Earth's SSS Pornstar to SSS Combat God in Another World-Chapter 41: A Brief Goodbye to the Swamp Lady

The Lady of the Swamp roused half an hour later with a slow blink and a sharp intake of breath.

The cool between her legs brought the memory back at once, and color crept into her death pale cheeks until her skin took on a faint rosy hue.

Her eyes drifted to Joji on the bedside, and then away again, as if looking at him too directly would make the feeling in her chest swell into something she could not control.

Four hundred seventy two years fell away in a breath. She heard her master’s voice like it was still riding the wind.

"You’re living with half a life missing, without a man," the woman said, voice dry with hard-won certainty. "Naive girl... I almost pity you."

That was the last time the Lady of the Swamp saw her master. She had flown off on her broom, leaving the curse behind like a spit stain.

Now the Lady of the Swamp lay there and swallowed, suddenly unsure whether anger or agreement tasted worse.

For a long time, she did feel like she had missed something. Not the crude act she had dismissed for centuries, not the sweaty fumbling she imagined mortals did in their huts.

Something else. Release. Ease. A simple rightness in her bones that made her want to weep and laugh at the same time.

She shifted her hips and felt it again. The loosened pull. The way her body sat in the world without fighting itself.

Her bottom, which had always felt like a heavy joke pressed onto her frame, seemed a little less swollen.

The mattress did not protest under her in the same humiliating way.

Then she remembered the wetness she had left behind. She moved at once, too fast, too embarrassed.

With a small wave of her hand, the sheets and the air cleaned themselves, scent and dampness of her gone as if they had never existed.

The room returned to its careful perfume and quiet. She slid off the bed and crossed to a mirror.

The mana lamp glow caught her face first. Her cheeks held a trace of life. Her eyes looked clearer.

Her bosom was still abnormally large, still ridiculous.

Yet even there she saw a change.

A soft easing. A slight retreat. A beginning.

She admired it in silence, then stared too long.

Behind her, Joji remained seated, shoulders relaxed in the way of a man who had finished work.

He watched her the way he watched roads and strangers, calm, assessing, already calculating what this would cost him later.

That calm made something shift inside her.

This man could have had his way with her. The thought came uninvited, sharp and intimate.

He had been alone with her, hands on her, body close. Her beauty was there, undeniable.

If Joji had chosen to push her down and have his way with her, she knew she would not struggle.

She knew the legs she had kept closed for over five hundred years would open for him.

That knowledge made her throat tighten with a strange heat that was not fear.

Joji had become her weakness. A weakness to the pleasure he brought her.

Ruthless plans flashed through her mind. Quick paths. Easy leashes. Hexes with sweet names and ugly endings.

It would be simple to bind him, to keep him, to ensure he did not vanish into the world like her master.

The thought did not settle right. It was not her character, she told herself. It was not her way.

Still, her mind hardened around a different sort of decision.

She would make him hers, but not through a chain.

Her thoughts wandered, and with them came new kinds of hunger. Not only for the relief in her bones.

Other pleasures. Other discoveries. Other things Joji could do to her once the lamps were out and only heavy breathing filled the dark.

’I want him. No. I need him. I will make this man mine, willingly,’ she thought, a foolish grin stretching across her face.

A small laugh slipped out before she could stop it.

"Hi hi hi," she giggled, then covered her lips, trying to trap the desire before it spilled into the room.

Joji’s eyes narrowed a fraction. He did not smile. He only exhaled, the sigh of a man who recognized the sound of scheming.

’Too far,’ he thought. ’I overdid it.’

"How was it?" Joji asked.

The Lady of the Swamp straightened at once, as if she had been caught speaking to herself in public.

She lifted her chin and tried to look bored by her own transformation.

"I can only say your hands are truly divine," she said, shrugging her shoulders as if it meant nothing.

Joji let the words hang. He did not press her to admit more. Pushing would gain him nothing. It would only make her pride bite.

"So," Joji said. "What do you think is the price?"

She pretended to ponder, lips pursed, eyes tilted up as if consulting ancient wisdom.

Joji could see the act for what it was. She had decided the moment she woke and saw the change in the mirror.

At last she lifted both hands and showed nine fingers, a naughty grin spreading across her mouth like she had won something.

Joji stared at the nine fingers.

Nine sessions. Nine chances for them to know each other, and see where it led.

He nodded once.

"Fine," he said.

The Lady of the Swamp’s grin softened into something pleased and dangerously warm.

"Then we are settled," she said.

Still, he had come for a mission, and he had gained more than a guide.

"Well then," Joji said. "We will be on our way."

The Lady nodded. It was close to midnight, but she did not press them to stay.

Everyone had things to do, and she did not want to show need too openly.

The party gathered at the door. Alaric looked half relieved to leave. Walter looked like a man trying not to think about what he had seen.

Lilina looked amused by everything. Kobluk and Kobto watched the walls as if expecting them to shift.

"Why does the donkey have pants," Alaric asked, honestly baffled.

Joji only shrugged. Sometimes it was better to keep walking than to waste breath on an explanation no one wanted.

Rizz followed with a satchel slung over his shoulder.

"Lady. I hope we get to see each other again. Thank you for looking out for me all this time," Rizz said.

"He can talk!" Alaric and the rest of the cohort blurted in near unison.

"Take care, Rizz," the Lady of the Swamp said, and her eyes slid to Joji for one last lingering glance before she let them go.

Outside, the pond waited under moonlight.

Huge lotus leaves floated on clear water. The lotus buildings glowed soft purple, windows like calm eyes watching them go.

Then the mansion began to sink.

The lotuses dipped, slowly at first, then deeper, like lungs exhaling.

The clear water bubbled and darkened. Purple light winked out one bloom at a time. Mud rose. Sludge returned.

The enormous pond became a bog again, just another hungry piece of Lost Boy’s Marsh.