7. The Butterfly Dream (胡蝶之夢) - 14
7. The Butterfly Dream (胡蝶之夢) - 14
"...Kain."
"Bianca."
I let my eyes half-close. I leaned in, cupped Bianca's face, and brushed my lips lightly against hers. A soft pressure answered my mouth.
"...Ah."
Our tongues met like a pair of wanton serpents, slick and demanding, seeking each other out. Through our tangled tongues, we shared a mingled taste. It began almost placidly, but soon, as if choreographed from the start, we were fiercely devouring each other.
"...Ah, ngh..."
Only after our breaths had mingled against each other's faces and our tongues had frantically ravaged every corner of each other's mouths did we finally pull apart.
"...Ha, ah."
Our tongues, barely peeking past our lips, were linked by a single translucent thread of saliva. As Bianca let out a thin breath, the thread snapped with a soft sound and fell against the side of her neck. The sight—a single strand, like a spider's web against her pure white nape—was so bewitching and indecent it defied description.
"...Ka, Kain..."
When the fierce kiss ended, what I saw was Bianca, her face flushed scarlet, staring up at me. The woman who had boldly seduced me moments ago was nowhere to be found. In her place remained only a shy, easily flustered woman, trembling from nothing more than a single wet kiss.
"Th-this isn't fair... I said it's not fair..."
Bianca murmured it in a voice so small she sounded as if she wanted to crawl into a mouse hole.
"What's not fair?"
I smiled faintly, and her already beet-red face blazed hotter, as if about to burst.
"...When I see you, I'm so happy I don't know what to do. When I'm with you, my heart pounds this hard. But you... you keep looking completely unaffected. As if you've done this countless times and it's nothing to you. You're... truly a horrible person."
Like a child throwing a tantrum, Bianca whined at me. I nipped her ear lightly and whispered back.
"Then, shall we stop? Shall we end it here?"
At my teasing question, Bianca's face went pale. She shook her head wildly from side to side. Anyone watching would have seen an unmistakable, vehement refusal.
"...No, don't say that... I was wrong. So... please, just don't say we're stopping..."
Tears were already welling in Bianca's eyes. I'd meant it as a lighthearted joke, but she had apparently taken my words as sincere. She looked genuinely shocked.
Seeing Bianca's expression—so fragile and somehow so pitiful—I felt something stir deep in my heart: a sadistic desire.
Come to think of it, from the very first moment I met Bianca, she had always held the upper hand. Naturally so. The woman named Bianca might outwardly look delicate enough to barely hold a teacup, but in truth, she possessed the strength to overpower a handful of grown men with her bare fists, even without magic.
And that wasn't all. Bianca del Castana was also a powerful mage, among the top five strongest individuals alive in humanity. If I faced her head-on, it was a foregone conclusion that I wouldn't stand a chance.
Because of that, I'd often been unconsciously cowed by Bianca. From the time twenty years ago, when we bickered as children and I couldn't put up a decent resistance before she smacked me around—to the days we spent together in the expedition force, when I couldn't utter a peep and was bossed around by her—I had never once truly bested the woman called Bianca.
But at least tonight, I couldn't show weakness to Bianca. For once, I had to seize control. This night was the perfect opportunity to make her surrender, to bring her to her knees. This wasn't about anything else—it was a critical matter tied to my pride as a man. I'd never had a real victory over Bianca, but the moment for proper revenge had finally arrived.
"...Pardon me a moment."
I gently placed my hand on Bianca's waist. Her waist was so slender it felt as if it might snap at the slightest pressure. I tightened my grip and lifted her with a smooth motion.
"Ka, Kain... what are you...!"
I carried Bianca like a princess, strode over to the bed, and laid her down with a soft flump.
"Ngh, ah..."
As I laid her down, Bianca stared up at me with fear in her eyes, as if she knew what was coming. But only for a moment. Soon, she simply squeezed her eyes shut, a gesture that seemed to grant me permission to do as I pleased.
My own body temperature spiked at the sight. She, who normally showed only an intellectual demeanor—who, ten years later, would be revered across the continent as a Great Sage—was acting like a complete virgin on this bed, utterly clueless about the relations between men and women.
"...Bianca."
Almost without thinking, I gently placed my hand against the white nape of her neck. A fierce desire to leave my mark on her flawless, jade-like skin began to boil up.
"Hngh...!"
Bianca let out a moan before any foreplay had even begun. I didn't miss the opening. I slipped my hand between the disheveled folds of her clothing and undid the string of her dress tied at the back.
Srrk—
The moment Bianca's dress fell to the bed, I reached reverently, as if paying homage to the Emperor, for the last bastion still clinging to her body and slowly drew it down.
"D-don't... don't look..."
Mortified at the thought of me seeing her bare body, Bianca used one hand to cover her sumptuously voluptuous chest and the other to hide the space between her legs. The firelight seeping from the hearth reflected off her pale nakedness, filling my eyes.
"....."
For a moment, I was speechless. No elegant phrase was needed. Bianca's soft, supple bare body, as if carved from white plaster, was simply, agonizingly beautiful.
When I just stared wordlessly at her naked form, Bianca asked, her voice trembling slightly.
"...Wh-what is it...? D-don't tell me... it's unsightly?"
"...No. I was just thinking you're breathtaking. You are. Truly beautiful."
When I whispered that, full of sincerity, into her ear, Bianca's face lit up with radiant joy.
"...Why is it..."
"I've dreamed of this... I've waited for this moment for so long, but... it's just so embarrassing..."
I gave a soft laugh at her adorable whining and gently swept her disheveled hair aside. The truth was, I was trembling just as much, but at a time like this, I absolutely could not show weakness. So I put on the fiercest front I could, keeping my face utterly composed.
"Kain... Honestly, this is... my first time..."
"...What?"
Bianca confessed it shyly.
"I-I don't know anything, so... you can do whatever you want. No, please do. I mean it."
"...And, to be honest... I'm incredibly happy right now. That you're my first, Kain... That it's you... I'm so happy..."
Whispering this, Bianca embraced me fiercely and pressed her lips to my nape.
"...Kain, I love you. Truly..."
As she said that, she pressed her body softly against mine. I didn't push her away. Instead, I sank deep into her embrace.
In this moment, Bianca was simply, maddeningly lovable.
****
"...So it's begun."
Kirie murmured those words as she looked up at the stars filling the night sky. In the past, in a time now faded, Kirie had once formed a Companion Bond with Kain. Though time had rewound several times and the fact itself was now vanished without a trace, the connection between her and Kain had not been completely severed. The Companion Bond, which elves form only once in their lifetime, was so tenacious and strong that it could persist even across time and space.
She could, for example, still easily grasp roughly where Kain was at present and in what state his mind lay. In the past, she might have been able to discern what he was saying or the exact scenery before his eyes, but with only this slender thread of connection remaining, that was now impossible.
"Well, this much is just about right."
Truthfully, Kirie didn't want to see through Kain's private life as if reading her own palm, so she figured this level was perfect. He was hers, and she was his, but to maintain a smooth marital relationship, weren't a few small secrets better? As a rule, a person only seems more alluring when there's an appropriate amount of mystery.
...She could feel it. Kain, sharing love with Bianca. And Aria and Iris, holding a World Tree Branch and nearing the place where they were, in order to rescue Kain.
Though it was slightly disappointing that Ariel Tiere wasn't present at that spot, the three of them alone would put on quite the amusing spectacle. Every woman gathered there harbored feelings for Kain, after all. What kind of pandemonium would erupt the moment those three converged in one place?
...She well knew this was a vile hobby. Perhaps, just as Iris El Debhart had said, she'd simply lived too long and her mind had gone senile. But it couldn't be helped. She had lived for an impossibly long time. Her options for entertainment were limited, and in the end, the only thing she could amuse herself with was humanity itself.
And that was why Kirie had fallen for the man named Kain von Estel. She had lived such an immense length of time, but one who sparkled so brilliantly in a mere instant was truly rare.
"Now then, what sort of ending will this little story reach?"
The leads of this story were Kain von Estel and Bianca del Castana. What kind of conclusion would the two of them show Kirie? A happy ending? Or perhaps a sad one? Honestly, she didn't care much either way. Whatever end they met, there would clearly be entertainment to be found in it.
Kirie, murmuring to herself, soon hardened her expression as if something displeased her, and whispered in a very small voice.
"I'll permit a simple fling... but don't fall in too deep, Kain."
Because no matter how fleeting a passing wind may be, if he grew too absorbed in another wench, it might make her a little angry.