14. This Is Too Much Like Sex Between Lovers (3)

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"…You still haven't even kissed Neria?"

Once Neria's whispery, angry voice had subsided.

It was Lady Erzel's observation that broke the silence that had lasted a few seconds between us.

Still, from Erzel's perspective, it must seem pretty absurd.

Neria had already gone so far as to have sex and even let me come inside her, yet she was bristling and mewling over nothing more than a kiss.

To put it bluntly, how must this disciple look to Erzel, who had tasted countless men?

I answered while stealing a glance at Neria, who was already avoiding my gaze as if embarrassed.

"Yes. Lady Neria said she was embarrassed, so for now I'm only helping her with 'mana charging' in the purest sense."

"Really? Then you haven't done anything with Neria besides sex? Like fellatio…."

As she said that, Erzel slightly stuck out her tongue, and Neria, standing right beside me, replied as if making an excuse.

"I-I have, okay? I've done at least that much…!"

"…It was barely an imitation, at most. But I did try it as Lady Neria described."

"Hey, what's this about an imitation! I licked it with my tongue myself, and I even sucked it with my, my mouth!"

"It wasn't exactly the full experience, was it?"

"I-it's true I only did it for a little while, but anyway, you got fucking hard the moment I licked you…!"

"That was…."

Anyway, I only meant it was an imitation because you'd merely pleasured me with your mouth for a moment and hadn't swallowed any semen.

Maybe because even that had taken considerable courage for Neria, but she seemed to dislike having it dismissed as an imitation.

"We haven't kissed, but I have done at least fellatio."

"Then our disciple kissed Mr. Dowon's cock before his lips?"

"…Huh."

"You had a daring side after all~ Hmm…."

And Erzel whispered that uncomfortable truth to Neria.

For once, I could almost be half-convinced that she wasn't a witch but a demon.

If you called her a succubus, it would even make a certain amount of sense.

"By the way, Mr. Dowon, what do you mean it wasn't the full experience?"

At the same time, the succubus's sea-blue eyes turned toward me.

…Neria's gaze also came down on me like a bolt of lightning from right beside me, but within this space, at least, Lady Erzel was in charge.

In the end, I played dumb and answered.

"I only meant that we stopped after simple stimulation. …Since it's semen the witches use for mana charging, I suppose that's only natural."

"Exactly. Sometimes, when you're horny, it feels like a waste to swallow it all just because you can."

"……."

"Of course, if that let me draw out two or three more loads of semen, it wouldn't be a waste at all."

Who exactly was she showing that to, and what was she trying to imply, as she slowly wiped her lips with her tongue while saying it?

Since I responded to that with nothing but a faint smile, pretending not to notice, Erzel stretched and rose from the sofa.

Judging from her sneakily checking her smartphone, I figured she was getting ready to leave.

"Next time, just screw up your courage and swallow it. Boys get incredibly turned on by that sort of thing, you know?"

"S-swallow what? I don't want to…! It's slippery and sticky…. How am I supposed to…."

"Ah, before you swallow it, gather it on your tongue and show it to him. Then after swallowing, open your mouth again as if to prove, 'I swallowed every last bit….'"

"Eek…."

"Try it once later, when your mana charging is almost finished. It's called a cleanup blowjob, and between lovers, it's actually rather…."

When Erzel lightly opened her mouth as if demonstrating, Neria blushed and babbled.

At the instant her gaze, which had briefly glanced at my face, collided with mine, Lady Erzel smoothly cut in and continued.

"Anyway, Neria wants to increase the frequency gradually, so I'll take it as such. If that's a lie, Mr. Dowon, tell me. Then I'll give her a proper scolding in your place."

"…Understood."

"Just once today, right? Neria?"

"……Yes. Just today…."

"Then…, …ah."

It meant that starting tomorrow, we'd have to charge mana several times without fail.

When Neria answered in a feeble voice, Erzel came over to me and whispered with a somewhat satisfied look.

"Enjoy your meal, Mr. Dowon."

"……."

"……."

It was because the house happened to be extremely quiet,

because Neria was standing closer than I'd expected,

and because Lady Erzel had made no real effort to keep her voice down.

So it ended up not being much of a secret conversation after all.

"W-what do you mean, 'enjoy your meal'…."

"Ah, it's already this late…. I should be going soon. Good luck with what comes next. And thank you for always looking after our disciple!"

But since all the fallout would land squarely on me, Lady Erzel fled toward the entrance with a mischievous smile.

Neria's fist was already heading for my shoulder before Erzel even left, but the front door merely closed with a cheerful sound.

*****

A region swept by a storm is left covered in all sorts of wreckage and trash.

Collapsed buildings, broken trees, destroyed vehicles, mud, severed power lines….

To put it a little more poetically, you could say what remains is pain and loss.

And the same was true of the storm created by the "Water Witch."

"How did you end up coming with Master? …And aren't you standing a little too close?"

Thanks to Erzel, who seemed able to use wind magic too and had become a storm herself, I felt like I was going to die from the pain.

…Despite spending all her time studying magic and, recently, playing games nonstop, where did she get this kind of power?

"I ran into her by chance on my way to work. She was squatting by the roadside watching a giant earthworm."

"A giant earthworm…? Come to think of it, it does seem to be raining outside…."

"Yes. I don't know whether it's because of magic or simply a natural phenomenon."

"…Well, she is my master. Since she came here, she might have taken the opportunity to scatter mana around and check for monsters. It could just have been a coincidence, too."

"So it can be used that way, too."

"……."

As I answered while rubbing the shoulder she'd just battered with my palm, Neria, who had been thoroughly sulky until a moment ago, cast a sidelong glance this way.

Perhaps because I looked sturdy, she hadn't seemed to give it much thought while hitting me so enthusiastically, but now she seemed at least a little sorry.

…If she felt that sorry, I'd appreciate it if she gave me a cleanup blowjob after we finished, just as Lady Erzel had suggested.

Whatever I thought inside, if I blurted that out now without reading the room, Neria's fist would come flying here once more.

After needling her just enough to make her worry, I picked up on one of the questions she'd just asked.

"And as for the distance between us, I'm not sure. Maybe it feels that way because Lady Erzel is such an outgoing person?"

"I know what Master is like…, I do know her pretty well…."

Since she was Erzel's favored disciple, Neria surely knew her better than I did after only about a month.

Even so, seeming to sense that something didn't quite add up, Neria crossed both arms beneath her chest and asked,

"…You didn't do it, did you?"

"Do what? What are you talking about?"

"Did you and Master have sex……, …never mind. You said you didn't last time."

"We didn't. How could I, when I know Lady Neria would hate it…."

"……Because I would hate it…. Hmm…."

"……."

"All right. I'll believe you. Besides, if you two really had that kind of relationship, there was no way Master would have ended things here…."

Neria then let out an audible sigh, as if trying to bury what we'd just been talking about.

As she did, her gaze, which had naturally dropped to the floor, suddenly shot up a moment later and met my eyes head-on.

"You said last time that you wanted to do it while kissing me, right?"

This was something we'd already discussed while she was with Erzel moments ago.

"Yes. That's right."

"I'll let you do that, but I have one condition too. Any objections?"

"…Could I hear what the condition is before I decide?"

"Tsk, insolent for a human, but telling Master on me would put me in a difficult position. Fine."

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Neria, who had been tapping the floor with the soles of her feet, puffed out her chest and said,

"I want to experience this thing called an orgasm."

Had she practiced saying it while looking in a mirror by herself?

Unlike usual, she said it with a somewhat assertive posture rather than embarrassment.

"…Surely you don't mean a brief climax, so then you mean that thing you mentioned last time…."

"That's right. That. The one where women twitch their hips and come."

"……."

"I-if we're going to do it anyway, it's better if it feels good, right? That thing about excitement last time was along the same lines."

I had to agree with that.

Rather than forcing ourselves to do it out of obligation even though we disliked each other, it would be much better if we wanted it and looked forward to it every day.

If Neria someday reached the point where she begged me to have sex with her, it would be fair to say I'd fulfilled my duty as part of the "Apprentice Witch Rehabilitation Department."

But to satisfy Neria's curiosity right now…,

there was one obstacle, the same as last time.

I scratched the back of my neck and answered.

"Do you remember what I told you yesterday? …That you could experience an orgasm quickly if we were honest with each other."

The obstacle was, quite simply, the absence of honesty.

We'd only recently managed to reach the stage of 'Sex is actually pretty pleasurable!' but we still had a long way to go after that.

At this rate, I'd have to figure out for myself everything Neria liked by watching her reactions.

It might be possible if we took enough time, but in the end, it would be a waste.

"Aren't I honest enough?"

"…You're not honest at all."

"Huh? I'm acknowledging that things feel good when they feel good, aren't I?"

"I don't know why you think that, but even the last time we did it, you lied constantly."

"I did? Lied?"

"When I asked whether you liked it as I pushed my glans firmly all the way inside you, you said you didn't particularly like it."

"……."

"Did you really hate it?"

"…I-I did tell a small lie. I'll be more careful from now on. Happy?"

"…If I'm being honest too, just saying you'll be careful isn't enough to reassure me…."

"What the hell…?"

Even if she's like this now, once we had sex again, she'd obviously lie a whole lot out of embarrassment.

Maybe she'd come to enjoy it someday, but with Neria's personality, it wouldn't be easy to break a habit like this overnight.

So I spent quite some time thinking in front of Neria, who grumbled, "Are you saying you can't trust a witch?"

"What if we just do it this way?"

I had an idea.

"Today, I'll do things my way, and you can just point out which of them you disliked."

"…Which ones I disliked?"

"Yes. Rather than telling me what you liked, it should be less embarrassing to point out what you disliked once you've actually tried it."

"……Hmm."

"……."

"…All right. Trying it once should be okay….."