Chapter 80. A Side You Shouldn't Show Others (2)
Chapter 80. A Side You Shouldn't Show Others (2)
"Nn, ngh......!"
A body rendered exquisitely sensitive by a month of conditioning.
The vibration of the patch pressed flush against her skin was stirring those nerves, drawing out the familiar pleasure it always wrung from her.
By now the sensation was undeniably pleasurable. Heira had no reason whatsoever to refuse it.
If only Dave were the one standing before her, and no one else.
'The two of them.......'
Serika, and Ymir.
They were bonds she had formed after following Dave all this way.
A month had passed since she met them, and Heira now regarded the two as irreplaceably precious comrades in her life.
If a thing called family existed, she would have wished for something just like them.
No — she believed that if this time together stretched on long enough, they could surely become something like family to her.
'Th-they can't find out.'
Heira lowered her head again, utterly unable to meet their eyes.
"Ah, ngh......♥"
But she couldn't suppress the moans that leaked past her lips.
Breathing that any stranger would dismiss as mere exertion.
"......Heira, are you hurting somewhere?"
Serika's face hardened at the feverish sound of her breathing.
She moved to approach, sensing something serious — but in that instant, Heira turned away from her and pushed herself forward.
"I-it's nothing."
"Nothing? Your complexion looks awful for nothing......"
"I-I'm fine......."
-Vwiiinng!
"Hnghkk!!"
The vibration surged abruptly, and her legs buckled.
As she swayed, Serika tried to catch her — but Heira slapped the hand away and forced her teetering body forward with quick steps.
The moment she managed to regain her balance.
"Ah. I'll go scout ahead."
Heira spat out the strained excuse and fled the area as fast as she could.
Fortunately for her, neither of them had yet noticed what was happening to her body even as she left.
"Heira."
But there was someone apart from the two of them — the man who had been carrying the luggage at the front. Dave had not missed a single one of her reactions.
"...Ngh."
The instant she stepped in front of him, Heira stopped walking, turning to look back at Dave with her breath caught in her throat.
As ever, the man smiled lightly at her. Her master — the one who held her leash.
"Are you all right?"
It was the same kindly smile he showed so often, but Heira knew it was a mask.
She knew he was concealing his true nature, playing the part of an ordinary porter within the party.
That he was hiding that truth from the other two.
"If you're feeling unwell, please say so. The road is long, but I can at least afford to wait......"
Yes — even in this moment, his hand was inside his pocket.
"I can afford to wait a little while."
The instant that hand moved, the vibration wracking her body intensified, and her flesh — utterly incapable of resisting — began to shudder as though in a seizure.
"Mmnp!"
But they were still too close to the others.
Heira clamped one hand over her own mouth, suppressed the trembling as best she could, and forced herself onward with legs that nearly refused to hold her.
"......I-I'm, fine."
-Vwiiiinng!
"I'm, fine......."
Just a little faster.
The only thought filling her head was that she had to get out of their sight.
"Ah, ahh, ahhh......!"
And when she finally hid herself behind a tree some distance away, Heira kept one hand clamped over her mouth while the other began to rummage frantically beneath her clothes.
'N-no. If I feel it — if I come right here....'
-Vwiing, vwiiinng~!
The vibration grew fiercer the moment she made contact with her acutely sensitized erogenous zones.
But it wasn't enough. The stimulation the device delivered kept her dangling at the maddening edge just short of climax, tormenting her.
'I-I hate this.'
That frustration drove her own hand to stroke her sex for relief — but what she felt in the act was not relief at all. It was a vicious self-loathing.
Until now, she had only ever toyed with herself before Dave, exactly as he wished.
This was the first time her memories had returned while the three of them were together.
'If the two of them ever find out about this.......'
Only now did the girl who once knew nothing of sex truly realize just how shameful and humiliating her acts had been all this time.
'I'd — I'd never be able to be with them again...!'
Because the man who took her first time wasn't the only person she wanted to remain with.
She treasured the bonds he had forged for her as well. And so Heira desperately wished the two of them would not look at her with disappointment.
"Ah, haahhk!"
Desperate to release the unbearable sensation that threatened to expose her, Heira worked her fingers inside her cunt. Her body finally slumped, mouth still covered, as she came alone in secret.
She was hoping this would quiet her filthy urges, even just like this.
-Vwiiiiinng~
But she wasn't even afforded a moment to endure the afterglow before the patch affixed to her body started vibrating again.
As though to teach her that a single climax would not end this torture.
"Ahngh!"
By the time she realized it, climax was already building again inside her sensitized flesh.
Her body trembled once more with ragged breath, and only then, as she grasped her situation, did Heira begin to cry.
'No way — all the way until the journey ends?'
Nothing like before.
She felt the truth sink into her bones: a hellish torment had just begun.
***
Hours had passed since they left the village and set foot on the road.
By the time the moon hung near the center of the night sky, Dave — lantern in hand and walking out front — spoke up.
"I think we'd better make camp around here soon. Both of you are all right with that?"
"Mm, I feel like I could keep going a while longer, but Heira really doesn't look well, and......"
Serika, walking behind Dave, glanced back briefly and let out a bitter remark.
"......More than anything, Ymir's in that state too, so I think it's best we rest here and go on later."
"Hahh, hahh......."
Ymir was trailing behind them on legs that trembled violently. Even that seemed too much for her — in one hand she clutched a wooden stick she'd picked up off the road.
Everyone knows mages tend to live shut-in lifestyles, but I hadn't imagined her stamina would sink this low.
"Riding carriages every day does that to your stamina. And now we're going to be sleeping outdoors and doing all sorts of things — what's your plan going forward?"
"S-shut it, you muscle-heads. Try living your lives with two...... iron lumps strapped to your chests, and then talk."
Ymir snapped back at Serika's scolding with a sharp-edged voice.
The only reason her usual spirit wasn't coming through was that she must have already hit her physical limit.
"Seriously, this is exactly why I never went outside. I move a little bit and my entire body feels absurdly exhausted....... Koff!"
"...It can't be helped. I'll carry you on my back."
Serika approached Ymir as the mage threatened to sink down. Ymir stared back at her with a surprised expression.
"Carry me. You actually mean that?"
"If I had my way I'd hand you off to Dave, but Dave is already carrying all four of our shares by himself. And no matter how much we bicker, we're still comrades — shouldn't I keep public and private separate?"
With that, Serika offered Ymir her back. Watching her, Ymir let out a small laugh, as if faintly moved.
"Ah, well, fine. If the little squirt's offering goodwill, I ought to accept."
This kind of trust-building can't hurt, right? With that thought, Ymir climbed onto Serika's back.
"Khhhhuarrghk!!"
And the very instant both her feet left the ground, Serika screamed and drove her own knees into the dirt.
"......Hey."
"Ghh, hnnrghh! S-so heavy!! What the hell have you been eating, Ymir, to weigh this much? Y-your body weight is like an orc's....... Khrgk!"
"A girl who beats orcs in arm-wrestling doesn't sound too convincing when she says that, you know? Stop messing around and hurry up and carry me."
"No, it's actually heavy....... Ghhruuughk! My back!! My back broke!!"
Exaggeration so blatant anyone could see it.
Ymir finally caught on to her intent. Her touched expression vanished as she gathered mana into her body.
"......Gravity, tenfold."
"Kiiyaaahk!!"
The moment gravity exerted on her body increased tenfold, a scream of pure sincerity tore out of Serika.
Collapsed heavily to the ground, she shouted up at Ymir.
"What are you doing! I seriously thought my back snapped!"
"And why not, hm? I was just making my body genuinely heavier to match your reaction."
"Even so, ten times is way too much! My back almost actually broke! Are you seriously going to be this childish about it!?"
"Who was childish first."
The two of them started bickering all over again.
Watching from two paces away, Dave smiled ambiguously to himself and began his preparations to head up the hill first.
"You two take your time following along. I'll go on ahead with Heira and get the tents set up."
From the look of it, they'd be at it in that spot for a while yet.
Plenty of time to set up tents and get camp ready after this, Dave figured, and finished his climb up the hill — where he found Heira waiting for him at the top just as she'd gone on ahead.
Heira, legs collapsed beneath her, trembling uncontrollably.
"Heira, let's get ready to pitch the tents......"
"M-Master."
"......."
"...Master, please. No more."
A voice thick with desperation.
Heira had crawled to him before she even realized it, clutching his clothes and bursting into sorrowful tears.
It seemed she couldn't even rise to her feet; her knees dragged through the dirt as she shuffled toward him.
"I can't stand it anymore......!"
Not even once.
The girl who had silently endured all the conditioning up to now and finally became a slave to pleasure — only now was she begging him to end this moment.
As he watched the scene, a smile slowly spread across the man's lips.
"...You really do want me to stop?"
"Y-yes. Please — stop now. If this keeps up and the two of them find out......"
"Really?"
He asked her again.
Only then did Heira's teary, damp gaze turn toward the man before her.
"Heira."
A night sky darkened by the rising moon.
But the face was clearly visible, lit by the lantern set on the ground.
"Do you truly wish for this thing between us to end?"
That face, steeped in triumphant dominance, at last aware his design had borne fruit.