Chapter 53
"Looks like the banquet isn't to your liking."
Lisette van Reator.
She was dressed in a medieval-style gown with a deep neckline exposing her shoulders and cleavage.
The chandelier light in the banquet hall made her red hair spill over her breasts like flames.
She stood before me with an arrogant smile.
"My palate is too cheap; elegant food would probably give me indigestion."
Lisette closed the remaining distance between us.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Eck."
Her voice was low.
She had clearly followed me to the corner of the banquet hall for a reason.
"You really are an audacious adventurer. A mere commoner, yet you borrowed my name and manipulated the entire territory as though it were your own."
A strange exhilaration colored her voice.
I knew she'd like it.
Lisette valued honor.
Her desire for honor operated along a somewhat different vector from an ordinary noble's, and it overlapped with her sexual desire to some extent... no, quite considerably.
That was why she instinctively hated having her honor sullied.
That was also why she had so relentlessly despised and hated Elena in the original story.
If you fulfilled that desire for honor, she was an audacious noble lady who would willingly endure being used.
"Isn't it all thanks to your ladyship's insight?"
"Hehe. I'll let it slide this time. I don't want to disappoint the expectations placed in me, and it's been a long time since I've seen Father this happy."
Lisette looked back at the lord, who was gathering the nobles around him to boast about his daughter.
The more the surrounding nobles echoed him, the more pleased the lord became.
I feel the same way.
It was hard to believe this was the same lord who had calmly accepted the news that his daughter had fallen into a dungeon trap and was giving birth to monsters.
"To be honest, I should say I don't even have the energy to argue."
Lisette lifted her wineglass and took a sip.
"I looked back on the things you've done using my name. You've been working tirelessly. I could clearly feel how sincere you were about protecting Reator."
"I merely did what was necessary."
"Even in doing what was necessary, how much certainty could you have had while facing an unpredictable calamity?"
For me, it had been a confirmed future, but to Lisette, it was nothing more than a vague prediction with timing as imprecise as the eruption of Mount Baekdu.
How many people would act even if they were told that another Monster Wave would break out tomorrow?
"You emptied all your personal assets. You've earned dozens of times what you invested by now, haven't you?"
"Thanks to you, my pockets are considerably fuller."
"That's a relief. The hero who saved Reator shouldn't be struggling in poverty."
Lisette stepped out onto the balcony.
It was evening, and the moon had risen.
Her fingers came to rest on the railing.
"I'm angry."
There was no anger on her face.
The corners of her mouth formed a long, curving smile.
"I'm angry, but I'm happy. I was toyed with by a mere adventurer, but you treated me so well. I could say it a hundred times and it still wouldn't be enough."
Her eyes glinted strangely.
"Father and the other nobles are proud of me, too. Hehe."
Lisette giggled softly.
"So I want to reward you."
Lisette lifted the hem of her skirt.
With a rustle, her hand slipped inside her dress, then drew out something soft and held it out to me.
A faint scent of skin reached my nose.
"Consider it an honor. It's a special gift bestowed upon my loyal subject."
The moment I saw what she was holding out, I doubted my eyes.
It was a piece of white cloth.
A thin piece of fabric delicately trimmed with lace that had covered her most intimate area until just moments ago.
It was a pair of panties.
'Right, this is a porn-game world.'
I was so dumbfounded that I couldn't speak.
"Varie told me that a loyal subject naturally wants to receive their master's most intimate possession. Eck, you've worked hard for me. Even calling you my loyal subject would not be enough."
Lisette gave me her panties.
"I'll give you the thing I'm most ashamed of."
"Th-thank you."
The panties were warm.
***
I clutched the panties in one hand so no one would see them.
"Then I'll see you again."
Lisette returned to the banquet hall, leaving me alone on the balcony.
Weren't nobles supposed to possess knowledge beyond a university education?
Did they lack knowledge of sex, or were their sensibilities simply different?
My head was spinning despite not having drunk any alcohol.
I was cooling my head in the chilly night breeze when—
"So you're here."
I turned my head at the unfamiliar voice behind me.
Two men entered the balcony with the banquet hall's dazzling lights behind them.
One was a noble with slicked-back hair and clothing in a different style, while the man beside him wore a familiar clan uniform.
He was probably a clan adventurer from a guild in another region.
The noble approached with a sly smile.
"You must be Captain Eck, entrusted with the important post of leading the dungeon survey team."
He was using polite speech.
It was an obvious ploy.
"Pardon me, though we've only just met, but I've heard plenty about Captain Eck's reputation. I hear you defeated a Basilisk single-handedly this time?"
The noble's eyes glinted cunningly.
"But rumors are always exaggerated. How about lightly crossing swords with the adventurer representing our guild? It would be perfect entertainment for the banquet."
If I refused, it would leave people wondering whether my reputation had been exaggerated.
The Basilisk was a kind of turning point.
The nobles were testing me through force.
If I refused here, the nobles would doubt my abilities and become dissatisfied with my involvement in dungeon expeditions, boss hunts, and raids.
And—
'I didn't recognize him because I'd never heard his voice, but...'
I knew who that guild representative adventurer was.
He was originally supposed to appear around Chapter 2, but the story got tangled, so he showed up early.
'Well, that works out.'
I was supposed to prepare for him by Chapter 2, so I was glad he'd appeared early.
"All right. I was getting bored anyway, so I'll accept the challenge."
"It would be an honor, Captain Eck."
The man wore a vile smile.
***
We left the balcony and moved to the courtyard outside the banquet hall.
Nobles and knights who had heard the news gathered one by one, forming an audience.
Elena and Phila came as well, while Lisette and Varie joined them.
"I am Alex, clan master of the Melansa Clan. Embarrassingly, I am also an A-rank, but I will do my best against you."
I shrugged.
Alex and I donned our respective equipment, took up our weapons, and faced each other.
"Then I'll attack first. Try to withstand my attack!"
The man drew a rapier from his waist, his eyes flashing.
Magic blurred my vision, making the scene before me swim.
The tip of the rapier flew straight toward me.
I deflected the rapier with my sword, reached out, and grabbed his throat.
I muttered in a voice the audience couldn't hear.
"What a pathetic trick."
A small ripple passed through Alex's eyes.
"H-how?"
"Who knows? Think about it after you die."
Alex the Hypnotist.
The hypnotic power in his eyes interfered with an opponent's mind, forcing out an unconditional answer of 'yes' and inducing agreement.
In battle, simply telling an opponent to take my attack would leave their defenses open, making them unconsciously receive the attack with their body.
'He was a troublesome one when I didn't know how to deal with him.'
A hypnotist, huh?
How was anyone supposed to live with something that terrifying?
My sword was aimed at Alex.
The nobles watching this scene.
People interested in the strength of the man who had defeated a Basilisk alone.
'What a nuisance.'
The pros and cons.
The scales tipped to one side.
I thrust my sword into Alex's heart.
'A hypnotist must always be killed.'
I couldn't let a dangerous variable like him run free when I had no idea what sort of trouble he might cause.
Squelch.
The blade pierced through his skin and skewered Alex's heart.
"Ghk... guh...!"
Alex's eyes bulged as though they were about to pop out.
His hand groped at empty air as if unable to believe what had happened, then fell limply.
I pulled out my sword.
Blood spilled from the hole in his chest, staining the courtyard floor red.
The nobles watching held their breath.
No one screamed.
They set down the wineglasses they had been about to raise to their lips and sighed at the result of the duel.
"What a brute."
"Barbaric, just as rumored. To kill your opponent during a spar..."
"I was a fool to expect something different just because he was an A-rank."
Displeasure.
That was how the nobles reacted to seeing the death of my sparring opponent.
Just then, someone who had been watching the duel spoke to me.
"Eck."
When Lisette, the guest of honor at the banquet, called my name, the nobles all fell silent.
Gripping the hem of her red dress, she looked at me as if scolding me.
Rather than anger, her expression demanded an explanation.
"Why did you kill him?"
I lowered my bloodstained sword and knelt on one knee.
I bowed my head deeply and answered in the most respectful posture I could manage.
"He called himself an A-rank despite his paltry skill, and I found it deeply offensive that he challenged me."
My voice rang clearly enough to carry across the entire courtyard.
"I saw it as an insult to the skill that Lady Lisette recognized in me. I could not contain my anger when it seemed that someone had dared disparage your judgment, my lady."
Silence.
Something stirred in Lisette.
Lisette placed great importance on honor.
That was a desire common to all nobles.
The challenger who had died in a single blow from me had called himself an A-rank like me.
There might be differences even among A-ranks, but if he couldn't even contend with me, how could he call himself an A-rank?
"If you deem that I deserve punishment, I will accept it gratefully."
I waited for Lisette's answer.
Lisette slowly withdrew her gaze in silence.
"Did you hear that, Baron Melansa?"
Her chilly voice pressed down on the shoulders of the noble from another territory.
"Did you challenge the warrior I recognized by presenting such a mediocre fighter as an A-rank?"
Her voice was beautiful.
The pressure pouring from beneath that lovely voice brought beads of sweat to the baron's forehead.
"You put forward such an underqualified fighter against someone I recognized and appointed captain of the dungeon survey team. Is my judgment really so untrustworthy?"
"Ah, well..."
Baron Melansa's mouth fluttered.
"N-no, that wasn't my intention at all... You've misunderstood, my lady! Alex, well, yes. His condition was different from usual today. He insisted that he was fine, but... they say A-rank duels can come down to the narrowest of margins."
His frantic excuses were painfully pathetic.
The surrounding nobles turned their sharp gazes on the baron.
Flustered, the baron wiped away his sweat and looked around, desperately trying to save face.
Then his gaze swept past a corner of the audience.
"C-Captain Eck's skill was simply too overwhelming, so a duel couldn't really be established while Alex was in poor condition."
The baron gestured.
"My lady, if you permit me, I would like to introduce a promising talent from my clan."
A small-framed spectator standing behind the baron stepped forward.
He was a boy who had not yet lost his youthful air.
"This boy is a promising talent from my clan. Despite his young age, he has been rated C-rank, and he possesses enough talent to reach B-rank before long."
"He looks young, but that's impressive."
The baron shouted excitedly at Lisette's reaction.
"Since my poor judgment has dampened the festivities, wouldn't a spar between Captain Eck's disciple and my clan's promising talent make for good entertainment?"
The baron's gaze pointed directly at someone in the audience.
Elena stood there.
"I've heard that Captain Eck's disciple is also exceptionally talented."
"It would be a shame to end things here."
Lisette turned to me.
"Eck, will you accept?"
"One thing."
I rose from my seat and raised my index finger.
"I'd like to set a condition."
"What condition?"
Lisette asked because she intended to accept whatever I proposed.
Baron Melansa's eyes widened.
"You can glare all you want. I'm not scared."