The Lie
…Anything more than this was impossible.
“Ugh. Kill me.”
Far from growing used to it with time, the shame only swelled larger and larger until I finally broke. I raised the white flag with the words northern knights supposedly used when admitting defeat.
“See? Wouldn’t it have been so much better if you’d given up sooner?”
“Shut up…”
She’d already figured I’d throw in the towel around today, apparently. Lucy had shown up at my room first thing that morning with a whole bundle of bandages in her arms.
Just a little while ago I’d nodded along when she suggested wrapping my chest as a temporary fix.
“Nngh… Be gentle…”
So there I was, stripped in front of Lucy, both wings raised high like I was surrendering, fighting down the weird little sounds that tried to escape every time the soft bandage brushed across the tips of my breasts.
“Ahaha. I don’t have anything this impressive myself, so I have no idea how tight to pull.”
I would never understand women as a species.
Breasts were nothing but a nuisance when you moved, so what the hell was supposed to be so great about them…?
—Squeeze.
“Ghk.”
“I can see exactly what you’re thinking, Ren.”
Lucy’s voice whispered right behind me, thick with murderous intent.
“…Okay, okay, just ease up a little, will you? I’m going to suffocate at this rate.”
I looked down at the bandage crushing my chest like it meant to split it clean in half.
…A little more and it really was going to turn into four.
“There. Done.”
“Thanks.”
Under Lucy’s thoroughly jealous stare I finished wrapping my chest, pulled my clothes back on, and—
“…Oh.”
It felt a bit constricting, sure, but everything moved so much more freely than usual that I bounced in place a few times just to test it, a strange little thrill running through me.
“I should’ve done this ages ago. I can see my feet properly and nothing’s in the way!”
“…So that’s the world people with big chests live in.”
I carefully avoided looking at Lucy, who was standing there with a hand on her own flat chest and a thoroughly dejected expression, and spoke again.
“Anyway, I’m counting on you for a while.”
Now that I knew how comfortable it actually was, I’d decided to live like this until I could get new clothes made.
“Consider it repayment for all the times you let me borrow your wings.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
The empty space under my arms still bothered me a little, but this much I could handle.
“…So you finally gave up.”
“Oh, hey.”
“Good morning, Cheonyu.”
Lucy and I stepped out of the room and ran straight into Cheonyu, who was approaching with her usual armful of documents.
“I don’t know the circumstances, but please take better care of your body.”
“What, you’re just leaving?”
“Yes. From the beginning I only followed you around to keep the area under control because Ren’s embarrassed flailing was far too indecent.”
She fired off the scathing remark like it was nothing, then turned on her heel and walked away.
“…That’s just mean. Seriously.”
“She’s not wrong, though.”
According to Lucy, Cheonyu had barely slept these past few days and done nothing but work. Even for an injured person, that felt a little excessive…
“Honestly, between the captain and everyone else, this world has way too many workaholics.”
“My point exactly.”
If they were doing it because they wanted to, what could you really say?
And so, leaving Huey—who had stepped away to help with the paperwork shortage—to his own devices, Lucy and I were strolling through the castle as usual when—
“…Ugh.”
“Ren?”
I’d thought covering my chest would finally end the embarrassment, but suddenly my whole body started heating up.
“Haa…”
No one was even looking this time, yet it was happening anyway. The egg wriggling around in my belly had to be the culprit.
“What’s wrong… Ah.”
Lucy let out a soft sound of realization the moment she saw me carefully cradling my stomach.
“If it’s too much, shall we head back for today?”
“…Yeah, that’d be better.”
The heat was incomparable to anything I’d felt before. This time I probably wasn’t getting out of it so easily.
“Then rest well.”
“Mm. See you tomorrow.”
Back in my room, Lucy unbound the bandages around my chest and left. I saw her off, then—
“Haa…”
—collapsed onto the bed with a long sigh.
“Do I really have to do that…?”
Last time I’d managed to stop myself with whatever scraps of reason I still had left. But looking at how hot my body already was, I honestly didn’t trust myself this round.
“Nngh…”
Was I going to spend the whole night grinding my thighs together like some animal in heat, only to wander around the next day even more sensitive and unsatisfied?
Or was I going to just close my eyes, get it over with once, and sleep in peace?
My choice was…
The following evening.
Ever since the Living Dead incident, the servants had been determined to show me exactly what “exquisite hospitality” looked like. Their over-the-top attentiveness was starting to feel more oppressive than comforting.
“Nngh…”
When the hell were those utensils they kept promising finally going to be finished? The fact that I needed someone to feed me every single meal still left me full of complaints as I rolled around on the bed.
—Twitch.
The signal I’d been waiting for finally arrived.
“Haaah.”
Maybe it was because I’d been uncharacteristically agonizing over this since yesterday. My body had already been half-warmed before the signal even came, so the mere arrival of the laying urge pulled a heated moan straight out of my mouth.
“…Gulp.”
Unlike usual, I carefully wrapped both wings around my belly so the egg wouldn’t slip free, then rose from the bed and quietly made my way toward Huey’s room, a little ways down from the guest quarters.
Lucy must have realized today was my expected laying day. She’d given me a little “don’t worry about it” signal earlier, so I wouldn’t be interrupted.
I leaned my forehead against Huey’s door and—
—Thud. Thud.
—knocked with my forehead instead of the wings and legs that couldn’t move freely.
A moment later:
—Just a moment.
Huey’s voice came through the paper-covered sliding door—a jangji door, I think they called it. He was speaking in Gaon’s language, so he probably thought a servant or someone else had come by.
—Rattle.
“What is i— Ren?”
He’d been making talismans again today, apparently. The faint scent of dye clinging to his hands tickled my nose.
“…I’m coming in for a bit.”
“Wh— huh?”
I couldn’t meet the eyes of the flustered Huey. Having already come this far, I decided to just let whatever happen and barged into his room, then—
—Thump.
“Haa…”
—sank onto the edge of his bed with a sigh of pure relief.
“What’s going on all of a sudden?”
Huey asked, face full of worry as he looked at me.
“I— it’s… well…”
I’d come all the way here ready to throw pride out the window just to escape this stifling heat, yet the moment I tried to say why I’d come, my voice refused to work.
I sat there stammering uselessly for a while until—
—Wriggle.
“Haaah…”
“…Ren?”
The sensation of the egg shifting inside me made it clear I was out of time to stall.
“…It…”
“Hm?”
“The egg… won’t come out…”
“Cough! Hack!”
I kept my head bowed low so Huey wouldn’t see how burning hot my face had become, and quietly waited for his coughing fit to stop.
“Ahem. Sorry— could you say that one more time?”
“…The egg won’t come out.”
Once I’d forced it out the first time, the second wasn’t nearly as hard.
Of course, lying still left a little twinge of conscience…
“Could you… help me…?”
Huey was the one who’d turned me into this body in the first place. He had some responsibility here, didn’t he?
“If that’s the case, you should ask Lucy—”
“…If her hands touch my belly I’m terrified the egg will break.”
Even setting every other reason aside, the girl’s complete lack of fine motor skills made me genuinely uneasy about entrusting my stomach to her.
And though the odds were low… if I let Lucy help and somehow ended up becoming conscious of her hands the same way I had with Huey’s…
…I’d clearly be suffering through a body that heated up every single night.
“Haa.”
Huey seemed to accept that, at least. He let out a deep sigh.
“…Helping you up until now was one thing—the situation left us no choice.”
Then he dropped to one knee right in front of me, looking up at my lowered face.
“This time, though, I think I’m entitled to a fair price.”
As if he’d seen straight through my lie, Huey smiled brightly and said it.
…A fair price.
“If you don’t want to, forget it.”
With that, he left the choice entirely to me, stood up, and walked over to the window with his hands clasped behind his back.
…Yeah. I’d already steeled myself to a certain extent.
“I… don’t mind.”
“…What?”
I nodded and answered, and Huey looked thoroughly startled.
He’d probably been sure I’d refuse.
“…I said I don’t mind.”
But he’d overlooked something important: my already-thin patience had finally hit its absolute limit.
“So if you’re going to do it… just hurry up…”
I did my best to hide my exploding face behind my wings as I lay back on Huey’s bed and said it.
…And if I claimed I wasn’t looking forward to the pleasure that was about to follow…
That would be a lie.