37. Encounter
37. Encounter
My life is a tragedy.
It's not particularly dramatic, nor are there any grand hardships. If my life were written down as a novel, not a single person would ever want to buy it—just a worthless, kindling-like life.
4:00 AM.
My day begins thanks to a servant hired at a great price by the family.
I wear clothes designated by the family to give off an elegant and pure vibe, have meals tailored to easily seduce a man cooked up by the family and to optimize my body for giving birth, and receive education on how to please the man sent down by the family. My own will has no place there.
Someone might envy my life, asking if I'm complaining too much about an affluent life with nothing to worry about regarding food or clothing. Yet, no matter how positively I try to think about it, living a life like a puppet with one's own will stripped away is just like livestock being raised to be sold off, isn't it?
It wasn't always like this from the beginning. My grandfather, the head of the family, cherished me, his late-born granddaughter, immensely. My parents were such wonderful adults that I would think to myself, "I definitely want to become someone like them when I grow up." And my oppa was a wonderful oppa who possessed enough leadership to set an example for others while carving out time from his nonexistent schedule to play with me.
However, the year I turned seven. On a day that had always received blessings from many, a day I never doubted would continue to do so, my life plummeted. Into a bottomless, endless pitch-black abyss.
"......There isn't much time left today. What a shame."
Lately, thanks to the cadets and instructors working hand in hand to prepare for the Seowol Summer Festival, the atmosphere in Seowol has been slightly relaxed for the first time in a while—hard to believe this is the same Seowol that spent rigorous sparring sessions and classes just a few weeks ago. Sometimes, this excited atmosphere gets even me, someone with zero connection to the festival, feeling fluttery. Well, of course, the moment I think about the things I'll have to endure during the festival period when everyone else is having fun, my mood instantly plummets.
......Let's not think about stuff like that. It'll just ruin my mood for nothing.
At least when it comes to an inescapable tragedy, acting as if it doesn't exist until that tragedy arrives is much more comforting to the mind. It's one of the few hard-earned life wisdoms I've managed to grasp in a life punctuated by all sorts of tragedies that are hard to put into words.
After forcing my uncomfortable feelings to settle, I took quick, hurried steps past the academy's flower beds and made my way to the deserted backyard, where the academy's breeding pen—occupying a wide corner of the area—revealed itself.
According to the family rules, I always have to wait in front of the academy's main gate by 6:00 PM and return to the main estate in the family's private limousine. However, lately because it's festival preparation period, our responsible instructor dismissed homeroom early so we could spend 10 to 20 minutes preparing for the festival amongst ourselves, allowing me to grab a rare sliver of spare time to do something of my own free will—a luxury I won't get to taste many times in the rest of my life.
In the backyard of Seowol Academy, there is a rabbit breeding pen. Thanks to getting lost on the day of the entrance ceremony. If I had paid attention to the signs that day and arrived at Seowol Academy's grand auditorium, I probably wouldn't have known the rabbit pen even existed until graduation.
Judging by the feed that was regularly replaced every morning and the prettily maintained interior of the pen, there seemed to be a designated caretaker, but when I asked the instructor, they told me that any Seowol cadet could use the rabbit pen, so I could stroke the rabbits to my heart's content.
Stepping into the pen with a joyful dilemma over whose rabbit belly I should fondle today, I saw an unfamiliar woman squatting down, struggling to feed carrots to the rabbits clinging to her embrace.
"U-Ugh......! D-Don't keep shoving in, eat your carrot. A carrot. Eek, e-ehee? Don't bite my finger......!"
At first, I thought she might be the caretaker of this pen, but judging by her extremely shy gestures and her flustered voice at the rabbits' actions, it didn't seem to be the case.
"Th-That's right. Eat up. Eat w...hat? H-Hey, why is it suddenly dropping down limp? Y-You mustn't die! He, Heal - !"
"That's a sign that the rabbit is feeling extremely comfortable. You don't need to worry."
Looking momentarily startled by my sudden intrusion, she scratched her head and,
"Th-Then what should I do? Since it's my first time touching a rabbit......."
soon spoke to me with a slightly awkward smile.
Because I had been trained by the family to always maintain a poker face, she probably didn't know, but I couldn't help being shocked by the unimaginably unexpected identity of the girl who had fallen over, unable to fend off the rabbits swarming her body.
Yuriel.
Anyone who has seen her skills even once speaks with one voice—the greatest talent in the history of the empire, once in a millennium.
Due to rumors that she wasn't the child of any particularly famous family and had grown up in a quiet countryside tucked away at the eastern edge of the empire, cadets and instructors alike, we all call her the Miracle of Elysia.
I, too, had been able to gauge a fraction of her skill during the class-versus-class sparring match.
Seeing her dismantle the magic deployment of Eril Edward—the top student of Class 3 and a scion of one of the empire's four major families—in an instant, manifest an ultra-high-level magic like Explosion that normally required several high-ranking mages to rush in and buy time just to cast, all while wearing a completely nonchalant, expressionless face, I suddenly found myself thinking:
Could it be that a single second of her life is far more valuable than anything I could ever achieve by offering up my own talent, shedding blood and sweat?
She, who had left such a massive impression on me that it made me ponder the very meaning of my life; she, who would meet the gaze of anyone, even the emperor himself, with a calm and unbothered attitude if they spoke to her, is now pinned down right in front of me, trapped under a pile of countless rabbits and unable to budge.
"W-Wait a second. I'm not a carrot. I'm not a carrot...... The carrot is over there, so go away a bit......."
"The rabbits must really like Yuriel-ssi. They won't even look at me unless I bring food."
"Hehe, is that so? Thinking about it that way, it kind of feels nice."
Even while feeling quite uncomfortable with the numerous rabbits covering her body, she beamed a bright smile at my single remark, and she seemed so completely different from how I had pictured her until now that I couldn't help letting out a chuckle.
"D-Don't just giggle, please peel the rabbits off me...... My back is starting to hurt little by little......."
"Ah, I'm sorry. You were just so different from the Yuriel-nim I had imagined. Hold on a second. I'll pull them off."
It must hurt when the rabbits are nibbling on her flesh, yet she handles the rabbits gently just in case they get hurt. That must be her usual habits bleeding out even in this chaotic moment.
"Th-Thank you. I almost died......."
"It's fine. You're Yuriel-nim, right? The Miracle of Elysia. The greatest talent in imperial history."
"P-Please don't say things like that...... I'm dying of embarrassment......."
"My name is Hong Seolhwa. You probably don't know, Yuriel-nim, but I'm a newly enrolled freshman this year."
It's the first time I've ever introduced my name first, but drawn in by her comforting magic that somehow eases my heart, I find myself treating her unconsciously like a friend I've known for a long time.
"Ah... I see. Th-Then shall we drop honorifics...? We're the same age, after all......"
"......Yeah! Yuriel. Nice to meet you."
Since when was it? Even the obsessive sense of obligation that I had to use polite speech to everyone vanished for some reason in front of this girl I was meeting for the first time, making me feel it was totally fine to speak casually.
"...Seolhwa, since when have you been coming to the breeding pen?"
"Ever since the entrance ceremony, I guess? I got lost. That's when I found it."
"Aha, so you've been steadily raising rabbits ever since the entrance ceremony?"
"No, it's not like that. It hasn't been long since it became like this."
"Aha! Is that so...."
Meaningless conversations with no particular significance or anything much to gain.
...Just how much had I dreamed of having this kind of context-free, thoughtless conversation until now?
Along with the rabbits hurling themselves at Yuriel whenever they got bored, my petty little conversations with her continued for a while.
"Ah, Yuriel. It's already 56 minutes past. I think I need to go."
"R-Really? Is that so. Then I guess I should head off soon too. There are things I need to do."
"......Yuriel."
"Why?"
"Will we be able to talk together tomorrow too?"
At my shy question, Yuriel—who had already used a Cleanse spell to tidy away all the rabbit fur stuck to her academy uniform—flashed an adorable, heart-melting eye-smile and said,
"Of course."
words that I had been waiting for so, so desperately from some point on.
"I'll always be right here at this time from now on, so always talk to me."
"...Thank you."
"And let's talk a lot then. About rabbits, or stories about you would be nice too."
"...Mhm."
"......If you have any hard times, talk to me about it together. Okay?"
"......Okay."
I'm sorry, Yuriel.
I'm an idiot and a coward, so I can't talk about the fact that a human being like me is being raised as the family's commodity, nor can I talk about the fact that exactly three weeks from now, I have to be sold off as a plaything to please a first-time-seen man who is nearly three times my age.
However, if we become closer and closer than we are now, reaching a relationship where we can spill out all the stories hidden inside ourselves without an ounce of worry,
......Someday, for sure.
Even though it was just a chance encounter, I suddenly found myself thinking that today's meeting might just turn out to be an encounter that could change my life 180 degrees.
There was no plausible reason or supporting evidence whatsoever for the sudden intuition sprouting in a corner of my heart, but before I knew it, I found myself harboring such expectations.
For some reason, it felt like it would be just like that.
"Hoo, hooo-ok♥ Hooo-ook♥"
"Sigh, she cums at the drop of a hat. Isn't she way too pathetic?"
Seeing Yuriel squirting out love juices like a water gun every time I thrust my cock in and out as if she were broken, I couldn't help letting out a snicker.
"When we were resting after sparring class today, you smelled my sweat and rubbed your thighs together, didn't you? Did you think I wouldn't know?"
Of course, it probably wasn't her intention. But because I had made Yuriel smell my cock every single time she came over the past several hundred times, her body had been conditioned so that even without her knowing, just catching the scent of my sweat caused her to go into heat on her own and rub her thighs together. Poor Yuriel. Her trying to look nonchalant as if nothing happened after belatedly realizing her own disgraceful behavior was quite cute.
"Lately, it looks like you've been playing with your nipples all by yourself every morning when changing clothes without even my permission. Not even knowing I'm right beside you. Tsk."
"Eeeeeeek?!?♥"
When I flicked her nipple with my finger, the sudden sensation of pleasure made her waist twitch this way and that, spraying out love juices once again. Dribbling fluid all over from top and bottom, she looked quite vulgar.
Yuriel still thinks her body became sensitive because of secondary puberty. And like an idiot, without feeling a shred of shame, she slaps heart-shaped nipple patches onto her nipples and pussy every morning. Ever since she smeared aphrodisiacs onto the patches with her own hands, that is. Of course, Yuriel still firmly believes that it's medicine to calm down her nipples and clitoris. Stupid bitch.
Right now, sending her to school with extreme tools like a vibrator or anal beads inserted seems to make her mind send out danger signals, but thinking of Yuriel eventually accepting even those things stupidly as common sense and heading to school with them jammed in her pussy and rear hole made my cock, which had already blown its load several times over, harden instantly.
"That's right. Where the hell did you go after school today?"
"Huu..., huuuuu......."
"Without your master's permission."
"Hoooo-ok?!?"
I told her I'd take her back first since she'd be late because of that damned instructor bitch's counseling, but at Yuriel's words telling me to go ahead first since she had a prior appointment anyway, I almost lost control of my facial expression for a moment.
"You went off to bring me some serendipitous encounter item like usual, didn't you? Answer me, onahole."
"Ho-ok...! Hooo-ok......!"
"I said answer me."
"Oho-ooook?!?♥"
Of course, given her personality devoid of any sociability, she would never form human relationships outside of me, just like she always hasn't. Well, if she hadn't, I would have made it so anyway.
However, the single thing I don't like is that whenever I'm not guarding her side, she trembles as if she's about to die, yet she doesn't show absolute, total dependence on me.
"Is it that she relies on me of her own volition, but doesn't completely depend on me?"
Her body has already been trained so that she can't live without me. But her heart still seems not to have realized the fact that she is my exclusive onahole.
Of course, I don't intend to warp her thoughts to this extent. Aside from the question of whether I could even do it in the first place, things like this are way hotter when Yuriel genuinely feels them entirely on her own anyway.
Ah, whatever. It's probably nothing. Let's let it slide.
There's no way Yuriel could make friends. Instead of such useless thoughts, what matters is how I can enjoy Yuriel's body even more today.
"Shall I have her wear a bunny girl outfit for pajamas? This is getting a bit hot."
At least inside Yuriel's room, I can make her accept even nonsense that would be virtually impossible elsewhere as common sense. Yuriel will never realize it for eternity, but thanks to the numerous mental-type magic circles installed in her room and the mental control-type serendipitous encounter items I offered up like a sucker, Yuriel's mind has now been completely kneaded and molded exactly into what I tell her.
Good. Today I'll put her in a bunny suit and make her play with her anus.
Thinking of Yuriel, who would today too perform utterly pathetic acts without a single trace of incongruity while believing that her thoroughly kneaded thoughts are entirely her own judgment, I pressed my index finger deeply into her womb area and channeled my unique mana into it. Without fail, a moan and love juices were spewed out.