The Cross of Memories #5
The Cross of Memories #5
I knew this wasn't how things were supposed to go.
But with Kate pressed up against me like that, I couldn't help getting caught up in a strange sense of anticipation.
From the day we'd first met, her looks alone had been something out of a fairy tale — a nun who could've passed for an elf.
That shimmering blonde hair. Those sapphire-blue eyes.
And the figure her habit couldn't hide was absurdly alluring.
Kate was staring at my lips, so I stared right back at hers.
The sight of those plump, springy lips short-circuited whatever rational thought I had left.
The slightest lean forward and our mouths would've met.
"Mongma-nim."
Kate breathed my name with a gaze so deeply affectionate it nearly undid me.
"Uh, yeah?"
"Hup."
The moment I got the stammered reply out was the moment she struck.
Kate raised her palm and shoved me square in the chest.
Caught completely off-guard by the sneak attack, I staggered backward.
"What'd you shove me for?!"
"...Because at this rate, something... dangerous was definitely about to happen!"
Kate looked at me with a mischievous smile spreading across her face. Somewhere along the line, a deep red flush had crept onto her cheeks. Something told me the summer heat wasn't the only reason for it.
"Don't get the wrong idea! I just wanted to test your weakness, Mongma-nim."
"My weakness?"
Kate grinned and opened her mouth.
"The honey trap~!"
The honey trap!
Had this blonde woman finally lost her mind?
She'd thrown her own body at me just to find out whether I was vulnerable to seduction?
Of course an incubus is weak to a honey trap!
As I stood there wearing an expression of utter disbelief, Kate spoke up.
"Do you have any idea how badly you've bullied me up until now, Mongma-nim? You never treat a healer like a healer! You call people tools! So I used my own head for once. I'm going to pin down your weakness and dodge the bullying that way."
"And so you used a honey trap?"
"Yes! I've heard incubi are helpless against beautiful women. Honestly, I'm pretty confident in my body, you know. If I put my mind to it, I could subdue someone like you in an instant! Just look here!"
As if to prove her point, Kate spread open the side slit of her nun's habit with both hands.
The moment that bare, snow-white thigh was exposed, my eyes flew wide open. The perfectly plush, shapely line of it was seducing me outright.
"Kuh-ack."
Kate had just cast the spell of pure arousal.
I reflexively doubled over at the waist.
My ferociously surging erection demanded an immediate launch.
It wanted me to slap that cheeky blonde nun across the face with the rod.
"Have you lost your mind?!"
"Hehaha! Mongma-nim is in the palm of my hand now! I made Mongma-nim horny! I can control Mongma-nim!!"
Maybe she was too thrilled about having pushed me into a corner, because Kate started hopping up and down on the spot.
I felt like I needed to issue her a warning at this point. My temper had hit its limit watching her get too carried away.
"Should I just go back to calling you Tool Bitch?"
"Oh my Baldur—."
Oh my Baldur?
Guess that's the otherworld's version of oh my god.
Kate shot me a nervous glance and stopped her bouncing.
"Th-that's off-limits. Call me by my name. I'll behave... in moderation."
"......Ha."
Did "behave in moderation" mean she wasn't planning to stop entirely?
She probably meant to keep teasing me with the honey trap going forward.
If I'm being honest, if Kate seriously tried to seduce me, I had zero confidence I'd be able to hold out.
A blonde-haired, blue-eyed, busty beauty had been my type all the way back since my days on Earth.
There was a small but non-zero chance I'd snap and pounce on her.
'Wait, isn't that just an absolute win?'
If that blonde bitch seduces me and I end up pouncing, how is any of that my fault?
Honestly, I could get poked in my weak spot a hundred times and be fine, but Kate's chastity was a one-time deal.
If we traded blows, I'd come out overwhelmingly ahead.
I'd be able to dump critical damage straight into an unopened nun cunt, a virgin pussy.
"We should get going soon. It's a bit hot today."
Unfortunately, Kate didn't try to seduce me any further. Fanning herself awkwardly with her hand, she moved toward the underground waterway. I stuck close to her side and matched her pace.
There'd been a brief moment of awkwardness thanks to Kate's over-the-top stunt.
But at some point, the lively chatter between us had picked right back up. After finally reuniting with an old childhood acquaintance after so long, my mouth itched to talk and I couldn't hold back. Kate seemed to feel the same way.
"When did you leave Evergreen Orphanage? When I got adopted by the church, I think you were still there."
"Five years ago? I aged out and got discharged. Nobody ever came to adopt me."
"Getting discharged might be better than getting adopted. Some kids ended up worked like slaves by their foster parents."
"Worked like slaves? How would you know that? Don't tell me you're still in contact?"
"Yes. Quite a few of the other girls have kept in touch. We exchange letters sometimes. We've even met up as a group whenever we all had the time."
"Hoh."
So they'd kept in contact with childhood friends they'd been separated from, on a continent without even a smartphone?
Back in my past life, I'd lost all contact with my army buddies the moment I got discharged.
Thanks to Kate, I got to hear stories about other kids from the orphanage I'd parted ways with. Most of them were about the girls, but it was pretty interesting learning what had become of them. Apparently, one of the guys was working as a tailor in the royal capital.
After chatting away for a while, before I knew it, Kate and I had arrived in front of a general store.
"...We're here! Let's hurry and grab the exploration gear!"
A general store on the way to the underground waterway. It wasn't a shop I normally frequented, but it seemed Kate used it often enough. I followed behind her as she pushed open the shop door with a familiar motion.
"Hello, Lady Mei!"
"It's been a while, Kate. And what's that incubus behind you? Please don't tell me he's a stalker."
"He's my party member, so no need to be on guard."
"I-is that so. A nun and an incubus forming a party... that's quite an unusual combination."
The shopkeeper looked at Kate and me with surprised eyes. Maybe it was because Kate was right beside me. The shopkeeper didn't react with fear even after getting a good look at an incubus like me.
It suddenly hit me that the way citizens looked at us had changed.
Back when I'd headed to the church over the water for the foot-washing ceremony.
Kate and I had walked through town together then, too. The citizens had apparently mistaken me, trailing behind Kate, for an incubus with shady intentions.
Hadn't some of them even watched me with hostile glares?
But today, no one walking through town misunderstood what was between Kate and me. They merely watched us with curious eyes.
'Is it because we're sticking so close together?'
The way we walked side by side had changed, and Kate was laughing innocently while chatting with me.
That wasn't the laugh of someone being threatened. Our closer proximity actually meant the citizens weren't jumping to the wrong conclusion anymore.
"Mongma-nim—! Hurry and pick your exploration gear!"
"I don't need to pick anything."
"Huh? Why not?"
"It's all already in my backpack. This isn't my first time taking an underground waterway search quest."
"You mean this isn't your first run, Mongma-nim? That's great! I was a little nervous since I thought we were both first-timers."
"If there's something you don't know, I'll teach you."
"Then at least help me get my gear sorted out—."
I stood next to Kate and helped her pick out items.
Boots and a raincoat for wading through the leaking underground waterway.
A lantern to secure visibility. Consumables like preserved food and oil.
With me there at her side giving her advice, Kate got all her exploration gear together in no time.
"Is this enough?"
"Yeah."
Kate handed silver coins to the shopkeeper and bought all the equipment in one lump sum.
She FLEXED hard on a large amount of gear all at once!
Behavior befitting a nun with deep pockets.
I doubted Kate would ever come to the underground waterway a second time.
Wouldn't all that equipment be used exactly once and then thrown away?
"Preparations are perfect!! Off to the waterway!"
I followed behind a Kate brimming with motivation and headed for the underground waterway entrance.
*
The entrance to the waterway was right at the foot of the towering castle wall. Because of the high wall, this area was perpetually in shadow. The entrance was a round hole in the ground; if you climbed the ladder all the way down, you'd reach the waterway.
Standing near the waterway entrance was a magic shop.
The magic shop where Lili, a Magic Tower student, worked part-time.
The same place I'd bought my spellbook a few weeks ago.
'Is Lili on shift today? Should I pop in to say hi?'
I thought about it for a second, but there didn't seem to be any point in entering a closed shop.
If the person inside wasn't Lili, it'd just be a waste of time.
I led Kate past the shop and arrived directly in front of the waterway entrance.
"So we really do have to go inside this hole."
"That's right."
"The ladder will hold, right? It's not going to snap on the way down, is it?"
"No need to worry. City hall workers do maintenance on it sometimes. It's never snapped once so far."
Kate was staring into the deep, dark hole with obvious fright. To a first-time adventurer, the pitch-black underground waterway was basically a mini-dungeon. To a longtime waterway rat like me, though, it was a pretty familiar sight.
I smirked at the frightened Kate.
"You think you'll be able to take a nice stroll in there? And on top of that, you said you'd read a book? Good luck reading in a place that dark."
A genuine stroll with a side of reading!
That's what Kate had told me back at the Adventurer's Guild before we set out.
She'd genuinely said she was going to freeload on this quest.
But in the underground waterway, Kate's stroll was unavoidably sealed.
She'd get ambushed by monsters herself if she let her guard down.
"Guh. Guess I can't freeload after all."
Kate clenched her fist as if she'd been wronged. After glaring intently at the waterway entrance for a moment, she pulled something out of her backpack.
Was it a book?
Contrary to my guess, it wasn't reading material.
"A mace?"
A one-handed iron mace!
Something she'd had hanging off her backpack.
The sight of her pulling out a weapon instead of a book caught me so off guard that I found myself pinching her cheek without thinking.
"Ack! Why are you suddenly pinching my cheek!"
"To check if this is a dream or real life. I can't believe you'd actually use a weapon."
Kate shook her head vigorously and threw off my pinching hand.
"Then pinch your own cheek, not mine!"
"Pinching my own cheek would hurt."
"Wow. This is insane."
I'd never once seen Kate holding a weapon until now. Not when we escorted the caravan, and not even during the Giant Subjugation Quest.
Had Kate specifically brought a mace just this once?
Because this quest helped with her promotion exam?
Gripping her mace, Kate glanced at my reaction and spoke carefully.
"To be honest, I always carry a mace. As a self-defense weapon."
"What?! Then why haven't you used it up until now?"
"If I pick up a weapon, I feel like I'd end up having to fight for no reason. And I'd feel too self-conscious to just take a comfortable stroll from the back line..."
"You deliberately walked around unarmed?"
"Yes!"
I was at a complete loss for words at the shocking revelation.
The sheer meticulous cunning of walking around unarmed just to freeload quests!
Did this blonde nun actually have something resembling a conscience?
At my appalled expression, Kate let out an awkward laugh.
"Hehe! I'm sorry!"
"Do you even know how to swing a mace? Isn't it heavy?"
"It's a mace the church issues for nuns, so it's not terribly heavy. But if you're asking whether I've ever actually swung it... almost never."
"Got it. Then just focus on protecting yourself. Don't step up to the front."
"Of course!"
It seemed like treating Kate as a combatant would be a huge mistake. The way she was swinging the mace around on the spot practically radiated beginner energy.
What if she swings that thing wrong and cracks my skull instead?
"Be careful, Tool."
"It's Kate, not Tool!!"
A sudden wave of longing for Rebecca washed over me.
That red-haired swordswoman had done such a damn fine job of tanking. Didn't this mean I'd have to handle all the tanking and all the damage-dealing by myself in this waterway?
"I'll go in first."
"I-I'll put my trust in you! Please catch me if I fall off the ladder!"
A short while later, wearing our raincoats, Kate and I finally climbed down the ladder into the darkness. Quite a bit of time had passed since we'd set out, and it was now late afternoon. If we wanted to smash the totem and get back, we'd have to move fast.
'We'll make it back by tonight, right?'