*Kwoong!*
I slammed the thick oak door shut and slid the bolt home.
*Clunk.*
Thick darkness. The smell of dust and cool mold stung my nostrils.
“Haa, haa, haa….”
From behind me, Ailett was breathing raggedly.
“Cough, cough…! I’m going mad, truly. The dust….”
Complaints poured from those haughty lips.
“How dare they detonate a bomb at my feet? Those filthy rats, I’ll skin every last one of them alive and string them up in the plaza…! Ouch!”
—*Stagger!*
She broke off with a sharp scream. It seemed her high heel had caught on an oak floorboard. She must have strained her ankle while forcing her way to evacuate.
I clicked my tongue and surveyed the surroundings.
[Minimap (Lv.2)]
Above our heads, in the first-floor corridor and garden, red and green dots were still tangled chaotically. Rat-tat-tat! The sounds of submachine guns and screams echoed faintly.
Fortunately, our allied forces (green dots) were quickly regrouping and suppressing the remaining enemies (red dots).
No red dots had yet approached the emergency stairs leading to the basement.
‘This should be the safest place for now.’
Having finished my assessment, I slowly turned my head to look at Ailett.
It was a pitch-black basement, but thanks to the faint light seeping through the door crack, I could just make out her silhouette.
A gorgeous dress caked in dust, tangled golden hair, and her figure leaning against the wall, holding one foot while hissing sharply.
‘Status Analysis.’
[Name: Ailett von Lohengarde]
[Status: Sprained ankle (minor), Displeasure, Shame, Suppressing fear with anger]
“Cough…! Colonel, call the escort troops down here immediately! Tell them to burn every last one of those rats…!”
“Be quiet, Your Highness.”
I cut her off and approached.
“…What did you say?”
A chill ran through Ailett’s voice for an instant.
“How dare you command me….”
“The enemy is still ransacking the upper floors. If footsteps or voices echo, those rats will swarm this way.”
I stepped right up to her face, grabbed her shoulder, and shoved her against the wall.
*Thud.*
“Ah…!”
When her back met the cold stone wall, Ailett flinched and trembled.
“Let go of me! How dare you lay hands on the body of imperial royalty…!”
*Charming Rhetoric.*
“Your Highness. Listen closely.”
[Skill ‘Charming Rhetoric (Lv.3)’ is activated.]
“Right now, Your Highness is not the Imperial Princess. You are nothing more than an assassination target who wouldn’t be the least bit strange to find with a bullet in her head.”
The skill imbued my voice with an oppressive charisma.
“If you want to live, pack away that paltry pride and submit to my control.”
“…!”
A narrow, dark basement. Air thick with dust and the smell of gunpowder.
In that strange, dangerous space, the hierarchy was overturned. Ailett, facing my oppressive gaze head-on, could barely draw a breath.
She was one who had always hidden behind a red fan, leisurely manipulating people. But now she had lost even that fan, and the shield of power that protected her was being riddled with bullets overhead.
The only thing she could rely on was the back of the man pinning her against the wall.
“Ha, haha.”
A strange laugh slipped from between her red lips.
She was laughing.
“How amusing. You are the first man since my Imperial Father to dare give me an order, Colonel Yeager.”
I wondered if she still had the composure to laugh.
‘Status Analysis.’
[Name: Ailett von Lohengarde]
[Status: Confusion, Overwhelmed]
Ailett was merely trying to wrap her confusion in a facade of delight.
She was cornered. She was putting on a smile, pretending to be composed, but it was exactly that—a pretense. [Status Analysis] could not be deceived.
Therefore, the initiative was mine.
“Quiet.”
“Ugh…!”
I brought my index finger to her lips. A crude, rough man’s finger pressed down on her soft lips.
“Burn this into your mind, Your Highness.”
Rat-tat-tat-!
*Kwaang!*
The repeating explosions and vibrations. The sound of dust pattering down from the ceiling intertwined strangely with my voice.
“The only shield that can protect Your Highness now is neither your vaunted guards nor the Imperial Royal Guard. In this dusty hole, there is only Max Yeager.”
I muttered lowly.
“H-how insolent…!”
“So please, forgive my rudeness.”
I slowly raised the hand pressing on her lips and lightly brushed her cheek.
“To save Your Highness and escape this basement.”
A texture as smooth as silk.
“I will have to be rude many more times.”
“…!”
Ailett’s red eyes wavered. In those blood-red pupils, my impassive face covered in dust was reflected.
A military uniform stained with explosion residue, a long scratch across my cheek, and those cold black eyes that didn’t so much as twitch despite facing death.
Was the man reflected in her eyes merely an insolent wretch? Or was he a loyal retainer throwing himself into harm’s way to protect his master?
“Do you understand?”
The man reflected in those red eyes opened his mouth.
“Answer me, Your Highness.”
“Kuh….”
[Skill ‘Charming Rhetoric (Lv.3)’ has succeeded.]
[Your overwhelming charisma is engraved (刻印) upon the target’s mind.]
Ailett bit her lip, then turned her head and barely managed to open her mouth.
“…I understand. You are right.”
A voice trembling with anger, yet its will to resist was completely broken.
“I’ll… stay quiet as you say, so please… take your hand off me.”
I obediently withdrew my hand from her face.
“A wise decision, Your Highness.”
[Name: Ailett von Lohengarde]
[Status: Increased heart rate, Overwhelmed, Internalized rage]
“Haa, haa….”
Ailett gasped, the breath she had been holding rushing out. Her entire face was flushed bright red. That illustrious bloodline and authority were useless in a life-or-death situation.
[Emotion: To think I, of all people, by a mere colonel…!]
She must be furious beyond belief at having been commanded by a mere colonel.
But seeing that she couldn’t reveal those feelings right away, it seemed her basic education had at least been proper.
“Ng…!”
Even now, wasn’t she trembling just from meeting my eyes?
[Status: Sprain pain worsening]
Ah, so that was for a different reason.
Ailett staggered, gripping the wall. The ankle she had been limping on since earlier—having run with a broken heel, there was no way it was unharmed.
“Are you injured?”
“My ankle… it seems the damn heel broke and twisted it.”
Just in time. I had wielded the whip enough; now it was time for the carrot.
“Take them off.”
“Pardon?”
Her red eyes widened as if she had heard something unbelievable.
“Heels like those will only get in the way during an emergency.”
I knelt down and lifted her leg.
“W-wait! How dare you, where do you think you’re—!”
Ailett tried to pull her leg away, but she couldn’t overcome my grip. I stripped off the high heel.
Then, the sight of her feet, like works of art, came into view.
‘…Hoo.’
Insteps as white and flawless as marble. Toenails trimmed as neatly as carved pearls. Feet so white, they seemed never to have touched a speck of dust.
As expected of an imperial princess. Even such a humble body part possessed an artistic, sculpted beauty befitting her superior genes.
*Harmonizing Touch.*
[Skill ‘Harmonizing Touch (Lv.2)’ is activated.]
[Stabilizes the target’s bio-energy and blocks pain sensation.]
“Ah…!”
I held those feet firmly and sent a warm current flowing into them.
[Heightens the target’s senses and induces a faint pleasure.]
Not forgetting the subtle pleasure, either.
“Hngh…? W-what are you….”
A moment of confusion spread across Ailett’s face. Where the throbbing pain had vanished, a strange heat welled up instead.
“There are no abnormalities in the bone.”
I pretended to make a diagnosis and slid my hand. Slowly gliding over the smooth instep, I pressed firmly on the soft arch of her sole.
“Aah…!”
Ailett’s five toes trembled and curled inward.
“…Just now, a strange sensation….”
“That is merely your tension releasing. But since you sprinted in shoes with broken heels, the ligaments and muscles around your ankle are severely knotted.”
I spewed brazen words and stroked her sole with my thumb.
“If this hardens, you won’t be able to run properly during the next evacuation. I must force blood circulation to break down the lactic acid.”
Of course, it was a lie. What sense did a careful foot massage make in an urgent situation where we needed to flee? It was merely groundwork to grope and toy with this noble body starting from the feet.
“W-what do you mean… hngh! T-there…! Aah!”
Thick, rough fingers dug between her curled toes and gently rubbed. Every time my calloused knuckles brushed against her tender skin, Ailett’s body spasmed finely.
At the unfamiliar, faint pleasure surging up from her toes, the arrogant princess’s breath instantly fell into disarray.
“I must relax the muscles on both sides to maintain balance. Please endure it, Your Highness.”
Not giving her a chance to reply, my other hand swiftly stripped off her remaining high heel.
*Clack, thud.*
The pair of jewel-encrusted shoes rolled haphazardly onto the dusty basement floor.
With both feet now in my grasp, I moved my hands past her slender ankles and up the smooth curves of her calves.
Dazzlingly pale bare legs revealed their voluptuous form in the darkness. The line stretching from her slender, seemingly handful-sized ankles to the hollows behind her knees was breathtakingly sensual.
“Haa, haa… Y-you… hngh, doing this on purpose, ng….”
As my rough palms gently kneaded her calves and subtly delved deep into the tender flesh inside her knees, Ailett threw her head back and panted with fevered breath.
Those noble bare legs, never once freely permitted to anyone in her life, were now gripped in the hands of the lowliest commoner.
*Harmonizing Touch.*
“Ungh…!”
She was being injected with unfamiliar pleasure.