[2:39:59]
Vale slowly blinked his eyes open and instantly took note of the timer in the corner of his vision.
Apparently… he'd be transported to the 'real world' when that hit '0.'
'Whatever that means...'
Vale slowly picked himself up and found that his underwear and pants had been put back on. He looked around and saw Toy exiting from the Dungeon Core.
Toy blushed when she noticed Vale looking at her, then bowed and walked toward him, then around him. She stopped before a sword, then picked it up and carried it back into the Dungeon Core.
'What was that about?'
Vale curiously looked around and followed the sound of a pickaxe smashing against stone to find that Salome was hollowing out the room at the end of the corridor they mined earlier, while nude.
Her skin glistened with sweat as she picked the picaxe up and brought it crashing down, carving another stone chunk. When she noticed Vale, she stopped.
"Hello, master."
Vale sauntered into the new room and stared at the beads of sweat as they trickled down each curve of Salome's slender body.
"Hello…"
While he didn't order her to do this, it wasn't harmful. If he chided her now for doing something unordered, it may hurt her Loyalty, so he let it go in that regard.
He wasn't going to act like he owned her, even if the circumstances would lead an outsider to that natural conclusion.
No matter how deep one falls into lust, they retain their humanity up until the point where they start seeing people as objects of pleasure rather than living beings.
So, no matter what, Vale vowed never to fall into that corrupt, treacherous territory.
Still, he wanted to know what was going on.
"What have you done while I was out…"
Salome looked at him with her usual lustful eyes and gave a wide grin.
"As you can see, I've mined out this area… I thought we could eventually keep expanding the corridor and making a labyrinth of sorts to hide the core. Also, I've ordered Toy to pick up whatever her fallen comrades dropped… be it weapon or clothing, and store it in the Core."
Vale smiled.
"Good job… but why are you naked?"
Salome giggled.
"Clothes are bothersome."
Vale sighed, rubbing his temples, and walked out and back into the Core room as Salome went back to slinging the picaxe at the wall.
He was a little disappointed at himself for falling into lust so easily again under a circumstance completely in his control…
But, he'd quickly decided not to dwell on it.
No matter how much he didn't want to admit it, situations where he fails to control himself will come again and again.
'Such is the nature of lust…'
And he was apparently the incarnation of Lust.
If he beat himself up every time, he'd be a walking specter of self-pity. So, as long as he retained his humanity and sense of self, he'd feed into his lust, just a little…
He'd already done too much to the point where if he tried to claim he retained complete dominion over his own impulses, he'd be nothing more than a raging hypocrite. Besides… it hadn't led to anything harmful.
Yet, at least.
So, if he had the urge, he'd fulfill it under two rules.
One: he'd only do it with beings that would be legally and ethically permissible from where he came from — or at least what he deemed so. He'd be strict in that regard, too.
Two: He'd never do something with someone unwilling.
While it was the height of hypocrisy to say that when his very presence played with people's will, if someone could resist his natural authority, he would never force it upon them.
Vale had resigned to the fact that he couldn't control his own lust and desire, but he also decided that even if he couldn't control it, he could at least direct how he expressed it.
With two hours to prepare for whatever was to come, Vale sat down and began to rack his brain.
He had many questions about his situation. Yet, he knew he could only get something out of pondering a few.
The main one was… what happened to the dead goblins?
Vale slowly got up and walked inside the Dungeon Core, almost expecting to find the dead bodies there, but he didn't. Once he returned to the white void, all he saw was an ever-growing pile of stones, a pile of the goblin's loincloths, three weapons dropped by the goblins, and Toy.
Toy was on her knees and dumfoundedly staring at Vale, who towered above her.
Vale stared into her green, glowing eyes, then let his gaze drift to the ten pieces of loincloth lying in the void.
Then, he let his gaze fall back on the small woman who was also still naked, just like Salome.
But… despite her alluring figure and mature body that would spawn the most devious of carnal desires in the most righteous of men… he wasn't excited.
No, Vale felt… sad.
It was cliché, but the clarity had hit once again. He was momentarily free from lust, and he'd taken a brief moment to try and think of things from this pitiful woman's perspective.
Not the perspective of a monster — of a goblin. He wasn't going to indulge in that fallacy, no. She had culture, intelligence, and values that were just different from his own … at least at one point. So, he would treat her with the respect any woman deserved.
What he was interested in was the scared, innocent woman she seemed to be before she was charmed.
She'd never held the look of hatred… but only the look of fear.
Same with the other goblins Salome had mercilessly slaughtered.
They didn't have the look like they were viciously attacking them due to greed, but that they were running from something, and their only path was forward… and Vale and Salome blocked off that forward path.
He stared deeply into her eyes, ignoring the fact that she was naked.
"Don't you resent us?"