Chapter 54: Reaping the Harvest - 7
Chapter 54: Reaping the Harvest - 7
Morning came.
Jiha sat fully dressed on the sofa, sorting through his thoughts.
Beside him lay a pale, naked elf, slumbering deeply on her side.
A white blanket covered her.
"I did get too worked up..."
With a woman, sometimes the need didn't fade even right after finishing.
Jiha had gone at her repeatedly, and Leticia, who had been a virgin, couldn't endure it.
Jiha looked at the sleeping Leticia.
The slender calves and snow-white thighs caught his eye.
'Leticia seems to have a personality as foul as Enril's, but if you think about it carefully, they're different. She tolerated having a bastard like Pamin around all along. Which means...'
"Nnnn."
In her sleep, Leticia pulled the blanket up to her chest.
Her body squirmed, on the verge of rolling off the sofa, so Jiha caught her ankle to stop her.
"Mm."
As if sensing something was off, Leticia pushed herself up.
A dazed face, green eyes brimming with drowsiness.
"Ah..."
Staring vacantly at Jiha, Leticia let out a soft moan.
She remembered that this was not her own bed and that Jiha had toyed with her all night.
Swoosh.
The blanket slipped, revealing her fair breasts.
The breasts the man had kneaded, sucked, and licked all night lay bare in plain sight.
Those beautifully shaped mounds—he suddenly wanted to touch them again.
Noticing Jiha's gaze, Leticia flinched.
"Ee—"
"Someone will come if you scream."
At Jiha's remark, Leticia quickly clamped her mouth shut.
She hauled the blanket up to her shoulders and shoved her hips backward.
She wanted to put as much distance between herself and Jiha as possible.
At the same time, her green eyes darted around.
She was sizing up the room's layout and searching for her clothes.
"..."
Her clothes were on the table.
Jiha had tidied them and placed them there.
Leticia watched Jiha warily and furtively stretched out an arm.
Like a nervous herbivore facing a predator that might pounce at any moment.
"You planning to go back wearing only that?"
"What?"
Leticia stared blankly at the garment she had grabbed.
There was no underwear.
Startled, she scanned the room but couldn't spot it.
She looked at Jiha again.
"G-give it here!"
"Give what?"
"...M-my underwear! Pervert!"
"Who said I hid them?"
Jiha picked up the bra and panties beside him and showed them to her.
Leticia's face flushed with fresh color.
Seeing her underwear in a man's hand proved that last night hadn't been a dream.
Leticia deliberately glared at him with all the venom she could muster and shouted.
"Th-throw them!"
"Why should I?"
"...What?"
"I already taught you how to ask for things. Did you forget?"
"..."
Leticia bit her lower lip in frustration.
She had been on the receiving end all night, yes, but that had been a dazed blur; she couldn't let herself be dragged around any longer.
'Right now, she's probably thinking she needs to come on strong again. That's just how she's wired.'
Jiha could read Leticia's inner thoughts like an open book.
Men were simple. If they spent the night together, they believed the woman belonged to them.
Women were complicated. The morning after, all sorts of thoughts swirled, and they inevitably reexamined whether it had really been okay.
'She sees it as something she was swept into against her will. She wants to salvage her pride. But we're in the middle of the Blue Seal barracks. She's afraid to square off with me, and even if she did attack and capture me, every detail would get back to Enril. Leticia wants to avoid that at all costs.'
In fact, Leticia clenched her fist and then eventually loosened it.
She had realized she couldn't solve this through force.
"..."
Still, her face burned with indignation, and she couldn't bring herself to say it out loud.
So Jiha set the underwear down beside him.
"If you don't like it, come over here and take it yourself."
"..."
Suspicion.
Leticia glared at Jiha as if she couldn't trust him.
Even so, Jiha only smiled.
No matter how much a wildcat snarled, it wouldn't actually attack.
He hadn't completely let his guard down. He was still ready if Leticia truly decided to lash out.
But a woman like that wouldn't have dragged out her engagement to Pamin for so long.
"..."
Leticia, fully on guard—doubly so—rose from the sofa.
She kept one hand pressed against the thin blanket to keep it from slipping off.
She circled wide around the table and slowly approached Jiha's side.
Like a deer trying to slip past a sleeping tiger without waking it.
Leticia might have thought she was being cautious, but her actions laid her psychological state bare.
She was a Unique, one of only ten such powerhouses in Warsland.
Even if she wasn't in a position to confront Jiha with force, it would have been natural to at least consider making a threat.
Yet she was unconsciously conceding that Jiha was the stronger party and shrinking back.
"..."
Jiha leisurely appreciated Leticia as she moved.
The long-haired blonde elf creeping closer with painstaking care.
The blanket was too short, and because she'd hiked it up to her chest, her slender waist and pale thighs were completely exposed.
It felt like watching a beautiful Greek statue come to life.
Leticia abruptly froze while pressing the blanket down.
'What the...'
Jiha's gaze as he admired her body was odd.
Leticia was a beauty, of course, and she knew it.
She knew exactly how men looked at her.
But usually, they stole glances from a distance, never daring to approach her. When she glared, they'd freeze up.
She had never seen a man behave so brazenly toward her.
Male elves, on the other hand, sneered and looked down on her.
Even if you're a powerful Unique, they'd say, in the end you're just a woman, just a laborer for the Council.
But Jiha was neither of those things.
It was almost like... a person doting on a cat.
"..."
Leticia cut off her thoughts and steeled herself.
Whatever the case, she had to retrieve her underwear from beside this bizarre Common and get out of here as fast as possible.
She was on guard against Jiha and careful not to let the blanket covering her front slip.
Very, very slowly.
"Ah."
The tense Leticia finally grabbed her underwear.
Relief washed over her at her success, and she was about to pull back when—
Grab.
Jiha's hand shot out sideways and seized her by the throat.
"..."
Leticia went rigid.
Close-quarters combat was her specialty, so she understood exactly what this meant.
Once your opponent had a grip on your vitals, it didn't matter whether you were a Unique or not.
Jiha had simply watched while she was on maximum alert, then seized the instant of release right after she thought she'd succeeded.
"Wh-what?"
Though frozen, Leticia spoke forcefully.
She put on an aggressive front to hide her inner turmoil and unease.
"If you harm me, you're finished too. Don't you get that?"
"I'm just doting on you."
When Jiha said it shamelessly, Leticia blinked.
She'd been tensed to the breaking point, thinking she might die now that her vitals were exposed...
If Jiha had meant to kill her, he'd have done it while she slept.
Leticia realized that a moment too late and was just starting to relax a little... when Jiha lightly kneaded her throat.
"I'm doting on you, but if you misunderstand, you might blow this up into something huge."
"I-I won't. Let go."
If she fought here, Enril would find out, and the fact that she'd given herself to Jiha would become impossible to hide.
Jiha spoke gently.
"Why won't you? Because you like me?"
"There's no way in—"
Leticia started to snap back but hesitated.
What if Jiha went around talking recklessly? What if he told Enril?
Fresh worry crept in.
'She's agonizing hard...'
Jiha was reading that conflict, those thoughts of Leticia's.
Leticia usually wore a waspish, angry expression, but that wasn't her true nature.
Her face was easy to read.
Even when they had shared their bodies, hadn't she been incredibly anxious about Enril finding out?
"..."
With one hand kneading Leticia's throat, Jiha ran his other hand down her shoulder.
Along her shoulder, down her arm, descending to her breasts.
Breasts that looked so good also felt so good, didn't they?
He caressed the breasts hidden beneath the flimsy blanket; they fit snugly into his palm.
Squeeze.
A light kneading, and the springy rebound was utterly exquisite.
"Kyaa?!"
When Jiha's hand toyed with her chest, Leticia screamed and recoiled inward.
Her reflex was to shove Jiha, but she stopped short, remembering her throat was in his grip.
"Nn—wh-what are you doing?"
Leticia forced a firm tone and pressed the blanket covering her front even tighter.
Jiha told her smoothly.
"I said I'm doting on you."
"S-stop it. Ah. Nn..."
Jiha's fingers gently tickled the woman's nipple, then gave it a light pinch.
Pain and a stinging pleasure.
Leticia jolted as if shocked by electricity, but now that Jiha had a hold on her, she couldn't pull free.
Swish, swish.
"Ah. Ah—?!"
Again, he rubbed, then pinched.
This time, hard.
Under the repeated teasing, Leticia squeezed her thighs together and writhed.
A cold sweat beaded on her throat, and she couldn't tell if it was from fear or from the pleasure that made her jaw tremble.
Then Jiha began rubbing the nipple again.
"S-stop. Stop it..."
Knowing Jiha was about to pinch even harder, Leticia spoke urgently.
At that, Jiha halted the hand tickling her nipple.
"Then ask for it, like I told you."
"...Nn."
Her pride wounded, Leticia growled again.
When she hesitated, Jiha took his hand off her breast.
Leticia reflexively relaxed... but now his hand traveled down to her flank and caressed her waist.
Leticia flinched and tried to dodge sideways, but when the blanket threatened to slip, she froze again.
In her current state—underwear clutched in one hand, the blanket pressed down with the other, upper body bent—Leticia was in no condition to resist whatever Jiha did.
It felt like having a hold on a snarling wildcat's scruff while you tickled it.
Jiha's hand slid down Leticia's side and reached her thigh.
The sensation of a man's hand caressing her thigh.
Twitch.
Leticia tensed and pressed her thighs together.
Her voice grew urgent.
"...P-please stop."
The elf who had been about to resume her insolence once morning came finally understood her situation.
She realized that what had happened last night, the power dynamic—it was still in effect.
At least until she got out of this barracks, she had no choice but to do exactly as Jiha said.
Jiha, for his part, acted shameless.
"That's not the way."
"What?"
She'd done just as she was told—what more did he want?
It was already humiliating enough to use polite speech with a human male, a Common.
Leticia's eyes blazed, but the hand kneading the back of her neck made her freeze rigid again in an instant.
Jiha smiled and said,
"What man stops doting on a woman just because she tells him to?"
"Th-then what do you want me to do?"
The fact that she asked so upfront was proof Leticia had no experience with men.
An innocent elf maiden—if she didn't know the answer, of course she'd ask.
Her speech and behavior were waspish, yet her way of thinking was downright naïve.
Jiha removed his hand from the back of Leticia's neck.
"Ah."
For an instant Leticia relaxed... but then Jiha wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her in front of him.
Leticia, having let her guard down, came to her senses an instant later, but it was already too late.
Between her legs.
The man's hand hovering around her navel.
"..."
Tense.
Leticia froze solid. She hurriedly jammed her thighs together to block him.
So much so that the blanket slipped and her chest was bared—she was too distracted to even notice.
She was on extreme alert against the man invading between her legs again.
That one thing, she absolutely could not allow.
So Jiha drew Leticia's head into an embrace and whispered into her ear.
"Say 'I like you, Jiha.'"
"...What?"
"You heard me."
Leticia looked bewildered.
Of all the demands, what was this?
But the feel of Jiha's hand pressing against her lower belly—it was terrifying, nerve-wracking.
The arm wrapped around her neck again bothered her too.
"..."
No—at this close range, Leticia could cut Jiha's throat, too.
Leticia entertained the thought for a split second, then abandoned it.
She'd had plenty of opportunities since a moment ago.
Right now, getting through this moment was the priority.
"..."
Her head understood this, but... her lips wouldn't part.
The last time she'd said "I like you" had been in her distant childhood, and even then, not to a man.
And now, she was supposed to tell a human male she'd inadvertently given her body to that she liked him?
Couldn't she just say something she didn't mean and be done with it?
That was easier said than done.
"Can't say it?"
Jiha murmured low, right into the blonde elf's long ear.
At the hot breath, Leticia flinched violently and turned her head away.
"Ah, j-just a moment."
"How long should I wait?"
As he spoke, Jiha slowly slid his hand from her navel lower.
"S-stop it."
Leticia screamed and tried to pull her body back, but with Jiha's arm locked around her neck, there was only so far she could go.
Even with her hips shoved as far back as possible, she remained within range.
Then Jiha pulled her closer, using the arm around her neck.
"I-I li—"
There was no escape.
Just humor him quickly and run.
Leticia spoke in a rush.
"I like you!"
"Yeah, me too."
"?!"
The instant Leticia's eyes went wide in shock—
Between her legs.
The man's hand thrust inside.
As if it had been waiting for this very moment.