The First Night
My dumb, idiotic question hung in the air between us.
“W-well, you see… Why exactly did you… choose me as your mate?”
“Huh?”
Erna fidgeted, both hands tightly gripping the hem of her skirt as she mumbled, “Because… you were the one who kissed me first, and you held me so tightly I could barely breathe. And then you begged me to stay by your side forever, making such a passionate proposal…”
The more she spoke, the more those mortifying memories from earlier seemed to flood back. Her voice grew smaller and smaller until it was barely a whisper, her gaze dropping straight to the floor.
I'm going to lose my damn mind! How is that even a reason?!
It wasn’t like I was some master romantic who’d deliberately pulled off such shameless, cringeworthy nonsense.
Okay, sure, she’s literally my type from head to toe, one hundred percent! But honestly, I was being pushed along by that irresistible force earlier, and the mood just swept me away until my instincts completely took over my brain!
I’d charged straight ahead in the heat of the moment, but how the hell was I supposed to explain this ridiculous, soul-crushing situation?
If I came clean now and said, “Actually, at first some unknown power took control of my body and mouth, and after that your figure was so insanely hot that I just confessed on the spot,” this innocent twelve-hundred-year-old elf would clearly treat me like a beast worse than trash.
It was a suffocating, dead-end situation with no way out. I was internally tearing my hair out and screaming in despair when—
Whoosh.
A sudden chill ran down my spine. My body, which had been thrashing around just moments ago, once again moved against my will, straightening up perfectly straight.
…Oh.
This familiar, creepy loss of control. But this time, it was different.
Instead of resisting, I surrendered my body’s control without a fight, as if I’d met my savior, and screamed desperately inside my head.
Yes! This is perfect! Please, just somehow fix this suffocating mess! I’m begging you!!!
Like I’d been possessed by the male lead of some third-rate romance novel, my mouth formed an extremely elegant, buttery-smooth smile and spoke on its own.
At the same time, my hand grabbed her slender wrist and pulled her close.
“Ah… Aah…”
Erna was completely enchanted by those cringy lines and the sticky touch. She let out a dazed sigh, the tips of her ears burning bright red as if they might burst.
It seemed she’d completely forgotten what she’d even asked in the first place.
“S-so that’s how it was… My… my soul…”
She nodded shyly, her eyes sparkling with emotion. I clenched my fist inside and cheered.
Nice! She bought it completely!
Once we safely passed the biggest hurdle, the control over my body thankfully returned to me fully.
Erna’s face stayed flushed as she squirmed for a while. Then, as if trying to regain her composure, she cleared her throat loudly.
“Ahem! Hm!”
She straightened her back as if she’d never been embarrassed at all. Returning to a more domineering and confident attitude than before, she lifted her chin haughtily.
“Well, I suppose I’ll acknowledge that your eye for quality is rather excellent. Consider it the honor of a lifetime to have taken someone as noble and beautiful as me as your mate.”
“Oh my, of course. Absolutely. It’s the greatest honor. To have someone as beautiful as you for a wife, I must have saved a country—no, the entire world in my previous life.”
When I played along with a sly grin, Erna tried to hold back a cough but couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from twitching upward.
“H-hmph. So you finally understand your place.”
Before I knew it, that suffocating awkwardness had completely vanished.
With her nose high in the air, Erna let down all her guard and comfortably took the lead in the conversation.
“So, Erna. Is this forest always this quiet? It feels pretty deep in the mountains. Aren’t there any dangerous beasts or monsters outside?”
At my question, Erna puffed out her chest with a smug smile.
“Of course not! How many layers of barriers do you think I’ve cast around this area? No vulgar monster would dare come near. This deep forest is a sanctuary meant only for me.”
She declared it with full confidence, but then her gaze suddenly shifted as if something had struck a nerve, and her voice trailed off.
“Well… Lately, there have been a few annoying uninvited guests snooping around outside the barrier, so it’s been a bit of a headache…”
“Uninvited guests?”
“Ahem! Anyway, it’s all pointless in the face of my perfect magic! You don’t need to worry about anything.”
Her clumsy attempt to brush it off with a fake cough was a little suspicious, but I didn’t press further and just nodded.
To ease the awkward atmosphere, I naturally changed the subject.
“Well, that perfect magic barrier does sound really reassuring. In our world, there’s no such thing as magic. Instead, we’ve developed something called ‘machines’ like crazy.”
“Machines?”
“Yeah. Basically… tools that move on their own using electricity or precise parts instead of magic? I’m not an engineer myself, so I don’t know the exact principles behind how they work.”
Erna tilted her head, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.
“Tools that move by themselves without mana? What could that be? Are they like golems?”
“Hmm… For example, there’s this small box called a ‘cell phone.’ Inside it, you can watch people dancing and singing, and you can even talk face-to-face with someone who’s really far away.”
“W-what?! You’re saying you trap people inside that tiny box?! What a horrifying and cruel world…!”
The usually arrogant Erna suddenly widened her eyes like a startled rabbit, looking utterly shocked. She covered her mouth with both hands and trembled innocently. I couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.
“Pfft—Hahaha! No, no. It’s not trapping people—it’s like moving pictures… Ah, how do I explain this?”
Thinking I was teasing her, Erna’s cheeks puffed out in a pout. But even that was so ridiculously cute that I kept chuckling for a long time, sweating bullets as I tried to translate modern culture into this world’s language.
Dreamlike banter with a breathtakingly beautiful girl. Chatting about all sorts of trivial things from each other’s worlds while she smiled with pure, innocent joy, I didn’t even notice how time flew by. Before long, a red sunset was sinking outside the window.
“Yawn…”
As cool night air began to seep through the window cracks and deep darkness settled over the quiet forest, Erna let out a small yawn and rubbed her reddened eyes.
Our enjoyable conversation, which had made us lose track of time, naturally faded into the silence of the night.
“Hey, Erna.”
“Haaang…”
“…!!”
The seductive little moan made my shoulders twitch reflexively. When I whipped my head around, there was Erna staring at me with moist, feverish eyes.
Every time she took a sharp breath, her ample chest rose and fell dramatically.
“E-Erna? Are you feeling sick? Are you o—”
Before I could finish, the world flipped upside down. With a loud thud, my back slammed hard against the cold floor.
“W-wait! Erna! Calm down, just calm down…!”
I flailed my arms desperately, trying to push her shoulders away. But the strength with which she straddled me and pinned my thighs down was nothing like her delicate appearance—it was overwhelming.
“Hyun-woo…”
Leaning over me, she breathed out hot, feverish breaths from her lips. Her trembling hand roughly stroked down my chest. Her cheeks, looking down at me, were already flushed all the way to her neck.
“Haa… Haaang… I-I’m sorry, Hyun-woo…”
“Something unknown is burning inside me… It feels like my reason is going to burn away completely…”
Every time she spoke, her hot thighs pressed tightly against my lower body. The dizzying body heat rubbing against me was maddening.
“If I don’t take you… I think I’ll really go insane…”
The moment she finished speaking, Erna’s head tilted sharply.
“Mmph…! Chu, slurp, ngh!”
The instant our lips met, a hot, soft tongue forced its way inside. A wet, messy kiss that didn’t even give me room to breathe, stirring every corner of my mouth. I rolled my eyes back and thrashed my head around, but I couldn’t escape her hands that had firmly gripped the back of my head.
“Mmph…!”
While I was lost and struggling with my lips devoured, one of her hands moved boldly downward.
Ziiip—!
The sound of a zipper being pulled down.
“Mph, mmph!”
In one swift motion, my pants were yanked down past my knees, and the cool night air rushed against my bare skin. I bucked my hips in panic, but Erna’s gaze was already locked firmly in place—directly on the thing standing tall between my legs.
Her blue eyes sparkled with a strange heat. Gulp. As if she’d discovered some legendary magic artifact, Erna swallowed hard, completely entranced, and licked her red lips.
“It really is… so incredibly beautiful…”