NOVEL NEXT Chapter 306
Side Story: Golden Key – 4
“Hehehehe.”
Leaving the woman who was drooling and wearing a strange smile alone, Fetch and I exchanged glances. The emotions reflecting in her hot pink pupils matched exactly with what I was feeling.
This woman is crazier than I imagined.
“I think you’re mistaken. I don’t like you. And I don’t think I ever will. Please stop with the delusions.”
I quickly denied it. It would be troublesome if she got hurt feelings, or if I left any room for possibilities. It was best to cut it off firmly like this.
“What do you mean by that?”
However, the woman didn’t seem to be listening to my words at all.
“Oh, you’ve been making eye contact with me since a while ago. You even smiled at me. You’re, you’re still doing it. Hehehe. So, you must be hinting at wanting to date me, right?”
“I have no idea where to start correcting you. No, that’s not it.”
“Hmm, that’s strange. It can’t be. My masters said that if a guy smiles at you, it means he has feelings, so I can just approach him without hesitation. I’ve never had a guy smile at me before.”
At this point, I was really curious about what kind of humans those so-called masters were. Had they been holed up in an alchemy workshop like this woman, never going out?
The shivers ran down my spine, realizing that this must be the result of generations of stacked misconceptions. Suddenly, it started to make sense why she was acting this way.
“Your masters were mistaken.”
I had no intention of leaving such a misunderstanding unaddressed, so I slammed it home. The woman, who had her feelings quite outrightly rejected, hung her head in shock.
“Hehehehe.”
Then, she suddenly burst into that strange laugh again and lifted her head.
In her already lifeless black pupils resided an endless abyss. The ominous feeling intensified. Even Fetch shivered beside me.
“Got it. Hehe. That, that girl. It’s because of her, right?”
“What did you say?”
“It’s because of that girl, isn’t it? I know you like me, but you’re holding back because of her. Hehehe. So, she must be killed. It’s only right to kill her, right? You don’t have to worry anymore. I will kill her now, I will kill her, just wait a little longer.”
The woman, laughing eerily, staggered to her feet. Fetch clung to my arm in shock at the mention of killing. Upon seeing that, the woman’s eyes darkened even more.
“What are you going to do?! You wouldn’t just leave me to die like this, right?! You wouldn’t do that, would you?!”
“Of course not. Don’t worry. I just had a good idea.”
Originally, I intended to handle it myself, but my mind changed upon thinking of someone much more efficient for such a situation.
Suddenly summoned through teleportation, Kaiquilia, who was momentarily dazed, started rampaging through the alchemy workshop the moment she heard my brief explanation.
The workshop, filled with test tubes filled with liquids, boiling flasks, and various experimental materials, was thoroughly cleaned with a few sweeps of the Holy Sword.
Of course, the alchemists didn’t just idly watch their workshop getting demolished; they timidly attempted to resist. But Kaiquilia wasn’t one to let it slide.
Instead, it was annihilated even more thoroughly.
“P-Please stop! I beg you!”
The head alchemist cried out for mercy only after more than 80% of the workshop was reduced to ashes by the Holy Sword.
“You insolent girl. How dare you lay your eyes on anyone? Do you even know whose man you are casting your desires upon?”
Kaiquilia, sitting on a wooden splinter with her legs crossed, tapped her toes irritably. The Holy Sword next to her emanated a subtle golden light.
Fury flared in her golden eyes. Although it wasn’t directed at her, Fetch stuttered at the shadow of her past trauma.
“Hihihihih.”
The ominous woman lay flat on the floor.
Her chest, which could have been the size of two heads, bulged out like a round cushion between the floor and her upper body. That caused the chest area of her clothes to tighten to its limit.
I gently patted Kaiquilia’s head.
“You did well, Kaiquilia. Sorry for asking you for such a sudden favor.”
“My man called for me, so why would I count labor? I merely did what I ought to do. Therefore, your thanks are unnecessary. Protecting my man is naturally a duty of mine as your woman.”
Kaiquilia answered as if it didn’t matter, but I didn’t miss the slight upward turn of her lips.
“Yet, I should express my gratitude.”
I pulled her chin gently with my thumb and index finger. As the distance between our lips narrowed, a blush crept onto her cheeks. Her body started trembling slightly.
Though her eyes weren’t completely shut, the closer I got, the more her golden irises, not knowing what to do, twirled around in panic. The distance closed in further. I could feel her heated breath on my lips.
Just as our lips were about to meet.
– Twitch! Twitch!
Kaiquilia’s body trembled again. The sweet scent of peaches filled the air. Supporting her weakening legs from the side, I whispered into her ear as our lips brushed against each other.
“Thank you, Kaiquilia.”
– !!!!!!
Her body shook violently once more. A transparent, sticky liquid dripped down the inside of her thighs, soaking her black stockings. The peach scent intensified.
With a shameful expression, Kaiquilia leaned against me and attempted to pull down her uniform skirt, trying to hide the liquid flowing between her legs.
But the short skirt barely covered the flesh beneath her bottom, so it was impossible to conceal it. Eventually, Kaiquilia gave up and quivered as she hid behind me.
Watching our display of affection was the ominous woman, looking as if the world were crumbling around her.
“That, that person is my man—”
“What did you just say?”
Emerging from behind me, Kaiquilia peeked her head out and growled, sending malice in that direction.
To me, it seemed cute, but clearly, others didn’t feel the same. The alchemists lay flat on the floor, and Fetch hurriedly created distance.
After calming Kaiquilia by patting her back, I approached the woman and lifted her upper half off the ground. Her heavily pressed chest rose into prominence, showcasing overwhelming weight.
“By the way, I didn’t even ask your name. What is it?”
“L-Linne…”
Linne, a rather unique name by the standards of this world. But I didn’t think much about names, so I went on to the next topic. Eclipse would handle it anyway.
“Alright, Miss Linne. Now let’s return to the original topic. Can you replicate the Golden Key?”
“Y-Yes. It’s definitely possible. If I were to make it from scratch, it would be tough right now, but reverse engineering an existing one to replicate it would be easy… B-But, it would be impossible right now. I also need to rebuild the workshop and finish the research I was doing…”
“I will take care of that.”
I didn’t plan on leaving what Kaiquilia had destroyed unaddressed. Naturally, I had to compensate. I pulled out an empty scroll from my uniform’s inner pocket and handed it to Linne.
Linne accepted the scroll with a rather ominous and creepy smile.
“Write down all the items needed for rebuilding the workshop, the broken things from the workshop, and any others you may need. It doesn’t matter what or how much, you can write anything.”
I certainly wouldn’t get caught up in money issues.
And there was also a specific reason for showing Linne some favor.
“R-Really? I can just write anything? Are you serious about that?”
“Absolutely. But, you can’t build the workshop here. Since it’s half destroyed already, we’ll tear it down completely and build it somewhere else. I can arrange a workshop site. Would you prefer the Empire or the Holy Kingdom?”
“U-Um? Why?”
“Are you planning to stay holed up in this secluded place for life, setting traps for customers?”
“Well, I was thinking of doing that…”
Linne muttered gloomily.
“I can’t allow that. And, here, take this.”
I tossed an item called ‘Essence of the Abyss’, which I got from the Creature Abandoned by God, in front of Linne. Her eyes widened in surprise upon seeing it.
“What… is this? I’ve never seen it before!”
“That’s the additional request I mentioned. You can process that.”
This was another reason for giving Linne some goodwill. Now that I had nothing else to do, I was thinking of collecting all the weapons that appeared in Brightest Darkness 4.
Only alchemists could process droppable items, so it wouldn’t hurt to extend some goodwill.
“Got it. Where… I’ll definitely need to make this into a sword. Hehe.”
As she tucked the Essence of the Abyss between her breasts and rubbed it, I internally pondered how exactly that could work out like in the game.
What kind of principle allows that?
“I’ll let you know soon about the place where the workshop will be built.”
Once I finished speaking, I left the alchemy workshop with Kaiquilia and Fetch. Fetch seemed thrilled to finally escape that filthy place, bouncing around joyfully.
‘We’ll be meeting each other way too often anyway.’
Once the alchemy workshop relocated, I planned to assign Fetch the role of courier to deliver items there. At least in this world, I wanted her to be just Fetch, not the swindler Fetch.
The Fetch in Brightest Darkness 4 is not very pleasant.
“Can you wait a moment, Delta?”
Just as we were about to step out of the trap zone in front of the workshop, Kaiquilia halted her steps.
“Why?”
“Wait here for a moment. I just remembered something we haven’t finished yet.”
It clearly pertained to Linne. I apprehensively spoke up, laced with a hint of unease.
“Don’t hurt her.”
“What kind of talk is that? I have no intention of harming someone you decided to spare.”
“Hehehe, heh.”
Linne was continuously spilling her ominous laughter.
The large cleavage of her chest had the scroll that Delta had just given her tucked inside. She was diligently trying to detect Delta’s scent lingering on the scroll.
“If I can extract it from here…”
If I can extract the scent from this scroll, it would be no trouble at all to create ‘something different’. The time afterwards was bound to become a very enjoyable one.
“A-Anything else? Is there anything else?”
As Linne stood up with the scroll nestled between her breasts, she anxiously rummaged through the remaining items.
It was a pity that she hadn’t consumed the juice she prepared, as then I might have extracted DNA from the saliva on the cup. If I had just the DNA, then later—
“You seem to be having a lot of fun, girl.”
“H-Heek?!”
Linne froze in position as she searched through the workshop. Then, while looking down at the floor, she slowly raised her eyes.
Golden eyes met hers. A shiver ran through every fiber of her body.
“Were you entertaining some useless delusions about my man?”
“W-Wait, that isn’t—Hikk?!”
– Kwachik!
The Holy Sword embedded itself right next to the woman’s head. A single strand of hair was cut off and fluttered down. Among the numerous tangled and messy hairs, just that one strand fell.
Linne wasn’t dull enough to not realize what that meant. She stopped mid-sentence and waited quietly for the next words. While Linne trembled, Kaiquilia snatched the scroll out of her cleavage.
“Ah!”
“I will not harm you. I made a promise to him, and as a woman, I must naturally follow that.”
With the Holy Sword pulled from the ground, Kaiquilia swung it.
Swish, the scroll was sliced in half. The severed scroll began to envelop itself in a Light Mass, starting to vanish. Linne stared at the disappearing scroll with a longing gaze.
“However…”
With the murderous intent in her golden eyes, she focused sharply on Linne.
“If you continue to forget your place, you will merely be the first woman to come upon my man. Remember my words.”
Ending her speech, Kaiquilia turned away without reluctance. If Delta had a brain worthy of his abilities, he would at least understand what she had just said.
What if he didn’t understand? That would be Delta’s job to figure out.
Calming the lower abdomen that ached due to the climax with a tight squeeze, Kaiquilia returned to where Delta was waiting.
She felt a sense of inadequacy.