129. You Can... Keep Going.....
129. You Can... Keep Going.....
"What should I start with? Shall I bark? Walk on all fours? Or show you my belly?"
"Minerva... I think you're way too excited right now."
Minerva blurted out words in a rapid-fire udada.
I hoped Minerva would calm down somehow, but Minerva, having already lost her head once, took my words in a completely different way.
"Does becoming a pet... still not satisfy you...?"
"That's not what I..."
"Then why! What in the world is the problem now?!"
"....Minerva."
I spoke to Minerva once more.
"I... might not be able to love you as much as you want. You might end up lonely, you might have a hard time."
Unlike me, who keeps many women,
you could meet a man who only looks at one person, only looks at you.
With all my strength, I conveyed my feelings, my thoughts, to Minerva.
And Minerva, having heard all of that──
"──There is no such person."
Denied it.
She denied my words and then continued.
"Other than Chrono, there is no one."
"...Aren't you being too certain?"
"Even if, by any chance, such a person exists... I don't want to let go of Chrono."
"..........."
A resolute gaze.
Minerva said,
"I'm used to not being loved."
"I'm used to being alone."
"I'm used to chewing on solitude, to carrying burdens too heavy to bear alone."
"So perhaps I... might be used to trashy men."
"You...."
She spoke in a roundabout way, but
the 'man' she was probably talking about right now was her own 'father.'
Father.
Guild master of the Athena Guild.
The only sanctuary that 'had been' hers.
"So don't worry, Chrono."
No matter how much of a piece of trash Chrono is,
even if you don't look only at me but look at other women,
"even if you keep leaving me alone....."
".....Minerva."
"I... I'm fine... so...."
"............"
I didn't answer.
I just stared silently at Minerva.
"...I'm sorry. Actually, that was a lie."
Minerva finally spilled her true feelings.
"I'm not fine at all. It hurts. My chest, my heart aches as if it's being stabbed. I wish Chrono would look only at me."
"I'm sorry but──"
"──It's hard for you, right, Chrono? Because Chrono is a harem-building piece of trash."
"......."
It was true, but
because it was true, I had no rebuttal.
"But it's fine. Even considering that, I don't want to let go of Chrono."
"Minerva...."
Minerva slowly turned her head toward me.
A mellow, purple gaze. A gaze that was neither hostile nor friendly, but ambiguous.
"What about you... Chrono?"
"Me?"
Minerva asked,
"If I were to end up in another man's arms... how would you feel?"
"I think I'd be okay if you were happy."
"...If it were Mars, would your answer have been different?"
Minerva clenched her fist slightly, her body trembling.
A pained expression.
Soon, Minerva bit her lip tightly and asked me again.
"Are you really... really indifferent?"
"....Like I just said a moment ago─"
"─Would you send me off without a care?"
".........."
I felt it instinctively.
This was the branching point.
A situation that diverged greatly depending on what answer I gave.
At that crossroads, the only thing I could say to Minerva was.
"...I, you..."
"Please don't dodge with things like 'I hope you'll be happy.'"
A dodge, I couldn't do it.
"....To be blunt.."
"I know you're trash, and I'm doing this even knowing that... so please answer."
I couldn't run away.
I couldn't even defer it.
A dead end.
And in truth, a route that was already predetermined.
"If I were defiled by someone else's hands... would Chrono really be indifferent?"
"......I think I'd."
"Huh?"
I said, toward Minerva.
"I'd hate it... a lot, I think."
"............."
My true feelings.
My real intention.
But honestly, this thing I was saying now...
"...But to be honest, even to me, this is way too selfish, isn't it."
It was selfish.
Building a harem myself, yet saying I'd hate it if you cheated.
No matter how you looked at it, it was selfish and absurd, and even I couldn't see myself as anything but trash, so
"That's why I'm doing this."
If the total value of love were set at 10 right now,
I'd probably be allocating about 5 to Mars, 3 to Ur, and 2 to Mai.
If Minerva entered that, I might be able to scrape together about 1 by taking a little from each of their shares.
"To me, you'd be just one woman among many, but"
Ultimately, if Minerva left, the love I'd lose would only be about 1 out of 10.
But Minerva, in Minerva's case?
"Because to you, I would become your one and only man."
10 out of 10.
She'd invest it all in me.
An act of me receiving 10 and giving Minerva 1 in return.
This was deception and an unequal deal. Something like this shouldn't happen.
At least, maybe in the wild it'd be different, but
as human to human, such an act should never be committed.
That's why── they say harems are a total trash move.
Because while expecting 10 from the women, what you actually give back is only 1.
I kept my head down and averted my gaze from Minerva's eyes.
It was hard to look at her.
It was hard to imagine what kind of eyes she'd be looking at me with.
As I kept my head down like that, I felt the seat next to me rise slightly.
'She stands up.'
Minerva stood up.
She got up from her seat and came in front of me.
And then.
"I like you."
"...What...?!"
A confession.
A confession of love.
"I truly love Chrono."
"............."
She said something befitting a knight from a fairy tale.
She knelt down to meet my lowered gaze, so even though I didn't want to see her, our eyes inevitably met.
"I truly believe this feeling is not a lie."
".....You..."
Minerva slowly took my hand.
She clasped it with both hands and pulled it onto her chest.
The soft sensation of her breasts transmitted directly to my fingertips.
"Can you feel it?"
Minerva's question.
"My heart... until just a moment ago, it was so cold, trembling, and aching... but"
now it's so warm,
so warm,
so happy it feels like it might melt...
"....Can you feel my heart pounding?"
"..........That's....."
To Minerva's question, I answered.
"Just putting your hand on someone's chest doesn't mean you can feel their heartbeat like that."
".....Huh?"
"On top of that, if it's a woman's chest, there's no way you'd feel it because of the flesh attached to it."
"B-but... still...!"
"That's because manga is manga."
"................"
The atmosphere cooled down in an instant.
Yeah, this was about right.
A mood just like this suited me.
Neither too serious
nor too lighthearted.
"Minerva."
"......What."
In that comfortable air, in a much lighter atmosphere,
"I guess... it'd be impossible, right. Seeing another man."
"...Do you want me to?"
"No. I don't have an NTR fetish or anything."
"Then why do you say things like that?"
"That's...."
Chrono couldn't bring himself to say it.
'Once Bond Rank hits 10, there's no going back or something...'
Chrono decided to just accept it.
Even if it was a situation caused by Athena, it wasn't like he had no feelings at all.
On top of that, Minerva had also crossed a river of no return, way beyond the point of no return.
A state where they were deeply stained by each other.
Even if they tried to sever it now, only scars would remain on both sides, so.
"Would it be okay if I became... a little more of a piece of trash?"
"Chrono...?"
I spoke to Minerva.
"You'll probably... be the one suffering one-sidedly."
".......Ah."
An expression of having realized something.
"If a trash bastard who runs a harem is your lover, then of course you'll have to watch me do it with other women,"
"Ahhh......."
Her voice gradually trembled.
"There won't be much time for you to monopolize me alone, and you'll never hear me say I'll only look at you for the rest of your life."
"I... I'm fine. I'm fine, so...!"
A voice overflowing with joy.
Maybe she had a hunch. What words would follow after this.
"If you're still okay with that, if you're truly okay with it..."
I said, toward Minerva.
"Will you become my pet?"
"Yes! I'll be Chrono's pet...
....Pet?"
Bewildered eyes.
Well, how should I put it.
"The lover position is already filled, so..."
"............."
"...Sorry. I can't concede this part."
".....Ha!"
Ha!
Haha!
Ahahahahat!
She laughs.
She smiled with all her might.
Laughing like that, smiling, and just as the laughter gradually subsided,
"Yes."
Minerva answered.
"I'll become Chrono's pet."
Affirmation.
"But there's one condition."
In return, one condition she wanted to receive.
Minerva smiled a gentle smile and crawled in between my legs.
"I'll become your pet. So Chrono, please treat me like a pet, like a pet animal."
"I don't have sex with pets."
"I've heard there are sex-processing pets, though?"
"...Where on earth do you hear things like that?"
Just like Mai,
and just like Minerva,
their occasional unexpected word choices often made me flinch,
"When you do death metal, you end up learning things even if you don't want to."
"Aha....."
A strangely convincing remark.
Then Minerva spread her arms and hugged my waist.
"Chrono... Chrono... master?"
"Hey, hey."
Not master.
That's kind of dangerous, isn't it.
"But if I'm a pet, wouldn't 'master' be correct?"
"Are you planning to socially assassinate me?"
"Burying you socially, and then making you look only at me is also....."
"Hey?"
Right?
For a moment, a suspiciously sincere feeling flashed through that fleeting sentence.
"Eyy, no way. A pet who loves Chrono wouldn't bite its own master, right?"
"You... you've become oddly bold, haven't you?"
Should I say she seemed to have more composure.
I had no idea how many times a person's personality had changed in just one day.
"Chrono."
Minerva looked up at me.
"Could you... hold me?"
"What...?"
"I mean... I'm a pet, right? Me."
Physical affection with its owner is important for a pet, you see.
Minerva, having turned strangely bold and brazen, was demanding 'sex' from me.
I pondered for a moment── what pondering, now that we'd come this far, backing out would make me some kind of subhuman bastard.
"Hup, yah!"
"Kyaaah...?!"
I pushed Minerva down onto her back.
After pinning both her shoulders down, I positioned myself on top of Minerva, and
"W-wait, just a── mm.... chuup...♥"
A kiss.
Lightly sucking on her lips, I gently pushed my tongue between her lips.
"Huu...♥ mm.... chuup.... haaah...♥"
Though startled for a moment, Minerva slowly opened her mouth and began to accept it.
Then, after a long kiss, when we parted our lips, a transparent thread stretched between our mouths,
"Ah... I said hold me, though....."
"? You said hold me?"
"That's... that's not what I meant...!"
With her face bright red,
Minerva whispered toward me.
"I meant, like... being held in your arms..."
"......Ah."
So, it was that, right?
Not sex, but literally being held like a pet... is what she meant.
'...Did I screw up?'
Somehow, it had turned into a pounce.
I immediately tried to get up.
"W-wait! Just... a moment...."
But Minerva stopped me by wrapping both arms around my neck.
Minerva swallowed her breath for a moment, then whispered softly toward me.
"You can... keep going....."
".....Oh."
Can't resist that.
On a side note,
[Haaht.... uht.... hngguuht....♥]
".....Hmm."
Though her existence had been brief, Mai, who self-proclaimed herself as having a remarkably long roll of toilet paper—
Having watched numerous planned works, masterpieces, and blockbusters, she had come to feel,
"Good."
that Ultimately, one's taste inevitably leans toward amateur material, or so they say.
After the long wait, Mai finally reached the oasis.