710 Pleasure
Arthur was silent as he stared at the woman seducing him. He would have shut her down usually, but this time he took a step toward her. The woman gulped as Arthur walked to stand in front of her, and she unconsciously retreated until her back hit the wall.
Bam!
His hand slammed the wall beside her, and the woman flinched. Arthur’s dominating eyes stared into her, making her tremble. Then, he smiled and opened his mouth.
“You seem to imagine many things and forget one. Maybe you know I won’t lay a hand on you, and maybe you want that. However, if I do, are you sure… you can handle it?”
“I…” the woman blanked out. Arthur smiled as he raised his hand, a soft light covering it. The woman was breathing heavily by now, and her words came short. “What is… this…?”
“It won’t hurt you, so don’t move and take it. However, I will warn you that you might get addicted to this feeling. Are you still going to taste it?”
His hand was glowing soft violet color, and it was clear that this was illusive magic. The woman stared at it for a long time before turning toward Arthur and nodding slowly. Her face was bright red as if she was about to explode under the tension of their glued bodies.
“Good choice.”
Arthur raised his hand and brought it toward the wall. Then, he grabbed the back of her neck with his mana-covered hand. The woman arched her back as soon as he did, and she started letting out soft sounds from her mouth before she fell to the ground.
Her legs were shaking as she started breathing rapidly. Arthur looked down at her lust-filled eyes, which stared at him with passion. However, she was too weak to say anything, and soft moans left her mouth.
“You took advantage of me without asking for permission, and that’s a sin,” said Arthur as he crouched in front of the woman. “I gave you the most pleasurable feeling in the world. That’s the punishment because you will never experience it again.”
“I… please…” she gulped and leaned toward Arthur, but he stood up. “Just a bit more… for anything…” she begged, but Arthur was already thinking of ways to disable the ship.
After all, he hated Ilios and its emperor. If this ship was transporting artifacts for them, then he needed to take it down. The woman reached out to touch his robes, but he teleported before she could touch him.
“NO!” shouted the woman with despair, but Arthur was gone. “Dammit… this is… too cruel!” she cried with tears in her eyes.
As for Arthur, he was already inside the primary array system of the ship. It was a giant room with no entrances and a giant sphere in the middle, filled with runic lines. It was locked with multiple runic encryptions, but Arthur dissolved them as soon as he touched them.
“This is a complicated system, and it proves that this belongs to the emperor,” muttered Arthur as the lines surrounded his hand. “There is no need to disable it now, but I will hijack the control until the attack arrives.”
The system wasn’t complicated enough to hinder Arthur from hijacking it. Unlike the arrays of Runera, this was within the scope of his abilities. After gaining control of the ship, Arthur allowed it to resume its course and returned to his room.
“She is gone?”
Arthur looked around in confusion because the woman was gone. Then, he heard sounds from the bathroom and realized she was taking a shower in his room.
“I might have been too cruel with that punishment, although I don’t know if it can be considered a punishment.” Arthur scratched his head. He was too annoyed with her antics that he mistreated her a bit. “In any case, we are in Ilios now, and it’s past midnight.”
The sky was pitch black, and there was not a soul outside. The ship was flying over an endless stretch of wilderness in Ilios. Arthur assumed the attack would happen any minute, but no one was in sight.
“This might take a while.”
Arthur lay on his hammock, and it began to swing. The water inside the bathroom was still running, and Arthur wondered what she was doing inside. Well, it was none of his business. After an hour, the door finally opened to reveal the woman wrapped in a towel.
“Wear your clothes inside the bathroom,” said Arthur as he turned to the side to talk to her. “I did what you asked of me, so now we have a deal. When the attack comes, I will disable the arrays.”
“…are you going to act like you didn’t just do that to me?” asked the woman with a frown. The water was still dripping from her silver hair, which she had pushed backward. “That was…”
“…pleasurable?” Arthur continued her sentence, making the woman red. “I repaid what you did to me, that is all. I also didn’t force you since you were horny enough to accept it.”
“I just… want to know what it was….”
“I can grant pleasure; that’s my ability.”
“You are lying. I saw you teleport out of this room,” said the woman as she took several steps to stand above him. Her ample chest almost blocked Arthur from looking at her face. “Are you a part of Silver Death?”
“Silver Death?”
“There is not an awakener who doesn’t know them, so don’t play dumb. Denying that you know them makes me think you are an assassin like them.”
Arthur was silent as he connected the dots. Silver Death must be the name of the assassination organization run by the Berilo Kingdom. It does fit the description. His silence must have been taken as a yes by the woman, who squinted her eyes at him.
“I should have known. Who is your target?”
“I came to kill you,” said Arthur as he pointed his finger at her head. “Bang!” he joked, but she didn’t seem to take it as such. “I’m not here for anyone, so don’t worry.”
“Does that mean you are a part of them?”
“I will neither confirm nor deny this,” said Arthur as he lay on his back and placed his hands behind his head. “Go and get dressed. I won’t look.”
“…maybe I want you to look….”
“I know you do, but I won’t look.”
“Hmph.”
The woman walked away and started dressing. Arthur could hear the fabric running atop her skin and the towel moving to dry her hair. It took her a while before she was done, and she coughed for Arthur to open his eyes.
“Are you sure we are ready?” asked the woman. “How did you manage to do it so easily?”
“I have my methods, and I’m not going to share them with you. When is the attack coming?” asked Arthur as he sat.
“He should be here with the first rays of sunlight,” said the woman as she looked through the window. “So, it might take a few hours. We have free time until then.”
“…come and get some sleep, and I will guard. Of course, the smugglers might think we are doing all sorts of things, but it doesn’t mean they won’t attempt anything.”
“I slept during the day, so I’m wide awake,” said the woman before she pulled a chair and sat down. “Care to drink?”
“…sure.”
Arthur walked to the table and sat in front of her. The woman took a bottle from her ring and a pair of cups and started pouring.
“Before we drink, we need to exchange names or aliases.” The woman started pouring drinks into their glasses before presenting one to Arthur. “My name is Rain.”
“You can call me Arthur.”
“Oh, that’s a coincidence,” smiled the woman as she raised her glass. “You have the same name as the great Arthur Silvera, the Spark of Rebellion, but the two of you look nothing alike.”
“The Spark of Rebellion?”
“That is what the common folk call him. He is the man who dared to fight the rulers and the calamities at the same time. We have all seen his perseverance. He is a true rebel against the world!”
“I heard of him but never thought someone would consider him anything more than a criminal,” said Arthur as he raised his glass and clinked it. “A toast to rebellion.”
“To rebellion!” said Rain before she drank the alcohol in one gulp, and her face flushed instantly. “Ah!” she sounded satisfied before slamming the glass to the table. “Good liquor!”
[Toxicology-IV]
After checking it was clean, Arthur smiled and drank his as well, but there wasn’t much taste to it. He even doubted it was enough to make him drink or tipsy, but it was about the spirit.
“So, Arthur, how come you are the first man to refuse my seduction? I’m not a narcissist, but it still hurts to be rejected.”
“…I just don’t feel the attraction or the desire. Don’t get me wrong. My sexual drive has nothing wrong with it. It is more… about wanting to do something, anything, at all. I don’t have that.”