The Last Hero (3)
What the hell is wrong with her?
I'd been wondering who would come looking for me in the middle of the night — and it turned out to be Aji.
Well... was something the matter?
I couldn't begin to guess why she'd sought me out. One thing, however, was painfully clear: Aji's condition was extremely strange.
"Hah... hah... nngh...♡"
She looked like she was in pain, yet at the same time she was writhing and twisting her body. Her face was flushed, and she was burning hot to the touch.
At first I thought she might have caught a cold, but this was something else entirely.
What on earth...? I began examining her carefully, and before long I understood the cause.
She's in heat?
Beastmen did have that trait...
Every beastman went through a period called a heat cycle. When it hit, their libido supposedly surged — or something along those lines. Anyway, I vaguely recalled that such a thing existed.
I didn't know the details. I wasn't some beastman researcher; I'd only picked up the information from Nafira, who'd once been a companion in the Hero's party.
Nafira never really showed it, as I recall.
The intensity of heat probably varied from beastman to beastman. The smarter ones, like Nafira, were said to be able to keep it under control.
Aji, though, clearly was not one of those.
The way she looked at me was scorching. Like she might pounce at any second—
"Nngh..."
She actually pounced.
Aji threw herself at me, shoving hard with every intention of knocking me down. But even with my strength held back, I wasn't about to topple over for the likes of Aji.
Failing to bring me down, she simply clung to my clothes and started nuzzling her face against me, gazing up with pleading eyes that begged me to relieve her right then and there.
"What a pain..."
Of course, I had absolutely zero intention of doing anything with Aji.
I just stood there with an awkward look on my face, trying to figure out how to handle this mess.
I can't exactly sleep with a kid like her.
Not that I was clueless about how to fix the situation. The solution to a beastman's heat was simple enough: just relieve the sexual urge. Heat wasn't some kind of disease — one good release and her body would probably settle down right away.
The method was straightforward. I just couldn't use it.
The reason was simple: I didn't want to do it with Aji.
Don't get the wrong idea here. It wasn't that I had no sex drive. I was a man; attractive women stirred desire in me same as anyone else.
The problem was that, by my standards, Aji simply wasn't an attractive woman.
Which made this whole situation extremely awkward for me.
If only she'd been a fully grown adult beastman, this would have been so much easier...
"No choice, then."
In the end, there was nothing else for it. If I couldn't take that particular route, there was only one way left to resolve this.
I slowly rose to my feet, stepped toward Aji — and in an instant began tying her up.
"Mmph...!?"
"Stay put until you calm down."
She put up quite a fight. Being bound seemed to distress her; she thrashed and struggled with everything she had. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't overpower me.
In the end Aji was thoroughly restrained, reduced to staring up at me without even the ability to speak.
"Mmph... nngh... mmphh."
Why was she looking at me with those pitiful eyes...?
I felt a twinge of sympathy, but leaving her like that for a while should settle her down.
I turned my back on her and returned to bed, figuring she'd be fine by the time I woke up.
Did he just grab my ass?
Karne, the elf of the Hero's party, was seething with rage.
There was no mistaking it — the Hero Jacks had stealthily groped her backside. The moment no one was looking, he'd put his hand right on her rear.
This was a clear crime. Sexually harassing a party member was not something she could ever forgive, and Karne fully intended to confront him about it.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Wow. He was shameless on top of everything else.
Jacks's reaction was so brazen it left her speechless. He'd touched her like that, and now he was going to play dumb?
His attitude only stoked Karne's fury further.
To me — a pure-blooded elf — this kind of humiliation...
Karne, daughter of the elven chieftain. She was one of the vanishingly few pure-blooded elves remaining among her people, and she took immense pride in that fact.
True, her people's dependence on the Empire to protect the World Tree meant she no longer looked down on humans the way she had as a child. But that didn't mean she'd lost her pride as an elf.
She genuinely believed elves possessed superior bloodlines to humans, and she carried that sense of racial superiority with her always.
And now some worthless human had dared to molest that body without permission...
Her pride had taken a deep wound. The humiliation was so intense she wanted to kill him on the spot.
"Karne? What's wrong?"
"Is something the matter...?"
But in this moment, Karne had no choice but to endure.
She could see her fellow party members approaching with worried looks in their eyes.
Ugh... she couldn't even get angry.
The others were shooting her pointed glances, one after another. They didn't seem entirely ignorant of what had happened. They could probably guess that Jacks had done something to her.
And yet, separate from that knowledge, they desperately hoped she wouldn't make a scene.
After everything it had taken to get this chance...
This might truly be their last opportunity. If Jacks abandoned them too, their goal would become impossible to achieve.
So they silently pleaded with Karne to just bear it.
"Ah... it's nothing. There must have been a bug."
Endure it... just endure it.
In the end, Karne couldn't ignore those looks from her companions. She decided to let the matter drop.
It wasn't only for their sake — this was critically important to her as well.
The World Tree was withering to the brink of death. If they failed to save it, the elves would be the ones to suffer. Saving it required the Empire's aid — and the Hero's help was essential.
As a representative of the elven people, she felt the crushing weight of that responsibility. She simply couldn't afford to lose her temper.
If she blew up now and split from Jacks, there would be no coming back from it.
It was a mistake... just a mistake.
She knew full well it was no accident, but she ground her teeth and forced herself to call it one.
"That bug must really like you, Lady Karne."
Watching her swallow it down, Jacks spoke as if relieved — a shameless grin on his face that looked more like a provocation than anything else.
"An elf's body does give off such a sweet fragrance, after all."
No — he was actively taunting her. Jacks lifted the hand that had groped her and sniffed it.
She wanted to throw up.
This was blatant sexual harassment, plain and simple.
Just hold on a little longer... we'll only be together for a week, two at most.
Rage surged up her throat, but she forced it back down once more. If she'd had to spend a year or more with a Hero like this, she never could have endured it — but she wouldn't need to stay that long.
From here to the Demon Realm, plus the time to slay the Demon King — all of it together wouldn't even take a full month. She couldn't afford to ruin everything over a mere month of patience.
Karne gritted her teeth and endured.
"Shall we get moving again? We'll need a carriage — I'll go flag one down."
And so the Hero's party prepared to set out for the Demon Realm once more. Given the considerable distance, a carriage was a necessity.
Luna, the party's mage, had just offered to fetch one and was about to leave when—
"Urgh..."
What now?
Without warning, the Hero collapsed where he stood. Clutching his chest, face twisted in apparent agony, he groaned — and the entire party rushed to his side at once.
"Huh? Hero, what's wrong?"
"Saintess... I believe I've fallen ill."
Fallen ill? Just like that?
Looking at the Hero's face, the party members seemed unable to make sense of the sudden turn. Who collapses in the middle of a city street claiming to be sick? Could it be an ambush by some hidden demon?
"Pardon...? I don't know what kind of illness it is, but I'll heal you right away..."
Whatever the cause, a collapsed Hero was bad news. He needed treatment immediately.
Ayla, the party's Saintess, began gathering her holy power. As a Saintess, restoring and healing others was her specialty. Ordinary illness stood no chance against her power.
"Urgh..."
"Wh-what? The healing isn't working?"
But the Saintess's power seemed to have no effect whatsoever. The Hero continued to writhe in apparent pain, and the party members stared in panic.
What kind of disease could possibly resist even a Saintess's power?
They stood frozen, unsure what to do, when—
"Saintess... the illness I've contracted isn't that sort of thing..."
Still sounding agonized, the Hero forced the words out. He was trying to tell them what ailed him, and the party hung on every syllable.
"Would you be so kind as to let me rest my head upon your lap?"
"Excuse me?"
"If you'd just give me a lap pillow, I think I'd recover in no time..."
You know what? Maybe I should just hit him.