CHAPTER 45: AOSHI... THE GOLD DIGGER?

«Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I’m screwed, done, finished — I’m a dead man! How the hell am I supposed to survive now that Mr. Tobita fired me?!» Aoshi whimpers, face buried in his pillow.

«Don’t worry, my dear Aoshi — my salary is more than enough to cover all our expenses,» Eliss reassures him sweetly as she prepares a late-night snack. They just got home after that disastrous shift, and Aoshi has been hit by a wave of nervous hunger.

«Yeah, but what about when you’re not around anymore? Damn it, I’ll be forced to beg outside the station! I worked my ass off to get this job — who knows how many months it’ll take to find another one? And once word spreads around Ueda about what happened tonight, who the hell would ever hire someone who got fired for punching a customer?! My future in Ueda is dead and buried...»

«Ahem, ahem...» Eliss clears her throat dramatically, as if to highlight what she’s about to say. «Did you forget that your beloved Eliss happens to be a princess? It was supposed to be a surprise for when I returned to Elyndra, but since you’re spiraling, I have no choice but to spoil it now to calm you down. I already talked to Raelor, and he fully agrees that the patience you’ve shown through all of this deserves a generous reward in gold — which, apparently, is incredibly valuable in this world, while back home it doesn’t literally grow on trees, but it’s pretty close. I’d say twenty kilos of gold should be more than enough to give you the life of a proper gentleman, without ever needing to work again,» she concludes with a proud smile.

T-Twenty kilos of gold...? Eliss is really going to give me TWENTY KILOS OF GOLD next month?! That’s roughly... uh... F-F-FOUR HUNDRED MILLION YEN!!!

Okay, Aoshi, calm down... calm down!

I’m going to be rich — disgustingly rich — richer than I ever dreamed of! I’ll buy myself a villa, a luxury car, and then... and then I’ll get Takuma the most coveted erotic visual novel on the planet, and for Ayane... what the hell am I even supposed to get her? Whatever. Who cares.

But most importantly... I’m going to march to my parents’ house, shove all this money in their faces and rub it in their faces that I made it without them — and that I wipe my ass with the inheritance they cut me out of!

And it’s only one month away! I’m the happiest guy in the world!

«Thank you, Eliss! Thank you so much! Thank you, thank you, thank you!» Aoshi sobs, overwhelmed by that indescribable joy, throwing himself at Eliss’s feet and hugging her legs with endless gratitude.

«You’ve never thanked me this much before,» she grumbles, looking down at him. «I’ve been washing, cooking, and working for two months to help out as much as I can while staying here, and I’ve never seen you this moved with happiness. Aoshi — you’re not one of those gold diggers who seduce young heiresses just to get their hands on their fortune, are you?»

«W-What kind of nonsense is that?! You just told me a second ago you’re gonna cover me in gold!»

«Uh, and what about it? You’ve known I’m a princess since the very first day I moved in here, so you could easily have guessed I’d reward you properly if you treated me well. You could very well have seduced me and made me fall for you just to secure your future,» Eliss shoots back, lifting her chin in a huffy, defiant way.

«You’re the one who did everything! And besides, how exactly did I ’seduce’ you? We haven’t gone past kissing in two months — and we haven’t even kissed in over three weeks! That’d be a pretty weird way of seducing someone, don’t you think?»

«You also licked my boobs... oh, how embarrassing — my precious, untouched boobs so savagely and brutally violated, all just so you could get your greedy hands on my gold,» Eliss laments in the most exaggerated, theatrical way possible.

«B-But you were the one who shoved it right into my mouth!» Aoshi blurts out, blushing like a tomato just talking about it.

«Well, of course — if I waited for you, we wouldn’t have even kissed by now. I’m not beautiful and irresistible like your sweet Miori, after all — she’s the one who gets to slip her hands inside your underwear!» Eliss grumbles, shooting him a death glare.

«W-Why are you even bringing her up now?!»

«For everything, considering it was for her precious honor — which seems to matter oh-so-much to you — that you went and literally threw your job away!» Eliss explodes. And now she’s genuinely getting heated, not exaggerating for dramatic effect anymore.

And I can’t even blame her this time...

The comments those customers made about Eliss — some going far beyond simple, polite admiration — always pissed me off. Sometimes it took everything I had not to snap at them. But I always managed to keep my composure... except this time. Why?

Sure, Miori’s little brother attacked me, but I would never have dared react like that — so why did I? Why did it bother me so much hearing them talk about Miori like that?

I swear, I’m the greatest mystery in the entire universe...

«Although...» Eliss goes on — her voice suddenly softer and sweeter now, almost a whimper, as she rubs her thighs together, with Aoshi still crouched in front of her, clinging to her legs. «S-Seeing you act so manly, throwing that punch instead of slipping away like you usually would... not to mention the time you saved me from Kaito at the water park... it was so exciting... I’m burning up just thinking about it... Aoshi, if you don’t want me to jump you, you’d better back off right now and keep your distance, or I can’t promise I’ll control myself...» she gasps.

Aoshi doesn’t need to hear it twice — he instantly rolls to the other side of the room.

«And here I was thinking you’d stay glued to me on purpose so I’d jump you...» she grumbles.

«Cut it out — you know damn well that if you were my girlfriend and there wasn’t the risk of you vanishing overnight, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to... uh... do all kinds of naughty things with you! Anyway, speaking of that guy at the water park, you really need to be more careful, you know! I don’t know why, but apparently men completely lose it whenever they get close to you, and it would be a complete disaster if something like that happened in public, since you wouldn’t be able to use your powers freely. So for your own good, from now on avoid wandering off with guys you don’t know — not everyone has my kind of self-control,» Aoshi scolds her.

«There’s a reason for that...» Eliss murmurs, her expression dimming slightly. «I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to worry you, but... you need to know that succubi bodies start releasing certain pheromones around the age of eleven or twelve — a way to signal to incubus that they’re still available. These pheromones don’t have any particular aphrodisiac effect on demons, but on humans... well... you saw it yourself.»

«Y-You’re kidding me. Are you telling me that your body will keep giving off hormones that make men want to jump you?!» Aoshi blurts out, horrified.

Eliss shakes her head.

«Do you even listen when I talk? I said it’s a signal for incubus — it lasts until... um... until I’m no longer a virgin. So, since you’re so worried about other men throwing themselves at me everywhere I go...»

Eliss flashes a sly little smile.

«...why don’t you free me from this little burden by taking my virginity yourself?»

«Eliss, stop teasing me...» Aoshi mutters, turning his face aside.

«Then it’s clear you don’t care about my safety at all, otherwise you wouldn’t even hesitate for a second to tell me: "If it’s for your own good, I’ll do anything, my beloved Eliss". I bet if I offered you my virginity in exchange for a hundred kilos of gold, you wouldn’t even let me finish the sentence before ripping my underwear off.»

«W-Where did you even get the idea that I only care about your gold?!»

«So touchy... I swear, I can’t even joke with you,» she grumbles. «Anyway, maybe the real reason you don’t want me alone with other men is that you’re insanely jealous and can’t stand the idea of me doing it,» Eliss says with that teasing little smirk of hers.

Silence falls over the apartment, and...

«Yeah. That’s the truth.»

Aoshi answers with absolute seriousness and firmness — words that completely stun Eliss, who expected a flustered denial, not brutal honesty.

«Y-You mean it...?» she whispers, her heart on the verge of detonating.

«Yeah. And I realized it at the water park, when I saw you walk off with that pretty-face guy. I was dying inside from jealousy — way more than you can imagine — at the thought that while you two went down that slide, he might use the moment to pull you closer, to touch you... and that you might like it.

And in the end I just couldn’t take it anymore and had to go look for you. That’s it.

Now do you understand why I’m fighting so hard not to give in to you? If I don’t jump you, it’s not because I’m an idiot, and it’s not because I’m scared of something — it’s because if I’m already this jealous now, I don’t even want to imagine how bad it’d get if I gave in... or how much it will hurt when you leave for good...»

«I... I see,» Eliss murmurs, shaken by his words — happier than she’s ever been, and yet visibly distressed by the heaviness in Aoshi’s voice.

And silence settles between them once again.