The Strongest Adventurers’ Mental Caretaker ~ Somehow I Ended Up Involved with Every Beautiful Girl in the Hero’s Party ~ If You Have Time to Fight Over Me, Please Go Save the World - 12

Chapter 12: Sweets After the Fight

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“…So this is an Artifact.”

While embracing the three women celebrating their victory, I secured the intended treasure so it would not be stolen by the heroes of the Empire. What lay fallen there was neither a sword nor a staff like the ones Freya and the others held. It was a metallic cube about the size of a palm.

Geometric patterns were carved into its surface, and a faint light the color of water leaked out from the inside. With parts resembling gears meshing together and making a faint driving sound, it was distinctly a mechanical mechanism of some sort that differed from the technological framework of this world.

(As a supply shopkeeper, I thought I had seen all sorts of rare items throughout ancient and modern times, but this one is peculiar.)

Even if I wanted to appraise it, I did not even know its utility. However, the sheer density of the magic energy contained within it told the story that this was an extraordinary article.

“…Let us retrieve it.”

Freya approached and placed it inside a bag with a practiced hand. Her expression was detached, and the lingering glow of victory had vanished entirely.

“There is not even one in a thousand Artifacts that can be used exactly as they are as a weapon. The vast majority are just junk like this where you do not know how to use them. …When I think about how nations are frantically risking their lives for something like this, it sometimes feels ridiculous.”

She murmured somewhat self-deprecatingly and caressed the “Kagerou” at her waist. Items like her sword, which were completed as weapons from the very beginning, were probably rare exceptions.

“Hey, Freya. You should not say such careless things.”

Aeris spoke as if to chide her.

“We are the vanguard of the kingdom. We merely follow orders. After all, even a single piece of junk like that becomes a material that sways the national interest…”

In contrast to the completely cooled-off Freya and Aeris, Luminara alone was sending a feverish gaze toward the stored Artifact.

“Now, there is no need to linger. Let us withdraw quickly.”

Sensing the darkening atmosphere, I called out, and the three of them nodded obediently and followed after me. The heroes of the Empire left behind in our rear remained unable to make a single movement until we had departed.

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Having finished the dungeon capture, we returned to the royal capital to complete the reporting and delivery. A reasonable reward and the rights to use a high-class inn were granted to us by the king.

That night. In the highest-grade suite patronized by the royal family. It was a spacious room filled with elegant furnishings, completely different from what I had previously seen at the high-class brothels.

Above all, the giant canopy bed sitting in the center of the room, large enough to make one wonder how many people were supposed to sleep in it, caught the eye. Behind me, as I relaxed in a single gown after finishing my bath, three shadows crept up along with a sweet scent.

“…Hey, Cain.”

The first to move was the hero Freya.

When she sat down beside me, she pressed her flushed skin from the bath against me without reservation. What drifted from her wet black hair was the scent of expensive soap and the irresistible, sweet smell of a female.

“I did my best today, didn’t I? I devoured that Two-Headed Dragon.”

She stared up at me from beneath her lashes and wrapped both of her arms around my neck to pull me close. What resided in her eyes was not pride as a hero who had saved the nation. It was a pure desire for validation, wanting nothing more than to be praised by the man she liked.

“Yeah, it was a splendid sword technique.”

Freya, who was bound by titles such as hero and S-rank. The only time such a woman showed her true self was in front of me.

(In that case, I will accept all of it.)

When I patted her head, she let out a sweet voice, saying, “Mm…”, and rubbed her cheek against my shoulder with a melting expression.

“…Just words are not enough. More directly—”

Then, from the opposite side, the knight Aeris cut in. From her thin nightgown appearance, which was different from her usual stiff armor appearance, the lines of her beautifully trained limbs were laid bare.

“Me too! I stopped both of the necks! …But, all of that was thanks to your instructions.”

She embraced my arm and rested her head on my shoulder. Her hot breaths caressed my neck.

“…My magic energy has become completely empty. …Supply… is necessary…”

The mage Luminara went so far as to climb directly onto my lap face-to-face, letting her bare legs peek through the gaps in her robe. Perhaps because her magic energy was depleted, her eyes were terribly hollow.

A complete envelopment from three directions with no escape route. What resided in their eyes was a sweet exhilaration from being drunk on the wine of victory, and a flame of carnal desire that surpassed it.

Having worn down their minds by using the Artifacts, they were now intensely seeking life as a reaction. And the only one who could fill that void was me, their mental care manager.

(Good grief. For me, this seems like it will be far heavier labor than a boss battle.

But a promise was a promise. To give the ultimate reward to those who had done the ultimate work was likely my duty as a professional. Resolving myself, I pulled the bodies of the three women together into an embrace.

“Yeah, everyone did the ultimate job. …Just as promised, I will give you plenty of rewards.”

When I whispered that, the three of them pushed me down onto the bed as if competing with one another.

“I am first, Cain…!”

“Stealing a march is unfair!”

“…I will squeeze… everything out…”

In the room where the lights had been turned down, the sounds of rustling clothes and sweet, charming voices overlapped with one another. From that point onward, neither rationality nor words were necessary.

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