The Porter Has No Interest in the Hero’s Party

“Ah, that feels refreshing.”

“You were in good condition today.”

“Oh, did I look that way? Right? I did well, didn’t I?”

“Yes. You were excellent.”

Everyone has their area of expertise. No matter how terrible a task might be, someone is bound to become accustomed to it. Walking through the underground passage beneath the fortress where torches flickered, I thought about what kind of human I was accustomed to being. Beyond the passage, I could hear the cheerful voices of the party members.

Ashuria and Lena. The two approached me with faces full of vitality, like students who had found professions that matched their aptitudes. When I lived in the Empire, students who revealed their aspirations had faces full of dreams and hopes, just like these two women with sparkling eyes now.

Those students were always composed of a pair—a friend who confidently shared their dreams and a kind child who supported such a friend. Since Ashuria and Lena seemed to be mimicking my memory exactly, I couldn’t help but smile.

“Oh, Mister. You came at just the right time?”

“Yes. I thought it would be finished around now.”

Lena nodded with a bright smile at my words. She smiled with a clean expression like someone without any stress, and Ashuria was looking at Lena with a warm expression. The two had somewhat incompatible temperaments during our journey, but they seemed to work well together for these kinds of missions.

“Right. Mister. Then I’ll leave it to you.”

Lena said that and patted my shoulder. Ashuria bowed her head, and I said to Lena who was about to pass by me:

“But will this really work? I’m not a playboy.”

“You have talent, Mister. You’re a womanizer. I’m telling you, you can even seduce a demon? If you can seduce her, great, if not, that’s fine too. Right?”

Lena’s face, reflected in the red light, wore an innocent smile. Seeing that smile, I couldn’t answer seriously anymore, so I just shook my head.

“…I’ll try my best.”

Back in the old days, when I lived in the Empire, I had heard unsettling rumors about this fortress. That all criminals were dragged to the underground of this fortress and subjected to cruel torture, that the ruthless kingdom people deliberately drilled holes so that screams would echo into the Imperial forest, and because of this, every day in the forest, the terrible voices of criminals could be heard.

The enclosed cave, shaped as if to depict an animal’s entrails, and the torches haphazardly stuck like parasites seemed to confirm these eerie rumors were true.

I occasionally had to move as if taking steps to avoid the torch stands hitting my head, and the vicious cold weapons scattered on the floor and the short spear stained with red rust forced me to imagine the tragedy that had taken place here.

Skeletons of unknown era wearing straw mats were rolling on the floor, and demon prisoners who gave off a strong smell of blood were tied up exhausted inside iron bars.

They twisted their bodies busily when they saw me as if they would kill me, but moving with disabled limbs couldn’t express emotions beyond poor jokes.

Trampling and humiliating them might have been quite fun, but there was a different reason I had walked into this intestine-like underground today.

Unlike the demons roughly separated by iron bars, a place strongly protected by a heavy iron door. A place where heat could still be felt and the smell of burning flesh was vividly transmitted.

Using a key to open the iron door, there was a woman tied to a chair in the middle of a dimly lit room. The floor and her body were soaked in blood, making it impossible to tell her original skin color. Her elegant appearance had become emaciated, transforming her into a different demon.

“Is it your turn to torture me now? Or have you come to taunt me? I’ve already prepared for humiliation. Do as you please.”

But her eyes were alive.

She also displayed a dignified attitude, ready to endure whatever was done to her since I had entered. I didn’t like this aspect of Keiberess. She was a demon. Resolve and determination as a warrior were things only humans could possess.

I hadn’t come to torture her or manipulate her as I pleased.

I…

“So, Mister will try to seduce that commander. It’s what you do best, after all.”

“Me?”

It was an operation that started from Lena’s suggestion. I took it as a preposterous joke, but to the other party members, her suggestion didn’t sound like a joke. Mille nodded, saying it would be fun, and the hero and Ashuria agreed with serious expressions.

The hero looked at me and said:

“Certainly, considering the abilities you’ve shown so far, it’s the most likely method to work. Keiberess is a relatively important hostage to us, and if we accidentally kill her while torturing her wrongly to extract information, it will only raise the enemy’s fighting spirit.”

Even then, I tried to pass off this operation as a silly joke. In my opinion, it was an absurd operation. I didn’t particularly like demons, and I had never even thought about loving a demon.

“No, Hero. Your joke goes too far. If someone heard, they’d think I hypnotize women with my fingers. It’s only because there’s a heart that understands each other and warmly embraces! That’s why I could share love with the women in the village. But how could I seduce a demon in the same way? Those creatures are less than beasts. I couldn’t immerse myself.”

The hero thought my words had a point. He nodded and wrinkled his eyes. But the hero didn’t back down either.

“But, Mister. Soldiers and commanders have already tried various persuasion methods, but they all failed. Even when tortured, she only says to kill her and shows no signs of betrayal. She’s a renowned commander even in the demon world. Rather than forcibly making her spit out information, if we can extract some information through this method, we could gain an advantage in upcoming battles.”

And I couldn’t find words to refute the hero’s logic. The hero was looking at me with truly desperate eyes, and Lena and Ashuria also gave me intense gazes. Ashuria said:

“If you cooperate, we’ll make that woman taste the extremes of pain and love.”

“You know the saying ‘carrot and stick’? We’ll torture that woman to rapidly decrease her mental strength, then you go and soothe her with sweet words. How about it? It’s easy.”

Both Lena and Ashuria nodded and told me such stories.

So what could I do?

Even if I couldn’t do it well, I had to try my best.

“Why are you standing there blankly? Hurry up. Just looking at your face disgusts me.”

I came to my senses at Keiberess’s voice. She was pretending to be composed, but she had already reached her limit from stress and pain. She reacted to each of my movements, and her body trembled whenever I moved.

Then, angered by the fact that she was intimidated by me, she would grind her teeth and stamp her feet, and then repeat the cycle of falling silent as she felt her joints and muscles automatically stiffen whenever I moved again.

Pain is learned.

If you continue to inflict purposeless pain in a state where one cannot resist, even the strongest person becomes accustomed to pain. No matter how strong her mental strength was, it was inevitable that her body and mind would seek tranquility.

Carrot and stick. Like giving a carrot to a horse, I had to become a figure who gave her peace and rest.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

I silently began to wipe her body with a wet towel. As I wiped away the dirty blood, her clean skin without a single wound was revealed. Due to traversing the battlefield, muscles moved vividly on her thighs and limbs.

She had the body of a born warrior, so I silently carried out my mission while inwardly admiring her.

“What is this… What are you doing? I see, are you cleaning me up for tomorrow’s torture… You crazy women. I’ve never seen such ruthless women before.”

I didn’t respond to Keiberess. The moment I responded to her now, I would again become her enemy and a spy-like entity who might extract information from her. If I reacted even slightly to the words she was casually uttering now, Keiberess would firmly close her mouth.

What she needed now was the fact itself that someone listened to her words. When in an isolated place with perverts who speak their own language and enjoy pain, one tends to look for someone with whom they can communicate.

If I maintained silence and didn’t reveal my humanity, Keiberess would use me as such a communication channel, build intimacy herself, and expect me to open my mouth.

“Looking at your body, you seem to be a quite usable warrior, but your circumstances are pitiful, cleaning a demon’s body in a place like this. Have you considered switching to the demon side? If you release me now, I’ll spare your life.”

I turned my head and looked at the wall. Blood stains from torture remained as black dots. I suppressed the urge to hit her mouth to silence her and pretended to be gruffly kind.

Kindness sometimes acts as poison. Just as trivial kindness creates affection and builds up tragedy, this simple action that seems like a duty becomes the key to fostering love in extreme situations.

Keiberess might not know it yet, but that poison was already spreading little by little in her heart.