# 008 I Raise Them and Eat Them
# 008 I Raise Them and Eat Them
After leaving Hudia at the temple.
I parted ways with Sharia for a while and returned to my lodgings.
And I seriously pondered how to handle Sharia.
"She's not the kind of woman you want to provoke into rebellion. That'd be such a waste."
The past.
The period when I lived as a human despite being a dragon.
I'd already raped women in countless situations.
"Treat a nice woman cruelly like that? No, wrong move. If I were just going to play with her for a bit, sure, but not a woman I intend to keep for life."
I went around raping women using every method available to a human, and my younger self was truly consumed by lust.
"Rather than making her squawk in bed for the rest of her life, I'll just go about it like a gentleman. Yep."
And after living while raping only one woman, I came to a single realization.
That just raping someone recklessly backfires.
A good woman's mind shattered, and she let go of everything.
Restoring her to something resembling a person would take considerable time, and throughout it I would have to deal with a woman no different from a block of wood.
Sharia was a fragile woman whose mind would break if I simply rammed my cock into her right away.
A good woman who seemed not to have yet experienced the malice of the human world.
Especially, even more so if she was a good woman with no sexual experience.
And occasionally, there were cases where such a good woman's mind broke and she ended up harboring a venom that would never melt away.
Namely, the high elf.
'That one held a grudge to the very end.'
When I raped the high elf, I forcibly violated her while she cried and resisted.
Because of that, I spent eight hundred years making the high elf drown in pleasure, but the high elf never once genuinely told me she 'wanted to do it first.'
Eight hundred years.
Over the long span of eight hundred years, I had learned with certainty just how far a woman would go when she harbored a grudge over being raped.
—Haa. Why are you like this? Other women, even if I rape them nonstop for about a month, they start liking it enough to shake their hips on their own.
—.......
—Haa. Forget it. I'm going to cum inside, so squeeze tighter. Khuuut...!!
—......Haa.
Of course, the high elf was also a woman so obstinate she couldn't be compared to any other existence, but there's no law saying another woman like that won't appear.
Even if Sharia submits to my cock and opens her heart to me quickly.
—Are you going to rape me again, and now kill me? Like the day you first raped me...?
Wouldn't she show lingering resentment like that?
I'd already been burned once by ignorantly shoving my cock into a woman like Sharia first.
'Something tells me Sharia's the type to hold a quiet but strong grudge, too.'
A woman like that seemed like the type who would hold it over me for life if I simply rammed it in.
The kind of woman who'd put me in a difficult spot, asking didn't I rape her at our first meeting and would I just keep raping her from now on.
'Rather than that, it's definitely better to rape her in comfort.'
Right.
Raping her in comfort was far better.
Since I'm not going to take Sharia just once and then send her away, I formulated a scheme to build an amicable relationship with Sharia.
"Hm, hmm, hm."
I took out my notebook and leafed through past records.
Out of all the history of countless crimes I'd witnessed while living in the human world, I pondered what method would be most appropriate to use on Sharia.
And the conclusion I reached.
"I'll raise her."
Raise her, then rape her.
No, rape her, and raise her that way.
* * *
Late at night.
"An unfamiliar ceiling."
Hudia awoke from sleep.
And slowly, she began to recall the events she had experienced, one by one.
Let's Sex.
To the man who called himself Rape, she had offered Sharia—the woman who had agreed to be her companion—and she herself had tried to escape from the man's clutches.
So she led the two to a secluded spot in the dungeon, then tried to sneak away on her own.
And after running away?
Report Rape to the guild.
Surely he would spend a considerable amount of time focused on Sharia, so if Hudia called the guild people in the meantime and caught him in the act, she could have exacted definite revenge.
But had God intended to punish Hudia for her wicked heart?
The magic circle that suddenly appeared warped her along with the other two to another location.
Inside the dungeon.
That place, like a temple filled entirely with obsidian, resembled the entrance to something.
There, Hudia met a unicorn.
And then.
"Augh...."
Hudia clutched her chest.
The unicorn had clearly tried to stab her with its horn.
But for some reason it had a change of heart at the end, and struck her chest with its hoof instead.
And it didn't touch Sharia.
It didn't touch Rape, either.
Only her.
She alone had been struck by the unicorn.
"Ha, hahaha...."
Emptied laughter escaped her spontaneously, but nothing changed.
Self-loathing began to choke her, but what was already done couldn't be undone.
She had been able to escape from Rape in exchange for offering Sharia.
"Hic, sob, huuuuck...!"
"Oh, sister...!"
A priest in clerical robes hurried over and attended to Hudia.
"Are you alright? A full day has already passed since you were brought here."
"A day...?"
"Yes. I've heard the situation from the members of your party. That, uh, you encountered a unicorn."
"...Yes."
"As I thought."
From behind the priest, a silver-haired woman with a sharp impression appeared.
The long-eyed woman, wearing a white uniform, pulled out a notebook.
"Inquisitor of the Goddess Church. I would like to hear the details."
"A-an inquisitor...? I-I'm not a heretic!"
"That's not what I'm asking. I'm merely asking in order to confirm what sort of creature the unicorn you saw was. Was the unicorn you saw this kind of creature?"
The inquisitor took a page from the notebook and showed it to Hudia.
"A unicorn with a yellow horn on its head. Is this the one?"
"Y-yes...! It was definitely the 'Unicorn of Annihilation'! Exactly as I saw it depicted in a book...!"
"As I thought. Sealing the dungeon wasn't the wrong choice after all."
"S-sealed...?"
Hudia felt her heart sink.
Just what kind of unicorn had she encountered that an inquisitor would not only come all the way to Lost Virginia but also seal the dungeon?
"It probably isn't written in any book about the Unicorn of Annihilation. The place the Unicorn of Annihilation guards is, precisely, the dragon's domain from that point onward."
"Pardon...?"
"The upper floors, a dragon has no involvement with. But once you pass the spot guarded by the Unicorn of Annihilation, hell begins from there."
"Don't tell me beyond that is...."
"Yes. A dragon's lair."
Hudia felt as if her soul might leave her body.
"With a path leading to a dragon's lair opened in a place a Bronze-ranked mercenary could enter, we cannot allow needless sacrifices to occur. Perhaps since the front yard of a dragon's lair was disturbed, there is a possibility the dragon might make some kind of move, too."
Hudia's face turned deathly pale.
"I-I was trying to get magic stones from the Dragon's Lair dungeon, but I never meant to do anything to a dragon's lair!"
"I know. I've already confirmed it with the two of them. That the three of you were hunting slimes and got caught up in a Teleportation Circle. It was merely an accident."
The inquisitor explained to Hudia what she had investigated through Sharia and the man.
"...This is what they said. Is it correct?"
"Y-yes, that's right. A Teleportation Circle suddenly appeared, and then...."
That account contained what Hudia had experienced exactly as it happened, except that it was narrated with them at the center.
—Hudia tried to sell Sharia out and run away from Rape.
Excepting that one secret.
"Is there perhaps anything else? Miss Sharia was quite detailed in her account, so there isn't much left to investigate."
"W-well, uh...."
Though afraid, Hudia carefully opened her mouth.
"...That man, this person called Rape—just what is he?"
"Ah, that man."
The inquisitor shook her head from side to side.
"He was just a big, dark-skinned mercenary."
The inquisitor showed no particular reaction.
Hudia wanted to scream 'He threatened me and coveted my body!' but she could only keep her mouth firmly shut, afraid that her own conduct in trying to sell Sharia out would come to light.
"Anyway, thank you for telling me. I swear that I will certainly find that unicorn and eliminate it with my own two hands to avenge you."
"The... the unicorn?"
"Yes. That unicorn, the Unicorn of Annihilation, is an enemy of the church that must be killed."
"Why is that?"
"...It's not well known to the general public, but I suppose there's no particular harm in telling you."
The inquisitor asked the nun beside her.
The nun smiled bitterly and nodded gravely, and the inquisitor straightened her posture and opened her mouth.
"That unicorn, long ago, stabbed and killed the Saintess."
* * *
In front of the inn.
"......."
Sharia bit her lower lip as she recalled Hudia, lying unconscious in the temple's sick ward.
—It was a sudden incident.
—In dungeons—no, in life, you never know when or where something might happen.
—Be grateful you survived.
The temple's priests left Sharia those words of consolation as they treated Hudia.
But consolation was merely hollow and was of no help whatsoever to Sharia.
There was only one path that would truly help.
She had to obtain power.
The power to protect herself from threats.
Tap tap tap.
Sharia ran.
And she ran to where he was staying, found out his room from the innkeeper, and knocked on the door.
"Mr. Rape!"
"...What is it."
Creeeak.
Rape, who opened the door, was wet as if he had just showered.
Wearing only his lower garments, his black body, thickly muscled and hard as rock, made Sharia lose her senses for a moment.
"I asked why you came. At this hour."
Under his gaze, sharp-eyed and looking down at her, Sharia grew tense and her body stiffened, but she struggled to compose herself and asked the man.
"Please... train me...!"
"...What?"
Rape looked bewildered.
Sharia realized that it came across as something harshly suggestive and hurriedly shook her head.
"Ah...! I-I mean. To be precise... please become my master!"
"Master?"
"Yes...!"
"Hm...."
Rape approached Sharia.
He came so close their breath nearly touched, and Sharia involuntarily stepped back one step, but before she knew it, Rape had already grabbed her waist with his hand.
"You have a good body."
"P-pardon?"
"You asked me to train you, correct? Understood. But keep this in mind."
Rape grinned savagely as he met her eyes.
"If I train you, you will become the continent's greatest Sword Master. Because you have talent."
Shhhing.
Rape drew a small dagger from his chest.
Sharia flinched in surprise, but seeing the blue Aura rising from the blade, she unknowingly covered her mouth with her hand.
"Aura Blade...! No way, you...?!"
"Yes. I am a Sword Master."
From Rape's ki-sense, Sharia only now realized where this man's confidence came from.
"If you learn from me, you will certainly gain mighty power. But as the price for training you, I will take the most precious thing you have."
It was, as if, a sweet offer proffered by a devil.
"Do you desire power?"
It was an offer she could not refuse.