Chapter 251 [Crossroads (1)]
That morning, after experiencing a small incident where I unintentionally witnessed Ethan’s naked body first thing in the morning…
The morning’s events were somewhat wrapped up after confirming that the rooms Ethan and I were staying in were connected by a single door.
“Don’t worry too much about it, Lilith. You’ve seen it once… no, twice before, right? I’m not particularly bothered about being seen by you either.”
“I’ll be more careful from now on, Young Master Ethan. If, If you want an apology, perhaps you could see my naked body as well…”
“It’s, It’s fine…! I trust you regarding such matters, Lilith, even without that kind of apology. And, and you show a lot on a daily basis anywa… Ah, no, that’s not what I meant…”
After such a conversation, we roughly concluded that we should always knock when opening the door connecting our rooms. [Only on DarkStar Translations! / Axiomatic]
…However, just knowing that Ethan was on the other side of a door that could be opened at any time made it difficult for my heart to calm down.
‘I don’t think I felt this complicated even when we were using the same room at the Luminor Academy.’
I don’t remember anything happening between Ethan and me that would have changed our relationship in the meantime.
There was that night on our last day at the academy when I did ‘what needed to be done’ with my mouth, but honestly, we’d had that level of skinship before.
I did share a bed with Ethan for several days even at the Blackwood Mansion due to nightmares, but that was necessary to maintain the best condition before catching Machart.
And last night, when the plan went awry and I was almost caught by Machart, Ethan barely managed to save me, didn’t he?
…Come to think of it, this is enough to make my heart flutter a bit.
No, but this was really an unavoidable force majeure. If Ethan had been even a little late, I would have been dragged away by Machart right there, treated like a sex slave in the mental world for months, and then discarded without even leaving a corpse.
…Honestly, even between two men, I couldn’t help but fall for him, limited to what happened that day.
‘Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve brought up the wish yet…’
I’m sure I told Ethan something like granting a wish after we finished taking down Machart.
Of course, it’s up to Ethan when to use the wish, but I’d like him to at least tell me in advance what he wants to do. That way, I can prepare various things physically or mentally.
I said it would be limited to wishes I could grant, so he probably won’t ask for money or material things, and if that’s the case, the wish that Ethan, a young man in his prime, might ask of me would inevitably be one of those naughty requests.
I’ve already told him several times that direct penetration isn’t allowed, so he probably won’t ask for that, but for other risky acts, I guess I’ll have to grant them since I promised.
…To be honest, just thinking about the acts that come to mind now, I can hardly imagine granting them with a simple smile.
Asking me to rub that thing between his legs with my chest or to do it with my mouth was barely within the allowable range. [Only on DarkStar Translations! / Axiomatic]
I didn’t particularly feel repulsed by my chest being touched since Ethan had already touched it dozens of times, and I had experienced doing it with my mouth once before.
But what if he asks to rub it against the lower part instead of the upper part, or if he asks to do it with ‘the other hole’ saying it’s okay…
‘…If that happens, I really don’t know how to react.’
Should I allow even that because a promise is a promise? But isn’t that going too far?
If it goes that far, it’s beyond the level where I can make excuses like “It’s okay because it’s pseudo-sexual activity.” Rather, it’s practically the same as having se… no, the act of male-female intercourse in a different way, just without the main event.
Of course, if he asks, I’ll have no choice but to do it, but if that’s the case, I need time to prepare mentally…
‘Sigh, I can’t get my head straight.’
I hope Ethan’s imagination doesn’t extend that far.
By the way, I ended up going to the servant’s room on the first floor and borrowed a maid uniform. The maids did give me incredulous looks when I insisted on wearing a maid uniform, but it doesn’t really matter as long as I’m comfortable.
So, after changing into comfortable clothes and finishing breakfast, that morning…
We gathered in the meeting room where we had met with Seraphine last night and continued the discussion about that ‘temporary companionship’.
“We’re going to the Witch’s Forest in the southwest in ten days.”
“Huh?”
An unexpected statement from Gyeongmwajogyegigwat’s mouth made a strange exclamation slip out of mine momentarily.
Simultaneously, the gazes of others focused on me. Trying hard to ignore those gazes, I carefully smoothed over my verbal slip as naturally as possible.
“Uh, so… you said we’re going to the Witch’s Forest in the southwest in ten days?”
“Yes. I have something to discuss briefly with the witches there. Lara asked for it, too.”
“I, I see. If we’re aiming to arrive at the Witch’s Forest in ten days, we’d be departing from the annex in about a week, right?”
“No, it’s ten days from when we depart. …Right, considering travel time, it’ll be about two weeks later.”
“…Pardon?”
It was an absurd statement from the moment I first heard it, but it became more ridiculous as I listened.
What? In about two weeks? Are you kidding me?
The ‘Lara’s Secret’ event is about to start in just six days, but you’re saying we’ll go in two weeks? Are you just doing a roundabout way of saying you want to abandon the event?
My mind was inevitably thrown into confusion as this guy, who had been progressing well until now, suddenly started spouting such nonsense. You weren’t originally this kind of person.
‘Even so, shouldn’t we go to save either Lara or Lilia?’
If he’s choosing Lilia because he dislikes Lara or likes Lilia too much, I could reluctantly accept that.
After all, this episode fork itself was designed to force such a choice, and since the Hero has only one body, naturally, he can only save one of them. [Only on DarkStar Translations! / Axiomatic]
But to miss the golden time when the event could be progressed and only show up slinking around a few days later was a behavior whose intention I couldn’t understand no matter how I looked at it. It’s not like he’s saying he won’t go because it’s far and troublesome, so why?
I almost blurted out asking if he had mistaken the event schedule, but fortunately, the Hero’s following words naturally put an end to the question that had suddenly bloomed in my mind.
“So, I’d like you all to go ahead and help with Lara’s Witch Test until Seriste and I arrive at the Witch’s Forest two weeks later.”
‘Ah, I see.’
After Gyeongmwajogyegigwat said that much, I could roughly guess what the initial proposal was intended for.
The departure in ten days wasn’t based on the annex but on the northeastern great plains.
It seems Gyeongmwajogyegigwat wasn’t planning to give up on either the Barbarian Territorial Dispute event in the northeastern great plains or Lara’s Witch Test event in the southwestern Witch’s Forest.
However, since even a Hero can’t split his body in two to progress both episodes, he’s probably trying to delay one side as much as possible by sending other people instead.
Of course, originally it would have been meaningless to send characters other than the hero because they wouldn’t know how the episode unfolds, but this time, my existence made it possible. I, like Gyeongmwajogyegigwat, had perfect knowledge of how the episodes of Luminor Academy unfolded.
Moreover, in my case, I had progressed through the Lara route more than 80% of the time at the fork between Lilia and Lara. I knew exactly what happened and how to help Lara.
Eventually, while I was thinking that I should buy bug-repellent perfume after all, Agnes posed a question to Gyeongmwajogyegigwat.
“Go ahead? How soon?”
“In about six days from now… so you should leave in about four days from here, I think.”
“What are you and Seriste going to do in the meantime?”
“We’re going to make a quick trip to the great plains in the northeast. Lilia asked me for something during the semester.”
“Lilia? Who’s that?”
It seems Agnes hadn’t met Lilia yet.
Well, the formal opportunity to meet would be at best from the end-of-semester Hunting Festival in the second semester of the second year.
If it’s about the relationship between the Swordsmanship Department and the Spearmanship Department, which often have mock battles, they might have crossed paths once or twice, but usually, the Magic Department’s mock battle opponents are those in the Archery Department, so there wasn’t really such an occasion. [Only on DarkStar Translations! / Axiomatic]
Conversely, this meant that Ethan, being in the same Swordsmanship Department, was aware of the existence of Lilia, the top freshman in the Spearmanship Department.
“Lilia, do you mean Miss Lilia Marasendar Galenhar Soraben Fionis Barbaracus, the freshman from the Spearmanship Department?”
“……”
“……”
“…Yes, Lilia from the Spearmanship Department.”
…I didn’t expect him to know this much.
T/N
Hello! Axiomatic here.
Will continue to catch up on backlog when I can.
Thanks for reading, see you in the next one!