31

"..Huh..?"

"What are you doing without taking it off?"

Wait a second.

H-How did this happen?

I told Athena I would grant her a favor to repay her kindness.

Then, all of a sudden, she asked me to take off my clothes.

I was so shocked by her unexpected words that I wondered if I had heard her wrong.

As I stood there confused, she began reaching towards my chest.

No.

No…

A strange chill ran down my spine, and instinctively, I dodged her, running to the bed and wrapping myself tightly in the blanket.

She chuckled at the sight of me, then climbed onto the bed, grinning seductively.

And here we are now.

"Are you trying to seduce me, Hera?"

"W-W-What are you talking about!!"

I gripped the blanket even tighter.

Take off my clothes?

What is she trying to make me do?

We're alone in the room, and she's telling me to undress…

'Could she possibly mean that kind of…'

Indecent thoughts, painted in flesh tones, began to flood my mind.

That… That can't be right.

Athena and I are both women.

But I couldn't think of any other reason why she would ask me to undress.

Could it be that even women in this world do those kinds of things with each other?

No. That can't be true.

Even though this is a world where physical affection between the same gender isn't uncommon, there must still be a line.

No matter how comfortable women are with each other, there's no way they would actually engage in those kinds of intimate acts.

Then what in the world is going on?

Does she… like me?

Was Athena a lesbian in the novel…?

No matter how hard I think, there was only one character set as a lesbian, and she was a saint.

If anything, Athena was treated by readers as one of Robin's heroines.

I'm pretty sure she was definitely not a lesbian.

"What are you doing without taking it off?"

"Hic?!"

As she began to pull away the blanket that covered me, I quickly scrambled to the edge of the bed.

Left reaching at the empty air, Athena stared at me blankly.

When I met her cold gaze, a chill ran down my spine again.

'I need to refuse this…'

No matter how grateful I am to her, some things just can't be done.

I shut my eyes tightly and shouted at her.

"N-No lewd stuff!!"

But there was no response to my outburst.

The room fell into an awkward silence.

Cautiously, I opened my eyes.

Athena was staring at me with wide eyes.

"Pff… Pfft!"

Suddenly, she burst into laughter.

She laughed so hard that tears started welling up in her eyes.

After laughing uncontrollably for a while, she wiped her tears and spoke.

"Hera… what were you imagining?"

"…Huh?"

"Did you really think I was asking for your body?"

"N-No?"

"Pffft!! As if! Were you hoping for it?"

She wasn't?

My head felt so hot that it wouldn't have been strange if steam started rising from it.

If there were a mouse hole, I would've dived in right away, hiding from embarrassment. Though I couldn't see it, my face must've been as red as a beet.

"T-That's not it…"

"You've got a bit of a perverted streak, Hera."

"T-Then why did you tell me to take off my clothes!"

I'm not the weird one here.

If someone tells you to take off your clothes, wouldn't anyone think of that?

I'm definitely not the weird one.

I think…

"Imprinting."

But it turned out she really had a different intention.

"Imprinting…?"

"Yeah. I'm going to imprint a master-servant seal on your body."

Master-servant seal, a term I had never heard before.

I'd heard plenty about slave seals, but master-servant seals were unfamiliar to me.

Perhaps the two are similar concepts.

But is something like that really necessary..?

I didn't want to carve something like a mark onto my body for no reason.

Anyway, even without that kind of mark, I wouldn't be able to escape from her.

"…Can I not do it?"

But she firmly shook her head.

"Hera, you still remember what happened this time, right?"

"…Yes."

She brought up the incident again.

I didn't want to recall it.

Even if that man is safe now.

The guilt of having hurt him continued to torment me.

'I'll make sure to apologize when he comes back later.'

I planned to seek him out until he accepted my apology once he returned fully healed.

"Were you perhaps unable to control your strength at that time?"

"…What?"

She's right.

At the moment when the man's attack flew right in front of me.

An immense power surged through my body in an instant, and before I knew it, I had inflicted a fatal wound on the man.

But how does Athena know about that?

As if she had read my thoughts, Athena answered.

"Sigh… I'm sorry, Hera. I should have told you earlier. I didn't expect something like this to happen."

"What are you… talking about?"

As I stood there not understanding her words, she explained with a serious expression.

"Do you know why people form master-servant contracts?"

"…I don't know."

"A master-servant contract might seem like it only benefits the master, but that's not the case."

Athena extended her palm, and a golden light began to flicker around it like fireflies.

"Once a master-servant contract is made, the servant can use a portion of the master's power."

"And when the servant is in a dangerous situation, they can instinctively draw on the master's mana stored within their body."

She gripped my shoulders tightly as she continued.

"The incident that happened in the training ground was probably caused by my mana reflexively coming out to protect you."

"…What?"

"Dylan. What I mean is, it wasn't your fault that he got hurt."

Athena hugged me, who stood dazed, and spoke in a somewhat sad voice.

"I'm sorry. If I had known something like this would happen to you… I would have engraved the mark earlier."

"…Ah."

I was confused.

I had thought it was all my fault.

I believed it had happened because I hadn't fully grasped control of my abilities yet.

But that wasn't the case.

She said this incident was a tragedy caused by her mana.

I felt a mix of emotions.

I resented her for telling me this now.

But at the same time, I felt relieved that it wasn't entirely my fault that he got hurt.

I knew it.

I knew this relief stemmed from my selfish desire to escape from the guilt that had been tormenting me.

This isn't Athena's fault.

She simply hadn't anticipated this kind of incident. And the reason her mana manifested was solely to protect me.

If only I hadn't requested the sparring match.

Or if I had calmed down even a little during the match, this wouldn't have happened.

Even if I wasn't the one who directly hurt him, I was still responsible for the outcome.

"It's not your fault, Hera."

But as she warmly embraced me, comforting me that it wasn't my fault, everything inside me began to crumble.

The guilt I had been bottling up burst out all at once, and tears began to pour from my eyes.

Like a child, I vented my frustration and cried in her arms.

"Why… why didn't you tell me… why… sob…"

But she gently patted my back, accepting all of my outburst.

"I was wrong. So please don't cry, Hera."

"Sob… sob…"

She kindly wiped away my falling tears.

Though I resented her so much.

At this moment, I thought it might be okay to lean on her just a little.

***

After releasing my pent-up frustration in her arms for a long time,

I heard about the master-servant imprint.

Apparently, her mana is embedded in my body in its raw state.

The master-servant imprint is used to efficiently utilize that mana.

Once the imprint is engraved on my body, it will be much easier to use her power.

Upon hearing this, I accepted it without hesitation.

Dylan got hurt because I couldn't control her mana.

To prevent such incidents from happening again, I decided to have the master-servant imprint engraved on my body.

So now,

"…But… do I really have to take off my clothes…?"

"Of course. How else can I engrave the imprint with your clothes on?"

I was standing with my back to her, wearing only the bare minimum to cover my important parts.

Although I was too embarrassed to raise my head, I endured it because it was necessary.

"Th-then, hurry up and do it…"

"Hehe… Then stay still, okay?"

When I nodded, she placed her hand on my shoulder.

"Ugh…"

The cold sensation on my bare skin startled me for a moment, but I quickly got used to it.

At least, until she started moving her hand around.

"Agh..! W-wait a second…"

"Stay still, Hera. This is all part of the process."

Every time her fingers touched my neck, shoulders, and back, my body flinched slightly.

'Ugh… Why is she touching me so precisely…'

Her hand lightly swept over my skin, as if brushing me with feathers, making me feel restless.

Finally, when she placed both hands on what seemed to be the final destination, my lower back, she whispered in my ear.

"Hera, even if it gets a little hot, bear with it."

"What… Agh?!!"

Suddenly, something inside my body began to run wild in various places.

It felt as if all my blood was boiling.

"Ugh… Haah… Huff…!"

As I endured the rising heat,

I could feel the wild force inside my body gradually gathering in one place.

The unknown energy, which flowed down slowly from my heart, eventually gathered near my stomach.

Once it had all converged, the energy that had been running rampant calmed down in an instant.

"Ugh… Ah… Huff…"

"Good job, Hera. It's all over now."

After exhaling hot breaths for a while, my body gradually calmed down.

"Now, as long as you learn how to use my mana, nothing like what happened last time will occur again."

As she gently stroked my stomach, she spoke.

"Huff… Is the imprint… all done…?"

In response to my question, she laughed softly and answered in a sultry voice.

"Yes. It's been beautifully engraved."

It seems the imprint has been successfully completed.

Thankfully.

Now, I won't have to worry about recklessly hurting someone like Dylan.

If something like that happens again, I feel like my mind would collapse under the weight of guilt.

'But… where exactly is it engraved…?'

I hope it's in a place that isn't too visible.

I looked around, but I couldn't see any sign of an imprint on my body.

Could it be an invisible type of imprint?

"Hehe. Hera, what are you looking for? It's here. This is where our imprint is."

As she lifted her hand from my stomach, she spoke.

Looking down at the place her hand had been covering—

"Ah?!… W-what is this?!?!!!"

A bright pink imprint was clearly visible below my stomach.

The shape of the imprint was very familiar to me.

Yes, it looked just like something…

Often seen in the darker corners of the internet.

Something a succubus might wear.

An imprint that seemed to awaken even dormant desires.

It had a somewhat suggestive appearance.