“You’re wet.”
He moved the hand that had been touching my member deeper, touching where we were joined. I could feel the place that had barely closed being rubbed wetly by his firm fingertips.
“Ugh…… hah.”
Seeming to think I was ready, he pushed in hard again. That large thing thrust all the way in at once.
I was so shocked that tears burst forth.
“It’s okay…… hah.”
He stroked my hair and waited. His fingers, which had dug deep into my scalp, kept stroking the thin strands of slightly damp hair. He pressed his lips against my wet eyes. I was pulled into his embrace and shaken like that. The kisses that gently bit and licked my lips were tender, but there was no mercy in the movements that dug into me below again.
He grabbed both my ankles, spread them, and moved as he pleased. From repeated experience, I knew that if I tried to escape or cover myself, he would become even more explicit. So I had no choice but to spread my legs as wide as he wanted while whimpering.
But regardless of what I knew, I wanted to cover myself and ended up pushing him away again. Even though I understood it in my head, I couldn’t just stay still.
“Ah…… really, stop—,”
Finally he finished.
My whole body trembled like lingering heat. I pushed Benedict away with difficulty and lay face down as if turning my back. My body went completely limp. I was lying face down, buried in the bed, gasping, when both sides of my buttocks were immediately grabbed and spread wide. I swallowed cries and moans down my throat. In that startled moment, I could feel it gushing out. I tensed up below but was immediately teased with both his thumbs.
He touched me roughly and played with me lewdly. I could feel a merciless amount leaking out, but I had no strength to push him away. My legs were spread wide while exposing the space between my buttocks. With all the twitching filth between my legs on full display, I could only shed tears. Benedict watched as everything that was exposed became soaked through.
“St, op, hah, ah!”
Without realizing it, the space between my legs twitched frantically. My waist lifted little by little. My perineum, which felt heavily swollen, was being stimulated by being rubbed hard upward toward the pubis. Strength gradually entered my knees and my buttocks bounced upward. My pelvis was grabbed and I was penetrated right into that thoroughly wet, twitching place. I buried my face in the bed and swallowed my sobs like that.
The first night. When I first shed tears, the prince had stopped his movements as if surprised.
Then he bit and licked my eyes with his tongue and pushed his body in harder. He made me cry more.
That was somewhat shocking. Strangely, my heart sank with disappointment. Because I didn’t want to feel that way again, whenever I felt like tears would come, I would pretend to turn my head and slightly wipe my eyes on the pillow or sheets. My heavily dampened eyelashes trembled.
The next day it became difficult to walk again.
Fortunately, it wasn’t the same feeling as the first day. I ran my dry hand over my parched eyes.
Miss Sana came as usual. She quietly examined my condition and cast recovery magic on me several times today. As I felt more comfortable and my mood improved a little,
“Why do you ask?”
A forgotten memory suddenly came to mind like an accident.
Miss Sana asked again with her gaze as if asking what was wrong. It seems to show on my face. I spoke listlessly.
“Well…… aren’t you tired? Casting magic so many times, magic takes a lot of effort.”
“Well. What I cast was recovery magic, and that’s close to basic magic. Are you still having difficulty moving? Shall I cast healing magic on you?”
Miss Sana answered faithfully though matter-of-factly.
Unlike the holy power of priests, I knew as common knowledge that magical treatment was discouraged from being perfect unless it was for serious injuries, due to side effects.
“—No. I just,”
I couldn’t possibly ask.
I had just remembered the night Benedict and Rilke had spent together again. After spending the night with Rilke, before the prince left. He had used his own mana to cast recovery magic on Rilke. Such a meaningless memory, recalled while inadvertently seeing the glow of recovery magic.
I couldn’t dare ask why Benedict didn’t do it himself.
“Hmm.”
When I raised my head, Miss Sana was quietly watching me.
“It’s the form of a carnivorous animal that lives in the southern continent’s jungle.”
She suddenly conjured a small, fierce figure on her palm.
“Not a monster. An animal.”
To my surprise, she briefly explained about the animal. Then she also told me about the principle by which she created the animal on her palm. Just as the prince was a pyromancer specialized in flame-based magic, she said she was an illusionist who mainly used illusion magic.
“Since you’re a man, you’d probably like something other than this.”
The beast blurred and changed into a puppy with cute folded ears.
“……”
It seems like my gender just changed.
After a moment, I barely realized that Miss Sana, with her expressionless face, had made a joke. When I belatedly tried to smile with exaggeration, the tiny puppy blinked and disappeared.
“Oh my. I’ve been using a lot of mana these days.”
In this leisurely summer outer palace?
“I’ve run out of mana. I’ll show you again tomorrow.”
Miss Sana said in a tone that wasn’t regretful at all.
The room where I was staying had a piano.
The reddish furniture, thin silk gauze curtains, and the cozy atmosphere decorated with drapes were nice, but what I especially liked was the ivory piano positioned by the window.
When I sat beside that instrument standing upright on its slender legs, I could see the lush hundreds of todes of imperial hunting grounds through the curtains. As befitting an imperial piano, its tuning condition was excellent. When I played its well-maintained tones while looking at the deep green carpet made by summer trees, my head seemed to clear.
After playing absently for a while, I stopped my hands at a crisp knock.
It was the young lady who had guided me to the prince on the first day.
“Have you been well?”
After greeting me briefly, she entered with a servant pulling a tray and had the food set down. Until now, servants had quietly brought and taken away meals, so I was puzzled by her entering together today.
I looked at the food but didn’t particularly want to eat it.
It had been like this continuously since coming here. As if I were on a ship departing for a distant sea, my insides trembled so much that I only wanted to play the piano or look out the window, not eat food.
Fortunately, the lady left with the servant without saying much. I left the food beside me and played the piano again while watching the curtains sway leisurely. Benedict’s pheromones kept lingering, so I was trying to keep the terrace door open all the time.
I stayed still like that without thinking, and after about an hour, the door opened. The lady entered again.
This time she was alone.
“Uh—”
The lady was quietly looking down at the tray I hadn’t touched.
“—It’s an excellent meal, but I have no appetite.”
I opened my mouth, thinking ‘oh no.’ I was worried it might feel like I was expressing dissatisfaction with the meal, so I added that I was grateful for the consideration.
I examined her complexion but the lady remained consistently expressionless. Though equally expressionless, Miss Sana and the lady felt a bit different. Miss Sana appeared sharp at first glance but felt duller the more you talked to her, while the lady was always calm but had a keen feeling.
Still, because the lady’s expression was so solid, I discovered no clues until she personally organized the tray and took it away. I just helped organize things beside her.
After she left, I pressed the piano keys one by one again. I was moving my hands idly when I was about to stand up, feeling a slight ache below.
“……”
The lady visited the room again.
She was holding a small tray herself.
“When I told His Highness about the situation, he told me to bring this to you.”
“—No, uh, I’m sorry to trouble you.”
“Not at all. Please feel free to tell me if you need anything.”
Then she set down what she’d brought on the console.
Until the lady left again, I couldn’t even blink as I looked down at the silver tray.
Sherbet, madeleines, cherry tarts, raspberries. Lemon crepes, colorful cookies, even cool-looking rosolio with ice. It seemed like every dessert there was had been included, one of each.
As if entranced, I picked up one of the jewel-like sweets.
The colorful sweets were fragrantly sweet and delicious.
* * *
That evening, for the first time, Prince Benedict didn’t seek me out. I felt both disappointed not to see him and relieved.
The next day I headed to the library.
A great advantage I could enjoy after entering the outer palace was that I could use the prince’s library.
The library’s furniture looked very elegant, imbued with artisan devotion. There were sofas positioned here and there, several consoles where books could be placed at any time, and even a large couch where one could lie down in a spot with good sunlight.
I selected a book appropriately and sat on the couch. Since the tutoring I received at age 11, I hadn’t liked books much, but from some point on, I unconsciously just opened them when I had nothing to do.
I leaned my back against the backrest and stretched out my legs. Instead of armrests, the plush cushions were cozy. I also pulled over one of the thick blankets nearby. It seemed to faintly smell like the prince. My heart fluttered a little.
Warm sunlight slanted in through the deep blue curtains. Seeing the cozy library piled with books and carpeted with rugs made me feel drowsy all of a sudden.
Should I take a nap?
My heart became endlessly generous. This moment when I could sleep when I wanted to sleep approached me like great happiness. I looked at the book quietly and welcomed the sleep that came soundly.
I heard a low laugh as I curled up my body.
My head felt distant, as if I had fallen into a deep sleep because I was really tired.
I woke up a little, then dozed off again in a peaceful feeling. Then suddenly, feeling like my eyes were bright red, I opened my eyes.
“……Your Highness?”
Benedict was right in front of me.
The curtains were completely pulled back.
Bright sunlight entered through the glass window beside me, and I was lying down receiving that light with my whole body. I was completely exposed with my body stripped bare without a thread of clothing.
The prince was gently spreading my knees and looking between them.
“Because you were sleeping like a child.”
“Let, let go,”
“But here you look mature.”
He said while looking down at the place that didn’t even know it was exposed and was breathing docilely.
My ears flushed hot as I remembered how it was still swollen when I carefully touched it in the morning. I couldn’t gauge how long I had been in such a humiliating state.
Even when I tried to carefully narrow the space between my legs, he calmly carried out his intention. They were spread taut to the limit. Under the bright light, the shaded area that had been hidden was brightly illuminated. As if appreciating the fully bloomed form that had finally been created, his brazen gaze poured onto what was brightly exposed.
“When you were asleep, even here only breathed quietly.”
Being unable to help but show everything in such a bright place was too humiliating.
“Since you’re flustered,”
His long eyelashes blinked calmly. My face flushed hot at the quietly continued words as he looked at that place.
