Chapter 478: Unknown substance

Aegis entered the mansion almost gleefully, looking around with the kind of excitement that made Kouhei wonder whether she had completely forgotten that she was walking into the home of someone she barely knew. She did not seem suspicious in the slightest, and considering everything that had happened recently, that alone was probably enough to make anyone else nervous.

It was the sort of situation where a person would normally have at least a little warning bell going off somewhere in the back of their mind. Maybe the place was too large, maybe Petra was being too friendly, or maybe the fact that they had practically been invited inside without much explanation should have been enough to make Aegis hesitate.

For some reason, though, Aegis was simply not bothered by any of it.

Was that just part of her personality?

Kouhei figured it probably was, because she would not have been this cheerful if there was not something about her that made her naturally trusting and curious. She looked less like someone entering a potentially dangerous mansion and more like someone who had just been given a free pass to explore a luxury hotel.

"It’s really so huge... I’ve never entered a place like this before...!" Aegis said, looking around the mansion with obvious amazement.

Kouhei stared at her for a moment before sighing internally.

’Doesn’t she know that she can’t trust strangers this easily?’

The entire situation reminded him of those ridiculous stories where some suspicious stranger would lure children over by offering them candy before kidnapping them. The difference was that Aegis was an adult, she was fully capable of defending herself, and yet somehow she was still walking around with the same level of innocent excitement that made Kouhei want to grab her by the shoulders and ask whether she had learned anything about basic caution.

He honestly had no idea what was going through Petra’s mind either.

Petra had already said that she did not really intend to do anything, but Kouhei was not naive enough to take those words at face value. People did not usually bring someone into a suspicious mansion for absolutely no reason, and Petra had never exactly given him the impression that she was the type of person who explained everything upfront.

For now, Kouhei decided that he would simply keep an eye on her.

"Fufufufu, you can enjoy yourself here for the moment, and I’ll go prepare something for us," Petra said.

Kouhei watched as Petra turned around and began walking away, disappearing farther into the mansion.

His eyes remained on her until she was finally out of sight.

For some reason, Kouhei was feeling incredibly cautious.

Coming back to this mansion had already been bothering him ever since they arrived. He had been here before, and his previous experience in this place was hardly something he wanted to remember fondly. Something had influenced him before, causing him to behave in ways that were completely unlike his normal self when he was with Yuka.

That alone was enough to make him uncomfortable.

He should not have come back here.

At the same time, he could not exactly leave Aegis alone with Petra either. Considering what had happened to him in this very mansion, leaving Aegis here without supervision would have been incredibly stupid. He had already experienced firsthand that something about this place could affect people in ways they did not immediately understand, and he had absolutely no intention of letting history repeat itself while he stood around pretending everything was fine.

Kouhei glanced toward Aegis again.

She was still looking around.

She really was far too relaxed.

"Um..." Aegis suddenly spoke, bringing Kouhei’s attention back to her. "I don’t really know why I am here, and... I honestly didn’t know that I was the Holy Book, but is that the reason you approached me?"

Kouhei understood immediately where the question was coming from.

After all, he had previously asked Aegis a rather strange question about whether she knew if a half-demon and half-fallen angel had ever existed throughout history. Given the circumstances, it was perfectly reasonable for her to connect that question with her identity as the Holy Book.

The Holy Book was an existence associated with knowledge of the history of the universe, after all, and although its vessels themselves were not automatically aware that they were vessels, Aegis now knew that she was the current one.

From her perspective, it was only natural to assume that Kouhei had approached her because of that knowledge.

"I’m sorry," Kouhei said. "I did approach you for that reason."

Aegis’s expression changed slightly.

"So... it wasn’t because you were interested in me, or because you thought I looked attractive?" she asked.

"Well, you do look attractive, and I’m not going to deny that," Kouhei replied honestly.

That much was simply true.

Aegis was objectively attractive, and Kouhei had never really had a reason to pretend otherwise. Her face was attractive, her figure was attractive, and there was little point in lying about something that was already obvious. He had approached her because of the Holy Book, but that did not magically make him blind.

"I-I see..." Aegis said, her face gradually becoming red. "I-If that’s the case, then I’m sorry."

Kouhei looked at her with confusion.

"What?" he asked. "Why are you saying sorry this time?"

"It’s because... I did something like that to you, didn’t I?" Aegis said, looking embarrassed. "I’m also sorry for shooting you with a dart that could make a horse fall asleep."

"Ah..."

Kouhei paused.

Thinking about it again, that really had been pretty damn hardcore.

At the time, he had underestimated just how intense Aegis’s libido could become, and that had eventually resulted in her taking things far further than he had expected. The more Kouhei thought about the situation, the more ridiculous it sounded.

She had literally used a sedative meant for a horse.

A horse.

Kouhei was beginning to wonder whether he should be impressed or concerned.

If he had been an ordinary person, the situation could have ended extremely badly. Fortunately, he was not a normal human being, and his body could withstand things that would have been considerably more dangerous for an ordinary person.

Even so, that did not make what Aegis had done safe.

A sedative intended to knock out a horse was obviously an enormous dosage for a human being, and using something like that without proper guidance could have resulted in serious injury or worse. Kouhei might have survived it because of his abnormal body, but that did not mean another person would have been nearly as fortunate.

"Well, you don’t have to worry about it," Kouhei said, deciding to let the matter go. "Nothing seriously happened to me, so I’ll consider the matter settled."

Aegis still looked embarrassed.

"Well, I was a little too hardcore back then, wasn’t I?" she said, her cheeks becoming noticeably redder. "Hopefully, you won’t see me in a bad light because of it."

That was probably a little late to be asking.

Kouhei could hardly forget what she had done, especially considering the circumstances, but it was not enough for him to completely change his opinion of her. After learning about Aegis’s condition and understanding more about why her libido had become so abnormally high, he could at least understand where some of her behavior was coming from.

Being the vessel of the Holy Book was already strange enough, but having one of the Seven Deadly Sins within her become considerably more prominent than the others made things even more complicated.

Kouhei still thought she needed to exercise considerably more restraint, though.

Understanding someone’s circumstances did not automatically mean pretending their actions had been perfectly reasonable.

"By the way, aren’t you feeling a little hot?" Kouhei suddenly asked.

Aegis blinked and looked around as though she had only just noticed something unusual.

"Come to think of it... it really does feel a little hot, doesn’t it?" she replied.

Kouhei frowned.

Something was wrong.

At first, he thought it might simply have been the temperature inside the mansion, but the sensation did not feel entirely natural. His body was beginning to feel strangely warm, and his thoughts were becoming slightly harder to organize.

It was subtle at first.

Then it became much more noticeable.

Kouhei’s mind started becoming cloudy, and the clear thoughts he had been having only moments earlier suddenly felt distant. He tried to focus on what was happening, but the harder he concentrated, the more difficult it became to maintain a proper train of thought.

Aegis seemed to be experiencing something similar.

Her expression changed as well, and the cheerful excitement she had shown earlier slowly gave way to something more unfocused. She appeared confused, almost as though she could not understand why her own body and thoughts were suddenly reacting differently.

Then Kouhei noticed another change.

Aegis’s libido skyrocketed.

It was not a gradual increase, either.

It spiked almost instantly, as though someone had suddenly turned a switch all the way up.

Kouhei felt something similar happening within himself, and that realization immediately made him more uneasy. He had already experienced the strange influence of this mansion before, so the sudden change in his thoughts and emotions was enough to put him on guard.

Something was affecting them.

The problem was that Kouhei could not immediately tell what it was.

His thoughts became increasingly muddled, while Aegis appeared to be struggling with the same strange sensation. The two of them looked at one another, neither seeming entirely capable of explaining what was happening.

For a brief moment, they simply stood there.

Kouhei could feel his instincts becoming louder while his rational thoughts became increasingly difficult to hold onto. The strange heat continued spreading through his body, and Aegis appeared to be affected just as strongly.

Neither of them had any clear explanation for it.

Neither of them seemed to realize exactly what was happening yet.

Still, they gradually moved closer to one another.

Kouhei looked into Aegis’s eyes, and she looked back at him with the same confused expression. Neither of them said anything for several seconds, as though both were waiting for the other person to explain what was happening.

Instead, they found themselves drawn closer.

Their faces gradually approached one another, and before either of them could properly understand why they were doing it, their lips met in a kiss.