Harem Fighter: Chapter 1 - Crystal Temple Mercenaries

 

“Shit! Shit! Shit!”

The village was ablaze. It was a small village of only 20 houses and a population of less than 100.

It was not known for any specific product and they lived a meager life of tilling the barren land to just barely get by.

But for the people living there, it was home. Cloche, for one, had been born and raised there. His family was there, his friends were there – it was his entire world.

Harvest had been unusually good this year, so they had actually had some excess to sell at the nearby city of Aria, giving the entire village a little money to work with.

Cloche’s parents had had more money to spend and they had just asked their children what they wanted for a birthday present when tragedy struck.

“Hey, hey. Girls shouldn’t use such filthy language.”

Cloche wielded a machete used for chopping firewood and around 10 strange men surrounded him. They all held brutal weapons dripping with blood.

He knew all too well whose blood that was.

His face was pale with terror and he converted his anger into courage as he shouted back at them.

“I’m a boy!”

The grins on the men’s faces were all he needed to know they didn’t believe his desperate claim.

The continent was engulfed in war, so it wasn’t uncommon for parents to dress their daughters in boys’ clothing to help protect them.

“Put that dangerous thing down, girly. We’ll be nice and gentle.”

The men approached with disgusting smirks on their faces.

“Fuck off!”

Cloche had been backed up against a large tree, so he waved the machete around wildly.

“Y’know, I didn’t want to get violent with you, so this is your fault.”

“Hey, now. Avoid her face. She needs to be nice and pretty to fetch a decent price.”

“I know, I know. Eh heh heh.”

The bandits grabbed at him all at once. His machete didn’t even graze them.

“See what happens?”

One twisted his wrist and snatched the machete away while sweeping his feet out from under him and laying him down on the ground.

He tried kicking at the man, but it did nothing to the thick log of a leg.

“Pant, pant, pant.”
His best efforts had amounted to nothing, so now he could only catch his breath with his arms and legs pinned down. The men stared down at his face.

“Whew, we hit the jackpot here. She’s a cute one. Not often you find such a pretty little thing in a backwater village like this.”

The man who appeared to be the leader reached his left hand toward Cloche’s face. He was in his mid-to-late 30s, he was bald, he had a scar on his lips, and he looked like he employed violence on a regular basis. Cloche chomped his teeth down on the man’s little finger.

“Tch, I try to be gentle and this is how you repay me!?”

The man pulled his left arm back and then beat Cloche’s left cheek three times with his right fist.

The back of the boy’s head was pushed into the dirt and he would have passed out if not for the rusty flavor filling his mouth.

The strange-looking man grabbed Cloche’s jaw, stared into his eyes, and let out an impressed breath.

“A few blows to the face is usually enough to beat the fight out of a brat, but there’s still life in her eyes. The brat’s pretty and strong.”

Cloche had stubbornly glared up at the man, but now shook his head side to side to break free of the man’s grip. The man smiled bitterly and groped Cloche’s chest.

“But as pretty as she is, she’s still got the body of a kid. Still a bud waiting to blossom.”

The men holding down his limbs spoke up like they couldn’t contain themselves any longer.

“Maddock, how bout we try her out before we sell her?”

“Fine. We don’t get a prize like this often and I can just tell she’s a virgin.” The man named Maddock shrugged. “Have your fun. The brat’s gonna take a million cocks soon enough anyway, so what’s a few more now, right?”

“What about you, boss?”
The underlings turned their bloodshot eyes toward their leader as he walked away from what they believed to be a breathtakingly beautiful girl.

“I’m not into little kids without a chest.”

“Yeah, that songstress’s tits are pretty fucking big, huh?”
The underlings guffawed and their leader shrugged.

“She also comes with a pretty fucking big price tag, but whatever. I’ll go check on the others, so don’t spend too long with her. We need to gather up everything of value and make ourselves scarce before the knights show up.”

“Yeah, yeah. We know.”

Maddock left and the rest of the men worked at stripping off Cloche’s clothes.

“I know you’re heartbroken the boss dumped you, but don’t you worry your pretty little head about it. We’re all the man you’ll ever need.”
“S-stop!”

Cloche wept, screamed, and struggled with all his might as the filthy men pinned him down and tore off his clothing, but the skinny arms of a child couldn’t budge the adult men. If anything, his resistance seemed to delight them more.

“C’mon, what’s taking you? Get her pants off already.”

His leather belt was undone and his pants pulled down past his knees.

The bottom of his shirt still covered everything up, but the alluring bare skin of his thighs delighted the men’s eyes.

“Heh heh heh. You’ve got some pretty legs there, girly. Now let’s get a look at that pussy.”

They grabbed his ankles and spread his legs. Then they reached rough arms toward the bottom of his shirt to take away his last line of defense.

(How will they react when they find out I’m a guy? They’ll probably be pretty disappointed. Ah ha ha… And then they’ll get mad and kill me. Fine, go ahead and kill me. I’ll come back as a ghost and take my revenge from beyond the grave.)

Cloche prepared himself for the worst, but then he saw a flash of light.

Lightning struck the rapists and they all stiffened.

“Eh!?”

The crackling roar of thunder arrived a moment later.

“Wha-?”

A figure rushed in after the lightning tore through the night.

With a slash so smooth it was beautiful, one of the bandits was sliced open at the gut.

“Gah…”

The bandit held his own guts in his hands and coughed up a lot of blood.

The attacker was a woman wielding a giant broadsword.

Her silver hair shined in the light of the burning homes.

She had the pale face of an ice sculpture. The bridge of her nose was long and her eyes were angled. Those purple eyes carried a fierce spirit.

“What? …You bitch!”

The bandits had watched in a daze as their partner was cut down. By the time they came back their senses, a second one’s gut had been sliced open.

The woman wore a white coat with gold borders. It had no sleeves, so her smooth shoulders and long arms were fully visible.

She wore a long black glove on her right arm and a bulky gauntlet on her left hand.

“Burn in hell!”
The bandits prioritized survival over lust, so they let go of Cloche, stood up, and raised their weapons. But their movements were tragically slow.

The initial lightning attack must have numbed their bodies.

“…!”

The woman said nothing.

Below the white coat, she wore a red leather miniskirt. Her tight stomach was left exposed, with only a thick leather belt worn around it. She wore knee-high boots on her feet, so her thighs remained bare.

At first glance, she looked like a fashionable young woman in the big city.

But the way she moved made her look more like the grim reaper.

She cut down more and more of the bandits with her giant broadsword.

And she always did so by slicing open their gut.

“Gh, gotcha!”

Even with the numbing of the lightning, one of the men managed to tense his body and grab ahold of the broadsword sticking into his gut.

“Nice try, bitch, but you’re dead meat now!”

Now that the woman had been stopped, a large man rushed in from the other side with a giant mace.

“Watch out!”

Cloche could only shout a warning. He was certain the woman had no escape without her weapon.

But she did not panic and thrusted out her left arm.

That hand wore the bulky gauntlet, but surely a mere gauntlet would just be smashed by such a large mace.

Lightning raced out again.

Several bolts erupted from her left arm like she had thrown a net. They enveloped the man’s body. After some electric crackling, the man’s eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed onto his back.

“Th-the Electric Mage Warrior!?”
The bandit with the sword still in his gut could only stare in shock.

“Hmph,” she snorted while pulling on the sword.

The bleeding and the death of all his companions had sapped his strength. The woman easily retrieved her sword and a veritable fountain of blood sprayed into the night sky.

The woman slung the blood from her sword with a quick swing, turned toward Cloche, and stabbed the weapon into the ground.

She looked to be in her early 20s. She was tall, broad-shouldered, and solidly built for a woman. But she didn’t look muscular enough to so easily wield that enormous broadsword with just one arm, so the weapon likely had some kind of magic applied to make it lighter than it appeared.

(Sh-she’s so cool. And pretty too.)

Cloche stared up at his savior.

The woman had the combat skills of the grim reaper or of a warrior god, so she looked like a goddess to him.

This was what they called love at first sight. And in his case, it was also his first love.

“Are you alright?”

A pained look appeared on her icy face as she reached out a hand to the boy.

“Um, yes. Thank you.”

His heart pounded as those angled eyes stared at him, so he quickly pulled up his pants and fixed the rest of his clothing.

Only after using those clothes to wipe the sweat from his palm did he take her proffered hand.

Once he did, she pulled him up and held him in her arms.

“That must have been terrifying, but you’re safe now.”

She gently comforted him and patted his back.

(H-her boobs, her boobs, her boobs are in my face. Th-they’re so soft. And they smell nice.)

A sweet milky scent entered his nose.

His mind went blank and his entire body tensed as his face was pressed into her soft chest.

A woman’s chest had a strange calming effect.

Her warmth, softness, and scent helped soothe the overexcited boy.

“Phew. Looks like you made it in the nick of time.”

He heard another woman’s voice from behind. Likely a friend of the warrior woman holding him.

“Yes, but she has a face wound,” calmly replied the warrior woman.

“Oh, dear. Let me see.”

The newcomer gently had the boy lift his head from the warrior woman’s chest.

He was relieved to be freed from the embarrassing warmth of those breasts, but he also felt some reluctance. The other woman’s face came into view.

(Wow.)

He nearly cried out loud as she observed his left cheek with a pained look.

He also observed her face.

She looked to be in her mid-to-late 20s. Her wavy chestnut hair reached her collarbones on the sides and her hips in the back.

She was more beautiful than the woman who had rescued him. She had long, smoldering eyelashes and light brown eyes with an almost damp shine to them. Her face was round and her lips soft. She wore exquisite makeup that gave her an alluring feel.

Cloche grew embarrassed from observing each other so close up, so he casually looked down to observe her clothing instead…and was rendered speechless.

(What? I-I can see…her cleavage.)

She wore a gorgeous garment of thin, white fabric. It resembled an evening dress and the chest was left mostly open.

It left so much of her two large, soft-looking breasts exposed that he could scarcely believe they hadn’t popped out already.

There was no way she could wear a bra with the sexy outfit and it required a lot of confidence in her own figure. He had never imagined anything like it while living in this rural village.

She also wore long, white gloves and her skirt was decently long.

“How those ruffians can hit a girl in the face I will never understand.”

“No, I-I’m not-”

He wanted to say he was not a girl, but he stumbled over the words when he noticed how unnecessarily sexy her red lips were as she spoke. She ended up chiding him for it.

“Don’t worry about anything, okay? I will magically heal it. We wouldn’t want this to leave a scar, after all.”

The bewitching woman touched her left hand to his injured cheek. The long, slender middle finger wore a ring with a large gem.

Her full lips rhythmically uttered an incantation and the swelling of his cheek rapidly faded.

“That should do it.”

She pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the tears from his face.

“Th-thank you.”

He was embarrassed having the dashing young woman and the sexy young woman looking after him like this, so he stood up to break free.

He immediately realized that had been rude, but they only stood up without showing any sign of taking offense.

Then the one with the bulky gauntlet gently rubbed his head with her right hand.

“Good job.”

“But…I didn’t do anything.”

His face felt hot.

He felt uncomfortable having women – especially ones as pretty as this – rescue and comfort him.

His masculine pride made him blush out to his ears in embarrassment, so he lowered his head. Then the woman who had healed him placed her hand on his other shoulder and gave him an amused look.

“You didn’t wet yourself with all that going on. That’s an accomplishment in and of itself.”

“I-if you say so…”

Her large breasts pressed against his shoulder – and he was fairly certain she did it on purpose.

(H-her boobs, her boobs…but I don’t want that other one to know how much I like this.)

Cloche’s mind was split between the sexy young woman’s breasts and the dashing young woman’s gaze. Meanwhile, the sexy one pouted her lips and turned the conversation toward the men groaning on the ground.

“You really are merciless when it comes to men and so kind when it comes to cute girls.”

Not one of the men who had attacked Cloche had died, but their guts had been slashed open.

That was not enough to kill them instantly, but it did take them out of the fight.

A slow death would eventually reach them unless they were magically healed, but these two did not seem kind enough for that.

Not that Cloche felt any sympathy for them.

The warrior woman glanced down at them with a look that said even that glance was more effort than they deserved.

“What else do you expect? Why should I respect the humanity of someone who refuses to respect a woman’s humanity?”

“Yes, yes.”

“We can hand them over to the knights when they arrive. If they decide these people are worth saving, they can heal them.”

Meanwhile, they would be left to suffer and feel death creeping up on them. Cloche could not even imagine how terrifying that would be.

He could tell these women were more than just kind.

(From what she just said, they must not be with the knights. They also don’t have a set uniform. Who are they?)

Cloche puzzled over that when a loud voice reached his ears.

“Captain! Captain! Captain! Captain! Caaaaaaptain!

A puppy-like girl charged in while shouting the same word over and over again.

The two young women exchanged a glance and then smiled bitterly.

“Reese, I’m over here.”

The one woman waved her gauntleted arm overhead with her gloved hand still on Cloche’s head.

“Oh, there you are, there you are. I have a message from the other team!”

The girl who ran over had a short spear resting on her shoulder.

She looked to be in her mid-teens, making her around Cloche’s age.

Her untidy black hair was held in a blue headband and she wore a metal breastplate. But that was the only armor she wore. On her lower body, she wore a type of extremely short shorts known as hotpants.

The extreme length of her boldly exposed arms and legs showed the imbalance of a still-growing body.

Her skin was healthily tanned, so her white teeth and the whites of her eyes looked all the brighter.

All that plus her baby face gave her the look of a girl who still did not think of herself as a woman.

After barreling up to the woman she was looking for, she made a quick hop to bring herself to a stop.

“We followed the plan and captured half the bandits, but it looks like their leader Maddock got away.”

The captain sighed at the report.

“I see. The scum of the continent do know how to make a quick getaway.” She shook her head to refocus her mind. “But this should have reduced his forces considerably. He won’t be able to attack whole villages like this. We took a lot of his men alive, so we should also have a lot of his information. The next step is to hunt him down.”

“Very true,” took over the woman pressing her large chest against Cloche’s shoulder. “It would have been nice to nab him here, but we did enough to receive a hefty reward from the knights.”

“That is where your skills come into play, lieutenant.”

“You can count on me.”

The sexy dress woman lightly slapped her own chest.

The short-spear girl seemed to finally notice the unfamiliar face because she peered at Cloche’s face and let out a cheer.

“Oh, a villager. Wow♪ She’s so pretty!”

“Reese,” chided the dashing woman being called the captain.

She likely thought the girl was being too inconsiderate in front of a war orphan who had just lost his hometown, his family, and everything else.

The scolded girl shrugged and stuck out her tongue, but then she ran off just as cheerfully as she had arrived.

Meanwhile, the knights of the local lord arrived.

It turned out the people who had saved Cloche were mercenaries. Command of the scene was handed off the knights and they recruited people from the nearby villages to examine the scene.

They ultimately concluded that Cloche was the sole survivor among the villagers.

“A slaughter of nearly 100…truly monstrous.”

Leaving the bodies where they were would have been unsanitary, so they built graves. Cloche silently helped without shedding a tear.

After a simple funeral he found himself standing before his family’s grave in a daze. That was when the mercenary captain placed a hand on his shoulder.

“So you were the only one we managed to save.”

“…Sorry.”

“But you survived and that means it was well worth rushing out here.”

She rubbed his weakly drooping head in the hopes of comforting him a little.

“You can’t stay here, so how about we take you to Aria?”

All of the houses had been burned to the ground and every villager except the one child had been slaughtered. It had already been a poor village, so it would not be rebuilt anytime soon.

Cloche still felt like he was wandering in a dream, so he boarded the wagon like she suggested.

 

“…”

Cloche awoke to find an unfamiliar ceiling above him.

That told him the events of the previous day had not been a dream.

His hometown of Luca was no more. The mercenaries who had rescued him had taken him to Aria, the closest large city.

They were in the Infermina Kingdom, a mountain region to the northeast of the continent that acted as a buffer between the Starving Wolf of Domos and the ancient kingdom of Ralfint. Aria was one of Infermina’s regional cities. It prospered as a trade center thanks to its position on a road leading southwest to the Vasrah Kingdom.

Aria was the largest regional commercial center, so it was where the villagers of Luca had gone when they needed to do some shopping.

Cloche had been given a guest room on the second story of the mercenary group’s office there. He had been exhausted physically and emotionally, so he had climbed into bed without removing his clothes or getting anything to eat and slept like a log.

The following morning, he had finally calmed down enough to think about what had happened.

His hometown was gone. His parents, his siblings, his grandfather, his grandmother, the neighbor kid, the older men, the older women, the young men, the young women, his friends – he had known everyone in that small village. The thought of them all being gone forever felt like a gaping hole in his chest.

What was he supposed to live for now? What was even the point of living?

Unable to work up the energy to get out of bed, he just stared up at the ceiling for what felt like forever.

(Oh, but I am hungry.)

He hated himself for feeling hunger right now. He tried to ignore it, but his growing body cried out in protest.

“Maybe they’ll give me something to eat if I head down.”

He had heard mercenaries were people who put their lives on the line for money. That was nothing like anyone he had ever known, so they scared him. Plus, he was all alone and truly penniless.

(I’ll ask for something even if it’s just some old leftovers. …I wonder if they’re going to sell me. Not that I’d care at this point.)

He crawled out of bed still in the filthy clothes he had neglected to remove the night before. Only when he looked in the mirror on the wall did he realize he was crying.

Embarrassed, he wiped away the tears and then hesitantly descended the stairs.

He found a great hall where people he assumed were members of the mercenary group were pleasantly chatting, reading books, or performing maintenance on their weapons.

“…”

He was unsure what to say, but then a young woman working on a bow noticed him standing awkwardly on the stairs.

“Hey, the princess is finally awake. Someone bring her some food.”

“Princess?”
Cloche was confused as a tall warrior-like young woman pulled on his hand and forced him to sit in a sofa in the center of the room.

“Finally up? You must be hungry, so eat up.”

The mercenary captain herself brought him some soup and bread.

The aroma of the chicken soup got his stomach growling, so he got to work filling it without speaking a word.

“You can really eat. How about seconds?”

The mage warrior who appeared to be their captain sat across from him and the other mercenaries gathered around to help in any way they could.

He had never imagined they would treat him this well, so he was taken aback.

“No, I’m fine. It was very good. Th-thank you. But I don’t have any money. Oh, but I will work off my lodging and food bill, so, um…”

His response was answered with laughter.

The captain smiled gently and rubbed his head.

“Silly girl. Kids shouldn’t have to worry about all that. Rescuing war orphans like you is part of our job and our mission.”

Wars were being fought all across the continent, which had led to new dangers. Bandits and thieves ran rampant, including some especially monstrous ones that attacked villages like his.

He had known that war orphans like him were common.

But he had not known that there were groups that worked to help those orphans. Learning that the world had not abandoned him was like a gentle light shining on his newfound despair for the world.

“U-um…could I join your group?”

The captain’s eyes widened a bit at his sudden request.

“I-I…don’t really know what a mercenary does, but if you work to rescue orphans like me than I want to do what I can to repay you.”

“…”

She fell silent. He could not bear all the gazes he felt judging him, so he did what he could to talk himself up.

“I-I might look weak, but I was taught basic martial arts by a retired soldier who lived in the village. So I’ll study really hard to become a proper mercenary in no time.”

People often thought of villagers as being no more than victims in this age of war, but they were not entirely powerless.

The kingdom would select entire villages for conscription and demand some percentage of the villagers serve in the military for a few years. Once their tour of duty was over and they returned to their village, they would gain a minor position of power there.

With major wars being fought, it was only natural for everyone capable of fighting to be conscripted.

So even a lot of villagers knew how to fight.

When a war was fought nearby, they could even make some extra money by hunting down deserters. Nothing was as frightening as a common villager to a knight on the losing side.

Cloche had been raised as an ordinary village boy, but he had often been mistaken for a girl and had decided to train in the martial arts in the vain hope it would make him look more masculine.

“I have nowhere else to go and there isn’t anything I really want to do, so won’t you at least let me put in some honest work for the captain who saved my life?”

“…”

The captain stared at him with a frightening look on her face.

(Is she going to refuse me? It’s not like I have anyone who can verify anything I say.)

However long it actually took, the silence felt like an eternity to Cloche, but the hard-faced young woman finally nodded.

“Reese, spar with him.”

“You got it♪”

The headband girl cheerfully accepted and scampered out into the courtyard, where she readied her short spear.

The courtyard seemed to function as a small training ground for the mercenaries.

“C’mon, let’s do this♪ Let’s do this♪”

Reese hopped from one foot to the other in delight. An overabundance of energy seemed to be her defining trait.

“Thank you.”

They were at least testing him to see if he was worthy. Appreciative, Cloche hurried after Reese into the courtyard.

He had ranked near the top of the children his own age in the village, so he felt like there was no chance he would lose to a girl his own age, even if she was a pro.

Even if he had to fight barehanded, he knew he had to capitalize on this chance. “Use this,” said a swordswoman, tossing him a wooden sword.

He caught it and readied it in his hands.

(Okay, I can win with this.)

Feeling even more confident, he faced Reese who was swinging her short spear around. 20-odd mercenaries stepped out to watch.

“Thank you for this opportunity.”

Cloche politely bowed and Reese responded by holding her spear out toward his eyes and grinning.

“Ready, set, go! Yahhhh!”

With a bold shout, Reese charged straight at him.

“That boar,” muttered one of the mercenaries, holding her head like she had a headache.

Despite the older mercenary’s lament, Reese’s spear attacks were swift and sharp. Cloche could barely keep up just defending against them.

“Kh.”

She kept up the attack until she struck his left forearm and he dropped his sword.

But she kept her attacks coming and was just about to pierce his throat when the captain barked a command.

“Enough!”

Pale in the face, Cloche fell to his knees and stared at his sword lying on the ground.

(I lost… I didn’t even come close.)

Was the difference between amateurs and professionals really this great?

They would never let him join now. He had finally found a reason to keep living and it had already been taken from him. He felt lost all over again and just stayed down on all fours.

“Please let me stay here. As you can see, I won’t be any help at all, but surely you can at least use me to block arrows or as a decoy. I don’t have a family to care if I die and no one needs me alive, so at let me do something for the captain and the mercenaries who saved me.”

Cloche’s desperate plea wrapped his surroundings in confusion.

“Hey, there’s no need to get so bleak. …Wait, did I just do something clueless again?”

Reese tilted her head as the captain stepped forward, smacked her on the head, and whispered “you be quiet” in her ear. Reese obediently did so.

Silence once more ruled. Until the captain finally spoke with a sigh in her voice.

“Okay, I accept. Cloche, you can join.”

“Eh? Really?”

He looked up to find her looking down at him with a complicated expression.

“Really.”

“Thank you so much.”

He was overjoyed as the captain walked over to him and mussed up his hair.

“We won’t use you to block arrows or as a decoy. And don’t say you don’t have a family to care if you die. From now on, we’re your family and we would care if you die.”

“Eh?”

Cloche looked around to see all the other mercenaries nodding in agreement.

“We welcome you with open arms. You are our newest sister.”

“Sister?”
The lieutenant walked over, took his right hand, and activated the magic jewel in her ring. His bruise visibly faded away.

“Yes. We refer to each other as sisters.”

“I see…”

That seemed like a strange custom to him, but when in Ralfint, as they said. He forced himself to accept it.

The captain turned to the girl fidgeting restlessly next to her.

“Reese, Cloche will be your new roommate. Try to be responsible for once, okay?”

“Yay, I finally have a little sister!”

The girl raised her arms and jumped for joy, but Cloche’s eyes widened.

“Eh!?”

The sexy lieutenant questioned his reaction.

“Why the surprise? Did you think a trainee would be given a private room?”

“N-no, it isn’t that.”

The thought had never occurred to him. He simply hadn’t expected to have a girl as a roommate.

“Now, I don’t think I ever properly introduced myself. I am Captain Elienne.”

The mage warrior hugged him and then kissed him on the lips.

“I am Lieutenant Katrina. Cute girls are always welcome here.”

The sexy healer woman also kissed him on the lips.

After that, a boisterous warrior, a stoic archer, a sharp swordswoman, a nervous-looking mage, a knife-wielding spy, and plenty more young woman introduced themselves to him. They all told him he was welcome and then kissed him in the lips.

“And I’m Trainee Reese. I’ve been on the bottom rung my whole time here, so I’m so happy to have someone new!”

Lastly, Reese jumped for joy again and also kissed him.

(Th-that was my first kiss…and then I do it with 20 more people afterwards?)
He could not stop thinking about their soft and youthful lips, but then Reese grabbed his hands and resumed hopping around.

“Cloche, you’re stronger than you look. You did really well for a complete amateur, so let’s train together and get even stronger!”

“Sure. I’ll do my best.”

He still hadn’t recovered from the rapid-fire kissing, but he scolded himself, telling himself he needed to work hard as the newcomer. But a further surprise was waiting for him.

Lieutenant Katrina made sudden announcement.

“Welcome, Cloche, to Electric Mage Warrior Elienne’s Mercenary Women.”

“W-Women?”

Cloche’s mind ground to a halt. He felt like the world around him had frozen and started to crack.

He took a hesitant look around to find that there were indeed only women here.

And all the mercenaries who had given him a welcoming kiss had been women too.

With everything going on, he had failed to pay attention to his surroundings and overlooked that crucial detail.

(Th-they all think I’m a girl…don’t they?)

While Cloche might as well have been an ice sculpture, Elienne got after her lieutenant.

“Don’t call it that. We are the Crystal Temple’s Infermina Region Aria Branch Unit. AKA the Thunder Gauntlets.”

The Crystal Temple was a famous civilian organization that raised warrior women. Women tended to become victims in this age of war, so it was a woman-led organization that taught women how to defend themselves.

Cloche quickly prepared to reveal his real gender, but then Elienne said more with a stern look on her face.

“And, Cloche, taking in orphaned girls like you is one of the primary duties of the Crystal Temple. Most of the women you see here experienced something similar to you. And now that you’re one of us, we will not treat you as a guest.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Instead of confessing the truth, he succumbed to the captain’s intensity and reflexively agreed.

Intense regret immediately weighed down on him.

(This is bad. Very, very bad. What do I do? What do I do? Ahh…but I really do want to work for this captain.)
He had already decided he would serve Elienne for the rest of his life and he could not imagine doing anything else now.

He wanted to be with her, but she led a group of mercenary women. He was still searching for a solution to that contradiction when Lieutenant Katrina led him to Aria’s knight station where he gave a detailed report on what had happened in Luca yesterday.

After that, they went through the tedious process to register him as a resident of Aria with “war orphan from Luca” as his reason for moving.

It was already evening by the time he returned to the mercenary office.

His real work and training as a mercenary were set to begin the following day and he ate dinner with the others. They were all very kind to the newcomer.

He sighed while helping clean up after the meal.

(Sigh. I can’t come out as a boy now. And what happens when they do find out?)

His depressed thoughts were interrupted by Lieutenant Katrina.

“Cloche, can you come with me for a bit?”

“Yes, what is it?”
Assuming she had some odd job for him to do, he followed after the sexy woman.

(Her back is almost entirely bare. And her butt is huge. It’s like a ripe peach.)

As a teenage boy, he had been unable to resist staring at her smooth back and wiggling butt during all the office work with the knights.

She led him to the basement.

(Huh, I didn’t know they had a basement.)

He took a curious look around while they walked through a thick metal door.

The heavy atmosphere he found confused him.

“Um, what is this place?”
“The torture room.”

“Oh…”

They were mercenaries, so it made sense to have one. It wasn’t a pleasant thought, but he knew the world wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.

“Now, stand here and hold out your hands.”

She gave the command so casually he obeyed without giving it a second thought.

With a nice clank of metal, he found metal shackles on his wrists. Then his wrists were pulled overhead.

“Eh!? Katrina, what are you doing?”
The world of a mercenary was entirely new to him, so he had decided he needed to experience everything for himself. But this he could tell was unusual.

“Stay still please♪”

Katrina worked to undo his belt buckle.

“Wait, what? P-please stop!”

He tried to struggle, but there was nothing he could do with his arms bound. She easily got his pants and underwear down.

“…”

They both silently looked down at his crotch.

There was of course a male symbol there.

“Hah, I knew it.”

“I-I’m sorry…”

He obediently apologized.

Since he had been agonizing over when he would come clean, part of him felt relieved for the truth to be out.

Meanwhile, Katrina licked her lips like a cat after catching a rat.

“Do you really think ‘sorry’ is going to solve this?”

She placed her left hand at her belly, her right elbow on the back of that hand, and her right index finger on her cheek.

“No, but, I, um, I, uh.”

He had no idea what to say and she gently stroked his cheek.

“As I’m sure you saw yesterday, Captain Elienne hates men. If she finds out you are a boy, she will kill you.”

“K-kill me!? …I see. So she’ll kill me.”

That was a shock, but then he meekly accepted.

(I have nothing to live for and I wouldn’t be alive if she hadn’t saved me. So having her kill me might be for the best.)

Katrina changed tack when she saw the look on his face.

“You likely aren’t aware, but Captain Elienne is a true elite raised at the Crystal Temple HQ.”

Sounds about right, he decided.

“It would be a serious blunder for a woman like that to allow a boy to join her unit of the women-only Crystal Temple. It would hurt her reputation.”

“So I’d be harming her.”

A disturbance akin to fear appeared in his eyes.

He didn’t care if he lived or died, but he could not bear the thought of causing trouble for the woman who saved him.

Katrina nodded, satisfied with his reaction.

“Yes, you would be betraying your own savior.”

“U-um, then what am I supposed to do?”
He gave her a pleading look and she viewed him like prey approaching her trap.

“You will have to keep your secret hidden. Then her reputation remains intact and you can repay her. A win-win, don’t you think?♪”

“Keep it hidden…”

“That’s right. If everyone thinks you’re a girl, there’s no problem. And with your looks, that shouldn’t be difficult.”

Katrina’s sweet poison slipped into the innocent boy’s ears.

“Understood. I will keep it hidden and work myself to the bone for the captain.”

“Hee hee. You’re in love with her, aren’t you?♪”

Cloche was astonished by her accusation and shook his head as hard as he could.

“I wouldn’t dare. She saved my life. She gave me this life, so I am simply dedicating it to her.”

“Hm, just like a baby bird imprinting on the first thing they see and deciding that’s their mother. But that’s fine. I will keep your secret as long as you obey my every command.”
“Eh?”

“My word is law for you from now on. Got that?”

This deal terrified him, but he had no choice in the matter.

“U-understood.”

“Ohhhhh, what a good ‘girl’ you are. As long as you obey, I will treat you right. In fact, I think you will enjoy this very much.”

She reached her right hand toward his crotch.

And her warm hand wrapped around the piece of flesh there.

“S-stop that!” he shouted, afraid of the melting sensation he had never felt before.

An indescribable throbbing sensation entered him from where her hand touched him.

“I don’t think you understand your situation yet. You are now my toy. Hee hee.”

He tried to resist, but with his wrists bound overhead, he could only jangle the chains.

His penis grew hard in her hand and she crouched down to give it a loving look.

“Ha ha. You have the cute face of a girl, but you have quite the impressive thing down here. It can’t seem to escape the foreskin, though. Hee hee. But I suppose that is common enough at your age. Very well, I will peel that back for you. You are at about the age to start doing that.”

A flush filled her cheeks as she wrapped both hands around his thing and worked at pulling back the foreskin.

“Hhh, ahhh! Th-that hurts! S-stop! Please stop! Ahh, wait!”

The foreskin gave way within her delicate hands, allowing the tomato-red head to emerge.

“There, all done.”

“Pant, pant…it hurts…p-please put it back.”

The head had never been exposed to the air like this, so it was in great pain.

With his arms bound, he started moving his hips as if he could use centrifugal force to get the foreskin back over it.

“No, this is a trial all boys must pass through.”

She was clearly enjoying herself as she watched his agonized reaction.

“A boy cute enough to be mistaken for a girl is even more exciting than I thought.”

When she wiped drool from her lips with the back of her left hand, Cloche felt true terror.

(Oh, no. She’s going to eat me. She’s really going to eat me. Help. Help me! I swear she’s just going to eat my penis from the head on down.)

He felt like he understood how an herbivore felt while face-to-face with a carnivore.

The carnivorous woman narrowed her eyes and observed the tasty meat in front of her.

“Hee hee. I haven’t done a thing and it’s already dripping with precum♪”

She sniffed, looking like she could barely contain herself.

“And it stinks. So this is one of those famous virgin cocks I’ve heard so much about.”

(Of course it stinks. I haven’t had a bath since before the attack. And why would you smell the place I pee from anyway?)

Cloche was terribly confused and made a weak request.

“L-Lieutenant, p-please stop this.”

Katrina tilted her head in apparent surprise.

“Oh? You’re this hard, but you want me to stop? I’m not heartless enough to do that. I got you this hard, so it’s only fair for me to get you off while I’m at it.”

She held his penis with her right hand and brushed her hair from her cheek with her left. Then she used her right hand to move the tip of the penis toward her face.

“Now, time for a taste♪”

She stuck out her red tongue and licked the red and swollen head.

“Agh!”

His entire body shook. It felt like a surge of electricity had raced out from within the urethra.

“K-Katrina, why would you…lick something so dirty…ahh?”

She held the shaft in one hand and continued to lick at the red fruit like it was truly delicious.

With each lick, another tremor ran from the head to the rest of his body.

As saliva coated it, the pain from exposure to the air faded. In fact, it was replaced by pleasure.

Each time her warm and damp tongue ran along it, it grew bigger and stood more erect, like it was trying to push her away.

(Ahh, what is this? My penis…my penis is melting. But why now?)

He did everything he could to resist a rapidly increasing need to urinate, but he finally hesitantly informed her.

“Katrina, please…please stop. I-I’m going to pee.”

She looked up in surprise.

“Pee? Wait, have you never ejaculated before?”

He didn’t know what that meant and blinked in confusion, so she brushed back her chestnut hair and gave him an alluring smile.

“I see. So you haven’t♪ That’s unusual at your age. But don’t you worry. I will teach you allll about it.”

She started stroking her hand up and down the shaft and took the head into her mouth where she licked and sucked at it.

“Hwahhhh… I-I really am going to pee.”

He trembled and cried out in a truly pathetic way.

She knew a secret that could easily get him killed, so he was dead if he upset her by peeing on her. But more than his own life, he feared causing trouble for his savior Elienne.

He tried to resist an indescribable sensation he had never before experienced, but he ended up pushing his hips forward regardless. His penis was curving even more as it continued to grow.

The sexy woman kept sucking his dick like she was forcibly taming a bucking bronco.

“Ah, ahh, agh.”

He could feel the pee gathering toward the tip. He wanted to let it out. It would feel so much better to just let it out.

He resisted that powerful temptation as best he could.

But his body soon overpowered his willpower.

“Ah, no! I can’t! The pee is coming out!)

His eyes widened in utter despair.

“Ahh, I’m sorry! Khhhhhhhhhhh!”

Unbearable despair ruled his body when the first shot erupted out, but unbelievable pleasure also pierced his entire body.

His bound arms, his sides, and his hips all shook.

“Mh!”

Katrina squeezed her lips shut to ensure none of the boy’s juices could escape.

More and more of the hot goop exploded out and she accepted it all inside her mouth.

“Ahhh…”

Scorching heat seemed to roast his brain as he released it all. And then he went limp, just like a tortured prisoner.

“Hee hee.”

Once she was sure he had let it all out, Katrina slowly removed her lips from his penis and looked up.

She used her tongue to enjoy the substance filling her mouth and then she swallowed it with a spellbound look.

“Ahhh, delicious♪”

Katrina placed a hand on her cheek and sighed in ecstasy.

“Excellent quantity and a strong flavor. Oh, not to mention the smell leaving through my nose and the stickiness as it goes down my throat. A cute boy’s first ever load is truly a special treat♪”

Cloche could not even imagine what she was so delighted about.

She licked her lips and then whispered sweetly in his ear.

“Well? Felt good, didn’t it?♪”

“Pant, pant, pant, yes, pant, but sorry about peeing in your mouth.”

He was still utterly confused, but when a powerful embarrassment came over him, he made sure to apologize. She gave him a sexy smile and kindly corrected him.

“That wasn’t pee; it was semen. You really are an ignorant country boy, aren’t you?”

“S-semen?”

She removed the shackles from the confused boy.

“Yes, you are cute and everyone here is nice, so I just know they will teach you all sorts of things. As will I, of course. I will be in charge of your sex education. Got that?”

“…”

Freed from his restraints, his hips gave out below him.

“Here’s Lesson 1: Always wash inside your penis’s foreskin to get rid all of the filth in there. Okay?♪”

With the sexy wiggle of her hips expressing her good mood, Katrina exited the torture room, leaving a dazed Cloche behind.