Chapter 65: Jeanette.

And so, Kaito's interaction with Regel had gone perfectly, and the timid survivor had awakened her potential, finding her resolve not through magical coercion, but through a genuine human connection.

The CEO felt a profound sense of satisfaction, a steady warmth in his chest that countered the lingering chill of the trauma he had faced earlier that evening.

But the night was not over.

Mordecai adjusted his dark coat and began his descent. He bypassed the armory, walked past the executive floors, and headed straight for the winding stone staircases that led into the deepest, most volatile subterranean levels of the fortress.

'Well, I didn't even know these places existed. Fort Blackstone is too big.' He thought.

He was heading for the Alchemical Laboratories, to Jeanette.

Usually, the corridors leading to a Demonic Alchemist lab would've been identifiable. The stone walls would be slightly melted, the air would smell of sulfur, green acid, and the ambient lighting would be a sickly, toxic green.

Instead, the sub-basement looked completely wrong.

As Mordecai approached the heavy iron door of the primary laboratory, he noticed that the torches along the walls were not burning with normal fire, instead, they were burning with a soft, sparkling, pastel-pink light. Furthermore, there was a faint, cloying scent of cherry blossoms and cheap vanilla perfume hanging in the air.

Mordecai stopped in front of the door, his purple eye narrowing in deep suspicion.

There was a massive, hastily written sign taped directly over the iron handle. It was written entirely in jagged, frantic Hiragana characters.

「カイト、お願い、入らないで。ホルモンがおかしくなってるの！」 (KAITO, PLEASE, DO NOT ENTER, MY HORMONES HAVE GONE CRAZY)

Mordecai stared at the sign. Under normal circumstances, a rational person would read that warning, acknowledge the catastrophic danger of a highly aroused, unstable succubus-alchemist, and turn around.

But our beloved fake necromancer possessed a very specific, incredibly intrusive passive skill granted to him by the LitRPG System when he had first reincarnated.

[Passive Skill: Dense Protagonist Armor (V2.0 Corporate)]

Description: "Inspired by the classic Light Novel trope where the protagonist is biologically incapable of noticing romantic interest."

Effect: "Mordecai becomes 100% immune to all "Charm," "Seduction," or "Erotic Aura" based attacks. Every attempt to flirt with him is filtered by the System and displayed as [CORPORATE SPAM]."

System Note: “Even if she strips in front of you, your brain will only calculate how much you’re saving on the room's heating bill.”

A blue System window popped up over the sign, translating the frantic Hiragana through the filter of Kaito's corporate mindset.

[System Translation: "Do not disturb. Routine laboratory cleaning and chemical inventory in progress. Beware of wet floors."]

'Wet Floors' ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

"Ah. Inventory time. Perfect timing, I need to check our stock anyway," Mordecai muttered to himself. He reached out, grabbed the iron handle, and pushed the heavy door open.

The moment he stepped across the threshold, Mordecai felt a massive migraine building behind his eyes.

The terrifying, toxic alchemical laboratory of Ravenloft Holdings had been completely hijacked by the System’s narrative override during his blackout.

The stone walls were covered in holographic projections of a brightly lit Japanese high school classroom, the bubbling cauldrons had been disguised as school desks, and translucent, glowing cherry blossom petals were literally falling from a ceiling that did not exist, accompanied by a faint, incredibly generic slice-of-life acoustic guitar track playing from nowhere.

Mordecai stood in the doorway, completely deadpan.

'You have got to be kidding me,' Mordecai sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, feeling the [CLICHÈ NAUSEA] debuff.

'A school trope? Really, System? In a necromancy fortress? Let me guess... is the clumsy childhood friend going to run around the corner with a piece of toast in her mouth and bump into me? Is the most popular girl in the school gonna bump into me only to find me between her tits? Or wait, maybe the class representative is crying in the corner, waiting to slap me because I accidentally invaded her privacy?'

He looked around the room, utterly destroying the tropes with his sheer corporate exhaustion. "This is a workplace environment. This violates at least forty aesthetic zoning codes."

"Hah... hah...♡♡"

A heavy, ragged panting sound echoed from the far corner of the laboratory.

Mordecai turned his head.

There, trying to stretch her arms upward in a desperate attempt to stay awake and focused, was Jeanette.

The System had tried to aggressively alter her appearance during the server crash, but it seemed like Jeanette had clearly fought back, leaving a chaotic, half-finished mess of an outfit.

She was wearing an extremely oversized, dark, stain-covered t-shirt that hung loosely off one shoulder, completely swallowing her torso. Over it, she wore an excessively long, white laboratory coat that dragged on the floor. Her legs were bare, except for a pair of tight, black thigh-high stockings held up by complex leather garters.

Her demonic horns curled elegantly from her messy, dark hair, and her leathery succubus wings twitched erratically behind her back.

She stopped stretching the moment the heavy iron door closed.

Jeanette tilted her head back, taking a deep, shuddering breath through her nose. She was literally sniffing the air.

"Bro..." Jeanette whispered, her voice trembling, thick with an overwhelming, intoxicating heat. "Bro... are you here? Kaito...?♡ I can hear your smell—"

She then turned around to face him.

Mordecai took a slight step back.

Jeanette’s usually sharp, manic crimson eyes had completely dilated. Her pupils had literally morphed into glowing, pulsating pink heart shapes, and her face was flushed a deep, feverish red.

She was panting heavily, her chest heaving against the oversized t-shirt, and literal droplets of sweat—and perhaps other succubus-related fluids—were glistening and running down her thighs, dampening her garters.

The System’s override had weaponized her demonic biology, pushing her libido to an absolute, apocalyptic maximum the moment Kaito's suppressive aura had vanished.

"Jeanette, you look terrible," Mordecai stated flatly, analyzing her condition. "Are you having a biological meltdown?"

Jeanette took a shaky step forward, her knees knocking together while she looked at him with an expression of pure, unadulterated hunger.

"Please..." Jeanette whimpered, her hands clenching into fists at her sides, desperately trying to fight the narrative programming that was hijacking her vocal cords. "I can't... I can't hold back anymore. I've finally accepted this body... and my love for you... Baka..."

Record scratch.*

The acoustic slice-of-life music abruptly stopped, and Jeanette froze.

Her heart-shaped pupils momentarily shattered, reverting to her normal golden eyes. Then, she stared at the empty space with absolute horror dawning on her face.

"Did I..." Jeanette gasped, her voice returning to her normal, slightly raspy tone. "Did I just say 'Baka'?! EW! NO! GROSS!"

Tears of pure, concentrated cringe began to stream down her face as she dropped to her knees, burying her face in her hands, sobbing not from sadness, but from the absolute humiliation of being forced to act out a tsundere trope. "I hate this! I hate this so much! I'm not a generic visual novel heroine! Kill me! Just kill me now!"

Despite her weeping, her succubus biology was completely out of control. Her wings flared, and she looked back up at Kaito, the heart-shaped pupils returning with a vengeance. The shame of the trope was battling a losing war against her 1000% overdrive libido.

"I'm so disgusted with myself!" Jeanette cried, before her expression instantly shifted into a predatory, lustful grin. "But I don't care! I can't take it!♡♡♡♡"

With a feral, demonic shriek, Jeanette kicked off the stone floor. She lunged through the air, flying directly at Mordecai like a heat-seeking missile, her hands already reaching up to tear off her oversized t-shirt and lab coat.

"I'm not holding back!" Jeanette yelled, mid-air.

Mordecai didn't panic; he simply relied on the unparalleled, razor-sharp logic of a man who had navigated the treacherous waters of Tokyo's corporate world.

He calmly took one precise step to the left, remembering the most important thing in this world: 'Gravity is free.'

Jeanette flew right past him, crashing spectacularly into a pile of empty cardboard boxes in the corner of the room. "A-Ah? You weren't supposed to dodge that!" She exclaimed.

But before she could recover and pounce again, Mordecai turned toward her and completely dropped the stiff, commanding posture of the CEO. He let his shoulders slump slightly, put his hands in his coat pockets, and smiled a relaxed, incredibly casual smile.

"Bro," Kaito said.

It wasn't a command. It was the exact, specific tone of voice he used when they would sit on the fire escape of their office building in Tokyo, eating cheap convenience-store onigiri and complaining about their middle managers. It was her best friend's voice.

"Bro, chill," Kaito chuckled, shaking his head. "Put your shirt back on. I have so many things to tell you."

The effect was instantaneous.

The word "Bro," spoken with that exact cadence, struck Jeanette’s psyche like a sledgehammer made of pure reality, completely shattering the System's romantic override.

The holographic high school classroom flickered violently and exploded into pixels, revealing the damp, stone walls of the toxic laboratory. The cherry blossom petals dissolved into ash. The pink lighting faded, replaced by the familiar, comforting glow of green alchemical acid.

Jeanette sat up among the cardboard boxes. The heart-shaped pupils were gone, replaced by her normal, sharp golden eyes. Her face was still flushed, and her demonic libido was still hammering at her veins, but her mind was entirely her own again.

She hurriedly pulled her oversized t-shirt back down over her shoulder, adjusting her lab coat with trembling hands.

"K-Kaito...?" Jeanette breathed, her leathery wings folding neatly behind her back. She looked at him, recognizing his relaxed posture and genuine smile. "You're... you're back? You're actually back?"

"I'm back, Jean," Kaito nodded, walking over and offering her a hand.

Jeanette grabbed his hand, pulling herself up from the floor. She then dusted off her thigh-highs, trying desperately to regain some semblance of professional dignity, even though she was still breathing heavily.

"W-What the hell happened up there?" Jeanette asked, gesturing vaguely toward the ceiling. "The entire server went dark. I felt your mana just... vanish. And then the System tried to rewrite my brain into a dating sim! It was a nightmare, bro! I had to lock the door and grind alchemy quests for hours just to keep my libido from making me run straight to the capital to search for you!"

"It's a long story," Kaito sighed, leaning casually against one of the stone workbenches. "But the short version is... I finally talked to Lucy."

Jeanette froze. Her eyes narrowed, a protective, fiercely loyal anger instantly flaring up within her. "Heh? She found you? Kaito, I swear to God, if that cheating, two-faced—"

"Jean, wait. Let me finish," Kaito interrupted gently, holding up a hand.

He didn't want to drag the conversation out, so he delivered the facts efficiently. He told her about the hotel, about Nick getting Lucy completely drunk until she was nearly unconscious, told her about Nick's pathetic, cowardly manipulation, the erectile dysfunction pills, and the fact that the entire scene they had witnessed in the rain was a ten-minute favor to save the blonde idiot's ego.

As Kaito spoke, Jeanette’s face went through a rapid, complex series of emotions.

First, absolute disgust. The thought of Nick trying to take advantage of an intoxicated girl made Jeanette physically gag. She leaned over a cauldron, looking like she was actually going to vomit.

"That blonde piece of trash..." Jeanette spat, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "I am going to dissolve his kneecaps in a vat of industrial solvent."

But as Kaito finished the story, explaining the horrific misunderstanding that had led to their deaths, Jeanette’s anger sputtered. She tried to ignite her rage against Lucy, but it wouldn't catch fire. The narrative was too stupid, too tragic, too utterly pathetic to warrant pure hatred.

"It still counts as cheating, though," Jeanette said, leaning back against the workbench next to Kaito, sliding down slightly until she was sitting on the edge. She then stared at the stone floor, processing the absolute absurdity of their demise.

"Yeah... I know." Kaito sighed.

"So..." Jeanette whispered, her voice hollow. "We literally all died... because of a lie. A pathetic, ten-minute lie."

"Yeah," Kaito nodded, looking down at his boots. "I dragged her under the truck for nothing."

Jeanette let out a dry, humorless laugh, running a hand through her messy hair. "Unbelievable. We are absolute idiots. The three of us. Just... idiots."

She turned her head to look at Kaito, noticing the heavy burden of guilt still lingering in his purple eye.

"Hey," Jeanette said softly, nudging his shoulder with hers. "Don't put all of that on yourself, bro. Honestly... it's partly my fault too."

Kaito blinked, looking at her in surprise. "Your fault? Jean, you were just walking home with me."

"Yeah, but think about it," Jeanette sighed, looking up at the stone ceiling. "Do you remember that day? We had been working non-stop. I had chugged, what, four huge cans of those cheap energy drinks? Plus five cups of terrible office coffee. I was vibrating before we even left the building. My heart was already giving out from the caffeine and the stress."

She offered him a small, comforting smile.

"Seeing her with that rich guy? And seeing you commit a double homicide-suicide? That was just the killing blow," Jeanette admitted. "My heart exploded because I was an overworked, over-caffeinated idiot who couldn't handle the shock. So... if you're blaming yourself for dragging us under the truck, cut it out. The truck just finished the job the corporate grind started. It's not totally your fault."

Kaito stared at her. The words sank in, bypassing all of his logical defenses.

She wasn't making excuses for him, but she was sharing the blame. She was taking the absolute, crushing weight of the murder-suicide off his shoulders and framing it as a collective, tragic failure of three exhausted people.

A massive, invisible weight lifted from Kaito’s chest as he felt an overwhelming wave of relief wash over him.

He had half-forgiven Lucy, but hearing his best friend—the collateral damage of his trauma—absolve him of the ultimate guilt... it was the final piece of healing he needed. Subconsciously, Kaito felt truly forgiven.

He smiled, a genuine, bright smile that made his purple eye shine.

"Thanks, Jean," Kaito said softly.

"Don't mention it, bro," Jeanette grinned, her fangs showing. "Now, enough of this depressing backstory garbage. We are villains now! We have a company to run! So tell me about the plan. Ugo sent a memo down the pipeline about a fake dungeon?"

Kaito’s demeanor instantly shifted. The vulnerable best friend vanished, replaced by the sharp, calculating CEO of Ravenloft Holdings.

"Yes," Mordecai confirmed. "Nick will have a new quest. He will be coming to the Northern Dungeon to 'rescue' Princess Pyroetta, so I need to make sure he finds exactly what a Hero expects to find: epic loot and a challenging army of monsters. But I need that loot to absolutely destroy him from the inside out."

Jeanette let out a manic, cackling laugh, hopping off the workbench. Her succubus tail whipped through the air in pure excitement.

"Bro, you have no idea how ready I am for this," Jeanette beamed, rushing over to a massive, reinforced glass cabinet. "As I said, the System was trying to fry my brain with hormones, so I spent the last three days frantically crafting high-tier alchemical items to burn off the libido. How did I do it without knowing anything about alchemy? Simple! According to the rules of bad anime worlds, I randomly mix everything, pretending that it is an ingredient for the thing you have in mind, well, at least this works for me! But now hey, just take a look at this beauty!"

She pulled out a beautifully crafted, glowing red potion bottle. The liquid inside swirled with an imposing, fiery majesty.

"I call it the [Elixir of the Dragon's Roar]," Jeanette announced proudly. "It registers to any basic Appraise skill as a Legendary buff that increases vocal power, skill power, and intimidation by 300%."

"And the actual effect?" Mordecai asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It violently shrinks the user's vocal cords for twenty-four hours," Jeanette smirked maliciously. "If that blonde idiot drinks this, he will sound exactly like a high-pitched, hyperactive squirrel on helium. He won't be able to cast a single verbal incantation without sounding absolutely ridiculous, and his charisma stat will plummet to negative numbers."

Mordecai’s eyes widened. "That is... diabolical. And excellent for the PR campaign. We can record him. What else?"

Jeanette rummaged through a chest, pulling out a tin of gleaming, golden wax.

"[Aegis Armor Polish]," Jeanette presented it like a prize. "Looks like a divine blessing that increases physical defense. But actually, I infused it with Swamp Toad extract. When applied to armor, it creates a magical friction layer. Every time the wearer takes a step, the armor will emit loud, incredibly wet, echoing fart noises. Stealth will become literally impossible, and he'll be completely humiliated in front of his party."

"We will place it in a golden chest right before the boss room," Mordecai nodded approvingly. "But there is a logistical issue, Jeanette. Nick needs to fight his way through the dungeon. I instructed Cassandra to implement a toll system, but we need physical resistance to make it credible. However, I refuse to let any of my actual employees be injured by that coward."

Jeanette’s crimson eyes gleamed. She turned around, walking over to the central cauldron in the room. Inside, a thick, silvery, translucent liquid was bubbling softly.

"I already solved that problem, Boss," Jeanette said, gesturing to the cauldron. "I couldn't stop thinking about how to multiply our workforce without spending gold and how amazing it would be if every one of us could have a personal Mordecai for them. So, I synthesized this. The [Perfect Cloning Serum]."

Mordecai stepped closer, analyzing the silver liquid.

"If anyone drinks a single drop of this," Jeanette explained, "the serum violently replicates their cellular and magical structure, creating an artificial, 1:1 physical clone of the user. The clone has the exact same strength, speed, and abilities as the original."

Mordecai’s mind began to race, the gears of corporate strategy turning at lightspeed.

"Wait," Mordecai said, his eyes locking onto Jeanette. "If we give this to the goblin miners... and the skeletal knights... we can generate an entire artificial army of clones."

"Exactly!" Jeanette cheered.

"We send the clones to the Northern Dungeon," Mordecai continued, his voice rising with excitement. "Nick fights them, expends his mana, breaks his weapons, and drinks his potions. He literally fights a grueling, brutal war against our forces, believing he is making progress."

He paused, a sudden, brilliant realization hitting him.

Kaito looked at Jeanette, his purple eye wide. "Jeanette... these clones. They are artificial creations, right? They don't have actual souls?"

Jeanette’s wicked grin stretched from ear to ear. She knew exactly what he was thinking.

"Nope," Jeanette confirmed, popping the 'p'. "Zero soul. Which means, according to the LitRPG System rules..."

"They yield absolutely zero EXP," Mordecai whispered in pure awe.

It was the ultimate trap. Nick would fight an S-Rank army, burning through his resources, risking his life, and at the end of the slaughter, he wouldn't gain a single experience point. It was a complete loss on investment. He would fight for nothing, just to regain his ego.

Mordecai was so overwhelmed by the sheer, magnificent cruelty of the strategy that he completely dropped his stoic facade.

"PERFECT!" Mordecai shouted, stepping forward and throwing his arms around Jeanette, pulling her into a tight, celebratory hug. "EVERYTHING IS PERFECT! YOU ARE A GENIUS, MY FRIEND!"

Jeanette squeaked in surprise as she was pulled against his chest. Her succubus instincts immediately flared, her face turned bright red, her leathery wings wrapped around him, and she eagerly returned the hug.

"Oh, yes... yes...♡♡♡" Jeanette purred, her heart-shaped pupils threatening to return. She tilted her head up, leaning in, fully intending to plant a passionate, highly unprofessional kiss directly on the CEO’s neck.

Mordecai’s [Dense Protagonist] passive fired on all cylinders. He interpreted her movement as an attempt to whisper a secret formula into his ear.

He smoothly, effortlessly pulled back, sidestepping her completely.

"I need to coordinate this with Cassandra and the others," Mordecai said, his mind already calculating the logistics, and turning toward the heavy iron door, completely oblivious to Jeanette, who was now leaning awkwardly into empty air, her lips puckered.

"W-Wait, you're leaving already?" Jeanette pouted, quickly composing herself.

"I have to check on Vera," Mordecai said, placing his hand on the door handle. "Get the serum bottled, and then have Brenda distribute it to the barracks. I want three hundred clones ready for deployment by dawn. Meet me in the main hall in a few hours."

He pushed the door open, stepping out into the hallway.

But as he stood on the threshold, an old memory flashed in his mind. Back in their high school days, whenever they finished a grueling study session or a long shift at their part-time jobs, they had a specific, stupid way of saying goodbye.

Mordecai stopped. He waited for a second.

Jeanette, disappointed but compliant, turned around to head back to her workbench. "Alright, boss, I'll get to—"

SMACK!

Mordecai wound up and delivered a massive, resounding slap directly to Jeanette's thigh-high-clad behind.

It was a perfectly platonic, incredibly immature "good game" slap between best bros.

Normally, the appropriate reaction from the tomboyish Jeanette would be to yell, "Ouch, idiot!" and throw a beaker at his head.

But Jeanette was currently inhabiting the body of a highly sensitive, sexually frustrated succubus whose hormones had been redlining for the past four hours.

The impact of the slap sent a literal shockwave through her demonic nervous system.

Instead of yelling, Jeanette froze. Her knees buckled inward, dramatically arching her back, and looking back over her shoulder at Kaito.

Her golden eyes rolled back slightly, her face flushing a catastrophic shade of red. She let out a loud, incredibly lewd, echoing moan that bounced off the stone walls of the laboratory.

She executed a flawless, majestic ahegao expression, her tongue hanging out slightly as she panted.

"F-Finally..." Jeanette gasped, her voice trembling with sheer, overwhelming ecstasy. "You... you accept my feelings...!"

Mordecai stood in the doorway. His [Dense Protagonist] skill completely bluescreened. He simply processed the reaction as Jeanette being weirdly enthusiastic about her new workload.

He chuckled, shaking his head.

"The faster you work, the sooner you'll see me," Mordecai said smoothly, completely unfazed by the hyper-sexual display. "See you later, bro."

He stepped out into the corridor and pulled the heavy iron door shut.

CLACK.

The moment the door closed, a translucent pink window appeared on the iron surface. The System, utterly defeated and frustrated by Kaito's absolute immunity to tropes, engaged its final protocol.

[SYSTEM ALERT: Target entity 'Jeanette' has reached critical libido mass.]

[Initiating emergency quarantine protocol. Door locked from the inside to prevent collateral damage to NPC staff.]

Kaito heard the heavy deadbolt slide into place. He smirked, adjusting his coat. The alchemist was back in her element, the trap for the Hero was set, and the company was thriving.

Our beloved fake necromancer stared at the glowing pink window for a moment and then let out a long, slow breath, running a hand through his messy dark hair.

'Ah... thank God I had that skill,' he muttered to himself, shaking his head.

He turned away from the door and began walking down the dimly lit corridor, his boots echoing softly against the ancient stone floor.

'Jean knows all my tastes,' Kaito whispered, more to himself than to anyone else. 'And on top of that, she's a demoness now. A succubus.' He paused, his purple eye glowing faintly in the darkness.

'The way I am now... she definitely would have been able to make me give in.'

A shiver ran down his spine—not from fear, but from the uncomfortable realization of his own vulnerability.

He quickened his pace, heading toward Vault 4.

'Focus,' he told himself, shaking off the thought. 'We have a Hero to humiliate.'