Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume SS - Chapter 13

Short Story:

Luke Notos Greyrat’s Unnecessary Item 

“MRM…”

When Luke awoke that morning, a sweet smell greeted him, just like usual. He reached out for the source of the smell to stroke it softly, and his palm touched something a little rough, but warm and pleasant.

“Good morning, kitten. Sleep well?”

“Oh, good morning, Sir Luke… Did I wake you?”

“Between nonsensical dreams and a beautiful woman bathed in sunlight, I’ll take the latter.”

“Haha. You’re good at this.”

“I only said what I think. One can’t be good or bad at that, surely?”

A woman in her underwear sat on the bed beside Luke. She looked down at him with a shy expression. Only an exceptionally dense person or a very young child could have failed to guess what had happened. It was no great mystery. When Luke was off duty, he brought women home, and everyone around him knew about it.

“Thanks for yesterday. It was good of you.”

“I do as you request, Sir Luke.” 

This woman wasn’t a regular acquaintance of his. By chance, she had come across Luke as he was tidying up his room, and offered to help. He had half-jokingly invited her out for dinner to thank her, and the chemistry had been good, so he’d taken her right back to bed...or put another way, he’d given her a free one-night stand.

“Actually, Sir Luke, the thing is, I know this is very forward, but I have a request...”

Luke looked around a little shiftily. People tended to think he had no standards in who he took into his bed, but in fact, he was exacting in his choice of women. It wasn’t a question of the size of their breasts, of course. Rather, he only brought home women he could sleep with without any significant negative consequences. This girl had slipped through the selection process.

“What is it? Until you put your clothes on and leave this room, I am your lover, my dear. I’ll listen to most anything you might want from me.”

Luke spoke in a honeyed whisper, but privately, he thought, What a pain.

Luke Notos Greyrat was next in line to be head of the Notos Greyrats, one of the great noble families of the Asura Kingdom. He sometimes got women who knew his title looking to get something out of his position. If it was money she was after, that would be all right. Luke would wrap up a handful of coins and pass them over with a smile. Though if the figure were too high, he might start haggling her down... If, however, she wanted him to marry her…well, he didn’t even want to think about that. In the Asura Kingdom, it didn’t matter if noble girls were virgins or not, but it was different in other countries. One could end up having to take due responsibility. Happily, Luke had succeeded in deliberately avoiding such women. Thus far, at least…

“Um, while we were cleaning yesterday, I found this…” The woman produced a small box. Luke recognized it—it was his. But he had no recollection of what was inside it.

“That box… What was in it?”

“Perfume.” The woman opened the box to reveal a tiny, pretty glass bottle. “Knowing you, Sir Luke, you must have bought it as a present for a lady, no? But it was entirely covered in dust, so…I wondered if you wouldn’t give it to me. You see, I’m a little curious as to the kind of perfume Asuran royalty uses.”

“Oh.” Luke remembered the little bottle, why it had been hidden in a corner of his room, and why it was covered in dust. “Ah, um, in fact, that isn’t perfume. So I’m afraid I can’t give it to you.”

“It isn’t? Then what—”

“Instead, let me take you on a date! I’d love to give you a perfume that really suits you!”

“Oh, my!”

“Does lunchtime tomorrow work?”

“Yes!” The woman nodded, blushing.

“Then let’s put some clothes on and return to our days, shall we?”

“Can’t I stay a little longer?”

“My, my, those puppy-dog eyes. Of course you may.” Luke kissed her. His thoughts, however, were back on the day that he had received the little bottle.

***

It had been before Ariel had set her sights on becoming monarch. It seemed like every day that she attended some party with Luke and Derrick. That being said, it wasn’t that Ariel enthusiastically sought out party invitations. Rather, she was so charismatic that the mere sound of her voice had half the people she spoke to eating out of her hand, and she was beautiful, making her the perfect belle of any ball. As such, she was always receiving invitations from nobles and royalty who wished to add some class to their events. Likely some of them were angling at marrying Ariel to get close to the royal family. Derrick liked to say that they should use these events to collect allies and seek the throne, but back then, that had not been Ariel and the others’ plan. For his own part, Luke was less interested in such things than he was in the women.

Luke was good-looking. By the standards of the Asura Kingdom, he was in the top five percent of faces—what Rudeus might have called a Tokyo University-level face. This meant that noble girls flocked to him like bugs to a light trap. Luke could pick and choose as he liked, and, as the latest in a long line of womanizers, it was inevitable that he would devote himself to seducing the fairer sex. At the time, however, his father sternly instructed him to select the women he took into his bed carefully. Not all the women were young. There were heiresses who had inherited their family estates, ladies who ruled over their households while keeping their husbands on a short leash, and all sorts of others who came after Luke. Luke was aware of his own attractiveness, as well as the wiles of women, but he was up against ladies with long years of experience. Making a move on any of them would without a doubt end in disaster. Lest he wanted to tear down the Notos family and lose his position, he was under no circumstances to make advances on that sort of woman. That was what Pilemon told him. Luke found it restrictive, but he knew Pilemon was likely passing along what he had learned through experience—Luke’s mother was formidably strict with her husband. In any case, Luke took care to avoid such women as he continued with his womanizing. Parties were the perfect venue to see what was on offer.

“Might you be Sir Luke?”

On that day, it was not a woman who approached him, but a man—and a young man at that. Luke was adored by women, but men tended to dislike him, which made this an unusual occurrence.

“I am honored to make your acquaintance,” the man went on. “My name is Cord Reech, head of the house of Reech.”

“The house of Reech…? Sorry, where are your lands?”

“I wouldn’t expect you to know it, my lord. We are nobles of mid-rank, with holdings in the countryside of Fittoa.”

The word “Fittoa” made Luke’s guard go up. Fittoa was ruled by the Boreas Greyrats, the great noble family who supported the ­second prince. Given their poor relationship with the Notos Greyrats, who supported Second Princess Ariel, Luke was none too keen to draw their attention.

“So what does the head of your house want from me?” he asked.

“The truth is, my father passed away suddenly not long ago, and so I became head of my family…but when I went to present myself, I am afraid I angered the retired lord…”

“Lord Sauros, eh? He doesn’t hold back when someone rubs him the wrong way.”

“I meant to call on the head of the family as well, but…well, I suppose word must have reached him that Lord Sauros was displeased with me. I wasn’t even granted a proper audience.” Cord lowered his voice. “If I may be frank, it made me quite uninclined to ally myself with the Boreas family as it is now.”

Ahah, Luke thought, suppressing a smile. He wants to shift ­allegiances, and he’s here testing the waters.

Cord wanted to leave the Boreas Greyrats and subordinate his house to the Notos Greyrats instead. That he had gone out of his way to approach Luke rather than appeal to Pilemon directly must mean he thought Luke would be easier to persuade.

Explains why Lord Sauros hated him, though I expect my father will take a liking to him.

Pilemon would welcome him with open arms. At present, the second princess faction that followed Ariel was facing a full-blown shortage of supporters. Pilemon Notos Greyrat went about doing the legwork to make Ariel queen, but not only was he a poor politician, Ariel did not want to be monarch. It would have been more of a shock if they were succeeding. They had none of the pieces they needed to seize the throne.

What Luke actually said was, “The Boreas Greyrats despise you, and now you want us to take you under our wing?”

If he were welcoming from the outset, Luke and his family would lose this sly young man’s respect, and if he did not respect them, he might start scheming to betray them for another house next—the Euros Greyrats or the Zephyros Greyrats, for example. Both houses supported the first prince, who saw Ariel as a threat for some reason, despite her not trying to take the throne. He probably wouldn’t do anything to her if she continued that way… Still, Luke wished to avoid making more enemies.

“The second princess’s faction will end up clashing with the Boreas…that is, the second prince’s faction, no?” Cord said. “It’s only a matter of time, isn’t it?”

“Perhaps so, but that time is not now. You see that much, don’t you?”

They both knew it. In other words, this conversation was a farce. In other words, Luke’s words held a hidden meaning. A spoken agreement was not enough, he said. Bring me a token. 

Incidentally, while he didn’t so much as try to imply it, he was also thinking that if this man had a younger sister, he’d like her too.

“I thought you might say so, Sir Luke, and so I brought this. Given your popularity with the fairer sex, I was sure you would like it.” The young man produced a small box from his pocket. Opening it revealed an exquisite glass bottle wrapped in silk and nestled carefully inside. 

“What’s this?” he asked.

“It is an aphrodisiac produced on my family’s lands.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “Do you imagine I’m so hopeless with women that I need something like this?” He spoke with genuine annoyance. Women loved Luke. He considered that fact part of his identity. Now this man meant to slight him by offering him, Luke, an aphrodisiac? Inside, he knew that was not the case, but the existence of the aphrodisiac grated on his nerves.

“N-nothing like that.” Cord at once grew flustered and tried to smooth things over. “Only, this aphrodisiac is extremely potent. A single mouthful, and all any woman will be able to think about is the man before her. Indeed, it even works on men.”

Cord might act as though he had everything under control, but he was the master of an estate in rural Fittoa… After falling out of favor with the Boreas Greyrats, he probably felt like he was running out of options.

“I’m afraid I’m not interested in men.”

“Oh, no. I only meant that if, say, you were to experience difficulties in that area, this would relieve all concern… That is, not that you would ever… Oh, and if you are ever with multiple women at once, it has a fortifying effect that would give you the endurance to last not just a night but as long as three days. Our aphrodisiacs are far more potent than any others produced in Fittoa. I’m sure it will prove useful to you, Sir Luke.”

Luke was perfectly capable of satisfying a woman without resorting to such substances. A whole night was nothing, and even if he couldn’t hold out for three days, he’d be ready to do it all again after a day’s rest. But then, Luke’s cool came back to him. Setting aside what Cord was saying, there was ongoing demand for Fittoan aphrodisiacs at the Asura palace—which was to say, people would pay for them. Offering this to Luke was Cord’s way of communicating that his family was turning a profit through these aphrodisiacs and had cash to spare. He was pitching Luke on the idea that his family would help them out if it came to that. That was all. Luke had gotten touchy over nothing; Cord had never meant to insult him.

“Well, if you insist, then I suppose I accept.” 

“You mean, Lord Pilemon…?”

“Yes, I’ll put a word in with him. And with Lady Ariel, of course.”

“Thank you very much!” Cord said, and left.

Luke looked down at the aphrodisiac in his hand for a moment. Then, with a snort, he put it away in his pocket. 

***

Luke still had the aphrodisiac. When he fled the Asura Kingdom, he had brought it with him, thinking anything easily converted into cash might be useful. With Fittoa destroyed, the manufacturers of those aphrodisiacs were also destroyed, and the value of this bottle exceeded a hundred gold coins. Happily, Luke had still not found himself so hard up as to have to sell it, but that might not always be so…

Cord’s whereabouts were unknown. It was likely that he was dead.

“If I were to experience difficulties in that area, huh?” He mulled over Cord’s words, looking at the bottle. Then he thought back on his tryst the previous night. It had been, in a word, incredible. He’d never get tired of sleeping with women. It satisfied him like nothing else. The women also praised Luke’s masculinity, so it satisfied his pride, too. Luke had never been more than an average swordsman and scholar, so this was the one area in which he felt confident. Far from home, menaced by assassins, and never sure what tomorrow might bring, Luke would probably have fallen apart somewhere along the way without the company of women. If, hypothetically, such difficulties had afflicted him at that moment and he had lost the right to enjoy his affairs…well, Luke would probably fall apart on the spot.

Just the thought made him short of breath. He returned the little bottle to its box, trying to calm his pounding heart. 

“If it came to that, would I use it…myself…?” The market value of the aphrodisiac would continue to rise. After all, consumable or not, it was out of production, and there were many people who would dearly like to use it. At present, it was worth several hundred Asuran gold coins. In a few years, it could easily be worth a thousand.

Whether we sell it or use it, until the time comes, we’d best keep it safe. Luke tucked the aphrodisiac in its box away at the back of a shelf. Though that probably won’t be for a long time yet… He let out a quiet snort of laughter.

This episode occurred a mere three days before Rudeus made a full recovery from his ED.