Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Uniform Temptation
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Shower finished.
Clea must have gone back, as the room was empty.
Only one flower pot lay pitifully uprooted.
Nothing else seemed out of place.
"Phew, I'm beat."
I sat on the fluffy bed and caught my breath.
I planned to fully savor this rare moment of rest.
From memory, the imperial villa was packed with all sorts of fine luxuries.
The drawer here in particular held some excellent incense.
Light it up, and your mind would haze over as your body grew languid with its enchanting aroma.
It was something I'd often used back in my stressful days as prime minister.
The effect was so potent that drifting off to its scent could even guide you to the dreams you desired.
In fact, I'd once fallen asleep to it and dreamed of averting the empire's downfall.
Today, I intended to grant myself this little gift.
"Maybe a light two-hour nap."
I lit the incense and lay back comfortably.
With the sweet peach fragrance enveloping me, I welcomed a deep sleep.
"......"
Maybe because it was my first time using it in this life.
No particularly good dreams came.
Or perhaps it was because my hopes weren't all that grand.
As long as the catastrophe-level prisoners didn't rampage and could each live happily, that was enough.
Their peaceful lives were my own respite.
With that modest wish, I waited for my body to melt away.
But then...
How much time had passed?
One side of the bed sank down, as if someone had sat on it.
My body naturally tilted toward the intruder following the sensation.
Who was it?
Clea again?
Wondering what she wanted this time, I slowly opened my eyes.
But the sight that greeted me was nothing like I'd expected.
"......?"
The first thing that entered my view was a short tennis skirt and thick thighs.
On top of that, the white stockings reaching up to her knees were so stretched they looked almost flesh-toned.
It was the quintessential pure schoolgirl outfit, but today it felt incredibly provocative.
No man could resist reacting to such healthy, voluptuous skin.
I had no choice but to snap my drowsy eyelids open and look up at the intruder.
A mature figure unbelievable for a 19-year-old.
The uniform shirt strained taut around her curves.
But the most shocking part...
Was the cute twin tails contrasting her sharp eyes.
Sitting on my bed right now was the Sword Sage turned academy student.
Myoran.
"Am I dreaming right now...?"
I muttered blankly, staring at her in a look completely unlike her usual self.
The Eastern girl who met my eyes replied in a cynical voice.
"Yeah, it's a dream."
She stood there alone with arms crossed, glancing down at me.
The twin tails did give off a proper 19-year-old vibe.
Though the uniform she wore looked ready to burst.
"What the hell did you usually think of me to have me show up like this?"
Myoran turned her body leisurely toward me.
Looking down at me like some pathetic old man.
"You're a total pervert after all."
"What are you talking about? I've never thought like that."
I shook my head firmly, but Myoran poked my side with her finger.
"I know this fragrance filling the room induces the dreams you want. It's Soul-Subduing Incense imported from our East Continent."
"......"
Eyes gleaming with joy at finding my weak spot.
She was usually hard to read emotionally, but her long twin tails swayed happily.
"You got properly hooked. So you do look at me with those eyes normally, huh?"
Myoran slowly crawled toward me as I lay there.
Her necktie draped softly over my chest.
"If you want, I could even play along in the dream. But there's a condition."
Whether it was her skin's scent or the room's fragrance, the sweetness thickened.
"What condition...?"
The woman with the same green eyes as me.
But there was no trace of a clever teenager's aura.
Eyes sacrificed to far too many adults' dark desires.
Murky like pebbles weathered by long storms.
"Remember your promise to create a world with no more victims like me?"
"Of course. I promised I'd make it happen."
She trusted no adults anymore.
She was sick to death of those whose loyalties shifted easily with their own gains.
"I don't want anyone else involved in that promise."
She suspected I might collude with others to bind her unchangingly.
To ensure I harbored no other impure thoughts.
"Just you and me making it together."
"......"
I looked up at her slowly.
Her words said she'd indulge me, but I could clearly hear her heart pounding.
Queenly poise on the surface, but the sweat trickling down her back betrayed her.
Right now, the dream Myoran was testing me.
"Right. Nothing forges a bond like giving our bodies to each other."
I reached out toward the stunning view before me.
It was a dream anyway, so I could touch her freely.
"But you don't need to show me this kind of sincerity."
My hand plainly brushed past the buttons of her shirt.
And gently stroked the cheek of the distrustful Sword Sage.
"I don't want to sacrifice you to that ambition of building a better world."
Myoran's heartbeat stopped dead for a moment.
The dream room fell utterly silent, devoid of sound.
Just me lying there and the girl straddling me.
"Now I get it. Why you showed up in my dream wearing that uniform."
I forwent the view I could have enjoyed freely and closed my eyes.
Then, I plainly confessed the reason she'd appeared before me like this.
"My dreams aren't about simple lust. There's a much deeper desire than that."
"D-Deeper than this?"
Flustered Myoran.
Sweat beaded on the thigh pressing down fully on my leg.
"Yeah."
From within my tousled silver hair, my decadent eyes gleamed.
Weary for so long, I gave her a genuine smile.
"What I want is for you to live ordinarily, girlish like you are now."
Is there anything harder than living ordinarily?
It might be a wish far deeper than mere lust.
"Wha...?"
Myoran's long twin tails tickled my cheek.
Her lips parted slightly as she wore a stunned expression.
"Your current self is the complete fulfillment of my wish."
I smoothed the bangs over the Sword Sage's downy cheek.
With a gentle voice like that of a father her age.
"I'd hoped you'd overcome the pain of losing your martial sisters and make new friends at the academy."
Myoran's face trembled faintly with her forehead exposed.
Seeing it, I praised her as if approving.
"It suits you perfectly. This look."
Myoran gulped deeply at the sight of me smiling brightly even while pinned down by her.
When she'd first come to the bed, her face had shown no change.
But now, complex emotions flushed her cheeks red.
"What an idiot...!! I gave you a chance, and all you do is spout nonsense?"
Myoran reached out and forced my eyes shut.
Then she bolted upright and hurried off the bed.
The Soul-Subduing Incense was fading bit by bit.
She tugged at the shirt she'd worn so uncomfortably and retreated.
She even used lightness skill to flee the room in search of cool air.
"......"
Left alone, I stared blankly at the ceiling.
Even though it was a dream, the Sword Sage looking down at me had been utterly enchanting.
Enough to make me doubt if I was some lunatic lusting after teenagers.
Fortunately, I'd accurately interpreted the reason for this dream.
My prime minister days' discernment hadn't faded yet.
Satisfied, I drifted back into deep sleep.
'This incense is top-notch. For a second, I thought a succubus had come.'
Myoran left the room.
She swiftly vaulted over the window ledge and climbed to the villa's rooftop.
Sitting on the resplendent platinum roof, she let out a deep breath.
Her emotions still tangled, she huffed away.
"Idiot. I told him to follow his desires, so why does he worry about me instead?"
The man lying on the bed was far weaker than her.
She'd snuck a peek at his body through the stretched T-shirt—decent muscles, but...
The gap in their realms was still overwhelming.
Why did such a being want to protect her?
And unlike all the other men who'd lusted after her, he showed no dark intentions.
"......"
Truth be told, she'd only offered to play along verbally; she had no idea what came next.
She'd never clashed bodies with a man in any way other than swordplay.
So with her heart trembling fiercely, she'd approached to forge an alliance solely with him.
Only to feel utterly toyed with instead.
The age gap was a mere two years.
Yet those eyes looking up at her so cutely...
They were so achingly familiar it frustrated her to no end.
The final blow amid her turmoil was that one parting line from him.
It matched exactly what her late father—the pinnacle of the martial world—had always said to her.
Before her sect's downfall, the sect leader had made it a habit to say it to her.
As he wrapped a bandage around her blistered palm.
"......"
The sect leader looked down at her with pity.
Myoran had prepared her trump card to counter his weary paternalism, which she'd heard endlessly.
"......"
It clearly worked; even her father, the greatest in the martial world, was at a loss for words.
She followed up by revealing her own resolve openly.
The sect leader burst into hearty laughter at his daughter's mature response.
He finished wrapping her palm and replied gently.
However, her father passed away without upholding that profound will. And now... A man she'd met from the western regions sought to inherit it. In a way utterly unlike all those who'd only ever toyed with her.
"......"
Myoran covered her lips with her fist. Her father, the supreme martial artist she'd always admired. It felt like she'd finally met a man just like him.
"He's barely 21 himself."
Her face flushed like a sweetly ripened peach. Despite the cool rooftop, the young Sword Sage's heat wouldn't subside. She'd strategized to claim him. But now her thoughts had shifted greatly; she lingered on the roof for a long while.
"Still, he must've wanted to see me in the dream. He didn't panic at the sight."
He hadn't been seduced, but knowing he'd been thinking of her all along made her lips twitch.
"Well, maybe it's even better this way."
She'd tested him on a whim. Now convinced, she licked her lips instead.
"Either way, he has me on his mind."