Chapter 183: Sex is Business. (3)
Chapter 183: Sex is Business. (3)
The woman, Claudia, entered the rental shop when her turn came.
Inside, the shop was organized like a library. Magic stones were lined up on the shelves, each accompanied by a small placard.
"Women...?"
They were illustrations of women in suggestive clothing.
As if to advertise the contents of the magic stones, the covers featured images that made it immediately clear what kind of sex was inside.
The backside of a woman cooking in a kitchen wearing nothing but an apron.
A woman smiling seductively while gripping the cocks of two men in her hands.
Three women pressing their breasts together while looking up.
"...This is incredible."
The faces.
The body types.
And the sexual scenarios.
The covers, where those three elements harmonized perfectly, would undoubtedly set any man’s imagination ablaze.
The moment they felt they just had to see that imagination brought to life, men would instinctively reach for the magic stones.
"Whew."
Claudia gripped a magic stone with trembling hands.
The large crystal orb, perfectly sized to be held in one hand, was brimming with mana. Claudia placed it into her basket.
The cover next to the stone she chose depicted a woman in a torn white dress wearing a tiara.
She was posed as if she were a princess of a fallen royal family about to be violated by an enemy general or a pack of orcs.
Why?
Why did she choose this?
If there was a reason she chose this specific one when she could have picked anything, it was surely because of Messalina.
How many times had she seen it?
The sight of that wanton woman receiving creampies from men multiple times a day.
If you added up all the sex acts contained in this shop, would they even equal the number of times Messalina had done it?
A woman who was crazy for sex every single day, 365 days a year—a woman who valued being plowed by men above anything else in the world—might actually enjoy something like this.
Grit.
Claudia bit her lower lip.
If.
If, hypothetically, a war broke out with the Empire, and the Kingdom was defeated, and she ended up like this...
Messalina might enjoy being raped in the middle of a plaza, but Claudia never could.
To prepare for any potential danger, she had decided to live as Claudia, not Messalina.
"Oh, damn. Princess violation sex..."
A man whose heavy breathing and disheveled appearance made her wonder if he’d even washed recently stood in front of the AV Claudia had just picked.
"The cover is killer. This totally looks like Messal—urgh."
The man turned away, gagging as if nauseated.
"I can't even jerk off because she reminds me of that lewd queen. Ugh, that black clam..."
After the man left.
Claudia realized his face looked somewhat familiar.
"Ah."
That man.
He was one of the men who had had sex with Messalina.
"...Was it the martial arts tournament?"
It was when Messalina had invited all eight finalists of the Royal Martial Arts Tournament to her bed.
—Suck it, now. It's a royal command.
He was the man who had been forced to lick Messalina's pussy.
A cover that made a man who loathed Messalina recoil.
The fact that he thought of Messalina the moment he saw the cover meant that Queen Messalina's notoriety—or rather, her infamy—had spread even here to Fermaton.
In other words, Claudia could move somewhat freely in the meantime.
Without a single attendant, she had come to Fermaton using only her personal strength to gather information directly.
"...This one too."
Just like she was doing now, picking a cover that looked like the daughter of a fallen noble family who had just been sold into slavery to a corrupt aristocrat.
Without worrying about the eyes of others, Claudia freely gathered more and more information.
"...Now I just need to buy them, but why is the line so long?"
After following the queue toward the counter for about twenty minutes, Claudia toyed with the magic stones in her basket, watching the people ahead of her who seemed to be writing a lot of information down.
"Welcome, guest. Could you start by signing up for a membership?"
"Member...ship?"
"To ensure strict management of magic stone distribution, this rental shop records the names and addresses of our members. Don't worry. We will never misuse your information. We swear it on the name of Fermaton."
"Um... I'm just here on an errand."
"Even if you're here on an errand, you must provide your personal information. If you've come from far away, please write down your territory and address accurately."
"Ugh."
Claudia was slightly flustered by the succubus clerk's words, but she quickly transcribed the details from the fake ID she had prepared in advance.
"Living at 130th Street, District 4, in the Viscountcy of Sirjosia..."
"Nero."
"Yes, customer. The rental period is one week."
Claudia spoke her alias clearly as she rented the magic stones.
"If a week passes, it will be considered overdue, and there may be restrictions on your use, so please make sure to return them on time."
For 20 gold.
* * *
One thousand won.
In the modern era, that’s barely enough to buy a decent canned coffee.
But there’s a certain sentimentality to a thousand won.
When you see a Salvation Army kettle, if you have a thousand-won bill left in your wallet, you feel an inexplicable urge to toss it in.
—Scan this QR code to donate automatically.
—Aren't you the Salvation Army?
—Ah, well, the thing is, we're actually...
Wait, maybe not.
Anyway, a thousand won is a subtle amount.
Ten thousand won feels like a significant sum, but a thousand won is something you tend to spend without much thought.
—1,000-won punch!
There is a world where you can manipulate someone's emotions or raise your own voice for just a thousand won.
Wealthy people will gladly spend five or ten thousand, but the minimum unit of a thousand won is something people use without hesitation.
That’s why I set the weekly rental price for the porn rental shop at 1,000 won.
One thousand won for one jerk-off session.
The reason I chose this price was because of its relationship with our existing businesses.
—What? Ten thousand won to watch an AV? For that much money, I'd rather just have a dream fap or go bang a succubus.
Compared to dream faps and actual sex, which already have established price points, AVs shouldn't be priced similarly.
So, I set it at 10 gold, which carries the value of a thousand won.
That way, it’s bound to spread widely through underground channels.
"Yoanna. Do you trust people?"
"I do not trust the people of the Empire."
"I don't look at anyone without prejudice unless they've grabbed my cock—or decided to grab it."
While having tea with Yoanna, I was explaining how this '1,000-won punch' would eventually bring down the Empire.
"People, you see, value immediate gain over the importance of 'information.' Even though they register their information at the rental shop, they don't return the items on time. The recovery rate probably won't even reach 80%."
That’s just how rental shops are.
Even in reality, when a rental shop is run properly, all sorts of villains appear. Would an isekai be any different?
"Here, you can rent one for 10 gold, but what if you take that rented AV to the Kingdom or the Empire and sell it?"
"It would certainly sell for a much higher price than actual sex."
"Exactly. Resellers will run rampant. And I made it that way on purpose."
Humans will ruthlessly discard their conscience if they think they can gain even a little bit of profit.
"I intentionally increased the accessibility of AVs. Even the miners digging for magic stones in the Fermaton Infinite Labyrinth can easily rent porn for just 10 gold."
It’s cheaper than a bottle of soju.
Cheaper than a pack of cigarettes.
Even if they only enjoy it for three minutes while watching an AV, they’ll be satisfied that those three minutes were well worth the thousand won.
"If the resellers in the Empire manipulate the data and sell it, let them. How great is it that they're spreading porn throughout the Empire for us?"
"It is a desirable phenomenon. Once the AVs spread uncontrollably, the entire Empire will begin to falter."
"Right. When they realize that the porn they thought was the exclusive privilege of the high nobility costs less than a bottle of beer in Fermaton, everyone in the Empire will be so sick with envy they won't be able to sit still."
If a premium video someone bought for 50,000 won turned out to be stolen goods from a rental shop...
Who wouldn't be furious?
"Well, honestly, whether porn can actually bring down the Empire is still an unknown. It's vague whether this is realistically possible, and no one knows how the Empire will react to this pornography. Not yet."
The Empire is a sturdy fortress.
But no matter how sturdy a fortress is, if water slowly seeps in from below and erodes the ground, the walls will eventually start to crumble.
The spread of culture starting from primal human desires.
Sex will ultimately become the new wind that brings change to the Empire.
"The seeds have been sown. Now we just have to wait for them to germinate. In the meantime, we can tend to other seeds."
Whether that’s the replacement of the Empire's ruler or the collapse of the Empire as a nation.
And.
"Selling AVs is one thing, but I'm planning to create something else. Yoanna, I absolutely need you for this."
"What would you like me to do?"
"It's simple. As the winner of the Breast Cup, I just need you to wear a certain outfit."
This other beginning will be this:
"Could you walk around the streets of Fermaton wearing a swimsuit for a while?"
A swimsuit.
"The 21st floor of the Infinite Labyrinth that we're currently conquering. I'm going to build a new cultural facility there."
In the very center of the continent, we will enjoy the sea.
"A Water Park where we can immediately deal with any magical creatures that appear."
The area from the 21st to the 30th floor of the Infinite Labyrinth.
"And people will walk around there in swimsuits. Some might even put on their swimsuits before they even enter the labyrinth. Hehehe."
From now on, this place becomes Fermaton's beach.
I will create it.
A city where swimsuits are everyday outdoor wear.