NOVEL NEXT Chapter 59: Group Mascot
"...Don't say anything," I tell Eve, who just finished her test. I don't know what her test was, but mine was "easy," though an incident happened.
"...I haven't spoken yet..." She tries to speak, but I put my finger on her mouth to keep her quiet. I see her gaze going straight to the red spot on my forehead.
What happened was that during my test, an insect fell on me. I tried to get up, but I bumped my knee on the table and struck my forehead with a pencil, leaving a very red mark on my forehead due to my skin tone.
The mark was extremely conspicuous on my face. I had taken off my mask to take the test on paper, and my bad luck took advantage of that to attack me. Now I've taken off the mask to drink a glass of water, and Eve saw the mark.
"How was your test, Eve?" I ask, giving up on dealing with it and just properly putting the mask back on my face.
"It went well. I had a duel with a man named Hugo that was quite interesting. The second part of my test was just fighting some weak monsters, and I passed easily," she says without arrogance, just stating a fact.
"Great, mine went well too. The test was just a paper with some questions," I knew everything thanks to the game knowledge, and that helped me pass with full marks on the paper.
"I've always trusted you, Evelyn-sama..." She speaks as I hand her a document, but she stops talking when she reads one of the parts.
"...Evelyn-sama..." A vein appears on her forehead, indicating her anger, as I avert my gaze. Without the mask, I can clearly see her rage.
"Could you tell me why in our guild group registration... I have this class?" She points to the extremely suggestive, strange, and unnatural class to assign to a girl.
"Well... Yoruhime said that if you won this class, considering you're a different kind of adventurer than the others, she'd waive any admission fees to the guild..." I say, turning my back to her so she can't see my face, even though I'm wearing a mask.
"...[Group Mascot]..." She reads what's written.
"I swear it's not that bad!!" I say, knowing I may have made a mistake when proposing it, but it was because it was expensive to get the guild license, and this way we can do it for free.
"Group Mascot... the same term... given to sex slaves and sexual summons in adventurer groups..." She speaks in a way that sounds horrible.
"Hey, it's not quite like that... the description says they're women who help the group to... well, satisfy them... it doesn't necessarily mean literally, it can be anything, right?" I speak, making her even angrier.
"Evelyn-sama, are you a child? Giving the title of Group Mascot to a girl, and saying she satisfies the group members, has literally no other connotation than being a prostitute who satisfies the group!!" She speaks extremely angry.
"B-But the money!! The tax exemption!! And also the free license creation!! You know how expensive it is to register a summon in the guild as a group member? They have to pay, help, and treat you like a person, and to prevent people from registering anything as a group member, there are these rules!!" I try to justify myself.
"A prostitute, Evelyn-sama, you've demoted me to a prostitute..." She speaks with a look of pure disgust for the term, as if being called a prostitute was the greatest insult she's ever heard in her life.
"100,000 gold coin exemption... per month"
"I am your whore, Evelyn-sama!" She immediately speaks when she hears the amount, throwing herself at my feet with eyes shining with joy and submission.
"Y-You don't have to act like that!!! Stop embarrassing me!!" I say, full of shame at such an action, as I look around to see that there is no one around.
"Y-You don't have to follow it to the letter!! It's just a label, we can change it in the future and keep the benefits!!" I quickly say to her, trying not to make the situation more embarrassing.
She seemed so angry at the term, but as soon as she learned that we would save 100,000 gold coins a month and 1.2 million gold coins a year, she even called herself a whore.
"Evelyn-sama, I fully understand the responsibility of this!! It's a lot of money! If I can save you such an expense by just having this label on a paper, then I accept it with joy!" She speaks with blind loyalty.
'W-Well... I hate to admit it, but it's a lot of money.' If I had put Eve down as just a swordsman, we would have had a debt of at least 500,000 gold coins initially, plus an additional fee for 1 year, which would have made us owe 2 million gold coins to the guild.
But by putting Eve as [Group Mascot], I could create a group with just the two of us, get the license, and still be free from having to pay fees, manufacture the license, and finally the full price.
This made something of 2 million gold coins drop to a mere 50 gold coins for the evaluation we made.
"Evelyn-sama, tell me how much we saved in total?" She asks seriously, now stopping whatever she was doing on the floor.
"W-Well... 2 million gold coins... plus 50 coins I still have to pay," when I say that, her eyes shine.
"Evelyn-sama, I totally understand you. I'm not mad about this, you did what was best. We have no way to pay such a huge debt... but why is it like this?" She asks interested.
"Ah!! Actually, there's a simple explanation. There are many summons that are sexual, so adventurers like to summon things to give them pleasure."
"They can even temporarily summon succubi if they find a special registered summoning circle, and these things need to be counted as part of the group even if temporary."
"This needs to be on the records for the guild to avoid fraud, theft, and murders committed by temporary summons!"
"But the guild can't charge for a summon focused on giving pleasure, so anything labeled as a group mascot has to be left completely free to avoid outrage and indignation with the guild."
"Since basic creature summoning is easy to learn!!" I quickly explain, trying to divert from the real meaning of what a group mascot is.
"It makes sense... it's really clever, you've exploited the system well," she speaks as I shake my head.
"Actually, I didn't even know this, it was Yoruhime who told me... she also said I seemed... poor... very, very poor," I recall the conversation, it was humiliating, but at least she helped.
"..." I hear Eve gritting her teeth, she doesn't seem to have liked what Yoruhime said.
"H-Haha Eve, forget that. At least she helped us! This really helps our team a lot! And in a while, we can just change the class I put you in, and we'll still be free..."
"Permanent registration..." She speaks, making me completely avert my gaze and try to walk away, but she grabs me by the shoulder when I try to leave.
"W-Well... m-maybe... just maybe... on the first registration you'll always have Group Mascot as a starting point to prove that after the class change, you weren't just cheating..." I say as she turns me around and looks into my eyes.
"Haaa... Evelyn-sama, you don't need to be nervous. I'm yours, and it's okay to have such an unconventional label. You just need to ask me, okay? I wouldn't refuse if you had asked. I could be your whore, your slave, even a meat shield if necessary," she says, making me avert my gaze from hers again. I think I do this when I feel wrong.
"Okay... sorry... I should have asked first. I was just blinded by the absurd discount, it's a lot of money... but you're right, I should have asked." Eve is not just a doll to me.
She is a living, important companion who will accompany me on my journey. I should be more honest and trust her more.
"Eve, I'll be frank... I admit I was wrong. From now on, I'll tell you before making such hasty decisions and... sorry for registering you that way," when I bow my head in apology, she caresses my hair.
"It's okay, Evelyn-sama. Thank you for apologizing. Now let's finish this and go to the inn?" She speaks, not before giving a kiss on my forehead, moving my mask to the side.
"Y-Yes!!..." I say as Eve starts to follow, still reading the paper.
'P-Phew... I know I said I'd be honest... but she can't know about this...' To get her registered in the group mascot class, I had to lie about some things.
And maybe I exaggerated... so... I told Yoruhime in detail how Eve and I had "sex." Of course, this never happened!! I'm a virgin in both my past life and this one, and Eve is a virgin too!! At most, we've just kissed because of my strange taste for kissing my reflection.
But I needed to prove that Eve was indeed suitable to be considered a Group Mascot, and the only way was to describe Eve's body with extreme sensory details. Of course, I never touched Eve too much.
I just mixed lines from the game itself in R-18 scenes between girls, along with the knowledge I have of Eve's body, which is literally my own body. If Eve finds out about this, she'll be furious.
Virginity is a serious thing. Of course, Yoruhime didn't seem to believe it because I was all flustered in my words, but she accepted my lies and said my secret would be safe, just as she said she wouldn't write any of that, only affirming that I passed.
However, it's still super embarrassing, since there were quite a few details in the nonsense I said.
'Fortunately, everything turned out well!! And we saved a lot of money!' Yay for saving!!! I managed to get rid of a 2 million debt!
'I'm too fucking awesome!! Who else can get rid of a debt like that with just a few lies?' I should definitely be in a record book! With a beautiful picture of me covering 9/10 of the page!
'I feel bad for lying... but it's 2 million!!' The money spoke louder this time. I just need to do something special for Eve and make up for my mistake.