"She's defeated, you say?"

"Yes. The empress managed to bury her deep underneath the desert. Fortunately, she didn't finish her off, so I managed to dig her out of there. She's currently unconscious inside my regeneration spell circle."

Once again, in a certain dark place lit only by torches with blue fire instead of red, a figure covered in shadows is conversing with a busty onee-san.

"Ho? She's that powerful?"

"Yes, that is what troubles me, for at first, she was overwhelmed by Claria's relentless attacks. But then, without any conceivable reason, her power increased tenfold. With a simple blast of her telekinetic power, she sent Claria deep to the ground, blasting all the sands in-between. And I noticed that some sort of humanoid-looking shadow appeared behind her when she experienced that sudden power surge."

"A shadow, you say? Describe what it's like."

"All I know is that it has a pair of terrifying red eyes."

"Terrifying? Don't tell me my demon princess, who stands the strongest among the demons, is afraid of a simple pair of red eyes?"

"I-I am ashamed to admit it, but it is true. There was something about them... something that unsettles you. It's like... It's like they were peering into my very soul."

Now, you might be wondering, how could she have been there and not being noticed by either the empress or the dragon princess?

The answer is simple. One of her abilities is to manipulate corpse. But not just human corpse, she can also manipulate animal corpse. And when she manipulates one, she can see through its senses.

Thus, she can spy on her friend's battle via some fly corpses. Tiny and unnoticeable. And if one gets hit by an attack accidentally, she can always replace it with another one.

"Hmm... I can't quite understand what you felt just by words. Bring me your eye."

"Y-yes."

The next thing that occurs would be very gruesome if not for the fact that the room is pretty dimly lit so you can't quite see what is going on.

However, you can still hear the sound of the busty onee-san gouging out her left eye from her socket.

Oh, your concern is not necessary, for another one of our dear busty onee-san's abilities is that she can feel no pain, no matter what kind of punishment is inflicted on her body.

And she also has near-instant regeneration, so her left eye grows itself back just a few seconds later after the process is finished.

The shadowed figure extends its hand to receive the eye. Then, it proceeds to put it inside its mouth and swallow it.

"...T-this is...!"

Its eyes widen as it sees what the busty onee-san had seen.

And then, it feels it. The fear.

But not just the fear. The view also brings up something more. Something... buried beneath the mind of the creature.

Then, it remembers.

"Alice..."

"She... she survived..."

"P-pardon me?" The busty onee-san is confused.

"...Damn! I can't... remember! Who is she? I..." The shadowed figure puts its head on its palm.

"M-Maou-sama, w-what is the matter?"

"Alice, Alice, Alice, Alice!!! That name! I can't... remember...!"

"Maou-sama!"

Quickly, the busty onee-san embraces the shadowed figure.

"M-Maria-chan?"

"Y-yes, M-Maou-sama?"

"I think... I think it's coming back to me. Just a little however."

"I am glad to hear that, Maou-sama." Maria says with a smile.

"I need him... I need the summoned hero."

"E-eh, which one?" Maria asks, baffled by its sudden declaration.

"The one with the princess and the knight. The one summoned by the Human Kingdom. For he holds something I need."

"My memories."

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

When I wake up, the first thing I see is a pair of perfectly shaped breasts right before me, with no bra covering them at that.

False alarm. I'm still dreaming.

Not knowing that I am really side by side with a beautiful girl in reality, groggily I land my hand on the two melons, squeezing them and playing around with their nipples.

"A-aaah, Akira-sama..."

W-wait, no! I'm not dreaming! Remember, last night I went to Lilia-chan room and she--

O-oh man, that wasn't a dream!

I look upwards to see Lilia's sleeping face.

My heart suddenly beats faster and I can feel a blush appearing on my face.

It can't be helped. It is the cutest face I have ever seen.

It's so innocent yet so tempting, the temptation that I cannot resist.

And so our lips meet.

It's a simple chaste kiss. I feel it's the perfect way to wake her up.

"Wake up, Lilia-chan. It's morning already."

When she opens her eyes, her face reddens as she greets me back. She doesn't stutter like usual, as if she's greeting her husband in the morning.

W-wait, what am I saying? I-It's not like I have a plan to become her husband or something.

...Or do I? Waking up with a pretty smile from a nice girl like this, isn't this always have been my deepest fantasy?

I may be a lecher who loves to ogle and grope girls' bodies, but deep down, I know I actually want a genuine companionship from a girl.

I-I don't know. I-I don't think I'm ready to settle down with anyone just yet. I-I'm still 18 after all.

"Something wrong, Akira-sama?" Lilia asks.

"O-oh, nothing."

We both get up and dress ourselves. With new clothes of course, since our old ones are... drenched, to say the least. They even bring my clothes. I see the king knew what's going to happen after all, that old perv.

You'd think we'll just dress ourselves in front of each other but Lilia's shyness is back so to make her comfortable, we look away from each other while we're changing. Of course, I steal a few peeps, seeing Lilia putting on her bra and panties. And I have a feeling Lilia also sneaks a few peeks too on her own.

Lilia now wears a long-sleeved purple sweatshirt, low-cut as usual of course, paired with a tiny white skirt.

"U-umm, Akira-sama?" Lilia speaks before we leave the room

"Yeah?"

"T-thanks for last night. It was very nice." Her voice trails off as embarrassment overtakes her.

I see her shyness is back. I suppose she needs to be "in the mood" for it to disappear.

"The pleasure is mine, my lady." I do a mock bow while smiling. "It was the first time I kept the company of a princess after all. And it was very pleasurable indeed."

"Oh, and before we go..."

I flip up her skirt, exposing her green striped panties. They're still as tight as ever, outlining the shape of her cameltoe perfectly.

"Kyaaa!" she quickly uses both of her hands to cover them up.

"Perfect! Don't want to forget to wear your underwear before you go out there after all!"

"Mou, Akira-sama no ecchi!"

I just smile back when she pouts, for I know she secretly enjoys it.

****

When we meet with the king to tell us of our next destination, Eleanore is nowhere to be found.

"Where's the lady knight, old man?"

"W-well, she told me she would wait near the stables instead. I-I think she's quite offended you left her at the party last night."

Oh crap, I have totally forgotten about that!

While I am having fun with Lilia, Eleanore is alone in the ball room, being forced to dance with strangers she doesn't even know!

And if she knows that I spent the night in Lilia's room...!

Dangerous! This is definitely dangerous!

Quickly, I tell the king that we're planning to go to the wood elves territory. I remember there was some leads on an Phantasma ruin back there though I haven't really explored them to the end yet. We're planning to use the teleportation gate since their territory lies beyond the Human Empire's realm and it'll take us too long to go there by horse.

When we arrive at the stables to fetch Eleanore, there are two things I notice right away. First is she going "Hmph!" when I approach her, throwing away her gaze from here. And second, is her new clothing, particularly the lower part. Her tight leather pants is now gone, replaced by some sort of black leotard. And since the leotard is quite small, I notice a little of her private part spilling out, it looks like she had forgotten to wear a skirt and she has gone into battle wearing just her black panties.

I have no idea why she would wear something like this. Not that I'm complaining though.

"W-what are you looking at?" She blushes when she notices my lecherous stare.

"You forget to wear your pants."

"N-no, I don't!"

"Then why are you wearing only your black panties down there?"

"I-it's not panties, you pervert! It's my battle leotard! It's charmed so that it increases its wearer's speed in battle! And the effect only kicks in if you don't wear any pants of skirts!" She hurriedly explains, trying to justify her ridiculous and embarrassing outfit.

"Oh, really? You should've worn that beforehand then. Wasting such a beneficial effect doesn't seem like a bright thing to do."

"S-shut up! I'm only wearing this because I have no other choice! Y-you know how I got caught by that demon princess because I wasn't fast enough!"

I see. She sacrifices her knightly dignity for more strength to fight her battles.

Once again, I'll have to applaud her nobility.

"So" I change the subject. "Our destination today is to the Wood Elves' territory, for I believe we may find some clue for our next ruin there."

"The Wood Elves' territory?" Eleanore answers, forgetting that she's still supposed to be mad at me. "It'll take at least a week to get there from here."

"Don't worry. We're taking the fast lane."

Then, I explain the concept of the teleportation gates, how it can only be activated with my power (I think it has something to do with the fact that said gates are only to be used for PCs). Apparently, the king forgot to brief her on this.

"A-amazing! I-If only we have that magic, we can easily trade with the rest of the world! Everyone will prosper!"

"And everyone can invade each other more easily too. Don't forget that."

"R-right!"

Ad thus, the three of us head to the gate in the capital town. The gate to the Wood Elf Capital, Yggdrasil, is luckily in good shape so we can just teleport there without a fuss.

But then, when we arrive...

"Halt! Don't move even a single inch!"

We are surrounded by a squad of elven archers, all aiming our bows at us.

Just our luck.