Episode 232
"Hah..."
Frey's tongue and my tongue softly intertwine.
"Mmm..."
Until just a few days ago, I had only vaguely imagined this act. I thought my heart would race wildly when doing something like this.
- Thump, thump.
But actually doing it, it was nothing like that at all.
Right now, my heartbeat is beating rhythmically in time with Frey's breathing as he inhales and exhales.
- Wuuung...
And, Frey's mana and my mana are mingling together.
Where his stomach meets mine. Where his chest meets mine. And where our tongues are entwined, the mana connection is accelerating.
- Pazuzuzu...
No, I shouldn't call it a connection. That would be quite a disrespectful statement. Because this work right now is the process of me belonging to Frey.
I am no longer an academy teacher. Nor his master. Nor a noble lady. Nor the eldest daughter of the Baiwalk family.
From this moment on, I become merely Frey Raon Starlight's subject, a servant who calls him master, and simultaneously am reborn as a knight who protects only him.
Swearing allegiance to a single person—not a nation, not a concept, not an organization—carries such impact. If a mage makes a 'blood oath,' then a knight makes a 'pledge.'
- Thump, thump, thump.
Therefore, I shouldn't call this act a 'connection.' Rather, it should be called 'belonging' or 'subordination.'
Abandoning the unique heartbeat and breathing I've had since birth, I match my heartbeat to the breathing my master possesses.
Likewise, abandoning the mana arrangement and characteristics I've had since birth, I carve my master's mana arrangement into my body.
Such acts are to make a declaration before my young lord.
That I am no longer Isollet Arham Baiwalk, the eldest daughter of the Baiwalk family.
Discarding everything I possessed, overwriting everything as his.
Announcing that the concept of 'me' has been redefined as Isollet, who is merely 'Frey's possession.'
No matter how much of a fool Frey is, he would understand this meaning.
That I am becoming his complete possession—he couldn't possibly not know.
"Puha..."
"Hah, hah..."
As I unwind our entangled tongues while thinking such thoughts and lift my head slightly, a fragile sound rises from below.
"...Stay still."
The belonging isn't complete yet. So if Frey were to escape, it would be disastrous.
- Squeeze...
Therefore, I grab both his hands, spread his arms wide, and press down firmly with our stomachs pressed together.
"N-nuna..."
Frey, who was staring intently at my face right before his eyes, calls me with a stifled expression and a strange heat simultaneously.
"Frey."
Every time he calls me nuna, my lower abdomen grows hot. And the same is true when I call him by name.
"...Frey-sama."
And, the first time I called him with an honorific.
"Your knight offers her greetings."
"...!"
The expression on Frey's face, thoroughly drunk. Truly, I don't think I'll ever forget it for the rest of my life.
Yes, this is what I had wanted. Whatever existence he might be. Whatever our relationship, whatever the situation.
I just wanted to be bound to him in some way...
"...Hah."
Looking into Frey's flushed, red face and silver eyes, I suddenly shake my head.
"What, what is this...? The memory just now...?"
And, coming to his senses, he mutters in a low voice. What on earth was that memory and feeling that had so strongly encroached upon me just now?
It was certainly similar to now, but there seemed to be an incredibly sad situation...
"...Nuna."
"Hmm?"
Frey's eyes, which had been watching me, wavered, and suddenly my vision flips.
"Did you really think I couldn't beat even nuna?"
And the next moment, I was pinned beneath Frey.
"...Heh."
Just as he said, even when I try to apply strength, no strength enters. Frey, that weak and tender child, is overwhelming me.
"...You know?"
I'm unable to adapt to such a suddenly arisen situation.
"Nuna... you just made a mistake."
He holds my two arms just as I did to him, pressing them to the floor as he looks down at me and begins to speak.
"I'm... really, really a bad kid, you know? To pledge to someone like that, what were you thinking?"
"......"
"I... I don't have any purity left like nuna thinks. I've already been rotten for a long time. Nuna can never rehabilitate me."
Saying that, Frey applies even more strength to my two arms. At the same time, Frey's expression turns fierce. He's growling like a cat filled with anger.
"Nuna is in big trouble now. You have to follow my commands. Even if I tell you to assassinate righteous heroes, make you do ugly deeds, or even order self-harm or suicide, you must obey."
Having said that, Frey now lifts my two arms above my head, holds them with one hand, and extends his other hand to my clothes.
"An-and... even if I do this..."
Having stepped forward boldly using drunkenness as a springboard, but having touched my chest, he began to trail off.
"Nuna is, now... to me... obedience..."
At the same time, buttons very slowly coming undone. Come to think of it, this happened a few weeks ago too.
Back then, I had subdued Frey. Thinking about it, that was the beginning.
The reason I ended up walking this path.
"...I-Isollet. You're mine."
Seeing that I showed no reaction even though the buttons of my clothes were nearly all undone, Frey forcibly raises the corner of his mouth and says that.
'...Surely, did he say that to make me feel bad?'
Looking at his expression, what he just said was definitely provocation.
True, when Frey says such things to people with personalities similar to mine, what always returns is an expression of disgust.
If it's that fellow drunk on alcohol, it might be hard to distinguish.
But does that fellow really not know?
That when most people hear such words from him, they can't help but feel fluttered?
"You're mine. From now on I'm going to use you to do ugly things. Even right now..."
"...I understand."
"What?"
Sighing with such thoughts, I look up at him pressing me down and speak.
"I am now, your possession."
At that, Frey's wavering eyes.
"I understand that it's hard to meet the pure you. I also know that I cannot rehabilitate you."
"What..."
"Therefore, I have decided to fall together with you."
As those words end, Frey's mouth opens.
"If it's your command, I can assassinate heroes. I can do ugly deeds, self-harm, even suicide."
"Nuna..."
"Because I am merely your knight."
Having said that to him, I take his hand, place it inside my opened clothes, and say.
"...I will not resist."
Cautiously turning my gaze aside.
"............"
And, silence flowed.
"Just, just hate me... you fool..."
What broke that silence was...
"Fool, idiot, perverted teacher... old maid."
Frey began to tremble as he spat out slander one after another.
"Just hate me... like before. Hate and loathe and condemn me... like the others..."
"........"
"It's a command... please..."
At those words, Frey's strength that had been pressing me down loosens.
- Whoosh...!
"...Uhek!"
Thinking now was the moment, I wrapped my legs around his waist and applied strength.
"...Urah!"
".........!"
With all my might, I succeeded in stealing the dominant position from him again.
"It's useless, I'm actually stronger than nuna..."
Frey, pinned beneath me again, clenched his teeth and began to apply strength again.
"W-what? What is this? Huh?"
But merely struggling, unable to overwhelm me with strength, he started to panic.
"...What? What's going on? Huh?"
Looking down at him, I whisper quietly.
"Insolently... did you think I've been going easy on you until now?"
"T-that's... no, this can't be..."
"Presumptuous one. There's no way this nuna would be weaker than you."
Saying that, I lick his nose with my tongue, and Frey's eyes begin to tremble.
'What is... this?'
But he wasn't the only one flustered. I was also quite flustered inside.
- Thump, thump, thump.
My heartbeat, which had been adjusted to Frey's breathing as I was subordinated to him, suddenly started to rise rapidly.
"Huu..."
At the same time, my heart becoming hotter than ever before and my breath growing warm.
Strange.
Until just moments ago, I couldn't move at all against Frey's true strength.
But after my heart grew hot, I felt as if blockages were being cleared, and I became able to suppress even Frey's strength.
What could this be?
'I don't really understand, but... this is good.'
I don't know what's going on at all, but this situation couldn't be better.
First, I can thoroughly discipline this presumptuous fellow beneath me who calls himself the Demon King's army.
- There are two in the room. One is the target. The other is currently being identified...
- Stand by.
At the same time, voices of conversation are transmitted clearly to my ears. It will become more convenient to deal with the assassins tightening the noose around my young lord.
I don't know when this situation will end, but anyway, I must finish things quickly before it disappears.
"This fellow...♡"
"...Heuk."
Having reached that judgment, I lightly apply pressure to Frey's pelvis.
"Presumptuous little one. How does it feel to realize that I wasn't actually going easy on you, contrary to what you thought?"
"T-that's..."
"By the way, what did you say earlier? Perverted teacher? Old maid?"
Saying that with a relaxed smile, I kiss Frey's eye, and his expression changes as if terrified.
'As expected... this fellow can still be rehabilitated.'
From his expression and eyes, I faintly sense it.
That his purity still remains within.
And.
'Frey, what are you thinking.'
There must surely be some other reason why that purity has disappeared.
The reason he tries to make me disappointed and hateful of him. The secret involving the hero. All those things are connected to some truth.
Therefore...
"From now on, as your only knight, I shall thoroughly educate you."
After clearly showing him with strength who is superior, I whisper while looking straight into his eyes.
"For a while, I will educate you. I will dominate you. I will train you. I will crush you like this."
"........."
"I went to such lengths to commit such rudeness, and if you don't rehabilitate in the end..."
Having said that, I catch my breath for a moment.
"Then I shall become yours."
Stroking his back with my hand.
"Then I will fall together with you and walk the path of evil with you."
I whisper softly.
"The pledge has already ended."
Maternal love, desire to dominate, protective instinct, loyalty, love. And worry.
Feeling countless such emotions mingling together, I...
"Now I will protect you, Frey."
Chewing his lips gently, I kissed Frey's lips as he looked at me with various emotions mingled just like me.
- Wuuung...
Then, the mana within my body resonating with him.
'...So this is what a pledge is.'
The moment of pledge I had always imagined as a young girl, something that made my heart flutter just thinking about it.
I thought I would become an imperial knight with a sword placed on my shoulder, receive baptism from the religious order, or perhaps make a pledge to myself.
To think I would end up making a pledge to a single man.
It's like a romance novel, isn't it.
'Well, it doesn't matter...'
Such things don't matter anymore.
Finally bound to him.
From now on, I am Frey's possession and his guardian.
- Slick...
With such thoughts, leaving a shy and gentle smile that formed naturally on my lips, I released the embrace with Frey.
"........"
Even though I released my strength, Frey remained lying on the floor, looking up at me with drunken, swimming eyes and a complicated expression mixed with various emotions.
'...I must protect him.'
For some reason looking so embarrassed, I watched him put away his usual insolent appearance and cover his face with his hands—so cute.
'I must save him here.'
I changed my gaze and headed to the desk.
- It is a command. Prepare for engagement.
- Confirmed.
The transmission sounds growing increasingly ominous.
And simultaneously, my chest growing hot enough to burn.
"...Hah."
The fluttering romance is over. Now, as his knight, I must fight for survival.
- Wuuung...
Gently stroking my beloved sword, creating a pleasant resonance, I turned my gaze to the desk.
"Hmm..."
The child who was the great mage's disciple had left various helpful scrolls here. Since the Magic Tower Lord made them personally, they should be useful.
- One-time shield magic
- Electric whip magic
- Liquification magic
- Clone magic (30 second duration)
- Radar magic
"Quite useful."
As expected, things suitable for combat were lined up. Moreover, they're high-quality items that could even be used in war.
"Indeed, I must take them all... hmm?"
With such thoughts, I was carefully gathering the most useful items when...
- Miniaturization magic [Animal Transformation]
"........Oh."
Discovering an old scroll, I narrowed my eyes.
"Don't overdo it, nuna. Just join with the Demon King's army and..."
I found a way to keep Frey safe.
.
Meanwhile at that time.
"Thank you for the warm welcome~!"
At the celebration party for the hero party's inauguration that was gradually reaching its climax, Ruby, who had been greeting everyone...
'...What are you bastards after.'
Was sweating cold sweat looking at Demirkan and the staff officer Lemerno who had been continuously watching her with unknowable smiles since earlier.
'Just what...'
Concentrating all her nerves on the attack that could come at any time, Ruby, who had been wracking her brain for a long time...
- Investigating the situation. So please don't worry too much.
"...Hmm."
When Serena, whom she believed to be a subordinate she had taken the soul of in the past, sent such a transmission, she withdrew her gaze from them and brightened her expression again.
"Now I will protect all of you and this world! So please don't worry and enjoy your lives!"
"Waaaaah!"
After shouting that to everyone, Ruby...
'Frey, no matter how much you scheme...'
Recalling the images of the fools who had been praising her just moments ago after the lights went out...
'...You're still no match for me.'
Muttered inwardly with a chilling smile.
- Zzzzt...
But at that moment, the main hall's lights all went out at once.
"Kyah?"
"W-what...?"
Thanks to that, in the darkened main hall...
"...Hm."
She, who had been looking around with a deeply furrowed brow...
- Gooooh...
"......!"
When the firmly closed doors opened and someone entered, her eyes went wide.
"Wh-what...!"
".....!"
And the same was true for the others.
"Euuu... uuu..."
The first princess, Ripael, appeared at the hero party verification ceremony in a terrible state.