Ventorino Kingdom - The Witch and Reunion (4)
Rachel had only meant to stop by Irena’s room before bed and say good night. In the course of a week, she had grown close to Yueli as well, but Irena had been the one who looked after her most. For that reason, Rachel had come to feel something like an older sister’s affection for her. Yueli felt more like a friend for some reason.
But there was no one in her room. After a brief moment’s thought, she headed toward Valdes’s room instead. No matter how she thought about it, it was hard to imagine Irena and Yueli being alone together.
As far as Rachel remembered, his room was the one farthest inside. She set her feet down carefully and walked down the corridor. As she drew near, she noticed something odd.
For some reason, the door was open. She could see no light leaking through the narrow gap, which meant the room inside was probably dark.
Did Irena leave after opening the door for him?
Thinking she should at least close it, Rachel approached the doorway and then froze at what she saw.
Inside the room, a naked man and woman were tangled together.
"W-what... w-w-wha—..."
Without meaning to, she let out a sound, but it didn’t seem to carry.
It was a witch’s house, so it seemed even the room itself was under some kind of spell. Otherwise, there was no way the bright light within could have failed to spill outside. Come to think of it, her own room had probably been the same.
Ah... t-this isn’t the important part.
She had worked in the pleasure quarter, so this was hardly the first time she had ever seen a man and woman in bed together. Sometimes some perverted customers would ask for food to be brought to their rooms, only to summon a prostitute and have themselves a filthy little romp.
Even when that wasn’t the case, the women of the pleasure quarter were, by nature, loose. Their bodies were their trade, after all. At times, they even did their business outside rather than in a room. So getting flustered made no sense.
Rachel panicked, shut the door, and was about to turn away.
...Gulp.
I should go back. I should go back, but...
For some reason, the hand holding the door would not move. Her eyes, sneaking a look inside, refused to look away.
She didn’t know why, but the sight of Valdes and Irena together was strangely stimulating and fascinating. There was something about it that kept her gaze locked in place.
Irena’s like that too... when she’s panting...
The sight of Irena—so intellectual, so calm and collected—now gasping for pleasure beneath a man was shocking in more ways than one.
The sound... I can’t hear anything.
Only then did she realize there was no sound at all. Not their moans, nor the slap of skin on skin. Neither reached her ears. This, too, had to be magic. A spell that let light and sound show through only when one looked directly inside, even if the door was open.
If I went farther in, I’d get caught, right?
Feeling a little regretful, she focused once more on the scene within.
She had already guessed their relationship was no ordinary one. No matter how hard Irena tried to hide it, whenever she looked at Valdes, her eyes always grew hot. Rachel wasn’t foolish enough to miss the desire hidden there.
Half-dazed, she stared at the bed and found herself thinking.
Is that how demons normally do it? Or...
What she had seen in the pleasure quarter had usually looked similar: the same positions, the same rhythms, the same feel.
But Valdes and Irena were different. They kept changing their posture, shifting their hips, showing one another all sorts of positions. Now and then, they even shared a deep kiss.
...Is that what real sex with love in it looks like...?
Rachel had been born not from ordinary love, but from adultery, prostitution, and revenge. Because of that, she had always been negative about the idea of love. Humans were filthy, unreliable, and driven only by pleasure. She could hardly even understand the concept itself.
She didn’t think the feelings she had for her mother were love either. She couldn’t explain it well, but she believed it was something else, not love. She had to believe that. She was the child of an enemy, an unwanted child.
...
To shake off the questions and gloom that welled up in her mind, she focused even more intently on the two of them. She opened her eyes wide and crept closer, stopping just short of stepping inside the room.
Valdes, who looked almost gentle and refined for a demon, grabbed Irena’s thighs, spread her wide, and drove into her with brutal force. Beneath him, Irena wore an expression of bliss so intense she looked ready to die of happiness. She couldn’t hear the sound, but the way her mouth opened wide made it easy to imagine the moans spilling out.
Before she knew it, only one thought filled the girl’s mind as she watched them.
Lewd. Incredibly, incredibly lewd.
She had thought working in the pleasure quarter had made her numb to such things, but watching the two of them made her body itch all over.
Her heart was pounding violently, and the space between her thighs burned hot. Even her face was flushing.
"...Haah..."
A strangely suggestive gasp slipped from somewhere.
For a moment, she wondered if someone was nearby, or whether she had accidentally stepped into the room. Then she realized it had come from her own mouth.
...I have to go. If I stay here any longer, it’ll be dangerous.
She repeated that to herself, but her hands and feet still would not move. On the contrary, the ache below only grew stronger, and before she knew it, she was rubbing her thighs together.
"Hngh..."
If I were receiving something like that...
"...what would it feel like?"
"Curious?"
Someone answered her private murmur.
“!!”
Startled, she whipped her head around, and there stood Yueli, her pink side tails let down, staring at her with a wicked smile.
"Ah... ah... ah..."
"Hmph~ I didn’t think it’d be you. You’re a pretty lewd little brat, aren’t you?"
"N-no, I, it’s not—"
"It’s fine, it’s fine. That just means my master really is that damn attractive."
"...U-uu..."
Rachel was mortified. Embarrassed didn’t begin to cover it. To be caught like this by someone she had only known for about a week was unbearable. She wanted to flee this place immediately, but the last scraps of reason left in her mind stopped her from giving in to the panic.
"You came to say good night and happened to see this, right? I noticed the door was a little open earlier."
"...Y-yes, that’s right..."
"Heh. Don’t you want to take a closer look?"
"...Huh?"
"Come inside with me. It’s fine. If we’re only watching, they’ll let us."
Still flustered, Rachel strained her brain and asked the question that had been bothering her.
"Um... Yueli onee-san, don’t you... like Lord Valdes too?"
"I do. So what?" Yueli blinked, then seemed to understand. "Ah. You didn’t know? My master has a lot of women. Honestly, it’s irritating, but what am I supposed to do when he’s that attractive? And if I throw a jealous fit, he might not even bother with me."
...
She still didn’t really understand it. She had heard that nobles sometimes practiced polygamy, but in reality it was rare. Unless the first wife had some problem, or the house was especially lowly, the moment a second wife appeared, the first wife’s family would raise a storm.
They had entered a political marriage to get what each side wanted, yet one wrong move could leave one side feeling used and discarded. She vaguely remembered hearing that unless the man was exceptional, or his family was exceptionally powerful, it was difficult to make such a thing work.
"You don’t really get it, do you? That’s because you’re still young, Rachel. You’ll understand when you’re older."
"...C-can I ask just one more thing...?"
"What is it?"
"If I... if I were to have a relationship with Valdes... what would King Marc feel?"
"...Huh?"
Yueli, unlike her usual self, looked genuinely taken aback by the question.
"Would he... sink even deeper into despair...?"
It was a question born from the word jealousy Yueli had used.
The day they first met, in the inn, Valdes had explained his plan. What he wanted was endless despair for Marc. He intended to take his wife, take his daughter, take his castle, and in the end, take his kingdom as well. And Rachel was the element that would twist that despair and old trauma even further.
The last surviving bloodline of Ventorino’s former royal family, the daughter born of adultery and betrayal. If Marc were told this at the right moment, the shock alone would be enormous.
But what if that daughter formed a relationship with the hero he had believed dead?
Valdes had never said he would reveal his true identity, but Rachel didn’t doubt for a second that he would. She believed revenge was not true revenge unless the target knew who had done it.
"...You’re not sane either, huh."
Yueli gave a dry laugh at the absurdity of it, but Rachel only smiled back.
"Can’t be helped, can it? I’m a child born for revenge."
Even Yueli found the smile strange—too dark, too chilling for something that should have belonged to a young girl.
The next day, Valdes’s group left the witch’s house as soon as they had finished breakfast.
The return trip would be the same as the journey there. They would have Yueli’s spirits pull the carriage and race all day until they reached the capital. This time, there would be no getting lost in the forest.
"Haah... I’m a little tired. I’ll sleep for a bit."
"Yes, please rest comfortably."
Not long after the carriage set off, Valdes fell asleep. No one disturbed him. The three of them knew perfectly well that he had stayed up all night.
"...He’s asleep."
"Are you all right, Irena?"
"I have the Crest of Vitality that young master engraved on me."
As she spoke, Irena stroked her lower abdomen. The sensation of feeling full made her happy. Of course, it wasn’t because she had eaten too much breakfast. In fact, she had eaten less than usual.
In the end, she had been able to fill her womb with Valdes’s seed just as she had wanted. Naturally, it wasn’t so much that she could no longer even feel the fluid sloshing inside her.
"Huh? Does that restore stamina or something? Isn’t it just a small boost of energy?"
"We did take breaks now and then, so I’m fine. Miss Yueli knows that well enough, don’t you?"
"Hm, fair enough."
"Honestly, I’m impressed you’re still acting normal."
"Well, I received the semen of the person I love~. Of course I’m going to feel energized as a woman!"
Irena was at a loss for words at Yueli’s answer. Even if Valdes wasn’t awake to hear it, to say something like that so casually... It made her own reply seem strange by comparison.
"...You really are shameless."
"Heh. That’s why I told you only after my master was asleep, didn’t I?"
"If he hadn’t been asleep, I would’ve been angry. I already disliked the fact that you barged in halfway through to begin with..."
"Oh? Still, I waited a little before going in. It was around three in the morning, wasn’t it? I checked around noon, too, but you two were rolling around too fiercely, so I went back to my room~."
"...? You came by the door?"
"Yep. It was a little open."
"...Ah."
Come to think of it, the moment she opened the door, she had thrown herself into Valdes’s arms. Then she had kissed him, given herself over to instinct, pushed him onto the bed, and lavished him with caresses. Of course she hadn’t had time to check whether the door was properly closed, and since they had done all that right in front of it, it made sense that it had been left open.
"S-sorry... I messed up..."
"No, no. Thanks to it, our little Rachel got an eyeful."
"Huh?"
"O-onee-san!!"
At the sudden mention of her name, Rachel jumped and turned her back to the two of them. She hadn’t actually asked them to keep it secret, but she had never dreamed they would say it so plainly.
Seeing Rachel glare at her with wounded resentment, Yueli only smiled.
"It’s fine, it’s fine. Irena has a broad heart for a succubus."
"..."
"Uuugh..."
"More importantly, Rachel made an interesting proposal."
"An interesting proposal?"
While Rachel buried her reddened face in her clothes, Yueli told Irena about what she had said the night before. After hearing the whole story, Irena let out an admiring “Oh?” and looked at Rachel. Feeling that gaze, the girl could not bring herself to lift her head.
"It’s all right, Rachel. Leaving the door open was my mistake. It was perfectly understandable. More importantly, are you all right?"
"Y-yes?"
"Even so, you’re a girl. To think you could so easily..."
"Does that matter?"
"Hm?"
It was Yueli who reacted to the girl’s puzzled question.
"Does my body, or something like my virginity, really have that much value? If I can use it for revenge... I think I should use everything I can."
"..."
"..."
At Rachel’s utterly matter-of-fact tone, Irena and Yueli were both left speechless. Then they looked at each other and exchanged a glance. The two of them didn’t always get along and often clashed, but this time they were in complete agreement.
Rachel...
Let’s make her into a proper girl.
"...?"
Rachel tilted her head, not understanding why the older women were reacting that way, and just then the carriage suddenly lurched and came to a stop.
"Kyaa!"
"An ambush?"
"...No. This is..."
Valdes opened his eyes at the faint presence outside.
"Huh? Don’t tell me..."
He opened the carriage window and saw her.
"It has been a long time, my son."
"Demon Queen?"
The woman he loved most of all—the Demon Queen.