It had been two days since the freshmen welcoming party.
During this time, my daily routine hadn’t changed much.
After classes ended, I would briefly part ways with Lily and head to the library to study black magic, just like before.
Was there additional magical processing in the Necronomicon? Though it looked thin, when I opened it, the contents were vast beyond measure.
Thanks to this, I was able to study in depth, but when I tried to understand the content as I read, it was more difficult than I expected.
At least I had managed to read all the basics…
“Totally can’t get a grip on it.”
I couldn’t even understand the method of offering sacrifices, let alone curses.
In the end, I returned to the dormitory without finding answers again today.
“I’m back.”
“Arthur~”
As always, Lily ran out and hugged me.
Having gotten used to it after several tries, I was now able to calmly reciprocate her hug without feeling flustered.
Being embraced by Lily felt like my fatigue was melting away.
“Did you finish all the snacks?”
“Yes, they were very delicious.”
Worried that I might get lonely studying alone in the library, Lily had prepared desserts as snacks for me. Their melt-in-your-mouth taste was on a different level compared to the desserts from Sweet Love.
“It’s good you liked them. Should I make you another one next time?”
“Please do.”
“Heehe, alright. Dinner’s ready, so go wash up.”
After quickly washing up and returning, Lily gestured for me to come to the table. I happily ran over and sat down.
“I’ll start!”
Tonight’s dinner was eel soup. It felt good to have a warm soup-based meal after a while, and it was soothing to the stomach.
After finishing our meal, Lily looked at me with great anticipation. It was her “mealtime.”
Just as I was about to kiss her and wrap my arms around the back of her neck, a thought occurred to me, and I stopped.
“Lily.”
“Yes?”
“Come to think of it, how much of your strength has recovered? I’ve heard your wounds have healed, but I haven’t heard anything about the recovery of your power…”
“Ahh, was that so?”
After dropping her arms for a moment, Lily closed her eyes and concentrated on something.
I patiently waited for her. After a short while,
“About…30%?”
“…That’s it?”
“Only? When we first met, you were at less than 1%!”
Lily then grabbed my cheek with her hand.
“So… The remaining 70%, I’ll leave it to you, Arthur.”
After 30% so far…
We still have a long way to go.
I want to make Lily a complete deity someday.
For that, I first needed to have this meal with… a bit of personal interest.
Our lips touched, and I felt a cold sensation through the gap.
“… Wait, is this life force?”
I momentarily focused on sensing the inside of my body.
“…No. The cold isn’t the life force. It’s the spot where the life force has left that feels cold.”
Life force was warmth. I felt it because the warmth leaving was relatively cooler.
Closing my eyes, I focused on the movement of the life force.
The life force leaving through my mouth to Lily’s pull felt like warmth rising from my heart.
Feeling the direct movement of life force, it felt like I was catching hold of some kind of clue. The questions about offerings that had been blocked in my mind until now were being resolved.
While observing the flow of life force like this,
“Phah…”
Lily broke the kiss.
The rising life force then subsided and returned to my heart. Just a little more and I would have understood it…
“Excuse me, Lily…”
“Chu… Yes?”
Lily looked at me, savoring her lips.
“Why do you suddenly want to… uh?”
“Hmm~ Why would you suddenly say that? I have no idea~”
A good excuse popped into my mind at the moment, so I went ahead and used it.
“Because we need to fill up the remaining 70% quickly…”
“Heehe, if that’s what you want, how about this?”
Lily quietly closed her eyes and slightly opened her lips, awaiting me to come closer.
Approaching Lily slowly, and soon,
Chuup
Our lips touched again, and Lily resumed her meal. The flow of life force reappeared, and I focused on it—
Chuup… Choo…Churup…
Focused on it…
Bee…
‘There’s no way I can concentrate anymore!’
Lily connected with a stickier kiss.
The sticky sensation of her tongue wrapping around mine made my mind go into overload.
My thoughts became simple, and no high-level thinking could emerge in my mind.
All that remained was the instinct to continue this act.
‘Who cares…’
I clung to Lily and continued our kiss.
Life force or not, this was more important now.
—
After dinner, I was about to brush my teeth when Lily naturally entered the restroom.
“Eh? Didn’t Lily eat eel soup?”
Today, Lily only consumed life force, so she didn’t really need to brush her teeth…
“I didn’t come here to brush teeth.”
“Then why?”
Lily smiled slyly and snatched the toothbrush from my hand.
“I came to help you brush your teeth.”
“EHH?”
Lily squeezed toothpaste onto my toothbrush and came over to me.
“Here, Arthur. Open up~”
Lily’s red lips parted, revealing her pretty crimson tongue – beautiful… –
“Rather than looking, why don’t you open your mouth?”
“S-Sorry…”
I alternated glances between Lily and the toothbrush. Letting someone else brush my teeth wasn’t something normal people would do…
‘But it’s Lily…’
Ultimately, I opened my mouth.
“Just a little more… That’s it.”
Lily held my jaw. The sturdy toothbrush entered my mouth.
‘Won’t it hurt…?’
I sometimes accidentally hurt my gums while brushing, how could I not worry even more about someone else?
And the moment the toothbrush touched my teeth,
“?!”
I widened my eyes. Lily’s brushing was not even remotely painful; it was gently cradling my teeth.
I could feel her careful movements, worried about whether I might feel pain.
Carefully but thoroughly brushing even the angles I couldn’t reach. Sensing her kind movements, I relaxed and entrusted my body to Lily.
Once brushing was done, I spit out the foam and grabbed water to rinse my mouth—
“Arthur, come here?”
“Yes, what is it… Hmm?”
Lily was holding up her index finger.
A transparent orb of water rested on her index finger.
The amount was roughly one sip… Hmm?
Lily smiled then gently slipped the water into her mouth.
Lily’s cheeks puffed up with the water, beckoning me to come closer.
Realizing her intention, I asked hesitantly.
“Are you giving me this water to rinse my mouth?”
“Woof!”
Lily nodded.
“Are you serious?”
“Woof!”
Nodded again.
Although I intended to brush my teeth normally…, I had already taken steps in this direction.
Approaching Lily, I placed my hands on her puffed-up cheeks.
Her cutely puffed-up cheeks reminded me of the squirrels I’d seen in books.
“…You’re so cute.”
“Uuuu?”
“Your puffed-up cheeks are adorable.”
“U… Uuuu…”
Lily shyly turned her head.
After stroking her cheeks a few times, I kissed her.
For a moment, our lips just pressed against each other, then they parted slightly and the water flowed in.
Due to the height difference, the water naturally flowed down from Lily’s lips.
The water Lily passed to me was lukewarm.
Thinking that this slightly warm temperature came from Lily’s mouth,
… My lower half stirred.
After passing all the water, Lily broke the kiss.
Lily wiped the water flowing down my jaw and placed her hand on my cheek, like I had done to her.
“Heehe, really? Puffed-up Arthur is incredibly cute.”
“Uuuu…”
I now understood Lily’s reaction.
So embarrassing, this…
Anyway, using the water Lily passed to me, I rinsed my mouth and spat it out into the sink.
Of course, my mouth couldn’t be cleaned in just one rinse…
Turning my head, I saw Lily with puffed cheeks again, smiling at me.
I chuckled and approached Lily again.
This way, I rinsed my mouth multiple times with the water Lily handed me.
Although the time spent brushing my teeth was doubled compared to usual,
“Haha…”
Seeing Lily happily smiling beside me, I thought such things didn’t matter at all.
“Lily, go ahead.”
“Isn’t?”
“I…need to use the restroom…”
Lily briefly glanced at my lower body.
“heehee, understood.”
Yikes… She already figured it out.
Just before leaving the restroom, Lily suddenly pulled me close and whispered in my ear.
“Remember to clean up neatly, alright?”
“…”
I felt like crying from embarrassment.
I finally left the restroom 20 minutes later.
—
As I came out, Lily was waiting for me on the bed.
After dinner, if we didn’t go for a walk, most of our time was spent talking to each other.
The topics of our conversations varied every time, but most were stories about each other.
Coming from an orphanage and having built hardly any human relationships, I used to find talking to someone quite burdensome and difficult. However, with Lily, I never ran out of things to talk about.
“Lie down here, Arthur.”
Lily leaned against the edge of the bed and called me over.
“Come here.”
Sitting down, Lily spread her legs and patted them.
I crawled over to the bed, looked at Lily, and sat between her legs. Lily signaled for me to turn around, and when I did,
Poof…
Lily slipped her hands under my shoulders and pulled me close.
In the embrace, we sat together on the bed. Though I wasn’t as flustered as the first time anymore, …
Squeezing…
…the soft sensation pressing on the back of my head was something I just couldn’t get used to.
My heart immediately started racing.
Her breath caressed my ear.
“Uncomfortable?”
“No, it’s fine.”
It was far from uncomfortable.
Lily’s embrace, from the back of my head to my tailbone, was warmer and softer than any cushion.
The only issue was… my lower half hadn’t calmed down yet.
Lily’s whispers by my ear kept tickling the back of my head like an electric shock running down my spine. Each time I shivered, I heard Lily’s laughter.
“Wiggling… you’re so cute.”
“Li… Lily… Stop it…”
“Heehe, alright.”
Lily loosened the tight embrace.
From what I’d read in books, couples who stayed glued together all the time could quickly become estranged.
But I was confident.
I was sure that our married life with Lily wouldn’t fall into monotony.
Even after being together every day, new stimuli kept coming up.
Even if I wanted to get tired of it, I couldn’t.
Fortunately, we managed to carry on with the conversation normally from then on.
Lily asked if my studies were going well, and I replied that it was going reasonably well.
Though lying to Lily went against my conscience, I still wanted to take care of Lucas myself.
“By the way, Lily. We have to duel in the afternoon tomorrow.”
“Ah, tomorrow is Saturday.”
“Hmm…”
“Are you nervous?”
“To be honest…yes, I am nervous.”
“Heehe, don’t worry. I’ll protect you. That guy won’t be able to touch even a single strand of your hair.”
“Thank you, Lily.”
I turned my head and kissed Lily.
Lily smiled and stroked my head.
“But…”
“Hmm?”
What made me nervous wasn’t concern about myself.
“… Lily, you should keep it moderate tomorrow.”
“…”
Lily averted her gaze.
“Please, Lily. I have no intention of injuring a junior’s behind right from this semester.”
Though I was concerned about Dennis’ mockery, still, juniors were juniors.
He’s just turned into an adult and still knows nothing about the world.
Is making a high-school senior initiation rite out of human hierarchy too much?
“Promise me, Lily. Don’t make him soil his pants tomorrow, alright?”
“…Alright. If that’s what you want, I won’t do it.”
“Thank you.”
The conversation naturally shifted to the world where Lily had lived.
Lately, this had become a frequent topic and the one I found most fascinating.
Mysterious magical tales,
Grim stories of outsiders,
And occasionally, tales of humans who stood up to those outsiders.
Especially today’s story from Lily deeply stirred my heart.
“Humans not only survived the Dreamland but even went searching for Kadath?”
“Yep, that human was very unique. He possessed an incredible amount of mental strength that allowed him to recognize an Outer God without going insane.”
“Wow…”
Outsiders are beings that could drive one mad simply by perceiving their existence.
The story of humans who not only feared but also challenged such beings was mysterious and thrilling.
I reflected on the name that Lily told me.
‘Randolph Carter…’
Even his travels in Dreamland, where ghouls became companions, seemed somewhat similar to me.
However, unlike Randolph, I had no outsider immediately beside me.
Although he caught the attention of Elder Gods, he only received direct help at the very end; for the most part, he traveled alone through Dreamland.
But even such a great person met an unfortunate end.
Caught by the Great Old One, he ended up trapped within the being.
Even so, among the human stories intertwined with outsiders that I’ve heard so far, this ending seemed hopeful for the frailty of humanity.
“Alright, let’s end the story here~”
Every time I listen, I feel Lily is a natural storyteller.
Her breath control, tone modulation, the non-verbal expressions conveyed through her hand resting on my shoulder—all contributed to an immersive storytelling.
What brought me back to reality after being totally absorbed in the story was,
“Hoo~”
“Kyaa?!”
The warm breath brushing against my ear from Lily.
“G-Give it a rest, alright!”
“Sorry~ Seeing your reaction is just too fun.”
“Ugh…”
Lily was signaling the end of the conversation.
Looking at the time, there was still a long way to go before bedtime.
We usually would talk until I yawn, so why is it ending so early today?
I looked at Lily curiously, and she hesitated, fluttering her lips.
She looked like she was about to make a difficult request.
As I patiently waited, she met my gaze as if making a decision and spoke.
“Arthur, I have a request.”
As expected.
“What is it?”
“Would… would you… let me… touch you?”
… …
… …
… …
“…Yes?”
—
