Dark Moon
This was wrong. He had to stop.
Reason scolded the body. But a vigorous, blood-hot body could not free itself from lust.
Slick. Slick.
The firmness of No. 31’s thighs and the soft, moist, yielding feel of her pussy registered fully against his cock.
Pleasure rising from below steadily erased what remained of his reason.
Can’t help it. I’ve held out too long.
From the moment he had become No. 211 inside the Dark Moon game, he had not masturbated even once. There had been no room for it. Eyes followed him wherever he went, and jerking off in the only place he could shake those eyes—the bathroom—felt too pathetic, while magic training left him short on time as it was.
Desire had surged up again and again, and somehow he had endured it. No—the situation had left him no choice but to endure.
Lust left unreleased for so long had brought wet dreams. Only a few days after the last one in his bunk, he had come in his sleep twice more. His physical ability sat below average next to the rest of the squad, yet his libido ran remarkably high.
All that piled-up desire exploded now.
He buried his face in No. 31’s full breasts. He could feel the beat of her heart. Whether his body heat had reached her as well, she felt warmer than before. He parted his lips and took her nipple into his mouth. As far as he could remember, it was the first woman’s nipple he had ever bitten down on—and strangely, it felt familiar.
Some kind of instinct? Or does the body still remember being a newborn?
No. 31’s nipple had no taste. And yet it tasted good. He rolled it with his tongue, lightly chewed to confirm its hardness, and sucked. Of course no milk came.
He lifted his mouth. The pink nipple looked larger than a moment ago. The matching pink areola glistened with his saliva.
This breast—he had conquered it.
A peculiar satisfaction settled in him as he sucked the other nipple the same way.
The last… just don’t cross the last line.
Even as scorching excitement thinned his reason, he refused to let go of that final thread.
Rubbing his cock against her thighs and pussy, he felt a tidal wave of pleasure slam through his skull.
Twitch. Twitch.
His body shuddered as he emptied what was inside him. Heaven seemed to hang right before his eyes.
After the brief climax, regret arrived with returning reason. Once the roaring lust died, reason froze over colder still.
…To do something this pathetic, dragged around by lust…
He swallowed the sigh that tried to escape and pushed himself up for a moment. Looking down, he saw his spent cock. A white fluid, sticky beyond reason, still clung in a thread from the tip of the glans.
He shook his cock once to fling the semen free and looked at No. 31’s private place.
…A lot of cum.
A large cock and plenty of semen. He set aside the odd male pride that rose with that thought and considered cleanup. Magic was impossible, so he settled on a handkerchief.
Carefully he wiped the semen from No. 31’s thighs and pussy. He focused hard so no trace would remain. He parted her folds and cleaned what had gone inside as well. Of course he also wiped what clung to the purple pubic hair that grew like grass.
When the cleanup was neat, he fed the handkerchief into the campfire.
Her body temperature’s still low. I should keep holding her.
He pulled No. 31 close again. This time his cock did not rise. About two minutes later it hardened once more. Desire naturally surged up with it, but unlike before, cold reason seized control of the lust.
He shifted his body just enough to feel her skin and stroked her pussy with his palm. The feel of No. 31’s pussy was something he would not forget no matter how much time passed.
Her temperature’s coming back. Time to pull away.
No. 31’s eyelids moved, then snapped fully open. His eyes reflected in her red irises.
“…I had no choice if I was going to save you. Without this, you’d have died of hypothermia.”
The excuse came out by reflex.
No. 31 rolled her eyes, then pressed her lips tight and flushed. After a brief silence she spoke.
“…Understood. Move.”
He moved.
She sat up, naturally covering her breasts with one arm and lifting a thigh to hide her private place.
He buried the burning inside him and pretended calm. No. 31’s gaze dipped slightly. He felt her eyes on his erect cock.
“This is instinct. I swear I didn’t do anything.”
“…I know.”
No. 31 glanced once at her own pussy, then rose. To his mind, she had checked her virginity. If the hymen had torn, she would have felt pain.
Good I didn’t cross that last line.
She seemed to have no intention of holding him responsible, and that eased him.
No. 31 stretched a palm toward the underwear and clothes she had spread near the fire. Mana rose from her. The mana became a formula and took shape as magic. A dry wind stripped the moisture from the wet clothes in an instant. She repeated the process several times, then calmly put on the dry clothes.
A plain issue panty hid her private place; a bra fixed her full breasts in place. Over that she pulled on her uniform, and she looked no different from usual.
“No. 211. Get dressed.”
She had dried his clothes as well. He put them on without protest. Even after dressing, the erection did not settle easily. No. 31’s naked body and private parts kept rising in his mind.
His excellent memory would hold No. 31’s bare form until the day he died.
“Situation?”
No. 31 asked evenly.
Starting from her berserk episode, he told her everything—the fight with Instructor Vinous, falling beneath the waterfall. Facts that needed no hiding. Of course he said not a single word about the ability he possessed.
The erection subsided while he explained.
“…Thank you for saving me.”
“Nah. Just did what a squadmate should.”
“Without you I would have died. I’ll repay this debt someday.”
“Yeah.”
He did not tell her not to repay it.
Silence settled. He felt a slight awkwardness. Curiosity about her rose to the tip of his tongue, but he held it down with patience. Being her life’s savior had not completely changed their relationship.
“No. 211. Aren’t you curious?”
“…About what?”
“About me. You must have all kinds of questions. Yet you never ask even once.”
“Because I don’t think I could handle the answers.”
“…….”
No. 31 quietly nodded.
Perhaps it was not the answer she had wanted. He did not regret it.
Several hours after the morning sun rose, Instructor Vinous and soldiers found them. They returned safely to the unit.
First Squad had taken no casualties, and Instructor Vinous gave First Squad the most generous evaluation.
He, in particular, was called in separately and even received a reward.
“No. 211. Well done.”
This was not praise for him as First Squad’s leader. It was for throwing his body in to save No. 31. The favor of Instructor Vinous, who held considerable influence in the 667 Unit, was not a bad thing.
“I’ll give you a personal reward. Is there something you want?”
“…I would like to eat a meal from a high-class restaurant.”
Instructor Vinous raised an eyebrow as if that were unexpected.
“A high-class restaurant meal? Not fond of the unit mess?”
He shook his head. Funding was generous enough that the mess was quite good. Nothing lacking on the nutrition side.
“Not at all. It’s just… for a long time I’ve wanted to try high-class restaurant food at least once if the chance ever came.”
His palate was the problem.
The mess was edible—nothing more. He never got the sense it was delicious. Nostalgic flavors like cola might have been another story.
The more mess he ate, the stronger the craving for real good food grew.
“Hmm. A nuisance, but not a difficult request. I’ll cut you a leave pass for this weekend. On the condition you go with Instructor Lexy.”
A leave pass. Eyes round at a reward he had never expected, he saluted Instructor Vinous.
“Th-thank you, sir!”
“The reward still feels light next to the merit. Anything else you want?”
He hesitated a moment, then opened his mouth ready for Vinous’s cold reception.
“I want a secret magic tome. Even a low-grade secret magic would do—I simply want to study one.”
Magic in this world split into two kinds.
Public magic and secret magic.
Public magic was open to the masses and easy to obtain if you had money.
Secret magic was not open to the public and hard to obtain even with money.
The more interest he took in magic, the more secret magic kept nagging at him. He wanted to see for himself how the formulas differed from public magic.
“Coveting a secret magic tome, are you. You’ve become a proper mage. There are a few low-grade military secret magics. I’ll get those for you.”
“Thank you, sir!”
He offered a ringing thanks. Of course that did not mean he had come to respect Instructor Vinous. The dagger of hatred stayed hidden deep in his heart. It simply was not the time yet.
“By the way, I saw the barrier application you used yesterday. Did you copy it after watching me?”
He could not answer yes.
An ordinary mage did not immediately copy another mage’s application just from seeing it. And his level was lower than Vinous’s.
“I’ve practiced applications on my own. I thought that if you shifted the idea a little, you could shrink a barrier and use it as a foothold. …It was my first time using it in real combat, so I failed at the decisive moment.”
“A bit of a shame. Raise the barrier’s repulsive force. It’ll feel freer.”
“Thank you for the advice.”
Instructor Vinous waved a hand. Meaning he could go. He saluted and stepped out.
In the corridor he met No. 31. Their gazes crossed in empty air. Neither of them bothered to speak. They passed each other and went their ways.
Yet somehow the invisible gap between her and him felt a little narrower.
He went out of the unit with Instructor Lexy.
They rode a military jeep toward a nearby city. Lexy drove. Her driving was considerably rough. It felt like they had been running for an hour, yet the time spent under 100 km/h did not even reach ten minutes.
Police cars had chased them for speeding three times alone.
This world has strong military authority, so we got cut loose right away.
Dark Moon was a dangerous world where even soldiers died easily. Monsters, national wars, criminal-organization terror, the influence of the Dark Moon itself—ordinary people had a hard time surviving without the army’s protection. Strong military authority was only natural.
In the passenger seat he watched the scenery outside carefully and memorized the roads.
“We’re here! Come on, out!”
Lexy said.
Instructor Vinous, who handed out leave passes so easily, and Instructor Lexy, who put no restraints on him at all—both of them were loose.
…No. They know that with the slave brand carved into me, nothing I do matters.
They entered a high-class restaurant blazing with flashy neon signs.
“A place that charges a full fifty thousand credits for one course. When Vinous spends money, he goes all out, huh.”
Credits were this world’s common currency. An ordinary citizen’s monthly wage ran about a hundred thousand credits.
“…Is this Instructor Vinous’s personal money?”
Lexy answered his question with a sly smile.
“Half and half?”
“…….”
The word embezzlement floated up, and he erased it from his mind at once. Whether Instructor Vinous embezzled or not was none of his concern. He only needed to take what he could get.
Fifty thousand credits for a course meal…. Looking forward to this.
Money did not lie.
Dishes made from ingredients he had never seen in his life satisfied his tongue superbly.
After that, Instructor Lexy—wanting to feel the air of society again after so long—dragged him here and there until they returned just before evening roll call.