Ch.102102. Poppy

I was caught off guard by Alkine’s sudden lip attack, feeling a mix of confusion and bewilderment as I waited for her to offer some kind of explanation.

But she seemed to have nothing prepared to say, maintaining her silence while just staring at my face.

“…”

“…”

“…Say something, please.”

“…Sorry.”

I tried to start a conversation, but Alkine only apologized.

Since it didn’t seem like any dialogue would continue no matter what I asked her to say, I reluctantly decided to speak first.

“If you’re just going to apologize, why did you do it in the first place?”

“I don’t know… I don’t know myself, so don’t ask…”

As I expected, I couldn’t get a proper answer from her.

If I’d just heard that without context, it would have sounded ridiculous, but honestly, I understood to some extent.

Alkine’s eyes had been half-crazed just now. She might have genuinely done it without thinking.

Even considering that, a surprise kiss was a bit much. Especially from my perspective, having my first kiss stolen like that.

With those thoughts, I stared intently at Alkine, who raised her upper body that had been lowered in embarrassment.

Though I couldn’t see her face anymore, I could tell. She was extremely embarrassed.

I couldn’t help but notice how she kept fidgeting and squirming.

…Honestly, I was feeling pretty heated myself right now.

While I had a lot to say, it wouldn’t be good to waste energy when I was injured.

So for now, I decided to calm down and focus on resting.

Fortunately, I could clearly feel my strength returning just from resting, which suggested this body had good recovery abilities.

After recovering enough to move around a bit, I was finally able to free myself from her lap pillow.

And only then did I face Alkine directly.

“Um, you know? That was my first time? Can we just forget about it?”

I was just looking at her wondering if her legs weren’t getting numb in that position, but for whatever reason, she hastily started making excuses to escape the situation.

“It was my first time too.”

“…What?”

When I spoke up, intending to tease her a bit because I found her behavior annoying, Alkine’s expression turned to genuine shock.

“With that face, you’re saying you’ve never done it before?”

“That’s prejudice. I mean, if we’re going there, why was it your first time too, Senior Alkine, with your pretty face?”

“Well… I appreciate you thinking that way. But I’m not a commoner like you.”

“…That’s true.”

At first glance, it might sound like she was looking down on commoners, but it was actually the reality.

Unlike nobles who carefully managed their chastity because it could be utilized in various ways, commoners lived in a more free-spirited atmosphere without such concerns.

The relatively casual way commoners met and behaved wasn’t exactly indecent, but from a noble’s perspective, it might seem quite loose.

Well… thinking deeply about it, I really didn’t know. The real “Ludion” before I possessed this body might have been a Casanova who used his looks to seduce women.

But even if that were the case, it was still the first time for “me.”

When my thoughts reached that point, I suddenly recalled the sensation from earlier… and felt I needed to end this conversation quickly.

“Anyway, you don’t really need to apologize. I wasn’t particularly offended or anything.”

Rather than dragging this out and making things awkward, I honestly shared my feelings, which somehow worked well as Alkine’s expression brightened considerably.

“Really? You’re truly okay with it?”

Yes, I wasn’t offended. I was just extremely surprised.

But Alkine seemed quite surprised by my answer.

“But you know, being forced like that when you couldn’t move… is it really okay?”

“Well… when you put it that way, it does sound a bit extreme.”

“I thought so…”

She says that after bringing it up herself. It was a bit funny how she became dejected when I didn’t deny it.

As I was laughing internally, she suddenly started saying something unexpected.

“Even if you say it’s okay, I’m still sorry. You probably wanted your first to be with Celia.”

“Huh? Why suddenly bring up Celia?”

“Even though I’m the one who interfered, I still have some sense of decency. I think there should be an order to these things. Of course, your feelings are most important, but even considering that, I think your first should have been with Celia…”

After saying that much, Alkine carefully touched her lips and then started grinning.

“I’m sorry about that. It’s already giving me a headache thinking about how to explain this.”

…Your expression doesn’t look sorry or headache-stricken at all.

In the end, we decided not to bring up this topic again until we left the Rift. It would only make things awkward between us, and Alkine’s expression just now was a bit scary.

Afterward, although we had wasted quite a bit of time, we finally decided to resume tackling the Rift.

I still had painfully severe wounds, and I couldn’t even wear clothes because anything touching my burned skin would make me scream, but we couldn’t just stay put.

Of course, I had plenty of camping gear and food stored in my inventory, so we could have waited for support. Alkine had suggested that too.

But I persuaded her to continue the conquest.

We didn’t know when support would arrive, and even if it did come to this dangerous Rift, having more people would likely just slow us down unless they were truly exceptional.

Of course, I was the one who had slowed us down the most, so I wasn’t really in a position to say this… but honestly, I wanted to get out of here quickly to receive treatment.

Since moving around a bit didn’t seem to aggravate my condition too much, I judged it better to complete the conquest quickly and get treatment.

Several hours after we started the conquest.

Slash-

Crack-

I watch what must be the umpteenth boss monster being dismembered.

In my current state, unable to move properly, Alkine had to handle all the enemies by herself, but it wasn’t much of a challenge for her after she had broken through her wall.

Of course, we had only encountered lower-tier creatures, and I had informed her of all their weaknesses, but she probably would have been fine even without that information.

Moreover, the map was similar to what I knew, so it seemed certain we would complete the conquest soon.

That’s what I thought.

“…Why is that thing appearing here?”

Until something that shouldn’t be here showed up.

“Senior Alkine.”

“Yeah, I know. This looks a bit difficult.”

It had a generally human form, but it was lumpy and uneven all over, like a poorly made clay figure.

It also had a subtly enormous build that was too large to be human, and each of its movements was unnatural and bizarre.

This creature, whose appearance perfectly matched the term “uncanny valley,” was one I couldn’t possibly forget.

‘Poppy.’

How could I forget such a name?

I’m not joking—its name is actually Poppy.

It’s not even a dog but has a human form, and despite its extremely unpleasant appearance, it’s called Poppy.

Despite its ridiculous name, I couldn’t let my guard down.

After all, this was a boss mob that appeared in the main story.

In our current situation, even a simply strong opponent would be challenging enough. Isn’t this too much?

While I was complaining, the creature continued approaching us.

When it got close enough, it began to speak, but its voice also had eerie qualities that weren’t quite human.

“Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you? Kill you.”

Its speech pattern seemed somewhat deficient. But the pressure it exuded was on a completely different level from anything we’d encountered so far.

That was to be expected. Until now, we’d only faced monster bosses, but this was a demon.

…A demon boss is really no joke.

This guy is deeply connected to the main story. Is it even supposed to appear here?

If the appearance order gets messed up like this, what happens to the future storyline?

But this isn’t the time to be thinking so leisurely.

“I’ll help too.”

“Are you sure? You can just rest…”

“No. You won’t be able to handle it alone.”

It might look manageable now… but this thing has a second phase.

“Seems like you know something again. Alright. Don’t push yourself too hard.”

Alkine agreed even before I could explain.

She says not to overdo it, but it’s probably going to be tough. If it were an opponent we could beat casually, I wouldn’t have jumped in.

Still, it doesn’t seem completely unbeatable, and I think we can manage somehow.

So I wasn’t feeling too worried.

“Oh my, that won’t do. You’re trying to harm my cute child again.”

Until someone jumped out from behind Poppy.

Why do things keep popping out? Before I could voice my complaint, the figure spoke.

“I lost it pathetically last time because I underestimated you. So this time, I followed along.”

Unlike the bizarre Poppy, this being had both an alluring appearance and voice.

However, the malice in that voice made my skin crawl.

Even though it had no physical effect on my body.

“Ludion. This is…”

Alkine beside me asked with a trembling voice.

She must have roughly gauged the opponent’s ability and was shocked.

I had no answer for her.

At most, I could only let out a hollow laugh.

“Hello? This is our first meeting, right? I heard humans introduce themselves when they first meet.”

“I’m Ludion and this is Alkine Debaran. That’s all.”

“Oh? Oh… I see. I’m Belle.”

“Nice to meet you, Belle. We would like to establish a good relationship with you.”

“…You’re funny.”

I gave the best response I could at the moment, but I couldn’t guarantee what would happen next.

Whatever happened, this was the worst possible development.