In the Royal Castle

The atmosphere inside the royal castle was tense — that was what Tiana, a maid serving in the castle, felt that day.

She was tall. Her arms, extending from shoulders padded out by the inserts of her uniform, were slender and long, and the nape of her neck, glimpsed at her collar, did not carry an ounce of wasted flesh.

The body wrapped in a thick black one-piece was lithe, and her lustrous looks drew the eye. Here and there her flesh was sparse, but it was not entirely absent either; the rear wrapped in her one-piece was shapely and curved upward. Yet her chest — the part a man would most likely seize on as a point of sexual appeal — was modest, almost like that of a young girl.

Tall stature, slender limbs. With her sharp eyes, the air about her could even be called coldly aloof.

The hair gathered at the nape of her neck with a barrette was a nearly-white, slightly muted gray.

She wore leather boots on her feet, and the long flared skirt hid her shapely legs from view; but the narrowness of her waist made it easy to imagine just how slender and lovely those legs must be.

Rather, the very fact that they were hidden — concealed — stoked the imaginations and inflamed the desires of men all the more.

This Tiana stood ramrod-straight at one corner of the room, without so much as a twitch of the white brim crowning her head. She was one of six.

Four of them, including Tiana, wore the same thick black one-piece and white apron — maid uniforms — and waited in attendance in Queen Leticia's chamber.

The remaining two were clad in full steel armor, with steel spears in hand — a forbidding sight.

Leticia, the mistress of this chamber, paid no mind to the presence of the six. She stood looking down at the royal capital through the wall-spanning window of the room.

Twilight. The royal capital where several thousand subjects lived, with inns large enough to comfortably house dozens of guests, and a pleasure quarter that shone dazzlingly bright once night fell.

An orphanage and a church. A school where children without parents could attend, and an academy for the children of nobility.

A workshop district where smiths gathered, and a market where the goods made there and the vegetables hauled in by villagers from the countryside were sold.

These were divided by district, with the kind of people each line of work demanded gathering in their respective areas.

All of this was part of the nation-building envisioned by Leticia's husband — the [Hero], summoned from another world, who had since returned to it.

What had to be done to better the lives of the people, to enrich the country. Recalling that black-haired boy — by the time they had parted, he had grown enough to be called a young man — Leticia softened her lips into a smile.

Leticia was queen of the magic kingdom of Fonteau, but it was the [Hero] who had laid this country's foundation and developed it to where it stood today.

Because everyone thought so, there were some who called this country not the magic kingdom but the [Hero]'s kingdom.

But that was the same in the other two countries. Lands ruled by her old comrades, the human warrior and the beastfolk huntress who had journeyed with the [Hero].

The [Hero]'s will, the [Hero]'s thinking, ran through every one of those countries. It was not only Fonteau.

That was why, when her ministers said they should call themselves the [Hero]'s kingdom, Leticia chided them.

To say such a thing would only invite the laughter of the other two countries — and although her two former traveling companions would approve, the [Hero] himself surely would not.

He had hoped for an equal peace. Three nations on equal footing. None standing above the others, but able to take one another's hands.

That was his dream.

The [Hero]'s dream.

It was likely hypocrisy. Equality existed nowhere. The wealthy and the starving. Nobles and commoners. Humans and beastfolk and demi-humans. Differences of race and culture.

So many factors stood in the way of the word "equality." Even Leticia, devoted to the [Hero] as she was, understood that much.

She suspected that even the [Hero] himself, though equality was always on his lips, had known he could never truly reach it.

And yet he had chased that dream. He had put forward all sorts of policies in the hope of even slightly approaching equality. Because he was that kind of man, Leticia — a half-elf, a mixed-blood — had fallen in love.

She had fallen in love, and entrusted the country to him.

The ministers who had at first opposed it could say nothing once they saw how greatly the country had changed in just half a year, and by the time a year had passed they were nodding readily at the [Hero]'s opinions.

Even now, recalling the sight of them, Leticia covered her mouth with her right hand — it still struck her as funny.

Clad in a pure white dress, the beautiful queen gazed out the window with a graceful smile on her lips. The sight could have been a painting, captivating any who saw her.

Her lustrous silver hair caught the sunlight; her small lips were pink. Her ears, though not as pronounced as a pure elf's, were pointed, and her red eyes — unusual even for an elf — proved her half-elven heritage. Those red eyes reflected faintly in the windowpane.

Half-elven though she was, Leticia's looks set her apart from her own kind, and although she was the mother of two children, her figure had not slackened in the least.

That much was plain from the swell and cinch of the dress she wore. Her chest, looking as though it cradled two ripe fruits, was bared deeply enough to expose her cleavage. Her waist was so slender it seemed a grown man could snap it with only a little force. And the rear lower down — it was full enough to lift the skirt of her dress in a way that even Tiana, sharing the same room, could not help being mesmerized by.

Her chest and rear were fleshed out, yet there was not the slightest trace of excess weight elsewhere.

Having borne children, the luster of [Motherly] grace shone in her expression, and even the slightest gesture could enthrall a man.

A perfect beauty.

That was the kind of queen Leticia was — beautiful enough to deserve such a phrase.

Leticia was unaware that the guard soldiers standing watch in the room had been entranced by her profile. To her, certainly, a man was a man — yet the one she revered as her husband was the [Hero], who no longer remained in this world. Even now, after he had left it, that feeling carried not the slightest cloud.

Even now she could recall his lustrous black hair and the eyes that held a strong will. He had a dignified expression, yet she knew that when he smiled it was as charming as suited his years. That was Leticia's treasure. The treasure of her memory.

As she carefully called up that memory from the depths of her heart, a light knock came at the door.

"Mother, I'm back."

At that voice, Leticia, who had been gazing at the city from the window, turned her gaze back into the room. The chamber, dyed crimson by sunset, was based in white and reflected the sunlight dazzlingly. She narrowed her eyes a little, and raised her left hand to shoulder height.

The two soldiers responded to the gesture — and with firm, crisp movements quite unlike their earlier entrancement, opened the double doors.

Standing there were Leticia's daughters.

Meltia and Maria. The elder daughter, with silver hair and red eyes like Leticia's, who minded her short stature for her age and only reached as high as her mother's chest; and the younger, who had inherited the black hair and black eyes of the [Hero], a dweller from another world.

The daughters had come to tell her they were home, still in the uniforms of the academy they attended. Black robes with white collars, and wide-brimmed hats trimmed with feathers atop their heads. The old, classic formal attire of a mage. The bulky clothing hid their charm as women and looked a touch frumpy. For that reason it was unpopular among young women, but Leticia, who had worn similar clothes in her own student days and during her travels with the [Hero], did not think it so bad.

"We've returned, Mother."

So saying, the elder daughter Meltia took off her hat and bowed. Then Maria, behind her, followed her sister's example and removed her hat to bow as well. Her black hair, lit by the crimson sunset, swayed softly. Her expression looked stiff, Leticia thought.

Maria was shy by nature. With family she was less so, but she stiffened up around the knights, soldiers, and even the maids of the castle, always holding back somehow.

The way she stood as if hiding behind her older sister Meltia was no doubt the same nature at work. As Queen Leticia's daughter, she would eventually have to show her face at social gatherings of nobility.

She would have to do something about her timid younger daughter's nature before that came to pass — so she thought, and gave a wry smile.

Her hair was the same black as his, yet her personality was the exact opposite. He had been more forceful, the sort to stride right into her heart.

Perhaps it was because she had just been thinking of the [Hero]. Leticia found herself fixating on Maria's black hair more than usual, and her lips loosened into a smile.

Was it nostalgia? Did she wish to see him again? Such thoughts crossed her mind, and she closed her eyes for the briefest moment — a span no one would notice.

"Welcome back, you two."

When she opened her eyes again, without anyone catching it, she turned her gaze toward the second daughter and the soldiers waiting in the room. The six caught her intent and made their way out of the room.

Last of all, Tiana closed the door without a sound. Only mother and daughters remained in the room.

"How was school?"

In the same tone as before, but with a voice that now carried more warmth, Leticia asked.

Hearing her, Meltia replied with a single word — "Tiring" — and pulled out a chair for herself to sit in.

Maria hesitated for a moment, mumbling as she considered how to answer, and then, like her sister, said she was tired and sat down in a chair as well.

Watching her daughters, Leticia used magic to top off the teapot prepared in the room with hot water, and set about brewing tea. While it could hardly be called housework, perhaps it was a parental urge to do at least this much for her daughters.

Even on her travels she had been so clumsy that she could not cook a single dish, but after marrying the [Hero] she had studied at least the art of brewing tea. The temperature of the water, the time needed to draw color from the leaves. Brewing it deliciously without spoiling its aroma.

She brought the tea to the table where her daughters sat, and laid out the prepared tea sweets alongside it.

Crisp, delicious-looking cookies, and a sweet from the [Hero]'s other world. Chocolate confectionery.

"Wow."

Meltia loved chocolate. Sweet, melting in her mouth.

In her father's world it was nothing rare, but in Fonteau the ingredients were uncommon and it never appeared on the market. Only nobility and certain wealthy knights could afford to eat it.

"It's before dinner, so just a little."

"Yeees."

Meltia gave a half-hearted reply as she reached for the chocolate confectionery. She pinched a piece about the size of a cookie between her fingers and, opening her small lips daintily, swallowed the chocolate in one bite.

"… mmm, so good…"

Then, as though she could not bear to waste any, she popped her fingers into her mouth and licked them, only to be scolded by Leticia.

"That's unbecoming."

"Sorryyy."

But both Leticia, who had scolded her, and Meltia, who had been scolded, were smiling.

In their everyday roles — queen and daughter — they were arguably a bit cold for an ordinary family, which was exactly why they treasured these rare moments of family time.

It was the same for Maria.

"Tastes good."

Like her sister, she pinched the chocolate confectionery between her fingers and ate it. Even though she knew it was unbecoming, she licked the melted chocolate clinging to her fingers. Rather than putting her fingers in her mouth like her sister, she let her small red tongue peek just slightly from her soft pink lips, and licked the tip of her soft white finger like a small child.

When she savored the taste with her glistening, wet tongue, Maria too was scolded by Leticia.

"Honestly… in places like that, you're just like your father."

"Really?"

At those words, the two daughters tilted their heads in unison and looked at Leticia. The queen, wearing a soft smile, gazed at them lovingly.

I'm happy, she thought.

The [Demon King] was dead, and though the world could not yet be called fully at peace, happiness was right here in front of her.

A world without the one she loved, yet a world with daughters she loved.

In her busy days, she could not give her daughters as much attention as she wished, but she still loved them.

She thought such days would go on forever. That she would live on in this world the [Hero] had protected. That she could believe in it.

Leticia bit into a cookie prepared by the maids, and, mimicking her daughters, licked her fingers clean with her tongue. Her glossy lips parted just slightly, showing a glimpse of white teeth and red tongue.

"Mother, that's unbecoming, you know?"

Maria said.

"Fufu. Sorry… back then, doing this didn't get me scolded."

"Really?"

She spoke of old times. The story of her daughters' father, Leticia's husband. The [Hero] who had saved this world.

By telling stories of the [Hero] from time to time like this, she hoped her dear daughters would also come to love their father. Just as she did, she wanted them to love him.

She told of the time he had just been summoned. Of their travels together.

She was careful not to repeat the same stories she had told them before, sharing different details. How he had been a womanizer who had cast eyes on her traveling companions besides herself, and other such things.

A light, chiming laughter that called to mind the sound of bells filled the room. It was Meltia's voice.

Unlike Leticia, she had no memories of him. Unlike Maria, she had not inherited his features so vividly. Precisely because of that, Meltia laughed merrily as she listened to her father's old stories.

Someday she too would travel as her father and mother had, meeting comrades she could trust from the heart, and a man she could call dear even after parting — so she dreamed.

The magic kingdom of Fonteau. The strongest mage of that nation, who was also her mother — Leticia.

If only she could walk the same path as her mother. So Meltia thought, even knowing it was a difficult dream for a princess of a country.

Maria did not much care for her black hair. That was because she was the only one in this world with such hair.

The [Hero] summoned from another world, and Maria his daughter, were the only ones with black hair. It was not merely conspicuous — it was also heretical.

To adults, Maria's black hair was the sacred mark of the [Hero].

To children, it was the mark of an outsider, different from themselves. She had memories of being bullied for it when she was even younger. From the other children's perspective it may have been less bullying and more curious, gawking stares, but those memories had been the wellspring of Maria's shyness all the same.

But Leticia, looking at Maria's black hair with a nostalgic smile, was beautiful even in her daughter's eyes, and Maria found herself watching her mother's expression as she spoke, as if gazing at something far away.

They shared the same blood, yet their looks were entirely different.

Leticia and Meltia. So different from her mother and her sister. Mindful of that, Maria slipped a cookie into her mouth.

Whether she had read Maria's inner thoughts or not, Leticia smiled at her… and then turned her gaze toward the door. The smile she had worn moments ago was gone; her expression now seemed to hold something else.

A short while passed, and then — a light, restrained knock on the door.

"Leticia-sama. Druid-sama has arrived."

Druid. At that name, Leticia let out a single light sigh. Then she turned her gaze to her two daughters.

"I'm sorry, Meltia, Maria. It seems duty calls."

Apologetically, she let her smile fade. But her two daughters smiled in return, told her not to worry, and rose from their seats.

Seeing their reaction, Leticia too got to her feet.

"It's fine, enter."

After a brief pause, the double doors were pushed open. Standing there were the soldiers and maids who had been waiting outside. And…

"Pardon the intrusion, my queen. It is Druid."

Surrounded by the soldiers and maids stood the man who had given his name — Druid. He was slightly shorter than Tiana beside him, and far wider. For some reason his face was strained with extreme tension, and sweat poured down his forehead like a waterfall. His obese body heaved as if he had just finished violent exercise, and it would clearly take quite some time for his breathing to settle.

Tiana, standing beside such a man, kept her expression still — though inwardly, she let out a faint sigh.

Druid Dean. A noble of this country who served as Minister of Finance in the royal castle.

He was not a man who caused much trouble, and although he himself would deny it — though he harbored ambition in his breast, he lacked the mettle to act on it. Even when he postured strongly, inwardly he trembled, fawning on the strong and trampling the weak.

But the weak he trampled were not those out of his reach. Slaves, or women he had bought from some seedy brothel.

To serve in the royal castle meant having one's background thoroughly investigated. Druid was a man whose surface bravado had long since been seen through.

It was precisely for that reason he held the position of Minister of Finance in this kingdom, and was even trusted to a reasonable extent.

Because he never reached for what he could not handle.

That meant he could not lay hands on any impropriety — not embezzlement of funds, nor the women serving in the castle. Watching and enjoying the view was as far as he could go. Stepping further would mean exceeding his bounds. He would not be able to deal with the consequences alone if any impropriety were discovered. He was a man who understood that much, and so he had been given this position.

And among the things beyond his reach was the maid standing beside him — Tiana, who guarded the queen's person.

Maid though she was, no ordinary maid could serve in this castle. Maids who had risen from village girls were exactly the sort that lecherous nobles like Druid kept.

To serve in the royal castle — particularly at Leticia's side — one had to be skilled in at least swordsmanship or assassination arts.

The soldier who had been watching Leticia earlier was the victor of a tournament held at the arena in the royal capital, and Tiana herself was an ex-assassin: she kept throwing knives strapped beneath her flared skirt and needles within the sleeves of her apron dress, hidden weapons concealed beneath her clothing.

The six in this room alone had combat power enough to handle a dozen or more men, should any of them attempt anything indecent toward the queen.

The portly man took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his brow. His belly was packed tight with meat, and his fat-laden chin made it hard to tell where it ended and his neck began. When he moved his arm to wipe his sweat, his flesh-stuffed clothes seemed to scream — or so it looked to Meltia and Maria.

He was clad in an opulent noble's outfit, but its buttons were so taut they looked ready to fly off at any moment, and one could almost hear them grinding as Druid walked.

Looking at such a man, Tiana's already expressionless gaze sank further — into absolute zero.

Because she stood right beside him, he likely felt the chill and sharpness of that gaze. Druid's sweat seemed to flow even more heavily.

From nerves.

He too knew how formidable the people in this room were. Druid, a womanizer who fantasized about subjugating strong women, could lay neither hand nor foot on the beautiful maids before him, and faced soldiers who watched him with chilling eyes.

The clearly unwelcoming atmosphere only made his breath catch.

Even so, if he had come to Queen Leticia's chamber, there had to be some business at hand. When Leticia turned her gaze to Druid, he caught the cue and took a few steps into her chamber. Behind him, Tiana and the other maids followed at a distance of a few paces.

Druid's vision then cleared. With Tiana's icy gaze even slightly behind him, his tension eased.

When he caught sight of Leticia and her two beautiful daughters, he hurriedly bowed his head.

"Ah, Queen Leticia. And Princess Meltia, Princess Maria. May you ever be in good spirits…"

"Thank you, Druid-kyou. It is rare for you to come visiting."

As noted earlier, Druid was not at ease in this room. The fragrant aroma of flowers and the beautiful queen were certainly to his liking, but the unwelcoming atmosphere was nothing but suffering, and however close at hand his preferred sights might be, he could not enjoy them.

Looking away from Leticia, he opened his mouth while staring at the floor.

"Has the queen heard of Fiana-sama, who left on a request from the adventurers some days ago?"

"Yes, of course."

Fiana was a wielder of sword and magic who stood among the upper echelon of knights serving this nation.

Even Tiana, whose specialty was assassination, had heard of her famed name before serving in the royal castle. About twenty days ago, so Tiana had heard, she had been sent out to subjugate bandits that had appeared at an abandoned mining site to the far north of the royal capital.

Of course, to issue orders to a knight — and a high-ranking one like Fiana at that — Leticia herself had to give the command directly.

Not only Leticia but everyone present remembered that.

"What about Fiana?"

"It is just that… Fiana-sama has returned, but it seems she met with misfortune."

When Druid said that, everyone in the room tensed.

Her reputation was known to all. Precisely because of that, the idea that Fiana could meet with misfortune at the hands of mere bandits was unbelievable.

Moreover, she had not been alone. Leticia recalled that junior knights had been assigned to her to ensure her safety. Even so, she had been outmatched? Leticia firmed the expression that until moments ago had carried a graceful smile.

"And, Fiana?"

"She is currently in the infirmary. Along with Alfira-dono."

"Alfira?"

"The junior knight who went with Fiana-sama to subjugate the bandits."

Since she could not, of course, remember every knight's name, Leticia asked Druid about this woman knight Alfira's background and was satisfied with the answer.

Hiding the faint nervousness rising in her behind a smile, Leticia looked at her two daughters in the room.

"Meltia, Maria. Let us continue our chat after dinner."

"Yes."

Without objection, Meltia nodded. Maria's expression held unease as she looked at Leticia.

She did not fully understand what Druid was saying. Maria did not know what sort of knight Fiana was, and even being told she had met with misfortune, she did not really grasp it.

It was only the word "bandits" and the sense of her mother's tension that gave her any unease.

"It's all right. There's no problem at all."

Speaking firmly and smiling at the two, Leticia left the room. She set off for the infirmary Druid had mentioned at a pace slightly quicker than usual, and the soldiers and maids — Tiana among them — followed behind. Meltia and the others trailed in her wake out of the queen's chamber, leaving Druid and a single maid behind.

That maid's gaze, while perhaps slightly less frigid than Tiana's, was nonetheless cold as she looked at Druid.

"And, just how is it that you came by such information, Druid-dono?"

Ordinarily, such information would be passed to the queen by soldiers or maids. Not by a noble — much less a man in the post of Minister of Finance.

"Th-That is — I happened to be passing by, you see. I thought I had to convey it quickly…"

"I see."

Even hearing that, no warmth came to the maid's gaze.

That Fiana was a beautiful elven knight was something everyone knew. He had likely wanted to catch a glimpse of her beauty. So the maid concluded inwardly.

Of course, her conclusion was correct. Druid had wanted to glimpse Fiana's dignified figure… but what he had seen was her completely exhausted, barely managing to make it back to the royal capital on her last legs.

That Fiana. Strong, dignified. A woman as beautiful as a saint, worn out from a long journey, looking ready to lose consciousness at any moment — that was the figure she had exposed before the soldiers.

Moreover, the armor she should have been wearing was gone, and the sword at her hip was the iron sort carried by a common rank-and-file soldier.

The same applied to Alfira, but from Druid's perspective, the sight of a woman far above his station — one whose beauty and strength were utterly beyond what his fortunes could buy — in such a weak state that she looked about to lose consciousness held a special meaning.

That he did not lust after the queen or her maid attendants here was very like this man.

Hiding such inner thoughts, Druid said it was nothing and left.

The remaining maid let out a sigh and locked the door to the queen's private chamber.

"My apologies, Leticia-sama."

"It is fine, Fiana. For now, let us be glad that you and Alfira are safe."

In the infirmary, Fiana and Alfira knelt on the floor, heads bowed so low they all but pressed to the ground.

The two, who had been taken into protective custody at a fortress not far from that abandoned mine, were managing to keep up appearances in their attire but were severely exhausted.

Both Fiana and Alfira were knights, their bodies trained. They had been schooled not to cry out under most hardships, yet their complexions were poor and their focus was lacking, even before the queen.

Tiana, watching their expressions, thought as much, and judged them rude — but as Leticia did not chide them, she said nothing in particular.

She merely watched them quietly from behind Leticia.

 

 

Exhaustion, and mild malnutrition. During their journey, they had reportedly hardly even taken in water, and were on the verge of dehydration, but that was all. The doctor said their lives were in no danger.

After hearing of their condition from the doctor on duty in the infirmary, Leticia let out a single sigh.

However high her position as a ruler, that did not mean her heart was unmoved when comrades or kin died. She did not act on emotion, but that did not mean she felt nothing.

"May I ask what happened?"

"… Yes."

Bowing her head, Fiana answered. Alfira remained silent.

Setting aside the maids like Tiana, she was the lowest in rank present. Her silence was an acknowledgment that she had no place to speak.

Fiana explained. That they had been attacked by a monster in the abandoned mithril mine.

That two humans were acting in concert with the monster.

That those two were mages.

Leticia, upon hearing the account, at first widened her eyes in surprise — and then, after a moment, composed herself and brought the fingers of her right hand to her well-shaped chin.

Monsters.

A hated enemy. A presence that had to be exterminated. — Vanguard of the [Demon King].

Their numbers had been declining day by day, and now they were rarely seen at all. That was natural — monsters were born from the [Demon King].

Put another way, only the [Demon King] could spawn monsters.

Drawing on this knowledge, Leticia presumed it must be a stray monster that had eluded the searches of adventurers and knights. The [Demon King] had been struck down nearly twenty years ago.

If it were a monster that had been alive since that age, then Fiana's defeat at its hands was understandable. So thinking, she nodded once, slightly.

"I see… And, this monster?"

"… A slime."

"Even Fiana-sama was outdone by a mere slime…?"

That was not Leticia but one of the maids standing behind her. Leticia raised a hand to halt her words.

There was no contempt in the words; it was a question born purely of shock, but Fiana bit her lip at that single remark.

It could not be helped.

Even granting it had been a surprise attack, the enemy was a slime — said to be the weakest of monsters. A creature that, if one could use fire magic, would pose no threat at all.

They had been lured into the abandoned mine, their fire magic sealed off, and surrounded by the slime mimicking the rock wall. Even granting that they had not been expecting a monster, there ought to have been any number of other ways to handle the situation.

All the way back to the royal capital, she had been thinking of that.

And — the disgrace and terror of being made to drink the dregs in the deepest reaches of that mine. Bowing her head before the queen, Fiana bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.

A few days had passed since their escape from that mine. Her mana had recovered, and though her body felt fatigued, a few days' rest would set it right.

Only… that she had let go of her sword — that was something she could not stop regretting.

"Leticia-sama."

"What is it, Fiana?"

Leticia, who had been considering how to deal with the monster, turned to look at Fiana when her name was called.

She remained with her head bowed, but lowered it further still.

"If I may, please leave the subjugation of that monster to me."

"… In that body of yours?"

"If it be allowed, then immediately."

At those words, Leticia took a step back. Catching her intent, Tiana brought her ear close to the queen's mouth.

"How many knights can be moved immediately?"

"Around fifty."

The knight order Fonteau commanded numbered close to two thousand in total. But that many could not be deployed all at once. Mobilizing so many required corresponding equipment, expedition rations, horses, and the like.

A mere slime — well, however much it could outmatch Fiana, it was not the kind of monster that warranted moving the entire knight order against it.

Immediately deployable: fifty. With equipment readied: about twenty more.

It was about the same number Fiana had taken with her when she set out to subjugate the slime in the first place.

"Fiana, Alfira."

"Yes."

"Hah."

When Leticia called their names, both responded sharply. Neither anger at defeat nor fatigue from the journey could be felt in their voices.

"Rest your bodies for a few days. In the meantime, I will gather the personnel deployable from the knight order."

"… Yes."

Fiana's voice sank visibly. Leticia, sensing it, softened her lips.

"You are an excellent knight. I trust you will subjugate the monster the next time."

"Yes."

Once more, the two bowed deeply. As they did, their bodies leaned slightly.

"Well then, I will take my leave… Tiana, you will watch over them."

"Understood."

Saying the talk was over, Leticia made to leave the infirmary.

But Fiana called out to her back, stopping her.

"Is there something else?"

"… Please clear the others from the room."

"—?"

"I do not know how much value this information carries, but first, your ears, Leticia-sama."

So she said, and Leticia looked toward the maids and the doctor. Without a word, they left, leaving only Leticia, Fiana, and Alfira in the infirmary.

"Speak."

"The monster we faced… it…"

Despite having resolved to speak, Fiana hesitated to open her mouth.

It was no wonder. That slime — the Black Ooze — violated women. Violated them and tried to bear children in them.

Recalling how, on the way back to the royal capital, she and Alfira had cleansed their vaginas… the shame she had bathed in brought her near to tears even now, after time had passed.

But knowing none of that, Leticia urged her on, puzzled.

Speak quickly, she said.

Looking puzzled at Fiana, who had said she would speak but then faltered.

"With your permission, may I speak in her stead?"

"Alfira…"

"Permission granted."

"Thank you."

And so, what Alfira explained was something abnormal to Leticia — something common sense could not grasp at all.

A slime that raped women. A monster that made them bear children and propagated by such means.

— As a woman herself, Queen Leticia listened to Alfira's account with a chill running down her spine, gripping both her upper arms with her hands. With her arms crossed beneath her chest, her ample bosom was pushed up, swaying in a way that hinted at its weight.

"Fiana."

"… Yes."

"Is this story the truth?"

"… Both Alfira and I were raped by that slime."

Voice almost trembling, she confessed.

There was no falsehood in her tone, nor any sense that the two were deceiving Leticia.

"I am sorry."

"No."

So Leticia apologized for having made her confess to being raped, and turned her gaze toward the window.

"Then, those two humans you mentioned earlier — the adventurers, was it? Those two…"

"When we first entered the abandoned mine, multiple slimes were mimicking the rock walls. It may be that some of them… or perhaps most of them, were ones birthed by those adventurers."

"— I see."

Leticia's voice came heavy. Her beautiful face was creased with strain, and bitterness seeped into her tone.

A mass occurrence of monsters.

That alone was a problem — but the more troubling part was that they multiplied. And, abhorrent as it was, they used women as the medium. If Fiana's words were to be believed, the two adventurers Frederica and Satia were bearing children, and the slimes were increasing in number. So Leticia thought.

In fact, exactly that was occurring — even now, deep in the abandoned mine, Black Ooze offspring were being born.

Thinking of that, the queen judged there was not a moment to lose. A monster that propagated by using a woman's womb was something she had never heard of, and she had no intention of leaving such an abominable creature alive a single minute longer.

The [Demon King] had been defeated by the [Hero], and monsters did not multiply. That was supposed to be so. That had been common sense since the end of Leticia's journey.

Now that common sense was being overturned from the foundation. At information that gave her the illusion of the ground suddenly shaking beneath her, the queen's lovely face paled slightly.

"Understood."

"—"

"In haste, I will mobilize the knight order. Fiana, recover your condition so that you can move within a few days."

"Yes."

At her words, the two felt strength drain from their bodies. They steeled themselves against fatigue to keep from collapsing into an unsightly state before the queen.

Leticia spoke words of consolation to them and made to leave — but stopped.

"Incidentally."

"Yes, what is it?"

"This may be difficult to answer… but you two are all right, are you?"

What "all right" meant, neither Fiana nor Alfira failed to understand. The words had no subject, but both nodded firmly.

"Before returning to the royal capital, we tended to it ourselves, the two of us."

"… I see."

After hearing that, Leticia at last left the infirmary.

What she had asked was — whether Fiana and Alfira had no risk of bearing monsters.

The two had bathed at a spring they had found before reaching the royal capital. They had thoroughly washed, of course, the private parts that had been violated. Helping each other clean places where their own fingers could not reach was something neither of them would forget for the rest of their lives.

For Fiana in particular, who carried the memory of being toyed with by the adventurer Frederica — her social inferior — there were many things she did not want to remember.

After Leticia left the infirmary, the doctor and a maid entered in her place.

The gray-haired maid, Tiana.

The two told Fiana and Alfira of their current condition in passing, and the pair lay down to rest. They must have been tired — once they lay down on the beds, they fell asleep at once.

Queen Leticia, who had been worried for Fiana, was then headed for the throne room. There, Tiana thought, she would no doubt gather the various nobles of the realm and the senior figures of the knight order to discuss the way forward.

Perhaps it was not that important, but a monster that could turn back a knight of Fiana's caliber was a problem that could not be left alone — that was likely her thinking. Not having been told what had happened to Fiana and the others, Tiana still believed the two had merely been routed by a monster.

The reason Leticia had not told her was that, being a woman herself, she had hesitated to share with a third party that they had been violated by a monster. As a woman it was a natural courtesy, but in this case she ought to have told at least Tiana, whom she had assigned as guard.

The sky that had been dyed crimson moments before had now shifted into the dim half-light of the twilight hour.

When the doctor lit a lantern in the infirmary, a soft glow filled the room.

"Honestly. A mere monster, and the weakest of slimes at that… what a nuisance."

The [Demon King] had been struck down, and the damage from monsters had visibly diminished. Now, the harm caused by knights and the bandit-remnants of adventurers was overwhelmingly greater than that caused by monsters. With the [Demon King]'s defeat, was it ironic that humans hurt humans more than monsters did?

Tiana gave a small shake of her head at the thought. It was not what she should be thinking about now.

Weakest as it was, a monster was still a monster. And it was an opponent that had bested Fiana and a number of knights. To exterminate it quickly was likely the queen's intention, Tiana judged.

Besides, the fact that the kingdom's defending knights had been defeated by a monster was bad for appearances.

Mulling such things, Tiana looked down at Fiana and Alfira lying on the white beds.

Why, she wondered, had only the women survived? Normally, men and women alike would be killed if defeated by a monster.

But this time, the male knights had been sacrificed and the female pair — Fiana and Alfira — had returned alive to the royal capital.

Even by Tiana's eyes, Fiana was beautiful, and Alfira's looks were quite presentable. But monsters cared nothing for human looks. If they were not of the same kind, they would kill. So she had been taught.

Should she praise the skill of Fiana and Alfira for escaping, or denounce the monster for letting them escape?

Pondering such things behind her expressionless face, she stood by the infirmary's entrance.

What Leticia had told her was simply not to take her eyes off Fiana and Alfira.

To say "do not take your eyes off them" of two who slept exhausted after fleeing a monster was a strange order, but as a maid, Tiana had no right of refusal. Besides, spending one night doing nothing was no hardship for her.

Years ago, before being hired by Leticia, Tiana had lived as a human assassin. Her name had carried some weight, and she had confidence in her skill.

What had been feared in her above all was her concentration. The nerve to hide for days in places a target would pass, waiting until the mark let down their guard. That was her strong suit.

Just a single night. Merely staring at the sleeping faces of two women was, compared to her work in her assassin days, more than easy.

As she stood by the infirmary's entrance without so much as a twitch, the doctor eventually left too. Though he was an elf and youthful in appearance, he was already quite advanced in years. He was married, too.

He told Tiana to come to his home if there was any change, and gave her medicine for use in case of fever or in case the two woke and could not sleep — a sedative for calming the spirit. Not addictive, the sort of medicine sold even in the city below. It calmed agitated emotions and brought on drowsiness. Even that drowsiness was weak enough to cause no real problem if one kept one's spirits in order.

Tiana, as expected, simply received the medicine as instructed and did not move otherwise.

She held her beauty crisp and stern, standing motionless as she watched over the sleeping pair.

Only, within her head, she was predicting what might come next.

Most likely, a monster subjugation — carried out at the scale of a full-on hunt across the mountains. A monster that had turned back Fiana, a master of sword and magic, and annihilated a knight unit. There was no reason to leave it alive.

If that came to pass, would the knights be moved again, as had been said earlier? Or would Leticia herself act…?

Leticia was now known as a composed queen, but the famous tale was that during her travels with the [Hero] she had been quite the passionate one.

She had been gifted with magical talent, and even among the conservative elves she had a remarkable capacity for action, it was said. As a mixed-blood of elf and human, she was a woman who possessed the best — the strong points and the weak points — of both.

She was said to have settled down after bearing children, but in Tiana's view, perhaps moving her body suited her better than sitting at a desk dealing with paperwork.

Her figure looking down at the royal capital from a window was beautiful and befitting of a queen, yet her profile carried somehow an unfulfilled, melancholy air — so Tiana thought.

… As Tiana mused thus behind her expressionless mask, she felt a faint flow of air.

Looking, she saw one window had been left open. The doctor who had just gone home must have opened it earlier to air the room out. Tiana hesitated only a moment, gaze drifting toward the window — and then, deciding it was no real choice, she stepped away from the infirmary door to close it. She was looking away from the sleeping pair, but she did not think anything could change in such a brief moment.

Walking over to the open window, she saw stars beginning to twinkle in a sky from which the sun had only just set. She gazed up at the starry sky for a moment, then closed the window.

That alone returned the infirmary to silence.

That was when it occurred to her: what was she to do about dinner?

Now that she thought about it, she had been told to watch over the two but had not been told a replacement would come. If that was the case, it meant spending the entire night here.

It would not be a first for Tiana, but to skip dinner when she was not even particularly busy seemed off.

She glanced around the infirmary, but of course there was nothing edible.

"Haa…"

With a clearly audible sigh, she returned to her post by the entrance, holding a faint hope that Leticia, if she noticed, would send a replacement.

The infirmary echoed only with the breathing of Tiana, Fiana, and Alfira.

How much time had passed?

In the infirmary lit by the lantern's glow, a change occurred.

Just a slight change.

Alfira's breathing grew somewhat irregular and ragged. Tiana walked over to the bed where Alfira slept and peered down at the woman knight's sleeping face.

Perhaps she was reliving what had happened in the abandoned mine. She looked uncomfortable in her sleep, Tiana thought.

She was also breaking out in a sweat.

Then, somewhat later, Fiana's breathing grew irregular too.

Checking on her as well, Tiana saw she was in a similar state, struggling like Alfira.

"Aah— nh… ah."

"Haa… a, a… a…"

Tiana glanced back and forth between the two and considered what to do. When she placed her hand on Alfira's forehead, it felt slightly warmer than ordinary body temperature. Her cheeks were flushed too.

The ragged breathing was hot enough to seem about to catch fire, and the two beauties shifted their bodies restlessly. Unlike Tiana's own, their breasts — abundant even as they lay flat — swayed softly through sheet and clothing.

"Aah— ha, ah."

That sigh, like a panting moan one might hear in the throes of lovemaking, made Tiana, fellow woman though she was, flush slightly at the cheeks. It was not as though she had meant to take it that way. But the strong, somewhat indecently suggestive tone felt like a true heart that could not be hidden precisely because they slept. That was how it seemed to her.

"Honestly."

What was she thinking, she chided herself. Shaking her head, she placed her hand on Fiana's forehead as well, and found it hot too. Her cheeks were red as well.

Fever.

So deciding, she took one of the medicines the doctor had given her earlier from her apron pocket. It was a powder meant to be administered in case of fever.

The medicine, folded in paper, appeared to be a powder; water would be needed to administer it. Looking around the infirmary, she found a pitcher of water on the desk the doctor had been using.

Was warm water best for taking medicine, or cold? She turned over basic medical knowledge as she walked toward the desk where the pitcher sat. There was no particular urgency.

Carrying two doses of medicine and crossing to the desk, she heard — bechya — a sound out of place in this infirmary.

Wondering what it was, she turned — but saw nothing particularly amiss.

She peered around the room for a while, thinking she must have misheard. Even though her hearing was usually sharp — so she told herself, and picked up the pitcher on the desk.

Pouring water into the cup set beside it, she walked over to the two with the cup in both hands. Strangely, Alfira's breathing had settled.

Her cheeks remained flushed, but the ragged breathing had calmed, and although it was still a bit heavy to be called sleeping breath, it seemed about to subside soon. She must have finished her nightmare, Tiana thought, and felt relieved for the moment.

Fiana's breathing was still uneven, but if she were like Alfira, hers would settle in a while too.

At this rate, perhaps the two would have nightmares several times through the night. So thinking, she exhaled.

For the moment, she judged it best to wait a little before giving the medicine, and set the cup of water and the medicine together on the side table next to the bed.

She checked Fiana's condition once more, but it was the same as before — only her breathing was uneven. That was all that had changed.

Although she had some medical knowledge, she was no specialist. She might end up having to run to the doctor's house in the dead of night.

Thinking such things, Tiana returned to the entrance that had become her usual post in this infirmary.

She straightened her spine, threw out her chest, and stood upright.

Some more time passed. The same quiet stillness, with nothing particularly changed.

But above the unmoving Tiana, change was taking place.

It was mucus. In the dim room lit by the lantern's pale glow, something writhed.

A slime, born from Alfira's vagina — her womb. Compared to the Black Ooze in mass it was certainly small, but it was earnestly crawling outside Tiana's field of vision, climbing the wall and creeping toward the ceiling.

The two whose breathing had been irregular earlier had been giving birth to these monsters. Slime birth, the body being entirely liquid, caused the mother no pain at all — rather, the vaginal canal, repeatedly violated by mucus tentacles, made to faint, and violated even while unconscious, became accustomed to the sensation and remembered pleasure as it gave birth.

That was why Fiana and Alfira had flushed and breathed irregularly.

And once the birth ended, they returned to sleep as if nothing had happened.

Fiana's child, still being birthed now, would also be born without giving the mother any pain — only pleasure.

After escaping the abandoned mine and washing themselves at a lake, the two had embraced each other's naked bodies, interlaced fingers, and, gritting their teeth, sank not just their fingers but whole hands into the other's vaginal canal, slipping fingers all the way to the womb to scoop out the Black Ooze's semen.

Breathing hard, soaking in the cold lake water, the vaginal canal — loosened by tentacle assault — could take in even a wrist; the pressure was strong but the pain was slight.

And so they scooped out the semen that had been in the womb… but using fingers to scoop out a liquid was a difficult thing.

Even so, they had wanted to reassure themselves by doing that. They had wanted to turn their eyes away from the reality that they were giving birth to monsters. So, with hands going wrist-deep into each other's genitals as women together, they felt pleasure but pretended it was a medical act — a way to forget the unreality of being violated by monsters, the unreality of women fingering each other's genitals.

But even after going to such lengths, monsters had indeed taken root in their wombs.

Without their consent, the two had become slime beds.

The slime born thus crawled along the ceiling until it reached a spot above Tiana. The expressionless maid did not notice the monster taking position over her.

That was to be expected. Even for an assassin, even for Tiana with her sharpness to others' presences, she was convinced there were only three women in the room, and the slime made no footsteps.

Noticing in such a state would be a tall order.

The sound of the one born from Alfira falling from the bed to the floor had been the final warning. When she had registered that warning but failed to recognize what the sound was, Tiana's fate had already been sealed.

The slime, born from the genetic information — the semen — of the source Black Ooze, held its position above Tiana but took no further action.

Just like Tiana, it kept waiting, doing nothing.

Some time later, Fiana's irregular breathing settled as well. From her too, a slime had been born. If she had been awake she would have noticed the change in her body, but in sleep, and with the birth being painless, waking was difficult.

After a while, in the infirmary that had echoed only with the three women's breathing, that bechya sound came again.

At the sound, Tiana reacted.

The shoulders of the unmoving, straight-standing maid trembled slightly, and her gaze swept the infirmary.

That was the moment.

"Eh!?"

In an instant, the slime stuck to the ceiling — the one born from Alfira — fell onto her head.

It defiled the pure white headband, and seeped into her gray hair.

Even for a maid of iron mask, that broke her expression. With a startled face she touched the sticky thing that had suddenly appeared, and tried to peel it off.

"Wh-what!? What is this!?"

Losing all the composure she had carried until now, she raised her voice in confusion and pawed at her hair. Of course, she could not peel the slime off that way, and at last the mucus began to drip onto her face as well.

"No!? What is th… this!?"

It would not come off.

This unknown, repulsive thing would not come off.

She was not a germaphobe, but as a woman, having her hair soiled by some unknown mucus drew physical revulsion.

Tiana, raising small screams as she clawed at her hair, looked comically out of sorts, and in her surprise she sat down hard on the floor.

Her feet, in leather boots. Black stockings covered her beautiful legs, and even as her skirt rode up, no skin showed — the stockings apparently ran all the way up to her crotch.

Slender belts were wrapped around each thigh, and several throwing knives were ready there. The sharp blades would have been a threat to villains or goblins, but to a slime, they were of no particular concern.

Against a slime's soft body, an ordinary blade was useless. Destroying the core within its body might have changed matters, but it could shift the core's location at will, so once the mucus protected it, there was nothing one could do.

Not only that — the core itself was so tiny that even destroying it was difficult. The natural enemy of anyone who could not use magic. Even so, slimes were so weak they could easily be killed by a torch or a lantern's flame, which was why they were classified as the lowest-tier monster.

In any case, not even realizing the thing soiling her head was a slime, Tiana, in her confusion, spotted the other one crawling on the floor — the slime born from Fiana — and at the same time drew a knife strapped to her thigh and threw it.

Even in her confusion, her body remembered. The knife flew true and pierced the slime crawling on the floor — but again, unable to harm its core, it left no real damage. The slime slipped past the embedded knife and slid along the floor toward Tiana, who was still sitting on the floor.

"What!?"

Even with her skirt rumpled from the fall, one could not see beneath — her hidden parts were in shadow. But a maid drenched in mucus, lit by the lantern's faint glow, carried an indescribable allure of her own.

Without sparing a thought for her own state, Tiana, still sitting, frantically tried to remove the mucus soiling her head.

Knives thrown from her slender fingertips struck the slime two, three times, but could not stop its movement. Finally, slimes made contact with both her head and her feet. When an unidentifiable soft thing clung to her leather boots, Tiana let out a small shriek of "Hii."

Trying to pry off her boots, she let go of the slime stuck to her head.

"Nguu!?"

Then, the slime on her head fell all at once. It rushed into her unguarded lips and sealed her mouth.

The slime above covered her mouth, while the one crawling up from her feet climbed past her leather boots and soiled her beautiful legs through her stockings. At the disgust, the wrongness of it, she tried to scream, only to inadvertently take the mucus inside her mouth deeper, and choked violently.

Not knowing what to do, Tiana first tried to deal with the slime sealing her mouth. With her mouth blocked she could not scream, and above all, breathing was hard.

It was not quite oxygen deprivation, but with her thrashing, her breathing had certainly grown ragged. Being unable to breathe through her mouth deepened her confusion further; nostrils flaring, she shoved her fingers into the mucus covering her mouth.

(What…?)

Slender, supple fingers, gloved in white, stirred the mucus. But the mucus paid no heed to such resistance and ran rampant inside her mouth, brushing her even gums, ravishing her upper and lower jaws and even her tongue.

No matter how she scraped with her fingers, pushed with her tongue, or exhaled hard, the mucus would not stop. As though pinched between fingers, her tongue was tugged. As though scratched with nails, her upper jaw was stimulated, and her lower jaw stroked. When the underside of her stretched tongue was rubbed, an indescribable shock raced up her spine, and Tiana raised a soundless scream.

"Nfuu!? Fuu, fuuh, fuuh!!"

At the sudden assault, her iron mask completely fell away, and fear surfaced on her expression. She could not understand what was being done to her.

Within the night-shrouded infirmary, only Fiana and Alfira's sleeping breaths — and Tiana's harsh nasal breathing and the sounds of her thrashing — echoed.

Her leather boots kicked the floor, making a loud noise. Yet the two sleeping women did not wake.

Desperate, reaching for help, Tiana reached for the knives in her thigh belt, ready even to handle the two roughly to wake them.

She did not mean to injure them. If she threw grip-end first, it should be fine, she thought — and as her confused mind reached for a knife, she realized the sensation in her hand was off.

She could not put strength into it.

Her trembling fingertips were numb, as if her nerves had been laid bare and turned hypersensitive. Touching the knife's grip felt like touching something with a leg that had fallen asleep… and at that sharp pain she was startled.

"Nnh!! Nuu!?"

(Wh-why!?)

Inwardly startled, she failed to notice that the other mucus thing was climbing up her right leg.

She could not guess its intent, but no woman could fail to find it revolting to have an unknown thing crawl on her body.

Disregarding her ruffled skirt, she thrashed her legs, trying to drive off whatever crawled up them. Sensing it climbing past her knee through her stockings, she rubbed her legs together and crushed the thing between them.

"Un!?"

An indescribable revulsion, as though she had crushed rotting meat. As if cold ice had been poured down her spine, she screamed even with her mouth sealed.

The composed assassin's face that had taken many lives years ago was gone.

The ice-cold gaze trembled with fear, and tears welled at the corners of her eyes. The mucus that defiled her once-pure white headband and white skin seemed to speak of her fear.

She felt the thing she had crushed between her knees climb up her leg again. There was no stopping a slime with mere leg-pressure — it was a soft body.

"Nnh!? Fuuh… fuuh!!"

What lay ahead — her woman's instinct sensed fear, sounded an alarm. She thrashed her body harder to make noise, desperately trying to convey her plight to anyone.

Not just to those in this infirmary; even the soldiers patrolling the now-darkened castle would do. Her face was soiled, her skirt was disheveled, and the black stockings sheathing her beautiful legs had given up their role as cover, but she had no leisure to mind such things.

In her thrashing, her skirt rolled up further, finally exposing her thighs.

There — crawling there was a black sludge that seemed to swallow up the lantern's faint glow.

"—!?"

A slime.

A monster that, long ago, when the [Demon King] still lived, had overrun the world.

The very creature Fiana and the others had been beaten by, yet inwardly disdained as the lowest tier of monsters. That was the identity of what was now crawling up her leg and sealing her mouth.

(Why!? Why is something like this here!?)

While she panicked, the slime climbed her leg, and the one inside her mouth stimulated her tongue and the inside of her cheek as if to claim them.

"Nuu— nah!? Nuu…"

Breathing through her nose alone was not enough to keep her oxygenated, and her mind grew foggy. As her thinking faded, her focus shifted instead to the stimulation inside her mouth.

A kiss that forcibly worked her tongue was rough, yet it knew a woman's weak spots through and through. The sort of skill a seasoned male prostitute might display — yet with something like the clumsiness of a child just discovering sex.

Skill and clumsiness. Gentleness and roughness, felt at once. Under that stimulation, unbeknownst to herself, Tiana's breathing began to mix sweetness in along with the roughness.

Her cheeks, taut with fear, began to take on a flush that meant something different from the exertion of thrashing, and the movement of her legs began to weaken.

The boots that had forcefully kicked the stone floor now barely lifted and dropped her legs.

There was fatigue, of course. Being confused and unable to breathe was more exhausting than one might imagine.

But more than that, Tiana began to feel that her body was no longer her own — a discomfort of that kind.

That was because the paralytic poison taken in through her mouth had been swallowed and circulated throughout her body, but of course Tiana could not understand that. She was confused even by the numbness at her fingertips.

That the Black Ooze's offspring carried paralytic poison was beyond imagination.

"—n, nuu… nuu…!"

How many times now?

Finally, her legs which had been kicking the floor stopped.

Both legs lay limply, and her now fully-rolled-up skirt no longer hid her beautiful legs from the lantern's light.

Her slim legs, looking all the slimmer for the stockings, were not bare of flesh; rather, lean of unnecessary fat… trained legs. The deeper color of the right stocking was because the mucus had crawled there.

Covering her crotch were black panties, even blacker than the black stockings, of an even smaller cloth area. Her private parts were just barely covered, but that was all. There was cloth at the crotch, but her pubic hair could be seen through panties and stockings, and there was no cloth to cover her rear.

Her thrashing had buried the panty cloth in the cleft of her rear.

Letting her legs lie limp, with no leisure to fix her disheveled skirt, Tiana lay there showing her undergarments. The mucus stimulating her mouth moved in ways that recalled sexual sensations. But as she felt the unmistakable stimulation, Tiana furrowed her brows.

Naturally. It was not a problem of body or skill, but of mental revulsion.

To feel pleasure in such a state would have been impossible to Tiana, who had lived to this day. Especially when the partner was something unknowable.

The floor was hard, her back hurt. Lying on the infirmary's floor, in her dim thinking she ruminated on unrelated things, gaze fixed on the ceiling.

(Something's… wrong…)

Only then could she finally think that.

(Why… why won't my body move…?)

The paralytic poison had spread throughout her body, robbing her of bodily freedom without robbing her of thought. While her mouth was being relentlessly assaulted, she tried to calmly check her own state.

Her slightly movable neck turned, but her eyes reflected only the infirmary unchanged from before. Save that she was sprawled on the floor being attacked by a mucus monster, nothing else was different.

Even the stimulation inside her mouth began to dull. Her crotch felt somehow cold — that was the only other sensation.

Unable to move her body, her fingertips spasmed and scratched the floor, and the heels of her leather boots kicked at it.

The sound was not much louder than Fiana and the others' sleeping breaths. It was nothing like a state in which she could announce her own peril.

(I've got to do something)

With her body now unable to move and her will to resist faded, Tiana finally regained her usual calm.

"Nh—"

A small voice slipped out. She was not feeling pleasure. She held only mental and physical revulsion. Treating the faint fear as revulsion, Tiana let her nasal breathing grow slightly rougher to compose herself.

But unconcerned with Tiana's state, the slime moved on to cover her lower half. Stockings and string-like black panties were no defense; the liquid seeped through them, and despite her being clothed, a revolting sensation spread across her crotch.

"Hi, ya—"

A voice came out.

The slime that had been ravaging her mouth had moved. With her mouth finally freed, she took ragged, full-lunged breaths of oxygen. Her vision was hazy from tears and oxygen deprivation.

Feeling a floating sense of slackness in her head, Tiana kept up her rough breathing.

The slime, leaving traces of mucus along her chin, throat, and chest, disappeared into her clothes by way of her collar.

She tried to scream at the disgust of a slime crawling directly on her chest where clothes were no protection, but her voice would not come. The mucus seemed to soak into her chest as it rose and fell busily with her breathing.

"Iyaa…"

Tiana tried to scream, but only a hoarse, small voice came out.

Her voice — her vocal cords — her throat was paralyzed.

Somehow it felt more suffocating than when her mouth had been sealed. With a mix of impatience and fear, but with her mouth now free, Tiana tried to pin her hopes on raising a loud voice — yet she could not bring her voice out as she wished.

"Hi— ah, ahh, hih."

Only a strained voice came out. Even so, as she struggled to make sound, she felt a revolting sensation against her chest — modest, in contrast to the ample rear that swallowed her panties.

The slime had slipped further beneath her clothes and reached her chest. Just as a piece of underwear would cover her chest, it spread its mucus — and the maid uniform, soaking up the mucus, slowly began to bleed dark.

The sensation of the thick maid uniform sticking to her skin was disgusting, and the wet clothes, warming with her body temperature, gave off a revolting wet squelch at the slightest movement.

"Fuh, fuh… fuh."

Her breathing grew rough and short.

She could clearly feel her chest being kneaded. Her flat chest was poor in erogenous sensation, and short on feminine appeal too.

Having shared her body with men a few times in her life, Tiana understood her chest was not the sort a man would favor, and she was fine with that. It was enough for moving around, and even with such a chest, she knew she had sexual appeal that drew men.

A cold gaze, a slender figure. Even if her bust was modest, her cinched waist and well-rounded rear were more than enough to charm men. For Tiana, charming men was part of the job.

It was enough that she had the appeal to do her work.

But —.

"Hiu— ya, yaa…"

Her chest was being kneaded. Without her clothes being removed, she was being kneaded directly beneath them. That fact was vividly clear.

Her chest, numb like her fingertips, gave back stimulation as though its nerves were laid bare, and reacted with sensitivity. Kneaded as though by a man's hand, her shoulders trembled, and her nipples hardened against her will. As they were rolled and rubbed against the inside lining of her underwear, the trembling in her body grew stronger, and the voice spilling from her mouth gained ever more sweetness.

It was not just kneading. One moment squeezed as though scooped up, the next gripped hard enough to feel painful, then gently stroked.

As her breath grew rough at that varying stimulation, the trembling of her fingertips grew larger.

Her chest was being relentlessly stimulated. Even as her body shook and her shoulders bunched, the slime paid no heed to Tiana's resistance and kept kneading her chest. Treating her near-girlishly flat chest, in which men had shown no interest, as though it were a toy — the slime kept stimulating it endlessly.

"Ku, fuuh… uh."

With her body paralyzed like that, Tiana had no means of resistance.

No matter how disgusting it was, no matter how she wanted to resist, her body would not move. Against her will, her chest was kneaded relentlessly, and her breathing fell out of order.

At the humiliation of feeling pleasure in the very chest she had been self-conscious about, she breathed hard and tears welled at the corners of her eyes. Mistaking it for the feeling of a virgin being ravished, her body unable to move from fear, Tiana bit her lip hard — though, the area around her mouth being where strength came least, she could only bite hard enough to draw blood.

And it was not just her upper body that was being violated.

With stockings and panties still on, her labia were licked at their rim, and her modestly hooded clitoris was wrapped in mucus. That clitoris was poked at as though dug at with a finger, pinched from both sides, pulled, and pressed in with the pad of a finger.

Though Tiana could not see, within the slime's mucus, her exposed clitoris danced up, down, left, and right, never settling in one place, as if a child were playing with a toy.

Each time, her lower half trembled greatly, and her booted feet kicked the floor. Though her limbs ought to be paralyzed, her body's most sensitive cluster of nerves was being stimulated relentlessly, and her body responded.

Katsu, katsu — her leather boots clipped the stone floor, a dry sound echoing in the infirmary.

(Kuh, hi-uh… stop — stop it.)

Her body would not move, but her mind remained clear — a hell of its own. At the humiliation of being made aware that she was feeling sexual arousal in such a situation, tears nearly spilled.

She desperately tried to grit her teeth and endure, but even that was beyond her paralyzed body. Her open mouth could not even swallow her pooling saliva, which dripped from the corners of her lips, and the headband atop her head bobbed with the trembling of her shoulders and waist.

Anger welled within her at her own reactions. As anger and humiliation twisted her beauty, her exhalations grew rough for a reason different from being violated by the slime.

In the eyes of the cold-hearted woman, anger surfaced. But however angry she became, that did not make her body move.

It was not emotion. It was poison. A poison that took freedom away. That was what was eroding Tiana, robbing her of the power to resist.

Just as Tiana refused to feel pleasure for mental reasons, the slime took away her capacity to resist for physical reasons.

(W-why — why this, this—)

Tiana's spirit and the slime's instinct clashed. The Tiana who could not resist but did not feel, and the slime that prevented resistance but could not make her feel.

But the contest was a trivial one.

However much Tiana denied, felt revulsion, burned with anger — her body was a woman's, and feeling pleasure was a physiological matter. Stimulated nipples hardened, and a rolled clitoris peeked from its hood. From her genitals, juice different from the slime's mucus seeped, and the trembling of her body visibly grew the longer time passed.

Her rough breathing grew more disordered still, her trembling became spasming, and the iron-mask expression that should have returned was overtaken completely by a lust-tinged flush.

Her body would not move. She could not resist.

Despair that mental strength alone could not break through. A situation in which no hope could be seen slowly chipped away at Tiana's strong spirit.

In such a situation… her body had risen to an unnaturally heightened state.

The Black Ooze had absorbed some twenty men and gained the magic and instincts of each. The slime born from that Black Ooze's seed was exactly the same as the Black Ooze.

Slimes, being single-celled, were exactly the same as their parents — spitting images. One could say it propagated by splitting itself, using a woman's body as a bed.

With the Black Ooze's knowledge. With the instincts of those men. With the instincts of a monster.

A slime that raped women had no will. There was only an instinct to impregnate women. To make them bear children.

To fulfill that instinct alone, it kneaded her chest and stimulated her vagina.

"Ya, yaa… ya-me, te…"

So no matter how revolted Tiana was, no matter how she denied or refused, it did not matter. The slime thought only of doing this. Making Tiana cry out, drowning her in pleasure, only making her body accept the slime's seed.

"Hi— hii!?"

When her nipples and clitoris — likely the most sensitive of the three points in a female body — were strongly, twistingly pinched, Tiana climbed to climax at a speed that surprised even herself.

As if all her earlier resistance had meant nothing, she came, and her body trembled.

Her whole body shook strongly, and the way she jumped like a fish out of water made her seem nothing more than a feeble woman.

With her skirt rolled up and her underwear exposed, her body spasmed. Her tightened throat at last resumed breathing.

"Ah, ah— ah… ah."

Each time she made a sound, her body shook. There was no chance of holding it in. Set spasming by the slime's movements, made to moan, made to climax.

That wounded Tiana's pride. For all that, she had been a woman of some strength of self. And yet, she had been brought to climax helplessly. The tears welling in her eyes overflowed.

(D-damn it — damn it, damn—, —hih)

Cursing words unthinkable beneath her once-cold mask were rising in her — and at the same moment, the slime resumed its work.

Once again, as before, her chest was kneaded, her clitoris stimulated, and this time the mucus inserted itself slightly into the entrance of her vagina. With her body paralyzed and the violent sensation feeling as though her nerves were laid bare, she screamed inwardly.

"W-wai— w-wait!?"

A small scream slipped from her mouth.

(The pleasure — it's not done yet!?)

Though her words would not get through to it, and though she had just climaxed, she called out urgently to halt the slime that had resumed moving.

The caress that resumed before her body's spasms had fully settled stimulated Tiana's body wrapped in its maid uniform even more than before.

It was disgusting. Yet her body reacted. And she could not control it.

Impatience invaded her spirit. From the start, her trembling was as large as just before climax, and she was swaying her body to match the slime's movements. The motions were small, but precisely for that reason held the obscenity of a defenseless woman writhing in pleasure.

Her cool beauty was broken, and her maid uniform still on. Her ankle-covering skirt had completely failed in its role, and the stockings around her crotch had stained darker, as if she had had an accident. Even though it was due to the slime's mucus, it was too pitiful a state for an adult woman to show.

The upper half of her body, only at the chest, clung wetly to her skin as if doused in water.

Although the swelling there was modest, the way the cloth changed shape as if an invisible hand kneaded it only heightened her vulnerability, and with her arms and legs sprawled, she looked as though she were being assaulted.

In reality, the slime was crawling beneath her clothes — but what escaped her mouth was no longer cries of refusal.

Had her whole-body paralysis been lifted, she might have managed cries of refusal, but with her body's freedom stolen, it gave clear voice to pleasure, faithfully following instinct.

Her chest kneaded, she spasmed. Her clitoris stimulated, her body convulsed.

(N-no — no, again—)

"Ah!, ah!— fwaah!"

Tiana let out the loudest moan yet. As she trembled atop the stone floor, tears spilled from eyes that could only look up at the ceiling.

Climax. But the slime's motion did not stop. Even as she showed climactic spasms, her chest was kneaded, her clitoris stimulated. Spasming greatly, the voice spilling from her mouth had turned utterly sweet. Moaning in a voice that should only be heard by a beloved man, she kept jolting on the floor.

(W-wait — wait, just a little—!)

Her supposedly-paralyzed waist quaked greatly and thrust toward the ceiling. From her black stockings, panties, and slime-covered crotch, she squirted, and her left thigh — whose stockings had been spared the mucus — now deepened in shade as well.

Unable to support herself with strengthless legs, her waist immediately fell back to the floor, but its spasms did not stop.

(N-no. F-feels good, feels good… won't stop)

Again. Again. Again.

(Aga-, again's coming)

Again and again she spasmed, moaned.

She tried to move her body in some way that would let the pleasure escape, but her paralyzed body would not obey. Putting all the strength she could into holding back, she spasmed, hands and feet clenched, and arched her back.

Even so, with the violation not stopping, juices that the thin-fabric panties and stockings could not absorb dripped onto the stone floor, staining it black as if she really had had an accident.

Despite leaking that much love juice, she was squirting at an unnatural rate, telling any onlooker that she was climaxing repeatedly.

(N-no — coming, coming again)

This time not just her waist but her whole body spasmed greatly. She could no longer hold back tears, and her cheeks were dirtied with sweat and tears, while drool spilled from her mouth, defiling even her throat. With her rough nasal breath, even mucus dripped from her nose, and she could not wipe it away.

Beneath the wet clothes, the slime, encouraged by Tiana's non-resistance, mercilessly groped her chest meat, kneading her flat chest forcefully. The gentleness of the start was gone.

Roughly, as if being kneaded and licked by several men at once, she moaned in that illusion at the stimulation of her chest that should have been underwear-guarded, and then her nipples were pinched.

"Hyaa!?"

A startled cry slipped out. The moans escaping her grew louder by the moment.

The effect of the paralytic poison was wearing off. Sensation returned to her limbs, and the movement of her arms and legs grew more vigorous. But she was too confused, too caught up in her moans, to notice such a thing.

(N-, no — no, n-no)

Another climax. With the paralysis's effect on her body more diminished than before, she jolted, putting all her strength into enduring the impact. As if mocking that resistance, the slime vibrated its mucus to vibrate the three points — her nipples and clitoris — and she bucked her hips at an unprecedented shock.

Her skirt rolled up to her belly, exposing the line between stocking and skin, and even the dimple of her navel above it.

Her leather boots planted hard against the floor, both knees splayed wide, her crotch thrust toward the heavens, and in that posture she shook her waist convulsively many times. Already her crotch — no, her whole thighs — had become a great black stain, and it was hard to tell whether it was the slime's mucus or Tiana's body fluids.

"Cu— cumming, cum-, c—"

Putting her climax into words without realizing her mouth had been freed, she trembled. Even so, the slime's motion did not stop. Bit by bit, with each climax, the slime entering her vagina had advanced halfway to her womb. Exposed to such soul-crushing shame, even though she had reached climax, before the slime could reach her cervix she would need to endure twice as many climaxes as so far. Just to reach that point.

Of course knowing none of that, Tiana, with her now-unparalyzed mouth, announced she was at climax, spasming.

"Ha— hah! Hah! —hah!?"

Her thrusting boots slipped in the mucus, and she dropped her rear onto the floor sharply.

At that shock, the slime in her vagina moved up and down and stimulated the base of her clitoris from inside the vaginal canal, and she arched her lithe upper body greatly and climaxed. A stimulation she had never felt — and truly, would never feel — from a human man. A monster's caress.

Whether it felt good or disgusting. What felt good, what felt disgusting.

She could parse none of it anymore, but trying somehow to hold on to her consciousness, she curled up. Forcing all her strength into balling herself up, she tried to weather the violent waves of climax.

Even so, beneath her balled-up self, her flat chest was kneaded, and the mucus slime — for which that level of resistance held no meaning — kept stimulating the shallow part of her vagina back and forth.

 

 

"S-stop— stop, it, stop it, stop it… please…"

Even as she screamed out humiliating words of submission and convulsed time and again, the slime would not stop.

Her chest was kneaded hard.

Her nipples were pinched.

Her clitoris was sucked and licked.

Her sensitive vaginal lining was stimulated.

Though she remained fully clothed, the illusion was of her whole body being caressed — impossible in reality. Her chest wrapped in her maid uniform, her underwear-clad lower half, the inside of her body though clothed — all caressed.

In that state, heat welled up from the depths of her body, the depths of her belly. As if the slime were drawing that heat from her — as if with each climax strength were drained from her body… the sensation was unbearable.

Her womb, contracting though not yet reached, felt that heat and rejoiced over and over. Her cervix loosened, and love juice spilled from it.

Many, many times, love juice poured forth, and the slime absorbed it.

Both the squirt scattered on the floor and the love juice that blackened her stockings were prime food for the slime. The squirting, the love juice, the sweat, the drool, the tears, the mucus — all of it.

Tiana did not notice that the more she produced, the more active the slime grew.

Even noticing, there was nothing she could do.

It was physiology.

If she felt good, she would grow wet. Aroused by the caresses, her body sweated; the more humiliation she felt in this situation, the more tears she shed and drool she leaked.

She could not suppress that physiology. Had this been a normal state — had paralytic poison not been used from the start — she might have resisted.

But it was too late.

The body, now broken in, leaked moans at the slime's caresses, and even at the slightest motion showed climactic spasms.

Curled up on the floor, Tiana kept spasming.

Small spasms. Large spasms. They came in waves, and still the slime did not stop.

Her consciousness grew hazy. From oxygen deprivation, the will called Tiana faded.

"C-cumming… a-, again — again, cu, cumming…"

Reporting her climax in a small voice, she repeated her spasms. Within her boots, her toes clenched. Both arms hugged her shoulders, pressing her chest with her arms in an attempt to do something about the chest-caress. Her lower half too — thighs clamped tight to suppress at least the stimulation to her vagina.

But that was all.

Even were a normal man caressing her, caressing in this curled-up state would be impossible — but for a slime, it did not matter. The slime ignored even Tiana's greatest possible resistance and kept stimulating her chest and vagina.

Her heart pounded as if to burst, her womb pulsed strongly.

In her skirt-rolled-up lower half, she squirted again. The squirted liquid soiled a wide area of the floor, and her exposed, fleshly rear convulsed many times.

"Fu, ha— fwah… ya, m… ya"

Trembling her shoulders greatly — voicing refusal — yet her body spasmed as if accepting the unending caresses. Big spasms shifted to small pikun-pikun tremors, but the spasming did not cease.

Even after climax, with some of the pleasure subsided, the slime's caresses continued. The next climactic wave swiftly rolled in.

"Kua— ch-, chest. Chest, stop iiit"

Her nipples, hidden by clothes and underwear, were painfully hard and sharp, by now grown large enough to be jerked by a man's finger. Matching her small bust, her small nipples were now the hardest and largest they had been in Tiana's whole life. And those nipples, wrapped in slime mucus, were pulled, pinched, rubbed against her underwear's lining, treated like toys.

Her body curled to resist pleasure, but her lower half swayed left and right uncontrollably, betraying excitement she could not suppress. More than resistance, the motion was of seeking deeper. In fact, the thought of fleeing or resisting had vanished from Tiana's head.

Now there was no thought of how to weather this situation, only the thought that it should end — the wish for it to end soon.

(N-no… no, n… please end, hurry)

Crying out, suppressing her moans, gritting her teeth.

There were still things she could do, but she had forgotten them and was gulping down pleasure.

At pleasure beyond what she could bear, drool dripping, she rolled on the floor, her dainty feet kicking, and turned onto her belly to try to press the slime down. Then she would turn back over, arching her back and thrusting her chest out.

Gachan — a sharp sound.

Her thrashing legs had knocked over a piece of equipment in the infirmary.

Yet even that did not wake Fiana and the others. Their non-response was as if under a magical sleep, but Tiana had no leisure to mind.

Raising her moans, she rolled on the floor — and at last, face down, came to a quivering halt.

Her eyes rolled back, her mouth wide open.

She had passed out.

With her breath still rough, her body sprawled on the floor convulsed in small repeats. Even after fainting, her body kept climaxing. Her vagina squeezed the slime tight, and her upper body responded to the caresses at her chest.

The slime, not knowing she had fainted, continued caressing for some time more, and only at last invaded the very deepest part of the mother body that had lost all resistance.

The womb.

The cervix, which should ordinarily have been shut tight, opened as though it had been waiting for the slime. The inside of the womb, untouched by anything until now, was coated in smegma, soiled.

Of course there was no way to cleanse such a place, but the slime carefully scooped off the filth clinging to the wall of her womb, absorbing it.

Each time, the unconscious Tiana shook her body and squirted from her urethra. On the stone floor, warmed by Tiana's body heat, a puddle spread. As if not wanting to waste that squirt, the slime that had been caressing her chest moved over to slurp it up.

While that happened, the slime that had finished cleaning her womb settled its entire body inside it.

The slime, still freshly born, did not have the organ — or the volume — for ejaculation. So no matter how many times Tiana climaxed, it never ejaculated; just as the Black Ooze had done to Frederica, it simply made her climax over and over.

The worst-case scenario for Tiana had been averted — maybe. She had been taught pleasure to the point of fainting and had her womb occupied by a slime. But she had at least escaped being made to bear a monster's child.

Knowing none of that, the unconscious Tiana's spasms, face down on the floor, slowly subsided. At last freed from the caresses that had brought her to fainting, the breaths slipping from her mouth settled into something as calm as sleep.

But that was not the end.

In this place, there was still the other slime, born from Alfira.

Sensing that Fiana's child had taken the womb, it paused for a moment as if considering what to do.

The first thing it did was cleanup. Without the kind of thought a single-celled creature should have possessed, it nevertheless skillfully pulled out the knives Tiana had thrown earlier, and put them back into the belt around her thigh where she lay sprawled face down, legs open, still spasming.

The tentacles' motions were dexterous, putting the knives away so as not to stimulate the unconscious Tiana… and then it moved toward the other hole.

Her anus.

Just like the slime that had caressed her vagina, it used its liquid form to pass through the stockings, and parted the well-rounded rear-flesh.

Through the stockings, the string-thin black panties — and the puckered ring those panties could not quite cover — peeked out.

"… nh…"

Tiana only let out a small voice, not resisting. She no longer had even the strength to wake.

The slime, unconcerned with such things, touched the modest pucker between her butt-flesh without restraint.

"… n, ah…"

A note of pain mixed into the voice that slipped out. As that place had never been stimulated before, even mucus tentacles would cause pain and a feeling of pressure — the normal reaction.

Even so, Tiana did not wake.

When the mucus stimulated her anus as if to count its wrinkles one by one, the pucker clenched tight as if refusing the stimulation. Even unconscious, the disgust at being stimulated there must have been unmistakable.

At the same time, her previously unresponsive lower half trembled faintly. It was not pleasure. Merely a reaction to having a sensitive place she rarely touched herself stimulated.

But for the slime trying to make this its dwelling place, being shut out was a problem.

As the slime stimulated the wrinkles, the tightly-closed anus began to loosen and tighten by turns, and each time the lower half's trembling grew.

The womb too.

The womb housing the slime contracted, and as love juice seeped out, the slime absorbed it.

Bit by bit, the pleasure she felt within her womb grew, and Tiana's resistance weakened.

The pressure from her anus and pleasure from her womb. Although she was having her anus toyed with for the first time, the simultaneous stimulation of her womb tricked the brain into reading the stimulation as pleasure.

"Ah… aah… nh"

The volume of dripping drool grew, and even unconscious, her moans grew louder.

When the anus's resistance weakened, the slime turned part of its mucus into a tentacle thinner than the tip of a pinky finger and pushed it into the anus.

"—!"

Bikun — her waist trembled greatly, strongly.

But there was no resistance.

After that, just by moving the thin tentacle back and forth, the pucker contracted to grasp it as if swallowing it, and began to draw it in. The slime born from Alfira fitted into Tiana's anus little by little, by tiny degrees, without resistance.

A foreign body settling little by little into what was originally an organ of excretion — her unconscious self tried to refuse, but her body welcomed the slime in.

The sphincter that tried to close tight could do nothing against mucus. Once a slight intrusion had been allowed, the means to prevent further entry was lost.

"—ah… i, ii"

From her still-open mouth, drool and faint whimpering could be heard. The trembling in her lower half — more subdued compared to the spasms during the relentless climaxes — kept up as small repeated convulsions. The mass that had been bulging the string-like panties slowly diminished over time.

The tentacle, at first thinner than the tip of a pinky finger, gradually grew larger, now about as thick as an index finger. Taking its time, the slime that had been stimulating the anus settled itself entirely within her.

What remained were the sleeping Fiana and Alfira, and — Tiana, face down on the floor, skirt rolled up to her belly, stockings stained black as if she'd had an accident, her fleshly rear exposed in the scant black panties, twitching in small repeated spasms, unconscious.

When Tiana awoke, considerable time had passed.

The sky outside was already beginning to whiten. She had been unconscious for almost the entire night. But Tiana, who often stood guard for the queen even at night, felt unusually refreshed, as though she had had an unmolested sleep.

Only… why had she been asleep, face down on the floor?

As she pondered that, she recalled the previous night and bolted upright. She looked around, but there was no particular evidence she had been attacked the night before.

The clothes that had been drenched in slime mucus were dry, and her white brim was not soiled. Lifting her skirt slightly — unbecoming as it was — and checking beneath, her stockings were dry.

Her panties were still slightly damp and uncomfortable, but only to a degree that one could be convinced she had simply wet them while having a dream.

… But would she, accustomed to night work, fall asleep face down on the floor?

She shook her head at the thought. Such a thing had never happened before, and she could declare it would never happen again.

When she looked at the stone floor, the knives she had thrown in confusion the previous night were nowhere to be seen.

Checking the belt around her thigh, she confirmed all the knives she kept hidden there were back in the belt, which only deepened her confusion.

(… A dream?)

Impossible, she thought. Unlike the night before, she pasted her usual iron mask onto her face and ran her hands over various parts of her body. There was nothing odd.

She rose from the floor, and her leather boots gave a dry click.

She tapped the toes of her boots against the floor several more times to check her body's condition. Her physical state was not bad. So light it was hard to believe she had spent a night on the floor, light enough to make her wonder if she had merely been sleep-deprived lately.

While she checked her body's state in this way, Fiana stirred, perhaps bothered by the sound. As a knight whose body had been trained for combat, she would react to even faint noise.

Thinking on that, the previous night seemed more and more like a dream.

That she had cried out so much — embarrassing even to recall — and yet neither Alfira nor Fiana had woken.

If so, it meant she was… pent up enough that her dreams turned that way.

Tiana thought herself unfamiliar with peace or routine, but she was still a young woman of marriageable age. The thought that she had imagined something so strange in a dream embarrassed her.

A faint flush rose to her cheeks beneath her iron mask. But even that, in the still-dim infirmary, was not noticeable to anyone. There was no one else awake in this room. So thinking, she sighed and gave her head a light shake, casting the pink delusions out of her thoughts.

(In the first place, being attacked by a monster isn't realistic.)

Her queen Leticia, and her husband the [Hero]. With their companions they had defeated the [Demon King], and monsters were not increasing in number — only diminishing. That such a monster would suddenly appear in the castle's infirmary and assault her… unthinkable.

Besides, to a monster, humans were prey — food. To be killed was one thing, but why would a monster rape a woman?

Such a dream. Wrong on so many fundamental fronts.

Looking carefully, she saw that on the floor, alongside the knives she had thrown in her dream, lay scattered apparatus she did not recognize. A slender iron IV stand.

Had she tripped on it and fallen…?

Ridiculous — so she thought, embarrassed nearly to tears. Of course, she would not cry.

In reality, Tiana, tossed about by pleasure and thrashing as her consciousness blurred, had knocked it over — but that memory was vague. It remained, but its vagueness made calling it a dream more believable. That was how cornered Tiana had been, rolling about on the floor.

Letting out a deep, deep sigh, she returned to her usual iron mask.

She might be thinking in convenient ways, but a human's moments of disgrace often ended this way. Even with an assassin's skill and sharp sensitivity to others' presence, no human was perfect.

The moments of one's death were likely among the most extreme.

Treating "no one saw" as a blessing, she once more squared her shoulders and stood by the infirmary's entrance, this time not letting her gaze leave Fiana and the others.

A while later, the infirmary's entrance opened, and the doctor she had parted from the previous night peeked in. Asked about the night, she told him there had been no particular problem; he merely said "I see" and headed for his desk.

Fiana and the others were just sleeping from fatigue. He likely had not been very worried.

"Ah…"

At that she remembered the sedatives she had been given the previous night.

She made a small sound and slipped her hand into her apron pocket to retrieve them, but there was nothing there.

The sedatives meant for use if Fiana and the others grew agitated were gone, and she looked at the floor wondering if she had dropped them when she had fallen, but could not find them.

(… A dream too?)

She felt unsure of where reality ended and dream began. She might have asked the doctor, but he was already at his desk getting to work. The fact that he said nothing might mean she really had not been handed any medicine.

Was she that tired, she wondered, and let out a sigh small enough that the doctor would not notice.

(Perhaps I should take leave…)

Looking out the window, she muttered inwardly. Outside was already bathed in bright morning sunlight. Narrowing her well-rested eyes against that brilliance, she heard a faint rustling of cloth.

When she looked toward the source of the sound, Fiana, whose color had improved with proper rest, was sitting up in bed.

Her ample chest, lifting the loaned smock, swayed softly, conveying the fullness of its softness. Apparently she wore no underwear — even through the thick smock the sway was pronounced.

Trying not to look at her chest, Tiana looked Fiana straight in the eye.

"Good morning, Fiana-sama."

"Yes, good morning…"

"I am Tiana, in service of Queen Leticia."

Had she introduced herself once before…?

Her memory of even that was vague. Truly, today… starting from last night, her health seemed off.

Tiana, no longer sure even of her own memory, introduced herself. Fiana gave her own name in turn, and at the sound of her voice, Alfira sat up.

As she introduced herself to Alfira as well, dry footsteps came from the corridor — multiple sets.

Hearing them, Tiana straightened her bearing more than ever. She combed her disheveled gray hair into place with her fingers, and stood with her back stiffly straight.

Just as Tiana straightened her bearing, the infirmary's door opened. The one who opened it was a woman in the same maid uniform as Tiana. She wore her pink hair gathered to one side, draped over her left shoulder, and wore a smile that exuded motherliness. She was older than Tiana, no doubt — yet looked so young she seemed not much different. A teardrop mole near her left eye seemed to obscure her age.

The head maid of unclear age. Tiana's direct superior.

She gave Tiana, waiting near the entrance, a glance, and took a position upright on the other side of the opened door, framing it.

"How is your condition, Fiana, Alfira?"

"Hah. Without issue."

Setting Tiana and the head maid off to either side, Leticia appeared, this time dressed not as she had been the day before but in a pale pink dress. The moment Fiana and Alfira spotted her at the edge of their vision, they scrambled out of bed and dropped to their knees on the floor.

Their movements were much quicker than they had been the previous evening. They were fine, indeed.

"Well then. Both of you, once you have made yourselves presentable, come to the throne room… I am issuing a royal command."

"Hah."

Fiana responded, and Alfira remained motionless, head bowed.

Casting a glance over their responses, Leticia turned her back. She was not good at giving orders to anyone, but she well knew that was the duty of one who stood above. Mere requests would not move subordinates.

Hiding the stiffness in her expression, Leticia exited the infirmary briskly and headed for the throne room.

"Tiana."

"Yes."

The pink-haired head maid halted Tiana, who was about to follow Leticia.

Turning not just her face but her whole body, chest out, she waited for the next words.

"Good work last night."

"Not at all."

"You must be tired. Once you have escorted Fiana-sama and the others to the throne room, you may rest for today."

"… Is that for one day?"

"Yes. Rest well."

With that, the head maid followed Leticia. Watching her receding figure, Tiana let out a small sigh inaudible to anyone.

It was a sigh of relief: her condition had felt off since the previous night, and this was just right.

Her condition was off, but it was not fatigue she felt. If told to work, she had confidence she could manage. But still, if not in top form, she wanted to rest.

This sort of unnoticed fatigue was the most troublesome kind.

Looking into the infirmary, she saw Fiana and Alfira had shed their smocks and were donning the clothing that had been prepared for them. Not just Fiana but Alfira too was a woman with quite a substantial figure. With clothes off and only her underwear restraining her — simple though it was — her fullness did not pale.

Rather, held back by underwear, her abundant cleavage and the shadow there only emphasized her allure further.

… Watching the two with no particular thought, Tiana looked away.

Soon, dressed in well-tailored clothes that made them look less like knights and more like ladies of the lower nobility, the two emerged from the infirmary. They were touching their hair, perhaps because they had not bathed and cleaned themselves since the previous night.

For a woman, it was common sense to cleanse before appearing in public, but Leticia was so pressed about the royal command to these two that she did not permit it.

(Well, not my place to think about that.)

"Then. Please allow me to escort you to the throne room."

"Thank you kindly, Tiana-san."

As before, Fiana spoke, and Alfira remained silent. Escorting the two, Tiana thought about what to do afterwards.

Only the three women's footsteps echoed.

The soldiers stationed throughout the corridor did not move a muscle as the three beauties passed by. Like Tiana the previous night, they stood ramrod-straight, focused on guarding their stations.

After passing some dozen such soldiers, the castle's entrance — the particularly opulent door directly facing it — came into view. It was large enough for the three of them to pass through side by side. To either side stood not the kind of soldiers in the corridor, but knights clad in ornately decorated armor; they too did not move a muscle.

(Looks tiring…)

Tiana paused a beat to think it, even though she was the same.

"With this, please excuse me."

"Yes. Thank you for the guidance."

Mere maid though she was — not the lowliest, but still — Fiana bowed to her, and she bowed in return, then stepped a few paces away from the two who stood before the door.

After watching her retreat, the two knights pushed the doors open. They seemed lighter than they looked — they opened easily, revealing a red carpet extending all the way to the throne.

Seated upon that throne was Leticia in her pale pink dress, and around her gathered the kingdom's great figures. The senior officials of the knight order, the nobility, and the pink-haired head maid Tiana had just seen — about twenty in all.

They had gathered to hear the details again and to be given the royal command to subjugate the monsters.

For Tiana, the queen's maid though she was, none of it concerned her now. If necessary, an explanation would come later. Conversely, if it was unnecessary, she would not be told.

That was just how the job worked, so she did not particularly mind.

She did not know how things would unfold, but with a day's rest ahead, she resolved not to dwell on it. Tiana was a person who kept work and rest properly separate.

"Nh—"

When she turned on her heel to return to her room… she noticed her breathing was a little quickened. Fatigue she had not felt while guiding Fiana and the others.

(… Even on my precious day off, perhaps I should just sleep.)

Surely her condition was off somewhere, she reasoned. If it continued into evening, perhaps she ought to consult a doctor. Conveniently, the castle had a doctor in attendance every day.

Thinking such things, she reached her assigned room.

Maid though she was, in keeping with her skill and her position as the queen's maid, Tiana had been given a small private room. She was not the most senior, but had served for quite some time now. Only a few maids enjoyed the privilege of a private room — the pink-haired head maid she had met in the infirmary earlier, Tiana herself, and a handful of others.

The room was not heavily furnished — a wooden wardrobe for clothes, a side table. Two chairs to match the table.

And then, a canopied bed — one out of place in a maid's room. This was not to her own taste; it had been there from the start.

The room had originally been made for a guest, but it was not particularly spacious and the view from the window was poor. Yet the bed was clearly too large to be carried back out through the door, and so it had simply been left in the room.

A bed too wide for one person — but sleeping in this bed was one of the few luxuries Tiana enjoyed. A homely sort of luxury.

Entering the room, she removed her white brim and the barrette holding back her gray hair. Her shoulder-length hair, freed and swaying, made her shoulders feel lighter.

"Fuu."

Exhaling, she sat on the edge of her bed. Unladylike as it was, she stayed seated as she untied her apron's waist sash and reached behind her neck to undo the buttons of the one-piece. At first she had been unaccustomed to taking the apron dress on and off, but by now she handled it deftly.

After undoing all of the one-piece's back buttons, freed at the neck, her cheeks softened.

Years had passed since she had given up the assassin trade to serve as a maid at the royal castle; and the moment she was freed from this work outfit was, Tiana thought, when she relaxed most.

As she slowly removed her one-piece, the modest swelling beneath — so small that the support of underwear seemed unnecessary — came into view.

Like the panties covering her lower half, it was black underwear with intricate detailing. Black fabric with a white motif. Black befitted a woman with beauty like Tiana's, but the abundant use of white frills, combined with the modesty of her bust, gave a first impression of cute rather than beautiful.

As she pulled the one-piece off her legs, the panties covering only her crotch through her black stockings came into view; the back was practically a string. They had been chosen so the underwear's line would not show through her clothes, but even so, the smallness of their cloth area stood out.

The fabric was so scant and thin that pubic hair, the same gray as her head hair, could be seen through it.

Usually a cold and perfect maid, Tiana lived a fairly slovenly life in private.

Leaving her maid uniform scattered, she lay face down on the bed, hugging her pillow to her chest.

Not quite tropical, but in a world where it stayed relatively warm year-round, being in just underwear did not feel chilly.

— Lying on the bed like that, all the strength drained from her body.

She was sleepy.

A little different, perhaps.

Tiana turned the thoughts over in her mind.

From earlier, her body had felt off. Was it the effect of that strange dream, or of having fallen in the infirmary? Either way, she would sleep once and let the tiredness pass.

While she was thinking that, she suddenly felt a throb in her rear, somewhat like the urge to defecate.

It was not particularly strong. A small shift in posture would make her forget. Lying on the bed, drowsy, she paid no mind.

It's strange.

Tiana thought.

When she moved the arm hugging the pillow to her belly, her stomach was unusually distended. She felt no hunger. Come to think of it, she had eaten nothing since the night before, yet felt no hunger.

"… … … …"

Suspicious, she gently stroked her stomach. There it was — her unburdened, taut middle, her cinched waist, the faint outlines of abdominal muscles.

Her work was busy, but maintaining beauty and health was the mark of a lady. Her prized figure was beautiful today too — it ought to be — but something was off.

Something was off, she knew, but her body would not move. Her head was foggy, the will to move would not come.

While that happened, the tightness in her belly grew, even to the point of pain. Yet that pain was dull, dulling her body's awakening as well.

Her stomach hurt. But not in a way urgent enough to panic over. A contradictory thought, Tiana mused.

Gyuru — an unnatural sound came from her belly. But Tiana still did not move.

Her hips — her well-formed rear in the string panties that had no real point of being worn — shifted impatiently as Tiana, with hazy eyes, hugged the pillow in her arms.

Her rear… her anus made a sound.

Pusu, pusu — the sound came many times. Sticky farting sounds; yet Tiana did not blush, only dozed.

"Hah, hah… hah, hah."

Repeating quick, dog-like breaths, she still did not move.

Bubi — something leaked. The black stockings stained quickly. It was a sticky liquid, and as if it had a will of its own… it did not drip to the bed by gravity but gathered atop Tiana's rear, distending the black stockings.

"Ah!, ah— ah… auh…"

Pusu, pusu — releasing mucus and farts at once, Tiana let drool spill from her mouth… but her eyes were vacant. Reflecting nothing.

While that continued, mucus kept overflowing from her anus. Where had such a quantity been contained? A staggering volume.

And the force was strong. The anus, which had at first been leaking mucus from a hole no wider than the tip of a small finger, was now opened to about the width of a thumb. The underwear that should have hidden it was thin as a string, almost putting it on display.

The sound from her mouth grew louder, and unable to restrain herself, she pressed her mouth into the pillow to muffle her cries.

At last, mucus began to overflow from the unnaturally distended stockings.

Across Tiana's smooth back, like the dim gloom of a cave, a black, murky mucus spread, fanning fear and revulsion.

The volume was enough to engulf Tiana's lower half. It was the slime born from Alfira — which had absorbed Tiana's sweat, love juice, squirt, and even the excrement that had been gathering inside her intestines, growing.

Yet despite such a slime making its appearance, Tiana showed no notable movement.

She lay face down on the bed, exposing her underwear-clad self defenselessly. As if she were a patient about to undergo a massage.

Her thoughts were misted over, her body would not move. Her spirit had calmed, no resolve welled up. Her thinking faded, and she was left to whatever happened.

It was the lethargy of someone overdosed on a drug.

— This slime had, the previous night, absorbed the sedative meant for Fiana and the others from Tiana's apron, and gained this new ability. The drug it had absorbed had been a truly non-addictive one, with effects only mildly acting on the spirit.

But no matter how non-addictive an oral drug was, when leaked endlessly into the intestines — which had high absorption — it could induce a state resembling addiction. That was exactly Tiana's current state.

A too-strong paralytic poison would even affect the heart, and a person with a weak constitution would simply die from that alone. The previous night, the mild paralytic poison's effects had worn off quickly, so the slime had obtained a new ability to bind the thrashing Tiana's actions.

With her power to think weakened and her will to resist gone, Tiana's beautiful figure was overlaid by the grimy slime. Her snow-white skin was being defiled by a black slime.

A soft body, slightly lighter in pigment than the black underwear, crawled all over her, soiling the black underwear and the white sheets.

Nuchu, nuchu — the rim of her anus, stretched to the thickness of a thumb, was painfully strained, yet there was no pain on her face.

"Hah, hah…"

Only when her anus — by body rather than by mind — gave a slight attempt to close, met with the slime forcing it open again, did breaths slip from her mouth. Pressing her mouth into the pillow, Tiana's body moved up and down.

Her flat chest rubbed against her underwear's lining and the sheets, and her cute nipples, unimaginable from her cold demeanor, stiffened.

Sweat broke out.

It should not have been hot, yet sweat made her hair stick to her cheeks, and Tiana wondered at it, but only for a moment.

While she sweated, her breath disordered, and the slime violated her… Tiana did not move.

The slime that had been covering her back slid forward and covered her chest, modest enough that underwear was hardly needed. The sheets, soaking up the mucus and growing damp, gave off a disgusting wet squelch each time Tiana's anus was stimulated and her body moved up and down.

"Ah— ah…"

When the mucus covered her chest, the first thing stimulated was, of course, her nipples, the greatest erogenous zone of the upper body. Still covered by her underwear, they were licked and rolled just as they had been the night before, rubbed against the inner lining of her underwear.

While her chest was being stimulated, the mucus tentacle that had entered her anus advanced ever deeper. With nothing to obstruct it now, the inside of her intestines — emptied of leftovers — was a clean pink.

Having taken a whole night to accept the slime, her body, as if it had been waiting, ushered the mucus tentacle deeper.

Once it went deep, it pulled back slightly to avoid going too far.

That repetition only thickened the mist over Tiana's breathing. Like the sense of release that comes from repeating defecation many times — repeated endlessly.

Her hips swayed impatiently, and her mucus-soaked rear danced atop the bed. Her back and the rest of her upper body were stained with the slime's mucus, and the bed was no exception. Yet though her lower half was free of slime mucus, the bed too began to bear a slight dampness.

The feeling of pressure as a foreign object entered the anus normally meant for excretion. And the feeling of release as a thumb-thick foreign object was expelled.

As that repeated many times, Tiana buried her face in the pillow she was hugging. The pillow caught the overflowing drool and hid her disorderly breathing.

But the spasms of her lower half from the anal stimulation, and her trembling shoulders, were impossible to hide. The pouring sweat shone in the morning light streaming in from the window, and an obscene odor filled the room.

Her toes clutched the sheets tightly. As if they would tear them, her slender beautiful legs flexed, then went limp. Her hips spasmed strongly, repeatedly.

Without a sound, without resistance, she had climaxed from anal stimulation.

Even in such a state, Tiana, still hazy, was little by little being engulfed by the slime.