I used the 700 points I received for helping Kairos to raise Disguise from LV. 1 to LV. 3 all at once. Then, while going on about how I was worried that Theo was so handsome he might receive far too much unnecessary attention and affection while working at the tavern, I cast Disguise on him.
His perfectly sculpted, handsome face, befitting a hero, changed into one with a slightly softer and rounder impression. I also lowered the saturation of his radiant golden hair by one shade, turning it into a muted gold. I diligently added freckles as well, but because his original face was so handsome, they had little effect.
“Whenever you go outside from now on, make sure you use this face. You’re only allowed to show your real face to me. Promise.”
I added sternly.
“Am I really that handsome? Enough for you to worry, Rihen?”
Theo tilted his head.
“Yeah. I’m so worried someone will tell you you’re handsome and ask you out.”
I was half serious and half joking. That was because I knew Theo was not the sort of person who would share erotic love with someone. In the original game, Theo had been a character with little interest in romance. Throughout the more than five hundred times I played the game, Theo never gained a lover, no matter which route I chose.
For some reason, Theo smiled brightly after hearing my nagging. He must have really liked being told he was handsome. Hmm. I should compliment him often from now on.
In any case, that was how Theo went to the tavern for his first day of work. A minor’s first workplace being a tavern was something that made absolutely no sense according to the moral values of a twenty-first-century Korean. Well, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, so there was nothing I could do about it. He had also promised me that he would never touch alcohol while working, so I decided to trust him for now.
***
Theo was working diligently at Madam Cecil’s tavern. He cleared tables, collected glasses, and washed dishes. He was dexterous, so he quickly grew accustomed to the work, but his mind refused to quiet down.
Rihen.
His mind was filled entirely with Rihen.
A man who was always smiling brightly. A handsome man who smiled with the corners of his eyes folding gently until his pupils could no longer be seen. A man who sometimes returned home with suspicious marks on his body….
Theo had hurriedly found work because he wanted to ease Rihen’s financial burden even a little, but now that he was actually apart from him, anxiety began to raise its head. It was because he worried that while he was away, Rihen might once again be pressing his body against someone else’s.
Theo worked even harder to shake off those distracting thoughts. While he was wiping a table with force, the voice of a drunken middle-aged man came from the table right beside him.
“You see, if you stimulate a man’s prostate, he completely loses it. Once his back hole gets taken, no matter how manly he is, he can’t think straight.”
Snickering laughter followed. The moment he heard those words, Theo’s hand stopped for a moment. Rihen came to mind. The sight of him returning with bite marks all over his body, then casually taking out gold coins as though nothing had happened.
An image of Rihen smiling as he spread his legs formed in his mind. The Rihen in his imagination, covered all over in hickeys and bite marks, acted coyly as he expertly wrapped his legs around a man’s waist. The tall, handsome man with a strangely sly impression and a well-shaped body had that place called the prostate stimulated, tears streaming down his face as he smiled lewdly and shamelessly.
His chest felt tight. So tight that it was difficult to breathe.
'No. Rihen would never do that.'
Theo shook his head slightly. It was an absurd fantasy. There was no way Rihen would do something like that. It was only a vulgar joke from a drunken old man. Thinking that, Theo wiped the table harder and more thoroughly. As though he could scrub away his thoughts along with it.
'I shouldn’t pay attention to that kind of nonsense.'
With his head lowered, he silently continued working.
The man went on to tell another story. It was about plants that could be used as aphrodisiacs.
“There’s something called silverflower, and you can easily find it anywhere. There’s even some on the hill behind the village over there. I ground it up and tried it once, and it really did wonders for virility.”
The words came out in a voice loosened by alcohol. They flowed out like an insignificant joke, but the appearance of the silverflower described by the man remained clearly in Theo’s ears.
***
When Theo returned home, Rihen was waiting for him while holding a beautifully wrapped box. Smiling broadly as always, he said,
“It’s a present. Hurry and open it.”
With his heart pounding, Theo untied the ribbon and opened the box. Inside was an ordinary-looking sword. Its decorations were not elaborate, and its design was so typical that it looked like something one could find anywhere.
But the moment he gripped the hilt, it felt different. Theo swung the sword once through the air. Its balance was perfect, and it settled snugly into his hand. This was clearly no ordinary sword. It was an item of such quality that calling it a ‘treasured sword’ would not have been strange at all.
Before joy, a suffocating feeling surged up.
This… must have been expensive. How had someone without a proper job obtained something like this?
Even so, the fact that Rihen had prepared such a precious item for his sake was certain. He ought to express his gratitude.
“Thank you, Rihen.”
Theo hugged Rihen tightly. After holding him like that for a moment, he cautiously asked,
“Would you like to bathe together? It’s been a while.”
Rihen did not refuse.
The bathtub was somewhat cramped for two people to enter together. Their legs naturally overlapped, and the water swayed as though it might spill over. Theo did not miss that opportunity and persistently examined Rihen’s naked body.
Now that he looked, there were other kinds of marks clearly left on his skin besides the bite marks. On his shoulder, waist, and thigh were traces that looked as though someone had sucked on them with their lips. There was no way Theo could know the truth—that Shane had been struck by arrows while burning the Holy Knights’ armories, and that those wounds had somehow remained as strange marks after passing through the treatment potion.
He gently reached out and caressed the hickey on Rihen’s thigh. The muscled thigh was firm, but the flesh on the inside was unexpectedly soft. Rihen’s body suddenly trembled.
“Mm….”
A short, low moan escaped. That sound, mixed into the splashing water, remained clearly in Theo’s ears. Something tightened inside his chest.
“D-Don’t touch….”
With his face flushed, Rihen lightly pushed Theo away. It was a movement closer to embarrassment than rejection. Theo obediently withdrew his hand without touching him any further.
Strangely, his mouth went completely dry. Even when he inhaled, the thirst did not fade. His heart raced for no reason. Theo lowered his head. Looking at the lukewarm steam spreading over the water, he thought.
He wanted to turn twenty as soon as possible.
Because it felt as though, once he became an adult, he would be able to give this feeling a name.
***
We lay side by side on the bed with the same scented oil lingering on our bodies.
“Good night, Rihen.”
“Yeah. You too.”
I opened the status window and checked the level-up progress.
500p + Complete 1 Quest
: Destroy the Sacred Statue (Cleared)
→ Level Up to Age 15 (Complete)
1000p + Complete 2 Quests
: Set Fire to the Temple (Cleared)
: Soul Offering (Cleared)
→ Level Up to Age 18 (Complete)
1500p + Complete 3 Quests
: Destroy the Holy Knights’ Armories (Cleared)
: Assist Kairos’s Necromancy Research (Cleared)
: ??
→ Requirements for Leveling Up to Age 20 Not Met
Once I cleared just one more quest, Theo would become an adult. I was slightly short on points, but it was not a major problem. It was something that could be solved by making up the difference through soul offerings.
I spent relatively ordinary days waiting for the next quest. While Theo was away at work, I also set about offering souls and gathered points, and when he returned, I greeted him with a smile as though nothing had happened.
Then, around fifteen days later, in early March, when the first traces of spring began to seep into the air, the communication orb finally rang. Naturally assuming it was Kairos, I hurriedly answered. However, the face that appeared above the orb belonged to someone completely unexpected.
A female demon with green hair was looking at me. Her long hair, resembling a serpent’s scales, flowed all the way down to the floor. It was Belsina, the alchemist of the Demon King’s army.
If the good faction had Sasha, then the evil faction had Belsina. In many ways, she stood at the opposite point from Sasha. While Sasha created medicines that saved humans and harmed demons, Belsina created medicines that killed humans and treated demons.
I remembered that when I played as Shane in the game, Belsina had not even treated me as a Legion Commander. Because of that, there had been almost no occasion for us to become involved with each other. And yet she had contacted me first.
Belsina spoke in her distinctive husky voice.
“Hey, Shane. I heard you seized a huge amount of drugs in the Human Realm? Give me some of the drugs you have. I want to use them for research.”
It seemed the rumors had already spread that far. After some thought, I agreed.
“Understood. In exchange, please share the research results with me as well.”
Once the results came out, I planned to subtly pass the information to Sasha. If she understood the principle behind the drugs, it would also help her develop a cure.
Belsina continued.
“And there’s one more thing I want you to do. I’m developing a new recovery potion, but all the ingredients are in the Human Realm. Go and gather them for me.”
“What kind of recovery potion is it that the ingredients exist only in the Human Realm?”
“They’re substances used as aphrodisiacs among humans. But you see, there’s a possibility they’ll act as an excellent recovery potion for demons.”
She scratched a finger through the air. An ingredient list appeared one by one above the communication orb.
“Write them down. They’re more common than you think.”
The first was a plant called ‘silverflower.’ They said that if brewed into tea, it heightened the senses and clouded judgment. However, for demons, it was a catalyst that stabilized excessively depleted Magic Power. It could easily be found on the nearby hill behind the house.
The second also grew in the mountains. Blackbreath moss. Humans burned it and used it like tobacco. When inhaled, strength left the body and consciousness became hazy. According to Belsina, when consumed by a demon, it could increase the regeneration speed of damaged tissue. It grew in the shade of rocks or near the roots of old trees.
The final ingredient was the antennae of crimson-moon butterflies. They acted as sexual stimulants for humans and as stimulants for demons.
“If all of these are mixed together, does it truly become a recovery potion?”
“By demon standards, yes. If a human drank it…. Well, they’d probably become no different from an animal in heat, wouldn’t they?”
Belsina snickered.
“Anyway, make sure you bring all the ingredients properly. Don’t confuse them with anything else. Once it’s finished, I’ll feed it to you first as a test.”
The prospect of becoming Belsina’s guinea pig was not particularly pleasant. I chose my words rationally.
“As you know, I am a hybrid. There is no way to know whether this will act as a recovery potion on me, or as an aphrodisiac, is there? I do not think I would make a suitable test subject.”
“That’s exactly why I want to feed it to you. It’s interesting.”
The mad scientist’s violet eyes gleamed.
<Unexpected Quest>
Collect Ingredients Required for Potion Production
Silverflower ×25
Blackbreath Moss ×20
Crimson-Moon Butterfly Antennae ×6
Upon Success: Infamy Points +300p, Belsina’s Special Recovery Potion
Upon Failure: Belsina might secretly inject you with poison?
It was not a difficult quest. For a quest like this, sneaking around behind Theo’s back would look even more suspicious. It would be better to go to the mountain together instead. Theo could gather edible berries and mushrooms, while I collected the ingredients Belsina had requested.
I was not worried that Theo might see the ingredient list and think of aphrodisiacs. Did Theo even know what an aphrodisiac was in the first place? Of course not. He was such an innocent boy. All he knew was physical training and sword practice.
Thanks to my experience playing the game in my previous life, I might even have known Theo better than he knew himself. From the beginning of the game, Theo had been established as a character with absolutely no sexual experience, and he maintained that state all the way until the ending.
A hero whose only desire was to stop the Demon King. A person who would choose to swing his sword one more time rather than spend that time sharing a sweet secret rendezvous. Theo was that kind of hero. Among players, there was even a joke that ‘it would not be strange if Theo believed storks brought babies.’ There was no way Theo would know anything about ingredients used in aphrodisiacs.
The next morning, I woke Theo while suggesting that we gather berries as exercise.
“I like anything as long as I’m doing it with you, Rihen.”
Theo happily got up.
It was cold outside because of the late cold snap. It would be even colder once we climbed the mountain. So I bundled him up carefully. I fastened his coat, put gloves on his hands, and wrapped a scarf tightly around his neck.
“Tell me if it feels uncomfortable.”
Theo nodded and fiddled with the scarf. He must have been very excited about going up the mountain, because the corners of his lips were raised high.
The hill behind the house had a fairly high elevation, so snow was still piled up. The path was slippery, but both Theo and I had good coordination, so there should not have been any difficulty.
…Or so I thought, but Theo lost his footing.
“Ah!”
I instinctively wrapped an arm around Theo’s waist. Theo fell directly into my arms. Though he had grown much more than when he was twelve, perhaps because he was not yet an adult, he was still slightly smaller than me.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Thank you, Rihen.”
His face had turned red, perhaps because he was embarrassed that he had nearly fallen.
We resumed climbing the snow-covered mountain path side by side.
I examined the medicinal herbs, while Theo searched for edible berries.