Chapter 142
It's quiet.
Though it's an hour when no one would be coming and going, today was especially silent.
I walk along the corridor connecting the buildings.
No candidates are in sight.
But there were several enforcers watching me.
That's an enforcer's job.
Since this school is wary of secret trysts between young men and women, a male candidate wandering alone at a late hour naturally draws the enforcers' attention.
But it doesn't matter.
Because my goal isn't to sneak into the girls' dormitory.
That might be fun too, but where I'm heading now is the Melbrit Main Building.
The core facility of Melbrit that can be used in earnest starting from Bear Grade.
I haven't achieved anything that great in reaching Bear Grade, but it wasn't without twists and turns.
I resolved major missions, and even if briefly, I met Melbrit's highest-ranked candidates.
Tilia Vanguard and Neris Rike.
I didn't meet Heruka, but the more I come and go from the main building, the greater the chances of running into her.
Today, I've come to meet the mysterious student council president, Sia.
I intend to extract every secret she holds through hypnosis, leaving nothing behind.
Her three sizes, the color of the underwear she's wearing, her preferred position.
Everything from the important things to the trivial details.
It's a simple matter.
Just doing what I've always done.
Upon reaching the main building, I saw other candidates walking out.
There was no one trying to enter at this hour like me.
I think they said the facilities could be used until midnight.
Let me enter before they lock the doors.
"……."
The large enforcers at the entrance glanced at my face and looked away.
I guess it's okay to enter.
I go inside without hesitation.
Upon entering the first-floor hall, what catches my eye first is a statue modeled after a beautiful woman.
According to her, this statue is modeled after the Goddess of Light, Illesia.
…….
I climb the stairs.
The library is on the second floor.
The large door you encounter first when going up to the second floor is the library door.
I've never been inside, but just glancing from outside, you can tell it's a place storing an enormous amount of books.
Right now, that door is firmly shut so I can't peek inside, but for some reason, that fact made me strangely nervous.
"……."
It's fine.
I opened the door.
Perhaps because the door was quite large, I had to put in quite a bit of strength to push it.
From outside, it already looked closed as if operating hours had ended, but it wasn't locked.
Of course, there's no one inside.
It seemed everyone else had already left.
Except for one person. Sia, that is.
"You're here."
As if announcing my presence, I speak aloud and walk inside.
As I enter, the door closes on its own.
I'm nervous.
But it was a good feeling.
Not the kind of tension where you're afraid or things feel like they'll go wrong, but the tension you feel when faced with a breathtakingly beautiful woman.
Sia. She could be called the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.
"You've come, Lord Dekal."
"Were you waiting for me?"
"Yes."
Though I've toyed with countless pretty women, Sia was the finest among them.
If I were ranking them purely by how much they turn me on, women with distinct sex appeal like Karen, Neris, or Epe would be better.
And in terms of sheer beauty, Iseuti and Bella are the most beautiful.
But in her, there seemed to reside an inexplicable, elegant dignity.
Black hair coiled up like clouds, intellectual green eyes that seemed to pierce through everything about me.
Harmonious features and clean skin, a neat bearing as if she were a photograph taken at the most perfect moment.
She was a beautiful person, enough to make me—a man whose specialty is shamelessness—lose his words without realizing it.
I was surprised when I first saw her too, but being alone with her felt like my head was going numb.
"Then, what shall we talk about first?"
Snap!
I immediately snapped my fingers.
Just like with Epe, I skipped all the bothersome processes and went straight to hypnosis……!!
"……."
Sia maintained her smiling face without breaking it, simply looking at me.
"Uh……."
It doesn't work.
This is dangerous. My opponent was a goddess. What's more, a goddess who had prepared countermeasures against hypnosis, like Bella……!
How did she know? Even if she's a goddess, to prepare countermeasures against hypnosis, she would need to know of hypnosis's existence, wouldn't she?
"You came without countermeasures?"
At those words, I felt a pressure coldly gripping my heart.
It was the moment speculation turned to certainty.
This isn't good. This is……!
Sia looks around her surroundings. It looked like a motion to check if anyone else was there.
"Coming alone, without seeking cooperation from the Iron Wall Examiner."
"That's right."
I admitted cleanly.
"I came without countermeasures. I've always been like that. Mock me if you want. Whatever you're aiming for, my gambit is over."
Hypnosis doesn't work.
That fact contains many implications. My opponent already knows me, knows my abilities, and has already executed countermeasures.
And yet, she sees through every detail of my relationships and what I can do.
"I won't mock you. Because I knew."
"You knew……?"
Sia's attitude was strange.
Her tone was gentle for a villain who had trapped me.
She simply wore a faint smile, as if she were merely happy to talk with me.
"You've always been like that, Lord Dekal."
"Uh……?"
The shivers won't stop.
It was a feeling like I was on the verge of remembering something but couldn't.
"Please come closer."
Sia lightly perched on the table and stretched her arms out toward me, as if asking to be held.
What on earth is going on?
A honey trap? Is she after something? My vision seemed to sway from the confusion.
"You have no countermeasures anyway. Isn't thinking about it meaningless?"
"……Th-that's right."
I have no countermeasures anyway.
Why does she know me so well……?
I approach as if entranced and embrace Sia. Sia gently hugged me.
A pleasant scent wafted from her. Even though I had ejaculated so much earlier, my dick hardened erect, as if insisting it wanted to violate Sia.
I couldn't fathom Sia's intentions at all.
I don't even know why she's hugging me.
As I pulled away, Sia opened her mouth.
"Have you calmed down?"
"……."
I nodded.
Sia stands up and positions herself before me. A comfortable distance, neither too close nor too far.
She looks up at me and asks.
"How was this school? Would you tell me your impressions of Melbrit?"
"My impressions of Melbrit?"
"Yes."
Why ask such a thing?
Because she's the student council president, so she's curious? Surely she wouldn't do anything with just my single opinion, would she?
I don't know.
One thing's for sure: this goddess is playing with me from high above my head.
She seems like the type to meticulously plan and execute.
There isn't a single gap, not even one in ten thousand.
No matter what plan I had come with, it wouldn't have worked on this woman.
But, separate from that.
The series of exchanges we had in the vein of "I have no countermeasures" weren't words she brought out to criticize me for being thoughtless.
The more one is a "planner," the more vulnerable they are to hypnosis.
Just as the existence of Bak Seoyeon, armed with madness, is my natural enemy,
conversely, the more one thinks and plans, the weaker they are to hypnosis. Because I manipulate people's minds.
That is precisely my essence.
It is also the essence of a hypnotist.
If you can approach anyone and get them to do everything you want with just a snap of your fingers, would you meticulously prepare and review beforehand?
If you had only just obtained hypnosis, you might.
But once it seeps into your life and you begin to dominate everything through hypnosis, it's different.
Then, that predisposition to prepare becomes as incompatible as water and oil.
In other words, I'm a person who very much likes to "act on impulse" in a manner befitting my ability.
The words "I have no countermeasures" are something only possible because she has accurately pierced through that essence of mine.
In other words, this woman knows me very well.
Hadn't she waited here because she knew that if it were me, I would immediately be enticed and rush over without preparation?
Thinking so, I couldn't help but get chills.
Before coming to Melbrit, I didn't even know this woman's face, yet this woman knows everything about me.
I couldn't help but fall into such thoughts.
"……."
Thinking so, all strength drained from my body.
Instead, I felt like I could speak comfortably.
"My overall impression of Melbrit was, well……. I thought it was a ridiculous place. I was angry too.
Because Melbrit has a major structural problem."
"Is it because it encourages competition to select people?"
"Hardly. I've never thought competition is bad. Especially since the students here are those tasked with saving the world.
No one would want the task of saving the world entrusted to a half-hearted person.
In that regard, it's rational."
Above all, Melbrit turns the high-quality souls collected from outside into soul weapons and distributes them to personnel worthy of investment.
The system itself is astounding.
Because they’ve decided to create one monstrous human rather than a hundred skilled soldiers.
"If that’s a realistic system, anyway. It’s an absolutely disgusting place. This can’t even be called a school."
As if understanding my revulsion, Sia nodded.
"Yes. Melbrit is pouring all of its national power into making that system possible. You could say it’s a place where the lifeblood of the entire kingdom gathers."
Of course it would be.
Souls scattered throughout the kingdom wouldn’t gather on their own, so they must have invested tremendous manpower and funds.
It was on a scale that the administrative capacity of a pathetic little country like this could never handle on its own.
Even at the Adventurer’s Guild in a small village, a cash conversion system was in place to exchange soul stones for currency immediately on the spot.
That wasn’t something a guild could manage by itself.
It was possible only because the nation had poured its strength into it.
And the very thing they were pouring such effort into was creating high-level monsters that had gorged on souls.
Was that something a normal country would think of doing?
"This country is still at war with monsters. Outside, and inside."
"War is war, but a school should be a place protected from disaster. Yet here……"
"As you suspect, Melbrit is not a place that properly raises hero candidates to fight on the front lines. It’s a place that manufactures them. Like a production factory. A place that feeds them souls to raise their levels, accelerates their growth, and deploys them to the battlefield. In other words, it’s a core facility for the war between humans and monsters."
If this place had been one that raised students, the country would have to protect the school.
But this was a hero creation facility upon which the fate of the nation rested.
What would happen if the enemy learned of this soul system?
If they found out that, in crude terms, we had gone "all-in"?
Obviously, it would be the top priority target.
Would things that weren’t even human care about the means and methods?
If they failed to stop the monsters, it was easy to imagine what kind of hell would unfold at this production facility bearing the name of a school.
It was one of two things.
Either the hero, humanity’s spiritual pillar, would die, or if Melbrit were struck first, humanity would be destroyed.
I realized this place was no different from a battlefield, and that was why I had felt so sickened.
"And you’re the administrator of that core facility."
"Yes, that is the correct perception. To have grasped the truth of this world in such a short time—I commend you."
"I already knew this was a ruined world before I came here. I simply learned how it was ruined. It’s nothing impressive."
This woman hadn’t refused to serve at the hero’s side after being selected. She had remained as an administrator because protecting this facility was just as important as protecting the hero.
What didn’t add up was her true identity.
"Who are you?"
If a capable young woman was fighting desperately to protect humanity, the person standing before my eyes was no different from a saint.
But if she were a goddess, the story would be rather different.
A goddess saves the world through proxies.
If humanity were actually destroyed, depending on her personality she might feel it deeply, but fundamentally it was none of her business.
If she could save the world herself from the start—if she had the heart to do so—there would be no reason to appoint proxies.
She could just do it herself, couldn’t she?
If she was a goddess, why was she here?
Why……?
"Why did you choose to remain in Melbrit despite knowing everything?"
What came back was a question.
"Because it’s none of my business. I came to this school to have sex with a woman like you. And I’m coming from doing just that today. That’s enough for me."
"……"
Sia wore an expression that revealed nothing of what she was thinking.
I had spoken in a whatever-happens-happens manner.
Even if she despised me, I thought it would be fine, since it would show what kind of character Sia had.
Anyway, what I needed was information. A clue to probe this woman’s true nature.
But Sia, completely unexpectedly—
"Yes, I know."
……She spoke as if she had expected it.
For the first time, I grew angry at this woman who met everything I did with a composed face.
Then let’s see if she expected this too.
I grabbed Sia’s breast roughly.
I pulled her into an embrace and kissed her abruptly.
Sia stood still, offering no resistance.
"Tell the hero to do his best on his own! I’m going to have lots of sex with hero candidates I fancy and get them pregnant. I don’t care if they get killed by monsters because they can’t fight with full-term bellies. I’ll take only the women I like among those I impregnated and get out, and leave the rest of humanity to die as they please!"
"……"
"Why don’t you come with me too? You’d be carrying my child and having sex every day in a safe place. Of course I’ll impregnate the hero too. I’ll unload recklessly into the hero’s pussy, hypnotize her to make her gasp, and have her do as I please. I stayed at this school because I love that kind of thing so much! Did you expect this too?!"
How about that? You must be disgusted to death!
Say something. Try despising me! Curse me out as a piece of trash!
Sia responded to my kiss with an unbothered expression.
I was…… so surprised I couldn’t move.
Sia slipped her tongue in and kissed me. An exceedingly…… affectionate kiss.
"Chuu…… Chu…… Yes…… I expected it. All of it."
"D-don’t joke around!"
Overcome with agitation, I forcefully pushed Sia away.
Sia stood still, smiling at me.
"Y-you, what the hell are you! Can you read minds or something? Are you my enemy? My ally?"
Snap!
I snapped my fingers.
Snap! Snap!
I kept snapping without stopping, but it had no effect on Sia.
Then, everything grew bright.
A light so bright it was difficult to make out the outlines of things.
For a moment I thought I had died. I reached back and grasped the back of the chair. The location hadn’t changed.
This radiance was spreading out from Sia as its center. And yet, only Sia’s form was clearly visible.
A sea of light enveloped everything.
Even though I was clearly standing on the ground, there was no ceiling, no walls, and I couldn’t tell how low or high I was.
Within the fierce, white flow of light that made everything indistinguishable, Sia spoke quietly.
"I am Ilesia, the Goddess of Light."
With those words.
As if her 「Divinity」 had been made manifest, a sacredness suffused the light.
……I’m finished.
Everything I had done until now flashed before my eyes like fleeting images.
I pictured myself falling into hell, suffering every imaginable pain.
However, Sia did not thrust down a spear of judgment or anything of the sort.
She simply wore a benevolent smile.
"Lord Dekal. I shall tell you everything."
"Everything……?"
"Please look at this."
Something appeared in Sia’s hand. It was…….
"A red soul stone……?"
"It is similar, but something entirely different. This soul stone is of a far higher grade. It is a God’s Soul Stone."
"A God’s Soul Stone……"
"It is contained within this."
"What is?"
With a curiosity that felt as though it would burn my mind, I pressed her urgently.
Sia continued in a calm voice.
"The memories of when Lord Dekal was a God."