A First and Last Love
We knocked our beer glasses together.
One swallow, and the taste came down thick. Bitter from the very first mouthful, cloudy and heavy—you couldn't go in expecting the beer they sold back in my old world. Even so, nothing else was half as good at setting a mood.
"Sorry. I don't really have anything decent to put out as a snack."
"It's fine. I drink just as well without one."
Her face was flushed a little more noticeably than when she'd first stepped into the room. She didn't look like much of a drinker. We didn't say a word to each other until the beer was gone.
Now that I'd grown closer to Arian, a look into her mind with hypnosis would probably have given me the rough shape of her thoughts. I didn't do it. How should I put it? Maybe I wanted to try this thing called a fresh, innocent love, just once. From here on I would do anything for the sake of revenge, but before that I wanted a first love, and a last one. Somehow, with Arian, it felt possible. She might, of course, be thinking something else entirely.
"Leon, what do you think of me?"
"Huh?"
For a second I nearly sprayed every drop I'd just swallowed. Wasn't that a little too straight down the middle?
"You're pretty."
I'd hardly ever given anyone a compliment, so nothing else came to mind. Arian's face burned an even deeper red. Did she know it? That she was as red as a peach right now.
"And?"
"You're really cute, and that smile that lights up when you laugh is charming."
"And?"
I was stingy with praise. Getting the words out wasn't easy. But those sparkling eyes made it impossible to stop. She really did seem badly starved for affection.
"Your eyes are pretty too, and I like your hair. Smooth, and it shines."
Arian stroked her long hair with her left hand and looked at me with eyes that shone even brighter.
"And?"
"Your chest is big and your hips are big, so you're nice to look at."
For a man, that was about the same as being told he had broad shoulders and a solid lower body. I'd been mortified the first time I heard it, but Kyle had insisted it was absolutely not a lewd joke.
"S-saying something that embarrassing so casually……."
The good mood shattered all at once. Arian whipped her head aside.
Fucking Kyle, you bastard!
No—maybe this was just me, from playing too many sex games. A woman wouldn't tell a man his dick was probably huge the moment they met. It was my mistake for opening my mouth without checking, but either way, I had one more reason to take revenge on Kyle.
"S-sorry. I've never really talked with a girl as pretty as you……."
"Really? A guy as handsome as you?"
Objectively, I didn't think I was that good-looking.
"Mm……."
This was part of the original Leon's setting. A fallen viscount's son whose house had gone completely under when he was young, so while other people were studying he was out working. Noble or not, the moment there's no bread to eat, you throw away pride and honor both. He'd spent his days doing nothing but labor, living on food that had nutrients instead of flavor, and when he awakened he'd ended up with a solid body. His skill itself was useless in a fight, so he'd barely scraped through on the cutoff. That was Leon.
"Looks like this big sister really is going to have to teach you everything, from one to ten."
Arian had no experience with men either, but I didn't bother pointing that out. She came up beside me with a foxlike smile. Maybe because the distance had closed, the sweet perfume I'd been catching for a while drew nearer—and under it, a smell I knew. That particular ripe scent a woman gives off.
Why this smell?
It was very much like the scent Elisia the tank and Saintess Ellis had given off when they were in heat. I sniffed, searching for the source, and my nose drifted naturally toward the space between Arian's thighs.
"Haa……."
"You're all right, aren't you?"
"Ah, yeah. I drank a lot of beer. I think I got drunk."
One can shouldn't have been enough to get anyone drunk. Awakeners like us had mana; a single can couldn't touch us. Even so, I asked if that was really it and put on a worried look.
"We ought to head back soon. Can you stand?"
"Mm."
She didn't look able to get up on her own, so I supported her—and she collapsed against my chest as if she had no strength at all.
Thump.
Arian's small face rested against my chest. She stayed like that for a while, then opened catlike eyes and looked up at me.
"I don't think I can walk."
"Then let's go to my bed for now."
Arian nodded as if she were only giving in. The bed was large, roomy enough for two. She perched on the edge, and when I tried to let go of her hand a sudden tingle shot through me.
"Nnh."
I pulled my hand back at once. Arian, maybe not so sleepy after all, sat on the bed and watched how I took it.
"I-if you wander around after drinking, a professor might scold you. Could you let me stay just for one night?"
Alcohol was on the list of banned items, too. Her point was clearly reasonable.
"Yeah, that's true. We can't get marked on the first day."
"Mm-hm. Sleeping here would be easier."
Arian smiled brightly. No matter who looked, it was the smile of a far too beautiful girl.
"I feel a little hot. I should wash before bed, right?"
Looking her over, she was fairly soaked in sweat. Whether that was the heat or something else, I couldn't tell.
"I'm fine, so go wash whenever you like."
"No. You'll be sleepy too, Leon. You wash first."
"The host is right here. A guest can't wash first. Go on."
"No, you first. You'll be sleepy. You should sleep."
"You'll be sleepy too, Leon, so maybe we could wash toge—"
"Uh, what?"
"N-nothing. Then I'll go wash first."
Whether from embarrassment, Arian hurried into the bathroom.
"Hoo……. I was on edge, thinking she'd notice."
She obviously hadn't caught on, but my lower half was standing painfully stiff. She'd pressed her face in and kept rubbing her chest and body against me. How was I supposed to hold an erection back?
But fuck, Kyle, you bastard!
Because of the passive, every stat followed Kyle's. And thanks to Kyle, whose Vigor was only 1, my dick and my Vigor had shrunk badly too. The Vigor stat didn't just govern libido and semen volume—it affected size as well—so right now my cock was in a truly pathetic state.
I don't think I can satisfy her with this.
I checked downstairs once more and let out a long sigh.
"Um, Le-on?"
"Yeah?"
I lifted the head I'd dropped, and there was Arian, body wrapped in a single towel. However long it was, she wasn't wearing a stitch underneath, and it wasn't nearly enough to cover a chest that looked ready to burst.
"I don't really have any c-clothes I can wear."
Drip.
The moment I took in the sight and the line, blood ran from my nose. In real life you don't get a nosebleed just from seeing something lewd, but it was one of the traits of sex games. Proof enough: for a nosebleed, there was a lot of blood.
"L-Leon! Are you okay?"
Startled, Arian dropped to her knees below my thigh and caught the blood as it ran.
"I'm fine. This happens sometimes, after awakening."
I pinched my nose and turned my head again to reassure her, and Arian's cleavage—left bare by the towel—filled my eyes.
Ugh. This is bad.
We hadn't even done anything yet, and the stimulation was so huge I felt like I'd come in my pants as I was. I used the nosebleed as an excuse and bolted for the bathroom.
"Just take whatever's in the closet and put it on."
Inside, the scent she'd left behind was still there. A thick smell, the kind that stood in for pheromones—soft like lotion, and far lewder than that. Of course my dick was fully hard and throbbing, but the size hadn't particularly changed.
"Hoo……."
To think this was a full erection. All I could do was sigh. Measuring it roughly against my hand, it seemed to fall somewhere between six and seven centimeters. I hadn't used a ruler, so that was only a guess. Looking again, it was pathetic. This was all Kyle's fault. In the first loop I'd had something big enough to punch through my pants.
"Hoo……."
I washed in a hurry and stepped out. The lingering scent had faded a little, and the thing that had been stretched taut had gone quiet.
Arian was up on the bed in my dress shirt. With nothing but my clothes on hand, it hung seriously oversized, and her large breasts pushed out against the cloth until the whole thing looked unbearably lewd.
"Why are you standing there? Come here."
I sat down beside her, hip to hip. If we'd already been lovers I would have started right then, but we weren't. More than that, we were both inexperienced—a virgin and a virgin—so I didn't know what words to begin with.
"Leon."
In the long silence, Arian was the one who found her courage first.
"Yeah?"
"What do you think of me?"
"Uh, that's……."
Just as I was about to speak, she covered my mouth with a finger.
"I think I want to say it first. We haven't known each other long, but thanks to you I've learned a lot. And I'm really grateful you saved me. The lunch was delicious, too."
Her voice was shaking badly. I wanted to tell her it wasn't anything special, but the timing had already passed. I'll say it again: this was my first time with something like this, too.
"And every time I look at you, I get so nervous……. Haa. So I don't think I can hold it in anymore."
Gulp.
"So, what I'm saying is……. Haa. Won't you do it with me?"
"I—I'd like that."
Hic.
The moment I answered, Arian looked startled. She'd said it herself and still jumped.
"R-really? You're okay doing it with a woman like me?"
"I like you, Arian."
In this world it wasn't the culture for men to come on strong, and I deliberately answered a little clumsily, to raise her self-esteem. Even so, Arian was a virgin. How much courage must that have taken?
The moment she heard the answer, she seized my cheek and pushed her tongue into my mouth. Even to me, with no experience, it was clumsy, without any special technique—but it was sweeter than anything I had tasted until now.