40
She was unexpectedly tenacious.
The Lustful Snake was looking down at Aria, who was sleeping on the bed. He pulls a clean white open-fronted shirt over his bare skin and sits down in a chair by the window. He watched the people pass by in front of the shop and cracked hi neck in exhaustion after finishing his hard work.
Two more left. My goal will be achieved after destroying two more districts.
After destroying the eighth district, he returned to his homeland for a while, and returned to the Krantz Country again for a certain plan. And, for his ultimate goal, he has decided to destroy the recently remarkably prosperous and vibrant city of Pyacca as his next target.
There is a reason why he set Hana-Hana as his target early in Pyacca.
Originally, Lustful Snake’s method was to destroy them from the top downwards. The reason is to reduce people’s sense of resistance. Even without words, he can make them understand that if the No. 1 shop in the town can be destroyed, their own shops can be destroyed just as easily. The lower-ranked shops that see the popular shops gradually go out of business feel despair and it can easily break their spirits. That was why he was going to go according to that plan in Pyacca, too.
However, he changed his plans after hearing that the prost*tutes in Ranster, his first target, were chatting about “the shop that Guinn and Sajis use”.
The Hana-Hana brothel. Until just three months ago, it was an obscure brothel. However, after Guinn, the hero of the country, and the young noble Sajis of the House of Duke of Yandalunia, began to visit Hana-Hana frequently, in just a few months, it became one of the five most popular shops in Pyacca and was always packed.
Two of the most influential people in Krantz. he desperately wanted information about them.
For that reason, the plan was to find out the prost*tutes they favored, and after they had been corrupted, he would get the information they had.
However, the Lustful Snake’s plan didn’t go very well. No prost*tute opens her mouth easily. When the topic turns towards Sajis and Guinn, they either gloss over it or change the subject. He doesn’t know why but, feeling that things can’t be dealt with by ordinary means, the Lustful Snake aimed at Aria who was the most attached to him and seriously corrupted her mind and body to make her speak.
If he kisses her to paralyze her thoughts and attack her sensitive parts teasingly, she will desperately desire him. When he threatened that he will make it easier for her if she tells him the name of the prost*tute they (G&S) favored, she told him while crying.
Yaquel Rogino
When he asked her in detail, he learned that he was a manservant working in Hana-Hana. He was shocked since he never imagined Guinn and Sajis’s partner to be a man, but it doesn’t matter to the Lustful Snake whether his partner was a woman or a man. Rather, it’s more convenient if it’s a man. Men are weaker than women when it comes to pleasure and are prone to indulge in it.
Well now, Yaquel, how should I corrupt you?
While raising the corner of his mouth, the Lustful Snake was thinking about the man he has never seen before.
After returning from the palace for the first time in three days, Yaquel felt uneasy in the quiet shop and hurried to find Retana.
At the entrance, he found Retana and the clerk who were busy dealing with several customers, and when they finished talking, he rushed over to them.
“I’m back.”
“Yaquel!”
“Yaquel…”
The clerk showed a relieved look at Yaquel, who had returned, and Retana, who seemed anxious about something.
“Did something happen? You seemed to be sending the customers back…”
He asks while looking at the backs of the leaving customers. Suddenly, Retana tightly grabbed Yaquel’s hands and looked down.
“I’m sorry, Yaquel…”
“Retana-san?”
“Even though you told me everything, I couldn’t make it…”
“Ehh…”
“The Lustful Snake came…”
It can’t be, no way. To think that he’d come this soon.
“It’s my fault. If only I dealt with it properly…”
“You’re wrong, Retana-san! It’s not your fault at all! That’s because he already came before you were informed about him!”
“What’s going on? Exactly what are you talking about?”
Yaquel squeezed back the depressed Retana’s hand and urged her to speak.
Thus, he was told that the Lustful Snake already the heavily rainy night, that he had been coming for consecutive days and captivated the prost*tutes one after another, about how she told everyone about the Lustful Snake yet no one but the clerk believed Retana and they were totally protective of the Lustful Snake, that the prost*tutes were completely smitten by the Lustful Snake that they were unable to take customers anymore, and how the customers have decreased as a result of it.
“So that’s what happened…”
“Forgive me, Yaquel. Just when the shop finally got on track, this happened…”
“No, that is not Retana-san’s fault. If I had also immediately conveyed what I heard from Eunick to everybody, this may not have happened.”
Retana and Yaquel both blamed themselves. The clerk looks at the depressed duo and tries to comfort them.
“This isn’t the time to be depressed, you two! Not everybody has fallen prey to the Lustful Snake! We can still do something about it!”
Yaquel raises his face at the Clerk’s words.
He’s right. It’s not everyone. And as long as we talk to them properly, the women who became crazy for the Lustful Snake should understand. They’re comrades we’ve worked with until now. There’s no way such a bond can be severed so easily.
Yaquel, who thought so, couldn’t stand still, told Retana and the clerk about it, and searched for Aria and the others.
Then he found Aria sitting on a bench in the courtyard. Her expression is somewhat vague and hollow.
“Aria-san.”
Aria’s shoulders flinch upon hearing Yaquel’s voice.
“What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
Aria’s eyes teared up at his calm and enveloping, gentle voice.
Yaquel is so kind. Truly kind. He always thinks about Hana-Hana and us. He always tries to protect even at the cost of sacrificing himself. Even now, he’s seriously worrying about me… And yet… despite that, lost to pleasure and, I….
“Yaquel-, sorr-, sorryy, I’m sorry Yaquell”
Yaquel is surprised when Aria suddenly bawled with a ‘uwaaah’.
“Aria-san? What’s wrong? Aria-san.”
In order to calm Aria down, he rubs her back saying, “It’s okay, it’s okay.”
“I, I, I told him. Ruñas-sama… no, the Lustful Snake persistently asked me about Guinn-sama and Sajis-sama, and defeated by the pleasure… I, I ended up telling him about you…!”
‘I’m so sorryy!’ She lowered her head while sobbing.
Aria finally came to herself. No, the truth us she noticed it. She vaguely felt that the Lustful Snake has some kind of purpose while embracing her. She had noticed that, but she was absorbed in such intense pleasure that she thought that it doesn’t matter, and she lost sight of her surroundings and even herself. However, she woke up when she heard Yaquel’s usual gentle-mannered tone.
Yes, this is how a genuinely kindhearted person sounds like. It’s a gently tone that sounds like it’s slowly melting down a frigid ice. It was completely different from the Lustful Snake’s voice that she thought was gentle.
Once she’s awake, there’s only the feeling of regret remaining. Aria could do nothing else but apologize to Yaquel.
“Aria-san.”
He slightly raised Aria’s crying face and wiped the tears on her cheek with his finger.
“It’s inevitable. After all, you were in love with the Lustful Snake.”
‘Am I wrong?’ Aria slowly looked down in shame when she was asked.
“I don’t know much about love or the likes, but if the person I like asks, I think that I will listen to them.”
Yaquel doesn’t know much about love, but he wants to listen to anything that everyone in his beloved Hana-Hana asks for. If it’s his special someone, he will surely want to do more than that for that person.
“That’s why I believe that Aria-san talking about me to the Lustful Snake is a natural thing to do.”
‘So please don’t blame yourself anymore.’ He said and gently stroked Aria’s cheek.
Aria’s tears once again spilled over over Yaquel’s kindness, apologized repeatedly, and gratefully bowed her head.
Then, Yaquel once again heads towards where Retana is. Yaquel stood silently in front of Retana, who was still conversing with the clerk at the entrance.
“Yaquel, what’s wro-“
“Retana-san.”
Retana and the clerk were perplexed at the seemingly different Yaquel.
“The next time the Lustful Snake visits the shop, will you please call me?”
‘Please’, no one had yet noticed that there was anger in that uninflected voice and in the depths of those flickering eyes.