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Chapter 37: The Prospering Blue Pharmacy (R-18)
Lately, the Blue Pharmacy run by the Miach Familia had seen a sudden, massive surge in customers.
The modest little shop, typically steeped in the calming scents of dried herbs, crushed roots, and medicinal syrups, had always enjoyed a quiet, steady trickle of loyal patrons. Foot traffic had naturally increased following Bell Cranel's stellar performance in the War Game against the Apollo Familia, bringing a welcome influx of much-needed valis. But the recent spike in visitors completely dwarfed that previous bump, transforming the peaceful pharmacy into a bustling hub of chaotic energy.
However, if one were to ask whether this endless parade of bodies actually contributed to their sales, the answer would be a resounding, exasperated no.
"As I've already told you, we don't sell anything of the sort here. Please leave."
Standing stiffly behind the wooden counter, Daphne shooed the latest customer away with a thoroughly exhausted expression, her hand rubbing the bridge of her nose as if trying to physically massage away a migraine.
Normally, she handled patrons with a crisp, professional courtesy, taking pride in managing the Familia's meager finances. But after dealing with the exact same ridiculous request time and time again, day in and day out, anyone's customer service facade would inevitably crack and crumble.
"I heard you sell an aphrodisiac that can make anyone fall madly in love with you..."
Men and women alike, ranging from desperate-looking adventurers to overly ambitious merchants, had been flocking to the Miach Familia to spout this exact brand of unhinged nonsense. Their motives were blindingly obvious, driven by baseless rumors that had spread through Orario's streets like wildfire.
Thanks to them, Daphne was completely swamped with the exhausting, entirely unprofitable task of kicking out these delusional hopefuls one by one. She hadn't even had the chance to organize the morning inventory.
"Ugh, seriously! Why did this have to turn into such a massive headache, huh, Cassandra?" Daphne groaned, leaning heavily against the polished oak counter.
"Auu... D-don't look at me, Daphne," a timid voice replied from the back room.
While the aphrodisiac craze wasn't technically her fault, Cassandra was undeniably the catalyst for this entire disaster. Shrinking under her friend's accusatory tone, the seer peeked out from behind a shelf of potions, her eyes welling up with tears.
"U-Um, Daphne? Actually..." Cassandra began, her voice trembling slightly.
"What now? Is there something else—wait a second, Cassandra." Daphne's sharp eyes locked onto the object her friend was trying to awkwardly conceal behind her back. "What is that book in your hands?"
Daphne desperately hoped her eyes were playing tricks on her, praying to any god that would listen that she was wrong. But her prayers went unanswered. Clutched tightly in Cassandra's shaking hands was a brand-new, freshly printed paperback. It wasn't the exact same illicit doujinshi that had caused their current aphrodisiac crisis, but rather a completely new release. And plastered right on the glossy cover was a stunning, highly detailed illustration of Bell Cranel and Cassandra herself, both posing provocatively in skimpy swimwear.
"I-It looks like the new volume just came out..." Cassandra squeaked, holding the book out like it was a live explosive.
"Oh, come on! This is just going to bring in even MORE weirdos!!!"
Looking as if the heavens had just crashed down upon her, Daphne threw her head back and screamed at the ceiling.
"So? What exactly is the plot this time? How much worse can it get?" Daphne asked, dragging a hand down her face as she surrendered to morbid curiosity.
"U-Um, I haven't read it yet either," Cassandra admitted, stepping out from behind the shelf and carefully placing the cursed tome on the counter between them.
With bated breath, Cassandra cautiously opened the book. Right on the very first page, splashed across a massive, full-page illustration, was a drawing of a certain deity—neither the heroic Bell nor the beautiful Cassandra.
"Beeeell-kyuuuuuun!! ♡"
"I'm already starting to regret reading this..." Daphne muttered, her soul leaving her body.
"Y-Yeah..."
Staring down at Apollo, who was depicted calling out Bell's name with a filthy, degenerate grin and hearts floating around his head, both Daphne and Cassandra physically slumped over the counter in sheer disgust.
They wanted nothing more than to slam the book shut, lock the pharmacy doors, and go out for a long stroll around the city to clear their heads. Unfortunately, they couldn't just ignore a literal ticking time bomb of public relations trouble and go play. Resigned to their fate, they reluctantly turned the page to witness the impending trainwreck.
"Ah, a letter from Lord Apollo with a self-portrait attached. His desire for attention is as strong as ever."
Realizing that the massive, horrifying opening spread of Apollo was simply an in-universe illustration attached to a letter within the story's narrative, the actual Cassandra and Daphne let out a collective, shuddering sigh of relief.
In the comic, the beautifully drawn letter was accompanied by a large wooden crate. When the illustrated Cassandra opened it to check the contents, her drawn face morphed into an expression of utter shock. The crate was stuffed to the brim with neatly packaged vials of what appeared to be premium bath salts.
"U-Um, what is this—a-aphrodisiac bath salts!?"
Unfolding the parchment included with the salts, the characters learned that this particular blend possessed extraordinarily potent aphrodisiac properties. Apparently, the alchemists of the Apollo Familia had created it by mistake, and simply dissolving a small pinch of it in hot water would induce an incredibly vigorous, uncontrollable reaction in any man who bathed in it.
According to the letter, Apollo was sending the surplus to Cassandra as an 'apology' for his past wrongdoings, framing it as a peace offering to help her relax.
"Aphrodisiac bath salts... What am I supposed to do with these...?"
As the illustrated Cassandra visibly agonized over the dangerous package, holding a single vial up to the light, a faded image of a smiling Bell Cranel briefly flashed through her mind in the background of the panel.
"We all know exactly where this is going..." Daphne deadpanned, resting her chin in her hands.
"Auuuu... Now everyone is going to misunderstand me even more..."
As Daphne accurately predicted the impending, incredibly predictable plot developments, Cassandra clutched her head and groaned in absolute despair. Lately, alongside her official alias, a rather disgraceful unofficial nickname had been spreading through the streets of Orario: The Potion Woman. This new release was only going to cement that terrible reputation.
Sure enough, exactly as Daphne anticipated, the Cassandra in the doujinshi took a single packet of the aphrodisiac bath salts and went to visit Bell at the Hestia Familia estate.
"Ah, Miss Cassandra. What brings you here today?"
"U-Um, actually... I brought this to apologize for the other day..."
When she showed him the bath salts, framing it as a simple gift of relaxation, Bell immediately seemed to understand her 'intentions', scratching his cheek with a bashful, utterly charming blush.
Incredibly conveniently, Bell was completely alone in the sprawling mansion. The narrative quickly established that the other Familia members and their patron goddess were out running errands across the city and wouldn't be back until much later that evening.
Hearing this, the illustrated Cassandra gathered her courage. A panel zoomed in on her clenching her fists, before she stepped so close to Bell that she was practically pressing her generous curves right against his chest.
"U-Um, if it's alright with you... would you let me wash your back, Bell?"
"Huh!? N-No, I couldn't possibly ask you to do that!"
Startled by the sudden, intimate proposal, Bell tried to politely decline, waving his hands in a panic. However, the artist made sure to emphasize that his eyes kept betraying his polite words, wandering down toward the deep valley of Cassandra's cleavage.
However, Cassandra stubbornly refused to back down, insisting it was the least she could do. After a brief, blushing back-and-forth in the hallway, the scene suddenly transitioned. The two of them ended up in the large, steamy Familia bath together, albeit wearing form-fitting swimsuits.
"I, uh... I'm really sorry about this, Miss Cassandra."
"No! Please, this is just a token of my gratitude!"
Cassandra poured the mysterious aphrodisiac bath salts she had brought into the piping hot water, stirring it gently until the crystals dissolved.
"Wow, it smells amazing..."
"Y-Yes, it does, doesn't it...?"
Completely oblivious to the danger lurking in the water, Bell relaxed with a gentle, unguarded smile as Cassandra knelt behind him and began scrubbing his back, fully enjoying the fragrant, floral steam rising from the tub.
Conversely, Cassandra—who was fully aware of the potent aphrodisiac properties—was drawn so tense her shoulders were practically touching her ears, her face entirely flushed as she watched the steam envelop the young adventurer.
"Well then, I'll wash you next, Miss Cassandra."
"Eh!? Y-You really don't have to! This was supposed to be my way of thanking you—hyah!?"
"Ah, sorry. Did I scrub too hard?"
Ignoring her frantic protests, Bell turned around, reaching out to gently place his sudsy hands on her back. The moment his broad palms made contact with her wet skin, Cassandra's body gave a violent, full-page jolt.
"N-No! I'm completely fine!"
"Are you sure? Well, if you say so..."
Bell tilted his head in pure, innocent confusion, a question mark hovering over his white hair, but he continued washing her back anyway.
However, his initial gentle, rhythmic touches gradually grew bolder. The panels tightened, focusing on the movement of his fingers, his hands slowly creeping toward areas other than her back, grazing her sides and the soft curve of her waist.
"U-Um, Bell?"
"..."
The innocent light vanished from Bell's drawn eyes, replaced by a dark, heavy shadow. He was scrubbing her body with a feverish, almost desperate intensity, acting as though he were possessed by a primal hunger. Unable to take the escalating tension anymore, Cassandra finally voiced her panic.
"Ah! ♡ U-Um, Bell!"
"—!? Ah, I, um, I'm so sorry!!!"
Bell froze as if he'd been slapped, blinking blankly for a second before snapping back to his senses. The crushing weight of shame and guilt for his overly familiar actions seemed to crash down on him all at once. Blushing furiously, he scrambled away from her to the other side of the washroom and bowed his head in a frantic, stuttering apology.
"N-No, there's absolutely no reason for you to apologize—"
The illustrated Cassandra quickly concluded that the aromatic steam rising from the tub must have been melting Bell's rationality, seeping into his lungs and short-circuiting his mind. Her cheeks burned bright red as a sudden, dangerous thought made her heart pound wildly in her chest: What will happen if Bell actually gets into this water?
"What even is this brain-dead plot...?" Daphne muttered, leaning closer to the pages despite her complaints.
"B-Bell washing my entire body... ♡"
"Hey, you're sounding exactly like that Renard girl from the Hestia Familia right now."
"Eh!?"
Promptly realizing that her thirsty, romantic inner thoughts had leaked out into the real world, Cassandra's face practically ignited, burning hotter than the steam in the comic.
It seemed that even within the Miach Familia, Sanjouno Haruhime had a well-established, infamous reputation as a massive closet pervert.
Back in the comic, the tension settled slightly as the two characters finally entered the tub. They sank into the water up to their shoulders with a soft splash, letting out identical, blissed-out sighs as the heat washed over them.
They both had entirely unguarded, dopey expressions on their faces, their cheeks rosy from the heat. Since both characters were inherently cute, the artist rendered the panel beautifully; it was actually quite soothing to look at, almost deceiving the reader into thinking it was a wholesome scene.
(It feels amazing, but it's not like it's making me feel weird or any—!!?)
Just as Cassandra was settling into the relaxing warmth, letting her guard down, she glanced over at Bell—and her heart nearly leaped out of her chest.
Bell looked entirely flushed, far beyond the normal effects of a hot bath. His crimson eyes were heavily lidded and glossy with unfocused desire, his mouth hanging slightly open as he bathed in utter euphoria, completely lost in the haze of the aphrodisiac.
More importantly, the artist left nothing to the imagination beneath the waterline. Even through the murky, rippling water, it was blatantly obvious that the fabric of his swimsuit bottoms was stretching to its absolute limit, pitching a massive, undeniable tent that jutted upward. Cassandra's drawn eyes were glued to the impossible bulge.
"Haaah..."
The next panel featured a highly detailed, breathtakingly rendered close-up of a single bead of sweat rolling down Bell's flushed cheek, sliding over his jawline, and pooling in the hollow of his collarbone. He was practically oozing so much raw, unadulterated sex appeal that one could easily suspect the doujinshi itself was magically imbued to emit some sort of illegal female-charming pheromone right off the paper.
"Yeah, if that kid ever actually leans into this kind of thing, he's going to be incredibly dangerous..." Daphne muttered in sheer exasperation, though she found herself staring at the panel a second longer than strictly necessary.
"Gulp...!"
Beside her, Cassandra audibly swallowed hard, utterly captivated by Bell's sensual display, her own face flushing to match her comic counterpart.
"U-Um... Bell? Are you okay?"
"Huh? Sh-Shorry. I migh'a s-stayed in a lil' too long."
Bell slurred his words heavily, his tongue thick and sluggish. True to the instruction manual attached to the letter, the aphrodisiac bath salts seemed to have an overwhelmingly potent effect specifically on men. While Cassandra was definitely feeling flushed and slightly lightheaded, she was nowhere near as far gone as the boy beside her.
"I'm gonna geh ouh now—"
"Ah, Bell, wait—"
Dizzy and completely out of it, Bell abruptly stood up to leave the tub, his muscular torso glistening wetly. Naturally, he couldn't walk properly in that chemically altered condition. The moment he stepped out, his foot slipped on the wet tiles, and he pitched forward with a startled yelp.
Having anticipated this disaster, Cassandra reacted instantly. She might have been timid by nature, but her Level 3 agility was more than enough to act on reflex. She lunged forward to catch Bell just before he face-planted into the hard stone floor.
"Mmph! ♡"
"Kyaa!? ♡"
Unfortunately, her high Level couldn't completely override her innate, legendary clumsiness. She lost her balance on the slick floor while catching his weight, and the two of them collapsed together in a tangle of limbs, with her landing directly on top of him.
As a result, Bell landed flat on his back, the breath knocked out of him, with Cassandra's voluptuous breasts smothered directly into his face. He was subjected to a face-full of sweet fragrance and overwhelming, pillowy softness pressed entirely into his nose, cheeks, and mouth.
It was a situation straight out of To LOVE-Ru.
"A certain god once proclaimed: Within the cleavage of a beautiful woman's bountiful breasts lies an atmosphere that produces the exact same effects as a potent love potion..."
"What the hell is this idiotic narration...?" Daphne deadpanned, pointing an accusing finger at the floating text box. "There's no such thing as a cleavage-pheromone. Who even writes this garbage?"
"Y-Yeah, exactly. There's no way my chest could do something amazing like that..."
As Cassandra sighed in relief, leaning forward slightly, her massive, incredibly soft breasts jiggled so violently against her tunic that they practically demanded a literal 'boing' sound effect of their own. Watching the display of overwhelming physics, Daphne found herself quietly admitting that the stupid narration box might actually hold some truth.
"I-I'm so sorry! I'll get off right now... Bell?"
The illustrated Cassandra scrambled to stand up, embarrassed beyond belief, but Bell reached up and wrapped his arms firmly around her waist, locking her in place against his body.
As she panicked, looking down at him and wondering what he was doing, Bell looked up at her with a strangely intense, almost frustrated expression. The innocent boy was gone, replaced by a predator. Still holding her tightly in his arms, he slowly stood up, bringing her with him.
"Miss Cassandra... do you have any idea how desperately I've been trying to hold myself back so I wouldn't lose control around you?"
"I-I'm sorry..."
Having been smoothly transitioned into a firm, inescapable princess carry when he stood, Cassandra was completely overwhelmed by Bell's sudden alpha aura and reflexively apologized, her resistance entirely melting away.
Without even bothering to grab a towel to dry off, Bell carried her straight out of the washroom and toward his bedroom, leaving a trail of dripping bathwater down the dimly lit hallway.
"Wait, isn't this what they call... taking a girl home for the night...!?" Cassandra squeaked, gripping the edge of the counter.
"I mean, is that really the right term since you're already in his house? But yeah, you're definitely about to get railed, so I guess the sentiment fits..."
Daphne tilted her head, reluctantly validating Cassandra's bewildered, nonsensical attempt to categorize the doujinshi's rapidly escalating plot.
"There we go..."
"Ah! ♡"
Bell gently laid Cassandra down on his wide bed, the dampness of their skin immediately soaking into the sheets. He immediately leaned over her, pinning her beneath his weight, and captured her lips.
It wasn't a chaste peck, either. It was a searing, passionate, utterly devastating kiss with entirely too much tongue, expertly depicted in a series of close-up panels. Wasting no time, the illustrated Cassandra wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer and fully accepting his aggressive embrace.
Eventually, their lips parted for air, leaving a glistening thread of silver connecting their mouths, both of them panting heavily.
"Hyah! B-Bell and I are having such an intense kiss...!?"
"Just how much degeneracy is crammed into the author's brain? Ugh, just looking at this is making me feel embarrassed."
Ignoring Cassandra's shocked, entirely delighted squeals over her passionate make-out session, Daphne tried to play it cool by twirling a lock of hair around her finger. Though her tone was dismissive, her face was already burning red with embarrassment.
Despite her aloof act, she was actually incredibly invested in the steamy development, eagerly following the progression of the panels from the corner of her eye, refusing to actually look away.
"B-Bell, if we do this, your bed is going to get all wet!"
"I don't care. I can just change the sheets later. Right now, I need to do something about this... ♡"
Fueled entirely by the potent aphrodisiac bath salts, the mighty Zeus Rod lurking in Bell's lower half was standing at full, raging attention, having finally been freed from the confines of his swimsuit. It bore its fangs at Cassandra, throbbing with terrifying vitality.
The sheer size of it, rendered with terrifying detail by the artist, made the illustrated Cassandra gulp audibly. In the real world, Cassandra did the exact same thing, her throat clicking in the quiet pharmacy. Beside her, Daphne also swallowed hard at the frankly abnormal, impossible proportions displayed proudly on the page.
"I didn't prep you at all last time, but I'll make sure it doesn't hurt today, Miss Cassandra... ♡"
"Nnngh! ♡ Y-You can't go down there, it's dirty!"
"We just took a bath, so it's perfectly clean... ♡"
Having devolved from a cute, harmless lapdog into a veritable 'butter rabbit,' Bell pulled aside the crotch of Cassandra's swimsuit entirely. He buried his face between her thighs and eagerly began to lap at her nether regions with the relentless dedication of a starving mutt finding water in a desert.
With every stroke of his tongue, Cassandra gripped the bedsheets tightly, her toes curling as she endured wave after wave of intense, unrelenting pleasure.
From that point on, the pages descended into pure smut. The comic became a sequence of extremely explicit, censorship-worthy screams from Cassandra, paired with panels of Bell relentlessly and silently going to town on her, his face slick with her juices.
"H-Hyaaa!? Bell is doing that to me...!!" Cassandra cried out, covering her burning face with her hands, though she peered through the gaps in her fingers.
"He's completely relentless... I mean, I know it's just the artist's insane fantasy and the real Bell isn't actually doing this, but the art is so ridiculously detailed that my brain is starting to short-circuit," Daphne groaned, fanning her flushed face with her free hand.
Watching Bell's aggressive, masterful oral technique in the book, the real-world Cassandra turned beetroot red. Daphne, completely overwhelmed by the sheer concentration of lust and raw desire packed into the doujinshi, questioned her life choices. However, being a healthy teenage girl with natural curiosity, she simply couldn't bring herself to actually close the book.
"Haaah... ♡ Haaah... ♡ I... I can't take any more... ♡"
"Yeah, I think I'm at my limit too... ♡"
Both of them had reached peak arousal. As the tension boiled over to its absolute breaking point, Bell shifted his weight forward, his muscular thighs caging her in. He aimed his throbbing, impossibly large Zeus Rod right at Cassandra's slick, inviting core.
Offering zero resistance, the illustrated Cassandra spread her legs further apart, offering herself entirely to grant him easier access.
Normally, Cassandra was treated as a plain, timid girl who always hid her beauty behind her long bangs. But entirely liberated by Bell's passionate lovemaking and the haze of the drug, her hair was now swept back across the pillows. The panels fully exposed the breathtakingly beautiful, sultry face she usually kept hidden from the world.
Glistening with a thin layer of sweat from Bell's thorough ministrations, her sex appeal had skyrocketed, granting her a mesmerizing, mature beauty that easily rivaled the most celebrated goddesses of Orario.
"Come here, Bell... ♡"
"Ngh! Yes, Miss Cassandra! ♡"
Welcomed by Cassandra's open arms and pleading eyes, Bell readily accepted the invitation. With a single, powerful thrust, he plunged deeply into her tight warmth.
Because they had skipped drying off after the bath, their vigorous, slippery union generated an obscene amount of loud, slapping wet noises. The impact was so intense that the sound effects literally couldn't fit into a single panel, bleeding out into the margins of the pages.
"A-Pya-pya-pya!!"
"What kind of noise is that? Though, considering what we're looking at, I can't exactly blame you for screeching."
Staring at the two characters spectacularly ruining the bedsheets in a scene far more explicit, sweaty, and detailed than the previous volume, the real-world Cassandra's brain officially short-circuited. She leaned against the counter for physical support.
Sighing at her friend's total meltdown, Daphne couldn't help but admit to herself that if she were the star of this filthy, beautifully drawn comic, she'd probably be making those exact same unintelligible animal noises right now.
"I'm! ♡ I'm at my limit!! ♡ Bell!!! ♡♡"
"Then, let's go together!! ♡♡"
With that final, echoing cry, the two of them unleashed all of their pent-up climax, forcefully expelling every last drop of built-up frustration in a massive, blinding crescendo.
The sheer volume of Bell's release was so staggeringly intense that the illustrated Cassandra's stomach visibly bulged outward like a pregnant woman's. Her back arched off the mattress, and her eyes rolled back into her head in pure, mind-breaking bliss.
Gently caring for the unconscious Cassandra as she came down from the high, Bell tenderly combed his fingers through her messy hair. Remaining intimately connected deep inside her, he proceeded to slowly cover her entire body in dark, bruising love bites, marking his territory across her collarbones, breasts, and thighs.
"Oh gods, my brain is going to melt...!" Cassandra whined, her legs turning to jelly.
"I-If... If Bell and I were to get married, would we eventually do this too...!? ♡"
Even after such a feral, world-ending climax, Bell's desire for Cassandra remained unquenched. Refusing to let the heat die down or withdraw, he aggressively demanded her body again, and again, and again.
Despite her usual tough-girl facade and practical mindset, Daphne was actually rather innocent when it came to romance, and the sheer depravity on display was thoroughly frying her brain. Beside her, Cassandra had fully checked out of reality, completely lost in her own sickeningly sweet, wildly inappropriate fantasies of domestic life with the rabbit.
"Ah... Nn...?"
"Are you awake? I'm going to pull out now, okay?"
"Nngaaahhh... ♡"
The moment Bell finally withdrew his mighty Zeus Rod, a massive puddle of thick white milk cascaded onto the already ruined bedsheets. The forceful rush of escaping fluids made Cassandra's hips violently buck upward in a severe aftershock.
"Ah! ♡ Auu! ♡"
"I think I might have gone a little overboard..."
Watching Cassandra twitch uncontrollably, her eyes glassy and unfocused, Bell voiced his concern—but despite his gentle words, his lower half showed absolutely zero signs of calming down. With his Zeus Rod still completely enraged and dripping, he gently pulled her up into an embrace.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me. He wants to go again?" Daphne practically yelled, throwing her hands up.
"M-My body would literally break..."
As Daphne stared in disbelief at Bell's bottomless, superhuman stamina that defied all laws of biology, Cassandra began to genuinely tremble in fear, wondering if she could actually survive a night with him.
They continued to tear through the pages. The manga depicted the pair changing locations throughout the estate, seamlessly connecting on nearly every surface in the room. They mated like wild beasts back on the bed, against the walls, and on the floor, with Bell leaving an absurd amount of new hickeys across Cassandra's skin in a blatant display of possessiveness. As the scenes escalated in degeneracy and acrobatic complexity, the two real-world girls kept reading, their minds thoroughly reduced to mush.
Finally, right before the very last page, the grueling, multi-hour sex marathon came to an end.
"Haaah... ♡ Haaah... ♡"
"Phew! ♡ Phew! ♡"
Collapsing onto the utterly ruined bed, which now looked more like a battlefield, Cassandra was gasping for air, her legs spasming uncontrollably. Beside her, Bell panted heavily, looking thoroughly satisfied now that he had completely emptied his colossal reserves and his Zeus Rod had finally shrunk back down to a normal, dormant size.
Both of their lower halves were absolutely coated in a horrific, sticky mess of bodily fluids. There was no way either of them could be seen in public anytime soon without a thorough scrubbing.
"I'll have to clean the room later... I guess we should hit the bath first, huh?"
"..."
Scooping up the completely limp, unresponsive, and thoroughly broken Cassandra, Bell carried her out toward the bathroom, both of them still completely butt-naked.
"Haaah... ♡ Haaah... ♡ Haaah... ♡"
"Hey, Cassandra. Stop panting so weirdly right next to me."
"Eep!? S-Sorry, Daphne! But when I started imagining Bell railing me until I couldn't move... ♡"
Having finished the main story, Cassandra's imagination was currently running completely wild, overriding all common sense with vivid, high-definition fantasies of Bell ruthlessly ravaging her.
Slightly disturbed by her friend's heavy panting and the glassy, unfocused look in her eyes, Daphne snapped her out of her degenerate trance with a sharp nudge to the ribs.
"Good grief, at this rate, this stupid book is going to turn you into a bigger pervert than that Renard girl."
"S-Stop it! I'm not a pervert!"
Implicitly accused of being a massive closet pervert, Cassandra frantically denied the allegations, though her flushed cheeks and erratic breathing ruined her defense.
Giving her a deadpan look that clearly communicated exactly how little she believed her, Daphne reached over and turned to the final page of the book.
"Huh!? Wait, why is it standing up again—?"
"Ah..." Both girls mumbled in unison, their eyes widening.
For the final punchline of the book, the leftover aphrodisiac bath salts still lingering in their pores kicked in for a second round. The doujinshi ended abruptly, right as Bell's newly revived, terrifyingly massive Zeus Rod took aim at the barely-recovered Cassandra as they re-entered the bathroom.
"Gotta say... aphrodisiac bath salts are terrifying," Daphne muttered, closing the book with a heavy thud.
"Yeah... Well, it's just a story in a book, so it's not like we actually need to worry about it..."
The very second Cassandra uttered those fateful, tempting words, the bell above the pharmacy door chimed, accompanied by a sharp knock.
Frantically shoving the illicit doujinshi under the counter out of sight, the two girls jumped to attention. Daphne practically sprinted to open the door, only to find Naaza standing there, holding a large, oddly shaped package.
"What's up, Captain?" Daphne asked, her voice cracking slightly as she tried to act natural.
"Mm. Actually, a package arrived for the two of you, so I came to drop it off," Naaza replied evenly, handing over the parcel.
It was addressed to both of them. Written clearly in the sender's section in elegant, looping handwriting was a single name: Apollo.
The moment they read that name, the temperature in the room plummeted, and a horrifying chill ran down both Cassandra and Daphne's spines.
Praying to the gods that it was just a coincidence—that perhaps he was sending them some rare medicinal herbs or a genuine apology letter—they ripped open the package with trembling hands.
Inside rested a single, beautifully decorated letter—and a painfully familiar set of ornate glass vials.
"To my dear Cassandra and Daphne. We recently produced a massive surplus of incredibly relaxing bath salts here at my Familia. Please accept them as a token of my deepest apologies for the past! ♡"
"KYAAAAAA!!?"
Recoiling in absolute, soul-crushing terror, Daphne knocked the package entirely out of Naaza's hands. The wooden crate hit the floor, and one of the vials of bath salts spilled out, popping open as it rolled smoothly across the floorboards.
It slipped right past the open doorway and tumbled out into the hallway of the Familia home, leaving a faint trail of sparkling dust, before coming to a halt perfectly against the worn leather shoe of someone who just happened to be passing by.
"Oh? What do we have here? Sniff, sniff."
A gentle, utterly innocent voice echoed through the hall.
"Ho, are these bath salts? They smell wonderful. I'll add these to the water tonight so everyone can enjoy a nice, relaxing soak."
Picking up the packet with a bright, benevolent smile, completely unaware of the doom he was holding, the god Miach turned on his heel and carried it straight toward the Familia's communal bath.
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