The Approaching Ones (4)
How many steps had he taken? It felt like a single instant, or perhaps only a few strides, yet suddenly hundreds of torai lay scattered at his feet. Marei trembled faintly at the inexplicable mystery of it all. The sensation was deeply unpleasant, as if his entire body had been shattered into tiny pieces and then reassembled. His stomach churned.
“It’s been a long time, Labella.”
At the sound of the familiar name, Marei hurriedly searched for the owner of the voice and discovered a girl in the corner holding a large broom. She seemed slightly older than Philia. But the girl had her eyes bound with a red cloth, and her sharply pointed golden fox ears were plastered with talismans scrawled in red ink—an eerie sight. Yet there was something sacred about her, which made him feel both uneasy and afraid. Strangely, though, he also felt an overwhelming sense of longing.
“Labella?”
The fox girl tilted her head as if she couldn’t see, then slowly approached in Marei’s direction.
“Ah… it’s not Labella. I thought it was her because I smelled so much of her scent. It’s someone else. Are you perhaps her mate?”
Whatever the fox girl was saying didn’t register in his ears at all. It was all so familiar. The sweet fragrance drifting from her as she drew closer, her voice, her appearance—everything felt intimately known. Without realizing it, Marei stepped toward her.
The fox girl before him still clutched the broom tightly with both hands, facing his direction. Or rather, since her eyes were covered by the red cloth and held no light whatsoever, it was more accurate to say she had turned her body toward him.
“Labella didn’t come?”
A pure white face. Not pathologically pale like Philia’s, but a clean, soft white that made one want to bite down and leave marks. Above it, pink lips with a hint of red. A thin, clear voice occasionally slipping from her small mouth.
“Yes… I came alone.”
He missed her. There was no other word that could describe Marei’s emotions. Strangely, the words wouldn’t come easily. His voice trembled so much that he worried whether he was even speaking properly. He feared his speech had come out slurred.
“Welcome. The cleaning is almost finished, so shall we go up and talk?”
Something was rising fiercely in his chest. If he spoke recklessly, he felt a strange scream might burst out, so he simply nodded. The small shrine maiden before him turned as if she had heard his answer and began walking carefully ahead.
Her hair, as if molten gold had been poured into it, sparkled mysteriously even in the shade of the trees, drawing the eye. Between the strands, a slender white nape was visible, and she wore a pure white top so immaculate that not a speck of impurity could be found, along with a red skirt that reached her ankles. As the fox girl walked ahead, hugging the broom dearly and carefully climbing the stairs, her red hakama lifted slightly, revealing soft white skin. A strange feeling stirred in Marei, and he deliberately averted his gaze.
“Do you like Labella?”
“…Ah, yes. Very much. I like her very much.”
Words he had never learned or heard before came to mind, rising up unbidden. At the strange sensation that seemed to churn through his head, Marei answered the shrine maiden’s question belatedly as she walked ahead.
Labella. Labella de Pawen.
He had never thought of his life as unhappy after losing his mother. There had been some shortcomings, but his relatives had certainly taken care of him, and he had lived within the framework of family that most people would agree upon. When he had been harboring vague fantasies about city life, Labella had contacted him, and he had simply come to Valter.
Of course, he was aware that turning the young woman who had offered to become his stepmother into something no different from a sex slave—and constantly pampering her inside and out with semen whenever they were home—was clearly abnormal. But for a young boy constantly surrounded by supreme female bodies clinging to him and begging for his seed, maintaining his center and continuing rational thought was nearly impossible.
Waking in the morning and releasing a load into his mother’s mouth. When she couldn’t swallow it all and it spilled deliberately over her white body, he would push down the alluring sight of his stepmother looking up at him, or flip her over and fill her with creampies full of the intent to impregnate her. While washing the soiled bodies, the naughty bitch they kept at home would spread her own sticky folds—slick from watching her master and mistress’s viscous sex—and take the young boy’s semen deep into her womb with her own hands.
Not content with pouring thick loads into the pleasant, tightly squeezing fleshpot, he would cover the platinum pubic hair, the soft yet firm belly of the bitch-like female teacher, her ample breasts, and her face with semen before starting the bath again. By then, his mother, who had finished preparing the meal, would beg almost like pleading on the edge of the tub while masturbating, numbing the young boy’s reason. Even as he scooped out the semen filling his mother’s pussy with his ferocious meat rod, he would inject fresh loads. Including the bitch elf who clung to him once more, the three of them would freely release their desires in the bathroom.
After pleasant ejaculations, he would embrace them, buried in the heated body temperatures of the sticky, aroused women. When he closed his eyes for a few minutes and got up, he would wash lightly as if he had enjoyed several hours of deep sleep, then begin a proper breakfast while receiving service from them on the desk and under the chair during the meal.
The school schedule varied, and there had been trips, so it wasn’t a completely fixed pattern. But even today, Marei had woken while everyone slept and, until it was time to leave the house, had cum inside Labella and Ilien’s pussies more than ten times. And then there was the alluring Erden waiting for him at the church, and Idrien, who was gradually becoming honest with her own desires and glancing at him with expectant eyes.
Surrounded by women who could make even a sage lose his self-control, the young boy physically lacked the time to understand the current situation logically or objectively. If not for his conversation with Philia today, he would have kept Julia and Idrien until this very moment, stuffing their bellies full of his still-immature but fresh seeds until they were late for class.
Anyway, living a life filled with supreme female bodies who did not hesitate to get pregnant from the young boy’s semen and his seemingly endless sexual desire, the existence of Labella de Pawen was the beginning of unbelievably pleasant days for Marei—and perhaps everything to him.
That was why, whenever her name came up naturally, the emotions that flowed out could not help but contain not only lust but endless gratitude and love.
Whether she knew this or not, the fox shrine maiden slowly climbing the stairs gave a faint smile and nodded slightly.
“That’s fortunate. It seems Labella has met someone who truly loves her.”
“Th-thank you.”
“It’s just a little farther, so hang in there.”
For Marei, whose stamina seemed infinite during sex but who otherwise seemed somewhat lacking in exercise, climbing the extremely high stairs was an incredibly arduous task. By the time his breath had risen to his throat and he felt like collapsing forward, they finally reached the “just a little farther” that the fox girl had mentioned.
After drinking the water the fox girl offered and catching his breath, Marei was finally able to return to reality. Living days steeped in carnal desire meant that if he let his mind wander even briefly, alluring female bodies would float up, making it hard to suppress his lust. If the fox girl hadn’t been covering her eyes, she would have immediately seen the ferocious, enormous penis—unbelievable as something belonging to a young boy, or even a human—swelling massively against his pants. It was an incredibly fortunate thing for Marei.
In the vast shrine where no signs of people could be found, and which would have felt desolate if not so neatly maintained, Marei realized an unknown fear and familiarity coexisted within him, making it strangely impossible to settle his gaze in one place.
“It is indeed an architectural style not seen on this continent. Would you like to take a closer look?”
“Ah, yes… thank you.”
His gaze had only been darting around, yet the fox shrine maiden somehow knew he was looking around and kindly guided him along the path. The girl who hadn’t even revealed her name. The polite speech she used toward Marei carried a strange sense of incongruity that continued to linger. Come to think of it, the girl walking ahead had called Labella simply by name, without formality. And though she couldn’t see, and didn’t seem to know him, she had thought he might be Labella’s mate.
Suddenly, his mind cleared. Why had he been following this girl? A girl whose identity he didn’t even know? Why did he feel such familiarity toward her? He was seeing her for the first time today. Why, upon seeing this girl…
“It’s only natural that it feels strange.”
The fox girl stopped walking. Behind the white top and red hakama, something was fluttering. Had it sprouted? Or had it been there from the beginning and he simply hadn’t noticed? What fluttered was a tail. Nine golden tails. The tips of the golden tails, glittering as if molten pure gold, were dyed white like a mountain at the first arrival of winter.
“I am not a beastkin. It might be more accurate to say I cannot be expressed as a ‘person.’”
The fox girl, who had clearly been several large strides ahead, was now suddenly right in front of Marei’s nose. Marei instinctively stepped back. Could she read thoughts?
“I cannot read all your thoughts. However, I can read the sticky desires blooming from you. And the strong scents… of the other women besides Labella that cling to your body.”
Marei unconsciously realized the meaning of the red cloth covering the girl’s eyes. He understood the purpose of the talismans plastered so thickly on her ears that it seemed grotesque.
“Why would Labella send you here?”
The fox girl was smiling. No—she wasn’t smiling.
“I… I…”
He had gotten lost and come here. It should have been a simple answer, but strangely, incomprehensibly, the words wouldn’t come out. Was it more accurate to say he felt wronged? His throat tightened, the tip of his nose stung, and tears welled up.
“If you’re a man, speak without crying.”
Polite, yet gentle and courteous speech. But within it lay an immense pressure, so Marei could not easily speak. The fox girl before him showed no reaction whatsoever to the young boy who looked on the verge of tears and simply stood there.
“If it’s hard for you to speak first, shall I begin?”
The girl before him was aggressive. No, hostile was more accurate. The fox girl’s appearance hadn’t changed at all. Yes, she had been hostile toward Marei from the beginning. She simply hadn’t said it, and he simply hadn’t known.
At that trivial truth, Marei could no longer hold back the tears leaking out. It wasn’t because he was being attacked. It wasn’t because he was being interrogated. It was just, just, just—the word repeated endlessly.
“I am the nameless shrine maiden who manages this shrine…”
“Ran-nim.”
The name of the girl before him was Ran. Marei knew it. But he couldn’t remember why he knew. He simply knew her name was Ran.
“You didn’t hear my name from Labella.”
“Ran-nim.”
He called the name of the shrine maiden before him once more. The sobs leaked out uncontrollably, surging endlessly. Because of that, his throat closed up, and from his tightly shut mouth burst the sound of weeping.
The shrine maiden—Ran—pressed her lips tightly together. With her eyes sealed and her ears forcibly closed, Ran was observing Marei.
“Did that young saint send you? The scent is faint…”
Saint Erden. It wasn’t her. Marei shook his head. The way she looked down at him from so close, the faint scent of flesh, the sweet fragrance—it was all so longed for, and it strangely churned his heart.
“I don’t know why. When I look at you, I miss you.”
With a deep sigh, Marei spoke in a suppressed voice. Ran said nothing. She simply looked at him. The eyes covered by red bandages seemed to gaze at Marei beyond the seal. But as if she couldn’t see clearly, a slight wrinkle formed on her delicate forehead.
“Ran-nim, have we met before?”
Without realizing it, Marei took a step closer to Ran. Close enough for their bodies to touch. Close enough for their breaths to mingle. Ran remained motionless, simply looking at him.
“I might be going crazy. But… strangely, I miss you. Your name comes to mind, your appearance comes to mind, your voice comes to mind.”
“………Mari.”
After a long silence, the familiar name flowed from Ran’s lips. Mari. A name he missed so terribly. And a name he could never meet again.
“Ran-nim, do you know my mother?”
“Aah…..”
An intermittent moan escaped Ran’s lips. With hands trembling so badly it would pain anyone watching, she gently stroked Marei’s cheek. Since she couldn’t see, her hand had brushed past his neck, his ear, and the empty air several times before finally settling quietly on his cheek.
“It was you. It was you, Marei.”
“Do you know me?”
Instead of answering, Ran nodded. The feeling that had been pressing down on his body, the sense that he should avoid her—it all vanished without a trace.
“You were Mari’s child. That small, tiny child who filled my arms. Mari’s child.”
Ran was crying. When he saw her tears, the heavy emotion that had been crushing his chest strangely cooled and faded. Marei no longer cried and simply looked at her.