After our first experience in the abandoned house, Friede began to request my body occasionally. About once every three or four days.
She didn’t make explicit demands like ‘spread your legs’ or ‘lie down’.
She would just embrace me, look up at me with moist eyes, and gently caress my cheek. That was our own signal.
If I overlapped my hand on hers and kissed her, it meant I was giving permission. Conversely, if I removed Friede’s hand, it meant I was refusing for today.
Of course, I never removed her hand.
I didn’t refuse Friede’s requests. Not even once.
I didn’t have the audacity to do so.
And I didn’t feel like doing so either.
Our flight, which began in earnest after annihilating the first group of pursuers.
As with anything, you get used to it over time, and even killing the innocent pursuers chasing us eventually became familiar.
Yes, I certainly got used to it, but…
…Hah.
Even if you get used to it, it doesn’t mean your heart becomes comfortable with it.
Though it wasn’t to the extent of feeling extreme nausea like at first, I still had to endure considerable stress every time I killed them.
A vague sense of unease that I was doing something I shouldn’t. A depressing discomfort as if something dark was endlessly piling up in my chest.
Wanting to turn my eyes away from those dark emotions, wanting to ignore and forget and completely erase them from my mind.
I threw my body into desire and pleasure as if sinking into a bottomless swamp.
The sensation of my reason, emotions, my everything being dyed and blurred by pleasure… for me now, it was the most intense and addictive joy.
It was the same for Friede.
At least, that’s what I thought. She usually requested my body right after we annihilated the pursuers chasing us, or around that evening.
Friede, who mercilessly cut and cut the pursuers into pieces, saying it was better for them to die than for me to get hurt.
But she too must be suffering from guilt-like stress every time she did so. Just like me.
So, how could I have the audacity to refuse her affection, her desire?
This small girl who had become a murderer on the run because of my karma, who willingly endured hardships and fought to protect me.
The hero protecting me.
My own hero.
* * *
For these reasons, whenever Friede snuggled up to me, I smiled and intertwined my body with hers without any resistance.
…No, there’s a slight error in saying we intertwined our bodies.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t intertwining but rather giving my body to her. The act between Friede and me was actually closer to one-sided service or toying.
The only one writhing and shaking my body disgracefully in pleasure was me alone.
Friede indulged in my body, leaving her traces from the tips of my fingers to my toes, truly every nook and cranny of my body, but…
“Huu… haah…”
“Did you come again…? Then, that’s it for today, Miss Hilde.”
Conversely, I didn’t lay a finger on Friede’s body. Not yet, at least.
…Well, you know. We did kiss and embrace, but I didn’t commit anything beyond that.
Therefore, our coupling was far from a normal relationship between lovers, literally just a one-sided act.
Friede didn’t even take off her underwear.
However, Friede didn’t seem to have even the slightest complaint about this.
I was the only one who felt satisfaction from physical pleasure. Even though her inner self must be full of unfulfilled desires and unresolved yearning.
The reason… honestly, I’m not sure. I didn’t ask.
Perhaps she’s satisfied just with toying with me because she prefers being the one doing it rather than being done to.
Maybe she’s hoping I’ll approach her first rather than requesting it herself.
Or well, there might be some other reason I haven’t even guessed.
Anyway, we continued this one-sided relationship like that.
Hiding in abandoned villages or ruins to spend the night, killing pursuers who chased us, leaving discovered hideouts to search for new ones.
“Kuh, kuhk…!”
“…I told you to run away. Why don’t you listen?”
With each pursuer I killed, my infamy grew more and more, until eventually I became a villain on a level that Belita couldn’t even compare to.
These days, they’re even treating me on the same level as Abyss Priests. Giving me grand derogatory titles like ‘Knight of Betrayal’ or ‘Worm of Rhine’.
Of course, only the titles were grand, while my actual skill was rumored to be at most equal to three knights combined.
They say I’m a filthy and pathetic woman who attempted an ambush out of jealousy over other party members getting stronger, but was defeated without even inflicting a single wound, let alone bringing them down.
It’s not entirely wrong, but… that doesn’t mean I’m really a weakling who can be easily handled by just three knights.
I’m a bit stronger than that. Really.
Well, I could roughly guess why such rumors had spread. Probably to encourage the pursuers.
If it became widely known that at least ten knights were needed to capture me alive, adventurers, if not nobles, wouldn’t even attempt to track me down.
Adventurers are people who always weigh rewards against their lives. No matter how high the bounty, they won’t stick their necks out for something that’s clearly fatal.
So, they probably intentionally spread rumors lowering my abilities to make capturing me seem like something worth trying rather than certain death.
Anyway, while my infamy was growing like that every day, no derogatory titles appeared for Friede.
No, there were no rumors about her at all. As if such a woman didn’t exist in the first place.
Whether groups or individuals, most pursuers only targeted me alone. To the extent that they didn’t even know there was a woman named Friede by my side?
It was strange.
“I wonder why…?”
“Well… I’m not sure, but someone who knows your identity probably took action.”
For this too, I had a rough guess as to the reason.
“I’m just a knight who was evaluated as having outstanding talent, but you, Friede, are a hero with the hero’s mark and a holy sword.”
Unlike me who was branded a traitor, Friede was still the hero of the Rhine Kingdom and the rightful owner of the holy sword Nibelung, even if she had briefly run away.
Someone who didn’t want rumors to spread about Friede being by my side was probably thoroughly blocking any stories about her.
Making me out to be a thoroughly evil person with no room for reevaluation, while aiming to secretly deal with or capture Friede before her current situation became known.
It’s just my guess, but that was the only way to explain why there were no rumors about Friede.
“Oh, um, you think so…?”
“Yeah. Probably.”
There were many suspected culprits.
The Kingdom of Rhine. The Goddess Church. Gunther. Heid. Any of them could be the perpetrator.
If the Kingdom of Rhine or the Church knew about us… they would surely be waiting for an opportunity to eliminate me, the blemish on the hero’s party, and retrieve and re-educate Friede.
To use Friede, who had started showing hero-like growth speed, as a convenient tool.
Conversely, for Gunther or Heid, it would be an opportunity to assassinate a foreign hero who was in their way without diplomatic conflict, so they too would want to prevent it from becoming known that Friede was by my side.
We couldn’t know which of them had blocked rumors about Friede, but it was clear that it wasn’t done for Friede’s sake.
…Well, it did help us in a way too.
While I couldn’t even think of entering anywhere except places like slash-and-burn farming villages because my face was so well-known everywhere, it wasn’t the same for Friede.
Except for big cities where soldiers controlled entry and checked identification tokens one by one, small towns or villages didn’t guard against Friede at all.
She did wear a hood just in case, but anyway, it meant she could move around freely.
Thanks to this, even as we wandered aimlessly avoiding pursuers, we could immediately replenish supplies and provisions needed for travel.
I could just hide in a hideout while sending Friede to the village to buy things with money.
And incidentally, she could also gather rumors spread among the public.
As for money, we had plenty. The money I had saved up until now and the purses donated by the adventurers who had pursued us were overflowing.
Adventurers who came looking for me, aiming for the bounty on my head.
Their purpose wasn’t settling grudges or realizing justice, but solely the bounty on my head. Or sometimes my body.
Saying they’d spare my life if I became their party’s slave?
Really, it was ridiculous.
It was obvious from the lust filling their eyes that the slavery they spoke of wasn’t for construction or combat.
I didn’t feel much guilt when killing such people. Though I shouldn’t think this way, I felt like I was killing those who deserved to die.
I even warned them to turn back several times, and properly buried their bodies in the ground… I’d say I gave them all the courtesy I could.
As for the money, well, I could consider it as taking funeral expenses.
Thanks to this, I was becoming wealthier as time went on. I could even replace damaged equipment with new ones immediately without going to a blacksmith.
This too was truly ironic.