CHAPTER 372: VISITING THE SICK (2)

0% Even after a world crisis happened and was resolved, the atmosphere in Campbell Viscounty hadn’t changed much.

It was still a pastoral, peaceful, and quiet place to the point of being almost boring.

But now, it all changed—all the locals were trembling in fear.

Then again, how could they not when giant steel monsters suddenly descended on their backwater, cow-milking, sheep-shearing town, and started making a racket building God-knows-what.

“...U-Um, Astrid...? The people are getting antsy...”

“Don’t worry. This’ll be done by today.”

Meanwhile, the one who caused all this shitshow was just chilling with a teacup.

Armin Campbell scratched his head as he watched the currently undergoing construction outside his mansion.

“...What is that thing anyway?”

Hearing that question, Astrid let out a deep sigh, as if even the most simple answer would give her a headache.

“...This is something the empress and the chancellor had personally requested.”

The Magic Tower was basically under her control now, but she still needed money to keep it running.

And, when it came to money, the empire’s top brass were the biggest cash cows around, so there was no way she could just ignore the requests of its two most powerful figures.

“No, but, what is—”

“To monopolize our son.”

“...What?”

“How do I put this...? According to them, all the women near him are really, really territorial, so they’d need to do something this extreme to contest against them, or something like that...”

“...”

At this point, as a parent, he couldn’t help but wonder what kind of karma his kid had been racking up.

What did he even do to make these women throw away their livers, gall, and dignity to chase after him to this degree?

“...You’re one to talk.”

“Huh?”

As Armin was pondering such thoughts, his wife suddenly dropped those words on him.

“That Bella chick, and in the territory too, there’s a suspicious number of women after you.”

“...”

She was right.

Even Herman, the Campbell Family’s head butler, sometimes marveled at his master’s terrifying luck with women.

Sometimes, he even wondered if this was a trait that was passed down in the Campbell’s blood.

“...”

“...Astrid?”

For a while there, Astrid stared at Armin with an annoyed look, but then she stomped over and grabbed his collar without saying a word.

“W-What are you doing?”

“Dowd is Dowd...”

She said slowly.

“And you are you, so come with me for a bit.”

“...Why?”

“Why, you ask?”

Astrid grinned.

“Of course, I need you to prove to me that you love me the most.”

“...”

Hearing that...

The feeling that a huge shitshow would happen today flashed through his mind even more than before.

Perhaps, being caught by the scariest kind of women was also something that ran through the Campbell’s blood.

●

“Haaaaaa....”

The moment I woke up, I let out what was probably the biggest sigh I ever let out in my life.

As for why I did that, it was because even after sleeping for so long, I still woke up half-exhausted.

[...What are you, an 80 year old geezer?]

Shut up.

Anyway, if I was like this after resting for a whole day, my exhaustion must’ve been worse than I expected...

...Thank goodness the Saintess is here.

The fact that I could miraculously rest for even a single day was thanks to her blocking all the scary women who were coming for me.

If it wasn’t for that, my body might’ve just broken down for real.

In any case, blocking those women from coming must’ve required quite a strong will—

“Are you awake?”

“...”

The moment I heard that voice, my whole body flinched.

“...Were we on such bad terms that you’d react like that to me?”

The woman, Faenol, said with a dumbfounded expression as soon as she saw my reaction.

That isn’t it, really...

It’s just, I’m at the point where I’d get seizures just from having a woman near me...

“...Please.”

Towards the confused Faenol, I gave her a grave look and opened my mouth.

And then...

What came out of my mouth were desperate words that I could only utter after I had thrown away all my pride and dignity.

“I-I don’t want to do it anymore...”

“...”

“Please...”

“...You realize you’re saying some incredibly spoiled shit, right?”

Faenol let out a deep sigh.

“You got drop-dead gorgeous women who are begging you to have your child, and yet you’re acting like this?

“They even said that they’re gonna take full responsibility. You just need to do your part as a man, that’s it. Seriously, I don’t get why you’re so against it...”

She added, but the only word that stuck in my ear was a very distinctive one.

“Don’t say ‘ejaculate’...!”1

Do you know how many times I’ve done that shit in the past few days?!

“...”

Hearing that, she gave me a pitying look, wondering just how could someone end up like this.

Then, she let out a sigh and held out something to me.

“...This isn’t something to boost my virility, an aphrodisiac, or anything used for hypnosis—”

“...It’s just a tonic. Drink up.”

At those words, I scanned the food on the plate.

They certainly didn’t seem to have anything weird in it.

Compared to Eleanor, who blatantly stuffed aphrodisiacs into my food, or Riru, who made only virility-boosting foods, this looked remarkably normal.

Of course, that didn’t mean I should let my guard down.

I put a spoonful of the finely chopped, porridge-like food in my mouth.

Almost immediately, my honest impression came out of my mouth.

“...It’s...tasty...?”

I wasn’t lying, it really was.

Given my position, I had been able to try all kinds of delicacies, but what Faenol brought wasn’t something that tasted grand, but warm and hearty.

Riru’s was like this too, but hers felt like home cooking, whereas this one felt like a meal that had been prepared with care and effort, so that the one who eats the meal would get healthy soon.

“Lady Riru and I are probably the best cooks among everyone. She’s been in charge of all her house’s houseworks, while I used to work as a nurse.”

“...”

“Anyway, you need to get your strength back. It’ll be a big problem if you actually collapsed.”

“...Haven’t I already?”

“By your standards, no, you haven’t really, no?”

She was right, but...

When I saw the grin on her face as she said that, I could feel a chill running down my spine.

“...On that note, there’s one other thing I need to tell you.”

“...”

My anxiety only amplified after she said those words.

What the hell is she going to say...?

“I don’t think I can grant your request from earlier.”

Seeing her slowly reaching her hand out to me while saying that, my face turned even paler.

“...What request?”

“You said you didn’t want to do it anymore, no? I’m saying I can’t help with that.”

“H-Hey, look at my condition. I really can’t do anything—”

“Nope.”

Her appearance as she smiled while saying that made her look like......

“Don’t worry. This won’t hurt you.”

...A real fucking devil.

“Physically. That is.”

Following those words...

My consciousness faded out.

●

So...

To conclude...

I was betrayed. Who woulda thought, right?

“Saintess...!”

“...”

Hearing my anguished voice, Lucia turned her bright red face away.

“Yuria...!”

“...I-I didn’t have any choice...”

Her reaction wasn’t much different from her sister’s.

She averted her bright red face the moment she heard the heartrending voice that I let out.

“What the hell is this...?!”

“What else? It’s the Image World”

Faenol said as she gently stroked my face, completely ignoring my despair.

“You were worried about your body getting hurt, no? Well, in here, no matter what we do, it won’t affect your body.”

“...”

Shit that happened in Image World wouldn’t affect the ‘real body’ outside, I had exploited this fact many times before.

But, while that was true...

As a human, I had a psychological limit...!

Now that they had gone this far, I didn’t know how far that would last...!

“...As far as I know, you have quite a few people left to deal with, no?”

“...”

“This also serves as a revenge. You did things to this one here too, no?”

Faenol said as she grabbed Red’s hand—who was still stealing glances at me—and pulled her closer.

“I heard your highest record so far is 4 people...”

She said with a girl.

“Why don’t we up that to 5?”

“...”

Seeing how heartless they were...

I could be sure that these women were actual fucking Devils.

FOOTNOTES

1. The word used here could be translated as both 'begging' and ejaculate'.