Chapter 342: Bread and Dagger (40)
On the bed, Senior Elsi let out an unexpectedly cute scream.
It was clear that at her core, she was still a girl. Senior Elsi’s eyes widened as she lay beneath me.
The soft bed would surely not hurt her.
However, I couldn’t help the roughness of my breathing. In her round eyes, both fear and anticipation coexisted.
I whispered to Senior Elsi with a faint smile.
“…Did I surprise you?”
“Ah, uhh… Hiii?!”
For a moment, Senior Elsi couldn’t respond to my teasing question. Then, as my lips moved toward the nape of her neck, she let out a small scream.
I had merely kissed the nape of her neck.
My intentions were pure. That was a spot where Senior Elsi had shown a particularly good reaction when I used to pet her chin.
It was the perfect spot to tease her.
But the reaction from Senior Elsi was beyond my expectations.
After letting out a small scream, she began to rub her thighs together with soft moans. Her breath was becoming increasingly heated, mixed with sweet, hushed sounds.
Senior Elsi sniffled and said, “W-wait a moment… that tickles… Huh?!”
Of course, her resistance vanished the moment I pressed my lips to her nape once more.
Now, Senior Elsi’s face was one of uncertainty—whether to cry or laugh.
Finally, I couldn’t hold it in and burst into laughter.
“Ha ha ha! Senior Elsi, what’s with that? You get so nervous when I say I’ll pounce on you!”
Her sapphire eyes, glistening with tears, gazed at me with a hint of reproach.
The way she looked at me with narrowed eyes suggested that I had upset her.
That sight made me laugh even more.
In truth, I hadn’t seriously considered pouncing on Senior Elsi.
As she said, I hadn’t even bathed yet and had been drinking. The situation with Senior Delphine was entirely different from that with Senior Elsi.
While Senior Delphine just wanted to erase all her worries, Senior Elsi was different.
If she and I were to cross that line, it had to be in the form of a romantic outcome. It shouldn’t just be something decided in this cold, desolate place.
I wasn’t entirely sure, but I had heard that women had fantasies about their first experiences.
At the very least, that fantasy likely wouldn’t involve an impulsive encounter in a tent.
Though I couldn’t predict the future, I wanted to gift Senior Elsi only good memories.
For some reason, Senior Elsi seemed quite dissatisfied regardless.
“I-I’m such a bad person…”
She exhaled, inhaled, and then let out a burst of frustration.
“Are you playing with a girl’s purity? I’m really surprised, you know?”
“It’s less surprising than waking up with my hands tied.”
Senior Elsi fell silent at my counterpoint.
Yet, her labored breathing still expressed her discontent. Ultimately, I had to comfort Senior Elsi by drawing her into my arms.
It was a strange situation.
Two people of different genders lying together on a bed without anything happening.
But it wasn’t all that bad.
Her words were harsh, but she couldn’t physically resist me, after all.
I felt a peculiar sense of guilty pleasure.
At first, Senior Elsi’s expression had been angry, but she soon quieted down.
Just seeing her softly blush and bury her face in my chest did that.
Still, her words remained harsh.
Perhaps it was a true reflection of her character, but she seemed a bit more polite now.
“I-I really am bad… In the end, I’m not even a woman?”
What was I supposed to do?
She was scared when I advanced, yet felt disappointed when I held back.
I recalled the saying from Reto.
“Don’t try to understand women. Just accept them as they are.”
At the time, it had seemed ridiculous, like talking about women as if they were some natural disaster, but experiencing it firsthand made me understand.
I decided to heed the advice of my close friend.
“If that were the case, you would have turned me down right away when I confessed… And I was in danger too, you know.”
Senior Elsi shot me a sullen look at my comforting tone.
Regardless of her feelings, I continued my explanation.
“Senior Elsi, you sat on me first, remember? You kept pressing down…”
“What do you mean?”
Genuinely confused, Senior Elsi tilted her head in response.
Did she really not understand?
There was a surprisingly innocent side to Senior Elsi.
It was no wonder she was teased for getting bested by a younger junior and wetting herself.
I couldn’t bring myself to give a straightforward answer.
I merely cleared my throat and trailed off.
“Um, what was it? When you sat on me, the places that touched…”
“…Oh.”
With a small gasp, Senior Elsi’s face reddened again.
She attempted to hide her rear with her arms crossed, as if it could be seen since we were already embracing from the front.
Senior Elsi fumbled as she pretended to act cool.
“Is, is that so? I-it must have felt good?!”
“Yes, it felt nice.”
Of course, it was something I couldn’t get back from her.
At my brazen reaction, Senior Elsi turned even redder. When I stifled a chuckle at her response, she shot me an indignant glare.
It seemed that losing the dominance in this situation was particularly frustrating for her.
Ultimately, Senior Elsi became flustered and began speaking unusually.
“Then prove it!”
“Huh? What do you want me to prove?”
If it was good, then it was good.
Despite my incredulous reaction, Senior Elsi wouldn’t relent. She shrugged off my arm and turned her back to me.
Then, she pushed her hips back.
It was clear where she was aiming.
It was toward my groin. I could only be flustered by the soft touch against me once more.
“No, I did enjoy it! Why would I lie to you, Senior Elsi?!”
“Then prove it! Don’t guys like this kind of thing?!”
Senior Elsi’s rear wiggled against my clothes.
Although there were two pieces of fabric between us, the sensation was far from fully diminished. Above all, Senior Elsi’s natural aroma was too close.
The final blow was the sound of her breath.
As she rubbed against me, Senior Elsi’s waist jerked upward.
“…Huh.”
And a soft, wet breath escaped.
The glimmer of surprise in Senior Elsi’s eyes as she looked at me was pitiful. Perhaps it was a strange preference, but I found that sound of hers even more alluring.
The change was immediate.
Senior Elsi, who had asked me to “prove,” soon realized she was experiencing a shift.
“What?”
I found myself in a deeply embarrassing situation.
I sighed and covered my face with both hands. The one word I managed to squeeze out was brief.
“…Is that enough?”
Senior Elsi looked at me with a puzzled expression.
She likely felt as if something hot and hard had wedged between her thighs, but it seemed she hadn’t guessed what it was yet.
With a strange expression, her fumbling hand brushed over my groin.
And after a moment.
“U-uh…?”
Senior Elsi let out a meek sound with her bright red face.
“Did you, did you sneak off to the tent? Why is a twin-headed beast here…?”
“What tent? And what’s a twin-headed beast?”
At my exasperated questions, Senior Elsi tilted her head, looking baffled.
“That’s strange, isn’t it? A creature that should be in the Southern Great Forest is here in the North, so I brought it along…”
What did that mean?
There was a vast difference between the environments of the Southern Great Forest and the Northern Region. A creature that thrived there wouldn’t possibly be here.
If that were the case, there could only be one explanation.
Someone had deliberately brought the twin-headed beast to the North.
But why on earth would someone move a creature that had been living in the Southern Great Forest all the way to the coniferous forest in the far North?
I couldn’t come up with a reason for that.
Unless they had been chased away.
Right, those who had been expelled from the Southern Great Forest.
As soon as my deduction came together, I let out a scream.
“No, you should have told me about that first!”
I immediately got up and headed toward the tent where the twin-headed beast was supposedly being kept.
I also intended to interrogate the Elves.
Senior Elsi followed closely behind me with her flushed face.
With her red cheeks, she even started measuring with her hands below her navel.
After that, Senior Elsi became surprisingly subdued.
“M-master.”
The title had returned before long. I paused mid-step and glanced back.
Although her gaze seemed somewhat irritated, Senior Elsi didn’t appear to care.
“I may be lacking, but I will do my best…”
What was she talking about?
I shook my head in disbelief and quickened my pace.
No matter what, Senior Elsi continued to measure her length behind me.
Making exclamations like, “Wow, wow.”
*
“It’s the offering that Lord Leorick brought.”
In the dim night, this was the testimony gleaned from the single lamp inside the tent.
It was the Elf woman I had quarreled with. She had resisted me with her unique archery that controlled the wind, but ultimately, she had been defeated.
Her name was Benedetta, if I remembered correctly.
The moment I heard an unfamiliar name from her lips, I had a gut feeling.
That person.
The one I had to kill.
At last, I had found the throat I needed to aim at.
