Securing a companion

The two of them continued on their path, Leaf getting off of Berry and returning him to her shadow while Bill and Jay were sent forth to scout ahead. The road they were walking on was in a better state than the one connecting Icla to Guill, and there was a good reason for that: this was the road leading directly to Poiri. Travis did some quick math in his head.

‘4 days… it shouldn’t take us more than that to reach the capital. From there, 3 should be enough to get to Autir, meaning that… I’ll have about 3 days to do what I was tasked with, and then it’s the road back.’ he thought, nodding slowly to himself. ‘So far, I was able to make up for the time lost, but just barely. It’s not bad, but I’ll be cutting it close at this rate… we need to move faster.’

Some carriages moved past them in both directions, nobody paying much attention to the two adventurers. Looking far ahead and behind, Travis noticed how he and Leaf were the only ones moving on foot. ‘Could we hire a carriage?’ he pondered for a moment. While it didn’t seem like that bad an idea, there were, in fact, some things to consider. Firstly, while riding a carriage, they would not be allowed to just leave to hunt monsters. In that case, the carriage would leave without them. Secondly, the odds of him and the elf woman being the only passengers were rather low. He didn’t want to even cater a chance of anything going awry because of people he didn’t know.

But then again, there was no real alternative to a carriage. Even if they could rent horses for a few days, he never got to learn how to ride one (and he certainly didn’t have enough time to do that now), and besides, he’d probably need a MID to confirm his identity. Immediately, he threw the idea out of his head.

The way forth wasn’t very… obstructed, per se. The road connecting Silvana with Icla went through a large forest, but from Guill to Poiri, there weren’t going to be many trees. Occasional ones were spread across the huge plains and between farm fields, but they were rare and few in between. It meant that if they wanted to keep hidden from the main road, they’d have to go way off the road, possibly a kilometer or so. That could make it tricky to navigate, given they only had a map and no way to confirm their position other than landmarks. Sure, Bill and Jay could be used, but it would still be better to have something you could see yourself, no?

But why would he be concerning himself with that in the first place? Well, that was because he already was starting to cook up a little plan. ‘Could it work though?’ he pondered for a moment before he turned to Leaf.

“Say.”

“Hmm?” She turned to him a little.

“Is there a way for us to travel faster?”

“Faster? Do you want me to run with you? I’m not really great at distances,” she scratched her neck a little in a slightly nervous gesture.

“I was actually thinking about riding on Berry.”

“…I see. You are in that much hurry, aren’t you?”

“Kind of. At this rate, I’ll probably make it to my destination and back, but it’ll be cutting it close. So, you know, I’m thinking about different options.”

‘It’s because of me… I wasted his time before, and now… I’m holding him down…’ she thought for a moment with a little grim expression for a moment. “I’ve tried moving around on him, but… it’s super uncomfortable, you know?”

“Is it?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “Some people think that riding anything without a saddle would be nice and smooth, but it’s so… rough. Everything below you is moving, and it’s so difficult to get a grasp on anything, even if it’s not that fast a movement. And the ride is so bumpy that I find it hardly worth it. Still… if you want, we can try that.”

“I mean, if it’s too much trouble, we can--“

“No, let’s ride!” she suddenly cut him off. “I-I’ll manage!”

“…Are you sure? I don’t mean to **** you to do it, Leaf. If you really don’t want to, I’m fine with walking,” ‘If we just walk a bit faster and for a little longer daily, we’ll be able to make up for some lost time anyway.’

“No, I’m sure,” she nodded. “We can do that. It’s no trouble at all,” she did her best to give Travis a reassuring look, plastering a smile on her face.

“…alright. We can do that,” he looked at the road, both ahead and behind. Some carriages were moving to and from Guill, enough that they were passing by them every minute or so. “But we’ll need to go off-road for that.”

“And quite far, at it. There’s barely a tree in sight, let alone a forest,” she commented. “But it’s only about noon now, so it’d be better if we set off immediately, right?”

-About 20 minutes later-

They ventured far into the plains, so much so that the people on the road looked like distant ants. The sun was beaming down, heating the atmosphere up slowly while the grass let out whispering-like noises as it was moved by the wind, waves clearly shown on the plains.

Travis was looking at Berry, lying on his belly. His back was a little over a meter above the ground, but as the Apostle brushed his hand through the bear’s fur, he noticed that quite some of the space was taken up by the hide. He looked at Leaf, who was stroking its head lightly. After a few seconds she gazed at him, and without a word started climbing onto Berry’s back. No more than 15 seconds later, she was situated on its back.

“Hey, can you hand me my backpack?” she asked.

“Oh, right,” he replied, getting hold of the pack. ‘Huh… it’s lighter than I thought it’d be.’ he pondered momentarily. Was its size the only thing large about it?

As he handed Leaf her pack, she got it on her shoulders and moved a little back on her summon.

“Since you don’t have as many things to carry, you’ll have to sit in front. Don’t worry, I’ll be monitoring everything,” she smiled a little, but her gesture was clearly displaying a bit of her discomfort.

“Alright,” ‘Is riding without a saddle really that bad?’ he thought for a moment as he placed his hand on Berry’s back before he started climbing.

Surprisingly, the summon’s fur was… actually, it felt no different from the real deal. As Travis combed his hand through it a little, he could feel the thousands of hair under his hands, tickling him in response to his touch. Sure, Berry’s fur was nearly black, and there seemed to be a bit of faint smoke coming from it, but otherwise, he would say that it was real fur.

As they began their ride, Travis suddenly felt exactly what Leaf had warned him of. Every time the bear stepped forth, its muscles moved, and at times, some parts were hitting both the Apostle and Necromancer from down below. So long it was just walking speed, it wasn’t that bad. The problem truly began once Leaf commanded Berry to pick up some speed.

Travis had no way of comparing the feeling to anything he’d felt before. For the first 10 or so minutes, the constant shifting underneath him wasn’t that much of an issue, but as his body started becoming worn from being constantly hit, he started feeling pain every now and again, which only increased in frequency as they spent next 10 minutes on the ride.

Without a handle or anything of the sort, Travis was **** to get hold of the bear’s fur, but even then he had to be hugging the summon most of the time. However, not everything was that bad. Leaf, sitting just behind him, didn’t have anything to hold onto, so she hugged Travis from behind, and what came with it was her large breasts pressing onto his back. This was unexpected, but hardly in a bad way.

-In the evening-

As the fire between them burned brightly, Leaf took a moment to inspect her bag. Ensuring that its contents were intact, she pulled out a bag of herbs and sprinkled some of them on meat on a stick before she reached out and handed it to Travis.

“Thank you,” he said, starting to munch down on it slowly.

‘Thank you…’ she thought, turning her gaze toward her own piece of meat. ‘…does he even mean that?’ she wondered, biting off a large chunk absentmindedly. She wasn’t sure if his gratitude was real. At the end of the day, she has been slowing him down the past few days, hasn’t she? ‘Why didn’t he tell me he was in a hurry? Why did he let me slow him down? Why… why did he agree to work with me? Why… why?’

“Travis?”

“Hmm? Did something happen?” he asked, noticing her somewhat… empty look.

“I… can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead,” Travis nodded, feeling a little uneasy. ‘What’s wrong…?’

“…why did you agree to work with me?” she asked, putting her meat down and looking into Travis’ eyes. For some reason, there was a sharp gaze piercing through her sadness. Was she… angry?

“…why do you ask?”

Leaf looked at the fire for a moment, and then somewhere in the distance. “I… I’ve been thinking about it lately. There was always something… off about the way you did things. You always rushed forward and had to wait for me. You spontaneously decided that you needed to grow stronger, and we went dungeon hunting. And what did I do in either scenario? I didn’t go after you, and I couldn’t even help you in that dungeon. Hell, I actually brought you problems, didn’t I?”

“Leaf, that’s not how it is at all,” Travis cut in. “You didn’t bring problems. Those guards were corrupt, they’d have attacked either of us anyway.”

“And what about our first meeting?!” she replied sharply, and he noticed how her eyes started becoming glassy. “I tried to kill you, Travis… I would’ve, even… with these very hands,” she brought her hands up a little.

“But you didn’t. I’m still here--“

“Will you please FUCKING LISTEN?!” Leaf suddenly exploded with anger, tears flowing from her eyes as she locked them with Travis’. “P-Please… just listen.”

Travis straightened up, feeling a tense feeling crawl over his back. Seeing Leaf angry was a first, and he didn’t want to enrage her any further.

“I… I get it,” she continued, forcing her voice to sound as calm as she could. “You don’t want me to feel guilty, even when all of this is my fault. Even when I slowed you down you didn’t want to rush me. In the dungeon, you didn’t want me to feel useless so you got yourself hurt so I could help you recover. You told me you were in a hurry, but you didn’t want to accept riding on Berry because you were considerate of me,” she continued saying, slowly averting her gaze into the fire.

Travis watched her for a short while before he let his head down a bit. ‘Almost all of that is wrong…’ he thought but decided not to cut in.

“And I know that no matter how much I try, I won’t build much trust with you. I’ve been stuck at 9 points for 3 days now. And I don’t blame you for not going higher, Travis. After what happened, I know you won’t trust me. I… I don’t know if I would trust myself,” Leaf looked at her hands for a moment. “But if you won’t trust me, then why did you accept in the first place? Why didn’t you decide to split ways after things went haywire?” she concentrated her eyes on him, sapphire points attempting to drill a hole in his skull as he simply looked into the fire.

“…my reason is the same as yours, Leaf,” Travis replied slowly, weighing each word. “We’re both forbidden classes. For survival, isn’t it better for us to cooperate?”

“But this doesn't explain why you were so easygoing around me on day two... Overnight, you seemed to get over me trying to turn you into my summon," she said, a sense of guilt in her eyes palpable.

‘She’s not wrong. From her perspective, just having a little fun made it enough for me to feel safe around her during the day.’ “…there are many things you don’t understand, Leaf. There’s many more layers to all this than you think.”

“…what?”

“I… It’s… complicated,” he said, slowly turning his head toward the sky. 'It's not like I can tell her that she reminds me of my sister, right...? That'd sound dumb.'

She didn’t reply to his words, instead focusing on the campfire.

“*Sigh* What do you know about gods, Leaf?”

“…?” she looked at him with a little surprised expression. “Why?”

“…I’ve been keeping you in the dark, but… not because I don’t trust you, Leaf,” he said, reaching into his pouch. “There is a deeper reason for why I’m working with you. There is a good reason why I changed my behavior,” Travis continued, bringing out Pacifist. “Didn’t you wonder why did this dagger appear in my hand one day?”

“…a bit,” she nodded.

<What’s so special about that dagger? I should look closer at it.>

Travis fired the <Suggestion> before the thought even crossed his mind. Truly, that skill wasn’t used a lot yet, but it was already a go-to thing when he needed to utilize his abilities. ‘<Hypnosis>.’ he commanded and felt the WP getting drained. ‘It’s a shame I have to do this now… I wanted to wait until I had at least 300 WP. Let’s hope this much is enough.’

“Do you know how many gods there are?” he asked, making sure he was speaking slowly.

“Fifteen,” replied Leaf, but her eyes remained locked on the blade in Apostle’s hand.

“Yeah. And all of them have their attribute, right?”

“…”

“Leaf?”

“…yes?” she asked, and surprisingly enough, her voice was already devoid of emotion.

‘She’s already under?! That didn’t even take 15 seconds!’ Travis thought and stepped closer. Summoning his status, he confirmed that his WP dwindled to 150, but no further. ‘Isn’t this too easy?’ he thought. Indeed, compared to when he needed to burn through his entire WP the last time, this was surprisingly cheap, especially taking into account that Leaf wasn’t under any kind of stress this time around. ‘Is this what increasing my level by 20 does?’ he wasn’t expecting this to be as good. He was prepared to burn through his entire buffer just to get Leaf under once, but now… he had enough for roughly 2 times more.

‘No, don’t waste time.’ he berated himself mentally. ‘Now that she’s under, it’s best if I ensure everything’s in place.’ Travis breathed out a sigh.

“Leaf, do you hear me?”

“Yes,” she replied.

-3 minutes later-

Travis sat down, looking at Leaf, who was not even watching his movements, her eyes only lit up by the flames of the campfire. The time he was given was more than enough to drill new commands into her mind. Those were simple as day to him: he made sure she wouldn’t attempt to bring him to harm unless it was absolutely necessary (learning from his previous mistake) and made her more willing to listen to him overall. With them in place, he was certain that he secured her as his companion.

Somewhere in his mind, thought about turning Leaf less into a consensual and more into an obedient companion appeared, but he dismissed it. That would be no different from turning her into a ****. For now, he didn’t need to take away the will of people. When taking a deeper thought about the prospect, he felt an eerie feeling wash over him. Maybe it was because he was always raised in fear of Psions, but he felt… a bit of disgust toward the idea. It certainly was hot to imagine Leaf doing anything he asked her without questioning him one bit, but the thought of her lifeless eyes filled him with a bit of dread. It was like he would be taking away a part of her humanity for his own benefit (or even worse, just his pleasure).

‘I guess that’s what Redion meant when he said that we gave him the bad name…’ Travis thought. In a way, this added up. Feeling like he could, like he should dominate others with his power was much too natural. In a way, Travis could not shake off the faint feeling that it was synonymous with being a human. But if so, why didn’t he feel disgusted when it first appeared? ‘Is it because I grew stronger? Or because I’m growing accustomed to this class?’ he pondered for a moment before shaking his head. That didn’t matter to him.

‘But it doesn’t mean I can’t experiment a little, no?’

The best way to become fluent in anything was to do it, over and over again, no matter the hardships. Trying to speak a foreign language daily would eventually allow one to learn it. Performing a single motion would make it perfect in its accuracy after adequate time has passed. Experimenting with one’s skills would allow one to learn their boundaries. And Travis intended to search for limits to the ones he had.

‘I haven’t used <Suggestion> much… I’ll have to try it from tomorrow onward.’ now, he didn’t need to conserve his WP as much, at least for the time being. ‘I’ll try to get it to level 3 by Autir.’

But it was no time to be thinking about that. Leaf was still under, and Travis had one more thing he needed to do, or rather, try out.

“Leaf, do you hear me?”

“Yes,” she replied emotionlessly, not flinching one bit when he called her name.

“There’s something I need you to do, but you can’t tell anyone about it, alright?”

“Yes. You can trust me, Travis.”

“You trust me, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Listen. When I tell you ‘You need to sleep.’, you will feel tired and go to sleep without thinking about what I said.”

“…”

“Again,” ‘Longer commands are difficult to understand to her. Is it because of her or limitations of the skill?’ “When I tell you ‘You need to sleep.’, you will go and sleep, and you won’t think about my words. Do you understand?”

“…yes…”

‘When she hesitates, it feels like I need to do that again.’ “Then tell me what will happen when I tell you ‘You need to sleep.’.”

“…I will go to sleep… and I won’t think about your words…”

‘Not bad. At least it’s getting through to her.’ but before he managed to strengthen his words on her mind, he noticed how the elf woman flinched.

“…huh?” Leaf sounded as she suddenly straightened up in her position. Her eyes quickly scanned around and then focused on Travis. “D-Did I doze off?”

“I think so,” ‘Damn. Fine, let's try it.’ he thought as he shrugged. “I think… you need to sleep. How about it?”

“…sorry, Travis, but… can you get the rope?” she asked slowly, Travis noticed how her eyelids started going down, and Leaf was forcing herself to stay awake. “I’m sorry, but I feel… *yawn* kinda tired.”

“It’s fine, go and sleep. We’ll talk in the morning,” he smiled a little but didn’t move. ‘So, it does work.’

“But the rope--“

“Hey,” he cut her off. “I’ll tell you something I should’ve told you already. I trust you enough to let you sleep free, Leaf.”

“What… but…” she said, but her words were getting quitter by the second. It seemed that she wasn’t able to resist the urge anymore.

“Hush. Don’t worry about it,” Travis formed a little smile. “We’ll continue in the morning.”

Leaf didn’t even answer, instead lying on her back. As soon as she closed her eyes, she was asleep.

‘So, it’s possible to set up triggers using <Hypnosis>.’ Travis thought. What just happened was a clear confirmation. There were a few problems, however. ‘Did it work so well because Leaf was already hypnotized by me? Or because it was nothing too… serious?’ he questioned himself. Initially, he wanted to make Leaf lift her tunic when he asked her to, but he was sure she’d have done that even without the spell's help. She had already shown him quite the perverted side of herself, willing to even use her captivity as an excuse to get the thing--

No, shake it off before you get indecent thoughts. Travis looked at Leaf, and how the flames of campfire cast light upon her frame, lighting her stomach and legs. Her grand breasts were sagging to either side of her chest somewhat, but they still blocked light from her face. For a moment, he wanted to come closer and check whether she was really sleeping by giving her tits a squeeze but decided against it. No, right now, he had a little more urgent business on his mind: his still unfinished Daily Quest. While he still had a few hours before the limit hit, he wanted to already finish it. And so, he got up and extinguished the campfire completely, not wanting to risk any of the surrounding grass catching on fire.

-40 minutes later-

He came back around, sweat dripping off his face from the Plank exercise. This time, it required him to do it for nearly 700 seconds, which was enough to **** him to have a break every 2 minutes. Still, from just a few days before, there was a clear improvement. One stat point received went into Wisdom, and another 5 into Sense, bringing them both to multiples of 5, just like the rest of his stats. He liked seeing his stats in multiples of 5. Travis sighed lightly as he looked at Leaf. She was still in the same position as before, breathing quietly, head on the grass just next to her backpack.

He took his steps closer and knelt by her pack. Without thinking much, he reached into it and brought out a small blanket she used to cover herself on cold nights. This night was bound to be rather warm, but he didn’t intend to cover her with the towel-like surface. Instead, he folded it a few times, and carefully lifted her head, sliding it underneath. If he had now secured a companion, he wanted to treat her properly.

And then, his gaze went down her neck. The tunic she wore today had a cut top, allowing a generous view of her cleavage whenever she was standing or walking. And now, both her mammaries were bursting in either direction, stretching the poor clothing a little.

He didn’t even notice when his hand ventured to her face. He carefully caressed her toned chin, like he was about to sculpt her exact replica in stone and wanted to get all the details. The other hand reached out to her tunic, and quickly found its way to where her nipple was hidden, a flat bulge in the shirt large enough to be felt. Taking his other hand away, he gave her tit a tender squeeze. There was no way he had ever before touched something as soft. He didn’t want to ever touch anything as soft.

Leaf shuddered in her sleep. Her hand moved, instantly reaching for her other teat. She moved her fingers, reaching for its nipple and tweaking it with a nail through her tunic. It seemed she was no stranger to treating herself like this, given that she was still sleeping deeply. A subconscious reaction, perhaps. Travis could not help but feel his heart beat stronger as he put a bit of **** into his own hold.

Her mouth parted a little, and a sound akin to a moan escaped from within. Taken aback by her reaction, Travis flinched, retreating his hand. Snapping back to his senses, he watched her move about in her sleep slightly. After a few seconds, she settled down, still drowsing. The man let out a relieved sigh. Then, he lifted a hand to his head, covering his face.

'...what the hell am I doing...' he groaned quietly as he realized what was happening. 'Idiot. Would you do this to your sister, you stupid moron?!' he gritted his teeth momentarily.

A bit of frustration welled up in his heart, followed by him stepping back a little. Slowly, he sat down in his own spot. The gaze of his golden eyes traced Leaf's figure slowly. He focused on her hand tracing around the flat nipple bulge. It traced stable circles, the nail scratching the surface gently. The elf woman let out another moan, her legs shuffling slightly. The prominent hipline completed her alluring hourglass figure. Summoning a mental image from the nearby past, Travis could conclude that Aria's bottom was bigger, but it did not mean Leaf lacked anything in that department. Then, he noticed her other hand slowly going down her tunic. She pushed it down her thin stomach, a small giggle leaving her mouth at the touch. Then, she started caressing her crotch area through the pants, her body immediately responding with a shiver of pleasure.

Stunned at what he was seeing, Travis did not move from his position. He did not think a simple action he performed amidst losing his concentration could lead to this outcome.

'She's a sleepwalker... just like Kanya.' he thought. 'I didn't know people could masturbate when sleepwalking, though. Is this because of my influence...? Or because she's a horny pervert?' a ponder entered his mind for a moment.

Leaf, in the meantime, continued her actions, eyes still closed. Her movements became slightly rougher. She stopped playing around her nipple, instead getting a hold of her teat forcefully. A soft moan that left her mouth snapped Travis out of his pondering. Her other hand pressed onto her nether regions, teasing her lower lips through the fabric.

He felt his penis harden at the sight. He could not lie, Leaf knew exactly what to do to look sexy, even in her state. The sultry smile on her blushing face served as an invitation to the show. The singular drops of sweat on her skin made it glisten.

Suddenly, Leaf's hand went to the hem of her tunic. Just barely getting a finger on it, she pulled, exposing her massive breasts, at least partway. She shivered.

"Yeaah~," a moan left her mouth before she put a pair of fingers into her mouth. Licking them in an obscene motion, she covered them in a layer of saliva that dragged behind as she moved them back to her exposed tits. "Yesssss~," she let out a prolonged groan as she teased her nipple with the wet sensation.

Transfixed on the scene in front of him, Travis didn't notice that the elf's other hand had already lurked below her pants and undergarments as she began fingering herself in a stable yet quick rhythm.

The show came to an abrupt end after not even a minute more of her actions. Suddenly pulling at her exposed nipple, Leaf let out a short but loud howl of pleasure, signifying that she had reached a climax. Gasps left her mouth for a long moment before she quieted down. Seemingly subconsciously, the brown-haired woman fixed up her attire partially, her now-peaceful breaths a sign that she was still asleep.

...

Travis sighed lightly, not sure how to react. Deciding to calm down his boner, he stood up and took his steps away.

...

---

[[Name: Travis Salliv
Class: Apostle of Tricks & Manipulation
Level: 25
HP: 780/780
MP: 78/80
WP: 151/410]

[Strength: 55
Agility: 80
Intelligence: 40
Endurance: 60
Wisdom: 25
Sense: 30
AP: 0]

[Possessed abilities: Suggestion lvl.2, Hypnosis lvl.1, Mana Bolt lvl.1]

[Current status: No anomalies]]

---

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