Chapter 95: Salon 3
Chapter 95: Salon 3
She looked down at me with a faint smile. My heart pounded like a little kid staring at a birthday present. I'd rarely felt such anticipation about anything. Setting aside gay men, wouldn't any man's heart race at a sight like this?
'Ah...!' Watching a beautiful elf woman in pure white lingerie shyly undress me. Though, to be fair, unwrapping me like a gift box was her doing, not mine.
Guided by her gentle hands, I shed everything but my underwear. The old-fashioned suit and dress crumpled on the floor beneath the bed were the last things on our minds—we were a boy in his boxers and a girl in her lingerie, both on the same bed. The alcohol had coaxed the courage out of me, but I wanted to see her move the way she wanted.
That was why I'd spent the past while clumsily trying to seduce her with every scrap of skinship I could manage.
Her trembling hands approached my chest.
Well, lunging straight for the genitals would be a bit much, wouldn't it? I couldn't help smiling at her innocent approach, but she didn't notice—too busy swallowing hard and staring at my chest.
Her soft fingers traced lightly between my pecs, brushing around my solar plexus. As if she still lacked the nerve to touch my chest directly. That hesitant shyness made me want to reach out and guide her hands where they needed to go, but I held still, curious to see how far she'd push herself.
Besides, watching her fixate on a boy's flat, muscleless chest—kneading it like it was something precious—was adorable in its own way.
Slowly. Very slowly. One hand stroking my solar plexus became both hands on me. Fingertips ghosting over my skin like a blind person reading braille, she cupped both sides of my chest. Even that featherlight sensation was apparently too embarrassing for this innocent elf miss—she sucked in a sharp little hyeep of breath.
'I'll take... yours off.'
'...' Again, I answered with a silent nod.
She'd been using alcohol as fuel to squeeze out her courage, and now, armed with sheer embarrassment, the girl was taking her first step into womanhood.
The high-end lingerie the maid had dressed her in—I couldn't name the fabric—slid down. I wondered if I should undress her in turn, but she stripped it off herself. Skin so pale it made the white silk underwear look dull by comparison, hidden until now beneath that fabric.
I was staring at that beautiful sight, mesmerized, when her face suddenly rushed toward mine—her hands gripping my shoulders. Her lips crashed against mine with a hard thunk. I had no room for idle thoughts about how soft her lips were or that her small face meant a small mouth. She'd been so tense she'd come in harder than she meant to; her front teeth jabbed my lip. It felt less like soft warmth and more like getting flicked on the mouth. I looked up at her.
'S-sorry!' She must have realized she'd rushed in too fast. Startled, she leaned in again—this time excruciatingly slowly. Poised above me, trembling faintly, eyes just barely cracked open, lips pushed out in an awkward pout. I let my body go slack beneath her and waited. Her lips tapped mine, light as a knock on a door.
'It doesn't hurt, does it? No blood... that's a relief.' After tapping my lips a few more times, she poked her tongue out and licked my lower lip—like she was tending a wound. It was less erotic than practical, the way you'd dab spit on a bug bite, and that guileless motion sent a jolt of arousal through me.
In the post-apocalyptic world where society had been smashed to rubble, sex had been nothing but currency. What right did I have to savor a gorgeous woman's fumbling first experience? This—this was more precious than gold. Something only possible because I was a Constellation, a Dream Demon, and the first to meet her when she was still just an elf.
After a few more tentative licks to my lower lip, she lifted her head. Her face, which had begun to cool, was flushed scarlet again—apparently she'd decided what she'd just done was far more embarrassing than groping a boy's chest. Lying still beneath that shy figure without reaching up to touch her—I realized it demanded inhuman patience. My underwear had been pulled down, and there it stood beneath the soft lamplight: my cock, fully erect, bobbing as if urging me on. Thankfully, though my body had grown younger, my lower half hadn't shrunk to match. Not enormous, but for a boy's frame, respectably sized. And with it standing at full attention like that, her eyes were inevitably drawn to it.
Then—huup—her small nostrils flared as she sniffed at me. Please tell me I don't smell... Comfortable as the salon had been, I'd been drinking warm wine in the garden wrapped in three or four thick layers of shirt and jacket. A brief flicker of anxiety: what if I'd sweated, and my feet or armpits stank?
'Just as I thought... sweet...' But as if she'd read my small worry, she murmured it like an excuse. Looking closer, I saw the tip of her little tongue dart out. She wasn't about to sit there mockingly sticking her tongue out at the air for no reason. I focused magic into my eyes, and there it was—a faint, pale purple current. My magic? Was that the Dream Demon's pheromone, or something like it? I hadn't known until today that my body emitted traces of magic too faint to see with the naked eye.
※
My body was burning up. My heart slammed like it was going to burst, and with every beat, my lower belly seemed to clench in answer. The pounding was so fierce I could feel blood pulsing from the crown of my head all the way down to my stomach. My whole body felt like an enormous percussion instrument, struck over and over by invisible hands.
'I'll take yours off.' The boy answered with a silent nod. A Dream Demon really was a Dream Demon, I supposed—looking at his shyly lowered eyes made my face burn so hot I couldn't meet his gaze. Even his slow, unassuming little movements, with no obvious intent behind them, seemed to tangle my drink-muddled feelings around my brain.
As I slid my underwear down, I dredged up every piece of lewd gossip I'd ever overheard. They said you have to lead a man decisively and pin him down... I'd spent my whole life inside the World Tree's barrier, but humans and beastkin had shared my daily life. The memory of a couple who'd been lovers, noisily enjoying their nights of passion, lingered in some corner of my mind. But... how? Start with a kiss, surely. My dizzy head couldn't properly absorb this blissful situation, and my judgment had slowed to a crawl. I began mechanically setting stages as if I were running through a work checklist, and my scrambled reason didn't dare object. Gently touch the skin. Remove the underwear. Kiss. Then—
Thunk. A small collision. Maybe it was because I'd been so lost in thought. My teeth bumped the boy's lips as he lay beneath me, looking up. To say I'd crashed down on him would be an exaggeration, but I felt a little sorry for this clumsy mistake in the middle of a heart-pounding first experience. Dream Demon or not, he was younger than me.
'S-sorry!' I looked at his slightly swollen lip. His gently half-lidded eyes gazed up as if to say it was fine, but the sight of those perfectly sculpted lips, faintly puffed, nagged at me. So I brought my lips to his again, agonizingly slowly this time. When you kiss, are you supposed to close your eyes? But what if I close them and bump his nose or cheek? In the end, I kept my eyes barely open and kissed him. No mistake this time. My lips met something warm and plush. My heightened senses caught no tang of blood—just softness. So there was no wound. Still, worrying there might be a microscopic bead of blood, I poked my tongue out and licked.
'It doesn't hurt, does it? No blood... that's a relief.' When I lifted my head, he gave me that soft little smile again, like it was nothing. I'd stopped breathing during the kiss, so I drew in a deep breath. Hoo. The moment I inhaled, a tingling sweetness hit my tongue. That thick, clinging flavor I'd tasted once before. Huup. I breathed in a few more times. Outwardly he was just an elf boy, but—a Dream Demon really was a Dream Demon. When I came back to my senses, I could feel the dim bedroom wrapped in the faintest haze of magic. A sweet magical mist that clung to every inch of my skin like water sprayed from a bottle. That fine, sweet magic kissed my tongue with every breath, and my nose twitched helplessly. Sweet. How startled I'd been the first time I tasted his magic. A sweetness so intense it called to mind the carnivorous plants my mother had told me about. Among plants, I'd heard, there were species that secreted sap more alluring than honey—luring animals in to use them for nourishment. The moment I'd touched that purple crystal of magic to my tongue, hadn't I already been ensnared?
With those thoughts drifting through my head, I licked at the sweetened air. It must have looked absurd—me, flicking my tongue out at empty space. But those fine particles of magic clung to the tip of my tongue and offered up an addictive sweetness. A strange compulsion, like licking crumbs of candy from a plate.
'Just as I thought... sweet...' Had my sudden lapping at the air looked strange? His worried gaze on me made my face blaze. Here we were, naked, swept along by drink into something adult, and I was lapping at magic like a child. I ducked my head in shame—and saw it, swaying. A long, pale shaft of flesh, perfectly matched to his white skin.