Chapter 16
1.
"Did you enjoy last night?"
As soon as I got home, I ran into Peridot, and she immediately asked me that.
Come to think of it, Peridot masturbated a lot, too. She seemed pretty lustful herself.
"Ah… yeah. I'm a little tired."
"Oh, how much did you do to be tired even today…?"
"My back hurts… Could we sit down while we talk?"
I thought it was rude to keep someone standing in the entryway like this.
Peridot and I moved to the living room sofa. I felt a little better once I sat down.
"Um… Do I really have to tell you?"
"If you think of it as private, you don't have to… I'm just curious."
"Hmm……."
I wondered if I’d just end up bragging about how incredibly potent my boyfriend was. Though I did think having a potent boyfriend was something to brag about.
If the hotel alarm hadn't gone off, reminding us that we had an hour left, after I’d taken him in my mouth once and had him finish inside me twice that morning,
if I hadn’t told him I was too exhausted and suggested we go on another date next time,
I might still be moaning and gasping beneath him right now.
Thinking about it that way made me a little excited.
A man who made your first time that amazing…
I was thrilled thinking about what kind of sex Dojin would give me once he got a little more experienced.
"By the way, where's Ruby?"
"Ruby went out to take care of some monsters. But… did you buy that necklace?"
"This was a gift. Dojin put it on me as a congratulatory present."
"Ugh, I'm so jealous… couples…"
Seeing how genuinely envious Peridot was of my gemstone necklace, I figured she was practically a woman already.
Me? I spent yesterday crying out while a man thrust into me—did you think I was still a man?
"If we're just talking numbers, five times yesterday. And three times today…"
"I guess you didn't do that much. Weren't you in a 'heat'?"
"I lost count after a while…"
Peridot wondered what the numbers I'd given her meant, then looked startled and asked me again.
"D-does Mr. Dojin really have that much stamina? H-how does he do that…?"
"I was surprised, too…"
And it was probably best not to mention the awakening of my M tendencies and all that.
I still didn't know whether it was the contract's influence or an expression of the masochistic tendencies this body already had.
Still, whether Dojin was acting on instinct or I genuinely enjoyed it, the way he acted like an S was absolutely amazing.
It was like he’d scratched an itch I hadn't been able to reach.
Hardcore BDSM would be too much for me, and honestly, I wasn't sure I wanted to go that far…
But the kind of sex where we gently took on the roles of dominant and submissive… after experiencing it yesterday, I could say it was the best.
"Ah… and on my way back, a guy hit on me."
"Your boyfriend didn't walk you home?"
"No… I said I'd go by myself. Teleporting made me a little motion-sick."
Every time we teleported, it felt like the semen still inside me was sloshing around. I had to cross my legs to hold it in, and it was hard.
By the third teleport, I ended up sinking to the ground right where I stood. Dojin suggested we walk, but I was so embarrassed that teleporting alone had made me climax that I insisted on going home by myself.
More than anything, whenever I was close to Dojin, I kept getting soaked down there, and that was a problem.
"After doing it with Dojin, I don't even care if someone hits on me anymore."
"Ah, is that… 'female degradation'?"
"Maybe… I have mixed feelings about it, though……."
That should be enough. Besides, I wanted to take a shower now.
I told Peridot I was going to wash up, then headed to my room.
[Lapis : I'm home now. I'll message you after I take a nap! ]
2.
"…Did you enjoy your overnight stay?"
"Yeah. Why are you asking me that, old man?"
Dojin had no intention of answering the Sword Saint's question. He wouldn't even admit that it had been fun.
"Did you use contraception?"
"…She said it was safe."
Come to think of it, he hadn't thought about contraception at all. He thought Lapis had said it was safe.
Honestly, his mind had been so consumed by lust that even if Lapis had pleaded with him, saying she could get pregnant and they couldn't do that, he probably still would've come inside her.
"Keep that up and some gold-digging woman is going to trap you and make you regret it."
"Lapis isn't that kind of person."
Dojin still clearly remembered the day he first spoke with Lapis. He'd just finished exercising and was resting, after the Sword Saint had nagged him to work out already and he’d gotten sick of it.
Some random C-rankers had approached him, but when he ignored them without even answering, they'd gone away.
He still remembered how Lapis had smiled and walked over to him after their eyes met for a moment.
It had been more than ten years since his parents died and the Sword Saint took him in. The Sword Saint had provided for Dojin generously, materially, but Dojin had never properly developed emotionally as a child.
After all, losing both his parents was traumatic enough, and the Sword Saint had never known how to provide emotional care in the first place.
So Dojin had thought of the world as black and white. After his parents died, he used the power he'd gained to protect people from monsters, just as the Sword Saint told him to.
It was easy. Teleportation made getting around simple, and with telekinesis powerful enough to make an A-rank telekinetic look like a child, missions like hunting monsters and clearing nests were easy for him.
But if you made a child do that kind of thing, it would break them mentally.
The Sword Saint hadn't known that. If he had, he wouldn't have made Dojin do it.
The Sword Saint had thought, simply, that he'd been fine with it. It was all he knew how to do. It was how he'd earned all his money.
He'd only taught Dojin what he knew. He'd shown him how to hunt, and provided him with prey.
The difference was that the Sword Saint had still had family to comfort him back then, while Dojin had no family left.
But the Sword Saint's family, who'd been caught up in the same disaster as Dojin's, had all died. So the Sword Saint took in Dojin, who'd been left an orphan, to fulfill his responsibility.
"She's not that kind of person…"
Dojin mulled over those details from his past, then shook them off.
Whatever the case, Lapis was the person who'd brought color to the world he'd thought was black and white.
He'd never known the world could be so colorful until now.
That was why he enjoyed talking with her, even about the most trivial things.
That was why he hoped she wouldn't find out he was one of the Three Heroes.
He was afraid they wouldn't be able to keep having those little conversations.
When Lapis disappeared from in front of him for three days, he'd felt restless.
He'd already experienced a colorful world, and he could no longer endure one that was black and white.
If she hadn't shown up on the fourth day, Dojin had almost gone to the Hero Association to force them to tell him where Lapis was.
So when she brought up smartphones first, he was happy.
There'd been so many ways to contact each other even when they were apart, and it was ridiculous that he hadn't thought of them.
He'd looked at different models, but in the end, the custom-made phone the Sword Saint had personally ordered for him seemed like the best choice.
More than anything, the Sword Saint's overprotective streak meant the phone had mandatory GPS tracking, which made it even better.
He asked an employee to link it to his own phone. Lapis didn't know about that.
Dojin felt reassured knowing he could find out where she was, wherever she might be.
Even when she fought a witch named Iris, he watched from far away with his clairvoyance.
When he saw Lapis being waterboarded, he almost tore Iris's limbs off with telekinesis without even realizing it.
But he held back. He thought Lapis probably wouldn't want him to do that.
He'd been right. Worried he might not be able to hold back, he'd casually asked her at the hospital, and she said she'd handle things herself.
She said that if she relied on someone else, it might become even harder for her to stand on her own.
She said she'd see it through by herself, or together with her companions.
"Do what you want. You're an adult now, too…"
"Oh, you said you wanted to meet Lapis. When are you going to do that?"
"Tell me once you've arranged it. I'll do my best to work around your schedule."
The Sword Saint was dressed in armor as he said that.
"Clearing a nest?"
"Yeah."
The Sword Saint left the house just like that. Dojin had never worried about him.
Dojin had telekinesis, teleportation, and mystic eyes, including mana sight, X-ray vision, and clairvoyance.
But even with three abilities, Dojin didn't think he was superior to the Sword Saint.
The Sword Saint had only one ability. 'Martial Apex.'
It made him a master of any weapon he picked up and helped his body become suited to wielding it.
He was called the Sword Saint because he often used a sword, since it was convenient to carry,
but he was a martial god who wielded fists, kicks, swords, spears, bows, and even firearms with absurd skill.
The Sword Saint had once destroyed a 'nest' the size of a city with a single swing of his sword. By his own account, he'd shouted the name of his technique as he swung it for the sake of the 'image.'
That single slash, named 'Heaven-Splitting Slash,' cut the city-sized nest in half in one blow. His follow-up slashes then sliced it into sashimi, scattering chunks of monster flesh everywhere.
Thinking that the old man had seemed kind of cool back then, Dojin sank into the sofa.
Honestly, last night's sex had been exhausting for him, too. He didn't feel like he'd completely recovered his stamina.
More precisely, he'd recovered enough stamina to make up for last night's sex, but the three extra times he'd come that morning had drained it again.
[Lapis : I'm home now. I'll message you after I take a nap! ]
When he saw the message appear on his vibrating phone, he couldn't help smiling.
A nap, huh? Lapis must have been really exhausted, too.
He remembered how her juices—and her squirting—had soaked the bed yesterday.
Of course she'd be tired.
"I want to see her again."
Thinking that, Dojin opened his phone's gallery. It was full of couple photos of him and Lapis.
He wanted to see her smiling face in person, but for now, he had to make do with the pictures.
'A guy who gets clingy and barges into her house probably wouldn't be her type.'
He was aware he could be clingy.
After all, Lapis had made him realize the world had color. He couldn't help feeling that way about her.
Still, he had to wonder whether women liked clingy men. Even though Lapis had been the one to confess first, women had the upper hand in a relationship.
'Though, judging by how she was yesterday… maybe not…. '
He remembered Lapis panting and moaning over his cock. He'd given her a short command without even realizing it at the time.
He remembered how genuinely happy she'd been as she did her best to obey that command.
He also remembered how she answered shyly, even when he softly teased her with suggestive words.
"Ahem…"
Dojin headed to his room. Remembering his night with Lapis, he felt his cock stiffen.
It seemed he’d have to take care of it himself to calm down.
3.
"I think we're in trouble."
Ruby had come back, and the three of us were eating together.
Since we lived together, we'd decided to try to match our meal times and eat at least one meal together each day.
Of course, we could skip a meal if we already had plans.
"Didn't I tell you that part of the city I went to for today's monster hunt had been reduced to ruins?"
"Yes… You said one whole district had been completely destroyed…"
"I found this there. I smashed it, so I figured I was the only one who'd seen it."
Ruby showed us the smartphone she and Peridot had picked out after I bought mine.
Ruby's phone had a futuristic-looking display that reminded me of one of the models the employee had shown us.
A single photo was displayed on the screen.
'Lapis~ If you don't come out to hunt monsters, the city will end up smashed like this~?'
The words had been carved into the wall of a building.
Beside it was a collapsed building with an unbelievable hole in it, more than ten meters in radius.
I could naturally think of someone who would leave a message like that.
"Iris…"
"Is this… a call-out?"
As Peridot said, it was a call-out.
I remembered my past battles with Iris. Two fights where I'd been brutally defeated. Then the cruel waterboarding she'd put me through after the second battle.
Thinking about it still made my body tremble.
"Looks like that Collector's getting irritated because Lapis hasn't shown up."
In another photo Ruby showed us, there were bodies charred black, as well as one with a sniper's bullet through its head.
Lightning and sniper fire. They were witches I'd encountered before.
"…This is my problem. I'll handle it."
"No, this is our problem, too!"
As soon as I said I'd handle it myself, Peridot objected.
"That bastard's probably targeting all the magical girls. So this is our problem, too."
"But I'm the only one who was called out…"
"Let's do this together."
Peridot took my hand. Her eyes met mine, and they seemed to be telling me we'd get through this together.
Honestly, I was worried about facing her alone, too. Iris was still a powerful witch who felt like an enormous wall in front of me.
"Then let's face her together."
"Going with two A-ranks makes me feel like I'm getting overshadowed… but I think I can become A-rank soon, too, so just you wait."
"I'm counting on you, too, Ruby. After all, the three of us are comrades."
Because we were all 'Party B's' in that incredibly infuriating contract.
"I want to find the Collector's base."
"Huh?"
"It's definitely better to attack them than to wait around and get ambushed."
It seemed like it was time to settle things with Iris, too.
Honestly, I was still worried I'd lose.
"Then shall we start by training Ruby?"
"You think we can do this with the mindset that three A-ranks can handle it? Fine. Let's give it a shot."
For now, we decided to finish our meal.
Starting tomorrow, I'd help Ruby with her training.