--This chapter takes place after the events of Chapter 34: Malicious Edgelord Rizz [Physical Edition]--
The sound of the Adventurer's Guild door closing behind Mordecai echoed like the final blow of an execution.
For five whole seconds, inside [THE SILVER DRAGON'S GOLDEN DAWN], you could hear a pin drop. Drunken warriors, gossiping mages, stealthy rogues, and even the greedy receptionists remained absolutely frozen. The Edgelord's Aura, combined with the psychological debuff of that physical, ruthless Rizz, had left a trail of toxic narrative radiation hanging in the air.
Then, the silence was broken by a dull thud and Dragon Slayer.
"Give me Dragons. They killed my entire family." He said again, still standing in the same spot as before, only to be completely ignored. His quest marker was still floating above his head.
Meanwhile, Lucy, the Immaculate Saintess of Aethelgard, the Chosen of the Goddess, collapsed to her knees on the scratched wooden floor of the Guild.
Her sacred staff slipped from her trembling hands, rolling away with a pathetic clatter.
She wasn't crying or screaming for help. Her blue eyes were wide open, pupils dilated to the absolute biological limit, staring blankly into space. She was taking short, shallow, ragged breaths, while her hands flew instinctively to clutch her own ribs—in the exact spot where Mordecai had grabbed her.
Everyone thought she was in shock from the demonic aura. Everyone assumed her purity had been offended by the touch of a profane brute.
Of course, they were dead wrong.
Lucy was in shock because her body—her flesh, her bones, her muscle memory—had recognized that touch before her brain could even process it. It hadn't been the grip of a Demon Lord. It had been the rough, firm, and desperately familiar grip of a man coming home after a fourteen-hour shift with grease-stained hands.
The exact angle of his fingers on her waist. The precise pressure of his thumbs. The faint scent of ozone, stale sweat, and cheap coffee that, for a thousandth of a second, had pierced through the fake, suffocating perfume of divine incense that plagued this world.
Before Lucy's eyes, the System's blue interface was having a total meltdown.
[WARNING: MEMORY CONFLICT DETECTED.]
[CRITICAL ERROR: 'SAINTESS' PARAMETERS ARE BEING OVERWRITTEN. ATTEMPTING REBOOT OF DIVINE DEVOTION... FAILED.]
[ERROR 404: HATRED FOR ANTAGONIST NOT FOUND.]
[DOKI DOKI ALERT: HEART RATE EXCEEDS TROPE SAFETY LIMITS. ADMINISTERING MILD AMNESIA... DENIED. ACCESS BLOCKED BY UNKNOWN FIREWALL.]
The System was literally crashing in its attempt to resolve her cognitive dissonance. It was trying to force her to feel disgust, fear, and repulsion. But the damage was done. The dam had broken.
At that moment, a familiar figure threw the guild doors open and rushed in like a shopkeeper entering his store, fearing someone might be stealing something.
His eyes widened as he saw the Saintess in those conditions.
"Lucy! Lucy, by the Goddess!" Nick rushed to her side, shaking her by the shoulders. His golden armor clanked heroically. "What happened? The system told me you were under attack by a malicious entity! Did he curse you?! Call a Supreme Healer! That bastard poisoned her with dark magic!"
Lucy didn't answer. She didn't even look at him. Nick's touch on her shoulders felt... fake. Light. Weightless. Like a hologram was touching her.
She continued to stare into the void, her hands pressed against her sides, her chest rising and falling dizzily. For the first time since she had died and been reborn in this plastic world, Lucy didn't feel like a "Saintess."
She felt alive.
'Kaito...' she thought.
Within twelve hours, the news had set the entire Kingdom of Aethelgard on fire.
The magical newspapers, the town criers, and the Guild forums were talking about nothing else. The massive headlines projected on the capital's communication crystals screamed: "SCANDAL AT THE GUILD! SAINTESS DEFILED BY ROGUE ADVENTURER!" and "KAITOYAMA: THE MAN WHO MOLESTED THE LIGHT!"
Public opinion was split in two. Religious fanatics were calling for this "Kaitoyama's" head on a pike. At the same time, the more cynical faction of adventurers argued that the emotional shock of a simple "hand on the hip" had been exaggeratedly dramatized by the Church for propaganda purposes.
But the truth, locked within the immaculate walls of the Cathedral's Royal Suite, was very different.
Lucy hadn't left her room in two days.
The priests whispered in the corridors that the Saintess was traumatized, that she was purifying her body with fasting and prayer after being "soiled" by darkness. They sent handmaidens with sacred ointments and paladins singing hymns of consolation. Lucy had kicked them all out, locking the heavy oak door.
The room was pitch black. The white velvet curtains were drawn tight.
Lucy was curled up on the canopy bed, pulling her knees to her chest. She wasn't praying. She wasn't crying in terror.
She was trembling, yes, but with a feverish confusion. Her fingers continued, obsessively, to trace the fabric of her tunic right at her lower ribs.
'Kaito... no... it can't be... it must be a coincidence... no... no... no... he wasn't so... hot... but....' She kept mumbling.
The name exploded in her skull like a virus. The System had done an excellent job of suppressing her past life. It had given her a purpose, fame, beauty, and the unconditional love of the public and the Hero. It had traded her exhausting shifts and the guilt of betraying a good man for a fairy-tale life where she was the innocent victim of a cruel destiny.
And yet, in that tiny tenth of a second at the Guild, when he had pulled her to him with that possessive, angry grip, the illusion had cracked.
"Why..." Lucy whispered into the dark, her voice breaking. "Why can't I stop thinking about it?"
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the violet eye burning with vengeance and the tired, blue eye that betrayed an unfathomable pain. Her heart would start galloping, pumping hot blood into veins that, for months, had only carried apathetic "Divine Light."
She was disgusted with herself. She had everything: love, fame, powers, but the touch of the "Villain" was the only thing that had made her feel like a real human being, and not a polygonal asset in a video game.
While Lucy fought her existential crisis, on the other side of the palace, in the Heroes' Wing, the situation was decidedly less introspective and much louder.
CRASH!
A Ming vase (or the fantasy equivalent of a 10,000-gold-coin Ming vase) shattered against the marble wall.
"TELL ME THIS IS A JOKE!" Nick screamed, his face purple with rage, the veins in his neck pulsing dangerously.
It wasn't concern for Lucy's mental health that was infuriating him. It was his streaming panel, visible only to him. The feed from the Higher Realms was scrolling at an incalculable speed, and every single message was a lethal stab to his massive ego.
[HIGHER REALMS CHAT: GLOBAL TRENDS]
#1 TRENDING: #NTR
#2 TRENDING: #GetCuckedNick
#3 TRENDING: #EdgelordRizz
NTR_Lover69: "HAHAHA I'M DYING! THE BRO GOT CUCKED ON A GLOBAL LIVE STREAM BY AN NPC HHAHAHA! THE HAND ON THE HIPS! THE GAZE!"
GoonerKing: "Kaitoyama just reclaimed his waifu with the sheer power of the Edgelord Rizz Physical Edition. Nick is literally irrelevant right now."
HeroFan_01: "Reporting for a bug! This isn't fair! The Hero is supposed to steal girls from the villains, not the other way around! Fix the game!"
SystemAdmin: "Note: Viewership peak has surpassed seasonal records. The 'Netorare' tag has been officially added to the world's genre."
"He touched her," Nick hissed, clenching his fists until his armored gauntlets creaked. "A filthy level 35 adventurer dressed like a construction worker put his hands on my Saintess in front of the whole server! My popularity rating among males dropped by 20%! They're calling me a 'cuck' in the comments! Do you know how long it takes to farm the charisma needed to offset a drop like that?!"
"Nick, darling, calm down..."
A seductive voice, smooth as dark silk, echoed in the room. From the shadows emerged Luna.
Luna was a dark elf, recruited into the Hero's party after the death (and subsequent corporate resurrection) of the blonde elf Niel. She had obsidian skin, long silver hair, and an outfit that openly defied the laws of physics and gravity, consisting mostly of strategic leather belts. She was the quintessence of the "Dark Elf Redeemed by the Hero's Love" trope.
Luna slid behind Nick, wrapping her long arms around the boy's armored chest. "Don't let the words of those faceless spectators dim your light. You are the Demon Slayer. That Kaitoyama used a cheap trick. He's just a worm trying to steal your stage."
From the right, another figure stepped forward, carrying a tray of silver goblets. It was Lucretia, the human mage of the group. She had long braided brown hair, round glasses that gave her an intellectual look, and breasts so disproportionately large she looked like she might trip over them at any moment. She was the classic NPC inserted purely for clumsy-mage fanservice.
"L-Luna is right, Sir Nick!" Lucretia stammered, blushing violently as she tripped over the rug, making the goblets clink but miraculously managing not to spill a single drop of wine (a hidden passive skill, no doubt). "N-no one can match your holy magic! That ugly man just played a cruel prank on her! We are here for you!"
Then, there was Egel, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed. Flaming red hair tied in a short ponytail, sharp blue eyes, and a physique sculpted in marble that oozed athletic power. She wore combat wraps around her generous chest and baggy martial arts pants. She was the group's tomboy, the rough-around-the-edges but secretly in love childhood friend.
"Tsk," Egel scoffed, spitting out a piece of a toothpick she was chewing on. "If that idiot thinks he can get away with disrespecting the guild and Lucy, he's dead wrong. Give me five minutes with him, and I'll smash his depressed face in with a roundhouse kick. He doesn't have the stats to survive a real physical brawl."
Nick took a deep breath, his ego soothed by the attention of his artificial harem. But the chat was unforgiving, and the algorithm of his pride demanded blood.
"No," Nick said, breaking free from Luna's embrace and drawing his Holy Sword, which emitted a perfectly sampled shing sound effect. "This isn't a job for you girls. This is an insult to my honor. Hero or not, I can't let a defective NPC steal my spotlight. I'm going to the King. And then, I'm going hunting."
With his talks, he activated [SHONEN SPEECH, EXECUTIVE], causing admiration to the NPC's around him. "Wait here. I'll be back soon." He said.
The girls nodded.
Then, Nick immediately rushed towards the throne room, leaving a trail of a strange apple pie scent.
Luna, Lucretia, and Egel stood in the room, wondering what the outcome of his meeting would be.
"Sir Nick is so... cool..." Lucretia fidgeted, poking her index fingers together.
"I guess so. He's the only one who could match me. That's why I..." Egel spoke, only to be interrupted by Luna.
"Don't say anything else. He's mine." She said, giving a death glare to the tomboy.
Lucretia and Egel immediately stood silent and respected her.