Filio dripped beads of sweat from her cheeks and let out a vulgar voice.
"Oh hohh!♥ How lovely, how lovely!♥ The tip is simply divine!♥ It rings right through to the core of my bellyyy!♥ That firm thing, grinding away-how utterly delightful!♥"
She was grinding the hilt of a dagger against her crotch and heightening her own pleasure, and her usual refreshing smile was nowhere to be seen, for her face was fully surrendered to lust in a slovenly, pleasure-drunk expression, and she swayed her huge breasts as if forgetting herself while diligently pleasuring herself. Perhaps because of her childlike face, her sense of doing something forbidden was dangerously intense, and seeing noble Filio's lewd face and vulgar voice made me want to join in and start stroking myself too.
Yikes! Our eyes met!
"Ohoho... nnggh!? Ahhh...♥♥♥"
When Filio met my gaze, she opened her eyes as wide as they could go, and whether that was the final blow or not, after trembling and twitching, she leaned slightly forward and stuck out her tongue, and with "Haa... haa..," she breathed raggedly with tears welling in her eyes. Right now I wanted to forget myself and furiously pleasure myself to Filio's indecent display, but the air dominating the scene was heavy, and Filio's face was bright red.
"M-my, since when, I wonder...? Lord Haruya..," Filio asked.
"Uh... from the whole 'ooohhhhn' part," I answered.
"I see..."
Filio smoothly drew out the used dagger, and I thought I was going to be killed, but she showed a reaction different from Lily's.
"Might I ask you to perform kaishaku1 for me...?" Filio asked.
She was so resolute that I hurriedly stopped her.
"Hell, everybody jerks off! I beat mine all the time!"
"But is there truly any person who loses oneself so utterly as to do so in the midst of a dungeon conquest!?" Filio cried.
"W-well, that is..."
"There, you see! There is no such person!"
"B-but if the horniness builds up too much, I do a nasty jerk-off sesh with nasty moans too!"
"P-pray do not say vulgar, vulgar so very freely!?" Filio protested.
"Nasty ain't weird! I even get myself going by babbling stuff like 'Lily's pussy is so good! So damn pretty! Feels so damn good!' while I jerk it!"
Filio went bright red and spoke in disbelief.
"D-do you look upon our comrades with such eyes!?"
"Cause we're comrades, that's why! It feels good, y'know!?"
Humans are all the same! They should be! ...They should! So you don't need to agonize over it that much!
"I use comrades as fap material cause they're comrades! You have no idea how many times I've used that Lily!"
"But you two are not even courting, are you!? Do you feel no shame whatsoever!?" Filio demanded.
"It's fantasy fapping so I don't lay a hand on 'em! That's what comrades are for!"
That's what being a companion is! ...Is it, though? I don't know! Filio, at the word "comrade," made an expression as though she had lost all dreams and hope. This is bad! The direction of the conversation has derailed! Then!
"If you off yourself, what about Meruru? You're gonna save her parents, right!?"
Was it too much of an obvious point? Filio hung her head limply, and it seemed to have been the most effective persuasion, so I should have said this from the start. She seemed quite depressed and unable to even open her mouth.
Haa, I wonder if it's because she comes from nobility. Maybe she can't forgive vulgar masturbation, and I don't want to get involved with the Kingdom royal family, but losing fighting strength here would be a problem.
"It don't matter what you are, Filio."
"...Pardon?" Filio said.
"I can tell you're hiding your true self. You're worrying way too much about it."
Even noble people masturbate. Well, I have heard of strict households that don't even teach the existence of masturbation, though.
"You had noticed. ...how perceptive of you," Filio said with a troubled, apologetic smile.
"I ain't seen through everything, though. ...But if that's weighing on you, Filio, maybe you should just come clean about it."
Well, I already know everything, though. Filio Valceid. Her real name is Filio Val Edelscheid. The Edelscheid family is a clan of exorcists from a southern nation, and they are also well-versed in ancient magical tools, and though distantly related, are connected by blood to the royal family, carrying noble lineage. Few here know of them, but they are apparently famous in exorcism circles. I had also heard that Filio was a prodigy who had served as head of the family since childhood.
"...Lord Haruya, might you lend me your ear?" Filio asked.
"Of course. If it'll make you feel better."
"Yes... Within me flows blood that is not quite ordinary," Filio opened her mouth with a solemn air.
I know. You're the head of the Edelscheid family, aren't you.
"In truth, I have inherited the blood of the inma2."
... Incubus? Inma? What? Filio was a succubus!?
"This is my true form."
A wind blew centered on Filio, an ominous wind nothing like her usual refreshing aura, and then she grew horns on her head and wings at her waist and a cute tail on her rear.
"This is my... succubus form."
Her usual smile looked frail. Huh, huh? Huh? Huh? Whaaaaat!? Filio was a succubus!?
"Lord Haruya, you seem quite unshaken."
I was so shaken that I had lost my words.
"...So what's the deal with the wings and tail?"
"They are naught but mana given form. As they sprout apart from my body, my garments remain quite untorn."
Whoa... Filio is a succubus... Ah! Somehow everything connects now! The reason she didn't become a Hero, and her detection ability and presence concealment, are those also from being a succubus?! Those are skills for sneaking into bedrooms, aren't they?! Wait wait wait, the head of the Edelscheid family is an incubus/succubus!?
"You're human, right, Filio?"
"It is merely my grandmother who was a succubus, and I am human... no, I suppose the demon blood does run in me."
Filio narrowed her eyes at her own wings, and she seemed not to like that form, and her smile, as though closing off her heart, made me hesitate to ask. But I remember her from my previous life, who tried to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of noble blood even while dying. ...I'm not a Hero anymore. Then I should be able to ask without reservation.
"So a human and a demon got together?"
"My great-predecessor dabbled in play, it seems."
"Great-predecessor? So you're of noble birth too, Filio?"
I'll offer topics from my side too, so Filio can speak more easily, though she doesn't look like she particularly wants to talk about it.
"...Yes... My true name is Filio Val Edelscheid. I am head of a clan of exorcists3."
"Edel... I've heard of that. ...Something about distant kin to the royal family?"
"A most distant kinship. All but strangers... Naught of which to boast, I assure you."
Filio's tone suggested she didn't think well of her lineage. Then why did she cling to duty and responsibility so desperately?
"So why would an exorcist clan get with a succubus..."
"I am told they sought to create a new system of sorcery. Fortunately, the child of my great-predecessor and the succubus... my mother, did not inherit it. ...Only..."
"But you inherited it, Filio..."
"...Yes, yet only the succubus power was passed down to me. The vaunted new sorcery never came to be. And so... it seems they were quite troubled over what disposal to mete out to me."
Disposal. I realized it meant the literal sense, and my face stiffened, yet Filio smiled with a frightening freshness.
"...My mother and I, thus exiled, came to live in a small hamlet found on no map. Revealing our true selves to no one, under false names."
"So the two of you started a different life?"
"Our house did keep watch over us, in form at least. ...When I was fretful, Mother would oft soothe me, saying, 'The blood of Edelscheid shall protect you. The blood of Edelscheid is noble blood that protects the smiles of all.' ...Mother seemed to believe we might one day return to the manor."
Filio didn't let her smile falter, and hers was a smile so fresh and so bright, with an obsession that said she would never let it break, and my skin tingled, for her anger was leaking out.
"Then one day... having heard tell from wheresoever, fiends bearing grudge against Edelscheid fell upon our hamlet. Yet I was not afraid."
"...Why not?"
"Because the people of Edelscheid would come for us. Mother believed so until the very end."
Filio kept smiling, as if she too had believed it, but for just an instant, deep anger and sorrow peeked through her eyes.
"Lord Haruya, no one came for us at all. Haha."
At her dry laugh, I sensed she held wounds within her that could never be wiped away in a lifetime, and as I wondered what the watchers had been doing, Filio gave me the answer.
"They prioritized guarding a merchant caravan with whom they were intimate over protecting us. Their pay was generous, and they oft brought back rare magical implements, you see."
"..."
"That caravan unearthed a most curious box. A box sealed manyfold. ...Which the people of Edelscheid did carelessly open. Its contents were... a most exquisite cursed implement that would root out the entire bloodline, it seems. ...Mayhap owing to my demon blood, I fell outside its mark."
"...So everyone was gone."
"Yes, all the promising candidates for headship died of the curse together. And so I was summoned forth."
"How..."
I started to ask how she ended up taking the seat of head, then stopped, for deep anger and sorrow were leaking through her smile. Filio knows better than I do that there are no convenient heroes. In her previous life, she tried to be a convenient hero and fulfill the responsibilities of the powerful, even though the one she wanted to vent her resentment at most was no longer in this world. Carrying wounds that would never heal, she resisted the world, refusing to lose and refusing to be made a fool of. That's why she cared about everyone's smiles more than anyone. That's why she tried to fulfill her duties and responsibilities even at the cost of her life.
And so... did she try to save everyone, and herself too? Was it because she tried to be light that she didn't reveal her true nature to me in my previous life? What feelings did she hold toward Hero, the convenient hero... I can no longer ask. Because everything has returned to death.
"Thank you for not asking. Lord Haruya."
If asked for the reason, she couldn't keep her light. Filio smiled refreshingly, as if to say exactly that.
"To me, Filio is... bright and fresh, and a damn horny kid."
"...I should be most grateful if you would forget my unsightly display. I was simply overcome with arousal."
"Nah, you're a precious comrade, so I'm gonna make good use of it."
"That slovenly attitude just now... I find it a little saving, perhaps."
Filio looked like she was about to break her smile for the first time here, and as I thought that if she cried I'd make her laugh uproariously, a voice reached us.
"Lord Haruya - Lady Filio - pray come hither at once, if you please -"
At Lily's voice, Filio dispelled her succubus form, and her smile returned to normal, so I joined up with my companions without saying anything, for it was time to resume the dungeon conquest toward the deepest level.
At this moment, I could not have predicted it. That at the deepest level of the dungeon, I would - of all things - become an erection-loss p* * *s-man4--
Trivia:
1. Filio's habit of maintaining an unwavering smile is explicitly tied to her mother's dying belief that the Edelscheid blood would protect them—making her smile both a promise to her mother and a weapon against despair.
2. Haruya already knows Filio's full true name and lineage before she reveals it, which means his feigned ignorance during her confession is a deliberate kindness rather than genuine surprise.
3. The curse tool that wiped out the Edelscheid family was unearthed by a merchant guild whose guards were prioritized over protecting Filio and her mother—hinting the "accidental" opening of the sealed box may not have been accidental at all.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ A historical practice of beheading a person after seppuku to spare them prolonged suffering. Here Filio uses it darkly to ask Haruya to finish her off after being seen masturbating, reflecting a warrior's shame-based code.
2 ↩ A Japanese term covering both incubi and succubi. Haruya's stunned repetition of the word and its romanization "インマ" plays on his confusion, since the word can refer to either a male or female demon.
3 ↩ Exorcism or demon-expelling. The Edelscheid family's profession, tied to a southern nation and ancient magical tools, giving the family a religious-ritual dimension beyond mere nobility.
4 ↩ A crude portmanteau combining "erection" with a censored vulgar term and a "-man" suffix, referring to someone who loses their erection at a critical moment. The chapter-ending joke foreshadows a humiliating event.
Notes:
• Filio - Given name of Filio Valceid. A noble-born scout-class adventurer who disguises herself as a man. She has radiant golden hair, clear sea-blue eyes, and a boyish, handsome appearance with distinctly feminine loveliness. Despite her light blouse-and-trousers outfit, her large chest is conspicuous. Cheerful, persistent, and idealistic, she believes those with power have a duty to help others and make everyone smile. Skilled in scouting, detection, trap avoidance, and lockpicking, she owns a falcon named Persha. She prioritizes civilians' lives, rewards others generously, and refuses to let talent go to waste. A trusted companion from Haruya's past life, she often pushes his party to accept unpaid quests as a duty to do good.
• Haruya - Solo adventurer in the trading city of Gran Neal, formerly the Holy Hero who defeated the Demon King Chronova. Maintains a bronze-rank adventurer status deliberately to avoid responsibility and attention. Slim-built young man in plain breast armor with a longsword and a large hip pouch of adventuring tools. Harbors a singular life goal of losing his virginity at a high-class brothel and building a harem, a dream he loudly declared at guild registration, earning him infamy among female adventurers while being well-liked by male adventurers for his candid lewd talk. Secretly a returnee from death who deliberately destroyed his hero-route reputation.
• Lily - A servant-type companion to Haruya who addresses him with formal deference. She is also described as an innkeeper at an adventurer's lodge and a devout follower of the Great Goddess faith, serving as a priestess of the Goddess Flora. Polite, composed, and professional, she is attentive to Haruya's needs and practical about travel funds, never complaining about unpaid quests. She observes Haruya's duel and recognizes when he is holding back, using a promised reward to snap him out of his deliberate losing act. Skilled in sleep magic, she has a sweet, deferential demeanor and a teasing streak. Though strict and proper on the surface, she deliberately seduces Haruya through the wall at night.
• Meruru - A young girl found on the surface in the town of Gosse. Chestnut-haired and dressed in a cute outfit now dirtied from chasing after the group. Carries a pendant made from a processed found-flower, which lets her sense her father's location. Desperate to rescue her kidnapped parents.
• Valceid - Family name of Filio Valceid. Filio comes from a noble lineage and disguises herself as a boyish young woman among commoners. She is a scout-class adventurer skilled in trap avoidance, detection, and lockpicking, and owns a falcon named Persha. A self-proclaimed righteous thief, she believes the powerful have a duty to help others and make people smile. Cheerful, persistent, idealistic, and generous, she prioritizes civilians' lives and pushes capable people to fulfill their responsibilities. She joined Haruya's party in his past life and often insists on taking unpaid quests with a refreshing smile.