IDMWE 21

Chapter 21

“Are you sure this is the right way? Or else you die?”

“Hic, sniffle, y-yes…”

Once she realized her technique didn’t work, subduing the flustered Vampire Queen was an incredibly easy task. Instead of disposing of her immediately, Leona decided to use her as a guide.

“Phew, hah…”

The reason was that Rigan’s condition continued to deteriorate.

There were two ways to escape from a dungeon. One was to defeat the boss monster and destroy the dungeon itself, and the other was to break the dungeon’s boundary stone to create a temporary exit.

Leona was currently heading toward the nearest boundary stone with the Vampire Queen leading the way for a quick escape.

“So, the forest scent I smell and the sweet scent Rigan smells aren’t your abilities?”

“…No! And I don’t even smell any sewer scent in the first place!”

The sewer scent that had made Rigan frown disappeared the moment the Vampire Queen withdrew her pheromone attack. However, the mysterious scents that the two were smelling continued to plague Rigan and Leona.

Leona only felt a slight rise in body heat, but Rigan, for some reason, was struggling greatly. Unable to watch any longer, Leona tried to offer him support, but…

“Stay away from me!”

Rigan flinched and rejected her approach. Apparently, the closer Leona got, the stronger the scent became.

‘If it’s not the Vampire Queen’s doing, then it must be something the constellations did.’

Frustrated, Leona asked the angel several times, but the angel only made a tearful face, saying it was an area it didn’t know much about. As for the constellations, who seemed to know something…

—

**[Rolling Rolling Roller]:** Wow, but seriously, how did this actually hit? The power of randomness is amazing!

**[Fallen Power Warrior]:** This is so fun! It’s seriously so fun!

—

“No, instead of just having fun, please tell us what it is!”

—

**[High-Performance Juicer]:** Nope, not telling you.

**[Master of Tension]:** The moment you know nothing! The cliché is being flustered by the ×× that suddenly starts!

—

Leona sighed involuntarily at the constellations laughing and giggling at them.

‘No choice. I don’t want to give up halfway, but…’

Still, having Rigan’s condition checked by a doctor came first. Not only that, but Leona could also feel her own condition gradually worsening.

‘Senior Nathan really… Did he design this to be cleared?’

Probably, the true purpose of this orientation was to burst into laughter while watching the juniors wave the ‘Ultimate Coward of the Central Branch’ flag at the observers.

‘That’s seriously too much.’ Pulling a trick like this behind their backs. Leona’s trust in Nathan plummeted to rock bottom.

‘Oh, Sirphion of Peace, please save us who are in crisis, and guide us on the path of peace and hope.’

Currently, Rigan Clenford was desperate.

‘Overcome all afflictions and suffering, and embrace us in the arms of peace.’

So desperate that he earnestly recited a prayer he wouldn’t even normally memorize.

Even though the one who had brought this trial upon him was the angel, a分身 of Sirphion himself.

To that extent, Rigan was in a state of grasping at straws.

But no matter how much he recited the prayer, the crisis that had befallen him showed no signs of resolution.

Namely, this crisis of seeming to lose his sanity right in the middle of the dungeon.

“Rigan, are you sure you’re really okay?”

“I, said I’m, fine!”

Especially as Leona approached, Rigan would yell and thrust his palm out toward her. It was a sign for her not to come any closer. The more he saw the white nape of her neck beneath her tightly tied-up red hair, the more he felt like he was going to lose his mind.

‘I want to sink my teeth into that nape right now.’

Even though there was a nearly-naked Vampire Queen right beside her, he couldn’t spare a single glance her way. He simply couldn’t tear his gaze away from Leona, who had her entire body tightly wrapped in a white special military uniform. The nape of her neck, faintly revealed between the gaps of her uniform, made him increasingly thirsty.

He couldn’t explain it logically, but somehow, he wanted to leave his bite mark right there. It felt like just that alone would give him a sense of fulfillment as if he possessed everything in the world.

“Anyway, I think it’d be best to get out of this dungeon quickly. I’m feeling a bit tingly here too, and it’s weird, you know?”

When Leona, with an innocent expression, placed her hand on her lower abdomen, Rigan ended up squeezing his eyes shut.

“Crazy…”

A curse slipped out involuntarily.

It was incomparable to when their hands had touched last time. Back then, he had simply been flustered by smelling Leona’s body odor too closely after training, but…

What surfaced in his mind now was an undeniable, raw desire.

‘If I could sink my teeth into that nape and breathe in that sweet scent to my heart’s content…’

Yes. The scent.

At the root of this unidentified impulse lay an unbearably sweet fragrance that he couldn’t trace the source of.

‘If I could open that body and mark every nook and cranny deep inside with my scent…!’

*Smack!*

Rigan slapped his own cheek at the growing impulse. Leona looked at him with an expression that said, ‘There he goes again.’ That gaze, as if looking at something strange, made Rigan feel incredibly wronged.

In any case, her face, filled with contempt for him, had a slight effect in bringing him back to his senses.

—

**[Commander Ssubong]:** Wow, but seriously, he endures it really well. It must be getting hard for him by now.

**[Seoinmalgo Dongin]:** Right. Is this pheromone actually working properly?

—

Just as even the constellations were beginning to doubt Rigan’s superhuman endurance, that was when it happened.

“So, that’s where the boundary stone is… Damn it.”

Leona, who had been leading the way, suddenly spat out a harsh curse and stopped. The next moment, she kicked off the ground and hurled herself toward Rigan.

“Watch out, Rigan!”

Leona embraced him and rolled across the floor.

*Crash!*

A giant snake’s tail crashed down where the two had been standing.

Leona quickly regained her stance and surveyed the direction of the attack.

There stood a massive snake, and atop it, a man with a cool, sharp impression looking down at them.

Dark hair like a black night sky scattered in the air.

At that moment, Leona’s eyes met the man’s. His eyes, like Leona’s, were red, but much more deeply blood-colored than hers. As if containing countless secrets and the abyss of darkness.

Above all, his gaze gave the feeling of piercing through to the very depths of a person’s heart. Leona found herself unable to look away from him without realizing it.

“Lord! You came to rescue me!”

The Vampire Queen exclaimed with delight upon seeing him.

At her cry, Leona realized the identity of the enemy and tensed up.

Meanwhile, Rigan… didn’t even have the presence of mind to grasp the situation.

Because due to Leona suddenly leaping into him, everything he had endured so far had become useless in an instant.

He could vividly feel Leona’s body within his arms.

The sweet scent pierced his head.

‘Ah, I’m screwed.’

He felt, in a way he couldn’t deny, that his body desired her. He was sure that Leona, who was pressed against him, must have noticed as well.

Along with the shame of having the thing he had painstakingly suppressed exposed, a cheap sense of release also washed over him.

‘Now that I’m caught anyway, I’ll just…’

It was a thought that the usual Rigan would never have, but already not in his right mind due to the constellations’ meddling, he didn’t even realize what was wrong.

His large hand gripped Leona’s wrist as if to crush it.

“Ri, Rigan?”

Startled by the unexpectedly strong grip, Leona turned to look at him. Then, seeing his unfocused eyes and roughly panting lips, she widened her eyes and opened her mouth.

“Hey, ca, calm down! If you’re embarrassed about it, then!”

At that moment, Leona shouted at the top of her lungs.

“I won’t tell anyone that you prefer the Lord over the Vampire Queen!”

“…What?”

At Leona’s shocking outburst, Rigan’s body froze solid.

Rigan’s thoughts, which had been stretching into an endlessly dark place, also momentarily stopped.

“…Wha, what did you say?”

“Th-there was no reaction earlier, but… now…”

Leona glanced down at Rigan’s lower body with a flushed face, then quickly raised her head again.

“Anyway, I won’t tell a soul even if I die, so don’t worry.”

Just as Rigan was left speechless by such an absurd remark, that was when it happened.

“Aah! So that’s what it was! As expected, it wasn’t that my seduction didn’t work!”

The Vampire Queen, who had been following while tightly bound to serve as a guide, shouted.

“The male body is outside my range of interest. If that’s your preference, it’s only natural you wouldn’t be drawn to me.”

The Vampire Lord, who had dismounted from the snake and appeared nearby at some point, also added his comment.

“…”

Rigan’s thoughts were paralyzed by this entire absurd situation.

It felt like the same situation as when he had dealt with the demonic hand of humiliation last time was repeating.

‘Why does this keep happening to me…?’

Rigan just wanted to die on the spot.