Regression
Purity Academy had slipped into temporary shutdown. The story was proceeding exactly as the original plot demanded. Held responsible for the dungeon practicum disaster and hounded by factions from every corner of the world — all of them sniffing at the chance to pounce — the academy faced the greatest crisis of its existence, and Headmaster Pallad Amethyst reached for his trump card. At his command, the instructors fought a desperate rearguard action to revive the academy's fallen name, and only by the time Part 2 began did the story finally hand them back their stability.
That was the tale of the world I never touched.
So what about the world I did touch?
"Solis, come here."
We had spent the entire day drowning in each other. Yupi pushed her hips back toward me, wiggling that perfect ass in the sweetest begging display, and glad to meet her expectations, I slid my cock into her waiting pussy.
Plap!
"Nngh!"
A honey-sweet moan spilled out of her. After dozens upon dozens of rounds, her pussy — long since remolded into my personal cock sleeve — was already warm and welcoming inside, as if her body knew exactly what was coming.
Slap slap! Squelch squelch! Fine-tuning my pace the way a player nails the keys of a rhythm game, I kept ratcheting the tempo up, and Yupi rolled her hips in answer, keeping perfect time with me.
"Ahh, yes! More — give me more!"
The demure girl who'd been so clumsy at her first time was nowhere to be found. In her place now was a whore who begged for cock, glancing back over her shoulder to plead with me. Satisfying Yupi was my job, so I answered her aching request and kicked into a final sprint.
Slap-slap-slap-slap! Plap plap plap!
"Huaah, haah! Nnngh!"
Her cries climbed higher and higher, like a dolphin's song. Every time the tip of my glans kissed her cervix, Yupi's whole body jolted and quivered — and that trembling pulsed against my cock, sending pleasure crashing through me. I seized her hips and drove myself straight into the deepest part of her.
Spurt!
"Aaaaah!"
Hot, sloshing fluid flooded her insides to the brim. Yupi jerked and shuddered, moaning through the aftershocks, and I withdrew my duty-well-and-truly-done cock from her pussy. Thick cum welled out of her spent hole, dribbling down like a leaky faucet.
Still riding the afterglow, I washed my hands, gathered my wits, and helped Yupi up.
"Shall we go rinse off, Noona?"
"Mm. Thank you."
With that, we showered the sweat away together. Even then neither of us could behave — we stole kisses between rinses, my hands wandering over her breasts, her ass, trading slow, lazy caresses. We lingered over it, savoring that thick, unhurried kind of love that belongs only to lovers.
By the time we stepped out of the washroom, it was already the dead hours before dawn. Tomorrow might be a day off, but sleeping at this point was still the healthier call.
"Good night, Solis..."
"Good night, Noona."
With the city's night skyline glowing beyond the window at her back, Yupi slipped under. She must have been more worn out than she let on — the moment she lay down and buried her face in the pillow, she was gone to the world.
She's beautiful.
I brushed the tangled strands of hair back from her cheek. Bathed in the faint wash of moonlight, she looked like a princess asleep in an enchanted forest, and I took my sweet time committing the sight to memory.
"Yeah, she's fast asl— oh my. Welcome back, honored guest."
The Writer had surfaced in the chat window for the first time in ages. Snapping to attention at her sudden entrance, I hurried out a proper welcome.
"Does it even matter what we talk about? To anyone else it's going to sound like me talking to myself, anyway."
There she was — back in the chat window after all this time, and somehow even more venomous than before she'd left.
"So? Sounds like you've got something you need to tell me."
"Ooh. Out with it, then."
This was the same woman who, back during the Marin affair, had torched her own mana in a bid to snuff herself out — a serial troll guilty of every tantrum in the book. The public menace of a goddess I could never bring myself to call an ally. So had she finally managed to accomplish one single thing?
"It's a chat window, so my eyes will be doing the listening — but fine. Ears open, just like you asked."
So quit dithering and spit it out already. As it happened, I'd been dying to know what your reason for existing even was. I'd been counting on you to step up and perform right about now.
"And?"
"Uh-huh."
"..."
"Good grief. Yeah, that figures."
And here I'd actually let myself hope. I was the dumbass for getting my expectations up — for thinking she might finally be of some use.
"Yes, yes, I heard you. Please, say no more — I'm so embarrassed I can't lift my head."
Watching her parade a fad that had expired ages ago as if it were the scoop of the century was funny beyond words. I mean, seriously. Everyone except you already knew that.
"Moving on. I sincerely congratulate you on your return, but don't hold your breath waiting for a welcome ceremony."
Our dear Writer, pestering away. Well, of course she was curious. About the Helper's true identity.
I didn't know exactly who he was either, but I could have told her what he meant to use me for.
Not that I would.
Wasn't it only prudent to take out a little insurance, in case the situation ever called for it? Picture the hypothetical: the Writer's plans in ruins, no other soul's help to be had. In a world like that, he might very well end up becoming my savior.
"Forget all that — listen to me for a second. You'll be in tears by the end of it once you hear how much I suffered while you were gone."
Yep. That was the signal: refuse her, and she'd sulk for a week straight.
Back among the living for five minutes and already at it — serving up stale news, then getting huffy at the collaborator who was supposed to be helping her. Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.
Fine. If that was how it had to be, I'd go with the other method.
"Calm down, Miss Writer. I understand exactly what you're trying to say — it's just a difficult question to answer."
"Then remember just this one thing. Keep blabbing like that, and the only person who ends up losing out is you."
I even went so far as to press my index finger against my lips in an exaggerated little shush. What I wanted was for her to catch the signal — to read the meaning in the gesture. That a third party she knew of might be listening in on this very conversation, and that for the sake of her own hide, keeping her mouth shut would be the wiser move.
It wouldn't have mattered even if she'd missed the point entirely. Hell, I didn't know for certain that he was watching us in the first place. But one thing was for sure: play at knowing something, set the mood, put a little gravity in your voice, and—
There we go. I'd known she would — someone who trusted me as she did was bound to assume I had reasons I couldn't share. Anyway, with the chatterbox's mouth finally shut, I supposed I owed her a rundown of events.
"The skill evaluation and the dungeon practicum. Those were the two big events while you were gone, and quite a lot of time has passed since."
"I've got the body of a Part 3 mid-boss now. If I'd tripped over something like that, I'd have had to close the book right there."
Big talk, considering I did take a nasty tumble in the skill evaluation — but I still placed above average. That was plenty for me.
"Because she has time to spare now. Obviously."
In the canon she knew, the academy's students had accompanied the Guardians into a dungeon for their practicum — where a monster above the scenario's difficulty ceiling had appeared and torn through them, leaving casualties beyond counting. A bone-deep blunder for an academy everyone hailed as the finest of the fine.
"In our version, there were injuries in the dungeon practicum, but not a single death. Purity Academy's prestige took a hit, sure — but it stopped at a stumble instead of a fall."
"Correct."
Just like someone with the whole script memorized, she'd read my play in a single guess.
"She's lost some of her power since then, but way back in the distant past she used to slip between dimensions hunting monsters down. Hand her the job and she delivers — apparently that instinct never left her."
Crossing dimensions was beyond the Marin of today, but borrowing Dilmun's gates erased every limit on her movement, and she'd managed to pull everyone out in time. Thank you, Marin. Thanks to your efforts, a great many people are still breathing. Yupi got her free time back — and got to sleep with me, too.
I'll have to buy her something delicious later. A debt like this deserved repayment, someday without fail.
"Which leaves exactly one incident to settle in Part 1 — the Dungeon Break that erupts between midterms and finals."
"Go team."
I let the flavorless cheer out of my mouth, lay back against the mattress, and surrendered to sleep. Report to the Writer: complete. Now to rest.
I'm exhausted.
Lately, every session of sex left a tide of fatigue washing over me beyond anything I could imagine. Normally I'd have recovered in minutes, but these days it was like pouring water into a bottomless jar — no matter how much I filled, the empty bottom stared back, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Just a rough patch, maybe? Or was there some other reason I didn't know about?
Not that my body had the strength left to agonize over the question. Surrendering to the creeping tiredness, I pulled the covers up and dropped off like a dead mouse.
Chirp! Chirp!
When I opened my eyes, brilliant morning light was already pouring through the gap in the curtains. A peaceful morning, the same as any other. I woke into an ordinary day, a world away from anything you'd call "change."
Oh — for the record, that peace lasted less than half a day before it exploded.
"We're dating now. As of today."
Pfft—!
Chloe, holding Eva's hand, dropping the bombshell of the century. I spat out the drink I'd been mid-sip on.