After the first experience in the abandoned house, Friede began to frequently demand my body. About every three to four days.
She didn’t make any explicit requests like “do this” or “lay down.”
She simply hugged me, looking up with moist eyes, gently stroking my cheek. That was our signal.
When I overlapped my hand with hers and kissed her, it meant I accepted. Conversely, if I pulled my hand away from Friede’s, it meant I was rejecting her for today.
Of course, I had never pulled my hand away.
I never turned down Friede’s demands. Not even once.
I had no shame about it.
Nor did I have the heart to.
The escape began in earnest after I slaughtered the initial pursuers.
It’s said that one gets used to anything, and I had become accustomed to even killing the innocent pursuers chasing us.
Yeah, I had certainly gotten used to it but…
Hah.
Even if I got used to it, my heart didn’t feel at ease.
The initial intense discomfort had faded, but I still felt considerable stress every time I killed them.
A vague anxiety that I was doing something I shouldn’t be. A gloomy discomfort that felt like a dark something was endlessly piling up in my chest.
I wanted to turn away from that dark feeling. I wanted to ignore it, forget it, and completely wipe it from my mind.
So, I threw my body into desire and pleasure, sinking like in a bottomless bog.
My reason and emotions—everything about me was dissolving in pleasure… and at that moment, it was the most intense and addictive joy for me.
Friede felt the same way.
At least, that’s how I saw it. She demanded my body, usually right after we exterminated the chasing pursuers or around that evening.
Friede mercilessly chopped up the pursuers, believing that it was better for them to die than for me to get hurt.
But, I bet she too was secretly suffering from a sense of guilt, just like me.
So, how could I possibly refuse her affection, her wishes?
I, who had become a murderer due to my karmic burden, being chased while fighting willingly to protect this little girl.
My protector.
My own hero.
◆◆
For that reason, every time Friede came to me, I embraced her with a smile, without any resistance.
…No, saying “we embraced” is a bit misleading.
To be precise, I should say I relinquished myself. What Friede and I did was more akin to one-sided servitude or mockery.
While I writhed in pleasure and shivered awkwardly, it was just me.
Friede had truly indulged in my body, marking every inch of me from my fingertips to my toes…
“Ugh… Hah…”
“Did you leave again…? Then, that’s it for today, Miss Hilde.”
On the contrary, I didn’t lay a single fingertip on Friede’s body. Not yet.
…Well, I’ve kissed and maybe hugged, but I didn’t go beyond that.
So, our union was far from the typical relationship of lovers, literally a half-hearted act.
She didn’t even take off her underwear.
However, Friede seemed to have no complaints about that whatsoever.
The one who felt satisfaction from physical pleasure was only me. Inside her was surely an accumulation of unmet desires and unresolved longings.
The reason why… well, frankly, I don’t know. I didn’t ask.
Maybe it was because she preferred being the one on the receiving side, finding enough satisfaction from just mocking me.
Or perhaps, she hoped I would approach her first instead of her having to ask.
Or maybe there’s another reason that I couldn’t even begin to guess.
Anyway, that’s how we continued our half-hearted relationship.
Hiding in abandoned villages or ruins for the night, killing the pursuers who followed, leaving discovered hiding places to search for new ones.
“Cough, cough…!”
“See? I told you to run. Why don’t you ever listen?”
With every pursuer I killed, my notoriety swelled until I became a level of villainy that could hardly be compared to Belita.
These days, I was even being compared to Abyss Priests. With grand titles like “The Traitorous Knight” or “The Bug of Rhine.”
Of course, the titles were grandiose, but my actual strength was merely enough to take down three knights, so the rumor goes.
They were saying I was a pathetic woman who, out of jealousy of my party members getting stronger, attempted to ambush them but couldn’t land a single hit and fled humiliated.
It wasn’t entirely wrong… but that didn’t mean I was really so weak that three knights could easily take me on.
I was slightly stronger than that. Truly.
Well, I had an inkling as to why such rumors spread. Probably to motivate the pursuers.
If information spread that I needed at least ten knights to capture me, adventurers wouldn’t pursue me at all, even if nobles did.
Adventurers are people who always weigh their lives against rewards. No matter how high the bounty, they won’t stick their necks into a situation that’s clearly a death sentence.
So, purposely downgrading my strength in rumors was likely to make capturing me seem like a feasible challenge rather than a deadly task.
Anyway, my infamy kept growing daily, but on the other hand, Friede didn’t gain any nicknames.
In fact, there weren’t even any rumors about her. As if such a girl never existed in the first place.
Whether in groups or as individuals, most pursuers were only targeting me. They didn’t even know there was a girl named Friede beside me!
It was quite odd.
“Why could that be…?”
“Well, I’m not sure, but it’s probably someone who knows your identity is obstructing things.”
This too, I had a rough idea about.
“I’m just an ordinary knight praised for my talent, but you, Friede, are the warrior blessed with the holy sword and the mark of the hero.”
If she had been branded a traitor, it would make sense, but Friede was just a temporary runaway, owner of the holy sword Nibelung from the Kingdom of Rhine.
Someone who doesn’t want word of Friede sticking close to me to spread must be thoroughly sealing off any talk regarding her.
To make sure I, a thoroughly villainous figure with no room for reassessment, could be handled or captured before her status became known.
This was purely speculation, but it was the only explanation I had for the lack of rumors around Friede.
“U-Um, is that really the case…?”
“Yeah. Most likely.”
There were plenty of suspects I could think of.
The Kingdom of Rhine. The Goddess Order. Gunther. Heid. Anyone could be the culprit.
If the Kingdom or the Church knew about us… they would certainly be waiting for an opportunity to eliminate me, the blemish on the hero party, to retrieve Friede and reeducate her.
To exploit Friede, who had begun displaying a growth rate suitable for a hero.
On the flip side, Gunther and Heid would see my existence as a foreign hero bothering them as an opportunity to assassinate without diplomatic fallout, so they would also want to keep it quiet that Friede was by my side.
I couldn’t tell who among them was responsible for sealing off the information about Friede, but it was clear that it was not done for her benefit.
…Well, honestly, it did provide some help to us.
I was so infamous that I couldn’t even dare to enter a place like a rundown village, but Friede was different.
While maybe a large city carefully checked identification, in smaller towns or villages, they didn’t raise an eyebrow at Friede.
She might have been wearing a hood just in case, but still, it meant she could move freely.
Thanks to that, we could wander without a fixed destination while avoiding pursuers and restock supplies and materials needed for our journey.
All I had to do was hide in the shelter while sending Friede to the village with money to buy everything.
And also bringing back any rumors that had spread.
As for money, I had plenty. The money I had saved until now, plus the pouches generously offered by the adventurers chasing us.
Adventurers came looking for my bounty.
Their goal was not personal vengeance or heroism but merely the bounty on my head. Or sometimes, for my body.
“Become a slave for my party, and I’ll let you live?”
What a joke.
The type of “slave” they were referring to was clearly not some labor or combat slave, judging by the lust gleaming in their eyes.
There was no guilt when killing such people. I shouldn’t think this way, but in my heart, I felt that I was simply eliminating those who deserved to die.
I had even given them multiple warnings to back off, and I buried the corpses nicely… so I’d done all I could.
As for the money, I could just treat it as funeral expenses.
Thanks to that, I was growing wealthier by the day. I could replace even damaged equipment directly without needing to go to a blacksmith.
This too was a rather strange situation.
