Chapter 16
A luxury bed really was different.
Since I’d recently been using nothing but hard wooden beds that creaked whenever I moved, the contrast made me feel it all the more.
The 〈Eight-Colored Shell Castle〉 had no one managing it separately, and yet the sheets were clean and there wasn’t any dust.
It felt like a collection of ready-made products from human culture, gathered according to one person’s tastes.
If Veleira was the owner of this castle, it was easy to tell that she wanted to be the elegant lady of a castle.
Well, for now, I should be grateful to her.
Isti’s sleeping face didn’t suit a shabby inn.
This elven girl alone blended perfectly with this castle.
Only I remembered how this peacefully sleeping face had fallen into disarray.
Good. I liked that very much.
I like hypnosis.
Though there probably aren’t many people who would dislike it.
After carefully disentangling myself so Isti could sleep a bit longer, I got up and looked out the window.
Were there living creatures here too?
A castle sitting abruptly on the coast. In the wide-open space, I could see a forest and a distant mountain range.
A completely different world.
All of a sudden, I grew curious. Just what kind of place was this castle?
“Darling...?”
Isti woke up.
Should I take a bath with Isti?
I opened my personal storage and interacted with the Eight-Colored Shell.
Among the several menus that opened, there was simple map data.
“The grand bath. Shall we go here?”
“Huh? Yeah.”
I took the half-asleep Isti with me and went into the grand bath on the third floor.
When I opened the dazzling door and entered, a large-scale changing room appeared.
There didn’t seem to be any distinction between men and women.
The bath itself was ridiculously spacious.
Surprisingly, it was already filled with clean water, and it was even pleasantly hot.
What is this convenient castle? Did a god make it?
“...”
Gods really are on another scale even when making villas.
“I think we can use the water as it is. Let’s go in together.”
“Together with Dekal?”
“Why, you don’t want to?”
“Mm, because it’s embarrassing.”
We’d already seen everything there was to see between us.
That sounded too much like something an old man would say, so I didn’t say it out loud.
A woman’s sensibility of feeling embarrassed on her own is quite important.
At times like this...
“I wanted to wash together, like other couples do...”
“...”
“Sigh, what a shame. Such a shame.”
“...Fine!”
Isti followed my lead, took off her clothes, and entered the bath.
Ah, nice.
“How did you know about a place like this?”
Isti seemed amazed too.
“I got it because I know a god.”
“A god?”
“Yeah, there’s a red-haired goddess with a fierce aura.”
“Does the goddess like you, Dekal?”
I gave Isti a sidelong glance.
“What do you think if she does?”
“I hate it.”
Isti climbed on top of me.
Her breasts, so soft that their tenderness seemed to reach me just by looking, and her slender shoulders drew my gaze at once.
“I want to have Dekal all to myself. But... if I do that, Dekal might come to hate me.”
“Hmm.”
I naturally embraced Isti and stroked her sensitive parts with my hand.
“Ah...”
My hand slid over Isti’s smooth skin as if using it like a sponge.
“You’re soft.”
“Are you dodging the question...?”
“Yeah. Do you hate it?”
“This... I don’t hate...”
What good would it do to tell her, with a straight face, that I intended to have countless concubines?
If I drew that line, Isti would say she understood with a sad face, and that wasn’t really the picture I wanted.
Right now, I wanted to savor this lively pseudo-romance experience with Isti.
“Semen keeps coming out.”
I put my finger inside Isti’s pussy.
“Because Dekal came inside me that much...”
“That’s how much I liked you.”
“......”
Isti hugged me tightly.
“If they’re Dekal’s children, I can give birth to as many as you want.”
You’re already thinking that far?
Amazing. The power of love.
In the bath, I spent time flirting idly with Isti, and at the end, we washed ourselves clean and came out.
“Want to look around the castle together?”
“If Dekal wants to, anywhere is fine.”
“The dressing room? It’s the room right next door.”
Checking the map data, I held Isti’s hand and walked down the corridor.
The dressing room was an entire room, larger than a guest room, set aside to be used like a wardrobe.
Dazzling women’s clothes made my eyes spin.
There were also tons of erotic underwear, in various colors and opened up in all sorts of ways.
Was this Veleira’s taste?
“Want to try some on?”
“Me? Pretty clothes like this don’t suit me.”
I snorted inwardly.
Among all these clothes, it would be far harder to find something that didn’t suit Isti than something that did.
But perhaps because they were all to Veleira’s taste, there were many lewd dresses.
It would be hard to walk around outside wearing this sort of thing.
As I was thinking that, I suddenly heard a familiar, sharp voice.
“At least the elf knows her place. What a relief.”
The red-haired goddess appeared from the other side.
Isti stood with her back to me and summoned a transparent bow into her hand.
“Dekal. Should I attack?”
“No. She’s the goddess who gave me this castle.”
Hearing my words, Isti lowered her bow.
“Gave it to you? You forcibly took it from me!”
Honestly, she’s blazing every time I see her.
“There are so many clothes, so what’s the big deal if I take some? What is this underwear? What exactly is it covering? Do you go around wearing this?”
“Mind your own business! I only collected them because they’re pretty... I do wear them sometimes. It’s satisfying when I look at my figure in the mirror too.”
“Hahaha.”
“Kuh, kuuuugh!!”
Because of the keyword that made her answer my questions truthfully, the goddess had no choice but to answer honestly, regardless of her own will.
Wasn’t it the perfect keyword for a goddess who wasn’t honest?
“Isti, will you look at the clothes for a bit?”
“Me...?”
Isti looked at me with sorrowful eyes, as if she didn’t want to part from me.
“I’ll be right back. I just have something to talk about with the goddess.”
“Okay...”
We exchanged kisses on the cheek.
Veleira, who had been watching that with her arms crossed and a displeased look, finally made a comment.
“Hmph. You’ve already found yourself one slave. You brainwashed her with that ability anyway, didn’t you?”
“What if I did?”
“I just thought you had pointlessly high standards. That girl is on par with me when I was human. Well, now I’m more beautiful and elegant, though.”
“...Human? You were originally human too?”
“Yes. Though that’s already in the distant past.”
I see.
No wonder there were signs she had dipped her toes into human culture.
The slit dress she was wearing was probably something made by some fashion designer too.
“That aside.”
Veleira blatantly changed the subject.
She looked at Isti’s back from a distance as Isti browsed the clothes.
“You’re emotionally attached to that elf, aren’t you? I can’t attack you, but killing one elf would be no trouble at all.”
Oh-ho. She had guts.
She intended to threaten me?
“You’re going to earn my grudge? Are you confident?”
“Confident? Huhut. What do you take me for? ...Of course I’m not.”
“Hahaha.”
“Kuh!! This is why I hate it!”
Veleira, who had become unable to bluff because of my suggestion, raised her voice with anger and humiliation piled on top.
“Undo this ridiculous brainwashing!
If you don’t, I’ll kill that elf girl you treasure.”
“Don’t say things like that so carelessly. I guarantee you can’t even begin to imagine what’s inside my head.”
“......”
“I can make you suffer more than anything you’ve ever thought of.”
“Did I hit a nerve by poking your weak spot?”
I hadn’t known the goddess harbored such impudent thoughts.
I wasn’t willing to tolerate even the slightest threat to Isti.
Snap.
I snapped my fingers.