17. The Flu (3)

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"…You're going to feed me yourself, Lady Neria?"

"Then who else is there besides me?"

Neria shrugged and began opening the takeout containers while I stood there dumbfounded.

The opened lids abandoned all semblance of order and clustered in a corner of the table.

The final flourish, as ever, was the porridge.

Neria scooped up a spoonful, steaming white as though proudly showing off its heat, and held it out toward me.

By the time she got to this point, I had conveyed my wishes to Neria: 'I'm fine on my own,' 'Aren't you going to too much trouble, Lady Neria….', 'I haven't contracted a fatal illness, Lady Neria,' and so on.

But all those efforts oxidized before they could amount to anything.

All that remained was the spoon sliding toward me.

"Open your mouth before it spills."

"No, leaving everything else aside, how am I supposed to eat something that hot right away…."

"Ah."

To make matters worse, the way she held it looked as though it might spill at any moment.

Unless she had put a hand or another dish beneath it, what was she planning to do, using my pajama pants and thighs as a tray?

I had no desire to suffer burns on top of the flu, so I recoiled and immediately pulled my chair back about half a step.

"Now that you mention it, you're right. ……Sorry! This is my first time taking care of someone, too."

"It's fine. You don't need to apologize over something like this again…."

"Really? Then I won't apologize."

"……."

"Why are you looking at me like that? You told me not to apologize, didn't you?"

"…Yeees. That's right."

Are you a ten-year-old elementary school kid?

I almost made another candid remark, but held it in.

"……."

…In any case, to be honest, this situation was somehow….

Strange.

Yes. There was no word that could express my feelings better than 'strange.'

I realized that Neria was a kind apprentice witch despite appearances around the time I had exchanged two rounds with her while she was still a virgin.

Therefore, it was only natural that she would look after the health of her highly efficient mana battery, me.

But even taking that into account, the unusually close distance between us today was……, …something-or-other. Something-or-other.

If I asked whether there had been some special event between us, the only thing that came to mind was what happened during the recent 'mana recharge.'

In other words, I couldn't think of anything besides Neria, who had been in an especially good mood that day and generously cleaned my cock with her mouth.

…Could I have ever been kind enough to Neria to deserve this kind of treatment?

Was that cleaning blowjob part of it too?

The more I thought about it, the more confused I became.

"Now that I look at it again, it really is hot. Wait a moment."

Fortunately, instead of stubbornly forcing the issue, Neria put the porridge she'd just scooped back in its place.

If it had been me, I would have set aside the spoonful I'd just scooped and cooled it separately.

Well, as a civil servant, I couldn't exactly challenge an apprentice witch's philosophy.

I heard the sound of her diligently stirring the porridge with the spoon—slosh, squish.

Following it, I also heard the sound of myself dragging my chair closer after having fled.

…But since there was nothing particularly appropriate to say, the sound of Neria moving the spoon filled the space between us for a while.

"Nom."

"……."

"…Haaagh, hot…."

Neria tasted about half a spoonful, then set it down with an irritated expression.

"Why isn't this cooling down? It feels even hotter than freshly boiled stew."

"Porridge tends to be like that. Still, once it starts cooling, it cools quickly."

"I know that, okay? I only said it because it was hot."

"…Ah, yes."

"Ugh…, for now, you try some too. It's hot for me, but can you eat it?"

"……."

"What are you doing? I said try it."

Should I use this spoon, or should I bring another one?

After considering making another candid remark just now, I had come up with a question at about a middle-schooler's level.

No, wait. If this counted as an indirect kiss, perhaps I could put up a good fight against a kindergartener instead.

But in the end, I somehow managed to swallow it.

I decided that if the order had been reversed, Neria might have been offended, but with it this way around, it would be fine.

Besides, my flu-ridden saliva hadn't touched it first. It was like the 'adults first' custom in Japanese bath culture.

After brushing aside such pointless scruples, I picked up the spoon.

…Hmm.

I scooped up a small mouthful and tasted it, and it was definitely hot for me too.

I could force myself to swallow it while grimacing, but it was a temperature I had no desire to endure unnecessarily.

It would probably be perfect after cooling just a little more.

"I think it would be better after cooling a little more too…, …in any case, Lady Neria."

"What?"

"I've already said this several times, but I can eat something as simple as porridge perfectly well on my own."

"Of course you can. It's not as if your arms are broken. But my teacher always did this for me whenever I was sick. It's still a fond memory for me."

"……."

"Like having someone feed me porridge like this, or making me swallow bitter potions…. …Hmm, now that I think about it, being forced to take medicine may not have been such a good memory…."

There was nothing I could say to that.

I had only been troubled because the atmosphere felt awkward, but if this had come from nothing but genuine kindness, the matter was naturally different.

In the end, I had to yield to Neria once again.

"…Do as you please."

"Really? Then it should have cooled enough by now, so open your mouth."

"……."

"Wider. If you only open it that much, the porridge will hit your lips, you know?"

"……."

…On the other hand, I wondered why, despite having memories of Lady Erzel nursing me like that, I'd texted Neria earlier, 'Witches don't catch colds!'

I decided not to point that out just to tease Neria.

"Hehe. Is it good?"

"…Yes, Lady Neria."

"Here, again. Ah~"

"……."

It was repayment for the porridge.

*****

"Hmm. Your room is pretty tidy, too."

After the meal somehow came to an end.

Just as I was about to send Neria home, worried that she might actually catch my flu,

Another quest appeared in real time.

Apparently, she wanted to look around my bedroom before going home.

Since it wouldn't take long, I readily nodded.

It wasn't as if I had anything resembling a private life anyway.

"But this is kind of strange. Shouldn't a boy's room be full of things like game consoles? You only have a computer."

"I do like them, but I can't afford to just buy things like that."

"…Ah, right. You mentioned that last time."

Since my parents died young, I had to figure out how to support myself, so becoming a civil servant was my only option.

She seemed to remember that I'd told her something along those lines.

Clearing her throat awkwardly, Neria stepped farther into the bedroom.

After looking over the decor for a while, she plopped down beside the bed and asked,

"Besides, I don't see anything naughty. I really thought that was why you were trying to keep me from coming here."

"Surely I wouldn't have something like that…."

"Did you hurriedly hide it somewhere because I was coming? Nam Dowon, you're a total pervert, aren't you?"

"That's…."

Even if that wasn't entirely wrong, wouldn't every man turn into a total pervert in front of a witch?

Even if that man were Maitreya Buddha himself?

"This won't do. I think I need to conduct a search. Like here, for instance…."

While I let my words trail off, Neria said she'd seen something like this somewhere and began searching beneath my bed.

But naturally, there was no way anything could be there.

The cliché of finding an erotic book in that spot only applied to Japanese romantic comedies, after all.

But perhaps that wasn't enough to satisfy her. Neria lifted and shook my perfectly ordinary blanket once.

The pillow trembling beside it received the same treatment.

Then she even checked the blinds attached to the window beside the bed.

Naturally, she found no adult products at all.

Of course she didn't. There wasn't a single thing like that in my home.

Even the wireless onahole connected to Team Leader was at the office, since we'd used it for that business yesterday.

Yet Neria was still standing there with both arms crossed below her chest.

She wasn't satisfied.

…At this point, perhaps she had recently gotten hooked on a detective drama.

After continuing her diligent search for a while, Neria stroked her chin with her fingertips and announced her next plan.

"Nam Dowon, go brush your teeth. You were going to do it before bed anyway, weren't you?"

"…That's true."

"While you're gone, I need to search your room some more. There must be an onahole hidden somewhere…."

"Yes, well, I'll be cheering you on…."

"Or maybe some secret porn hidden on your computer…."

"There isn't any. If you're curious, why don't you look for it yourself, Lady Neria?"

"Oh-ho, you told me to look?"

"Yes."

She seemed bored, so I'd play along only this far and then send her home.

Having made up my mind, I walked to the bathroom to brush my teeth as promised.

I could hear her rummaging through the wardrobe behind me, but it was fairly tidy in its own way.

Swish, swish, swish—it sounded like she was simply digging industriously through the clothes.

At that rate, there wouldn't be much to tidy up later, so I finished brushing my teeth at ease and returned to the bedroom.

"…? What are you doing?"

"You're already done brushing your teeth?"

About four minutes had passed.

When I returned to the bedroom, I was not met by Neria inspecting the wardrobe and then tearing open the ceiling.

What had caught her interest was something much easier to access than the ceiling.

The computer she'd mentioned last.

"……Since your computer was already on, I thought I'd finish the self-study I mentioned last time."

Neria had opened some special website and, pretending it was nothing unusual,

showed me a video, the tips of her ears flushed red.

"……."

"……."

Behind a woman lying almost face-down,

a muscular man was vigorously pounding his cock into her.

Then, forcibly lifting the chin of the woman who was too busy trying to catch her breath,

he kissed her, pressing down on her from above,

and finally ejaculating messily across her back and buttocks.

It was a somewhat unexpected video for Neria to have chosen.

"This…, …the woman's expression looks like the one she makes when she's really enjoying herself…."

But apparently, this was exactly the sort of thing she was interested in.

"…I'll keep that in mind next time."

At first, she had clearly been asking me to be gentle.

Her whole body had been saying exactly that.