The Red Kangaroo's Clumsy Seduction
A suspicious woman in pajamas paced restlessly in front of a firmly shut door. The red kangaroo. Beltein was currently lost in deep anguish. She had never assumed she could hide Lazis's whereabouts forever, but she never dreamed it would come to light this quickly. She couldn't even begin to pinpoint what mistake she had made or where. They were transcendent beings whose power and wisdom placed them so far beyond a mere criminal like herself that comparison was impossible. The best she could manage was a vague guess that they must have used some special means available only to them, just as they had accurately identified her and the priest from a distance. In reality, it was nothing more than two people who happened to visit the bookstore at the same time running into each other by chance.
"I've roughly pieced together what's going on from what I heard out of your little minion. I'll specially overlook the fact that you tried to deceive us—this one time. Right now, call that bastard over here immediately."
It was a painful blunder that the internal situation had completely leaked thanks to her aide, Sister Marianne, but there was nothing to be done about it. The Divine Archer. Apis. The fearsome figure said to have wiped out hundreds of monsters from an entire mountain away using nothing but her bow and arrows. Keeping a secret in front of someone like that would be a daunting ordeal even for most guardian priests. Beltein's heart was not hardened enough to blame young Marianne—a girl who had not even undergone her coming-of-age ceremony—for spilling the secret. Rather, the abnormal one was the man who could hold a casual conversation in the face of such volcanic pressure.
What should she do? Beltein asked herself. In truth, no matter how much she racked her brain, she knew better than anyone that there was no way to break out of the current situation. Priest Haren, Lazis's direct senior from his training days. After grasping the rough relationship between Lazis and the Hero's party based on information obtained by inquiring about him, she had maintained the connection through vile threats—every time Lazis mentioned wanting to quit his role as exclusive guardian priest, she would reveal his location to the Hero's party. That pathetic, one-sided power dynamic was the only chain capable of keeping Lazis tied to the Saintess's side.
Therefore, now that his whereabouts had been exposed to the Hero's party, it was safe to say Beltein no longer possessed any means to bind him. If his person were to fall back into their hands like this, the Saintess's mental state—which had shown noticeable improvement lately—might deteriorate once more. But.
"P-please wait a moment! Lady Apis! This may be presumptuous, but you cannot separate Priest Lazis from the current Saintess for any significant length of time! One year—no! Half a year—no, even three months would be fine! Could you not transfer custody of Lazis to us for the time being…?"
"Transfer?"
That ferocious killing intent, like an arrow driven straight into her heart, had taken root inside Beltein's body and continued to shake her heart without pause even now.
"You seem to be misunderstanding something. I didn't come here to take that guy away. I came to persuade him. I didn't come to retrieve a deposited object. I came to win back a comrade whose opinion has temporarily diverged. You humans are always like this. The moment you think the other party is beneath you, you start treating them like some object. Acting like you're hot shit. It's disgusting."
"L-Lady Apis…"
"I'm pissed that you deceived us and made the Hero cry, but I'll let it slide just this once. The Hero was also wrong to suddenly try to cut you down with a sword. But know that there's a limit to what I can endure for the sake of appearances. If another careless remark treating my comrade like a thing slips out of your mouth, this hot-headed me might do something even I can't predict. Got it?"
"T-that is…"
"I said, got it?"
"Yes! I-I understand…"
"Good. Then stop yapping and call that bastard over quickly. Besides, this place is crawling with clergy. Does it make any sense that there's no one who can replace him? Don't slack off—look around properly. I don't know your circumstances, but on our end, we can't function without that guy."
As expected, it was exactly as she had feared. Just as anticipated, he was an indispensable existence to the Hero's party. They had no intention of giving up on Lazis. Apis's method of persuading him could be guessed without difficulty simply by observing her attire and the faint scent of high-quality perfume drifting from her body.
Seduction. It was hard to imagine Lazis—who could be called a model priest when it came to preserving purity—falling for a woman's temptation. Yet Apis's utterly confident attitude, which showed not the slightest trace of anxiety, exerted an undeniable influence on Beltein's judgment. After all, they had been comrades who had shared joys and hardships for years. It would not be strange for her to have a rough understanding of her comrade's tastes in the opposite sex. Or perhaps the beauty trap was merely groundwork to lower the other's guard, and a separate, true plan had been prepared.
"Ugh…"
Beltein unconsciously covered her flushed face with both hands, but since those hands were just as red as her face, it was a completely futile gesture. A school uniform with twin tails. It was quite an unusual preference, she thought, yet for someone who had been forced to drop out of the Academy due to unavoidable circumstances, harboring lingering attachment to the very uniform that symbolized the Academy might actually be a natural reaction. Beltein thought so.
If things continued this way, she might lose the only pillar capable of supporting the Saintess's unstable mental condition. It was exactly then.
A faint spark of inspiration flashed through Beltein's tormented mind. In that case, there was only one method.
"G-gulp."
Beltein, who had suddenly swallowed hard, finished reaching a certain resolution. A firm determination flickered in her clear eyes. Not even when she had pressed a red-hot iron to her own face had her heart felt this solemn.
"For Welna's sake…!"
Her resolute footsteps carried her off somewhere.
Suddenly, someone's words comparing biological older sisters to mackerel floated up in my mind. Just like when a mackerel steps out of the shower in the family bathroom and all you can think is, Ah, why is that here? No matter how beautiful your sister's appearance might be. Even if that sister was fully decked out in makeup and accessories. The saying that it was all just a mackerel transforming into a striped beakfish echoed vividly inside my thoughts at this very moment, for some reason.
"How about this!"
"..."
Apis had pinned both my hands with one of hers and fixed them firmly above my head. With her other hand she roughly yanked at the buttons of her outer garment as she spoke to me, full of vigor. It looked like she was about to cover my body with her own. The hot body heat transmitted through our touching skin. The fragrant scent that only a female body was permitted to possess. Even the slender strands of hair tickling my face. Every single thing was sensual and captivating. It was enough to make me naturally wonder whether this was a collection of sculptures created solely to stimulate a man's heart. Adding an elf's unique mystical appearance on top of that was truly the finishing touch.
I had always thought so, but Apis was among all the elf women I had ever seen—and honestly, among all the women I had ever seen—one of the most beautiful.
"What about now! Don't you feel all hot and bothered!? Any strength surging down below? Any urge to mate?"
If she would just keep her mouth shut.
"Look, Apis…"
"Shh!"
It was rather bizarre how she would ask a question and then immediately press her index finger to my lips every time I tried to speak. After that, the way she slid that same finger from my lips to my neck, chest, and stomach—as if running across piano keys—was honestly a little frightening.
"Hehe!"
Apis looked down at me triumphantly with an awkward smile that only lifted the corners of her mouth. Those venomous eyes, like a beast's glowing gaze in the dark, were definitely focused on me. Yet the way she kept sneaking glances at her own palm made it easy to guess that she had written something there.
"Next is… Um… Ahem! C-call me big sister!"
Big sister, why are you doing this to me? Her tone was so painfully awkward it was embarrassing just to watch. And I was the type of person with such strong empathy that I could simply gloss over cringe-worthy scenes in dramas.
Every time she spoke or moved, shame and hesitation poured out of Apis like water from a broken fountain. Watching her was like looking at a malfunctioning robot with foreign objects jammed into every joint.
"Ha! So you still won't fall for it. That's what I get for trying to seduce a priest, huh!"
"..."
I occasionally attempted to move, but the so-called mounting position—with her buttocks pressing down on my abdomen—combined with the monstrous strength that let her effortlessly restrain both my hands with just one of hers, made escape seem impossible.
"Hmm, in times like this…"
Then, exactly like a student sneaking a peek at a cheat sheet, Apis stared hard at her palm for several seconds before resuming her performance.
"Hmph!"
With her top hanging open and glimpses of bare skin showing, Apis cupped the underside of her breasts with one hand. She smiled brightly at me and declared,
"If you say you'll come back to the party! I'll let you touch these! No! I'll let you do whatever you want with them!"
It was a tempting offer no man could possibly resist. If you searched the entire world, you would never find a single man who would say, "Ah, I'm not really in the mood to touch breasts today." That was how terrifying the demonic allure of those two mounds of flesh on a woman's body truly was. Their status was like a planet possessing gravity that pulled only toward men. And if the woman possessing such luscious fruit also happened to have a face far above average, the resulting gravitational force could only be described as lethal.
But, in what could only be called a miracle, my heart at this moment was clear—without even a speck of cloud called lust. Maybe it was thanks to finally having a refreshing morning after so long. Or perhaps it was because Apis's way of speaking was so far removed from the word "seduction" that it reminded me of a little boy saying, "Hey, our house has some really cool toys—wanna come see?" with pure innocence.
Even I couldn't precisely define what I was feeling. But I could say with absolute certainty that the emotion stirring in my chest right now was far closer to the bewilderment of being attacked by a muscular red kangaroo than to excitement at being pounced on by a female acquaintance.
"Alright… Next is…"
"Sigh… Apis. Enough with the jokes…"
It was right then that Apis grabbed my pants zipper in a firm grip.
"Take off the top… and take off the pants…"
Wait a minute.