“This isn’t right……”
Damon stared up at the ceiling of the secret chamber with hollow eyes. He had come here to indulge himself after so long, and yet no carnal desire stirred in him at all.
Perhaps the guild master of Pencelut had put considerable effort into it, for every one of the women who entered was an extraordinary beauty. Not a single one was lacking in looks. Despite that, Damon found no pleasure in it whatsoever. The beauties were desperately acting coquettish and running their hands over his entire body, but Damon’s mind was growing colder and colder.
“As I thought, trying to dilute my longing for Daphne in this way was wrong from the start.”
When he turned his head, the face of one beauty clinging tightly to his body came into view. As their eyes met, she gave him a radiant smile. Her features looked as if they had been painted on, without the slightest flaw. She was a beautiful woman with lake-blue eyes, full lips, and snow-white skin. Staring intently at her smile, Damon tried to make it overlap with Daphne’s face.
But it was all in vain. All he realized was that nothing could imitate Daphne’s innocent smile. Understanding that even his heart had already become Daphne’s captive, Damon gave a bitter smile.
“This is boring.”
As soon as Damon spoke, the blood drained from the beauties’ faces. They had already been told the identity of the guest they were serving, so fear instinctively surged through them. Into the ears of the beauties, who had gone rigid with tension, Damon’s low, sunken voice reached them.
“Enough. Sit down.”
At his words, the beauties hurriedly found their places and sat. The guest they were serving now was someone whose temper must never be offended under any circumstances. Damon silently looked at Katroi, who was seated across from him.
“This is what womanizing is. Now that you’ve experienced it, how does it feel?”
Katroi wore an expression that suggested his mood had become quite sour.
“If I had to put it in a word, unpleasant. The fishy smell coming from these things is strange, and I especially dislike the way they’ve been rubbing their bodies against me since earlier. I have no idea what they’re trying to do. Do humans call this kind of thing amusement?”
“Are these girls not beautiful?”
“I know what beautiful means, but to me they all merely look like identical human females.”
The moment Katroi finished speaking, Damon burst into a hearty laugh.
“Kekeke. A dragon with no appreciation for refinement, are you? Well, there’s no way a fellow like you, who has no distinction between male and female, could understand the profundity of yin and yang.”
Katroi shot Damon a sharp look.
“To my eyes, you do not seem to be enjoying yourself all that much either. Am I wrong?”
Struck right where it hurt, Damon remained silently quiet. As if to escape the awkwardness, Damon lifted the cup before him and drained it in one go.
“Care for a drink?”
Once his cup was empty, the beauty seated beside him quickly lifted the bottle and filled it, as though it were her life’s calling. Katroi lifted the cup before him with a displeased look.
“A peculiar human beverage made by fermenting grain. I have heard that the alcohol acts upon the cerebrum and induces pleasure. Unfortunately, the properties of alcohol do not apply to dragons. From that perspective, this is no different from water with a somewhat odd taste to me.”
After unhesitatingly pouring the cup into his mouth, Katroi tilted his head.
“The taste is tolerable enough. I have heard that a few dragons enjoy it, but……”
A mischievous impulse rose in Damon, and he smiled faintly.
“If you’ve emptied your cup, you should eat some snacks to go with it.”
“Mm? Snacks?”
“Choose the most appetizing-looking one among the girls sitting beside you. Good snacks effectively neutralize intoxication.”
The beauties’ complexions instantly turned deathly pale. Recalling the man-eating dragons they had heard of only in old tales as children, they finally began trembling all over. Their desperate effort to shrink in on themselves so as not to be caught and eaten was pitiful at a glance. Katroi narrowed his eyes as if dumbfounded.
“Your pranks are truly beyond help. Do not worry. I have no intention of eating fishy-smelling human females. I am already a Wyrm-class dragon. Absorbing mana alone is sufficient for me to sustain life.”
“You damned bastard. Even thievery needs both hands and feet working together.”
Feeling the drunkenness slowly rising, Damon shook his head.
“There is still more to the process of womanizing, but it isn’t something a dragon can enjoy by nature. So today, let us just leisurely enjoy the wine.”
“You can, can’t you?”
Damon mercilessly rapped the head of Katroi, who had asked back with a blank expression.
“You bastard. I’m a dragon too, aren’t I? Are you drunk?”
“R-right, you were.”
Katroi clutched his head and looked tearful. Only then did Damon’s warning come back to him. That damned human bastard was very thoroughly pretending to be a dragon. Suddenly saddened by his own situation, Katroi picked up an entire bottle of liquor.
“Fine. While we’re at it, let’s experiment and see whether a dragon can get drunk.”
Gulp, gulp.
Glancing at Katroi as he drank straight from the bottle, Damon leisurely took hold of another bottle.
“You girls have a drink as well.”
But the beauties merely exchanged glances, and not one of them seemed inclined to lift a cup. Since every bottle seemed to be a famous liquor with a high alcohol content, it appeared they were not drinking out of caution. If, by any chance, they became drunk and made a mistake, they might end up bidding this world a clean farewell. But when Damon issued a chilling threat, the beauties were startled as if burned by fire and poured the liquor into their mouths.
“Any bitch who doesn’t drink will be made into a drinking snack.”
Because they had hastily drunk strong liquor, they were nearly choking, but not one of them coughed. Since they were desperately suppressing their throats, several of the beauties’ faces had already flushed bright red. Damon swept his half-lidded gaze over the beauties’ faces one by one.
“If I showed these girls my former appearance, how would they react?”
Curious about their reaction, Damon immediately performed the Body-Altering Transformation Art.
Ssssss.
The muscles of Damon’s face began to twitch and move. Though he was drunk, his mind remained clear, so he was able to restore his former appearance in an instant. The face of Dugu Xing, the cult master of the Demonic Sect of the Central Plains and the supreme commander of the Guardian Demon King Army. Once the transformation was complete, breathless cries of astonishment burst out here and there.
“Gasp.”
“My word……”
The beauties belatedly realized their mistake and hurriedly covered their mouths, but Damon was able to clearly observe their reactions. It was also a reaction very familiar to Damon.
A gaze that began with shock and gradually changed into contempt. Seeing through it, Damon actually felt his heart grow lighter.
“There truly is only one person who does not change even after seeing my true face.”
Calming his heart, Damon slowly looked over the faces of the beauties.
“I will ask one thing. What do you think of this face? Is it handsome? Or is it hideous enough to make your skin crawl?”
The beauties could only hesitate. They could not grasp the true intention behind the question the dragon had asked them. When no answer came easily, Damon looked at Katroi this time.
“What do you think?”
Katroi, who had been continuously picking up bottles and drinking from them, turned his head with an indifferent expression.
“You keep asking foolish questions. Did I not already answer? It is a little unusual, but to me, it is merely the appearance of a human male.”
“Heh heh heh.”
Letting out a faint laugh, Damon changed his appearance once more. This time, the true face of the body he occupied was revealed. To be precise, it was the appearance of Alcaris, the first prince of the Crocen Empire. Having transformed in an instant into the image of a handsome man at the pinnacle of beauty, Damon looked back at the beauties once again.
“How about this face?”
The beauties’ eyes instantly grew hazy. Damon had changed into the appearance of a handsome man who could unquestionably be called the finest among all the people they had ever seen. Thus, not one of the beauties failed to lose her senses at his striking looks.
“My, my word, to think such a wonderful man exists……”
“If I could be held in his arms just once, I’d have no regrets.”
Reading their emotions, Damon smiled faintly. Only then was he able to steady himself completely. It was merely a change in outward appearance, but the beauties’ reactions were entirely different. In other words, Damon keenly realized that there was only one person in the world who looked at his inner self.
“Daphne……”
With an affectionate expression, Damon changed his appearance again. Back to the ordinary old man’s face he had been wearing until now. Katroi, who had been watching him, looked astonished.
“To think polymorph is possible through such a method. That is truly astounding. That movement is completely divorced from the usual arrangement of mana.”
“That is because this is not magic.”
Damon cut him off briefly and rose without hesitation.
“Now, we’ve enjoyed womanizing as much as we need to, so let’s get going……”
For Katroi, who had been feeling no interest whatsoever in the beauties around them, it was the most welcome sound imaginable.
“Good.”
He brightened and stood up. Damon glanced at the beauties and tossed out a word as if doing them a favor.
“It wasn’t particularly satisfying, but I believe your efforts were commendable. Therefore, I intend to give you a fitting reward. What do you want? State your wish.”
“……”
The flustered beauties remained silent. Asked to suddenly think of a wish, there was no way anything would come to mind. Before they could miss the moment, Damon firmly nailed it down.
“I know that the wish humans typically desire is gold. Will that suffice?”
Their faces instantly brightened. Since ancient times, no human has ever refused gold. They had thought it fortunate enough simply to preserve their lives, but now an unexpected windfall had fallen into their laps, so there was no way they could not be pleased. However, they did not dare voice it aloud, and the beauties merely nodded faintly.
“Good.”
Damon resolved the matter by throwing one brief sentence at Katroi.
“Pay them.”
Katroi’s reflexive response was exactly what Damon had expected.
“We enjoyed it together, so why am I the only one who has to pay?”
“It’s the tuition fee for learning what womanizing is.”
Leaving that brief dismissal behind, Damon strode away, and Katroi glared at his back as if he wanted to devour him.
“There really is no way to deal with that bastard……”
Katroi silently brought to mind the coordinates of the vault where he stored his gold. After losing all the gold he had collected so far as ransom, he had threatened the dwarves and begun filling the vault again. He had not even gathered much yet, and now it looked as if he would lose it again, so there was no way he could feel at ease.
“Summon target.”
When he finished chanting the spell, a large chest appeared inside the secret chamber. Katroi swept his gaze over the chest with eyes full of regret and muttered as if trying to cast off his lingering attachment.
“One ton of gold. Surely that won’t be insufficient?”
There was no way it would be insufficient. One ton of gold amounted to well over one thousand gold coins, even by the most conservative estimate. To the beauties, who would only barely touch a single gold coin after saving six months’ wages, it was, quite literally, a vast sum they would never otherwise even have the chance to encounter. Looking at the beauties, who stood with mouths agape and unable to speak, Katroi nodded.
“It seems it is not insufficient.”
Shaking his head, Katroi immediately followed Damon out. Right after they left, the guild members who flooded into the room froze in place as well. If Damon, who had gone ahead, had not warned them, they would without a second thought have disposed of the beauties and run off with the chest.
“All of the gold in the chest belongs to the beauties. Consider the liquor bill paid by the fact that I spared your lives. If my words are not carried out, I will wipe out the entire guild without a trace, so act accordingly……”
That was Damon’s consideration for the beauties. They had reminded Damon of what was most precious to him, and the gold was the price for that. With Katroi’s gold, Damon had managed to make a grand show of generosity. Afterward, it is said that this rumor secretly spread among the major nightlife establishments of Pencelut.
—If a dragon in human form should visit, serve him with all your passion and sincerity, as courteously as possible. Then you will reap abundant rewards in return.
Of course, not a single dragon ever came afterward.