Dark Lord in Chains 126 (Patreon)

Deciding on what to do next didn’t take much. I could have tried to decipher the writings on the wall, but with the leather-clad explorer next to me examining the walls with a focused expression, I could see that asking her would have been the easier path. 

Of course, I couldn’t just come and ask her about that, not as a random mercenary. It would be suspicious of me to ask her about that … so instead, I decided to pick a more ordinary path. Flirt with her, and impress her a bit, so she works to impress me. 

Hopefully through giving a lengthy breakdown of the situation. 

Not exactly a bad strategy since I had nothing else to do. I used our closeness to examine her once more. As she leaned forward to put the finishing touches on my bandages, her jet-black hair spilled in front of her face, blocking her beautiful face, leaving me with no option but to examine her outfit. 

I had to admit, her leather ensemble looked good, especially as it looked like it showed some wear and tear that showed a lot of adventures — and not all of it particularly close. She must have been very familiar with going around dangerous locations. 

Admittedly, she hadn’t been particularly impressive in terms of combat, but still, not folding in panic as the horde of mana shadows attacked was enough to show she was not unfamiliar with danger as well — just not that same intensity. 

It seemed that my old ‘friend’ had been careful while he trained her. 

While she worked, I turned my attention to my surroundings, a few glowing crystals illuminating the environment. I didn’t know how they worked, but throttling their magical connection wasn’t that hard, subtly changing the lighting of the room to something that could be called amorous. The change wasn’t that impressive, but every little bit counted. 

I followed it with a few other subtle spells, getting rid of some of the more annoying debris, creating a subtle yet nice smell that dealt with the stale air…

She was not particularly sensitive to magic — nor she had the necessary training — missing most of the magic tricks I had done. Though, she looked around in confusion as the smell changed, showing that she was still careful to observe her surroundings. 

“Do you mind helping me get rid of my armor and shirt,” I said. “I don’t want to deal with their bloody messes?” 

“Are you sure?” she asked. "The situation might be dangerous. You have seen what happened. I wonder if they are alright with what was going on…”

“Don’t worry about it,” I answered. “The captain is a very famous mercenary who made his reputation handling magical beasts. A bunch of mana shadows is not really a challenge.” 

“Are you sure? There were a lot of mana shadows. How long do you think it’ll take to handle those.” 

“I’m confident that they are all fine,” I told her as I patted her shoulder, using the excuse to get some physical contact. “Though, cleaning the monsters will take quite a while, at least a day or two,” I said. I didn’t want her to try to open the gate. 

“Really, that long? What are we going to do inside with no help? We don’t know just how safe we are in here.” 

“I doubt we have any problems, you seem like a very competent explorer,” I answered, greeting her a bit. A little compliment about her competency never hurt, especially during a task she was clearly invested in. “I’m sure we can handle it for a day or two, and then they could open the gate again once they arrived.” 

The last part was not possible, not only because they were very much dead, but also because her blood was needed to open the door, but there the trick Mrin had pulled worked to my benefit. She didn’t know it was her blood that unlocked the magical door, so believed it was possible for the others to open it as well. 

“Really, you trust me?” she said, looking shocked. Clearly, it was not a statement she heard a lot … which, thinking, wasn’t too surprising. At a glance, she had fulfilled every little check-box about spoiled nobles, and that was hardly something that gave people confidence — especially without any obvious martial or magical talent. 

However, the way she moved around the ancient ruins, identifying traps and danger areas was certainly exceptional, enough for me to actually trust her in non-emergency situations. 

And, I had enough experience to handle emergencies. 

“Of course I trust you, you are very competent clearly,” I said, then gestured around. “And you clearly know about this place far more than I do, so it’s a nice bonus. Now, please help me get rid of his bloody mess.” 

“Sure,” she said, but as she helped me to get rid of my bloodied shirt and armor, a blush spread on her face, the earlier adjustments helping even more by making the area slightly romantic. I could feel her hesitancy as her fingers dragged down along my body, exploring the accents of my body. 

A bit faster than I expected, certainly, making me think whether I had made a mistake and used Tantric, but checking my presence showed that it was not the case. 

It took a while for me to realize it was just the after-effects of the explosive excitement she had just felt, followed by being locked in a man who had just wounded to defend her — well, a bit indirectly, but good enough.

And my muscular chest certainly helped. 

Sometimes, things just clicked. 

As her finger lingered down on my arm, she looked at my bandaged hand sadly, looking guilty. “You’re wounded because of me, I’m sorry,” she whispered.  

I smiled at her gently. 

“Don’t worry, it’s not the worst thing that happened to me,” I said as I patted her shoulder once more, though this time pulling her closer. “No help crying after spilled milk,” I said. 

“You’re right,” she said, then chuckled. “Since we’re going to travel together for a while, we should properly meet,” she added. “My name is Audrum, what’s yours,” she said. 

“Byron,” I answered, more out of amusement than anything else, aware that it was much less known than my actual title. I particularly doubted that she would assume the random mercenary she met was the dark lord just because of the name. 

Sometimes, entertainment opportunities were hard to turn down. 

She pulled back a bit after her initial flirting, clearly not ready to push for more. I let it go, as I needed to make her take the first step — and, I didn’t want to use any magic directly on her, not wanting to trigger any possible protective mechanism in the ruins in case they somehow registered her after she opened the gate with her blood.

Luckily, even without fun starting, I had enough to keep me occupied. I had a delicious eye candy for me to enjoy, wrapped in leather. She might be dressed in utilitarian pieces, but they were tight enough to make it fun, and the little marks of dirt on her face just made things even more attractive. 

“I should check where we are,” she murmured as she stood up, her luscious dark hair, somehow managing to shine under a thin layer of dust and dirt. I paid more attention to her skin, still softly glistening. 

“Any idea about where we are?” I asked as I stood up next to her as she examined the walls, though when I acted like my head was spinning, she was quick to support me. 

“Still not completely sure,” she answered, quick to explain to hide her blush. “We’re trying to find the source of these ruins for almost a year, though no matter how much we worked, we’re yet to put a general timeline. We just know that they are old.” 

“Really, older than the Empire?” I asked, acting like an uneducated mercenary. It was obvious that it was older than the Empire. 

Significantly so. 

“Certainly,” she answered, not smug about correction. “Probably by centuries.” She pointed at a certain part. “Look, this part describes the source of a battle, some kind of alliance forcing against the owner of the ruins, winning against them pretty handily as well, forcing them to escape into different countries.” 

“Do they look like some kind of firebird?” I asked, pointing at a phoenix,” I said as I tightened my arm around her waist, amused by the way she leaned against my chest, her leather ensemble doing little to block the effect. 

She was, even more, turned on by the recent danger if that was the way she acted. 

How entertaining…