To the Brink of a Bursting Heart
His heart felt like it was about to burst. “Is this all…?” Kyle exhaled as he stared at the cross tattoo on the back of his hand, its light slowly fading away.
The stigmata the Saintess had engraved on him had exactly two functions. It could heal wounds or bestow blessings on the body or a blade. It wasn’t something he could use indefinitely—roughly three times per day. Any more than that and the stigmata would lose its glow and vanish.
Not bad…
Still, gaining a superpower he could freely use up to three times a day with zero cost was an incredible windfall. After all, holy power was a contradictory ability that anyone could theoretically obtain yet not just anyone could actually wield. The fact that he, an aura user, could harness that holy power was a massive advantage.
Why give something like this to me?
What he couldn’t understand was why she had bestowed such a remarkable gift on him. If the Saintess could brand anyone with this tattoo, the Holy Kingdom would have already conquered the world. The fact that they hadn’t, and that he had never seen similar marks on other holy knights, proved that wasn’t the case. Something they didn’t readily grant even to holy knights within their own organization had been handed over without hesitation to him—a complete stranger?
There’s something shady about this. What is it?
Yet no matter how hard Kyle wracked his brain, he couldn’t figure out the Saintess’s true intentions. Deciding that a good thing was a good thing, he finished his training and returned to his room.
When Yuri, who had been continuing her magic research inside, saw Kyle come back reeking of sweat, she pinched her nose and frowned deeply.
“…Go wash up before you come in.”
“I’m going to shower in the room anyway.”
“Then hurry up and do it.”
Leaving the scowling Yuri behind, Kyle stepped straight into the bathroom. He finished showering with the magic shower device, dried his body with a towel, and came back out.
Yuri glanced at the freshly washed Kyle, then flinched and quickly turned her head away.
“…Put some clothes on.”
“It’s my room. What’s the problem?”
Kyle snorted at Yuri’s overly sensitive reaction, then walked to the closet and began dressing. He could feel her gaze burning into the back of his head. She was pretending not to look, yet she clearly had quite an interest in his body. Well, she was a teenager too—at that age when curiosity about the male form naturally blossomed. As someone had once said, it would be stranger if she didn’t cause some kind of trouble at this stage.
Once he had put on all his clothes, Kyle turned around, walked over to Yuri—who had whipped her head away—and pressed a kiss to her cheek. He grinned at her rapidly reddening face, then flung himself onto the bed.
The training-heated body cooled by the bath, the pleasant release of his loosened muscles—he savored every second. The languid feeling that washed over him was so perfect he almost wished this moment could repeat forever.
Kyle offered no resistance to the sensation and simply drifted off into the land of dreams.
…Has he fallen asleep?
Yuri, who had been continuing her magic research beside Kyle, heard his contented breathing and carefully rose from her seat. She approached the sleeping Kyle, quietly cast a spell on herself, then slipped into the bed beside him with movements so faint they wouldn’t wake him.
It was slightly disappointing that the scent she had enjoyed earlier had faded because he had just bathed.
…Kyle.
There was no doubt that her fiancé liked her. He looked at her with loving eyes, expressed affection without hesitation, and often stole glances at her chest with a sly expression that bordered on indecent.
Yet at the same time, Yuri sometimes wondered whether he truly loved her. He would kiss her, but never go further. He talked about wanting to touch her breasts, yet never actually reached for them. He said he loved her, but never tried to claim her body.
Kyle, Kyle, Kyle…
The longer it went on, the more impatient she became. She wanted to be pinned down firmly by his hands. She wanted to be crushed against his chest until her body broke. She wanted to be ravaged by his scent, his body heat, his marks.
Lacking the courage to say it outright, she sent these signals every single day. At some point, her body had reached the point where simply smelling him was enough to excite her.
I like you.
Not out of noble obligation, but genuinely. As one person to another. As a man and a woman. As a male and a female.
She yearned for him.
“Kyle, I love you.”
She whispered the words carefully into his ear.
Perhaps her voice had tickled him. Kyle, who had been letting out faint moans in his sleep, suddenly pulled her tightly into his arms.
Pressed against his solid chest, Yuri squirmed, trying to escape his embrace, but quickly realized she couldn’t get free without waking him. In the end, she gave up on escaping and instead nestled deeper into his arms, savoring the feeling of him.
Her vision was filled with nothing but him. His heartbeat echoed around her. His scent completely saturated her senses.
That alone was enough to fill Yuri with a profound sense of satisfaction.
“Mmm… Yuri? What are you doing here?”
“─!!”
Yuri, who had been sniffing and clinging to him, realized Kyle was awake and panicked. She buried her face even deeper into his chest so he couldn’t see it. Then, in a tiny, crawling voice, she murmured.
“…It’s your fault.”
“Huh?”
“You pulled me in while sleep-talking, Kyle. That’s why I’m like this…”
It was an absurd excuse—an Aura Master unconsciously dragging her over without realizing it—but Kyle simply chuckled and stroked her back.
“Yeah, my bad. So it’s okay if I mess up a little more, right?”
“…No. Let go. Now.”
“I’ll take all the punishment at once later.”
With that, Kyle pulled her even tighter against him. Feeling her entire body on the verge of breaking from his powerful embrace, Yuri let out a faint moan.
Her heart began to race as if it would explode. Blood rushed through her so quickly her head started to grow hazy. She wondered if she might actually lose her mind at this rate.
Yet Kyle never released her.
In the end, Yuri only managed to return to her own room after she had become so dazed she felt strange for the rest of the day.
Hmm… I see. You’ve done well, Count.
It’s unfortunate that one city was destroyed… but a city can always be rebuilt. Don’t you agree?
Then you take care of it.
It means I shall grant you the territory of Viscount Etalin exactly as it is. It’s your land now, so rebuild the city yourself.
Can’t you simply give it to your son?
Yes. That son of yours who has become a Master. You said he’s still a student, correct? In that case, I’ll dispatch an administrator to manage it for now. Once he graduates—
“That is all, Your Majesty.”
“I only did what was necessary for the stability of the empire.”
Before the communication orb, the Count knelt respectfully as he delivered his report to the Emperor on the other side. The Emperor, having listened to the report, wore a faint smile, seemingly satisfied that the black magician subjugation had concluded without major incident.
The Count broke into a cold sweat at the Emperor’s declaration of granting him new territory. He was already struggling to manage just the Mayer territory. Now they wanted to give him another one? Moreover, while Etalin’s location wasn’t ideal, its sheer size was a vast territory that rivaled Mayer itself.
“Your Majesty, I am truly grateful, but the Mayer territory alone is more than enough for me.”
Time really did seem to flow at an absurd speed. That was how Kyle felt.
After returning to the territory, all he had done was analyze the stigmata on the back of his hand with Yuri, train so his body wouldn’t grow dull, drill the knights, and spend his days rolling around being lovey-dovey with Yuri. Before he knew it, vacation had ended.
“I don’t want to go to school.”
Even becoming a Master hadn’t changed this particular feeling.
With clear reluctance written across his face, Kyle stared at the carriage. The carriage that would take him back to the academy. The coachman, seeing Kyle frown at the carriage with no intention of boarding, could only offer an awkward, helpless laugh.
“Hurry up and get on. Don’t just stand there blocking the road.”
Watching him, Yuri tried to gently push Kyle into the carriage. Of course, a mountain of muscle twice her weight wouldn’t be moved so easily, but Kyle willingly let her push him inside.
Once aboard, Kyle paused at the sight of the territory’s knights lined up in formation to see him off. The moment their eyes met his, they snapped into perfect salutes as if they had been waiting for it and roared in unison.
“Salute to the young master!”
Thud.
The sight of dozens of knights and nearly hundreds of soldiers moving as one was nothing short of spectacular. The carriage began to roll forward slowly, passing the knights who stood at rigid attention.
Kyle waved lightly at them.
Ah, that’s right.
As he waved, he realized there was one person from the territory he hadn’t seen. The private tutor who had nagged him relentlessly, saying that once he became a Master he wouldn’t need to study anymore.
In the end, he never got to meet him.
Damn it. I wanted to rub it in his face that I didn’t need to study anymore.
Feeling a pang of regret, Kyle left the territory behind.
Vacation was over. The second semester was beginning.