Chapter 19
If I leaned my body back as far as I could, Acard would take another step toward me.
“Hngh…?!”
When I firmly shut my lips, his tongue persistently set about forcing them open somehow.
On top of that, the leg he had slipped between mine slowly crept upward, stimulating the swollen mound of my pussy through my clothes.
As if he had decided to keep me on edge.
Acard deliberately controlled the intensity of the kiss with an unmistakable purpose.
“…?!”
Before I knew it, the hand kneading my breasts was gradually focusing on caressing the soft nipples and areolas at their tips.
Perhaps he had felt the slickness coating the leg pressing down on my pussy, because his movements grew even more blatant.
Completely pinned against the wall by his strength and unable to resist at all, I could do nothing but endure his forceful yet gentle kiss.
The only thought that crossed my mind in this situation was this.
The chilling sense of transgression entwined with his tenderness, and—
…I’m a man, though.
If someone had seen a woman cornered against a wall in a corridor without a single window, being forcefully kissed by a man, they would have called it incredibly romantic.
But from the receiving end, I wanted to hurl every profanity I knew.
I wanted to bite down on a rag and growl, but of all things, what I had in my mouth was Acard’s lips, which were worse than any rag….
I was only putting up with it because I was kind; if I could do as I pleased, I wanted to bite off the damn tongue that had entered my mouth right away.
And to make matters worse, he was kneading my breasts, leaving me so short of breath that I could barely breathe.
“…Ria.”
Apparently deciding that he had kissed me enough, Acard released the pressure he had used to pin me against the wall for over ten minutes and gently pulled his lips away.
“You fucking bastard!!”
Smack!!!
As Acard moved as if to say something with his lips glistening, I immediately swung my hand hard and struck him across the cheek.
“Am I your girlfriend?! Huh?!”
I had thought of this guy as the precious first friend I had made in another world.
“I told you I hate you!! I said I don’t want to marry you!!”
I never imagined he would make me experience firsthand that men and women couldn’t be friends.
“I…, I…!”
I wanted to hurl more abuse at him over the humiliation of having my trust betrayed, but the chilling sense that I might turn my friend into an enemy if I went any further left me unable to say anything.
“…Wait, Ria!!”
I bolted down the corridor and fled the mansion.
Clutching the towel tightly in my hand, I ran all the way to the church while hiding my surging emotions.
Unlike my gloomy mood, the sun hung high overhead, beautifully illuminating the world.
….
After running and running through the streets, I finally reached the church, staggering, and Roxanna, who had been sitting on a bench admiring the flowers, spotted me.
“…Sister? Why are you here so early?”
“I-I just happened to….”
“And why are your clothes different?”
Since I had fled without changing into my training clothes, Roxanna immediately pointed out that I was wearing a different outfit.
“Don’t worry about it, Roxanna!”
“Mmmng….”
Before my perceptive little one could notice the humiliation I had suffered, I beat her to it, scooped her up, and hugged her.
“Let’s go inside and study doctrine together!”
“You’re acting strange today, Sis….”
“Because I trained a little too hard!”
“…Hmm.”
Using evasive maneuvers as best I could, I hurried into the church building and began some pointless doctrinal study.
….
“When many of the people were starving from hunger, our Lord sent quail and manna from heaven….”
Roxanna had been quietly reciting from the Bible, but when she saw how utterly unfocused I was, she snapped the Bible shut with a thud.
“Sis.”
“…Y-yes?”
“Something happened today, didn’t it?”
Apparently realizing that neither a lesson nor anything else would work like this, Roxanna quietly pressed me for the truth.
“Nothing… No. Yes….”
I tried once again not to answer, but under Roxanna’s steady gaze, I eventually explained what had happened with Acard and the others.
“…You were forcibly kissed, so you ran away?”
“Yeah.”
After I explained everything in a wholesome manner that a ten-year-old could understand, Roxanna rested her chin on her hand and thought like an adult before—
“…Hmm. I understand.”
“…What?”
Apparently having come up with an answer of her own, she smiled adorably and opened her mouth.
“You like Brother Acard. You just don’t know why you like him yet.”
“……”
I felt truly sorry to Roxanna, who had worked so hard to think it through, but—
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a chance in hell that I liked Acard.
“…I guess not.”
Perhaps every emotion was written plainly across my face, because Roxanna realized she was wrong, crooked one corner of her mouth, and began thinking again.
“Then how did you feel when you kissed Brother?”
“…It felt bad, but he was gentler than I expected…. No, no. It just felt bad.”
Since the best solution was an interrogation technique that drew out someone’s true feelings, I spouted nonsense in response to her leading question about the kiss, then quickly steered the conversation back on course.
“Huh? Didn’t you just say it felt good, Sis?”
“It’s just that…, he has three wives…. I meant he’s needlessly good at technique….”
…I felt like I shouldn’t say things like this in front of Roxanna, but for some reason, it felt like I was at confession, so the words just kept spilling out.
“Hmm…. Now I understand!”
Snap! Apparently figuring out the answer to the situation in that brief exchange, Roxanna snapped her fingers and smiled brightly.
With an expression that looked ready to deliver a line straight out of some juvenile mystery manga, Roxanna said—
“The truth is…, there’s always only one!”
She delivered a line that was hardly different from what I had expected, then pressed down firmly on my chest.
“Sis, you need to talk to Brother Acard now!”
“…Me? With him?”
“Yeah! At times like this, it’s better to have one honest conversation than worry a hundred times!”
“I guess…?”
…Is this really the level of conversation a ten-year-old is capable of?
Being a saintess really isn’t something just anyone can do, is it…?
Persuaded by Roxanna’s fairly convincing advice, I cleared my head and thought things through carefully.
Come to think of it, Acard had looked as though he wanted to say something when I ran away.
Besides, even if I didn’t want to admit it, I had surprisingly been the one to make the first move….
“Hmm….”
Putting the situation together carefully, I concluded that Acard had ultimately only been following his instincts.
…Since we had both misunderstood each other, perhaps if we talked it out properly, we could clear things up and go back to being friends.
I couldn’t help feeling uneasy about the childhood-friend stuff we had talked about, but I could somehow gloss over it by calling it a mere coincidence.
“Okay. I’ll do my best.”
“Yes! Go and come back!”
“…Now?”
“It’ll be lunchtime soon, so now’s a good time to talk, right?”
At Roxanna’s insistence that I go right now instead of tomorrow, a cold sweat ran down my back.
“I’m not emotionally ready to talk right now….”
Even if I forgave Acard, there were still too many awkward things about going back right now.
I looked cautiously at Roxanna, wondering whether going tomorrow might be better, and—
“No! That’ll only make things more awkward! Go, hurry!”
Roxanna, radiating an air three or four times more mature than usual, snorted and began pushing me toward certain death.
“R-Roxanna?!”
“If you don’t go, I won’t sleep with you tonight! No, wait…! Go sleep at Brother Acard’s place tonight!”
“Wait—!”
Thud—! Roxanna unleashed terrifying strength, drove me out of the church before I could finish speaking, and firmly shut the door.
“I haven’t even had time to prepare myself mentally….”
It’s the feeling you get when the person you trust most doesn’t understand you after you’ve thrown a tantrum.
“…Sigh.”
Still, if there was one fortunate thing, it was that Roxanna had at least hinted at things that could be called answers….
“What am I supposed to say to Acard…?”
As I sorted through my complicated thoughts about how to approach him, I stared blankly at the towel clutched tightly in my hand.
….
“….”
I did return to the mansion without knowing what to say.
After hesitating countless times, it was all well and good that I finally stood in front of the gate again after roughly two hours.
But I couldn’t bring myself to knock on the gate or press the doorbell.
I was also worried that if I started talking with Acard again, he might say that we couldn’t be friends after all.
The memory of being kissed kept surfacing, and the fact that my lips still felt moist bothered me.
Not knowing what to do, I repeatedly approached and backed away from the gate.
“…Ah, whatever!!”
Bang bang—!
So frustrated by my own hesitation, I pounded on the gate and decided to act first.
Usually, pointless overthinking doesn’t help much in situations like this.
Creak—!
Not long after I knocked on the gate, I heard the mansion’s front door open in the distance.
“Ria…!”
Annoyingly handsome Acard opened the gate with hurried footsteps, and the moment he saw me, he bent at the waist at a ninety-degree angle.
“I’m so sorry for misunderstanding you…!”
He deployed the married-man classic: apologize first and see what happens.
“….”
Seeing Acard act exactly according to the scenario I had imagined on the way over made all the scolding I had planned vanish completely.
“…Sigh. Just don’t do that again.”
Contrary to the depth of my worries, I felt no anger—only a bitter aftertaste—so I sighed as I looked at Acard with his head bowed and forgave him immediately.
“I’m sorry…!”
“Stop apologizing.”
“Okay…! I’m sorry!”
“This time, I was at fault too for making you misunderstand….”
“No…! It was all my fault!”
Somehow, with every word he said, Acard’s waist bent lower and lower.
“Hey. Lift your head.”
“Oh…! Okay…!”
Thinking he might end up burying his head in the ground and never lifting it again, like an ostrich hiding, I made him raise his head.
Then I handed back the towel I had taken with me when I ran away and spoke with my feelings all tangled up.
“You can’t act like that.”
“….”
“…I told you, I want to be friends with you.”
Acard accepted the towel and fell silent, apparently sinking into deep thought at my words.
“You sure are damn good at kissing, though. Huh?”
“Huh…?”
“Guess this isn’t the first time you’ve pinned a woman against a wall and forcibly kissed her?”
Wanting to lighten the heavy atmosphere while teasing Acard over his dejected expression, I complimented him sarcastically.
“Do that sort of thing to your wives, not me. From what I saw, they all love you like crazy.”
“Oh… Yeah…. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Mm…! Good! No hard feelings now!”
I patted Acard’s awkwardly fidgeting shoulders, forcibly took his hand, and shook it.
“Now hand over lunch!”
“…?”
“Roxanna told me to spend the night here, so hurry!”
“O-okay…! I was just getting lunch ready, so come in!”
Finally coming to his senses, Acard returned to his naturally bright, handsome self, and we entered the mansion together, hand in hand, all smiles.
It wasn’t as though there were no parts of the misunderstanding left unresolved.
But those trivial feelings were smaller than my immediate relief, so I decided not to worry about them anymore.
“Everyone! Ria’s back!”
“Oh! You’re back, Ria! We were worried!”
“Ria…! I’m sorry!”
“…That’s a relief.”
Once inside the mansion, Acard announced my return, and Karina, Vika, and Mira, who had been setting food on the table while chatting amiably, all gathered around and hugged me.
“Ngh….”
When they squeezed me tightly, I let out a small groan, feeling as if I might start producing breast milk again—
“I-I’m sorry.”
“Oh, right…! Sorry, Ria!”
“Sluurp….”
Everyone except Mira noticed my condition and backed away, while Mira merely licked her lips.
…Well, whatever.
Having a family like this as my neighbors wasn’t so bad, I supposed.
They were all strong, kind, and… a little playful, but they all got along so well.
I decided to be even more grateful that I could keep these people by my side.
“…Hehehe.”
At the same time, I didn’t let go of the dark thought that, someday, they might introduce me to some nice woman.
Even so, after everything I’d been through with them, they ought to introduce me to at least one good woman… Ugh…, I’m suddenly getting goosebumps….
“Ria? What’s wrong?”
“…Ah, no. Nothing.”
For some reason, imagining myself married to a woman sent a sudden, strange shiver up my spine.
“….”
Don’t worry, Ria.
Just like Acard said, I’m me!
I’ll surely be able to become the kept husband of some successful woman and live well, so there’s no need to worry……?
…Do I really have to marry into a woman’s family?
There’s a perfectly good family to marry into right here….
“Aaaah!”
“Ria?! Why are you suddenly acting like that?!”
“It’s all because of you, you damn bastard!!”
“Aaaagh!! Why are you hitting me?!”
Creepy thoughts that were completely unlike the old me, who had liked women, kept unconsciously creeping up on me, so I smacked Acard across the back.
“E-everyone, help me!!”
Acard kept getting struck across the back by me while begging his three wives for help, but—
“Mm. That’s just our usual Ria.”
“You need to get hit a little more, Acard~.”
“Even fate has to wobble once in a while.”
The three wives firmly refused to help and happily watched Acard getting beaten, taking in the sight with their own two eyes.