Chapter 323: Guwon’s Counterattack
Chapter 323: Guwon’s Counterattack
“Sara? What’s wrong?”
As we were eating like any other day, I noticed Sara staring intently at Leia’s face.
To say she was just staring wouldn’t be enough; it was more like she was gawking.
Even Leia seemed a bit burdened by the intense gaze, blushing slightly as she asked the question.
“Ah, no. It’s nothing.”
Hearing Leia’s question, Sara seemed to snap back to reality, shaking her head in embarrassment.
“That’s our angel for you. So beautiful she can even captivate other women.”
“G-Guwon, you… If you praise me like that, I’ll get embarrassed…”
“Th-That’s not it at all!”
As I teased her, Leia blushed shyly, just as I expected.
But Sara’s reaction was completely unexpected.
Huh? She’s getting angry over a little joke like this?
This time, I was the one staring intently at Sara’s face.
“Wh-What?”
“Aha.”
I see. So that’s what it is.
I instantly understood why Sara had reacted so sensitively.
She wasn’t angry. She had simply raised her voice to hide her true feelings.
And she wasn’t reacting to my joke, but to the comment about Leia being pretty.
“Leia’s gotten prettier, hasn’t she? Being a Gumiho, we’ve done it a lot. Her Charm stat went up quite a bit yesterday, too. Of course she’d be more beautiful.”
“Ugh!”
Just as I predicted, Sara’s body flinched at my words.
“Are you jealous? Or maybe anxious? Because you’re the only one whose Charm is stuck at 250.”
“Th-That’s not…”
“There’s no way it isn’t. Sara, let’s be honest.”
“Urgh! Fine, you idiot! Why?! Am I not allowed to be anxious?!”
“Of course you are. It’s cute.”
I gently pulled Sara into a hug, and she burrowed into my chest without any resistance.
“But you don’t have to worry. I’m not going to like you any less just because your Charm stat is a little lower than the others.”
“Yeah… I believe you, but… I still want to go to the Dungeon as soon as possible.”
“I know. We’ll go the moment our gear arrives.”
“Okay…”
The Dungeon…
I didn’t mind going as soon as the equipment enhancements were done, but there was still something I had to take care of before we left.
I had already held each of my girls in turn, and now, it was time to finally deal with that problem I’d been putting off.
As I gently patted Sara’s back, I glanced over at Matilda.
She was staring at us with a pout, as if something displeased her.
Then again, that was pretty much her default expression.
According to Leia, it was just an act to keep others from approaching her carelessly, but was that really true?
I found it impossible to believe that she was originally a gentle and kind person.
In any case, after we finished our meal, I kept my girls busy with small talk until Matilda returned to her room.
Once Matilda had left the dining hall, I made an announcement to everyone.
“I’m planning on spending the afternoon with Matilda today.”
It was a roundabout way of putting it, but I was sure my intention was perfectly clear.
“Hmm. I’ll ask one last time. Are you certain you won’t be harmed in any way?”
“Saving Cardinal Matilda is a good thing, but if there’s any chance you could get hurt, Guwon, then I’m against it.”
Diana posed the question as a final confirmation, while Leia said something uncharacteristically selfish.
Well, I suppose that’s just how much she likes me.
“Don’t worry. There’s absolutely, perfectly no problem.”
“You’re always so overconfident. Be careful. Don’t go getting yourself hurt.”
Sara’s tone was slightly scolding, but I could clearly feel the affection behind her words.
I gave a firm nod and headed for Matilda’s room.
Please, let this go well.
This was a gamble.
If Matilda’s curse wasn’t lifted even after we had sex, then all this would accomplish is giving her a green light to openly express her affection for me.
If that happened, there was a very high chance Matilda would end up in the same situation as Silvia.
I wouldn’t exactly mind having a beauty like Matilda fawning over me, but it would only cause more heartache for my girls.
So, for my own sake as well, I really needed this gamble to succeed.
“Matilda. Are you in your room?”
Feeling a slight tension, I knocked on Matilda’s door.
“Guwon? What is it?”
Matilda opened the door with a look of considerable surprise.
Well, I’d never once visited her room before, so I guess it was to be expected.
But how should I explain this?
I hadn’t told her beforehand because I didn’t want to make her needlessly anxious, but now that I had to actually explain it, it felt a little embarrassing.
I couldn’t just declare, “You, have sex with me!”
No. The best way would be to explain it in a somewhat business-like manner.
“There’s something I need to talk to you about.”
“A-A man, coming to a lady’s room, to talk about something alone?”
Just from me saying I had something to talk about, Matilda’s cheeks flushed and her face transformed into that of a woman in love.
Her voice, too, was no longer her usual prickly tone, but a sweet one you could get lost in.
I couldn’t help but wonder just how pink the inside of her head was to make her like this.
Whatever.
“I’m coming in.”
Normally, she would have freaked out and said something to drive me away, but there was no need for her to act like that anymore.
I showed no reaction to her behavior, simply stepping into the room and closing the door behind me.
“Wh-What? Really?”
My lack of a typical reaction seemed to have flustered Matilda quite a bit.
What do you mean, ‘really’? I’m not here to confess my love or anything.
“First, where should I start… Right. Hey. I told you before that I’m the Saint sent by the Goddess, right? Not that you believed me.”
“Wh-What about it? Until I hear the Goddess’s voice with my own ears, I’ll never…”
Matilda, who had been looking expectant, now seemed a little dejected as my words strayed from what she had anticipated.
“When the Goddess sent me to this world, she gave me the Saint job, which specializes in sexual abilities, and granted me various powers. Because of that, I basically can’t lose my sexual function. Do you know what that means?”
I ignored her and continued with what I had to say.
“Pardon? What does that… Huh? Huh?!”
Matilda, who at first looked bewildered, soon wore a shocked expression as if she’d realized something, staring at my face as if to ask if it was true.
“Yeah. I only realized it recently myself. It seems I’m immune to your curse.”
Ah, she doesn’t believe I was sent by the Goddess in the first place.
She probably wouldn’t believe this either unless I showed her directly.
It was a pain, but I guess I had no choice. It wasn’t a difficult thing to do.
“Matilda. How do you feel about me?”
I wrapped my arm around her waist, pressing our bodies tightly together, and stared into her wavering eyes as I spoke.
“I… I like you…”
Hmm. I already knew, but it really was ridiculously simple.
It was so easy that I wondered how she’d managed to get through her daily life up to this point.
Well, not that it was my business.
After hearing Matilda’s clear confession, I used Revived Pride.
“You feel that, right?”
“Y-Yes…!”
As I pressed my stiff member against her lower abdomen, Matilda nodded her head frantically, her expression dazed.
“Well, that concludes the proof.”
The moment she confirmed it, I removed my hand from her waist and stepped back.
“Huh?”
Why are you making that face?
Did you think I was going to whisper words of love to you, too?
Don’t look at me like that. This isn’t a situation where I should feel sorry, but you’re making me feel guilty for no reason.
“Ahem. Anyway, I’ll get to the reason I’m here. I heard there’s a chance your curse can be broken if you have sex with a man, right? So, let’s have sex.”
“……”
Matilda trembled as if holding something back, then whipped her head away.
“I-I refuse!”
“Huh? Why?”
“A sexual act is a sacred ritual performed by people who love each other…”
“Don’t you love me?”
“I do love youuuu…”
I moved closer to Matilda, who seemed to be forcing an angry tone, and whispered in her ear. She immediately became dazed again, her voice turning sweet.
Is she messing with me right now?
“Hah! N-No! You don’t love me, do you?!”
But Matilda quickly shook her head, slapped both her cheeks with her hands, and spoke again in that same forced, angry tone.
“No. I’m telling you, this is to break the curse. You must have tried this with other priests before, right? It’s not like they all loved you…”
“At least in that moment, they did love me. Unlike you…”
Ah, this is so damn annoying.
How can she be this much of a pain, even aside from the curse?
“Then I just have to love you in this moment, right?”
“Such a cheap…”
“Matilda, I love you.”
“I… I love you too…”
No, seriously, this is just too much.
Please, tell me this is just because of the curse.
“Then let’s perform an act that proves our love for each other. All right?”
“Yes…”
Somehow, I feel like I’ve become the bad guy who seduced an innocent maiden.
No! I’m doing this out of the pure desire to break Matilda’s curse. I’ve done nothing wrong!
Damn it. That Matilda. She’s so easy to persuade that it’s making me feel a strange sense of guilt.
In any case, it would probably be best to get this over with before it gets any more complicated.
All I need to do is have sex with her once and see if the curse breaks.
I wrapped my arm around Matilda’s waist, pulled her close, and gave her a bright smile as I stared into her eyes.
Matilda simply stared back, her expression dazed, as if she were about to fall into my eyes.
As we held each other’s gaze, I quickly began to undress her.
Thanks to her position as a Cardinal, the color was different and it was a bit more ornate, but the basic structure was not much different from Leia’s priestess robe.
Having grown quite accustomed to taking off Leia’s robe, I had no trouble removing Matilda’s clothes.
And Matilda, without paying any mind to the fact that she was being undressed, only continued to stare at my face.
This is really poking at my conscience with a strange sense of guilt.
“What a beautiful body… you have…”
Regardless of my inner thoughts, after I had removed her clothes, I looked down at her body and was about to offer a hollow compliment when I found myself at a loss for words.
The black, lightning-like scar on Matilda was not just on her left arm.
Because the priestess robe covered her entire body, I hadn’t noticed it at all until now.
The black scar wrapped around her arm, climbed up to her shoulder, stretched across her left breast, and continued straight down to her lower abdomen.
On her lower abdomen, the scars seemed to clump together, twisting and coiling like a snake’s nest, before running down her left leg and piercing all the way to her foot.
In short, her entire left side was covered by that black scar.
It must have spread out from the coiled, snake-like scar on her lower abdomen.
“Is it… hideous?”
Seeing me speechless for a moment, Matilda asked with an anxious expression, covering her scar with her right arm.
Of course, it wasn’t nearly small enough to be hidden by one arm, so it did nothing to conceal it.
For a woman to bear a scar of this magnitude…
Separate from the effects of the curse, this alone must have caused her immense emotional pain.
Seeing her like that, I felt a surge of sympathy and spoke with a little more sincerity than before.
“No. Your body is too alluring for a scar like that to hide it.”
“Ah…”
I knelt down and placed a gentle kiss on her lower abdomen, right where the black scar coiled.
“And… we should be able to get rid of this scar soon.”
Let’s not have any doubts right now, calling it a gamble or whatever.
By having sex with me, this curse will surely be broken.
Still on my knees, I wrapped my arms around Matilda’s waist and stood up, lifting her with me.
“Kyaa!”
Startled by my sudden action, Matilda yelped and clung to me, wrapping her arms and legs around my body.
I carried her like that and headed straight for the bed.
Gently laying her down on the mattress, I once again stared intently into her eyes.
“Well then…”
“Y-Yes…”
As if to muddle the sense of guilt rising in my heart at her sweet voice, I immediately unleashed the full power of the Saint.