The First Customer (1)
"A-are you really going to do it? I-I'm fine, really…."
Senior Elin hesitated at my offer of a shoulder massage, glancing around as if gauging the situation. From her expression, it didn't seem like she disliked the idea of me massaging her so much as she was simply reluctant to put a man to the trouble.
"You never once made a fuss about teaching me everything after I lost my memory. Just think of this as my way of saying thanks."
"Ah, even so, I can't go imposing on a boy…."
"I'm doing this because I want to. So you don't have to feel like you're putting me out, right?"
"……."
"Or is it that you just don't want my hands on you?"
"Eeeh?! Th-that's absolutely not it!"
She flinched so hard at the question I'd only half-meant that she shook her head in a panic. If she refused me now, she'd leave me thinking that last misunderstanding was true — and kindhearted Senior Elin couldn't bring herself to do that. She had no choice but to let me work on her shoulders.
"W-well, if you insist… just a little, okay…?"
"Of course, Senior Elin."
She twisted around on the backless seat so that her back and shoulders faced me. The moment I reached for those shoulders, a translucent window suddenly floated up in front of my eyes and snagged my attention.
Entering Vitality Massage Mode.
Huh……?
Was my Unique Ability kicking in just because I was about to start massaging Senior Elin? I'd figured it was something that simply made me better at massage than an ordinary person — I never expected it to work like this. It was surprisingly fresh.
Elin Heidi
Displaying subject's acupoints.
The moment I read the text floating before my eyes, a new translucent window appeared — and with it, a subtle shift in the way I saw Senior Elin.
So these are the acupoints?
Scattered across her shoulders, her back, and everywhere else on her body except her face were a number of red dots. Judging by the window that had just popped up, those red points had to be her acupoints.
There were yellow dots mixed in among them, too. I guessed those marked spots that were relatively less knotted up — pure intuition, since the system hadn't offered any further explanation.
The yellow dots clustered around her lower back, while the red ones were concentrated on her shoulders. Given that Senior Elin had the kind of build that made her shoulders knot up easily, my guess was probably not far off.
"…Um, Beor?"
"Ah — yes."
"You… are going to massage me, right?"
"Sorry. Starting now."
…Right. I'd promised her a shoulder massage. This was no time to sit there staring blankly at floating windows — I needed to get my hands moving. I hadn't gone to all the trouble of talking her into this just to waste the chance gawking at a translucent screen.
— Press.
"Nnh."
— Knead, knead.
"Nngh… hh… hnn…."
As my hands began working her shoulders, Senior Elin let out soft little sounds that suggested she was starting to feel good. At the same time, I could see the red acupoints on her shoulders gradually shifting toward orange.
So that's how it works.
Turning every one of those red points a different color — or making them vanish entirely — was probably what Vitality Massage was designed to do. How far I had to go before everything fully released, I'd only know by finishing the job. I pressed a little harder with both hands, determined to work those acupoints until they were completely free.
— Knead, knead.
"Nngh… hh… hnn…."
— Press, knead.
"Nnnngh… hh… hyaah?!"
…It was just a shoulder massage. Was it only my imagination that the whole thing felt a little lewd?
I'd been working from the same idea of a shoulder rub I'd known in my previous world, but Senior Elin's reactions were so sensitive that the atmosphere had turned steamy all on its own. On top of that, a few of the female adventurers were already glancing our way with knowing looks.
Technically all I'm doing is a shoulder massage, so there's nothing to feel guilty about….
For now, I'd just focus and finish the massage. I'd started this, so I needed to figure out exactly what my Unique Ability could do.
Fortunately, the sounds Senior Elin was making weren't empty noise. The vivid red points on her shoulders were steadily shifting past orange into yellow. That color change had to mean the knotted acupoints were loosening.
It was a little strange that shoulders she'd been carrying those enormous breasts on for more than a decade would release this easily — but that was probably the effect of Vitality Massage at work.
One by one, the six acupoints on Senior Elin's shoulders continued to change. The moment one of them turned fully green—
"Nnh… hnnngh?!"
…It vanished.
As soon as it hit pure green, the acupoint slowly faded from view. That had to mark the "completion" of the massage. Senior Elin let out a pleased little sound right as it disappeared, too. …It still sounded uncomfortably close to a moan, but still.
"Haa… Be–Beor…? Wh-what is this…?"
"Hm?"
"I-it's just a shoulder massage, but you're this good…? Did you learn this somewhere…?"
"…No, not really. I'm just glad it feels good."
"Y-yeah…. Then I guess we can wrap up…."
Looking as if she thought we were done, Senior Elin started to rise from her seat. I pinned her shoulders firmly with both hands, sat her right back down, and applied a little more grip to free the remaining five points.
— Press!
"Nnhaah?!"
"Not yet, Senior. Your shoulders are this knotted up."
"H-haaang…?! W-wait a second…."
Her body had gone limp enough that my arm strength alone dropped her straight back into the seat. I worked her shoulders harder, and the remaining five acupoints gradually turned green and vanished from her shoulders one after another.
— Knead, press!
"Nngh… hh… hyaang?!"
And so the six acupoints that had been the source of Senior Elin's shoulder tension disappeared from around her shoulders.
"Nnh… hh… haaang?! Hyaaaaaaang…!!"
The instant the last acupoint vanished, Senior Elin threw her back ramrod-straight, her short pink hair flying.
"Haa… haa… haaa… hh…."
Then she slumped forward, panting hard, her breath coming in short gasps. From her reaction alone, I couldn't quite tell whether the massage had worked properly or not, so I waited for her breathing to settle before carefully asking how it had felt.
"…Senior?"
"N-nnhh…?"
"How was it? The shoulder massage."
"Uh… nnh…. Eh…?"
Senior Elin sat there flushed and sweating, still catching her breath. Anyone looking at her might have asked whether this was really the result of a "shoulder massage" — but I had genuinely, purely massaged nothing but her shoulders.
No ulterior motives. Honestly.
"I-is it… over?"
"Yes, Senior."
"I-I see…."
Unlike the way she'd hesitated at the start, Senior Elin answered with a strangely wistful look on her face.
To be precise, it wasn't completely over. All I'd released were the six acupoints on her shoulders; red points still dotted her back, her waist, and her lower body. Of course, even in a world where women's libidos ran stronger than men's, having a man put his hands on your waist or lower half wasn't exactly an everyday situation — so I'd stuck to our original agreement and finished with just her shoulders.
"If it's not enough, I can keep going?"
"E-eeh?!"
"You look a little unsatisfied. If you're all right with it, I can work on your back and waist too?"
"M-my back?! My waist?!"
…Maybe that had been a mistake?
This whole concept of a world where women were more lustful than men was still new to me, so gauging just how far the gender norms had shifted was genuinely hard. By the standards of my previous world, a woman offering to work on a man's back or waist wouldn't have been anything to panic over like this.
Then again, maybe Senior Elin was just especially sensitive. From everything I'd seen of her so far, she seemed… a bit on the shy side.
By the standards of women from my old world, her reaction would have been perfectly normal — but in a world where female desire ran hotter than male, that personality probably made Senior Elin the unusual one.
"I-I'm fine! Th-this is more than enough…! Really, thank you, Beor!"
She shook her head as if already satisfied and turned down my offer. A shame — it looked like I'd have to give up on clearing those red points still left on her back and waist today.
…Well, today wasn't my only chance. Once we'd gotten a little closer working together at the adventurer's guild, I could offer to massage those areas next time.
For now, I asked her for her impressions so I could gauge just how effective the Vitality Massage had been.
"Could you try moving your shoulders, Senior Elin? We should check how much they've loosened."
"O-okay…. Just a second…."
She nodded with an expression so sultry it almost looked like she was trying to seduce me. Carefully rising, she rolled one arm in a circle — and before long, a look of mild shock crossed her face.
"Wh-whaa?!"
"What's wrong? Is something off where I worked?"
"N-no…. It's not that…."
"Then?"
"M-my shoulders don't ache at all…. Wh-what…?"
"……."
"Th-the other side too…. How is this possible…? Ever since I was ten, they've been stiff almost every single day. How…."
Judging by Senior Elin's reaction, the Vitality Massage had taken proper effect. An ordinary massage loosening her shoulders wouldn't have gotten a response like that.
A Unique Ability, she'd said, was a specialty no one else could replicate no matter how hard they tried.
Looking at those results, the Vitality Massage I possessed was clearly one of those Unique Abilities. Having the one Unique Ability I'd ended up with turn out to be massage left me with mixed feelings — but the fact that I alone had something the men of this world weren't supposed to possess wasn't a bad feeling at all.
"…So. Did you enjoy that shoulder massage from your junior, Elin?"
Just as I was thinking we were roughly finished, a cold voice suddenly cut in from beside us. Neither Senior Elin nor I had any idea how long she'd been standing there — Guild Master Aisia's appearance made both of us jump.
"G-Guild Master?! H-how long have you been there?!"
"Since the moment you had your junior give you a shoulder rub and started making those lewd little moans."
"L-lewd moans?! I-I never made any such sounds!"
"Never made them? They were loud enough to reach my office. And looking at the stares you're getting right now — still feel nothing?"
"Uh…… what……?"
Only after hearing Guild Master Aisia's words did Senior Elin finally look around and take in the eyes fixed on her. I'd noticed them ages ago, but she seemed to have been genuinely oblivious — and now she was panicking under the weight of all that attention.
"Kyaaaaaaaah?!"
Senior Elin's scream of pure mortification rang out through the adventurer's guild.