The Affairs of Two (1)
Mela was in high spirits.
Kyle had told them to take the whole day off and rest properly, and for a girl who had only just awakened to the pleasures of the flesh, free time like this was a genuine delight. She changed into something light and comfortable with a spring in her step.
Today I'm going all day.
Ever since the dungeon in Aiden, masturbation had become part of her daily routine. The one thing that worried her was that once they left this city, private time would be hard to come by for a while. Having discovered the joy of stolen, secret hours in a room of her own, the thought of losing that was genuinely disappointing.
So Mela decided there was no reason to wait. She set a pillow in the middle of the bed and straddled it. The feather-stuffed cushion was soft and thick enough to be perfect for what she had in mind.
Sshk. Sshk.
She began to roll her hips, slow and deliberate. The gentle friction where she pressed against the yielding pillow felt quietly wonderful. A light flush of arousal crept through her, and she could feel the fabric of her underwear growing damp where it touched her sex.
"Aahng… mmnh…"
Cute little moans that suited her perfectly spilled from her lips as she sank deeper into the act. She was thoroughly absorbed when her body suddenly jerked.
A light climax. She savored the afterglow for a moment, then her expression turned faintly dissatisfied.
"Mmm…"
Before, that would have been enough. But now that she knew what real pleasure felt like, it left her wanting. In the end, Mela stripped off her bottoms and underwear. A thin strand of slick fluid clung to the damp cloth, stretching before it snapped free.
Flushed, she began to touch herself. As her fingers traced the cleft, both her hand and her sex grew slick and shiny with her own wetness.
Schlick. Schlick.
The viscosity of her juices produced lewd little sounds. Feeling how soft and ready she had become, Mela carefully rubbed around her entrance. Remembering how his thick, long fingers had stirred her, she pushed one of her own inside.
"Mmh…!"
But her still-undeveloped passage remained tight; she couldn't even get two knuckles in. She carefully explored her inner walls, yet all she felt was the foreign sensation of something inside her — arousing, yes, but nowhere near real pleasure.
"…"
She pulled her finger out. There was something she had buried deep in her pack after the mortifying encounter with Hex that day — something that still made her glance at her bag every night. A black, massive, extra-large dildo.
"Ahh…"
It was an outrageous thing even on a second look. The sheer fact that she had bought it filled her with such profound self-reproach that her face burned — and yet her heart was pounding, her breath coming short. She stared at it intently. She had been too embarrassed to examine it properly when she bought it, and afterward she had shoved it away in shame because of everything that happened with Hex. This was the first time she was really looking at it.
It was black, but the ridges and vein-like details were rendered with such care that Mela swallowed without meaning to.
So all men are… like this…
Under that ridiculous misconception, she licked it, then took it lightly into her mouth. Even that small act seemed to fill some hollow place inside her. Holding the dildo close to her face, she went back to touching herself. The memory of that day stirred faintly, and the pleasure felt just a little sharper for it.
"Haah…!"
She worked the finger inside her while gently circling a swollen nipple, and a moan slipped out on its own.
Schlick-schlick.
She was speeding up her fingers, feeling something building — when a knock came at the door.
"Mela, do you have a moment?"
"…!"
Layla's voice snapped Mela wide awake. And in the same instant, she realized her single greatest mistake.
I didn't lock the door!
Ordinarily she would have double-checked every latch against intruders, but the Agra family's heavily secured mansion had made her careless. She tried to tidy up and compose herself for Layla, but a body teetering on the edge of climax refused to obey her will. Her hips bucked upward of their own accord.
No…!
Coming with the person closest to her standing right outside the door filled Mela with a sense of utter depravity — and the pleasure that feeling delivered was beyond anything she had imagined. In an instant she blew past her limit and climaxed.
"…Nngh!"
All she could do was finish as silently as possible. Her bitten lip was soaked with drool. The white-hot rush of pleasure gradually ebbed, but her body remained limp and unresponsive in the aftershocks.
"Mela?"
Layla's voice came again. Mela knew she needed to answer, yet she lay sprawled and motionless. The orgasm had been so intense that she was still twitching, a thin trickle of fluid running from her.
"I'm coming in."
Even as her brain felt like it was melting, every nerve in Mela's body strained toward the door. She forced her mouth to move.
"D… don't…"
But the breathy, broken sound never reached Layla. The door opened, and Layla stepped inside.
Layla stood with her face buried in her hands, burning scarlet. It was because of what she had just walked in on in Mela's room.
Aaaagh! Why did I do that?
She berated herself. Even if you knock, if the other person doesn't answer, you don't just walk in — that was basic common sense, wasn't it? She had apologized in a panic and fled, but an apology didn't erase a mistake. And it certainly didn't erase the memory.
The image of Mela with her sex fully exposed, gasping for breath, flashed through her mind, and Layla was too mortified to lift her head.
How am I supposed to look Mela in the face after this?
As she stood there flustered and helpless, a dark, uneasy thought suddenly crossed her mind. What if she was the only one in the party who still had no real sexual experience? What if, while she wasn't looking, everyone else had already climbed the stairs into adulthood, and she alone had been left behind like a fool?
Kyle and Emily… and now even Mela…
Hex went without saying. As the party's designated intellectual, the idea that she alone might be ignorant of something everyone else already knew was a crushing psychological weight.
She was still fretting when she spotted Hex walking toward her from a distance.
Should I… ask Hex?
The thought flickered for a second before she came to her senses. Realizing just how idiotic that idea had been made her face heat all over again.
"What are you doing out he—"
Hex didn't finish the sentence. Even to him, she clearly looked off.
"It's nothing."
I can't leave things like this.
With that resolve, Layla set off. The underworld district was still an unpleasant place. She had no good memories of it, and everyone she passed looked steeped in blood and violence. Eyes followed her with every step — her looks were simply too striking — but no one tried anything. The emblem engraved on her necklace marked her as high-ranking personnel of the Mage Tower.
After wandering here and there, Layla finally arrived at the shop she had been looking for. The interior was dim and thick with the smell of tobacco. Inside, a woman trailing cigarette smoke spotted Layla and broke into a welcoming smile.
"My, another young lady?"
Layla instinctively put her guard up. Sensitive to mana as she was, something about the woman's magical presence set off a vague, unplaceable unease. Separate from that, though, one word snagged in her thoughts.
Another?
It might have been overthinking, but Layla had a feeling it wasn't. After all, this was a shop that sold adult goods.
"Um, excuse me…"
Layla described Mela's appearance and asked whether a girl like that had been by. Galatea thought for a moment, then clapped her hands together.
"Ah, you mean that pale little thing from before?"
"That's right."
"Tiny enough that hugging her would probably smell nice."
"You remember her well."
Feeling, somehow, that she and this woman might actually be able to talk, Layla let her wariness ease a fraction.
"I see. So what about her? Did something happen?"
The question brought Layla back to why she had come.
"I— well…"
Saying it outright was too embarrassing. She hesitated.
"Looks like you've got something on your mind. Want to talk it over? I'm a decent listener, if that'll do."
Galatea smiled at her.
I stared blankly after Layla's retreating back.
What was that about? Judging by her face, something had definitely happened — some event I didn't know about?
Everything I thought I knew about this city has gone completely off the rails, so how would I even tell?
A huge chunk of the information I'd learned from playing the game — anything tied to this city — had become useless. We'd come in on a completely different route now. Still, this route was better in a lot of ways. I'd kept Via alive, a powerful buffer and magic-tool crafter, and I'd even gotten on speaking terms with Galatea.
Oh. Right.
Thinking of Galatea reminded me of something. The adult goods shop she supposedly ran. Just picturing it got me excited.
What kind of toys does this world even have?
Back when I played the game, I'd never paid that side of things any attention, so I knew nothing. I headed straight for Mela's room. Judging by how she'd been acting lately, her affection level felt like it was right on the verge of 3 — so I figured I'd raise it a bit more and take her out with me.
But Mela's door stayed firmly shut, and no matter how many times I called, there was no answer.