The Incubus Who Visited the Church #2
The Incubus Who Visited the Church #2
"Every muscle in my body aches. Especially around my hips..."
The inn room where Rebecca was staying.
I ignored the innkeeper's disapproving glare and stepped inside, carefully laying Rebecca down on the bed. Her condition had worsened after the torture showdown we'd just finished. Of course it would—she'd had no choice but to thrash around while I was licking her ear, so her muscle pain was bound to get worse.
Rebecca lay sprawled on the bed, groaning weakly.
I wiped the saliva from her ear and shot her a pointed remark.
"See? Who told you to squirm around while riding on someone's back?"
"......."
I'd expected a retort, but Rebecca stayed quiet. She was just breathing heavily, as if she didn't even have the strength to talk back. At this point, I felt more worry than anger. She was my party member, after all. If she didn't recover quickly, it would interfere with our next quest. I couldn't just stand by and watch, so I placed a damp cloth on her forehead.
"Ngh."
Rebecca winced at the touch of the cold, wet cloth, but her expression soon eased, if only a little. Naturally, I'd found the cloth by rummaging through the fabric scraps in her room. I wasn't gentleman enough to carry around something like a handkerchief.
The water soaking the cloth was produced through Water Magic.
At times like this, I felt grateful I'd learned Water Magic.
"Does it hurt a lot? Want me to massage it?"
"M-massage? Don't tell me you're trying to do mana charging while I'm dying of pain—?"
"That's obviously not what I meant. I'm just offering to knead your muscles normally."
"If it's that kind of massage, then fine...."
Permission granted.
I pulled back the blanket and started kneading Rebecca's arms and legs. It was a perfectly ordinary massage with not a shred of lewd meaning. I wasn't so tactless as to mess around in a situation like this. Rebecca let out pained moans every time my hands touched her.
"Nngh."
But the fact that she never told me to stop suggested it was helping, at least somewhat. As I massaged her arms and legs, her palms and the soles of her feet, I became newly aware of how soft her skin was.
The mere act of touching her made my cock harden.
"Aren't you... going home...?"
Rebecca, still receiving the massage, glanced warily at me and spoke. The question made me pause and think. Honestly, part of me wanted to go back to my room and work on magic training, but I couldn't just abandon a sick patient and leave. I could train tomorrow, but Rebecca was in pain right now.
"No. I'll stay here."
"Really—?"
I'd thought she might find it off-putting, but Rebecca's voice unexpectedly betrayed a joy she couldn't quite hide.
Though she cleared her throat a moment later and steadied her voice.
"Well, if you're staying with me, I suppose I'm grateful. So you do have a gentlemanly side after all, huh?"
"If you're grateful, buy me a meal sometime. Nothing in this world is free."
I kept massaging Rebecca until she finally said I could stop.
Whenever the cloth grew lukewarm, I used magic to cool it again. There wasn't much else to do. No elderly healer had come by to brew medicine or anything like that.
I dragged a chair next to the bed, sat down, and dozed off intermittently while tending to Rebecca.
At some point, Rebecca had fallen into a deep sleep. Despite having a savage incubus right beside her, she was so soundly asleep that calling her name wouldn't have woken her. Whether that meant she trusted me that much or just slept defenselessly, I couldn't say.
"......."
Time passed.
When morning came, the sunlight streaming through the window was so bright it woke me. I looked around, finally able to take in Rebecca's room properly. Last night it had been too dark to see clearly. Since this was a woman's room, I'd half-expected to find underwear strewn about, but surprisingly, there was none to be seen. All the clothes appeared to be neatly folded inside the wardrobe.
'A girl living alone keeps her place this tidy?'
I surveyed Rebecca's orderly room with a puzzled expression. In my previous life, my sisters had lived in rooms that looked like pigsties even with our parents looking after them.
Underwear tossed aside was just the beginning—sanitary pads, potato chip bags, and who knew what else littered the floor in pure chaos. The idea that women could be neat and tidy had never existed in my mind, anyway.
"Oh-ho."
As I looked around, I suddenly spotted something fascinating in the room: a flowing, ornate dress hanging on a wall hook. It was an Arabian-style dress adorned with intricate ornaments. The kind of outfit a dancer from the Middle East might wear.
'That's a pretty dress.'
The fabric looked quite high-quality. Selling it off would probably fetch at least a silver coin. And with its exotic atmosphere, I couldn't help but take an interest in Rebecca's dress.
Why would a Bronze adventurer own such a fancy garment?
Selling that dress would let her live comfortably for months without working.
When Rebecca woke some time later, I asked her about the dress hanging on the wall. She buried her face in the pillow with a slightly dazed expression. Her fever probably hadn't gone down yet.
"Ah, that dress—? I brought it from my home when I left my homeland. It's what women in the Zakarta Kingdom wear when they dance. Really pretty, isn't it?"
"It is pretty."
I acknowledged the dress was pretty. But what Rebecca had just said grabbed my attention more than the dress itself.
"You said you dance wearing that?"
"Yes. It's a belly dance, a tradition of the Zakarta Kingdom."
"Belly, what?"
"Belly dance—."
The moment I heard that, I was dumbfounded. Belly dance.
Could it really be the same 'dance' I knew?
That dance where beautiful women sway their hips alluringly?
Well, maybe not.
This is the otherworld, after all.
It could share the name while being a completely different dance.
But when I asked her to describe it, Rebecca's answer left me no choice but to stare in astonishment.
Because the belly dance Rebecca described was astonishingly similar to the belly dance I'd seen in my previous life.
"Yeah, you shake your hips and waist well... right. Bouncing movements are the most important."
Mid-conversation, Rebecca wore a puzzled expression.
"But how do you know about belly dance? Don't tell me there's a similar dance in the outside world?"
"To be precise, there was a similar dance in my homeland."
"Incubi dance belly dance in their homeland? That's fascinating. I'd like to know what form your race's dance takes."
If I could show her YouTube, I'd clear it up in an instant, but unfortunately, that was impossible.
I wasn't one of those lucky reincarnates who brought a smartphone to the otherworld.
And right now, satisfying Rebecca's curiosity wasn't the priority.
I looked back and forth between Rebecca lying on the bed and the dress hanging on the wall, gulping audibly.
Rebecca does belly dance?
Wearing that kind of provocative dress—?
Just imagining it made blood rush to my lower half until my underwear felt ready to burst.
The vision of Rebecca in that dress, earnestly swaying her hips in front of me, shimmered before my eyes.
She already had a body brimming with allure thanks to her training. If she added a seductive dance on top of that, I had no confidence I could endure it.
I'm not joking. If I actually saw it, I'm confident I could go three rounds of solo action on the spot.
"Rebecca."
I spoke in a serious voice.
"Can't you dance just once wearing that dress? The belly dance you mentioned. I really want to see it. I'll wait until you're fully recovered, so please—."
"No."
Rebecca refused without a moment's hesitation.
"Why?"
"Why should I show my dance to you? No matter how much of a party member you are, some things are okay and some aren't."
She rejected my request cleanly. It was a refusal so firm it was almost embarrassing for me to have asked.
It's not like showing me would wear her down or anything.
I wanted to grumble that she was being stingy, but I clenched my fists and held back.
Because I wanted to see Rebecca belly dance no matter what.
I had to stay calm.
What could make the word 'okay' come out of Rebecca's mouth?
If I opened my wallet and offered money, would that do it?
I was willing to pay up to at least 50 copper. 50 copper was a huge amount from my perspective.
That money was equivalent to my living expenses for a whole week.
"If you show me the dance, I'll give you...."
I hurriedly started to bring up the 50 copper, but then stopped. A better idea had flashed through my mind—a gift that held equal value to 50 copper but would make Rebecca even happier.
'I'd arranged to get Holy Water from Kate.'
Holy Water.
I'd definitely made a promise with Kate when the quest ended yesterday. A promise to visit the church and receive 30 bottles of Holy Water. We'd set a time to meet in front of the church tomorrow, but I could probably go now and still receive it. Kate had said she already had pre-made Holy Water stockpiled in the warehouse.
So the plan was: get the Holy Water today and hand it straight to Rebecca as a gift. Holy Water was a mysterious beverage that restored a person's health. It had excellent effects for revitalizing weakened stamina. If Rebecca drank the Holy Water and recovered, nothing could be better.
Of course, I couldn't give her all 30 bottles.
Five bottles would be more than enough to see results.
'Yeah, this is a better idea.'
Making up my mind, I spoke to Rebecca again.
"...I'll give you Holy Water."
"Holy Water? You mean that drink the church gives out? Why are you suddenly talking about Holy Water?"
"Actually, something lucky happened during the escort quest. The blonde nun who joined the quest...."
I told Rebecca the story about Sister Kate.
If she hadn't been bedridden, it was a story I would have shared over drinks as bar gossip anyway, so I could tell it without hesitation.
That Kate was actually the culprit who damaged the artifact.
That I'd caught her keeping her mouth shut about it.
That in exchange for keeping her secret from the merchant company, she'd agreed to give me Holy Water.
After hearing the whole story, Rebecca looked surprised.
"That blonde nun was the culprit? I never would have guessed. How could a nun cause an accident like that and try to shift the blame? She really was a bitch."
But right now, getting Rebecca's answer took priority over badmouthing Kate.
I squeezed Rebecca's hand tightly and asked her.
"So what'll it be? Just promise me you'll dance the belly dance. Then I'll hand over as much Holy Water as you want. Ah, and of course, wearing that dress over there—."
"Drinking Holy Water would definitely help my body recover, but...."
Rebecca was still hesitating about something. She pulled the blanket up to her chin and fell silent.
When she finally spoke, she called my name quietly.
"Luke."
"What?"
"In my homeland, do you know what it means to show a belly dance to a man—?"
"How would I know that?"
Of course I wouldn't.
I'm not a citizen of the Zakarta Kingdom.
But the moment I heard Rebecca's next words, my indifferent expression changed instantly.
"Women in the Zakarta Kingdom learn belly dancing from childhood. It's a dance they're expected to perform for the man they'll marry on their wedding night. Belly dancing is... a dance meant to seduce the man who will become my husband."
What?
A dance for the first night of marriage?
To seduce the man who would become her husband?
Cold sweat trickled down my back at the sudden, shocking revelation.
I stared at Rebecca with an expression of disbelief.
Rebecca, lying on the bed, had her cheeks flushed red.
Clutching the blanket pulled up to her chin, Rebecca spoke in a trembling voice.
"So the meaning of showing you a belly dance is...."
"...The meaning is?"
"That tonight, I want you to make me yours."
Make me yours.
That meant Rebecca would become mine—?
Those words made my head ring as if I'd been hit by a ball.
Now I finally understood why Rebecca had flat-out refused my request. A dance learned to seduce your groom on your wedding night. For a dance like that, it was only natural not to show it even if money was offered. Without knowing it, I had apparently been demanding that Rebecca surrender her chastity to me. Though it was simply an accident caused by our different cultures.
"O-oh. I see."
I was about to give up on the belly dance cleanly.
But just as I was about to let it go, I heard Rebecca's voice reach my ears.
Rebecca's voice was thick with embarrassment.
"If you really want to see it, I could show you just a little...."
"Huh? I thought you said it was a dance for your groom?"
"W-well, you seem like you really, really want to see it. And showing you doesn't wear me out, right? I can just keep it a secret from whoever I marry later. Among the older girls I know, some have shown the dance to someone they're secretly seeing...."
"Deal—."
"Deal?"
"I mean okay. I'll bring you the Holy Water, and you'll show me the dance. That settles the deal."
I kicked the chair aside and rose to my feet.
Rebecca looked at me with startled rabbit eyes, but I coolly turned my back.
"Wh-where are you going—?"
"The church."
"You're going right now?"
"Of course. Your body needs to recover quickly so we can do stuff. Hunting, quests, and—."
And belly dance.
I swallowed those last words back down my throat.
If I said them out loud, I was afraid Rebecca would treat me like some animal in heat, so I held back.
But how the hell could I wait when Rebecca in that lewd dress, swaying her hips, was on the line?
"Y-you don't really have to give me the Holy Water...!"
I pretended not to hear the voice behind me and stepped outside.
I locked the door on my way out, but it didn't matter since I'd already gotten a spare key from Rebecca earlier.
I headed into the city and immediately set out for the church.
A long journey undertaken to obtain belly dance—.
At this very moment, the great adventure of the incubus visiting the church had begun.