Become My Woman
She explained why things had come to this.
"I'm an illegitimate child. A one-night stand between my mother—who came from a lowly family but was beautiful—and an emperor whose lust was boiling over. You get the picture, right?"
Thanks to that short, clear explanation, he could instantly piece together what she had meant by "a life where she had no choice but to use honorifics."
"On top of that, I have the shortest horns among every member of the imperial family in history, so officially I'm a frail imperial who can't show her face in public."
Jincheon found himself recalling some old anime where nobility was decided by the size of one's horns.
Was it Combattler? Or Voltes? I remember the villains in those deciding nobility by whether they had horns or not.
He had already learned it through the Bio Device, yet hearing it straight from Calsira's own mouth made the whole thing feel freshly real.
Who could have predicted that a nation would appear with settings lifted straight out of old anime?
"Then the war with the Anti-Zabalcan Alliance started, and I was dragged off to the battlefield."
They had probably seen it as a convenient way to dispose of a troublesome eyesore they were ashamed to display.
In the old days they could have simply poisoned her and claimed she died of illness.
But an imperial dying of disease made no sense in this era.
On top of that, every last member of the imperial family was so prideful they refused to dirty their own hands dealing with a mere bastard.
So she received only the most basic training, was issued a mass-produced mecha, and was sent to the front.
They had likely planned to milk the death of an imperial for propaganda.
"They're disgustingly clean about it. That's practically a mental illness."
"Pfft!"
Calsira had always thought the exact same thing whenever she listened to her siblings' insulting remarks.
Feeling a spark of affinity at discovering they shared the same thoughts, she stopped laughing and spoke again.
"But then something unexpected happened."
"That you turned out to have outstanding talent?"
"How did you know?"
"If you'd had no talent or only mediocre skill, you wouldn't be sitting here."
The Zabalcan imperial family wanted Calsira dead, so they must have thrown her into the most dangerous zones.
Yet she returned alive.
She was sent somewhere even more lethal.
She racked up military merits and came back alive again.
As the cycle repeated, rank-and-file soldiers who knew nothing of the truth began praising the goddess of victory who flipped even the most hopeless situations.
At first, in order to strengthen the legitimacy of the most gifted and first-in-line of succession—the First Princess—they simply attributed all of Calsira's achievements to her.
Thus Calsira's mecha, publicly known as the First Princess's unit, came to be called the Horned Empress and became the goddess who led every battlefield to victory.
But as time passed and the Fourth Princess's talent kept growing through brutal experience, the hearts of those who had been using her began to change.
"It started getting burdensome."
A short-horned bastard was posting far superior military records than any other imperial.
For now her identity remained hidden, but what if the truth ever came out?
Especially if every achievement currently credited to the First Princess had actually been earned by the Fourth Princess instead?
"They'll use searching for relics as an excuse and try to kill me inside. In the White Shriek Forest, where communication with the outside is impossible, no one would ever know what happened."
Even though she was talking about her own death, her tone remained utterly calm.
"Is it really okay to tell me all this?"
"Why? Planning to post it on the network? As if anyone would believe you."
The Zabalcan Empire had massively rewritten the official record; even if a single person revealed the truth, it would simply drown in the flood of information.
That was a domain even Jincheon's power could not touch.
After a moment of thought, Jincheon looked straight into her eyes.
"You've given up."
He could see that she had already accepted her death.
"This was always going to be my fate. With no family and no power, I can't even thrash around."
Calsira wore the faint, detached smile of someone who had already surrendered life itself.
"I told you the truth so I wouldn't drag an unnecessary companion down with me. Leave this city, go somewhere else, and hide for a few years. They'll forget about you. Do that."
The reason she had explained everything in such careful detail was to make him understand that this was a perfect trap.
She wanted to enter the forest without the hired hunters if at all possible.
Because those hunters, hired to minimize unexpected variables, would definitely be "dealt with."
"……."
Jincheon watched her and tapped the armrest of his chair with his fingers.
"Passed."
"Huh?"
"It means I like you."
For the first time since arriving in this world, Jincheon smiled gently. He rose from the chair and approached her.
"Uh… um……?"
Calsira felt the atmosphere shift and instinctively shrank back.
Yet despite her open wariness, Jincheon slowly circled her, openly appraising her body.
Looks: pass.
Skin color, horns, and that distinctive hair were different, but everything else—face and figure—was close enough to a Terran's.
No matter how science-fiction the setting, even Jincheon would have struggled with an alien that looked like a mutant beast or had an insect face.
Figure: also pass.
The suit clung so tightly that every curve was on full display.
Breasts a little too large for one hand.
A waist free of excess fat yet not painfully thin.
Thighs with just enough flesh to look healthy and strong.
Even seated, the shape of her pelvis made it clear her ass had been sculpted by training.
For a militaristic Zabalcan with a shitty temper, her considerate nature: also pass.
Having finished his circuit of appraisal, Jincheon returned to his seat.
The surveillance has vanished too. Time for the main point.
He had deliberately provoked her into anger; any watching eyes should have leaked killing intent by now.
Even invisible micro-drones could not escape his senses.
He spread his qi sense to the absolute limit and felt neither killing intent nor any trace of drones. It was safe to proceed.
"Just now, what were you……."
"I have a proposal."
"What?"
Calsira was still wondering what on earth he had been doing, but Jincheon struck first.
"I'll save you."
"…I don't care for jokes."
"I don't joke in situations like this."
He spoke again with an easy smile.
"But there's a condition."
His index finger pointed straight at Calsira.
"If you accept becoming my woman."
"……."
Does he have no grip on reality?
Is he overconfident in his own power?
Is there some organization behind him?
More than that—why does he want me?
Calsira's thoughts spun in confusion as she tried to process the offer.
But…….
Normally she would have snapped, "If you're that desperate for a woman, go find a brothel."
She was not the sort who casually spread her legs just because her life was hanging by a thread.
Even if no one else acknowledged it, the pride of carrying imperial blood was rooted deep inside her.
Yet those eyes and that expression—youthful yet carrying a quiet weight—and that voice full of power held a magnetic pull that made her want to lean on him.
"This isn't some trashy idea of grabbing a one-night stand because you're going to die anyway."
Jincheon added the clarification before she could misunderstand.
"You know how to shine with your own light. A unique light that carries your own talent and color."
He moved the finger that had been pointing at her and gently lifted her chin.
"The disappearance of a light like that is something I cannot tolerate."
Thump—thump—thump—thump—
The moment his finger raised her chin, Calsira's heart began to pound.
My body… is getting hot…….
Normally the touch of a stranger should have felt unpleasant.
Yet wherever Jincheon's finger rested, a pleasant, almost pleasurable sensation bloomed.
The power of the man once called the Lust Emperor had begun to take effect.
Though he had not fully recovered his strength, a body that had undergone multiple rounds of Hwan-gol-tal-tae possessed not only raw power but also the natural ability to seduce the opposite sex.
In other words, unless he consciously suppressed it, he constantly emitted pheromones that aroused and excited any woman nearby.
"For the record, there's no coercion. If you decide you hate me later, you're free to leave."
Even back in Murim he had decided that if any woman who became his grew disappointed and wanted to go, he would never force her to stay.
Of course, not a single one had ever actually left.
Still, the voice of the man who had once been the absolute master of Murim now carried a magnetic trustworthiness that worked only on women.
If I'm going to die anyway, shouldn't I at least make one last struggle?
As she had said earlier, under normal circumstances she would never have considered spreading her legs simply because death was near.
But the charm in Jincheon's voice was overpowering the survival instinct she had kept buried for so long, and that instinct was now crushing her reason.
Besides, he said there's no force. I can just say no whenever I want.
"Can you… really save me?"
"I stake everything I am on it."
Jincheon answered with the full weight of his conviction as the Lust Emperor.
"Then… I'll become one. Your woman."
Like someone falling for a silver-tongued con man, Calsira's heart shifted, and she spoke the words that would completely rewrite her fate.
The moment he heard her declare she would become his woman, Jincheon leaned in.
"Why… haah!?"
As their faces drew close and she started to ask why he was approaching, her mouth was suddenly claimed.
Wh-what… is this……!?
Jincheon's tongue moved with expert skill, caressing the tongue that had frozen in shock.
It was so practiced that even Calsira, experiencing her very first kiss, felt pleasure bloom.
Slurp—slurp—
"Nngh……! Nngh-nngh……!"
Being kissed for the first time by someone she did not even love, she instinctively tried to push him away.
Slurp—
"Mmmph~~~!"
But the instant her resistance began to strengthen, Jincheon drove his tongue deeper and stimulated her mercilessly.
It's been hundreds of years since I've tasted a reaction this innocent.
Jincheon smiled—both at the proof that his techniques worked even on alien women, and at the fresh, unspoiled response of a woman receiving her first kiss.
The reaction should hit soon.
Jincheon's saliva carried an aphrodisiac-like effect that aroused women.
It was a "phenomenon" born when he transcended the "rank" of ordinary humans while holding the "ideology" of enjoying sex as thoroughly as possible.
Because of that, as long as the partner was female, species did not matter.
An aphrodisiac that worked on Terrans might theoretically fail on aliens.
But this was not a matter of chemical composition—it was a phenomenon-level effect.
Exactly as he expected, Calsira's face flushed deeper and deeper.
The blush was a vivid blood-red, unmistakable even against the bright skin of a Zabalcan.
"Pwah~!"
When he finally broke the long, steamy deep kiss and withdrew his tongue, Calsira gasped for air.
"Wh-what are you… trying to do……?"
"Carve the proof that you've become my woman."
Jincheon scooped her limp body into a princess carry and laid her on the bed in the bedroom.
"I'll apologize in advance. Normally I'd save you first and only then take you, but it's been far too long since I've held a woman."
Moreover, she was the first woman since arriving in this world who possessed the worth to become truly his.
Just in case, Jincheon confirmed the absence of micro-drones or listening devices, then fixed a dome-shaped qi barrier to block infrared surveillance.
Finally he located the switch that desynchronized the suit and activated it by sending a thread of Inner Qi into it.
Psssh—
"Eh……?"
Watching her own suit open, Calsira startled and tried to cover herself.
Grab!
But Jincheon was faster. He stripped the suit and her underwear away in one smooth motion, leaving her completely naked.
Even through the suit her body had looked luscious, but the healthy naked form of bright red skin was an entirely new visual feast.
"If you become my woman, I'll show you the pleasure you'll experience for the rest of your life."
Calsira had expected something like this might happen.
She had simply assumed it would come after her crisis was over.
She desperately resisted, trying to shove his body away, but—
"Wait……! I don't want this kind of… hnn!"
Schlick!
She could not stop Jincheon's two fingers from sliding into her pussy.