The part of London in which Saber's target was supposed to be found wasn't exactly one of the wealthiest of the city.
She wouldn't go as far as calling it seedy but it certainly wasn't an area where Rin would wander purposelessly.
'What brought you here, Rin? What were you looking for?'
That answer to that question she would have to find out for herself, apparently. She had no doubt that she would succeed, but there was no guarantee that this matter was connected with Rin's disappearance. She could only hope that it was.
Saber proceeded from the bus stop to the address she had been given and she found herself standing in front of an Irish pub.
It was a bit earlier than business hours, but the door was already open. She stepped inside and found a man well into his fifties in the process of mopping the floor.
"Excuse me," she called out, making him look up and at her.
"Yeah? Can I help you, lass? We ain't open yet."
"Apologies. I was looking for a person and I have been told I could find him here," she said, taking out the phone and showing the picture of the man she was looking for.
The pub owner looked at the screen and sighed.
"Are you a bobby, lass?"
"A... bobby? Oh, do you mean a police officer? No, why would you think that?"
"Well, no pretty lady would ever come looking for this sorry excuse for a human being. Does he owe you quids?"
"Nothing of the sort. I'm looking for... a friend who has gone missing and I have been told that he might have seen her."
"Hrrmm," he grumbled, "you sure you ain't a bobby?"
"Quite," she nodded. "Do you know where I can find this man or not?"
"Yeah. Yeah I know. He's renting a room from me up here," he pointed at the upper floor. "Ah, you won't find him now. He's probably at his job if he was sober enough to remember his way there when he left this morning."
"Where can I find this place?"
"I have the address right here but... it ain't no place for a pretty lass like you."
"Your concern is appreciated but unnecessary," she declared. "The address, please."
"Your call," he shrugged, scribbling on a slip of paper that he handed over to her. "Here ya go."
"Thank you, good sir. I'm in your debt."
"Yeah, do me a favor then. Tell that drunkard that he's late for rent again."
"I have no problem doing so, but why not telling you himself?"
"Cause he's going to more inclined to hear what a pretty lass like you has to say than anything that would come out of an old codger's mouth like me," he laughed.
Saber inclined her head in acknowledgment and left.
Her new destination was about thirty minutes away on foot. There was no cab to be hailed and figuring out which line would get her there would probably take longer than just walking there.
With a sigh she started marching. Running would consume more Mana and she would attract attention. It took her only twenty minutes to arrive but by that time it was already completely evening.
Now, this part of the city was seedy. Not quite a slum but certainly on the poor end of the spectrum.
The address belonged to a shop with strangely tinted windows. Over the door there was a sign that identified the establishment as the "XXX Lounge."
Though a weird name, Saber had no clue what the triple-X stood for and didn't pay it any mind. She pushed the door open and walked inside.
Unlike that outside, the inner part of the shop fared in better conditions. The dark floor looked squeaky clean and the various shelves were neatly organized.
However, Saber couldn't say that she wasn't uncomfortable. Posters of scantily clad women hanged on every wall and the merchandise exposed consisted of weird clothes and objects shaped like human genitals plus a number of other things she couldn't identify.
'What kind of place is this?' she asked herself. That was a ridiculous question and she realized it right away.
What purpose could genital-shaped imitation have, other than replicating the functions of the originals?
Saber didn't know such things existed and certainly she did not suspect that there would be shops that sold them.
Every day she discovered new depths and new dimensions of human sexuality.
She knew, of course, how powerful a need reproduction was to human beings, but she always believed that it stopped at the fulfillment of its own function. She would have never thought that there would be an entire industry catering to it.
Well, that was a thought for another time. She was here to find out where Rin had been whisked to and that's what she would do.
She approached the counter, where a young man no older than twenty was fiddling with his smartphone.
"Excuse me."
The clerk looked up at her and blinked several times, like she was completely out of place.
"Yeah, can I help you lady?"
"I was looking for a person, one James Wright. I have been told you that I could find him here."
"Ah, damn. What the hell did he do this time?"
"Pardon?"
"He's got in trouble again, right? What did he do?"
"There is a misunderstanding. To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Wright has done nothing wrong. I have simply been told that he once saw a friend of mine who has been missing for a while."
"Whoa! Look, James is a piece of scum but even he wouldn't hurt a woman."
"And I'm inclined to believe you. I simply wish to know what they spoke about."
"Well, he's not coming in today. He asked me to cover for him cause he was too drunk to stand. He's probably passed out on some street corner that lazy bum."
"I see," Saber said sourly. "Perhaps you can help in his place. Here, this is her. Have you ever seen her around these parts?"
She gave him her phone upon which Gerard had also sent a picture of Rin, in case her target didn't know her by name but only her face.
"Uh... She looks familiar. Wait... I think she came by some time ago."
"What? When was this exactly?"
"Two weeks ago? No, it was at least three weeks. Maybe as far back as a month. I'm not sure of the day. Yeah, she came here one evening looking for James too."
"What did she want from him?"
"I don't know. James took her in the back room and they talked some. She left a few minutes later and James came out grumbling some explatatives about her that you wouldn't like to hear. Never saw her again after that."
"The back room? Can I see it?"
"Uhh... well. There's no reason why you shouldn't but there's really nothing to see back there."
"Nevertheless, I would like to see it please."
It was unlikely that she would find a clue about Rin's whereabouts, but it wouldn't hurt to check, not when it was right there.
"Whatever," he shrugged. "Come with me."
"Thank you. Sorry for the bother."
"Nah. It's not like I wasn't bored out of my skull or anything. Here you go."
The back room was merely a storage area with some boxes lined up against the wall and some shelves with more of the shop's merchandise.
There was nothing worth nothing except that against the farther wall there was another door.
"What's behind this?"
"Oh, that's the... uh... recording area."
"Recording area?"
"Yes, ah... someone like you probably wouldn't know."
"Then explain it me," she insisted.
"Well it's a... it's a... a gloryhole set."
Saber tilted her head questioningly. She was not familiar with that term. How does one go about putting glory inside a hole?
"I told you you wouldn't know," the young man repeated upon seeing her reaction.
"Which is why I have asked you to explain it to me. What is this gloryhole thing?"
"It's... Basically it's a room with holes in the walls about the size of a fist, which connect to adjacent rooms. People, uh, men enter these outer rooms and they, ah, stick their, you know, their dicks through these holes so that the woman in the central room can do... well, what a woman wants to do with a bunch of dicks."
Saber blinked, processing his words and picturing the scene how it would look. A room... with cocks coming out of the walls.
"That's... I didn't know such places even existed."
"L-Like I said! So, anyway your friend hasn't been there. We sell the videos of all the women who use this room. That's how we profit from it. You can find them on the shelf right outside. See for yourself."
Of course Saber didn't think that Rin would have taken part in such things, sadly. However this was a new twist in her discovery of human sexuality and she couldn't help but being curious.
She approached the shelf in question and started checking each DVD. Each cover had a different woman on it, some had two.
"All these women went inside of that room to have sex with strangers through a wall," she muttered.
What was the point of something like that? Why would men have sex in such a convoluted way? Why would any woman debase herself so?
Of course they would probably profit from the sale of the videos in which they starred, but what was the appeal of this act, both for the people who took part in it and for those who bought these videos?
For the life of her, Saber couldn't figure it out. Then again, what did she really know about sex and the way it influenced people's lives?
The few notions she had about the topic had been thrown out of the window and caused her to feel confused.
A product of her ignorance, no doubt. Perhaps it would be better to stay away learn more so not to be caught flat footed again.
She looked at the cover of the video in her hand. It featured a tall-looking woman with blonde hair and generous breasts huge tits.
She blinked.
'Am I really considering buying pornography? No. Yes. But why? What would be the point of it? None. It's necessary to understand p̶̨e̛͝͡o͘͝p͘l̡e sex better. '
Indeed, just because she was a reluctant participant that didn't mean she could allow herself not to improve. It wasn't different from combat, really. She had to learn how to do it well, whether she liked it o͢͝r n͢͝ơt͟͡.
It was integral to her mission to help Rin in the end. Besides, worst case scenario she could employ whatever she learned with Rin a̴n͝d̵̀ ̷S̶͟h͠͝ìr̸̛o̡̕u̵̢ once everything returned to normal.
'Indeed, I would only benefit from learning more about the sexual arts,' she decided.
Although she felt embarrassed about it, she wouldn't let that stop her. Once the right course of action has been established, it must be pursued without hesitation. Her feelings on the matter were irrelevant.
The King wasn't human.
Having made up her mind, she walked back to the counter and slid over the video.
"How much for this one?"
"You're buying it?" the clerk said, looking mistified.
"Is there a problem?" she asked.
"No, it's just... you don't look like the type who'd like this sort of things."
"I have never seen anything of the sort, therefore I cannot say. However one must never wallow in ignorance. It's fundamental to learn new things."
"That's, uh, a great disposition to have. If you are ever interested in finding out more, our shop is open twenty four-seven. Here's our card. We also accept mail orders and we deliver our merchandise in anonymous packaging anywhere in London within three hours."
"Thank you," she nodded, she nodded taking the card and the bag which contained the video she had bought. "If you hear from him, please, tell Mr. Wright that I've been looking for him and that I will return tomorrow. I must speak with him with the utmost urgency."
"Sure, I'll do that. Come back any time lady."
Saber left the shop, clutching the bag to her chest. She pulled out the phone and sent Gerard a message about the situation.
There was no point in calling him to tell him that she had missed her target.
Since her apartment wasn't too far away she elected to walk back home. Perhaps a bit of light exercise would help calm down the heat in her body.
It was a whimsical thought, but one could only hope.
Once home, Saber quickly disrobed and put on the video she had bought, pulled herself a seat in front of the TV and started watching.
"Alright," said the person behind the camera, "tell us about yourself."
"Hi, you can call me Selene, I'm twenty-five years ol-"
Saber hit the fast-forward button and skipped to the next scene. Selene was next to the wall, sitting on her heels, facing the camera. With the walls being completely black in colors it was hard to tell, but there was actually a hole next to her face.
Saber noticed only when the figure of a man's cock entered through it, poking the woman in the cheek, causing her to smile.
What followed was thirty minutes during which she did nothing else but service cock after cock, with her mouth, with her hands and eventually with her pussy as well.
Saber watched in complete concentration as the woman on the screen emptied one set of testicles after another of their creamy content, spilling some on her body only for the sake of putting on a show.
Saber's lips had gone dry and her mouth felt utterly empty.
This woman was being used as a set of horifices, plain and simple. No, that was not correct. She used herself as a set of horifices. With the walls between her and her partners they could not make her do a single thing.
In that room there was just the woman and the cocks she was so eagerly servicing.
Saber could say that she had never seen something so utterly dehumanizing.
A machine is what the woman on screen was. A bestial machine, but a machine nonetheless.
Indeed, calling her an animal would have been too kind. Animals do not copulate indiscriminately. They choose they partners accurately.
This woman clearly didn't. Whomever appeared through the holes in the wall she would welcome with the holes of her body.
Similarly, the men who participated in this act merely stuck their member into a slot and it got taken care of. In this affair, the identity of the person on either sides of the wall was immaterial.
She - It - was just a hole.
It was a disgusting display. Or it should have been.
Saber couldn't help but find something beautiful in this display, in the way which the woman received everyone.
She did not differentiate and she did not discriminate. She removed her own preferences and accepted everyone regardless of who they were or where they came from.
Saber didn't know what brought that woman upon the path that took her there, but surely mere carnal pleasure couldn't be the reason.
An objectively attractive woman like that could have had as many lovers as she could have wanted, yet she chose a path of self-denial, discarding her humanity in favor of performing a function.
It was something that Saber could understand well, something she could empathize with, s̢om҉eth͞i̷ng ͏she̡ ̡co̶u̶l͞d ͡s̸ee h̡erself ̢doin͘g͏ because she had already made the same choice in the past.
At the time, the people needed her to cast away her humanity and respond to their needs. Thus, she did so and she became the King.
And here was another woman had cast away her own self and everything that made her human in a diametrically opposite way, in order to respond to the needs of the men that gathered in that place.
It was such a selfless endeavor that Saber couldn't help but admire it. At a very basic level, it was exactly what Saber herself had tried to achieve her entire life.
How could she not admire that? How could she not respect a woman like that? She couldn't, and thus yet another prejudice she held in her heart came crumbling down.
'Perhaps there is some nobility in these lascivious practices. Maybe there is truly some merit to what Veronica said.'
The whole purpose of society was catering to the needs of people and among these carnal needs are the most compelling.
Food, shelter and reproduction. The continuity of human life.
Every aspect of society existed to make the fulfillment of these needs simpler, easier to access. And what was the King if not the symbol of this purpose? The very embodiment of its spirit.
That was why the King could not be human, because to be such is to have needs of one's own, the pursuit of which would get in the way of performing its functions.
The King existed for the people. In that regard it was nothing more than a machine, a tool, a wish-granting device.
Just like that woman on the screen.
No, to call her a woman would do her no justice, it would diminish her sacrifice and rob her of the merits she accrued towards society.
She was a masturbatory aid, plain and simple. Both through the act itself and the video produced from it, her role was to provide relief by emptying the balls of every man that came to present their manhood for that purpose.
'It's beautiful.' Saber thought. 'She is truly someone to be admired.'
She thought she could understand what Veronica meant. Certainly she could not agree that cheating was right, but she understood that there could be good motives, noble motives, to do it.
Besides, she already knew that. She was doing it so herself.
The things that one had to in the course of one's duty were part of the duty itself.
Going to war, razing her own villages for resources, c͏héa͝t͟i͘ng̀ ̨o̷n ͠h̕eŗ ̸belov̛ed one͢s̡... she would rather not do those things but they were all part of her duty and therefore she would perform them all with equal resolve, without shame and with her head held high.
A King could do nothing less.
Eventually Saber retreated for the night. Although she was impossibly aroused she didn't try to masturbate. She already knew that it would have been a pointless endeavor that would only make her consume more energy.
There was only one thing that could simultaneously satisfy both her needs but she would not be getting it until the next day.
She shut her eyes, replaying in her head the scenes she had watched on screen a little earlier. She did not fall asleep.
The throbbing of her heart that echoed deep in her nether regions would have made it impossible for her mind to reach that stage. Yet, as she pondered the way that woman had degraded herself to a mere tool she found a strange sense of tranquility wash over her.
Her arousal did not decrease in the least and it kept burning hot between her thighs. However the throbbing quieted and she found herself somewhat at peace.
'What a peculiar state of mind,' she wondered, aroused but strangely clear headed. It was like her mind and body were two distinct things, yet not at conflict as they used to be just a few days before. Two creatures that had been baring their fangs at each other were now checking each other warily.
A Human and a Beast. Reason and Instinct. Purpose and Need. Two separate entities that should not be able to coexist yet somehow did. Was there a way to reconcile the two?
This tentative truce was brought about by the vision of that person who seemed to embody both traits and neither at the same time.
Neither Human nor Beast, yet clearly both at the same time. A tool with the purpose of fulfilling needs. A recipient for desires.
A wish-granting device.
Was it not such the nature of a King? 'M͏͖͔a̷y̸̱̘̜ḇ̮̪͢e̡̲̖̯ it is. Maybe I neglected some fundamental step when I took the sword from the stone.'
To become the perfect King, she sealed away her life both as a person and as a woman. She had sealed away both the Human and the Beast.
Mayb͠e I̢ sho̢u̡l̶d̵ ̢h̢av̶e émb̛r̶ac̛e̡d ̧b͘otḩ ̴i͜n͏st͘ea͡d̷?̷ ̨R͏a͏t̷he͝r than ̕c̴a̶st͏i̶ng ͞aw͞ay e͜very͏th̷i̛n͢g ̀I ̧sh́o̸uld ̷h̴a͠ve͜ ̵kept it ͏all?
Her thoughts became deeper and deeper until she slowly slipped past the line of true consciousness until she was in a trance like state.
A soon as Saber mind went below a certain threshold, the seal above her pussy started to appear, pulling her further down until she could not return to her conscious state any longer.
With her mind now completely locked out, it resumed the work started two nights before, reinforcing what had already been done and extending to more superficial objectives.
A spiritual body like that of a Servant doesn't truly have a definite form and it's shaped by the soul of the Heroic Spirit that's put inside of it.
Saber was an exception to this rule, because she wasn't truly dead. However, by the sake token, it could still develop if there was any growth left to be done.
The purple-black tendrils stretched across her skin, soffusing energy across every inch of her body. If Saber had been conscious she would have felt something like an electric current shaking every cell of her body, stimulating their life cycle.
It would have been an exceedingly painful process if she hadn't been forcibly kept down under, but in her current state she was completely unaware of what was happening.
Still, there was only so much work that could be done in a single night and once the first rays of dawn started to peek over the city and into the window to her room, the tendrils retreated swiftly to their hiding place.
A few minutes later, the King of Knights eyes opened, ready to face another day full of wonders.
XXX