SSS Awakening: I Become The Strongest Breeding Knight

Chapter 17: 17. I Can’t Believe That My Lust Energy Is Draining Fast... And Then Surprise... Need a Different Women

For a minute, nobody spoke...

It was so silent that I heard the fire popped, and even a log shifted.

Can someone just start a conversation already?!

”Martin,” Laura said at last. ”Who were you supposed to give these to?”

Thank god... Laura asking an important question right there.

”Uh... To a knight commander named Hallis... at the Elarion garrison.” Martin tried his hardest not to look terrified or maybe nervous, but who am I to judge when Laura looked at him with those judging look.

”I trust him... I think... He’s the only one who ever treated me decently as who I am.” Martin swallowed. ”But I don’t know who else is involved... and now... I don’t know who I can trust anymore.”

”Then we deliver it to him together,” Laura said. ”And we keep our eyes open until we do.”

”Wait a minute... together?” I asked.

”I’m continuing with you to Elarion.” She said it quickly, as if she’d been rehearsing it. ”This is my case.”

”And of course... I won’t leave it half done, and I won’t let Martin travel the last stretch without a full escort...” Laura looked at me and then Alicia. ”If the two of you are willing, that is.”

”What are you talking about?” Alicia smiled. ”Of course we’re willing to come~! We’re knights like you, remember?”

”Hmmmm... I’d say yes, but I think you already planned to come along regardless of what I said, right?” I told Laura with a smug look.

”I did,” she said calmly.

Hoh... unfazed. She didn’t hide it.

”That’s very efficient.” I raised my thumbs up.

”I’m a very efficient knight.” She said that with the usual cold look.

Alicia and I traded a look. Then I stretched my legs toward the fire and sighed.

”Nggghhh-ahhhhh... So much for a peaceful journey, eh?”

”Hehehe... You keep saying that like you believe it,” said Alicia.

”Perhaps you should stop attracting trouble,” Laura added, in a perfectly flat tone.

I looked from one of them to the other. ”It’s not trouble if I save people, get stronger, and travel with two extremely talented knights women.”

”Honestly though... I think I’m doing exceptionally well as a mediocre knight myself, but now I’m more like an average.”

”No, more like you’re impossible,” Laura said.

”And yet... you’re still here.” I smile smugly. ”That’s how high potential I really am, eh?”

She didn’t answer. She just picked up her blanket, walked over to the other side of the fire, and sat down a lot closer to me than she had the night before.

What the fuck...? I pretended not to notice.

But I can clearly see Alicia, on my other side. She hid her smile in her hand and said nothing, which was the most tactful thing she’d done all week.

Lots of surprising things happen today, and I didn’t know that we can get this close that fast. I guess what I said was true... I AM full of high potential.

...

Later that night, after everyone else had gone to sleep, I sat up alone by the dying fire and finally opened the panel.

Can’t sleep, so might as well trying to find something productive like studying the system or some shit...

[NEW COMPATIBLE KNIGHT DETECTED]

[Name: Laura Lapisfield]

[Class: Royal Knight]

[Compatibility Analysis: In Progress]

[Potential Bond: Undetermined]

[Special Condition: Trust Level Increasing]

[Notice: A compatible bond cannot be established through force. Mutual trust and voluntary consent are required.]

I read the whole thing twice, and a few things settled in my mind.

I’d spent the past day and a half deciding to embrace this ridiculous power, and I stood by that. I wanted the strength, I wanted the people it would let me protect, and yes, if I’m being REAL honest... I wanted the harem too, with all the chaos and comedy that came with it.

But I’d also learned something over the last day... The best things in my life had happened because people chose to be there, and yes... not because a system demanded it.

After looking at the panel system for a full minute... I had to look across the fire to make sure that they’re asleep.

I see Laura was asleep with one hand resting on the hilt of her sword... feeling full alert as usual. And Alicia was curled up nearby with her golden hair spilling over the edge of her blanket... she looks peaceful and defenseless, but I’m not gonna do it ’that’ way.

Martin, on the other hand, snored faintly from under the wagon. The forest around us was quiet, and for once it felt like a quiet that meant safety instead of danger.

To think that Laura wasn’t just a knight I’d rescued anymore. She was someone who had trusted me with her back in a fight, and that meant more than any notification.

So I made myself a promise... there by the fire with the panel glowing in front of me. If this ever went anywhere, it would be because she wanted it to, and for no other reason.

The system could have its quests and its rewards. But of course... A man like have my his own rules.

I swiped the panel away and stoked the fire, and I sat there for another hour, grinning up at the stars like an idiot.

”Gehehe... I can’t wait to do it with Laura...”

...

The morning after Blackthorn Forest, I woke up feeling like somebody had filled my bones with wet sand.

I figured it was the usual aftermath of a fight... just like what I always felt back in my previous life after going to the gym.

My arm still ached under Laura’s bandage, my ribs had a few bruises that I couldn’t remember earning, and I’d slept on the ground with a rolled-up cloak as a pillow.

Gotta love these things when you’re in a fantasy world. So I ignored it... mostly because I was hungry and then I ate breakfast.

After that decent breakfast, I fell into step behind the wagon as we headed down the road toward Elarion.

Martin was doing much better today. He’d stopped jumping at every rustle in the bushes and had even started humming something tuneless as he walked beside Alicia.

As for Laura, she was in a better mood too, or at least she’d stopped scanning the trees like they owed her money. Everything about the day felt peaceful, which is exactly why I should have been suspicious.

Because I know that this ain’t going to end well... like at all.

I can feel it... the raising red flags.

About an hour in, I tried to lift a rock.

It was a small one, roughly the size of a loaf of bread, sitting at the edge of the road. I was bored, and I wanted to see how much control I’d gotten over Aether since the fight... so I held out a hand and pulled on the energy the way I had the day before.

The rock wobbled, it rose about the width of my thumb off the ground, and then dropped back into the dirt with a sad little thud.

Thud...

I stared at it.

I tried again, harder, and got the same result.

The warm current that had been running under my skin since the awakening felt thin now, like a stream in the dry season, and when I reached for more... it just kept slipping out of my fingers.

Fucking hell... there’s something wrong with me. So I had to pull up the panel with a flick of my eyes just to make sure.

And then...

[WARNING: LUST ENERGY LEVEL CRITICALLY LOW]

[Current Lust: 23%]

[Combat Energy Consumption: Extremely High]

[Warning: Continued ability usage may cause temporary attribute degradation.]

”Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered.

It’s the Lust energy undoing. And it’s not a good time either because we can get attacked at anytime.

And also... the word had never appeared on any panel before, and it took me a second to understand it.

Then I thought back to the fight with the crystal-powered brute and it clicked. I realize some important shit back there...

I’d thrown everything I had into that battle, strengthening my body, reading every movement, and taking a hit that should have snapped my arm.

All of that had been paid for with this energy, and I’d spent it like a man who thought his wallet had no bottom.

So it was like having a phone battery...? That I’d been running at full brightness all day, and now the screen was dimming and the little red icon was blinking at me.

’System, don’t you fucking dare forgot that I had sex with Alicia for the second time back then... off screen, of course...’

DING!

I read the next message, and it was... worse. But a good thing, maybe...?

If not at this kind of situation, that is.

[Class Mechanic Updated: Diminishing Bond Returns]

[Repeated Breeding with the same partner will gradually reduce Lust recovery efficiency.]

[Alicia Ainzfield: Existing Bond Established]

[Estimated Lust Recovery from Repeated Bonding: Low]

[Recommendation: Establish a New Mutual Bond with another compatible female knight.]

I choked on my water.

”PFFFTTT...!”

N-no fucking way... so that was how it worked?!

Alicia was my first partner, and our Bond had given me the big evolution, but going back to the same well again and again wasn’t going to fill the tank.

The system wanted variety, it seems... which was either a very practical design choice or the universe’s way of confirming that it had a sense of humor.

That’s acuatlly good shit, but NOT at the right fucking time.

I’d promised myself that I’d stop whining about the class, and I was keeping that promise.

I’d even made my peace with the harem part. But there’s a difference between deciding to accept something and being told that your power depends on it, and I needed a minute to let that sink in.

I closed the panel before Alicia could see my face... Unfortunately, Laura got there first.

”Why do you look like a man who just found out he’s being executed?” she asked.

She had dropped back from her usual position at the flank and was watching me with her head tilted slightly. I had no idea how long she’d been there... staring at me with those cold eyes like usual.

”Eh... well... I just found out my life is a lot more complicated than I thought,” I said.

”You say strange things like that all the time.”

”Believe me, I wish I could stop at this point...”