Chapter 65. Banging the Heartbroken Receptionist
Chapter 65. Banging the Heartbroken Receptionist
If I'd been a different operative from the Demon King's army, this moment might well have marked the end of this generation's hero party.
I could've pulled another agent from our side into the party I'd already infiltrated and arranged its annihilation from the inside out.
But what is the Demon King's army, at its core?
It's an organization largely composed of men who aren't truly loyal to the Demon King—just men looking to grab their own share while waging war against humanity.
Naturally, there's no one you can trust even among your own side. So the fact that I'd seized control of the hero party—humanity's great hope—had to remain absolutely hidden.
Which meant I intended to take recruitment seriously, without entertaining any foolish ideas about bringing in a colleague.
After all, I myself was a bastard who'd joined the Demon King's army for my own gain, and my top priority had always been to eliminate anyone who got in the way of that gain.
"...That aside, how exactly am I supposed to find a party member?"
Yeah, no matter how temporary the stand-in, this person would have to officially support the Hero and an Archmage.
Even if I didn't explain the full circumstances, I needed someone who could fill the role of the currently absent party member—or at least operate a tier below that—so we'd be ready when the full party assembled.
And while the details hadn't been revealed, my guess was that the person originally selected was someone with a record of serving in the previous hero party a century ago.
If they were a long-lived species like an elf, they'd be perfectly capable of filling a role spanning multiple human generations.
But a sniper with skills on par with a former member of the previous hero party—there was no way I could find someone like that so easily...
Wait. Wasn't there one elf?
"Heira. That was her name."
A young elf who'd entered this city while hiding her identity.
The meeting had been entirely by chance, and we'd parted after I erased her memory, but since she'd been at a tavern where adventurers gathered, there was a high chance she was still in this city.
Sure, she looked young, but even so, she'd lived five times longer than Ymir and Serika, who'd barely scraped past twenty years apiece. Her innate senses, not to mention her experience, would vastly surpass those of any ordinary human. If I had to name the best available talent I could immediately recruit, she'd be the one.
Objectively speaking, that is.
"...No."
But personally, I was still reluctant to drag her into this.
"Definitely not. That girl is..."
I'd gotten far more immersed in the act with her than I'd ever expected. Knowing how dangerous feelings like that were, I'd gone so far as to refuse even traveling together and had erased her memory precisely to leave no lingering attachment.
Not reviving those memories was fine enough, but if I met her again and my feelings shifted, it could lead to trouble.
So now, and in the future as well, I would not be the one to approach her.
Yes, my encounter with her had to end there...
"...Stop thinking about other things and focus on the job."
Just as I was shoving thoughts of Heira aside and moving forward, my eyes caught sight of someone slumped on a bench in the middle of the path.
A woman in her late twenties with long blue hair tied back. Her face was definitely familiar, but unlike when she worked at the office, she was dressed up quite nicely.
"...Martina?"
The name surfaced immediately.
She was definitely the receptionist at the Adventurer's Guild. I'd been indebted to her when I was looking for a party to conquer Ymir. Seeing her sitting on a bench during the guild's active hours—that couldn't help but snag my attention.
The people who know adventurers best are guild staff, and as a receptionist, she'd know plenty about famous adventurers.
"...Sniff."
But why was she sitting on a bench with her head down, crying?
I approached with interest, but she was so absorbed in her own emotions she didn't even notice my presence.
"Hic, sob..."
Tears wetting her eyelashes dripped down like jade beads, pattering softly against the ring on her finger.
A silver ring worn on her ring finger—usually a token proving one had a lover, and the direction of her sorrow was aimed straight at it.
"How could you do that? Why..."
Pouring out her grievances toward the ring she'd bought with her lover...
Ah, right. I more or less understood. Now that I thought about it, she'd been in a long-distance relationship.
With letters as the only means of contact, unless they'd set up something like a shared home, the relationship falling apart was foreseeable at any time.
And a woman with a hole in her heart is always a good tool to exploit. I could use this. The moment that thought formed, I closed the distance and spoke to her.
"Are you all right?"
"Ah, n-no. I'm... Hck!"
The instant she recognized me, Martina sucked in a sharp breath. Her wide-open eyes and frozen breathing told me she felt fear toward me.
"...D-Dave?"
Of course. A man who'd forced himself on her while pretending to be drunk, when she already had a lover—it'd be stranger if she wasn't shocked to see him appear.
"Seeing you dressed up, I thought maybe you'd taken leave to go on a date with your lover. Did something bad happen?"
"Th-this has nothing to do with you, Dave!"
Was it because she wanted to put distance between us no matter what? She hastily wiped her tears, grabbed her things, and abruptly stood up from the bench.
Turning her back happened in the blink of an eye.
"Are you certain you're all right?"
But stopping her wouldn't take much effort.
Just one sentence. As long as I simply expressed my desire to sympathize with her feelings.
"...You don't need to concern yourself."
"But you look so lonely."
Yes, a person whose heart has been weakened will ultimately seek somewhere to lean.
If she'd had trouble with her lover, a sense of defiance would actually make her accept my presence even more deeply.
In fact, unable to bring herself to brush off my call, she stood frozen in place, stealing glances at me again and again.
"If something's weighing on you, please speak frankly."
I stepped closer to her and spoke quietly.
"Has your lover been too busy with work to go on a date?"
Pretending not to have noticed what I'd already figured out, I probed at her wounds by innocently asking about something she'd be sensitive to.
"No, it's not that he's too busy with work..."
A reflexive retort.
Belatedly, she realized I'd maneuvered her into answering, but words once spoken couldn't be taken back.
Yes, she'd already let it slip.
"...He told me he wanted to break up."
So there was no helping it if she said more.
As if resigning herself to that thought, unable to contain the surge of emotion rising up, she soon raised a hand to her eyes.
"I waited. He came to the meeting spot with a new lover, and then he... right in front of me...!"
The voice that broke forth in sorrow told me how immense her sense of betrayal toward him was.
As if it laid bare just how deeply she had truly loved him.
"How could you do that? I waited for you so long, how could you...!"
"That's rough."
I closed the distance, placed a hand on her shoulder, and worked to calm her emotions.
"That's truly unfortunate. You waited so long, and your lover betrayed you, Martina..."
"D-don't come any closer."
"No, I can't do that. I'm indebted to you from before, Martina."
Did she belatedly realize she'd given me permission? She panicked and stepped backward, but paying that no mind, I tightened the hand on her shoulder and readied myself to wrap her in my arms.
"As an apology and repayment for that time—just a little. I'd like to comfort you..."
"I don't need that...!"
-Smack!
Right at that moment, a sharp, ringing pop echoed out.
As her gesture to push me away and her cry died down in an instant, I seized her chin and pulled it up toward me in one smooth motion.
"I hold the initiative. Not you."
Conveniently enough, the effects of the drug Ymir had given me had worn off by now.
That meant I couldn't use wide-range hypnosis, and even if she'd been hypnotized before, I couldn't hypnotize her if she was on guard against me.
Yet the fact that my power still took effect meant that, unconsciously, she wasn't rejecting me.
"Martina."
Meeting her eyes, I quietly asked her a question.
"What do you want me to do to you?"
The only thing being compelled was that she lay her innermost feelings bare.
Answering that question, faithful solely to her own will, Martina whispered to me in a tear-choked voice.
"...Just stay beside me. Just for a little while."
Clutching tightly at the hem of my clothes, making her previous struggle to flee seem utterly meaningless.
***
Before she'd gotten involved with me, Martina was a woman who'd had sexual experience maybe only once before.
Her lover had pursued a pure love with her, so he'd met with her under a policy of minimizing physical relations.
But in my experience, purity is never truly permitted in relationships between people.
No matter how much a holy knight like Berdia pursues noble honor, no matter if someone is a priestess serving a god, in the end, they act because they believe the one they serve will grant their wishes. That's all.
Since that same principle applies to relationships premised on love—family or lovers—the fact that her lover ended up having an affair with another woman was, in a way, foreseeable.
"...It's a bit awkward for me to say this."
Without even knowing that simple fact... No, believing that even turning a blind eye to it was the path to being rewarded by her own heart, she endured and endured again.
"You're truly pitiful, Martina."
And at the end of it all, to comfort herself after being cast aside, she let herself be toyed with by a man even more worthless than the one before. Such a wretched sight.
As I looked down bitterly at the pitiable woman, she slowly lifted her cum-slathered face toward me.
"Ugh..."
A vulgar sight—eyes rolled back and tongue hanging out despite being defiled. Yet there was something you could call happiness in it.
"Ahhh~♥"
The pleasure derived from the act with me.
As if it had completely buried her sense of betrayal and sorrow toward her lover.