177. What should I take care of first?
177. What should I take care of first?
"Please leave."
"Your mouth says that, but your body is hon—"
"I told you to get out!"
"—??!"
I was already flustered by Mars's behavior, my lower half wouldn't settle down, and there was Marse Mama acting like that in front of me.
Everything was just too much to handle.
'So just get out for now.'
I needed time to think too.
"...I'll come back later♬"
She left, leaving behind a strange smile.
At the same time, my lower half got even harder.
I let out a breath and slowly turned around.
"Mai."
"Even I don't know everything...."
"So you don't know?"
"The knowledge of the Heavenly Demon has reached the heavens!"
So that meant she did know.
With a subtly mischievous smile, Mai spread her arms toward me.
"Come into the embrace of Heavenly Demon. Then all the knowledge of the world will be embraced by you."
"Do you want to mess with me right now?"
"So, Big Brother, what can you do about it?"
"Waaaaa...."
Was this what it felt like to have one's insides twist?
When I obediently let her embrace me as she wanted, Mai hugged me with all her strength.
"Big Brother... no,"
Chrono
Chronooo....!
"What are you doing?"
"Sniff sniff, kkeung...."
She sniffed me.
She brought her face to mine and rubbed it.
Giggling as if I were the cutest thing in the world, she even kissed me all over my face.
"No, seriously, what are you doing!"
"Mmuah"
I tried to push Mai away with both hands, but perhaps because my body had shrunk, there was a difference in strength. She hugged me with even stronger force than before, then looked down at me and whispered.
"Regarding the incident in which Big Brother turned into a shota and became too cute."
"....Hey?"
"Cuteness is justice. Right now, Big Brother is an apostle of justice."
"Justitia would be appalled if she heard that."
"Heuuuup!"
Mai buried her face in my small chest and inhaled as if getting high on drugs.
Just like with Rhea, and now with me. She showed an oddly crazed reaction toward younger siblings or children.
'Is she in heat?'
It was probably that her womb was packed full of eggs, making her body hopelessly want a child.
....What kind of bullshit was that.
'Maybe it's because all the blood is rushing to one place.'
My thinking circuitry wasn't functioning normally.
In order to resolve this state as quickly as possible, I badgered Mai for an answer, and only then did she stroke my head as if satisfied and replied.
"Even though Big Brother's soul accepted it, your body didn't."
"......So..."
I had absorbed time.
At the same time, I had absorbed all the memories of the Ares Guild Master.
In the process, I had taken in all the associated memories and emotions.
Thanks to Mai, I had erased the correction effects of the memories and emotions, but I couldn't erase the 'lust' that remained in my body—was that it?
"[Wise Mother and Good Wife] is a trait that interferes with the [mind]."
"And all I have is 'Mental Resistance'."
Then I could understand a bit.
Since I had only ever been subjected to mental attacks, it meant I had no particular countermeasure against something that affected the body itself.
'This makes things go faster.'
In short, it was like getting a little horny after watching porn.
If there was an answer to this, it would be that 'thing' all men know.
I immediately got down from Mai's embrace and spoke to Mai and Rhea.
"I'll take some time alone."
"That won't work."
"........."
Mai's flat declaration.
I hadn't even said what I was going to do yet?
"You're going to do it alone, right."
"........."
So I'd already been found out?
"You made a face similar to when Mai wants to be alone."
"....Oh."
I'd rather she not pinpoint it like that.
Mai pulled the now-dismounted me into her arms and said.
"Emotions bound to memories, memories bound to the soul—it's called 'karma'."
Put another way, it's called 'a grudge has formed'.
Mai slowly brought both hands to my thighs and pressed down firmly.
"Ugh...?!"
A feeling of blood rushing. A sensation of my lower half heating up and my pants straining to the point of no more give. At the same time, hot blood pumped from my heart and began pounding, and though it was bearable, 'those thoughts' kept filling my head relentlessly.
"Do you think the emotions, memories, and grudges your soul carries will disappear if you do it alone?"
".....Tch."
At first I didn't know, but now I could tell.
The heartbeat. The hazy mind.
Probably even if I did it alone, it would only subside temporarily, not be a complete solution.
And to solve it—somehow, I felt like I could find the answer within myself.
"Correct. Because now Big Brother is that very 'person'."
"...Can you stop reading my mind already?"
"Nothing can be hidden before the eyes of Heavenly Demon."
"So what's your real reason?"
"Since you've gotten younger, everything shows on your face and you're unbearably cute!"
"Gwek"
A feeling of my lungs being crushed. She hugged me tightly with both arms, then rolled backward onto the bed, rolling right, rolling left.
'Whoa.... aaaah.....'
I didn't know about anything else, but the sensation on my back was amazing. And with both hands in front of me, the feeling of her hands touching me here and there was really...
"....Well, I wasn't in my right mind."
If things went on like this, I felt I might lose myself. Ultimately, whether I liked it or not, it seemed I had to resolve this grudge, so I exhaled and pondered.
'What should I deal with first?'
From Mars.
From Mars's mother.
And now even these grudge-laden emotions.
I had no idea where to start.
*********************
Meanwhile, around that time, in Mars's case
"Haaaa...."
She returned home.
She washed her face at the sink and entered her room, sitting down blankly.
"......."
She placed her hand on her chest.
The pounding heart. It was less than at first, but it still seemed to throb strongly, thump... thump...
'It's strange.'
She could tell even herself.
Her state was not normal.
Whenever she thought of that bastard Chrono, her heart raced just like usual, but—there was a strange impurity mixed in.
It wasn't just that she grew happier the more she thought about him;
the more she thought, the more her body itself tensed up.
"........Huu..."
Fear.
Dread.
The instinctual cry that clearly acknowledged the opponent as a predator.
Mars pressed down on her trembling hands and exhaled.
"Sseuu... huu... huuuuu......"
She didn't know about this kind of thing.
Really, she had no idea at all.
Honestly, it wasn't that such a situation had never occurred.
It would be a lie to say she had never felt fear upon seeing someone since birth.
But in those cases, she always burned with fighting spirit, burned with passion, and kept training, striving to overcome it.
Mars knew well the pleasure of finally facing her own fear, fighting it, and breaking the opponent.
Her limits.
And the joy of overcoming them.
Because she knew that, she could enjoy fighting 'strong opponents' stronger than herself.
"Eu.... eueueueu......"
But the fight with Chrono was different.
She had faced her limits.
She had burned with will to fight.
And then, what came back was—only overwhelming helplessness.
If she had just been beaten, maybe it would be different.
If she had just been beaten and passed out, maybe it would be different.
That way, she could still muster her strength and fight.
At least, that's how it had been in sparring with Papa.
But the fight with Chrono, the sparring... no. Could it even be called sparring?
".....Ugh..!"
Her right shoulder throbbed.
Her left calf. She had been lightly stabbed.
The wound running from her flank to her right chest.
It hurt. It stung. It hurt just enough to bear. And because of that, the helplessness doubled.
"Kkeuk.... eup....!"
Helplessness. Futility.
Only then did Mars realize.
She had not been defeated through a spar.
In the first place, a spar had never even been established.
From beginning to end, Chrono had gone easy on her.
He had thought she was 'brainwashed' and had tried to break the brainwashing.
In other words—from the start, there had been no 'match'.
Even though she had used all her strength,
even though she had given it her all,
her sword had never reached him and she had fallen—
yet the person she faced hadn't even considered it a 'spar'.
"Shi.... that motherfucker.... fuck.... shit.... eu....!!"
Anger. Resentment. Sorrow. And—fear.
A fear that made her body tremble involuntarily.
Mars was facing a 'fear on another level', as if just a single breath might kill her.
"Huu..... huuuuu......"
She knew.
At least she knew that Chrono would not harm her.
But despite that, the fear, the dread, did not disappear.
It had already firmly taken root in her heart.
"....Stupid bitch."
Actually, she had been aware from the beginning.
The moment she kissed Chrono and fainted, she couldn't not know even if she wanted to.
But back then, she had thought it was fine.
Because she had come to know that the male she loved was an overwhelmingly strong being.
That her male was a truly gallant, strong, dependable, awesome bastard.
So Mars had reaffirmed her love for Chrono and approached him affectionately.
Just like before. Like old times. She had envisioned a future of clashing with Chrono, popping out babies, and living happily.
"Stupid... bullshit... fuck...!"
But, it was impossible.
It was impossible.
Because—having babies was only possible with the 'same species'.
Just as a lion and a deer cannot have a baby,
there could be no child between Chrono and Mars.
"Kkeuk.... heup.... eu...."
When it felt not like the touch of a beloved lover,
but the touch of a lion taking a deer's throat.
"Heugeuu...! Eu... eueueuk...!"
Mars hid her tears and voice in the blanket.
Mars could not understand her own heart at all.