First Kiss (9)
Birds twittered and chirped.
Morning sunlight spilled down through the leaves.
The scorching night had passed, and a crisp morning offered its greeting.
"Mmm... nnh..."
Ariel's eyelids fluttered. Like a princess released from a curse after an endless sleep, her eyes slowly opened.
"Hah..."
Purple irises still hazed with drowsiness. Ariel blinked, drawing her blurry vision into focus.
She saw leaves glittering green, and sunlight pouring between them. Her consciousness turned with the slow, deliberate pace of a clock being wound. Her body felt light, as if she were floating on a cloud. The mind that had been wandering through dreams descended the stairs back into the waking world.
"Wh...at...?"
As her thoughts snapped taut, Ariel became aware of someone else's body heat. She was nestled against Lowen with her back to him. His right arm served as her pillow; his left was wrapped around her waist.
"I'm insane. Completely insane...!"
Half-naked and held in Lowen's arms. Her left breast had spilled freely from her habit, the pale flesh with its faintly visible blue veins gleaming as if polished by the sunlight. Atop that cherry-blossom-pink hill, a nipple rose shyly like a little tree.
It wasn't only her breast that had come free. The habit that normally fell past her knees was rolled up to her hips. The panties that ought to have been cradling her pussy hung wet and string-like around her right ankle.
"Eek...!"
Something twitched between her neatly closed thighs. It was Lowen's cock. The same cock that had spent the night in frottage and spilled its seed was nestled snugly between her plump pussy lips.
Everything they had done on impulse in the forest last night rose up in vivid detail.
"——"
Ariel covered her face with both hands and screamed without a sound. She shuddered at her own boldness. She had kissed him on impulse, rubbed her pussy against his cock, and even cooed and fawned over him.
"Mm... hoo..."
As she squirmed with embarrassment, Lowen stirred awake.
"Saintess. Good morning."
A greeting still thick with sleep. Lowen brought his nose to the crown of her head—conveniently right there—and stroked her belly.
"Hah...!"
His large hand caressed her smooth stomach. He poked her navel with a fingertip, kneaded the soft skin, then leisurely traced the lower abdomen where her stigma lay.
"Hnnngh..."
Goosebumps climbed her spine. Her whole body tingled—not in any place she could name, but with a restless, maddening itch.
"L-Lowen Bishop...!"
As the hand stroking her lower belly drifted steadily downward, Ariel stopped him in a panic. If he touched her now, it would be dangerous. Last night's heat still lingered; her pussy was hypersensitive. If Lowen's hand closed around it, she would climax right there in his arms, hips trembling. She could not let him see something that filthy first thing in the morning.
"Ah... I'm sorry."
Caught in the morning haze and about to touch her, Lowen halted his hand and came fully awake.
"Ah..."
Only then did he grasp the state they had slept in.
"I'm sorry."
He apologized again and drew away from her. As the cock nestled between her thighs slipped free, it dragged across her sensitive folds.
"Haaang...!"
Ariel flinched, her waist trembling, her buttocks clenching. She clapped a hand over her mouth at a sound embarrassing even to her own ears—but Lowen had already heard it.
An awkward silence settled. In that silence, the two of them dressed.
"Hwaah."
The moment she pulled up the panties hanging from her ankle, sticky fluid soaked into the fabric. It was Lowen's semen, spent in abundance. She had forgotten to wipe; the clumpy seed still coated her crotch thickly. Sticky. Unpleasant. But if she took them off, she would have to go without panties. She liked lewd things, but Ariel was not enough of a pervert to enjoy outdoor exposure. Even in a habit that fell past the knees, fabric without underwear would cling and fully reveal the deep cleft of her buttocks—and anyone who saw that rear view would know at once that she wasn't wearing any.
"Hnnngh..."
She had no choice. Ariel pulled on the semen-soaked panties, felt the cold dampness spread to her backside, and straightened her habit.
Lowen and Ariel walked side by side through Night Sky Spring Forest. An awkward current ran between them. Lowen treated her with his usual gentle smile, but Ariel could not find her composure. With every step she felt the semen rubbing against her skin. She was walking with her crotch thoroughly smeared in it. That alone was humiliating. Even fully dressed, she felt as if she were naked.
After a long stretch of silence, Lowen was the first to break the awkward air.
"Saintess."
At his call, Ariel hiccuped and looked up at him.
"Y-Yesh...!"
A thoroughly idiotic voice. An answer that made it painfully clear how conscious she was of him.
"I'm sorry about yesterday. I couldn't master my excitement and did something terrible to you."
"No!"
Ariel shook her head hard.
"Bishop Lowen did nothing wrong."
If blame were to be assigned, she was clearly the cause. The impulsively offered lips. And everything that had gone further still. Even if the mood had swept her up, Ariel had actively courted him. She couldn't say it aloud, but what she had wanted at first was penetration—not anal, but the front. Vaginal. She had wanted to beg him to spread her plump pussy lips and put his cock inside. Recognizing she was a Saintess, she had crushed that desire down hard. So instead of penetration, she had seduced him into rubbing against her. She had spread her legs, gathered her folds into a heart shape, and offered them to him.
"The fault is mine. I was the one who provoked you until you got excited... It's my fault."
"No. It's my fault for failing to hold back."
"It's my fault."
"It's my fault."
They bickered, each insisting the blame was theirs.
"Uggggh—!"
Locked in a staring contest, they slowly lifted the corners of their mouths and snickered.
"Hehe. We're fighting over something ridiculous, aren't we?"
"So we are."
In the end, both of them had enjoyed it, so there was no need to settle scores. And it wasn't as if a real problem had arisen.
"Besides, this isn't even the first time something like this has happened."
"Th-That's..."
Ariel flinched. Only a short while ago she had tried to have anal sex. And there were things Lowen didn't even know about—like the time she had used his sleeping hand to masturbate.
"Even so, Saintess, I would ask that you exercise a little more restraint going forward."
"I... am trying..."
Looking thoroughly ashamed, Ariel fidgeted with her fingers.
"When I was at the Grand Cathedral, I could somehow hold it in. But... but ever since I came to Baram-sae Forest, no matter how hard I try, I just can't hold it back at all."
She spoke as if making excuses. It was because she had escaped the pressure that space imposed. At the Grand Cathedral, countless eyes watched her every posture and countless ears pricked to catch her voice. Attending to all of that had forced her to smother her desires; somehow she had managed to endure her lust. But the cathedral in Baram-sae Forest? The only person living with her was Lowen—and from their very first meeting she had already shown him herself masturbating. There was nothing left to hide. Even when her vulgar side was exposed, the shame lasted only a moment and faded with time. And the fact that Lowen never reported her enthusiastic self-indulgence to the Holy See was one more thing that set her free.
"I'm not saying you must absolutely hold it in."
As a Saintess, a life of abstinence was proper. One of the chastities a Saintess was bound to keep was celibacy. But—
"Didn't I say we should reduce it gradually?"
The words he had spoken when he first met her, soothing her after catching her in the act.
Sexual desire—one of the three basic human needs. Forcibly suppressing its release was torture. Before she was a Saintess, Ariel was human; having lust was only natural. What Lowen wanted was not for her to kill her desire like a neutered puppy, but to acquire proper knowledge and relieve it in a healthy way. The Holy See seemed to prefer the former, but even so, that was far too cruel.
"As a human being, having such desires is only natural. What you must do, Saintess, is not eradicate them completely, but embrace them and manage and control them appropriately. As you know, being consumed by desire leads to ruin—but using desire well becomes a driving force. I hope you become someone who can properly restrain desire yourself, rather than being consumed by it. Though that's hardly something I should say, having failed to master my own lust after getting carried away by the mood last night. Haha."
Lowen scratched his cheek sheepishly.
"I'll help as well. At least while we're staying at the Baram-sae Forest cathedral, let's do our best."
He smiled gently and patted her head.
"...Yes!"
Ariel smiled bashfully and looked up at him. She declared war on the lust that flared so easily, like a bitch in heat. I'll put a leash on you, she vowed. And just as Lowen had said, she would try to control it.
But Ariel did not know. That at the very moment the vow solidified, another desire had taken root in a corner of her heart—an intense desire directed at Lowen himself.
"By the way, we look quite a mess."
Lowen's habit was torn in places and stained with blood. Ariel's wasn't torn, but the white fabric was heavily smeared with dirt.
"Once we reach town, let's eat something delicious and rest properly for a day."
"I'd like that!"
Lowen and Ariel left Night Sky Spring Forest behind and set out toward Rest Town, visible in the distance.