# 024 We've Come to Part Ways
# 024 We've Come to Part Ways
With Sharia in my care and training, my daily routine settled into repeating the same pattern from dawn until evening.
Dawn: Sharia's physical conditioning.
Morning: Sharia's swordsmanship training.
Afternoon: Sharia's martial arts practice.
And night: Sharia's night duty training.
Training for night duties didn't mean having sex, but rather vicarious experience and observation—watching me have sex with Lilith, both in dreams and in reality.
I had sex with Lilith, and Sharia absorbed my mana while receiving the vitality that Lilith had refined once.
A week had already passed since this lifestyle began.
I had been guiding Sharia according to a perfect routine, but I encountered a very significant obstacle.
"You have to go?"
"Yeah. I can't just keep neglecting my business in Richmond."
Lilith wanted to return to Richmond.
Her business was there, and Richmond was where the kingdom of succubi she had built as a succubus existed.
It wasn't a separate nation but rather an underworld faction, yet its scale was so vast that it served a role as vital as a "royal capital" to succubi across the continent.
She had colluded behind the scenes with the human leaders of Richmond to run a massive merchant group, so she could be considered an existence akin to a queen of some kingdom.
Though spoken of as an underworld kingdom, in reality it was a red-light district.
Succubus Boomtown.
Through a fortunate alignment of interests among the lord of Virginia, the Church of the Twin Moon Goddesses, and even the Dark Guild faction, Lilith had become the greatest tycoon of Virginia's red-light district.
Although she herself only ever had sex with me.
"Can't you stay a little longer?"
"I want to, but you know I can't. I really do love you and your cock, but I love my own kind just as much. If I step away from there, they'll all end up begging for vitality."
Indeed.
"They'll fall from a life of earning money and vitality to sneaking into inns at night and stealing semen. All of the succubi would. I can't bear to watch that happen."
This was the reason Lilith gave up on becoming my wife.
"I'm sorry. That I can't be a woman who lives only for you."
"It's fine. That's part of your charm, after all."
"Yeah?"
"Of course. You'd throw away the chance to be my wife for the sake of the entire succubus race. Where else in the world is there such a remarkable woman?"
My wife had to live her whole life looking only at me and staying by my side, but Lilith wished to live for the succubus race within human society.
"Giving up the position of mistress of a lair belonging to the world's strongest dragon? That's not exactly an easy choice, is it. Heh heh."
"...Yeah. I agonized over it a lot. Honestly, I'm still agonizing over it even now."
Lilith buried her face against me as she nestled into my arms.
"I think you chose well with Sharia as your wife. Honestly, since that child, she seems like the first woman who could really become your wife."
"Right?"
"Right. So I'm even more jealous. That place... it might have been my place."
"Isn't it the place you gave up? You might be jealous, but it was your choice."
"That's exactly why I'm even angrier and more irritated."
She was satisfying as a sex partner, but Lilith refused to become my Lilith and mine alone.
"If only the succubus race could get by just fine without me, I'd come into your arms anytime."
"Heh heh, without you, succubi would probably be hiding in caves again or sneaking into villages at night and getting purified, wouldn't they? It's thanks to you they can live openly, infiltrating human society now."
"I guess so. Honestly... damn my species. I wish I could just be a high elf who doesn't care what others think and lives her whole life having sex by your side until she dies."
"Then when you die later, reincarnate as a high elf. I'll raise you beautifully until you come of age, then pop your cherry the moment you become an adult."
"Just hearing that makes me happy. Fine. Until then, we'll just keep enjoying ourselves like this. How's that?"
"The best."
Though she was not my wife, since we hadn't fought or betrayed one another—she hadn't slept with some other man—I simply maintained a relationship where we could fuck each other any time we wanted.
"The door to me is always open. Just like you can come find my bed anytime and put my cock in your mouth."
If Lilith ever decided to hand over her succubus kingdom to someone else and stay by my side, I had every intention of welcoming her as my wife.
"Even if it's right before your time runs out and you die."
"...I'm truly grateful."
What worried me was her remaining lifespan, which wasn't long, but I could also make her crave my vitality every single day until she died and let her live steeped in pleasure.
"Before I leave, a final gift."
"What?"
"When you want to do it with Sharia, follow my recommendation."
Lilith smiled a suggestive smile and winked.
"Don't use your current look. Use your original form."
"What?"
I was caught off guard.
"You're telling me not to use this look? Why? How awesome is this?"
"To a man, it must look awesome. But it didn't seem like Sharia's taste, you know? That's that girl's taste."
Lilith poked at my chest muscles with her finger.
"You're pushing your ex-wife's taste on her, do you really think Sharia would be attracted to that? Right?"
"......."
Just as Lilith said.
This muscle-bound warrior's appearance was the taste of that girl—the high elf.
Since the height was perfectly suited for acts like pressing down on her from above with my tall stature, or grabbing her hips and thrusting in while kissing her all at once.
On the occasions I had tried to use my original form back then, she hadn't liked it much, perhaps because she disliked seeing me look up at her.
I wasn't too fond of my original form looking up at women either.
What did they call it?
The world called this sort of thing shota.
"Sharia really has that kind of taste? This form, a bit shorter than you?"
"Your cock is still huge."
"Cock is something I can't change. Sigh, in this posture I practically have to raise my hands up to my shoulders just to support Sharia's chest. And you're telling me to deal with Sharia in this form anyway?"
"Yeah. Trust me on this. When it comes to sex, have you ever regretted listening to me?"
"...No, you haven't."
I might not know about other things, but when it came to sex, Lilith was my equal.
Her personal sexual experience was solely with me, but the sex she had observed was likely far more diverse and numerous than what I had seen.
"Just trust me. If you discard that look, live together with Sharia, and still can't have sex within a week? Then I'll gift you something really good for real."
"What is it?"
"A duke's daughter corrupted into a succubus."
"Is she a virgin? Is she pretty?"
"That's the baseline."
This was an exciting topic.
"She's being corrupted into a succubus but she's a virgin? Is that really possible? You're not telling me to have a human virgin on the side and then later taste a succubus virgin, are you?"
"Of course not. I've been working really hard lately through some backroom dealings with a certain kingdom to corrupt a duke's daughter. I'll hand her over to you."
"Mm...."
My mouth was watering.
A duke's daughter, by tradition, would be a woman from a time-honored family, and for such a woman to be a virgin while being corrupted into a succubus was as mouth-watering a prospect as taking the Dragon Lord's virginity.
"Fine. I'll change, but... it feels a bit weird."
My reflection in the mirror was still the large-framed warrior.
The one 'she' had liked so much.
"This was like mourning clothes, really."
"...Were you planning to wear mourning clothes to seduce another woman? Are you out of your mind?"
"......."
* * *
Morning.
While I ate alone with Sharia, I couldn't help but feel her gaze on me constantly.
"What's the matter?"
"...Your appearance."
"What about my appearance?"
"You've changed... haven't you?"
"Mm."
My reflection in the mirror—should I call it that of a beautiful young man, or perhaps a beautiful youth?
Among the nobility, it was a face like the youngest of three sons raised, lavished with love, in a marquis's household.
"Um, Master. This is truly, truly rude of me, but...."
"A question you must ask even knowing it's rude?"
"Yes."
"Go ahead."
"Master, are you perhaps...."
Sharia even set down her utensils before asking me.
"...A dragon?"
"A dragon?"
It was out of nowhere, but at the words pinpointing my exact identity, my heart plummeted.
"Yes. Er, that you might be in the middle of some disguise...."
"Ha."
I was a bit dumbfounded.
"If I were a dragon in some disguise, would I have gotten caught in that teleportation circle?"
"That teleportation circle—wasn't it one you cast, Master?"
"...Let's say I cast it. Then why would I have brought you before that unicorn back then?"
"Um, to screen for virginity...?"
"...Let's grant that premise a hundred concessions. Does it make any sense for a dragon to possess Dragonbane, a weapon made by killing a dragon?"
"I assumed it was something you took from dragon slayers after beating them down."
"......."
She was somehow deducing everything correctly.
Sharia spoke with such certainty that I was a dragon, it almost made me wonder if Lilith had mentioned my identity before leaving.
"Why do you think that?"
"Because this whole situation fits perfectly together if I assume 'Master is a dragon'?"
"Situation?"
"Yes. Like being a Sword Master, insisting on virgins when I consider Master's disposition, having an old castle like this in the forest. Being on close terms with the succubus queen. And...."
"Fine, so be it."
I set down my utensils.
"Whether I am a dragon or not, the relationship between you and me does not change. Understood?"
"......Understood."
Sharia nodded heavily.
I was about to pick up my utensils again, but curiosity arose and I asked,
"But why did you think I was a dragon? There must have been a trigger."
"Er, you showed me in my dreams, remember. Lilith's first experience."
"Mm."
"...The decorations and features of the inn that appeared back then, and the style of the clothes Master was wearing, things like that. They were architectural styles from at least a thousand years ago, so...."
"......Ha."
My identity had been exposed from a completely unexpected direction.
"So what you're saying is, you thought I was a dragon because the surroundings were from over a thousand years ago?"
"Yes. Um... Master."
Sharia began fidgeting with her fingers and gauging my reaction.
"You acting that way so I would notice... wasn't that your intention?"
"Not particularly, no."
"...I thought since you came out in that form today, you were sounding me out, telling me to speak up."
"Is that so?"
I could see that.
No matter how much I introduced myself as a Sword Master, a person's body didn't just suddenly change.
"Aren't you afraid of me?"
"...I am afraid, but you are going to help me regardless, aren't you?"
"Help you?"
"For my revenge."
Sharia wiped the corners of her mouth with a napkin, then slowly approached me and knelt before the chair where I sat.
"...Dragon or whatever, whether you deceived me at our first meeting, none of that matters to me at all. You promised to give me power, didn't you. Isn't that right?"
"That is right, yes."
"...Then."
Sharia looked up at me with half-lidded eyes.
"...Starting today, may I receive a tremendous amount of power? If you're a dragon, your power must be correspondingly strong."
"......Ha."
I turned my chair toward Sharia.
"Can you handle it?"
"...I'll have to try."
Sharia raised her hand toward my pants.
"...I am a woman who is serious about revenge."
"For revenge, you can do that too?"
"...Sex."
Sharia's eyes gleamed as she nodded.
"In, in exchange though...."
Crunch.
Sharia clutched my thigh and asked.
"...Would you do it in this body? That body is a little...."
"......."
Ah.
I see.
Eight hundred years had passed, and the prevailing trend had finally changed.
'The trend is shota.'
Ah.
She had said that if I was a shota, she would have sex with me.
"Shall I shrink my cock too?"
"...That's a bit."
Ahh, farewell.
Oh muscular-yet-pretty dark-skinned beefcake man.
Sorry, but we live in the age of the hung shota now.
