Reborn as a Succubus: Time To Live My Best Life!-Chapter 275: Loyalty, Part Thirty-Three

{Armia}

"You're lucky," the commander said, watching Armia check her equipment for the third time.

His voice had that particular tone she'd gotten used to hearing. The one that said 'I'm trying very hard not to stare at the giant darian woman.'

"Lucky?" Armia raised an eyebrow, adjusting her breastplate. The standard-issue armor barely contained her chest, much less her muscles.

"Most fights around here?" He gestured vaguely at the border. "They just happen. No warning, no preparation. Just suddenly there's a sword coming at your face and you better hope your reflexes are faster than your thoughts."

[Wonderful,] Armia thought. [So thoughtful of them to let me know I'm about to potentially die.]

She'd spent the morning writing letters.

One to her father, full of properly noble sentiments about duty and honor. One to Melisa, considerably less proper and involving detailed descriptions of exactly what she planned to do to when she got back.

[I really would like to get a chance to actually tell her... What I've been thinking about lately.]

She hadn't quite realized how close she was to dying until now. It hadn't felt real. But, indeed, here she was, an academy student who had mostly only fought in controlled environments, about to engage in a deadly skirmish or something. Against her own kind, darians who had probably already killed over a hundred humans each or something.

"Anyway, are ya ready?" the commander asked.

Armia nodded, pushing thoughts of Melisa and swords and darian warriors aside. She had a job to do.

[Two weeks,] she repeated that phrase for like the thousandth time. [Two weeks and I will be done with this. No chance I fight more than once or twice in that time, right?]

"Ready," she said.

And she was.

Ready to fight.

Ready to prove herself.

---

{Melisa}

Watching construction work was surprisingly boring.

Melisa had spent the day alternating between surveillance and finding increasingly creative ways to stay awake.

The sun crawled across the sky like it was being paid by the hour. She'd already memorized Rax's routine – the way he organized his tools, how he interacted with other workers, which routes he took through the site.

[The things I do for family,] she mused during her third trip to the bathroom behind what she hoped was an abandoned shed.

Finally, finally, she spotted Rax packing up his tools.

[Show time,] Melisa thought, straightening up from her slouch. [Let's see what secrets come spilling out when the blood rushes away from your brain, old man.]

Time to put those advanced interrogation techniques to work. And if anyone asked why she was following her father's best friend home?

Well, that's what titties were for.

[Sometimes,] she thought, adjusting her clothes to maximum effect. [You have to get a little dirty to clean things up.]

She inhaled sharply.

[For what it's worth, Dad, this is going to be grosser for me than anyone else. Let's do this.]

Melisa put an extra sway in her hips as she approached, channeling her inner Margaret. Her mother could make men walk into walls just by existing, so surely Melisa could manage some basic seduction.

[Though Mom probably never had to seduce her way into finding out who tried to murder us,] she thought.

"Excuse me," she called out, letting her voice drop into a sultry register that probably had Isabella feeling a disturbance, somewhere. "You're Rax, right? I've seen you around."

He turned, his expression already softening at the sight of her. The silver hair seemed to be working. He showed no sign of recognizing his best friend's daughter in the curvy nim girl approaching him.

[So far, so good... This is about to get real awkward real fast.]

"I am," he said, his eyes dancing up and down as they tried to fix themselves onto her eyes but dropped to her chest multiple times. "A-And you are...?"

"Melanie," she purred, moving closer, with her hands behind her back. Close enough to smell the sweat and sawdust on him.

Close enough to cast.

Her fingers traced the spellsign behind her back, hidden by her body, channeling both magic and her natural pheromones into something more... focused.

"Pheromono desiderium proicere!" She whispered as quietly as she could before subtly shooting that small, pink sphere right at Rax's abdomen. Him staring so intently at her tits made that easy to do without being noticed.

The spell took hold instantly.

She almost felt it settle over him like a blanket, saw his pupils dilate as enhanced desire flooded his system.

[Right,] she thought, watching his expression grow heavy with manufactured lust. [Time to find out what you know about trying to barbecue my family.]

"I was hoping," she said, letting her hand rest on his arm, "we could talk about some... mutual friends."

The questions could wait another minute though.

First, she had to let the spell really sink in. Let him marinate in the desperate need to impress her, to please her, to tell her everything she wanted to know.

[The things they don't teach you at the academy,] she thought, watching him lean into her touch. [Like how to weaponize horniness for interrogation purposes.]

Rax shuddered under her hand, his eyes glazing slightly. Melisa hadn't used this spell too many times but she'd done so enough to know it seemed to work differently on people. Some, like Isabella, got aggressive. Some just got stupid enough to reveal their deepest darkest secrets to a total stranger, like the late queen.

She watched carefully to see which way he'd fall.

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"Maybe..." Rax's voice had gone husky. "Maybe we could find somewhere more private to talk?"

[YES,] Melisa thought with relief.

She spotted an alley between two shops. Not the cleanest spot for an interrogation, but it beat standing in the street while her pheromone-enhanced charm spell turned Rax's brain to mush.

"This way," she purred, leading him by the arm. His skin felt hot under her touch, pulse racing. The spell was hitting him hard.

[Sorry about your dignity,] she thought as she pulled him into the shadows. [But you might have tried to kill my sister, so... yeah, not that sorry actually.]

Time to find out exactly what Rax knew about the attack on Javir's house. One way or another, she was getting answers.