Chapter 59
Elena's body heat, held in my arms, was hot.
A blind warmth, willingly offering me everything she had for my sake.
"Pfft."
A quiet laugh escaped me before I knew it.
The laughter grew uncontable.
"Puhahaha!!!"
My shoulders shook.
I threw my head back as I hugged Elena.
The laughter pouring out of me like a madman echoed loudly through the cramped room. Even as my eyes filled with tears, I couldn't stop laughing.
I couldn't stop even when I tried.
Elena stared at me with a bewildered expression.
"Uncle?"
Instead of an answer, all that came out was laughter that nearly left me gasping.
What on earth was going on?
After grandly proclaiming that I would protect her virginity and change the world, I got the answer, 'I'll do everything except penetration.'
I lowered my head, bent forward, and buried myself deep in Elena's embrace.
I hugged Elena's petite body tightly with both arms.
"Why, why are you laughing?"
Elena looked flustered.
"Why are you laughing like that? I'm being serious."
"No, it's just..."
I barely managed to get the syllables out one at a time.
"I'm saying thank you."
Once those words left my mouth, the laughter died down a little.
It felt like a lump lodged in my chest had been released. The burden I'd been carrying alone, quietly piling up without even realizing it, had faded away.
So I had just been lonely.
The isolation of having no one in this world who understood me. The loneliness of bearing the world's fate on my own.
Elena had smashed it all to pieces with four simple words: 'Don't hold back.'
'I don't even know what struck that particular chord.'
The remnants of my laughter lingered around my lips, and I was still grinning.
Just as I was catching my breath.
Elena grabbed my face with both hands.
She puckered her lips and brought her face close to mine.
I raised my palm and covered those lips.
"Mmph?!"
"What are you trying to do?"
Elena moved my palm aside.
"I was going to kiss you. You don't have to hold back. It'll be over soon."
The answer she delivered with such a solemn expression was ridiculously funny.
"Puhaha!"
It burst out again.
As I laughed, I realized
the heat of the aphrodisiac that had been boiling in my lower abdomen had faded away at some point.
"Haa... That's funny."
"W-what's so funny?"
Elena puckered her lips with an offended, flustered look.
"Just. Everything."
I caught my breath and removed the ring from my left finger.
The Ring of Endurance.
I'd forced myself to remain celibate in the first place to maintain the immense power this relic granted me.
Power that grew stronger the more I suppressed my desires.
Judging by how it felt when I used it, I had received roughly twenty percent of its effect. I might have been able to aim for thirty percent, but I supposed this was as far as I could go.
"Hold out your hand."
"Pardon?"
Elena blankly extended her left hand.
I took her left hand.
It was a small hand.
Small enough to make it unbelievable that it would save the world.
I slipped the ring onto her index finger.
"Once everything is over."
Elena's eyes wavered.
"I'll grant you any wish, to your heart's content."
The ring shrank to fit her finger.
Elena raised the ring.
Her eyes sparkled as she looked at it.
"You said you would protect your virginity, right?"
Elena nodded.
"Then this ring will decide what you need to protect and how to protect it."
Elena ran her fingers over the ring.
Power filled the ring.
A faint light shimmered, and Elena sensed the change that had occurred within her.
Her eyes went round as she looked at me.
I met that gaze bitterly.
'Was the effect locked at forty-five percent for a virgin?'
The gender discrimination here is pretty severe.
In any case, after hearing Elena's resolve, I didn't hesitate any longer.
Elena alone could seize the fate of this world, and if I went against her will, no route would progress properly.
So I'd planned to gradually steel Elena's resolve in keeping with the original story.
'I guess there's no need for that anymore.'
I shrugged.
If Elena felt that indebted to me, then I should show her an equal degree of trust.
"And show that ring to Roen and tell him you want to undergo the trial."
"The trial?"
"He'll understand."
Roen, the virginity-obsessed fanatic.
He had castrated himself to safeguard ultimate purity, and as the guide to a side story, he was a fairly significant NPC.
It was a story one would naturally proceed through in the latter half, but since its main elements were gimmicks and puzzles, there was no problem starting it early.
It only came down to how great Elena's resolve was, and I'd just confirmed that.
Elena's brow furrowed.
"I'm happy about the gift, but you're ultimately still going to hold back, aren't you?"
Elena looked dissatisfied, but clenched the hand wearing the ring.
Her gaze was drawn downward, as though she could feel the cold touch of the metal encircling her finger.
"It wasn't exactly painful. I did it because it was a cheap price to pay for power."
"But it was still painful, wasn't it? Do you really have to gain power by going that far?"
It was an adorable remark from a fledgling who hadn't reached her growth limit yet.
"It was the aphrodisiac's side effect that was painful. And there are ways to deal with that too."
"You're not doing it with Sister Phila, are you?"
"Hahaha. You're so adorably mistaken."
Elena's pouty eyes turned fierce.
"You're going to make me endure something painful, but you can't take the easy path by yourself."
I was throwing this small, adorable creature into the midst of sexual predators like gang-raping orcs, infinite-orgasm trolls, human-fleshlight ogres, dragons specializing in erotic traps, tentacles that multiplied sensitivity three thousandfold, and slimes that excreted personalities—how could any sane modern person not worry?
"But now that I've taken off the ring and gotten permission, can I do whatever I want?"
"As long as you don't abandon me, I'm fine with anything."
That didn't sound right.
I stroked Elena's head as she nestled in my arms.
"Anyway, thank you for comforting me. Like you said, I won't force myself to hold back."
I looked down at Elena.
The protagonist I had always had to protect seemed especially big today.
"You had a wish, didn't you? In return for indulging my stubbornness, I'll grant pretty much anything, even if it's a bit unreasonable. Just say the word."
"Then..."
Elena spoke with a sullen expression.
"...Please let me choose the women you sleep with, Uncle."
Huh?
***
Elena closed the door and left.
Her footsteps faded down the hall, and silence settled over the room.
- Kehihi. Kehihihihihihi!
Laughter burst from empty air.
- I saw something precious.
A hazy mist gathered in my field of vision, and Beatrice's apparition appeared before me.
Hanging upside down from the ceiling, she clutched her stomach and rolled around in midair as she laughed.
Her blood-red eyes curved like crescent moons.
- But why didn't you rape her?
......
- After panting like a rutting male and licking Elena's body with your eyes? Your gaze followed the curve of her buttocks so persistently that I got goosebumps just watching you.
Beatrice, drifting through the air, tapped the bridge of my nose with a finger.
- Still, that just now was deeply moving.
She clasped her hands together and made an ecstatic expression.
- It felt like finding an oasis in the middle of a desert where hellfire was boiling. Nurturing your love while preserving human dignity. What could be more beautiful than that in this world?
The frills of her gothic lolita dress fluttered as though defying gravity.
But her expression soon curdled.
- But why does this world have retainers who get intoxicated by their master's scent, and why does that master take off the panties they were wearing and give them to their loyal retainer? Even monsters have their own dignity, you know.
Beatrice's grumbling showed no sign of ending.
Yet this same person had no qualms about wearing gothic lolita, going pantyless, and constantly making rape comments.
As far as I was concerned, she was no better than the rest.
- Exhibitionism enjoyed in secret and indiscriminate mating born of mutual attraction are natural expressions of desire. That's different from the abnormal sexuality that twists common sense by forcing itself into the education system. Would a world where male genitalia sprout from women's crotches be normal?
At that moment, Beatrice's gaze changed.
As she threatened me, scattering a savage aura through the room, her rippling black hair grew still, then began to puff up into soft clumps.
- In that sense, Elena was human dignity itself. Devoting herself to the man she loved, willing to offer her body. There was no lust in her eyes. There was only sacrifice for you. Ahh.
Beatrice clasped her hands together.
- Sublime. Beautiful. Truly. Whether human or beast, the expression of desire shines brightest when dignity is preserved.
Then she glided close to my ear.
A voice of an entirely different texture flowed from the lips that had been murmuring about sublimity.
- So, Eck.
Her whisper brushed my earlobe.
- You asked Elena for permission, didn't you? She said you didn't have to hold back, right?
The end of her sentence stretched out.
Beatrice giggled.
- Let's fuck Phila doggy-style.
The absurd proposal came flying at me out of nowhere.
It was blatant and vulgar.
- She doesn't have one, after all. So you have to eat her. I know women like that—when they're alone at home, they do nothing but masturbate, you know? Rub her with yours instead of a dildo.
'Dignity, my ass.'
After going on and on about dignity, she says, Let's fuck Phila doggy-style.
My energy drained.
I felt even more exhausted somehow.
The infinite-stamina effect kept my physical energy from being a problem, but mental fatigue had accumulated.
Beatrice drooled as she darted back and forth across my field of vision.
She spun through the air, making my vision dizzy, as if compensating for being cooped up until now.
"Haa..."
All the strength drained from my body.
The post-nut clarity hit me.
It was always like this after being swept up in lust and then coming back down.
Without the energy to answer Beatrice anymore, I lay down on the bed.
When I closed my eyes, thoughts billowed through my mind.
'Elena is pure.'
Even though she must have witnessed monsters raping adventurers, lust hadn't invaded her mind; it remained untainted.
That purity was important.
The true ending could be reached with a pure body and a pure mind.
As far as I knew, Elena was the only person who could also possess the skill and talent needed to reach the ending.
I remembered my past self aiming for the true ending and chuckled despite myself.
'That's why everyone cursed it out.'
How could the true ending require a no-death clear?
They'd made the difficulty insanely high, and this was supposed to be okay?
It was an adult game, so why couldn't you even do anal or handjobs?
The game had been brutally panned.
The true-ending conditions had played a part in dragging a fairly well-made game into the gutter.
'I'm sorry, Elena.'
If you played the virgin route, this world was a Souls game wearing an adult-game skin.
Clearing a Souls game without dying was something even a veteran could fail at if they let their guard down.
It would've been nice if I could control her directly, but since I couldn't, all I could do was help Elena grow and entrust the ending to her.
'Just hold out until the ending.'
Once you've seen the ending, I'll do anything for you.
Whether that means standing in for your father or whatever else.
I'd known for a while that Elena's gaze held a longing for her father.
Considering she'd tried to use her body because she didn't want to lose me, she was quite something.
'You should consider our age difference before throwing yourself at me.'
- In my eyes, you're quite something too.
Ignoring Beatrice's whisper, I tossed and turned before falling asleep.
***
Morning sunlight slanted through the window and stretched across the table.
I tore off some of yesterday's leftover hard rye bread, soaked it thoroughly in soup, and shoved it into my mouth.
Elena sat across from me with her nose buried in a notebook, paying no attention to her meal.
Scratch, scratch.
The busy sound of her pen racing across parchment echoed through the quiet room.
'Eat while you work.'
Elena, who had made that strange wish and gone home yesterday, had come to my room this morning.
With the dungeon expedition beginning in earnest tomorrow, Elena copied down every piece of information I dictated without missing a single word.
The dungeon survey team had to go ahead as the vanguard, so the more thorough our preparations, the better.
"Once we enter the middle levels of the dungeon, the terrain will change completely. The upper levels are made up of artificial structures, but natural caves begin in the middle levels."
"Natural caves. Yes, I wrote that down."
Elena nodded, her eyes sparkling.
She didn't question how I knew about the middle levels.
That blind gaze fixed on me.
It felt as if something directed at me had changed within Elena as well, not just in the way she looked at me.
Something more domineering, more instinctive, pressed down heavily on me.
After writing down everything we needed to know in advance for the middle levels, she closed her notebook.
"Did you get it all?"
"Yes! I even memorized all the tips you gave me."
She hugged the notebook to her chest as if it were precious.
Deep trust in me showed on her confident face.
"Oh, right. Uncle."
Just as I was about to rise from the table with my empty bowl to wash the dishes, Elena lightly tugged on my sleeve.
"What?"
"Can I share this information with Sister Phila too? I'll be going in with the other members of my party, but she would never reveal it."
Phila, huh.
Thinking back to the things she'd said and done in the original, there was no better helper than her.
"Go ahead."
"Yes!"
Elena hummed cheerfully.
She pulled a notebook different from the earlier one from her bosom and began writing something down with a serious expression.