The Private Training Room's Intimate Duo Synchronization
The Academy’s 3rd Special Training Room.
A private training facility reserved exclusively for Duo Tournament participants, where external gazes and noise were perfectly blocked off.
Standing in front of its door, I let out a deep sigh.
‘Haa… I really don’t want to go in.’
The dizzying memory of yesterday’s wardrobe malfunction show at the training ground still lingered vividly in my mind.
If she were to throw herself at me defenselessly again in that completely isolated space, could my meager patience possibly hold out?
I wanted to run away, but I couldn’t. I was the Carlyle Ducal Family’s exclusive escort and Seriria’s partner, after all.
Besides, this tournament wasn’t some gentle school event where students simply earned points.
It was a brutal political arena where the enemies who saw the ducal house as a thorn in their side were sharpening their blades, planning to use a commoner like me as a sacrifice to tarnish Seriria’s reputation.
If I failed to prove my worth here, my head would roll regardless of whether it was labeled treason or not.
Creak—
As usual, I tapped the floor with the wooden sword I used in place of a cane—tap, tap—and began my blind swordsman act.
“……Lady Seriria, I see you arrived first—Huk.”
I nearly bit my tongue mid-greeting.
The sight of her outfit piercing through my eyepatch was so breathtaking that I doubted my own vision.
“You’re here, Ian.”
Her voice was as cold and emotionless as ever.
The neat uniform or loose-fitting kendo gi she usually wore were nowhere to be seen.
Instead, she was wearing a black, skin-tight spandex training suit that shamelessly revealed every curve of her body, stretching in the middle of the training room.
And she was doing it while bent over in what was known as the cat pose—hips pushed back, back deeply arched, facing me as I opened the door.
‘I’m going crazy. For real.’
Her suffocating pelvic line and the curve of her back completely filled my field of vision.
While pretending to be blind by staring blankly into the air and only tapping the floor, my sanity felt like it was being shaved away in real time.
Of course, the status window floating above her head was, as always, plotting something utterly black against me.
He's here. It does look a bit too blatant now that I'm actually wearing it… but since Ian can't see anyway, all his nerves will be focused on the sensation touching him through the thin fabric. Today, I'll definitely break that indifferent face of his.
I barely managed to pull my reeling mind back together and asked in the driest voice I could muster.
“Your training attire seems different from usual. Your presence feels unusually light as well.”
At my question, Seriria relaxed her pose and slowly rose to her feet.
With a soft sound of her bare feet touching the training room floor, her body—wrapped in that thin spandex—swayed in a dizzying motion.
Despite the spacious training room, she deliberately stepped right up to my nose and stopped. In an instant, the air around me was saturated with her sweet body scent.
“Synchronization—linking each other’s mana circuits into one—is the very lifeblood of the Duo Tournament. Bulky clothing only interferes with matching those wavelengths.”
Once again, the dangerously close distance where our breaths could almost mingle.
“Ian, since you cannot see, you must read your partner’s movements and the flow of my mana using nothing but your senses.”
“Of course. With Your Ladyship’s presence, my sword can follow at any—”
“No. That’s not enough.”
Swish.
The moment I finished speaking, Seriria snatched my right hand.
Her soft, cool fingers wove between my rough ones, interlocking them tightly.
I flinched and tried to pull away, but she yanked my hand with surprising strength and……
pressed it firmly against her firm lower abdomen, right over the spandex training suit.
“……!!”
“This is where the mana core—the source of mana—resides. Do not remove your hand until training is over. Feel the rhythm of my mana directly against your skin and synchronize with it.”
Even though she was wearing the training suit, the fabric was so thin that her bare skin and body heat transmitted straight into my palm.
Every time her toned abs rose and fell with each breath, the sensation made every hair on my body stand on end.
But I kept my trembling pupils hidden behind the eyepatch and pushed the grotesque 400% visual amplification visible only to me to its absolute limit.
Even in my panic, Mind's Eye was scanning the mana circuits radiating from her mana core.
I couldn’t make them completely mine right away, but if I stored this scan data and trained on it alone later, I would be able to steal the Carlyle Ducal Family’s secret breathing technique without much trouble.
However, calmly collecting data was impossible. The body heat and elastic sensation flowing through my palm were far too stimulating.
I hurriedly pulled my consciousness back to reality and stiffened like a flustered blind man.
“M-My Lady! This is inappropriate. No matter the reason, placing a stranger’s hand on such a private area……!”
“Private area? This is strictly official synchronization training. If anyone is having impure thoughts, isn’t it you, Ian?”
She scolded me in an icy voice.
Hah…… I never imagined a man’s grip could be this hot. Every time his breath touches me, my lower abdomen tingles so much I can barely stand it. To think that I, a duchess, would be this helplessly shaken by a mere escort’s touch……!
Even the faint trembling of her lower abdomen was vividly transmitted through my palm.
If I pulled my hand away now, it would be clear insubordination. If I stayed still, my sanity would burn to ashes.
I had to make a decision. If I let myself be dragged along and stimulated any further, my physical reactions or facial control would crumble, and my blind act would be exposed.
I took one deep breath and put on the most rigid, businesslike escort knight face in the world.
“……Understood. If that is what you wish, I shall comply with the training. However, My Lady.”
I pressed my palm lightly against her lower abdomen as I spoke.
“Your mana flow is extremely unstable right now. Your pulse is racing as if it might burst, and the muscles around your mana core are trembling violently. Could it be that you have a fever?”
“Hah……!”
My indifferent, pinpoint observation made a small moan slip from her lips.
Flustered for a moment, she took a step back, and my hand finally fell away.
“Ahem, hm! W-when did I ever tremble? You must have imagined it.”
She hurriedly turned her head and cleared her throat.
But through Mind's Eye, I could see the tips of her ears dyed red as if blood would burst from them.
I inwardly raised a modest toast at finally escaping that suffocating skinship.
But that was a miscalculation on my part.
Ha, to pinpoint the changes in my body so accurately. It feels unpleasant that he seems to see right through me, a duchess, yet…… thrilling. If I can make that abnormal sense react solely to my breath and scent, I wonder what kind of face he’ll make?
She let out one more deliberate cough as if to hide her flushed cheeks, then once again donned the arrogant mask of a noble lady as though she had never been embarrassed.
“Ian. We’ll end the mana core synchronization here and move on to the next stage.”
When she reached out into the air, a piece of black cloth popped out of her spatial ring.
She tied it over her own eyes.
“As your partner, I should experience for myself what it feels like to fight in darkness. I will also block my vision.”
Blocking her vision. It looked like a truly excellent and noble decision made by a partner considerate of a blind man.
But through my Mind's Eye, that black cloth was clearly a thin see-through material that revealed everything outside.
‘Vision blocked my ass. I can see her eyeballs rolling around perfectly through the blindfold.’
He must firmly believe I’ve blocked my sight. Without dreaming that I can see him clearly through this see-through blindfold. Now, I’ll pretend to lose my sense of direction and naturally dive into his arms.
“Now, Ian. Try to dodge me.”
The Empire’s Ice Princess, eyes covered, smiled as she stretched both arms toward me.
“My Lady, when vision is blocked it’s easy to lose your sense of direction. Please don’t move too recklessly—”
“Don’t worry. If I can’t even find my partner’s presence, I couldn’t call myself part of a duo.”
Taht—!
The moment she finished speaking, Seriria kicked off the floor and charged straight at me.
Through the completely see-through blindfold, she was staring fixedly at my chest as she ran.
There wasn’t the slightest hesitation in her movements.
Target (Seriria)'s both hands are precisely aiming for Host (Ian)'s pectorals and solar plexus!
‘Crazy, she’s not trying to grab me—she’s trying to grope me!’
I twisted my waist backward in shock.
With a whoosh, her fingernails barely grazed the buttons of my uniform.
“……Missed. It seems blocking my vision dulls my sense of distance. Quite agile movements, Ian.”
“……I was simply lucky.”
Tch, he dodged that? I definitely aimed for his blind spot. But if I gave up at this level, I wouldn’t have set up this whole stage in the first place. I will make sure my fingertips touch him no matter what.
She licked her lips behind the blindfold, then this time even drew on her mana to increase her speed.
“Your evasion is excellent, but simply dodging won’t achieve synchronization. Read my movements and match me perfectly!”
Swish—! Swish! Swoosh—!
As if testing my limits, she relentlessly closed in on my body, digging into my blind spots at a breathtaking pace.
Each time, my Mind's Eye kindly displayed the sneaky touch trajectories of her reaching hands as red warning lines.
‘Right shoulder! Left thigh! Damn it, now she’s going for the belt!’
I flowed like water with strange footwork, letting all her blatant skinship attempts slip past me.
From the outside, it must have looked like a sensitive blind man desperately evading with all his might. In reality, it was closer to a rhythm game where I dodged red lines from the system.
“Haa, haa… Ian! Are you really blind?!”
When all her blatant pouncing attempts failed, Seriria panted heavily and shouted in a voice thick with frustration.
The skin-tight spandex training suit, now soaked with sweat, clung even more obscenely to her curvaceous figure.
“Didn’t I tell you? My senses simply became sharper from struggling to survive.”
I wiped cold sweat from my brow and answered calmly.
Tch, how is he slipping away so annoyingly? Even at the cost of my dignity as a duchess, I will grope that body no matter what! There’s no choice but to use the last resort.
Last resort?
She suddenly stopped moving, then oddly turned toward the towel she had tossed on the floor after finishing her stretches earlier.
Then, using the excuse that she couldn’t see, she boldly pretended to step on the towel and slip.
“Ahh—!”
With a pitiful scream, her body floated into the air.
But the trajectory of her fall was uncannily aimed directly at me.
Ian! You definitely won't dodge this one! You'll catch me as I fall and the skinship will be perfectly natural!!!
‘What a headache-inducing woman……!’
If I dodged, she would slam face-first into the bare floor and suffer serious injury.
No matter how obvious her ploy to force skinship was, I couldn’t just let my liege hurt herself on the hard ground.
“It’s dangerous, My Lady!”
In the end, I gave up dodging and spread my arms to catch her.
In that instant, she—who had been falling as if into my embrace—twisted her waist spectacularly in mid-air.
Crash—!
With a heavy impact, I fell backward onto the floor first. Then, the full weight of a soft female body landed squarely on top of me.
“Ugh……”
Letting out a groan from the shock, I opened my eyes—no, I observed the situation through my eyepatch—and had to stop breathing.
Seriria, wearing the spandex training suit, was now perfectly straddling me.
Her knees were clamped firmly on both sides of my thighs, and her sweat-soaked chest was pressed tightly against mine with no space in between.
“Haa, haa……”
Her hot breath poured directly onto my neck.
Normally she should have relaxed her posture and gotten up, but she remained lying on top of me without moving an inch. Instead, she began wriggling slightly, pressing even deeper into my embrace.
“My Lady, a-are you alright? Please get up quickly.”
When I urged her in a trembling voice, the blindfolded Seriria buried her face in my chest and whispered softly.
“……Just a little longer. My head is spinning, so I can’t get up. Let me stay like this for a moment.”
The excuse sounded plausible, but the status window floating before my eyes was completely at odds with her firm voice.
Haa…… why is his chest so reliable? Just being held by a man makes me not want to get up. I’ll keep using the dizziness excuse to stay in his arms. I want to see that flustered face even more.
‘Namo Amitabha, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva. Namo Amitabha, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.’
Lying spread-eagle on the sealed room floor, I desperately chanted the Heart Sutra while enduring the weight of the wriggling duchess on top of me.
There was one month left until the tournament where the Valdemar Family’s assassins would aim for my life.
The one who would truly blow my head off wasn’t the assassins—it was this duchess currently straddling me so defenselessly.