Chapter 189: Tournament 5
Chapter 189: Tournament 5
I only got the full picture after I'd strong-armed Han Ye-ji back with me.
The Academy might have been maintaining its neutrality, but it wasn't sitting on its hands, either.
They'd had a guard deliver a neutral, point-by-point summary of the situation to me.
The whole thing started with Flower Atop the Tower.
Seems he'd taken his own precautions before stripping buck naked in the middle of the sprawling Academy grounds.
I heard he'd put up a five-meter fence so he couldn't be seen from the main Academy buildings.
He'd controlled the crowd with his knight escort and his own Incarnations, thrown up a wall, and then performed his ritual.
What he didn't know was that a magic-laden security spire had been built on the opposite side of the building.
And that's what Han Ye-ji stumbled into.
A security spire isn't just a platform for someone with good eyesight to climb up and look around.
It was built to strengthen Academy security after the last assassination attempt, so it's packed with buffs that enhance vision and let you pierce through magical interference. A powerful buff that let you see straight through a wall that was just a pile of dirt.
In my opinion, the fault ratio here is 9:1, and that's being generous. But this world kowtows to Constellations.
Like Actaeon, who was turned into a stag and killed for accidentally seeing a naked goddess,
seeing a male Constellation naked is, by definition, a clear offense.
'If it's a proxy duel, I can just send Song Ye-na, right?'
All the stuff that would get messy and tiresome if we tried to argue it out.
I could argue: why the hell were you stripping naked and carrying on at the Academy?
And someone else could argue: if a rock wall was put up, that meant don't look, so why did you look?
All that tangled-up discussion of fault gets swept clean by a single duel.
Constellations and Incarnations and all that, be damned. The one who loses apologizes.
"...I am sorry, my Constellation."
"Don't worry about it. It's not like you were looking on purpose."
"But the fact remains that I saw a male Constellation's naked body..."
tender-hearted Han Ye-ji couldn't shake off the guilt.
What is she, the heroine of some old-fashioned shoujo manga? Dwelling on something she saw by accident.
Flower Atop the Tower's decent reputation was probably another problem, too.
Right now, his anger as a man who'd been seen naked
and his anger as a religious figure whose ritual had been peeked at were driving him,
but normally, he's a Constellation popular for his good looks and gentle personality.
In reality, all he'd demanded from the duel trial was a sincere apology.
If it were me, I'd be making every excuse in the book to bleed him dry. What a gentleman.
"It's fine, so stop frowning like that. He didn't stake anything that big, either."
"But still, if we lose, my Constellation will have to apologize because of me..."
Anyway, I didn't care about that pretty-boy young master.
How about I soothe my own crestfallen Incarnation first?
※
What's there to care about with pride and honor? You can't fill your belly with those.
Bowing your head and saying, 'I humbly apologize; the oversight was entirely ours—' ?
If that's all it takes to end a dispute between Constellations, I'll do it as many times as I have to.
"Why are you being so serious about this?"
"The Incarnation has brought shame upon my Constellation's hon-mmf, mmf?!"
"Hmm. Do I look like the kind of guy who cares about stuff like that?"
So I sealed the lips of Han Ye-ji, who was getting all worked up on her own, with my own.
Perceptive Lee Ha-rin had already figured out that I dismiss intangible things like pride or reputation as useless and act pragmatically.
Han Ye-ji's problem was that she put Constellations on too high a pedestal.
I kept kissing her, as if soothing her guilt-lowered head.
From lips to cheek, from cheek to the nape of her neck.
Only when my lips reached the swell of her chest
did the corners of her mouth, which had been drooping gloomily, start twitching upward.
"You really think I'd get jealous over some other guy's chest?"
When I pulled my lips away and whispered, full of sincerity, her face turned bright red.
Yeah, what's the big deal about a man's pecs? Go to a swimming pool and it's a titty party.
So, was there any reason for me to get all huffy about it, like Han Ye-ji thought I would?
By my old world's standards, I mean. Not this one.
In this world, if men had a titty party, there'd be a riot.
Like a topless protest by those blonde Western girls.
"Heh. When are you going to grow out of this?"
"No, I don't think that's a matter of being grown-up..."
"What's the harm? It's not like you're suddenly into him. Or what, did seeing it turn you on a little?"
"Tu-turned on?!"
I swallowed her small, aggrieved-sounding murmur with another kiss.
It's a little amusing how, for all she treats me comfortably rather than worshipping me like my other Incarnations, she's so straight-laced about something like this.
To put it bluntly, isn't she the woman who banged her own Constellation?
And yet, seeing a man's chest—and one covered in tattoos and ritual dye, at that—
and actually feeling guilt over it... it just shows Han Ye-ji's hopelessly good nature.
"You're not some dense manga protagonist. Stop overreacting."
Honestly, I felt like Flower Atop the Tower was less angry about his chest being seen
and more pissed off that his private ritual—where he'd dismissed everyone to commune with the spirits—had been observed.
The emotion I felt from him wasn't the shame of a man whose body was seen,
but more like someone deeply annoyed at having an important task interrupted.
When I put it that way, Han Ye-ji appeared to have no reply and quietly leaned her face in.
A warm, soft sensation touched my cheek, and she began moving with the same little smacking sounds I'd made.
When I pulled back and lifted my head, her lips pushed forward, seeking mine.
Like a seesaw going up and down, or a pendulum swinging out of sync.
A light kiss, pecking at each other's skin, one after another.
"There, that's more like i—"
The soft lips grew bolder, slowly heading downward.
They crept down, little by little, from cheek to neck,
then from neck to shoulder, shoulder to navel, navel all the way down toward my pubic bone.
And where that crimson tongue, peeking out between reddish lips, naturally arrived
was at my thoroughly blood-engorged, stiffly erect cock.
Her tongue darted out between her small lips, tapping and tasting it,
and then, without hesitation—like a kid swallowing down ice cream—her lips wrapped around it.
'The girl who used to get flustered just seeing a set of abs...'
It's a little weird to feel emotional about her learning to suck a man's dick this well,
but still, it felt like the already pathetic performance of my "hat rack" had gotten even worse, drenched in pleasure.
Anyway, watching a sweet, pure virgin get dyed in my colors—
if there's a man who'd feel bad about that, he's either the worst kind of psychopath or just a plain lunatic.
Her tongue-work wasn't skilled, but it wasn't clumsy, either, as if she'd practiced somehow. No teeth scraping, no accidental gagging from going too deep.
Since a Dream Demon's virility is tough for a human body to withstand, maybe she really had been practicing this kind of thing.
"...What's the matter?"
As I was looking down at Han Ye-ji, her head buried between my legs, basking in satisfaction,
she suddenly stopped and looked up at me to ask.
"Ah, um... is your tail all right?"
"My tail? ...Ah, damn it."
Her gaze was pointed just past my face.
Specifically, toward the tail swaying gently beyond my shoulder and forearm.
Come to think of it, I still hadn't undone my beastman transformation.
That was partly why I'd gotten a bit emotional on Flower Atop the Tower, too. I need to calmly master my shapeshifting ability, but I'd gone to visit the Unfading Giant Tree and ended up in heat,
then when I got back, there was news of Han Ye-ji being detained, so I'd rushed out, and then I'd stuck to her in bed.
On top of that, since it was just the ears and tail manifesting, I hadn't really felt inconvenienced.
A beastkin's sturdy tail can pretty much disregard the weight of a single person.
That is, about one person's weight.
But when you're sprawled on your back, pinned down, and going at the huff-puff just like now, it's bound to be uncomfortable.
"In that case—"
Should I get up and flip her over, or just sit and let her service me?
While I was thinking, my mind getting more like a feral young beast than a beastkin,
soft hands slyly snaked around my hip and thigh and rolled my body over.
Not onto my stomach, though. She laid me on my side.
"W-was it like this?"
My perked-up beastkin ears caught her tiny mutter, just like elf ears.
Hmm, did Ye-ji find some new porn video that really hit the mark while she was practicing?
I surrendered myself to the sly hands that were subtly stroking my thigh and waist.
Anyway, lying on my side—was this called the lateral position?
Seems like it'd be incredibly awkward, pressed together like this.
As I thought—
'Fucking fantasy world.'
I'd run into another unfamiliar situation, just like with Ellis.
"Haaah, haahh—"
She pressed her back against my chest as we lay on our sides.
When my now-free hand kneaded her soft breast, a breath full of heat leaked out.
'This actually works...?'
After guiding it in with a slow writhe of her hips, lying on her side,
she braced her weight on one pinned arm and started rotating her pelvis in gentle circles.
Her right hand gripped the bed to support her weight,
and her left reached back to grab my ass.
'Isn't this a side plank?'
In a posture that looked hard enough just for holding her own weight,
she was rolling her hips while kneading my ass and tail.
A freakish pose that needed magic power, not pure muscle, to pull off.
At that absurd sight, I just let my ass and tail be ravaged by Han Ye-ji's touch.