Chapter 50

Chapter 50

A Wretched Dream and a Companion

Zeto stood before me, looking down at me as I sat on the bed.

“Student Zeto...?”

I could not understand the situation.

Had he not clearly just gone in to wash?

Zeto, who had appeared at some point, had wet hair.

“You finished washing quickly...?”

“...”

Zeto gave no answer.

From the white bandage around his eyes, for some reason, I felt an unknowable pressure.

I quickly tried to rise from my seat and opened my mouth.

“Student Zeto, I do not know why you are doing this, but...”

—Tap.

At that moment, Zeto lightly pushed me as I was trying to rise from the bed.

“Uh... Student Zeto...?”

Then my body was thrown onto the bed without any real resistance.

“What is going on right now...?”

At my stunned question, Zeto’s lips, which had not seemed likely to move, opened.

“Did I not say I needed Miss Kaen’s body?”

“That was... when we dealt with those people earlier...”

“...Do not tell me you believed that excuse. Miss Kaen, you truly are innocent. Would one go out of their way to describe such a situation as needing someone’s body?”

Zeto cut off my words and said something hard to understand.

“Don’t tell me...”

After seeing him save people earlier, I had thought it had all been my misunderstanding, but perhaps that had truly been it.

“Student Zeto, as expected, you were after my body!”

I pulled together my defenselessly open robe and shouted at Zeto.

“It ended up this way after all...”

Zeto lightly ignored my shout and slowly approached me where I lay sprawled on the bed.

Then Zeto leaned his face toward me, and his voice whispered into my ear.

“...It is stimulating.”

“What...? What are you saying...”

“The sound of your breath... the scent from your skin... even the warmth pouring from your gently heated body... all of it is stimulating.”

Zeto said this, then moved his hand and grabbed the robe near my thigh.

Following his hand, the robe slowly rose.

“Did you have the cute thought that wearing only this thin robe would be fine because I could not see it?”

“Ah...”

That was right.

To Zeto, even without sight, there were plenty of things that could be stimulating.

“Entering the inn was a mistake...”

I had thought, without realizing it, that it would be fine.

If it was Zeto, who saved people and smiled gently, I thought nothing would happen.

Even if something did happen... should I accept it?

Would I need to take responsibility?

After all, it had not been me, but Zeto, who suggested going to another inn.

Soon, Zeto lifted the robe near my thigh and placed his hand on my thigh.

I felt Zeto’s touch against my thigh.

“Hngh... Not there, Student Zeto... Please stop... Even if it is a promise...”

Refusal came from my mouth, and I certainly ought to have refused, but...

“I made Zeto like this.”

...Had that thought unconsciously taken over my body? My body would not move as I wished.

Even the swordsmanship I had learned from Grandfather, who shook heaven and earth with a single sword, was of no use in this moment.

“...So is what I said about needing your body still valid?”

Zeto said this while running his fingers down my thigh.

“...”

I could not answer anything.

“Valid or not...”

I did not know.

My head was dizzy.

Was it truly okay to let things flow like this?

With heat rising to my face, I rolled my eyes desperately. My body would not move.

For some reason, I could not resist him.

Did my body want it?

Was I merely denying that?

Ever since I started watching Zeto, I had struggled because my desire overflowed.

Watching the opposite sex was... strangely stimulating.

Before long, Zeto’s lower body entered my sight.

“Something... this big...”

The moment his lower body entered my eyes, strange words reflexively came from my mouth.

“Something like that inside my body...?”

Then, just as Zeto, who did not stop despite my doubts, was about to remove his own clothes.

A chill suddenly seeped into my body, and out of nowhere, the entire room began freezing rapidly.

Frost formed all over the room, and at last, even Zeto before me froze solid.

...It was absurd, but literally, the entire room had frozen over.

I could see Zeto, suddenly turned into a block of ice.

Then snow began to fall inside the inn room.

“What is this...?”

...It was simply cold.

When I came to my senses and opened my eyes, I saw an unfamiliar ceiling.

Yet it was not terribly unfamiliar. Looking carefully, it was the ceiling of the inn.

“Mm...”

I raised my stiff body.

Not long after, someone’s voice came from one corner of the room.

“...Are you awake?”

“Stu-Student Zeto...?!”

Startled by Zeto’s voice, I ended up pulling up the blanket.

Had Zeto not tried to attack me?

Then did that mean I had already lost my purity?

But the last sight I remembered was Zeto frozen solid.

The Zeto before my eyes was not frozen at all; he was sitting calmly in a chair, basking in the warm sunlight.

“Was it a dream...?”

It had all been a dream.

Thinking back now, everything had been strange.

Why had I not noticed sooner?

Zeto’s whisper from the dream was still vivid.

He could not even imagine it, but the fact that I had such a dream itself was embarrassing.

My face grew hot.

I had dreamed an erotic dream about Zeto.

The real Zeto was sitting quietly in a chair in one corner of the room.

“...Don’t tell me you stayed sitting in the chair the whole time?”

Because simply looking at him was embarrassing, I turned my head away.

“Should I have lain beside you in bed, then?”

His voice as he said that made me remember the sensual whisper of “Zeto in the dream,” so I felt my body heat for no reason.

“Why did I have that dream...”

Had I secretly been hoping for it?

Did some part of my heart think Zeto would be all right?

The silhouette of that ghastly something visible beneath Zeto’s pants flickered in my head.

I had never actually seen it... so I thought that must be why only the silhouette had appeared.

Dreams were usually like that.

“If that had been real... and the situation had been real too...”

Even a brief imagining made me dizzy.

“N-no... That isn’t what I meant... exactly.”

I answered Zeto like that and lowered my head deeply.

It was because I felt sorry to him.

Zeto had not been able to lie comfortably in bed and probably had not slept properly.

Meanwhile, I, who had slept peacefully, had made Zeto into a man who did horrible things in my dream... so a little guilt washed over me.

On the other hand, I also had this thought.

“Was the Zeto in my dream a delusion created by my own desire...?”

...I seemed to have discovered a dark taste of mine that even I had not properly known.

No matter how sharp Zeto was, he could not know what kind of dream I had... and that was truly fortunate.

***

Warm sunlight entered through the window into the quiet room, where the occasional sound of Kaen’s breathing could be heard.

Outside the window, the city that had been sleeping deeply was waking and stretching.

[ ♩~ ♪~ ♬ ~ ]

Behind the sound of Sierra humming as she stroked my cheek and stared steadily at me, I heard the rustling of blankets.

“Mm...”

Soon, Kaen, who had been lying on the bed, turned over and raised herself.

Kaen, who slept quite a lot, swayed her head, apparently not fully awake yet.

“...Are you awake?”

“Stu-Student Zeto...?!”

At my voice ringing quietly through the room, Kaen startled and pulled up the blanket.

Not long after she found me, her face slowly began heating up.

...Was she remembering the dream?

Kaen, who had her eyes wide open and remained silent for quite some time, turned her head away from me for no reason and opened her mouth.

“...Don’t tell me you stayed sitting in the chair the whole time?”

“Should I have lain beside you in bed, then?”

I smiled at Kaen and tossed out a sly remark.

“N-no... That isn’t what I meant... exactly.”

Kaen muttered in a small voice and lowered her head deeply.

I rose from my seat and held out to her the clothes I had gone out early to buy beforehand.

“These clothes should be enough, yes? I could not choose properly, but... since they are only clothes you will wear briefly, they should be fine.”

Kaen accepted the clothes I handed over and opened her mouth.

“...Thank you.”

“It is nothing. All of this happened because of me. Even if it was a wish, I did not expect you to readily help with this sort of thing. Thanks to you, I was able to handle the matter comfortably.”

Whatever else one might say, Kaen and I were not that close yet.

I wanted this to become a new starting point in my relationship with her and tried to end things well.

“...This matter should not become known to other people, right?”

Soon, Kaen thought over something and asked me this.

“...Let us leave what happened today as a ‘secret’ only between me and Miss Kaen.”

“A secret... Hmhm.”

At my answer, spoken with a smile, Kaen repeated the word secret, and the corners of her mouth rose slightly.

Kaen liked the act of “hiding one’s strength.”

Perhaps what she had experienced this time felt similar from her perspective.

I turned my head away from Kaen and opened my mouth.

“It is time to return.”

Since it was the weekend, we could have taken the chance to look around the city more, but Kaen was not used to being outside the academy, so we decided to return to the academy early.

As we left the inn, the innkeeper, who wore a satisfied smile, said something like, “I hope you had a good night,” and Kaen’s face turned red again.

“I wonder if the inn truly had only one room left.”

The innkeeper’s smile was more than enough to make me suspect that.

By chance, we boarded the same carriage we had used when coming to the city, and the coachman’s chatter continued once again.

Fortunately, this time Kaen spoke with him, so it was a little less tiring.

We safely arrived near the academy, entered the side path, and passed through the forest. Only then did we see the academy, or rather, the city.

“Then I will see you again next time.”

“Yes.”

It was when we were about to exchange farewells and scatter to our respective dormitories.

Suddenly, Kaen lightly grabbed the hem of my clothes from behind.

“Um, well... Student Zeto. If there is ever anything like this again, anything where you need my, my body... please call me anytime next time too...”

When I turned my head, Kaen had her head slightly lowered and was rolling her eyes around as she stammered.

At Kaen’s sudden words, my head tilted.

[ Sh-she truly has a way of speaking so bewitchingly...! ]

Sierra’s shout rang in my head as she watched this.

“In the game, Kaen was a fairly difficult character to make a companion because of her traits...”

It seemed I had gained a companion I could call without hesitation.

If it was someone on Kaen’s level, she had military force that would not lose anywhere, so she was not bad to keep as a companion. No, if anything, she was someone to whom I could entrust my back.

“If there is one thing that bothers me, it is the Sword Saint’s swordsmanship...”

As long as I did not expose her to dangerous situations where she would need to draw out the Sword Saint’s swordsmanship, it should be fine.

Of course, someday, with Rebellion Against Heaven, I would have to defeat the Sword Saint, who was her master and a grandfather-like existence, but in any case, that was a matter for later.

“I’m lucky.”

Somehow, even though this had been an impulsive matter, it felt like I had gained a great deal.

More than the Curtain of Night or experience, the fact that I could take Kaen as a companion felt far more attractive.

Even if I did not take her along every time, I was confident I could use her in the right place at the right time.

“Good. Then if I need Miss Kaen’s body, I will call you anytime.”

I held out my hand to her, asking for a handshake.

“Um... When I say you need my body, I absolutely do not mean anything else... I mean things like this time...”

Kaen muttered in a voice barely audible as she took my hand.

Of course, my ears were sharp, so I heard it clearly.

“...What else could it mean?”

Because Kaen’s mutter was cute, I teased her slightly.

At my mischievous answer, Kaen glanced at me for no reason.

[ I like traveling alone with my disciple, though... If someone else is there, we cannot even talk... ]

As expected, Sierra did not seem very pleased, but from my perspective, I could not ignore Kaen’s level or martial force at all.

Still, it was not as if I would go out of the academy with Kaen every time, so I believed Sierra would understand this much.

Like that, I lightly shook hands with Kaen, whose face was dyed red, and we went our separate ways.

It was quite a good full stop.

“What would be good to give Kaen...”

Since I had to consider Kaen a companion now, I thought it would be all right to invest a little more in the reward to give her.