The Incubus Hides His Kindness #7
The Incubus Hides His Kindness #7
The hand holding the key trembled with excitement.
Rebecca had given her verbal consent for me to enter her room. Even when I smoothly slipped the key into my pocket, she simply kept her head bowed in silence.
A cool attitude — no cheap take-backs!
'She said I could come over and play, right? In her room.'
Rebecca had invited me to come play.
But the images flashing through my mind right then were anything but innocent. Because my head was full of Rebecca touching herself alone late at night.
Rebecca moaning my name longingly as she masturbated, just like the day after our first time.
'Luke.'
The sounds of her moans from that day were replaying automatically in my head. Rebecca lying naked on the bed, letting out those lewd whimpers. Truth be told, back then I'd wanted to just pounce on her while she was caressing herself. Things had somehow taken a cheerful turn instead, but that wasn't what I'd been hoping for.
But now, if I had a key?
A key to the room right next door, to Rebecca's room!
I now had a 24-hour window of opportunity to pounce on Rebecca.
In arcade game terms, I had infinite coins! Infinite coins to go after Rebecca!
I savored the feel of the key in my hand, basking in a sense of omnipotence like I'd activated a cheat code.
"Thanks, Rebecca!"
I got down from the bed and bowed to her.
I pressed my forehead to the floor.
"Hehe. Do you really like playing with me that much?"
"Yeah, yeah. Heh, uh-huh."
"We can have fun inside the room too! I've heard that card games are popular here on the outer continent? I'll teach you the games I used to enjoy back in my homeland, and if you know any fun ones, you can teach me!"
Had she completely misinterpreted my bow of gratitude?
Rebecca was laughing cheerfully as she brought up games out of nowhere. A woman with an outrageously lewd body who was utterly, hopelessly innocent.
The moment I glanced between her kneeling thighs, I suddenly wanted to play cat's cradle. I wanted to play cat's cradle with lewd pussy juice.
"Yeah... I'll definitely come over and play."
I flashed Rebecca a smile.
Rebecca looked at me and giggled too.
"So now you know the whole story, right? Anything else you want to hear?"
"Did you cook this up with Brown? He tried to scam me, saying some young nobleman was moving in next door."
"Yep. I asked Uncle Brown to do it. I told him to keep my moving in a secret from you. Because I really wanted to surprise you."
It was an elaborate prank, but I wasn't particularly mad. As I fiddled with the key in my pocket, a blooming grin spread across my face instead.
Come to think of it, wasn't this genuinely bizarre?
I happened to move on the exact same day as Rebecca, and the rooms we moved into were right next door to each other. Even for a coincidence, the timing was almost too perfect. It made me think that maybe Rebecca and I really did have some kind of connection.
"W-well, then I'll get going. I've got a lot of stuff I still need to bring over from my old place. I brought some of it in a cart, but there's a lot left. I think I'll be swamped with moving today."
"A cart? Where'd you get that?"
"I paid to borrow it from the inn I used to live at. It only costs 3 copper to rent for a day."
I walked over to the window and looked down at the inn's entrance. Sure enough, just as Rebecca had said, a wheeled cart was sitting there all by itself.
So Rebecca had been hauling a cart to the inn since the crack of dawn? The mental image of her struggling and straining to pull it by herself almost made me burst out laughing.
"Let's go together. I'll help you move your stuff."
"R-really? You mean it?"
"I can't just kick back and relax while my girlfriend's working hard."
"You're a real ride-or-die guy!"
Rebecca threw her arms around me from behind, her face brimming with emotion.
Her soft tits pressed gently against my back.
Obviously, helping Rebecca wasn't purely out of goodwill.
I wanted to finish the move as fast as possible and "play" with Rebecca.
This was scoring points with her in advance for the "play" to come.
Right now, I could become an ox pulling the cart for Rebecca's sake. I happened to have horns on my head already — no reason I couldn't be an ox!
"Let's wrap this up fast and play."
"Okay!"
For the next half day, I shuttled back and forth between the two inns, diligently pulling the cart.
I had Rebecca carry the valuables that couldn't afford to get damaged, while I focused on the heavy lifting. Even old-timers who'd mastered the art of scrap-paper collecting couldn't keep up with me today. Thoughts of pouncing on Rebecca had me running on boiling sexual fuel.
"Why do you keep trying to pull the cart all by yourself?!"
"MoooooOOOOOOOoooo."
"And what's with the cow noises?"
I pushed myself with superhuman strength and successfully moved every last piece of luggage within half a day. After helping Rebecca organize her things inside the room, I decided to have a late lunch with her.
*
Mealtime arrived.
I went back to my neatly tidied room to rest for a bit, and Rebecca went down to the dining hall and brought food back up. It was the same thick soup and barley bread the inn served at every mealtime.
"Here, I brought your portion too."
I dug spoonfuls into the soup Rebecca handed over.
Normally the soup was bland and tasteless, but today was different.
Because right in front of me was Rebecca — a walking side dish!
Wait, was that not the intended meaning of side dish?
Anyway, eating while chatting with Rebecca whetted my appetite. Now that she'd moved into the room next door, meals would be enjoyable from here on out. Living as two people who get along is definitely better than living alone.
Then suddenly, a thought struck me.
If living as two is better, wouldn't it just be best to shack up with Rebecca altogether?
A double room for two would cut our living expenses quite a bit. Plus, it seemed like a good choice for Rebecca too, since she gets lonely easily. Feeling like I'd hit on a brilliant idea, I immediately spoke up.
"Hey, you wanna just live together?"
I'd only tossed out the suggestion casually.
But in that moment, Rebecca's eyes flew wide open and she stared at me. She must've choked on her soup, because she started coughing and spluttering. Her reaction was so extreme that even I, the one who'd made the suggestion, got flustered.
"L-live together...? You mean you want to cohabit with me?"
"Yeah! Living together would be good in a lot of ways, don't you think? We could cut living expenses, and two people are safer than one. If something happens, I'll be able to protect you."
"I appreciate you saying all that, buuut..."
After her coughing fit subsided, Rebecca trailed off for a moment.
Then she looked me straight in the eye and spoke.
"Living together is a no, Luke."
"Why?"
It was a remarkably firm refusal.
Could it be she had some special reason she couldn't live with another person?
Thinking back to when we'd slept together, she didn't seem to have any weird habits.
"A man and a woman living together means you've entered a truly deep relationship. Only people who've formed a marital bond are supposed to live together. I think living with a man before marriage is just... not right."
"Marriage?"
She attached that much special meaning to a man and woman living together?
I was puzzled for a moment, then I recalled Rebecca's homeland, the Zakarta Kingdom. That country seemed to place enormous importance on chastity and propriety. Unmarried men and women shacking up might be considered vulgar there. It wasn't unreasonable for Rebecca, born and raised in such a country, to be reluctant about cohabitation.
"I see."
"D-do you... really want to live with me, no matter what?"
"It's fine even if we don't live together! You'll have times you want to rest alone too."
"......"
My carefully-considered suggestion had been shot down, but I wasn't particularly dejected. As a man, I valued my alone time too. And after mulling it over, I recalled a story my cousin had told me in my past life.
My cousin was someone who'd cohabited with his girlfriend before getting married. When I'd asked him what it felt like living with a girlfriend, he'd once responded like this:
- Living with your girlfriend? There are pros and cons! Which do you wanna hear first?
- The pros, bro.
- The pro is that you get to see your girlfriend's face every day! The time you spend together increases, so the relationship inevitably deepens! But there's just one fatal con!
The moment he started talking about the con, my cousin's eyes had turned moist and glossy.
With an expression as hollow as if he'd lost something precious, my cousin said:
- Your girlfriend won't go home...!
- What?
- Even late at night, she won't go back home, that fucking bitch!!
Of course she wouldn't go back, you dumbass hyung. You live together.
I'd wanted to roast my cousin with that, but seeing his tragic expression, I'd naturally kept my mouth shut. The moment cohabitation started, it seemed my cousin had lost a great deal as a man.
Especially his gaming.
He was in the pitiful state of having bought AAA blockbuster games on Steam but being unable to play them.
The moment I remembered my cousin, I was able to calm my heart.
Indeed, a man and woman living together wasn't a decision to be made lightly.
"I'll respect your opinion. Living next door is fine too."
"You really understand how I feel."
Rebecca, who'd been watching my expression for a long while, finally let out a sigh of relief. And yet a trace of regret lingered in her expression, as if she didn't think living with me was entirely a bad thing. Just seeing that wistful look on her face gave me a sense of satisfaction.
After we finished the conversation about living together.
It was when I was about to head back to Rebecca's room. Her room still had luggage that wasn't unpacked. After finishing my meal, I stood up, and Rebecca suddenly spoke to me.
"H-hey, um! This might not be the right mood to bring this up, but..."
This mood?
The somber mood from having my cohabitation proposal rejected?
I didn't really mind whatever topic she wanted to bring up.
It wasn't like my feelings were hurt because of Rebecca.
"Can I ask you just one thing?"
"Ask me anything."
After deep deliberation, Rebecca looked at me and opened her mouth.
"So... is it true that men hide lewd things in their rooms?"
"What the."
Her sudden question forced me to concede.
This really wasn't the right mood to bring that up.
"You're curious about that?"
"Yeah."
Rebecca looked at me with a face full of curiosity. Judging by her expression, it was a curiosity she'd harbored for a long time. Was it because we'd become lovers and grown closer? she was asking embarrassing questions without hesitation.
She'd asked, so I couldn't exactly refuse to answer.
I decided to satisfy Rebecca's curiosity.
"Probably. There are erotic picture books floating around on the continent. Outside of those, there isn't really anywhere to find lewd stuff."
"What exactly is an erotic picture book?"
"A book full of lewd drawings."
Men across the continent frequently used erotic picture books as wank material. This was a world without porn videos or hentai sites. If you weren't going to a brothel, you released pent-up sexual urges by looking at erotic picture books. Though some people preferred dirty stories too, of course.
"If a guy's hiding lewd stuff in his room, it's usually an erotic picture book. It's the easiest to read quick and put away."
As I spoke, I suddenly couldn't help but grow hyper-aware of what was behind me.
Because a worn-out erotic picture book was secretly hidden in my room too. I hadn't bought it — I'd happened to pick up a discarded one on the roadside. Over two years, I couldn't even count how many loads I'd shot to that book.
Right now, that old erotic picture book was lying in dignified storage under my bed!
It was the moment I'd unconsciously flicked a glance to the side.
"Th-then, in that case!"
Rebecca suddenly looked at me, her eyes sparkling. At the sound of her voice ringing in my ears, I hurriedly turned my gaze back forward.
"You've got one too, don't you? An erotic picture book."
"Wh-who knows?"
"You said all men hide lewd things. You must be hiding something in your room too, right?"
"...I'd rather not say with my own mouth?"
"Just tell me. What's the harm?"
"O-obviously I can't, dammit!"
Is there anything more humiliating than your girlfriend discovering your wank material?
I quickly changed the subject.
"Why are you asking me something like that?!"
"I c-can ask! Why are you yelling?"
"Let's just hurry back and unpack your things, you curious newbie."
I grabbed Rebecca's wrist and rushed her toward her room.
While we organized her luggage, only one thought filled my head.
I had to hide the erotic picture book under my bed somewhere even more secret.
'Throwing it away would be such a waste!'