The Priest of Complete Dispel ~ Every Time I Save a Cursed Beautiful Girl with My Status Abnormal Cure Skill, For Some Reason Her Dependence on Me Maxes Out ~ - Chapter 67: The Road to the Capital

Chapter 67: The Road to the Capital

“—So, we’ll go by age order, right? First Medina, then me, and last Erina… or maybe we could all go together sometimes?”

It had been about half a day since we left the capital.

Every monster that showed up got shut down instantly by my [Complete Dispel], so we hadn’t really had anything you could call a real fight.

The journey had been peaceful, with a lunch break in the middle—but before evening even rolled around, the conversation had taken a pretty heavy turn.

Yeah, what we were talking about right now was the order for spending nights with me.

Ever since Erina joined the carriage, Iris and Medina had properly re-introduced themselves and explained their relationships with me.

Apparently Iris wasn’t trying to keep me all to herself anymore. So instead, she suggested we just decide on a proper order.

“I-I’m fine being last… no, wait, I don’t even have the right to be in the rotation at all…!”

“Medina may be the youngest, but when it comes to how long we’ve known him, she’s ahead of Erina. You’re allowed to have an opinion, you know.”

“I’m not planning to hold back either, you know? Medina, you… you really like Shu too, don’t you?”

“Ah, auuugh…!”

Medina’s whole face turned bright red and her eyes started darting everywhere.

She was hopelessly weak to direct words like that. Since she was already pretty shy by nature, it just made her clam up even more.

“Hey… do I not get a say in this at all?”

Iris gave a little giggle. “Hehe. Then would Shu like to decide?”

“Hmm… how about just the order we met? Iris, Medina, Erina—”

“What’s wrong?”

I glanced out the carriage window and saw the line of temple knights outside.

Every time we stopped for a break, Seira and her squad stopped too.

—I just couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Even if she said it as a joke, Seira had told me, “There’s no way they’d let me leave Hares just to follow you, right?”

So at the very least, she was conscious of the time we spent together.

“That’s Seira, right? The temple knight lady… she’s really beautiful.”

“Yeah, she is.”

“If we’re going by meeting order, then Seira would be fourth.”

“…Well, I don’t actually know how she feels about it.”

“The road to the capital is long. As long as our stamina holds out, we don’t have to stick strictly to one-on-one, do we?”

Iris said it so casually, but Erina’s cheeks flushed pink.

She couldn’t possibly have any experience with group stuff, yet her eyes looked kind of… curious.

…She really had grown a lot in just this past month.

“…Master… what about me…?”

A sulky voice floated down from above.

It was Dorotheia, sitting up on the roof.

“You’re fine once in a while.”

“Whyyy!? I’ve got the strongest sex drive out of everybody!”

“Think about everything you did to humans up till now. You haven’t been punished enough. Sit and stay like a good bitch.”

“Uuuuughhh~~~…!”

Ever since the slave contract, that arrogant attitude of hers had completely disappeared.

At least toward me, her fangs were pulled for good.

…Though honestly, ever since she started looking like a dark elf, she’s actually pretty much my type.

“Oh, I just got a great idea. Next time the four of us here should gang up and tease Dorotheia together.”

“Master!?”

“F-four of us…? Shu really turns sadistic when it comes to Dorotheia, huh…”

“She deserves at least that much. She should be grateful we’re even letting her live.”

—And yeah, we actually did it.

Partway through the trip, we followed through.

Me, Iris, Medina, and Erina—all four of us—gave Dorotheia a thorough working over.

The second I ordered “Don’t resist,” the slave contract kicked in and she couldn’t fight back at all.

She got petted and teased by four people at once, forced to climax over and over until finally she was crying in a shaky voice, “Please stop alreadyyy!?”

After that, I swear all three of them started showing just a tiny bit more sadistic side.

Unrelated to that story, but we learned something new about Dorotheia.

Her dark magic actually included [Spatial Storage].

That explained why she never carried anything around even back when we first fought.

If she’d told me earlier, hauling luggage would’ve been way easier.

Now, thanks to her [Spatial Storage] holding our food and gear, the inside of the carriage stayed nice and tidy.

◇◇◇

“—Hey, what kind of guy is Samuel anyway?”

That night, around the campfire in the quiet campsite, I asked Dorotheia, who was sitting right next to me.

I’d heard the name from Iris—the empire’s spy—but ever since we left Hares, we hadn’t caught sight of him or even heard a single rumor.

It was like the guy had never existed; no shadow, no trace.

“I don’t know the details either. The only thing I was interested in was his life force anyway.”

“The one who used the [Uglification] curse—wasn’t that him?”

“You mean the story about turning someone’s face ugly? Yeah, I heard that rumor too—but I don’t think anyone ever said who actually cast the curse.”

Huh. Makes sense.

Trying to track down the source of the curse wasn’t going to be easy with so little to go on.

We could try squeezing info out of Bulldog while Seira’s watching him, but even if we did… since dispelling is my job, there’s only so much we can do to stop it from activating again.

“Master…”

Suddenly Dorotheia pressed herself against me.

She rubbed her cheek against mine like a cat, then wrapped her arms around my own.

The way she acted was so blatantly needy, she wasn’t even trying to hide it.

“…Later, okay?”

“Ehhh~… I’m about to explode over here…”

Pouting, she leaned heavily against my shoulder like she didn’t want to let go.

But we were right in front of the campfire. Sure, we were inside the carriage area, but the others were close by.

This definitely wasn’t the vibe right now.

When we did do it, we at least picked the right spot.

—During the weeks of camping on the road, we sometimes found rivers or natural hot springs.

Everyone washed up together, soaked away the fatigue.

Things sometimes happened in the heat of the moment, and those memories were still burned into my head… but that’s a story for another time.

◇◇◇

“I’m gonna go to the bathroom real quick—”

That happened about three weeks into the journey toward the capital.

Like usual, during a break I headed into the nearby woods.

When you’re camping every night, the bathroom is obviously just nature. Picking a shady spot away from people had become routine.

I walked along, breathing in the quiet forest air.

Back in my previous life, outside of being with Rikka, I was pretty much always alone.

Maybe that’s why—even a short time by myself like this felt strangely calming.

…And that’s when it happened.

“Kyaaaaaaa!!”

A high-pitched scream echoed from deeper in the woods.

I snapped my head up and immediately ran toward the sound.

Past the trees—there was a carriage way fancier than ours or even the temple knights’.

But surrounding it were men in shabby leather armor. Bandits.

And the ones they had cornered were—

Two women huddled together, their dresses brutally torn, left standing there in nothing but their underwear.