CHAPTER 98: WOULD YOU BELIEVE NOW?

Outside Lyra and Bryce’s tent, two figures stood under the cloudy afternoon sky, deep in conversation—Celeste and Adrian.

"Where were you, Adrian?"

Today was already a disaster.

And now her teammate had just casually gone out for a stroll in the danger-infested forest without telling anyone?

Perfect. Just perfect.

And yes, for the record—she had changed into a new pair of panties. Not that anyone was asking.

Adrian just grinned and waved a hand like he was shooing away a lazy mosquito.

"Oh, just taking a little stroll around the forest, y’know? Looking for that dumbass goblin. Why, Celeste? Why do you ask?"

Her entire body twitched.

"G-goblin? Wh-why?"

Her voice cracked like a poorly tuned flute.

Her posture stiffened, her pupils dilated, and her heartbeat was now attempting to breakdance in her chest.

Adrian raised an eyebrow, catching the sudden shift in her expression.

Why was she acting like she’d been caught doing taxes naked in the middle of the forest with two goblins?

Wait.

He narrowed his eyes.

His grin turned sharp.

"Why are you stammering? Huh? Huh? Your face is red. Real red. Did you do something naughty, naughty?"

He made a few deeply inappropriate gestures with his hands—cupping, thrusting, and some mysterious wiggling motion no one wanted to ask about.

Celeste’s face lit up like someone had set fire to her shame.

’What the hell! Did he see anything?!’

She was practically dead inside.

’Seriously, why’s her face so red?’

Adrian tilted his head, studying her like she was a rare insect under glass.

’Don’t tell me she was doing something... un-Celeste inside the tent.’

He had to swallow back a low groan.

Gods, if that was true...

If the icy, milky, intimidating noble had been doing something even a little bit filthy, that was going to fuel his fantasies for months.

Of course, he’d never try his usual shenanigans on her.

Celeste was... different. Special.

The kind of woman who’d rip your spine out through your nostril if you so much as looked at her the wrong way.

"Sh-Shut it, Adrian, before I melt you!"

She hissed, voice cracking as her thighs pressed together on instinct.

Her kitty gave a traitorous throb she refused to acknowledge.

"Oh, oh—no offense meant. Peace, lady terror."

Adrian laughed, raising his hands like he was about to be mugged.

He had only just recovered from that lightning strike.

He did not need another dose of death right now.

Celeste turned on her heel, pouting as she started to stomp away.

But she only made it a few steps before Adrian called after her, voice turning sly.

"Wait a minute, Celeste?"

She froze mid-step. Her heartbeat spiked so hard it rattled her ribs.

’Shit. Shit.

Had he seen her in the forest?

But...no.

If he had witnessed that humiliating fiasco, she was fairly certain Adrian would already be blackmailing her with every filthy detail.

Even though she wasn’t completely sure if Adrian would stoop to blackmail, being a hero and all, she had absolutely no doubt that with his perverted nature, it was only a matter of time.

She swallowed, forcing her pulse to settle.

’Don’t speak unless it’s important.’

Celeste clenched her fists. The more she talked, the deeper she buried herself in humiliation.

’What happened to me? I held it together so perfectly in front of those two goblins...’

But apparently, she couldn’t muster the same composure in front of her friends.

First Melissa. Now this idiot.

"W-what?"

Ba dum. Ba dum.

Her heart was hammering.

Adrian’s grinned and took a single step back—just enough to be ready to sprint.

"You know...you can’t melt, Celeste. You can only freeze. But—"

"—if you really want to melt, I guess putting my little brother in your little sister could technically do the trick."

"You—!"

But before she could incinerate him on the spot, Adrian bolted, laughing like a lunatic while she screamed threats that would make a demon flinch.

He had something very important to see tonight, and there was no way in all the rotten hells Adrian planned on dying before he witnessed it.

But that Celeste from two hours ago? A different species entirely.

She was the unflinching, ice-sculpted noble.

This Celeste, though?

This was a woman who’d tasted the tiniest, forbidden drop of lust...and looked like she was about to spontaneously combust because of it.

"Geez...I’m going to freeze his little brother into an icicle next time."

But no matter how she tried to bury it, her mind kept replaying that humiliating, intoxicating scene.

She shivered all over, then spun on her heel and bolted into her tent like she was fleeing a demon.

...

At the dead of night, in the black rain, someone was crouched atop a swaying branch, water running down his back in miserable little rivers.

Gear.

He was soaked to the bone, blinking through the downpour, determined to keep watch just like his liege had commanded.

Beside him, another figure kept wriggling around and cursing under his breath like an angry cat.

"Can you please shut the fuck up for a single second? I’m trying to focus here."

Gear said, clutching the branch with both hands so he wouldn’t slip off like a wet potato.

"Oh, come on."

Rabbi groaned, trying to wring out his sopping cloak.

"Is this really the place your supposed liege, you know, the one who can apparently possess the body of any random goblin, told you to come for your ’second surprise?’"

He was this close to losing his patience with this idiot.

Gear had stomped up to him earlier, like he was on some sacred mission, and shoved a freaking panty in his face.

A human panty.

And not just any panty—according to Gear, it was from that uptight, famous noble hero woman herself.

Rabbi had laughed in his face. He’d thought Gear had finally cracked his last brain cell.

But then...he’d sniffed it. Just one careful, suspicious whiff.

And—boom. He’d ascended.

He’d seen gods, or whatever passed for gods in this rotten forest. He’d tasted the divine truth of womanhood.

Even if that wasn’t really the hero’s panty, he didn’t care. He needed more. He needed it like air.

But of course, Gear had snatched it back like a stingy landlord and started babbling some nonsense about meeting "his liege," who’d "bestowed the relic" and was planning to reveal more secrets tonight.

Rabbi had honestly been sure Gear had gone stark raving mad.

This was the second time Gear was swearing up and down that he’d spoken to the liege—the same goblin king who was supposedly lying in a coma, drooling into a blanket somewhere.

How the hell was some half-dead vegetable going to perform magic...or possess random bodies?

What a steaming pile of horseshit.

But knowing Rabbi, Gear had dangled the perfect bait—he’d offered him one more sniff of the sacred panty if he came along tonight.

And of course, being a gentleman Rabbi had agreed before he even heard the rest of the damn conditions.

And so here he was: soaked to the bones, eaten alive by mosquitoes, sitting on a freezing branch in the middle of bumfuck nowhere for two hours.

Rabbi slapped another mosquito off his neck, scowling like a kicked dog.

"When is this almighty liege of yours gonna give you this so-called second gift?"

He hissed through his teeth.

"It better be worth it—or I swear I’m marching down there and squeezing his little head between my hands until it pops."

He was fuming, and honestly, who could blame him?

This man, Gear, was the same goblin king who hadn’t lifted a finger when Rabbi had basically begged to end the heroes.

But tonight—tonight he’d apparently found the time to come here...because some half-domesticated goblin asked.

He pouted dramatically, glaring down at the campsite as if he could set it on fire with sheer annoyance.

Meanwhile, Gear was quietly starting to regret dragging this idiot along. He should have come by himself.

But no—he’d really wanted Rabbi to see what he was about to see.

To witness it firsthand.

Partly because he needed at least one other soul to believe in his liege as much as he did.

"Whatever this surprise is we can assume it involves the heroes somehow. So..."

He narrowed his eyes at Rabbi.

"Would you believe I’m telling the truth if he does something actually crazy now?"

Gear tilted his head, brow raised like an expectant parent waiting for a baby’s first words.

Rabbi sighed and rubbed his temples.

"Yes, I would. But it has to be something insane—something only the real goblin king could pull off."

"No stupid pranks or cheap parlor tricks. Is that clear?"

He jabbed a stubby finger right into Gear’s chest for emphasis.

"Crystal," Gear said.

Rabbi looked away, shifting awkwardly on the branch.

"One more thing."

"What?"

"If your liege fails to impress me tonight...the panty stays with me."

He didn’t even meet Gear’s eye—probably because some last shred of dignity was trying to crawl up his spine.

Gear snickered under his breath.

"Done."

Rabbi’s face lit up like a kid at a festival. His entire posture transformed into that of an overcaffeinated squirrel about to find a fresh stash of acorns.

A few minutes later, the air between them grew tense as they watched the campsite.

Suddenly, a lamplight inside one of the tents flickered to life.

Then—

Their eyes went wide.

Inside, by the faint glow of the embers, they saw a milfy woman braced on all fours...and a goblin behind her, pumping away like his life depended on it.