I'll Ask You One More Time
The cheerful chirping of birds filled the air.
Chirp. Chirp chirp.
It felt incredibly refreshing, like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. The fatigue that had piled up without me realizing it melted away like snow. Even the heavy gloom that had weighed on me seemed to float up and drift away like fluffy clouds.
How long had it been since I woke up feeling this good…?
“Mmm~!”
I stretched my arms wide and slowly pried my heavy eyelids open.
But it wasn’t just a figure of speech—why did I feel so physically light…?
“…Huh?”
I blinked.
There was the princess.
She was sleeping soundly, her enormous horns—each as thick as my forearm—fully revealed.
“…Huhhh??”
I blinked rapidly, then shot upright in bed.
At the same moment, the blanket that had been covering me slid down with a soft rustle.
So that’s why I felt so light…
“…Where are my clothes?”
I wasn’t wearing any. Well, to be precise, I still had my underwear on. But beyond that, nothing.
The situation made absolutely no sense.
I looked down at my bare body, then at the princess’s face.
“Hngh?!”
My face flushed so hot it felt like it might explode. Steam practically billowed from my skin in thick clouds.
What? What is this? What happened? What on earth happened last night?
My head throbbed as the memories from yesterday slammed into me like bullets fired in rapid succession.
I had been depressed because the princess was gone, so I drank. The world started spinning, and then suddenly she appeared right in front of me. I clung to her and poured out embarrassingly honest, shameless words. We took a bath together in the same tub, then got into bed and shared countless kisses…
“…It wasn’t a dream?”
I clapped a hand over my mouth.
I’d wanted to believe it was just a dream. That my longing for her had conjured up some wildly vivid fantasy. But—
“Zzz…”
The sight of the princess sleeping peacefully with her massive horns completely exposed, combined with the smooth, bare skin of my own trembling body, made it impossible to deny that yesterday had been real.
No wonder the dream felt so vivid…
Wait, more importantly—why is the princess fully dressed while I’m the only one half-naked? How am I supposed to figure out what happened?
I remembered kissing her countless times in bed. But after that, the most crucial parts were completely blank.
If you’re going to give me memories, give me all of them! Or none at all! Why leave it so frustratingly vague…?
For now, I wrapped the blanket tightly around myself. Since I had no idea where my clothes had gone, it was the best temporary solution I could manage.
Still bundled up, I groaned and tried to piece together the fragments of yesterday’s memories.
Let’s see… After I hugged the princess and kissed her…?
—…Princess, what would you do if I said I liked you?
Crack.
My heart felt like it had frozen solid in an instant.
…Did I really say something that insane?
I know I wasn’t in my right mind, but still… that was completely unhinged!
I hadn’t even sorted out my own feelings yet… Well, I have now, but how long had it been since I swore to see her only as my student? And then I went and said something like that…
“What the hell gave me the nerve to say that…?”
I buried my face between my knees.
I couldn’t lift my head. The shame was so overwhelming that if I died right then, the Grim Reaper would probably just nod sympathetically and escort me straight to the afterlife.
A teacher clinging to his student…
A teacher acting cute while being held in his student’s arms…
I wanted to die. I wanted to die right now.
I desperately wanted to kick the blanket as hard as I could, but I didn’t have the courage to disturb the one the princess was currently using.
I cautiously peeked up, rolling my eyes to glance at her. She was breathing softly in her sleep.
I’d seen her sleeping face many times since she was such a heavy sleeper, but I had never once seen the massive, majestic horns sprouting from her head like this.
Gulp.
Saliva slid down my throat involuntarily.
An overwhelming urge to stroke those huge, solid horns surged through me. I couldn’t explain why. It felt like some magnetic force was pulling me toward them, telling me I had to.
Just as my desire overpowered me and I reached out toward the princess’s horns—
“…Are you awake?”
“Hngh!!”
The princess slowly opened her eyes.
I let out an undignified squeak and tumbled backward, landing hard. The bed was soft, but since I’d been near the wall, the back of my head slammed against it.
“Ow ow ow…”
“Are you okay?!”
The princess, who usually lingered in bed and grumbled when she had to wake up early, shot upright the moment she saw me hit my head and rushed over.
“Oh no… that must hurt…”
“Ugh… I-I’m fine…”
The world spun again, though for an entirely different reason than yesterday. Tears welled up in my eyes without warning.
Still, I tried to act like nothing was wrong and pulled myself out of her arms.
Or at least, I tried to.
“Stay still. Did you hit your head?”
“I-I’m really okay, Princess!”
“Hmph. If you don’t stay still, should I do what I did yesterday?”
What exactly did she do yesterday?
I had no idea what she meant, but the way my body instinctively trembled told me it wasn’t anything good.
Obeying my survival instincts, I stayed perfectly still. The princess turned me this way and that, checking me over, then let out a long sigh and finally released me.
“Phew… It doesn’t look like you’re hurt anywhere.”
“That’s a relief…”
“Yes, it is. So then…”
Chu.
She suddenly leaned in and gave me a quick peck on the lips.
But she didn’t stop there.
Chu. Chu.
She kissed both of my cheeks once each before pulling back.
The princess smiled brightly and gently stroked my hair.
“Did you sleep well, Teacher?”
“Hngh…?”
My face, which had already been burning like it was about to burst, couldn’t handle the overload of heat.
Thud.
“…Teacher? Teacher!”
I passed out again on the spot.
* * *
It didn’t take long for me to regain consciousness.
“Hah!”
“You’re awake. You really startled me. You suddenly collapsed… Teacher?”
The moment I woke up, I scrambled backward and pressed myself against the edge of the bed.
I knew that if the princess approached, I’d end up trapped in her arms again anyway, but I needed to secure at least some minimal distance. It was a desperate measure.
“Just a moment, Princess. Please, just give me a second.”
“O-okay…”
As expected, she had been about to come straight to me, but I stopped her.
After taking a few deep breaths to calm myself, I asked the most urgent question first.
“…Why am I naked?”
“Hmm? You don’t remember?”
I asked a question, but got another question in return.
You don’t remember? What exactly is that supposed to imply?
D-don’t tell me we did… that kind of thing with the princess…?
“You were sweating so much in your sleep that I took your clothes off for you.”
“Haa… Haaaa…”
A deep sigh burst out of me, nearly explosive in its relief.
Thank goodness.
Really, thank goodness.
It wasn’t that I had taken pleasure without responsibility… No, I was relieved that I hadn’t crossed the line with my student!
“You were sweating buckets, Teacher. Did you know that? The pillowcase was completely soaked. I was so surprised.”
“S-sorry…”
So I had sweated that much.
Was it because of the alcohol…?
Wait, I’m pretty sure I only had one drink.
How did it end up like this?
I didn’t used to be this weak to alcohol… Is this another side effect of my body changing?
“Mmm~ So it looks like you don’t remember everything after all?”
“Y-yes…”
I had considered claiming I blacked out completely from the alcohol.
If I said that, then everything I said and did yesterday wouldn’t have been my true intentions.
But the moment I looked into the princess’s gleaming crimson eyes, I knew that anyone would end up offering up even the most fabricated truths if she asked.
The princess moved a little closer and gently stroked my cheek.
Her touch was so warm and comforting that it made me want to let my mind go blank.
I had to fight hard against the urge to throw myself into her arms.
“Then… how much do you remember?”
“W-well…”
Her voice was so sweet it felt like it was melting me. My wariness faded, and I completely surrendered my cheek to her hand.
Like a cat getting its chin scratched, I recited everything I could recall.
“So… your memory cuts off right after you confessed to me?”
“W-well… I’m not entirely sure if that counts as a confession…”
“……Pardon?”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop sharply in an instant.
“…What did you just say?”
No, it really had dropped.
The edge of my bed was literally freezing over!
“N-no! It was a confession! I mean, how should I put it…”
I waved my hands frantically to correct myself, and the room’s temperature rose again. Seeing the frost on the bed melt away sent chills down my spine.
“Hehe… You really scared me. I was afraid you might say it was all nonsense you spouted while drunk… I was so happy yesterday…”
“Haha… ha…”
I had come dangerously close to pretending I’d forgotten everything.
If I had, I might have ended up frozen solid and locked away in the princess’s personal refrigerator. Or maybe that was just my imagination.
“Then… you didn’t touch me anywhere inappropriate, right…?”
Even though I was naked, the princess was fully dressed. And from what she’d said earlier, it seemed she had only removed my clothes and hadn’t done anything else.
“Yes… You have no idea how hard it was for me to hold back. I kept telling myself I wanted to do it when you were fully conscious, so I endured it.”
“U-um… I’m sorry. But then, what about the horns earlier…?”
When demons revealed their horns, it meant they had lost their reason and were acting purely on instinct.
Fortunately, the princess had hidden them again now…
The last time her horns had appeared, she had nibbled on my ears until they were soaking wet. But this time, the horns that had emerged were incomparably larger than before.
It was shocking enough that her previous horns hadn’t been her true form, but I was even more curious how she had managed to keep from touching me when she had lost control enough for her horns to fully manifest.
The princess tapped her lips lightly with her finger, then slowly curved the corners of her mouth upward.
“Are you curious how I held back?”
“Y-yes…”
…What is this? Her smile looked incredibly ominous, but I needed an answer, so I nodded.
“Hehehe… Then look over here, Teacher.”
She flicked her finger, and a camera flew in from somewhere. The princess immediately pressed the shutter on the camera that had landed in her hand.
Click. Click.
She captured both the front and back of my naked body in photographs.
“W-what are you doing?! Why are you taking pictures of my body…!”
Was she planning to keep photos of me naked? Was she going to blackmail me with them and treat me however she wanted, like in those dirty comics?
“E-even if you don’t blackmail me, I’ll do whatever you ask, so please don’t spread them…”
“What? What are you talking about? Calm down and look at this, Teacher.”
She tilted her head as if she had no idea what I meant and showed me the photos.
Huh? So it wasn’t for blackmail?
Now that I thought about it, using photos for blackmail would be an incredible waste. Each one would have astronomical value and should be preserved as a historical artifact.
Even someone as financially clueless as the princess probably wouldn’t use a camera for something as crude as blackmail.
…Wait. Artifact?
Does that mean my naked photos could be passed down through generations and displayed in a museum?
I’d rather be blackmailed.
Being preserved like a specimen for hundreds of years would be far worse.
My mind went completely blank.
The photo fluttering in front of me suddenly came into sharp focus—
“…Huh?”
—way too clearly.
What the hell is this?
“Princess, don’t tell me this is…”
“Yes. I was having such a hard time holding back that I left just a little trace of myself… This much is okay, right?”
My body in the photo was covered in countless marks.
All of them were kiss marks from the princess.
“This isn’t ‘a little,’ Princess…”
My voice naturally took on a tearful tone.
The kiss marks left on my body were anything but few.
There were three or four on my collarbone and neck.
More than six were clearly visible across my back.
Since they were in places I couldn’t see, I hadn’t noticed them at all.
She had probably placed them deliberately in spots I wouldn’t be able to spot easily.
On one hand, a tingling sensation ran down my spine at the thought of being so loved.
But the bigger thought was that I was in serious trouble.
“H-how am I supposed to walk around the Demon King’s Castle like this?!”
None of the clothes I had received from the tailor were turtlenecks.
That meant I would have to walk around the Demon King’s Castle with my neck completely exposed.
The servants would definitely notice the marks the princess had left…
“Huu…”
Just imagining the servants discovering the love marks the princess had given me sent another shiver down my spine.
As a teacher, I really shouldn’t feel this way.
But I didn’t feel bad about it at all.
The princess took the photos back from me.
“Still… if I hadn’t stopped at this much, I definitely would have taken your first time. It would feel a bit wrong for you to lose your first time while unconscious, wouldn’t it?”
Cold sweat trickled down my back.
There wasn’t a trace of humor in her words.
She was right. If she hadn’t covered my body in kiss marks like this, she definitely would have gone further, not less.
“Besides… we’re lovers now. This much should be fine, shouldn’t it?”
The princess smiled softly and stroked my hair again.
It felt nice, but there were things I had to say clearly.
“Princess… It’s true that I’ve come to hold feelings for you, and what I did yesterday was indeed a confession…”
Perhaps she sensed the anxiety in my opening words.
Her hand suddenly stopped moving.
Saying this might get my head chopped off in her anger, but as her teacher, I had to be clear.
“I like you. I want to keep seeing you. I want to stay by your side… But we shouldn’t be like this. I am the tutor who must raise you to become the Demon King, and you are the one who will become a magnificent Demon King in the future. Moreover, no one would look favorably upon a relationship developing between a student and a teacher… Kyaa!”
While I was trembling and trying to continue, my body was suddenly pushed backward.
The princess had shoved me down without warning.
She climbed on top of me, pinning my body firmly beneath her. Her face came so close that our breaths mingled.
Her brows were furrowed, as if she were trying hard to control her emotions.
“Haa… I see. I understand what you’re worried about, Teacher. So what you’re saying is that because of our positions and roles, we cannot become lovers. Is that correct?”
Like a predator staring at prey right before its eyes.
The princess looked at me as if she might devour me at any moment.
I couldn’t withstand that terrifying gaze and kept nodding frantically.
“Sigh… I thought you might say something like this, but… I didn’t think you actually would.”
“I-I’m sorry…”
“Don’t apologize. It’s not something you need to apologize for. Anyone in your position would have agonized over it. I understand. I really do understand, but…”
Squeeze.
The pressure with which she held me down grew stronger.
Our noses were practically touching now.
The princess exhaled roughly.
“But… But I don’t really understand that kind of thing. That a teacher and student can’t be together… or that differences in status make it impossible… Maybe it’s because I’m young and stupid, but I like you, Teacher. You said you like me too. I don’t want to give up.”
Thump thump thump.
My heart pounded so hard it felt like it might burst.
She had subtly hinted at these feelings since the first time we met.
But this was the first time I had heard her say she liked me directly.
“But… if you really say it can’t happen, then I suppose there’s nothing I can do.”
“T-then we should go back to being just student and teacher…”
“So, I’ll ask you one more time.”
Ask what?
Before I could even think, the princess whispered to me.
“Teacher, will you kiss me?”
It was exactly the same as the first time we met.
The image of her from the moment I first saw her overlapped with the present.
The only difference from back then was—
—that I now liked the princess too.
“Answer carefully. I will respect your wishes, Teacher.”
From the burning intensity of her gaze, I instinctively understood.
Depending on my answer, our relationship from now on would swing to one extreme or the other.
If I gave in to my feelings, we would become something entirely different from what we had been until now.
If I refused, we would become worse than strangers.
Standing at this crossroads, I—
“I…”
slowly opened my mouth.