"Next time, come to my chambers. I shall test... just how far that insolence of yours gets you."
Click, clack, click.
"......Crazy bitch."
Once I confirmed that Imperial Princess Aelit was walking away, I muttered softly under my breath. I couldn't believe that someone like this was the Imperial Princess, the successor to the imperial throne.
But thanks to my [Indomitable Mind], my head was quickly working through the possibilities. I watched Aelit's retreating figure and began crunching the numbers.
The bait the Princess had cast was certainly fatal. Imperial bloodline, heir to the imperial throne, and overwhelming beauty. Most men might have sold their souls on the spot.
But taking her words at face value was something only a fool would do. Was she really a femme fatale who toyed with men? Or merely a curious hothouse flower?
Information asymmetry has always been my weapon.
'Sexual experience check.'
Ding—
[Sexual Experience]
Kisses: None
Sex: None
Oral Sex: None
Anal Sex: None
"...Ha."
A dry chuckle escaped me before I knew it.
*
Past midnight.
The military sedan carrying Serapina and me had left the Imperial Palace and was racing down a deserted main road.
The capital's roads were bright with streetlights despite the late hour. But inside the moving car, a strange silence reigned.
There were only two passengers. I held the steering wheel with one hand and fiddled with the gear shift with the other, sneaking glances at the passenger seat.
Sitting there was Serapina von Reinhardt. Instead of her usual stiff uniform, she wore a daringly low-cut deep navy evening gown. Perhaps still flushed from the energy of the banquet hall, her porcelain skin held a faint glow. The streetlights flashing past outside the window repeatedly illuminated her smooth shoulder line, her collarbones, and the pale thigh revealed through the side slit of her dress before vanishing again.
"......"
She sat with her chin propped on her hand, gazing out the window. At a glance, she seemed to be admiring the night view of the capital, but her eyes reflected in the glass were unfocused and hazy.
"You look tired, Major."
I broke the silence first. She snapped back to attention and turned her head.
"...Ah, yes. I suppose I'm a bit tired."
She hesitated for a moment before continuing.
"Those types... nobles, entrepreneurs... it's like they coat their tongues in poison. They're truly exhausting. Blowing an orc's head off on the battlefield is far easier."
"Still... you were incredibly popular. Didn't all those men line up to ask you for a dance?"
"Hmph, popular."
Serapina snorted.
"They're simply interested in the title of Imperial war hero. ...You didn't see how their eyes changed when they learned I was the daughter of Baron Reinhardt, from some rural backwater on the frontier."
Self-mockery laced her voice.
The Reinhardt family. A house that had guarded the imperial frontier for generations, but in the central political sphere, they were nothing more than a powerless provincial barony.
"Their eyes are merely crooked, that is all. In my eyes, you shone the brightest in the banquet hall tonight."
"......"
Serapina didn't answer my blatant flattery. However, even in the darkness, I could see the tips of her ears turn slightly red.
She cleared her throat once and deliberately changed the subject, feigning nonchalance.
"You, on the other hand... looked quite busy."
Her gaze sharpened slightly.
"All sorts of young ladies and noblewomen coming up to talk, dancing with the young lady of Count Stahlberg, and even Her Highness the Imperial Princess...."
"Ah."
"And that Sergeant Hannah. ...You looked exceptionally attentive toward her."
Serapina's voice was calm, but the thorns hidden within it were impossible to miss.
'Status Analysis.'
[Name: Serapina von Reinhardt]
[Status: Unknown Restlessness, Comparative Psychology Triggered]
[Emotion: Intimidated by comparing herself to other women. Simultaneously, jealousy regarding the time Max Jäger may have shared with other women.]
So it was jealousy.
She didn't seem to realize it herself yet, but it was plain as day to my eyes. An instinctive displeasure at the fact that other women were freely enjoying private time with Max Jäger—time she had never once had.
Especially Hannah Meyer. Hadn't she come out of the bathroom in my room? All sorts of imaginings were surely already unfolding in Serapina's head.
"Her Highness the Imperial Princess was merely... toying with me like a plaything. Sergeant Hannah is... nothing more than a loyal subordinate to me."
"...Loyal, you say."
Serapina chewed over my words.
"Yes, so loyal that she came darting out of the bathroom soaking wet."
"......"
"Well, I have no intention of interfering in your private life. I'm not going to cite regulations, either. It's just...."
She trailed off and lowered her gaze. I could see her hand gripping the hem of her dress tightly.
"...I'm also receiving treatment from you, am I not? And in a very... private manner, at that."
She raised her head and looked at me. Her blue eyes were trembling.
"Then why does it feel like... I don't know a single thing about you?"
It was something close to a complaint. The anxiety that despite having shared their bodies and a deadly secret, the emotional distance had not truly closed.
This was probably the utmost courage Serapina could muster.
I snickered and removed my right hand from the gear shift. Then I naturally reached over and placed it on top of Serapina's thigh.
"......!"
Serapina's body flinched.
"Wh-what...! Aren't you driving?!"
"I can see the road just fine. And it's deserted."
I replied calmly and moved my fingers. Smooth skin revealed through the side slit of her dress. The sensation of bare flesh—even without stockings—fit snugly into my palm.
"What if someone sees...!"
She tried to grab my wrist, but there was no strength in it.
"Who would see? There are only the two of us in this car."
I slid my hand a bit deeper, toward the inside of her thigh.
"And, Major."
I lowered my voice.
"Your mana circuits are currently overheated."
"...What?"
"The tension from the banquet hall, and... the unnecessary emotional strain you're feeling now are causing your mana to fluctuate unstably. If left like this, you could have a seizure tonight."
I lied without batting an eye.
'Status Analysis.'
[Name: Serapina von Reinhardt]
[Status: Intuitively sees through Max's lie.]
But I was found out far too easily. Well, it had been an obvious lie, hadn't it?
It was the moment I was swallowing my disappointment and about to pull my hand away.
Serapina bit her lip, then turned her head to look out the window.
"...If it's... emergency treatment. ...I suppose it can't be helped."
'Hah.'
The moment I heard Serapina's words, I jerked the steering wheel. Screech! A loud tire squeal tore through the capital's dark road. The car veered off the main road and into a dark alley, coming to a stop in a corner untouched even by streetlights.
[Name: Serapina von Reinhardt]
[Emotion: A contradictory desire that refuses to reject that touch even while knowing it's an obvious ploy.]
She knew, too. That I wanted to touch her under the pretense of treatment right now. But she didn't shake off my hand. Instead, she slowly released her grip on my wrist.
"A wise decision, Major."
I unbuckled my seatbelt and leaned my upper body toward Serapina in the passenger seat.
"W-wait...!"
I firmly gripped the back of her neck and pulled her straight toward me.
Smack.
The first was a light peck.
"Mm...!"
Serapina's eyelashes trembled. The moment our touching lips parted, she looked up at me with an unsteady gaze, clutching my shoulder.
"Is this... also part of the treatment...?"
I hesitated for a moment before answering.
"...It is."
Then Serapina averted her gaze and spoke.
"Then, just once... I don't think it will be enough...."
"...If that is what you wish."
I wrapped my hand around the back of her neck and overlapped our lips again.
Smack, smooch.
Her supple lips collided with mine as they met.
The second kiss was a bit more lingering. When I lightly bit her lower lip, she reflexively opened her mouth wider. I took that opening to push my tongue deep inside.
"Ha-ah...! Chu..."
Wet sounds echoed through the narrow car. In the quiet alley, inside the dark car, only the sounds of each other's breathing and mingling saliva existed.
"Hnnngh...."
Serapina's reaction changed.
The hand that had been stiffly gripping my shoulder was now wrapped around my neck, pulling me in.
Lick, slurp.
Her tongue twined around mine. A clumsy but desperate movement. The haughty noble officer from the banquet hall was nowhere to be seen.
The inside of the car grew hot and steamy. Because of the cold air outside the window, white fog began to form on the windshield.
"Haa... Mm, M-Max...."
Every time our lips parted, she called my name. Her eyes, hazy and unfocused, looked up at me. Her flushed cheeks and wet lips were vivid.
"You're out of breath, Major."
"...That's because of you."
"...Is my treatment not to your liking?"
"Ngh...! As if... Just... forget it."
Serapina stopped mid-sentence and sought my lips again. This time, she was the one who pushed her tongue in first.
Smooch, smack. Slurp!
The kiss became incomparably more intense than before. We drank each other's saliva; our breaths mixed. The sound of her dress rustling could be heard. Unable to contain her excitement, she was rubbing her thighs together. And the skill hadn't even activated yet.
Across the narrow gap between the driver's seat and the passenger seat, my upper body was leaning over her almost as if to pounce on her.
That was when.
Serapina's hand, engrossed in the kiss, groped the inside of my thigh as if trying to steady herself.
"Mmm... Chu... Mmph, hnn...."
She had likely reached out unconsciously.
But situated there was my member, already swollen to its limit in response to the continuous kissing, the sensation of our pressed-together bodies, and her scent.
Thud.
Her palm grasped the heavy pillar at my groin.