Theo picked the red berries that were said to grow only in winter one by one and placed them in the basket. The translucent fruit dangled from branches laden with snow. These berries, called snowcrimson fruit, were characterized by enduring the cold and concentrating their sweetness. His fingertips were numb, but the sweet fragrance lingering at the tip of his nose was pleasant. Theo lifted the full basket and showed it to Rihen.
“Look. I picked this many!”
“Oh, impressive.”
His shoulders rose proudly when Rihen praised him. Theo shifted his gaze to Rihen’s basket. He could not help doubting his own eyes. Grass with a silver base and small turquoise spots. It was silverflower. The drunken man who had been rambling a few days ago had said it. Silverflower was used as an aphrodisiac.
Why did Rihen need something like this?
“I’ll help too.”
Theo deliberately picked an ordinary plant that looked similar to silverflower and tried to place it in Rihen’s basket. Rihen quickly caught his hand. He smiled with a troubled expression.
“That’s not it. They look alike, so you must have confused them. You can’t put in just any plant. Once the medicine is finished… I have to take it. So please gather them carefully.”
So it was not for a customer. Rihen himself was going to take it. It was obvious that some customer with bizarre tastes was once again demanding something strange from Rihen. The stories he had heard at the tavern tangled together inside his mind. Without saying anything, he began picking berries again, but the sensation in his fingertips was no longer the same as before.
One corner of Theo’s heart was quietly collapsing.
***
I quickly gathered the Blackbreath Moss and the Crimson-Moon Butterfly Antennae as well. After obtaining all the ingredients in a single day, I went to see Belsina while Theo was away at work. I handed her a handful of powdered drugs and the ingredients for making a medicine whose true nature—recovery potion or aphrodisiac—was impossible to determine.
Belsina slipped into the laboratory. Soon, crashing noises came from inside. Bottles clinked together, something was ground down, and even an unpleasantly cheerful metallic sound rang out. Before long, she emerged holding a glass bottle filled with liquid. It was the color of tarnished silver.
<Quest Complete>
+Infamy Points 300p
Belsina’s Special Potion
“Let it mature under sunlight and moonlight for about ten days, then drink it. And make sure you tell me how it felt afterward.”
“Ha ha, yes….”
If it acted as an aphrodisiac, I would keep my mouth shut and pretend nothing had happened. Of course, Belsina saw me not as a man but as something like laboratory rat number one, but it would still be embarrassing.
That evening, as soon as Theo returned from work, he looked for the silverflower I had dug up.
“The plants are gone?”
“Yeah. I gave them to someone I know and asked them to make medicine.”
I gave him a vague answer.
“What kind of medicine is it exactly?”
“You could call it a kind of tonic.”
“Is this that medicine? I want to drink some too.”
Theo looked at the glass bottle placed on the windowsill and tried to open the lid. I quickly grabbed his wrist and stopped him.
“No. This isn’t finished yet.”
Theo obediently put the bottle down and said,
“Then when it’s completely finished, give me just a little too.”
“Y-Yeah….”
I said I would, but inwardly, I was thinking something entirely different. I would have to beg Belsina to make me an ordinary drink with a similar color. I could not give Theo something like that.
We washed the snowcrimson fruit we had picked yesterday and shared it. The red juice vividly stained Theo’s lips and tongue. I burst into laughter at the sight. Theo pressed firmly against my lips with his fingertips. My lips were crushed beneath his solid hand.
“I’m not the only one. Your lips are a mess too, Rihen.”
I stood in front of the mirror to check. My lips were unusually red, as though I had applied lipstick. When I rounded my mouth, I could see that my peach-colored tongue had been stained excessively crimson. Theo, who had approached behind me at some point, looked into the mirror with me.
Theo brought a wet handkerchief and wiped my lips. He moved a little closer, and this time tried to touch my tongue as well.
“I don’t think you need to wipe my tongue too. It tickles.”
Without thinking much of it, I laughed and lightly pushed Theo’s wrist away. The handkerchief brushed the corner of my mouth and stopped. Without saying anything, he lowered his hand.
***
The night I had waited and waited for finally came. After confirming that Theo was completely asleep, I opened the system window. Of course, only I could see it, but would it not look strange if I waved my hands around in empty air? I poured every last one of the 1500 points I had steadily gathered through soul offerings into leveling Theo up.
Theo (27 Years Old)
Status Abnormalities: Curse of Regression, Memory Loss, Loss of Abilities
Current Physical/Mental Age: 20
Seeing the changed number filled me with satisfaction. The twelve-year-old child had become a proper adult in only a month and a half.
'Congratulations on becoming an adult.'
I stroked the sleeping Theo’s hair and whispered softly. His face was flushed, perhaps because he was having a pleasant dream.
“Rihen….”
He murmured in his sleep. I could not be certain, but it seemed to be a dream involving me. If I appeared in it, then whatever else it was, it probably was not a nightmare. Thinking that, I hugged him tightly now that he had grown taller than me.
“Congratulations on becoming an adult.”
Rihen wore his usual playful smile. But today, his clothes were different from normal. He had taken off the stifling black clothes that reached all the way up to his neck and was straddling Theo wearing only a thin shirt. Theo realized it the moment he saw him. Ah, this is a dream. Though he did not know whether this dream would turn out to be honey or poison.
Rihen’s bare buttocks rubbed slowly against his groin. Theo could feel the warmth through a single layer of trousers. His cock swelled tight. It felt ready to tear through his pants.
“To celebrate you being all grown up, hnng, I’ll take your virginity for free….”
“R-Rihen-!”
Rihen lowered his waist toward Theo. He tilted his head, searching for the perfect angle to press their lips together. The elegant corners of his eyes curved seductively. His soft tongue slowly swept across Theo’s lips before slipping inside. The hot tongue stirred through his mouth. Rihen looked extremely accustomed to this sort of thing. He skillfully traced Theo’s teeth and tickled the roof of his mouth. His mouth had only been licked a little, yet even that stimulation alone made Theo feel as though all strength had left his legs. Had he not been lying on the bed, he surely would have staggered and collapsed.
“To take your virginity, mm, I worked hard to loosen myself up….”
Rihen spread his legs wide and lifted his shirt to show Theo his hole. After tracing the folds, he pushed a finger deep inside. Something that might have been bodily fluid or scented oil dribbled from the fuckhole. As though it had been used countless times, the slightly parted opening fluttered as if trying to squeeze a cock. It was an asshole that looked far too accustomed to taking dick.
Theo remembered the obscene story a customer had told at the tavern. That once a man had his back hole fucked, he could no longer think straight… Was that why Rihen had become like this? Had he mixed his body with others over and over, earning money until his anus loosened as softly as a sexual organ?
Rihen planted a hand on Theo’s abdomen. He aimed the head of Theo’s cock at the twitching hole, then sharply dropped his hips. Pleasant pressure wrapped around his cock…
“Hahh-!”
Theo woke from the dream. He hurriedly pulled open his trousers and checked the state of his underwear. It was damp. He tore at his hair in self-loathing. Having a wet dream about the person who had saved his life. He felt like a complete bastard, and yet part of him also wanted to confirm whether what he had seen in the dream was true.
Theo glanced at the sleeping Rihen.
Right. Just check. I’ll only check.
He reached toward Rihen’s trousers and pulled down both the trousers and underwear at the same time. The loose sleep trousers came off easily. His heart pounded. He knew it was wicked, but he could not stop.
He took hold of Rihen’s knees and spread his legs, then gripped his buttocks with both hands. When he pulled them wide with force, the small hole hidden between them came into view. Pale pink, tightly packed folds were neatly closed together. Judging only from the outside, it did not look particularly experienced. He stroked the folds with his fingertips. They were soft and dry.
He felt that he would only know for certain if he inserted a finger. Without thinking, he pushed his index finger inside first. It was tight and did not enter easily. Perhaps it hurt, because Rihen scrunched his nose and let out a small, “Nnng.”
Theo pulled Rihen’s underwear back up and dressed him in his trousers again. Then he moved far away from Rihen and lay down at the edge of the bed. Thump, thump. His heart continued to beat noisily.
In the end, he could not resist and approached the sleeping Rihen again. He hesitated at a distance close enough for their breaths to touch, then kissed his lips very briefly. Afterward, he hurriedly turned away and lay back down as though nothing had happened.
***
The moment something soft and pliant touched my lips, my eyes flew open. Then I reflexively shut them again.
It was Theo. Theo was secretly kissing me.
Theo had a desire other than stopping the Demon King? I had interpreted Theo as something like a true Saint whose sexual desire had been completely castrated, so I could not help being bewildered by this situation. The first thing he did after turning twenty was steal a kiss. What a shameless brat…. No, but why was I the target? What had I done?
My breathing nearly grew rough from shock, but I forced myself to calm it and continued pretending to sleep. At that moment, a type of notification window I had never seen before appeared beneath my tightly closed eyelids.
Evil Points (Theo) +300p
'……?'
Theo kissed me, and my points went up? They were not even Infamy Points. What were Evil Points supposed to be? And why was Theo’s name inside parentheses? I called for the system in my mind, and an explanation window immediately appeared.
<Heart-Pounding Possession Bonus!>
When a character designated as a companion by an evil-faction player commits an evil act, points will be awarded to the player.
Evil Points may be freely used in the shop in the same way as Infamy Points.
Secretly kissing a sleeping person was, no matter how one looked at it, a bad thing. That seemed to be why 300 points had suddenly come in. I had received 200 points for laboriously destroying the sacred statue, yet I got 300 points just for being kissed once. If I could gather points this way, world peace truly was right around the corner.
No, wait. I barely managed to calm my excited mind. Theo was the representative hero of the good faction. A hero committing evil deeds? That could not be allowed. People said heroes were lustful, but that was an old saying, and Theo had to remain the good and righteous hero who became humanity’s light, just as he had in the game.
…But what if the only person Theo committed evil acts against was me? What if he only did things like this to me?
I would be the only victim, and as long as I could gather points, I did not care anyway. It was almost ambiguous whether that could even be called harm. Besides, I had gone so far as to set fire to a temple to gather Infamy Points. Compared to that, a peck was merely cute.
Right. Many things had already changed from the original game’s story. The very fact that a demon Legion Commander was working for humanity was different from the original. Theo developing romantic desire was well within the range of what could be accepted. Or perhaps he had always possessed sexual desire and simply had not met anyone he was attracted to until now.
Wait. Did that mean Shane was Theo’s ideal type? Shane’s appearance suited his tastes? How unusual. What was so appealing about a narrow-eyed character who always walked around with a suspicious smile? As someone who preferred petite and cute types, I found it impossible to understand…. Well, personal tastes were meant to be respected, so I decided not to think about it any further.
I ran a simple calculation in my head. If Theo secretly kissed me every night while I slept…. I could collect an incredible 9000 points in a month. But what if I grabbed him now and demanded to know why he was doing such a thing to a sleeping person? And what if Theo never touched me again afterward? That would be the same as cutting open the belly of the goose that laid golden eggs with my own hands.
Right. I could offer up my lips to save the world. It was only a peck, not even a real kiss. I would have to seriously consider anything beyond that, but Theo did not seem likely to demand more from me.
Instead of questioning him about the stolen kiss, I decided to let it pass mercifully.
And a few days later,
Evil Points (Theo) +600p
More points came in.
Twice as many as last time.
What on earth had this kid done to me again while I was asleep?