Chapter 801

Silence sometimes conveys a stronger message than any words.

When I remained silent for a while, dumbfounded by the ridiculous excuse that the Life Force Technique had gone out of control, Hersela realized her nonsense had been seen through and panicked, spewing out all sorts of excuses.

For example:

[W-well, you see… I mean, I had a good—no, a bad dream, and I must have activated my power while sleep-talking! That must be it!]

‘……’

What kind of sleep-talking is that?

If it were just flailing limbs, maybe, but awakening the power dormant in the soul, granting it solidity and flexibility, and controlling every movement? How could that be possible in your sleep?

If that were possible, magicians would burn down their own houses every time they had a nightmare.

[O-oh, no? Then, um… the residual effects of the medicine I used when slaying monsters! There must have been some leftover!]

‘……’

The Holy Sword’s divine storm wiped all of that out. For any residue to remain, Invidius’ arm would have to sprout back.

[Well… actually… I thought it would be dangerous if I were hit by a similar attack during battle, so I wanted to train myself to endure it…!]

‘……’

Training, huh?

That’s called “development,” you know. You’re just making your weak points even weaker.

Do you think I haven’t tried comforting myself since I took over this body?

If I did that and this body’s sensations got even more developed, I might not be able to endure the sexual attribute attacks that I can barely withstand now.

Once you know, you can’t go back. Once you remember, you crave it even more. That’s the nature of pleasure.

“Sigh…”

I couldn’t help but sigh.

Here I am, barely holding on by channeling my pent-up frustrations into sadistic battles to avoid female corruption, while the original owner of this body is stomping on the accelerator toward corruption.

‘That’s not what I meant by an excuse. If you’re a warrior, act like one. Don’t try to weasel out with clumsy lies—just confess honestly.’

[Grrr…! How dare you say that…! Fine, I’ll tell you! What’s so wrong about wanting to touch my own body a little…! I’m being honest! You should’ve just quietly left the room at times like this!]

…That’s not exactly what I meant by “honest.”

Technically, she’s not wrong.

When you think about it, as an uninvited guest, I have no right to stop the barbarian princess from satisfying her newfound curiosity about her own body.

Normally, it would be the mature thing to do to turn a blind eye and quietly leave the room.

The problem is… that’s impossible for me.

‘…How am I supposed to leave? If you touch this body, I’ll feel the same sensations.’

[Oh.]

Hersela could sever the connection between her consciousness and her body’s sensations, allowing her to observe whatever happened to her body from a detached perspective…

But for me, who is even more firmly bound to this body than Hersela, such a trick is impossible.

Of course, even Hersela seems to get swept up by her body’s sensations when she’s hit by a weak attack and can’t think straight, which is why she ended up in this situation…

…Anyway, since I can’t block out the body’s sensations like she can, what just happened might have been self-comfort for Hersela, but for me, it was like someone else groping my body.

[W-well… I guess that’s true.]

Hersela seemed to understand my point.

[I thought I’d gotten used to it, but I didn’t expect this kind of problem to arise…]

Two souls sharing one body, where self-comfort becomes akin to violating the other.

It’s truly the tragedy of shared property.

—

Once the bloodlust subsided, the shame that had been pushed aside by panic came flooding back, and Hersela remained silent after that.

‘So, the problem is…’

Since she didn’t seem to have completely retreated into unconsciousness, I explained to the silent Hersela why we shouldn’t do such things.

The more you stimulate those sensations, the more they develop and become even more sensitive—a perfectly logical and crucial reason.

[……]

I couldn’t tell if Hersela fully understood, but… at least she seemed to grasp my warning, as I didn’t wake up again that night.

And the next morning,

Damien and I, feeling refreshed, headed toward the mansion where Rana and Freide were waiting.

======[Leopold]======

Milia and her party, who returned to the imperial capital with the Dragon’s Remains, were greeted with overwhelming hospitality.

The saintess who had slain the monster that destroyed the capital. If the capital hadn’t been in ruins, they would have rolled out the red carpet from the city gates to the imperial palace and mobilized all the citizens for a grand celebration.

Of course, the person they wanted to praise and welcome hadn’t even returned to the capital.

“…So, Sir Median stayed behind in the Sky Mountain Range to search for his family’s heirloom?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

In a private audience with Emperor Leopold, who had summoned them for a report,

Nigel, representing the party, knelt on one knee and bowed before explaining the events to Leopold, who had asked why she had come instead of Hashel.

The fairies’ ambush, the addition of the Dragonkin and Insect-Dragons to the Evil Faction’s forces, the victory report of their annihilation with the help of the Holy Legion, and the crash of the airship “Tears of the Tower Master.”

And the news that Hashel had stayed behind in the north to search for the heirloom while sending the rest of them back to the capital.

“I see…”

Leopold was grateful for the first time that he had no hair left to lose. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about losing more. The results were so shocking that he found himself thankful for such trivial things.

“I did say to use force if the fairies and Dragonkin intervened… but I didn’t expect you to annihilate them.”

“They ambushed us first, so we had no choice but to fight back.”

“Ah, I’m not blaming you.”

Leopold comforted Nigel, who was sweating bullets under the pressure of a private audience with the emperor, while pondering the implications of Hashel’s actions.

‘First… the pretext of avenging the World Tree is definitely false.’

The fact that they ambushed Hashel’s party without even paying attention to the Insect-Dragons means that Alvheim’s target was never Nidhogg but the Empire’s Greatest Sword, who would come to slay it.

In other words, Alvheim has started openly revealing its intentions toward the Empire.

‘They must have tried to take out the Empire’s most important military force before starting a full-scale war.’

But they failed. Despite deploying six Guardians and dozens of Patrol units.

Leopold had no way of knowing how much strength Alvheim was hiding, but even so, this level of damage must be quite severe.

For humans, it would be like losing six heroes and dozens of masters, which would be comparable to the total number of heroes and masters the Empire possesses.

If Alvheim’s hidden strength was so great that losing that much power wouldn’t even scratch them, the continent would have already fallen to the fairies.

So, for the time being, they’ll likely lie low and focus on recovering their lost strength. Leopold concluded.

‘What a shame. If the Empire were stable, we could have taken this opportunity to deal with Alvheim.’

Of course, the war had devastated not only Alvheim but also the Empire.

No, the Empire was worse off.

While Hashel and her subordinates had gained immense power through the recent chaos, the Empire’s national power had been nearly depleted by the repeated wars.

No matter how strong Hashel, the Empire’s ace, is, she can’t wage war with just herself and a few subordinates. To push back Alvheim’s Great Forest, the Empire’s military power needed to be restored first.

‘And… the airship crashed, you said? Right at Pailoon Castle.’

The airship crash was something that made Leopold sigh deeply. The crash itself wasn’t the issue. If it crashed due to some defect, they could just pressure the Mage Tower to identify and fix the problem.

The problem was that the airship had crashed right at Pailoon Castle.

Miraculously, there were no casualties, but since it blew a hole in the castle wall, the financial loss would be significant.

Grand Duke Valdemar, who was pouring vast sums into rebuilding the Northern Wall, wouldn’t just laugh off such a loss.

‘He’ll probably demand full compensation for the wall’s repair.’

In terms of responsibility, the one who should pay for the repairs is Hashel, who sent the airship there and caused the crash… but Leopold knew her well.

If Grand Duke Valdemar confronted Hashel and demanded payment for the wall, Hashel would likely—

‘Clash with the Grand Duke or try to shift the blame to us.’

Leopold thought the latter was more likely. As far as he knew, Hashel was the only friend of the Grand Duke’s daughter, Freide van Pailoon.

No matter how much Hashel has grown more extreme as she’s gotten stronger, she wouldn’t send her friend’s father to the heavens, would she?

‘Considering she sent her own father to the heavens, it’s not impossible… but surely she wouldn’t go that far.’

So, the cost of repairing Pailoon Castle would ultimately fall on the Empire.

‘Repair costs…’

The Empire’s treasury, already groaning under the costs of restoring the capital, reorganizing the Imperial Army, and dealing with various incidents.

‘…I’ll have to pin the blame on the Mage Tower.’

Since they packaged a defective product as complete and caused the accident, they should bear the responsibility for compensation.

‘I’ll apologize in advance, Floheta.’

Birds of a feather flock together.

Just as black dye stains whatever it touches, Leopold’s way of thinking, influenced by Hashel, was gradually becoming more like hers.