Tears and Truth
A salty kiss, a messy blend of tears, snot, and saliva. We only pulled our lips apart slowly after rubbing them together so fiercely that our breath hitched in our throats. "Haaah, pfft... hnnng..." A silver thread of saliva stretched thin before snapping. Rozalia's rapeseed-flower-yellow eyes were glistening, wet. She looked up at me. The bright spring vitality seemed to ripple, saturated with moisture.
"I'm fine with it, whether it's netorase or whatever," blurted out of my mouth. "I just want you to be happy. I want you to smile your usual goofy, blissful grin and laugh joyfully, like an idiot."
"......"
"Don't worry about my damn kink. It's always been you first."
Rozalia held her breath. Her wide eyes trembled faintly. We were exactly the same. For each other's happiness, we'd gladly plunge a dagger into our own hearts. We'd calmly endure even the most unbearable acts.
"I gave you my heart. Because I wanted that stupid smile of yours to last even one minute, one second longer."
"……Carn."
"So." I squeezed her soft, delicate hands tightly. I didn't look away; I met her gaze straight on. "You don't have to push yourself. I hope you don't have to struggle."
"......"
"You're my pride, the treasure I'd trade my own heart for."
-Whoosh. Rozalia's face exploded in red. It looked like actual white steam was rising from the top of her head. She blinked dazedly, at a loss for what to do. Then, a soft pink mana bloomed like pastels from her fingertips. She came back to reality only after using her own power to check whether this was reality or a dream.
"Wha, what do I do... Carn's being all sweet...!!"
The corners of my mouth curled up. A smug grin naturally spread across my face.
"Pfft. Yeah. Guess I finally grew up a little."
"From now on, I'll think about what would make you happy first too."
She shook her head vigorously. "Nuh-uh. That's wrong, Carn."
"......"
"I have never, not even once, thought I was suffering or having a hard time." She gripped my hand tightly back. A firm resolution transmitted through her palms.
"If you're happy, that's enough for me. The fact that I can satisfy your kink... makes me indescribably happy and overwhelmed."
"Rozalia."
"I don't care if I fall to the very bottom of hell. I don't care if I get filthy. I even love that mischievous smile you make when you're teasing me."
She rested her head against my chest. "I'll offer up my body as much as you want. Even if I fall to rock bottom, in the end, my knight will always come to rescue me, right?"
She grinned, radiantly. It was a stupid, perfect smile. Like sunlight shattering and scattering, a face that left a faint, lingering impression. I stared down at her face, dumbfounded, for a long time. She interlaced her fingers with my right hand. Our fingers locked together without a gap. Warm body heat. The distinct, pounding pulse transmitted right through her thin skin.
In my past life, my heart was as fragile as a glass ornament, a faint, thread-like pulse that could stop at any moment. In this life, it was beating wildly.
Yeah. This is the warmth. That healthy warmth from childhood, the one that slapped me on the back in the evening empty lot and laughed even while covered in dust. I don't have to be anxious and worry that she might shatter anymore. Because she's become so much stronger and tougher than me now.
"Forget the bet. Let's pretend it never happened."
"……Huh?"
"That measly, vulgar neto ticket. I realized that making you smile brings me more joy than any netorase play ever could."
"Carn…♡"
The corners of her eyes curved gently. "Don't set yourself up against Brant for my sake."
"……Huh? Um, Carn. Who says I'm doing it for you? I'm doing it for His Highness, Crown Prince Decart?"
My pathetically small dick twitched inside my pants.
"......"
Silence. She'd thrown cold water on the romantic mood. She grinned mischievously, teasing me. It was my own move. I'd been had. The crybaby who was always being teased by me had, without me noticing, swiped my technique clean.
"Pfft... I'm okay, Carn."
"......"
"Let's not pretend the bet never happened. Let's just say we both won it."
She hugged me tightly. Her large breasts pressed against my chest. Soft, sticky mochi slammed into my hard wall and squished flat. The gentle weight of it enveloped my whole body.
"I want to hear Carn's proposal... For that, I was ready to kill that fucking bastard Brant, who tried to tarnish my Carn."
Stop it. Don't say such stimulating things with a smile, it turns me on. I realized anew just how much she had been frying me with spicy, stimulating words. She was blooming me into a netorare netorare masochist. No. This is dangerous. I don't want to lose my Rozalia. A life of having her taken by Brant and jerking off in defeat. I didn't want to completely fall apart and become a wreck.
"Ah... alright. Let's call it a draw, both of us winners."
"Yeah...! Uhehe♡ Muah♡ Hnnnng~ Carn's neck smells so sweet♡"
She buried her nose in my neck like a puppy, sniffing and whining. Her overwhelmingly soft flesh, contradicting her slender frame, wrapped around my entire body. A sense of dissonance brushed past me. She was stained by me. She understood my netorare tendencies. She willingly became cheap and lewd. If I had been forced to accept this hopeless bet, just how would I have moved?
A passage from a book I read before. 'The wise overturn an unfavorable board, or create a new board where they can win.' That subtle sense of familiarity I felt every time I received a report. The certainty that she was guiding me. The more stimulating reports. The lies. The intercourse with Brant. The timing of her provocations towards me. What if all of this was the result of this genius young lady artificially moving the chessboard by two or three squares herself, manipulating it?
...She's been training me. She threw away all the rules and promoted her opponent's king to her own knight. Still, becoming one of her pieces, a knight, somehow didn't feel bad. Because it was all for me in the end, anyway.
I shook off the thoughts. Rozalia, nestled in my arms, was whining too cutely. I should snap her back to reality.
"Uheungheee...♡ Hawoom♡... Muah. Touch my boobs."
Rozalia pulled my hand. She tried to place my palm over her voluptuous tits.
"Get off me now... you flower-puss."
Silence. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. As oxygen rushed back to her brain and her reason returned, her face began to change colorfully by the second. Emotion. Embarrassment. Horror. And then.
"A-Ah, aaaah...!?"
The studio. Herself, legs spread, pissing on the floor. The words 'flower pussy' she had blurted out herself. It must have flashed through her mind like a panorama. "Hueeek...!" She leaped out of my arms with a start. Then she scurried to the nearest desk, folded her arms, and slammed her face onto them. Bang! From the tips of her ears to the back of her neck, she was flushed red as if splashed with crimson paint. I barely held back my snickering and approached her side. I leaned over and whispered softly into her pink hair, buried in the desk.
"Why are you running away?"
A breeze blew in through the window, carrying the thick scent of roses and lilacs from her hair.
"D-don't come near...!"
"What did I even do?"
"Y-you saw everything! You pervert...! Why the hell were you peeping at my secret...!"
Her voice was muffled, face still buried in the desk. It was full of resentment, but soft and sweet as cotton candy.
"Well, I dunno. Our pretty little..." I deliberately drew out my words, a smirk playing on my lips.
"......"
Rozalia's buried shoulders flinched.
"Flower..."
"GAAAH!! SHUT UP! SHUT UUUUP!!"
Thump! Thump! Bam bam bam! Rozalia sprang up like a jack-in-the-box and started pounding my shoulder with her tiny, clenched fists. Her face was a tomato, blood rushing to her scalp, looking like it was about to burst. It looked like actual white steam was hissing out of the top of her head like a teakettle. Chik-pok!
"If you even DARE say that word! I'll fucking punch a hole through your chest! You creep! You damn voyeur!"
She was, nominally, the next Sword Saint the Academy boasted about. Even if she was hitting me like a cotton ball, throwing a tantrum without any strength, the impact thudding into my shoulder was pretty heavy. But it didn't hurt. It was just maddeningly cute.
"Alright, alright. Our flower— I mean, our beautiful, flower-like Rozalia."
"Ah, shit! I'm really gonna kill you!"
I chuckled softly. I gently caught both of her flying fists in my hands. Tak.
"Let go...!"
She pouted and struggled to pull her hands back. Instead of letting go, I pulled her slender wrists towards me. Her soft hand was yanked close to my chest. I pressed my lips firmly against it.
-Smack.
"...Huh?"
Rozalia's eyes went wide. Her aggressive movements froze as if someone had hit the pause button. I followed the knuckles of her captured hand with my eyes, planting very light, ticklish kisses on them.
-Smack. Smack. Smack.
"One, two, three, four."
"Wha, what are you suddenly doing...!"
-Smack. Smooch.
"Five, six. Stay still. I'm really busy right now. I still have eighty-eight more to go."
From the back of her hand to the inside of her wrist. I rained down bird kisses on the pale skin where faint bluish veins showed through. "Seven, eight." Rozalia's face heated up, ready to explode for a completely different reason than her earlier embarrassment. Every time my lips touched and my hot breath brushed against her, her thin shoulders trembled faintly as if electrified.
"Huaaah...! C-Carn! Have you lost your mind?! Hup...!"
"Nine, ten."
Only after I counted ten did I pull my lips away. I grinned at her, still frozen with a dazed expression.
"Aren't you the one who's lost her mind? What was it? Your future dream is to be a loose p—"
-Slap!
"Mmph! Mmmph!"
Before I could finish, Rozalia yanked her wrists free from my grasp and lunged at me, clamping both hands over my mouth.
"Sh-shut up! I swear I'll bite your tongue off...!"
Because of the momentum, her body was completely pressed against mine. Through her uniform, her soft, voluptuous breasts squished heavily against my chest. So close that our heartbeats transmitted directly to each other.
"Hnngh... Please, I was wrong... Stop teasing me..."
Her eyes were brimming with tears, on the verge of crying again. She glared at me without any real malice, a strange expression that couldn't decide if it was a threat or a pitiful plea.
"Mmph, mmph." (Let go.)
"No way! You're going to say th-that word again!"
"Mmmmph!" (I won't, I won't.)
Rozalia glared at me with suspicious eyes at my muffled sounds. Then, very slowly, she took her hands away. The moment my mouth was free, I grinned and asked.
"Oh, right. So when are you planning to make a baby? With Brant 'darling'?"
"GAAAH! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T REMEMBER!"
"Well, if a dark-skinned, muscular dirt-pussy is your dream man, I guess he's a good catch~"
Rozalia tore at her hair and jumped up and down on the spot.
"Th-that was all, sniff, for you, okay?! I held back my embarrassment...! I forced myself to make you happy! I really, truly forced myself!"
"Your face when you were 'forcing yourself' was like *chiiiik*—using your mana blade—"
"FUUUCK! CARN, I HATE YOU!"
She lunged at me again, clinging to me and strangling my neck. As she hugged me with her full weight, I stumbled back slightly, catching her by the waist. A warm, soft body heat. The sound of her sniffling with her face buried in my chest was pleasant to hear.
"This is the last day you get to tease me, you hear?! If you say it again tomorrow, I'll really rip your tongue out..."
"Hmm, I'll consider it."
"Don't consider it! Give me a definite answer! Promise me right now!"
She lifted her head from my chest and stretched my cheeks out with both hands.
"Ahyat! Yaga! (Ow! Let go!)"
"I'm not doing any more bets with you for netorase! You're a petty, mean jerk!"
With my cheeks still stretched, I asked incredulously.
"Oh, really? So should I take my proposal back then?"
"......"
At that, the strength drained from Rozalia's hands. She let go of my cheeks and poked my chest with her finger, testing the waters.
"...W-Well, that's different..."
"Huh? I can't hear you."
"...A-Apart from the bet... you're... going to... marry me... right...?"
She mumbled, her face beet red, lips pouting. Ah, seriously. It's so cute I could die. I pulled her waist tight and lifted her up.
"Kyaa!?"
Floating in the air, she instinctively wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. Looking at Rozalia clinging to me like a koala, I rubbed my nose against hers and whispered tenderly.
"Of course I am. I've gotta become the Count's son-in-law and live the sweet life. So you're responsible for me for life, got it?"
"Hee... yeah...! Uh-huh! I'll spoil you rotten! Netorase all you want! I'll provide everything, so you just come to me...!"
She smiled brightly and planted a short kiss on my lips. Smack. The gloomy, sticky feeling from just moments ago was scattering away, bright and cheerful like cherry blossoms on a spring day.