Theo picked the red berries that were said to bloom only in winter, placing them one by one into his basket. The translucent fruits dangled from snow-laden branches. These berries, called snowblush fruit, were known for concentrating their sweetness by enduring the cold. His fingertips were numb, but the sweet fragrance drifting to his nose was pleasant. Theo lifted the brimming basket and held it up to show Lihen.
“Look. I picked this many!”
“Oh, impressive.”
His shoulders straightened with pride at Lihen’s praise. Theo shifted his gaze to Lihen’s basket. He couldn’t help but doubt his own eyes. A plant with a silver base and small teal-green speckles. Silverbloom. Just the other day, a drunk man at the tavern had been going on about it. He’d said silverbloom was used as a stimulant.
Why does Lihen need something like this?
“I’ll help you too.”
Theo deliberately reached for an ordinary plant that resembled silverbloom and tried to drop it into Lihen’s basket. Lihen quickly caught his hand. He smiled with an awkward expression.
“Not that one. They look similar so you got confused. Don’t just put any plant in there. Once the medicine is finished… I’m the one who has to take it. So please pick carefully.”
So it wasn’t for a customer — Lihen was going to take it himself. It was obvious that some customer with peculiar tastes was asking Lihen to do something strange again. The things he’d overheard at the tavern tangled together in his head. He said nothing and went back to picking berries, but the sensation in his fingertips was not the same as before.
A quiet part of Theo’s heart was crumbling.
The black breath moss and the antennae of red moon butterflies were gathered quickly as well. Having obtained all the ingredients within a single day, I took the opportunity while Theo was out working and went to find Belsina. I handed her a pinch of the drug powder along with the materials for the medicine — whether it was a restorative or a stimulant, I still couldn’t say for certain.
Belsina disappeared into her laboratory. Shortly after, sounds of clattering came from inside. Bottles clinking, the grinding of something, and an uncomfortably sharp metallic ringing. Before long, she emerged holding a glass bottle filled with a substance. It was the color of tarnished silver.
Quest Complete
+Infamy Points 300p
Belsina’s Special Potion
“Let it steep in sunlight and moonlight for about ten days before drinking. And make sure to tell me how it goes afterward.”
“Ha, sure…”
If it ends up acting as an aphrodisiac, I’ll just wipe my mouth and pretend nothing happened. Of course, Belsina viewed me not as a man but more as Test Subject Number One — but even so, it’d still be embarrassing.
And that evening, the moment Theo came home from work, he went looking for the silverbloom I had gathered.
“The plant is gone?”
“Yeah. I had someone I know make the medicine.”
I brushed it off vaguely.
“What exactly is the medicine for?”
“Something along the lines of a health tonic, I’d say.”
“This is that medicine? I want to take some too.”
Theo looked at the glass bottle sitting on the windowsill and moved to open the lid. I quickly grabbed his wrist to stop him.
“Don’t. It’s not finished yet.”
Theo obediently set the bottle down and said:
“Then once it’s done, give me just a little.”
“S-sure…”
I said I would, but inside I was thinking something entirely different. I’ll have to grovel to Belsina and ask her to make some ordinary drink with a similar color. There was no way I could let Theo have something like that.
We washed the snowblush fruit we’d picked yesterday and shared them between us. The red juice stained Theo’s lips and tongue a vivid color. Seeing that, I burst out laughing. Theo pressed his fingertip firmly against my lips. My lips squished flat under his solid hand.
“It’s not just me. Lihen’s lips are a mess too.”
I went to stand in front of the mirror to check. My lips were unusually red, as though I’d applied lipstick. When I opened my mouth into a round shape, I could see that my tongue, which had been peach-colored, was dyed an excessive shade of red. Theo, who had come up behind me without my noticing, looked into the mirror alongside me.
Theo brought a water-dampened handkerchief and wiped my lips clean. He leaned in a little closer, and this time tried to reach for my tongue as well.
“I don’t think you need to wipe my tongue too. It tickles.”
I laughed without really thinking about it and gently pushed Theo’s wrist away. The handkerchief brushed the corner of my mouth and stilled. He lowered his hand without a word.
The night I had been waiting and waiting for finally came. After confirming that Theo was fully asleep, I opened the system window. Of course, only I could see the system window — but waving my hands around in the air would look strange regardless. I poured every last bit of the 1,500 points I had accumulated through soul offerings into leveling Theo up, holding nothing back.
Theo (Age 27)
Status Ailments: Aging-Reversal Curse, Memory Loss, Power Loss
Current Physical/Mental Age: 20
Seeing the changed number filled me with deep satisfaction. A twelve-year-old child had become a proper adult in just a month and a half.
Congratulations on becoming an adult.
I stroked the sleeping Theo’s hair and whispered softly. His face was flushed pink, as if he were having a good dream.
“Lihen…”
He murmured in his sleep. I couldn’t say for certain, but it seemed like I was appearing in his dream. If I was in it, then at least it wasn’t a nightmare. Thinking that, I pulled him — now taller than me — into a close embrace.
“Congratulations on becoming an adult.”
Lihen wore that characteristic playful smile of his. But today, Lihen’s appearance was different from usual. He had shed the stuffy black clothes that reached all the way to his neck and was wearing nothing but a thin shirt, seated astride Theo. The moment he saw it, he understood. Ah, this is a dream. Whether this dream would turn out to be honey or poison, he couldn’t yet say.
His bare bottom ground slowly and warmly against Theo’s groin. Heat came through with only a single layer of trousers between them. His cock swelled taut. The trousers were on the verge of splitting.
“To celebrate you all grown up, heh, I’ll take care of your virginity for free…”
“L-Lihen—!”
Lihen leaned down toward Theo. He tilted his head, finding the perfect angle to bring their lips together. His elegant eyes curved into a sly, suggestive tilt. A soft tongue traced lightly over his lips before pressing its way inside. A hot tongue swept through his mouth. Lihen seemed very practiced at this sort of thing. He skillfully ran across his teeth and teased his palate. It was nothing more than having his mouth licked a little — yet even from that stimulation alone, Theo felt his legs go weak. If he hadn’t already been lying on the bed, he surely would have swayed and crumpled to the floor.
“I’ve been working myself open for you, mm, to take your virginity…”
Lihen spread his legs wide and lifted his shirt, showing Theo his hole. He traced the folds before pushing a finger inside. Something — whether it was slick or oil, he couldn’t tell — spilled freely from his entrance. It was impossible to say how much he’d been used, but the slightly parted opening clenched and fluttered as though desperate to clamp down around a cock. It was a rear entrance far too accustomed to taking one.
The obscene talk Theo had overheard from customers at the tavern surfaced in his mind. They’d said getting your back hole worked once would leave you senseless… So was this what happened? Did he make money by mixing bodies with people over and over, until his hole had gone soft and yielding like that?
Lihen’s hand pressed against Theo’s stomach. He aimed the head of his cock at that twitching opening and rolled his hips down in one smooth drop. A pleasurable tightness wrapped around his cock—
“Hah—!”
Theo jolted awake from the dream. He hurriedly pulled back his waistband to check the state of his underwear. It was damp. He dragged his hands through his hair in self-reproach. Having a wet dream about the person who saved his life. He loathed himself for it — and yet at the same time, he wanted to check whether the dream’s contents were real.
Theo stole a glance at the sleeping Lihen.
Right. Just a check. Just to check.
He brought his hand to Lihen’s waistband and pulled down his trousers and underwear at once. The loose sleep trousers came off easily. His heart was hammering. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn’t stop himself.
He took hold of Lihen’s knees and spread his legs apart, then gripped his buttocks with both hands. He pulled them apart with a slow, deliberate stretch, and the small hidden opening tucked between them came into view. Soft, delicate pink folds, gathered neatly and closed shut. Just looking at the outside, it didn’t appear to carry much experience. He ran his fingertips over the folds. They were smooth. And dry.
He’d need to put a finger in to know for certain. Without thinking, he pushed his index finger in from the start. It was tight and didn’t give easily. Whether it hurt or not, Lihen’s nose scrunched and a small sound escaped him — mmh. Theo pulled Lihen’s underwear back up and dressed him in his trousers. Then he lay back down at the far edge of the bed, away from Lihen. Thump, thump — his heart kept hammering loudly.
In the end, he couldn’t hold back. He moved close to the sleeping Lihen. He hovered at a distance close enough for his breath to reach him, then pressed a very brief kiss to his lips. And then, as if nothing had happened at all, he hurriedly turned over and lay back down.
The moment something soft and yielding touched my lips, I snapped my eyes open. Then, by reflex, shut them again.
It was Theo. Theo was secretly kissing me.
Theo had desires beyond stopping the Demon King? I had been interpreting Theo as something close to a true saint with his carnal urges entirely extinguished, so I had no choice but to find this situation baffling. The very first thing he does upon turning twenty is steal a kiss. What a little rascal… But wait — why me of all people? What have I done?
I almost broke into rough breathing from the shock, but I forced myself to steady my breath and keep pretending to sleep. Just then, behind my tightly shut eyelids, a notification window appeared — one I’d never seen before.
Evil Points (Theo) +300p
…?
Theo kissed me and I gained points? Not infamy points — evil points? What even are evil points? And why is Theo’s name in the parentheses?
I mentally called up the system, and an explanation window appeared immediately.
Heart-Pounding Possession Bonus!
When a character designated as a companion by an Evil-Faction player commits a wicked act, points are awarded to the player.
Evil Points may be freely used in the shop in the same manner as Infamy Points.
Secretly kissing someone in their sleep was, no matter how you looked at it, a wicked thing to do. So that was why 300 points had come rolling in. I’d broken a divine statue with great effort and received 200 points — and here I was receiving 300 points just from getting kissed once. If I gathered points this way, world peace was genuinely right around the corner.
Wait, hold on. I barely managed to calm my excited mind. Theo was a representative hero of the light faction. A hero doing wicked things — that couldn’t be right. Hero or no, that was beside the point; just as he had been in the game, Theo needed to be the righteous, noble hero who would become humanity’s light.
…But what if. What if the only person Theo committed these wicked acts against was me? What if he only ever did this sort of thing to me?
The only one taking the hit would be me, and as long as I could accumulate points, I didn’t mind. That could hardly even be called taking a hit. Besides, I had set fire to a temple just to collect infamy points — a little kiss was nothing but cute by comparison. Anything beyond that would need serious deliberation, but I doubted Theo would demand more from me than this.
Right — so many things had already diverged from the original game’s story. The mere fact that a demon legion commander was working for the sake of humanity was already a deviation from the source. It was well within believable range for Theo to have developed romantic feelings. Or perhaps those desires had always been there, and he’d simply never encountered anyone he was drawn to until now.
Wait. Did that mean Theo’s type was Shane? That Shane’s looks were his preference. How unusual, I thought. What was there to like about a narrow-eyed character who went around with that suspicious smile all the time? As someone who personally preferred adorable, compact types, it was hard for me to understand — but well, taste was something that deserved to be respected, so I decided not to think on it further.
I ran a quick calculation in my head. If Theo were to secretly kiss me every night… in a single month, I could collect a whopping 9,000 points. But if I grabbed him now and demanded to know why he was doing that to someone asleep? And if, as a result, Theo never laid a hand on me again? That would be the equivalent of cutting open the goose that laid the golden eggs myself.
Right. For the sake of saving the world, I could spare a pair of lips. It wasn’t even a proper kiss — just a peck. Anything more than that would need genuine consideration, but I didn’t think Theo would push for anything beyond this.
I decided to let the stolen kiss incident pass without confrontation, charitably.
And a few days later—
Evil Points (Theo) +600p
Points came in again. Twice as many as last time. What on earth did this kid do to me while I was asleep?
