Ch.132Growth (2)

*

Should I call it the karma of having spent my entire life glued to a desk?

As if trying to make up for a lifetime of postponed exercise all at once, I ran around without rest until nightfall, when I literally collapsed on the floor, completely exhausted.

Sylvia gently pulled my body, resting my head on her lap, and smiled as she lightly stroked my cheek with her fingertips.

“Tired?”

“I feel like I’m dying.”

“How’s your back?”

“It’s all healed. I’m fine.”

“I only hit you just hard enough for it to heal quickly.”

Feeling somewhat irritated by her casual remark, I complained to Sylvia in a whiny tone.

“I can manage the running somehow, but can’t you stop hitting me? I know you’re not using your full strength, but it still hurts, you know.”

“No.”

Sylvia rejected the idea without even taking a breath.

“…Then what about doing other training too? Like weapon training. I need to be able to defend myself at least. A sword might be too much, but I could use something like the dagger you gave me before. I’ve kept it safe all this time.”

“No.”

“…”

Sylvia playfully pressed the tip of my nose with her index finger as she spoke.

It was a firm and clear rejection, even while she was being playful and affectionate like a lover.

I shook my head from side to side to prevent her from pressing my nose.

Sylvia’s face quickly turned sullen.

“Stop that.”

“Are you upset?”

“No, I’m not upset… It’s a reasonable request. Even though it’s just a branch, it hurts more than you’d think.”

“I know, because I meant for it to hurt.”

“…”

As I tried to turn away so I couldn’t see her face, bewildered by her response, she gently grabbed my chin.

With just that, I completely lost control of my head and couldn’t move at all.

Sylvia squeezed both my cheeks with one hand, and the pressure made my lips protrude forward like a fish’s.

Sylvia giggled at my lips and said softly:

“You know I’m not doing this just to torment Ash.”

“…I’m not so sure.”

“Hehe, you’re cute.”

Still holding my face, Sylvia lowered her head and gave me a light kiss.

I lifted my head slightly toward her as well.

It was a playful kiss without any tongue, but somehow just that was enough to spread a feeling of happiness through my mind.

Sylvia gave me several light kisses in succession and then slowly explained:

“There’s too little time to teach Ash properly, so this is the method I came up with. I’m making your body remember that if you don’t run fast enough, if you don’t dodge properly, you’ll experience pain.”

“…Isn’t that a rather crude method?”

“At least that’s how I learned. Of course, in my case, it wasn’t just experiencing pain—it was death.”

“…”

Isn’t saying something like that honestly unfair?

Although I was still full of complaints, I gave up arguing with her any further and sighed.

Of course, I understood perfectly well why she was making me do this.

Whether dodging, attacking, or using magic, the most important thing is stamina.

There isn’t enough time to build the muscle strength to freely wield weapons or to develop matching sword skills, so all I can learn right now is the agility to dodge properly and the stamina not to get tired during our journey.

But even though I understood it intellectually, actually spending all day running while getting hit inevitably brought up feelings of sadness.

Whether she knew how I felt or not, Sylvia asked me playfully:

“And Ash… if I were to teach you swordsmanship or dagger techniques.”

“Yes?”

“…Could you handle it?”

Ah,

I see.

Learning swordsmanship means training with Sylvia wielding a sword.

Suddenly, I felt like the fear of death was approaching right before my eyes.

Seeing my expression, Sylvia smirked and ruffled my hair.

“I guess not, right?”

“Ugh, stop it.”

“What are you so dissatisfied with? Do you not trust my training methods?”

I spoke in a sulky voice, as if admonishing her:

“It’s not that… I’m just worried I might develop some strange fetish.”

“…Oh?”

“No, I can’t handle that.”

“My, Ash… were you thinking such thoughts?”

“…It’s just a figure of speech.”

Sylvia smiled, pulled her leg out from under my head, and swiftly climbed on top of me.

Then she slipped her arms between my armpits and hugged my back tightly.

I felt both the constricting pressure around my body and the soft, yielding sensation of Sylvia’s breasts pressing against my chest.

“W-wait,”

Like a knee-jerk reaction, my body would automatically respond whenever her body touched mine.

And Sylvia knew this well.

“Hehe, when Ash says things like that, I can’t help myself.”

“I’m not really…”

“And it seems like you can’t help yourself either?”

Sylvia smiled as she rubbed her hips against my legs.

It was a smile that looked both genuinely happy and incredibly mischievous.

I shook my head and said:

“Are we… doing it again today?”

“We’re already like this.”

“But I’m so tired right now?”

“I’ll do the moving, then it’s fine, right?”

“No, that… won’t you get tired if you do everything yourself?”

“I’ve done it while you were sleeping before, you know? It’s fine, I can do it well. Ash just needs to feel good and release.”

Her half-lidded red eyes glistened.

Ah, there’s no escaping this now.

Based on my numerous past experiences, that was the conclusion I reached.

Faced with Sylvia’s almost forceful attitude, I asked with a slightly trembling voice:

“You really… haven’t developed some strange fetish, right? Like wanting to hit me, or tie me up or something. I really hate that kind of thing.”

“Ash knows surprisingly many strange things.”

“I learned most of them because of you.”

“I didn’t know any of that before I met you.”

Sylvia’s determination not to back down today somehow felt ominous.

Shivering with an eerie feeling, I watched as Sylvia quietly embraced me and whispered in my ear:

“Don’t worry. I don’t have that kind of fetish.”

“…”

“I don’t want to do anything you dislike, and more than that…”

Sylvia paused slightly, then pressed her lips close to my ear and spoke in a seductive voice filled with breathy sounds:

The sound of her breathing, the wet sounds of her lips parting, and the slick noise of her moist tongue rolling felt like they were penetrating my entire brain.

“I prefer being tormented by Ash.”

“…Sylvia.”

“Rather than hitting, I much prefer being hit by Ash.”

She’s crazy.

My head felt like it was burning hot.

Her body, pressed tightly against mine, was slowly warming up.

Her waist moved slightly, rubbing against my legs.

Was it a final act of resistance, knowing it was futile? Or was it a small safety measure to prevent her from moving too intensely?

I spoke in a low voice:

“…Sylvia.”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

Sylvia didn’t say anything more.

With those rough, calloused fingers, she pressed down on my shoulders, unbuttoned my clothes, and kissed me.

Like thrusting in a dagger, her tongue pushed in strongly, always seeming to directly stir my brain, making me dizzy almost immediately.

After enjoying the kiss for a while, Sylvia raised her upper body and threw off her top.

Looking down at me as I gasped for breath, she slowly reached out with both hands and gently caressed my cheeks.

The feeling of her rough fingers scratching my skin felt good.

I reached out and stroked her smooth waist.

Sylvia said:

“…I love you. More, much more than you do.”

I didn’t deny it.

“Yes, I know.”

No one, perhaps not even myself, could love as passionately as she does.

Is that why?

Those words of love flowing from Sylvia’s lips were still powerful.

Despite having heard them countless times, how could they still be so heartfelt and sweet?

Every time she whispered love to me, her yearning voice seemed to seep into my heart.

It feels like electricity coursing through my body.

I closed my mouth.

Sylvia closed hers too.

Now that the most intense words had already been spoken, there was nothing left for words to do between us.