Chapter 376 - 376 - Jeanne Is Perfect in Every Way

Leon's mouth curved into a smile loaded with meaning, and he leaned in against Jeanne's ear.

"Your body seems to be getting more sensitive by the day."

"Nghh..."

"Don't touch there...!"

"Mm..."

While Jeanne was still dazed, Leon pushed his slick fingers straight into her mouth.

Her face went blank, and her eyes flew wide.

"Hoooaaah!"

"So that's it. Right here?"

"That reaction of yours is pretty cute. What else would I expect from you, Miss Holy Maiden? You always find a way to surprise me somewhere like this."

Looking down at the woman with confusion on her small face, her eyes fogged and her cheeks burning, Leon set a hand on her head and, ignoring the sound she choked out, simply pushed her down onto it.

...

...

When Leon opened the door afterward, refreshed and easy, through the brief gap before it swung shut you could see:

Jeanne lying back at the edge of the bed, the flush not yet faded from her cheeks, apparently still savoring the last traces of the storm she'd just been through. A glistening thread spilled from her slightly parted lips, her lovely eyes hollow and unfocused on the ceiling, her long limbs sprawled and boneless, one hand fisted hard in the sheets while her body twitched and shivered at intervals.

Her magnificent peaks kept rising and falling, and strands of brilliant gold hair clung to her temples and the side of her neck with a thin film of sweat. She panted lightly, over and over, sunk deep into the bedding, and there was something strange about the impression she made. Sensual, certainly, but in that languid expression there was also a bone-deep purity tangled up against the allure.

Two utterly opposed qualities wound around each other on her in silence, each becoming part of the other.

In that moment, the state she was in would raise a fierce urge to conquer in anyone who saw it.

"Jeanne, you wouldn't want everyone to find out... what our cool, prim Miss Holy Maiden turns into after a few drinks, would you?"

Jeanne's body went rigid, and then convulsed twice.

She bit her lower lip, rolled over with considerable effort, and fixed her eyes on the man in the doorway, full of shame and humiliation.

"Pervert!!!"

Leon's mouth twisted, and he reached out and made a kneading motion in the air.

"Hehe!"

"Aaaaaaah!"

"Leon!!!!!!!!!!"

...

In the sitting room on the first floor, the fire in the hearth was burning strong.

The warmth and quiet stood in sharp contrast to the wind and snow howling outside the windows.

On the sofas gathered around the hearth and the tea table, the ladies were each absorbed in their own work.

Iri, Margaret and Lydia, the three newest members, were at it in their own ways. One wore the Gale-Force Reading Glasses and was flipping quickly through The Adventurer's Dungeon Handbook with a serious expression. Another was studying parchment scrolls covering all sorts of practical Dungeon knowledge and the useful little techniques adventurers had worked out over the years.

On the other side, Rose and Kureha had a stack of blueprints spread out in front of them, with Aura quietly passing tools, the three of them talking in low voices about the layout of the new house and the various ideas everyone had raised.

And Laurier, lively and restless as a rule, wore a rare look of total concentration. She sat by the window carefully wiping down her beloved sword and armor, her movements as gentle as if she were handling something fragile and precious.

That peace was mercilessly shattered by the commotion that came down abruptly from the second floor.

Listening to Jeanne's scream carrying from the upstairs bedroom, the ladies went stiff and stopped what they were doing as one, then traded a round of glances, the atmosphere turning visibly delicate.

"What on earth... did Leon do to Jeanne to make her scream like that, so desperate and broken?"

Kureha murmured it under her breath, her face full of complicated speculation.

Laurier, meanwhile, had already set down her polishing cloth, a mischievous curve rising at the corner of her mouth.

"Hehe. Jeanne's whole image is fall-ing a-part~"

Beside her, Irisviel, Margaret and Lydia saw her clowning again and wanted to laugh but didn't dare let it out, shoulders shaking with the effort of holding it in.

After all, apart from Lydia, who hadn't joined the ranks yet, the rest of them were all in the same boat as Jeanne. There was no telling which day it would be one of them making a spectacle, so better to hold it in while they could.

They knew it far too well:

That harmless look of Leon's was nothing but surface. In private... this guy held a grudge and had a serious appetite for payback.

Just look at how the Holy Maiden had ended up. She was the cautionary example.

Tap, tap, tap...

Footsteps came briskly down the stairs.

Everyone glanced up to see Leon coming down from the second floor looking thoroughly refreshed, a cup of steaming goji tea in his hand.

"Everyone get ready. We're going to look at the land in a bit. If all goes well, we'll use the contract today and start construction!"

As he spoke he glanced at the calendar on the wall and flashed a brilliant, white-toothed smile.

"New year, new start. Naturally the new year calls for a new big house!"

"Making life better and better, isn't that the best proof there is of a year's hard work?"

He hadn't finished before the little elf had already bounced up first.

"Yesss!"

"Big house, big house, big house!"

"Leon! The house is definitely going to have a great big landscaped garden, right?"

A garden?

Leon's mouth curled.

"Not only will it have one, it'll be built beautifully!"

"Aura, Aura, did you hear that!"

Her friend beside her stirred, and something in her chest lifted a little too.

If the new base really was going to have an enormous garden the way Leon said, then...

The thought of sitting in a stone pavilion on a bright sunny day in the future, drinking tea and reading a book, made for a life that would be genuinely lovely.

Across the tea table, Rose gathered up her materials and rose with a smile.

"Ara, in that case, I'll go change first..."

"Rose, I'm coming too!"

"Wait for me, let's go together!"

"Margaret, do you think I should wear tall boots today, or a long sweater with leggings and short boots?"

"For you, Iri, tall boots suit you best. Though honestly, I envy that perfect figure of yours..."

"Oh please, Margaret, you're hardly lacking either..."

Watching the ladies head back to their rooms in high spirits to dress and do their hair, Leon dropped alone into the single armchair by the hearth, took a satisfied sip of his tea, and settled in to enjoy a rare stretch of solitude.

...

...

A little past eleven in the morning, everyone had gathered in the small courtyard, chatting quietly while they waited for the last few to finish getting ready.

It wasn't until Jeanne came out of the house, eyes wandering and her face tired, tying the belt of her camel coat as she stepped unsteadily in soft brown leather ankle boots over black leggings, that Leon reached over at exactly the right moment and drew her against him.

He grinned at everyone.

"That's everyone. Let's move out!"

Jeanne lifted her eyes to the arm around her waist and couldn't even be bothered with a token struggle.

If the scumbag liked holding on, let him.

Compared to last night's "ordeal," this much contact was nothing at all.

Once she'd recovered her strength, she'd settle accounts with him properly.

Hmph. The Holy Maiden has a very long memory.

If Leon had known what she was thinking right then, he'd probably have just smiled.

Jeanne was perfect in every way. She was only a bit of a hopeless romantic.

Not only did she get jealous easily, she never learned her lesson either.

And who was it, exactly, who kept quietly recruiting Rose and Kureha into an "anti-Leon front," only to be the first one to fall every single time? Who, when she was being "punished," whimpered and begged out loud, and had cried more than once?

A pity she had no idea... the more she carried on like that, the more she made a man want to conquer her.

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