The month of Blue Moon, day 8. A night of downpour and reverberating roars of lightning. Right after Kurono left through the window just like he entered for the secret meeting.
On top of the table, there was a white spoon. The spoon Kurono had used. Kurono had used her personal spoon.
It’s not like she wanted for that to happen. It’s just that there were no other spoons which he could use. She can’t let him use Charlotte’s personal red lightning relief spoon. She also can’t have him using Safiel’s personal cranium relief spoon. She doesn’t want Kurono to use them.
While repeating to herself that Kurono using her spoon was not her choice, she picked up the spoon.
I need to clean it, I need to clean it, I need to properly clean it–she told herself. Even though that is clearly what her mind is telling her, her body wouldn’t listen. Her hands moved, naturally–and the spoon, now being gripped with both her hands, was slowly but surely, being carried into her mouth.
“Nn, ah……”
Sweet. Sweet, really sweet. Too sweet. Sweeter than pudding. So sweet that she felt like her brain would melt.
And each time her wriggly tongue licked the smooth surface of the spoon, it got hotter. Her heart, body, grew hotter.
Despite her heart pounding like crazy, weirdly enough, her stomach–the ends of her stomach, was burning the hottest.
She couldn’t keep standing. She felt as if scorching heat like magma boiled up from the bottom of her stomach. Her legs gave out.
Still having the spoon in her mouth, she turned around to look at the disarranged bed. The bed where Kurono was. She felt it with her instincts that Kurono’s scent and warmth was still remaining on the bed. And before she realized, she was on top of it.
“Haa…… haa…… I am sorry… Kurono…… I am sorry…”
And then, for the first time in her life, Nell m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.ed.
It’s something that she can never tell anyone, it’s something that she must keep as a secret, it’s too embarra.s.sing but–why does Lili–
“–Did you really think I wouldn’t notice? How you are always making Kurono use your spoon?”
From the sweet climax of memories of that night, her consciousness returned to the cold and bitter reality in front of her.
“Ah, umm… I was…… that’s… not it……”
She barely managed to wring out the words of negation from her dried-up mouth. But she couldn’t give excuses. Even saying that was like a miracle considering how blank her mind had become.
“That’s not it? What’s not it?”
As if her words were saying–’you lie even in this situation? What a pity’. Lily just glared at her in contempt.
Nell immediately averted her gaze. She wanted to run. She wanted to run from here right away.
“That’s not it…… it’s not… I haven’t done… anything……”
While staring at her feet, she just kept on blurting out words of denial. She couldn’t say anything more than that, she couldn’t think of anything other than that.
Even still, she can’t admit it. If she were to admit to it here–
“Hmm, I see, then say it while holding Kurono’s hand. Say that ‘I wash the spoon Kurono uses immediately after he leaves’.”
What meaning did that have? It didn’t have any meaning. That act wouldn’t be proof of anything either. But that’s for the majority of the people.
However, for someone with the telepathy ability, that would be the ultimate proof.
“You can do it, can’t you? Showing your memory to Kurono? So, prove it. Show Kurono what you do after you return to your room–”
“Stop it!”
With piercing scream, she drowned Lily’s words. However, such a thing is nothing but stopgap measure. After just a moment, Lily’s, the demon’s child’s mouth, opened again. The demon’s words which pushed her down to the ends of despair, yet again.
“‘Stop’? Stop what, exactly? If you don’t have anything to hide like you say, surely you can do it.”
“Stop it…”
“If, if you can prove that there is indeed nothing, I will apologize, with all sincerity, and say that I had a very indecent and deplorable misunderstanding.”
“Stop it…… stop it, please……”
“Come on, answer properly. Will you prove it, or will you not? What did you do or what did you not do?”
“No…… stop it… please, stop it already……”
“Answer me.”
“No…… no……”
“Answer.”
“No……”
Still facing down, her vision, now blurred with flowing tears, could see Lily’s white hand. Her icy fingertips slightly, kindly, touched Nell’s cheeks.
And at that moment, her face was forcibly raised. Her face, now forced to look forward, was face to face with Lily, whose peerless beautiful face was now distorted with anger.
“Answer me! Nell Julius Elrod!!”
“He, ah…… aaa……… uwaaaaaaa!”
And finally, Nell gave in, in front of the words and the gaze of the kingfish who digged away at her heart. Her tears came gushing out and she crumbled to her knees.
She was hiding her face with both her hands–either to stop her tears or maybe to hide her miserable face. She herself didn’t know.
“Ah, disgusting, disgusting. To think such a filthy woman was following Kurono about.”
“Aah?!”
With anger, she pushed Nell by her shoulders. Being crushed emotionally, she had no strength nor will to resist and her body just collapsed.
A sharp impact went through her back and wings. It didn’t hurt that much but her appearance, while groveling in the ground, was miserable. Just like a bird whose wings were broken.
“You, pervert! Pervert! Perverted princess with s.e.xual obsession!!”
Nell couldn’t say anything in return to those words of abuse. She didn’t even have the will to do so.
“What magic lessons, huh? What important friend…… Your ulterior motive is obvious, just like a bird in mating season! Go and give birth to an unfertilized egg at Avalon royal palace or whatever!”
No, no. That’s not it–Even the voice which denied it all in her heart started to vanish in face of those dark words filled with hatred.
“Don’t look at Kurono, don’t talk to him, don’t touch him, don’t you dare, contaminate my Kurono!!”
“—Aaah! It hurts!!”
Her hands which were hiding her face were ripped off. She was kicked. Lily’s dancer like flexible legs kicked her away without mercy, as if kicking an insect.
However, rather than the pain running through her hands, it was the luminance in her vision that took away her eyes.
The sky she looked upto was clear blue. But it felt like it was raining heavily. Even though her sight was blurry, for some reason, she could see Lily’s face filled with scorn, looking down on her, clearly.
“Starting now, don’t ever get close to Kurono–Or so I would like to say but, I will allow you to meet him just one more time.”
“…..eh?”
Even though her face had gotten pale with despair, hearing that one line–meet Kurono–Nell reacted. Of course, she would soon realize that that is nothing close to hope, but rather a demon’s words which would make despair even more.
“After all, you need to say your goodbye, right?”
If she disappears suddenly, Kurono will definitely be worried. He wouldn’t abandon her, his friend.
However, what if she says goodbye herself?
“Ah…… n-no…… no……”
“I think you already know but a war will break out in Spada. And so, you should return to Avalon.”
Nell Julius Elrod, the first princess of Avalon. With her safety in mind, she will escape to her motherland. Kurono will surely not be able to ask her to stay when presented with that logic. Rather, he would be glad to send her.
“I-I don’t, want that!!”
“Is that so? Then I will just have to tell Kurono everything.”
Fortunately, Kurono hasn’t realized anything yet. He believes that she is pure from the bottom of her heart.
Nell felt that trust every time they held hands when teaching magic. And that made her heart and chest burn up. So much that she had been having difficulty stopping her feelings from reaching Kurono through the back door when teaching magic.
“Th-that… that is…… please… anything but that……”
Ah, how terrifying it is. His kind smile turning into an expression of contempt. Or would he flare up in rage? Or would he just leave with a sad expression?
She didn’t know, she had no way of knowing. She didn’t know what would happen if Kurono came to know her secret. However, she did understand that it would lead to destroying the trust and the friendship they had built up till now.
It’s different from that time after Iskia war. Kurono thought about her, needed her, wished for her. There was no need for her to be depressed.
However, what if she was really rejected by kurono? What if she were to be rejected by Kurono himself, face to face, without any mercy or compa.s.sion–that terrified her so much that it freezed her soul and thoughts. She couldn’t think of anything anymore.
“But, if you do it now, you can part with Kurono cleanly. Kurono, being kind as he is, will probably remember you as a kind friend for the rest of his life.”
She could make it so that their relationship be preserved beautifully in their memories. Kurono would still believe her to be a sweet princess.
“I, too, don’t want Kurono to be hurt. I don’t want him to know that his friend, whom he trusted so much, only looked at him with indecent eyes. I don’t want him to know such a terrible truth, I want his memories to be left clean.”
No, no, there’s no way I only saw Kurono with indecent eyes–thought Nell. Her feelings towards were more pure, deep, and heavy—but even if she were to say those things out loud, would it have any persuasion power to it?
After all, it is true that Nell had been masturbating with Kurono’s spoon. And in reality, it wasn’t even just his spoon–his fork, his cup–anything he had touched with his mouth was fine with her.
And especially recently, she could feel that she can’t help herself anymore.
I want it, I want it, I want it so bad, I want Kurono—her l.u.s.t just swelled up, without stopping.
And when she coincidentally spotted Kurono’s underwear at the back of the dorm, left to dry, she couldn’t keep her hands to herself.
She herself understood. She knew that Lily wasn’t falsely accusing her, she knew that Lily’s words were precisely based on the truth about her indecent greed.
“And so, properly say your farewell to Kurono and let him relax.”
Before she realized, Lily was crouching down and looking into her face. Her expression looked like she had been worried about Kurono from the bottom of her heart–a gentle smile.
“B-but…… I, promised… Kurono that I will…… teach magic……”
“Ah, that is fine.”
With a big smile, Lily slightly opened her mouth.
「قبضة الذراع تعزيز ممارسة قوية」
Even Nell, who was a rank 5 priest, couldn’t say that that wasn’t a perfect chant. Without hesitation, Lily just fluently sang.
“—-’Forced Boost’”
In Nell’s limbs, which had lost all energy, power came gushing in along with heat. Lily’s enforcement magic, ‘Forced Boost’, had displayed wonderful result.
“I told you at first, didn’t I? That your teaching really helped. Thanks to that, even I was able to memorize the ‘model’.”
Having come this far, Nell finally understood Lily’s true intention.
The reason Lily had sticked to the lessons every time was not because she was caution of Nell. Her real objective was to learn ‘model’ herself and steal Nell’s job as the teacher itself.
The reason why Nell could be Kurono’s exclusive teacher was highly because of that telepathy ability. There aren’t many people who can fill in that role—However, Lily, being a fairy, possesses a far more superior telepathy ability than her.
If she properly learns the ‘model’, she should have no difficulty in teaching Kurono.
Lily didn’t just make threat because of Nell’s vulgar actions. After acquiring everything which Nell provides to Kurono as a merit, Lily decided to cut her off.
(I… I can’t win…… I can’t possibly, match this person……)
Nell could only tremble with fear in front of Lily’s thoroughly prepared plan. Even though ‘Forced Boost’ was in full effect, she still wasn’t able to stand up.
Lily. Rather than the devil’s child, she is the devil herself.
“And so, you can rest easy and part with Kurono, alright?”
In front of that beautiful fairy face, Nell had no choice but to yield.
“…..Yes, I will… part with Kurono………”