[2:39:59]
Vale slowly blinked his eyes open and instantly noticed the timer in his peripheral vision.
Apparently he'd be transported to the 'real world' when that hit 0.
'Whatever that means.'
Vale slowly picked himself up and found that his underwear and pants had been put back on. Looking around, he saw Toy exiting from the Dungeon Core.
Toy blushed when she noticed Vale looking at her, then bowed and walked toward him, then around him. She stopped before a sword, then picked it up and carried it back into the Dungeon Core.
'What was that about?'
Vale curiously looked around and followed the sound of a pickaxe smashing against stone to find that Salome was hollowing out the room at the end of the corridor they had mined earlier.
'But why is she naked?'
Her skin glistened with sweat as she picked the pickaxe up and brought it crashing down, carving another chunk of stone.
When she noticed Vale, she stopped.
"Hello, master."
Vale sauntered into the new room and stared at the beads of sweat as they trickled down each curve of Salome's slender body.
"Hello…"
While he didn't order her to mine, it wasn't harmful.
'I don't want to boss her around and hurt her Loyalty.'
So he let it go in that regard.
He wasn't one who cared much about the whole 'master' schtick anyway — he would not act like he owned her, even if the circumstances would lead an outsider to that natural conclusion.
'No matter how deep one falls into lust, they retain their humanity until the point where they start seeing people as objects of pleasure rather than living beings.'
So, no matter what, Vale vowed never to fall into that corrupt, treacherous territory.
"What have you done while I was asleep?"
Salome looked at him with her usual lustful eyes and gave a wide grin.
"As you can see, I've mined out this area… I thought we could eventually keep expanding the corridor and making a labyrinth of sorts to hide the core. Also, I've ordered Toy to pick up whatever her fallen comrades dropped, be it weapon or clothing, and store it in the Core."
Vale smiled.
"Good job… but why are you naked?"
Salome giggled.
"Clothes are bothersome."
Vale sighed, rubbing his temples, and walked out and back into the Core room as Salome went back to slinging the pickaxe at the wall.
He was a little disappointed at himself for falling into lust so easily again under a circumstance completely in his control.
But, he'd quickly decided not to dwell on it.
No matter how much he didn't want to admit it…
'Situations where I fail to control myself will come again and again.'
Vale's shoulders dropped as a heavy sigh left his lips.
'Such is the nature of lust…'
And he was apparently the incarnation of Lust.
If he beat himself up every time, he'd become a walking specter of self-pity.
As long as he retained his humanity and sense of self, he'd feed into his lust…
'Just a little.'
He'd already done too much to the point where if he tried to claim complete dominion over his own impulses, he'd be nothing more than a raging hypocrite.
'Besides, nothing harmful happened.'
Yet, at least.
So, if he had the urge, he'd fulfill it under two rules.
'One: I'll only do it with beings that would be legally and ethically permissible in Aleyrac'
Or at least what he deemed so; he'd be strict in that regard.
'Two: I'll never do something with someone unwilling.'
While it was the height of hypocrisy to say that when his very presence played with people's will, if someone could resist his natural authority, he would never force it upon them.
That was at least the hope he sold himself at the moment.
'If I can't control my lust, I can at least control how I direct and express it.'
Vale shook his head then sat down.
He had two hours to prepare for whatever was to come.
He had many questions about his situation to mull over.
The main one was…
'What happened to the dead goblins?'
Vale slowly got up and walked inside the Dungeon Core, almost expecting to find dead bodies there, but he didn't. In the white void all he saw was an ever-growing pile of stones, a pile of goblin loincloths, three weapons dropped by the goblins, and Toy.
Toy was on her knees and absentmindedly staring at Vale, who towered above her.
Vale stared into her green, glowing eyes, then let his gaze drift to the ten pieces of loincloth lying in the void.
His gaze fell back on the small woman who was also still naked, just like Salome.
But despite her alluring figure and mature body that would spawn the most devious of carnal desires in the most righteous of men, he wasn't excited.
No, Vale felt…
'Sad.'
It was cliché, but the clarity had hit once again. He was momentarily free from lust. He'd taken a moment of clarity to think of things from this pitiful woman's perspective.
Not the perspective of a monster — of a goblin. He would not indulge in that fallacy, no.
'She has culture, intelligence, and values that are just different from my own.'
At least at one point.
He would treat her with the respect any woman deserved.
What he was interested in was the scared, innocent woman she seemed to be before she was charmed.
'She'd never held the look of hatred, only fear.'
Same with the other goblins Salome had mercilessly slaughtered.
They didn't have the look like they were viciously attacking them because of greed, but that they were running from something, and their only path was forward.
Vale and Salome just so happened to have blocked off that forward path.
He stared deeply into her eyes.
"Don't you resent us?"