It started off bad. That’s what Zeke Becker always thinks. Like, if you step into a dungeon and immediately trigger a trap, no matter how easy the rest of the path is, you’re bound to be hesitant. Or if you bite into a dish and find a lump of salt in the first mouthful, no amount of deliciousness afterward can make up for it. That’s why a bad start is a pretty serious stroke of bad luck in life—at least, Zeke thinks so.
“Damn it. Lucky bastard. So happy. You gotta be kidding me!”
Zeke was sitting cross-legged on the shallow edge of the bathing oasis, taking in the sights. The mixed-gender bathing oasis, a local specialty of Taruk, wasn’t short on young couples or families. Everywhere you looked, ogres and dark elves were taking advantage of the mixed bathing to get up close and personal—ogre couples grinding against each other, dark elf families (though the fathers and daughters didn’t exactly look like family). Watching the young ogres and dark elf girls frolicking with their friends made Zeke feel happy, but seeing the couples and families just made him wistful.
He mentally erected a partition, focusing only on the girls without partners or groups of girls alone, and blankly gazed around the oasis. He’d been furious at Andy’s harem situation for a while, but when he imagined whether he could achieve something like that—or even if he already had—he couldn’t help but feel sad as time passed.
“If only I hadn’t started off so bad…”
When it came to being popular with girls, Zeke was pretty much in the “highly desirable” category. His features were good enough to rival a stage actor, he was tall, held a decent position, had a great sense of humor, and was strong as hell. If he went to some rural backwater where men were scarce and women had few marriage prospects, and just started hitting on everyone without restraint, he could probably get close to Andy’s harem status—if he worked at it. Legally, there wouldn’t be any issues if the girl was a Celesta.
So, was it actually possible?
For Zeke, the answer was no.
The truth was, he was a complete virgin.
Zeke Becker was from the western Celesta region, near the Great Almonica River, and an orphan. Shortly after he was born, his parents were killed when a band of thieves raided their home, and he nearly died of starvation before being rescued and raised by the adventurer Lead Becker. This adoptive father, Lead Becker, specialized in looting ruins and was also a member of a rare, beastman-like race called the Birdmen—capable of flying for short periods. His usual style was to recklessly charge into the central chambers of ruins, grab the treasure, and then use his wings to shake off hordes of monsters as he made a quick getaway.
And Zeke… well, he’d often secretly tag along on his adoptive father’s adventures, only to end up being chased by the monster horde in place of his adoptive father, who’d already escaped.
His superhuman speed, far beyond that of ordinary humans, had started developing around this time. When a human nearly dies, all sorts of things awaken inside them.
“Yo, you, the guy with the bourgeois knife from yesterday."
"Huh?”
Zeke looked up to see a massive ogre standing there, arms crossed.
The same guy who’d been working as a bouncer at the tavern last night.
His member, which he wasn’t trying to hide and was swinging freely, was impressively ogre-sized. And it was right at eye level.
”Don’t get so close. It stinks."
"Don’t go sniffing it."
"I’ll punch you."
"Hah hah hah.”
The ogre sat down next to Zeke, about a meter away.
“That’s a pretty impressive knife, though. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the one who took it, but is that really okay? That thing was a weapon of mass destruction, probably worth buying a house or two."
"Seriously? That’s my treasure! I gotta make sure that girl pays me back before she pawns it off."
"…What’s with those two? Isn’t she your woman?"
"No. No, she isn’t…"
"Then why don’t you just hand over the knife and scram… though, again, I shouldn’t be saying that."
"In that case, something even worse could’ve happened…”
He couldn’t exactly say, “The woman I drank with last night was actually a dragon,” but the gravity of the situation seemed to sink in. The ogre pursed his lips sympathetically.
”…You haven’t pawned it yet, right?"
"That’s none of my business. Depends on how much Old Man’s got."
"Hey, hey, hey, please… at least you know the pawnshop you usually use, right? If things get desperate, I’ll try it out, so tell me."
"It’s Trident Traders on Razona Street. Best appraisers for weapons around."
"…Trident Traders, huh? Hold on a sec. Could that be… the Tri-Headed Ogre’s?"
"You know about them? Thought you were just some adventurer, but you’re a merchant?"
"Neither.”
Zeke rubbed his temples.
”Damn it… Tri-Headed… there’s a high chance they’re connected to the south…"
"What’s wrong, bro? You got some bad memories with Tri-Headed Ogres?"
"A little bit, yeah. Well, let’s hope it doesn’t matter…”
Tri-Headed Ogres, as the name suggests, are ogres with three horns.
Originally, among the standard species called Plain Ogres, Tri-Headed ones were fewer in number compared to those with one or two horns, and thus known for their strong solidarity.
”Ugh… my Jewel Knife… damn it…"
"Well, let’s hope luck turns around."
"Yeah… you’re a good guy, even if you reek of manhood."
"Shut up. It’s a sign of experience, leave it alone.”
Encouraged by the surprisingly decent mercenary ogre, Zeke left the water bath oasis.
Even though it was just a hobby item, the potential loss of something so valuable—enough to build three sun-dried brick houses—left Zeke unable to hide his shock.
”Damn… but there’s no way that girl can come up with money so soon after yesterday…”
Even if he rushed to the tavern, without money, there was nothing he could do.
Zeke, whose job was to swindle information and important people, couldn’t exactly steal from civilians. A profession where one could easily stumble meant professional ethics were crucial.
”…Damn it. Guess I have to wait. At least I’ll make sure she doesn’t leave without paying.”
Since he’d only pawned his Jewel Knife as a substitute for drinks, he hadn’t touched his wallet, so he still had some money in his pocket.
He’d use that to kill time.
Having lost his stash to the booze, he didn’t want to see alcohol right now.
”Then… women, I guess.”
Zeke checked the weight of his wallet and started walking down a back alley, looking for an inexpensive brothel.
Buying women was one of his hobbies. He could never commit to just one, but as a side gig for his intelligence work, wandering through various towns wasn’t inconvenient.
“Damn… thinking about Smayson getting to screw around with six or seven beauties for free… it’s infuriating.”
Though he didn’t look quite so frustrated in his soliloquy.
“I really wish I knew the secret to getting close to women that good.”
The words were laced with sarcasm, but not as much as they implied. In an instant, his hollow eyes reflected not admiration for the situation, but disappointment in himself.
”…Some things just aren’t worth thinking about.”
When Sieg was twelve, Reed Becker departed for the Western Continent, where untouched mazes and ruins were said to remain. However, Sieg’s relentless pursuit of him had been noticed too many times, and his parents, despite being reckless adventurers themselves, couldn’t risk it any longer. They entrusted him to one of Reed’s acquaintances.
Sieg spent several months in Timberles, a port town at the mouth of the Great Almonica River, before moving to Quiq. That same year, he passed the Ace Knight exam and, at the age of twelve (the youngest record at the time), earned the title of Ace Knight. Immediately afterward, due to his unique, evasive fighting style, he was directly assigned to the Special Intelligence Brigade.
After several missions, Sieg’s first love arrived when he was fifteen. As the youngest Ace Knight, he was fawned over, treated like a prodigy, even a curiosity—hardly as an equal. It satisfied his vanity, but it didn’t fuel his passion for work, nor did it ease his loneliness.
Most of his interactions were with Knight Class holders far older than him, which wasn’t easy for an adolescent boy. And seeking companionship among peers was no better—the military cadets around his age were mostly officer hopefuls, spoiled brats who had no idea what real combat was like.
Surrounded by praise and admiration, he was lonely.
That loneliness was healed by a girl two years his senior, the daughter of a merchant from the Affilm Empire. Her name was Elsa.
Being a foreigner, she wasn’t intimidated by Sieg, the “genius Ace Knight” who was famous in Quiq at the time. Yet she didn’t come across as some uneducated floozy either—she was exactly what Sieg had always imagined.
It didn’t take long for the young Sieg to become infatuated with her.
Shaking off memories of his youth, Sieg stepped through a draped entrance layered with sheer fabric. Inside, a young dark elf woman waited, clad in something that barely qualified as clothing.
“A dark elf.”
“You’re looking at me like I’m some kind of rare creature.”
“Sorry. It’s just… this is the first time I’ve seen a dark elf working in a brothel.”
“This is the Dark Elf Colony, you know?”
“For a guy like me—a small-time thug—it’s hard to believe such long-lived creatures would take up a profession like this in a dive like this. I always assumed it was for broke humans or beastmen.”
The dark elf laughed.
“Dark elves don’t live on mist alone, you know. We buy bread with money, and renting a house isn’t free either. Sometimes we fall in love, sometimes we get cheated… and sometimes, when there’s nothing else left to sell but our bodies…”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
A common story. A natural social structure.
If there are men and women, money and business, and the desire to outwit others, then this will always happen.
There will always be women like this.
Sieg didn’t feel pity or sympathy for it—he wasn’t old enough to burn with righteous indignation anymore.
He was no longer that young.
“Alright, let’s begin. Time’s the limit, right?”
“Yes. You can cum as much as you want until the noon bell rings. Though, for a customer like you… I guess it’d be lingering and drawn-out until the very end.”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Even if she tells me to empty myself, there’s no way I can just start blasting away.
I wonder how Smyson is doing. Is he struggling with his cumshot techniques because he’s got too many women on his hands?
There’s no way his dick could keep up, probably just getting better at finger work and stuff, I imagine. Meanwhile, Sieg straddles the woman, groping her breasts which are practically exposed despite the thin fabric and metal trim, planting kisses from the base of her ear down to her lips, parting the scant cloth covering her slit with a finger, and swirling his digit around.
“Ah…! Don’t just jump right in like that, customer… You’re the customer, and I’m the service provider…”
“Sometimes I want to remind my fingers who they know. What? We have all the time in the world, right? Give me one good orgasm.”
“Ugh… Mmmph…”
The dark elf goes quiet.
Sieg continues moving his finger.
Rolling her nipple with his tongue, peeling back the hood of her clit, massaging her ass, coaxing moisture from within her labia.
“Huff…”
“Nghaaaah…!”
Sometimes he catches her off guard with a blast to the ear, making it all wet and sloppy.
The dark elf obediently surrenders to pleasure.
Or at least acts like she is.
”…”
Even if it’s an act, he’s not childish enough to get mad about it.
That’s just the nature of the job for a woman in this profession.
Sieg can compartmentalize it that way.
Suddenly, he hates how familiar all of this feels.
(…Lying, exhausted, pretending to be deceived, pretending to believe the deception works, pretending to be absorbed…)
In the end, is he just going to shoot his load with a stupid face on, just to maintain the facade of lies he’s built up with this woman?
Is he paying her to release his seed, just to hide the fact that he’s actually not passionate about anything, surrounded by so many precautions?
…Sieg suddenly feels disgusted with himself and whispers to the dark elf girl.
“What’s your name?”
”…?”
“Not your stage name. I can’t get it up unless I call you by the name of the person I’m fucking.”
”…Right. Ariel.”
“That’s a good name. …Ariel…”
He indulges in one selfish whim.
With that satisfaction, he plunges his cock into the dark elf’s slit.
It’s a habit of Sieg’s to pry into someone’s secrets, something he hasn’t done since his first love.
He wants to know.
I want to know the truth.
I want to know what he’s trying to hide.
I want to know his side—the side he thinks no one else sees.
If I do, I can rest easy.
That’s what I tell myself.
Even the name I just learned might be a stage name.
(…No way, that’s not me!)
He was consumed by self-loathing.
What kind of love, romance, or sex is this—built on nothing but preemptive strikes and cowardice?
In the end, Sieg can’t focus on women because he just doesn’t want to look like an idiot.
When you get used to being an adult, when you get too used to knowing only people’s weaknesses, you stop being honest with yourself.
Sieg was terribly bad at the act of crashing into someone without pretense, without any reason other than his own desires and passions.
That’s why he envied youth—envied immaturity—for being able to do that.
“Ugh…!"
"…Sir?”
The dark elf looked puzzled as she sat up.
Sieg’s cock had softened and slipped out.
”S-sorry… I guess I’m not in the mood."
"I’m sorry, I—"
"Ariel, it’s not your fault. It’s just that I’m a bit of a flaccid one.”
She scrambled to her feet and buried her face in Sieg’s groin.
Unlike a vagina, a blowjob can’t be faked with sheer willpower when you’re targeting a specific erogenous zone. He was instantly hard again, and she guided him right to climax.
“Ugh… guh—!!"
"…Nng, …ngg, ngguh… ngh, pffft.”
Then, she swallowed it all down.
Sieg stroked the dark elf’s hair with conflicted feelings.
”…♪"
"Don’t look so happy just because I petted you.”
He couldn’t believe it again.
Wasn’t she laughing at him behind that happy face?
”…Then stop petting me.”
The dark elf took his hand.
”People like to be praised, you know. Even if it’s for sucking a dick."
"I see."
"Yes.”
The dark elf buried her face in Zeke’s groin again.
This time, it was a leisurely attack—no frantic scrambling. By the time it built up to another climax, the noon bell rang.
Zeke left the brothel and bought some thin-fried bread from a street vendor, then snuck onto the rooftop of a building to savor it in peace. For Zeke, scaling a three-story roof was no big deal. Compared to when he chased after his stepfather as a kid, leaping up a sheer cliff face at an ancient mountain ruin in triple jumps—this was nothing.
”…Hah. Guess I’ll try nudging things along. If Dragon-nee-chan can’t handle it, I’ll just owe Smayson some money. And if Smayson can’t handle it, Carlos-san gets stuck with the tab.”
He muttered to himself, trying to drown out the emptiness rising in his chest.
Work and inanimate objects.
These two would never betray Zeke.
Complete his work, adore inanimate objects, and occasionally buy a woman for a fleeting embrace. When he was in the mood, everything flowed smoothly, and he could live stylishly.
And before he knew it, he was thirty-nine.
He’d become incapable of living any other way.
“I can’t just go and get close to some beauty like you now. If there’s a way, tell me.”
It wasn’t jealousy of Andy’s “situation.”
It was envy of Andy’s “innocent youth.”
Regret over his own life—forced to grow up too early, willingly stepping into the adult world. The pose he’d adopted had become everything he was, and now there was no foothold left to dismantle it.
But Diarne was an exception for Zeke.
Diarne would never deceive Zeke. She was too strong, earnest, and overflowing with compassion—a woman who could honestly say there was nothing to gain or find amusing in betraying him.
She was the only one he could unconditionally trust, admire, and—on top of all that—she perfectly matched his tastes. The absolute best, a goddess in every way.
But his bad habit of peering into secrets and shame always got the better of him, preventing him from winning her heart, and ultimately letting Andy get there first.
”…Well, Anzelos too… Even if he’d gotten close, it would’ve probably been the same as always.”
He instinctively drew a line against anyone he couldn’t trust.
There was no need to be so wary. No need to put on such an act.
Deep down, he knew that, but the ingrained “adult pose” wouldn’t disappear.
Whenever he sensed a relationship might deepen, he’d always excuse himself with work.
Whenever someone admired him, he’d betray them before the wounds got too deep.
Alongside the one minute of frustration at Anzelos being taken by Andy, there was nine minutes of relief knowing Anzelos would naturally keep his distance even if Zeke didn’t push him away.
In short, that was this man’s life.
No matter how capable, handsome, or strong he was, he remained a timid, pretentious, and insecure man with a weak heart.
He couldn’t change anymore.
Shielding himself behind the rigid facade of Zeke Becker, he laughed off his own weaknesses as jokes and continued living this way.
He’d given up.
Beneath him, in the back alley below, he spotted a familiar face.
It was the dark elf he’d just been with.
“Ariel, we got some good fish in today.”
The dark elf opened her wallet with a smile at the ogre fishmonger’s words—Ariel.
”Ariel-chan, good work out there… If we could just pay you more here, you wouldn’t have to go to places like that."
"No, it’s fine. Once I decide to do something, I’ll take the best offer at that inn."
"…Yeah, okay. But don’t push yourself too hard.”
Ariel puffed out her chest in front of the dark elf girl behind the clothing store (though she might not look like a girl, she could be quite old).
”…It wasn’t a stage name after all.”
Zieg felt ashamed for doubting her—and then ashamed that he was ashamed. Doubting was only natural. It was his job as an agent.
…Before the shock could subside, a sudden roar echoed through the back alley.
”Ariel!! Dark elf Ariel!!"
"!?”
The air in the alley tightened.
A one-horned ogre and several others barged in, sweeping aside stalls like they were nothing.
”Not enough agari? What’s going on!!"
"W-well… last month I was sick—"
"I don’t care! It’s not our problem if you catch some disease! You should borrow from somewhere else to pay what you owe!"
"There’s nowhere left to borrow from…!!"
"Hah, then steal it! Don’t act so high and mighty now, you slut who happily became a sellout!”
Ah, that was right.
A common story. A story found everywhere.
Loving, being deceived, women selling their bodies, and debt collectors.
Everywhere, everywhere it’s the same.
In the north, in the south, among long-lived elves and humans alike.
”…Hah.”
Zieg Becker instantly shut his eyes, recalling the end of his first love twenty-four years ago.
The end of his first love was also the first time he’d killed a woman.
Ah yes, spies don’t get good endings. If I don’t do it, Elsa will be slowly broken down, limb by limb, finger by finger, until she’s nothing but a crushed heap for interrogation.
It’s my fault for being deceived. It’s my fault for loving.
But.
That’s just pathetic. That’s all.
And yet, everywhere, anyone still falls in love without fearing deception.
And lives with their heads held high.
All Ariel did was smile because she correctly introduced herself without Zieg doubting her—that was it.
But even that, Zieg couldn’t believe.
“So what?” Zieg thought, but the mere fact that he was getting up to clear his name would be enough.
It was more than enough for him to pull off such a pathetic, cringeworthy act of trying to look cool in front of a woman.
“Oi, you one-horned idiots with your dim-witted faces!"
"Agh!?”
Suddenly—
A tall, gaunt middle-aged man materialized beside Ariel.
“That’s something I can’t just ignore."
"What are you…? Vanish, you lanky bastard!"
"To steal in front of a soldier, that’s some nerve."
"Soldier…!?"
"Easy there. This is our colony. …If we fold him up and bury him, no one will ever know.”
The Ogre spoke ominously.
Zieg grinned and instantly knocked out one of the Ogres.
“What…!?"
"What’s wrong!? What happened, Guts!!”
Zieg had closed the distance in a flash, kicked him in the temple, and returned to his original position—yet no one in the back alleys could have seen that movement.
“And… to try and get into this fine woman’s pants in front of me, that’s some nerve."
"What do you want, you—"
"Zieg Becker, 39 years old. Currently seeking a girlfriend.”
He winked unconvincingly and smiled at the stunned Ariel.
“Personally, I think you’d be perfect.”
“This Jewel Knife… it’s from the Western Continent, isn’t it?"
"Yes."
"There are only four of this type in the Northwestern Plains. One is with the Sylphid Trading Company in Trollot Royal Capital, one is in the Imperial Museum of Affilum, and one is mine."
"So, the remaining one…"
"Hmm… so that means the man who owns it has come to this town… heh heh heh heh.”
He shook his three horns as a delighted laugh echoed.
“Keep it safe… I waited ten years for this moment!”
(To be continued)