Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Bickering Sisters and an Empty Dining Hall
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After Erika's lengthy tirade finally wrapped up, the three of us headed to the dining hall together. Of course, it was a lecture and a speech from Erika's perspective, but Lize had buried her face in the pillow and wasn't listening even with half an ear.
Surprisingly, she didn't say a word to me. It was probably because Lize held all the power in the situation anyway, and there was nothing I could do to shake it off.
That judgment was spot on.
Lize seemed genuinely disappointed that her fun had been interrupted, grumbling loudly the whole way to the dining hall as if to make sure Erika heard every bit of it.
Erika, on the other hand, growled about how this nonsense was what the newbie was walking into on his very first day.
I was stuck in the middle, unable to do or say a thing.
A busty beauty like Lize climbing on top of me and seducing me wasn't exactly something I hated. I'm a healthy guy with normal tastes—who wouldn't like that?
But the butterfly effect that might follow terrified me.
‘I need to hold back from messing with the story line unnecessarily.’
If I went around poking at things too early and twisted the plot, rendering all my foreknowledge useless, I'd rather endure a little temptation than risk that nightmare.
Besides, this was all new territory for me, so I had no clue how to react. In the game, there was no way an NPC would come on to the player like this.
Brightest Darkness 4 wasn't some eroge, and unless you installed specific mods, the default player character was male, as were the vast majority of NPCs.
If a male NPC tried that on a male player, the fans would've rioted and strung up the devs by their necks first thing.
Later patches added gender selection in the character creation screen, but even picking female didn't change the story.
The Brightest Darkness series world wasn't built for romance anyway.
“Newbie!”
*Slap.* A palm clapped onto my back. She hadn't even put much force into it, but it hurt like hell. I gritted my teeth against the stinging pain and turned around.
Lize was grinning at me with her usual playful smile.
“What now?”
“Be honest. You liked it, right?”
“You're dragging me into this too?”
“Come on, don't be like that. You loved it, admit it. A beauty like me on top of you—who wouldn't? Yeah, yeah. We were having such a good time, and then Erika, that moral stick-in-the-mud, ruined it. Right?”
As she spoke, Lize grabbed my wrist, swung my arm like a villain retreating, and playfully tapped Erika with it. I tried to pull my arm free, but it was no use.
“Sis, starting again? Stop bothering the newbie and walk properly. And ‘climb on top’? Where do you even pick up crude talk like that?”
“Hey, I'm a full-grown adult, you know? What's wrong with an adult saying something naughty?”
Her actions made her seem less like an adult and more like a bratty kid. I muttered that in my head, of course without saying it out loud.
“I'm saying pick the time and place! Fine if it's just us, but do you have to act so unladylike in front of the newbie?!”
“Erika, why are you always defending him like this? It's so not you. Try this with the other knight captains sometime. Would ‘Ice Princess’ even make sense for a fire user then?”
“No one called me that except you, sis! Who else would saddle someone with a cringey nickname like that?!”
‘Don't these two ever get tired?’
Lize and Erika's verbal sparring dragged on surprisingly long.
Erika seemed like the type who hated pointless arguments, but she was countering Lize without yielding an inch. No wonder they were like sisters.
At least the walk to the dining hall wasn't boring.
Somewhere in the middle of bickering with Erika, Lize sidled up to me and hooked her arm through mine. My forearm sank into the overwhelming softness and size of her breasts.
I had to do my best not to react to the squishy sensation on my arm. It wasn't just the feel—the outfit she wore blatantly accentuated her figure, making it worse.
The ones wearing those outfits had no idea how insanely sexy they looked, thanks to mods warping their sense of normalcy.
From then on, it was a loop: Erika spotting Lize and lecturing her to act with some dignity, Lize teasing her back by pressing even closer to me.
‘This is fucking intense.’
My mental endurance was wearing down in proportion.
Not only did I have to ignore the chest blatantly rubbing against my arm, our position forced Lize and Erika to argue right next to me.
And to top it off, as they tussled, Erika's body would rub against my back too. That packed its own punch. Her chest might be modest, but it wasn't nonexistent.
She was a total knockout at her core anyway.
“We're here, newbie. This is the dining hall.”
Their endless sisterly squabble only ended when we reached the dining hall doors, with Erika backing off first. Lize looked triumphant for some reason.
As the dining hall came into view, Lize unlinked her arm. Guess she didn't plan to pull that in front of others. Or maybe she was just teasing me and Erika.
Lize leaned in and whispered in my ear with a smirk.
“If you're disappointed, just say so. I'll give you more anytime. You'll have to pay the price properly, though.”
“No thanks.”
What the hell would she even ask for?
The dining hall doors were enormous. Wide enough for three people with arms outstretched side by side, and twice my height.
I could've believed it if someone called them castle gates.
Erika grabbed one with a single hand and pulled, showing no strain. With a heavy *gruuumble*, the doors slowly swung open.
Even conservatively, the thickness was over a handspan. I doubted I could've budged them even at full strength.
Lize had already opened the other one. Watching her slender arm fling it wide reminded me of how she'd held back during our spar.
“What're you staring at so hard? Fell for me already?”
“I was just checking how thick the door is. This is the dining hall, right? Do the doors really need to be this beefy?”
“Oh, this? This used to be the lord's castle, remember? Apparently, it doubled as a shelter for emergencies. That's why the doors are so thick. Doesn't mean anything to us, so ignore it.”
The answer was simpler than expected. I stared at Lize. She tilted her head at my gaze.
“Hmm... That's surprisingly insightful.”
“What is?”
“I figured you'd say something like you had no idea about that.”
“You little...”
She grinned and grabbed both my cheeks. Just as she started pulling them side to side, a voice cut in from right beside us.
“Cut the nonsense and get inside, sis. And so what if the newbie noticed?”
“Prioritizing a newbie you've known for two hours over your sister of twenty-plus years? This hurts my feelings! You've gone so boy-crazy you—”
“One more word, and I'll dunk your head in the furnace. Shut it.”
We filed into the dining hall behind Lize, who was expertly grating on Erika's nerves. The first thing that caught my eye was a long rectangular table.
Only one chair on the length, and over twenty on the width at a glance—big enough for fifty-plus people by itself.
With four such tables, the hall was massively spacious. Exaggerating a bit, it could've doubled as a training ground.
“You're here.”
Iris greeted us from one table, where she sat alone eating quietly.
“What, you started without us?”
“I waited ten minutes.”
“Oh, right. We were a bit late.”
“Erika wouldn't neglect her duties... So you must've been up to something again, Lize.”
“Spot on, Iris. Sis was causing trouble again.”
Iris nailed the situation just from us being a little late.
Lize grumbled that it was unfair but didn't deny it—guess she had some conscience.
I left the three of them to their chat and surveyed the dining hall.
“...?”
In this vast space, we were the only four people there.