Chapter 131: Stepping into the Light - 3
Chapter 131: Stepping into the Light - 3
My woman.
At Jiha's whisper while holding her close, the bases of Leticia's ears flushed bright red.
A reaction of embarrassment.
Because Jiha had never put it so directly into words before.
Leticia hesitated, then carefully wrapped her arms around Jiha's back.
The woman who always acted prickly and on edge in front of others now behaved like a docile cat.
Jiha whispered to the elf who had nestled into him of her own accord.
"And from now on, if there's something like this, tell me right away."
"...Last time I came, you got angry."
"..."
There had been an occasion when Jiha sent her back because she showed up where Asira was.
She had left then, but Leticia had apparently kept it in her heart.
"You said not to come unless it was something serious..."
"I told you to contact me first."
Mid-sentence, Jiha shook his head.
Leticia gave a long sigh mixed with relief and anxiety.
Somewhat calmer now, Leticia wiped the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand and forced a smile.
"Sorry you had to see me like that. And don't you ever tell that dark elf, got it? She'd tease me for the rest of my life."
"Fine."
"...Hmm."
Leticia studied Jiha's face anew with reddened eyes, hesitating.
They were outdoors, the day edging into early evening.
No one around to see them, supposedly, but they were holding each other.
Jiha smiled and asked.
"Want to stay the night?"
"...N-no. What are you talking about. It's not like that."
Leticia blushed while putting on a stern face.
It had been a while since she'd seen Jiha, so she wanted to talk more. Wanted to spend time together.
She was also curious about how he'd been while they were apart.
Leticia whispered.
"...Would that really be okay?"
"For that, I'd have to tell Enril and get permission."
"Ah, no! That's not happening!"
Leticia was horrified.
If that happened, wouldn't Enril figure out that she belonged to Jiha?
Jiha made a deliberately disappointed face.
"No?"
"That, that's..."
Leticia hesitated and stammered.
Being with Jiha was good, but she hated the thought of Enril getting leverage over her.
Still, she couldn't keep hiding it forever like this...
At that, Jiha let go of Leticia and stepped back.
"It's a joke. You should head back too, prepare for the meeting with the elves tomorrow."
"...Ah. Y-yeah."
Leticia's expression was full of regret and mixed feelings.
Her gaze flicked toward the building, toward Enril's office.
She was clearly thinking about whether she could come up with some trick to stay with Jiha.
Usually, Leticia only ever wore a sharp expression, but once her guard was down, her face was easy to read.
Jiha smiled and spoke.
"Leticia."
"Hm? Hm?"
"Before you go back. A kiss."
Jiha closed his eyes and pushed his lips forward.
Leticia started in surprise and almost retreated, then stopped short.
She scanned the surroundings to make sure no one was watching.
"...M-mm."
She let out an indistinct moan and rose onto her toes.
Soft lips met his with a feather-light touch.
Jiha opened his eyes a crack. Leticia had hers squeezed shut, leaning into him.
Her long eyelashes were still damp from the tears she'd shed earlier, a pitiful sight.
Jiha slid his left hand and laced his fingers with Leticia's.
The elf, who had been obediently meeting his kiss, hurriedly squeezed his hand tight...
"Mm, mmm... Ah?!"
Jiha slid his tongue into Leticia's mouth while pushing his right hand up under her top.
The man's hand slid up her stomach and slipped through the gap in her bra.
Warm, supple breasts pressed firmly against his palm.
"Ah, n-no, I don't want this. Mmm..."
Leticia whimpered and hunched her shoulders in embarrassment.
She was terrified someone might see, however remote the chance.
Yet even so, she didn't stop kissing Jiha.
Schlurp.
Jiha sweetly bit and sucked on Leticia's lips while thoroughly enjoying the springy breasts of the blonde elf with his hand.
Squish!
Leticia's breasts—he hadn't touched them in so long.
As he kneaded them, her nipples hardened almost immediately.
Her body reacted at once, delighted that a man was touching her.
When Jiha lightly teased her nipple with his finger, Leticia trembled as if she'd been struck by lightning.
"Mm, ah, no. Mmm..."
She protested with her mouth and acted embarrassed, but she made no move to push Jiha away.
If anything, she burrowed deeper into his embrace, leaning her body against him.
As if asking him to shield her—and once he did, he could do as he pleased.
Step, step.
Still kissing Leticia and groping her breasts, Jiha walked forward.
Reflexively backing up, Leticia's back met the wall of the building.
Now Jiha's back shielded Leticia from any potential onlookers.
There was no one around, but it was a precaution just in case.
"..."
Leticia noticed that too, and her reaction changed.
Looking down, she could clearly see the man's hand moving inside her clothes, kneading her breast.
A sight she couldn't have imagined just a short while ago.
She didn't dislike it.
"Ha, ahhhn..."
When Jiha deliberately stopped using his tongue and just kneaded her breasts, it was Leticia who now tangled her tongue with his.
The blonde elf's tongue awkwardly licked and sucked at Jiha's lips.
Smack. Schlurrrp.
"Hmmm."
"Ah, mmm..."
As the man let out a satisfied sound, the woman grew pleased as well and clung to him completely.
All the while, Jiha kept kneading her breasts with his hand, rubbing and teasing her nipples, cupping her whole breast in his palm and tracing circles before letting go.
Pressss.
Once her nipples had grown a little firmer, Jiha pressed down on one with his thumb, rubbing and rotating it in slow circles.
Flinch. Flinch.
"Ah, haaahng."
Leticia's legs shook, and her breathing turned ragged.
Her breasts, caught in his grip, swelled further, her nipples growing even harder.
"Ha, hahk. Haaaa..."
Leticia broke the kiss and stared blankly at Jiha.
Her cheeks flushed red, her face slack with a dreamy haze.
Seeing the blonde elf's pretty lips, thickly smeared with her own saliva, was almost unbearably arousing.
Reflexively, his hand squeezing her breast tightened.
"These tits. I'm the only one who gets to touch them, right?"
"Uh, m-mm."
An indistinct noise halfway between a moan and an answer.
When Leticia grew flustered and trailed off in embarrassment, Jiha pressed her.
"Answer me properly."
"...M-mm."
Still, Leticia hedged.
Swept up in the atmosphere, cornered by Jiha, but doing this outdoors was utterly mortifying, and giving an answer like that was hard.
A blonde elf who'd hardly known anything about men until recently couldn't possibly give such an answer right away.
So Jiha deliberately put on an angry face.
"Leticia."
"...H-hm?"
When Jiha's demeanor shifted, Leticia grew frightened.
Jiha then snapped at her as if he were berating her.
"Show me your chest."
"..."
"Now."
Jiha planted his hand against the wall and brought his face close, barking the order, and Leticia froze.
Jiha was angry.
Thinking she was in big trouble, she was scared stiff.
"..."
With trembling hands, she fumbled to unbutton her top, then unfastened the hook of her bra.
Exposing herself outdoors was naturally humiliating, but it was better than provoking Jiha.
Her dazzlingly pale breasts were exposed to the night air.
At the tips of their beautiful curves, pink buds trembled.
The fact that Jiha's touch had aroused her was laid utterly bare.
"Who's the man allowed to touch these, and suck on them?"
"That... Ahk."
Schluuurp.
The moment Leticia tried to answer, Jiha seized a breast in his hand, took it into his mouth, and sucked hard.
A pull that drew in the soft flesh and the nipple all at once.
Pinned against the wall, Leticia flailed her hands in shock... then hurriedly clamped them over her own mouth.
"Ah, ahh. Nngh..."
A jolt of pleasure shot through her. She tried as hard as she could to stifle the sounds escaping between her lips.
Worrying that even if no one could see, someone might hear from somewhere.
But the more she worried, the more tenaciously Jiha nibbled the soft flesh of her breast with his teeth, rolled the erect nipple with his tongue, and sucked it between his lips.
While stimulating her left breast with his hand, he moved to the other side.
Flick. Flick.
Making a deliberate show of it, he stuck out his tongue and flicked her nipple upward, and each time, Leticia's body gave a strange shudder.
Press. Schluuurp. Schlurrrp. Smooch. Smooch.
The man ravaged the white breasts using hands and mouth, tongue and teeth.
Beautifully shaped breasts that fit perfectly in one hand were mauled and molded in the man's grip, licked and showered with kisses.
"Ah, ahhng. Mmm. Hnnngh..."
Leticia clamped her mouth shut with her left hand, while with her right, she clutched the hair of the man who had buried his face in her breasts and was biting and sucking without restraint.
Like her flailing hand had nothing else to hold onto.
She was scared, thinking someone might see, might hear.
"Nngh, hnnnngh."
Schluurp. Schlurrrp.
The man kept sucking and biting her breasts with relentless focus, making it impossible for her to collect herself.
The strength drained from her legs. She couldn't stand properly.
"M-mm. Mmm. Nngh."
Jiha's teeth gnawed at her nipple, then clamped down and ground it gently, and Leticia's hand clenched with all its might.
Pressss.
Then Jiha pressed his knee between Leticia's legs, against her secret place, while continuing to suck on her breast lightly.
"Hahk, haaahk. Ahhht. Ahhhgh..."
Scream-like moans spilled from Leticia, leaking between the fingers of the hand clamped over her mouth.
"Ah, ahh. Ahhh."
Smooch. Schlurp.
After spending a long while coating her breasts in saliva, biting and tormenting them, Jiha pulled his mouth away and raised his head.
Schluuuurp!
As if reluctant to release her nipple from his lips, he bit down and tugged until the very last moment before finally letting go.
"Hahk, haaahk. Haaahk. Haaahk."
Leticia panted, barely managing to stay on her feet by leaning against the wall.
Her legs trembled pitifully.
Jiha smacked his lips as if he'd just tasted a delicious dish.
"Now you know, don't you?"
"...M-mm. Mmm."
Leticia nodded dazedly as she answered.
The feeling of her body floating, the stinging pleasure spreading from the tips of her breasts, made it almost impossible to control herself.
She'd barely managed to stifle her voice, but thanks to Jiha's torment, she had quietly reached a small peak.
Jiha spoke calmly.
"But the other elves don't know yet, do they? So, I'll let them know tomorrow."
"...M-mm."
Answering in a daze, Leticia instinctively moved her hands to cover her chest, then stopped.
Worried that doing so might make Jiha angry again.
Jiha himself was smiling nonchalantly.
"You've got things to prepare for tomorrow, right?"
"...Yeah."
Leticia was momentarily disappointed and crestfallen, but she quickly fixed her expression.
Quickly.
With still-trembling hands, she refastened her bra and straightened her disheveled clothing.
When Jiha watched with keen interest, Leticia, her face flushed, forced herself to speak.
"I-I'm going."
"It felt good, didn't it?"
"...I-I don't know."
Leticia turned and bolted away.
Afraid that if Jiha caught her, she might be in trouble.
After putting some distance between them in a single sprint, Leticia stopped short and looked back.
To check whether Jiha was following her or not.
Or maybe, as if she were hoping he was.
"..."
Then, when her eyes met Jiha's as he watched her calmly, she startled and fled again.
Like a deer dashing into the forest, her long blonde hair streaming behind her.
"Well then..."
He had tamed Uniques under him, and Waris was nearly in his grip, but Jiha was still in the position of the weak.
Blue Seal and Purple Liberation still hadn't properly grasped that he was maneuvering in the shadows.
The moment they learned of Jiha's existence, the moment they realized what he was trying to do, they would crush him mercilessly.
With an overwhelming gap in power, most schemes were useless.
If he let his guard down, he could die at any moment.
So he needed to clean house thoroughly on the inside, but...
"Little shits who don't know what fear is..."
He hadn't expected the elves to still be stirring up trouble.
He'd figured that having killed a fair number, they would quiet down on their own.
"No. I killed so many that this happened."
Because he'd annihilated anyone who challenged him, the elves still hadn't grasped the situation.
Promising young elves, including Pamin and Galak, had mostly been swept away by Jiha's hand.
"The ones who are left are probably third-rate, nobodies who couldn't even hold their heads up before. Cleaning them up wouldn't even be a chore, but... I need to get something out of it."
If he was going to spend time on it, he should make it useful.
"Alright..."
Jiha thought of a method and smiled.
Until now, Jiha's battles had mostly been shadow wars unknown to the world.
He had deliberately kept it that way because the gains were substantial.
But to capture the hearts of Waris's citizens, he needed to show them, plainly before their eyes, exactly what kind of existence Jiha was.
"Even idiots have their uses."
Jiha realized the time had come to make himself known to everyone.
"But before that."
He'd spoil the deer who had run away tomorrow.
Tonight, he'd go finish things with the demon knight.