“Welcome! We welcome you to our ‘Come Once and Go’ shop!”

An employee with intense eyes quickly approached them as soon as he spotted the pair.

“It seems you’re first-time visitors!”

“That’s right.”

Allen nodded, feeling bewildered. The interior was bright overall. For a black market, it was really bright. Allen was about to shift his gaze to the displayed items while rubbing his chin when the employee leaned his upper body forward, blocking Allen’s view, demanding his attention. He curled up the corners of his mouth and rubbed his hands together.

“We stock items that aren’t sold elsewhere, for f*tish use, SM play, and various other activities! Feel free to look around.”

“f*tish? S… M?”

Allen asked with a questioning tone. The employee twitched his eyebrows twice.

“My, you’re beginners! It’s the perfect time to experience a new world with the Miss beside you.”

The employee flashed his eyes while giving a thumbs up.

「This world is a place you can’t escape once you set foot in it!」

In truth, the employee was desperate for wealthy new customers. Most of the former nobles who used to buy expensive items from him had died or disappeared when the country fell. Naturally, the shop’s sales dropped when the main customers vanished. His circumstances worsened accordingly. All the customers who came were just poor commoners. Still needing to make money, he sold cheaply made masks at high prices and encouraged naive customers to buy even inexpensive items.

Today, customers wearing clothes made of expensive materials appeared, like a gift from the gods. The employee smelled money after a long time.

He couldn’t help but be excited.

“Take a look at this! A fresh gag, a ball gag that just arrived yesterday.”

Allen broke out in a sweat looking at the round-shaped gag with numerous holes.

The employee enthusiastically explained the item using unfamiliar terms. But Allen couldn’t understand half of what the employee was saying, just like at the Colosseum. It wasn’t just the ball gag. All the other items the employee introduced seemed unusual to him, and the explanations were strange.

Meanwhile, Lea was nodding her head earnestly. Even while thinking about other things, she listened so well that her timing matched perfectly with the employee’s speech rhythm and pace.

Allen took a step back. Only then did he hear the sounds that had been obscured by Lea’s hot and stimulating fantasy moans. They were the thoughts of several people wearing animal masks like his.

「Wife, prepare for tonight.」

「This seems too big for my darling.」

「Let’s see if I can send you to heaven.」

Allen’s face turned red and blue.

“If you gently rub this feather all over your body! Just, wow!”

“Vi… no, Lea. Let’s go now.”

“What?”

Lea, who had been enjoying the employee’s explanation, blinked at the sound of her name being called.

“Already?”

“Vi… Do you want to keep listening to that, Lea…?”

“Isn’t it refreshing?”

Lea shrugged while receiving a whip from the employee. The whip had a unique shape. A sparkling jewel was attached to the handle part. Below it, strips of cloth divided into several branches fluttered.

“This is a painless whip. No matter how much you swing it, it doesn’t hurt. Rather, it gives a ticklish stimulation. Would you like to try it on me?”

The employee rolled up his sleeves and extended his arm to Lea. Showing no fear, he held his head up confidently. Lea raised the whip high with sparkling eyes. Then she swung it at a fast speed. With the recoil, the long nose attached to Lea’s mask lifted upward and tore slightly.

“Kyahang!”

The employee let out a strange scream and writhed his body. Lea examined the whip again with curiosity.

Allen seriously considered abandoning Lea and escaping alone.

“How is it! Isn’t the feel of the whip satisfying?”

“It’s fascinating.”

“Isn’t that nose shaking too much…?”

The nose of Lea’s mask was shaking excitedly. It bent in the opposite direction of her movements, drawing Allen’s attention, swinging so much that it might resemble a real elephant moving its trunk.

“Ah, I think it’s because it’s torn.”

Lea grabbed the crooked hanging nose and roughly aligned it with its original position. Of course, it opened again and lay sideways.

“Huhu. Then this caressing dice too…!”

The employee, excited to find a responsive customer, handed Lea a new item. Lea rolled it in her palm, and Allen stepped back, unable to bear it. Though it was just a small die, it didn’t look normal to his eyes.

“I’ll go first.”

Everything in this shop was strange.

What he thought were clothes turned out to be mostly torn. Looking around now, chains hung from the walls along with collars.

Allen had already been through this once at the Colosseum. Even without knowing exactly what those things were used for, he strongly felt that something was wrong, very wrong.

“Com… Allen, they have all sorts of things here.”

“No, I have urgent business.”

“Wait, oh.”

Just when Allen was hurriedly trying to leave the shop—

Lea turned her body quickly, causing the mask’s nose to completely tear off, and unfortunately, it flew toward Allen. And finally got caught on Allen’s belt. Like that was its rightful place.

The shop went quiet instantly. Everyone just opened their mouths inside their masks.

The elephant trunk caught on Allen’s pants belt was extremely obscene. It showed no adhesion to Lea’s mask, yet for some unknown reason, it stuck firmly to his crotch. The important thing was that everyone in the shop was staring only at Allen.

In that brief moment, only he felt the noise.

「He lives up to his wolf face!」

「Wooow」

「So that’s actually possible….」

The elephant trunk hanging long from Allen’s waistband had a power that made everyone keep looking back. No one dared to speak, just watching each other’s reactions.

Then the employee started clapping.

“Indeed, as expected, a big customer.”

The employee was sincere. A customer like this could become a regular if handled well. That’s why he applauded Allen. And with that as a starting point, applause and exclamations erupted from all around.

“I’m envious!”

“You must have tremendous pride!”

Allen pressed his lips tight. His face inside the mask had turned bright red. This humiliation was unprecedented. The Colosseum was nothing compared to this. Back then, only the merchant and the dress shop owner witnessed his disgrace. Lea was an exception. Even that was unbearable, but he couldn’t believe he had an elephant trunk hanging between his legs in a place with so many people.

If there was any consolation, it was that the mask covered his face, but there was no way to hide the embarrassment.

“I have an item I’d like to introduce to a big customer like you.”

The employee never missed a business opportunity. Somehow he had already brought another item and slipped a glass bottle to Allen. Allen received it absentmindedly. Holding it in his hand, he saw that the lid handle was heart-shaped.

“This is a bath additive. For your time together in the water, ugh!”

Allen was about to pull the dangling trunk from his crotch with his other hand and throw it on the floor but stopped. He almost lost his reason and caused a disturbance over this incident. The employee, startled, took a defensive posture before lowering his hands awkwardly.

“Customer, are you uncomfortable somewhere…?”

“I enjoyed looking around. Vi… Lea, let’s go now.”

Allen gripped the elephant trunk tightly and turned to walk away. Lea touched her exposed nose and moved her feet as Allen led her. The atmosphere emanating from Allen was different from usual.

The employee could only stamp his feet anxiously and watch them leave while biting his nails. This was because the man in the wolf mask glared at him murderously just before leaving.

“Hiccup. Take care.”

That’s how the employee sent off his rare, valuable customer.

* * *

“Com… Allen! What’s wrong with you?”

Allen’s footsteps climbing the stairs were rough. After exiting the entrance, Allen entered an empty alley and removed the stifling mask. His golden pupils flickered fiercely. Lea tilted her head, seemingly not understanding what was happening.

“Did I do something wrong to you, Le… the vice commander?”

“What? What are you saying all of a sudden?”

Allen’s lips quivered. He was the one who suggested entering that place first. Lea had only looked at the items, and the mask tore on its own; she didn’t deliberately rip it off to humiliate him.

But still, he felt irritated. He wondered why he always had to feel embarrassed and troubled. Meanwhile, Lea, who had lustful fantasies, acted like nothing was wrong. This was truly unfair.

Allen swept back his bangs and looked into the distance.

He wanted to just tell Lea, ‘I can see everything in your lust-filled mind.’ Honestly, those words were rising to the tip of his tongue. He felt the urge to see what expression Lea would make if he said that. Whether she would just blink her eyes indifferently like now.

He knew it was a malicious thought. Lea didn’t willingly show her thoughts and fantasies to him either.

Allen took a deep breath and suppressed his rising anger. Lea had done nothing wrong. If there was a problem, it was him for arbitrarily seeing into other people’s minds. That’s why Allen ultimately couldn’t bring himself to speak.

“Commander, have you really gone mad?”

From Lea’s perspective, Allen was a person who fumed to himself, then calmed down, then shook his head again.

“I didn’t know there were people who suffered from heat in this cold North.”

“Vice Commander, please, that mouth……”

It really felt like the end. Allen shook his head vigorously, suggesting he had much to say but wouldn’t, and walked past Lea.

“See you tomorrow at the training grounds.”