Tail Massage (2)
This one was a Minotauren horn.
That one was a Minotauren horn, too.
Everything stuffed inside the sack Coco had dragged in — every last piece — was a Minotauren horn.
Just the raw buyback price alone put each of them at a full gold coin, and there were ten of them. Converted into the currency of my previous life, the sack Coco had hauled over while gasping for breath was worth nearly ten million won.
"Yes, all ten gold coins have been settled."
"Haa… huff… haaah…"
"…Coco?"
She didn't look well at all — just staring at the floor, breathing hard. The thought crossed my mind that my Unique Ability might let me check on her condition, so I pulled up her profile card from the client list and reviewed the numbers that had shifted over the past week.
Muscle Tension — 50% → 80%
Fatigue — 40% → 70%
Stress — 80% → 95%
Libido — 90% → 90%
…Even at a glance, she was in rough shape. Every single value I could read had climbed in the wrong direction.
The one small mercy was that her libido had held steady at last week's number — but the rest of the shifts made it plain enough that a lot had happened in seven days.
Gathering a whole sack of materials like this… I can more or less guess what she went through.
Coming back with this many Minotauren horns meant she had hunted at least ten of the things. I'd never actually seen a Minotauren myself, but a monster whose single material sold for a full gold coin was clearly no pushover. It wasn't hard to imagine how fast the muscle tension, fatigue, and stress had piled up along the way.
Anyone could see she needed my Vitality Massage. I already knew for a fact that it worked wonders on every number except libido.
This was no time to dig in my heels over some pointless resolve not to massage anyone just to avoid causing a scene.
The whole reason I'd been holding back was because Coco ran off mid-massage in the first place.
I'd been fretting that my massage had driven a talented guild member away — but that same talent had just walked right back through the door. There was no more guilt left to carry.
And looking at her now, the reason she'd gone to such lengths gathering materials was probably me to begin with.
That one-gold-coin shoulder massage last time — which had ended up as a full upper-body session — must have left quite an impression.
"Haa… th-this…"
After a stretch of nothing but ragged, excited breathing, Coco finally managed a coherent sentence. She shoved the entire stack of ten gold coins from the guild counter straight toward me and said exactly what I'd expected.
"Th-this… I-I'll give you… all of it…"
"Pardon?"
"…My tail. L-like last time…. Massage… please…"
…A tail massage.
I'd figured she would ask for a massage. I hadn't figured she would ask for a tail massage.
In fantasy worlds, weren't beastkin tails supposed to be erogenous zones? Was it really okay to hand something like that over to someone else so casually?
More to the point, the way she'd reacted when I barely touched her tail last time made it clear the area was sensitive whether it was an erogenous zone or not.
…Well. The Guild Master hadn't chewed me out just for touching it, so it was probably fine. If anything, once she gave permission, I'd been wanting a proper chance to get my hands on that enormous tail.
"Sure. I'll do it."
"……!"
"But you don't need this much."
"……?"
The moment she heard me agree, Coco's eyes went wide and her whole face lit up. Right in front of that expression, I picked up a single gold coin and pushed the rest back to her.
Even if it was free money, ten gold for one massage was an absurd price.
"One gold is plenty for a massage."
Apparently the previous session had left quite an impression — the squirrel beastkin girl Coco was back after only a week, requesting a tail massage.
Same as last time, she sat in a chair with no backrest. This time, though, she didn't shove her massive tail aside. She presented it to me straight on.
She leaned her body slightly against the table in front of her, making it easier for me to reach. From my angle, her tail stood almost perfectly vertical — far more visible than before.
Entering Vitality Massage Mode.
The now-familiar translucent window appeared, and a scatter of red acupoints rose across Coco's body.
Last time she'd kept her tail off to the side, so I hadn't noticed clearly — but looking at her like this, it was obvious her tail and lower body were the areas that needed the most work.
Probably because those are the spots she can't handle on her own.
The lower body was one thing, but a tail growing out of her back was almost certainly hard to reach with her own hands.
With that thought, I brought my hands without hesitation to the base of Coco's tail — the very spot she'd rejected last time.
Before, I'd touched her on my own and startled her into shoving me away and running. This time, I'd gotten clear permission first.
— Squeeze!
"Nnh—! Hic…!!"
The instant I gripped the junction where her waist met her tail, Coco let out a strange little moan and snapped her upper body bolt upright.
Whether from knotted muscle or something else, her tail was surprisingly firm. I held it in both hands and kneaded hard, the way you'd clench a fist.
— Press!
"Mmph—! Hah…!!"
— Press, press!
"Nngh—! Hi… hhk…!!"
…Even when I'd massaged her shoulders and back before, she'd let out the occasional sound — but nothing this blatant.
Some part of me registered that I might be doing something I shouldn't. I focused on the massage anyway. That faint sense of doing something forbidden was half the fun.
"Your tail's so big, this section's really knotted up, Coco."
"Mmph… hnn…!"
— Nod, nod.
"Is there any part of your tail I shouldn't touch during the massage? Just so I know."
"Aah—! Hyaat…!!"
— Shake, shake.
"Good to hear. What happened last time when I made that mistake with you has been weighing on me."
"……Hnn… hngh."
Just massaging in silence felt a little empty, so I worked her tail while making light conversation. Coco, who'd been quietly entrusting her tail to me and listening, finally managed something that almost counted as dialogue.
"Wasn't… a mistake…"
"Hm?"
"I was the one… who did wrong…… hnn—! Hic?!"
"……"
Roughly translated: the one at fault back then wasn't me for touching her tail — it was her for running off without a word.
At least she didn't seem to be holding any hard feelings over the incident, which was a relief on my end.
I'd felt it during the last massage too — I wanted to keep a good relationship with Coco going forward. She was also my first paying massage client, the first person who'd actually handed over real money for the service.
I kneaded her twitching tail and quietly enjoyed the way her upper body flinched and shivered. Before long, the acupoint at the base of her tail — the most knotted spot of all — shifted fully to green and vanished.
"Nngh—! Khh…!! Nnhh… hyaaaaaah…!!"
And with the loudest reaction yet, Coco's whole body jerked.
The lewd cry and the way she moved put even Senior Ellin's moans from my first day in this world to shame — and they were ringing out in full public view inside the Adventurers' Guild.
The Coco producing those sounds, for her part, had her face buried in the guild table, looking like she didn't have the composure left to care who was watching.
"Haa… haa… ha…"
"Is it too much? Want me to slow down a little?"
— Shake, shake.
"Keep going…. D-don't stop…"
"…Got it. Then I won't stop until you say something, Coco."
— Nod, nod.
I carefully pretended not to notice the way she was rubbing her thighs together, as if some other kind of desire had started welling up, and followed her request — working the rest of that enormous squirrel tail, focusing on the acupoints.
— Rub, rub.
"Nngh—! Hnn…!! Nnhh…!!"
Starting from the root, my hands slowly worked their way up the full length of her tail.
From about the midpoint on, the tail was so thick that even both of my hands struggled to cover it. I stroked upward from below, and wherever a red acupoint appeared along the way, I pressed in hard with my thumbs to work the muscle free.
— Press!!
"Ngyuh—!! Hyaah…!!"
This was a spot she almost certainly couldn't work out on her own, so the sensation of those knotted tail muscles finally releasing was probably a first for her.
Every time an acupoint disappeared, her moans grew deeper, filling the Adventurers' Guild — and by this point, the only two people still moving inside the building were Coco and me.
Everyone else had long since stopped to stare at the rare spectacle of Coco receiving a tail massage. Even Guild Master Aisia was there — I had no idea when she'd come down from upstairs.
After nearly ten full minutes, the tail massage was almost done. Only one spot remained.
The slightly curled tip characteristic of a squirrel beastkin's tail — and the acupoint still nestled on the inner side of that curl. Work that free, and today's tail massage would be finished.
Just looking at it, this is clearly the most sensitive spot.
She was already panting from having the outer surface worked over. Touching the tucked-in underside would produce a reaction that was practically a foregone conclusion.
Still — she hadn't told me to stop.
A masseur's job was to answer the client's wishes. So I boldly slipped my hand into the curled tip of Coco's tail and kneaded the acupoint.
— Press!!
"……………!!!"
— Clatter-crash!
The second I touched the acupoint inside that curled tip, Coco's face went wide with shock and she shot up out of the chair, kicking it back.
I'd been braced for something this time, so at least I didn't go tumbling with her the way I had before — but that wasn't the important part. Watching her bolt up out of her seat like that inevitably brought back the memory of her running off mid-massage last time.
"…Coco?"
"…Ha… haa… nnh…"
Her face was bright red. She locked eyes with me, then seemed to register exactly what she'd just done.
This time, unlike before, she hurriedly righted the chair she'd knocked over, sat back down obediently, and offered her tail to me again.
"Coco?"
"……"
"May I keep going?"
"……"
— Nod, nod.
I'd lived my whole previous life in a world where beastkin existed only in fiction, so by all rights I shouldn't have had any kind of tail fetish.
…And yet, looking at Coco like this, I had the distinct feeling that a rather particular new preference was about to take root.