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This cave would no longer be a Rank 5 danger zone that left no survivors. The patterned vines had all dried up, so their hypnotic effect was gone. As for the pink smog that made it easy for the monster to use its Illusion magic, that should also disperse soon enough.

Practically nothing was left of the now withered Lust Rose. I’d already handed over its Womb of Lust as proof for the Trial. That had been its center, much like a Slime’s core, so the other parts of its body were now drained of all their mana and didn’t look at all useful as crafting materials.

In a way, it died cleanly, without any of the usual gore involved. I couldn’t help but think that it should rest in peace.

By the time I exited the cave, it was well past afternoon, and after walking for a while longer, the sun was beginning to sink behind the pristine Asbel peaks.

I decided to set up camp at the base of a large coniferous tree, the type you’d see in front of the train stations during Christmas in Japan. I prepared the tent and laid Lily and Fiona inside as they were still fast asleep.

The fight with the Lust Rose almost completely lacked any physical effort, so I wasn’t tired at all. The only real injury I received was from Evil Eater, and some mana was used up because... wait, that was Evil Eater too!

Fine, we can call it even since it did most of the work this time around.

My shoulder wound was sealed in Flesh Compensation gel, and was recovering surprisingly fast. At this rate, it should be fully healed by tomorrow morning.

It’s at times like these that I really get to grasp just how superhuman I’ve become.

With such thoughts, I silently continued the night watch. There are some really annoying Punpuns around these parts, and if you’re too careless, they can easily sneak close and steal your stuff.

Of course, staying up wasn’t going to be an issue for me. It wasn’t like I had to defeat hundreds of monsters like in the battle for Iskia and my body wasn’t one to let me down.

So there’d be no bad luck event where I accidentally fell asleep―― although I still went on a trip to Mia-chan’s Avalon palace when I blinked. But the real shocking thing was what I learned... no, let’s concern myself with more important things. Namely, Lily and Fiona.

A few hours after I began my watch, it was in the dead of the night when both of them awoke.

I could sense them waking up inside the tent. Well, that and I could also hear them rustling out of their bedrolls.

“Hey there, you two had a good sleep?”

I knew that they were fine of course, but I couldn’t help but worry, and so peeked inside the tent just to make sure.

“Ah... Kurono.”

“Kurono, -san...”

The moment they saw me, they were all smiles―― which only lasted an instant. Both of them changed to sad but also apologetic expressions, Lily diverting her gaze while Fiona looking down.

“What’s wrong? Do you still feel tired?”

“I’m, fine.”

Lily answered slowly, still in her lovely, white Pun-robe outfit. Her mind seemed to have switched to adult Lily as her tone of speech became mature in contrast to her appearance.

“I as well, nothing to worry about.”

Fiona indicated that she was alright too. I’d taken off her trademark three-cornered hat since she was sleeping, so I could clearly see her face. Her expression wasn’t exactly happy but her face didn’t look pale or anything that could indicate status ailments.

Still, the fact was that they were both physically fine but still depressed, an the reason for that could only be――

“I’m sorry, Kurono.”

“We weren’t any use at all this time.”

Both girls apologized.

Oh, of course. No wonder they were so down. That being the reason actually relieved me a little.

“Don’t worry about it. We’re a party right? Sometimes you save me, and sometimes I save you.”

“No, this time, it’s because I was to careless.”

“Yes, I also must’ve thought we could handle any monster now that we all had our own Divine Protections.”

I’d gotten 2 of those at once in the battle for Iskia, while the two of them had also trained very hard (I’m assuming) to receive their own Protections.

And when we combined our powers, it became something truly tremendous. We saw just how powerful it was when we easily crushed a Rank 5 Lich in one of our quests. Our Divine Protections combined, we had created formation Anticross, a state in which we could even beat Apostles.

But maybe I was the one who’d let it get to my head the most. I didn’t say it, and didn’t even outwardly think it, but in the back of my head, I must’ve built up an idea that we could easily beat something on the level of mere Trial monsters if we were so strong already.

And this was the result of my conceit. I had to be saved by Hitsugi and Evil Eater―― my only job this time around was lightly swinging my sword to finish off the weak real body of the Lust Rose.

I wasn’t going to proudly claim that I beat the Lust Rose on my own, because I clearly hadn’t.

“Actually, I would’ve turned out the same. You could say I only won by luck.”

And so, I told them how I escaped the dream and finished the battle.

“―― But I still say that you saved us.”

“And you even carried us this far, I’m so happ―― No, embarrassed that I had you do that, Kurono-san.”

The reason Fiona almost slipped the word ‘happy’ in there must’ve been because she wanted to express her gratitude to me as a party member. I’d be happy too if one of them saved me, so the word really resonated in me. I felt that our bonds of companionship had become very strong.

“I agree that we need to reflect on it, but not right now. I got my Trial done and got that new Protection too, which is what we came here for. Let’s be happy about that first.”

I said, trying to convince them but I knew that emotions couldn’t be changed on a whim like that. Still, Lily and Fiona smiled as if to say they’d try.

They thanked me and I was relieved hearing it. It just hurt me to see them looking so sad so I was glad――

“So, Kurono, this will be you’re, 1, 2... 4th Divine Protection, right? What sort of power is it?”

“I’m very interested in that too. Who knows, we might even be able to strengthen our Anticross formation with it.”

“N-No no no we can’t!”

I yelled. I really didn’t mean to yell but I yelled.

Lily and Fiona first looked wide-eyed, but quickly changed to expressions of suspicion at my clearly strange reaction.

“... We can’t what exactly?” Lily questioned.

“Yes, please explain.” And Fiona concurred.

I couldn’t force my way out of this one. I knew that I shouldn’t keep secrets, especially from these two... no, but, that didn’t mean I could just speak to them frankly about this kind of power... uh, that’s right, while they were my trusted companions sure, that didn’t mean I’d have to tell them anything and everything. Even Lily and Fiona hadn’t told me what kind of training they did in Avalon.

So I had to talk my way out of this, or die trying!

“Right, okay... so it’s like, you know how the Lust Rose had Illusion based powers? This Protection is like that.”

“Do you mean, something like showing nightmares to the target?”

“Or is it something like my Telepathy, can you do that now too?”

“Thing is, I don’t really get it myself.”

I half expected them to bite back at me for making such a bad lie and tell me to make a better one, but what I said was, in fact, the truth.

“Look, I can now do pseudo-ice magic, that’s something, right?”

I claimed as I began releasing cold air from a palm. I wasn’t making ice, but just gathering low temperature black magic on my palm so that the surrounding air would get chilled.

“Hmm, yes, it certainly feels cold. Interesting.”

Fiona said as she tightly held my hand in both of hers. I knew it wasn’t too flashy, but this should be enough to prove to them that I could now use the ice element.

“Hey! How long are you planning on holding his hand, he’s not done explaining.”

Fiona hadn’t released her hold on my hand, and we’d somehow gone with the mood and ended up staring into each other’s eyes while holding hands. Lily’s quick and precise quip of course broke us out of that stupor as we let each other go.

“Ah...”

Fiona let out a small, sort of longing voice, as our hands parted.

Maybe the temperature inside the tent was too warm and she felt the coldness of my hand comforting? When I laid them to sleep inside the tent, I’d used a heater-like magic item so they wouldn’t freeze. One of these cost 10,000 Klans so they were relatively expensive items. They were also consumables.

“Let’s get back on track. So I now have Drive, Gear and Accel. All three of those use their respective elements to boost my physical fighting ability, and are pretty easy to use now that I got a hang of them. And since I’ve also been learning Model magic, I’ve been able to further strengthen them to a degree.”

All this they already knew. Both Lily and Fiona only nodded silently.

“But with this one, I’ll have to figure out how I’m supposed to use ice to cause Illusion magic, and I have no idea how to even get started on that.”

Illusion spells were already called a special type of magic. In terms of Model magic, Illusion had spells such as Panikos, Charm and Berserk.

But in practical terms, most Illusion magic that pulled their weight in battle were various forms of Extra or very powerful Original magics, so most people just couldn’t use this sub-division of the arcane. In addition, it was very difficult to teach Illusion magic, and in many cases, the student couldn’t even use it.

“And apparently, because I have no talent for Illusion, the Demon King straight up told me that I can’t do any of the things that the Lust Rose was doing, no joke.”

Mia-chan also told me that he couldn’t do those things either, so this power most likely didn’t include those abilities in the first place. I wasn’t very disappointed hearing this as I honestly thought that I was expecting too much from it.

“What, so,” Lily said doubtfully, “does that mean the Protection is useless?”

“It’s still mainly supposed to improve my mental defenses. If I use it, I should be safe from all kinds of Illusion or the sort... in theory.”

I wasn’t lying about that either. The 4th Protection isn’t so convenient that it would passively shield me from any mental attack, but during the time I have it activated, it should give me strong mental barriers against Illusion spells, similar to the spell, Protect.

Mental defense being a main ability of the 4th protection was also not a lie. Mia-chan told me this himself.

“In other words, you’re saying it will be useless unless the opponent actually uses that sort of magic.” Fiona complained.

“That’s the gist of it, yeah.”

Frankly, it’d be useless against Sariel, since she’s the type that comes in close and personal with her spear. She’s more akin to a Knight class than Mage. All the stories that Fiona heard of Sariel back when she was in the Sinclair Republic revolved around the 7th Apostle always diving head first into the enemy ranks and taking the heads of their generals.

But the 4th Protection should be very useful against that Madonna Charm, the Bad Status that was afflicted on Vulcan before he was killed. I’d seen it as part of Vulcan’s nightmare when I Blackened the Evil Eater after it had turned into a cursed weapon.

“Well, I think it’s not bad that you have a solid defense. We did all fall for the Lust Rose’s mental trickery, so it should serve well against similar enemies.” Lily concluded.

She was right, it did in fact cover a hole in our defenses so we could consider it more of a merit.

Fiona’s eyes were still telling me that it was not that big of a leap in strength but I ignored her for now.

Right now, you could say I was lying, so I couldn’t afford to make any actions that made me look suspicious.

“And like I said already, I have practically no talent in it, so using it might lead to disastrous results. This means I can’t practice it safely on other people either. You guys should know about the dangers of triggering an Overflow, and with how powerful Protections are, it might even affect nearby allies.”

“I think I should be able to defend myself even if that happens...” Lily contemplated, “but if you insist, I won’t press the issue.”

“Agreed.”

And it looks like I succeeded in convincing them.

I was beyond relieved. The true power of the 4th Protection was something that I, under no circumstances, could have them find out――

“That reminds me, Fiona, I need to talk to you about something. Alone.”

“That’s very convenient, I was thinking the same, Lily-san.”

With that mountain of trouble now behind us, Lily suddenly proposed to have a private chat with Fiona and Fiona even agreed.

“What’s all this about?”

“We need to reflect on what happened today. We realize that we were very useless this time, so can we please do it alone?”

Lily said in an especially somber expression. Her figure still being that of a little girl with even her Punpun ears drooping down in sorrow, just looking at her started making me sad too.

But I could see where she was coming from. They surely needed some closure in terms of their performance this time around.

“Alright, guess I’ll step out then.”

“No, we will have our discussion outside and we can continue the night watch in your place. So please rest here inside the tent, Kurono-san.”

“No really, I’m fine going outside. You two need more rest than――”

“Kurono-san, please, if you treat us too kindly, we... well, you just shouldn’t. That goes for both me and Lily-san.”

Fiona said, showing just how strong her heart was. It only proved that she’d firmly resolved to be better.

“Got it, you two have a good chat then. We’ll leave at sunrise.”

“Yes.”

“Sure.”

Lily, in her white Pun-robe, and Fiona, still without her hat, exited the tent.

I wasn’t so crass as to eavesdrop on their private conversation, so I shut out the faint voices from outside and laid down.

I felt too lazy to take out my own bedroll from inside my Shadow Gate so I just wrapped myself around the blanket that Lily and Fiona were using.

With my body as it was, I didn’t feel particularly cold, but the warmth and texture of a blanket was perfect for relaxing on the way to a good sleep.

Which was when the scent of the two girls, who were under this piece of cloth until only recently, tingled my nose, and I felt strangely captivated by it.

“Shit... this is all because of that new Protection...”

Mia-chan had gone completely red in the face when he declared that the true power of this Protection was, and I quote, ‘It makes you great at sex!!’

I was so shocked that I just stayed silent for a solid 30 seconds before thinking that no, this was my power, and I had to make him explain it no matter what.

So I turned my heart to stone. I grabbed Mia-chan by the cloak as he tried to hide behind his big throne out of embarrassment, and demanded that he explained further. Thinking back, the scene must’ve looked as if I was hungrily assaulting a delicate girl, but no one was there to witness, so surely it doesn’t count.

Anyway, so this is how it went:

“Y-you misunderstand!”

“Really, that’s your excuse, for giving me the power to ‘have great sex’!”

“Uh, I mean, it does do that... but it’s not like I came up with it because I’m a pervert, because I’m not!”

“Why in the world, then, would you come up with this, huh!?”

“Uh, well, it was when...”

“When what?”

“It was when I got tossed into a Succubus nest, alright!? I had to fight off the Queen... and her 1000 daughter Succubi.”

I felt my tension completely drop as he gave me the insane reason involved, diverting his gaze from me with an indescribably awkward expression.

“Holy crap, so that story was true...”

Once upon a time, Demon King Mia Elrod fell into one of his enemies cowardly traps, this one involving him being thrown into a sanctum of Succubi completely in the nude. The myriad of Succubi, creatures that lived by feasting on male essence, including their Queen, who was fascinated by the androgynous figure of the Demon King, all assaulted him simultaneously.

But Mia Elrod prevailed, vanquishing the devourers of men at their own game with his peerless stamina and technique fit to be called Demon King class. He took on the challenge head on and came out victorious―― it was one of the more 18+ of the Demon Lord’s adventures that were obviously not taught to young children.

This tale of this unimaginably lewd scenario that evoked the desires of men had been passed down throughout the ages in all of Pandora, and many (male oriented) works of fiction have been since published based on the contents of the legend. Will was the one who told me about this tale with an incredibly dirty grin on his face. It was in one of our bro to bro moments where he promised to one day show me his proud collection.

All that said and done, this story was still way too fantastical for even me to believe, and most other people also took it as fiction. Well, now I knew different...

“Ugh... So it’s still being circulated, after all these years...”

And the fact it was true was only bolstered by that aghast expression I could see on his Royal Demonic Highness’ face.

The first thought that popped into my head was that I absolutely must have Mia-chan tell me just in what way he went around vanquishing so many of the lewd enchantresses, but I suppressed that welling desire. I had a feeling that our relationship would never be the same again if he actually told me.

As an aside, this event might seem to finally reveal Mia-chan’s actual sex, but that was not the case.

Succubi could absorb the essence from both males and females if they so desired it. So in reality, whether the victim is a man or women or anywhere in between, they could still technically be a victim of a Succubus.

“What am I gonna do with this anyway...”

And so I squeezed all the details about my new Divine Protection out of Mia-chan. It had turned into something similar to sexual harassment in the middle but I was able learn that it held similar effects to Protect so, that being the only decent one out of the new abilities, I at least had something to tell Lily and Fiona.

And the part I absolutely can’t tell them about is the one where it makes me ‘great at sex’ as Mia-chan described it.

The most formal way I could even begin to explain it is by saying it’s a type of Love Craft.

Love Crafts are a genre of magic that worked via sexual intercourse. The techniques used by Succubi where they absorb mana from a man or how they entice the man into sharing their mana all on their own fall into this category.

Inducing the Charm effect by drowning them in pleasures of the flesh was also a good example.

But all these Love Crafts essentially involve sex in one way or another and it was completely not OK to discuss them in public. Frankly speaking, it’s even considered an illegal form of magic, sometimes even called forbidden arts and are often outlawed. Any mage worth their salt would never try learning them anyway, and the only people who do would be Shamans or Pagan Priests. Really, everything about it is either fishy, or plain dangerous.

And that was what I got as a Divine Protection.

My patron Demon King said that with this power, I should be able to hold a cold and reasoning countenance even when blasted by a Succubus’ enchanting prowess, in turn allowing me to turn the tables on it, and show by force of flesh just what is that hell known as irresistible pleasure―― like, seriously, give me a break with the erotism already...

Anyway, I can only hope that I won’t need to practically use this Protection, ever, if possible. When I do have that sort of relationship with a girl, I’d very much like it to be normal.

“You know... I really hate you sometimes, Mia-chan...”

I knew that he didn’t mean anything bad by giving me this power, but my feelings on the whole matter were still conflicted. Various thoughts circulating in my head, I drifted into sleep with the warm blanket enveloping me.