The heavy velvet doors slowly closed behind the three of them, completely shutting out the noise of the main hall.
This top-tier VIP suite, called the Ruby Heart, was so lavish it was almost blinding.
The chandelier forged from pure gold, the entire wall covered in magical beast pelts, and that enormous red velvet round bed, ahem, sofa, big enough to roll around on, all of it screamed the brute force of money.
The fox-eyed manager respectfully clapped his hands. Along with a wave of cloying incense, a hidden side door in the suite opened.
"Your Highness, to ease the sorrow of losing your homeland, our salon has specially prepared the highest-grade entertainment for you. These are all children of noble families who have fallen on hard times for various reasons. They have received the strictest etiquette training, and in both body and spirit, they can provide you with the most perfect service."
As soon as he finished speaking, a line of figures filed in.
At that instant, both Kōichi and Kazuma stopped breathing.
At the front were several fallen noble ladies with figures so outrageously seductive they were practically illegal.
They wore so-called silk gowns, but the fabric was pitifully sparse. Great swaths of snowy skin, deep cleavage, and those barely revealed absolute zones swayed beneath the crystal chandelier, enough to leave a man dizzy.
Behind them came several handsome, powerfully built men wearing silk shirts open at the chest, their eight-pack abs gleaming with reflective oil.
Compared to the succubus shop's unreal dreamscape, something you could only really enjoy with your eyes closed, the honest-to-god visual assault in front of them, mixed with the scent of expensive perfume and the warmth of living bodies, hit like a warhammer straight to the soul.
Kazuma's monocle dropped against his chest with a sharp clack. His eyes went wide as saucers, and the sinister, scheming-butler expression he had been wearing instantly crumbled, replaced by the classic pervert face of full-blown degenerate Kazuma.
He stared fixedly at one cat-eared girl with astonishing curves, probably wearing decorative ears, and a very suspicious gulp came from his throat.
Kōichi was not doing much better.
As the Empire's Last Sword, Kōichi was gripping the hilt at his waist so tightly his knuckles had gone white.
Every alarm in his brain was going off. Reason told him he absolutely had to maintain his cold persona, but his gaze was stuck fast like it had been caught by a powerful magnet, unable to tear itself away from all those pale, gleaming thighs.
So this was the real world of the rich. This was the true paradise. What was the succubus shop compared to this? Nothing but poor people consoling themselves.
"B-Brother Kōichi..." Kazuma whispered in a trembling voice right by Kōichi's ear, and there was already a suspicious glimmer at the corner of his mouth. "I take back what I said before... that idiot Aqua actually is useful once in a while! This place is heaven! I want to switch classes and become a noble! I'm buying that cat-eared girl!"
"Shut up, Kazuma. Wipe that hick expression off your face." Kōichi ground the words out through clenched teeth, his ventriloquist whisper squeezing out from between them, even while his eyes remained fixed on a noble lady in a maid outfit with suspenders. "We're cold-blooded guards right now! If they see through us, not only does heaven disappear, we'll be rotting in jail too! Wipe your drool."
While Kōichi and Kazuma were suffering through a desperate struggle against their baser instincts, Aqua, the princess of the Axis Empire, in whom they had placed great hopes, or more accurately, no hopes at all, displayed a truly shocking reaction.
Faced with the muscular pretty boys approaching her and calling her Your Highness in rich, magnetic voices, Aqua showed not the slightest sign of being tempted. Instead, she looked utterly disgusted.
"Hey! You lot! Stop blocking my view!" Aqua shoved aside one handsome man who had been about to flatter her, her eyes locked on the giant tower in the middle of the table piled high with rare fruits and gold-leaf pastries. "You! The one with the huge pecs! Quit wriggling around over there and peel that golden grape for me! And you, bird's-nest hair, go open that bottle of bubbly! Hurry it up. I'm so hungry I could eat a whole Marbled Crimson Demon Bull!"
The male models, who had been preparing to show off their charms, instantly froze.
They had received endless training and knew exactly how to tease noble ladies, but faced with someone treating them as nothing more than grape-peeling machines, their brains clearly overloaded.
But in the fox-eyed manager's eyes, this scene meant something entirely different.
(Sharp inhale.) As expected of true royalty. Faced with beauties like these, she didn't so much as blink, and even treated them as the lowest sort of servants. And those two attendants, though they were glaring fiercely at my girls, were obviously just checking whether they were concealing weapons. How professional. This is what real noble bearing looks like. The manager's imagination ran wild, and his awe toward the trio rose to yet another level.
As the manager withdrew with reverent deference, the atmosphere in the suite reached a strange and almost surreal peak.
Kōichi took a deep breath, doing his best to calm his pounding heart, then gave the manager his final instruction in that cold, metallic voice.
"Manager, Her Highness wishes to dine now and does not want outsiders disturbing her. As for us... as members of the royal guard, it is only natural that we split up and clear out any potential security risks in the side chambers. Take those fallen nobles to the adjoining suites. We will interrogate them personally."
The manager gave him a sleazy smile that practically said, I understand, I understand everything, then bent even lower at the waist.
"Understood, understood. The loyalty you two show Her Highness is truly moving, to the point that you would handle even the interrogations yourselves. This way, please. The side chambers have already been prepared with the most discreet barriers."
At that moment, Aqua was sprawled gracelessly across the sofa, clutching a cream-covered banana in one hand and an expensive bottle of champagne in the other. She waved vaguely at them.
"Yeah, yeah, go on. Just leave the grape-peeling one behind. Kōichi, remember to pay my bill. Don't you dare run off!"
Kōichi and Kazuma exchanged a glance.
In that moment, no words were needed. Their eyes carried the bitterness of years spent in poverty, the yearning stirred up by the visual bombardment they had just endured, and the unshakable resolve that even if the Demon King himself showed up today, he would not stop them from graduating.
"Brother Kōichi, may fortune favor you in battle." Kazuma lowered his voice, his tone full of the tragic solemnity of a man marching off to war, but his steps were so light they were practically about to take flight. "I'm taking the cat-eared one and the one in black stockings... heheh, hehehe... my dreams, my youth, they're finally about to bloom right here!"
Kōichi gave a cold snort and straightened his slightly rumpled collar.
"Pathetic. I'm taking the one who looks the coldest, the so-called Count's eldest daughter. If you're going to interrogate someone, you go for the hard cases."
Led by the manager, the two of them headed toward the luxurious suites on either side of the corridor.
When Kōichi pushed open the ruby-inlaid door, a thick fragrance of roses and musk rushed at him.
In the center of the room, reclining against a velvet pillow on a huge circular waterbed, was the fallen noble girl who had been teasing him with those seductive eyes earlier.
Her gauzy clothing was nearly transparent in the magical lamplight. Her long legs were crossed, and one foot had hooked a red high heel so delicately that it looked ready to fall at any moment.
"My lord..." she murmured in a syrupy voice soft enough to melt steel, then slowly rose to her feet. Barefoot on the thick carpet, she approached Kōichi step by step. "Would you like to interrogate my... past first, or my... body?"
Kōichi's brain crashed completely in that instant. The thirty-million check, the Demon King's Army, Aqua, all of it turned to nothing.
His gaze locked helplessly onto that snowy-white figure drawing closer and closer, and even his palms began to sweat.
So this was the real Ruby. This was the ultimate meaning of a man being reborn into another world.
At the same time, near-hysterical laughter rang out from the next room.
"Wahahahaha! Is this heaven?! Don't stop! Keep calling me Butler-sama! Yes, that's it, that expression!"
Kōichi swallowed, reached back, and locked the door with a crisp click.
"Then let the interrogation begin."
He undid the button at his collar, and in his eyes flashed something that could only be called awakening.