Chapter 87 Acceptance of the Sin
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The world is utterly saturated with the incomprehensible. Skills and Dungeons, these anomalies that run counter to the natural order, exist everywhere, yet few people truly grasp that they are external functionalities bolted onto this world’s physical laws. Why? Because, Yuuri surmised, it suited the Goddesses perfectly.
They were the Goddesses’ own infrastructure. Using them granted humanity conveniences, but naturally, these weren’t free services. What was the quid pro quo? Though the method wasn’t entirely clear, deciphering what Shelm had said suggested it all connected to increasing the deities’ power. Consequently, the Goddesses would never permit anything that collapsed their monopoly on the profits yielded by this infrastructure, no detecting it, no analyzing it, no understanding it, and certainly no destroying it. It was only natural they focused on prevention right from the stage of awareness to ensure no one ever got a foothold.
Yuuri couldn’t be sure what sort of treatment was reserved for the poor souls who dared challenge this riddle, but in a world where the supernatural persisted without being recognized as such, the Goddesses must have intervened. Thinking about it, he had already glimpsed too many of the Goddesses’ secrets to ever truly escape. The only reason he hadn’t been erased was partly because Shelm acknowledged him as her consort, but even more so, he suspected, it was because he was being used, roped into the technical development, the improvement of the very infrastructure itself.
Therefore, turning back now was unthinkable.
He would eat the poison, dish and all. Since he was already exploiting the girls who had given their hearts to him, he had to maximize the resulting profit just to break even. To that end, he first gazed down at Suzuri, who was writhing in agony and ecstasy from the five-fingered tentacles pressing deep against her resolve.
His policy remained unchanged: master Shelm’s updated function, the Familial Workshop, and conquer the “Royal Capital Dungeon” that Mahata was currently indebted over. He couldn’t afford to waste a single fighting force for that, and it meant he absolutely had to secure this stiff-backed woman, who still hadn’t fully shed her “guest general” mentality.
”Suzuri, I won’t blame you for your stubbornness at this point… But honestly, after conditioning your servant-will dozens of times, are you still planning to leave me for dead?” he ground out, a mix of frustration and intensity in his voice.
”N-no! Haaah! Never shall my heart change, no matter how many times you ask me! To repay my Great Debt, it is my mission to give my life for you, with my entire being! Fuh, ngyeeehhh!♡♡” she cried out, her voice breaking in overwhelmed surrender.
However, having once committed “disloyalty” seemed to have only hardened Suzuri’s resolve. Beyond the insistent pressure, her spirit and determination were being tested, and sensation was being spread across her body, yet she completely surrendered herself to the intensity her Master administered. Even this overwhelming sensation, which burned away her composure, failed to serve as a warning to the stubborn servant. If anything, she seemed to welcome it as a down payment for her ultimate self-sacrifice, accepting the strain and intensity.
”Haaah, kuhoooohh! ♡ I can’t take it! Yuuri’s hands are everywhere! To be held all over my body, with this favor, I can devote my life at any moment! ♡♡” she gasped.
”You selfish brat. Why are you treating death as a foregone conclusion? Aren’t you supposed to return to your village and pass on your knowledge?” he challenged, his tone hardening.
The essential point of the Familial Workshop was supposed to be the multiplication of a Skill-holder’s pawns, making them dependent on an intensity no other could provide, thus making them incapable of resisting their Master’s guidance. But every capable girl who had fallen to the Servant status accepted the intensity only as a reward, completely sidestepping its function as a shackle. Yuuri certainly didn’t want his beloved wives to become mindless puppets, but couldn’t they at least serve to deter their resolve to die in his stead? He wanted to protest to Shelm about the flaw in the Skill, assuming the design was too lax, but of course, reading the mood, that wicked thing didn’t cut in.
”That is, ah, secondary! Nyaaahh! ♡♡ I don’t mind giving my life if it means Yuuri lives! Besides, without a meager woman like myself, you still have the elder sisters to—” Fuooooohh!♡♡” she managed to sob out.
Even bringing up her long-ago dream of returning home, he couldn’t overturn the will of this fallen veteran. Worse, she was debasing the very attractive spirit that her Master was unwilling to lose, calling it “meager.” As a kind of reprimand, he swarmed the core of her determination, which was anything but meager, with a flock of tentacles. Suzuri, however, welcomed it, thrusting forward in delight and letting her gaze flit between the different tentacles.
”Ah, ah, ah! ♡ No! You mustn’t! Pressing the tip like that is too much! My resolve is being tested! Aah, if you pull like that, my spirit will stretch! And the base tingles every time it’s reinforced! I never knew a place like this felt so strong! ♡♡”
To challenge the female spirit, the tips of the tentacles were sorted into multiple types based on their function. To excavate the strength of her determination, he pulled out not just the five-fingered ones, but others from the flesh walls: one with a vertically split, lipped-mouth and others with countless thin, long tendrils designed to wring soft resolve. While their purpose was to mimic human guidance, they were shaped monstrously, aimed at inflicting the sheer degradation of being tested by the bizarre. Even though these grotesque fleshy vines swarmed her resolve, the very symbol of womanhood, Suzuri showed no trace of fear. On the contrary, her expression was utterly fulfilled, finding joy in being her Master’s instrument.
”Damn it! She’s getting off on her own even when this is supposed to be a reprimand! Straining and clenching your will like that, you’re going to snap the tentacle fingers!” he growled, exasperated.
”I-I’m terribly sorry! ♡ B-but I’m sure it’ll be fine! I simply cannot harm Yuuri! No matter how tightly I clench my spirit, I can still be continuously pressed and dug into by the bent fingers right behind my core! ♡♡” she moaned.
This was, by any measure, a blatant act of self-affirmation using her Master as an aid. While thoroughly enjoying the lavish reinforcement of her determination, she boldly thrust her hips, scattering fervent energy everywhere. Worse, she pressed the swollen bundle of her resolve against the tentacle finger he had inserted into her core as punishment, her cheeks slack with blissful contentment.
”Aah, Suzuri, Suzuri! Are you really willing to give up this strength you crave?! This sensation you can have anytime you ask for it, will you really leave me and abandon it?!” he pleaded, the intensity turning into desperation.
”Nngh, ooh! ♡ I don’t want to leave you! But the Dungeon is always fraught with peril! If so, what is the inconvenience in this disloyal Suzuri giving her life first?!” she retorted, utterly committed.
Even trying to leverage the maximum benefits of being a Servant, the answer that came back was utterly unyielding. As someone who didn’t want to lose a single Servant, he desperately wanted her to follow his guidance, but Suzuri, running on her own philosophy, was just too stubborn. The reason, as Suzuri herself stated, was her low self-esteem, which labeled her “disloyal.” Unless he could change that perception, this newly acquired Servant would continue to be a trivial existence whose life she felt she could throw away at any moment.
Confronted with this painful truth, he regretfully ordered the tentacles that had been chastising Suzuri to withdraw from her slender, toned body. Suzuri, keenly sensing her Master’s displeasure, immediately clamped her core shut, attempting to trap the tentacle fingers. But with the Skill’s power overriding her strength, the knobby, aberrant fingers easily broke free of the luscious resolve’s restraint.
”I know I called you disloyal, too, but I would never degrade you so much that I’d want you to throw your life away. If I hurt you with those words, I apologize, but I (Ore) want you to stay by my side forever, too,” he murmured, switching to sincere affection.
”Aahh! I am honored by your kindness, but the disloyalty is a fact! Suzuri feels she can no longer just mindlessly follow the words of another as she once did! … It’s terrifying, not having others respond to me. If that’s the case, then at least I want to die for the thing I chose myself! ♡♡” she confessed, the intensity receding, replaced by raw vulnerability.
What he had initially intended as a simple compliment to boost Suzuri’s self-esteem had, in reality, revealed a problem far more deep-seated. In the moment she became a Servant, she must have believed her heart remained unchanged. But Suzuri had realized something profound: her spirit, worn down by the long years in the darkness, had fundamentally transformed, never to be restored. Her body, now changed by the Servant status, was merely a vessel for her mind, which, out of fear of its former integrity, had become selfish. If there was no hope of returning to her once proud self, he couldn’t strongly fault her for indulging in pure determination.
I am only fit to accept my Master’s desires and be a disposable pawn when needed.
Fixed on this self-destructive self-assessment, Suzuri assumed the discussion was over, thrusting her hips out and begging for the return of the tentacle favor. But naturally, he couldn’t give in to that temptation. Just as Suzuri was trapped in the Familial Workshop, he had come too far to ever escape the grasp of that wicked Goddess.
Maximize the profit.
He couldn’t truly call himself a husband if he didn’t take care of the heart of this beautiful, kind-hearted, and capable woman he had taken as a wife.
”Hey, I don’t know what the old you was like, Suzuri,” he said, his voice low and earnest. “I only heard that your unit gave up after you fell out eighty years ago. So, the moment I first knew you was when I woke up after your Servant conversion, and you were happily rough-housing with Marina.”
”Fuf! Haff hiff hoo hohroh…” she babbled, confused.
Truthfully, he had a fleeting memory of the initial Servant conversion, but that Suzuri was more of a warrior dealing with an emergency, and she quickly lost consciousness from the burden on her transformed body. It wasn’t useful for reference. That was why he felt genuine relief when he woke up and saw his Servants chatting happily and peacefully. Behind the formal language, she showed a friendly, yet sharp, and affectionate personality. Whether that was her original nature or due to the loneliness of eighty years of silence, he didn’t know, but the Suzuri he met and liked in that moment was everything about the youngest Servant.
Pulling his finger from her mouth, which had been receiving a tongue-lashing service to hear her answer, Suzuri came to her senses, blushing, yet still unconvinced. “Fleh! Puh! ♡ I-I appreciate the sentiment, but the fact remains that I’m inadequate…”
”Suzuri, I like the you who accepted everything in that brief period until I woke up, and still tried to live forward. I liked the you that you call a ‘traitor’. You seem to think you’ve become a worse person compared to your past self, but to me, it just looks like a dreamer coming to terms with reality,” he insisted, holding her gaze.
The life Suzuri idealized, which included her relationship with her former comrades, must have included their own expectations. He couldn’t help but wonder if they should have at least checked on her safety after reaching the fifty-seventh floor, but that was just forcing his ideals onto them. If Suzuri had started to view things realistically based on that experience, then she had, in a way, grown.
For Suzuri, who now viewed things more realistically whether she liked it or not, the bleak outlook for her future contribution compared to the veterans also seemed to be a factor in her despair. However, he had already gotten Marina’s permission to grant Suzuri a Skill using the Holy Sword. He was sure that this news alone would improve Suzuri’s self-assessment. Convinced of this, he leaned his face toward the girl, whose brows were furrowed in worry, and gently pressed his lips against her flushed cheek to reassure her.
Notes:
• Shelm – Wicked Goddess, reincarnated Yuuri, manipulative, wants him to use his power.
• Suzuri – A scout who braved the labyrinth and lured a petrifying monster to protect her friends, she endured long isolation while frozen in stone and relied on inner magic to preserve her sense of self.
• Marina – First Princess of Restea—needs labyrinth escort.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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