Coming of Age
“Auuu~. It was a joke! Just a joke, I swear.”
“You shouldn’t make jokes like that.”
Jun said so as he stretched Fortuna’s cheeks out wide, pulling them taut.
They stretched like sticky rice cakes, soft and springy, and there was something oddly satisfying about playing with them. Before he knew it, Jun had forgotten everything else and was completely absorbed in kneading Fortuna’s cheeks.
“Nngh~. That’s enough already~.”
“Ah, sorry.”
At Fortuna’s petulant protest, Jun finally came back to his senses and let go of her cheeks. The moment that soft, yielding sensation vanished from his hands, he felt a sharp pang of regret.
To shake off the feeling, he asked about something that had been nagging at him.
“For, about that, though. Am I really that unlucky?”
“Huh? Oh, no. Our Juni’s luck is actually pretty good overall. What I said earlier was just a jo~ke.”
“Then why has my luck been so rotten lately?”
“Um… well…”
Fortuna dragged the words out, glancing at his face as if weighing whether she ought to tell him or not.
“Stop fretting and just spit it out.”
“Your friend luck isn’t a joke. It’s genuinely garbage.”
“Ah~.”
Jun let out a low murmur of realization. He had already been thinking the same thing himself. No matter how hard he tried to come up with a counterargument, nothing came to mind. Instead, only evidence that confirmed it kept surfacing.
Now that I think about it, it’s really bad.
Setting aside all the minor incidents, he had already stood three times on the threshold of the afterlife because of friends—something most people never saw even once in their entire lives. In his previous life he had finally crossed that threshold for good. In this life, the electric eel’s repayment and the angel’s good fortune had let him slip past it once, yet the doorway was already shimmering in his vision again.
He really didn’t want to admit it, but for him, “friends” were literally useless shit he ought to avoid.
“No, For. Can one side of a person’s luck really be that bad?”
The more he thought about it, the more outrageous it seemed, and he couldn’t help asking. Being unlucky was one thing, but this was excessive.
“Yeah. Sometimes it happens for the sake of balance. In Juni’s case, your friend luck is garbage, but the opposite side—your lover luck—is ridiculously good.”
“So I’m supposed to put up with it because I’ve got enough luck to have an angel for a lover? Well, when you put it that way, I’ve got nothing to say. But lover luck is the opposite of friend luck?”
“Think about it. Prioritize your friends and you end up breaking up with your lover. Prioritize your lover and you drift away from your friends. Same principle.”
“Ah~.”
Faced with an explanation he couldn’t refute, Jun let out another quiet sound of understanding.
Once the conversation ended, he started walking toward the dining hall again. Fortuna asked him,
“Are you heading straight to song practice?”
“Hmm, not sure.”
Jun pondered her question. Because the coming-of-age ceremony was held at the church, he had attended every year and already knew every song that would be sung. He didn’t feel any particular need to practice. He couldn’t skip entirely since they still had to rehearse the choir parts, but right now the village kids who didn’t know the songs at all would be busy memorizing them, so there was no real reason for him to go.
“Then let’s goof off for a bit first, okay?”
Fortuna whispered the words right against his ear. The sticky, heated desire laced through that secretive murmur made Jun look at her with a thoroughly fed-up expression.
“For, be honest with me. You’re not an angel—you’re a succubus, right?”
“I am not a succubus!”
“Liar. We finished having sex all night only three or four hours ago and you’re already asking for more. If that isn’t a succubus, what is?”
“Y-you meanie!”
Fortuna’s face turned bright red as she began thumping his face with her tiny fists. Jun laughed and let her, and she called him idiot, dummy, meanie—none of it carrying any real heat, so it only came across as adorable sulking.
What do I do? All of a sudden I want her again.
She was so cute that the lust that had been lying flat on the floor suddenly sprouted and shot upward. She couldn’t have been aiming for that… could she?
“…Heh.”
Was that really her plan? Or had she simply felt his desire through the soul-string that bound them? The same Fortuna who had been hitting and insulting him a moment ago now lifted her chin in smug triumph.
Whatever the reason, she looked like she desperately needed to be tormented. He found himself looking forward to seeing how long that haughty little nose of hers could stay in the air.
I’m definitely going to knock it down. But maybe I should let her raise it a little higher first.
“My lady, wouldn’t you care to take a little stroll with your devoted Dolsoe?”
“I’d love to! Ah—no, wait. Hmph! Why should I? I don’t want to.”
Fortuna, clearly dying to go yet putting on a show of reluctance. She was so adorable he wanted to bite her right then and there. Jun gritted his teeth and held the urge in check. Right now he wanted even more to watch her strut around with her nose in the air, only to get flipped and reduced to whining in the next breath.
“My lady, please don’t be like that.”
“I said no!”
“…I’m not asking again. Do you really not want to?”
“Who said I didn’t? Let’s go right now. Go-go!”
The moment he dropped the playful tone and looked serious, she hastily changed her tune and strode ahead. Jun snorted a laugh and followed after her.
Trailing her around to the back of the church, they found—
“Ah. Jun, Fortuna. Welcome.”
“Oh. Jun-oppa and Fortuna are here. Perfect timing. Jun-oppa—no, Master. Help me out a bit.”
Linda and Heni were sitting in the shade, while
Bang! Bang!
“Haaat!” “Hup!”
Leon and Donald sparred in the middle of the backyard.
“Tch!”
“Hey, Linda-nuna, Heni.”
Fortuna’s face twisted in open annoyance as she clicked her tongue. Jun soothed her by stroking her hair while greeting the two girls with a bright smile.
“Fortuna, is something wrong? If you’re hurt anywhere, tell me. I’ll heal you.”
“…It’s fine. I’m not hurt.”
When Jun sat down near them, Linda peered worriedly at Fortuna’s expression. Apparently even Fortuna couldn’t bring herself to snap at someone who was genuinely concerned for her; she hurriedly smoothed her face and waved both hands.
“Don’t mind that little erotic fairy, Unnie. She probably dragged Jun-oppa all the way out here hoping to do something to him, and now she’s sulking because we got in the way.”
True to her hunter’s-daughter instincts, Heni’s sharp eye struck the bull’s-eye in one shot. Fortuna flinched, then tried to cover it by scolding Heni for no good reason.
“You little kitten, what’s with that tone? Want me to punish you?”
“Fortuna, I told you I’m all grown up now, so stop calling me that. How about you get a taste of something hot instead?”
“You little—! After everything I did raising you!”
Thwack!
“Ack! You little—!”
Fortuna shot forward like an arrow and smacked Heni square on the forehead. Heni flailed her arms wildly trying to retaliate, but Fortuna dodged every swing with astonishing aerial acrobatics.
“Hehe. You two really get along well.”
“Mm. I’m not sure I’d call it ‘getting along,’ but I can see that even after all these years nothing’s changed between you.”
Jun watched the pair who hadn’t changed a bit in four years, then casually turned his head. A fresh, pure-looking young woman in a nun’s habit came into view.
“Nuna, have you gotten a little more used to the nun work?”
“Yep! It’s already been a whole year.”
Having undergone the coming-of-age ceremony a year earlier than the others, Linda had chosen not to join the other girls in courtship activities but to remain at the church and walk the path of a nun. The gentle, kind-hearted girl suited the vocation perfectly, yet Jun still worried. He knew exactly for whose sake she had become a nun.
If that guy leaves for the capital, she’ll almost certainly follow him—knowing full well what she’ll have to face.
He wanted to stop her if he could. But he didn’t. Kind and gentle as she was, once Linda set her mind on something she saw it through to the end. More than that, her life belonged to her alone. He had no right to interfere simply because he disliked her choice. All he could offer were a few words of advice and a prayer that she stay safe.
Thwack!
“Ugh! J-Jun-oppa! Stop Fortuna for me!”
Having neglected her defense while trying to counterattack, Heni took another solid hit and finally appealed to Jun for help. Moisture was already gathering in her eyes; she looked ready to burst into tears at any second. Jun gave a wry smile and immediately reached out for Fortuna.
“Haha. For, that’s enough—come here.”
“Hmph~.”
When he called her over, Fortuna obediently let herself be caught. Her fairy wings, however, were still flared stiffly like an angry hornet’s, showing her temper hadn’t fully cooled.
“There’s a good girl. Good girl.”
“Heeung~.”
He stroked her head, her back, her waist in long, continuous caresses until she finally let go of her anger and began acting spoiled like a well-fed cat.
“You’re ridiculous.”
Heni snorted at the sight, then set about straightening the hair that had gotten mussed while she tussled with Fortuna. With her hair grown long, she looked quite the young lady now. If Robin could see her like this, he would probably shed tears of both loneliness and pride.
Then again, Jun felt the same mix of loneliness and pride. After spending so much time teaching her magic, he had come to regard her almost as a real little sister.
He was watching her with a faintly bitter gaze when their eyes met. The puzzlement in hers quickly turned mischievous.
“Heh~. Jun-oppa, where do you think you’re looking?”
“Why? Afraid I was staring at your body? Don’t worry—even if the world ended, that would never happen.”
“What! You—!”
Her pride clearly wounded, Heni clenched her teeth, then deliberately laced both hands behind her neck and thrust out her chest, flaunting whatever femininity she possessed.
“Go on, take a good look. See how pretty I am.”
“You are pretty, I’ll give you that.”
A triumphant smile bloomed on Heni’s face—only to be utterly crushed a second later.
“Still not as pretty as me, though.”
Her expression crumpled into pure devastation at Jun’s follow-up.