Tales of a Seductress

TOAD – Chapter 16

I woke up the next morning. When it came to things like being hungover, it was very difficult for me to get those kinds of backlashes now that I was at level 60. I wondered what it would take to reach the third tier. It usually involved some kind of revelation or some understanding. The jump from Seductress to Enchantress required me to come to a better understanding of the nature of control. What would it take for me to evolve to the next job, and what would that job be?

There were many reasons I wanted to travel with Bradrick. The most obvious one was to escape the stifling conditions under his little brother and mother. However, I also had a desire to push against the barrier of my second tier and become a third tier. How many levels would I gain from the sudden influx of store up experience? It left me fairly interested.

I stretched out my naked body luxuriously in the bed. A light moan occurred from the girl next to me. I looked over at Beedle, who was lying naked next to me. Our night together had been rather eventful. It didn’t take too much before she opened up for me. By that, I of course meant her legs. I knew nothing more about the girl than what I had already heard the night before. However, when it came to her body, I had gotten very intimate.

She was still sleeping now, her eyes flickering in a fitful sleep. I rose out of bed and quickly clothed myself. I found it always best when it came to sleeping with people I had to work with after to maintain a professional distance. If I remained next to her when she woke up, we would need to snuggle. I would need to calm her down and reassure her that she made the right decision, and whisper sweet nothings in her ears. If she was receptive, we might even have another go while she was less tipsy, solidifying her awakening as a lesbian.

Well, I didn’t care to awaken her in any way, and I didn’t want to soothe out her confusion and discomfort. I wanted it to be like a happy dream. I wouldn’t talk about it, and I wouldn’t treat her any differently. She might be nicer to me, and maybe we could even be friends a bit. As she saw me flirt around with men, she’d eventually convince herself that it never happened. Maybe she had imagined the whole thing? Then, she’d move on with her life.

By that point, her obsession with Bradrick would be over, and so I wouldn’t have to deal with a bitch trying to get in my way or threaten me in battle. That’s why I ultimately did what I did. With her feelings for me wrapped up in her heart, my place at this party was already safer. Of course, I’d similarly seduce Rio when I had the time. Well, he was already feeling me up last night, so it wouldn’t take a lot to bring him to that point. It might not be at the stage where we slept together, but it would at least need to be to the stage where he’d die to protect me. With both of them emotionally loyal to me, even if Bradrick was reckless, I should be able to get out of most situations intact.

At least, that was how I planned things these days. Was it cold? Possibly. Every relationship was engineered and manipulated, but when you could get what you wanted from people, wouldn’t you act in a way to maximize your own benefits? Everyone does, I think. I’m just better at it to the point I can be a realist. Besides, this world had taken too much from me already. I couldn’t allow myself to treat relationships as anything else than an arrangement.

As I finished getting dressed, I could hear more whimpering and shifting from Beedle. She had woken up as was just sitting up in bed as she rubbed her eyes. Damn. I was a few minutes too slow. If I slipped out quickly enough though, I could maintain the status quo. That was what I was thinking until the door opened and Bradrick poked his head inside.

“Hey, are you guys ready to-“

I was already decent, or at least as decent as I cared to be. Nothing, in particular, would have revealed what we had been doing all night. I had already put my toys back into the storage ring Bradrick had given me. However, the issue here was that Beedle was still naked in bed. His mouth froze as his eyes fell on her. As she sat up, her blanket had fallen, exposing her bare chest. She stared at him, one hand up rubbing her eye.

The situation slowly started to dawn on the pair. Beedle’s expression slowly turned red. Meanwhile, Bradrick was stuck staring at her, unable to turn his eyes away. Had it been me, I would have invited him into my bed. As for Beedle, she picked up a pillow and chucked it at Bradrick’s head. As he ducked, his senses returned to him.

“Ah! S-sorry!”

“You pervert! Pervert!” She screamed.

He ran out the door and it slammed shut before the second pillow was released. She threw it anyway, striking the door before letting out a roar of anger to no one in particular.

“I never understood why you’d get so upset. Don’t you have a crush on him? Seeing your body in this way, it’ll be the only thing on his mind for days.” I observed.

Beedle spun to me, and then the shock in her eyes melted away. She covered her chest and blushed, looking away again.

“It’s… not the same,” she said in almost a pout.

I shrugged and then started walking to the door.

“Wh-where are you going?” She cried out as she realized I was leaving.

“He suggested we’ll be leaving soon. I’m going down to the commons?”

“O-oh…”

I knew what she was thinking. She had started to remember everything last night. Our bodies writhing together in the naked bed. Her virginity being taken by a woman with a dildo. The intense pleasure I made her feel. She was expecting something from me now. Her maiden heart demanded some kind of satisfaction. I knew this not just because of my experience here, but because I had once been such a maiden. When I lost my virginity, I wondered if I had such a lost and hopeful expression on my face.

However, that was just the dream of the immature. Those were the expectations of the foolish. Life was hardly so loving or forgiving. People got sex, and once they had what they wanted, they walked away. Bradrick would be no different. No, he wouldn’t be as kind as me. He’d pop her cherry, and then lead her on for some time. She might think their relationship meant something, and only when she had helplessly fallen for him would he crush her.

It wouldn’t even be intentional. She would just one day learn the gap between them. He was a noble, and she was far too common. He was the hero, and she was just a hired friend. When that day happened, she would cry for weeks, leave the party, and eventually settle with someone, all while becoming embittered to life. It was far better to get her used to the disappointment now. There would be no sweet nothings. There would be no budding romance. You had your virginity one moment, and now you don’t.

I left the room before she could come up with something to say and closed the door. I headed down into the commons of the inn, where I found a Rio who seemed to be nursing a headache. He had a cold rag over his eyes, his head tilted back. Next to him, Bradrick had a strained smile on his face as he acted like a consoling friend, although if one looked in his eyes closely, they’d see the suppressed annoyance that his plans had been delayed.

“Ah… she isn’t mad, is she?” He asked, dutifully playing his part as the hapless protagonist.

“She’ll get over it,” I responded, casually pulling a chair and sitting between the two men.

Rio listed his wet rag and peaked at me with one eye. “If you’re honestly a healer that can resolve all status misalignments, then do something about my headache”

“Rio!” Bradrick announced, looking embarrassed over the man’s crudity.

He certainly didn’t run to my help last night when Rio was drunkenly groping me. He had been too busy being the center of attention. He was covering the tab on the drinks of various tables, so he had become everyone’s best friend that night. He wasn’t happy unless people were chanting his name, and it was quicker to achieve that with money than with skill.

“It’s fine.” I gave an innocent smile. “I can try. I don’t know if drunkenness counts for my special skill, but I can give it a try.”

“It’s a special skill? Not a spell or tonic?” Bradrick asked with surprise.

Everyone had special skills. Just by my level, I should have had as many as ten of them, so why couldn’t one of them be a healing ability?

“Alright then, give it to me,” Rio demanded sharply.

I stood up calmly and then walked over to him. I then leaned forward and kissed his lips. As I did so, I used the Princess Kiss ability. Bradrick let out a noise of surprise. When I pulled away, I could see Rio’s eyes were wide as well. A moment later, his shocked expression grew increasingly surprised. He pulled off the rag and then rubbed his forehead.

“S-seriously? The headache is gone!” Rio cried out. “She really healed it.”

I let out a soft and alluring laugh. “So, it even heals that. Well, I’m glad, although you can see by the delivery why I don’t bring it out any time.”

Our words ended up catching the ears of several other tables. These were all adventurers, who were here getting early morning missions or getting ready to set out on missions they had started the night before. Some of them had drunk with us, while others had just arrived. Either way, they were mostly a rough lot.

“Hey! Can you cure my headache too?” A man asked, stepping forward and pursing his lips in a kiss.

The other men around him made a laugh. As for Bradrick, his expression turned sour. He didn’t seem to like that I was getting attention. I didn’t know if it came from some protectiveness over the girls in his party, or simply because it meant that he didn’t get to be the center of attention.

“Sure…” I flashed him a smile, walked over two steps, and then pecked him on the lips.

He was stunned as he stumbled back a few steps. Then, he took one foot and stomped it on the other. Then let out a cry, followed by a laugh.

“Well, shit! The petrification in my right foot is gone!” He cried out.

I had done the kiss to get Rio and Bradrick a little jealous, but I hadn’t predicted he had real problems. All the men in the adventuring guild suddenly grew more animated as they heard this. The man had pulled out his foot and was twinkling his toes, showing people. Honestly, his foot probably would have looked and smelled better when it was stone. However, hearing someone cured a headache was one thing. Hearing they cured a rare petrification curse was another.

“Hey, can you cure this?”

“Oh, kiss me.”

The men started to crowd around me. I had been in enough gangbangs with feral men driven to lust by my pheromones. This kind of crowding didn’t worry me. However, Bradrick was another story. He stood up, his expression quickly turning to anger.

“Hey, baby, why don’t you kiss this?” One of the adventurers who were probably still drunk from last night wiped out his dick.

Before anyone could say anything, Bradrick slugged the man. He fell back, hitting a table and knocking it over. Bradrick jumped on top of him and started hitting him again. The man let out a scream as he finally realized he was being beaten, but Bradrick didn’t lighten up. He didn’t say anything. There was no lesson to be learned. It was just brutality.

“Brad!” Rio cried out.

Bradrick froze, and then finally stood up. The drunk was a bloody mess. The other men, even those who had come with the man, hadn’t moved against Bradrick at all. They all knew his status. He spun to the rest of them.

“None of you will touch her.” He snarled, blood dripping from his fists.

“What happened?” A quiet voice came from the stairway.

We all turned to see Beedle standing there. She was dressed now and had only seen the end where Bradrick was beating a man, so her question was an honest one. No one dared to speak up though. Bradrick’s face smoothed out and he cleared his throat.

“We’re going.” He turned around and left the guild, expecting the rest of his form to follow him.

The other parties of men quickly turned away. A few men went to care for the drunk, whose face was ruined and he might need medical aid to recover. This was Bradrick’s true nature slipping through. I had finally seen the man underneath.