All's Well in the Lord's Household — Tuition
"I honestly can't believe Auntie signed off on my lessons this easily."
Late that evening, I went to Emil's room and gave him a brief rundown of the decision that had been made over dinner. He hadn't been particularly startled to hear that word of his scheme to learn magic had reached his aunt's ears — but the moment I told him she'd actually given her blessing, his jaw dropped in sheer disbelief.
"This is genuinely strange. That isn't like her at all. If anything, I'm more uneasy not knowing what she's after."
The fact that things were going so smoothly clearly sat wrong with him. He ran through a few possible scenarios in his head, then gave his own cheek a light slap to chase the stray thoughts away.
"The reason doesn't matter, I suppose. Either way, the moment I pick up the few skills I need to survive, I'm leaving this manor. ...So does that mean you'll be my teacher?"
"Yes. My own teacher, Lady Luxria, is dedicated exclusively to Lady Seras. She said that's one thing she absolutely will not budge on."
"That's only natural. If anything, it would have looked even more suspicious if your teacher had offered to take me on as well."
"To be honest, I'm hardly qualified to teach anyone — but I'll be in your care all the same."
"The pleasure is mine."
We exchanged polite greetings, but there were things that needed to be spelled out clearly.
"...To avoid any misunderstandings down the line, I think we should settle the matter of tuition properly."
"Of course. The thought of owing my uncle and aunt for lesson fees is unthinkable. Give me a moment."
Emil rummaged through a cabinet in the far corner of the room and came back holding a case packed with glittering ornaments.
"This should cover the tuition well enough, don't you think?"
"My word... Even at a glance, these aren't ordinary gems. With jewels like these, couldn't you survive just fine without learning magic at all?"
I knew next to nothing about this world's currency. But even I could tell that gems of this caliber would fetch a fortune back in modern South Korea. True to his noble upbringing, Emil was already a step ahead of me.
"If you don't have the power to protect yourself, treasures like these are nothing but a magnet for thieves. Anyone who saw me carrying jewels like this wouldn't think twice about robbing me the very next day."
He added with a bitter smile:
"Or I could get swindled out of them, as clueless as I am about the world. Wealth is a fine tool — but if you don't know how to use it, you're better off without it. I'd rather invest it while I still can and turn it into strength of my own."
Sound logic. The only problem was that he was still young — still too soft. After all, I was the con artist who'd been sent here specifically to waste his talent in the worst possible direction. He seemed to have a decent head on his shoulders, but desperation had narrowed his field of vision.
"Well? This should be enough to cover a few spells, at least."
"Mm. I suppose so."
I made a show of rummaging through the ornaments. Of course, junk like this was worthless to me — completely unfit as payment.
"I'm sorry, Emil, but this simply won't do as tuition."
"What!? A-Are you serious? That can't be..."
"But don't worry. I'll still teach you magic. I'd just prefer you pay the tuition in actions rather than material goods."
"In... actions? Well, if there's anything I can do to help, I'll gladly do it. But I'm not someone with any particular talents to speak of..."
"Heheh. That's all right. Being born a man is special enough on its own."
I pulled Emil's arm toward me and pressed my breasts against his chest. He startled and tried to push me away, but he didn't stand a chance. I locked my arms firmly around his waist and rubbed my scent onto his body.
"W-Wait a second. What are you doing? I didn't call you here to do anything like this..."
"Even if that wasn't what you had in mind, it was what I had in mind."
I chased the fleeing Emil and pinned him against the wall. Whether it was his first time being this close to a woman or not, his face flushed scarlet and he clearly had no idea what to do. With a man's physical strength, he could have shoved someone like me off without any trouble. Was he holding back because, deep down, he was actually hoping for this? Or was it because he didn't want to hurt me? Or maybe he simply didn't want to get on my bad side. Whatever the reason, the important thing was that Emil was already a rat in a trap.
"The truth is... last time you came to my room and left without doing a thing... I was really upset. A man and a woman, alone in a room in the dead of night... There's no reason nothing should have happened — and yet nothing did."
"Th-That's only natural. Last time was an unavoidable situation. An unmarried man and woman doing that kind of thing is completely out of the question!"
"Pfft!"
I burst out laughing before I could stop myself. It wasn't even a funny situation, but I just couldn't help it. In a way, it was a grim little story — a glimpse of values warped by the vile common sense alteration magic that had spread across the entire continent — and yet the sight of Emil so desperately earnest made a smile rise on my face all the same.
Emil must have felt ashamed watching me laugh, because he clenched his teeth and started to put force into the hands he'd placed on my shoulders.
"If you push me away right now, the magic lessons are off."
"Ngh!"
The fingers digging into my shoulders sprang open as if they'd been shocked. Sorry, Emil. A woman, threatening you like this. But think of it as a kind of treatment, if you would.
"I don't need jewels, so put those away. Use them after you leave the manor. What I want right now is to have sex with you, Emil. And not just once, of course — the whole time you're in this house, I want to do it over, and over, and over."
I slipped a hand between Emil's legs and felt his cock already swelling inside his trousers.
"So pay your tuition with this. How about it? Nobody loses — it's a total win-win. You like it too, don't you? I mean, look at me. I've got a pretty damn fuckable body."
A stroke along his thigh. Breasts rubbing against him. A hot, breathy pant against his ear. I threw every last feminine wile I had at him.
Judging by how mercilessly his cock was swelling, it was obvious he wasn't gay, and he wasn't a pedophile either. And yet Emil still wouldn't lay a hand on me. If anything, he furrowed his brow and clenched his teeth like he was about to die.
...It was a little depressing, honestly. Getting used by a man is what a pussy lives for, and here I was seducing him with threats — and he was still reacting like that. It felt like the entire reason I existed was being rejected.
"...Am I that unappealing? Enough that you have to grit your teeth and refuse me?"
"No. That's not it at all! Of course you're a very attractive woman. But people have to have some sense of restraint."
"And your idea of restraint is scratching a woman's pride and looking down on her like this?"
I switched tactics and went after his guilt instead, and Emil's reaction shifted. He blinked, turning it over in his mind, and finally squeezed out a reply.
"...All right. If that's truly what you want... then I'll do my part."
What a gentleman. For better and for worse.
I gathered mana into my eyes and looked up at Emil. The last time I'd checked, the information had only been slightly blurred, hard to make out — but now it was so thoroughly smeared it looked like someone had dumped black ink over it, to the point I couldn't even register it. That meant Emil was more keenly aware of his own fetish than before, and was trying that much harder to reject it. In other words, I was stimulating his fetish exactly the way I needed to.
No need to panic just because the resistance had gotten stronger. Rejecting something means you're that much more conscious of it. It's the same as telling yourself not to think of an elephant — you end up thinking about the elephant. The revulsion at exposing his fetish would only serve as a catalyst to stimulate it even harder.
I led Emil to the bed, pushed him down, and started undressing him.
"Have you done this a lot?"
"Not that I'm bragging about it. Oh — were you hoping your first time would be with a virgin?"
If so, that's a bit of a shame. This pussy of mine has already been used plenty — thoroughly secondhand. Still, now that things had come this far, I really ought to feed Emil a virgin pussy someday.
"No, not particularly. I don't think that way... but it's a little embarrassing, not being able to take the lead as a man."
"Oho. So that's what you were thinking? How cute."
Once I'd more or less stripped Emil, I started taking off my own clothes. He'd been hesitant at first, but the moment I began undressing, his gaze locked onto my pale white skin as if he were spellbound.
"You were playing the gentleman, but I guess you can't escape a man's desires after all."
"Ah, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to."
I caught both of Emil's cheeks in my hands as he tried to look away in a fluster, and turned his face back toward me.
"No. You don't need to apologize. If anything, look even closer. Well? I'm pretty, aren't I?"
It felt weird saying that, considering I'd been a man myself once. But objectively speaking, this body really was beautiful. No man who'd never been with a woman would be able to deny it.
"Yes. You are."
"Right? And from this moment on, this body is yours. ...Well, not exclusively yours, but still."
I buried Emil's face in my breasts and whispered.
"Then let's begin."