Safe in His Arms
A considerable stretch of time later, Calsira finally stirred back to consciousness from her deep, exhausted sleep.
…Warm…
Still half-adrift, she could feel warmth and a sense of ease she had never known in her entire life. Things she had never once experienced since the day she was born.
Stroke— stroke—
"Ah…"
A large, hot hand followed, gently smoothing her hair in the direction of its natural fall. Each pass of his palm sent a pleasant sensation through her, along with the quiet certainty that she was being protected.
Especially while held against a warm chest… held?
…Wait.
As sleep loosened its grip and something felt off, Calsira opened her eyes.
The ceiling of the crew cabin they had found aboard the ship. The bed. And—
"Sleep well?"
"…"
—Jincheon's face, looking down at her with an easy, unhurried smile.
Only then did she understand why she was lying like this. And the expression that settled over her features was not one of shame or humiliation, but a pleasant, flustered blush.
"…Yes. I slept well."
This is the first time…
Ever since she had learned her place in the world, every single day of hers had been thin ice. Nights when the mere sound of footsteps was enough to make her snatch up a self-defense pistol before she was even fully awake.
But falling asleep in Jincheon's arms had stripped that tension away completely. She had slept deeply, without a single guard up.
He's protecting me.
Just sleeping in a man's embrace, and already this much comfort.
Thump— thump— thump—
As her mind fully cleared and she realized Jincheon had been holding her this whole time as if standing watch, Calsira's heart began to beat with a sweet, welcome rhythm.
So that's it. I… have become this man's woman.
Having a male who would protect her. That alone was enough for her to understand that she had crossed from woman into mate.
"Shall we get up?"
"Yes…"
The voice that left her lips was free of the rigid, coiled tension she had always carried—her natural voice, unguarded.
I could speak like this, too.
Even she found it strange that such a peaceful tone could come from her own throat. Now that she had tasted this kind of ease, there was no going back to days spent flinching under every gaze, forever on edge.
Then Jincheon's eyes, resting on her face, drifted slightly upward.
There, rising from her forehead, was a small horn. Barely the size of a thumb—too short to serve as any kind of "handle"—but neat and compact enough to look rather adorable.
So, without thinking, Jincheon reached for it.
Stroke—
"Kya!?"
Calsira jolted at the sudden touch. Jincheon, however, kept caressing the horn—scraping the tip lightly with his thumb, running his fingers along its full length.
"W-wait…!"
Stroke— stroke—
The skin covering the horn makes it soft and firm at the same time. Interesting texture.
It wasn't bare horn. Skin sheathed it, and the dual sensation was oddly addictive, inviting him to keep touching.
From… my head… pleasure is… flooding…
He handled it with the same measured pressure he would use caressing a woman, and the sensation shot straight into her brain.
Squeeze—
"Hnnngh…!"
A mischievous smile tugged at Jincheon's mouth. He closed his whole hand around the horn—not roughly, just firmly enough.
"Khhnnhh!"
A moan slipped free as the sensation poured through the horn, and Calsira instinctively pressed herself harder into his chest.
He toyed with it a while longer before finally letting go.
"Haa… haa…"
Breathing a little roughly, she still felt as though her brain itself had been stroked. Jincheon noticed the faint trail of wetness that had slipped from between her thighs, and his expression turned into the wicked look of a man who had just found a very entertaining new toy.
Whoosh—!
"Ah…"
He rolled them over and settled astride her. Looking up at him, Calsira felt a sweet, heavy throb in her chest.
In the end—
Schlick—!
"Hhaaang! Ahh-aah!"
—the two of them started the day with morning sex the moment they woke.
A day that was nothing like the ones before. A new beginning.
Calsira and Jincheon set about checking the ship from every angle, confirming its capabilities.
Woooom—
"Got it! It's online!"
"As expected of the Calsorn Empire. Something two thousand years old, still running without a hitch."
Fortunately, the vessel powered up without issue. They had found the master key in the captain's quarters, and starting the engines had gone smoothly from there.
Moreover, virtually every modern military technology was reverse-engineered from Calsorn designs—so one of the many ship-handling methods Jincheon had learned through expensive private tutoring mapped almost one-to-one onto this craft. Calsira, for her part, had studied ship controls as a contingency. With both of them competent at the helm, they gathered the information they needed quickly.
The bad news first, unfortunately: the vessel was nothing more than a small transport. As such, it carried no weapons of its own for self-defense. Its entire purpose was hauling four mechas and assorted supplies.
Everything else, however, was good news.
Ordinary transport or not, if they shrank the cargo space and converted it into a combat configuration, the armor and shields already installed were strong enough to serve as a mainline warship right away. The Calsorn-made engines and thrusters were outstanding by current galactic standards as well.
But none of those advantages came close to this one.
"Kyaaaa! There's a Warp Drive installed!"
Calsira couldn't help shrieking with delight, practically bouncing where she stood.
Countless Calsorn technologies still sat firmly in the realm of over-technology—techniques that even modern engineering could not reproduce. But among them, ranks existed. And the technology every nation and organization prioritized above all others was the Warp Drive.
In the present galaxy, hyperspace jumps were the only method of interstellar travel: leaping into a subspace whose physical laws differed from real space, then moving faster than light. In real-world terms, it was a train—fast, but locked to fixed routes.
A Warp Drive was different. It folded space itself and delivered you to the desired coordinates in an instant. Given sufficient range, you could cross from one edge of the galaxy to the other in a single moment. No matter how fast a hyperspace jump was, the time required to travel end to end of the galaxy made the Warp Drive's value self-evident.
If anyone ever successfully reverse-engineered one, the economic and military advantages would be beyond any price that money could measure. There was a drawback—each warp required a lengthy cooldown—but even accounting for that, it was still several times faster than hyperspace travel.
"Things never go this well! Honestly, with this entire planetary system turned into a battlefield, I was worried sick about how we'd even get out!"
With a Warp Drive, though, leaving the system would be trivial.
Superb armor. Shields. Engines. Thrusters. And a Warp Drive on top of it all. Everything except weapons—the finest ship they could have hoped for. That a vessel with absurd specs like these was "merely" a transport made the sheer power of the Calsorn Empire hit home in a very concrete way.
"But if anyone else sees it, they'll try to take it. We'll have to use it carefully."
"Ah… You're right about that…"
She knew how strong Jincheon was, but he was still only one man. And if an attack came from space, personal strength meant nothing. The wild, almost manic joy that had been building thanks to him settled back down.
Should I try fighting in space once?
Jincheon, for his part, was already imagining combat in the void.
First I'd lock air in place with protective qi, and for operating in vacuum…
His speculation was set aside for the moment by Calsira's question.
"What should we do about her?"
Heliane, for reference, was tied up again and waiting on their decision.
"That Orobece woman?"
"Yes. Orobece are stubborn. She won't open up easily."
Not every Orobece was a hardheaded fanatic—but among the warrior caste, nearly all of them were, without exaggeration.
Jincheon only snorted at Calsira's warning.
"That's only because she doesn't know me yet."
"…"
It was an outrageously arrogant line. And somehow, she found that arrogance completely natural on him.
"We've got a way out now. We should put in some training time with the Gareld."
"Yes!"
Calsira needed time to get used to a new machine. Jincheon needed time to turn knowledge that had only ever been theory into something he could use in real combat. Fortunately, there was food and water enough that they could afford to take their time for a few months.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
A free world with no one watching me!
From now on she would have to earn her own money and survive a harsh galaxy on her own strength. But that still beat enduring assassins forever hunting for a chance to kill her, and the murderous intent of half-siblings who shared only a father.
I want to try piloting a mecha… and I want to make that Orobece woman mine, too…
Jincheon, meanwhile, had so much to do that he was weighing which priority came first. Ordinarily he would have chosen the woman without hesitation—but the entire reason he had come to this world was I want to ride a giant robot and fight, so the choice was genuinely hard. The desire he had been suppressing all this time was now close enough to touch, and that only deepened the conflict.
Just one ride first. After that I'll make the Orobece woman mine, then start training in earnest.
If he hadn't already claimed Calsira, he would have gone for the woman first. But he had a little more room to breathe now, so he settled on a compromise.
"I'm going to board a Gareld once."
"Then I'll come with you."
"You too?"
"Yes. Training alone on something like this tends to breed bad habits. I'll correct them before they set in."
That made sense. Martial arts were one thing, but mecha piloting was different—Jincheon was a beginner with only theory under his belt, and convenience could easily calcify into unnecessary habits. Even in cultivation, people who trained alone often developed quirks that left openings.
"Good. Honestly, learning it only through tutoring left me a little uneasy."
"I learned through real combat, so explaining things in words might be hard. Bear with me."
"Mm."
Calsira had grown up almost entirely alone as well—but she had sharpened her skill against enemies who were actively trying to kill her on the battlefield. Bad habits got exploited. You fixed them whether you wanted to or not.
The two of them climbed into one of the four Garelds loaded aboard the transport. The units outside had no master keys they could find; only the ones inside the ship had keys left in the crew cabin, so those were the ones they had to use.
"Calsorn Empire machines are controlled with interface gloves and boots. You know how to put them on?"
"I learned that too. Don't worry."
Calsira took the service elevator up to the Gareld locked into its maintenance cradle. Jincheon, by contrast, simply stepped on the protruding parts of the armor plating, used the master key to open the cockpit hatch at the lower abdomen, and climbed straight in.
Come to think of it, he took down three soldiers in powered armor like it was nothing. And even trapped in that situation, he still got us out.
What mattered for a mecha pilot wasn't only control skill. It was a body tough enough to endure G-forces, reaction speed, and dynamic visual acuity. By those measures, Jincheon already far exceeded what a pilot was supposed to have. If he also had talent for piloting itself, that monstrous foundation would let him grow at a terrifying pace.
I might have to take this seriously…
A flicker of competitive tension ran through Calsira—the sense that if she approached this halfheartedly, he might overtake her. She opened the Gareld's hatch and stepped inside.