Chapter 68 : Terrorist Leader (?)

We dressed Lenis and left the hot springs and headed back to camp.

Carrying a passed-out Lenis down the mountain was a little harder than I expected, but not impossible.

‘Just let me carry her.’

Ravi said, sensing I was struggling, but I shook my head.

‘No, you’re too weak. I’ll carry you. You deserve it.’

‘You look like you’re struggling.’

‘Well, no.’

It was actually more efficient for Ravi to carry me, as a Bani woman is much stronger than a human man, but I insisted, as it was a bit disfiguring to have someone else carry Lenis, who had passed out from orgasm during our first outdoor experience together.

‘Ugh… Mmmm…’

About halfway down, Lenis woke up and grunted and moaned.

‘Ugh, my tummy hurts… Ugh! Gee, what did I just… Alvis?!’

‘Uh, you’re awake, you slept well. Was it so good you passed out?’

Lenis jumped on her back at my words.

‘No, I didn’t! Come on, I’m tired, I slept for a while, I didn’t pass out… Put me down, I can walk by myself!’

‘It’s going to be hard, I hear it hurts your stomach the first time. I’ve never seen anyone else’s, but mine’s a bit big, honestly… I’ll carry you up, you’re probably exhausted from your climax earlier.’

‘No thanks, and who said I climaxed?! I didn’t even feel as good as you did with yours!’

‘Okay, let’s leave it at that. We’ll find out if it was good or not when we do it again.’

‘All right… Um…?’

‘Then let’s call it a day, you’re mine now, and when we can afford a decent place to stay, you can count on me to fuck you just as hard as I did earlier.’

Lenis didn’t answer, just remained silent, then buried her head in the small of my back and mumbled.

‘…… Beast.’

‘Now you and I can’t even say anything to each other anymore, can we?’

‘Well, I was merely a temporary companion to your ill-advised hobby! Do you really think that I, the Eleanor of Valentine’s, would have seriously done something as crass as you did?!!’

‘Well, let’s call it that then.’

‘Profit…’

Lenis’s grip on my shoulder tightened, as if the medicine had kicked in.

‘I was pretty good, though.’

‘…What?’

Lenis’s grip slackened again.

‘It was good. I loved being able to do it with you. I love you, Lenis, for accepting me and not resisting.’

‘Huh…!’

Lenis gasped, then hugged me tighter and said quietly.

‘…And you didn’t really mean it anyway.’

‘Oh, no. I do mean it, and if you don’t believe me, I’ll say more. I love you, Lenny. Or shall I show it by my actions?’

‘Okay… That’s what you said to Ravi. You have the nerve to say you love someone else and then say the same thing to me… Liar.’

Ravi laughed and leaned slightly towards Lenis.

‘Lenis, you’re jealous, aren’t you? Because Alvis isn’t the only one who loves you.’

‘Oh, no! And Ravi, what has happened to you?!! Alvis is one thing, but you… you’ve become like that… like that…’

‘This is the real me, and I’m so grateful to Alvis for that, because I can show him everything I am and he still loves me.’

With that, Ravi puts down the boar he’s been holding for a moment and gently pats Lenis on the shoulder.

‘And I’m okay with that, Lenis, because we were the same way when we were at the Academy, the only difference is that all three of us were abandoned except for Celine, and Alvis won’t be.’

‘That’s true… but…’

Lenis trailed off, wondering if she remembered from the Academy.

Truth be told, the only difference between my relationship with Bryden then and now was whether or not

I had a physical relationship with him, even though that’s a huge difference.

I picked up where Ravi left off and continued my baritone.

‘I still remember the look on all three of your faces at that graduation breakfast, and I don’t want you to feel that way again.’

‘… So you’re saying you did it with Ravi and you did it with me?’

‘Yes.’

‘You’re animals!’

‘Not exactly. I didn’t do it just for sex, I did it because I genuinely want to see you happy and I want to make that happen.’

It sounded like a lot of sophistry to hear, but I meant it.

I saw how depressed they were at breakfast the next day after Bryden dumped them, and I didn’t want to put them through that again.

The reason I chose to treat them so sincerely and make them my girls in the first place was because they were my favourite characters from the original webcomic, and I saw all three of them crying because they were heartbroken.

Apparently my sincerity was working, because Lenis sat up and was silent for a moment before leaning his head back against mine slightly.

‘…A lie.’

It wasn’t a full admission, of course, but the way she held me grew softer, and I could tell she was relieved.

I turned my head slightly to drive a wedge, looking back and locking eyes with Lenith.

I set her down for a moment, then turned to face her and lightly squeezed her chin.

‘What… What are you doing?’

‘Showing affection.’

I squeezed her chin, then leaned in and planted a deep kiss on her face, causing her eyes to widen.

She stamped her feet for a moment, but then she calmed down, accepting my tongue and slipping her arms around my waist.

After a few moments of sweet kissing, she just stared at me with a blank expression.

‘Do you think this is a lie?’

After a few seconds of silence, Lenith averted her gaze.

‘I mean, how does one prove one’s sincerity by an act that anyone can do?’

‘I’m puzzled. I suppose you’ll have to show it more often by your actions, then?’

‘… I guess so.’

‘Good, then look forward to it.’

With that, I said and walked forward with Ravi.

But then I felt something was wrong and looked back to see Lenis standing there, motionless.

‘What are you doing, aren’t you going?’

I said, and she stretched her arms out in front of her.

‘Aren’t you going to carry me?’

‘I thought you said you could walk on your own?’

‘…… I changed my mind, so I need you to carry me.’

Disingenuous.

Ravi smirked, as if he understood the intent, and gestured for me to go, so I squatted down and offered my back to Lenis.

‘Here.’

‘……’

Lenis quietly climbed onto my back and wrapped her arms around my neck.

Her arms were much less forceful than they had been earlier, and her large breasts pressed gently against my back, unlike earlier when she had consciously tried not to lean against me.

Ravi only laughed at the sight of Lenis, and the three of us returned to the camp where the elfin was waiting.

Elfin, who had stopped his self-destructive training, was sitting alone in the camp after dinner when he spotted us and jumped to his feet.

‘What the hell, where have you three been? I’ve been bored out here all by myself.’

Ravi, who had dropped the boar off at the campsite, winked at me and clasped his hands together in an apologetic gesture.

‘Ahaha, sorry, Elfin. I was meeting with Lennith and I found something…’

‘Discovered what? And Lenith, why are you being carried by Alvis?’

I answered for him.

‘There’s a hot spring in the mountains that was once operated by a private company that went belly up and was abandoned. Most of the facilities have been torn down or collapsed, but the spring is still intact, and Lennys… uh… She said she had a stomach ache.’

‘Really? Lenis, are you okay?’

‘Neh?! Oh… I, I’m fine now!’

‘By the way, the hot springs! Why didn’t you tell me about them? I wanted to take a bath so badly…! Oh, come on! Ravi, Lenis, do you want to go wash with me? Where is it?! Let’s go wash together!’

‘I can show you the location, I know where it is.’

The elfin, who had been jumping for joy at my words, suddenly looked at me suspiciously, as if a thought had struck him.

‘Are you… are you… are you trying to spy on us bathing? Don’t do it, really. I won’t let you.’

You stupid, stupid Elfin… You have no idea what me, Ravi, and Lenis were up to earlier.

Of course, you’ll be kissing me soon enough.

The barracks of the Goddess’s Sword Corps, located within the Empire and home to the Crusaders’ troops.

There, Bryden and Celine were gravely compiling the reports they had received from the Empire.

It was a copy of a report written by the troops who had been sent to the borderlands of the Duchy of Carat.

While the two countries had come close to starting a war, thanks to the rapid turn of events on the ground, it hadn’t come to that, but based on what was written in the report, it wasn’t a relief that war hadn’t broken out.

The report contained detailed information and montages of the members of the Dark Shadows mercenary organisation that had been disturbing both countries and causing armed conflict.

The report described him as being quite tall, with a fairly handsome face and a prominent nose.

The montage, hastily drawn by a member of the unit who remembered the face, depicted a young, brown-haired man with a somewhat scruffy appearance.

Celine, the red-haired girl in the room, stared at the montage and called out to Brayden.

‘Brayden, I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this guy…’

‘Uh, I’m pretty sure. It’s Alvis, and with a description this accurate, it can’t be anyone else.’

‘What does that idiot do after graduating from the academy, join a maniacal murderous terrorist group? He murdered Baron Vector in the Kingdom, burned down Arbonese, and now he’s trying to provoke a conflict between the Empire and the Duchy of Carat? I thought the maniacal scumbag couldn’t get any worse than that!’

‘What bothers me more are the other crew members who were with him, though their faces are obscured so there’s no montage, just fragmentary descriptions of their appearance…’

Officer 1, a Bani woman with pink short hair. Tallest of the three, presumed to be Mutupa by the way she moved.

Member 2, a human female with blonde drill hair. Testimonies of seeing her use magic.

Member 3, an elven female with a blonde ponytail. Not seen throughout the battle, only briefly before fleeing. Carried by a Vani woman who appeared to be quite drained of health.

Bryden rubbed his chin in concern as he read some of the report.

‘These are supposed to be mercenaries… Don’t their features look strangely familiar?’

Selene had a similar thought in her mind, but quickly dismissed the possibility.

‘But it doesn’t make sense, does it, Alvis, this bastard has travelled the entire continent doing all that shit, there’s no way they’d be travelling with this scum, he’s the one who ravaged their homeland.’

Robert, the troop leader present at the meeting, turned to Bryden and Celine, his eyes lighting up at the words.

‘From the sounds of it, Crusader and Celine, you seem to know about these men.’

‘Uh… The other three are frankly just wild speculation, but I do know of the man named Alvis who is responsible for this.’

‘Can you tell me about this Alvis, and the others who are in the realm of ridiculous speculation, because after something as big as this, we can’t afford to leave any possibility unexplored?’

Brayden and Celine, who had no idea of Robert’s true identity, watched the montage with trepidation as he shared the information about Alvis.

They have no idea what Robert’s glowing eyes mean.