episode_0072

000

In the dark prison, a wave of magical power spreads out, and the sound of the air vibrating can be heard.

The only light comes from a small, barred window in the wall.

If the humid and dark space continues until the magic lamps are turned on at night,

Even the hot-tempered students who have committed crimes and entered this place

naturally feel depressed and lose energy.

Meanwhile, Cleon and the three people (excluding Riomes) who entered the law department’s punishment room to gather information about the execution department,

couldn’t hide their surprise, their eyes wide at the scene before them.

Lyla suddenly regained her senses and shouted at Riomes.

“A, a magic that amplifies sensitivity!? You said 3000 times. Now?! Not 3 times, not 30 times….”

“It’s not magic. It’s a folk remedy using magical power…. Closer to medicine, perhaps.”

“That’s not the point! If you increase a human’s sensitivity that much, they’ll die just from breathing and touching the air!”

Lyla tries to walk forward to separate Riomes from the female student of the execution department,

but Cleon grabs Lyla’s hand.

“C, Cleon? Why are you stopping me?”

“Wait. Something’s wrong. If her sensitivity has increased, there should be some reaction….”

At Cleon’s words, Lyla stops in her tracks and looks at the female student Riomes touched.

She doesn’t seem to know what happened, and she just turns her head as if examining her body.

“I, I’m fine…?”

As the female student speaks, Riomes smiles and stands up, stepping back slightly.

“What, what…? Did it fail?”

Lyla also tries to assess the situation while looking at the female student, then, in that moment.

“Tiss…! A, are you okay?”

A male student from the execution department raises his voice, worried about his lover.

Then.

“Hieeek…!?”

The female student called Tiss lets out a scream-like sound as soon as she hears the male student’s voice, and bends her body forward.

“…What did you do?”

Cleon asks Riomes, who speaks without removing the smile from her face.

“As I said, I increased her sensitivity by 3000 times. To be precise, it’s called `mental sensitivity`.”

“…Mental sensitivity?”

Hearing the unfamiliar word, Cleon quietly repeated it.

“You feel happy when you hear words for yourself, and sad when you hear criticism. It’s a kind of empathy. It’s the degree to which you can read the emotions when the other person’s actions, words, and expressions are directed at you.”

“…What happens when that gets stronger?”

As Aruru asks after Cleon, Lyla looks at the female student’s condition for a moment.

Then, she turns bright red.

“N, no way.”

“As expected, Miss Lyla. You’re quick at figuring things out.”

Aruru and Cleon’s eyes simultaneously turn to Lyla.

Lyla hesitates, but answers the two people’s questions.

“So…. Ummm, the fact that a lover is worried about your well-being is generally a happy thing, right? It makes your heart a little warmer, or something…. But the joy you feel from such a small word is 3,000 times greater…. That is.”

“That’s right! Even a small word or action from a loved one becomes a huge joy! To the point of, well, going there!”

“… …”

Riomes speaks with sparkling eyes.

Aruru and Cleon both look at her with slightly disgusted faces.

“So, how are you going to get information with this?”

Riomes just smiles and answers Lyla’s question.

“They’ll gradually want even greater stimulation, and words and expressions won’t be enough. Then they’ll eventually want each other’s bodies…. But the two of them are tied up right now, right?”

She was terribly vicious.

Riomes, whether she knows Cleon’s feelings or not, performs the same procedure on the male student this time.

Once again, the vibration of magical power echoes.

This time, the female student looks at the male student with worried eyes.

“Kuek…!”

The male student twists his body as if in pain.

Right now, the two of them are trapped in a vortex of overwhelming emotions where they become happy just by looking at each other.

They wanted to break free from the restraints that were binding them right away and embrace each other.

“Isn’t it beautiful? This affectionate expression.”

“That’s really bad….”

Lyla says the same thing Cleon thought.

Riomes replies to Lyla as if asking what she’s talking about.

“The most important thing about this interrogation is whether the two people really love each other. If there isn’t proper affection, no matter how much you amplify the sensitivity, you won’t get results.”

Riomes spins her finger around with a full smile on her face.

Aruru just shakes her head, looking a little confused.

“Kuh, as a member of the execution department, I usually try not to show it for the sake of dignity, but isn’t my girlfriend the cutest in the world…?”

“Y, you idiot! If you say something like that now…. Hheugeut…!”

And since the execution department is saying stupid things like that.

Cleon, feeling that someone needs to sort out this situation, opens his mouth.

“You guys. If you’re so important to each other, how about talking about the execution department?”

“N, no one…. Will give in to such threats….”

The male student glares at Riomes, trying to make up for his earlier mistake.

But his gaze is not properly focused.

He should only be looking at his lover.

His body is dominated by his mind, and his head turns on its own.

Riomes stands between the two of them and speaks in a gentle, quiet voice.

“What is there to be afraid of? The two of you definitely love each other. All I did was make it a little more honest. If you want, I can release those cumbersome things that are restricting your bodies right now.”

The two people’s bodies are gradually heating up.

They are not using drugs, but are unable to control their growing affection for each other.

“W, we will never sell out our comrades….”

The female student of the execution department, Tiss, takes a deep breath and answers like that.

Honestly, she was close to the limit.

Her whole body was already ready.

She wanted to hold her lover’s hand and relieve this affectionate feeling, no matter what.

“The greater the love for each other, the greater the effect of this interrogation~. Besides, it’s not like I created feelings that didn’t exist at all.”

“What…. Did you say…?”

“The fact that the two of you want each other’s bodies right now means that you have the desire to do so even normally~”

“… …!”

“Ah hah. Your face is red. It’s so refreshing. How about being more honest with your feelings? I can increase it even more from 3000 times.”

It was torture born from good intentions.

For Riomes, who considers confirming human relationships through physical contact, that is, `sex`, to be the most important thing.

The conversation and eye contact needed to reach that conclusion

were merely foreplay to prepare for the pleasure of sex.

“So~ let’s get comfortable so we can stick together quickly?”

“…Scary. As expected, the academy’s top-class bitch.”

Lyla shudders as she looks at Riomes’ back.

Honestly, it didn’t feel good.

It was a way of exploiting the weakness of human romantic feelings, without using truth serum or drugs.

But if there are no aftereffects left on the body and no humans are actually harmed.

She thought it was still within an acceptable range.

Aruru felt the same way.

Just a little bit more.

If they pushed just a little bit more, the two of them would open their mouths.

Riomes judged so and went closer to Cleon this time.

“Professor Cleon~ I’m lonely because these people aren’t opening their mouths~”

Saying that, she whispers in Cleon’s ear and brings his hand to her chest.

As expected, it was hard to tell with the plain clothes she was wearing now.

But the size was definitely not something that could be held in one hand, as she had seen in her usual class.

N, no, not that.

“W What are you doing, you hussy!?”

Lyla raises her voice, reacting before Cleon can say anything.

Aruru widens her eyes and just stares at the scene, `gulping….`

“Aah… Just as I thought, Professor Cleon’s palms are full of calluses…. Hehe♡ He’s pressing down hard on the pleasant spots of my cow-like, huge breasts….”

Riomes, not caring about Lyla’s shouts, starts acting for her own satisfaction using Cleon’s hand.

A clear and pure sound like the chirping of birds at sunrise.

With a lewd voice that felt like it had the stickiness of honey.

“Shall I be more active so that the two of you can be honest…?”

As if teasing the two people who can’t move, little by little.

Visually, auditorily, and olfactorily.

She was increasing the stimulation.

“S, stop it…. Please, if you do any more…. I think I’ll really go crazy….”

The male student opens his mouth, making eye contact with his lover in that environment.

“You won’t go crazy~ The human spirit isn’t that weak. You might lose your mind a little….”

Riomes, who flatly rejects the male student’s request, is still smiling.

-And.

The female student was the first to break down.

“I, I’ll talk…. I, I don’t want to see my boyfriend in pain any more….”

“T, Tiss!? I, I…. Kuek…! Sorry…!”

The female student speaks with almost unfocused eyes.

Riomes then moves away from Cleon and strokes the female student’s hair.

“Thank you, I’ll release your restraints if you answer what I ask….”

As she whispers in a voice like the Virgin Mary, the female student nods.

“… …”

Cleon looks at the scene and walks out of the prison where Lyla and Aruru are.

Lyla’s glaring gaze and Aruru’s slightly embarrassed glare were stinging.

A little later, Riomes walks out with a refreshed face.

The sound of a commotion can be heard from behind her, but let’s ignore it for now.

“So…. What did she say?”

“She told me about the execution department’s hideout. It seems they’re based in an underground labyrinth called `Ariadne`.”

Riomes answers Lyla’s question as if troubled.

“Ariadne, that’s a name I’ve never heard before.”

Hearing her words, Aruru tilts her head slightly.

“Is it a place that doesn’t exist in the academy?”

When Cleon asks, Aruru shakes her head.

“Yeah. I’ve never heard of it. If it’s a labyrinth, is it a dungeon? I have to notify all the top students first….”

Saying that, Aruru turns around and makes eye contact with Lyla for a moment.

Lyla’s expression has widened eyes in surprise

and a slightly stiff face.

“…What’s wrong? Lyla.”

“A, Ariadne…. I know it. B, but….”

She says it should have disappeared.

Seeing Lyla showing some anxiety,

Cleon decided to take her outside first.

“Can we just leave those two alone?”

“They’ll be in that state until my technique is released, so they’ll be like that for the next hour. They’ll naturally run out of energy and faint, so let’s just tell the guards.”

Aruru nods at Riomes’ answer,

and the four of them leave the dark building to sort out what they had learned.

001

“…Ariadne is one of the ancient artifacts owned by the magic department.”

A table at a stall with a parasol unfolded.

Lyla muttered, holding her head with a cold drink in one hand.

“How many artifacts did the magic department keep for research without reporting them? Because they had them.”

It’s not like that now. Probably.

She adds.

“The artifact’s effect is simple. By putting it underground, it creates a huge labyrinth there. In addition, the user can grasp all the internal structures.”

“What’s inside?”

“Nothing special. Just an endless repetition of connecting passages and dead ends. And sometimes a slightly larger room appears.”

Lyla speaks as if recalling her memories in response to Cleon’s question.

“But it would be difficult to track down its location with just that.”

Lyla shook her head as Aruru voiced her concerns.

“Not really. Since it generates a large number of walls and passages, it consumes a huge amount of magical power. So basically, it uses the flow of magical power flowing underground.”

“…A ley line?”

This time, Lyla nodded at Cleon’s guess.

A ley line is a flow of magical power that flows throughout the continent.

Places with a lot of magical power naturally help the growth of plants and animals, increasing their numbers.

As a result, people looking for resources gather and it becomes a place that is easy to develop.

Of course, the academy also has a ley line.

The reason why the magic tool department was trying to install surveillance crystal balls was also along that ley line.

However, in order for Ariadne to fully unfold, there had to be enough space underground.

As far as Lyla knew, there was only one place like that inside the academy.

“A large open space on the way from the sacred department to the dormitory area.”

“…Is that so. Come to think of it, the first attack in the academy was also near there.”

Cleon speaks as if he roughly knows where it is.

“Then. It’s best not to delay. Let’s notify the top students and have them search the area.”

As Aruru stands up, Riomes also stands up.

“…Cleon, you can come a little later with Lyla.”

Saying that, she leaves the two of them and starts walking towards the Tower of Aion.

Riomes smiles and waves her hand as she walks away.

Lyla sighs softly and looks at the backs of the two.

“I made you worry for nothing.”

“…Your reaction was strange.”

Cleon and Lyla’s eyes meet, and silence flows.

Lyla hesitates and taps the empty seat next to her with her palm.

Then, Cleon gets up from his seat and sits next to Lyla.

Lyla leans her head on Cleon’s shoulder, who has come closer, as if recalling something a little nostalgic.

“…Ariadne is an object of memories and mixed feelings for me.”

She begins to speak, starting with a preface that sounds like she is about to tell an old story.