Episode 2: When the Saintess Sleeps, the Favorite Arrives.
I possessed the body of Hans, the protagonist of Brutal Hero.
That was the conclusion I reached after much thought.
A mysterious message.
A light that burst from the monitor.
A faint, alien mechanical sound that surfaced in my mind.
And, the situation I'm in now.
I don't really know about this demo version.
Anyway.
The only reasonable hypothesis that could tie all of this together was that.
Oh, there's one more possibility.
That I'm suffering hallucinations due to severe game addiction.
I don't want to admit it, but realistically, that seems more plausible.
If that's the case, then the bed I'm lying on is probably a hospital bed in a psych ward.
"Um, Hans."
At that moment, Laila's voice, as she hugged my arm, interrupted my thoughts.
When I turned my head to the right, Laila's blue eyes were staring straight at my face.
"Why, ahem. What's wrong?"
Since Hans didn't have a voice in the game, I tried to make up his intonation myself.
Regardless of whether my voice sounded plausible, my acting skills were terrible, even by my own standards.
Still, Laila seemed to believe without a doubt that I was Hans.
"Did I… did I make you feel good?"
There was hesitation in her voice as she asked.
"Huh? Yeah. It felt good. Really good."
At my answer, a faint smile appeared on Laila's lips, but soon a shadow fell over her eyes.
"Actually, you haven't said much since earlier, so I thought you might be angry."
Gulp.
"N-no way. Haha!"
"I didn't want to disturb your sleep either, but thinking that we're going on the Demon World expedition starting tomorrow, I just couldn't sleep."
"Y-yeah. The Demon World expedition."
Since Laila was there as soon as I woke up, I figured this wasn't the early part of the story.
If it's the Demon World expedition, that's about the mid-to-late part of the game.
Is there a reason for this too?
"Hans."
"Yeah?"
I couldn't continue my speculation because of Laila's voice.
"Do you think we can defeat the Demon King?"
Her trembling eyes conveyed her anxiety.
Right.
In the game too, there was an event where Laila sneaked into Hans's room just before the Demon World expedition and even had sex with him.
The question Laila just asked matched the one she asked near the end of that event.
I can't remember what Hans answered there.
But what's important here is to instill strong confidence in the anxious saintess.
"We'll win."
I answered her in a calm tone, different from before.
For reference, it's true that Hans and the hero's party defeat the Demon King.
The final boss that comes after is the real problem.
But there's no need to mention that.
At my answer, Laila finally smiled brightly and buried her face in my chest.
Her warm breath tickled my chest.
Soon, only the sound of her peaceful breathing filled my ears.
"Hmm…"
I brushed aside her sweat-damp bangs, and a faint smile appeared on her lips.
"If this really is a hallucination, I must be seriously crazy."
As I quietly admired Laila's sleeping face, my gaze naturally drifted to her lips.
Thinking about how those cherry-like lips had serviced my cock made my lower body, which I thought had cooled off, tingle again.
Normally, after I cum once, I don't even think about masturbating again.
But so this is what it feels like to still have sexual desire left after cumming.
If I wanted, a second round wouldn't be hard at all.
"But it feels wrong to wake her while she's sleeping."
After confirming that Laila was sound asleep, I quietly got up from the bed.
When I first opened my eyes, I didn't have time to figure out where I was.
"So it really was an inn."
A modest, medieval-style room with wooden features and warm-colored wallpaper, furnished with just a bed and a two-drawer chest.
The two lanterns hanging on the walls seemed old and didn't light up the whole room very well.
But the moonlight streaming in through the window made up for it.
I got up from the bed, roughly pushed aside the clothes that got tangled at my feet, and took a step.
Creak-the wooden floor let out a groan.
"Hmm."
I was nervous that Laila might wake up, but she only shifted in her sleep and didn't wake.
I let out a sigh of relief and looked down at my body, illuminated by the moonlight.
"Wow."
I couldn't help but be impressed.
Not a single bit of fat anywhere, from shoulders to toes.
My forearms and thighs were thick and firm enough for the veins to stand out.
My abs were chiseled like chocolate bars.
And, of course, the club dangling between my legs.
Most of all, I liked that there wasn't a single spot that hurt.
"If I could live with a body like this forever, I'd have no more wishes."
Like an old man who'd regained his youth, I moved my muscular body around.
[That thing about exercising under the moonlight? It's like it was made just for you.]
A strange voice brushed past my ear.
Startled, I looked around, but only Laila and I were in the room, still sleeping.
Did I mishear?
Frozen naked in the middle of the room, my eyes darted around.
[Hehe. Over here, over here.]
This time, I could clearly tell where the voice was coming from.
Next to the headboard of the bed where Laila was lying.
A large sword leaning diagonally.
Why hadn't I noticed it there until now?
No, I should have thought of its existence first, the moment I realized I'd possessed Hans's body.
From the handle to the scabbard covering the blade, the pitch-black color didn't let even moonlight seep in.
The ominous purple gem embedded in the center of the sword's base looked just like a snake's eye.
That was the very cause and origin of Hans's journey.
The cursed sword, "Sex."
The cursed sword Sex is a kind of ego sword.
The consciousness inside the sword acts as a helper, explaining the curse and the game's system.
Its name is "Lulu."
As the embodiment of the curse, it led Hans on his journey.
It's also the true final boss of this game.
Yes.
The very one who tormented countless players, including me, with unfair patterns in the game.
Right after defeating the Demon King, it's revealed that Lulu was actually the first Demon King, killed by the previous hero.
She was the mastermind using Hans for her own resurrection.
But it's not much of a twist, since the game drops so many hints that it's harder not to know.
[Hmm? Why that face?]
Anyway, after experiencing the brutal difficulty of the final boss, it was hard for me to have good feelings toward Lulu.
Strictly speaking, she's not at fault.
The blame lies with the damn developers.
But that's just how people's hearts work.
As I stared at the cursed sword with complicated emotions that were hard to describe-
[…Ah! Is that it?]
The gem embedded in the sword flashed several times as a lively voice echoed.
[You don't have to be so wary. I'm not the "Lulu" you know.]
"…What?"
What kind of nonsense is that?
Not Lulu?
But the voice was definitely coming from the sword.
Come to think of it, when it first spoke to me, it asked, "Do you like that body?"
As if it knew someone else was inside this body.
Even Laila, who had sex with me, didn't realize I was someone else possessing Hans.
But this thing-
[Huh? Did that backfire?]
"If you're not Lulu, then who are you?"
[Hmm. Let's say I'm the one who grants your wishes. Does that make sense?]
At that answer, I furrowed my brow.
Like dredging up a memory from deep underwater, a scene flashed in my mind.
[I'll grant your wish.]
So that means the owner of that voice is…!
But before I could open my mouth, the voice spoke first.
[Oops. Sorry, but we don't have time for a long conversation. Just hang in there a bit more. The demo will be over soon.]
"The demo will end?"
[You can see it too, can't you? How far the demo's progressed.]
At the voice's question, my gaze naturally went to the sentence still floating in the corner of my vision.
[Demo proceeding normally.]
[Progress: 50%]
As expected, that voice was the one who possessed me.
[Since you've done half with the blonde girl, you can pretty much guess how to fill the remaining half, right?]
"Who the hell are you?"
[I told you. I'm the one who grants your wishes.]
"You keep saying wish, wish. Are you some kind of genie?"
The voice chuckled, clearly enjoying my impatience.
[This demo is a stage to test your suitability. And so far, I'm very satisfied.]
"Stop talking in riddles and explain it in a way I can understand."
I was starting to get annoyed.
The tone was oddly childish, too.
The voice teased me even more.
[Well then, do your best until the end. I hope we meet again~.]
"Hey!!"
It disappeared, leaving only its words behind.
The light in the gem embedded in the sword went out.
Silence settled over the room again.
I'll definitely find out who that bastard is.
I calmed myself and gathered whatever clues I could.
"They said half is left."
Half was with Laila.
So the other half must be filled with sex too.
Should I wake Laila again?
Or…
"Huh?"
Suddenly, a sense of discomfort surged up.
Why isn't Laila waking up?
Even after all the loud and quiet voices, and even my shouting at the end, Laila on the bed didn't budge.
A strange sense of foreboding made me turn my gaze to the bed.
"Ugh?!"
Suddenly, a chill like stepping into a freezer swept over my whole body, and I broke out in goosebumps.
The lights on the wall all flickered at once, and a faint vibration climbed up through my soles.
"What now?"
Sensing something was off, I started to step toward the bed to check on Laila-
Crack.
An unpleasant, splitting sound behind me made me stop.
I froze, then cautiously turned my head.
What I saw was a phenomenon that could only be described as a tear in space.
Between the door and me, less than four steps away.
A crack appeared in the air.
With a strange writhing, it opened wide like a monster's jaws.
Inside the crack, black distortions writhed chaotically.
And from beyond those distortions-
"I heard you liked playing with women, but I didn't expect you to greet me naked."
Click, clack.
With the sound of high heels stabbing into my heart like a dagger, a woman walked out.
Gray hair fell carelessly from under a pressed-down hood.
Sharp, red eyes flashed between the strands.
Her voluptuous figure, including her chest, and her tanned skin drew the eye.
A robe with the front open, revealing her body, and a black slingshot.
I took in the whole of the woman's body and froze like a stone.
Anyone would, if their "favorite" appeared right in front of them.
"What's wrong? Was my visit that unexpected? Adventurer, Hans."
With half-lidded eyes, she looked at me and put the pipe she was holding in her mouth.
She was Agnera, an officer of the Demon King's army.
[Special rewards will be given upon clearing the demo.]