The Noble Lady of Lust

Chapter 445: Big Mission

"Oh, I see you read my intentions. hmm... I may have told them, but talking things over with a friend is different from talking with your partner. Anyway, I've already talked to them, and I wanted to ask you what you think—and I'm also curious about what your god told you."

"Haah~ don't even mention it. He grilled me about the oracle he gave me—or rather, he seemed disappointed that there hadn't been any progress. I wanted to talk to you about that. If you can control what the gods see, why didn't you do something to make it look like we were making progress? You know, I got kind of scolded—you know how weird and awkward that was."

"Oracle? What oracle? Ouch! Why are you kicking me now? Want to fight this early? Well, here you go."

"Agh! Don't poke me, idiot. How could you have forgotten the oracle my god gave me? You're directly involved in it."

"Me? What do I have to do with—Oh! I just remembered, that thing about having a son. Damn it, I'd really forgotten. It's so impossible that I or… Augh!. Hey! Why'd you kick me again?"

"Because you're an idiot and a jerk."

"Fine, I won't kick you back because it's true that I forgot about that. I should've done something about it… Hmm, but, you know? It could backfire later when you're with William. Your god might think badly of you and—"

"Idiot!"

"Ugh! I'm definitely not forgiving you for that kick."

That damn pusillanimous tsundere is wrong; if she thinks I'm going to let her beat me without fighting back just because I did something wrong.

"Ouch! If you keep poking me like that, one day you're going to puncture my ribs, idiot! You know how much that hurts."

"Hey, I'm controlling my strength just fine, and I could say the same about you. If you keep kicking me, you're going to leave my legs crooked."

"Shut up. You're just a doppelgänger. Besides, what's with the double standard? Is it okay for you to have a harem and not me?"

"w(ﾟДﾟ)w You want a harem?... Wait! I-I-I'm part of your plans… Don't tell me. You get along well with Alexander too, and now that he's heartbroken—wait, Ivan would go along with anything too. Oh, Mike and Ban… Shit, now that I think about it, you already have them all at your disposal. When did this all start…?"

"Calamities—"

"Hey! Cancel that spell! Do you want to make this ship crash?"

"If you don't want that to happen, then stop talking such nonsense."

"Fine, I'll stop. It's my fault for provoking a kamikaze yandere."

"(►__◄)"

"Ahem!… I didn't say anything! Anyway, I'll make sure the next Solarius sees some progress. I'll even try to show her a scene or two of us giving it a shot. Hmm… Would you rather be the dominant nymphomaniac or a timid submissive…?"

"Why the hell do it have to be two opposite extremes?"

"Hey, the Skill is a little hard to use—it all depends on my intention and visualization, and doing it that way makes it easier—oh! But regardless of what you choose, I'll also add that you gave me a titjob; Solarius would definitely get suspicious if there wasn't something obvious like that. Oh! Do you have any secret sexual fetishes you want to add?"

"Apocogram!."

"Huh? Hey! What the hell...? What's the problem now? Stop—with that spell! You damn kamikaze! Do you want to take us all down with you...?"

"I'll focus all the power on you, idiot—you'll be the only one who disappears."

"Okay, let's drop that topic. I can't lose a doppelganger. Let's talk a little about what you think regarding this whole situation. You've seen all my memories—what do you think?"

..

.

"Haaah~ Well, I don't have anything else to say on this topic, and this is just my personal opinion. Although I don't know why you're overthinking it so much—you're not that kind of person."

"Hmm... well, my main self gave me the responsibility to think this through. Anyway, talking to you really helps me—that's why you'll always be my best friend forever."

"/_ \\Seriously, every time you say that, it feels more like a curse."

"Hey! What's the problem?"

"Everything! Haah~ Anyway, if there's nothing else to say, I'm going to get some sleep. A lot happened tonight."

"Yeah, it sure did. Well, before that, I also wanted to talk to you a little about Lys and Aurora, who—"

"Ugh, I'm really sleepy."

"Come on, at our level, we can go a few days without sleep."

"But I want to sleep, so let's talk about that another time. Or rather, I think you should talk about that with the girls, not with me. Anyway, I'm out."

Saying that, and in a bit of a hurry, she left. I don't know what the problem is, but it seems like she didn't want to talk about it.

Anyway, it was a good conversation. We talked a little about the future and stuff, especially about how responsible I was for this whole nearly catastrophic event.

Interestingly, Silvia was very empathetic, saying it really wasn't my fault and that it wasn't as if I'd wanted this to happen.

It's strange, since Silvia always seems to be against any of my actions or thoughts.

In fact, that's exactly why I usually talk to her—since we think in such opposite ways, something really good usually comes out of our discussions.

But in this case, she told me I shouldn't worry so much about it, that even though I bore some of the responsibility, it wasn't entirely my fault.

And that everyone who enters the Middle World does so knowing they're putting their lives on the line.

She also brought up the fact that this event was something that was bound to happen eventually, even if I hadn't started it, saying that, in fact, this was minor in comparison.

Yes, Silvia knew that something like what's happening now happened in the future, when the bastard who found another part of the legacy destroyed the seedlings.

In fact, it was even more catastrophic.

Since that happened many more years in the future, when more people were already entering and settling in the Middle World and had even had children.

Unlike now, when we've only been here a few years and most of us are fighters, at that time there were actual civilians, in addition to the merchants who entered knowing the risks.

Not to mention that this happened on the central continent, where there is mostly habitable land, rather than in the southern region, which consists mostly of bodies of water rather than land.

I found it curious how Silvia seemed so focused on absolving me of any blame, and deep down, I'm truly grateful to her for that.

It doesn't really relieve me of responsibility, but it gives me a better perspective on things.

It went so well that I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity and talk about some of my other problems—specifically, the issue involving Lys and Aurora.

They were there and saw and heard things, but I couldn't explain it properly to them, since these were things that only those who knew my secrets could understand—but even so, it feels wrong to leave them out of the loop.

In fact, my main self gave them an explanation when he met up with them again, but it was very superficial.

Aurora knew about the doppelgängers, and although Lys seemed surprised, she didn't have any issues with it either.

They both also accepted my explanation that I'd been injured on the expedition I'd tagged along on.

I didn't lie, but I left out a lot of details, and they had their own questions about that superficial explanation.

Aurora, in particular, seemed eager to get everything out of me, but I had to set some boundaries.

That's why I wanted to talk to Silvia, who's been my accomplice all this time regarding my plans with Lys, but—being unreliable—she left.

So I guess I'll have to put the matter off until later, when things settle down.

"Okay, I think everything's in order now. All that's left is… huh? What's going on over there…?"

At that moment, I suddenly realized that something strange was happening with my main self…

'Hmm… can you come here for a moment? I need to talk to you.'

The one who had said that was Rosy. She had a telepathic skill that allowed her to communicate with me mentally. It was rare for her to use it, and she only did so to let me know that Ciel had finished something I'd asked him to do.

'Huh? What's going on, Rosy? I don't remember asking Ciel to do anything.'

My main self replied, since, after all, it was through Rosy's ability and didn't require any mana.

'Hmm… well, my skill activated.'

'Skill? What skill ?'

'The one you always say ranks among the top three most disgusting and broken skills you know, the one you say they should patch it because it's so unfai, and the one I have to explain all this about because you get upset every time I mention its name.'

'Oh! That Skill.. Wait!, did it activate? What happened? Are you in danger or something? I'm on my way!'

'No, don't worry. Actually, nothing bad has happened, but it triggered anyway. Hmm… as you know, this ability operates beyond my control and triggers under certain conditions that I can't control. Throughout my life, it's only triggered six times, and this is the seventh.'

'So why did it trigger? What's going on?'

'That's exactly what I want to talk about. This time it activated differently, and after it did, I realized it's closely related to you. I can only assume it's because I'm now bound to you. Hmm… it's actually a little hard for me to explain, so when you have time, come see me and bring the statue of Erobus—it's important.'

'I'm on my way. If it's that skill , I can't just ignore it.

It seems like something really strange is going on there. Honestly, until Rosy clears this up, I don't know if the unexpected activation of that ability is good news or bad news.

But I hope it's good news.

..

.

"Alright, Number two, you only have half the power and no skill, but your role is potentially crucial. Are you ready for this big mission?"

"No/_ \\ "

"Hey! What's with that attitude, you jerk?"

"You think I'm going to be excited or something, now that I know I have to stay away from the girls for a while?"

"Hey! This isn't the time to be thinking about that. Your mission is crucial."

"I'll just be the backup if everything goes to shit. Besides, you bastard, you can only say that because you're the one staying behind. I'm literally saying what you'd say if you were in my position. Why don't you go instead?"

"Tsk, you're the most expendable of the three. Now jump, or I'll push you."

"Tsk, fine. I hope things get so hectic that you don't have time for anything—and if possible, that you can't get it up."

That bastard Number two cursed me—it seems he forgot that only Number one can do that now.

Before I could say anything else, hse jumped off the flying ship while it was still moving.

She's just the doppelgänger of the doppelgänger, and she doesn't have the best attitude, but I'm sure she'll do what she has to do.

On the other hand, I think we're approaching the site of the conflict.

The place wasn't that far from the city, and we got there in just over a day's flight.

We've already been briefed a bit on what to expect and other things to keep in mind when we get off the ship.

"My Lady, the one who just jumped off the ship was your doppelgänger, right? 눈_눈"

"Hyaa!.. Hey! Stop popping up behind me. And yes, he was the doppelgänger. Look, I'm the real one."

Elena appeared behind me. Her gaze seemed threatening, so, pointing to my eye—which now has a patch to cover my strange eye,—what now was what easily set me apart from the doppelgangers.

Or rather, she must know through her telepathy that I'm the real one.

"I've already told you I don't have any abilities like that, but I can see you're not lying."

"Lies! Tell me the truth. You've known how to hide your abilities from the start—that's why I can't see them in your current state, right?"

"No, I don't have the ability to do such a thing."

Well, that's what she says, but she actually makes me doubt that claim, and someday I'll prove that she really is capable of reading minds.

"Well, putting that aside, we're almost there, so-… huh? What's going on?"

Just as I was about to tell Elena what we'd do once we got off the ship, a strange premonition suddenly came over me.

Yes, first came the premonition, then something entered the range of my senses, and finally…

BOOMMM!

A loud explosion echoed and shook the flying ship. It didn't seem to be very close, but I quickly moved to a high vantage point anyway to see what was happening.

There I saw that, in addition to our ship, there were four other large ships—belonging to the other kingdoms, which had been accompanying us from the start—but one of them was billowing smoke from one side.

The cause was another group of flying ships that had approached us from the side; judging by their design, they were from the Demon World.

It seemed the conflict had begun even before we reached our destination.

This would be my first aerial naval battle.