Etiquette Education — (4)
There were any number of inconveniences that came with a woman's body, but if Dokgo Ryeong had to name the worst of them, she would have answered without hesitation: the hypersensitivity of her senses.
Even having once possessed the body of a supreme master—the Mad Demon, Dokgo Jin—she could not begin to compare it to the acuity she now carried. Her hearing, sharpened to a razor's edge even without internal energy, was so keen it called to mind the legendary Thousand-Li Hearing of myth, said to catch conversations from a thousand leagues away. Her eyesight fell short of true Thousand-Li Sight, yet it felt as though she were looking upon an entirely new world.
But there was one sense that turned every one of those blessings into something closer to a curse: touch.
That heightened sensitivity made her react even to the everyday brush of fabric against her skin, and every time another person's hand found her, a moan would slip out of her throat of its own accord. It was mortifying.
Throughout four days of etiquette lessons, every time Eun Gwanyeong's or Baekri Sohyeon's fingers landed on her, Dokgo Ryeong's lower dantian would throb and her undergarments would grow damp. It was maddening.
Fuck… What the hell is this…
Her back, her flanks, the insides of her thighs—places no one ordinarily had any business touching—and every time one of their hands found those spots, her body answered with a jolt of sensitivity, and the throbbing in her lower dantian swelled a little more.
That damned lower dantian defied every scrap of common sense Dokgo Ryeong possessed. It throbbed when Eun Gwanyeong and Baekri Sohyeon clung to the Lust Demon and cried out in those high, keening moans. It throbbed, now and then, when she looked at Wi Ilcheong. It throbbed at night before she fell asleep.
The Lust Demon had called it rising lust. Dokgo Ryeong refused the word outright.
Even in the days when she had been the Mad Demon Dokgo Jin, she had never once looked at a woman and felt her heart flutter. As if becoming a woman would be enough to leave her at the mercy of something so base.
To Dokgo Ryeong, lust was nothing but a vulgar distraction—an obstacle that clouded a martial artist's mind. And that was precisely why the restless heat she felt now was so hard to master. Pleasure was a sensation she had never grown used to, and so she was all the more easily swept away by it.
…Fucking itchy.
The itch between her legs kept making her rub her thighs together. She already knew her undergarments had gone a little damp again.
Shit. What kind of body is this inconvenient…
She shoved a hand down into her trousers and scratched hard at her thigh, but the itch did not ease in the slightest. What Dokgo Ryeong felt was nothing like the itch of an insect bite. It was a ticklish, restless heat between her legs that somehow lifted her spirits even as it left her frustrated and unsatisfied—a stubborn, simmering itch that would not settle.
And yet, if someone had asked whether it felt bad, she could not have said yes. It was a strange itch—stifling, aching, almost feverish.
Her hand drifted higher and brushed her undergarments. Her fingertips came away faintly wet.
…Gonna have to wash them again.
She had sniffed her undergarments more than once, half-convinced she had wet herself, but it was not that. Her sharpened sense of smell already knew the truth; Dokgo Ryeong simply turned her face away from it with stubborn force. The scent rising from her undergarments was unmistakably close to Eun Gwanyeong's and Baekri Sohyeon's—the scent of rapture. The same scent that used to fill the room every night when they practiced Yin-Yang Dual Cultivation with Wi Ilcheong.
She already knew how to put the itch to rest. She was simply afraid.
…What if I wet myself again?
That was Eun Gwanyeong's fault. The one time Eun Gwanyeong had set a hand between her legs, Dokgo Ryeong had fainted clean away. Fainting alone would have been bad enough—but for a woman who had lived as long as she had to wet herself on the spot was a humiliation that went far beyond mere embarrassment.
"…"
But tonight she could not endure the itch any longer. Four days. Days spent ground down by etiquette lessons; nights spent tormented by the two women's cries of pleasure. Her body was already burning as hot as it could burn, and her head felt fogged, as if she were coming down with a cold. Every inch of her had grown hypersensitive, and her undergarments were so damp every night that sleep was impossible.
She lifted her head, confirmed once more that everyone around her was asleep, and dragged the blanket up over her ears. Afraid that someone nearby—especially Baekri Sohyeon, sleeping with her back to her—might wake, she pressed herself close against the wall and carefully slipped her hand back down into her trousers.
"Hhnn…! Hup—!"
The moment her palm settled over her undergarments, a soft, melting moan spilled out—loud enough to ring through the quiet cabin. Startled, she clamped a hand over her mouth, sat up, and checked her surroundings. No one's breathing had changed. She settled back down and resumed what she had started.
"Ahh…"
Even with her mouth covered, the moans would not stop. Rough breaths broke free in fits and starts, and thin little sounds leaked out between them, but Dokgo Ryeong clenched her teeth and forced the noise down.
Her sex, felt through the cloth, was soft and yielding—a texture utterly foreign to anything she had known as a man. On that mighty body sheathed in iron muscle and armored over with protective qi, there had been no such thing as softness.
"Hhnn… Haa…"
As her fingers stroked the plump outer flesh of her sex, pressed shut like closed lips, her lower belly began to tingle. Her lower dantian throbbed again, and that feverish, aching frustration swelled larger and larger. But Dokgo Ryeong was certain of one thing: if she kept going just a little longer, she would reach something. She would reach that feeling Eun Gwanyeong had once shown her.
And then—
While her index and ring fingers were caressing the plump flesh around her sex, her middle finger brushed something that stood out at the top of the cleft.
"Haahk—!!"
An uncontrollable cry tore from her mouth. Her waist shuddered; her legs clamped shut of their own accord as pleasure seized her whole body, and Dokgo Ryeong no longer had the presence of mind to check whether anyone had heard the moan that had escaped her.
What… what was that?
Wanting to confirm the sensation she had just felt, she set her middle finger back on that same spot—and her body trembled.
"Hnnn…!"
A rush of pleasure that made her whole body stretch taut of its own accord. Even with the anxious thought that if she kept touching it the noise might wake the others, she went on tapping and teasing that place again and again.
"Hh… Hyaaah…!"
She was aware, dimly, that she was making sounds like a sniveling little girl—and still, overcome by pleasure, she buried her face in the floor, hiked her hips high, and worked her fingers between her legs. Even so, Dokgo Ryeong's hand would not stop.
Pleasure she had never once felt before. A strange sensation unlike any pleasure Dokgo Jin had ever known.
"Hnnn…!"
A crackling ecstasy spread through her entire body, and her mind began to go white. She was drowning in a sensation so fierce she could no longer remember who she was—on the verge of losing herself entirely—when lightning struck inside Dokgo Ryeong's skull.
"Hnnngh…! Haahk…! Hnnnnn…!"
Her whole body shook violently, as if she had lost all control over it. Floating, drifting through empty air, Dokgo Ryeong felt a sweet, boneless limpness flood through her and collapsed onto the floor.
"Haa… Hhk… Haa…"
Sprawled face-down, she regulated her breathing between ragged gasps and the occasional soft moan.
"Hnn… Haa…"
When her wits returned, Dokgo Ryeong flushed scarlet—realizing, without even noticing the spit shining at the corner of her mouth, just how thoroughly she had abandoned herself to that lewd act.
Crazy… What the hell kind of body is this…
Half-afraid that her body had been cursed ever since the Bone and Body Reconstitution, she carefully pushed herself upright.
And then—
"…"
"!!"
Baekri Sohyeon, lying in the spot beside her, had her eyes open.
"Du… Dunchi?"
"…"
Startled, Dokgo Ryeong looked at her again—but Baekri Sohyeon's eyes were gently closed.
"…"
Just to be sure, she waved a hand in front of Baekri Sohyeon's face several times and even held a finger under her nose to check her breathing. Only then did she let out a long sigh of relief.
Whew… She was asleep. Must've been seeing things…
Dokgo Ryeong rose carefully, mindful not to step on anyone, and went outside. She meant to rinse out her damp undergarments ahead of time and change into something clean.
…Still, the Hao Sect's training really does come in handy for stuff like this.
In the old days she would not even have been able to change clothes by herself—but thanks to Eun Gwanyeong's ruthless instruction, Dokgo Ryeong was now familiar with a woman's garments. Thinking she ought to clean herself up quickly before anyone else woke, she stepped out of the cabin.
Not long after Dokgo Ryeong left, Wi Ilcheong was the first to sit up.
"…You two young ladies should rise as well."
"…You knew, Brother Wi?"
"We got caught, huh…"
"…With moaning that loud, it would have been stranger to sleep through it."
"Right…?"
Baekri Sohyeon sat up, laid a hand over her chest, and let out a long breath.
"I thought she'd noticed."
"Unnie, have you never been caught masturbating? I lived with the sect disciples, so it happened a few times…"
"…I never even had the chance. I spent my whole life locked in my chambers."
"Ah… I'm sorry…"
"It's all right. Heh."
"Forgive me for interrupting your chat, but there is something I wish to discuss."
Wi Ilcheong scratched his head, looking faintly troubled as he spoke.
"…Pretending we know nothing would be best, would it not?"
"Hmm… I don't think so."
"If we think of Ryeong Mae, pretending we don't know is the right thing to do."
"The two of you are of different minds, I see."
Baekri Sohyeon spoke first.
"Ryeong Mae has so much pride—she'd want to die of shame for sure."
"…I agree. Lady Eun, why do you oppose it?"
"Because Lady Dokgo is a genius!"
"…Pardon?"
Eun Gwanyeong launched into an impassioned attempt to persuade Wi Ilcheong and Baekri Sohyeon.
"Come on. Neither of you felt it? Climaxing on her very first time masturbating!"
"…Is that rare?"
"It's not just rare—it's incredible! Judging by how she goes out every night to wash her undergarments, she's already started getting wet—and for an inexperienced virgin to be that sensitive? If our Sect Leader saw her, she'd be drooling, saying she'd finally found her successor!"
"…To that degree?"
When Wi Ilcheong asked again, Eun Gwanyeong let out a frustrated sound.
"Ugh… Oppa Wi. I told you before… She didn't just faint from my touch—she wet herself, remember? I confirmed she was a virgin myself. Have you seen that kind of thing often?"
"…Among the women who have shared my bed, those who did not faint were the rarer ones, so…"
"Ah…"
At Wi Ilcheong's words, Baekri Sohyeon chimed in as well.
"And Ryeong Mae still doesn't seem very used to men… She spent so long alone with the Mad Demon elder that she barely interacted with anyone else. Masturbation is something people are ashamed to be caught doing—bringing it up feels a little…"
"But think about it, Sohyeon Unnie!"
"Hm?"
Eun Gwanyeong pointed at Wi Ilcheong as she spoke.
"The two of us can't keep up with Oppa Wi… We need one more person… We have to take him on three-to-one, you know?"
"…I agree with that part, but Ryeong Mae still isn't…"
"That's exactly why we have to teach her in advance! Think about it. Lady Dokgo used to be like some wild beast abandoned in a field—and already she's starting to carry herself like a young lady from a great clan!"
"Ryeong Mae does learn awfully fast…"
Listening to Eun Gwanyeong, Baekri Sohyeon thought back over the changes she had seen in Dokgo Ryeong across the past four days. The way her walk and her bearing shifted with each passing day was almost frightening. Her speech was still a problem, but even that was gradually improving.
"…What should we do."
"Oppa Wi, what do you think?"
"…"
Wi Ilcheong, who had been listening with his arms folded, lifted his head.
"I also believe Lady Dokgo requires a certain degree of education. For the sake of the Classic of the Plain Girl, it is better that a woman's heart, energy, and body be abundant and full."
"Then—!"
"However, we have an agreement, do we not? Lady Dokgo's first night is to be claimed only after we have delivered her to Noeumsa."
"Hiiing… That's true…"
"So what if we do it this way?"
Hearing Wi Ilcheong's proposal, Baekri Sohyeon and Eun Gwanyeong quickly agreed. After a heated debate that somehow produced a dramatic consensus, the three of them—by the time Dokgo Ryeong returned to the room some thirty minutes later—were already fast asleep.
The next day.
After receiving her etiquette lessons from Eun Gwanyeong and Baekri Sohyeon as usual, Dokgo Ryeong found herself in high spirits.
"There's nothing more to teach you…"
"Ryeong Mae, from now on you just need to fix the way you talk."
"Kwahaha! Wasn't much to it, huh. So that's it, then?"
"No… There's one more thing."
"Oppa Wiii!"
Baekri Sohyeon suddenly began undoing her collar, and Eun Gwanyeong called for the Lust Demon—leaving Dokgo Ryeong thoroughly flustered.
"A—hey, fuck! What the hell are you doing?!"
"…I told you, just fix the way you talk."
"Th—no! Hey! Dunchi! Why are you taking off your—"
"Lady Dokgo."
Wi Ilcheong entered the room, casually resting a hand on the bare shoulder of the now-naked Baekri Sohyeon as he spoke.
"I will be in charge of today's lesson."
"…What?!"
"I intend to teach Lady Dokgo about the female body."
The final lesson had begun.