Club Experience (4)
Squish, squish.
"U-uuh… h-how long are you g-going to keep s-squeezing…?"
"Just a little longer."
Squish squish squish.
"Nnngh…."
I had fully settled in, thoroughly enjoying Senior Dorothea's cheeks.
Ah, this was a problem.
I couldn't stop.
This texture could genuinely be called the cheeks of pure evil!
On top of that, Senior Dorothea's size was perfect—set her on my lap and her head landed at just the right height for easy fondling.
And yet she still had that grown-up allure on top of it all. Senior Dorothea, aren't you a little too broken as a character?
Still, well…
Young Miss is a bit more fun to touch, though…
Not that Senior Dorothea was lacking, of course.
How to put it… they were just different specialties?
If Senior Dorothea was all soft and squishy, Young Miss was closer to springy and chewy.
And Young Miss's reactions were tastier, too.
"U-um, how long are we g-going to keep doing this…?"
"Ah."
I'd completely zoned out without realizing it.
Well, quite a bit of time had passed—it was probably about time to head back.
If Rustiel catches us like this, we're done for in every sense of the word.
I lifted Senior off my lap and set her down on the ground.
The moment her feet touched the floor, she started frantically patting her own cheeks, as if checking something.
Making sure they were still properly attached, maybe.
Fair enough. I had been at it for a while.
"Um, Senior?"
"Eek!"
The moment I spoke, Senior Dorothea flinched hard, as if she'd just run into a wild beast.
Come on, I wasn't some man-eating monster. Getting this worked up over an hour of cheek-squeezing was a bit much.
"I'm not going to eat you~ Calm down, Senior."
"M-my cheeks… my cheeks feel like they've doubled in size… a-and I'm the senior here…."
Ah, damn. I could hear the tears creeping into Senior Dorothea's voice.
Apparently having her cheeks molested by an underclassman had wounded her pride as a senior.
Hmm… maybe I had gone a little too far!
Time to soothe her a bit.
"Just think of it as a skin massage. It's all the rage among students these days, you know. Giving your close friends a cheek massage."
"R-really…?"
"Of course! I only did it because I wanted to get closer to you, Senior… Did you not want to be friends with me?"
"N-no! I-I want to be f-friends with you too, underclassman…."
Too easy.
Senior Dorothea clearly wasn't used to saying things like that—her voice grew smaller and smaller toward the end.
Her reaction was so pure that my conscience twinged for the briefest moment, but I quickly slapped on a shameless smile and seized Senior Dorothea's hand.
"That's a relief! So we're close friends now, right?"
"Y-yes…! U-underclassman…."
"Oh, come on, Senior. Just call me Gladia."
"G-Gla… dia…?"
"Yes, Senior Dorothea. We're friends now."
With that, I looked at her and put on my perfect maid smile.
For some reason, Senior just stared blankly at my face, then nodded.
Nice! Senior Dorothea route—complete!
I'd been hoping to befriend her ever since coming to the Academy, and we'd gotten close even faster than expected!
In high spirits, I let go of her hand and made a light suggestion.
"Well, now that we're friends, shall we go join up with Young Miss and the others?"
"Y-yes! G-Gladia…!"
Senior Dorothea said my name, awkwardly averted her eyes, then let out a tiny, shy little laugh.
"Heehee."
Disgustingly cute. Seriously.
I can't take this.
"C'mere!"
"Eek!"
Cheeks. Let me see those cheeks!
Ahem.
I'd gotten a little carried away and indulged in Senior's cheeks again.
But this time I cut it off at about ten minutes!
She must have been getting used to it, too—she didn't really refuse. In fact, when I held out my hand, she even tilted her cheek toward me a little!
Well, well. The body was already being honest. Hehe.
Anyway, enough fooling around. If we didn't actually go join Young Miss now, things were going to get dangerous.
Rustiel would be showing up any minute.
"All right, Senior. Enough chatting—let's head toward Young Miss. She likes me so much that she gets anxious if we're apart for too long."
Senior Dorothea gave her cheek one last regretful pat, then nodded at my words.
"R-right. Let's go."
Senior Dorothea began trailing after me in little hurried steps.
Young Miss and I had already agreed on a rendezvous point, so we just needed to head that way.
Still, it had been a long time since I'd been apart from Young Miss for this long, and I was a little uneasy.
She hasn't caused any trouble… right?
Exploring the ruins of the Dragon's Abyss was an event that showed up fairly often in the game Saintess Hero.
If you participated, you had a chance of picking up rare items—or so I recalled.
The one catch was that random events would occasionally trigger.
Hidden enemies suddenly jumping out, or a perfectly solid floor collapsing into a trap… that sort of thing.
Of course, I didn't think Young Miss or Kruse were actually in any danger.
I'd given the place a rough once-over with my Mind's Eye on the way in, and nothing particularly hazardous had shown up.
But this was reality, not a game—there was always the chance something I didn't know about was waiting.
And if Young Miss went on a rampage over something I didn't know about and wrecked part of the ruins…
Rustiel's eyes would roll straight back into her head…
Rustiel was already the type to be extremely possessive of her own things thanks to her racial traits, which only made me more worried.
Yeah, no. This wouldn't do.
I needed to link up with Young Miss fast and get out of here.
Perhaps reading my mood, Senior Dorothea hurried up beside me with quick little steps.
"G-Gladia. I-is something wrong…?"
"No. I'm just a little worried about whether Young Miss is all right. This is pretty much the first time she's ever done anything without me. I'm sure it's fine, though, right?"
"D-don't worry! This is Stella Academy…!"
As she said it, Senior Dorothea thumped her chest with both hands.
"I-in my experience, the only dangerous thing that ever happens is the principal chasing after you…!"
Wasn't that the most dangerous thing of all?
And the way she's talking…
That sounded an awful lot like a classic flag-planting line, didn't it?
Wasn't it common knowledge in this world that the moment someone said something like that, something was about to go wrong?
And right then, Senior Dorothea delivered the finishing blow.
"B-besides, this is a place the principal herself p-personally warded with magic, so n-nobody can just walk in…!"
She had gone and finished the entire summoning chant.
This was a guaranteed "something jumps out" setup.
Ahh… so this was what it felt like to be the two-eyed person living in a village of one-eyed people?
Surrounded by people with no common sense, and I was the only one who had to suffer for it. Again.
I stopped dead.
"G-Gladia…?"
When I halted, Senior stopped with me.
I could sense her looking up at me, completely lost.
But I didn't answer her unspoken question. Instead, I raised the staff in my hand high overhead.
And without hesitation, I slammed it down hard.
BOOM—!
A wave of sound erupted from the tip of the staff, racing out in every direction along the floors and walls of the ruins.
The ripple spread like water, struck the surrounding walls and structures, and bounced back toward me.
The technique I had desperately mastered to survive after falling into this world.
Echo Location.
Using the returning waves as a medium, I explosively amplified the detection range of my Mind's Eye.
After scanning the surroundings, I quietly let out a sigh.
"Haa… figures."
"W-what's wrong…? Gladia…?"
"Senior… get ready."
Plant a flag, and even the things that should have gone fine fall apart.
Shing!
I drew my sword on the spot.
Sword Saint
World's Trial has been neutralized.
Leaving my newly brightened vision behind me, I shot forward and swung my blade at empty air.
Slash!
"GRAAAAGH!!"
"W-what was that!?"
Senior Dorothea's shocked cry rang out behind me.
What else? The ambushers her summoning chant had called in!
One after another, uninvited guests in robes that might as well have been billboards reading "I Am Extremely Suspicious" fully revealed themselves.
Roughly twenty of them, by the look of it.
Quite the turnout.
Realizing their stealth had been blown, they immediately drew their weapons and prepared to charge.
"Damn it, we've been spotted! Att—"
KRA-KOOM!
"GYAAAAH!"
But before they could finish, lightning crashed down from empty air and seared through the ambushers' bodies in an instant.
Senior Dorothea's magic.
Lightning-attribute 1-Circle spell — Thunder Call.
As expected of someone who'd survived three years at Stella—the moment she snapped out of it, she unloaded without hesitation.
But wasn't that the same spell she'd been preparing when she was wary of me earlier?
A 1-Circle spell, sure, but she'd fired it without even chanting, and at that level of power—and she'd been planning to use it on me?
…I'm going to need at least thirty minutes of cheek time for this later.
Even as the thought crossed my mind, I was already surging toward the enemy.
In an instant, mana raced through my heart and concentrated in my feet—then exploded.
The recoil launched my body forward as if space itself had folded, flinging me ahead like a shot.
Maintaining that speed, I carved through the enemies still reeling from Senior Dorothea's magic as I passed.
Slash!
The moment my blade drew a silver line through the air, the heads of the ones in the lead cleanly leapt into the sky.
Thud. Roll.
Before the blood fountains could even rise, I had already punched straight through the middle of their formation and come out behind them.
"Y-you crazy bitches!"
The remaining enemies, having just watched their comrades' heads leave their shoulders in the blink of an eye, screamed in a mixture of horror and rage.
A few of them hurriedly thrust their hands out toward me.
What, did they want a handshake?
"Oh my, this popularity of mine… sorry~ My hands belong to Young Miss."
"W-what the hell are you—you insane—GRAAAAGH!"
Slice!
Instead of a handshake, I swung my sword and severed every outstretched hand.
The enemies who'd been preparing magic shrieked as their hands went flying.
Ahh… I was feeling generous!
They say the mark of a handsome face is left-right balance—so I'd go ahead and even them out myself!
Slice!
"GYAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
And as the enemies who'd just lost both hands howled, Senior Dorothea's pinpoint ice magic came flying in.
CRACK!
Razor-sharp ice spikes mercilessly punched through the chests of the handless, wailing enemies.
"Ghk… hah…!"
With short death rattles, they collapsed to the floor and did not move again.
Once it was clear every enemy was down, Senior Dorothea approached me.
The expression on her face—timid, anxious—looked nothing like the mage who had just been ruthlessly slaughtering people moments before.
Probably embarrassed that enemies had popped out the second she finished bragging.
"W-who on earth a-are these p-people…? I-I've n-never seen anything l-like this before…."
She was stammering even worse than usual, clearly rattled. I gave her head a light, reassuring pat, then used my sword to casually lift the robe on one of the corpses.
"Senior, look at this."
"!!"
The form revealed beneath the robe was distinctly non-human—pointed ears, sharp fangs, and a horn jutting from the forehead.
The race that, a thousand years ago, had attacked humanity alongside the Demon King and dragged the world into a pit of despair.
Demons.
"Looks like we're not the only fans of the Hero around here."