Allen watched the merchant’s brief reminiscence while trying to calm his own feelings of shame. Lea’s imagination was so intense and vivid that the merchant’s thoughts appeared relatively dim in comparison, but this didn’t help him organize his thoughts… rather, it made things more confusing. The merchant’s life story was fine until that last thought. If he hadn’t thought that, Allen would have pretended nothing happened and simply sent the merchant and woman away.

But lovemaking?

He couldn’t understand why that word suddenly appeared. No, he wanted to pretend he hadn’t heard it. Allen rubbed his neck uncomfortably. His fingers caught on the leash.

Suddenly, he remembered Lea asking him if he could “handle it.” And then his own foolish reply: “There’s nothing I can’t handle.”

Was this what Lea meant by “handling”?

Everything felt distant and hazy.

The word “jeongsa” he was familiar with was the tedious “jeongsa” (政事, political affairs). But the merchant couldn’t possibly be referring to that. Allen and Lea weren’t in that kind of atmosphere either.

So the only remaining meaning of “jeongsa” was… “jeongsa” (情事, lovemaking).

With an unsettling feeling, he touched the back of his neck, and the leash felt quite cumbersome. After putting this leash on him, Lea had pulled the chain. What position had they been in then?

Their lips had been about to touch, and their bodies had been pressed together even before that. And above all, he had been vigorously er*ect.

The merchant had been glancing at the chain around his neck while trembling.

In fact, Lea had anticipated that the two would be engaging in lovemaking from the moment she sensed their presence. So she put the leash on him and pretended to pounce on him as a show to stop the merchant’s deed. Normal people wouldn’t have s*x next to others doing the same. But that momentary judgment had passed fleetingly and been buried under the rough moans in her fantasy. Allen, who had been focusing more on the outside sounds at that time, hadn’t heard that thought.

Allen never fully grasped the connection between the leash and “lovemaking.” He only thought about clearing up the merchant’s misunderstanding before it grew further.

“……The vice commander and I weren’t doing anything.”

“Pardon?”

“I said I wasn’t doing anything with that knight.”

“I didn’t say anything about that.”

The merchant was perplexed. Allen had suddenly declared “nothing happened” with a serious expression, which confused him. Then his eyes caught the d*ldo in Allen’s hand. He was gripping it so tightly it looked like he might break it. The merchant gulped when he saw the veins bulging on the back of Allen’s hand.

「Nothing happened…… Then… C-could it be!」

The merchant reached a conclusion.

「I…… I of all people…… appeared right before the Grand Duke was about to climax…! That’s why he charged at me like a wild beast!」

He struck the floor with both hands, his eyes showing utter disbelief.

Allen couldn’t properly read his thoughts. He only vaguely sensed that the merchant was further misunderstanding the situation. The merchant was looking at Allen with a deeply distressed expression. His earlier fear seemed to have subsided. He opened his mouth with sympathetic eyes.

“I have committed an unforgivable sin.”

“Nothing happened!”

“I’m sorry for preventing that from happening.”

“That’s not what I meant! Look, didn’t the vice commander just say that doing… that… here would make you sick? We couldn’t do it here in the first place!”

“Ah…!”

The merchant exhaled an exclamation as if he had reached a profound realization.

“So that’s what it was.”

“Now please get up and leave.”

The merchant exhaled deeply and stood up, brushing himself off along with the woman. He felt deeply relieved that he hadn’t interrupted Allen’s important business. He had almost been unable to sleep at night from excessive guilt. The merchant recalled Allen’s sturdy lower body and what had been prominently protruding between his thighs. He wondered if Allen had painfully stopped himself from reaching completion for Lea’s sake.

「Such a difficult choice!」

This time, the merchant looked at Allen with eyes full of admiration. Allen weakly brushed his bangs aside, uncomfortable with his intense gaze. He and Lea were being linked together no matter what he did. He even feared that strange rumors about him and Lea might spread throughout the North.

‘No, I absolutely must not let that happen.’

It seemed like the situation was growing more complicated by the day.

“Grand Duke, then may I have my bag back……”

“Ah, here it is.”

Allen returned the bag to the merchant. The merchant bowed at the waist and suddenly began taking something out of the bag.

“I’d like to recommend something to you, Grand Duke.”

“I don’t need it.”

“How can you say that without even looking?”

“Commander, this merchant’s goods can be trusted. I guarantee it.”

Lea spoke with such confidence that it made Allen even more uneasy. She had been constantly putting him in difficult situations. Besides, he had already roughly checked what was in the merchant’s bag. It mostly contained strange items like that expansion ring.

Ignoring Allen’s words, the merchant found a bottle containing a transparent liquid and offered it to him. The merchant’s eyes were shining more brightly than at any other moment. They were the eyes of a salesman who had found the perfect customer.

Allen looked at the liquid sloshing in the bottle and asked with a trembling voice.

“What is…… this?”

“It’s called ‘Love Plenty’ gel. I’ll give you a special discount, Grand Duke.”

“Love Plenty?”

An earthquake occurred in Allen’s eyes. He couldn’t guess the purpose of this suspiciously named item. He wondered if it might be an aphrodisiac to drink, but since it was called a gel, it seemed like something to apply somewhere—though he had no idea where.

The merchant’s flushed cheeks approached frighteningly.

“This is also for the knight’s benefit.”

“For me?”

Lea blinked, suddenly singled out. The merchant nodded several times.

“Yes! The Grand Duke is very robust, isn’t he? With this, you can do it without pain! It goes in veeery smoothly. Heh heh.”

“That’s right. It also has a nice rose scent. My darling and I tried it, and it was like honey.”

“Oh, so they make scented ones these days?”

When Lea showed curiosity, the merchant shrugged his shoulders.

“Indeed. I obtained it directly from the South. If you use it together with this er*ction herb…!”

“Wait, I said I don’t need it.”

“Oh my, the Grand Duke is already sturdy enough? Heh heh. Then I’ll just give you this gel.”

Where had the person who feared Allen earlier gone? The merchant excitedly explained the product, his saliva flying. Allen raised both hands to refuse but stopped when he saw the d*ldo he was still gripping like a sword.

The d*ldo he thought was a weapon. Now he doubted that assumption. Lea had said the d*ldo would be used for the deed. And the deed meant physical relations between a man and woman.

‘So this is used for that thing……”

Allen staggered unconsciously. He had never heard of people using such objects when making love.

‘Why is this necessary? How and why?’

His mind was in turmoil. Where to apply the gel, where to insert the d*ldo. His thoughts were blocked and wouldn’t move forward. Perhaps he had stopped thinking about these things because he didn’t want to know the truth.

Allen’s hand trembled violently, and he dropped the d*ldo. Lea quickly caught it before it hit the floor.

“Commander, you dropped the d*ldo.”

“Throw it away.”

“Pardon? You asked me to show you how to use it earlier.”

“When, when did I!”

Allen’s face turned as red as the sun all the way to his neck before he abruptly closed his mouth. As the memory of picking up the d*ldo and his own statements were pulled up one by one from his memory, he felt absolutely wretched. If he could, he would have turned back time. But the merchant gave Allen a bright smile.

“The Grand Duke is quite proactive! Truly a great man!”

“No.”

“Being proactive is a good thing. So, this gel—”

It was becoming increasingly difficult. He wanted to end this embarrassing conversation among the four of them.

In the end, Allen had to buy the gel just to stop the merchant from talking. Only after he accepted the massage powder that the merchant forcefully added as a bonus did the merchant leave, waving his hand vigorously. He truly was a capable businessman. He wasn’t making a living in the North for nothing.

“Commander, are you alright? Your complexion doesn’t look good.”

“Don’t pretend to be concerned now.”

* * *

The knights gathered in the corner of the training ground, murmuring among themselves. Allen and Lea would return soon. They huddled together, swallowing nervously.

“So the Colosseum has something called ‘hotday’?”

“That’s right. ‘Hotday’.¹T/N: it’s supposed to say, “‘Hotday’ (뜨낮)  short for ‘hot day’ (뜨거운 낮).” but it doesn’t translate well so I removed it 🙂“

The hottest topic in the First Knight Division was definitely “the relationship between the commander and vice commander.” Just yesterday, the Northern Knight Division and the First Knight Division had been at each other’s throats, but they now united with one heart on this common subject.

“What exactly do they do there?”

“What else but spend a very hot day together.”

“In this cold place? Is that possible?”

“Tsk, tsk, you know nothing. Does cold matter when you’re doing it? Once the body heats up, it just! It just totally!”

“Totally?”

“They become one!”

“Whoa!”

The knights got along surprisingly well.

When Northern knights threw out comments, the capital knights chimed in. They excitedly discussed back and forth what kind of “hotday” Allen and Lea might have spent in the Colosseum.