← Previous Chapter | Chapter Index |Next Chapter →

Naked DETERMINATION

Treat me to a Ko-Fi to give me more motivation!!!

*****

A burly knight clad in dull silver light armor was pinning the arm of the four-armed widow, who was dressed in a sleeveless black maxi dress. It looked like the knight was an investigator trying to drag her away on the spot, but the widow was vehemently protesting her innocence, resisting him with all her might.

「Behave yourself! This forbidden substance is all the proof I need. There's no talking your way out of this!」

The knight thrust a small vial right in front of the widow's face, making a huge scene for everyone around to see.

"Fake Elixir."

Often called a botched version of the legendary elixir of immortality, this drug tricks the body into thinking it possesses an astronomical amount of magical power, granting a false sense of omnipotence and temporary rejuvenation. However, the effects only last a few hours, and it's highly addictive—prolonged use turns the user into a literal undead. It was a forbidden drug utterly loathed by both the Kingdom and the Alliance.

「That does not belong to me! I passed through the inspection station's screening perfectly legally!」

「Hmph! The fact remains that you were hiding it on your person. We'll be thoroughly investigating exactly how you managed to slip past the inspection as well.」

The burly knight's eyes practically licked the widow's body, dripping with pure lust.

「I have absolutely no knowledge of this. I'm being framed!」

「...Oh? So you're saying that I, a Viscount appointed as a Special Knight by His Majesty himself, am framing a mere merchant's widow? That is a direct insult to me, and by extension, to His Majesty!」

The burly knight glared down at her, trying to intimidate her with a fierce roar, but the widow maintained her resolute composure.

Noticing the commotion, Arcelia was about to rush forward, but Rob caught her by the shoulder.

「Hold on. What do you think you're doing?」

「That procedure is unlawful! A special law drafted through an agreement between the Kingdom and the Alliance applies to this platform, and one of its core principles states that investigators must operate in groups of two or more.」

「...If it's just a principle, aren't there exceptions?」

Arcelia snapped her head around to glare at Rob, but her reply lacked its usual force.

「...True, if a suspect is caught red-handed, a single investigator is not considered an issue.」

The burly knight's sudden, solitary appearance and his aggressive demand for a body search could hardly be called catching someone red-handed. Yet, true or false, a forbidden substance had been found and exposed to the public eye. As things stood, it barely qualified as a red-handed arrest.

「Then you going over there isn't going to solve anything, right?」

「No, an investigator can lodge a protest regarding unlawful conduct.」

「Do you actually have the authority to intervene in a red-handed arrest?」

Arcelia couldn't find the words to answer.

『—That's exactly how they drag them down into penal slavery, you know? The Alliance knows all about it, yet they don't hand out a single penalty.』

Berta's voice drifted in from out of nowhere, and Arcelia immediately shot back.

「That is not true! The Alliance does not tolerate treaty violations and takes a strict stance against them!」

『Oh, they just issue a formal warning on paper and watch from the sidelines~』

Just as Arcelia was about to argue further, Rob muttered under his breath.

「...Well, I guess going over there wouldn't be totally pointless.」

Rob mumbled something else even quieter, then let go of Arcelia's shoulder with a light pat. Arcelia's eyes widened in brief hesitation, but she bolted forward anyway.

「Interworld Alliance, Omniverse Agency, Investigation Division—!」

But the exact moment Arcelia stepped between the knight and the widow to announce her jurisdiction...

The small vial in the knight's hand vanished into thin air, vaporized completely along with its glass container. At the exact same second, the widow's long dress slipped right off her body, completely disintegrating before it could even hit the ground.

The only thing left standing there was the widow, completely exposed.

To anyone watching, it looked like the vial and the dress had simply ceased to exist at the exact same instant. Having suddenly lost his vital evidence, the burly knight glared around the platform with furious eyes, unleashing a bloodthirsty roar.

「Who did that?! Show yourself! Are you trying to defy the Kingdom?!」

Of course, nobody was stupid enough to step forward after a threat like that. The roar died down, leaving nothing but a low wave of murmurs rippling through the platform. Even Arcelia, standing right between the knight and the widow, hadn't a clue what had just happened. But then she noticed the widow, who was looking desperately at her despite being completely naked. Her eyes darted back and forth between Arcelia and the knight's hands, which she clearly had no desire to look at.

Arcelia wasn't dense enough to miss what that meant.

The "Fake Elixir"—the sole piece of evidence—was gone. Even if the knight wanted to frame her, the widow was standing there completely buck-naked with absolutely nothing on her person, leaving nowhere to hide a thing. Therefore...

「Any further investigation is unlawful.」

Arcelia declared firmly. The knight's eyes flared with explosive rage. But when Arcelia manifested her shackles in her hands, he didn't take it any further. An investigator with an extraordinary ability—that was enough to make the knight think twice.

Arcelia draped her jacket over the widow, supporting her weight as they walked back toward Rob and stepped right onto the Interworld Train.

「As per regulations, please stand here for a moment.」

Right inside the train, on the deck just before the passenger cabins, the conductor Cubas gave the instruction, and the widow nodded complacently. The scan was over in just a matter of seconds.

「—Alright, everything is clear. Please enjoy the rest of your journey on the Interworld Train.」

Having undergone a full-body scan utilizing every possible method—magical, thaumaturgical, mechanical, and electronic—it was officially proven that the widow harbored no illegal items inside her body or anywhere else. This definitively proved that the burly knight's actions were nothing more than a setup to ruin her. Knowing this kind of inspection awaited on board, there was absolutely zero reason to bring a forbidden drug onto the platform in the first place. Furthermore, she had perfectly cleared the Kingdom's official checkpoint. Her innocence was undeniable.

「Thank you so much.」

When the widow offered her gratitude, Arcelia shook her head.

「I didn't do anything. Something just happened by coincidence. Yes, pure coincidence.」

Arcelia stared intently at the widow, but the widow just shook her head. She had merely capitalized on the situation in a flash of quick thinking; she didn't actually know what had transpired either.

The burly knight kept glaring toward the train long after the widow and Arcelia had boarded, but after a short while, he spat out a curse and stormed off. Rob watching the widow get scanned on the deck out of the corner of his eye, Rob took it all in and was about to fully board when he froze.

『Incinerating the Fake Elixir, then stripping her clothes and incinerating those too... Wow. I'd expect nothing less from the Hero who slew the Demon King~』

It was Berta's lazy whisper. Rob casually scanned his surroundings, but as expected, Berta was nowhere to be found.

「No idea what you're talking about. Did you see something?」

『Oh, not at all~ I couldn't catch a thing. But I highly doubt anyone else here could pull off a stunt like that besides you.』

「You could do it. And who knows, maybe some royal who inherited the blood of a great hero did it on the sly.」

『You don't have to lie to me, you know? I won't tell the Alliance. Honestly, it was a breath of fresh air~』

「Beats me. ...Well, let's just say for the sake of argument that I did do it. There's no proof. Long as you don't get caught, right? That's all that matters.」

Rob muttered the words to no one in particular and finally stepped onto the train, only to stop in his tracks again. Waiting on the deck right outside the cabins were Arcelia and the newly inspected widow.

「Glad everything worked out.」

Rob said simply, turning to head back to his cabin, but the widow casually linked her arm through his and whispered.

「...I heard you. You saved me, didn't you?」

「...Well now, I wouldn't know anything about that. But hey, if I *did* happen to save you, then there's something I've gotta do. See, if you and the Alliance are in cahoots, this train's body scan is totally meaningless. So, I think I'm gonna have to personally inspect every single inch of your body myself.」

Rob grinned like a total pervert, whispering the words back half-jokingly, but for some reason, the widow pressed herself even closer and smiled.

「...Very well. Please feel free to investigate to your heart's content, until you are fully satisfied, Mr. Hero.」

Stunned by the completely unexpected reaction, Rob's face went blank. (Wait, what?) But a guy's dirty desires are a troublesome thing; as she gently tugged his arm, he found himself walking along without putting up a shred of resistance. Arcelia could only stand there and watch Rob's back as he got pulled away toward the widow's cabin. She remained frozen in place even after he vanished from sight. After a few moments, she snapped out of it and retreated back to her empty cabin.

Moving with mechanical familiarity, she sat down on the sofa and opened her terminal. But as she went to type out today's report, her hands froze. With a heavy thud, she buried her face on the table.

Framing someone just to force them into penal slavery... Nothing like that had ever been mentioned in the Alliance's briefings. The complete inaction of the Alliance, which strictly hid behind its policy of non-interference in internal affairs, felt incredibly cold and heartless.

But above all else, Rob's words refused to leave her head.

*Long as you don't get caught, right? That's all that matters.*

You could argue that things turned out for the best this time. If he hadn't done it, the widow's life would have been utterly ruined. But she couldn't just overlook the fact that Rob might keep pulling stunts like this in the future. Slip up even once, and it's a slippery slope straight down the wrong path. A Hero, of all people, shouldn't end up like that.

But what was she supposed to do?

Arcelia's thoughts were a total chaotic mess. Ideas about Rob, the Alliance, and the Kingdom spun around and around, completely taking over her mind.

***

Granted entry with the conductor's permission, Rob found the widow's cabin to be a family suite. It was much larger than his own, featuring a massive bed. The toys and clothes scattered around gave the place a warm, lived-in family atmosphere.

「Where are the kids?」

「I left them in an acquaintance's cabin this morning. I am the only one obligated to carry out the Kingdom's reporting duties, after all.」

In the Kingdom, only a select few knew about the existence of the Interworld Train, and those who became passengers were strictly required to submit regular reports. Since Rob spent almost every single day hanging out in the second-floor lounge, he'd had plenty of opportunities to learn bits and pieces about her. Getting drunk and swapping life stories was practically a given.

Even so, he hadn't predicted that a mess like the one on the platform would happen, nor had the widow ever asked him for help. He'd just finally had a good night of drinking after a long time. The four-armed widow was a total beauty. He'd gone soft. And above all else, the idea of being framed completely ticked him off.

That was why, in that exact split second, he had drawn the gun at his hip and fired.

The exact moment Arcelia had stepped between the two of them, drawing everyone's eyes to her. Using his Beam Gun (Fire), he had instantly incinerated the "Fake Elixir," the sole piece of evidence. At the exact same time, he shot the clasps right off the widow's long dress, dropping it and vaporizing it before it could even hit the ground.

That entire sequence of quick-draw mastery was a skill Rob had trained entirely on his own since reincarnating. It was pure, unadulterated technique forged through hundreds of thousands of trial-and-error attempts and fifteen long years of brutal warfare. By masking his presence, erasing his initial movements, and utilizing thoroughly optimized physical motions, he had pulled off the entire sequence in a single heartbeat.

Arcelia's uniform jacket slipped away, pooling onto the floor. Once again, her naked form was completely exposed right in front of Rob.

「Please, inspect me from head to toe.」

The widow had been completely resolute on the platform, but right now, her modesty had clearly won out. She looked incredibly embarrassed, desperately trying to cover her private areas with her hands.

「...You know, I was only half-serious.」

Despite his words, Rob's eyes were completely glued to her naked body.

「But the other half was entirely earnest, wasn't it?」

Whether she was actually hiding forbidden drugs or not... For Rob, that was the single biggest issue before lending a hand. That was exactly why he had told Arcelia—who was trying to step between them—to bring the widow back to him instead of just boarding through the nearest entrance once she saved her. He hadn't taken his eyes off the widow for a single second.

In the end, since she passed the Alliance's body scan without any issues, Rob was perfectly fine letting the curtain fall right there. However, his old habit of verifying the truth with his own two eyes had slipped out as a joke.

「I believe those words came from your innate sense of justice as a Hero.」

The widow had seen right through Rob's dirty motives from the start. But at the same time, she knew the justice of the man who had lived his life as a Hero. The deeply human heroic tales she had heard countless times in the lounge contained genuine conflict and true justice. She couldn't allow him to warp that just for her sake.

「If you're only doing this out of a sense of obligation—」

「Do I look like that kind of woman to you?」

While it was true he felt a certain sense of duty, it was equally true that wasn't the *only* thing he was feeling. The widow gazed up at Rob with burning, passionate eyes.

With things turning out like this, there was absolutely no way Rob was going to say no. He gently reached out to touch her face, sliding his hands along her softly flushing cheeks, her ears, her mouth, her jaw, down her neck, along her arms, and into her armpits.

With every movement of Rob's hands, the widow began to let out breathless, agonizingly sweet sighs, her free hands working to strip the clothes right off his body.

Before long, their arms were completely tangled around each other, and they tumbled down onto the bed as one.

*****

Now you are thinking about a sext widowed version of Ranni, mother of 4, naked.

Thank you for reading. If you want to help my hobby please download and install LDP9 with my link down below. Just Click the small yellow LDPlayer Banner.