Chapter 12
“Sis…!!”
When the robbers’ corpses had been dragged away by the guards and the situation was finally over, Roxanna, who had been sobbing profusely inside the family restaurant, threw herself into my arms.
“Thank you for saving my sister….”
As befitted the cheerful, sociable little one she was, she also made sure to thank Acard and the others.
I silently slumped down and stroked Roxanna’s head.
…I’d experienced all sorts of rape threats, but since this was my first time nearly being kidnapped, I was much more shaken than I’d expected.
There was a difference between “your body is the objective” and “your body is included in the objective”….
“Yeah, yeah…! Vika’s here! Don’t cry, Ria!”
Apparently I had been crying without realizing it, because Vika took out a handkerchief and gently dabbed at my eyes.
These weren’t tears brought on by being choked up or by anger.
…I was simply crying because of my own helplessness.
It was fortunate that the robbers had been relatively mild-mannered; if they had used even a little violence, Roxanna and I would already have….
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you right away, Ria….”
Acard had finally finished talking with the guards a short distance away, and, being the genuinely good-natured person he was, he apologized even though it hadn’t been his fault.
“…Huh?”
“I want to get stronger….”
I grasped both his cheeks, steeled my resolve, and asked him.
“Me too…. I want to get stronger, too….”
No matter how dangerous things got for me, I could endure all of it.
I could endure rape threats, and whether I got punched in the head or beaten with an iron bat, I could endure all of that, but—
Roxanna being in danger was an entirely different matter.
If I’d had even a little strength then.
…If I’d been able to stop them from pointing their guns at Roxanna.
I wouldn’t have felt this utterly powerless.
….”
Acard, who had been flustered with his cheeks in my grip, read the mood at my declaration that I wanted to become stronger and put on a calm expression.
“Ria. Our doors are always open.”
Then Karina tapped me on the shoulder from behind and deliberately struck a pose with her rapier.
“You’d be amazing in a fight, Ria~!”
Vika also slipped her dagger onto one finger and spun it once.
“…At last, fate has begun to flow.”
Mira summoned a constellation and nodded repeatedly.
“…Ria. We’re family, aren’t we? We’ll help you anytime.”
As I listened to Acard’s stirring speech at the end—
“…Sis? What are you to this guy!? What does he mean, family?”
At Roxanna’s bewildered question from my arms, Acard’s words, which had casually included me among his family,
made my face, which had begun to glow with emotion, crumple instantly.
“Friends.”
“….”
“Friends.”
“Y-yeah! Right! Ria and I are friends! Sorry! That just slipped out!”
Acard’s power play to sneak me in among his wives was completely foiled.
“…Hee.”
Roxanna, who had picked up on the strange atmosphere passing between us, made a nasal little sound, but I deliberately pretended not to notice.
“Thanks for saving us. We’ll be going now.”
After catching my breath, I sprang to my feet and finished getting ready to leave with Roxanna, but—
“It’s late, so I’ll escort you!”
In the end, Acard and his group began escorting us back to the church.
….
“Sis, Sis! Show me the stars one more time!”
“My astrology is not meant to be used for things like this….”
“But they’re so pretty…! Pretty things should be shown more!”
“…Now that you put it that way, you have a point.”
We all quietly walked back toward the church, taking a stroll along the way.
I never would have imagined that Mira, who had shown so little presence until now, would play so well with Roxanna.
She floated constellations in her hand like holograms and spun them around, and they were so beautiful and mysterious that even my eyes kept snapping toward them.
“What’s that star?”
“That is Betelgeuse, the Alpha star of Orion. It is 760 times larger than the sun.”
On top of that, she answered questions sincerely, making her fascinating to listen to.
“It’s really big.”
“Yeah, yeah! It’s as big as Sis’s boobs!”
“…Roxanna!?”
“Hehehe! I’m kidding!”
Roxanna’s sudden mischievous prank startled me, and my chest jerked.
My breasts were pretty big, but they couldn’t possibly be that big… right?
Just look at Mira over there. Her breasts are huge, too—almost as big as mine.
“Hmph! My well-balanced breasts are bigger than those vulgar things that are only big!”
“…?”
Perhaps Roxanna’s compliment to me had triggered her inferiority complex, because Mira immediately thrust out her chest and displayed it as if making an appeal.
“Heeey~? Do you really think so, Mira?”
Puffing out her chest and snorting through her nose, Vika approached Mira, compared our breasts, and let out a snicker.
To anyone with eyes, the contest was already decided, with my victory clearly overwhelming in volume, but—
“Hnnngh…! Mine…! Is bigger…!”
Apparently Mira truly couldn’t stand losing, because she sucked in even the surrounding air and puffed out her chest even more.
…Was she challenging me to a catfight?
Mira’s behavior was becoming far more petty and shameless than I’d expected, and for some reason, it brought out my mischievous side, too.
“Hup.”
I followed Mira’s example and thrust out my chest to emphasize its volume.
Since I wasn’t wearing a bra, the soft fat on either side jiggled and flaunted its overwhelming presence.
“…Ngh!!”
Mira bent her waist even farther to emphasize her chest, unwilling to lose.
“Our Sis Ria’s are bigger! Hehehe…! Poor Sis Mira!”
“…Peep!?”
Under Roxanna’s innocent judgment, the kingdom Mira had guarded so fiercely came tumbling down.
Having lived as Acard’s wife without ever losing a battle over breast size, this defeat must have been excruciatingly painful for her.
“Pfft! That’s what you get for picking a fight.”
For the finale, I bounced my breasts once more for everyone to see, then approached Acard, who was pointedly looking away, and jabbed him in the side with my elbow.
“Hey. I beat Mira, right?”
“I see….”
“What’s with his reaction? I’m saying I beat her with my breasts!”
“Cough…!”
Seeing Acard’s face turn bright red, perhaps because he was trying to be polite out in public, only made my mischievous impulses bubble up more strongly.
“Hey. Want to feel them and see which is softer—Mira’s or mine?”
“…!!?”
I deliberately clung to his arm, pressed my breasts against him, and grinned.
“No! Acard is mine!”
Having heard my mischievous voice, Mira hurried over and clung to his other side, rubbing her breasts against him.
“Heehee! Acard says he likes me, whose breasts are waaay bigger than yours!”
“Liar!!”
“Is it really a lie? Hm? Tell her, Acard!”
I teased Mira with a grin, then left the choice to Acard.
Well, choose, you foolish man.
Is it Mira, with her ordinary astrologer boobs, or my majestic boobs, with no equal to be found throughout the ages?!
“I-I….”
“Hurry!”
Unable to hide my excitement, I shouted at Acard, my face turning bright red.
“Roxanna’s… watching…,”
But thanks to Acard producing an answer so perfectly suited to this situation—
“…Tch. Boring….”
“…Phew.”
I clicked my tongue as if disappointed, while Mira, as though stepping down from the gallows, rubbed her pathetic breasts in relief.
“What do you think, Sister Karina? Which of us do you think won?”
But at Roxanna’s question—she was already being carried along in Karina’s arms—the ears of the two women clinging to Acard perked up.
“…Hmm. I won.”
“What? You did, Sister Karina?”
“Of course. Smaller breasts are the most beautiful, after all.”
At Karina’s self-loving declaration, Mira and I exchanged sly smiles, our eyes saying we now had a common enemy.
Just as we were about to recruit Karina into the war over breast size—
“Aren’t all breasts good~? Right, Acard~!”
“…They… are.”
Vika, who had found an opening, stole our spots and bombarded Acard with kisses, giggling all the while, and thus became the true winner of the battle.
In the end, only those of us who had engaged in a pointless battle of wills over breasts lost out, while all of Acard’s attention was stolen by Vika…. Huh.
…Why should I even care that my breasts are big?
Had the robbery made me lose my mind?
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand why I’d engaged in such a battle of wills, so I blankly kneaded my breasts.
“Pyaat?!”
I slipped my hand beneath Mira’s top as she walked beside me, matching my pace, and kneaded her breast.
I relished the marvelous sensation of each finger pressing into the soft, rounded flesh of her chest,
and when I tugged and teased the soft yet firm nipple at the edge—
“Ngh!! I’m not losing anymore!”
“Ahk?!”
Mira suddenly spun around, slipped her hand beneath my top, and retaliated by kneading my breast.
“L-let go of that…?!”
“You tomboy with nothing but big breasts!”
At the same time, we tugged on the nipples of our left breasts and began a battle of wills, snarling sharply at each other.
We weren’t actually trying to hurt each other, so we kept the pressure moderate as we pinched the nipples.
We moved our fingers as if caressing them, trying to make the other let go first and lose.
“Hyaah…!”
Mira was the first to react with a distinctly feminine moan.
“Feels good? Hm!?”
“…Peep. I’m neeeever losing!”
“Kyaaah?!”
When I taunted and laughed at her, Mira apparently decided she couldn’t lose, repositioned her fingers, and pinched and tugged at the entire areola.
“That’s… cheating…!”
“There are no fouls in the world of competition!”
“Nngh…!”
As we both grew furious, we engaged in a fierce exchange, tugging on each other’s nipples.
“…Children shouldn’t see this.”
“Our Roxanna, let’s go to the church with your sisters~!”
Karina and Vika covered Roxanna’s ears and eyes and hurried away from the battlefield.
“…Um, everyone….”
Acard, who seemed frantic because he didn’t know where to look, tried to stop us.
But his actions only poured more oil on the fire.
“Hey, Acard! Choose already!! Me or Mira?!”
“Fate! Me, or those pathetic boobs!”
Pinching each other’s breasts, we advanced toward Acard one step at a time.
Growling and deciding neither of us could afford to lose, we lifted our tops, baring our breasts.
Acard, suddenly forced to see the bare breasts of both women amid the overheated atmosphere, was so flustered that he sucked in a sharp breath.
“I-I like breasts of any size—Aaaagh?!!”
“Are we doing all this just to hear that kind of answer?! Huh!?”
When he tried to escape with yet another technically correct answer, I low-kicked him to the floor, then stomped on him while demanding an answer immediately.
“I’m telling the truth…!! Argh!! My bones! You hit bone!”
“The breasts you love so much are right here, so choose!”
“Choose right now!!”
By then, the two women had joined forces and, after stomping Acard relentlessly, began pummeling him with their fists.
“Aagh! No violence!!”
“Die!! You perverted bastard who likes any woman as long as she’s female!”
“Beast! Pervert! Lecher!!”
By the time the thuds of fists echoed through the street and Acard began to go limp—
“Haaah…. Haaah…!”
“Phewww…!”
Mira and I faced each other and caught our breath.
We trudged closer, then spread our hands wide.
Smack—!
Satisfied with our perfect teamwork, we high-fived like in some legendary basketball manga that suddenly came to mind.
“…That was quite a move.”
“…You’re pretty good yourself.”
Having defeated our common enemy(?), both of us had cooled down, so we shrugged and shared the camaraderie of comrades-in-arms.
“Sorry for teasing you about your breast size.”
“I’m sorry, too, for getting angry about breast size.”
Leaving our victim twitching on the ground behind, Mira and I walked hand in hand toward the church.
What I realized today was that Mira and I had a great deal in common.
Starting with our personalities, our breast size and height. …And even the inferiority complexes lurking beneath the surface.
“Why me….”
Acard’s aggrieved voice drifted from where he lay facedown in the distance, but to the two women who had just become comrades, it was nothing more than an echo that never reached us.