Chapter 140

140 – The Sun, Moon, and Sword #5

“….”

“….”

Hippolyte and I remained silent as though we had made some kind of pact. Then, we strained our ears for any sound of movement that might come from the second floor.

The tension was starting to get to me, and the sound of my heartbeat was becoming so loud it felt deafening in this situation.

When was the last time I had been this nervous in my life?

Was it in elementary school when I skipped the cram school and went to the internet cafe without my father knowing, and got caught?

Or during middle school when I secretly used the home phone for small payments without my father knowing, which caused the phone bill the following month to skyrocket?

I don’t know.

Even back then, I was nervous, but it wasn’t to this extent.

I really felt the bl**d drain from my entire body.

“….”

For a few minutes, I forgot to breathe and stayed completely still, frozen like a statue. Thankfully, there was no sound or movement from upstairs.

“Phew.”

I exhaled all the breath I had been holding. Trying to do something bad really makes your heart race and causes cold sweat to pour out.

“…How dare you, how dare you make a sound. I told you that biting would cause trouble.”

Behind that was a genuine anger swelling up inside me towards Hippolyte for setting such a trap for me. This woman is trying to ruin the life I’ve barely managed to obtain.

It’s like she’s trying to destroy a dam that a beaver worked so hard to build.

No beaver keeper would ever try to destroy something so openly completed like this, would they?

“That, that wasn’t intentional… you, didn’t you hit me? It was…”

“Quiet, please keep it down.”

I raised my hand to stop Hippolyte’s mumbling.

Splash.

As I did so, the generous bosom compressed and concealed by the stretchy clothing seemed to burst forth as though trying to escape.

“Ugh, hmmm….”

“I will bite you.”

I collapsed onto Hippolyte and buried my face between her soft twin mountains.

A slightly salty sweat smell wafted up to my nose, and I, intoxicated by the animalistic female scent, ended up biting her rather pink nipples with my lips.

“Aah, ah…! Eek-.”

With that provocative sensation, Hippolyte’s mouth opened wide as if she was about to cry out, but she must have remembered Luna upstairs and closed her mouth.

“Uhh, uuuuhh…”

Even if Hippolyte, who is usually so bold, were to get caught up in some scandalous affair and her reputation suffered, she might lose quite a lot.

Since she is fully aware of this, she is likely trying not to make a sound.

I continued using my lips to caress the chest of the woman who was holding her breath and bit her gently with my teeth.

Hippolyte’s nipples had a slightly concave feeling, but as I rolled them with my tongue and lips, they became firm, which I found quite amusing.

“Ahh, hmm, aah, haaa, haang, ah….”

And whenever I teasingly tickled that erect n*pple with my tongue, I could feel her raw, uncontrollable reactions, which made me incredibly excited.

br*asts.

Large br*asts.

Luna doesn’t have br*asts this large.

Why does this wicked Hippolyte have such audacious br*asts and not Luna? That girl Ganp had quite a big chest too.

Could it be that kindness and breast size are inversely proportional?

Mischievous br*asts.

I grabbed her large br*asts with both hands to vent my frustration. A woman’s br*asts are a sensitive area with plenty of nerve endings. Handling them this roughly would be something I’d never do to Luna.

But I was punishing the bothersome Hippolyte and thought that since she is a sturdy female warrior, she could endure this much.

“Grgh, uhuuh!”

Hippolyte, stifling her cries, lifted her waist into the air. Soon after, her trembling thighs and buttocks contracted violently.

“Miss Hippolyte, are you perhaps, gone?”

“W-who, who, ah, hmm, no, no effect at all from your touch…”

“…You, being a self-pleasuring fiend, have too much pride in inappropriate places. Do you act this way with other men?”

“Grr, me, what do you take me for…! I’ve never done such a thing. I swear by the River Styx.”

Hippolyte was genuinely angry at the mention of other men. Until now, I thought I was in control, but her growling tone made me realize again that she’s more like a tiger than a cat. sh*t, I almost died from overdoing it.

“Hm, hmm, I see. So it’s just me you’re acting this way with, then. Why, why are you making my life miserable?”

“Why, why would I be, making your life miserable…?”

“You keep touching me while I sleep. Aren’t you trying to create rifts in my relationship with Luna?”

“Men, aren’t they all obsessed with women in their thoughts…? The more women, the better….”

The concept of men in Hippolyte’s mind seems a bit skewed. Has she only learned about men through rumors? It must be because she has been the leader of the maiden’s group and has only interacted with women that she’s developed these wrong gender biases.

Not all men think about “eating” women.

…Or maybe they do?

Upon reflection, most of them seem to only think about eating women. But, there are indeed times when they don’t.

Since men are living beings too, they can choose and have the right to decide on who they want to have a relationship with.

Because men and women having a relationship doesn’t merely mean releasing s*xual urges, it also means their lives intersect. That’s why we call it a relationship, right?

Of course, there are those who don’t think this way. At least, I used to think this way. Once you engage in a relationship, you can never return to the same place as before.

“Men don’t like just any woman.”

“G-gr…”

Hippolyte seemed shocked as she took a breath. Then she started puffing up her cheeks and scowling like an angry person.

People puffing their cheeks!

I’ve never seen someone do this in real life.

What is this? The star fairy Kirby?

Just as I was getting flustered with these absurd thoughts,

Drip.

Tears started falling drop by drop from Hippolyte’s crumpled eyes. Hippolyte had broken into tears.

“…Why, why can’t I be good enough?”

“What, what do you mean?”

“Why do I have to feel so defeated? I’m a Gold Tier adventurer. I can do whatever I want.”

“But, why this sudden…”

“And why do I have to lose to that dumb pink-haired girl, both as a warrior and as a woman? I don’t understand it. I truly don’t get it.”

Hippolyte’s voice was saturated with emotion, unlike the usual stern, rigid tone she maintains. Her tone even seemed to have changed slightly.

“Ah, it’s so unfair. This is the most unfair fight I’ve ever had. Especially against someone like this savage. The idea that I should feel such emotions…”

“Uh….”

I couldn’t believe that Hippolyte was saying this to me. Honestly, since coming to this world, nothing about my situation made sense, but lately, it has been nothing but astonishing events.

So, as absurd as it may sound, I asked out of curiosity.

“Um, by any chance, do you, um… like me?”

Wha, sh*t. What am I even asking right now?

Naïve men often fall into a common misconception: women talk to you or ask questions because they’re interested in you.

Once, their bodies accidentally touched, and you start imagining “Could this girl like me?” That used to happen to me.

But then, during college, I learned that a girl I thought liked me was dating someone else, exposing my misconception.

Just because someone talks to me doesn’t mean they’re fond of me—I realized that painfully. Afterward, I could proudly say I no longer made such mistakes.

But this case with Hippolyte was a bit extreme, going beyond just speaking to me.

So, should I at least consider it suspicious?

So I mustered the courage to ask again.

“Do you have feelings for me?”

Ssswoosh.

Hippolyte looked at me with tear-filled eyes.

“…You were just some savage without citizenship. Someone wallowing in the deep bottom as a Bronze Tier. I, I’m the heroic Hippolyte. Do you really think I would like you?”

“…Hmm, now that I think about it, you’re right.”

Of course, that was absurd.

As Hippolyte said, there’s a gaping difference between me and Hippolyte, whether you call it rank or class.

I’m like a cat rummaging through trash bins in the back alleys.

She’s a tiger commanding the jungle.

It’s that kind of feeling. Our species are fundamentally different, to begin with.

So was this just another one of my misconceptions?

Just as I thought that,

“But, but I don’t know why I end up being so humbled in front of you. I’ve only known you for less than a month. What is it? Why are you making my life difficult?”

Hippolyte, instead, asked me a question.

“Do you think, I’ve been making your life hard?”

“Yes, apologize to me immediately.”

“Bu….”

What on earth am I supposed to apologize for? But somehow, seeing this teary-eyed, busty beauty in front of me, I felt like I had done something immensely wrong.

“That is… I apologize…”

“…That’s enough. You’ve offended me. …I’ll just go. Ignore me from now on. I’ll erase you from my memory too, so you pretend not to know me.”

Hippolyte got up from her spot. She moved her hand as if to grab the door handle on the first floor, though her pants and shirt were more or less stripped away.

Won’t this just create an even bigger problem if she goes outside like this? True, she’s strong, so she won’t be accosted by vagrants or anything, but rumors will surely spread.

So I was deliberating seriously about whether I should say something when.

Swoosh.

Hippolyte removed her hand from the doorknob and turned to look at me. Her expression was stiff, as if she were extremely angry.

What is this? Did she suddenly get mad? Am I about to get slapped?

Slurp.

She suddenly knelt down in front of me.

She even knelt with both hands palms-up and bowed deeply in a respectful gesture. Holy sh*t! I was truly baffled.

Hippolyte said,

“… Forget what I said just now. It seems I can’t go through with it… my error. Please pretend we’re still acquainted…”

This indecisive Hippolyte, I didn’t know how to harmonize with her.

“You, Samaritans, kneel when making a request, right? I, I will make one too…”

Is this some kind of nudity dogeza like in manga or something? Facing this made me feel overwhelmingly grand.

My tension grew as I wondered what kind of request would come from this woman who had discarded all her pride and knelt down.

“What is this favor…?”

“You and Noxdotty are close, I understand that. It’s hard for me to intrude between you two. So, I won’t ask for much. Just one night, it would suffice. Please let me win….”

“One night…?”

“That’s right. Noxdotty has taken a vow of chastity, so you two haven’t… you know, had any s*xual activity yet, right? If I do it with you first, wouldn’t that make me the winner…?”

Even if you look at it in that sense, in various ways, it appears to be an already decided failure. However, since Hippolyte seemed so serious, I decided to remain silent.

“I-i…”

“If only today… D-do you want money? I’ll give you all my fortune.”

Hippolyte claimed that she would give me all of her fortune! The fortune of a Gold Tier adventurer—if that’s the case! I was dumbstruck at the absurd amount of money she was talking about.

“All of your fortune?”

“G-give it some thought. I’ve lost my fortune by investing in stocks and don’t have much left, but 5 gold is still a fortune… I have to pay off debts, so I don’t have anything beyond that…”

“Wait, she invested in stocks… and she has debts….”

That felt like learning several shocking truths just now.

I began to understand why Hippolyte’s house, compared to other high-ranking adventurers, was rather cramped and why she didn’t carry a wallet.

“Is there any way this can’t be done…? If I can use pledges and guarantees, I think I can make it up to 10 gold total, adding about 5 gold…”

“Haa…”

“Isn’t money a bit… You’re not a prostitute in an illegal brothel anyway. What about something else? I can tutor you in swordplay… or offer custom guidance in using aura…”

Hippolyte started mumbling even more.

Was she originally like this?

No, today’s Hippolyte seems a bit more excited than usual.