A Way to Fulfill Your Desires
As I watch her snore the night away in a deep sleep, I think about what the future has in store for me.
I don’t think it would be a mistake to consider Hulemy an ally. It seems like they want her alive, at least until she uncovers my secrets, so I don’t believe I need to worry about them killing her soon.
According to Lammis, she’s a person filled with wanderlust. If she goes missing, nobody worries about her, and it’s quite possible nobody even notices she’s missing. I shouldn’t expect anyone to come looking for her.
But they’ve probably realized I’m gone, so I can only pray Director Bear sends out a search party for me. I just hope Lammis isn’t so worried that she does something reckless.
Lammis has obviously been contributing a lot to the settlement’s reconstruction, but I think I have been, too. My disappearing is a loss for the settlement, one that will delay the reconstruction efforts… At least, that’s how I hope they interpret it. That would certainly help my situation.
As I mull it over, I hear a soft click through the midnight room veiled in silence. When I look over to where I heard it, I see the doorknob turn and the door slowly open. I thought they’d come.
“Hey, we actually doing this?”
“You guys are pent up, too, aren’t you? You can leave if you don’t want to do it.”
“W-well, I mean, no curves, spindly, and filthy. And not a damned bit of sexiness.”
“Makes no difference to me.”
“Didn’t the boss tell us not to do anything to her?”
“She’ll keep quiet if we show her a blade and threaten her.”
They’re whispering to one another, speaking of vulgar things. Three of them. The low-life peon Gugoyle isn’t with them. He’s probably being prudent after their boss threatened him so much today.
I could announce “Welcome” at maximum volume to cause a stir, but underground rooms usually have good soundproofing, so I’m frankly not sure it would make a difference. Especially since I get the feeling this is a repurposed jail cell.
And by surprising them, they might accidentally hurt Hulemy in the confusion. It’s even possible they’ll try to destroy me out of desperation to keep me quiet.
In that case, what do I do? They’re inching closer to her, evaluating her, their eyes crawling up and down her body.
There’s no time. I’ll try this.
“H-hey, wait. The magic-item box is glowing.”
Right before they touch her skin, one of them gets flustered, hits the other two on the back, and stares in my direction.
“W-wait, what? Is it changing its products…? No, it’s changing shape.”
“Th-this… This is incredible! Look at these detailed drawings of naked women. This one is tempting me with sexy underwear. That is one erotic body.”
The three of them cling to me, staring at the magazines through the glass—the porno mags, as they’re colloquially known.
You don’t see vending machines carrying porno mags very much now that the Internet has gotten popular, but I’m aware they still survive quietly in certain places.
All right, here’s the critical moment. I drop six specially chosen magazines into my compartment.
“Hey, they’re falling out!”
“Really? Let me see.”
“Me too, me too!”
Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! They’re hooked. The amount of effort Japan puts into eroticism is nothing to scoff at. Especially when vending machines sell them—you can’t see what’s inside, so the important part is how you grab customers by using only the front cover.
All the poses and angles are calculated down to the finest details. What will happen if people from another world, where sexual culture hasn’t advanced as far, see them?
Also, the magazines I’ve given them are ones I chose from all those that I’ve bought—ones where I’m confident in the contents. A lot of these tend to be awful on the inside. How many times have I been fooled?
Ah, well. I’m a vending machine maniac, so it’s not like I have an interest in this stuff—I only bought them as part of my collection. I certainly was not sneaking out of the house at night and only buying them after making sure nobody was around.
We have the Internet now, so people can fulfill their sexual urges without laboring for it. I used it, too, so I might not have the right to say one thing or another about it, but there is one thing I’d like to set the record straight on anyway.
Porn you worked to obtain has a different value than porn you get from a single click! Even if the contents are cheap and completely different from the cover, no matter how many times they betray your expectations, you always remember them—they live on inside you!
…This is one of the countermeasures I thought of while consulting with Shirley before, who runs the sex business. Still, back then, I didn’t end up in this mode. After all, it would kind of seem like I was spreading my own inclinations to the settlement.
“Whoa, how are these pictures so detailed? These are crazy. I’m overwhelmed.”
“H-how are her boobs so big? Wait, you can do that?!”
“Seriously, seriously, seriously?!”
They’re all so absorbed that even middle school kids just awakening to their own sexuality would be weirded out. They bury themselves in “reading” and forget all about Hulemy’s existence.
It’s gone according to my predictions thus far. What happens next is the problem.
“I…I’m not going to do it. I just remembered I have something to do.”
“What…a coincidence. My stomach hurts, so I’m calling it quits.”
“A-all right, then… I’ll get going, too.”
For some reason, all three hunch over and leave the room, each with a magazine in both hands. I considered the possibility they would excite the men into assaulting Hulemy, but it looks like their sexual curiosity got the best of them.
They must have decided it would be better to fulfill their desires with these instead of risking it and assaulting her. The seductive women they’d never seen before, their sexually provocative clothing, the pictures of people entangled—were these alone that much of a shock?
The subjects in these magazines all have abnormally good-looking bodies, and their faces are beautiful, too. I mustn’t give voice to opinions about photo-editing software being great lately, or my becoming disillusioned by it.
As long as they have some way to release, violence will fall by the wayside.
If things had taken a turn for the worse and they assaulted her, I was ready to do something about it with noise and my Force Field. But I’m glad things worked out.
The door closed, and they disappeared. Hulemy is still snoring away, oblivious to the fact that she was almost attacked. If this will put them on good behavior for a while, though, we won’t have any conflicts we can’t afford.
I can’t escape on my own, and my options are severely limited. She obviously can’t carry me out of here. Without Lammis, it’s impossible for any one person to lift me.
I realize how important she is only now that she’s gone— Well, that kind of sounds like we’re lovers who just broke up, doesn’t it?
In the end, buying time and getting in the way is about all I can do. I don’t have anywhere near enough points for another Blessing. That means I have to rely on my features. Maybe I’ll go through the list again.
A decent chunk of time passes while I’m comparing how many remaining points I have to what I should be getting, and Hulemy wakes up.
She gives a great big yawn. “Man, I slept like a rock. Mornin’, Boxxo,” she says, lifting a hand toward me as she casually scratches her disheveled hair. Her clothes are messy from her sleep, but it makes her look far more sloppy than sexy.
She leans back to stretch her joints, but even bent like that, there’s nothing protruding from her chest area. This isn’t the kind of thing where she’s actually a guy, right? Because the way she talks is perfectly masculine.
“Anyway, what should I do today? I’d like to research your features, but…”
In the middle of her sentence, her stomach makes a loud noise. Hulemy scratches her cheek with a finger.
“Sorry. I’m always careful about them putting strange stuff in my food, so I’ve only been eating bits and pieces. I’m seriously hungry.”
I see. I’ll treat you to some food, then. She’s probably cold, since she’s been rubbing her arms and legs since she got up. I’d like to suggest cup ramen, but if she’s that hungry, then I’ll give her a can of oden first, since she can eat it right away.
I drop her a can. After she takes that, I offer cup ramen.
“This is real warm. Is this container completely airtight…? If I twist this and pull it… Whoa! This is incredible. It smells great.”
She greedily devours the oden in one go. After drinking up the broth, she goes for the cup ramen. At first she isn’t sure how to use the hot water, but once she manages to pour it in, she sits cross-legged on the table and whistles to herself as she waits for it to be done. She opens the lid several times to prod the noodles and check how they’re doing, then closes it and repeats the process, like a little kid. She easily puts away the entire cup, too, and she still looks hungry, so I decide to have her test a new product—bread in a can.
“The fluffy stuff in this tube… It’s bread! Boy, you could put cafeterias out of business with all this. And this bread is great, too. It’s so soft!”
Her table manners aren’t polite by any stretch, but watching her enjoy the food so much makes me happy.
With that, it seems she’s full. She lounges on the table as she scratches the bulge in her belly, using her fork as a toothpick.
Just then, the door clacks open, and the stern-faced man they were calling “boss” shows up.
“Looks like you’re awake. Figure out anything about that box?”
“Eh? And why should I have to follow your instructions, hmm?!”
Despite being the one kidnapped, Hulemy glares daggers at the large, frightening man. She must have a lot of nerve—and she’s not letting an inch of fear show. I wouldn’t be surprised if her heart is made out of steel.
“You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that. If you join our gang, we’d treat you a lot better, you know.”
“Unfortunately for you, I’m not about to obey villains, or leave myself in your care.”
“Hey, careful with the tough talk. You want to meet the same fate as your friends?”
“Friends?” She spits. “They’re not friends. They’re just hired bodyguards.”
She hired bodyguards? I guess that makes sense. Clearly, she isn’t physically trained; a girl like her wouldn’t go exploring a stratum on her own with all the monsters crawling about.
“But listen here. I may have hired them with money, but that doesn’t mean I’ll forgive you bastards for killing them!”
“Ha. What can a weak woman like you do on her own? I’m not a very patient man. How about this? Either fix that box or get the gold coins out within the next two days. Understand?”
The boss leaves it at that and exits the room.
Hulemy drags a thumb across her neck and sticks out her tongue.
We have two days. We have to come up with a plan before then, because if we don’t have anything, they’ll either kill her or put her through a hell worse than death. I have to do something.
