Chapter 79 – In the Doujin Queen's Room (Patreon)

What Asuna had wanted to hear was Kanae's method for increasing her strength and she was quite certain she'd heard Kanae mention exactly that just moments ago.

But as she pressed close to the bathroom door and listened with rapt attention, the sounds filtering through grew progressively... stranger.

At first, Asuna didn't register what was happening. Only as those sounds became increasingly intimate and lingering did understanding finally dawn on her.

Her breathtakingly beautiful face gradually flushed crimson.

"Th-this... is the way to get stronger...?"

Kanae's voice slid into her ears, making her whole body feel restless and weak.

Asuna bit down lightly on her lip. In her heart, she told herself to leave, but a young girl's curiosity held her rooted to the spot.

The elite education Asuna had received had kept the subject of relations between the sexes extremely vague. It was only as she grew older, through romance manga lent to her by classmates, that Asuna gradually came to understand those things between men and women.

"But Kouma-kun is still so small..."

An image of Kouma's tiny figure surfaced in Asuna's mind—even as, in her ears, the sounds of Kanae's pleasure continued worming their way in.

This contrast formed a bizarre, imagined tableau in Asuna's thoughts. For a moment, her body inexplicably went weak.

A premonition surfaced in Asuna's heart. If she stayed here any longer, she herself would start... becoming strange.

Yet her long legs seemed nailed to the floor. They simply refused to obey her.

...

An hour later.

"Kouma-kun really does live up to being of the incubus clan..."

Kanae's languid, tender voice drifted out faintly.

Only then did Asuna's dazed, hazy eyes gradually regain clarity. As she came back to her senses, the memory of her own behavior moments before surfaced in her mind. Her face burning scarlet, she fled the kendo dojo as though escaping for her life.

Back in her own room.

"I forgot to bathe!"

Even though bathing was exactly what she had intended to do earlier...

Her face still faintly flushed, Asuna stepped into her bathroom. After finishing her bath, she changed into a light pink, gossamer-thin nightgown.

She sat down at her desk and opened her computer.

While bathing, that parting sentence she'd overheard from Kanae had abruptly resurfaced in her mind: Kouma-kun really does live up to being of the incubus clan...

She felt like she had some vague impression regarding the word "incubus." Weren't they supposedly an extinct race?

She searched the keyword and instantly a flood of information popped up—along with a whole torrent of lewd images. Asuna's gaze lingered on those pictures for a few moments before she shifted her eyes away, her cheeks faintly pink, and began browsing the information below.

[Races that were once immensely powerful in history and have now vanished—how many do you know?]

[A rundown of those mysterious races!]

[How do you remove an incubus crest tattoo...]

Asuna skimmed through briefly. Most of it was sensationalist, clickbait articles from random online media, written with wild exaggeration, but largely just filler content with barely any useful information whatsoever.

Finally, she discovered a post on a forum called "Urban Legends" that gave a fairly detailed account of incubus history and abilities. Asuna spent several minutes reading through it, shock flickering in her beautiful eyes.

"What Kanae-nee-san said was true... So being with an incubus really does increase your strength!"

"Which means... Kouma-kun really is an incubus..."

From the information in the post, she learned that in order to enhance their self-preservation abilities, the incubus clan reached physical adulthood at just eight years old and were already capable of dual cultivation, absorbing a woman's yin energy. Their capabilities in that regard far exceeded those of ordinary men.

"No wonder Kanae-nee-san..."

Asuna covered her lips with her hand, her body going weak.

["To possess an incubus is to enjoy not merely physical and spiritual pleasure, but also to gain strength in body and mind—an absolute shortcut on the road to power. Only, with the passage of time, the incubus clan has become nothing more than an urban legend. Perhaps they have long since been wiped from this world..."]

Reading the end of the post, a strange feeling stirred in Asuna's heart.

A shortcut to becoming strong.. and now here it was, right before her eyes.

But someone had already gotten there first.

Asuna's heart was a knot of complicated emotions. Her determination to grow stronger was beyond doubt. Yet Kanae was not only like an older sister to her—as her Tsuguko, Kanae was her master! How could she possibly compete with her master...

Asuna let out a soft sigh.

She stepped out of her room and immediately ran into her mother, who was just emerging from the study.

"Mom..."

Mrs. Yuuki looked at the faintly troubled expression on Asuna's beautiful face and furrowed her brows slightly.

"What's the matter? How was your kendo practice today? I'm not even asking you to reach the level of the sisters..."

Mrs. Yuuki's cold, pressurized words reached her ears. Asuna lowered her head slightly, her slender fingers slowly curling into fists.

Here it comes again... These same words again...

Asuna's eyelids drooped. Her mother's words were all too familiar. Ever since childhood, she had heard them more times than she could count. Her mother had always shouldered this household, the Yuuki Group, entirely alone.

She wanted her daughter to at minimum be even more excellent than herself. That was why she had always raised Asuna with the very highest expectations. Since she was little, Asuna had been instilled with Mrs. Yuuki's philosophy: strive to be first in all things and she had been constantly pushing forward in the exact direction Mrs. Yuuki hoped for.

But as she gradually grew older, Asuna began to feel increasingly out of her depth. She didn't want to disappoint her mother. Yet the gap in innate ability made Asuna start doubting: could she really ever reach her mother's level of excellence?

Especially as she matured and Mrs. Yuuki's expectations of her climbed higher and higher, until they had transformed entirely into pressure bearing down upon her. The results Asuna achieved in every field were outstanding—but under the weight of those expectations and pressures, they somehow never felt outstanding enough.

"Mom... I'll work harder."

After a long silence, Asuna spoke quietly.

Mrs. Yuuki cast a cool glance at her and said, "Mrs. Yukinoshita will be arriving shortly. Go call Kouma-kun over."

Watching her mother's tall, graceful figure disappear back into the study, Asuna let out a sigh of relief. Every time she faced her mother, she always felt the pressure redoubling, terrified that her mother would be unsatisfied and disappointed in her.

"Can I really become someone like Mom...?"

Asuna looked down at her own palm and murmured under her breath.

This wasn't the life she wanted to live, but she had no other choice. Until she met Mrs. Yuuki's expectations, she couldn't choose the life she truly wanted.

"I still have to double down on getting stronger..."

...

As soon as Asuna headed downstairs, she ran straight into Kouma. Seeing that small, stunningly beautiful little boy, the strange tableau her mind had conjured—that image of a little boy and an older sister intertwined amidst those exquisite sounds—instantly resurfaced in her thoughts.

Her lovely face flushed faintly in spite of herself.

"Where's Kanae-nee-san?"

"She went out on a mission."

Kouma answered in his crisp, youthful voice. A nearly imperceptible sigh of relief escaped Asuna.

"Mrs. Yukinoshita will be here soon. I'll take you upstairs to wait for a bit."

With that, she led Kouma up to the second floor. Watching the little boy beside her, Asuna's mind filled entirely with thoughts of succubi, dual cultivation, growing stronger, shortcuts...

As if guided by some ghostly impulse, she brought him into her own room.

"Wow, Asuna-nee-san's room is so neat!"

Hearing the little boy's voice behind her, Asuna's body trembled slightly.

Bringing Kouma-kun into my room... What am I doing...

Asuna questioned herself in her heart and yet her mind conjured the description of incubus abilities she had just read on that urban legends forum.

A shortcut to power... Her mother's expectations...

Asuna looked at Kouma and, with an air of studied casualness, spoke. "Kouma-kun... do you know what an incubus is?"

It wasn't a probe. It was Asuna giving herself an out. From that post, she clearly understood the survival conditions of the incubus race—coveted by countless people, they would absolutely never rashly expose their true identity.

So, this question that seemed like a probe—upon hearing it, Kouma would surely deny it or play dumb to brush past it. That would give her a reason to deceive herself. Kouma wasn't an incubus. She wouldn't have to keep fixating on Kanae's little boy, or on that so-called shortcut to power.

Asuna looked at the little boy—and then stared, stunned. After her words fell, the little boy's expression cycled through shock, then fear, then defiance, and finally, he lightly bit his lip, closed his eyes, and lay down on the bed with the look of one resigned to his fate.

"Since Asuna-nee-san already knows... then go ahead, big sister..."

Hearing those words, seeing Kouma's expression, Asuna's face went completely stiff.

Hah?!

Wait—I probe you a little and you just blow your own cover?!

I wanted you to deny it! Why are you admitting it?!

You're being this forward—am I supposed to take this shortcut or not?

Asuna was completely at a loss.

Prev    Chapters   Next