Chapter 192: Shouting Love in the Center of the Lord's Castle
Chapter 192: Shouting Love in the Center of the Lord's Castle
“W-w-what do you think you’re doing to my maaaan!”
A voice suddenly echoed through my hazy consciousness.
But my mind, still groggy from just waking up, registered more direct and simple things before it could even process the meaning of those words.
First, the voice I’d just heard was Diana’s.
And second, from the soft sensation at the tip of me, I knew I was on the verge of entry.
Putting it all together, my muddled brain reached a single conclusion.
“Dianaaaa! I was wroooong!”
I pulled the woman on top of me into a tight embrace.
But the feeling against my cheek was somewhat… lacking.
Diana was the smallest of the three, but was she really this small? This went beyond small; it was practically nonexistent.
“I’m so sorry! You must have been so stressed out that you lost weight! Your already small breasts…! Sob! Dianaaaaa!”
“W-w-what did you just say? My b-breasts are what now?”
Then, I heard Diana’s voice from my side.
Yes. From the side, not from in front of me.
Only then did I reconsider the meaning of the words I’d heard when I first woke up.
What do you think you’re doing to my man? She definitely said that, right?
Which meant the person I was currently hugging was not Diana…
Hesitantly, I lifted my head to check the face of the person in my arms.
My eyes met a pair of languid, yet faintly feverish, eyes.
“Gah-heok!”
I shoved Silvia, who was right on top of me, away.
No wonder her chest felt so small! Right. There was no way they could have shrunk that much so suddenly!
“Diana! It’s a misunderstanding! I thought it was you!”
After pushing Silvia off, I immediately bowed my head toward the direction the voice had come from.
The glimpse I caught of Diana showed her frozen solid, as if she had been in the middle of lunging toward me and had stopped dead in her tracks.
She wore an expression of utter confusion, unable to decide whether she should be angry or happy.
From her perspective, my words were certainly enough to warrant beating me to death, but I had done it all because I’d mistaken Silvia for her.
In other words, it meant I was thinking of Diana so much that the first thing I did upon waking was to apologize and cling to her.
Diana raised her fists, hesitating, then finally looked around and barked an order.
“I wish to be alone with him! Everyone, get out!”
Hey, this is the lord’s castle, you know. There’s no way that would…
“Y-yes, ma’am! Everyone, let’s go. Please make yourself comfortable, Lady Diana.”
It worked.
As if this was a welcome development, Felicia began to usher people out.
Why are you being so polite? That’s not your usual style, is it?
She was acting as if she were handling a bomb that could go off at any moment.
At Diana and Felicia’s words, the people near the door began to flow out like an ebbing tide.
What the hell. Why are there so many people in here?
I’m completely naked right now. Is this some kind of humiliation play?
I stealthily tried to pull the blanket up to cover my lower half.
But my action was stopped by a hand that shot out from in front of me.
Even as people were leaving, Silvia had not only stayed but had also snatched my Dick.
“S-Silvia?!”
Before I could even react in surprise, Felicia shrieked Silvia’s name.
“You…!”
“Someone! Drag Silvia out of here!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Just as Diana, her eyes burning with rage, was about to shout something from the side, Felicia had someone drag Silvia away.
Silvia was led out limply, her feverish eyes still fixed on me.
In an instant, only Diana and I were left in the room.
I still hadn’t properly grasped the situation, and Diana looked like she was about to burst with anger but couldn’t unleash it, leaving her at a loss.
Silence flowed through the room for a long while.
And the one who broke that silence was Diana.
“How about you say something? Don’t you have anything to say to me?”
“Uh… um… Sorry. I’ve never once thought your breasts were small.”
The moment my words ended, Diana’s fists flew out and landed on me in a rapid succession.
Of course, to me, the attack felt like nothing more than a series of light pats.
“You! Really! The very! First thing! You say to me! Is that!”
“No! That’s not it! Wait! I just woke up, so I’m not thinking straight! Just give me a second!”
I caught both of Diana’s fists with my hands, stopping her, and took a moment to think.
I must be out of my mind. Why did I have to say something so stupid and make things worse?
I didn’t know how Diana had suddenly appeared before me, but this was the Diana I had been searching so desperately for.
I could figure out the situation later. For now, I should say what I had planned to say the moment I saw her.
I already knew what I wanted to say to Diana.
“Diana, I’m sorry about before. But I was sincere. I truly love you. So please don’t go anywhere. Stay by my side.”
“Uh, uh, uuhh…”
Diana’s face turned beet red all the way to the tips of her ears as she began to perform some unidentifiable movement.
It seemed like she was trying to cover her face with her hands, but since I was holding both of them, only her body squirmed.
“For me to be with a man like you…”
“But I’m your man, right?”
Diana had certainly said that earlier.
What are you doing to my man?
My mind had been too chaotic then to properly understand what she meant, but now I was clear-headed enough to know exactly what it implied.
“Th-that’s…! I mean! I was just…!”
“Diana. I’m sorry for the stupid thing I did before, trying to hear your true feelings by distracting you with sex. But even so, I don’t believe your feelings for me are a lie. So please, stay by my side, along with Sara and Leia. I love all of you…”
Until that point, Diana had been blushing and acting shy, but the moment Sara and Leia’s names were mentioned, her expression changed as if she’d suddenly remembered something.
“That won’t do.”
The shy expression brought on by my sweet words vanished completely, replaced by a firm, resolute look as Diana made her declaration.
I had never imagined I would be rejected, and my mind went completely blank.
To be honest, I had been too arrogant.
I was certain Diana liked me, so I thought if I sincerely tried to persuade her, she would reluctantly give in.
“Diana…”
“Fine. I admit it. I have feelings for you. Enough to have promised you a kiss. I want to kiss you this very instant.”
“Then just do it! I’m ready whenever…!”
“But not while you have feelings for other women.”
The princess had said something similar. Was it that someone of Diana’s stature couldn’t accept sharing one man with other women?
Were her feelings for me so shallow that she would rather sever our ties than share me with others?
But Diana wasn’t finished.
She furrowed her brow and continued slowly, as if choosing her words with care.
“Therefore, Guwon. Choose me.”
“What…! What do you mean…!”
“You know full well what I mean. I feel for Sara and Leia, but I want you to look only at me. If you promise me that, I will swear to be with you for the rest of my life.”
“Diana, are you telling me to choose between you and Sara and Leia?”
“That is precisely what I’m saying.”
“Is that really… are those really the only two options? Isn’t there an option where the four of us can all get along? I know I’m being selfish. But still…”
“Choosing me doesn’t mean you can never see Sara or Leia again. In fact, you can continue on as you are now. However, you must not be sincere with them. Your true feelings must belong only to me.”
This might have been Diana’s attempt at a compromise.
But to me, it sounded even crueler.
She was telling me to just treat Sara and Leia as casual playthings.
“Diana, you know I’m not clever enough for that. I can’t do it. Can’t you just accept Sara and Leia, too? Even if you accept them, I promise I’ll never neglect you. I’ll do my absolute best, with all my strength…”
“That’s not the issue! This isn’t about whether I accept them or not! I’m saying this for your sake, why can’t you understand that! You have no idea what a kiss with me truly means!”
“Of course I don’t! You never told me! What on earth does it mean?!”
At my shout, Diana bit her lip.
Then, with hardened eyes, she looked straight at me and opened her mouth.
“What do you… think about living forever?”
Huh?
The completely unexpected question left me slightly bewildered.
If anyone else had said it, I would have told them I didn’t believe in that kind of stuff, but this was Diana. Diana, who could probably live forever using reincarnation magic.
There had to be a reason she brought it up.
Let’s think. Right. Diana lives forever. And I don’t.
Even if I spent my entire life with her, from Diana’s perspective, the time we had together would be but a fleeting moment compared to the time she had already lived and would continue to live.
Was that why she wanted me to focus only on her?
Thinking about it that way, it became difficult to stubbornly insist on a harem.
But even so, I didn’t want to give up on anyone.
What on earth was I supposed to do?
“I’m sorry. I know I’m being selfish, saying this to you who lives forever. But still…”
“This isn’t about me.”
“Huh?”
“I’m asking what you think about living forever.”
“What… does that mean?”
“It means exactly what I said. If you kiss me, you will share my life.”
As she said this, Diana’s expression was filled with fear. As if she was terrified of being rejected.
“Uh… so… if I kiss you, I’ll live forever too?”
“…That’s right. That is what I’m saying.”
“…Then isn’t that a good thing?”
“It’s not that simple! Aren’t you thinking about this too simply?! You would live forever! Watching all the faces you know pass away one by one, left all alone in the world, for eternity!”
Of course, I could imagine that much.
I’d even seen movies with that theme.
However, even with such a demerit, the eternal life Diana spoke of had one overwhelming merit.
“What do you mean, left alone? If I live forever by kissing you, we’ll be left behind together. No matter what hardships come with living forever, if I can live forever with you, I think it’s a price I’m more than willing to pay. More than any of that, I’m just happy I get to live with you forever. No matter how I think about it, it’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“Y-y-you… you man…!”
Diana looked at me, deeply moved, her eyes welling up with tears.
“What? So you couldn’t tell me all this time because you were afraid I’d reject you, that I wouldn’t want to live forever?”
“B-but, but I’ve already been rejected once before!”
“Huh? You mean you tried to kiss someone else before me?”
“That’s… ah! No! It wasn’t the kind of relationship you’re thinking of! It was in the organization that preceded the Mage Association! Everyone was dying off one by one, and I got lonely, so I just asked my last remaining friend to live with me! And my friend was a woman!”
“N-no way! To think Diana was open to that as well! Don’t tell me the reason you want me to give up Sara and Leia is…!”
“I-I told you it’s not like that! Are you messing with me right now… you are messing with me! What are you doing in the middle of a serious conversation!”
It seemed Diana had finally realized I was joking.
She was being so serious, I just wanted to lighten the mood a little.
“A-anyway! I’m glad you feel that way about me. Now you understand my heart, don’t you? I was saying this for your sake. As for Sara and Leia, your true feelings…”
“No. I’m going to be sincere with them, too. Just like with you.”
Just as Diana was speaking with a sense of relief, I boldly declared my harem.
If Diana was rejecting the harem not out of possessiveness but out of concern for me, then I was confident I could persuade her.