Breast Massage (1)

After confirming with Elin the secret behind Guild Master Aisia's and the other adventurers' youthful appearance, I continued reading through the rest of Aisia's profile. The next thing that truly caught me off guard was the section on her Unique Abilities.

…I'd been a little surprised just seeing Coco's two Unique Abilities. But three? Looking purely at quantity and grade, she even had one more A-rank ability than Coco.

I had no idea what the absolute top rank was, but an A-rank ability was clearly nothing to sneeze at. Of course, it was still a bit early to decide that more abilities automatically meant more power.

She said she didn't just sit around all day, so I figured she meant she did the occasional stretch or something.

As the Guild Master of an adventurer's guild, though, it seemed she still took to the field herself when the situation called for it. That level of skill was probably exactly why she held the position in the first place.

As an adventurer, her rank was likely around Gold-rank like Coco's — or maybe even a step higher, at Platinum-rank.

If I was going to speculate anyway, I might as well get a straight answer. I turned to Elin beside me and casually sounded her out about the Guild Master's credentials.

"Elin, there's something else I've been wondering about. Mind if I ask?"

"Mm-hm. What is it this time, Beor?"

"About Guild Master Aisia. Was she an adventurer before?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure? I know she's strong, but as far as I know she was never particularly famous as an adventurer."

"Really?"

"I overheard something a while back — that she came from a knight order somewhere, not from adventuring. The Guild Master doesn't like talking about herself much, though, so I don't know the details either."

…A knight order?

Well, just because this was a fantasy world didn't mean everyone who swung a sword or a spear had to be an adventurer. If anything, a knight order sounded like a more stable career than freelancing as an adventurer.

"So Guild Master Aisia was originally a knight, not the head of an adventurer's guild?"

"Probably…? Though calling her a 'lady knight' feels a little weird. Just so you know, Beor — same as with adventurers, only women can become knights."

Right. I'd known that. The revelation that Aisia came from a knight order had just been so unexpected that it slipped my mind for a second.

Now that I thought about it, though, her background as a knight made a lot of the things I'd seen from her click into place.

Her personality had always seemed a bit stiff for an adventurer, yet for a pure desk worker she'd shown enough command presence to shut down several adventurers in a single stroke. And more than anything, the faintly firm muscle I'd felt beneath her suit made it clear her body had been thoroughly trained. Everything lined up with the idea that she'd come from a knight order.

Of course, as someone from another world, I couldn't be sure that "knights" here matched the classic fantasy image I was familiar with.

Beyond the knight-order tip, Elin didn't seem to know much more about the Guild Master either, so that was as far as my intel went. Still, thanks to her I'd picked up a solid amount of both general common sense about this world and information on Aisia herself. That alone was a pretty good haul.

I'll have to repay her properly for this information — with a massage, of course.

…Though the bigger reason was simply that I wanted to get my hands on Elin's body again.

And at this point, it was about time I stabilized at least one of her physical readings.

Coco, who'd only received three massages from me, had recently managed to push every single one of her stats into the stable range. Elin, on the other hand, had received more than twice that many — and still hadn't managed to fully stabilize even a single value.

Muscle Tension and Stress had been stuck at 50% and 25% for quite a while now. Apparently, upper-body massage alone had hit its ceiling for those.

Fatigue was the same story — bouncing between 60% and 50% depending on whether she'd just had a massage that day. And Libido had been climbing steadily with every session, already sitting at a full 90%.

The relief I could provide through upper-body work had reached its limit, while the side-effect readings just kept creeping higher.

From here on out, I was going to have to work the other pressure points still left on Elin's body ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— even if it meant pushing a little.

Those eye-catching, generous breasts of hers that always drew my gaze… and the pressure points on her lower body that I still hadn't touched.

Elin Heidi, receptionist at the Lifkikaya Adventurer's Guild.

Lately, a certain junior colleague who'd lost his memories had been occupying more and more of her thoughts. Day by day, the massages she received from that junior had become the one bright spot she looked forward to.

It had started as a simple shoulder rub — Beor's first offer. But with each passing session, his hands seemed to drift a little lower, until one day Elin found herself entrusting even her sides to his touch.

With virtually no immunity to the opposite sex, Elin sometimes felt embarrassed when a man's hands reached her flanks. But the stronger feeling that rose above the embarrassment was her growing fondness for Beor.

Through the trust built over those repeated massages, she had already, in her heart, begun to define him as a man she was close to.

"Elin."

"Mm-hm."

"You'll get a massage after lunch again today, right?"

"……"

A massage so valuable that anyone else would have to pay a full gold coin for a single session. And she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was receiving that precious service every single day, simply because she was Beor's senior at work.

The old Elin would have been the type to refuse such an unfair advantage out of sheer propriety.

"…Yeah. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠will."

But the touch of Beor's hands over the past week had already become far too addictive. Faced with that desire, she could only nod.

…And Beor does seem to enjoy giving me massages, so…

Why a man would take joy in kneading a woman's shoulders and back was something Elin simply couldn't understand.

Was it a side effect of his amnesia? Or had he always been like this, only never showing it because of his old timid personality?

One thing was certain, though: unlike most men, Beor felt no aversion to physical contact with women. If anything, he actively created opportunities for it.

She'd become sure of that the day she watched him massage Coco.

When Beor was massaging Coco, he looked so happy…

Working the squirrel beastkin fighter's body from top to bottom — even massaging her tail, which for beastkin doubled as an erogenous zone — and instead of looking uncomfortable, he'd been smiling with genuine pleasure.

Had he been wearing that same expression behind her shoulders every time he massaged her?

The thought made all the massages she'd received so far feel suddenly embarrassing… and yet, at the same time, it filled her with a quiet joy that her body had been of help to him.

Because now she knew that every time she got a massage, she wasn't the only one who walked away feeling good.

—Creeeak, click.

"……"

And so, after finishing lunch quickly as usual, the two of them stepped into the staff break room for their thirty-minute rest.

Elin settled into her chair, already relaxing at the thought of the familiar upper-body massage from shoulders down to her sides. But the words Beor spoke a moment later were more than enough to throw her completely off balance.

"Um, Elin."

"Mm-hm."

"This might be a little improper to ask, but… could I make one request?"

"…What kind of request? Can I hear it first and then decide?"

"I don't mean it in any weird way, but… for today's massage, would you mind taking off just your blouse?"

"Wh—what?!"

Until now, Beor had never made any special requests. The sudden ask for her to undress her upper body left Elin flustered — but as he continued, she found herself having no choice but to understand.

"I really don't have any ulterior motives. With massage, working bare skin is just way more effective than going through clothes. And honestly, Elin, I think you'll feel better with my hands directly on you, too."

"Ah… y-yeah… I see…"

…Well, of course it would feel better.

Even if it was just her shoulders, there wasn't a woman alive who would dislike a man's bare hands on her skin.

And if that man was someone like Beor — kind, proactive, and a man she already felt a strange fondness for — then all the more so.

Of course, saying any of that out loud would only make Beor look at her with cold eyes, so Elin kept her honesty locked away.

Just imagining him saying something like "Have you been thinking such filthy things every time I massage you?" and looking at her with contempt was enough to drain the color from her entire body.

"…Okay. Just the blouse, right?"

"Yes. That'll be plenty."

And so, carefully ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hiding her own feelings, Elin brought her hands to the front of her blouse as if she'd been talked into it against her will.

What she failed to anticipate was that Beor himself was entertaining thoughts far more impure than her own.