The Sword and The Shadow

Great Fortune and Demise

Leguna let out a guttural roar and pulled his sheets of before jumping into bed and hugging and tossing the barbarian woman into bed.

"I'll let you have a taste of my manhood! It's been charging for eighteen whole years!" Leguna removed his undergarments and revealed his savage tool.

What followed was too racey to depict.

Eighteen years! I won't stop until this night is over!

The barbarian woman's lively body softened like cotton when it mingled with his impetus-hardened form. Leguna went all out and converted all the repressed energies in him into the moans generated by the barbarian woman.

"Sir, you are great! You can match up to even barbarian men!"

"What? Just match up? I'm far greater than them, alright!" Leguna's pace only skyrocketed after hearing that.

All sorts of positions, spots and moves. Leguna wanted to try everything he knew once! He wouldn't rest until he was spent!

But…

All that was only happening in his overactive imagination. It wasn't that he didn't want to. He simply didn't dare.

He had three other women with him. If Eirinn found out, she would probably try to keep her hurt to herself. And the most Innilis could do to him was give him a few bites on his shoulder. But behind the two of them stood Her Majesty Annelotte!

Leguna didn't dare to take that kind of risk. He'd have to be a complete idiot to throw his life away for a moment's pleasure.

Even though it might seem tempting, given that nobody was around to see him do it with the barbarian, he would merely be lying to himself. Her Majesty Annelotte was a 17th-stratum magus. All it would take for it to all come tumbling down was Arikos revealing that he took in a beautiful barbarian woman who stayed in his quarters. It wouldn't be hard to imagine what would follow.

Leguna believed that she would dictate a few spells on him, namely, a lie detector spell and a mind sweep spell. After that, a petrification spell would be in order, followed by a bombardment of icicles, fireballs, dragon breaths and disintegration rays. She might even finish the performance with an elegant Death's Finger to put him out of misery.

So, the barbarian woman who was so willing to please him wasn't a great fortune at all. It would lead to his demise!

Not only that, there was another part in him that hesitated. If it wasn't the girl(s) he liked, he would rather suppress his desires.

Though his body reacted and his mind flew into a frenzy, he didn't make the slightest move.

"You…" Leguna was dragging himself back from the edge of reason. Even the slightest stimulus might crumble his already weakened will.

"Sir, do you not fancy me?" the woman said, "I… even though I'm ugly according to barbarian standards, I heard humans see different qualities in women. My mother… my mother said I looked rather decent by humans standards…"

"No, you… you're really beautiful. The barbarians are the ones with weird taste," Leguna stammered a reply without tearing his eyes away from her body. Was it a habit he got from peeking at (read: accidentally bumping into) Annelotte bathing?

"Then… is it because I'm old?" A dejected look flashed across her eyes. "That's true… I'm already 26… already far past my prime into my middle age… And yet I thought myself worthy of serving you, Sir… I was foolish.

Even though Leguna saw her as a mature woman, that was only because she had given birth. Barbarians married far earlier than most humans did. This woman bore her child in her early teens and gave birth some ten years ago. Now, she was still 26 and was still far from being past her age.

Leguna wasn't surprised to hear her age, since she looked rather young to him. She was considered middle age according to the barbarians, since they only had an average life expectancy up to fifty years. Sixty was pushing the envelope. But those words sounded full of pain to Leguna. She sounded like everyone had already cast her away.

Leguna gave himself a slap on the face for the sake of his life. He then struggled to say, "Put on some clothes first, please…"

"Sir, do you really loathe me so?" she said with a hint of grief. If Leguna didn't take her body, how would she repay her debt to him? Did he want her to do something far worse?

"Just put on some clothes first!" Leguna said, on the brink of reason.

"Ah, okay…" she stuttered with fright before putting her clothes on.

"Phew…" He could finally calm down a little now that the visual stimulus was gone. He mentally recited, 'Cast away the mortal desire for carnal pleasure and clear the mind…' countless times.

By the time his member cooled down, he opened his eyes. The woman had finished putting her clothes back on.

Leguna looked at Legg's puzzled son and sighed. "Don't you mind that a child is here watching us?"

"Watching? What's inappropriate about that?"

I… you…" Leguna almost choked himself to death. He was yet again shocked by barbarian sensibilities. He weakly waved. "Whatever. The point is, I don't need you to serve me in bed."

"I understand." She hesitated, before she gingerly called out, "Sir…"

"Huh?" he weakly replied.

"Sir--" The woman kneeled, "--I thank you for saving our lives, so if you need anything from me, I won't refuse. But please spare the child! He's only four, and he can't do anything yet! Please…"

"Oh?" Stunned, he pointed at her and said, "Get up first. Speak to me normally."

"Yes."

"What did you think I was going to do to you?" Leguna asked curiously.

"Perhaps you would sell me off as a slave or… I heard my mother talk about a place called a broth… broth…" She struggled to remember the word as she furrowed her brows.

"You're wrong. I won't sell you into slavery or to a brothel. Not you, not this child."

"Then you want to…" The terror in her eyes was even more apparent. She had heard some humans captured barbarian slaves to conduct scary magic experiments on. Was he…

"Hey, don't think of me as such a terrifying person, alright?" Leguna cried in the voice of the accused, "Didn't I say that I wanted to help you? I'll find you a nice village in the empire for you to establish a new life with this fella. That's all. Do I look that evil to you? Do I look like I have to get something out of helping you?"

"But… You don't stand to gain anything from us. Then why… why help us?"

"If I did something for you in exchange for something else, that's a transaction, not help. While this might be a rare thing among barbarians, it's normal for humans to help one another. Perhaps you might help me out one day too! I relied on the help of others to make it to where I am today. Come to think of it, she really taught me a lot!"

Leguna recalled the half elf with the face of a demon and the heart of an angel. He wondered how she was doing at Fort Kesta and resolved himself to pay her a visit once he was done with the current matter.

"Is that so…" she said, still doubtful.

"Right," Leguna said with a shrug, "If you don't believe me, I can have someone send you back tomorrow and settle you down. You'll be relieved then, right?"

She teared up silently, either due to her being touched by Leguna's actions or finally having a stable life ahead of her. She bowed to Leguna with the most respectful gesture of the barbarians.

"Thank you, Sir."

"Alright, let's leave it at this. You two need to get some sleep! Sleep on the haystack for now. I'll have someone send you to Hocke tomorrow. Don't worry, with your figure and human mannerisms, I doubt you'd have trouble fitting in. As for the child, treat him as your own! This is the only task I have for you."

"Yes."

She didn't mind the task at all. In fact, she liked the child quite a lot. While he wasn't as strong as her son had been, there was something she couldn't quite grasp in his eyes that captivated her.

"Oh, use this!" Leguna took out some sheets from his dimensional pocket and handed it to the thankful woman.

"I already said that you don't have to thank me. What are you called, by the way?"

"Frenda… Frenda Torimia."

"It's a good name. I'm Leguna." He stretched out both his hands and looked deeply at them and finally understood what benefits his status afforded him.

Here, he could kill the two barbarians if he wanted. He could go at it with Frenda in front of the child if he wanted. He could help the two of them as he willed. And that was all thanks to his power.

Still, this kind of divide among people feels almost animalistic. How distastefully savage! That was the thought he held into his sleep.