Chapter 54
Chapter 54
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: A Night Spent with the Villainess Lady (1)
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There are men who think women have no sex drive, but that's a misconception. Even without those pointy-eared long-lived species who go into heat, ordinary human women have desires too.
However, unlike men who feel arousal toward just about any woman to some degree, women typically only feel desire for a select few men they're truly attracted to.
And as I've mentioned before, Tiona was never ignorant when it came to matters of sex.
Romance novels aimed at women in my original world were blatantly explicit in their erotic content. They didn't just use metaphors—they featured vivid, concrete descriptions of bodies and sexual acts.
Even among the love poems she always read, there were passages like that.
Descriptions of the acts between a man and woman in love.
Moreover, around those poems in her poetry collection, there were noticeably more fingerprints from Tiona, and the pages were worn to shreds.
I could clearly picture her gripping the book with cookie-greasy fingers, her face flushed red as she immersed herself in the words.
And now, that very Tiona had invited me to her room at night.
To sleep together.
It wasn't hard to grasp what she meant.
That night, I knocked on Tiona's door. More reluctant to enter than I'd ever been since coming to this house.
"Come in."
I'd worried she might greet me in something provocative, but fortunately, her attire was just ordinary sleepwear.
Was the fact that it wasn't her usual animal-print pajamas her way of sending a message?
Tiona's eyes scanned my body.
"Does Arthur always sleep in that?"
"Yes."
Loose white cotton pants and a shirt. In summer, I switch to breathable linen, but this is my standard sleepwear.
"Then why have I never seen you wandering around in it?"
"I change right after waking up. Besides, doesn't Lady Tiona go to bed later than I do? And you wake up even later."
"Hmph! Spouting nothing but facts makes it no fun."
"They do say fact-checking is a form of assault, though."
As usual, we bantered lightly, and as usual, I sat in the chair beside her bed.
"Has your anger subsided a bit?"
"I'll give you partial satisfaction."
"Good. Starting tomorrow, we can resume literature beyond just love poems."
"You mean the epics?"
"[Homelieu's Two Epics]—[The Chronicle of Battles] and [The Chronicle of Journeys]—remain essential classics. Knowing them will prove invaluable later on."
"Arthur."
Tiona stared straight at me.
"Do you always sleep in the chair?"
"...Truth be told, yes. There's something about this wood's perfect firmness that lulls me right to sleep."
"Don't lie so blatantly. Come here."
"Sorry for the fib. Actually, I once dozed off in this chair and narrowly escaped death, so it's become a habit to sleep sitting up ever since."
"Arthur."
Tiona shot me a glare and patted the bed beside her.
"I said come here."
"...Excuse me, then."
I climbed onto Tiona's bed and sat leaning against the headboard beside her.
Slipping my feet under the covers, I felt the luxurious fluffiness of the goose-down filling.
Tiona shifted her legs under the same blanket. The movement transmitted directly to my legs through the fabric.
"Did you bring a pillow?"
"No."
I'd deliberately left it behind to shift the mood, thinking I could always fetch it from my room if needed.
Tiona nudged her own pillow slightly toward me.
"Then share it."
"Actually, I've been sleeping without one lately."
"I said no more lies."
It was time to stop piling on the excuses.
No matter how obvious they were, too many falsehoods could harm our tutor-lady relationship.
"My lady, allow me to say again—this is a bad idea."
"And I'll say it again: if you don't do this with me, I won't forgive you."
Tiona meant it.
What would it mean for her not to forgive me? How long would her anger toward me linger?
I couldn't know for sure. Probably not even Tiona herself.
But at minimum, for days—worst case, it might scar our relationship forever.
If sleeping in the same bed tonight let us return to normal by morning, wouldn't that be the better choice?
"...If you deliberately press against me, I'll go back to my room immediately."
"I know, I know."
Tiona replied a bit irritably and laid her head on one side of the pillow.
"As long as I don't touch you first, right?"
She gave me a look, gesturing for me to put my head on the other side.
If I did, we'd be lying side by side, faces just inches apart at the slightest lean.
"No, you keep the whole pillow."
I regretted not bringing my own pillow now.
"Arthur."
Tiona kept insisting.
Finally, pushed into it, I rested my head on the pillow. Sure enough, the distance between our faces was less than a handspan.
Our eyes met.
Her blue eyes were moist and trembling, her cheeks flushed red.
Every flicker of the bedside lamp made her eyes and lips sparkle.
"... "
"... "
In the sudden silence, I realized we'd both been talking fast out of tension until now.
Once aware of that, all that remained was the tension.
Directed at each other.
Ah.
I could feel it.
Under the covers, Tiona's body heat. The sensation of her moving legs. Even her pounding heartbeat.
Her breathing filled my ears. Inhales, exhales.
Both heartbeats and breaths quickened in pace.
I sensed it clearly from her gaze and breathing.
Tiona's desire for me.
When she undid her vertical rolls and kept her mouth shut, Tiona was a beauty.
And right now, with the night loosening her rolls and tension sealing her lips, she was.
A stunning blonde woman gazed at me, desiring me. And I lay in the same bed, sharing her breaths and heartbeat.
How did I appear to Tiona?
Could she hear my breaths and heart? Feel my desire for her?
I rolled over to face away, so her face was out of sight.
"Good night, my lady."
"...Yeah."
"I'll put out the light."
"...Yeah."
With the lamp extinguished, the room plunged into darkness.
In the dark, Tiona's sounds grew sharper.
The rustle of her tossing under the covers.
Her breaths.
Her heartbeat.
The whisper of hair against blanket.
Tiona swallowing hard.
A soft, sweet fragrance wafted over.
A woman's scent. Her body odor.
As a man, my body reacted to the woman.
I regretted not sticking those glow-in-the-dark stickers from the hallway here too. If the glowy dragon, sun, moon, bunny, and doggie sparkled, maybe it'd lighten the mood a bit.
"Arthur."
Tiona called me.
"Don't show me your back. Look at me."
"The light's out, so I can't see anyway."
"Still."
Her voice was moist.
"You don't need to guard me here."
Without turning my body, I glanced back. In the dark, only the faint outlines of her lips and cheeks were visible.
A woman telling me not to protect her.
I knew what she wanted instead without asking.
"Time to sleep. We have a lot tomorrow."
"...Can't you at least hold my hand?"
I felt her hand reaching for me under the covers.
"Huh? Really, just hold hands and sleep."
Her hand brushed near my ribs.
A rapid thumping echoed. My heart? Hers? Both?
I'd said I'd leave if she touched me first, but my head was too hot to get up.
"...No?"
I felt Tiona's body trembling under the covers.
Mine felt like it would too.
"No."
I recalled all the versions of Tiona I'd seen.
Tiona with her sky-bread-like vertical rolls and pouting cheeks. Tiona grabbing waffles with her hands and wiping cream on her clothes. Tiona devouring food messily at tea parties with other ladies or balls in the imperial palace.
The heat pooling in my lower body cooled a little.
Right, what was I even thinking with Tiona?
Just sleep. Wake up and slip out of this room before she does.
"Arthur...?"
She whispered my name softly, but I didn't respond this time.
"Eek!?"
"What happened?!"
I spun around quickly, reaching toward Tiona.
Where my hand landed, I felt a soft texture.
Something that yielded plushly under pressure, yet retained its unique elasticity and weight. A part of the body no man had.
Beneath my palm, a protrusion with a slightly different texture hardened noticeably.
"Hngh... "
In the darkness, Tiona's tense but pleased smile was evident.
The smile of someone whose scheme had succeeded.