The Hero's Bear Hug
The image of two toads mating from a nature documentary I'd once seen flashed through my mind. During spawning season, the male climbs onto the female he fancies and squeezes her belly in a tight embrace to trigger her to release eggs. If a male she doesn't like tries to mount her from behind, the female thrashes with all her might to shake him off. Sometimes a determined male who wants to keep spawning will cling desperately to the resisting female's back. And every so often, the female suffocates to death from how hard he squeezes.
I'd like to take this moment to offer my condolences to all the female toads who have perished under the unromantic bear hugs of male toads.
I was crawling toward the door with every ounce of strength I had left. The Hero had my waist locked in a death grip from behind, completely neutralizing my pathetic resistance. The sheer power I felt pressing against my lower back was so overwhelming it was hard to believe it came from a single human being. It felt like a thick rope wrapped around a massive ancient tree had been cinched tight around my waist. In that moment, I felt a bone-deep understanding of the helplessness a wild animal must feel when caught in a trap, simply waiting for death.
"If you really want to leave! Then please cut off my head right here and go!"
Her voice boomed with the majestic resonance of a rugby player standing before the goal line. The desperate tone I'd never once heard from the Hero, even inside dungeons where death could come at any moment, echoed loudly through the narrow room.
After that sudden dungeon disaster that had swallowed up the entire party, including the Hero, it was inevitable that the whole group would need to stay at this monastery for a while. They had to maintain peak condition until the Grace Bestowal Ceremony, so secretly commuting here for rest and recovery was unavoidable.
What I hadn't anticipated was that after our disastrously awkward first meeting, the Hero's intense hostility toward the Saintess would lead her to interfere with every single task I performed in the Saintess's service. It was an unexpected ordeal.
Lately, I'd been facing new patterns in a bullet hell game I'd grown somewhat familiar with—patterns I'd never seen before. Every single time.
"I heard everything from Apis! That you visit the audience chamber regularly! Alone with the Saintess! Kissing and sucking! Doing things you couldn't show anyone else! It's only natural for a man and woman alone in a closed space!"
Good grief, this woman has no filter. Instead of calming the Hero's rampage, that big-eared comrade was fanning the flames without a shred of tact. It made hot anger flare in my chest.
"Hero. It seems there's been a misunderstanding. The Saintess and I are simply in a relationship of Saintess and guardian priest. There's not even a speck of what you're worried about. I can swear it to the gods. I've never once approached the Saintess with any vulgar intentions. So please, just let go of my hand."
"Even if you have no such intentions! How do you know the Saintess doesn't?!"
The Hero's sharp observation hit the exact core of the matter and froze my thoughts for a moment. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she'd seen straight through both the Saintess's true nature and my current predicament.
"There isn't a single woman in this world who wouldn't harbor lust for a man with such seductive features as you, Father! Even I am desperately suppressing the desires surging within me right now!"
"Uh…"
A chill ran down my spine. The good old days when I could have brushed off that embarrassing praise as a silly joke flashed across my mind like a subway billboard. If it had been in the past, maybe. But now, I'd long since realized that she held anything but ordinary feelings for me. I'd even recently made a firm resolution to stop avoiding those emotions and face them head-on. Never mind that said resolution was on the verge of crumbling like a salaryman's half-hearted New Year's gym membership.
"V-Victim! You're out there, right?! Help me!"
"…"
"Stop pretending you're not! I can see your shadow under the door crack!"
"…!"
Thud.
Right after that, there was the sound of something large shifting outside the door. But no answer came to my desperate plea. You coward! A wave of betrayal echoed bitterly through my thoughts, but that pitiful noise was soon completely drowned out by the Hero's fierce shout.
"It's no use! I gave Victim strict orders not to let even a single ant into this room!"
"Haa…"
Before I could even lament the waste of talent in using the capital's greatest tank as a personal room guard, the Hero, still holding my waist in that iron grip, muttered with clear disappointment in her voice.
"It's unfair! I want to kiss and suck with you in a cramped space too!"
From the way she said it, it seemed the Hero had interpreted Apis's "kissing and sucking" as nothing more than the lovey-dovey behavior between men and women. The usual ascetic demeanor was nowhere to be found. Her childlike honesty in openly declaring and demanding what she wanted felt incredibly awkward. But at this moment, scolding the Hero herself would have been absurd. After all, the fool who had encouraged her desires—by occasionally patting her head, giving her brief hugs, and promising to do anything else she wanted as payback for all the times I'd ignored and avoided her feelings—was none other than me.
"H-Hero…"
"The truth is, I didn't even want to receive that grace from her! Even without relying on some suspicious power, I can do just fine! I have reliable comrades! And more than that! I have you, Father! The only reason I agreed to attend the Grace Bestowal Ceremony was because you asked me so earnestly! I only accepted it reluctantly!"
The sight of the Hero showing such clear hostility toward someone felt utterly foreign to me. She was a saint who worked hard to maintain an attitude of tolerance even toward the unsavory types one inevitably encountered in the rough life of an adventurer. That almost foolishly kind person was the Hero I knew.
"I hate her! Every time she tries to entangle her body with yours, Father, a dark, murky torrent surges endlessly through my heart! I've never felt anything like this before! Now I think I finally understand why wives grab kitchen knives and go wild whenever a love triangle breaks out!"
The strength binding my body seemed to have increased, but it only made my breathing slightly labored. There were no marks on my skin, and my bones weren't being crushed. That meant some measure of reason still remained within her.
"On top of that, whenever our eyes meet, she flaunts it as if your body already belongs to her!"
"T-That's…"
Despite maintaining some rational control over her strength, her voice grew increasingly passionate and intense as time passed.
"W-when did the Saintess ever do that? You must have seen it wrong."
"I did not see it wrong!"
My desperate defense fell flat. In truth, I knew full well that the Hero's suspicions weren't mere delusions. It was obvious that just as the Hero viewed the Saintess with displeasure, the Saintess felt the same toward her. The incident from just a few days ago proved it.
Yes. It happened right after I'd finished attending to the Saintess's evening needs. The Hero had come to greet me with a bright smile and a wave after I'd finished my day's work. The Saintess, who had been quietly watching her, suddenly pulled me into her arms and rubbed her face against my neck.
…Hehe.
Just thinking about it still sends a chill down my spine. It was like a sly cat perched on a tree branch, taunting a large, ferocious dog barking below. When I first saw the Saintess's venomous expression as she clung to me, declaring my body as hers to the Hero, I was so shocked I forgot to breathe for a moment.
…
"S-Stop! Hero!"
I somehow managed to stop the Hero as she silently clenched her fists and slowly closed the distance toward the Saintess. Bringing the whole incident to a bloodless conclusion could only be called a miracle. Though looking back, the unfocused, terrifying look in the Hero's eyes at the time reminded me of a dragon whose eggs had been stolen. It still haunts my dreams sometimes.
"Just what do I have to do to make you let go…"
It was right then, as I asked that despairing question in a tone of utter resignation.
"That thing you refused last time… I want you to do it for me…"
In a tone completely opposite to her previous boldness—hesitant and shy like a girl handing her first love a love letter—the Hero answered me.