We arrived at the library of San Ilia at after breakfast. There's many people already there, perusing the tomes and studying for their own purposes. I don't mind them that much. I was here for the same reason too. And the stack of books that I took from the shelves were a testament to my will to learn.
"Studying again?" Sophie whispered at the back of my head. "don't you get tired of reading all the time?"
"I am tired of reading, you little slut" I answered back with my thoughts. I'll look like a schizophrenic fool if I start speaking out loud to what amounts to a voice in my head. "It's just that there's so many things I don't know, and I cannot afford to not know"
The stack of books in my hand is growing larger by the second. God, I miss the internet. Don't get me wrong, nothing beats a good book in a leisurely day. The alluring scent of old books, the pleasant texture of paper under my fingertips, the comfortable weight of the tome in my hands. In physicality, a good book is a pleasant comfort for lonely days.
But I am not doing this for leisure. I am working, and books unfortunately cannot match the utter versatility and convenience of the internet. Back there, all I need is an internet connection and I have the entire collection of human information on my beck and call. Here, I have to go back and forth from my table to the dozens of bookshelves in this library to find that one specific book that may or may not hold that information I seek. It's too cumbersome of a research method.
"Interesting choices" Sophie whispered again. "I was expecting more geographics"
"As long as the map I bought is good and we have a good guide, it's all good" I replied again in my head. "Besides, if all else fail we have a bag full of Harpy Feathers if we need to get the fuck out of dodge"
"If you say so. But why the focus on pleasure?" Sophie asked, commenting on my choices of books I'm carrying to the table. "Aldi's Basic in Sexual Reproduction system by Professor Aldi Archibald, Semen 101 by Professor Howard Junior, A gentleman's guide to a man's genital By Rupert E.O Speedster, Mind Break! The insight of a tormentor and his effect on his victim by Diego Mojima. These are not your usual flavour Alex."
"I have so many things I do not know. How pleasure attacks work is one of them." The table is empty, good. Never liked company when I'm reading. "Magic, tech, geography, survival, its basic is familiar to me. But using actual sexual intercourse as a weapon rather than an infiltration tactic is unthinkable for me"
"You know Alex, we can always practice some pleasure attacks tonight" By the gods above, how can these people function if semen is all they think of? As alluring as her tone is, I got used to it.
"Every night is fucking practice night with you lot" I replied. I need to go find a proper doctor after this is all over. I can't just rely on the herbs and magic to heal my hips all the time. "Now shut up, I need to read"
I made myself comfortable on the wooden chair, preparing myself for the slog ahead. The content of the books offered fresh enough perspective and knowledge to make the trial less taxing. But almost an hour in later, I have to stop myself to collect my thoughts.
The main theme within the books spoke the same thing; corruption. It spoke of how pleasures weaponized by Monster Girls are capable of corruption as insidious as any other unholy methods. I saw how it worked first-hand; thus, I can attest to its effectiveness. What scares me the most is that the general consensus was that corruption is nigh-irreversible save for the few with unbreakable willpower.
I am confident in my own strength of characters, it is my pride and joy after all, to follow my own code no matter the cost. Celibacy was one of my tenets, yet every night I bedded two beautiful women. I deluded myself, thinking that I can stop at any time. But is that true? Compared to the evils I saw back home, the corruption wrought by the Monster Girls are downright tame in comparison, even noble at some point.
But that softness is what makes it terrifyingly insidious. By not appearing monstrous or damaging like the stereotypical devilish corruption of yore, it deceives others and its victims into thinking it was merely an innocuous love at first sight, and its pleasurable reward in indulging its instinct disincentivize any effort in curing the corruption.
The worst part is, I and Hito has little idea how to combat it. The closest analogue I can get to this phenomenon would be drug addiction; just switch out any hard drugs for sex and it surprising fits well. Dependency for pleasure, the growing addiction for stronger pleasure from your partner, the gradual changes in your mentality and physicality, the severe withdrawal from deprivation of your partner.
And just like drug addiction, trying to cold turkey that bitch ain't gonna cut it.
A disturbing thought wormed through my walls of thought and planted a root of doubt within me. What if I was already corrupted? Latina and Sophie at the end of the days are still Monster Girls. What if Hito was corrupted? How can I save him, if I did not know whether I am pure or not? Am I immune to the corruption or was I already corrupted? How do I know if I am corrupted? How do I fix it if I was? And if I figured it out, do I want to?
I let out a deep breath from the deepest recess of my lungs in a dramatic exhale. I have to do something else, rather than stew on this problem furthermore. I grabbed a few sheets of paper and folded them into a few small boxes.
I pulled out my Colt M1911A1 and started to disassemble it. It's a therapeutic habit of mine to find comfort in the familiar steel whenever stress is getting into my head. Sequestered away from public sight in a public library within a royal castle of a holy city, this place is as safe as I can get.
This world makes no sense. Nothing about it makes sense. The tech level is all over the damn place. The law of magic familiar yet alien to me. The insane obsession with lust and sexual intercourse as if I was in the Second Circle of Dante's Inferno. The ridiculous mutations of the secondary species that preys upon the human race. Higher powers playing games with our life again, their goals as nebulous as the stars itself. Even my rifle was twisted by the strange magic of this land.
5 paper boxes full of parts. Every part is interconnected, every part has a concrete purpose to it. Assembling the handgun was like assembling a beautifully complex jigsaw puzzle. Single-action, short-recoil, semi-auto, dot 45 Automatic Colt Pistol, 7 round mag, basic stuff really. But it's concrete, real, unchangeable.
The original has been too old and too valuable for me to carry anymore. But the reproduction is as good as the old one, if not better. It does its job well, no more, no less. As long as the law of physics remain the same, it will perform as expected.
A satisfying click, a pistol finally assembled. Everything is in its correct place; everything is as it should be. Magic is versatile, powerful, but its too mercurial to be relied on. A gun is a gun, it shoots when all condition is met no matter the cost. A mechanical reliability that has saved my life more than once. So what if the world's magic is skewed to all hell? So what if there's an anti-magic rune in place? It'll work as well as you do.
I slide the magazine back in, feeling more content at the assembled. Come hell, come heaven, come all you angels, devils, monsters, come all you twisted pariah of sanity and logic, this piece endures, and so do I.
"Fascinating"
Static shockwave travelled across my spine. I turned around to face my interloper, my breath shallow with anticipation. At that moment, all of my fatigue suddenly melts away from my body, replaced by a feeling of euphoria. The phantom pain that weighs down my head throughout my adventure suddenly disappears like morning dew.
The man was tall as I remember him to be. His green hair was now grown messy from the last time we met. He wore a pair of black cloak over a black shirt. At his waist was a pair of customized HKUSP45. He didn't change at all. Warts, skin tone, eye colour, not a damn thing changed aside his new uniform.
He gazed at me with warm aloofness. "Forgive me for being so impertinent. I was here to read some books, but I saw you take apart and put together that Makina of yours with fluid precision unlike anything I've ever seen. I am curious whether you are the person I am looking for"
I looked at him again and again, trying my best to dispel the illusion. It could have been an illusion; I must've lost what's left of my sanity as it is. I rubbed my eyes harder to the point it starts to hurt. Then I looked at him again. It was him. It was him. I have been scouring the whole fucking world for this asshole and here he was, right in front of me.
All I need is confirmation.
"Hito? Is that you?" I asked him. He raised a singular eyebrow at my inquiry.
"Yes, I am Hito. How do you know my name?"