You Seduced Me First!(3)
Somewhere, I shouted at Rydia, who had covered her chest with a blanket she’d pulled out from who knows where.
“Why, why?! Why not, Rydia-nim!”
“Because I don’t want to.”
“So why?! You were the one who seduced me first, Rydia-nim! Walking around with those huge breasts out in the open means you’re fine with me touching them, doesn’t it?!”
“…This is strange. Usually it’s the woman who gets dragged to the guard post after groping a man’s butt who says things like this.”
“Who cares! Let me touch them! Let me touch! Let me touch them!”
I flopped down on the floor and spread my arms and legs out in an X. Even at my current age, it was a slightly risky stance for my ultimate technique. Take this! Yona Death Beam! …No, Yona Tantrum!
“Bwaaaaaaaaah!!!”
I flailed my limbs wildly and yelled at the top of my lungs. The once-noisy tavern fell silent in an instant, every gaze turning toward me. The waiter brothers who had been serving customers in full-body swimsuits today, along with the female patrons who had been leering at them, all stared at me at once. While Elly covered her face with her hands in horror, pretending not to know me, and Rydia stood frozen with a bewildered expression, I seized the moment to declare my goal once more.
“Let me touch your breasts! Do it! Do it for me! Bweeeeeeh!!”
By now, people were looking at me like I was completely insane. Hmph! The world that failed to understand the dreams and hopes contained in Rydia’s chest was the real problem. I wasn’t the bad one.
Just how many times did I repeat the shameful, conscience-selling act of flailing on the floor before Rydia finally raised both hands lightly and shook her head?
“Fine. I get it, so get up now, Yona.”
“Okay.”
I sprang up and sat back in my seat. I’d been so shocked that I just started yelling… Honestly, even I felt embarrassed. But if rolling around on the floor throwing a tantrum could get me permission to touch Rydia’s chest, it was a clear win.
When I shot her a look full of expectation, Rydia pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed. I crept closer to her, who looked exhausted, and reached out. Smack! My hand was struck on the back.
“Why?! You said you understood!”
“Your eyes are scary.”
“That’s slander. Where else would you find such pure, innocent eyes like mine!”
“…It’s not your eyes I’m worried about. It’s Elly senior’s. She looks like she might kill me.”
“Ah.”
When I turned around, Elly immediately looked away, avoiding my gaze. Her intensity was so strong I thought her neck might snap. From this angle I couldn’t see her face, but if she was trying that desperately to avoid my eyes, her expression must have been terrifying. Well… even so, asking Elly to smile in this situation would be too inhumane. I’d managed to calm her down somehow earlier, but the fundamental problem hadn’t been resolved.
The Pan Continent had its civilization reset once, so it needed a large population, and with the only remaining god being the Goddess of Love, relationships between men and women were generally tolerant and free. But that didn’t mean possessiveness or insecurity disappeared. Even back on Earth, when polygamy was allowed, wives still got jealous of each other. Elly was no different. I’d managed to reassure her with that belly nuzzle earlier, but there was no way she could truly be unbothered watching me touch Rydia’s breasts right in front of her.
When I hesitated, Rydia spoke in a deliberately gentle tone, like she was soothing a child.
“Later. I’ll let you touch them when Elly senior isn’t around. Just hold on for now.”
“Yes! If that’s the case, I can wait as long as it takes.”
“Good. Such a good boy.”
Rydia lightly patted my head and stood up.
“Then I’ll be going now, Elly senior. Yona, you should get to bed early since you’re going into the labyrinth tomorrow.”
“Uh… Yeah. Be careful on your way back.”
“Of course! See you tomorrow!”
After Rydia waved lightly and left The Elf and the Silver Coin, I grinned until her back disappeared from view. Then it hit me.
…Hadn’t Rydia just casually made a promise she couldn’t keep and bolted?
“……”
So this was how Elly felt after I did it to her. Feeling oddly guilty, I climbed onto the counter and stroked Elly’s ashen hair. Then I got scolded for leaving shoe prints on the counter.
***
After scrubbing the shoe marks off the counter, I finally went up to my room. Lying on the bed, I stared blankly at the ceiling and pondered.
“Should I just do a gacha pull right now…”
I’d only meant to do a little pickpocketing, but somehow the scale had grown. It only lasted three minutes, but thanks to that, I’d gathered quite a bit of money. A full 14 silver and 78 copper. Normally I wouldn’t have hesitated to do a ten-pull. With 4 silver I could still survive for a few days, and since I was going into the labyrinth tomorrow, I’d earn a little income anyway.
The reason I was still hesitating was simple. After accidentally giving Elly a mental breakdown, the lighter I’d left at the pawnshop suddenly came to mind. It had been 5 silver and 50 copper. On the way back I’d been stuck with Rydia so I couldn’t stop by, but now I could slip out alone.
“…Yeah. I might have no strength, no money, and no home, but I’ve got Elly.”
Rather than gambling on an uncertain gacha result, it made more sense to take care of Elly who was right beside me. I could always pick it up tomorrow after the labyrinth run, but… honestly, with that money I’d probably just do another gacha pull anyway. I trusted my own judgment. I believed my judgment was so shattered that the moment I had any spare cash, I’d blow it all on gacha…!
With that resolve, I headed downstairs. As night fully fell past evening, The Elf and the Silver Coin grew even livelier, true to its nature as a tavern. Thanks to the time that had passed, Elly had regained her usual composure and was staring blankly around the shop. To an outsider she might have looked like a lazy good-for-nothing, but in reality it was the relaxed air of someone who had built a system where money rolled in just by sitting around. How enviable. In my previous life, I’d ultimately wanted to become a building owner and write whatever I wanted without worrying about money. For example, a dark fantasy with a heroine who was literally just a head, or a cyberpunk martial arts story featuring a heroine with nipple piercings. Of course, that dream had been shattered by gacha bankruptcy and an unexplained explosion…
…Honestly, the fact that my cause of death in my previous life was gacha bankruptcy felt strangely meaningful. Why was the gacha ability given specifically to someone who died from it? Maybe the Goddess of Love had a worse personality than I thought.
While thinking such pointless thoughts, I approached Elly’s side.
“Uh… Y-Yona-ni. Why aren’t you asleep? What are you doing down here?”
The atmosphere was strangely awkward. She was probably still bothered by what happened earlier. Whether it was because of Rydia’s chest or my belly, I couldn’t tell. Without a word, I went up and hugged her tail. Thanks to how fluffy it was, it felt nice to hold. At first it jerked like a freshly caught fish, startled, but once I held on firmly, it soon calmed down. After burying my face in the thick fur and taking a deep breath, I spoke.
“I couldn’t sleep because I wanted to smell Elly’s tail.”
“Eep!”
Elly flinched even at the light joke. But it didn’t feel like the pure excitement from before.
“That was a joke. I just came down to get some air… But now that I see you, I’ve got something I want to say first.”
“W-What is it?”
I pressed right up against Elly, who was flinching by herself, and asked.
“Elly. What are you thinking about right now?”
“…I wasn’t thinking about anything.”
“Really? Your reaction seems suspicious for someone who wasn’t thinking about anything.”
Grinning, I hugged her from behind. Normally this would have been a pretty cool back-hug, but… because of our height difference, it just ended up with my face buried in her back. Still, that was enough. It wasn’t the usual lewd teasing, just wholesome skinship sharing each other’s body heat. As I stayed still like that, Elly’s stiff body slowly began to relax.
“Were you expecting something? I guess I have been pretty aggressive lately.”
“Well, I did get that feeling quite a bit.”
Elly nodded reluctantly. We’d known each other for several months now, but the progress we’d made in the past few weeks was far faster than everything before that.
“There was actually a reason. Until now, all I had was my body, right? So I had to be careful with it.”
“Wouldn’t it still be better to be careful?”
“Hmm… There was a slight misunderstanding in the word ‘careful.’ More accurately, it was closer to ‘holding back.’”
I liked Elly. Whether it was romantic love between a man and a woman, I didn’t know, but it was true that I felt affection that went beyond ordinary goodwill. Wanting skinship was only natural. Especially since, thanks to the reversed sense of chastity in this world, I knew she wouldn’t reject me. But I held back. I knew that if I rashly advanced our relationship, it would just stagnate there. Helping Elly run The Elf and the Silver Coin, maybe having children someday, and perhaps, if we had enough leeway, writing again. Those would surely be peaceful, happy days.
…However, they wouldn’t last forever. If this world truly shared the exact same setting as my novel, things wouldn’t go that smoothly. You know what? I’ve never once written a slice-of-life story.