04.

After the quiet meal ended, Edner showed curiosity upon hearing unexpected news.

“So Dame Lea also learned about your ability, is that right, Allen?”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

Allen, who hadn’t uttered a word about his ability since he grew up, personally revealing his secret was truly exceptional.

“And unlike with others, you can see inside her head, including her fantasies?”

“It’s not that I couldn’t see others’ at all. I occasionally saw them hazily. I just find it strange that the vice commander’s fantasies are particularly clear.”

“Wow, isn’t that fate!”

Edner’s eyes sparkled as he struck the table.

“Could there be some special connection between the both of you!”

Allen narrowed his eyes at Edner’s words. Calling such lewd fantasies fate. If that were true, the god who governed destiny must be playing a joke on him.

“That’s impossible.”

When Allen firmly denied it, Edner folded his arms.

“Why are you so certain? What do you think Dame Lea?”

He directed the question to Lea, who had been sipping her tea and suddenly lifted her head.

“Ah, well… I’m not sure.”

She hadn’t thought about the commander’s ability she’d just learned about yesterday. Even if she had known earlier, she probably wouldn’t have given it much thought.

“My fantasy skills are top-notch…. I take pride in them. So they probably appear clearly.”

“A trivial reason, but it makes sense.”

“I heard from the commander that thoughts from people who are normally loud and noisy are easier to hear.”

Allen nodded as if agreeing with Lea’s thoughts.

“True. The scenes in the vice commander’s mind are quite detailed and clear. Sometimes they even drown out other people’s thoughts.”

“I am rather intense.”

“Vice Commander, that doesn’t seem like something to be proud of.”

Edner, listening to their conversation, suddenly felt something odd and asked curiously.

“Not something to be proud of? Isn’t it a skill to vividly imagine situations in your head? You could plan strategies more meticulously. Do you imagine something strange?”

“……No.”

If Lea had truly been having constructive thoughts, he would have welcomed it wholeheartedly. Why did she only have erotic fantasies? He seriously wanted to ask her that.

“Well, I’m curious. What could it be?”

“Your Majesty, ignorance is bliss.”

Allen just shook his head. Though the vice commander had caused him to feel shame multiple times, he couldn’t expose her private hobby to others.

「Commander, you’re a man of loyalty!」

Lea gave him a thumbs up under the table. Allen cleared his throat. He felt awkwardly shy from Lea’s praise for something so obvious.

Feeling left out, Edner made a sulky face.

“It’s a secret between just the two of you, isn’t it?”

“I’m telling you, it’s better not to know.”

“Fine, fine. I won’t ask anymore. By the way, I looked around the North yesterday and it has improved a lot.”

Edner changed the subject while picking up his teacup.

“Dame Lea’s efforts were evident.”

“Not at all.”

“How modest you are, unlike someone else. While passing through the streets, I heard many good things about you.”

The northern streets he saw were vibrant and full of vitality. The commoners all had bright faces, seemingly living satisfying lives.

He wondered if that’s why Allen said the North would function well without him.

“It would have been nice if Dame Lea had been born in the Empire.”

Thinking about Lea, she was truly a valuable talent. Edner had given her the temporary knight commander position during the war without much expectation. He hadn’t even seen her face when bestowing the position. At that time, he and the other knights were busy conquering other countries, and amid the chaos, they simply chose Lea, assuming she would be someone without greed and with a sense of responsibility. He hadn’t known she would sincerely look after the North and guard its borders. No wonder the Commander of the Third Knight Division had his eye on her.

“Judging by skill alone, she’s worthy of being a knight commander.”

Considering her contributions, he wanted to grant her a baron title, but it wasn’t easy. No matter how well she had done, Lea was ultimately from the North and once an enemy. Her one year of service to the Empire didn’t erase that fact. Some nobles also disapproved of her.

“She’s also someone who grabbed Allen’s important part with her hand.”

“Your Majesty… did you spray something strange on the vice commander yesterday?”

When Edner mentioned the incident from their duel, Allen’s hands trembled.

He pushed it to the back of his mind, but recalling it now made several veins pop on his forehead. If it hadn’t been for that mysterious scent, he wouldn’t have crossed the line with the vice commander.

Edner leaned forward and smiled slyly.

“Ah, it was just a perfume that calls for victory.”

“Hmm? Didn’t you say yesterday it was a perfume that brings luck? Oh, I apologize. My memory might be wrong.”

When the Emperor spoke differently from her recollection, Lea habitually corrected him like she would with Allen, then pulled back. Edner waved his hand, indicating it was fine.

“Isn’t victory the same as luck? They’re the same thing.”

“Your Majesty is right.”

“What do you mean right! Vice Commander, you don’t need to agree with His Majesty. Your Majesty, if you do that again……”

“What if I do it again? Are you going to threaten me with our Empress? It’s a good perfume that gave courage to a dullard. You should be on your knees thanking me!”

“Dullard?!”

When Allen shouted in disbelief, Edner picked his ear and said,

“And is spraying the perfume what matters? What matters is the result.”

「Think. If a woman other than Dame Lea had sprayed it, would you have given in to your instincts then?」

Allen was about to refute but flinched. Edner’s words were meaningful.

‘A woman other than the vice commander?’

He couldn’t imagine it. Though he hated to assume, what if Edner had sprayed the perfume on Dame Jane? He probably would have left the moment he smelled the seductive scent that stirred his reason.

Then why did he just stay and smell the nice scent from the vice commander? Especially when he was already er*ect and seeing Lea’s naughty fantasies.

‘So it was my will after all, and I brought it upon myself.’

Though it was an impulsive act, he couldn’t blame just the perfume and fantasies. Anyway, the responsibility was his. The perfume was merely a ‘means and opportunity.’ Besides, though he hated to admit it, if he were honest, his impression of the act itself was closer to ‘good.’

‘I’ve finally gone mad.’

He wondered if he was feeling hot in this cold North, as the vice commander had said. His body had been warm frequently lately. Even now.

If he continued to drift along like this, he might lose control of his body again and have another encounter with the vice commander without proper consent. That might happen. And he couldn’t let it.

Yes, a contract! He needed a contract.

‘If the vice commander is okay with it, until the fantasies completely disappear….’

They could sleep together. Every day would be too much, so he’d propose the condition of only when she had fantasies.

The content of the contract was quite explicit, making him feel too lewd and beastly, but he thought he should bring it up to Lea. Since she had suggested they continue until she became accustomed to s*x, she might be okay with it.

After tea time, just before work, Allen secretly called Lea to the backyard, away from Edner. It was to have a serious conversation about the explicit content. But Lea followed him, trotting along, and blurted out whatever came to mind.

“Do you want to do it outdoors?”

“Are you sexually frustrated? Whenever I call you, you only think about that.”

“But yesterday, Commander, when you called me, you pounced on me.”

“Huh……”

Allen’s lips drooped. Suddenly, his reason vanished. He had summoned all his courage to propose a very erotic contract with a spoonful of self-interest, firmly resolved, but Lea’s casual words and attitude scattered the prepared words in his mouth. For a pair who had already gone all the way, what was the point of conversation? Allen also blurted out whatever came to mind.

“Would you like me to pounce on you?”

“What?”

“You like outdoors, don’t you, vice commander?”

His lips twisted. His body moved on its own, drawing close to Lea. If he looked in a mirror now, he might see the slick person he despised most standing before him. His mind screamed to stop, but Allen finally looked down at Lea and placed his hand on the line of her neck.

Lea took a step back when the air around Allen changed.

“Not particularly.”

“Yet you keep imagining undressing outdoors at every opportunity.”

“I’m not doing that now. So, are you going to pounce on me now?”

Lea pouted her lips. Allen knew how sweet those annoying lips actually were. So he impulsively kissed her. Lea’s eyes widened at the brief touch and separation of their lips.

Allen unconsciously stroked the mark he had made on her at dawn, as if wiping it away, and said,

“No, when you fantasize again. I want to do what you imagine then.”

Lea exhaled softly at the tickling touch on her neck.

* * *