Chapter 28
I opened my eyes.
I rose from bed with a groggy look on my face.
“...”
Right beside me, the Hero was looking at me, seeming not to have slept much, perhaps because of what had happened yesterday.
Despite looking unwell himself, he smiled and asked whether I'd slept well.
He didn't really need to ask me that.
He was needlessly kind to a fault.
I sighed.
I had no idea how many times I'd ended up sharing a bed with a man who had never been part of my fate, all to save a little money.
Still, maybe I should count myself lucky; as the Hero had promised, nothing much had happened during the night.
I wasn't sure whether to call that impressive or call the Hero a eunuch.. Since I'd said that yesterday, wouldn't it be rather unfair to distance myself from him now by going on about him being a man and all?
Instead of answering the Hero's question, I smiled at him.
Honestly, I don't dislike the Hero anymore.
Rather, as one person to another, I liked him, if anything, and certainly didn't dislike him. After all, there was nothing I hated more than spitting in the face of genuinely kind people.
Of course, since I'm still a man, if you asked whether I liked him romantically, I'd say absolutely not.
Still, well..
Seeing him keep the promise he'd made so confidently was kind of impressive.
With the aphrodisiac's effects still in his body, it couldn't have been easy to endure. If it had been me, would I have been able to hold out? I'd only barely managed to do so by constantly reminding myself that the other person was a man.
Probably not.
This may sound strange, but the effect was so strong that I'd even thought about pouncing on him and letting whatever happened happen. I had seen plenty of gender-bender stories, so I'd seen many characters who, after succumbing to pleasure, stopped caring whether their partner was a man.
Back then, I'd thought they were just mentally gay or something, and that it made no sense, but apparently that absolutely wasn't the case. Once my thoughts began drifting in that direction, I started to get a little creeped out.
I hadn't done it because I liked him, and doing so would cost me my life in the future as well, so I somehow endured. The fact that my thoughts had become abnormally one-sided was something I probably needed to examine, though.
Anyway, how should I put it.. I had to admire him.
I truly meant it.
.
.
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As I mentioned earlier, perhaps because of what had happened yesterday, neither the Hero nor I looked particularly well. Especially me—I found it surprisingly difficult to keep my legs steady, perhaps because of the aphrodisiac's effects.
Nothing had happened, so why was I this exhausted..
More precisely, it wasn't that I lacked strength; I simply couldn't exert any, so it was probably because the aphrodisiac's effects were still lingering. I was barely able to walk, but the Hero looked completely fine.
I couldn't tell whether he could endure it because he was the Hero, or whether he was also struggling to stand but kept going for my sake.
I'm seriously going crazy..
After finishing our preparations and leaving the room, we happened to run into Cecilia, who had just finished preparing as well. She looked us over and spoke with a strange smile.
“Did you have a peaceful night?”
Is that really what you're asking right now..?
Couldn't she tell something had happened yesterday just by looking at how poorly the Hero and I looked?
Come to think of it, I still hadn't figured that out.
I'd thought Cecilia had manipulated the situation so she could share a room with the Hero, but apparently not.
As I looked at Cecilia suspiciously, thinking that, the Hero beside me asked her,
“Why are you suddenly speaking so formally? It doesn't suit you..?”
Apparently, he found her sudden use of formal speech suspicious.
Of course, Cecilia merely smiled sweetly and answered.
“But when a man and woman share a room, doesn’t that mean something joyous must have happened? That’s what I was thinking~”
The Hero and I flinched at Cecilia's words, delivered with a smile. Nothing had happened, but trying to sleep in those circumstances had led to tossing and turning, and all sorts of things had happened.
I'm jealous of the Hero..
He's a man, so when he wants to relieve himself, he can just do it, but I'm a woman, so even if I want to relieve my sexual urges, it's hard to do while traveling..
I don't think those urges had built up before, but it must be because of the effects of yesterday's drug.
Honestly, I want to comfort myself right now.. but I don't know how, and it feels like committing a crime, so I don't really want to. This isn't even my body to begin with; I can't just do whatever I want with it, can I?
“I’m feeling troubled right now, so could you stop joking around..?”
“Gasp, no way, really..!”
The Hero let out a deep sigh.
Honestly, right now I want to beat Cecilia to a pulp too.
For some reason, Cecilia had given up on sharing a room with the Hero, so it didn't seem like things had gotten much worse.. Still, we'd taken the same room, and that was what had led to all this..
“I’m joking, I’m joking~”
Perhaps Cecilia realized that the atmosphere had become far more charged than before, because she said that with an awkward laugh. The Hero had just asked her not to joke around, but judging by what she was saying, she must have been pretty flustered.
“Lumia? Is there anything you want to eat?”
The Hero asked me as if he'd only just remembered. It's not as if I'm a pig; surely I don't have something I want to eat every day. If I had to pick something, I'd want food that would settle my stomach.
As we'd discussed yesterday, the message in Cecilia's bag said there was a clue about the Demon King's army in Kapra Village. As I'd said last time, Kapra Village was the village where we'd meet Ruril.
Anyway.. given the distance, we'd be taking a carriage there.
If I ate something hard to digest here, I felt like I'd throw up on the carriage ride, so I figured I could fill my stomach with something like soup or salad.
“Then shall we have a light breakfast?”
I nodded at the Hero's question.
.
.
.
As expected of coachmen, they were already outside waiting early in the morning. Since we needed to leave the Holy Kingdom as quickly as possible, that was welcome news. When I happened to glance at the carriage, I remembered what had happened the first time I rode in one.
It seemed I'd started riding carriages more often since coming to this world. Once I met the last heroine, Ruril, the real adventure would begin, right?
I looked back at Cecilia.
She wasn't quite the Cecilia I'd expected.. Perhaps sensing my gaze, she turned toward me and tilted her head quizzically. Still, well.. She was just as cute as she had been in the game, so I wasn't particularly angry.
I hadn't asked because I didn't have the courage, but no matter how confident she was, there was no way she'd do something as absurd as give me the chance to sleep in the same room as the Hero.
In other words, this meant Cecilia didn't like the Hero, at least for now. Of course, I had no intention of dropping my suspicions right away.
In the game, Cecilia had gone after the Hero like a sly fox, even telling all sorts of lies, so it was entirely possible that this was merely her self-important confidence that, no matter how much someone like me struggled, I couldn't stop her from making a move.
If that were true, it would be quite infuriating.
Should I say I had her to thank for that..?
“You look like you're having a lot of trouble walking.. Should I support you after all?”
“...”
The Hero had started paying attention to me again. It seemed that attention was a little excessive, making me wonder whether I'd seduced him too much yesterday.
Rather than call it seduction, all I'd done was bring the Hero back to bed after he tried to sleep outside on his own, then sleep beside him.. Still, seeing him pay attention to me, I figured it was safe to relax for now.
“What about me, Hero? You don't pay any attention to me?”
“Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to..”
“No, it's fine. It happens~”
Cecilia replied to the Hero's answer with a sly smile. I genuinely had no idea what she was thinking.. Had she always been this inscrutable?
In the game, I remembered her as kind enough to seem almost innocent.
No.. That's not it.
I couldn't keep suspecting Cecilia, either. Right now, a new issue had arisen that I needed to worry about more than that.
It was a long enough story that I'd need to think it through while riding in the carriage, so for now I decided to set it aside. It seemed like it would be important to my future course of action.
“Then shall we get in?”
I nodded at the Hero's question.
It was time to go meet the next heroine, Ruril.
Let's go.
To Kapra Village.
Hmm..
Look at them giving the village such a half-assed name, as if this weren't an adult game.
I shook my head inwardly.