Waiting (3)
He turned on his heel at once and left the queen’s bedchamber, making straight for Serenia’s mansion.
Behind him, he could still hear the queen’s tiny murmur.
"What should we name the third one…?"
She hasn’t even gotten pregnant yet, and she’s already thinking about names….
Valdes was almost speechless, but if he said that out loud now, he had a feeling he might not make it to Serenia’s mansion at all. It wasn’t as if he had to go there today, but Serenia, who must have been lonely all this time, kept floating into his mind.
Serenia hadn’t betrayed him, nor was she tied by blood to any traitor. On the contrary, she had been one of the people who followed him to the very end. She simply hadn’t been able to accompany him all the way to the Demon Queen’s castle because she was the princess’s sworn knight. That didn’t mean she’d been on the level of the other heroes’ party members back then, but it did mean Serenia’s feelings for Valdes had been sincere.
He had properly stirred her up and then gone without contacting her for a long time, so this was largely his own fault.
Will she be startled if I show up without warning?
As he muttered to himself in the corridor, his quick pace soon carried him to Serenia’s mansion.
It was a grand noble estate. The guards at the entrance saw Valdes and, without the slightest hesitation, greeted him politely before opening the door.
Even before he left with the embassy, he had come and gone from the mansion many times as Serenia’s pupil. He knew not only the guards, but most of the servants working there as well. They weren’t exactly close, but they were on respectful terms.
What was more, the guards had been told by Serenia herself that Valdes was to be given free passage, so they welcomed him without a moment’s hesitation.
"It’s been a while, sir."
"Welcome. The countess has been waiting for you."
Waiting?
Valdes eyed the guards’ greeting with suspicion.
Did she already hear the news?
It had only been a few hours since he arrived in the capital, but Serenia was an influential person in many places. It wouldn’t have been strange for someone to pass the news along to her. Even so, the idea that she was waiting for him still left him puzzled.
When he stepped into the mansion’s front hall, a white-haired butler was standing in the lobby.
"Welcome, Sir Valdes."
"It’s been a while, Butler. Though the title of ‘sir’ is still a bit…."
"Ho ho, even so, it’s already been decided, hasn’t it? No one would object to addressing you as Sir Valdes now."
The elderly butler, who had served Serenia for years, had a talent for putting people at ease. Valdes was not especially moved by it, of course, but there was no denying the man was a fine butler. Valdes answered with a smile and asked,
"By the way, where is my teacher…?"
He was asking about Serenia’s whereabouts.
It felt oddly awkward to use that title after so long. It had been the word used to refer to her in the Ventorino Kingdom as well, but after the assault incident, everyone had focused more on her being the hero of the Ventorino Kingdom than on her being Valdes’s teacher, so he had barely had any reason to use it.
Still, if the guards were saying she was waiting inside, it was strange that she wasn’t in sight. If Serenia had been waiting for him so eagerly, he would have expected her to be in the lobby.
At that question, the butler couldn’t hide his broad smile.
"The countess is in the dining room."
"The dining room…?"
"She’s waiting for Sir Valdes there."
Valdes gave the butler a suspicious look, sensing a scheme in that expression, but the old man concealed his true thoughts admirably. Though he found it unsettling, there was no reason to think Serenia and the butler were up to something strange, so he accepted the butler’s guidance and headed toward the dining room.
"Ho ho ho. You should have seen how restless the countess was… It’s been a very long time since I saw her like that."
"……."
"She looked just like a girl the day before her first date with that man."
For a moment, Valdes nearly stopped in his tracks.
With that remark, he understood why the butler was behaving the way he was.
So the old man noticed, huh.
"…Are you all right with that, Butler?"
"With what, exactly?"
"Well, with several things…."
"Ho ho. I’ve served the countess since she was a little child. It may be disrespectful to say, but she’s already like my own granddaughter to me. So… whatever happens, as long as she’s happy, that’s enough for me."
"You’re a good man, Butler."
"Heh heh, thank you for the compliment. ……We’ve arrived."
Before long, their casual conversation brought them to the dining room. Smiling softly, the butler took hold of the handle and slowly opened the door. A brighter, warmer light than the corridor washed over Valdes, and the scene inside was soon revealed.
…?
When he’d heard Serenia was waiting in the dining room, Valdes had assumed she was in the middle of dinner, since it was that time of day. It might have been a little early for supper, but she usually ate alone anyway, so the timing could shift as needed.
But his expectation seemed to have been off the mark.
The dining table was laid with a lavish full-course banquet. That much matched his guess, but every dish remained untouched. More than that, they were still steaming, as if they had just been set out.
"W-welcome back… husband…."
And at the far end of the table stood Serenia, awkwardly placed beside her chair.
"Serenia…?"
"Y-yes…♡"
Valdes stared blankly at her shy, lovable response.
Serenia was wearing a dress. A deep-purple dinner dress that was scandalously revealing. He had seen it before.
It was the very dress she had worn the first time he was invited to this mansion, when the two of them had dined alone together. Back then, she had said it was the only properly prepared dinner dress she had. But there was no way that was still the case now.
"You prepared all this?"
"Y-yes… Well, the queen contacted me. She said you’d be coming… for dinner."
"Ha ha ha."
A dry laugh escaped him.
He truly had not expected this. For Beatris to be this considerate toward Serenia? Not only had she sent her here, she had even contacted her in advance and given her time to prepare. It was a genuine surprise.
Looking at the dishes on the table, some of them must have taken quite a while to make. If Beatris hadn’t contacted Serenia as soon as she heard the embassy had arrived, this would have been impossible. He couldn’t say that with certainty, but it did make clear just how much Beatris cared for Serenia.
"Tonight is going to be… a lot of fun."
"Y-yes? Fu-fun? Hahaha… fun…."
At his words, Serenia imagined what would happen later that night.
They had already been together more than once, but apparently it had caught her off guard all the same, because she suddenly began fanning herself with her right hand, trying to cool her flushed face. At the same time, she poured wine into a glass to moisten her quickly drying throat.
Even though two glasses were already filled with wine right in front of her, the fact that she still brought out a new glass showed just how nervous she was. After taking a sip, Serenia let out a small breath and tried to steady her pounding heart. Then she grabbed the back of the chair beside her.
"Husband. C-come sit down."
Perhaps the wine she had just drunk had eased her tension a little, because Serenia urged him to take a seat.
Valdes nodded once or twice and walked over to the chair set out for him. Its position was exactly the same as before. Looking closer, even the type of wine and the food laid out seemed almost identical to that day. He wasn’t the kind to pay attention to such small things, so he couldn’t remember them clearly, but some faint impression still lingered in his mind, sharpened by the heights he had reached.
He didn’t know exactly what Serenia wanted, but he could tell this was a situation almost identical to that day. For now, he decided to indulge her. Letting himself be led by the direction she wanted, for once, didn’t seem so bad.
"You put a lot of work into this."
"I really wanted to do it exactly the same way, but it was harder than I thought."
At her honestly disappointed expression, a small smile touched Valdes’s face.
She really was a beautiful and lovely woman.
Even now, just looking at her was enough to prove it.
Her orange bob was slightly damp from sweat spilled by nervousness. Her blue eyes were faintly dazed. Her cheeks were flushed red, whether from the wine or from embarrassment. Every feature of her face seemed crafted to seize a man’s attention, all gathered together in a magnificent beauty.
And below that, there was even more to admire.
The body of a seasoned female knight, impossible to mistake for a woman in her thirties. Her figure had been carefully maintained of late, with greater attention paid to her looks and physique, and her generous breasts invited every impure thought. Because the dinner dress itself was so revealing, Serenia’s beautiful skin was exposed to his eyes with no restraint at all.
There was more uncovered than covered, and he couldn’t help wondering how the dress even managed to stay together in that shape. The skirt was especially short in the front, leaving more than half of her thighs visible, and since she was sitting with her legs spread as she usually did, it seemed as though a slight tilt of his head would reveal her underwear outright.
She’s really lewd….
He had thought it back then too, but now she felt even lewder than before.
"You haven’t eaten yet, right?"
Though it was obvious, Serenia asked cautiously just in case.
"I came to eat with you."
"That’s a relief."
"Did I keep you waiting long?"
"No. I did start preparing as soon as I got your message, but there wasn’t much time left."
Valdes thought he understood why.
After all, the servants were the ones preparing the food, so she herself had little to do. Seated across from her, his gaze swept over Serenia’s face and the skin she had on display. Her face was lightly made up in a way she usually wasn’t, and her skin had a glossy, fragrant sheen, as if she had applied some kind of oil.
Both had been done so delicately and discreetly that they would have been easy to overlook if one weren’t observing closely. She must have been busy putting on makeup and getting massages in a way that didn’t stand out too much. Thinking that all of it had been for him made him feel strangely pleased.
"Your makeup looks nice."
"Ah… heh heh, yes. Thank you…."
The two of them continued chatting softly even after they began their meal, cleaning the plates between bits of conversation. They drank wine in between, too, enjoying a graceful little world all their own.
And then, in the midst of that pleasant time, after he had eaten a fair amount, Valdes tossed out a casual remark.
"Looks like you got something on your dress."
"Huh?"
Serenia flinched and looked down, but there was no stain to be seen. Even if the dress was a dark shade of purple, there was no way her eyes would miss it.
"Huh? Where… ah?"
As she lifted her head again, still confused, Valdes had already taken his seat.
"Hmm, was that my mistake?"
The boy had somehow moved to the seat right beside her.
"H-husband…"
"Let me see."
Squish.
"!!"
Serenia’s eyes went wide.
Valdes’s hands had slipped so naturally into her dress. Through both palms, which had closed around her large breasts as though gripping them whole, he could feel the heat of her body. And the pounding of Serenia’s heart thudded straight into him.
"The line is completely different… but the situation is about the same, isn’t it?"
As he chuckled with a playful grin, the face of the man she loved began to stir a faint smile in her as well.
"…No, I think it’s completely different. Because…."
Serenia reached out and took hold of Valdes’s arm. Then she pulled.
She didn’t use much force, but Valdes was drawn by her hand and thrown into Serenia’s embrace. The hand of the teacher that had just been on his arm slid smoothly upward, wrapping around the neck of her pupil.
"We’ve already gone beyond teacher and student… and become a man and a woman in love, haven’t we?"
With no mana being used to push him away, the two flushed faces of the drunken pair came together.
"Mm, mmph… mnh, muah, muwah…♥ Chup, chu-rup, mm, ngh, chweb… hhaaah…♥"
Valdes’s hand, which had been kneading Serenia’s luscious breasts, suddenly dropped lower. As her dress was peeled back as if it might tear, her enormous chest was laid bare to the air. Even so, his hands, as though still unsatisfied, changed targets while groping her body.
His left arm wrapped around her back to support her, while his right hand moved lower still, seizing the firm, springy flesh of her ass. As the fluttering hem of her dress was tossed up, that right hand, with only a thin layer of underwear separating them, hungrily kneaded her rounded backside.
"Ah, ngh, mm… lick, lick, ngh…! Ugh, hhaah… ah, husband…♥"
Fully intoxicated with pleasure, Serenia clung to Valdes and, by her strange habit, attached the honorific to the word husband.
"You must have been really hungry."
"Haa, haa, yes, yes… what else was I supposed to do? You taught me that kind of pleasure…♥ Then you went off on a long business trip, and hngh… you didn’t even contact me…."
"I’m really sorry I didn’t contact you."
"Mm… it hurts more because you didn’t just forget to…."
"I’ll make it all up to you today."
"Ah… ngh!"
Valdes once again lost himself in those seductive lips of hers.