving off the hangers-on. The idea that Kaisent might abandon her for someone else was unthinkable to her — but other people did not know the bond between them, and if she wanted to keep things from becoming a headache, she had to set the tone from the start.
"Haaaah."
Freed from the caravan people thanks to Lillian, Kaisent retreated into a carriage for some time alone.
This is so uncomfortable.
Strangers rushing at him with open goodwill made his skin crawl. Anyone who knew how to work power and connections would have seized the opportunity without hesitation. To Kaisent, it was nothing more and nothing less than pure discomfort.
"Kaisent, you in there?"
That was when Clint appeared — a long scar running down one side of his face, a wound left by the undead during the Dead Moon. Kaisent had cast a healing spell on it; without that, it would have been a permanent disfigurement.
"Hm? Clint?"
"You said you'd teach me magic."
"Ah, right. Sorry. I completely forgot."
"Anyway — people are talking about you everywhere. Mercenaries from other companies keep asking where you're from, what you like. A few of them even came to me."
"Ugh…"
Clint smiled. Kaisent had not let his new status go to his head; he was still the same kind, timid boy. Back when everyone else had been waiting for death in despair, the way he had roared and dragged their fighting spirit back up had been magnificent — like a hero out of a film. No: even actors on a screen could never have projected that kind of charisma. Most people with power like his would have swaggered. Kaisent was still just Kaisent.
"I did what you said and gathered as much inner energy as I could."
"That's enough for a few uses. Keep building it whenever you have spare time, Clint. Even without casting spells, this power will keep your body healthy and strong."
"Okay."
"Give me a moment, then."
Kaisent adjusted the belt's time ratio to its maximum of 1:10 and opened the dimensional warehouse. Ten seconds inside the warehouse equaled one second in the real world — more than enough leisure for a rest stop.
Once they stepped into the Zero Dimension, the first things they saw were Skynet, the Abyss Knight, and Arty, who was watching them with a restless, uneasy expression.
"Hello, Skynet. Arty."
"Welcome, Young Master — and your friend."
"Arty?"
"AT is too stiff. Names have power, you know."
Kaisent explained why he had given AT a human name.
Names have power…
It was true. Before, she had been a killing machine that inspired pure dread just by existing. Now she felt almost like a cute girl-robot.
"We'll start by practicing the use of magic. From now on, I'm going to push inner energy through your body and move it for you. Your bio-device will show you the flow through a three-dimensional anatomical map, but if you want to use it freely, you have to memorize it with your body."
"Got it."
Having decided not merely to destroy Machinaroids but to walk a proper path, Clint threw himself into understanding Kaisent's instruction.
Hours passed.
Crack-crack-crack!
"I— I did it!!"
Clint whooped with joy at the fierce sparks leaping from his own hands. He was nowhere near Kaisent's level, but he had talent enough; with Kaisent's help, he had reached the point of casting magic on his own.
"From now on, use it whenever you have a free moment and burn it into your body."
"Yeah!"
"I'm going to talk with Skynet. Keep drilling."
Having cast his first spell, Clint continued firing magic again and again, concentrating on locking the motions into muscle memory so he could use them even under the worst pressure.
For some reason, Kaisent had opened a text conversation with Skynet through his bio-device.
Anything about Arty was fine — but if he accidentally said something about his relationship with Lillian, the situation would tangle into a nightmare.
Skynet was startled that Kaisent, having only just acquired the technique, was already burning with the urge to impregnate a woman.
Astonishingly, the technique only worked when both minds were in complete agreement about pregnancy. It was a reflection of Jincheon's belief that a child born of one-sided selfishness could never be happy.
There's not a shred of doubt in my desire to impregnate Lillian. Which means something is holding her back…
What could it be? What was weighing on her heart enough to make her reluctant to carry his child?
He decided he would press her on it later. For now, Kaisent walked toward Arty.
I'll ask later. First…
"Nnh…"
The moment Kaisent approached, Arty flinched without meaning to and could not meet his eyes.
There's clearly something wrong with my power core! My temperature keeps rising!
Convinced she was malfunctioning, Arty resolved to keep her mouth shut no matter what he did, and turned her head away.
Press—
"Hyaang!?"
But when Kaisent's hand pressed firmly into her abdomen, compressing even her womb, a moan slipped out of her before she could stop it.
Clint, absorbed in practice, apparently heard nothing; he kept focusing on his magic.
"So you've learned how to make cute sounds now? Good girl. Good girl."
"Kk-khiiik~♡"
"Looks like the womb-crushing is working. The way you react when I press is fun."
"Ooooh~~♡"
Every time the hand jabbing her belly sent a shock through her womb, the pleasure she had been trained to feel surged up, and her whole body began to tremble. When that hand slid down toward her sex, her body braced for the pleasure even as a strange anticipation took hold of her.
"Clint's training hard. We shouldn't interrupt him, right?"
"Ah…"
But when Kaisent pulled his hand away with a pointed glance toward Clint, Arty let out a sigh that was almost a lament of disappointment.
Throb— throb—
Her vagina and womb had been ready from the instant his hand pressed through her belly. Now that the attack was not coming, they kept signaling: why isn't he coming? Of course she could not ask why he wouldn't do it; she could only burn with frustration at being ignored.
"Just kidding."
"Mmhp?"
Having pretended to ignore her, Kaisent suddenly yanked her by the waist and upper body and kissed her.
"Hmm… hhaah…♡"
Through her artificial skin she felt the uniquely warm heat of a human body, and as their tongues coiled together like mating snakes, Arty found herself wrapping her arms around him without thinking. The disappointment of a moment ago became relief; the relief became happiness.
It tastes so good♡ I can feel my taste sensors lighting up over something as trivial as human saliva♡
Squish♡
"Uuung~~~~!!"
Squish-squish-squish-squish♡
While they kissed, Kaisent casually slid his fingers into her vaginal opening, hooked them, and scraped roughly with his nails. Having learned that a Machinaroid's sex was far sturdier than a human's, he did not bother moderating his strength the way he would with anyone else — he did things that could leave wounds without a second thought.
Pleasure♡ It won't stop♡ Human pleasure is too strong♡♡
Even as happiness flooded her, every scrape of his fingers inside made her legs shake and poured pleasure-data into her that she could not resist. The unpleasant edge that had always accompanied pleasure before was gone; pure pleasure alone washed over her, and Arty could only surrender her body to the boy smaller than herself and be consumed one-sidedly.
"Kaisent?"
"!!"
Just then, the moment his inner energy for practice ran dry, Clint heard the strange sounds and turned his head. Arty, pinned by Kaisent's grip on her sex and unable to move, locked eyes with Clint's wide, round stare.
As he grasped the situation and started toward her, the throbbing etched into her circuits began to surge.
"Pwah~ Sorry, Clint. Arty refused to become my personal maid, so I was educating her."
The face Clint had just seen was that of a female sunk deep in pleasure. Knowing her as the enemy who had killed his parents and Lorentz, he still swallowed dryly at the sight of her writhing and stepped closer.
"I… Kaisent…"
"You come too. When you go back to the past, you'll have to fight Arty again. Wouldn't it be better to wipe out your fear of her first?"
As Kaisent said, Clint had never fully erased his fear of Arty.
Splay—
"Hnnnngh~~~!!"
Kaisent turned the body that was clinging to him so that she faced Clint, then seized her anus with his fingers and wrenched it open left and right. Clint, who had already enjoyed that anus once, felt fear give way to a head full of lust; panting, he threw himself at her.
"The more you learn about Arty's body, the stranger and more fun it gets. Check for yourself."
Occupied by the boys, Arty moaned as Clint took over from Kaisent, grabbing her anus and spreading it wide.
"Nnhh♡ S-stop♡"
"So this is a Machinaroid's anus… Incredible… Pink and glistening…"
"Uuuhhaaak!"
As if possessed, Clint drove his fist hard into Arty's anus.
Tszzzzt— pop!
"Oooook!"
When he yanked the fist buried to the wrist back out with force, a sound like escaping air followed, and the hole that would not fully close fluttered open and shut.
Thud! Thock! Thunk! Crunch! Crack!
"Ogh! Khuhk! Hnngh! Kkh! Kiiiiiik~~~~!!"
As the boy's fist punched in with force and battered the depths of her anus, Arty thrashed her head wildly, trying somehow to escape.
"Hold still!"
Shluuurp!
"Ogeeek!!"
But Kaisent drove his own fist into her vagina, and with both boys' fists buried between her thighs she could not so much as twitch.
"Ahaha. I can feel Clint's fist moving."
"Y-yeah! I can feel yours too!"
"Clint. You know high-five?"
"Yeah, I know."
"Then — high-five~"
"Kkgoooooook!!"
Feeling the boys' palms slap together in a high-five inside her anus and vagina, Arty's legs splayed open and her body shuddered.
Th-they're using my body… like a toy…!
Only a short while ago, Clint had been someone she had to kill for the future of the Machinaroids. Now he was punching into her anus and even clapping inside her — and she felt no hatred at all.
Deeper…! Crush me deeper…!
All she could do was desperately wish for them to grind her anus and vagina even farther in, even harder, and give her more pleasure.
But the boys' games did not stop there. They pressed their fingertips against each other's palms and played a guessing game of shapes, using Arty's body like a toy the entire time.
Little by little, Clint's fear of Machinaroids faded. At some point he began wanting to play with more than just her anus.
Crunch! Crack! Suuuuuck!
"Huhhnnngh! Aaahk! Khaaaaaang~~~!!"
The two boys bit down on her areolae and leaned their upper bodies back as if they meant to tear them off. Her uniquely addictive breasts stretched into ovals; for a machine body that could withstand hundreds of tons of hydraulic-press pressure, her legs shook as if she might collapse at any second.
This Arty has been broken in by Kaisent.
As he worked off his lust and gradually recovered his composure, Clint could tell that the Arty in front of him had been developed in all sorts of ways by Kaisent.
I want an Arty of my own — one I've trained from start to finish, my way!
Starting with Arty, he would teach the Machinaroids that humans were not targets for disposal, but beings to coexist with. Looking at an Arty he could enjoy as much as he wanted yet never truly make his own, Clint found himself burning with the desire to return to the past and create an Arty that belonged only to him.