Before He Notices
"..."
"Hmm-hmm~"
The elf hummed a little tune as she climbed, swaying that enormous backside of hers in my direction with every step — as if she could feel the vague dread sitting in my gut the moment I put my first foot on the stairs. I couldn't help tilting my head as I followed her up, one step at a time.
Don't tell me this is because I didn't give her any honey the day before yesterday?
The elf emptied a whole jar of honey every single day. She loved the stuff so much it made you worry about diabetes just watching her. If she had to choose between water and honey, she'd scoop up the honey without a second's hesitation. Lately, though, she hadn't been living that honey-soaked life of hers.
Who could've guessed something would happen with Pasuggun-ssi.
Pasuggun-ssi had been my regular honey supplier, but something seemed to have gone wrong on her end. Lately I hadn't even seen her face, let alone gotten any honey. Up until now I'd been weathering the elf's tantrums with the stockpile in the warehouse, but this elf loved honey so much that I'd recently started secretly mixing in sugar water — and it looked like she'd caught on.
There's no other explanation for her acting like this.
She must have been telling me to confess my sins on my own. I swallowed the spit I'd forgotten I was holding, tension thick in my throat, and kept climbing. By the time I looked up, the elf had already reached the watchtower and was looking down at me.
"You know, every time I see it I think the same thing. You built this really well. How did you even manage this all by yourself?"
"Uh... I'm sorry?"
"Huh? For what? I was complimenting you!"
"...?"
What the hell? Why was she being this sweet?
I'd immediately apologized, and instead of her usual reaction she was asking me what on earth I was talking about. Normally she'd have opened fire while screaming that if I knew, I shouldn't have done it in the first place — but this time she genuinely didn't understand.
"Uh, um, thank you?"
"When an elf compliments you, I'd like you to develop the habit of actually opening your ears and listening. And I just said this railing needs to be replaced — so why are you trailing after me empty-handed like an idiot?"
"Ah."
Now that was the elf I knew. The sweet act from a moment ago had vanished without a trace, replaced by that utterly tactless attitude, and my heart felt healed. But I couldn't let my guard down. There was no telling when she'd pull a coin from her pocket and flick it at me.
And then—
CRACK—!
"Hmph. Making your own master do the work with her own hands. What a wretched slave you are."
I'd gone back down to grab the materials I'd prepared under the watchtower, and the moment I started climbing again, the elf stomped the very railing she'd just pointed out and smashed it to pieces. She turned her head away from me with a prim little mutter.
Today was going to be another long day.
Honestly, even if he is a human, he's no different from a monkey when it comes to this sort of thing. He's completely losing his mind over my push and pull!!
Celestin watched her human slave stand there in a daze the instant her scolding landed, then scramble back down the stairs. She gave her breasts a pointed, triumphant bounce in the direction of his retreating back.
I toss him one little compliment and he freezes up like he's overjoyed. Did he really think I wouldn't notice?
Those blatant stares aimed at her face, her chest, her ass. He'd always looked at her with that irreverent gaze, but lately it had taken on a distinctly male quality — something sly and thickly charged.
It was so unnerving I nearly wrapped my arms around myself and started trembling.
Especially just now, down below, when that sticky gaze had crawled over her breasts — and then, as she climbed the stairs, over her ass and the swell of her side-boob. The knowledge that her scheme was working had nearly drawn a smile onto her face.
She said it all depends on how the female plays it, didn't she...?
Watching her slave get jerked around exactly as she intended, Celestin found herself nodding along, Leo's advice ringing with a new credibility.
It's not that I want to do this. Absolutely not. This is strictly about tightening discipline — about correcting those insolent eyes that look right through a beauty like me as if I were a block of wood, all because he's been drowning in those she-cats!
This time it was a matter of pride, and she was going to break that habit of his thoroughly. Celestin ran through the next steps of her plan in her head, glanced down at her human slave as he climbed back up with the materials, then lifted her foot high and smashed the railing.
Before he notices... quickly...!
The railing had been perfectly fine — not a thing wrong with it. She hurriedly kicked the shattered pieces down off the watchtower so he wouldn't get a good look, then turned to her human slave with a face of pure, shameless composure.
"Hmph. Making your own master do the work with her own hands. What a wretched slave you are."
"I hate to ask, but you didn't smash a perfectly good railing just because you felt like putting me to work, did you?"
"Hhk...?!"
H-how did he know?! Don't tell me that just as I've been seeing straight through him, he's been seeing straight through me?!
She was so startled that beads of sweat rolled down in rivers and trickled into the valley of her cleavage, but Celestin pretended she hadn't heard a thing.
"Th-that's absurd! Are you accusing your own master right now? I always thought you were rotten, but you're a completely hopeless monkey, aren't you?!"
"..."
Whew. I think I talked my way out of that!
Yeah, she definitely broke it on purpose.
The acting was painfully transparent, but her slave said nothing further and simply got to work. Celestin genuinely believed her performance had landed, and let out a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness his eyes went to my chest in that moment. I nearly earned his resentment.
Whether that counted as luck or not, the little pool of sweat gathered in her cleavage had drawn his gaze and saved her. Celestin quietly dumped the collected droplets off the edge of the watchtower, then turned back to him with that same shameless face.
"Today I intend to install a gun mount as well, just in case. So nail it down nice and sturdy!"
"A gun mount?"
As she spoke to her farmhand of a slave, Celestin secretly ran her fingers over the Magic Poncho that held her entire armory, drawing a long, steadying breath. Her human slave, oblivious, was already hammering away exactly as she'd ordered. A giggle rose in her throat — the same giddy thrill a child feels after pulling off a prank — and she worked to cool the flush creeping into her face, a smile tugging at her lips.
I have to be even more shameless. Until he can't stand not putting his hands on me! And then, at the very peak of that filthy lust, I'll tell him — if he wants to do to me what he did with those lionesses, he should quietly...
In truth, this was about taming a slave who'd been going around sowing his seed behind her back — and about catching up to the other women who'd had the gall to outbid her.
Like a flower luring an insect, I'm simply reminding him how beautiful and captivating his master truly is!
It was absolutely not because she wanted to do anything dirty with him. Holding fast to that thought, Celestin watched her human slave finish nailing the railing and start packing away the tools with practiced ease. She cleared her throat.
Ugh, does he have to be so needlessly competent? Working this hard just so he can demand a reward from me, is that it? What an incorrigibly lewd little monkey!
And the moment she caught him looking her way, Celestin raised her voice.
"Come here."
"Huh?"
"Don't make me say it twice. You don't seriously expect me to pull that heavy thing out myself, do you?"
"The heavy thing? Ah..."
He nodded as if that made sense and started toward her. Celestin rested her breasts on the railing the same way she had that morning by the window, and presented him with her poncho-covered back.
"I'm warning you. If you mess this up, I really will not forgive you."
"I know. As if I'd mess it up."
He's coming. H-how far has he reached? How far... Focus. I need to focus.
She trained her ears on his footsteps. With every step the timber groaned under his weight, and Celestin drew a deep breath as her fingers closed around the poncho. Then, right before his hand could touch it—
WHOOOOSH—!
"H-huh?"
"What? Kyaa—just where do you think you're touching?!"
The instant she yanked the poncho around to the front, a gust of wind came roaring through. Celestin flailed, seized the opening, and hooked her leg around her human slave. The moment she felt him topple toward her, she wound the poncho around one hand exactly as planned—
A thick, sinking pressure.
"Haah—w-where do you think you're putting your hands—♡"
"Uh...?"
The weight of a human body settling against the small of her back. A slave's hand closing around her breast. Celestin crowed inwardly all over again — everything was proceeding exactly according to plan.
I-it's embarrassing, but it can't be helped. If I let him grope my chest as he pleases just this once, not only will it lock in his loyalty, but just like he did with the others...!
It was time to reward him — and to burn into him, thoroughly, just how fatally attractive a female his master was. Swallowing down the shame, she trembled as that captured breast was kneaded in his grip. And then—
Snap.
"No, why again... I was sure I put on a sturdy one this time...?!"
Something gave way with a soft tear, and a scrap of black cloth slid weakly down her chest. At this unexpected variable, Celestin's face flushed scarlet all the way to her ears.