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Translator: uly
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Iron-Blood Knight Yuris's Home
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Iron-Blood Knight Yuris's home.
Fitting the name Iron-Blood Knight, her house and room exuded an atmosphere more austere and spartan than anyone's.
Her study was filled with books on tactics and swordsmanship, and her bedroom housed the knight's uniform she wore every day along with suits of armor of various kinds.
True to her philosophy that one must always steel their resolve even in their own room, her ever-present personal sword hung on the wall for display.
And that was not all.
There wasn't a single expensive luxury item to be found in the hallways.
Yuris Beletaon.
The Beletaon family, a lineage of knights for generations, had always shunned extravagance.
"What a knight needs is money to maintain and manage their troops. Cherish it and spend it wisely."
Those were the words her father, the family head, had always emphasized until she became an Iron-Blood Knight and gained her independence.
Shun luxury.
Use that money to raise soldiers.
The reason Yuris avoided extravagance was to invest that money in better weapons and equipment for her knights.
As a result, Yuris's room was so plain it was hard to believe it belonged to a woman—a noble lady, no less.
It was just like Yuris, who pursued nothing but efficiency, without a single frill.
In what should have been a silent room perfect for meditation...
"Haa, haa."
Wet, steamy moans leaked out.
"Yes... right there, yes! Hnngh!"
With her uniform half-undone, Yuris teased her nipples with her fingers, arching her back as a light climax washed over her.
She tickled her areolas with her fingertips and squeezed her breasts tight.
Each time, the delightful pleasure from her chest made her hips tremble.
It felt so good.
This was her private sanctuary, a room where no one's gaze could intrude.
The one small space where Yuris could unleash her pent-up desires.
Normally, she would have carefully relieved her urges, but today she was far more intense than usual, roughly toying with her nipples.
It was the kind of rough masturbation that would have satisfied her in the past.
Yet no matter how much she rubbed them, something felt missing.
The lips of the man who had sucked on her breasts.
The feel of a hot tongue and thick fingers.
"It felt so good when he sucked on them with his mouth..."
Yuris blankly grasped her breasts and lowered her head, trying to suck her own nipple.
But her breasts weren't large enough for that.
She could only suck on the upper parts.
"Can't reach..."
She couldn't do it alone.
Was that why it felt lacking?
"Haa, haa. More... I want more sucking."
It wasn't the real Yuris in the illusion, after all.
She glanced at her reflection in the mirror.
There, spread shamelessly on the bed with her legs wide open, exposing her most private place, was a naked woman.
Between her legs bloomed a pink flower against her white skin.
A pristine pale-pink pussy, smooth and hairless like a closed clam.
She gazed at her pussy, which no one had ever touched.
No, that's not right.
There was one person.
The bandit from the illusion.
"What are you talking about? That was just an illusion. It doesn't count. Doesn't count."
Besides, the bandit in the illusion hadn't even seen her pussy directly.
He had merely rubbed it with his hot cock.
"Cock..."
Was there something similar?
As if entranced, Yuris grasped the hilt of her sword hanging on the wall.
Here was the perfect tool.
The textured hilt, rough enough to feel the grip.
Using a sacred sword meant for battle in such a vulgar way brought a strange sense of taboo.
"But if I don't insert it, it should be fine, right?"
Yuris slipped the sword hilt between her legs and stroked it back and forth with her hand.
Each stroke, the deliberately rough grip designed not to slip massaged her pussy.
"Ahh, yes. So good..."
When she closed her eyes, it was as if the bandit's voice echoed in her ears.
She could almost feel him grabbing her by force, threatening her right then and there.
-Move your hips yourself, you slut.
-Look at you. A noble lady begging a mere bandit while grinding your hips.
-This time I'll let you go, but come back next time.
-Or I'll sell you to a slave trader.
Each time the bandit's voice rang in her head like a hallucination, humiliation made her body tremble.
Before she knew it, she was responding to the imaginary bandit's words.
-Who am I?
"Bandit..."
Her lips moved as she answered, and the bandit in her imagination sneered.
-Stupid pussy-brain. Let me ask again. Who am I?
She could guess what answer he wanted.
But if she said it...
If she uttered that word...
It felt like there would be no turning back.
Yet Yuris, lost in masturbation and unable to hold onto reason any longer...
"M... Master."
In the end, she spat out the line the imaginary bandit desired.
-Good girl.
He stroked her head.
It was the first time.
The first time receiving praise from a bandit.
Of course, it was just the bandit existing in her imagination.
"Ahh, yes! I'm... I'm cumming! Hnnggggh!!!"
Ramping up the intensity, Yuris shook her hips back and forth in masturbation and pictured the bandit's face again.
A rough, vulgar face.
One that reeked of thick, potent pheromones.
And that smell was the one she always caught whenever she visited the Hall of Illusions.
That's right.
The magician's scent.
The bandit's smell was identical to the one wafting from the shop owner's pants.
In the moment of climax...
"Hnnggggh!!! Cumming!!! Yes, cummiiing!!! Haaah...!"
The rough bandit's face in her imagination began to overlap with the magician's.
Yuris bucked wildly, squirting her juices.
"Haa, haa."
It was the best masturbation she'd ever had, one she'd never experienced before.
"So... good..."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"Knight Captain, has something good happened lately?"
As Yuris headed to the training grounds for today's session, one of the knights asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, lately your expression has been softer than before? Brighter, maybe? Something like that."
At the words of the knight who brought it up, Vice-Captain Jeko chimed in.
"Exactly. We thought maybe something nice happened to you, Captain. Did you get a new title or something?"
Jeko asked, his shiny bald head gleaming.
Yuris shook her head.
"It's nothing like that."
As she denied it, the female knights of the 1st Knight Order swarmed her with questions.
"Captain, it's a man, isn't it?"
"Does your family have a fiancée lined up for you?"
"Or did you find a boyfriend?"
"No one you're interested in?"
Unlike other knight orders, the 1st Knight Order was one of the few mixed units with both female and male knights.
Aspiring female knights who admired the Goddess of Victory Yuris had trained relentlessly to join, helping maintain its title as the empire's strongest.
But the female knights had a slight grievance.
Their idol and star, Yuris, was still single at 25.
In the empire, 25 was the precarious line teetering on old maid territory.
They didn't want their role model to end up an old virgin.
Perhaps that's why.
Once the topic took hold, they descended on Yuris like hyenas, chattering away.
And unlike the female knights...
"Must be a lover for our Captain?"
"Our Captain lives with her sword glued to her hip."
"The sword might as well be her lover."
The male knights were a bit different.
Yuris was an object of admiration for them too, but they occasionally indulged in fantasies of being with her.
How could they not?
Imagining building a family with such a beautiful, perfect knight.
She was a flower atop an unreachable cliff, but since no one had claimed her yet, they harbored faint hopes.
That's why.
When Yuris responded to the female knights' questions, the knights focused on her reaction for their own reasons.
"Y-Yeah. N-No man I'm interested in or anything."
Receiving their stares, Yuris found herself stuttering without realizing it.
-No one you're interested in?
The moment she heard those words, two faces flashed in her mind.
The bandit and the illusion magician.
Not boyfriends, but men who had helped her feel good.
Thanks to them, she could set down the heavy burden of being the Goddess of Victory for a while.
That must be why they said she looked brighter.
"Not men I'm interested in."
The bandit was a trashy thug who forced and threatened her, and the magician was the one who created those videos.
He even tried to delude her by saying they came from her own desires.
But the pleasure they gave her surpassed any joy of victory she'd ever felt.
That much was true.
Imagining the moment she panted under the bandit's commands made her face burn and her nipples harden.
Ahh, no.
Not now, with her subordinates right here.
The male knights who thought "no way" and the female knights full of curiosity froze at her shy, head-turning response.
"C-Captain, you really have someone?"
"Eeeeek! First time seeing you like this, Captain! Who's the guy?"
"Tell us! Let's do some girls' talk with you in the middle this time."
"How far have things gone? Not officially dating yet?"
"Wh-Why..."
Shocked male knights.
Fussing female knights.
Yuris shook her head, fending off her subordinate knights as they rushed her.
"It's not like that!"
How could she say it?
That it wasn't a boyfriend, but defeat masturbation making her feel good.
She could never say it.
Absolutely not!
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"Guuh!"
In the empty shop with no customers today, I stretched and dove back into alchemy.
Since the Hall of Illusions couldn't make money, I had to fund my research and shop operations through alchemy and magic tool crafting—no rest for the weary.
That's when it happened.
Knock knock.
"Magician, sir? You have a letter."
I went out at the mailman's voice from the door.
"A letter?"
"Yes, sender's anonymous, but addressed to you, sir."
"Ah, it's probably for me."
Only one person would send me a letter like this.
My mentor, Illusion School professor Meiko.
"Sir, and it's COD."
"...One moment."
Was even my mentor struggling with money?
I handed a silver coin to the mailman and opened the letter.
As I did, the face of a girl in her early twenties with flowing blue hair appeared.
-Disciple! How have you been?
Her voice was lively, but dark circles shadowed her eyes.
Dark circles were a mage's chronic affliction.
"You look as energetic as ever, Mentor."
-Really? Haha! Getting out and about gives me energy. I'm tired, sure, but anyway, just sending a check-in since you're doing well.
"Good to see you looking well."
-How's the theater?
"Got some regulars, so it's doing okay."
-R-Reg regulars? There's really a woman who likes that shameless stuff?
I couldn't say that woman was the Goddess of Victory Yuris.
Client info is sacred.
My flustered, blushing mentor was the youngest Illusion School professor and once hailed as a genius: Meiko.
Two years younger than me, but she became professor first and mastered nearly all of illusion magic.
Her genius channeled into adventures rather than lab work was the issue.
She even developed this letter that let us talk in real-time like a phone.
Less a letter, more a temporary comm crystal.
Portable comm crystal, technically?
No idea why use her invention over a regular crystal, but geniuses think differently.
If Droken was the Hagrid who got me into magic school, Meiko was the Dumbledore who made me an illusion mage.
This time, she'd dashed off to a dungeon for materials to aid illusion magic.
Her sullen face said she hadn't found what she wanted.
"Did you get the material for group illusion entry?"
-Not yet. No leads. It's tough.
Why obsess over that legendary material?
More important things exist.
Hmm, no way.
"Mentor, you're not wandering to avoid helping with my research, are you?"
-Wh-What? Accusing me of ditching my disciple?
She clutched her chest and yelled.
"Why react like that? Someone might think I did something perverted to you."
-Y-You did! Y-You! For 'research,' groping my breasts!
Meiko backed away, covering her chest, face beet red.
"You said anything for research."
-Didn't say become a pervert!
"It was for data collection."
-Ugh! Worrywart mentor here. Scared my disciple will grope random women's chests on the street and end up in jail.
"I'm a thoughtful guy. Wouldn't do that except to you, Mentor."
Meiko glared suspiciously.
-Then good.
As her face relaxed and she nodded...
"Anyway, when are you coming back?"
-Dunno. When I find the material.
"Keep ghosting and I'll come find you."
-Huh? T-Time's... up... al... ready... La... ter...
"I know the trick. The image loops."
-Tch!
Her snark returned.
"Relieved you're healthy. Just send word before you come. I'll be waiting."
-Yeah. Time to quit that weird research. Messing with women's desires...
I cut the image before the nagging started.
Mentors are best when they nag less and take it.