Chapter 601: A lewd, locked-room mystery
The garrison in Basson has extended its barracks, so there is room for us to stay for a night or two when we show up. However, the curious stares of the young men in the army are still a bit hard on the women in general. Therefore, Bauz and the ex-drug addicts were asked to stay at an inn in the city center. Many of the Lapal people have hardly ever walked in Celesta, even though they are……so we also put 100-man commander Becker on as a guide, just in case.
“……I feel like we’re getting a good riddance”
“It’s just your imagination”
“Well, I wouldn’t dare disturb you. ……I don’t want to be under the pressure of saying, if only you weren’t here, I’d be able to have a good time”
“I’m sorry, seriously”
My female slaves are quite greedy. Even 100-man commander Becker would give them a merciless look if he thought they were in the way.
“Well, good luck with that. ……Might let you watch, if you like”
“Please don’t”
“What the hell. You didn’t care at Renfangas fort”
“That place is that place, and this place is this place”
“Tsk”
I mean, is he trying to peek? It’s a fair distance to town. ……No, with his feet, distance is as good as nothing.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, leave this to me. It’s nice to spend a night in Celesta once in a while”
“Thank you”
Whether it’s food, drink or just a little fun shop, Celesta has its own fun side. In that sense, it can be said that I, who always has a night surrounded by female slaves waiting for me, can’t enjoy the pleasures of travel. No, I can properly say that I want to enjoy that. But, well, I don’t want to be extravagant. It is happiness to be wanted.
But more than that.
“This room. ……I see they’re sharing a room”
The room of James Lantz and Botts Goto, aka the Masturbation Brothers. The rule is that the ground floor is given priority to ogres and dwarves, but Lantz, who is normally a human, is also here. ……Yeah, well, those guys who are too serious and greedy about masturbation are a bit hard to keep up with as the rest of the squad and I think they’ve been kept together. ……Living in a room with two men, constantly surrounded by erotic picture scrolls and the smell of your partner’s semen…….
“……Ue”
Yeah, it’s just plain sickening. Then they should just do it alone. I can’t say anything bad about those soldiers who are more or less virgin men. Even though they haven’t been back for months, I’m already starting to lose the will to go inside the room, but I still muster up the courage to push the slightly oversized door lever (it’s an ogre match) and enter their stronghold. ……The room was curiously tidy.
“Is someone organising……?”
Now that I think about it, Goto is surprisingly good at organizing things. When I lived here, it was a one-person room and I was the only one who wasn’t supposed to be in it, so it was messy. And there are no 200-volume erotic picture scrolls…….
“Huh?”
It would stand out if there were that many, but I don’t see any of those in this room, which is ogre-sized and a bit spacious.
“……Actually, have the other guys already looted it?”
There’s been a reorganisation of troops in place of those guys, so that’s not so strange ……No, but hey. It’s indeed a bit disrespectful to loot personal belongings while you’re away for a bit. Is it right to see it as hiding……? But even if it’s something you’ve hidden yourself, it’s hard to do a treasure hunt in someone else’s room with……no hints. I’m at a bit of a loss, but I look under the bed anyway.
“…………”
There it is. One roll under each of the two beds. I wondered if they might have hidden it under the pillow……, but the pillow felt weird, so I fiddled with it a bit and it came out from inside. I knew it was one roll each. ……Maybe they’re all scattered in those 「Places where they can be found」? If I lightly open the four volumes I just found, I can see that the contents are not 「11 carefully selected volumes」, but rather less important ones. Is this……their own kind of risk management? If, for some reason, this place is searched, they will start with these easy-to-find items. And they’ll be a distraction, so they won’t get to some of the really important stuff…….
“……Well, that sense of urgency is fine……but if you’re going to ask me to do this, at least write down some clues……”
The list contained nothing but book titles. The book was not on the list, except for the name of the book and to some extent it could be here or there, but it was 200 volumes.
“The floorboards are cut into squares……means”
When I insert a knife and use it as leverage and lift up the floorboards, the erotic picture scrolls still come out. But even where it is slightly elaborated, it is still not one of the 11 scrolls. I turned them over here and there for an hour or so and about 80 scrolls came out, but none of them are important. I mean, I’ve looked through most of them too.
“The folds on this one look familiar……maybe this is the one I bought years ago?”
It’s even circulated among like-minded people in the unit. I don’t remember any erotic picture scrolls that I gave directly to Lantz and Goto, but they must have been added to their collections as they went round. ……But it’s not looking good at this rate. I’ve finished finding the places I’m looking for and the difficulty level is getting higher and higher. Even if it takes me until the morning, I’m not going to find 11 volumes. Should I have forced them to come after all? ……As I continued my search, I heard a knocking on the half-open door. When I looked up, I saw my former subordinates there.
“Long time no see, 10-man captain Smithson”
“I thought I’d invite you over for a drink after all these years, what are you doing?”
“Jean-Jacques……Ruckman”
Besides the two men, there were a number of familiar faces. Some of them I’ve never seen before. I’m not sure if they’ve come to see me, but they’ve come to see the 「Rumoured」 me. ……Yes, that’s right. I don’t like the idea of having the female slvaes looking for me, but these guys.
“……Actually, there’s about a hundred more erotic picture scrolls in this room”
“Eh, other than the ones piled up there?”
“That’s what the Masturbation Brothers……are all about, isn’t it?”
“Yes. And they asked me to give most of them to the guys in the unit”
“Really?”
“Yeah, they’re going to live in Polka now, so they want me to bring them the 11 volumes they can’t spare”
The former subordinates are upset by my words.
“That’s unfair! I want to live there too!”
“Me too!”
“I mean, Celestians are allowed to live there. That’s Trot, isn’t it?”
“I thought they had special privileges or something. That’s nice”
I raise my hands to stop them and show the list I’d received from Lantz.
“So I’ll give you the rest of the 11 volumes, so can you help me look for them? I don’t think I’ll be able to find them all by myself”
“Eh, did Lantz write these? The choice is a little delicate. I’d put the Dance of the Whore in here”
“Eh? I’ve never heard of it”
“I heard that a new art studio has recently opened in Harmonium and an up-and-coming painter there painted it. There are other erotic picture scrolls by unknown artists, but they are all pretty good”
“Ah, speaking of up-and-coming, did you know that Balbo Artworks split up? I heard that a lot of popular artists were pulled out and Atelier Moon Road was set up”
“I only know about the private ones, so……I’m sure the big ones are good, but they seem to be competing with each other with a weird style and it kind of turns my nose off”
“Yeah, yeah. But the volume of distribution for the private label is not so good……and it’s also expensive”
The conversation about erotic picture scrolls gets lively. For some reason, all my subordinates quite like them. I did preach at the time.
“Anyway, look for it. Also, I’d really like to see the whore’s dance next time”
“Yess”
“Have you looked in the ceiling where they might be hiding……?”
“The ceiling? I thought those planks in the ceiling were the floor”
“The ceiling’s a bit low here. Maybe one of them is……hey, someone help me”
The former subordinates work together to remove the ceiling boards. Indeed, there was another ceiling above the ceiling, as if it were a double bottom, pretending to be the same as the other rooms. This unit is cheaply constructed, so there is usually only a single floorboard separating the upper floor from the lower floor. And.
“Oh, there are! There are dozens of rolls!”
“Seriously!?”
It was a gold rush. Everyone worked together to carry the erotic picture scrolls down. But even among them there were no 11 carefully selected volumes.
“How many volumes are there?”
“Let’s see……wait a minute, hey, put them together in a pile of ten of each. Don’t worry about the varieties and stuff”
“……I think there’s about 170 volumes now”
“They’re still hiding 30 volumes……don’t you have anywhere else to hide them?”
“Wait a minute. The bed itself is suspiciously……dexterous of Goto, so it’s conceivable that he might have done something to the bedposts”
“That would be the desk or the closet, then”
“The doors are a bit thicker than the rest of the room, aren’t they?”
“Let’s check everything that looks suspicious”
“Yes!”
In the end, a total of 13 people searched the room and it was under the floor where the last erotic picture scroll was finally unearthed. Right next to what I had initially thought was the underfloor storeroom was another cleverly concealed storeroom, which was further double-bottomed.
“It’s all well and good taking care of them……but if they’re hidden so tightly, they’re rarely used, aren’t they?”
“It’s their thing, they’re willing to go to a lot of trouble for masturbation! That’s what they believe in”
“They’re such a nuisance!”
The former subordinates who share the erotic picture scrolls while saying that, in many ways, they are relieved. Those guys haven’t changed even if they have a new squad…….