Stigma Effect

Yuriel stared blankly at the ceiling. Raphlet was moving his body above her, even though she had fainted and woke up.

Really, this. Really, this is....

She thinks she now understands the meaning of what Raphlet had said. Obviously, this was a little hard to accept. It's not a mental issue, it's a physical issue.

If this copulation was what he declared unacceptable, then Yuriel needed to build up her stamina.

But there was something strange. Raphlet continued to refer to her as an illusion throughout their deed.

Once again, Raphlet placed a kiss on Yuriel's forehead, laid down next to her with a smile. Raphlet, who brushed her hair back as he did when she was a child, closed his eyes with a soft expression. He looked satisfied.

It was the first time she saw such a gentle expression again. Yuriel, who looked curiously at the loosened forehead and loosely curved lips, lowered her gaze and carefully looked at the scar left on Raplet's arm.

The wound, which was dark at first, gradually turned red as time passed, and then disappeared as if it had evaporated.

Before leaving the maze, Raphlet obviously told her to be careful, saying that the monster is poisonous. And he mumbled the word aphrodisiac. He faltered in that word, but what he was trying to say was probably the word aphrodisiac.

So, this is probably due to the effect of the aphrodisiac.

He lost his energy and his shoulders sagged a little. This was not Raphlet's true intention.

Yuriel carefully stepped down from Raphlet's bed. Worried that he might wake up, Yuriel came down lightly and left the room with her clothes spread around the bathroom.

It was fortunate that her room was across from Raphlet’s so she didn't have to worry about running into people.

Yuriel went to her room and first cleaned her body. If Raphlet came to his senses and he saw her and pushed her away, Yuriel wasn’t confident she could endure it.

It would be a big trouble if she was to be forced to go back to the Mogris Estate again.

"That won’t do….”

Yuriel wiped her aching body and changed clothes, then quietly left the room. She wanted to know the exact facts.

If it wasn't an aphrodisiac, and Yuriel misunderstood that Raphlet had been under an aphrodisiac, it would mean that Raphlet really wanted to hold Yuriel.

Yuriel left the room and immediately looked for Baraha. Barraha was locked up in his own room, mostly in the south building, unless it was the training ground. Or he would say he was headed to the alchemist tower, but recently, the alchemist tower is under renovation, so he tends to stay in his room the whole time.

When she went to Baraha's room, she saw him dozing on the window sill. Yuriel knocked on the door to wake up the sleeping Baraha.

Baraha, who had been sleeping, opened his eyes. Baraha blinked slowly and looked around for a moment as if to check where he was.

“I thought I was in the Mogris estate because of you. I thought you were in that forest....”

Baraha murmured reproachfully. He rubbed his eyes and got up to approach Yuriel.

"Why are you here?"

“Well, I need to ask you a question…. By any chance, among the monsters that the princess placed in the maze, was there a monster with an aphrodisiac poison?”

Baraha saw Yuriel's serious expression and replied. He thought she didn't know it, but it seemed like she finally figured it out.

“Did you know?”

“Ah, as expected….”

“It was a good thing though. You came out unscathed, and the princess didn't hand you over to the knights."

"Huh?"

Yuriel, who was listening to Baraha's words, blinked with a totally clueless face. Baraha saw that face, frowned as Yuriel continued her words lightly.

“What do you mean, the princess tried to hand me over to the knights…?”

Yuriel staggered against the wall. Seeing Yuriel's reaction, Baraha clicked his tongue and turned his head.

“Hey, Baraha! What do you mean!”

“I told you that the princess is someone who needs to get what she wants in her hands, for a person, she needs to melt away their intuition. That's the most commonly used method to get her hands on them. Make them succumb to desires and beg her for more.”

“The, then she was going to do that to me too?”

It was then that Yuriel understood the eyes of the knights. The persistent gaze that scoured all over her body, it was the gaze that was filled with dirty desires.

“You know that, why didn’t you tell me to be careful?”

“I was thinking of taking you back if I thought you were going to lose.”

He muttered with a stupid-looking face. Yuriel, who was feeling goosebumps, looked at his face and lost her nerves.

"Never mind. What do I expect from you?”

“Because I was going to take you out.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“Yuriel.”

Yuriel said bluntly. Upon hearing the answer to the question she had asked Baraha, Yuriel pouted her lips and left his room. Baraha followed after Yuriel.

Yuriel walked down the hallway, contemplating how to keep Raphlet from noticing that she was beside him.

They came across Helio, who was on the way back after leaving the southern building, and he asked curiously.

“Miss Yuriel, why is Commander Baraha behind you so flustered?”

"Yes? Where is Baraha, shhh, you scared me! Why are you doing this behind me?”

Yuriel, who looked back, was surprised to see Baraha standing close behind her and dropped her body. She looked down as she remembered that Raphlet was standing so close behind her as she was about to leave the door.

"Really."

“… what?"

“I was trying to get you out.”

“Ah, yes. Yes. I got it.."

It seemed to be a continuation of that story earlier. Yuriel reiterated that she didn’t care much about it and looked at Baraha, who was looking at her strangely.

“I followed you to say that. I’m going back now.”

“Ah, alright….”

Baraha really turned around and went back to the southern building, not knowing what to say other than that.

It wasn’t just a day or two that Baraha was weird, so she didn't really care. Even when she was in the Mogris Estate, he sometimes behaved strangely like that, and then disappeared. After a few months, he came back to Mogris again and met Yuriel.

And said hello as usual.

Yuriel, who looked at Baraha's back for a moment, asked Helio.

“Sir Helio, is the monster subjugation still a long way away?”

“The alchemy tower has been properly organized and we are going to start subjugation soon. We are scheduled to go to Krug in two days.”

“Krug? Is it far away?”

“No, it’s a historic site behind the Imperial Palace…. It’s a place where monsters often appear, and subjugation is carried out periodically.”

“Yikes. The Imperial Palace.”

“The probability of meeting the princess is…. Well, that’s high.”

Hearing Baraha's words, a sense of repulsion towards the princess has risen. Yuriel frowned and sighed.

As Yuriel trembled with displeasure, Helio comforted her lightly.

"It's okay. She must already have other interests. Because the princess is very capricious.”

“Please, I hope so.”

Please, I don’t want to meet the princess and her knights.

Yuriel prayed deeply in her heart.

＊＊＊

“Yuriel.”

"Yes, yes?"

“You don’t need the sleeping pills anymore?”

“Oh, no. I still need it. It is much faster to find out in a dream than to detect where a monster is in a large place.”

"Is that so? Still, avoid sleeping pills whenever possible.”

“Yes, Lord Raphlet. Once I get used to my abilities, I don't think I'll be using them much in the future."

Raphlet asked a question as he watched Yuriel packing the bags for subjugation. Yuriel received the sleeping pills from the medical officer and then reported to Raphlet when she was taking the sleeping pills but the frequency has recently decreased.

Raphlet was relieved to see Yuriel's use of sleeping pills diminished. It was for the sake of the precognition, but it was hard to see her using a drug that made her defenseless for two hours.

It was not good for Yuriel's body, and the way he touched Yuriel's body every time she fell asleep was terrible. It didn't even go as far as insertion, but it was that he felt that it was reaching the limit for him to suppress that desire.

He couldn't stand it when he heard Yuriel begging him to touch her before she fell asleep.

A thin smile appeared on Raplet's lips at the news of the reduced use of sleeping pills. Raphlet smiled at Yuriel after a long time and lifted his head.

It was a friendly smile that was only shown to Yuriel.

“… Yuriel?”

But when Yuriel saw Raphlet's smile, she was terribly surprised and turned her head.

Raphlet turned around to see if there was anything else behind him that might surprise Yuriel. There was nothing.

There were only two people, Yuriel and Raphlet in the room.

"Ah, ah…. Th, then, Lord Raphlet, I'll go to my room, room first. I have to get up early tomorrow!”

It was an awkward act for Yuriel, who wouldn't leave the place unless Raphlet left first. She jumped up from her spot when she finished her words, she bit her tongue.

Yuriel tried not to make eye contact with Raphlet, then ran into the opposite room.

Raphlet stared blankly at Yuriel's back.

No matter how good she tried, she ran away. Raphlet suppressed himself, who almost grabbed Yuriel's body, as if crushing a fleeing prey, and blinked his eyes.

What he saw before Yuriel turned her body was a terrified expression on that face. It's a startled face, as if she noticed Raphlet’s desire to swallow Yuriel in one bite.

Raphlet clenched his fists and took a deep breath.

“Why all of a sudden, now….”

The voice that escaped from his lips terrified the room.