Chapter 34
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Awareness (1)
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‘......Haa.’
A soft, sweet, fluffy, swelling sensation.
May Luina felt a refreshing sensation for the first time in ages.
Though her body was free from her mind's control and she couldn't actually stretch, just imagining it now seemed like it would bring a similar feeling.
It was like the refreshing stretch after sitting at a desk studying for hours, finally standing up when you hit your limit and loosening every muscle in your body.
Right now, she might even feel like she had stretched without actually doing it!
With that thought, May Luina let out a sound like her lungs were being squeezed, as if she had truly stretched.
‘Euuu......Hnggg......!’
Of course, as a vegetative patient, she couldn't even twitch her lips, so she just imagined making the sound in her head.
But the refreshment lingering in her body gave her the exact same feeling as if she had really stretched.
‘Huaaa...... Hehe.’
For her, who hadn't been able to move a single inch since becoming vegetative, this pseudo-stretch brought a long-lost sense of liberation.
The feeling of her body responding to her will, her stiff muscles loosening.
This refreshment and coolness merged into pure liberation, making May Luina smile.
‘Ah.’
At the same time, May Luina realized that she, the Saintess who had always maintained perfect condition, had never had a reason to stretch in the first place.
‘Ugh, hng...... Uwa?’
A sensation like waking from a dream.
As her hazy mind cleared and she realized the liberating refreshment that had made her so happy moments ago was just her imagination, May Luina couldn't help but feel disappointed.
It wasn't a real stretch; even pretending to stretch during that full-body refreshment had been nothing but a dream.
‘Have I become someone who can't even imagine stretching......?’
That tiny, trivial—but precious to her—sense of liberation turned out to be something she could only feel in dreams, flipping her buoyant mood into emptiness.
Like floating weightlessly in space, then suddenly crashing to the floor.
The professional term for it—being given something and then having it taken away—was inevitably unpleasant, and naturally, it applied to May Luina too.
‘Haa...... Yeah. What can you do? No one forced it away; I fantasized on my own and got disappointed on my own. I should just be grateful for the nice dream......’
She who had resisted everything and achieved every desire, the moment the curse turned her vegetative, could no longer resist anything or achieve any wish.
To deny this reality she'd never faced before, she cried every day, and only after realizing she couldn't shed even a single tear did she learn resignation.
Thus, the current May Luina was a resignation expert; even knowing that happy sensation was a dream-fueled illusion wouldn't drive her to despair from disappointment......
‘......Wait. A dream? Did I, just now, dream?’
Right before resigning herself, it suddenly hit her: the everyday word "dream" that had casually crossed her mind multiple times was utterly foreign to her now.
‘H-How? How could I have dreamed......?’
Because the current May Luina was trapped in her body, her mind alone intact in the darkness. She couldn't even fall asleep.
Her body and mind separated, her consciousness naturally confined to her mind.
Freed completely from her body, her mind any bodily influence, so it never tired.
It simply stayed perfectly clear and sharp, maintaining flawless cognition at all times.
But this clarity and sharpness was more horrific to May Luina than any curse.
In this vegetative reality, even if she desperately wanted to look away, with only her mind left, falling asleep was impossible.
Thus, May Luina—who had resigned herself to so much since becoming vegetative—had one thing she absolutely couldn't give up: sleep.
‘I, I really fell asleep, right......?’
And realizing she had dreamed, May Luina became aware that she had unknowingly fallen asleep and woken up.
‘H-How?! How on earth could I have fallen asleep......’
For a month, without fail, she had pleaded into the empty darkness to at least let her sleep, to let her fall asleep—and now, having achieved that long-cherished sleep, she was bewildered.
[Starting from 10 seconds.]
‘Ah.’
Then suddenly, like a film broken by drunkenness reconnecting all at once, a voice lingered at the edge of her memory replayed in her head.
[B-Beaaast♥♥♥♥ Guhuuuu♥♥♥]
‘Aaaahhh?!!’
The memory flooded back: obediently counting seconds as a mere F-rank Awakener kneaded her breasts wildly.
‘N-No way. Did I say those things—me, the Saintess, right in front of Stay?! This can't happen! It mustn't! It's mortifying. If word got out, I'd never be revered as the Saintess again......!’
A shame so unbearable she'd dive headfirst into any rat hole without hesitation.
For her, the world's greatest healer hailed as the Saintess descended after centuries, to have obeyed a mere F-rank Awakener—whose only assets were huge, thick, heavy hands that felt warm and fuzzy when stroked; a voice that seemed to draw lines yet brimmed with care and sincerity in every word; and baffling confidence for an F-rank when speaking of the Saintess herself, making even his audacity feel somehow manly—the fact that she had let his hands play with her as he commanded was an event that must be erased from history.
To that extent, May Luina found it utterly humiliating that she had been toyed with at Stay's whim.
‘No, no. Let's think again, May Luina. What Stay did to me is undoubtedly a humiliation and disgrace I'll never forget until death, but it was necessary, right? Yeah? Yes. Exactly. Unavoidable......’
[Yuhuuuk?!♥♥ O-Ohhh♥♥♥♥♥ Ohook......♥]
‘Hiyaaaaaaaah!!!!!’
No matter how many times she repeated to herself that it was essential—just a treatment to break the curse—the heat flooding her face wouldn't subside.
On the contrary, forcing herself to recall it as treatment only made the events before passing out replay more vividly, eliciting screams from her mouth.
If May Luina weren't vegetative now, if even one part of her body could move as she wished, the hospital room she lay in wouldn't be a room—it'd be a demolition site.
To that degree, she was so humiliated by being ravished by Stay that she couldn't stay sane.
‘Uuuu...... I absolutely won't forgive him. There must have been other ways. To manhandle someone's precious breasts—the sacred symbol of motherhood reserved for a future husband and children—like that. Playing them like an instrument, pressing, twisting, plucking, flicking, lightly scraping with fingertips, kneading, gripping tight, twisting, tenderly stroking......’
Fueling her anger to stoke revenge, as she listed her humiliations, May Luina naturally replayed what Stay had done to her.
‘......Hmm.’
This meant recreating the sensations from Stay's touch before she fainted.
‘W-Well, I have to admit that thanks to Stay, I finally got the sleep I so desperately wanted. So, for the harsh things he did, shall I bestow saintly magnanimity and let it slide?’
Recalling the pleasure from Stay's touch at that moment extinguished her anger and revenge in an instant.
The two emotions that blazed like wildfire vanished with her shame, leaving only the afterglow of humiliation...... treatment.
‘......Still, next time, I should tell him not to give orders. I'm Saintess May Luina, and he's Stay. It suits me giving orders to him.’
Though revenge and anger faded, her deepest pride remained, and May Luina vowed not to be helplessly overwhelmed next time.
‘Yes. From now on, when Stay touches my breasts, only with the strength I want, the parts I want, the way I want. Him touching my breasts however he wants is simply unacceptable. Mhm! Yes. I need to tell him firmly, decisively...... Ah.’
Imagining happily how to seize control, May Luina suddenly remembered something she'd overlooked.
‘......Three days.’
To meet Stay again and talk, she had to wait three days for her turn.
‘Only after he treats Dain Adamas and Mir Ryuin will it be my turn.’
The moment she realized that, May Luina felt her pounding heart chill in an instant.