Chapter 58
Brush.
Touch.
Elettra’s lips touch one corner of mine.
A soft, moist sensation unlike anything you’d feel on any other part of the body.
A sweet scent like cream puffs.
‘…Huh?’
My mind goes blank.
Elettra kissed me.
Was this actually some kind of greeting?
No, that couldn’t be it.
I’d never seen anyone kiss as a greeting, either inside or outside the academy.
And even in the original story.
A kiss was never a lighthearted gesture.
Ever since before the Seven Gods Church took root, kissing had been one of the most common ways for a man and woman to express romantic feelings.
The touch of lips was an unmistakable sign of affection.
It wasn’t something either men or women should do casually.
‘Elettra.’
Could she…
Could she…
‘…like me?’
My eyes trembled despite myself. I was flustered, and my face grew hot.
Elettra looked at me with an expression that seemed to say, ‘Gotcha, didn’t I?’
“Hehe….”
In reality, she was thinking to herself.
‘Looks like I landed that one.’
Ah, this feels so satisfying.
I’d successfully taught that womanizing playboy a lesson.
Would I have to pay for this in bed now? Would those fingers that knew every inch of a woman’s body make me scream?
But.
“Uh, uhh….”
Gilliam was far more flustered than Elettra had expected.
‘W-why is he acting like this?’
Surely Gilliam was used to kissing women.
She had just given Gilliam the chastity of her lips, but that man’s lips had probably consumed the chastity of countless women by now.
So Elettra had expected things to go like this next.
When she kissed him, Gilliam would raise an eyebrow and give a smirk as if he found her cute.
But what was actually happening was completely different.
Gilliam was flustered.
Even his ears had turned red.
Shy.
Awkward.
‘Huh…?’
What was this?
Why was this man acting like this?
“Uh, uhh…?”
Shyness and awkwardness were highly contagious.
Especially when she hadn’t expected this to happen at all.
Gilliam’s unexpected side had caught Elettra, completely unprepared, right in the heart.
“Uh, uhhh…??”
Elettra’s face, too, burst into flames.
“….”
“….”
The man and woman sat side by side, looking at each other, feeling embarrassed and awkward—and realizing that the other felt the same way.
“!”
“!!”
Then they hurriedly looked the other way.
Their hearts pounded. A sweet, ticklish, tart little tingle shivered through their whole bodies.
Unable to keep their hands still, they picked up a fork for no reason, then a napkin, then clutched at their clothes or skirt.
“G-Gilliam. It’s kind of hot, isn’t it!?”
The silence suddenly felt so embarrassing that she blurted nonsense.
“Yeah. Is it cold?”
She answered nonsense with nonsense.
They both stiffened, then slowly turned their heads toward each other, sneaking a loooooong glance…
‘She’s bright red.’
‘Why is he so red!?’
Their eyes met again, and they hurriedly turned their faces away!
“Uh….”
“U-umm….”
I don’t dislike it.
I don’t, but how did things end up so sweet and innocent all of a sudden?
Even fresh-faced boys and girls who’d only just entered their teens would be less green than this!
No. The two of them weren’t that kind of boy and girl.
Gilliam was a jaded, shameless womanizer, and she was a woman (a virgin) prepared to become that man’s proper wife!
‘W-why did things turn out like this…!’
Her throat was dry. Elettra downed the low-alcohol drink served with the meal.
But even though it was only a little, the alcohol had the opposite effect. Her body grew hotter and she felt even more embarrassed!
“Huaa…! Huaaah!!!”
Fidgeting nervously!!
And yet, strangely, a sudden burst of courage—or perhaps foolhardiness—welled up!
“G-Gilliam Everchess!!”
She grabbed his shoulder—
…But what was she supposed to say now?
What did she even want to say?
Her heart felt soft, hot, and achingly tender.
This feeling.
This heat and ache—if she didn’t let it out, she felt like her heart would burn away.
And there was only one way to let it out: put it on her tongue and convey it to him.
“I…!”
Their eyes met. He was handsome. So lovely to look at.
She made a bold confession.
“H-hug me!”
She wanted to be held by this man.
In both senses of the word.
She just wanted to be wrapped in his arms.
She wanted him to hold her tight. She wanted to feel safe and at ease in his embrace.
And she wanted him to enter her body, too.
She wanted him to hold her down and conquer her. She wanted to take a part of him into her belly and feel herself being dominated.
The thought suddenly made her head spin.
“Ah….”
Elettra leaned against Gilliam as if she were about to collapse.
She could smell Gilliam’s scent. She couldn’t describe it, but it had the smell of a womanizer who lured women in.
In that state.
Still leaning against him.
“….”
“….”
Unable to do anything, one way or the other.
Not knowing what to say.
The man and woman simply leaned against each other, feeling the touch of each other’s bodies.
Then.
At last.
“…Shall we get up?”
“…Yeah.”
They got up.
The man and woman, together.
When they stepped outside, it was night.
A man and woman walked through the night streets, alone together, breathing in the night air.
“….”
“….”
Anxiety and sweetness spread through Elettra’s belly at the same time.
“…Shall we head back?”
“…Yeah.”
To the dormitory.
To a room.
Somewhere they could be alone together.
Somewhere with a bed.
On the way back, even though it was a familiar city, every street corner felt unfamiliar to Elettra.
‘I’m…’
about to do it.
For real.
‘I’m going back with him, and then we’re really going to…’
She realized why everything felt unfamiliar. It was the last night she’d see this city as a virgin.
Her mind went blank.
She was a little scared.
It didn’t feel real.
“…Elettra.”
“…Yeah?”
“That kiss just now…”
And when you asked me to hold you.
“…You were right.”
And.
Gilliam thought to himself.
‘Was she suggesting we take things slowly?’
It seemed certain that Elettra had feelings for me.
This probably wasn’t just my imagination.
‘Then was she bringing up marriage and all that earlier as a way of appealing to me?’
Probably.
If so, why had she put it that way?
She had feelings for me.
But why had she said she didn’t love me?
‘…Ah!’
Understanding flashed through my mind.
‘She wants us to go from being guy-and-girl friends to something more!’
Talking seriously about love would come at the next stage, after we officially became a couple.
For now, she wanted to start with something more than friends, but less than lovers.
The kiss had been an accident—she’d meant to playfully tease my cheek like someone flirting would.
Elettra was flustered because she hadn’t meant to go that far.
And when she asked me to hold her, she meant a hug between two people who were flirting.
‘Wow, that explains everything.’
I glanced at Elettra.
My heart was pounding.
‘This is the first time I’ve ever flirted with a woman.’
These fresh, fluttery feelings of my own were unfamiliar. I never thought even a clueless guy like me would get to flirt with a woman.
So.
‘I should hug her outside the dorm and send her off, right?’
‘I’m going to go into the dorm and be completely conquered tonight, right?’
They were in the same place, but imagining completely different things.
That was exactly what was happening.
However.
Before they even reached the dormitory, something unexpected happened.
Someone stood in front of the academy’s main gate.
The orange lamplight reflected off his glittering armor.
He was a knight clad in plate armor from head to toe, except for his helmet.
He was about their age.
His black eyes fixed on Elettra, and he knelt on one knee before her in greeting.
“Your Highness! It’s been a long time. Have you been well?”
The knight looked delighted.
“…Tros.”
Elettra looked less than pleased.
Gilliam was curious about their relationship and asked.
“You two know each other?”
“How dare you speak so rudely to Her Highness!”
The knight shouted at Gilliam and tried to draw his sword to properly reprimand him, but—
Before he’d even straightened the knee he was still kneeling on.
“You…!”
Elettra raised her foot.
“You idiot!”
And kicked the knight square in the chest.
“Gah!?”
The knight’s plate armor crashed backward into the main gate, ringing out with a loud metallic clang.
The Ice Princess’s voice rang out coldly.
“Tros, I saw you reach for your sword just now. What sort of discourtesy were you about to commit against my guest!?”
“I-I was only trying to stop him from being rude to Your Highness—”
“If we’re talking about rudeness, yours is far worse! Apologize to Young Master Everchess this instant!!”
Tros awkwardly got to his feet and gave Gilliam a perfunctory nod.
“I was rash.”
“That can happen—”
“No, it can’t. You think an apology like that is enough?”
Elettra was furious.
Because the man she loved had been insulted.
And.
‘The whole mood is ruined!!!!’
Right now!
Right this very second!
The two of them had been about to go back to the dorm, head straight to bed without a word, and take each other’s clothes off without a word!! (No, she was mistaken.)
“Because of you, Tros, the mood was finally getting natural…!!”
Elettra laid a hand on Gilliam’s shoulder.
It was a touch that clearly showed a woman coveting her man.
“Y-Your Highness?”
Tros’s voice trembled.
The reason he’d longed to become a knight.
Someday, to become the sword who would protect Princess Elettra—the most beautiful Second Princess in the world—
〈Next Praise Recommendation (LV.3)〉
【Automatically identifies the target→Sir Lev Tros】
Recommended line: 「Hey, knight, heh, this princess here has been my woman for ages already」
Atmosphere: Lightly, with a hand on Elettra’s shoulder
Target’s traits: A knight with an unrequited love for the princess
“????”
Was it really okay to do this?
Just last time, the recommended praise had been perfectly normal, but right after that came the strangest recommendation ever.
And this knight was in love with Elettra?
But.
I remembered Maron’s rampage after I ignored the recommendation last time.
The sudden spike in the probability of her fate as a villainess.
Maybe if I didn’t do this, Elettra would go on a rampage and the probability of her fate as a tyrant would shoot up?
‘I’m sorry, Sir Knight.’
It couldn’t be helped. I had to do this to protect Elettra, too.
“Hey, knight, heh, this princess here has been my woman for ages already.”
When I put my hand on her shoulder, Elettra made a strange sound, apparently startled.
“Haaung♡”
【The target is ecstatic】
<Praise Points: +3000(10300→13300)>
*×3 multiplier applied
“……Huh?”
Tros’s brain broke.