The Swordmaster Wants to Fall in Love! 57. Monghwanhyang (4)
Nothing could be felt. The most humiliating response for a succubus. Penelope's eyes trembled as she began to caress Evan.
"T-That can't be...!"
"Hmm... I really can't feel anything..."
"T-Then what about this?!"
Penelope grabbed Evan's member.
Evan shook his head.
"Then what about this?!"
She rubbed between her breasts.
Visually, it was an incredibly arousing situation, but that was all.
"I-I won't be able to hold back!"
Evan watched as his member entered Penelope's body. He stared at it with curiosity for a moment.
He couldn't feel any sensation whatsoever.
"H-How could this...!"
Realizing that none of her methods—whether using her mouth or her whole body—worked, Penelope collapsed onto the bed in frustration.
It was a devastating blow for a succubus. To fail to satisfy a man? And not some battle-hardened, consummate man, but a teenage virgin boy brimming with sexual desire to the brim...
If word got out about a succubus like that, she'd be dissected immediately and turned into research material. It was something no succubus, however incompetent, should ever be capable of.
"M-Master. I'm sorry. I'm just a worthless girl..."
"N-No! It's fine! I was really turned on too..."
Evan said this while scanning Penelope's half-naked body from head to toe. A creature designed to arouse men. An existence that was erotic from head to toe.
There was no male who wouldn't be aroused by such a being naked before him. Evan was no exception.
...However, there was a world of difference between being aroused just by looking and being aroused to the point of finishing just by looking.
"T-That I'm a worthless succubus... T-That I'm worthless for not being able to satisfy even one boy..."
Penelope got off the bed entirely, curled up in the corner of the room, hugged her knees, and began to sob.
Seeing this, Evan cautiously approached and tried to comfort her—stroking her head, wiping away her tears.
It was the first time a woman had ever cried in front of him, so he was at a complete loss for what to do.
"I'm... worthless... worthless..."
"Hmm... I don't think it's simply that problem..."
Evan recalled the sensations from earlier—when Penelope had caressed his stomach, or when she had carried him here.
Sensations that had been vividly felt during battles with other Transcendents were completely absent when touching her.
As if contact with her was the trigger.
'Could it be...'
Evan pinched his own forearm and realized sensation was still intact, then cautiously took Penelope's hand.
Penelope, who had been sobbing, looked up at Evan as if asking what was happening, and without a word, Evan used her hand to pinch his own thigh.
Her sharp, manicured nails tore slightly into Evan's flesh. Enough to make the seated Penelope jump up in shock.
Watching blood flow freely from his thigh, Evan slowly released Penelope's hand. Only then did the sharp pain in his thigh begin to register.
"─There it is."
"Master? What's suddenly..."
"I found it, Miss Penelope."
"Found what..."
"The reason I can't feel anything."
Like a detective who had caught the culprit, Evan pointed at Penelope and declared.
"It's you, Miss Penelope! It's because of you!"
"...!"
Realizing she was the answer, Penelope crawled under the bed and began to sob.
Realizing too late that he had misspoken, Evan spent a long time dragging her out.
"So... you're saying your senses disappear when you touch my body...?"
"Yes. That's right."
"Wait a moment. That's impossible..."
Sensation disappears the moment he touches Penelope's body. Hearing this, Penelope tilted her head in disbelief and called for another succubus.
The succubus who appeared at her call entered the room with a beaming, cheerful expression.
"I came when called...?"
The low-ranking succubus, who had assumed she was being called because the Transcendent's consummate skill had overwhelmed even the senior staff, tilted her head at the sight of the two people who hadn't even properly undressed.
If it was some kind of fetish, there was no trace of any sexual activity in the room.
"Oh? Why are you calling me already?"
"...Come over here. Go ahead, pinch Master's body."
"Is this customer into that kind of thing?"
The low-ranking succubus pinched Evan's thigh at Penelope's instruction. Seeing Evan show no reaction despite what should have been excruciating pain, she grew flustered and began to apply more force—until flesh was actually torn away.
"W-W-What?! I-I'm so sorry! Customer!"
"It's fine. Please leave now."
"I-I'm really sorry!"
After dismissing the low-ranking succubus and healing Evan's thigh, Penelope let out a troubled sigh at the sight of Evan who had shown no reaction even as flesh was torn from his thigh.
This wasn't something that could be explained as simply enduring pain well.
Even people who endure pain well would break into a cold sweat or have their pupils tremble—some kind of reaction. But Evan showed none of that.
'As if it were completely blocked... Why?'
In reality, the royal castle's mages had erected a barrier to prevent any sensation whatsoever, having considered the possibility of pleasure arising from pain—but Penelope's thoughts couldn't reach that far.
Because no one in history had ever entered the dream world with a barrier erected.
Erecting a barrier that repels succubi requires considerable material and human resources. The only places that could afford such resources would typically be the church's headquarters or the offices of the king or figures of comparable rank.
It just happened that the royal castle had recently laid a barrier across the entire castle, declaring its intent to exterminate succubi, and Evan had connected to Monghwanhyang from that very castle. To deduce this, one would need to know all of these facts—a problem so obscure it was practically impossible to figure out.
'It wasn't insensitivity... So this is...'
The fact that he couldn't feel anything in the dream world—and specifically only with succubi—was unsettling, but... Penelope's ability to speculate was limited at this point.
"─Master, I think you may simply be incompatible with the dream world."
"...Huh?"
"Sometimes there are people like that. Their souls or egos are so enormous that our world simply can't contain them."
The dream world's resources are never infinite. As a result, people occasionally appear whose souls or mental worlds cannot be contained within Monghwanhyang.
Such people cannot even enter Monghwanhyang at all, and Penelope thought Evan might be a similar case.
"So that means..."
"Yes... Well. Unfortunately, Master, your body simply cannot make use of our succubi. I'm sorry, Master."
"No, there's no need for you to apologize, Miss Penelope..."
"No, Master. Failing to receive your desire—that alone disqualifies a succubus."
Penelope looked at Evan with a genuinely apologetic expression. Evan nodded, acknowledging that she had a point, but...
Watching Penelope continue to bow her head in apology, Evan decided to change the subject.
"Ah! Now that I think about it, why were you so depressed?"
"Huh? What do you mean..."
"As a succubus, you've probably dealt with men every day, right? So why would you blame yourself for being worthless? There's no reason to be so hard on yourself."
"...Hoo, hoho. You're touching a sore spot, Master."
Penelope let out a slight laugh, then paused and stared at Evan.
"Do you really want to hear it?"
"Yes. I'm curious."
"I see. It's really, really embarrassing, but... I'm actually a virgin."
"...Huh?"
"I'm a virgin."
Stunned by the words "succubus" and "virgin" together, Evan stared at her with wide eyes, wondering how that could be possible, and Penelope cautiously turned her face away before speaking.
"It's a bit embarrassing for me to say, but I'm an elite who graduated second from the Succubus Academy. I was trained to serve only VIP clients... Transcendents like Master."
"Second place? Um... Is that really impressive?"
"It means I ranked second among thousands of succubi."
"Oh, so not first place?"
"...Y-Yes?"
"Ah, could it be that I can't feel anything because you're second place? ─Just kidding."
Hearing Evan's joke, Penelope felt her pride and self-esteem completely shattered.
She was already struggling with the inferiority complex of being second place, and the guilt of not being able to satisfy even one virgin boy—and now she hears this from him?
Since it wasn't exactly wrong, all Penelope could do was let the tears fall.
"Y-Yes... It's all because I'm... inadequate..."
I'm sorry for being a worthless succubus.
Evan spent his time comforting Penelope, who kept apologizing.
Chirp chirp.
Waking to the sound of birds singing, Evan stretched and recalled the events of the previous night.
He had gone to the dream world, fought Transcendents, and though he couldn't feel anything, he had also had intercourse with Penelope.
Of course, without any sensation, it was hardly what you'd call actual intercourse.
'It's a shame I can't do it in the dream world, but just being able to fight Transcendents...'
As Evan gathered his inspiration by recalling the techniques of the Transcendents he had fought the night before, the door was forcibly opened and knights burst in.
"Don't move-!"
The knights who shouted as they entered immediately began scanning every corner of the room. Wondering what was going on, Evan stared blankly at the lead knight, who cautiously approached and bowed his head.
"Excuse me, Swordmaster. A succubus reaction has been detected in this room. It could be an entity targeting you, so please step out of the room for a moment."
"...Ah, yes."
Evan secretly grabbed the business card from under his pillow.
If he had slept in, he probably would have gotten into big trouble.