Chapter 25
The liquor Arin handed me tasted a lot like the fruit wine we'd had at the tavern last time.
A little sweeter, and a little stronger?
The Mircow meat, meanwhile, melted in my mouth and burst with an incredible flavor.
“?!?!?!?!!!!?!?!?!”
“As expected of Mircow. It tastes incredible.”
Arin was silently screaming, while Ian tried to look calm despite the corners of his mouth trembling uncontrollably.
Looks like it's good.
“Hey, wait! Don't eat it all by yourself!”
“No way?! You're the Hero's son, so you probably eat this kind of thing all the time. Leave some for a poor commoner!”
“I don't get to eat things like this often, either.”
“There's plenty of meat, so don't fight…”
For the record, I'm the one grilling the meat. Heh, don't underestimate my grilling skills, honed during college retreats in my previous life!
A piece of meat came toward my mouth.
“El, have some too. You've been working hard grilling it all by yourself.”
“…Thanks.”
Good heavens! Someone was feeding the person grilling the meat!
I was moved by an act I never would have imagined in my previous life when Ian held out his chopsticks to me too.
“Here. Have this, too.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“Aah! Don't copy me!”
“Who's copying whom?!”
The two of them started bickering again mid-meal.
I watched them with a fond smile and took a sip of my drink.
Just looking at them, you'd think they were a perfect match.
A slightly tsundere heroine and the protagonist. They go so well together.
-Throb
‘…I don't like this.’
Come to think of it, even a tsundere wouldn't tease someone like that. Yeah. They don't suit each other.
“El? What are you thinking about?”
“If you don't want to grill the meat, I can take over!”
“…It's not that.”
To suppress the strange feeling that had briefly welled up, I took a bite of a Lumiesta.
And just like that, my displeasure vanished.
Could anyone stay angry while tasting this sweetness?
“Come on, there's plenty to eat, so let's keep going!”
“Sounds good!”
After grilling for a while, Ian took the tongs from me.
Hm? There's still lots of meat left.
“…Why?”
“No reason. I thought I'd try grilling some too. Here, have a drink.”
I watched the meat cook as I drank the liquor Ian had given me.
His grilling wasn't as good as mine, but it wasn't bad.
Yeah. I can trust him with this.
“All right! I'm counting on you!”
“That's right! Ian can grill the meat while we drink together!”
“Sure!”
Arin had brought a magic tool, and just in case, I'd spread my mana around too.
Unless a pretty powerful monster showed up, it shouldn't be able to get near us.
In other words, we could drink without a care!
“Glug… Ahh… This is delicious. I could keep drinking it.”
“Right? It's pretty expensive!”
“Heh.”
Just as Arin had said, every sip made me feel lighter and floatier.
“Ehehe… One more!”
“El… are you drunk?”
“As if! I'm completely fine!”
“You're drunk…”
Ignoring Arin, I poured myself another drink and downed it.
Then I tried to eat some meat, but… there wasn't any?
The plate of meat was already empty, though I had no idea when they'd finished it.
It didn't matter, of course, since Ian was still grilling more!
“Hey! Hurry up and bring me some meat!”
“Just a second. It's still cooking…”
“There!”
I snatched Ian's chopsticks and picked up a piece of meat.
Beef tastes best when it's a little rare!
“Those are the chopsticks I was using…”
“Hm? What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
Now that I looked, Ian's face was a little red.
“What? Ian, are you sick? Why's your face so red?”
“…It's nothing.”
“Really?”
That's suspicious…
“There!”
“Huh?”
“Stay still!”
I held Ian's face and pressed my forehead against his.
He felt a little warm, but there didn't seem to be anything wrong. Maybe it was because he'd been sitting by the fire for so long?
“You seem fine.”
“Th-that's right? Then could you maybe…”
“Aah! What are you two doing now?!”
Just then, Arin pulled me into her arms and said that.
“Nothing… Ian's face was a little red, so I wondered if he was sick.”
“Hmph. He seems fine, so stop fussing and eat your meat! Hurry up and grill it!”
“…I'm always the easiest one to order around.”
Ian grumbled as he went back to grilling, while I sat in Arin's arms and let her feed me meat.
This is what sex is.
…
The next morning.
When I woke up, a warm, cozy sensation was enveloping me.
It felt as if an enormous, warm pillow had me wrapped tightly in its arms…
Even the slightly constricted feeling was oddly comfortable, and I was just about to drift off again when the cold touch of a button stopped me.
Ugh, how annoying. Why would a pillow have buttons on it…?
‘Do pillows usually… have buttons?’
I felt the last of my sleepiness vanish and opened my eyes wide.
What I saw was Ian, his shirt mostly unbuttoned and his bare chest exposed.
“??!??!!”
Wait, why was he here?
Ian was asleep while holding me, half-naked.
And I was holding him tightly too.
No, no, no. What was going on?
I tried to pull back so I could somehow get up, and felt something soft against my back.
This familiar softness… was it Arin's chest?
I barely managed to turn my head and look behind me. Arin was asleep, facing my way.
So… Ian in front, Arin behind me?
“Mmm…”
While I was confused by a situation I couldn't begin to explain, Ian furrowed his brow and pulled me into a tighter embrace.
With quite a bit of strength, too.
“Hng…”
…I felt a little trapped, but it wasn't unpleasant.
In fact, I almost wanted him to hold on a little tighter…
‘What am I even thinking?!’
-Squeeze.
Just then, I felt something press against my lower abdomen… right where my uterus was.
‘…No way.’
Come on. Even if he was hugging me tightly, there's no way he could be pressing into me that much, right?
I thought that as I lowered my gaze…
Ian's Holy Sword was standing erect, poking the spot where my uterus was.
…A Holy Sword that looked bigger than my forearm.
“…Ugh.”
Wh-what was that?!
That wasn't a normal size for a person!
What was he, a monster? Was he actually an orc's son instead of the Hero's?
-Squeeze🤍
…Feeling the Holy Sword continue to prod me, I gave up trying to make sense of it.
I'll just go back to sleep.
…
By the time I finally fell back asleep and woke up again, the sun was already high overhead.
“Aah. El, you're awake?”
“Yeah…”
Ian was… gone. Thank goodness.
“I'm going to wash my face.”
“Okay. Go ahead.”
I thought I should wash up a little, so I headed for the river I'd seen yesterday.
Since I was going that way anyway, I spread my senses to check for monsters nearby.
Hmm… none.
There weren't even any safety officers or other students. Why not?
I wondered if perhaps they'd sent only us to some far-off place, when I sensed a presence.
It was near the part of the river I was heading for, so I went toward it to see who it was.
What I saw there was…
“Whew… It's cold.”
It was Ian, washing himself.
…Now that I looked, Ian was in great shape.
His naked body was so striking, it looked as though the gods themselves had sculpted him.
Well-defined muscles, a tall frame, and perfect proportions…
‘…I'd noticed this morning too, but he's seriously huge.’
His Holy Sword looked about twice as big as mine had been back when I was a man.
Ah, putting it that way makes it sound like I was small, but I wasn't small enough to be mocked for it.
Still… compared to something that looked at least thirty centimeters long, mine was pathetic.
‘If something like that went inside me…’
I couldn't help thinking I might die.
-Thump, thump.
“Haa…”
“Who's there…?”
“Gasp…!”
Ian must have heard the breath that escaped me without my noticing, because he looked over this way.
…
…
“…Sorry!”
“Wait, El?!”
I bolted.
I sprinted upstream at full speed.
Fast enough that Ian couldn't even think of chasing me.
“Haa… haa…”
After running for a while, I made sure Ian wasn't following me, then drank some water as I caught my breath.
“Haa…”
What a mess…
As I drank, I looked at the riverbank, where a girl stood with flushed cheeks.
A girl whose expression seemed to hold something quite different from embarrassment.
…
It took me about an hour to make it back to base camp.
How far had I run…?
“Aah! El! Why were you gone so long?”
“Sorry. I had something to think about.”
“Honestly. You must be hungry, right? Have some of this.”
“This is…?”
Rice balls?
“There was rice among the things we brought. I made them with that.”
“…You brought all sorts of things. Thanks, though. I'll enjoy them.”
The rice balls Arin had made were quite delicious.
The rice itself was well-cooked, and the seasoning was perfect. Best of all…
“There's Mircow in this?”
“Yes! We had so much, I wanted to try making something like this!”
“Heh.”
It had Mircow in it. Of course it was delicious.
“Thanks for the food. Later…”
“Hey, Arin. Can I have another rice ball…”
…
How do I explain this?