The Bird That Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (7)

Suddenly, an old memory came to mind.

It was when I was younger than now. I was sparring with a knight named Muspel in the training ground. He was a close friend of mine, and a knight who used very violent swordsmanship with his silver hair swept back.

We fought fiercely. Because we had agreed that the loser would buy drinks to settle the day’s victory. I swung my wooden sword aiming for Muspel’s neck, but the widely swung sword missed, and Muspel, who thought he couldn’t attack me as I was pulling back, suddenly regrasped his wooden sword and threw it at my face.

Flustered, I made a wrong move to deflect the sword. Muspel didn’t miss that opening and grabbed my neck, throwing me to the ground. Muspel, who grabbed my collar and started choking me while the wooden sword was floating in the air.

The knight commander watching the situation said to us in a stern voice:

“Enough!”

My face was flushed from defeat, and Muspel was smiling as he extended his hand to me. When I grabbed his hand and stood up, the commander asked me:

“Do you know why you lost?”

I nodded and said:

“Because I was flustered.”

“Why were you flustered?”

“Because it was a situation I hadn’t experienced before.”

“Are you going to say that when you die on the battlefield too?”

I couldn’t give any answer to the commander’s words. In the face of my silence, the commander asked again:

“Why do you think you can predict everything? You shouldn’t be swayed by the situation. Even if the opponent does something unexpected, in the end, isn’t it just blades and stones that touch your body? What have you been taught to do in such situations?”

“I was taught to deflect like this with the sword.”

I took a stance with the wooden sword. The commander nodded and said:

“That’s all. Don’t trap your opponent within your expectations. Think of your opponent as someone who can do anything, and train endlessly to respond to their flow. The battlefield is full of countless variables. You can’t grasp everything, and you can’t predict everything. Even improvisation in the moment is ultimately just blades and stones. Remember. What protects you is not your clumsy predictions, but what you have learned.”

At that time, I deeply engraved the commander’s words in my heart and swung my sword with all my might.

Every day after finishing training, I would recite with respect to the commander:

Commander.

Respected Commander.

Thanks to your teachings, I was able to take one more step forward today.

But Commander.

“Ah, old man…! Ah, th-that is…! Hnngh…!”

Why didn’t you teach me what to do in this kind of situation?

---

They say when you see something too absurd, your head cools down. When I entered the room with a faint sweet aftertaste lingering, I felt rather calm seeing the hero’s appearance. Because the hero was sitting on the bed with legs spread, denying all the images I knew of him.

The armor was carelessly thrown on the floor, and the shirt buttons were undone, revealing bare skin. Where firm chest muscles should have been, there were rounded lumps wrapped in bandages, and between the legs with the belt undone and fingers constantly moving, faint cracks and pubic bones were visible.

“Uh…”

“Ah, old maaan…!”

The hero quickly pulled out his hand and started crawling towards me. Not knowing what to do, I kept thinking without even making eye contact with the hero. Wasn’t the hero a man? Those bandages and that pelvis, that seductive posture was undoubtedly a woman’s?

Cold sweat trickled down, and the hero’s seductive expression was looking up at me with moist eyes. A room with suggestive lighting and sweet fragrance flowing. Although just breathing heavily, the hero was so beautiful, and even the assassin’s corpse lying on the floor felt like a decoration for excitement.

“Ah, old man…!”

And the hero was clinging to me tightly, rubbing his body like a dog in heat. She seemed unaware of what she was saying or doing, caressing my thigh and whispering:

“L-let’s…! Take a bath… together?”

My favorite thing was bathing with women. Because bathing between opposite sexes usually involves sex unless it’s a family relationship. In terms of maintaining both pleasure and cleanliness, where else is there a more exemplary act than this?

But now was not the time for that. The hero was a woman, and judging by her actions so far, she was a very noble body. If I pounced on her while she was intoxicated by aphrodisiacs, how could I handle the aftermath? The hero, losing her chastity to a trusted party member, would fall into despair, and the party would collapse.

I might be imprisoned for blasphemy or for violating a high bloodline, and the kingdom might fall to the subsequent demon attack.

As I thought about it, my head cooled down even more. The suggestive feeling, the pounding heart, the heavy breathing that came automatically whenever I looked at the hero, all stopped. As if I had become a corpse, I grabbed the hero’s shoulders with cold reason.

“Hero! Get a hold of yourself! You can’t do this!”

“M-my body…! It’s, it’s hot…!”

When I grabbed her, the hero clung to me like a limp octopus, wrapping her body around me. What on earth happened in this room? Did someone spray aphrodisiacs to do bad things to the hero? How much aphrodisiac must have been used for the strong hero to lose her mind like this?

“…Is it not okay?”

The hero smiled and licked my ear. The excitement that had subsided rose again, and self-justification that ‘maybe’ it would be okay was knocking on my moral sense, pretending to be logical.

Maybe the hero would like it too.

Maybe it could even turn out to be a better thing.

Maybe, it might be the right answer for me to move my body here to detoxify.

“…With you, old man… It’s okay…”

This temptation, too, must be a wrong action caused by drug intoxication. But it was too seductive. The hero’s short hair, which I had just thought of as girlish, now looked like a hairstyle exuding a strange charm, and the hero, who used to blush only when teased, was now showing her charm to me with an open smile.

And, the collarbone of the neck and the chest wrapped in bandages. Though hidden by armor before, that chest boasting volume even when tightened with bandages kept capturing my gaze. The cleavage visible through the gaps in the bandages and the hero’s flushed face that had somehow come right up to me.

She was stroking my cheek, sticking out her tongue and slightly opening her mouth as she brought her face close.

If I closed my eyes now, we would probably kiss.

Even if I did nothing, the hero would take off my pants and enjoy an intimate relationship.

“C-calm down, Hero!”

I grabbed the hero who was about to kiss me.

Because the hero trusts me. To take advantage of this weak drug effect as an excuse to lay hands on the hero who is devoted to the kingdom, that was unacceptable.

“Ah…!”

The hero reached out her arms, trying to pull my body closer. The hero, trying to save the world, was incredibly strong, and even when I tried to forcibly push her away, she held onto my arms and wouldn’t let go. She clung to me again and said:

“It’s okaaay…!”

“C-calm down! Hero! You’ll regret this when you come to your senses!”

“I won’t… regret it…!”

The hero’s hand reached for my belt. I couldn’t hit the hero like this, but I couldn’t let this happen either. I forcibly tensed my body and once again recalled my master’s teachings.

[Remember. What protects you is not your clumsy predictions, but what you have learned.]

What I have learned.

What have I done to women who clung to me until now? No, this wasn’t a situation to coldly leave. Even if I tried to cut it off pretending to be emotionless and indifferent, the hero wouldn’t let go of me.

So, I had to think about changing the situation.

“Old man…! So…! Be good…!”

I hear the sound of the belt being torn. She was so strong that instead of undressing me, the hero was trying to tear my pants off with sheer force.

Change the situation. Right now, the hero was a woman on the bed trying to take control from me. How did I discipline women who shamelessly caressed me and acted arrogantly?

[Remember. What protects you is not your clumsy predictions, but what you have learned.]

I looked at my right hand that had become free as she reached for my pants. The index and middle fingers that had always satisfied widows with me. The two fingers seemed to be winking at me.

“N-now…!”

My pants were being torn. If this continues, I’ll end up naked from the waist down and helplessly taken by the hero.

“I’m sorry, Hero…!”

At my words, the hero stopped moving, rather sending an expectant look.

My hand pulled down the hero’s pants. A snow-white private part, and soaked underwear. From the moment I pulled down the clothes, squelching sounds could be heard, and the snow-white thighs made me dizzy.

I brought my hand between the hero’s legs and started caressing, pressing firmly on the wet crevice.

“Ah…! Ahnng…! Hng…! Ah…!”

The hero clung to my body and cried out strange sounds just from me patting the crevice. I lowered my posture along with the hero whose legs had weakened and knelt down, stroking her head.

Squelch squelch squelch

“Hnng…! Ah…! Ahng…! Ah…!”

The hero was matching her body to my movements with eyes closed, and love juices were flowing down, soaking her thighs completely.

Every time the hero’s droplets fell onto the carpet that had appeared red, a clear sound was heard as if water was dripping from cave stalactites.

It was because the floor was not a red carpet but blood spread out. Droplets fell into the red puddle with a clear sound, and as if trying to hide this strange tragedy, the hero’s moans grew louder and louder.

“Ah…! Old man…! I…! I…!”

The hero’s hands gripped my body tightly. I too embraced the hero and quickened my hand movements.

Every time my fingers dug inside the crevice, rubbing and pressing the mucous membrane, the hero exhaled pleasure mixing nasal sounds into her breathing.

“Haa…! Ah…! Aah…! Nng…!”

Squelch squelch squelch

“Ah…! Aah…!”

The hero’s hands held onto my body, trembling. The hero threw her head back, her thighs quivering, and love juices gushed out from between her legs like a fountain.

“Aaaaaaaah! Ahnnnng! Ah…! Aaaaaaahn!”

Even the hero’s waist trembled as if electrified, and in the long climax, the hero half-rolled her eyes and then buried her face in my arms.

I stroked the head of the hero who had collapsed with pants off, and sighed.