Because It's Impolite
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Nngh...
The sound came again, a deep, even pulse against my back. This is comfortable... so warm. Another thud, solid enough that I could feel it through my whole body. Wait. Where am I? Yesterday I was—
My eyes flew open.
The heartbeat behind me. The hard, unyielding warmth of his body wrapped around my back. The instant those sensations registered, yesterday came flooding in.
I had fallen asleep in Kyle's arms while he told me about his past. A fate so lonely and terrifying he could never let it show — I couldn't even begin to imagine how hard it had been. Then that trembling voice, asking me to stay beside him because my presence gave him strength. It was the first time I had ever heard him sound so desperate. When I said yes, he pulled me tight against him and thanked me.
That much closeness should have bothered me. Strangely, it hadn't. If anything, the thought that I could be a source of strength for him had filled me with a swelling, unexpected pride.
Well. He did ask me, and we're bound by a contract. This much should be fine.
I thought that, and tried to sit up. His arms did not give. The ones locked around me might as well have been carved from stone.
"Nngh... hnn, come on..."
"You up?"
The familiar voice came from behind me the moment I put any real force into prying his arm away.
"Yes. You're awake."
"Sleep well?"
"Yes, I, um—"
Hold on. This was the kind of exchange couples had in the morning. I swallowed the rest of the answer that had been about to slip out and spoke instead.
"You haven't forgotten that I used to be a man, right?"
He did not look like he believed a word of it. Kyle just gave me a flat, thoroughly unimpressed stare.
"Guess I'll have to try harder... Come on. Let's eat."
"Try harder at what?!"
I'm a man! You're going to regret this! I all but shouted it at his back, but he was already walking out to get breakfast.
"Tsk."
I had a woman's body now, and I still acted more like a man than anyone I knew. The fact that he refused to believe me left a strangely hollow little ache in my chest.
After breakfast, Kyle told me we had a dungeon to clear today.
"A-class dungeons have been popping up left and right lately. It's been a grind. I promised you an easy schedule, and I mean it when I say I'm sorry."
He was apologizing because the raids had been coming one after another. I didn't need the apology. Being able to do a hunter's duty made me happy, and I told him so with a smile.
"It's fine! That's my job. And if I go with you, I feel like I could walk into a dungeon every single day."
It was true. Back in Korea, a raid ran over two hours as a baseline, and I burned through so many shields that my mana would bottom out until I could barely walk. Kyle was different. Two shields, two buffs, and he would smash an A-class dungeon to pieces in thirty minutes. By the time the raid was over, I was still fresh.
A sharp crack cut through the air. I must have imagined it.
"I'll go get ready, then."
"..."
Even after I spoke, Kyle said nothing. He just stood there chewing on his lower lip.
Is he in pain?
He shouldn't be.
My worry turned out to be wasted. Kyle and I cleared the A-class dungeon like it was nothing. Same as always — thirty minutes from the moment we started, and every last monster inside was gone.
"Good work, Sera."
"You too."
He told me I'd done well again today. I had gotten so used to hearing it that I smiled and gave the greeting right back.
"Hold still."
He said it and stepped in close without warning. His right hand swept down over my lower belly three times, a light, even stroke.
"You had a bit of dirt on you."
Ah.
I couldn't focus on a word he was saying. The moment he tapped my stomach, yesterday came rushing up behind my eyes.
Pat. Pat. Pat.
"Let's go."
His voice arrived with the memory — the same voice I had heard last night. That same unnameable comfort settled over me again.
"W-wait, let's go together..."
He had already turned to leave. I stuck close to his back. For some reason, the second I drifted even a step away from him, a thin thread of unease pulled tight in my chest.
"Come here."
The man lying on the bed and calling for Sera was Kyle. She flinched at the order, then slowly crossed the room and lay down beside him. He drew her in from behind at once, locking her into the cage of his arms.
"Good girl, Sera."
He was praising her for doing as she was told. She had always been weak to praise, and he was counting on it.
"Th-that's... not something I should be praised for."
She tried to push the compliment away, embarrassed — but Kyle only gave it to her again.
"No. You did well. You're so pretty, Sera."
His hand settled on her lower belly and began to pat, slow and even. Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.
His voice at her ear. The sweetness of the praise. The steady, grounding rhythm against her stomach. The strength ran out of Sera's body, and she couldn't answer.
Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.
He whispered it low against her ear while she was sinking into the comfort he was giving her.
He's right... that isn't polite...
She agreed with him. The protagonists she had always admired in her novels never lost their manners, no matter how much power they held. They lived among people without putting themselves above anyone. Courtesy had always mattered to her.
Kyle didn't know any of that in detail. He had simply noticed how much weight she placed on being polite — and he used it, whispering into her ear again.
"Manners matter, don't they?"
Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.
They... do, don't they...?
"So from now on, you don't get to reject the compliments I give you."
Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.
Right. Turning down Kyle's praise would be impolite.
"You understand?"
Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.
"..."
"You have to answer me."
The patting stopped.
Ah—!
The instant Kyle's hand went still, a raw, plunging emptiness opened in her. It felt as if some deep root that had been holding her up had been torn out of the ground in one pull.
It's because I didn't answer. And that isn't polite.
She believed it completely. The words came out in a rush.
"Y-yes... I understand."
Kyle couldn't keep the smile off his face. She had come over to his side, exactly as he wanted. She was almost painfully lovely like this. He praised her for answering and set his hand moving on her belly again.
"Good girl."
Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.
"You're so pretty, Sera."
Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.
Pretty... But I'm a man. Still, refusing the praise he gives me would be—
She hesitated, and his hand stopped again. The comforting rhythm vanished, and Sera went sharp with panic.
No. That's not polite. I have to accept the compliments he gives me.
"Yes. Thank you..."
"Pretty. And you're going to keep doing as you're told."
Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.
"Yes."
The moment he heard her answer, Kyle eased the arm around her waist just enough to find her hand and take it.
"Ah—!"
Her surprise didn't slow him. He laced his fingers through hers as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
What—?!
He hadn't asked. He had simply taken her hand. She ought to have felt a surge of rejection — and yet.
"Your hands are pretty too. Pretty enough that I want to keep touching them."
Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.
"...Thank you."
Between the praise and the steady patting, her pale hand lay open and undefended, letting him in.
"That's it. Good girl."
Still praising her, Kyle took the hand that had been patting her belly and closed it around her other one. He laced those fingers too, and then he simply... played with her. Traced her. Did as he pleased.
"Your right hand is pretty as well. So soft. I really love it, Sera."
The hand on her stomach was gone, and she accepted the situation anyway — because he was still praising her. Both of his hands were on hers now, wandering wherever they wanted, and all she did was thank him.
"Th-thank you..."
"That's it. You did well. Get some rest now, Sera."
His fingers tightened through hers, a firm, claiming squeeze.
"Y-yes..."
The grip of his hand locked through her own sent a strange, deep calm through her. Held like that, Sera drifted under.
Kyle looked down at the girl asleep with her fingers still tightly laced through his.
First he had taught her to find comfort in his praise. Then in the hand patting her belly. Tonight, in the simple fact of their hands locked together. Piece by piece, he was widening the range of what she would accept from his body.
On the surface, the training was going smoothly. Kyle did not let himself relax. Everything he had done so far had only taught her to feel safe with him. He knew exactly what that made him: her sedative. Her sleeping pill. Nothing more.
If the training was going to work the way he intended, she would have to take her calm from him alone — and still end up breathless, flushed, and aching when his hands turned frank. For that, Sera would have to see him as a man.
"This won't be easy."
She clung so fiercely to the claim that she was male. Kyle intended to train her thoroughly all the same, until she admitted on her own that she was a female — until she lit up at being called pretty and came into his arms of her own accord.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. He held the old line in his mind, already looking forward to the day he would take the fruit called Sera, and fell asleep with her gathered against him.
Something had a hard hold on my hand. The unfamiliar pressure pulled my eyes open.
"Mmh?"
I tried to sit up inside that same solid, warm circle of a man's arms I had felt yesterday — and there were our hands, still laced together.
Ah.
Last night came in like a tide. Kyle's hand on my stomach. The order not to refuse his praise. Why had I gone along with it so helplessly?
"Awake?"
His greeting cut through the thought. I turned to look at him. He was still lying there, gazing up at me, and he still hadn't undone our fingers.
"You're pretty today, too."
A compliment, delivered the second I opened my eyes, as if it cost him nothing. I didn't care for it. But not accepting praise wasn't polite.
"Ah— um. Thank you."
I answered him, and then I dropped my gaze. For some reason, meeting his eyes had become too embarrassing to bear.