Ch.109Special Side Story – To Another Continent (2)
by fnovelpia
The journey, which had taken a considerable amount of time, wasn’t boring at all.
Since my daily routine had always been confined to the mansion, simply floating on the sea was a refreshing experience.
Above all, when traveling with Irefi, there were frequent moments of fear but never a dull moment. If I weren’t immortal, my heart would have likely stopped several times by now.
“I have a feeling someone is talking about me.”
“That person must not value their life much.”
“Well, yes. Probably someone with unlimited spare lives like you, Nepy.”
“Of course, I have no reason to speak ill of Irefi.”
I whistled casually while rolling my eyes diagonally.
I could clearly picture Irefi glaring at me with a displeased expression.
“I’ll let you be fooled just this once.”
“Somehow I feel like I’m in an extremely unfair situation.”
“We’ve lived together for years. I can read your thoughts just by watching your eyebrows twitch, you know?”
“Even for Irefi, that’s a bit… I’ll acknowledge it if you can guess what I’m thinking right now.”
I widened my eyes and matched Irefi’s eye level.
I focused on her eyes, as if I might fall into the blue lake of her irises.
In reality, my mind was completely empty with no thoughts at all.
From another perspective, this could be seen as a mischievous prank.
If her guess is reasonably plausible, I should accept it as correct.
“Hmm.”
Irefi let out an enigmatic sound.
Her lip corner twitched upward asymmetrically.
As a playful atmosphere developed, I grew curious.
Just as my curiosity was about to get the better of me.
Irefi’s arms wrapped around my neck like a lasso and pulled me in with a whoosh.
Smooch!
For a moment, the world submerged into the blue lake contained in Irefi’s eyes.
Simultaneously, a soft sensation like gentle waves brushed against my lips.
I was captivated by Irefi’s lovely figure as she stood with her hands behind her back, smiling adoringly.
Meanwhile, Irefi revealed the correct answer she had just created.
“You were thinking that you love me more than anything in the world. Right?”
“Ha…!”
I couldn’t help but acknowledge it with a wry laugh.
Indeed, the day I could outsmart Irefi seemed far away.
“That’s correct. Though there was some cheating involved.”
“There were no rules in this real-world situation, were there?”
“I suppose not.”
Then by the same logic, I could easily read Irefi’s thoughts too.
I suddenly embraced Irefi’s waist and pressed my lips against hers.
Additionally, just before pulling away, I slyly licked her lips as if sucking them.
“Mmph?”
Irefi let out a high-pitched sound, caught by the surprise attack.
Her transparent skin flushed with heat, turning red.
“I think I know what you’re thinking too, Irefi.”
“If you say I was thinking about loving you, you’ll get hit.”
“Not at all. You first thought I was being unfair.”
“Urgh.”
I’ve been paying attention to Irefi for as long as she’s been watching me.
It’s nothing special to predict that she would be willing to use violence depending on my answer, and that her pride would first make her think I was being unfair.
“Sigh… This won’t do.”
“…Oh.”
Irefi calmed her flushed face and approached me awkwardly. On the surface, she seemed to be letting go of her elevated mood and leaning her weight against me. Unfortunately, I had spent enough time with Irefi to see through her thoughts clearly.
The accumulated time, like sediment on a seashore, drove me into profound anxiety.
Irefi’s eyes were curved like the scythe of death.
Unable to bear the anxiety any longer, I extended my hand to prevent her from coming any closer.
“Wait. Stop. Stay right there. Don’t say anything. Irefi. I know everything. Okay?”
“Hmm, do you really?”
“Of course I do. I love you, Irefi.”
“Ah… That means…”
The light in Irefi’s eyes disappeared.
From the burial place of the murdered light, a dark shadow emerged.
Her eyes, once like blue lakes, turned navy blue and blazed like flames.
“You… don’t want to, Nepy?”
Crack!
The sound of chicken bones breaking emanated from my palm that was trying to stop Irefi.
In extreme pain, I contorted my facial features and held my breath.
I felt truly wronged.
Or am I not wronged?
Come to think of it, I think I heard in my previous life that this kind of situation could be grounds for divorce…
Well, that aside, this really hurts like hell!
“Urgh… S-sensory block! Sensory block!”
“Hmm? While I’m being nice, restore your senses, Nepy.”
“Y-yes, I under… Arrrgh…!”
I voluntarily subjected myself to pain and was drawn into Irefi’s murderous smile.
It was impossible to resist her behavior that bordered on madness.
But the more I think about it, the more wronged I feel. Modern law or whatever, we were living in this world, and neither of us was an ordinary human.
Should we who have escaped the shackles live by the standards of modern law?
“Ugh…”
Unable to hold back any longer, I screamed at the top of my lungs.
“WHO SUGGESTS HAVING SEX FOR DAYS ON END RIGHT AFTER GETTING OFF THE SHIP?!”
“N-Nepy!?”
It was just as the ship had docked at the port.
Right after a path for many people to board and disembark had been established.
The word “sex” echoed lewdly through the busy port city.
In an instant, the attention of passersby was drawn to us, and even people bustling below looked up at the ship.
The light gradually returned to Irefi’s eyes.
Her face bloomed into a crimson rose, as if painted with melted garnet and ruby.
One can only imagine how the former imperial guard captain and renowned knight felt.
It was beyond my imagination.
“D-d-days on end is a fabrication!”
“Don’t you remember last time? As soon as Miren returned to the Justitia manor, right there…”
“Waaaaaaaaah! Th-that was because you provoked me!”
“Who’s blaming whom!?”
This person is spouting third-rate lines like…
“It’s all your fault for being sexy!” like men who harass noblewomen typically do.
Since when have I been living in a gender-reversed world?
“In that case… if I annihilate everyone… then nothing would have happened…!”
“Are you crazy!?”
Due to the PTSD engraved in my soul, I reflexively recalled a certain dawn.
It was the disastrous day when Irefi regained her memories of the future and was influenced by malice.
The intense nightmare became a catalyst for dispelling my shame.
“Fine! Let’s do it! SEX!!!”
“What are you saying you want to do in this situation!?”
“What else but sex! Come on, let’s go to an inn, Irefi!”
“Urgh…? No! I won’t go!!! I won’t do it!!!”
What exactly was she refusing to do?
Annihilating the port city?
Or perhaps engaging in the union of yin and yang in broad daylight?
Either choice would be disastrous, so I hoped she would abandon both.
And so, we made the most spectacular debut on another continent.
◇
“Irefi, are you still angry?”
“I don’t know…”
Irefi grumbled in a depressingly subdued voice.
Although my transgression was committed in desperation to save myself, guilt was gradually creeping in.
“I just wanted to explore the outside world a bit more. So sex can wait until later…”
“That damn sex, sex, sex! Stop mentioning sex already!”
“You just mentioned it four times in three seconds… Hey, put down your fist, Irefi. It was all my fault.”
The vulgar word spread sharply through the dense forest.
I felt a strange heat as Irefi kept chanting the concept of sex.
The only consolation for her was that there was absolutely no human presence nearby.
We had left the port city and were entering mountainous terrain.
We were heading toward the source of the most recent dragon sighting.
Perhaps because we were in an entirely different continent, unfamiliar trees and plants were everywhere.
“Even if we don’t see a dragon, this seems like a good experience. Everything around us is new.”
“The culture is different too. In our region, human society was dominant, but things are different here.”
“Is there something more?”
“Besides dragons, the demon race would be a distinct difference.”
“A fantastic race has appeared!”
Yes, of course. How could there be no demon race in a fantasy world? The Eld Empire was the unusual case.
“Is there a Demon Lord too?”
“There’s no such concept, but there are five who act as leaders, I hear.”
“You know a lot about another continent’s situation.”
“I, well, I was involved in diplomacy, you know?”
“Ah, that’s right.”
The Nelfrugia Knights, where Irefi served as captain, were the emperor’s guard.
Missions to foreign countries for ceremonial purposes were quite common.
In fact, Miren contracted the chain disease during one of her trips abroad.
“Information about foreign countries is taught as general knowledge. Frankly, why do you think the technologically backward Eld Empire has so much money?”
“Well…?”
“It’s because of abundant resources. In terms of simple wealth, no country in the world can beat the Eld Empire.”
“W-was it that significant?”
“Yes. There are even minerals that are only produced by the Estern and Justitia families.”
The Estern family, one of the four ducal houses, was famous for their wealth, and apparently for good reason.
Additionally, I knew from the beginning that Irefi’s family was wealthy, but the scale seems to have exceeded my expectations.
“But it seems a bit insufficient to claim world supremacy just for being resource-rich…”
“The location is advantageous too. With only human society, there’s no conflict with other races. And with overwhelming military dominance, who would dare challenge them on the continent?”
“Impressive.”
It meant they could accumulate national wealth without the risk of invasion.
Moreover, while Irefi was hypothesizing about simple wealth, in the current generation, such a hypothesis was unnecessary.
‘As long as Irefi is there, the Eld Empire is simply the strongest.’
Come to think of it, a strategic nuclear weapon is currently leisurely wandering around on another continent.
“I’m… relieved.”
“About what?”
“Just. That it’s peaceful.”
The woman who once transformed an entire world into an apocalypse had ultimately become a terrifying wife.
The daily life of dominance in the day and submission at night isn’t so bad.
If anyone disagrees, let them raise their head and witness the scene of world destruction.
“Nepy, do you know you make a particular expression whenever you’re having strange thoughts?”
“Really? I didn’t know…”
“I’ll let it slide just this once.”
“Ha… haha…”
Even as I awkwardly laughed it off, my thoughts drifted elsewhere.
This was because I had maximized my sensory abilities in anticipation of detecting a dragon’s presence.
This meant I could roughly detect things even beyond Irefi’s sensory range…
“Irefi.”
“Yes?”
“If it seems like we’re about to get involved in something troublesome, would you like to avoid it?”
“Is a war about to break out?”
“That falls under the category of troublesome…?”
I wonder what level of incident constitutes a serious matter for Irefi.
Despite our long years together, the day I adapt to Irefi’s scale seems far, far away.
For now, I need to convey what I wanted to say.
“Over there, something’s happening up ahead… It would be faster to see it directly.”
“Nepy? Why did you stop mid-sentence…”
Irefi asked why I cut off my words, but soon she too tightly closed her mouth and stared ahead.
After a moment, a heavy rumbling gradually expanded.
It was a clue suggesting the movement of a group.
The urgent presence made me slightly wary.
As we stood still watching the situation for a while.
From the other side, a scream that almost sounded like crying echoed through the previously empty forest.
“SAVE MEEEEE!!!”
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