Chapter 149: Stop Fighting and Have Sex (2)
The next morning.
I was completely freed from my status as a prisoner, handed my weapons back, and returned to the main camp.
Of course, Zika, who had become noticeably docile and reserved after yesterday's events, was holding my hand and following me all the way to the entrance of the campsite.
Step, step.
I joined the main force of the Mage Knights, about 150 paces ahead of Senior Cassandra and the female warrior coalition's defensive line. I greeted Senior Knight Owen casually.
"I'm back."
"You walk in from enemy territory so naturally. And who's that Cyclops girl waving at you over there?"
"There's a story behind that."
A long and rather lewd story, so I decided to skip the detailed explanation for now.
"We're out of time, so I'll hear the full story later. For now, turn around and stand by. We've agreed to settle this with a duel between champions."
"Who, me?"
"Who else would it be?"
I was about to argue, "Why me as the champion?" but when I thought about it, I realized I was the best choice among my peers. The senior knight was excellent as a quartermaster but wasn't better than me with a sword.
'Wow, there really isn't anyone else, huh? Is the Mage Knights division okay like this?'
"Hey, Owen! Long time no see."
Senior Cassandra appeared, followed by senior female knights.
Including Senior Cassandra, who was the commander, there were eight in total. That made up about two squads.
Behind them, the female knight trainees who had trained with us appeared. Aside from Erin, who had found separate employment or had personal circumstances, there were 18 of them, including Vanerim. That accounted for about four and a half squads.
A total of 26 people.
Everyone had an excited look on their faces, eagerly awaiting the duel between the champions of the two sides.
"I'm, of course, stepping forward for this side. Who's going to represent your side? Surely it's Owen? After all, the flower I'm demanding belongs to him."
The champion on their side was Senior Cassandra. I awkwardly stood in the middle, raised my hand, and turned around.
"Excuse me, that'll be me. Ban."
"What? That little chick, you're the champion of the 87th class?"
"Yes. We're short on talent."
This was my second duel against a senior knight.
The last time, though, my opponent was a lazy, incompetent knight who had barely practiced swordsmanship and had no willpower. The senior knight before me now was someone who had trained rigorously and had taken charge of the eastern front—a formidable and accomplished knight.
'Come to think of it, if I lose here, it's not me who gets screwed over, but the senior knight representing us, right?'
I figured I could always end up a prisoner again and stick with Zika, so it wouldn't be so bad… But when I glanced at the senior knight, I saw him clasping his hands desperately, praying for me to win.
"Now that I think about it, wouldn't it be better to just have sex instead of fighting?"
"Yeah, you could totally help out a Senior who's been suffering at the border with a good lay."
"Senior Cassandra's good enough to fuck, right?"
"Shut up, all of you!"
Apparently, quite a few guys in the Mage Knights had fallen for Senior Cassandra's beauty.
'Oh, geez… I guess I'll have to put in some effort for our poor Senior.'
Well, aside from all that, I was feeling a bit competitive.
'When was the last time I swung my mana saber with full strength?'
It had been ages since I used it without holding back, without special circumstances, or without fighting some brainless monster. When was the last time I had a proper fight where strategy and psychological tactics mattered?
The closest would be when I fought the battle golems from the Sytorax Republic, but even they weren't a satisfying match for my swordsmanship.
I raised my mana saber above my chest, assuming a stance, and paid my respects to the strongest knight I had ever faced.
"Ban, Mage Knight Trainee."
"Unaffiliated. Cassandra Ellystrian, the Crimson Flame of the East!"
Cassandra's mana saber burned like fire, perfectly embodying her nickname.
The blade was thin, but its intense energy was so fierce that even a clash with another mana saber would overwhelm the opponent with heat. Its vicious design radiated heat at close range.
Of course, if not properly controlled, it could burn the user's hand first. But for someone like Senior Cassandra, such control was likely effortless.
By comparison, my mana saber was an ordinary, mass-produced model. A direct clash would undoubtedly leave my blade warped and cut down without resistance.
'Like hell I'm going to clash head-on!'
Instead of igniting my blade, I gripped only the hilt and charged at her.
She must have faced countless knights who charged at her like brutes, expecting that I was only aiming for mutual destruction. She shifted her stance defensively to protect her torso, but even as I saw this, I didn't slow my charge.
No, I didn't intend to slow down.
Slash!
"Too slow."
Her strike came faster than I could dodge, slicing toward my chest plate. But this was exactly the opening I had aimed for.
Shhhk!
Slash!
I had already ejected from my armor, sacrificing the exoskeleton as bait. Like a runner who sheds weights mid-sprint, my speed caught her off guard for just a moment—long enough for me to close the distance.
At this point, we were so close we could feel each other's breath. She couldn't maneuver her blazing mana saber effectively at such close range. Seizing the opportunity, I jammed the tip of my mana saber into the gap between her helmet and chest plate.
Clang!
"I win!"
"Not yet!"
Thud!
She grabbed my arm to stop me from activating my mana saber, attempting to snap it. In desperation, I activated it anyway, with no hesitation, fully prepared to slice her throat if needed.
Whoosh!
The high-pressure mana spewed out, not slipping into the gap in her armor but cutting through the exposed space between her neck and helmet. It left a wound on her neck, but she ignored the searing pain and pressed forward, using the weight of her armor in close combat.
Without armor, my punches hurt me more than her, and getting hit by her felt like my bones were being shattered. Instead, I aimed a powerful kick at her leg, forcing her to ground herself to stabilize. Taking advantage, I struck her helmet with both elbows.
Clang!
The impact sent a sharp pain up my arms, but it was bearable. I watched as she swung her blazing mana saber toward me. Her plan was to let her heated armor cause burns while using her blade to evaporate me.
As she moved, I yanked on the string attached to my saber's hilt, pulling it back. Gripping the blade in reverse, I intercepted her flaming saber mid-swing.
Whoosh!
Her mana saber flickered for a moment, disrupted. My own blade overheated and dissipated, but the momentary chaos let me thrust my mana saber—now just a hilt—into the gap in her helmet again.
Clang!
Her blazing red eyes stared at me, as if asking, "Do you really think this broken blade will work?"
But I hadn't aimed to pierce her armor with my saber. My real goal was to disable her mana saber temporarily and seize it.
Grabbing her overheated right hand with both of mine, I twisted her arm forcibly. The tip of her mana saber was now aimed directly at the gap in her helmet.
If she tilted her head to dodge, I'd retaliate and kill her. This was a life-or-death gamble.
Screech!
However, thanks to the hilt I had jammed into the gap earlier, her helmet was locked in place, preventing her from moving her head. The opening in her helmet lined up perfectly with the blade I now aimed at her.
"I've plucked the flower."
"…I thought your perversion was limited to sex, but your fighting style is just as twisted."
Senior Cassandra released her grip on her mana saber, letting me take it, and the duel came to an end.
"What, it's over already?"
The entire process took about three seconds. To my peers, it might have looked like Senior Cassandra and I simply tangled for a moment before the duel abruptly ended. However, in reality, it was a precarious exchange of blows, a razor-thin contest.
To signal the end of the battle, I held up Senior Cassandra's helmet, which she had personally removed and handed to me, high above my head for all the knights to see, shouting:
"The War of Flowers is over!"
And just like that, a grueling yet oddly anticlimactic "War of Flowers" concluded.
Out of the 587 soldiers who had been captured, 71 opted to marry into the orc villages, while the remaining 516 prisoners were not returned. Additionally, nearly 400 female orcs expressed their desire to migrate to the kingdom.
"Honestly, if this was going to happen, they could've just lived in the kingdom from the start!"
"Tradition!!"
A loud shout came from an ogre woman who had Dane dangling from her belt like a decoration. I muttered under my breath and continued negotiating the prisoner exchange with the senior knight. Most of the prisoners were distracted, eyeing the curvy orc maidens and eagerly offering to pay their own ransom. Around a hundred men, however, refused and demanded replacements. By international standards, one knight would serve in place of ten soldiers, but…
"I'll go!"
"Me too! Pick me!"
There were so many volunteers from our Mage Knight division that the exchange was decided on a one-to-one basis instead.
"If it's like this, couldn't we have just sent them off to date without bothering with all this equipment?"
"Hmm?"
While pondering this, I glanced down at Zika, who was seated on my lap, pressing her wide, fertile hips against me. She gazed up at me with adoration, occasionally planting kisses on my cheek.
"With two eyes, I don't even know where to look… but I can't stop staring at you."
After our one night together, Zika clung to me like a completely different person, showering me with affection. Unfortunately, since I wasn't a prisoner, I wasn't eligible for the volunteer program.
'Come to think of it…'
Senior Cassandra explained why I had been so captivated by Zika's eye during our first fight. Apparently, Cyclopses naturally possess a charm effect in their gaze. The effect varied depending on the individual—those who found their single eye grotesque were immune, but for someone like me, who saw it as beautiful, the effect was instantaneous.
Cyclopses, she added, would solidify bonds during marriage by staring into each other's eyes and reflecting their faces in each other's gaze, creating mutual enchantment.
'So, her charm effect is bouncing back off my reflection and making her cling to me like this?'
The word "charm" made me slightly uneasy, but since it's a racial trait and only works if there's mutual affection, I decided to think of it as a mood-setting ability.
While mutual consent was established as a rule for such cases, to simplify matters, it was decided to discuss personal relationships only after the prisoner exchange was complete.
"I want that prince-knight!"
Jake, in particular, was incredibly popular with the ogre maidens. He was grinning ear-to-ear, clearly delighted by the attention, as he harbored a distorted sexual preference for strong women.
'He really should be careful…'
While Erin found his size manageable, for those ogre women, he'd be no more than a snack-sized sausage. One wrong move, and he'd be crushed between their double rows of teeth.
He'd better take care of himself if he doesn't want to lose his real dick and end up with some kind of metal or mana-powered replacement. But hey, it's not my dick—he can manage his own.
'Anyway… Cyclopses are fascinating.'
The other Cyclopses hadn't come along. After retreating during Zika's capture, they got lost and were trapped for some time. Allied ogre maidens eventually rescued them, but since the War of Flowers was over and they had no interest in men, none of them except Zika showed up here.
"The horses have arrived."
The border guards had retrieved the horses we'd left behind. Wolf riders had galloped to the border to collect them and bring them back here.
'Mollang and Shuru must be pissed off.'
The moment Mollang and Shuru poked their heads out of my horse's saddlebags and spotted me, they immediately jumped into my arms. However, upon noticing Zika already nestled there, they shifted into attack mode, biting my thighs in protest.
"Ouch! Okay, okay, I'm sorry!"
The border guards also delivered a stack of mail they had been holding. Most of it turned out to be random advertisements Dane had recklessly signed up for, earning me glares from the messenger. Among the pile was a letter from the convent—unexpected, as I couldn't think of any reason they would write to me. I decided to set it aside for later, as the commotion around me left no room to read it.
"Alright, alright… I'll play with all of you tonight, okay?"
While Shuru angrily nibbled on my fingers, I stroked the base of her tail to calm her down. Mollang, meanwhile, soothed my burnt hands by holding them in her mouth, so I gently rubbed her core in return. Watching this, Zika began grinding her ass against my crotch, seeking my attention.
'Ah… this is happiness, but at the same time… love feels heavy.'
I'll need to work out more if I don't want to be crushed by all this love.
---
"Ugh… It's so dark…"
With her vision blocked, Zika shivered, waiting for my touch. How did it come to this? It started with me asking about her charm ability, and she suggested we test it by blindfolding herself. One thing led to another, and it turned into a blindfolded play session.
So far, so good. The problem was…
Squish.
'Wait, what am I touching right now?'
It was so dark that I couldn't see anything either.
"Ah! That's my bellybutton… ah…!"
'Oh, crap, that's her bellybutton?'
My fingers had slipped into a small opening, so I explored a bit deeper to confirm. Yep, it was her bellybutton. Trying to locate her lower region, I cautiously moved my hand downward, only to feel something long and hairy. Assuming it was her pubic hair, I kept going but ended up touching an eyelid, then a nose, and finally a pair of lips.
"…"
Just to be sure, I traced down her neck to her collarbone, then naturally moved to her chest. But instead of Zika's slender chest, I felt something firm yet full.
"What the hell? These boobs are huge!"
Startled, I lit a candle. There, lying completely unfazed, was Senior Cassandra.