Chapter 403: The Kingdom That Forgot Shame
A month had already passed since we seized Spica Castle and renamed it Raspica.
"Good work today, Lime. It was very impressive how diligently you rocked your hips even in front of the convicts."
"I’d really appreciate some clothes soon."
"Aren’t you already wearing clothes? The outfit called ’the baroness’s skin.’"
"That’s still no reason to drag me around like a dog, is it?"
Baroness Virgo, Lime, tugged at the collar fastened around her neck. Annoyed by Lime’s bratty pouting, I squeezed her breasts and forced her down on all fours.
"Then let’s run a little experiment, shall we? Ahem, Baroness. Starting now, we’ll be taking a stroll through the territory."
I took the baroness and left the lord’s castle. From the entrance onward, the citizens’ reactions to seeing us fell into one of three categories.
Ahem.
There were those who averted their eyes in discomfort at the sight of me and the baroness doing a naked outdoor leash-walk in broad daylight.
"Good afternoon, Commander. Are, uh, you here for a meal again today?"
"That’s right. Portions for everyone, please."
"Then, um, the Baroness beside you...?"
"Does a pet eat the same meal as a person?"
"Understood. I’ll bring soup in a bowl."
Then there were those who’d come to accept our play as part of daily life and carried on as if it were nothing.
"Commander, is it okay if we do outdoor leash play too?"
"No. Only I can do this."
"What if we get caught doing it?"
"Hmm. Salem and the humans are working out the sentences now. Something like running naked around the square should suffice."
"Heh heh, understood. Then enjoy your meal. We’re off to the ranch to do some milking. Ras."
"Ras."
And finally, there were those who’d gone a step further and fully adapted to our legion. I came with my group to what had become our regular restaurant. We’d been working since morning, so a proper meal was important.
"Meri. What happened with the elves who went to the Leo Marquisate?"
"They entered Regulus Castle without incident."
Meri, with a collar fastened around her neck, picked up her spoon with a casual expression. For appearances’ sake, to present herself as a human forced into cooperating with our legion, Meri had voluntarily put a leather collar around her own neck.
"Word will definitely reach the Church now. The Holy Knights will have to back off too."
"Good. I suppose it’s a blessing we bought ourselves a month on the elves’ reputation alone."
After seizing the barony, we scattered the Cookies-and-Cream Elves far and wide to keep the humans in check. Having to deal with elves rather than monsters put the humans in a real bind, and we used that confusion to make the barony entirely ours.
"Today’s menu: Vapula steak."
"Thanks. Oh, and for this one here..."
"Already prepared, of course."
The chef set down a dog bowl labeled "For Virgo Only" in front of the baroness. Inside was a thick, yellowish soup.
"Drink up, Virginia."
"...Ngh."
The baroness went so far as to grunt as she lowered her head toward the bowl. She was lapping at it with a humiliated expression, but the taste of the demonic essence dissolved in the soup gradually coaxed her tongue into more eager motion.
"Let’s dig in. Let us give thanks to the Goddess and the Demon King for letting another day pass safely. Ras."
"""Ras."""
After a brief prayer, we cut into our Vapula steaks. The steaks, made from a whole flame lion tenderloin and prepared by a skilled chef, melted on the tongue.
"Your cooking gets more refined by the day. Is there any monster you’d like? I’ll get you the ingredients in no time."
"Would cockatrice be possible? I’d like to try recreating that legendary dish called ’fried chicken.’"
"Absolutely."
Summon one with a magic stone and a cockatrice appears in no time. The chef, promised new ingredients, excused himself from the table, and I chatted with those seated around me over the delicious food.
"Lune, how long are you planning to wear that?"
"Until you give me a good pounding, Master?"
"Not the school uniform. Anything but the school uniform."
"Strictly speaking, it’s a uniform styled after a school uniform, so there shouldn’t be any problem."
Shaitan chuckled and elegantly picked up her knife. Still insisting on her secretary getup, she wore round glasses looted from the barony.
"It seems Master is a bit uncomfortable with the whole school uniform thing. Lune, why don’t we make all the female prisoners we capture from now on wear school uniforms?"
"Hmm. Cost made this outfit, and he basically designed it so Master would want to bang whoever’s wearing it. So if we put it on the prisoners, Master’s just gonna go bang them, which is kind of..."
"...It’s called a cultural victory through clothing. Lune, I absolutely did not design it because I want to fuck and cum."
I merely provided the concept. The one who brought it to life as a full-fledged school uniform was Cost Humphrey, the union boss of the Ras Vegas textile factory. He’s since renamed himself [Cosplay], our legion’s exclusive designer.
"The aesthetics of arousal, which started with stockings, will gradually spread across the world. Swimsuits, hot pants, school uniforms, secretary outfits, nurse uniforms. Every outfit Cosplay creates will be distributed to humanity."
"And we earn magic stones through that?"
"Exactly. Now we just need to open up a sales route to the Leo Marquisate."
"But how... No, never mind. You’ll find a way, Master. You always do."
Shaitan believed in me. Spreading the aesthetics of clothed sex to humanity was one of the missions given to me.
"The meal was delicious. Put the bill on the baroness’s tab. Meri, settle everything in one batch at the end of the month and make sure the numbers are exact."
"Yes. I’ll have a receipt drawn up."
Meri chatted with the owner about this and that while preparing the receipt. The red lipstick mark pressed at the bottom of the paper was the unmistakable seal of a receipt issued by our legion. The lipstick on her lips contained demonic essence, making forgery impossible.
’The fact that Meri has demonic essence on her lips is a little, well...’
"Oh, Master’s standing at attention."
"You’re going to give us dessert, aren’t you? I knew it."
Slurrrp.
Lune and Shaitan approached me with fire in their eyes. The baroness, having finished every last drop of soup from her bowl, stuck out her tongue and urged for dessert.
"Let’s head back to the castle first. I feel like I need some dessert too."
Post-meal sex.
While waiting for the elves who’d gone to the Leo Marquisate to return, I enjoyed my dessert, served in three different flavors.
***
[At that moment, Regulus Castle.]
"What do you think? Do you believe what they said is true?"
"Hard to say. Even if they are elves, there’s no reason to blindly take their word for it."
"The evidence is thin. I’ve fought alongside Dame Levis on the battlefield. She’s not the kind of woman who would ever rape anyone, elf or otherwise."
"But didn’t the dark elves say Levis did it to them?"
"Hmph, who knows. Maybe they were raped by the orcs and are pinning it on Levis."
"Watch your words. Elves have sharp ears. If we go running our mouths carelessly, we’ll only be stirring up trouble."
The retainers Marquis Leo had gathered each voiced their opinions, forming judgments about the elves. Most of them didn’t believe the elves’ claims were true.
"But Head Butler, consider this. Suppose Dame Levis really is a witch who broke the taboo and raped those elves. What would the consequences be?"
"Every demi-human race would be tripping over themselves to take the Demon King’s Army’s side. The dwarves might even cut off the weapons they’ve been selling to the human alliance."
"And would it stop there? We’re talking about a race that’s honed its strength in the forest for thousands of years. Imagine them taking up their bows and forming guerrilla units. And didn’t they come riding unicorns?"
"Mounted archers. Terrifying. The last foe anyone would want to face."
The marquis’s retainers were all but treating war as a foregone conclusion. No matter how much the elves declared full-scale war against the Goddess Church, the ones who’d end up doing the actual fighting were the Leo marquis house, standing right on the front lines.
"If the Goddess Church requests troop mobilization, we can’t refuse."
The Holy Knights, having lost their commander, were requesting support from the marquis house while independently burning with determination to rescue Levis. Considering the Demon King’s Army’s "tendencies" as described by the refugees, Levis was most likely being held captive.
"I’d rather the Holy Knights just go rescue Dame Levis. Then the whole truth would come to light, plain as day."
"That’s assuming she’s not actually a rapist."
"Ugh. This is driving me insane. And it sounds just plausible enough to make it worse. Have you heard what the Goddess Church has been saying? About the scandal between Levis and the Saintess. That the two of them were in a same-sex relationship."
"I hear the Saintess has been traveling with the hero Taurus lately, showing signs of budding romance."
"Then the scandal isn’t true? It’s not as though the Saintess was sleeping with Levis and then jumped ship to the wielder of Taurus."
"...Enough. That’s enough."
Marquis Leo raised his hand and halted the meeting. It had gone nowhere, consumed entirely by rambling assumptions and speculation.
"For now, treat the elves with the utmost hospitality. Simply showing them our sincerity should be enough to keep them from touching the marquis house."
"My lord."
A butler came scurrying over and whispered in Marquis Leo’s ear.
"The youngest master has gone to the elves’ room...."
"That little bastard."
Marquis Leo swore under his breath and rose from his chair. Though still lucid, he could barely walk without his cane; he pushed his body forward as if burning through his last ember.
"That brat...."
Marquis Leo and his retainers hurried to the elves’ quarters.
"Let go, let go! You chest monster!"
"Using such language toward an elf. Humans really are...."
"Andaihal!!"
Marquis Leo sighed at the sight of the young man dangling by the scruff from Nifela’s hand. He’d begged the boy time and again not to cause trouble, but Andaihal had clearly been caught lurking near the elves.
"Marquis Leo, it’s clear we cannot continue to stay here. Among us are women who were raped by the witch. The way that human stares at them, as though they were some kind of trash, is deeply insulting. It’s intolerable. Just being here makes my skin crawl."
At Nifela’s rapid-fire barrage of words, Marquis Leo’s fists trembled. The entire discussion he’d just had upstairs with his retainers was rendered useless in an instant.
"We’ve delivered our declaration of war, so there’s no reason to remain here. We will depart in one hour."
"Depart? Where do you intend to go?"
"Rastopia."
Nifela murmured softly, clasping her hands together.
"That place, full of dreams, love, and hope. We will go to Rastopia. We can no longer stay in a place where humans seek to take elves by force and make them sex slaves."
"W-Wait!"
Marquis Leo called out to stop Nifela as she was about to leave.
"I have a question! How is it that after fifty years, you still look exactly the same? No, even younger than before?!"
"Oh. Heh."
For the first time, Marquis Leo saw a smile spread fully across Nifela’s face.
"He blessed me with his baptism, and I was reborn."
"He...? You can’t mean the Queen?"
"I see no reason to go into the details. We’ll be taking our leave."
Nifela was about to take the elves and depart from Regulus. Marquis Leo seized Andaihal by the collar with blazing eyes.
"You fool!! What on earth did you do to our guests?!"
"F-Father! I was just curious what dark elves look like, that’s all!"
"You idiot, they’re not just any dark elves!"
"I know! They’re the dark elves who claim they were attacked by the witch. But I just couldn’t hold back my curiosity!!"
"What? What the hell did you do?!"
"I-I just peeked, that’s all!"
Cough!
Marquis Leo coughed up blood. When they should have been bending over backwards to accommodate the elves, it was heartbreaking that his only heir could only think this way. That anguish manifested in his illness.
"Father!"
"Don’t make a fuss...! I’m still fine."
"My lord!!"
A knight came running in urgently.
"The Goddess Church’s Holy Knights are pursuing the elves’ unicorns!!"
"...Hrk."
Marquis Leo coughed up blood once more.