There is such a thing as a royal food taster.
In the Joseon era, there were people whose job was to taste the king’s food before he ate it.
A profession in which they risked their lives to determine whether the food had been poisoned.
They were said to receive a rather generous salary, including hazard pay, but it was also a profession in which they risked their lives three times a day—or even more often.
Here, there was a food-tasting soldier.
“It is safe.”
Natalie transferred all of the breakfast prepared for me into her own bowl, then carefully ate every bit of it, one by one, to confirm its safety.
“There is no poison.”
“.......”
“You may trust it.”
Of course I trusted her.
Perhaps the vampire princess had told them to pay special attention to my meals, because today’s breakfast was much neater and more carefully prepared than what I had eaten yesterday morning.
Natalie had been roughed up too, and Casey’s fate had apparently put the soldiers in charge of my meals on high alert.
“What happened to Casey?”
“.......”
“Was she taken somewhere separately, leaving her whereabouts unknown?”
“Officially, it was announced that she had been sent to the punishment room for making a serious mistake with the instructor.”
“A mistake. What kind?”
“It was reported that she had prepared monster food capable of causing serious trouble for the instructor in order to play a prank on him... and that, fortunately, I discovered it and reported it.”
“I see.”
An ordinary human couldn’t simply eat monster food.
Just as those who cooked for themselves every day in dungeons distinguished between monsters that could and could not be eaten, monster cuisine had to be adjusted to suit humans before humans could eat it.
And someone had tried to feed it to me without making those adjustments?
That was no different from deliberately trying to kill me.
“What about the monster army?”
“...There is nothing in particular.”
“Oh. So they didn’t tell you anything that important?”
“......”
Natalie lowered her head deeply.
For someone who supposedly belonged to an intelligence unit, she was currently unable to obtain any information beyond what was officially available.
‘Was she demoted?’
If her reassignment had not happened for no reason, perhaps she had been demoted due to a lack of ability.
Or perhaps she was a spy sent here from within the intelligence unit.
‘There’s no rule saying spies have to be sent from outside.’
Just as Natalie had been taken advantage of by Casey, perhaps the vampire army had sent someone to keep an eye on me.
And, incidentally, to get rid of someone incompetent.
“Natalie.”
“Yes, Instructor.”
“If someone tries to approach you later... did the female secretary tell you what to do?”
“Lil—”
At my glance, Natalie immediately closed her mouth.
“If you mean the secretary, she instructed me that if anyone from outside asked about Casey, I was to avoid the matter by saying that I had only been ordered to protect confidential information and was not permitted to disclose anything.”
“I see. An appropriate order.”
On the surface, at least.
“She didn’t tell you to report to her personally?”
“No.”
“Report to either me or her. Even if it seems trivial. And if they try to press you down with their authority or position...”
It was a possibility.
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to mix a little truth into your lies and confuse them.”
“Truth mixed into lies...?”
“Tell them that the instructor noticed someone was playing a prank in the evening and tried to feed it to the person who had prepared the food, which led to an incident. Something along those lines.”
“A prank...”
“If they ask specifically what kind of prank, tell them he shoved a wine bottle into her cunt and forced her to drink through it.”
“.......”
Natalie’s face went pale for a moment, but I merely gave her a light wink and lifted the glass containing my drink.
“If you say that much, they probably won’t question you any further.”
“Why are you telling me this...?”
“You’re in an intelligence unit, aren’t you? You should think out the rest for yourself.”
I couldn’t spoon-feed her everything.
It wasn’t as though I was trying to help Natalie grow—
‘Actually, there’d be no harm in helping her grow.’
I was making an exception because she was a virgin.
Since I had taken her virginity, I had decided to look after her in recognition of the courage she had shown by appearing before me as my taster-secretary even after being raped so brutally yesterday.
‘I can’t send her off to the breeding farm and leave myself feeling uneasy.’
It was one thing to send a woman who had never had sex at all, or a non-virgin woman whom I had slept with once, to the breeding farm.
If I had sex with someone for that very purpose and trained her, then even if I had shoved my cock into her, her final destination would still be the breeding farm.
But if she was a virgin...
Unless she was utterly irredeemable and useless, it was right to keep her close and look after her for the time being.
There was no other reason.
It was simply that virginity was a value too precious to ignore.
“Natalie.”
“Yes, Instructor.”
“I want to have a little sex while eating.”
“...Pardon?”
“I’ll eat my meal, so you eat my cock.”
“.....Pardon?”
I took off my trousers, exposed my cock, and sat down in the chair.
“Hurry.”
“B-but...”
“Climb on top of me. You can still eat by reaching your head over your shoulder.”
That was what I said, but Natalie wasn’t quite large enough for food to spill onto her shoulders.
“Th-that...”
“Or should I make you lie facedown, put the bowl on your back, and eat like that?”
“......!!”
Ah.
Come to think of it, there was such a thing as naked sushi.
‘They say not to play with food, but it certainly does help humiliate people.’
If I ever captured some rude count’s daughter from a seaside territory, I’d have to try it out.
I didn’t know whether such an occasion would ever arise, but if it helped with training, surely I could call it valley liquor instead of naked sushi.
“Hurry.”
“Ah, understood. But... how long will the sex last?”
“Until I finish eating, or until I cum inside you once.”
“.......”
“It’s part of my training routine.”
I had decided that starting today.
“I have to get one out as soon as I wake up, and I’d prefer to do it by ejaculating inside you.”
A morning save.
The day begins with sex, ejaculation, and a save.
“Hurry up and climb on.”
“...Understood.”
Natalie obediently climbed on top of me.
She lightly lifted her skirt, pulled her panties aside, and mounted my cock with astonishing ease.
Squish.
It occurred to me again.
Natalie wasn’t wearing stockings today.
* * *
Breakfast, save, successful.
Having sex after a meal to burn calories as a form of exercise was one option, but I had things to do that morning, so I decided to handle matters efficiently.
“Dalia.”
“What is it?”
Dalia, the white-haired, red-eyed vampire priestess.
“Why have you called me... Urgh.”
The First Fallen frowned the moment she entered.
“Did you have sex first thing in the morning?”
“Why? Is that not allowed?”
“If you have enough energy for sex, you should have offered a prayer to the goddess first...”
“My having sex is itself a prayer to the goddess.”
“You blasphemous bastard.”
Dalia grumbled as she sat down across from me.
“So why did you call me?”
“I was wondering how you’ve been doing lately.”
“What?”
“Since you fell, has the army been calling you in to do anything?”
“.......”
Dalia stared at me in silence for quite some time.
“.......”
Was she perhaps wary of someone else’s gaze?
Other than Lilith, the female secretary who had come to work after my breakfast, there was no one else in the room.
If she was worried about Lilith’s eyes—
“Blood.”
“Blood?”
“I draw blood regularly. Enough to avoid becoming anemic.”
Dalia rolled up her sleeve.
“.......”
The area was covered in bruises that looked like the marks left by sharp fangs, along with what resembled needle punctures.
“What? Do you feel sorry for me?”
“No. I was just wondering whether a vampire could still have her blood sucked.”
“I draw it from myself.”
“You do it yourself?”
“Yes.”
Dalia mimed pointing her fangs toward the area covered in bruises.
“Chief Adjutant Akamond said that if I did my best to carry out the missions ordered by the instructor, he would overlook my making a statue of the goddess in my room with my own hands.”
“Chief Adjutant said that...?”
“Yes. He said that, as time passed, I would eventually follow our vampire army of my own accord. But heh, strictly speaking, I’m not a member of the vampire army. I’m merely a dispatched priestess stationed here to purge the apostates.”
“.......”
Although I had made that bargain with her and pushed her toward a mental breakdown, Dalia’s mental fortitude seemed stronger than I had expected.
“I don’t know what you think of me, but when I’m in solitary confinement, my time is fundamentally my own. Except for the moments when I test the faith of captured prisoners before killing them, all I do is clean my cell, pray, and make statues of the goddess.”
Perhaps she had awakened after killing the men who had gang-raped her.
“Why draw your blood?”
“I just said I was making a statue of the goddess, didn’t I? I intend to mix my blood, which contains divine power, into the clay and make the statue myself.”
“...To that extent?”
“She commanded me to do so.”
Dalia clasped her hands in prayer and gave a fishy smile.
“I feel like giving the vampire princess a statue of the goddess mixed with my blood. I wonder how she would react? Would she become obsessed with the blood and lick the statue? Or would the goddess’s power purify her body?”
“.......”
I didn’t think there was any need to continue this particular topic with Dalia.
“That’s enough. Dalia. The reason I called you today is that you have something to do.”
“Something for me to do?”
“Yes.”
I lightly snapped my wrist, miming the act of swinging something.
“Chief Adjutant Akamond is going human-hunting today.”
“......Oh.”
“More precisely, he apparently received intelligence. The Gilbert Barony is planning to send a large force into a dungeon this morning.”
“Hmm...”
Dalia tilted her head.
“I don’t think the House of Gilbert could possibly scheme against the vampire army. And you’re not telling me to fight, are you?”
“No.”
Naturally, I also expected our army to win.
“What you and I have to do is determine the selection criteria.”
“The criteria?”
“Yes. To put it more bluntly, I want to reach a preliminary agreement with you about what judgments you’ll make regarding the training situations I have in mind.”
“An agreement... What exactly?”
“I’m going to conduct rape training. I’ll be conducting rape training, but I’m not going to train every woman myself.”
Even if I shoved my cock into them, unless they had the pussy of a virgin succubus, penetrating a human woman was no different from using a fleshlight unless she possessed an extraordinary vagina.
“There’s something I’m curious about.”
“Ask.”
“If I lower one succubus beneath a hole so that only her pussy is visible, then say, ‘This is the goddess’s pussy,’ and promise to spare someone if he fucks it—”
“.......”
“If he does fuck it, would that person be judged for execution?”
“......Hah.”
Dalia smiled broadly and clasped her hands together.
“Whether it is a succubus’s pussy or your anus, knowingly penetrating it while calling it ‘the goddess’s pussy’ is itself a blasphemous act.”
“Why did you specifically mention my anus?”
“Because that is exactly what it would be. Calling something that is not actually so the goddess’s pussy is blasphemous enough, but...”
Dalia smacked her lips and clenched and unclenched her fists.
“Knowingly penetrating it while believing it to be the goddess’s pussy is blasphemous, so there would be no choice but to kill him. But even if it is a pussy, wouldn’t it be blatantly obvious that it belongs to a succubus?”
“Ah, that.”
I pointed at the wall.
“We could shove it into the wall and cover it so that only the pussy was visible.”