Escape From a Deserted Island With Enemy Female Soldiers - Chapter 80



79 – Pheromone Battle (4)

“We don’t know what negative effects the pollen might have on the mage. I’ll stay close and continuously heal the mage. No objections, right?”

Rachel and Liyo’s heads dipped stiffly. They were bitter, but they had no other way to argue.

“Ah, I wish I were a Lumina.”

“…….”

“Don’t you agree, Major?”

Lumina are a race chosen by the goddess. Their physical structure is a little different from humans or beastkin. Every strand of hair, fingernail and toenail, a drop of saliva, even their body odor. There is nowhere that divine power doesn’t reside.

Just being that close, skin to skin, makes Erich safe from the pollen. I think that’s very fortunate.

But, I can’t help feeling jealous.

Dawn.

Liyo, alone on night watch, began to move according to plan.

“Hee hee.”

A man who makes you smile just by looking at his face. Could there possibly be another person so lovable and someone you want to lean on so badly?

Probably not. In that short amount of time, Liyo owed Erich her life twice. Once when Vignole almost killed her, and again in the battle against Ledoff.

Liyo, gazing at Erich, moved to his head. Both his arms were already occupied by Tiria and Rachel.

Liyo sat by Erich’s head and gently placed her tail on him.

The fox shifters’ heat season runs from mid-January to the end of March.

And right now, it’s late January. A time when emotions are at their peak.

In shifter society, it’s usually the man who courts. But very occasionally, if a woman finds a man she likes, she’ll approach him first. Waggling her tail in front of the man or marking him with pheromones to express her interest.

Shifter pheromones have a huge effect during heat. Even a small amount wipes out all other scents, and its powerful chemical action heightens the other person’s excitement.

Swish, swish.

Liyo and Miyo stroked the mage’s jawline with their respective tails. From top to bottom, softly embracing his nape.

Wiping away Tiria’s scent, filling it with their own fragrance.

“Uhh.”

[“Huu.”]

As it’s the peak of heat, her tail is especially sensitive. But she didn’t want to stop. There were two rivals. Both were women with considerable charm.

To beat them and be chosen by the man, she had to try harder.

She moved her tail like a scanning probe microscope, feeling Erich’s face.

Is he breathing properly, will he remember this scent, won’t he choose another woman, and so on.

She was desperate, and that’s why she resorted to such measures.

Of course, confessing directly to Erich was impossible. That would be a violation of the agreement. Until Erich confessed first, Liyo and Miyo had no intention of stopping this.

The camp, shrouded in darkness. Oblivious to the falling pollen, the fox sisters leisurely released their desires.

The hunt had only just begun.

*

For days after, the honeybees launched nightly raids. Though “raids” was a generous term – all they did was secretly scatter pollen.

It was no use.

[“Crude b*tch. This is why heat-crazed things are…”]

During the day, Lumina, and at night, Suin, completely blocked the man’s sense of smell. The plan to drive him wild with pollen was futile.

Especially Suin.

She exuded a potent pheromone, guarding the man.

[“The man hasn’t shown any abnormal symptoms for days now.”]

[“It doesn’t seem to be working out. At this rate, the Mushroom Witch or the Blood Queen might notice and move in, don’t you think?”]

Virzhonekh crossed her arms.

[“…My pollen isn’t working? Is there no other way but a full-scale war?”]

[“How about sending the vanguard?”]

[“First, send the queen bee squadron. Inject him directly with an arousal sting. Once he’s incapacitated, extract only him and bring him before Her.”]

The honeybees acknowledged and then took flight.

*

A week had passed since arriving on the New Island.

Waking up in the morning, they brushed their teeth with natural ingredients and washed their bodies in the stream. After that, each began their morning tasks. The primary goal was to build a shelter to escape the wind and rain.

They chopped down surrounding trees and dried them in a sunny spot. They gathered wide leaves to have ready, and dug holes to prepare places to erect the pillars.

Now, they just needed the logs to dry, then they could finish the natural barracks by building the floor and ceiling.

“Wizard, we brought the rock!”

Valkyrie and the fox sisters grunted, dragging a massive stone. It was material for a stone bed.

“……But, isn’t it a little big?”

“What’s wrong with it being big? We can just make a bigger bed.”

“You don’t want to use individual beds?”

“Splitting the rock takes more magic power, doesn’t it? We need to move efficiently.”

The Saint’s words made sense. We should just make it big enough for all four of us to lie down together.

We carved the stone into a bed shape and then placed the fur of hunted animals on top. I glanced at the fox sisters when putting the fur down, but surprisingly, they took it calmly.

“It’s finished.”

“Yay! Our nest!”

Riyo was the first to jump in, curling up and lying down.

“Totally comfy! Just the right amount of hard and fluffy!”

After finishing dinner, we took care of our personal hygiene and then lay down on the bed. Because it was such an open space, we could see the stars.

Lying in a row with enemy female soldiers, I felt a strange feeling wash over me anew.

“I’ll start now.”

The Saint, who was right next to me, hugged me. She infused me with divine power.

It was something we did regularly to prepare for when pollen was scattered, but it was still hard to get used to. The Saint of the Holy Spirit Order hugging me every two hours.

“Hey, Mr. Carsten.”

“What?”

“Don’t you think we look like a married couple like this?”

Crack. The Saintess froze.

Even the shift in her eye color was delayed this time. Watching those opalescent, iridescent irises was deliciously amusing.

“M-M-Married, m-married?”

“Isn’t that right?”

“Just a moment, such talk so suddenly…”

“I only meant that the atmosphere is like that. And seeing as you are a Saintess, Ms. Karsten, you can’t just choose anyone as your spouse, I imagine. If I offended you, I apologize.”

“U-uh, a-uh.”

“And once we escape this deserted island, all the private matters that occurred here will remain unspoken. I wouldn’t bring them up anyway, the Order would try to hunt me down and kill me if I did. You don’t need to worry.”

“U-uh, heehee, heeheehee.”

The Saintess didn’t seem to be listening. She was so flustered, she seemed to have lost half her mind. I closed my eyes and counted stones. Soon, sleep came crashing over me.

It was then that the Saintess pressed her chin to my shoulder and whispered.

“…H-Honey. Sleep well.”

For a moment, my breath caught in my throat.

I didn’t open my eyes. No, I was too flustered to open them. The words the Saintess spoke were definitely not a joke.

[‘Do you see? The only one suitable as Senior Erich’s partner is the Saintess.’]

[‘I still don’t know. Wait and see.’]

I’ve been feeling that something’s off with my body and mind lately.

Almost every morning, when I go to the stream, I end up making eye contact with the Valkyrie already bathing.

Even though it’s a medical procedure, I clearly feel the Saintess’s heartbeat every time she hugs me periodically.

When I wake up in the morning, the fox sisters’ tail scent thickly fills my nostrils, stirring up impure thoughts.

Anyway, it’s a damn critical situation for a man.

I’d managed to tolerate it so far, busy with work, but at this rate, an accident might happen soon.

“Sssssss…”

I was pretending to sleep, slowly breathing, trying to calm my mind and body, when…

“Attack! Attack!”

Riyo shouted.

“Air raid alert! Enemies in the sky! Uwaaa! Air raid alert!”

I jumped up.

Wooom.

Ominous flapping filled the night air.

“What’s going on?”

“Bees! Bees have appeared!”

We pulled out every glowstone and torch we could find and shone them around. Dozens of bees, the size of human forearms, were hovering in the air.

“A, I, I absolutely hate insects…”

The Saintess stiffened her shoulders and clung to me. Come to think of it, the Saintess had always squirmed and recoiled in horror whenever she had to eat insects due to food shortages. Even that was an exception when she ate a beehive because she was so hungry.

“Tch.”

Visibility is poor due to lack of light. The Saintess needs to help here. She can’t afford to panic.

I massaged the Saintess’s tense shoulders and said,

“Don’t worry, just stay by my side.”

“U, y-yes! Thank you.”

“Honey.”

“Huh? You hear…?”

The Saint let out a stifled scream. Maybe that was why, but a halo blazed into existence above her head. Even though it was definitely night, it became as bright as day.

The bees began their attack. Driving us mad with furious buzzing, shooting their stingers, making it hard to stay in one place.

There’s a saying in battle:

He who controls the sky controls the war.

I was feeling the truth of those words to my core. I was holding them back with the crossbow Riyoh had made, but the slow reload meant it wasn’t doing much good. We were clearly at a disadvantage.

The only good thing was that the bees were dropping dead every time they stung. They had numbers, but if we just held out, we had a good chance.

[“Scatter.”]

I threw the cairn stone up. The magic stone, rising high, exploded like a grenade. The scattered fragments pierced the bee monsters like thorns.

Using the cairn stone continuously, focusing on areas thick with monsters, noticeably thinned their ranks. I did have some know-how from fighting the Holy Empire’s air force, I wasn’t going down that easily.

“Into the forest! Get cover!”

Most of the honeybee monsters were already dead. The remaining few dozen flew, weaving through the trees.

Every bee that spotted and attacked us had something in common.

“Don’t you think they’re targeting mages more?”

They seemed particularly intent on sticking their stingers in me. Like they had a purpose. My body would be strained, but it was actually a good thing. It meant their movements were predictable.

“I’ll lure them. Protect me, and if you get a chance, intercept them too.”

“Isn’t that too dangerous?”

“It’s always been dangerous here.”

“…Honey.”

We went guerilla. The monsters’ low intelligence worked in our favor. Even just peeking my head out from behind a tree, a poison stinger came flying. Easy enough to dodge, of course. One bee met its end, a pathetic death because of its own mistake.

We repeated this kind of fishing for hours.

Around dawn, the sound of flapping wings finally faded.

“Whew.”

“Is it over?”

“Looks like it is.”

“That was rough. Let’s go back.”

Soaked in fatigue, we returned to camp. None of the four of us had slept a wink all night. Our bodies creaked like broken marionettes.

“Let’s all get some rest. We need to focus on recovering for today and tomorrow.”

Everyone agreed with the Saintess’s words.

Just as I was about to lie down on my bed…

Buzzzzzzz!

A bee monster burst out from the trees up ahead.

“……!”

My guard was down; I didn’t think I’d be able to react in time.

“Mage!”

The Valkyrie, closest to me, shoved me out of the way and took my place.